Bender's Big Score

We had some folks over to watch the new Futurama DVD last night. Although it was fun, I couldn't help being a tiny bit let down. I was so upset when Futurama was cancelled, and have been looking forward to it's return with such anticipation, it would be difficult for anything to quite live up to expectations. That said, I did enjoy it, and I can't wait for the next DVD, or for the episodes to actually appear. I'm very curious how they'll chop up the movie into portions that will work as episodes. Seems like they'll have to go to a serial format, as it'll be hard to get any of the storylines presented wrapped into a single episode in a sensible way.

Fünde Razor

I had no idea this was in Denver! Trying to get things worked out so me and some friends can go. I was going to donate to Child's Play anyways, if I can do it while having a beer, playing some games, and maybe winning some prizes, I'd be a fool not to go!

Finished Halo 3

Only on normal difficulty, and I had two friends along in co-op to help. The warthog sequence was fantastic. When the credits rolled, I didn't stick around for the extra cutscene at the end (I didn't know it was there at the time), as we didn't get the achievement for finishing one of the later levels, and therefore also didn't get an achievement for finishing the game. Had to go back and run through the Covenant level start to finish, then Tsavo Highway for AB. All in all, it was a good game. I don't think I've got the patience to play it on xbox live much, but I'm glad I've got the game in my inventory. Now to finish Marvel Ultimate Alliance and get back to Half Life 2 or Metroid.

Work sucks

Just came from an unscheduled meeting. Our contracting company lost two more positions in the group I work in. They still get to work till the week before Christmas of course, so they really get to enjoy their 'time off'. We're supposed to have a 'celebratory' lunch with the company's CEO later today. Wee. I can hardly contain my celebratory urges.

BSG: Razor

Got around to watching this two hour Battlestar Galactica movie last night. It was pretty good, but still mainly served as a teaser for the third and final season. Or is it fourth? Anywho, I can't wait for it to start up again next March. The new BSG has always been a good source for uncomfortable moral quandaries to ponder.

So I cancelled LOTRO.

This makes the fourth time I've left an MMO, and it was by far the easiest. It's not that it wasn't a good game. MMO's have just lost some of their interest for me of late. I'd happily get back into it at some point, but for now, I'd rather be playing games with J, and that means Rock Band. Plus, it's nice not having to pay an extra monthly fee for an underutilized service. All credit to the LOTRO team, I really enjoyed my time there, and they made the account cancellation quick and painless.

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance

The game came with AB and Jer's 360's, and Jer leant it to me once he had finished it. It's a fairly entertaining time, but at this point, I just want to finish it so I can get back to Metroid and Half Life 2. I must admit though, I've got a weakness for the achievements. AB's nearly caught up to me, and taking a break from the 360, even to play a game as good as Metroid Prime 3, seems like I'd just be letting him catch up. It totally doesn't matter, but there's a part of me that doesn't want that to happen.

So what did you do with your time off?

Janie and I spent most of our time trying to keep our family entertained. I've got three nieces and a nephew, and although Becca was old enough to both get and rock out to Rock Band, Wii Sports was about as advanced as the next younger one could handle. We had skee ball in the basement, with prizes. Katie won a rather foul mouthed talking gingerbread man from the Shrek movies, which I'm sure will raise me a couple of notches on the bad uncle list. Black Friday shopping was a mess. But otherwise, it was good clean gaming and food. How about you guys? What did you do?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Yeah, I know it's late, but still. I hope everyone had great holidays. Ours was good. My sister Tara cooked a fantastic meal. Her husband Drew handled the turkey, Tara did the rest, and it was all amazing. Stuffing with duck confit. An absolutely best thing ever gratin with manchego cheese. Just a perfect meal. We still have leftover turkey, I've got to get to work on those sandwiches.

Big TV + Rock Band = ...

...sleepy Scotty. Janie, Steph, Jer and I played till midnight, and only stopped because Jer and Steph had to be up in three hours to get Jer to the airport.

:(

And the TV is still in Denver. Now scheduled to be delivered sometime tomorrow. I'm obsessing over this more than a little bit. I drove J to emo last night over it. I guess tonight will be spent cleaning up the house some more in preparation for Thanksgiving, and trying to run network to the living room for the xbox.

The TV's in Denver

Should be delivered sometime tomorrow. I've roped my sister into hanging out waiting for it to show up, so she can sign for it and call me to get it into the garage. We bought a new entertainment center for it yesterday, still working on the aftermath of getting it set up. Anticipation at a fever pitch, but I'm exhausted and needing a nap.

Merry Christmas to me

Let this be a lesson to everyone. Love your wife, and good things happen. Ever since I got my xbox (which was a birthday present from Janie), I've wanted a bigger TV for it. It's fun to play, but not many folks want to sit in my bedroom to play games with me. I've got a big living room, so a decent sized TV would not be amiss. I've been doing some research, but I'm a bit spastic, and every time I'd settle on something, I'd be called an idiot by someone and told to look into something else. Well, J had taken it upon herself to surprise me with a new set for Christmas. However, every time she'd picked out a model based upon my latest fevered researchings, I'd change my mind again. She finally threw up her hands, and told me to buy a Christmas present for myself. I now have a 60" Sony rear projection on its way. Thank you Janie! I love you so much! And not just because you buy me huge TV's. You are the best thing that's ever happened to me. And you keep happening to me :)

Two more reasons I love Janie...

In a jabber conference room with some friends, one of the important topics we recently discussed was which GI Joe character we each resembled. Although suggestions made for my character were not complimentary, Janie was compared with the Baroness.



Hot. I always had a crush on the Baroness, despite her working for Cobra. I always thought she was just a little misunderstood, that I could...change her, convince her to come back to the good guys. Whole adolescent fantasy scenarios revolved around this. So, I love J because she looks a bit like the Baroness. Now to get her a black leather bodysuit. And some guns.

The second reason I've been loving my Janie recently shouldn't be a surprise, but it surprised me anyway. Janie likes Guitar Hero. When we watched the recent South Park episode mocking the game, J said 'that looks kinda fun'. I heard, 'omg, please go buy that rite now, kthxbi'. So I did, and Janie's been playing it, and I have to say, I want a second controller, because when Janie's rocking out, I want to be in her band. Janie grew up on Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Kiss, and getting to play at least some songs from the latter two, even in toy guitar form, has been a blast for her.

I love you J!

I'm a dork

I've got my iPod out, and I'm listening to some Guns n Roses in preparation for playing some Guitar Hero later. I am a dork. That is all.

I've got blisters on me fingers...

So J attended a conference for four days, which gave me four days of gaming excess. I've Halo'd, GRAW'd, Orange Boxed, and Guitar Heroed until my fingers hurt to type you this message. Oh, and got about halfway through Marvel Ultimate Alliance. Highlights include trying to play through Halo 3 on Legendary with three people co-op (It's hard!), and playing and finishing every single co-op mission in GRAW2 except for the last one. We had a four player group for that one, and it was fun. We would have had a fifth, but one of our member suffered the dreaded red ring of death. Still hoping to get Jer into GRAW for the multiplayer, but we'll see. I will say, being able to talk with your friends while playing squad based tactical shooters, is the closest thing to a LAN party experience I've had in a long time. Way to go, Xbox 360. You may have finally succeeded in making a console gamer out of me.

Guitar Hero

I admit it. I've been Guitar-Curious for some time now. My friend Chris loves it, my friend Eric loves it, Chris can't wait for Rock Band. And it sounded and looked fun, when I'd see folks playing the demo unit at Best Buy. So, with Guitar Hero 3 out with a nifty wireless controller, I figured I'd see if I could pick it up.

Called around a bit, and everyone was sold out, but Game Stop had a used copy, plus the controller, which meant I picked everything up for a decent savings. The fellow at the counter tried to get me to pre-order Rock Band, but I declined, both because pre-orders bother me a bit, and because I don't think I have enough friends to make that sort of outlay worthwhile.

As to the game, it's fun! I'm only playing on easy difficulty to get the hang of things, but it's pretty good. I played from ten to around midnight, and my fingers had become twisted claws by the end of the night. I think I'd enjoy it even more if I had someone else to play with. I'll have to see if Janie likes it. I'd totally buy a second controller if I could get her to play with me. And there are enough 80's hair band songs in the game to keep her interested :)

So how did the funk removal go?

1. I got to have lunch with J, which was goofy as we had trouble finding a place at work to sit down and eat, but she took me out for ice cream after. A
   
2. I still have more work do to on breaking down my task list, but I've been more productive in the last two days than all of last week thanks to the work I've done on it so far. B
   
3. Physical therapy went really, really badly. I need to force myself to do stretches every day, in the hopes that my knees respond, but man, last night was the worst session yet. F
   
4. With everything else I had going on last night (therapy, making dinner, paying bills, gaming), I dropped the ball on making Brose his DVD. F
   
5. Halo 3. Absolutely fantastic. We played through a good chunk of the campaign, only a few chapters left to go. I finally had to call it quits when it started getting late, and the batteries ran out on my headset. A
   

Thanks for the ice cream!

Sensing my funk, J took me out for ice cream after we met for lunch. Thanks hon!

In a funk

I have no good reason to be unhappy. I've got a decent job, an amazing partner in Janie, more gaming possibilities that I've had in years, and surprisingly, some time to take advantage of it. But instead of celebrating all that's good, I'm in a funk. I'm arguing with people on forums about inconsequential things that don't really exist. I sit around at work, dreading actually doing something useful.

So here's the plan. Here's what's going to happen, to get me out of this sad cat doldrum.

1. I'm going to have lunch with Janie. Even if it's only half an hour, I'm going to get together with her, and that'll be a bright point to the day. We've got some tasty leftovers in the fridge that I'm looking forward to.
2. I'm going to break down my work task list to make it more manageable. Part of my problem is that I've got what look like huge, monolithic tasks. Just like every task, it can be broken down into smaller, easier to tackle jobs. I can get this stuff done, I just need to frame it in a manner that doesn't seem so depressing.
3. I'm going to go to physical therapy tonight, and get a good workout in. My knees have been feeling a bit better of late, might as well keep that improvement moving forward.
4. I'm going to burn a DVD with a bunch of my favorite TV and send it to my friend Brose in Santa Fe. He's a kindred spirit, he'll enjoy this stuff, and we'll have even more to talk about.
5. I'm going to play some Co-op Halo 3 with Jer and AB tonight.

There. Sad Cat's five step plan to fighting the moh's. Let's get to it!

Portal

So I picked up The Orange Box for the 360, and started playing through Half Life 2 again. But before I got to into Half Life, I stopped by and checked out Portal. Excellent game! Fiendish puzzles, funny dialog, and a satisfying conclusion. Even though the puzzles are designed to be solved, there's something very satisfying about reaching the solution the game designers designed for you to reach.