Bang!

Say what you will about the Xbox 360, the shortages and overheating technical issues, the ads for it are actually quite clever.

This ad is possibly my favourite game related ad of all time.

Check it out...

and BANG!

Worst Scam Ever

I just got two of these e-mails in my inbox and I had to laugh. On the one hand, they're somewhat convincing as far as mimicing the TD letterhead.

But just read the text.

Dear Clien,

Congratulations ! Login and possibly WIN A FREE online bill payment up to 1000.00$. To be Elligible to this offer you must make A payment during the month, if u have already made payments using online banking please login to your account and verify your messages.

PLEASE NOTICE THIS IS VALID FROM 22/11/2005 AND ENDS 22/12/2005

- LOG OFF AFTER USING YOUR ONLINE ACCOUNT
- UPDATE YOUR INFORMATION WITH TD EACH TIME WE REQUIRE FOR THIS ACTION

If the millions of horrible spelling and grammar mistakes don't give it away, the whole 'Log off of your account and update your information again' aspect should really raise the level of suspicion by about 18 McCarthies (1 McCarthy being the unit of suspicion required to raise your eyebrow 0.5 cm).

Yeesh.

Sleep is for chumps

Hmm... I had something deep and profound that I was going to write here... Hmm...

I completely forget what it was. Ah well. As seems to be the pattern, I worked the overnight shift again last night. Thankfully I was able to come home before the shift started and get a few hours of sleep which meant that I wasn't a complete zombie today (which was good because I worked from 11 last night until 3pm today). Scarily, I'm still awake... Haven't slept yet.

Ah well.

If I remember what I was going to post, I'll let you know.

---
What I'm Reading: The Year Of Our War (The George Martin books are going to have to wait until I can lift a hardcover book again)
What I'm Playing: Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects, DQ8
What I'm Watching: Blue Collar Comedy Tour 2, Jamie's Kitchen, X-Play

Fear is the mind killer.

People are just realizing this NOW?

I saw this post by Tim Buckley on today's Ctrl-Alt-Delete newspost.

"How did we ever play video games tethered to the machine like some digital slave by such a primitive cord. It's got me bugged out though, to be sure. I keep finding myself escorting a phantom cord. I do that shit, you know, where you respect the cord.

Like if you're sitting on the couch, and you want to get up, or shift positions, and you flick the controller in the air to clear the cord from any entanglements, and so you don't trip over it and fall down like a retard. I keep doing that flip, but I don't have to it anymore."

I can relate. I did the phantom cord maneuver for a month or so after I got my wireless controllers. The weight and feel are off JUST enough when you don't have the cord holding you back that it can really mess with you. I can't go back though. Wireless controllers are the way to go. I'm just glad that, unlike most people today, I didn't have to get an Xbox 360 to realize this. I just got nice Logitech controllers for my PS2 and Xbox instead.

Dance, Monkey, Dance!

The moment you've all been waiting for.

Korb Omnindustries is proud to present the first film suitable for online viewing.

Check out the movie that will upset Harry Potter & The Goblet Of Fire for box office supremacy. I mean, does Harry Potter have a dancing gorilla?

Hepcat Revolution

I've been tinkering around with The Movies for a few weeks now and finally sat down and made a decent movie that was worth uploading to the net. It's pretty basic as my studio is only in the 1930's, but I thought it worked out pretty good.

Don't do Potter...

I took the "Which Harry Potter Character Are You?" quiz that my mom sent me and I scored a 38.

You're dreamy and absent-minded, though you often show startling intelligence. Sometimes you're Luna Lovegood, Harry's spacy acquaintance; at your best, you're Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore, far more serious-minded than your behavior might imply.

Who are you? What's going on?

I started reading George R.R. Martin's latest book, A Feast For Crows, the other day. I haven't had a tonne of time to read it but I sat down at work for a few minutes this morning and finished the second chapter.

Sadly, I can't remember for the life of me what is going on, let alone who half of the characters are. It has been a couple of years since I read the last book in the series and details are fuzzy at best as to what is going on in this latest book.

Looks like I'm going to have to read the series over again. Which is fine, as I've been meaning to re-read the series anyway, but I was kind of hoping I wouldn't have to. Ah well. I've returned all my books to the library and don't have to read anything except what I want for the next while.

I have to say that the first couple chapters in A Feast For Crows are great. I just don't know what's going on.

---
What I'm Reading: A Game Of Thrones, I guess...
What I'm Playing: WoW (till I got disconnected), The Movies, Dragon Quest 8
What I'm Watching: Garrett play with the stuff we got from Ikea

Vagrants say, "What?"

I don't care what the rest of the internet pundits say. I really liked what I played in the Final Fantasy XII demo.

It is different from what has gone before but it's not THAT radically different. You still use a menu system to choose things. It still builds up like the ATB system. You still have all of the trappings of a Final Fantasy world. It's just tweaked somewhat.

It does feel somewhat like the FFXI system, but even that was not such a crazy departure from the series.

On the extremely plus side of things, FFXII is set in Ivalice, the world that was the setting of both Final Fantasy Tactics games. That gives it a base of races and certain other things to draw on for the full fledged RPG. I also found a lot of the teaser cinematics (especially the ingame ones) to really evoke Vagrant Story's art style and direction. And trust me, that can only be an incredibly great thing. Vagrant Story was one of the best PS1 games put out by Square and I think the director of FFXII is the same guy who did Vagrant Story. If that's the case, I'm going to be very happy.

Plus there is an overwhelming emphasis on airships, which in my book is just a giant cherry on top of all that whipped cream and chocolate cream pie that the other points have made out.... zzzzzzzzzzzzz

What is it tested on then?

It's that time again. Time for Brock's CRAZY CONSPIRACY THEORY OF THE WEEK!!!

My sleep-deprived brain noticed this when I was having my shower this morning. On the bottle of Bed & Body Wash Vanilla stuff, there is a little line at the bottom that says, "Final Product Not Tested On Animals".

Ok, so you think that means there is no animal testing.

NAY, I say. NAY!

That little "Final" in that line means that they can sit there and inject bunnies with all the tyrothyloglucinide that they want, along with the other 40 chemicals listed on the back of the bottle. They just can't mix them all up and make the bunny drink it.

Sadly, I thought it was a Body Shop bottle when I read it. I was ready to bring my unfounded accusations of customer manipulation to the world. Instead it was just a Body Shop knock-off. Ah well.

Gotta love grammar.

And of course, you can see why I must be losing my mind as I just wrote that big long blather about something on a bubble bath bottle. Sigh... I really need to sleep.

Yawn

I just did a 16 hour back to back shift that went from 3pm to 7am... and I'm still awake...

I've been up since 7am on Thursday.

WHY AM I NOT SLEEPY!?

I swear I'm on my 36th wind by now. I'll get a little yawn going, feel like it's time to head to bed and nap and then I'm wide awake again. Garrett isn't having his early morning nap like I'd hoped either, so I guess I'll just get him dressed and head to the Early Years Center for a bit to let him burn off some energy.

Yawn...

Stupid Interweb

Is anyone else having issues with the internet? The last few days have been really wierd. Some sites are loading up in record time while others are either not loading at all or are taking a LOOONG time. (I'm looking at you, TD Canada Trust!)

I blame solar flares.

If Only I'd Stayed In The Chess Club Longer

I heard about this on Freestyle today and thought it was too cool.

Chess Boxing.

You play a round of chess, then box for a round.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

There's a video of the championship match on that site.

About that expensive FFXII demo...

One of the good things about this week is that I've just started playing Dragon Quest VIII (aka Dragon Warrior 8) and it is phenomenal. It's a gorgeous game but it really pays homage to its 8-bit roots. The menus and other sundry sound effects are all taken from the old-school Dragon Warrior games, which is great for someone like me who remembers sitting in our TV room playing the original Dragon Warrior at the house on Vidal, waaaay back in Grade 8. Man...

It's also nice to play a console RPG that actually feels like a normal console RPG. Too many of the RPG's I've been playing lately have been trying various fancy new tricks and such that just haven't panned out (I'm looking at you, Radiata Stories). DQ8 had lots of new tweaks but, like a new Final Fantasy, just feels right when you play it.

Speaking of Final Fantasy, DQ8 has the demo of FFXII included with it. I think I might have been one of the few people picking up Dragon Quest who wasn't thinking of it as the game that happened to be packaged with the Final Fantasy demo. Sigh. It is too bad that FFXII is pushed back to, oh, I don't know, March 2008 (at the rate they're going). Actually, it IS supposed to be out around my birthday next year, so that's cool. Of course, it was also supposed to be out around now, and my birthday last year, and Christmas of the year before that... It had better be awesome, I tell ya. We don't need a Final Fantasy equivalent of Daikatana.

Anyway, I'm off to play some DQ8 before bed. After today, I need to squish some slimes!

Oh, and if anyone is looking for something for me for Christmas, I would not be averse to one of these:

It had better be a full moon...

Sorry for the lack of updates of late. It's been one of those days that has been going on all week long...

Suffice it to say, if there IS a full moon out, the craziness at work definately has shown that it has an effect on people. If there isn't a full moon, well, I blame the CIA. They're always up to something.

This has meant that I'm just tuckered out this week. But it has made my shifts go by rather fast as I've been quite busy.

Ah well.
---
What I'm Playing: Dragon Quest VIII, The Movies
What I'm Reading: A Feast For Crows
What I'm Watching: My Name Is Earl, Lost, Daily Show & The Colbert Report

Doodeedoodeedoo

I'm becoming my dad...

The other day I was regrouting the tub in the bathroom.

Julie & I started to have an arguement about what kind of sealant to use but thankfully we stopped.

Why?

Well, everyone knows that caulk-fighting is illegal.




I'll be here all week!

The Exorcist for Kids: The Lacklustre Ending

 

After having the evil hair removed Garrett wanted to take a ride home on the train. Unfortunately it never went anywhere and so Garrett had to go watch the Santa Claus Parade instead and was pretty tired when he got home.

And that's the story of Garrett's very first hair cut.

[bow]

The Exorcist for Kids: Reattachment

 
By utilizing a state of the art Brush-o-Matic 9000 Head Reattachment Tool, Luigi was able to quickly sew Garrett's head back onto his body. By this point Garrett was getting tired of holding his breath but knew he had to hold on for just a few more minutes.
 

The Exorcist for Kids: The Pen-Penultimate Picture

 
Here we can see Luigi in his trademark rusty orange shirt, removing the accursed bits of hair from Garrett's pate. By this time his head was starting to get a bit wobbly so Julie had to step in and hold it in place. We only wanted to remove Garrett's demonic hair, not his ear.
 

The Exorcist for Kids: The Dismembering

 
After a tricky bit of surgery, we were able to remove Garrett's head. Carefully covered in a surgical gown, Garrett's head was able to experience the careful ministrations of the local exorcist, aka Luigi the Barber.
 

The Exorcist for Kids: The Part With The Pea Soup

 
After the failed attempt at box-stuffing, Garrett began to use his patented "Crazy Eye tm" technique on us. We were able to withstand yet another paranormal onslaught although we were running low on energy at this point. We eventually got him in his jacket and locked into the baby straightjacket aka the car seat.

The Exorcist for Kids: The 80's Montage Segment

 

We knew we had to get Garrett to see a specialist. First we tried to ship him in a leftover shoe box. Unfortunately, he wouldn't fit. He also tried to cast a spell on us using his magic finger but we were bigger than him so it didn't do anything to us. Let that be a lesson to you.
 

The Exorcist for Kids: The Beginning

 
The other day we were giving Garrett a bath when suddenly his hair began to writhe and twist, eventually ending up in these wierd horn-like protrusions that jutted wildly from his head.

(It's a good thing I got rid of the red-eye or he'd look even scarier!)

Who needs dice?

This is pretty neat.

You can play RISK using Google Earth.

It's nothing fancy, but it's kind of cool.

Crow Pie

I've got a problem. It's not as bad as, say, HAVING PLEURISY, but I am having a hard time making up my mind.

See, the new George R. R. Martin book A Feast For Crows just arrived today unexpectedly (hooray for Amazon and early shipments!) and I really want to read it. That said, I'm currently in the middle of a great book from the library that I should finish before I start a big epic like AFFC.

Decisions, decisions.

Oh, and I guess that Dave really has trumped my death cold in the race to see who has the worst lung disease. Whatever I had it's more or less gone away after about 24-48 hours. My feet are really achey though.. wierd... And I think Julie was feeding me staples while I slept because I have a really sore throat today. Otherwise I'm fine though. Amazing what a few days of getting sleep will do to a person.

---
What I'm Reading: Either A Feast For Crows or the last half of Amulet of Samarkand
What I'm Playing: The Suffering: Ties That Bind, Civ IV, GTA: Vice City
What I'm Watching: The Land Of The Dead (meh), Family Guy movie (also ok, but nothing they couldn't have shown on TV)

He's A Family Guy......

Shadow Interview

There's a neat but short interview with the creators of Ico & Shadow of the Colossus over on Eurogamer. Check it out.

Dave would like this for Christmas, I'm sure.

I wouldn't mind getting this, but I know that Dave would probably appreciate it more. I'd just like to have the movies and the DS9 and Enterprise sets.

It's The Ultimate Star Trek Collection on DVD.

All the shows, all the movies, all your's for a mere $2599 US.

Yeesh.

Stupid Flu

So my flu seemed to materialize today, as I expected. I was all hepped up on Tylenol Sinus this morning so I was able to do my stuff at church and then went into work. That said, I knew I must have been sick because people were asking me at work if I was ok. The upside is that I got to go home after two hours (of a twelve hour shift) and I'm ever so happy that I didn't stay there all day.

I've got that annoying flu/cold thing that makes all of your joints ache. My head is actually doing pretty well, concidering how stuffed up I usually get when I have my cold. I think I had a borderline fever though as I was alternately hot and cold all day...

The only downside to this (aside from not feeling very good) is that I am now wide awake. I slept for about 2-3 hours this evening and now I'm not tired. Sigh. Exhausted, yes, but not brain-tired. Nothing annoys me more than trying to sleep when you're not feeling 100% and having your brain go along at a million miles an hour. The upside of it is that I tend to feel like I can solve theoretical physics conundrums, but alas, I haven't been able to put my feverish delusions to any practical use.

Anyway, I'm off to see if I can read myself to sleep. Unfortunately the book I'm reading is quite interesting.
---
What I'm Reading: The Amulet Of Samarkand
What I'm Playing: The Suffering: Ties That Bind, WoW
What I'm Watching: The West Wing: Season 3, the inside of my eyelids

The ChickFarmer

 
I'm not sure why, but for some reason this picture reminds me of The Godfather.

A super secret special prize for whoever comes up with the best quote for this picture.
 

Blarg

Uh oh.

I think I might be coming down with something... Ever since just before dinner tonight I've had a scratch in my throat and now my head is starting to feel not so good.

There has been some sort of plague going around at work the last couple weeks and I thought I'd dodged it... I'm beginning to think not.

Sigh...

Why is Monosyllabic such a long word?

 
I'd almost be tempted to buy the Penny Arcade collectible card game for this card alone.
 

I can't find Honah Lee on Google Earth

Does anyone know where I can find the 1978 animated version of Puff The Magic Dragon?

I was driving around with one of the guys at work today and he had a CD with Puff on it and it got me thinking about how great a song it is and also about the cartoon from waaaay back when.

For some reason I always thought that the song was about little Jackie Paper dying from cancer. It was such a sad song. I know it's about losing your childhood dreams and such, but I think that the cartoon screwed me up and made me think that Jackie Paper was dead. I want to see it again to make sure I interpreted it correctly!

---
What I'm Reading: The Amulet Of Samarkand
What I'm Playing: Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, Sly 3
What I'm Watching: The West Wing: Season 3

A dragon lives forever
But not so little boys

Speaking of deprived childhoods

We were watching Epidode 3 this evening at work and one of the guys piped up, "So, those guys are telepaths? That's how they're moving things?"

I said that they weren't telepaths, they were just using the Force.

"The Force? Like the force of gravity?"

I just looked at him like he was from another planet. I mean, this guy knows James Bond movies like the back of his hand and can quote Star Trek episodes by heart. He's seen many a movie. Yet somehow he's managed, despite his inherent geekiness, to never see a Star Wars movie. He didn't even know what a Jedi was. He did know who Darth Vader was, but that's probably because he's seen the mask around before.

I mean, how does someone grow up post-1977 and NOT see at least one of the Star Wars movies? It would be one thing if he never watched movies and didn't like sci-fi, but he does both with gusto! GUSTO! Yet he was calling lightsabres "Laser Swords".

Sigh....

The upside is that the task of educating him about the mysteries of the Star Wars universe has fallen upon my shoulders. I know it will be tough, watching the original trilogy all over again, but somehow I'll make it through.

Force of gravity... sheesh.

Why didn't anyone tell me about these before?

I really hope this is just a spoof website. I REALLY hope it is... If so, it's hilarious. If not, call the authorities.

BABYCAGE!

I like the tagline of "Infant Confinement Specialists Since 2001".

If they are real, I need to order one of the Teenager Cages so I'll be ready in 11-12 years.

[Editor's Note:Just so everyone knows, YES, it's a spoof website. NO, I don't condone actually stuffing your kids into cages. I just found the site amusing because of the way it was laid out as though this WAS an acceptable thing to do.

Internet, meet Satire. Satire, Internet.

And if you thought that was bad, there is worse parenting advice to be found (AGAIN, IT'S A SATIRE SITE!!!)

When I do hear about cases where children have been locked in basements, handcuffed to pipes in the attic, etc. it boggles my mind to even begin to get into the headspace of someone who would do such a thing. I think of something like that happening to Garrett and it makes me feel sick.

The site still made me chuckle. Hilarious? Maybe not. Amusing? Yes. And unlike my coffee, I like my humour black. Hopefully most of you know that by now.]

And you thought the Revolution controller was weird

You know, when I think of next-gen console gaming, what comes to mind immediately is jump-rope.

Yeah... I get the metaphor for the Xbox360's integrated Live support and all, and it is a neat commercial in that it would have been pretty hard to shoot it in one take.

But you'd think they'd show, oh, I don't know, SOME GAMEPLAY FOOTAGE OR SOMETHING!!!

Guitar HEROES!

Here's something I'd like to get for Christmas.

The Guitar Hero double guitar controller pack. The game has been getting awesome reviews and after all the fun I've had here lately with the two Taiko drum sets, a double guitar game would be a blast.

So there ya go, those who want my Christmas list. Guitar Hero for the PS2, preferably the double pack :)

Just make sure there aren't any deadly surprises in the box when you give it to me.
---
What I'm Reading: The Amulet Of Samarkand
What I'm Playing: Civ IV, Sly 3
What I'm Watching: West Wing: Season 3