Puzzles

I've been thinking about the format of video games lately. At their basest form, video games are essentially puzzles. Almost any game can be boiled down to interpreting what needs to be done, and then doing that to move on. This has become apparent to me largely by my going back and playing NES games, where the experience is stripped down to a state that is much more bare than in modern games. The approach to Zelda for example was to basically throw the pieces of the puzzle on the table and leave you to figure it out. You're missing the top of the box with the picture on it and all you really know is that the puzzle is square. Burning every bush to look for secret entrances is like checking every piece for every empty slot. I think I've over-explained the idea here, but whatever.

Okay, so I've established that a game like Zelda that is based around puzzle solving is, in fact, like a puzzle, but what about other games? What about Mario? It's not really a puzzle if the solution is "go right," is it? A game like that is still about problem solving. Your goal is to go right, but you have to understand the enemies patterns, your jumping ability, and the how the platforms work in order to progress. While games do require you to have the physical ability to carry out actions, which is not really an element of puzzles, figuring out what actions need to be carried out is a puzzle.

I think it is this problem solving element that makes video games interesting. Of course, this isn't the only thing that makes video games what they are. The aesthetic, music, story, and art are all things that can draw people in. For example, I appreciate the puzzle-like solving of how to beat a Megaman level/boss more than the art design, but I appreciate the art design of a Silent Hill more than figuring out how to beat an enemy to death with a plank of wood.

Competitive games are a different beast entirely. A good one is like chess, but a bad one is like rock-paper-scissors. I would compare a lot of fighting games to high-speed versions of the former, and I would compare a lot of shooters to high-speed versions of the latter. Obviously, there are a good and bad examples of both genres, but I digress.

The idea of logical problem solving in games make it all the more fascinating when a game is illogical. A lot of times this is accidental and just the result of poor design, but in some cases it is done on purpose to mess with expectations. I love it when a game designer thinks to do something that makes to player do something that runs counter to what the game has already established as proper. The hidden pit in front of an energy tank in Metroid works because you had just walked through a room that looks exactly the same and there was no pit in there. Sure, it's a dick move, but it shows that designers are anticipating the psychology of the people playing and designing against it, and that is something you can't get in many other places.

Hideo Kojima has made a career out of making games that require the player to think outside the box (or on it). As crazy as video game puzzle solving can get, there is usually a logic to it. Good video games are engaging because they require not just input from the player, but considered input.

Team Rocket and Other Pokemon Related Musings

This is a collection of ranting I had when I tried to convince some people that Team Rocket are the best failures ever.  Enjoy.  I apologize for the lack of a coherent train of thought.

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Prepare for Trouble!
And make it double!
To protect the world from devestation
To unite all peoples within our nation
To denounce the evils of truth and love
To extend our reach to the stars above
Jessie!
James!
Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of light!
Surrender now or prepare to fight!
Meowth that's right!
Wobbafett!

This is for the most awesome failures ever.

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James's early voice doesn't really do it for me. He doesn't have the comically deep tone or the awesome laugh/weird noise he makes when he's scared.


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*Someone else refers to James as a faggot*

I can understand calling James a fag, but the picture you are replying to clearly shows him not acting like a fag. If it were this picture

then I wouldn't complain.
Follow up pictures to the earlier one:



James just likes it rough. If he were gay why would he spend all his time with Jessie. She's not that smart or useful, and she beats him. I figure he is just effeminate and masochistic, so Jessie being hot and beating him up is just his thing.

But I suppose when you watch hundreds of episodes you begin to overanalyze things. Like how the world of pokemon has almost no concept of marriage or good parenting. The only time marriage was ever even mentioned was when it was about James's arranged marriage to that dominatrix. Ash's father is clearly Professor Oak, but nobody ever bothered to tell Ash this, and Ash was sent out to travel the world at ten years old without any help. I say Professor Oak is clearly his dad because he and Ash's mom just happen to show up together at beach resorts and hotels at the same time all the time and nobody ever even mentions Ash's father. I don't even think Ash knows where babies come from. Not to mention Ash's mom is a slut. She let Brock shack up with her for an undetermined amount of time after Brock had some unnamed problem with staying with Professor Ivy (I assume he knocked her and her three research assisstants up) and left.

Anyway, point is that the world of Pokemon is fucked up and should not be thought about critically.

Also, Meowth is watching you masturbate.

Stay tuned for more random pokemon related dissertations.

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*Someone says that Jessie has a penis*

I just can't imagine a penis can hide that well. I mean, the animators had enough problems just avoiding pantyshots, let alone a penis.


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Then back to Team Rocket being awesome.
Meowth, he is a Char.

James is sexy.

Wobba


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I would like to take a moment to talk about what Team Rocket covets most. No, not leather and sex toys, I mean Pikachu.


He is a lazy EV trained asshole. Either Ash accidentally fought the right type of pokemon to EV train him (unlikely) or Professor Oak knew what the fuck he was doing and decided to EV train Pikachu before he gave him (is Pikachu male?) to Ash as a way to protect his mentally challenged son from the dangerous world of pokemon. Not to mention that Pikachu had Agility and Thunder pretty early on, which means he was either at least level 34 and used a TM for Thunder, or he was 45 or higher. He is also a lazy bastard. He refuses to get into his pokeball, but he also refuses to walk most of the time.


Though it is quite likely this is just a way for lazy animators to keep him in frame whenver Ash is talking, I still don't like it. He is the total opposite of the venerable Meowth, who, through only his own genius, and a little hornyness, learned to speak English and Japanese, and walk on two legs.


Pikachu is heartless and doesn't think twice about attacking the humans of Team Rocket with even the most powerful of his electric attacks. Jessie, James, and Meowth are all likely to die young of heart complications due to their frequent exposure to high voltages. Even a small child who was trying to pet (or was it rape?) Pikachu suffered his wrath.


Pikachu will one day destroy the world, and Team Rocket must capture it to protect the world from devastation. Can you imagine what would happen if Pikachu were to do whatever he pleased?


Team Rocket lives like top tier hobos to save us from this menace.


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*Someone mentions the seizure episodes and the one that had James with  inflatable tits*

I assume those are the edited versions of the seizure episode. I've seen the edited one, but it actually gave me a bit of a headache. As for the tits on James, it's a shame everybody focuses on him there, because Jessie is damned hot.
Though James isn't all that bad looking.


*Someone mentions they prefer some of Pokemon's many lolis*



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So, Maddie Blaustein, the English voice of Meowth throughout the 4kids production of the show (which was everything up until the latest season), regularly answers fan questions on the serebii forums. She said
"Behind the scenes stuff can get very funny because we do all do dirty ad-libs as jokes for the other voiceover talent."

The show makes sooo much more sense now.

Oh geez
"3. Here's one that I want to hear your opinion on. Do you think anything has happened between Jessie and James (romantically) that we don't know about that Meowth has seen?

3) Yes"
Meowth has witnessed Jessie raping James, it's the only explanation.

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I would like to take a moment to talk about Brock. This gym leader seems like a nice guy.


But actually Brock is a dangerous sex offender. When Ash says he wants to be the greatest pokemon master, Brock usually introduces himself saying that he wants to be the greatest breeder. He rarely mentions pokemon at all when talking about being a breeder.


Brock would probably breed with anything he can get his hands on. His main foes in the series change as the supporting cast does. In the beginning Ash and Misty would just let him hit on whoever all the time, but after he was replaced and then took his place back in the group, he has constantly been cock blocked. First it was Misty, then it was Max, and now it's his own Croagunk who gets in the way of his neverending quest for vagina.

It seems to me that Brock continues to travel with Ash is because he needs to constantly be on the run from the women he gets pregnant. He originally left his hometown to get away from taking care of his "little brothers and sisters," and since then he has been on a neverending quest to avoid child support.

A sequence of images that are quite disturbing.




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So there you have it.
It looks like Team Rocket is blasting off again.

Why Should I Upgrade My Phone?

With the recent (and rapid) improvements in smartphone related technology, I've been thinking about getting something to replace my (zomg) over a year old Palm Pre. I think about all the possibilities of having a phone with some high-res amoled screen and a fast new processor. But then I think about the things that I've gotten used to that is just so damn convenient.

The most obvious thing is the touchstone charger. You mean, if I get a new phone I'll have to plug it in every night like some fucking caveman? No thank you. Plus there is the fact that, though Android has gotten nicer, it is still relatively ugly and unintuitive. What are all those buttons on the front of every Android phone? A home button? A menu button? A back button? A search button? C'mon.

Why is that you gotta go through some shit and root an android phone and get hacked firmware and all that? I want to do some crazy shit with my Pre, I put in the Konami code, I connect it to my PC once, and then I can do any crazy patches, overclocking, and changes I want from my phone. I don't need to wipe my phone, I don't lose a single thing. If I have to replace my phone, all I do is type in my name and password and it gets all of my apps and settings (all the official stuff and even some of the unofficial) back.

If I'm going to class and I forget to silence my phone, no worries, my phone sees that I've got class in my calendar and automatically goes into airplane mode and mutes itself. If I set my phone on the charging dock, the screen goes to minimum brightness and the ringer to about half of my default level. Maybe there is a way to do this with Android phones, I dunno. But I wonder, why should I abandon the functionality of my phone just to get a prettier screen and a couple hundred extra mhz?

In short: hey HP/Palm, WebOS 2.0 looks nice, but how about some new hardware, eh?

You Can't Escape!

As someone who plays low-tier characters in 3rd Strike, I sometimes wonder about ways they could be better. I know it will never happen not only because 3rd Strike is 12 years old and Capcom is more than likely not going to do an HD Remix style rebalancing for the newly announced online edition of the game, but a man can dream. I don't want the world. I'm not asking for Q and Alex to get 1/3 screen fierce punches with no recovery that somehow go under high sonic booms. Here are some changes that I think would help Alex:

I know Alex is not a combo character. He has one comboable attack: close MK. I wouldn't want to try to turn him into Yun or something, but the fact you can only combo out of his close MK means he can only really get it on punish or after a meaty jump in HP. So, I'd like to see him be able to cancel his crouch MP. It is already a good poke, but being able to do a qcf + LP or a charge b f K would allow him to add a little extra damage (or a lot with something like cr. MP, db f K, qcfqcf P) after a good poke or keep up pressure on block. This would be good, but since crouch MP is slower than similarly used attacks by other characters (Ken and Chun cr. MK) it wouldn't be broke. Maybe make it so that you can combo into a qcf MP from close MK, but not from crouch MP, therefore giving a benefit to using the close MK on punish.

I'd like to see EX moves that are useful outside of adding an extra hit for a little bit more damage. EX slaps are fine, as well as EX stomps. EX dp + K is worthless. Sure it comes out fast and pull people off the ground, but there just isn't any real use for it. Instead of pulling people off the ground it should change from a hit attack (that can be blocked/parried, which never made much sense to me) to a grab type attack. This would make it much more useful, and because it would be an EX, it wouldn't be abusable. It would still get stopped by well timed air attacks (or claws) but it would win in more situations and would catch people jumping in and trying to parry anti-air attempts.

Power bombs are just too slow to be used in most situations. I think he should have an EX powerbomb that comes out instantly. It wouldn't need huge range (shorter than a Hugo 360 would be okay), but just the ability to do an instant powerbomb would be a great asset. And while we are at it, if we could just make it so that you can't jump out of hyperbomb on super flash, that would be great. Thanks.

His hcb + K. Such a weirdly situational move. I wouldn't take away the fact you can duck it, but maybe it could be given a longer active hitbox, so that it can land throughout the second half of the movement instead of at just the exact landing point. And maybe an EX version that has a really long horizontal range or will catch throughout the entire move's animation.

The EX dash elbow already pops the opponent into the air, so why not allow you to get a free attack after it, like a HK or a dp + K or something.

I don't know. Maybe with the extra combos his damage would have to be scaled to a greater degree. It's not like I'm KSK or anything, and all of my changes could completely break the character/game. It's fun to imagine though. And maybe one of these days Alex will show up again in a game that I actually give a damn about.

Art Design in Video Games

Your game is ugly. This is something I want to tell so many game developers lately.

I know video games come from a world where process and rules are usually thought of first, but I hate seeing games that look like the art design was handled by a programmer who is socially inept and generally doesn't understand the world. The comedy of it is that generally the most “mature” games are the most childish. The prime example of this is Gears of War. It looks like it was designed by a 13-year-old boy who just bought his first metal album. But I guess that is their target demographic.

I can imagine the development meetings. “Well, killing stuff with chainsaws is fucking badass, but killing stuff with guns is also badass. We need to come up with a way to do both without confusing the player with switching weapons.” “Hey, you know how guns used to have those knives on the front of them back in the day? No? Whatever. We could totally have a gun with a chainsaw on front!” “The gun part would be all PEW PEW and the guy he shot would be all AAAAHH and then chainsaw part would be all RRRRRRR and the blood be all SHHHKLSH.”

This is nothing new of course. In the 90's every other game had a male lead that looked suspiciously like Jean-Claude Van Damme or Arnold Schwarzenegger. Of course, games back then were a much more modest affair. 10 people gathered in a garage and made Arnold Van Damme capable of walking from left to right and punching a ninja and everything was fine, but with the increased capability for art in games comes increased expectations.

When I was young I sketched hundreds of pictures of Megaman in my notebooks. I did this because Megaman has an interesting design. He looks like nothing that I had seen and nothing I could ever come up with. Of course it helps that Megaman has a simple design that is easy for a kid to draw, but don't confuse simplicity with good art design. There are tons of games with generic simple anime designs, which are just as boring as your typical space marine.

The game that put me on this whole train of thought was Darksiders. There is nothing wrong with the game graphically, but it is insanely ugly. The art design fits perfectly with the clusterfuck that is the game. The fact that a bunch of people spent a large amount of time to put together this Frankenstein's monster is mind boggling. There is the big debate over whether or not games are art. The fact that Darksiders is generally referred to as a good game that is completely derivative is proof that games themselves are not art. At the very least, games contain art, and that art should be good. I can't imagine how nobody during development just stood back and said, “wait a second, this is totally retarded.”

HEY! EVERYBODY!

2009: A Review

It has been a weird year, but they all are.

Video Games

In retrospect, 2009 wasn't a huge year for games for me, but I did play a lot of stuff that was a lot of fun.

Fighting Games

 This has been the biggest year for fighting games in a very long time. SF4 came out (if you don't count arcade releases, which I don't because there hasn't been a worthwhile arcade anywhere near here in a very long time. King of Fighters XII and Street Fighter 4 were both a long time coming.

BlazBlue

Also known as BRAAAABRUUUUU, this is a game that I was unsure about until I actually played it. I had soured on Guilty Gear many iterations ago, so I did not have high hopes for this game. The game is complicated and fast and insane. Before the big early year fighting game clusterfuck of releases I would never have thought that by the end of the year this would be my favorite new 2D fighter. If it weren't for my RRoD I would say this would have been the year of the Tager.

Street Fighter 4

I spent a considerable amount of time playing Street Fighter 4, but I never really got into it. I hate the Street Fighter 2 cast, and so by extension I hate the SF4 cast. Sure they added some alpha characters, but whatever. If I can't find a character I like to play, then I'm never going to really get into a fighter. I tried to play able, and I tried to like him, but he is no Alex.

King of Fighters XII

With all the fighting games this year, I am most regretful that I haven't played much King of Fighters XII. I've come to realize that I can't really enjoy a fighting game unless I can actually play it with some people, and nobody I know plays KoF. I don't really play online in any fighter (with the exception of some KoF 98 on GGPO), so I can't say whether or not the lag in KoF was as bad as the internet says, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were. I just don't like to play against random jackoffs until I have had a chance to learn the game playing against real people I know.

King of Fighters 2002 Unlimited Match

Seeing as it is a KoF, it has the same problems for me personally as XII. More so, the game is an updated version of the same game I have in my cabinet, so I had a hard time wanting to put the effort into the game, when I could just flip the switch on my cabinet instead. Also it is on PS2, and I don't have a good PS2 arcade stick since my custom one stopped working.

Older Games

As usual, I spent a lot of time playing games that were not new releases. I am a whore for nostalgia.

Alundra

Thanks to the joys of PS1 games on PSP, I was able to go back and retry Alundra. It is still a solid adventure game, and it is nice to play a game where they don't hold your hand and point you in the exact direction you have to go at all times. The game is kind of a pain in the ass though. Puzzles are weird, platforming isn't too bad most of the time but every once in a while you are jumping from one unknown area to another, and some enemies take forever to kill. The last one could be in part because of the ability to skip nonessential dungeons that could power you up more. Overall I like it, but I did stop playing it for some reason. Probably died in some place far away from a save point.

Final Fantasy 7

Final Fantasy 7 was a game that I really enjoyed 10+ years ago, and it is a game that holds up in some aspects and not others. I originally went back and played through Midgar, and then with the prospect of going through Kalm ahead of me, I put off continuing for months. In retrospect it wasn't that bad. No worse than some of the other long expositions in the game. I grinded the fuck out of this game this time around. I was overpowered for the entire length of the game except when I went to Wutai at the first possible moment. Of course, after going through the difficult Wutai, I ran around outside the city for 10 to 15 hours (not all in one sitting) killing stuff until I could murder the fuck out of most of the rest of the game. As it stands now I am on the 3^rd disk hunting that weapon back and forth, but I can't seem to find him. The prospect of doing all the 3^rd disk stuff (raising chocobos) has really put a dampening on my drive to play the game.

Street Fighter 3: Third Strike

A fighting game I have always like, and my preferred Street Fighter. I have spent a lot of time this year playing it with James and Rick. It may not be my favorite fighting game (though it is up there), but I love it mostly because it is a fighting game I can get people to play.

Karnov's Revenge

A retarded and yet generally fun fighting game. A game that I have been able to actually get people to play. Best moment was playing Marstorius vs. Marstorius fights until sunup with Jon at Joe's, all the while James crying because Jon repeatedly saying DOUBLE FUCK ME IN THE ASS GERMAN every time he got double germaned, which was often.

Super DodgeBall (NeoGeo)

A fun game that extends upon the great NES game (and runs at a much less nauseating framerate). A highlight of the summer was some major Kenji battles with James. Also that time my glasses broke and I whooped him in both this and 3S. I may have been almost blind, but I was able to parry and take out some guttertrash.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

I started playing San Andreas on PC because I was bored, and somehow ended up playing through the entire story of the game for the first time, making this the 2^nd GTA I have ever finished. At this point I am at about 90% completion, with only some races way point missions to do. I don't know if I'll bother.

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory

Played the coop with James because both of us hadn't played it in a while and it sounded like fun. James would knock everybody out, but I wanted to make sure everyone was dead, so anyone that he knocked out, I had to kill as they were lying unconscious. The highlight of this was a part where we both were racing to attack a guy siting on a bench who would sometimes yell “Holy crap!” as he was attacked. I got this game for free with a flash drive I bought, so I played it for quite a while. I was playing a mission a day for a while. I took my time and was thorough in knocking out every person there was. I stopped playing because I was interrupted in the middle of a mission and never felt like playing it after that.

Resident Evil 2

Another reason to love the PSP's PS1 game playing ability. It was interesting to go back through the game after so long. It is funny the things you remember and the things you don't. The old Resident Evil games seem easy to me now. I hardly used the stronger weapons of the game.

Resident Evil DS

Just to prove that James is terrible at Resident Evil, I played through Chris's game on Rebirth mode in one sitting. I didn't really get a hang of the knifing mode until the end of the game.

Newer Games

While it has not been a huge year for new releases for me (and some of the bigger ones just came out and I haven't had the chance to play them) I have spend a good deal of time playing newer games.

Resident Evil 5

Resident Evil 5 is probably my favorite new release of the year. I say this because I have put 70 hours into the game as of this writing, which is an exorbitant amount of time for an action game like this. The game really does reinforce the need for a reliable partner in gaming. This is a game that I will always link to James, who was always there to be too distracted by other things to save me from death. The mercenaries mode is addicting and intense, but after Vs. mode came out it seems almost relaxing. Vs. mode is far from perfect, but it can be fun.

Grand Theft Auto 4: The Lost & Damned

This expansion to GTA4 is alright, but overall it has been more annoying and difficult than anything. It seems most of the missions are just a bunch of big gunfights. Maybe the game would be easier if I used the auto aim option, but fuck that. This is the game I was playing when my 360 RRoD'd, and I haven't really played it since, which is partly why I haven't completed it yet.

Fallout 3

I started playing this late into the game because I wasn't really in the mood for Oblivion with guns, but Tim talked me into it. The game was pretty much what I expected, but the mod that allows you to kill kids makes it pretty entertaining.

Phantasy Star Universe

Not necessarily a new game, but I started playing it again for the 3^rd time. The game felt much more complete with the Ambition of the Illuminus expansion. It was pretty fun actually playing with other people for once, but Tim and Dave drifted away from it (I blame WoW) and the game died for me again.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2

Another game I played with Tim and Dave (and Lucas). We actually got together and played through it at my house and it was pretty fun. THOOOR!

Red Ring of Death

My 360 finally got the ol' RRoD earlier in the year, and I was able to keep playing a 360 thanks to the graciousness of Tim. I went quite some time without my 360, and a decent amount of time without one at all. Right about when I was ready to give up and buy a new one Ryan decided to “go for broke” on my console and got it working again. It is something that put a big pause on my time with the new fighting games.

School

15 Credits

The Winter 09 semester wasn't bad, but Fall 09 I have taken 15 credits, and it has been a stressful time even without a job. There is just a lot of work due at all days of the week.

2 Capstones

Taking CS 401 and CS 421 at the same time seemed like a terribly retarded thing to do at the beginning of the semester, but it ended up evening out. And CS 316 ended up being more stressful than 401.

1 Hallouche

Hallouche has been particularly . . . interesting this semester. He assigned reading like normal, but homework and Capstone projects were not assigned until about halfway through the semester. The second exam was just questions from the book (and another book we don't have) and was an open book test. I'm pretty sure he came up with the exam 5 minutes before class (which was actually 10 minutes before he showed up to class).

Good Times

Steamers

Steamers Pub is a pretty terribly boring little bar, but I have had some good times hanging out there with friends this past year. I like the atmosphere because it reminds me of the bar from Homicide, minus the cops. Sadly there are a lot of d-bags and trolls that go there, but that is the case for any bar as far as I can tell.

Fighting Games

Summer trips to Ann Arbor and playing fighting games (namely Karnov's) all the way down and all the way back was a hell of a lot of fun. Drawing confused looks because of Karnov's in digi slops was fun. Gaming at Joe's was fun around the time SF4 came out, but lately it has been all about playing a lot of Third Strike at Rick's house.

Music

I have been listening to a lot of new types of music this last year.

Trip Hop

I started listening to trip hop with Inoran's first album, which led me to DJ Krush, which led me to a lot interesting stuff on pandora. Trip hop and instrumental hip hop are really nice to just relax to.

Hip Hop

Inoran and DJ Krush led me to listening to The Roots. While San Andreas gave me a respect for gangsta rap, I am aware it is quite corny, and so I listen to other things. The Roots are great because they generally have music based around a live band, and it makes for really interesting music.

Melodic stuff

I've always had a preference for melodic rock, and in the past year I have tried to broaden my horizons and find new stuff. I've listened to Porcupine Tree for a while now, and while that is prog, I have really fallen for Blackfield.

Doomy stuff

Through the constant pestering of James I decided to look into the genre in general. I'm still not sure on what exactly constitutes doom metal, but I have found stuff that I like that is described as doom on wikipedia, so I guess there is that.

New releases

Buck Tick – memento mori

A solid rock album from the band that has been around since the mid 80s.

Kuroyume – The End

The recording of the reunion concert from Kuroyume. I am sad that I have not been able to find the actual video of it, but the concert sounds amazing and it is sad that the band is finally done (10 years after they were actually done).

Kiyoharu – Medley

Kiyoharu covering all the big singles from his days in Kuroyume. A strange album, but quite interesting to see how he has changed.

Kiyoharu – madrigal of decadence

The album proper of Kiyoharu this year. It is a nice mix of the different styles that Kiyoharu has done in the past.

Andrew WK – Gundam Rock

I am not an Andrew WK fan, but as a Gundam fan this album is pretty ridiculous.

Vamps – Vamps

The album was pretty much what you would expect from the group. It is a lot like the last couple of Hyde albums, which is obviously because KAZ was so much involved in those as well. This isn't a huge new thing, as much as a natural evolution of where Hyde's solo stuff was going.

Mos Def – The Ecstatic

A really interesting album from a guy who always does something weird with music. The samples used leads to a really strange sound you don't get many other places.

The BlazBlue Soundtrack

The Jin vs. Noel theme is amazing.

Katatonia – Night is the New Day

James would kill me for not mentioning it. It is a solid Katatonia album, but I don't know if I would say it is their best.

Concerts

I went to see Fair To Midland twice this year. They were great both times, but the opening bands for the first were downright terrible. I went with James and Mockal the first time, and nobody the second (though mini-Mason was there). It should be known that Kurt bitched out both times, and I should know never to make plans with him.

The Internet

Social Networking

At the beginning of the year I joined Facebook and MySpace. Facebook is generally pretty useful and fast. MySpace is fucking terrible, but it is the only way to aggregate what all sorts of different bands are up to. I missed Fair to Midland once because I didn't know they were coming to Flint, but I made it to the next two thanks to MySpace, so I can't just not use it. When I got my new phone, I started using Twitter. I like twitter, but mainly because it is a smaller more personable Facebook sort of thing. I also have a blog on blogger, but I neglect it most of the time.

Pre

I payed out the ass to get a Palm Pre. I love the phone, but I am unsure whether it was a good use of my money to not wait until what would have been a much cheaper upgrade later in the year.

Cracked

Cracked has apparently been around forever, but I've just started reading the website this past year. The videos by Swaim and the Agents of Cracked series have been very funny.

Podcasts

I've went back to making a point of listening to podcasts regularly. I always listen to TWIT and 1UpYours/ListenUp/4Guys1Up. The former is always entertaining, and the latter has gone through a lot of changes but is interesting.

Comics

X-Factor

I don't remember why I started reading this, but it had been really interesting for the first few issues, but has been derailed by various crossovers and other bullshit. It is quite different than it was, but it is interesting enough to keep me reading, even if it isn't what I liked to begin with.

X-Force

I have went back to read the comic series that I loved as a kid. In retrospect it was pretty damn retarded, and it doesn't really have a high point, but the series didn't have any good stories until after I had stopped reading originally back in the 90s.

The Crow

The other night the movie was on and got me thinking about the series. So I went out and got the original graphic novel. I liked it quite a bit. A simple revenge/love story. It is pretty damn bleak in its portrayal of society.

Television

This has been a pretty good year for TV in general.

Damages

I started watching this (from the beginning) around the time the second season ended. I love the show. I don't have much to say about it other than the fact it is really good.

Sons of Anarchy

I caught the opening episode of the series by complete random channel surfing and got hooked. It wasn't long after I finished the first season that the second was starting. It is an entertaining show that is very intense.

Southland

One of my favorite new shows that has been thoroughly mistreated by NBC. It is sort of like a new age Homicide with a wider scope. It is nice to see a show that actually handles subtlety and realism.

Monk

It was a funny show that was at times sweet. It had a satisfactory series end.

Things I Rewatched

Homicide: Life on the Street and The Wire, because they are that amazing.

Things I Still Need To Watch

The last season of Californication, which apparently just wrapped up.

Books

I haven't read as much as I'd like this year.

A Feast For Crows by George R.R. Martin

It took me forever to finish this not because of the tremendous length, but because I apparently have a hard time reading when I'm not at work. Great series. Lots of shit hitting the fan in this one.

More Information Than You Require by John Hodgman

Hilarious. I enjoyed it. I also recommend the audio book, which is very funny.

Homicide: A Year on the Killing Street by David Simon

As a fan of the television series, it only makes sense that I would love this book, which I did. Of course the book is nonfiction, so it is interesting to see the reality behind it all.

Conclusion

Overall this year was pretty generic. The controls weren't tight, the graphics were muddy, and the framerate wasn't consistent. It was a pretty boring year.

63/100