Thanksgiving in Unexplored Areas

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I'm back from Georgia and am quite full. "Georgia?" might you ask? Yes Georgia, the honeysuckle rose of my very large family. I've got extended family there, more specifically my Granduncle's family and my oh my was it a good time. "Enough Food to Feed a Small 3rd World Country" was the main idea of this year's celebration and man did they deliver. As you might recall last year's Thanksgiving was an abomination. "Enough Discus-Shaped Tofu and Rice to Make You Sick" was the theme that somehow formed in the head of my oh so health-conscious Mother; thank heavens for soy sauce. No my friends, this time I had a REAL Thanksgiving dinner. All the fixin's and more. I was so grateful I cried a little, a single tear if you will . . . and then continued feasting. Good times were had playing poker, ping pong, pool, Halo 2, and little breaks of Dance Dance Revolution and the Nintendo DS.

Nintendo DS: handheld gaming system for adults, crack for children. Being the technology whore you all know I am, I went out and bought the Nintendo DS. After this weekend's playtest with the DS, I can assure any of you who might go out and buy it that it is well worth it. My cousins and I were ready to claw each other to play and beat each other's scores if common sense didn't kick in. Wait, if I kill to play, then who's score would I beat? This was all over the two games I bought for it: Mario 64 DS and Feel the Magic: XY/XX. It's also a really good way to pass the time when oh let's say you're waiting for a plane from Atlanta to New York when it's delayed for two hours or maybe a taxi in a two hour line outside of Newark International Airport in the frosty cold. As long as you have the warm Nintendo DS in your hands the pain melts away.

All of the festivies ended with a nice run in World of Warcraft, my current addiction. World of Warcraft my friends. As I write this blog I play World of Warcraft. As I eat my dinner today I play World of Warcraft. As I sleep I play World of Warcraft in my head. I'm like a wet T-shirt to my computer, it's hard to take me off. I didn't think that I was going to get this addicted to this type of game. You know you kill creatures and then you level up to kill more higher level creatures and what not, but nay. It's an ingenious game that never lets up in the department of fun. That is to say that the pacing is very well thought out and I never get bored with it like I did with Final Fantasy XI or Morrowind. The environments are beautiful and the animations for the game for the most part are spot on. Anyways, you should all go out and experience it for yourselves.

So good food, good people, good games, what more could someone like me ask for? The latest and greatest USB add-on to your computer. May I present the flowerpot speaker USB device. Fresh air, a nice asthetic, something to play your hard metal on, simply wonderful. Life is good and I feel complete.

The Rock Fauna Of My Flora
Genuine Otaku

A Brief Return to Reality

What's up people. Half-life 2 is out and all of my computer time has been sucked up by that and 3D work. In this brief escape from the game's clutches I attempt to make a log. Doom 3 has nothing on Half-life 2. If there is one first person shooter you buy this year it should be Half-life 2. Don't get me wrong Doom 3 is a great game and so are many others in the genre, but Half-life 2 seems to be an all encompassing first person shooter. Doom 3's goal is to scare, Unreal Tournament is designed to have an arcade like shoot-em-up feel, but Half-life 2; Half-life 2 is everything and done to perfection no less. Playing the game, I realized that it is much like a movie. The visuals and audio are perfected down to smallest detail in order to create a completely immersive experience in City 17. Really, I can't talk more about the game since it's really something that needs to be experienced first hand, so go out and buy the game or come on over and check it out whenever you can. But until that time comes enjoy this addictive game.

Searching INTERNET, I came across an odd TV ad for golf it seems on the Playstation 2. If anyone can explain to me the logic behind this creation please please please contact me. All I get is that we should appreciate golf on the Playstation 2 because of the trials and tribulations it must undergo, one of which is porn stars, in order to reach your living room. This ad, however, is very clear. Buy this car; it can transform and dance for you.

Seeing as Black Friday is coming around, number 1: my condolences go out to any one of my friends out there in retail and two: USB Drumming Santa. That's right, for just twenty one dollars and forty three cents, you too can have a little Santa that drums on the very desk you sit in front of right now. I like how the site that sells the little waste of money makes fun of it too. INTERNET, you treat me too well.

So I must get back to Half-life 2 and hope that all of you make a point to experience its greatness relatively soon. Whether you buy it or go over to your friend's house to play/steal it, please, don't hurt a dolphin in the process. It will come back in biomechanical form and hurt back.

Hoping for a Cyborg Fin for Christmas
Genuine Otaku

Goodbye Old Friend

What is it about the iPod that makes it so attractive? It's wonderful backlight, easy to use software, the gigabytes of storage? Thing is all of these things are available in other, cheaper mp3 players. I believe the biggest draw is its design. Too many times have I heard people compliment the way it looks and coo in its presence. So beautiful is the design of the iPod that it has inspired other artists. They look alright, but I hope they create a new design that will astound just as much as the original did for their next generation. Isn't it great that art still makes a difference in this world? It is only when aesthetic value gets out of hand that it gets bad. Oh business people of Apple, why must you plague the world with your unnecessary money sinks. Yes, that's right. iPod socks. Why? I don't know. Who? I don't wanna know who. Wha? Exactly. Moving on.

Halo 2 has been out for a good . . . couple of days and oh how insane it is. In the first day alone, Microsoft was able to sell 125 million dollars worth of Halo 2 games. To give a little perspective, The Incredibles made 70 million dolars in its opening weekend and it's the best they've ever done. That's over the course of three days and Halo 2 was able to do better in 24 hours. Visiting the Gamestop on Broadway between Waverly and 8th Street, I stumbled across the Woolley and found that not one second of his shift could be spared for a decent conversation because so many people were buying Halo 2 among other games three days after its release! MTV calls it the "Halo 2 flu." I say "shut up MTV."

In other Microsoft Xbox news. The next Xbox system is aptly going to be called "Xbox Next," but here's the interesting thing they're going to be releasing three different versions of the Xbox. "Xbox Next" will be a regular 'ol next generation console, "Xbox Next HD" will have a hard drive in it, and "Xbox Next PC" will, get this, be a low end PC. Gamers made fun of Microsoft in 2001 joking around about Xbox being a PC, but they never thought that it would come true! It'll have a hard drive and will ultimately be a media center. You can attach a keyboard and mouse and access the internet, listen to music, watch movies, look at photos, and burn CDs. Smart move by Microsoft? I don't know, only time will tell. I know that Sony has plans to make its next system an all-in-one media center like this one, but is all of this really necessary? Sony's move to include a dvd player in the Playstation 2 back in 2000 was key to its success and perhaps expanding the abilities of their next generation systems is the next logical step. But even with all of this, I'll never leave my good 'ol bud Nintendo.

I can always trust Nintendo to bring me rock solid games. Quality over quantity right? Like the new upcoming Gamecube game Resident Evil 4. It's going to be awesome, but I can do without the special edition controller. Hopefully some kid won't try to hack me to bits with a piece of plastic come January.

And now I'd like a moment of silence . . . . . Goodbye Winamp, you were always good to me.

Winamp Mourner
Genuine Otaku

Keep calm, breathe normally

Ok, ok, I finally found the the World of Warcraft opening CG available online for viewing. I was able to download the awesome high resolution version from somewhere before, but lo and behold I forgot where I downloaded it. So here is the streaming quicktime version on the Apple website. Unfortunately the video doesn't do it any justice since it's all compressed and small. You really see the compression start to get bad with any quick camera moves. If you plan on coming over relatively soon or want it over IM I suggest you do that instead of watching it on the Apple website ASAP.

Addiction

What's up everyone. I'm back with another post. This one is inspired by my good friend Frank. This link redeems itself for the aforementioned scary link that he sent me so many years back. Mr. Shaw has taken his place. Let's just say that I'm glad that I never said "if McDonald ever becomes chic I will kill myself." Oh Japan, you never let me down. I'm rubbing it.

I've finished watching my latest anime addiction, Full Metal Alchemist. The show revolves around two brothers who seek out the philosopher's stone in a world where alchemy exists. It ends with what I thought was a good philosophical ending. The animation ranges from above average to insane quality at times; I know I won't have to explain exactly when that happens for all you anime fans out there. I give it my recommendation. It's a series shrouded in mystery up until the very end. Though a lot of fans thought the end left you wanting more, I thought the series ended nicely. I also find that the attraction for more information about the characters in an anime is a testament to how involved the director has made his audience.

Just as good, I've gotten myself addicted to Lost, a new show on ABC about survivors of a plane crash stranded on an island. Every episode is dedicated to revealing the recent history of a passenger leading up to the crash, while at the same time chronicling the survival of the crash victims. The damn thing is so shrouded in mystery that you're glued to your set every Wednesday waiting to find out more. I can't say anything about the show for fear of revealing too much, but my only piece of good advice is to watch it from the beginning. Damn you Gottlieb for introducing me to this show.

So Halo 2 came out and may I say that I feel very sorry for anyone who works in a game store like my friend Mr. Woolley. Grand Theft Auto was bad enough, but to have Halo 2 come out so soon after such a big game and then having to deal with the new Nintendo hand-held the Nintendo DS and Half-life 2 all in the same month, my sympathies go out to you. But concerning the DK, I haven't played the Halo 2 yet since I'm renting it from Gamefly. It shall be in my hands fairly soon. In the meanwhilst I am playing Grand Theft Auto San Andreas and nearly all is good.

Why the "nearly" you might ask yourself and here's when it gets a little "bloggy". It is because I am still in search of a steady job. The life of freelancing is simply not for me. Literally jumping from paycheck to paycheck, I have been discouraged by my most recent failure to get a studio job. The only thing to do here is to be strong and keep looking forward. I can't wall myself up here. So mark my words, from now on I will intensively study animation until that fateful day.

Do not fret though, I always have internet to bring me back to high spirits. Like exercise while blowing people's heads off, or if I'm in the mood for distraction, a nice game here and there. But most of all the videos of when things go wrong always puts me in a good mood. I wish I knew what she was saying.

Your Link to Multimedia at its Best and Worst
Genuine Otaku

Good Times

The Incredibles has come out. My life is once again awesomer. There is nothing I should have to say about this movie to make you go out and see it. And I shall leave it at that. No I won't, and you know it. I'll just say one thing: Pixar always tries to outdo their previous films with every new film, oh and Brad Bird directed it. There. My two cents.

After The Incredibles we all went to Chumley's, a speakeasy from the 1920s. One because it's good eats and awesome cider and two because my friend Claire from LA is in town and what better way to show off NY than an illegal bar from the 1920's. Good times were had.

A good amount of sleeping was required to recover from the good times and jump directly into going over to Jason's place to beat Manhunt. I was always too scared to play Manhunt, but it wasn't too bad playing it with three other guys screaming at the top of their lungs whenever one of us was close to death. Either that or whenever something really really effed up happened. So basically you're a prisoner sentenced to death who at the last minute is abducted by a deranged TV director. He puts drops you off in random places and forces you to play a survival game, in which killing everyone is the only way out. The idea is that violence sells in the television business. From stabbing peoples eyes out with glass shards to hacking away at someone's neck with a cleaver, Rockstar does not fail to gross you out and yell out "awesome!" at the same time. Not that I condone that kind of behavior, but it was pretty awesome. Hopefully you all will get to face the wrath that is Piggsy sometime soon.

Waiting for Blu-ray discs to come out
GenuineOtaku

Of games and . . . games

Over at the Woolley's apartment this past election day, I got to try out Steel Battalion. I must say the game and the massive controller are awesome. I'm so very tempted to get it since it doubles as something you can throw at house intruders, but the near 200 dollar price tag keeps me at bay. I'm beginning to realize that I really like the novelty of peripherals and might have to open up an arcade some time in the future. I can picture it now, racing wheels, motorcycle rigs, all the music games from Konami. Besides the Steel Battalion thing, my other temptation at the moment is Taiko Drum Master, which is like Donkey Konga and its bongos. One of the main reasons I want to get it is the fact that the theme song from Katamari Damacy is on it, which brings me to my next topic.

Katamari Damacy is quite possibly one of the best games I've played this year. I haven't been so addicted to playing a game in a long long time. After Sandra, Naty, and Joe stopped by for some DDR insanity, I popped the game in. Having only played the multiplayer aspect to the game I decided to give the one player a go. Little did I know what I was getting into. I started playing at 2 AM and played the game to the very end by around 5:30 - 6:00. I couldn't stop. When a game brings a smile to my face and later on makes my jaw drop, stopping after the first few levels of gameplay becomes an impossibility. The basic idea of the game is that you are creating stars from junk that you accumulate on Earth because your crazy Dad, the King of the universe, had too much fun and accidently destroyed all of them. Very light-hearted indeed. So you go to Earth with a small katamari, which is a ball that you roll around with the ability to pick up anything that is smaller than itself. The concept is pure genius. You start off small and pick up paper clips and sticks of gum, but then you get bigger so you can pick up things like mice and tape dispensers, and then you get bigger and start picking up people, and bigger picking up cars and the like. Lemme just say you get really really f'in big. So excited for this game I am. Time to play some more. All I know is that next halloween I'm dressing up as one of these things.

The Damashii of Katamari
GenuineOtaku

Logic is a word most people don't understand

Welcome back to "Home of the Otaku." I appreciate you've come back since I haven't posted in four days. Today is the day when we Americans decide who will lead this wonderful country for the next four years. But sometimes, that decision can be a hard one to make. To help make it easier I show you Bush at his best and a confident John Kerry. That should help.

In other news, Halloween was a blast. There's nothing like power tripping police officer on a nice chaotic night of idiots and tomfoolery. Note to self, never try to cross sixth avenue when there's a parade the same night. Now I can understand why cops won't let people cross a street for a parade, but they also blocked off any streets that led up to sixth avenue as well. It makes sense for them to do that, so that cars don't accidentally get stuck because of the parade, but what didn't make sense was that they weren't letting people be on the streets that lead up to the parade on sixth avenue. So residents couldn't get back home and people who were going to friends' apartments had no chance at all. Stupid. Almost as stupid as this guy.

To avoid the bad taste in my mouth, I give you a working iPod halloween costume.

In the City That Never Thinks
Genuine Otaku