I watched Killers from Space today. Hopefully I'll provide a review next week.
I was invited to King's Dominion this weekend. I plan to take a million pictures and hopefully go on the White Water Canyon ride at least once. I have some work to do between now and Friday, and after that I hope to spend Friday night studying the map to King's Dominion. I have to; I'm terribly inefficient with time. I'll check out the souvenier stores. (Am I the only one that would buy a dvd of one big ad for an amusement park?)
My goal is to go to the cave that used to have Yogi Bear and look for the hidden Ranger Smith. I have a 1 GB SD card and I should find the sucker.
In other news, I have increased my cd count from 5(?) to 8. So there.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Redskins Watch (8/28/07)
I didn't watch the game do to the really wicked weather. I don't think I've ever seen lightning like that. Presumably stuff happened and then it was called for bad weather.
Usually the third game of preseason is the most important, but since the QB and RB are out, it was a battle of second strings. Hopefully it's not Brunell.
Usually the third game of preseason is the most important, but since the QB and RB are out, it was a battle of second strings. Hopefully it's not Brunell.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
This Week in Entertainment (8/27/07)
My Pick of the Week is Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. I love the first two games and I'm definitely picking this one up. Sadly, Nintendo maintains that this is the last game in the series.
On DVD is the complete Crocodile Dundee set. Beware of kangaroos with guns. (Wasn't the third movie involved in that fake critic scandal?)
I can pay to watch commercials? Neato!
Ok, now your movie title is just plain obnoxious.
Dangermouse: The Complete Series. This show was once on in the early hours of Saturday morning. I've seen more episodes from a tape a friend gave me than by myself.
I'm intrigued by the history of this cheap video game review show, but not sure if it's worth it. I mean, I could just watch the Angry Video Game Nerd for free.
Back to video games, we have Wild Arms 5 coming out for the PlayStation 2. The first Wild Arms was a decent game that came out a few months before Final Fantasy VII. Except for two nearly impossible to figure out puzzles, it was good game and it should be in my top ten RPGs. The second Wild Arms wasn't so great, and it had a disturbing plot about how it's ok to manipulate countries by using terrorism. The third Wild Arms was even worst, and had a ridiculous ammount of boss fights. I skipped the fouth Wild Arms because I figured the series was a one-hit wonder. (There's a remake of the original that I may borrow from my sister one day. Too bad I'm getting too old to enjoy RPGs.)
Out on the Wii Virtual Console today is Wrecking Crew. This was made before Mario's days as a plumber. I'm not sure what else there is to this game except I think eggplants are one of the enemies you face. 500 Wii poins.
Sunday, Lazy Sunday (8/26/07)
People who follow my blog regularly will have noticed that I haven't updated in the last few days. It's not because I'm working on anything, including the chomic that I'll put on hold or forget about. It's because I haven't been motivated to update lately.
Except for the Monday/Tuesday updates, I'm putting this blog on hiatus. Does that even make sense? Whatever.
In other news, I see that blogspot has given us the ability to upload movies. I should try that sometime.
Except for the Monday/Tuesday updates, I'm putting this blog on hiatus. Does that even make sense? Whatever.
In other news, I see that blogspot has given us the ability to upload movies. I should try that sometime.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Chomics!
Chomic is a term created by my friend, Pharaoh Mobius. It was a word he and a friend created to describe online comics. I first heard him use this phrase in late 2001 when he decided to make an online sprite-based comic based on an RPG that several of us* were participating. That's a story for another day, though. I only have about 15 minutes before I'm going to get breakfast.
Not so long story short, I've asked him for his old "Tales from the Duh" sprite sheets and I'm going to make a few comics to be posted here. I'm not going to bother setting up an account at a comic place because I tend to get bored easily. (Remember when I was going to program an Atari game? Or make a portable out of a console? Both projects put on hold indefinitely.)
I came up with a few ideas on Monday. It's not going to be a continuation of the old comic because I couldn't do the story justice. I want to make about seven to ten comics with about 3-4 panels each before I post anything. I just want to see what kind of punchlines and scenarios I can come up with. And even if my humor fails, my bad attempt at background items should at least make it worth it. If I have any kind of success, maybe I can make it a weekend thing. I've been really lazy updating this blog on weekends.
Surely I can at least cut and paste and throw in some lazy dialogue and an obvious punchline, right?
* - And by us, I mean the people who I've linked to. Check out those links to your right.
Not so long story short, I've asked him for his old "Tales from the Duh" sprite sheets and I'm going to make a few comics to be posted here. I'm not going to bother setting up an account at a comic place because I tend to get bored easily. (Remember when I was going to program an Atari game? Or make a portable out of a console? Both projects put on hold indefinitely.)
I came up with a few ideas on Monday. It's not going to be a continuation of the old comic because I couldn't do the story justice. I want to make about seven to ten comics with about 3-4 panels each before I post anything. I just want to see what kind of punchlines and scenarios I can come up with. And even if my humor fails, my bad attempt at background items should at least make it worth it. If I have any kind of success, maybe I can make it a weekend thing. I've been really lazy updating this blog on weekends.
Surely I can at least cut and paste and throw in some lazy dialogue and an obvious punchline, right?
* - And by us, I mean the people who I've linked to. Check out those links to your right.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Redskins Watch (8/21/07)
Once again, I didn't watch the whole game against the Steelers. In fact, I was taking a bath and I had just switched on the channel when I saw Jason Campbell grab his leg. I didn't have the greatest expectations for the season and I was lowering them after last week. Now it appears that the biggest reason for this season to exist is out the window. Thanks a lot, Steelers. You just keep going low against QBs like you always do. (Yes, I know this is only the second time it happened in the last couple years, but damn.)
Hopefully his injury isn't serious. Still, damn.
Hopefully his injury isn't serious. Still, damn.
Monday, August 20, 2007
This Week In Entertainment (8/20/07)
My Pick of the Week is the DVD set for the Tenth Season of South Park. I caught a few episodes after the whole Scientology thing and there were a couple classics. I didn't see all the episodes, but I loved the episode where they made fun of Family Guy and the media's fear of Islamic terrorists and the episode that made fun of conspiracy nuts. This season also included a hilarious take on evolution. (And while the creators of this show clearly have no use for religion, I think the Richard Dawkins got it far worst than any of their takes on religion.) Sadly, for some stupid reason, the only episode that was nominated was nominated for an Emmy was the online RPG episode. I don't know who's to blame for this but the Emmys suck.
I was born in the 80s, so I'm required to poin out that Mr. T's "I Pity the Fool" series is out on DVD. Amazon says it's the first season, but I thought the show only lasted six episodes.
Lita should like this one: It's season 2 of The Dog Whisperer. I've never seen this show before so I can only assume that Cesar spends a lot of time grabbing dogs on the shoulder and saying "Tsssst!"
In theaters this week is Mr. Bean's Holiday. I'll probably see this on DVD but early reviews suggest that they didn't learn from the first movie.
For the DS, we have Brain Age 2. I'll probably pick this up, even though I don't have the time to train everyday.
The Wii Virtual Console is scheduled to have Super Metroid today. Great game, even if there's a couple places where I got stuck. (So stuck that I bought the Game Boy game thinking that there was a clue there. I was wrong.)
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Harry Potter and the Fifth Movie
I saw the fifth Harry Potter movie over the weekend. Since I don't want the last update to continue to be sports related (since it annoys 2/3rds of the people who read this blog) let's see if I can remember anything about it.
First, let's go quickly go over the first four books/movies.
Sorcerer Stone - Harry Potter finds out he's a wizard and gets to go to a school. The book is a hit because it actually makes school look fun, making it a hit with teenagers/young adults. Kids probably read it too.
Chamber of Secrets - Basically, Sorcerer Stone but a little darker.
Prisoner of Azkaban - FORGET Chamber of Secrets! We're REALLY DARK! So dark, the director of this movie is going to make the whole movie dark.
Goblet of Fire - Ok, so it's gotten really dark, so we'll make a fun book. ... HA! Suckers! VOLDEMORT IS BACK! EAT DEATH, MINOR CHARACTER!
So that brings us up to the longest book in the series, something about a phoenix. Ok, so it's Order of the Phoenix, but it usually takes me a minute or two to remember that title. Of all the books, that's the one I have trouble recalling. I can certainly pick out scenes here and there, but overall I can't remember the general plotline. I think there were scenes that I recalled from this book but I would wonder if they were really from the fourth or sixth one.
Let's forget all that and go to the movie. The movie starts with the Dementor attack from the novel. After the fourth novel dumped the Dursleys, I was wondering if that was the last time we were going to see them. I was also wondering about Harry's cousin, who was a fat runt the last time we saw him. I had to check to see if it was the same actor, because he was much bigger in this movie, and appropriate for the role. (He seemed to be cross-eyed, which I thought was weird.) Later we see Harry's horrible step-parents. The movie omits one of the more interesting scenes from the novel where a letter makes Harry's aunt stay a little longer. Instead, they just hear about Harry's expulsion, and I like the uncle's one-worded response. Speaking of the uncle, he looked a little cross-eyed and sick in this film. I hope the actor is ok, but now that I think of it, I wonder if the eyes were meant to be a reference to the sixth novel.
The Order of the Phoenix arrives to take Harry away. We're introduced to a few key characters and not-so key characters. We get to see the real Mad-Eye Moody, and I think it's a shame that the last one doesn't count. From the novel, I imagined Moody to be sort of a no-nonense kind of guy, but I thought the actor made the character likable in a crazy kind of way. The next character we meet is Shacklebolt, who gets a good line but doesn't do much else. The last character we meet is Tonks.
Tonks is an interesting character in that she seems to be a fan favorite despite her limited screen time. I admit that at the beginning of the sixth book when she rescues Harry from the train, my first reaction was, "Who!?" She gets little screen time, so it wasn't really necessary to include the "Don't call me Nymphadora!" scene, unless we're suppose to laugh at her silly name. Which I will. Nymph! Ha! I think the most memorable thing her character ever did was make a lot of Americans ask what the heck 'wotcher' meant.
The movie introduces an actual important character when the students wait for their carriage to arrive. When I was imagining Luna Lovegood, I thought of her as being a little more goofy, probably because the illustrations in the book nudged me more in that direction. In this movie, the actress makes her more spaced-out. Despite the fact that she reminds me of a blonde version of one of my cousins, I eventually accepted this. It's just too bad that this movie didn't include one of my favorite scenes from the book, where Luna wears a lion's head and shows it off to Harry before a quidditch match.
Finally we see Umbrage at Harry's trial and at the beginning of the school year. She was one of the most evil characters in the series and the actress did a great job at making her so unlikable.
Still, the best character in the movie is the actor who plays Filch. I had forgotten that he was really into Umbrage's reign and the movie has fun with him putting up every education decree. One of the funniest scenes is when he's waiting for Harry's "Army of Dumbledore" to come out of their secret hiding place. It's interesting the kind of mileage they can get out of a minor character.
I think that's enough for characters. Let's move on to some stuff that happens in the film. (I apologize for the jumbledness of this post, but I've only seen this movie once and my bad memory is making me recall the film in bits and pieces.)
One things I remember while reading the book was that Harry was kinda a jerk. Even given all the trauma he had gone through, I still thought he was losing his temper way too often. The movie dropped some of the scenes where Harry blew his top so he wasn't as angry. The only scene after his first detention where he really lost it was when Dumbledore was ignoring him after the snake bit Ron's father. By the way, the snake attack was a bit shocking for a family movie and I think the PG-13 rating is more justified here than in the last movie.
One of the scenes I was looking forward to was when George and Fred revolted. On a side note, it's kind of a shame that their business hasn't been developed in the movies, but I understand that it's a pain for the movie makers to make a two and a half hour movie. The revolt is good, but it's nowhere near as crazy as the book. I think in the book they were unleashing whirlwinds and they got one of the ghosts to assist but here they just set off a ton of fireworks. It's not quite as a "HELL YEAH!" moment as in the book.
The short-lived relationship between Harry and Cho is also short-lived in the film series. Here, the films just make Umbrage force the truth about the Dumbledore Army by truth potion, and then we get a brief scene where Harry blows off Cho. Oh, and on a COMPLETELY UNRELATED NOTE (at least for you people who haven't read the books) Ginny gets very few lines, even though she fights with Harry at the end.
I was surprised that they added Gwarp to the movie. I guess they had to justify the obligatory scenes with Hagrid but I wouldn't have been surprised if they cut his half-brother out.
The movie ends with Harry and his close friends going to the Ministry of Magic to rescue Harry's godfather. This is where the movie out-darks the last two films. It reminds me of the look of Batman Returns. I can't remember much about the end of the book, only that Sirius is killed by crazy Bellatrix and falls behind a veil. I never understoof the poin of the veil, since a killing curse is enough. (The movie has her sneak attack Sirius instead of letting Sirius's pride being a part of his downfall.)
The movie has a standoff where Harry is forced to handover the mcguffin to Lucius Malfoy. I don't remember if that was a part of the novel, but it seemed like the series should have ended at this poin. Instead, the Order of the Phoenix shows up in white streaks of light and they fight the death eaters who turn into black streaks of light for some reason. I don't recall that in the novels at all. It was ok, but a bit silly how that got the DA out of the jam they were in.
On a positive note, the death eaters don't look as silly as they did in the last movie. The KKK is really scary, but the poiny-hat death eaters weren't so much. I thought the masks in this movie were an improvement.
Finally we get to the big showdown in the film and novel. Voldemort vs Dumbledore. For me, I remember it in the novel like this: "And then Voldemort shows up! But Dumbledore also shows up! They're fighting! Look at all the pretty lights! Oops, it's a tie, Voldemort leaves." I forgot about the part where Voldemort tried to possess Harry. I guess I'm a crappy reader.
The movie ends, and here I think the cuts hurt the worst. Harry Potter doesn't seem to be that badly affected by the events that happen during the movie. In the book, he's absolutely furious at Dumbledore but here they just have their usual chat. The wrap up also seems to cheerful. It's too bad. Maybe the DVD will have a ton of deleted scenes, but I'm not counting on it.
I hate to end on a down note, because I still enjoy this series. I'm glad my sister brought me to the first couple films and that my friend Lita encouraged me to read the books. Now bring on Half-Blood Prince!
YOU WANT A PIECE OF THIS, POTTER?!? HUH?!?!?
First, let's go quickly go over the first four books/movies.
Sorcerer Stone - Harry Potter finds out he's a wizard and gets to go to a school. The book is a hit because it actually makes school look fun, making it a hit with teenagers/young adults. Kids probably read it too.
Chamber of Secrets - Basically, Sorcerer Stone but a little darker.
Prisoner of Azkaban - FORGET Chamber of Secrets! We're REALLY DARK! So dark, the director of this movie is going to make the whole movie dark.
Goblet of Fire - Ok, so it's gotten really dark, so we'll make a fun book. ... HA! Suckers! VOLDEMORT IS BACK! EAT DEATH, MINOR CHARACTER!
So that brings us up to the longest book in the series, something about a phoenix. Ok, so it's Order of the Phoenix, but it usually takes me a minute or two to remember that title. Of all the books, that's the one I have trouble recalling. I can certainly pick out scenes here and there, but overall I can't remember the general plotline. I think there were scenes that I recalled from this book but I would wonder if they were really from the fourth or sixth one.
POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT LURK AHEAD!
Let's forget all that and go to the movie. The movie starts with the Dementor attack from the novel. After the fourth novel dumped the Dursleys, I was wondering if that was the last time we were going to see them. I was also wondering about Harry's cousin, who was a fat runt the last time we saw him. I had to check to see if it was the same actor, because he was much bigger in this movie, and appropriate for the role. (He seemed to be cross-eyed, which I thought was weird.) Later we see Harry's horrible step-parents. The movie omits one of the more interesting scenes from the novel where a letter makes Harry's aunt stay a little longer. Instead, they just hear about Harry's expulsion, and I like the uncle's one-worded response. Speaking of the uncle, he looked a little cross-eyed and sick in this film. I hope the actor is ok, but now that I think of it, I wonder if the eyes were meant to be a reference to the sixth novel.
The Order of the Phoenix arrives to take Harry away. We're introduced to a few key characters and not-so key characters. We get to see the real Mad-Eye Moody, and I think it's a shame that the last one doesn't count. From the novel, I imagined Moody to be sort of a no-nonense kind of guy, but I thought the actor made the character likable in a crazy kind of way. The next character we meet is Shacklebolt, who gets a good line but doesn't do much else. The last character we meet is Tonks.
Tonks is an interesting character in that she seems to be a fan favorite despite her limited screen time. I admit that at the beginning of the sixth book when she rescues Harry from the train, my first reaction was, "Who!?" She gets little screen time, so it wasn't really necessary to include the "Don't call me Nymphadora!" scene, unless we're suppose to laugh at her silly name. Which I will. Nymph! Ha! I think the most memorable thing her character ever did was make a lot of Americans ask what the heck 'wotcher' meant.
The movie introduces an actual important character when the students wait for their carriage to arrive. When I was imagining Luna Lovegood, I thought of her as being a little more goofy, probably because the illustrations in the book nudged me more in that direction. In this movie, the actress makes her more spaced-out. Despite the fact that she reminds me of a blonde version of one of my cousins, I eventually accepted this. It's just too bad that this movie didn't include one of my favorite scenes from the book, where Luna wears a lion's head and shows it off to Harry before a quidditch match.
Finally we see Umbrage at Harry's trial and at the beginning of the school year. She was one of the most evil characters in the series and the actress did a great job at making her so unlikable.
Still, the best character in the movie is the actor who plays Filch. I had forgotten that he was really into Umbrage's reign and the movie has fun with him putting up every education decree. One of the funniest scenes is when he's waiting for Harry's "Army of Dumbledore" to come out of their secret hiding place. It's interesting the kind of mileage they can get out of a minor character.
I think that's enough for characters. Let's move on to some stuff that happens in the film. (I apologize for the jumbledness of this post, but I've only seen this movie once and my bad memory is making me recall the film in bits and pieces.)
One things I remember while reading the book was that Harry was kinda a jerk. Even given all the trauma he had gone through, I still thought he was losing his temper way too often. The movie dropped some of the scenes where Harry blew his top so he wasn't as angry. The only scene after his first detention where he really lost it was when Dumbledore was ignoring him after the snake bit Ron's father. By the way, the snake attack was a bit shocking for a family movie and I think the PG-13 rating is more justified here than in the last movie.
One of the scenes I was looking forward to was when George and Fred revolted. On a side note, it's kind of a shame that their business hasn't been developed in the movies, but I understand that it's a pain for the movie makers to make a two and a half hour movie. The revolt is good, but it's nowhere near as crazy as the book. I think in the book they were unleashing whirlwinds and they got one of the ghosts to assist but here they just set off a ton of fireworks. It's not quite as a "HELL YEAH!" moment as in the book.
The short-lived relationship between Harry and Cho is also short-lived in the film series. Here, the films just make Umbrage force the truth about the Dumbledore Army by truth potion, and then we get a brief scene where Harry blows off Cho. Oh, and on a COMPLETELY UNRELATED NOTE (at least for you people who haven't read the books) Ginny gets very few lines, even though she fights with Harry at the end.
I was surprised that they added Gwarp to the movie. I guess they had to justify the obligatory scenes with Hagrid but I wouldn't have been surprised if they cut his half-brother out.
The movie ends with Harry and his close friends going to the Ministry of Magic to rescue Harry's godfather. This is where the movie out-darks the last two films. It reminds me of the look of Batman Returns. I can't remember much about the end of the book, only that Sirius is killed by crazy Bellatrix and falls behind a veil. I never understoof the poin of the veil, since a killing curse is enough. (The movie has her sneak attack Sirius instead of letting Sirius's pride being a part of his downfall.)
The movie has a standoff where Harry is forced to handover the mcguffin to Lucius Malfoy. I don't remember if that was a part of the novel, but it seemed like the series should have ended at this poin. Instead, the Order of the Phoenix shows up in white streaks of light and they fight the death eaters who turn into black streaks of light for some reason. I don't recall that in the novels at all. It was ok, but a bit silly how that got the DA out of the jam they were in.
On a positive note, the death eaters don't look as silly as they did in the last movie. The KKK is really scary, but the poiny-hat death eaters weren't so much. I thought the masks in this movie were an improvement.
Finally we get to the big showdown in the film and novel. Voldemort vs Dumbledore. For me, I remember it in the novel like this: "And then Voldemort shows up! But Dumbledore also shows up! They're fighting! Look at all the pretty lights! Oops, it's a tie, Voldemort leaves." I forgot about the part where Voldemort tried to possess Harry. I guess I'm a crappy reader.
The movie ends, and here I think the cuts hurt the worst. Harry Potter doesn't seem to be that badly affected by the events that happen during the movie. In the book, he's absolutely furious at Dumbledore but here they just have their usual chat. The wrap up also seems to cheerful. It's too bad. Maybe the DVD will have a ton of deleted scenes, but I'm not counting on it.
I hate to end on a down note, because I still enjoy this series. I'm glad my sister brought me to the first couple films and that my friend Lita encouraged me to read the books. Now bring on Half-Blood Prince!
YOU WANT A PIECE OF THIS, POTTER?!? HUH?!?!?
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Redskins Watch (8/14/07)
Last Saturday the Redskins played the Titans in their first preseason game of the year. Since it's only the first preseason game, it doesn't really matter, and therefore I don't have to watch the whole game to give any thoughts on it. Besides season ending injuries, there's not much you can take away from the game. Still, here's my kneejerk thoughts.
My biggest worry about the Redskins right now is their offensive line. It would be typical of the Redskins to slightly improve their defense after last year but then watch as their offense dramatically decline. Jason Campbell fumbled a couple times, one after a linemen missed a blitz. I really want to see what Jason can do this year and I don't want him to become the next Patrick Ramsey. I really don't want to see Brunell this year.
Jason had a couple good passes, but we didn't have either of our two best running backs playing so the offense didn't do much. I'm losing patience with Al Saunders even if this was only a preseason game.
As for defense, Vince Young didn't play because of some mystical mysterious unmentionable rule. I forget what it turned out to be, but it was really lame. I think he missed curfew or something, but why did that have to be hushed up by the announcers and the Titans? We got Kerry Collins instead. I still remember rooting for the 1996 Panthers. The Redskins defense was ok, but the Titans did a better job of moving the ball.
I didn't watch the second half. I just remember being online and seeing the score at the two minute warning, thinking the Skins were about to be shut out. I finally refreshed the page and the Skins won by 14 poins. I really hope that we don't see our third string QB play this year.
We got the NFL Network announcers, for some reason. Usually we get the local radio guys for preseason, and the guys we got were pretty boring. It sucks that we now have a HD tv and we might have to turn the volume off and the radio on during the game.
My biggest worry about the Redskins right now is their offensive line. It would be typical of the Redskins to slightly improve their defense after last year but then watch as their offense dramatically decline. Jason Campbell fumbled a couple times, one after a linemen missed a blitz. I really want to see what Jason can do this year and I don't want him to become the next Patrick Ramsey. I really don't want to see Brunell this year.
Jason had a couple good passes, but we didn't have either of our two best running backs playing so the offense didn't do much. I'm losing patience with Al Saunders even if this was only a preseason game.
As for defense, Vince Young didn't play because of some mystical mysterious unmentionable rule. I forget what it turned out to be, but it was really lame. I think he missed curfew or something, but why did that have to be hushed up by the announcers and the Titans? We got Kerry Collins instead. I still remember rooting for the 1996 Panthers. The Redskins defense was ok, but the Titans did a better job of moving the ball.
I didn't watch the second half. I just remember being online and seeing the score at the two minute warning, thinking the Skins were about to be shut out. I finally refreshed the page and the Skins won by 14 poins. I really hope that we don't see our third string QB play this year.
We got the NFL Network announcers, for some reason. Usually we get the local radio guys for preseason, and the guys we got were pretty boring. It sucks that we now have a HD tv and we might have to turn the volume off and the radio on during the game.
Monday, August 13, 2007
This Week In Entertainment (8/13/07)
My Pick of the Week is...a documentary? The heck? This movie is about a man's quest to get the all time score in Donkey Kong, and the reviews at Rotten Tomatoes are very good. Hopefully the word 'chumpatized' on the poster I put up here isn't actually used in the movie.
Also out today should be Metroid for the Wii Console. I know it must look primitive to people who haven't played it before but back when it was first released it was brilliant. (With the exception of those verical hallways where you had to jump up. Darn those were annoying.) I already have a couple versions of this so I don't need to spend the 500 Wii poins. JUSTIN BAILEY ________ ________!
Also out for the Wii (and GameCube and various other systems) is Madden 08. I haven't touched a Madden game since my intro to the series, Madden 94 for the SNES. I liked the Madden 07 demo I played at a mall so maybe I'll pick this one up. This will be the first Nintendo football game with online options.
Moving onto DVDs, we start with the Anniversary edition of Labyrinth. Lita hooked me up with a copy of this movie before but now I can buy this DVD to pay off a piracy offset.
The Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie comes out this week, not to long after it was released in theaters. How did that Boston ad do for you guys?
A very funny show if it's the one I've seen on Comedy Central, it's Rowan Atkinson Live! The best bits are the ones where he's a principal telling a parent about a student he killed and the one where Rowan does all the characters in a play. It also has the bit where he's in a church, which he did as Mr. Bean once. Very funny, if a bit salty, stuff.
Speaking of Mr. Bean, this DVD includes his first movie and Johnny English, a movie that was funny but I'm having problems remembering. Say, is there a sequel coming out soon?
I would buy this movie if it included a bit where Robert DeNiro looks into the mirror and screams "SEGA!!"
At first I thought it was weird that they made this compilation without the most famous movie in the series, then I realized it was probably better this way. Wouldn't you be appalled if they included the first movie just to make you buy the latter ones?
SPOILER ALERT - IT WAS THE ONE-ARMED MAN!
I saved this for last because it made me laugh. Here's a collection of three movies under the title of Computer Science 101, yet it includes ridiculous anti-CS movies like Hackers. I admit I haven't seen it, but doesn't include 'hackers' using ridiculous GUIs? If there was a young kid I hated who wanted to be a CS major, I would give him these movies to screw him up. (Still, this set is better than say, the Anatomy 101 set. That includes friggen Showgirls. Do you want to think of Jesse Sprano when you think of female anatomy? Yikes.)
Friday, August 10, 2007
Delaware: Funland, Part 2
Yesterday I talked about the kind of rides they had at Funland. Then I failed to finish the post. Rather than adding to it and coming up with a new topic today, I'm going to pretend it needs to be a two part article. So there.
What's left to talk about is the games. I'm talking both video games and the games where you can win prizes. Let's start with the prizes you can win.
On the boardwalk there are several classic games. There's the usual ring toss, ball toss, basketball shooting, and water spraying games. I never had any luck at ring toss. On the end is a horse racing game where you have to roll the ball to make your horse advance. I've played that a couple times and had no luck. Inside is a whack-a-mole game with about 12 stations. I'm not sure if I ever played that one. There's a frog bog game, but if I ever played it I've had no luck at it. (Actually, I think they got rid of that game recently.)
Other games include a duck pond where you win every time, and a catterpillar game that's probably similar. (Maybe I'm confusing two games here.) There's a ping pong game that I never played where you try to bounce balls into bowls.
The big game that we always played was a larger ball toss game next to the ticket booth. This game had a gold prize in the middle of the cups and a few red and blue cups. What's memorable about this game is that my mom won the gold prize a few years in a row. The first time she won she got a big lion. I would say it was about 2 feet high, three feet long. The second year, my dad and I saw my sister walking around with a goofy looking pink ostrich on her back. I forget what we've gotten after that. We've since given away those prizes since they just sat around in our trailer in a closet.
Not to far from the big ball toss game is an arcade. This arcade is the type where you can win tickets to trade in for prizes. The obligatory skeeball is located next to the bumper cars. I'm only average at that game. The one memorable thing is when, during the later 90s, Funland and other arcades added a cyclone ticket game. This is the game where a light revolves around the machine and you push a button to stop it to win the jackpot. During the later 90s when I was too old to go on rides my parents used to tell me that they'll give me money to play in the arcade if I would win the jackpot first. It takes several tries but it's not impossible to do.
There are several claw machines next to the whack-a-mole station. My dad always, always played these. He was pretty good, too. I think he was annoyed when they raised the price for some of the machines to fifty cents, though. My memory is fuzzy, so I'll only mention that he won a few Pepsi Polar Bear dolls. I'm not sure how much of these smaller prizes we kept. I may have to look through some bins.
I never had much luck myself and never had the patience for it. Usually when I started to lose, I felt I could have been wasting my money on a game instead of this darn claw machine.
There's a shooting gallery, which I was always a big fan of but I rarely played myself. In fact, I probably played the most times when someone left a game early. I can activate the easier targets, at least.
At some poin (probably the mid-ninties), a water shooting gallery was added to the second arcade. This was fun and easier than the shooting gallery, although it was a bit more childish so I probably only played it with younger cousins.
Speaking of the second arcade, we'll end this post by talking about that for a few paragraphs. When I was really young I used to mostly ignore this. The only games I remember being interested in was Super Mario Bros Vs. and some hack and slash game called Rastan. Otherwise I was more interested in the rides. Only when I became a teen and more self-conscious, I began focusing on the arcade. (Besides, there were other arcades in Rehoboth to go to.)
One of my best trips to that arcade was during a birthday where I had received ten dollars. After going mini-golfing at the roof of another arcade, I went to Funland and played The Simpsons arcade and beat it. My parents were making fun of how much I was pumping quarters into the machine. I had actually seen the ending to the game before at some other place but I was determined to see everything for myself, especially since I've played the game several times before and the best I could do was get to the dream level. I wish I could remember how much money I spent, and I actually spent too much because the game started repeating and my dad took over my final quarter or so.
They also had the Xmen arcade game which was similar the Simpsons game. Sadly I never got far in the game but I did get to hear Collosus's mighty yell.
There are a few pinball games set up, and I did get into one machine. This was around the time dot matrixes were new, so I enjoyed the Street Fighter pinball game because it gave you a mission. I could only defeat about five warriors.
I'll end this with a game machine that had a trackball that allowed you to play centipede and a bowling game. The memorble thing about this one was that someone had left about 90 some credits in the machine and I ended up buring about 30-40 of them.
That's it for Funland for now. I don't think I've been there in a few years. I'll have to watch the old home videos to see if I forgot any interesting anecdotes. Hopefully sometime this month I'll have more stories about our trips to Delaware including the glory years.
What's left to talk about is the games. I'm talking both video games and the games where you can win prizes. Let's start with the prizes you can win.
On the boardwalk there are several classic games. There's the usual ring toss, ball toss, basketball shooting, and water spraying games. I never had any luck at ring toss. On the end is a horse racing game where you have to roll the ball to make your horse advance. I've played that a couple times and had no luck. Inside is a whack-a-mole game with about 12 stations. I'm not sure if I ever played that one. There's a frog bog game, but if I ever played it I've had no luck at it. (Actually, I think they got rid of that game recently.)
Other games include a duck pond where you win every time, and a catterpillar game that's probably similar. (Maybe I'm confusing two games here.) There's a ping pong game that I never played where you try to bounce balls into bowls.
The big game that we always played was a larger ball toss game next to the ticket booth. This game had a gold prize in the middle of the cups and a few red and blue cups. What's memorable about this game is that my mom won the gold prize a few years in a row. The first time she won she got a big lion. I would say it was about 2 feet high, three feet long. The second year, my dad and I saw my sister walking around with a goofy looking pink ostrich on her back. I forget what we've gotten after that. We've since given away those prizes since they just sat around in our trailer in a closet.
Not to far from the big ball toss game is an arcade. This arcade is the type where you can win tickets to trade in for prizes. The obligatory skeeball is located next to the bumper cars. I'm only average at that game. The one memorable thing is when, during the later 90s, Funland and other arcades added a cyclone ticket game. This is the game where a light revolves around the machine and you push a button to stop it to win the jackpot. During the later 90s when I was too old to go on rides my parents used to tell me that they'll give me money to play in the arcade if I would win the jackpot first. It takes several tries but it's not impossible to do.
There are several claw machines next to the whack-a-mole station. My dad always, always played these. He was pretty good, too. I think he was annoyed when they raised the price for some of the machines to fifty cents, though. My memory is fuzzy, so I'll only mention that he won a few Pepsi Polar Bear dolls. I'm not sure how much of these smaller prizes we kept. I may have to look through some bins.
I never had much luck myself and never had the patience for it. Usually when I started to lose, I felt I could have been wasting my money on a game instead of this darn claw machine.
There's a shooting gallery, which I was always a big fan of but I rarely played myself. In fact, I probably played the most times when someone left a game early. I can activate the easier targets, at least.
At some poin (probably the mid-ninties), a water shooting gallery was added to the second arcade. This was fun and easier than the shooting gallery, although it was a bit more childish so I probably only played it with younger cousins.
Speaking of the second arcade, we'll end this post by talking about that for a few paragraphs. When I was really young I used to mostly ignore this. The only games I remember being interested in was Super Mario Bros Vs. and some hack and slash game called Rastan. Otherwise I was more interested in the rides. Only when I became a teen and more self-conscious, I began focusing on the arcade. (Besides, there were other arcades in Rehoboth to go to.)
One of my best trips to that arcade was during a birthday where I had received ten dollars. After going mini-golfing at the roof of another arcade, I went to Funland and played The Simpsons arcade and beat it. My parents were making fun of how much I was pumping quarters into the machine. I had actually seen the ending to the game before at some other place but I was determined to see everything for myself, especially since I've played the game several times before and the best I could do was get to the dream level. I wish I could remember how much money I spent, and I actually spent too much because the game started repeating and my dad took over my final quarter or so.
They also had the Xmen arcade game which was similar the Simpsons game. Sadly I never got far in the game but I did get to hear Collosus's mighty yell.
There are a few pinball games set up, and I did get into one machine. This was around the time dot matrixes were new, so I enjoyed the Street Fighter pinball game because it gave you a mission. I could only defeat about five warriors.
I'll end this with a game machine that had a trackball that allowed you to play centipede and a bowling game. The memorble thing about this one was that someone had left about 90 some credits in the machine and I ended up buring about 30-40 of them.
That's it for Funland for now. I don't think I've been there in a few years. I'll have to watch the old home videos to see if I forgot any interesting anecdotes. Hopefully sometime this month I'll have more stories about our trips to Delaware including the glory years.
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Delaware: Funland
I said I was going to get back to this someday, and why not get back to it before the summer is over? Especially since I need to gather my thoughts better on the other topic I wanted to do today.
Funland is a small amusement center located on the boardwalk at Rehoboth Beach. It's been there for as long as I remember, and is still there today. It opens from sometime in May and closes in early September. It contains rides, video games, and prizes you can win.
In the early days I was still a kid so I mostly focused on the rides. A lot of the kid rides were the type where you got into a vehicle and rode around in a circle. Some of them, like the firetrucks and the space ships had ropes/buttons that you could manipulate to cause as much noise as you could. Everytime you go to Funland you can hear the buzzing of the space ship ride. My sister and I rode these a lot when I was still small enough to do so. It wasn't long before I had to give up these rides but my sister was so small my mom had to hold her while she was on the carousel. One of the best kid rides was the swings ride. Sadly, that was built around 1988/1989, just when I was starting to get too big for some rides. In fact, around that time a jungle jim was built, and it would have been my favorite ride if I wasn't around the size that was too big for the ride. I held a grudge for that. (Worst yet, apparently in recent years they added an adult version of the jungle jim. Now I'm too old (and self-conscious, really) to go on that.)
Luckily there are several general audience rides. There's a helicopter ride where you pull back on the handle to go up. There's a home video of me pulling back and forth on the bar where my parents joke that my weight is causing the ride to malfunction. There's a tea cup ride near one of the entrances, which has the wheel in the middle you can spin. We also have a home video where my parents joke about my sister barely being able to hold on. Next to that is a Gravitron ride which I have yet to go on. Since my parents wouldn't let me go on, I now see it as a mystical ride where who know what goes on while the space ship spins around. I should go on it one day. I should bring my wife or fiancee if I ever have either of those.
A couple rides I've gone on but usually avoided were the paratrooper ride and the wagon ride. The latter isn't listed at Funland website so it might not be there anymore. The wagon ride was a ride where you get strapped down and the wagon you're in rotates while the ride revolves. I was too chicken for this ride but my parents managed to get me on it a couple times. We have a video of me bouncing the foam safety bar a few times till it hit me in the chin. I never liked when the wagon rotated in a way where you go head first. That was much scarier than when you rotated back first, somehow. I've gone back to it a few times, including once with my favorite cousin. The paratrooper was scary to me because I don't like heights. It also goes backwards before it's done, which was scarier than going forward.
The bumper cars are located next to the tea cups and can be seen from the boardwalk. There are three tires in the middle of the room and you have to go counter-clockwise. During the early days my sister and I would share a car since she was way too small to drive one herself. (I can't remember if dad used to also drive around with us when we were really little.) The bumper cars had annoying straps that you had to wear around your waste instead of your shoulder. I always hated it when we had to wear them around our waist, especially since I already had a big stomach around the time.
I don't know why, but when I was in a bumper car I actually started thinking it was more fun just to drive and avoid hitting and getting hit as much as possible. One of my favorite memories and one I wish was on camera was of a time some teen lost his baseball cap which led to a major pile-up around one of the narrow sides. While most people got stuck, my sister and I squeezed by them and the tires and we both laughed as we had no one in our way. When we got to the other narrow side the operator finally turned the ride off and yelled at the guy who lost his cap.
Now that I think of it, I think my dad did ride with us at first. He had to, since I remember that the first time I rode a bumper car alone, I got upset when my car didn't operate. Someone had to tell me that about the floor pedal.
The most famous ride is the Haunted Mansion. It's only open at night, when the boardwalk is really crowded, so I've only been around a few times to actually be able to go on it. I have a couple times, and it's a fun ride, even if I don't remember much. I'm a bit of a chicken, but there's only two things that could really scare me on a ride like this. The first thing is either spiders or webs, which could be the deciding factor if someone was trying to convince me to go on a ride. The second is sudden loud noises. I'm a sucker for a cheap scare like that, so I actually tend to cover my ears on haunted rides. (One time my sister, our favorite cousin and I were on some other haunted ride, and he made fun of us because my sister was covering her eyes and I was covering my ears.)
It's a shame that I don't remember too much about the ride. What I mostly remember is that you can see people ride by on the roof of Funland and the outside of the mansion. Inside I can remember only two things. The first is the skull room, where you see several dozen floating skulls. I love that room. The second part is the end. You start descending down a dark passage where the only thing you can see is a monitor. Some scary old guy talks about whatever. Just when you reach the end of the hallway, the ride jerks so you're now facing a truck while a loud horn blows. This part will get you on your first ride and I had to get ready for this everytime I rode this afterwards.
Don't you hate it when they say, "A work in progress..."?
Funland is a small amusement center located on the boardwalk at Rehoboth Beach. It's been there for as long as I remember, and is still there today. It opens from sometime in May and closes in early September. It contains rides, video games, and prizes you can win.
In the early days I was still a kid so I mostly focused on the rides. A lot of the kid rides were the type where you got into a vehicle and rode around in a circle. Some of them, like the firetrucks and the space ships had ropes/buttons that you could manipulate to cause as much noise as you could. Everytime you go to Funland you can hear the buzzing of the space ship ride. My sister and I rode these a lot when I was still small enough to do so. It wasn't long before I had to give up these rides but my sister was so small my mom had to hold her while she was on the carousel. One of the best kid rides was the swings ride. Sadly, that was built around 1988/1989, just when I was starting to get too big for some rides. In fact, around that time a jungle jim was built, and it would have been my favorite ride if I wasn't around the size that was too big for the ride. I held a grudge for that. (Worst yet, apparently in recent years they added an adult version of the jungle jim. Now I'm too old (and self-conscious, really) to go on that.)
Luckily there are several general audience rides. There's a helicopter ride where you pull back on the handle to go up. There's a home video of me pulling back and forth on the bar where my parents joke that my weight is causing the ride to malfunction. There's a tea cup ride near one of the entrances, which has the wheel in the middle you can spin. We also have a home video where my parents joke about my sister barely being able to hold on. Next to that is a Gravitron ride which I have yet to go on. Since my parents wouldn't let me go on, I now see it as a mystical ride where who know what goes on while the space ship spins around. I should go on it one day. I should bring my wife or fiancee if I ever have either of those.
A couple rides I've gone on but usually avoided were the paratrooper ride and the wagon ride. The latter isn't listed at Funland website so it might not be there anymore. The wagon ride was a ride where you get strapped down and the wagon you're in rotates while the ride revolves. I was too chicken for this ride but my parents managed to get me on it a couple times. We have a video of me bouncing the foam safety bar a few times till it hit me in the chin. I never liked when the wagon rotated in a way where you go head first. That was much scarier than when you rotated back first, somehow. I've gone back to it a few times, including once with my favorite cousin. The paratrooper was scary to me because I don't like heights. It also goes backwards before it's done, which was scarier than going forward.
The bumper cars are located next to the tea cups and can be seen from the boardwalk. There are three tires in the middle of the room and you have to go counter-clockwise. During the early days my sister and I would share a car since she was way too small to drive one herself. (I can't remember if dad used to also drive around with us when we were really little.) The bumper cars had annoying straps that you had to wear around your waste instead of your shoulder. I always hated it when we had to wear them around our waist, especially since I already had a big stomach around the time.
I don't know why, but when I was in a bumper car I actually started thinking it was more fun just to drive and avoid hitting and getting hit as much as possible. One of my favorite memories and one I wish was on camera was of a time some teen lost his baseball cap which led to a major pile-up around one of the narrow sides. While most people got stuck, my sister and I squeezed by them and the tires and we both laughed as we had no one in our way. When we got to the other narrow side the operator finally turned the ride off and yelled at the guy who lost his cap.
Now that I think of it, I think my dad did ride with us at first. He had to, since I remember that the first time I rode a bumper car alone, I got upset when my car didn't operate. Someone had to tell me that about the floor pedal.
The most famous ride is the Haunted Mansion. It's only open at night, when the boardwalk is really crowded, so I've only been around a few times to actually be able to go on it. I have a couple times, and it's a fun ride, even if I don't remember much. I'm a bit of a chicken, but there's only two things that could really scare me on a ride like this. The first thing is either spiders or webs, which could be the deciding factor if someone was trying to convince me to go on a ride. The second is sudden loud noises. I'm a sucker for a cheap scare like that, so I actually tend to cover my ears on haunted rides. (One time my sister, our favorite cousin and I were on some other haunted ride, and he made fun of us because my sister was covering her eyes and I was covering my ears.)
It's a shame that I don't remember too much about the ride. What I mostly remember is that you can see people ride by on the roof of Funland and the outside of the mansion. Inside I can remember only two things. The first is the skull room, where you see several dozen floating skulls. I love that room. The second part is the end. You start descending down a dark passage where the only thing you can see is a monitor. Some scary old guy talks about whatever. Just when you reach the end of the hallway, the ride jerks so you're now facing a truck while a loud horn blows. This part will get you on your first ride and I had to get ready for this everytime I rode this afterwards.
Don't you hate it when they say, "A work in progress..."?
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
The Film Crew: Hollywood After Dark
I watched this a couple weeks ago so it won't be fresh in my mind. Sorry about that.
Anyway, this was one of the more anticipated things to be released this year for MSTies. Sure, we already had rifftrax, but where's our host segments? Not to mention the small annoyance of syncing the movie with the mp3 player. Here we finally have our direct-to-dvd MST3k that we should have had in 2000, except life is unfair. I ordered this from amazon the day before it was officially shipped.
Side note: Amazon delayed my order for more then a week. A few days ago I saw it being sold at a Best Buy. I know where I'm ordering the next The Film Crew movie.
I finally got the dvd on a Tuesday but waited a few days before finally watching the movie. For those who don't know, Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett are no longer a guy and two robots in space forced to watch bad movies. Now they are three guys stuck in some room forced to watch bad movies. Everybody got that? Instead of riffing on movies just to keep their sanity intact, they are asked by their boss to provide a commentary because he just believes these poor movies deserve one just like their more fortunate colleagues. The guys never see their boss, so they make fun of the movie.
This episode finally reveals who Bob Honcho is. He's an old white guy who believes in preserving old films. Of course, he's a rich old white guy, so he only talks over a speaker to his employees, but he's a nice, if oblivious, guy. I thought it was Mike doing his Jack Perkins but the credits said it was something else.
Anyway, the dvd starts with a slightly amusing host segments where the guys introduce themselves before chatting with Bob Honcho. The funniest joke is over who would be the most unlikely woman to appear as a stripper in the movie. There's two other host segments, one in the middle of the movie. These are ok if unmemorable, but I have to say that I missed the host segments after listening to the Star Wars rifftrax. Maybe it's my terrible attention span that was begging for several breaks. I would have liked one more host segment, even though the entire thing is ninety minutes long. (It's as long as MST3k: The Movie!)
The guys finally sit down to watch the movie. Unfortunately there's no silhouettes, because they can't rip off everything from MST3k. That and it's a low budget production, of course. (I miss Crow's dimension defying head.) The riffing is a bit less rapid fire than on MST3k. Also, at times the riffing seems to be for a more general audience, as the guys occasionally have small conversations. (Of course, it makes sense given the premise, and thankfully it only happens a few times.)
Hollywood After Dark started slowly for me, but after they got away from the junkyard I started getting into both the movie and the riffing. The movie is a mostly plotless film about stripping, a robbery, and probably some other stuff. When I say I got into it, it was mostly fascination about how little anything happened in the movie. Rue McClanahan plays some woman who chooses to strip after not doing so well as an actress. She meets some guy who's part of a stripping business and they have a boring, depressing relationship. They go to the beach a few times. At some poin, Rue has a relationship with some sleazy guy who probably rapes her. The two guys fight, and if I could remember which one was which it could have been not boring. At some poin during all this, a robbery takes place. It ends the usual pre-1970s way.
What's funny is that given all the talk about how there's stripping in this movie, it's pretty damn boring. It should be the highlight of a no budget, no plot movie like this, but some of the funniest riffing happened as the guys started to wish for anything else to appear on screen. Also, Rue McClanahan wasn't that attractive. Apparently, The Golden Girls lasted several years because the idea of Rue being the sex-crazed one was just sooo funny. Now I know why.
I've already described the rest of the movie. There's not enough there to really go into detail.
The riffing starts off slowly but takes off after the junkyard scene. I still wish it was a bit more fast-paced like MST3k, but it certainly gets the job done. Besides the stripping scenes, other highlights include the focus on Rue and that first guy's depressing relationship. The funniest riffs comes when the guy starts to frolic on the beach, if frolic it the right word. Another memorable gag was the 'pitching the movie' riff cracked halfway through the movie. Good stuff.
Since this is not shown on cable tv, the guys can get away with a couple things they couldn't on SciFi Channel, but it's not as bad as some reviewers make it sound. Probably the most objectional riff was one where they used a crude term for sex early in the movie while the couple was on the beach. As for the movie, the rape is off screen and the stripping is boring, although one stripper has diamond covered nipples, or whatever. It's borderline nudity, I guess. I haven't seen it in a while.
One odd thing is that this was supposedly made in 2005, according to the credits. I guess Shout! Factory held onto it for a couple years. I wasn't expecting these four dvds to become a full length direct-to-dvd season, but I was hoping that the guys would make more if these dvds were successful. They still might, but it seems less likely now. Let's all cross our fingers that these DVDs are a success and Shout! asks the guys to do four more episodes in the future.
Killers In Space is the next DVD and I really recommend getting it from Best Buy. I haven't seen that movie either so it should be a treat.
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Pac-Man Wrestling
Ok, so I don't have any other ideas for a post and I'm just jumping on a dumb bandwagon. You see, there used to be an NFL player called Pac-Man Jones. Now he's signed up to be a wrestler. So let me jump on this bandwagon as quickly as I can.
Wakka wakka wakka wakka wakka wakka...
wakka wakka wakka wakka wakka wakkCLOTHESLINE!!!!!
Thank you.
Wakka wakka wakka wakka wakka wakka...
wakka wakka wakka wakka wakka wakkCLOTHESLINE!!!!!
Thank you.
Monday, August 6, 2007
This Week In Entertainment (8/6/07)
Today's Pick of the Week is The Simpsons Season 10. I'm not sure how many seasons I'll eventually get since the commentaries have become less and less fun, but I'm definitely going to pick up these episodes. This season included a really lame Halloween sketch, Phil Hartman's last appearance, and a really terrible episode starring the best father in the world! This gives me an idea for a post this week.
Also out this great week, is The Film Crew: Killers in Space. I'm including the link to the Best Buy page because amazon took forever to deliver Hollywood After Dark. I hope to review TFC:HAD sometime this week.
Another great DVD set is The Muppet Show: Season 2. I work and graduated from the same college that Jim Henson went to, so you know I'm picking this up. PIGS...IN...SPACE!!!!!
The recent animated TMNT movie is out on DVD. I didn't see this in theaters and it doesn't look like the film did that good, but I'll probably eventually see this.
See, releasing a Blu-Ray edition of Final Fantasy - The Spirits Within doesn't fix the problems with the film. It merely makes it's one redeeming feature probably better.
I actually watched one of the Superfriends shows as a kid, so it might have been this collection, which was made in the mid-eighties.
This is the second season of the Saturday morning edition of TNMT, I think. Good stuff, if I'm thinking of the right era.
The History of the Jets: You see, there was Joe Namath and his guarantee! And, Joe Namath and his guarantee...and, Joe Namath and his guarantee......J E T S? Jets Jets Jets... Jets?
Something for Bears fans to watch when this year's Chicago Bears go through the inevitable 'letdown after a Superbowl' loss year.
History of the Chiefs: Featuring some of the best 13-3 teams to not make the AFC Championship game!
The Naked Gun Triple Feature, because they don't make spoof movies like they used to. Buyer beware: THE JUICE IS LOOSE IN THESE MOVIES!
Black Supaman: Because White Superman doesn't care about black people!
Out in theaters this week is the third Rush Hour movie. The plot involves French people or land or something. It's probably stupid but I'll see it if HP5 or The Simpsons Movie isn't available. By the way, if you could clone ten people, wouldn't Jackie Chan be one of them? Think about it.
Friday, August 3, 2007
Nats Watch (7/31/07)
I guess I abandonded this almost immediately. Oh well.
Anyway, I went to a Nats game with my dad on Tuesday. It was the first time I went to a Nats game since the end of 2005. The game was the first of three vs. the Cincinnati Reds and started at 7:05.
We got to RFK Stadium about a half hour early. Dad got the tickets and we ended up sitting in the upper left side of the stadium. We sat in the front row in front of the divide between the upper second and the upper lower section. We thought this was great because it gave us a good view of the field, although I was later annoyed by the hundreds of people that walked in front of us. Also, I wanted to slouch, but the bars in front of our seat wouldn't allow it. I had to sit at an angle or let one of my legs dangle underneath. We also had to hear every guy who was selling beer, hot dogs, or cracker jacks.
I should have taken the opportunity to walk around the stadium. I had never gone to RFK even though my parents promised to bring me sometime. Although I'm not sure what I would have done. RFK feels like a parking garage.
(One thing that bugs me about RFK? There's a wall of Washington greats in the outfield. For the Redskins, it includes Theismann and Doug Williams, but not Mark Rypien. I can understand Theismann, but how long did Doug last after the superbowl win? I don't understand how he gets the nod but Rypien doesn't. )
Before the game the big screen was talking about some PGA thing. I wasn't really paying attention but that was the theme of the ball game. The person who threw the opening pitch was from the PGA. The anthem singer might have been too, but I didn't pay attention to who it was. During the anthem, I was glad to see that nobody shouted "Os!!" during the national anthem. I find it really rude when people shout during the anthem, especially people from Baltimore. I remember being really angry when I heard "Os!!!" at a Caps game. (Does it make me a hypocrite if I think it's rude for people to shout out their team name during the anthem yet I thought it was cool that fireworks went off towards the end?)
The game started and was scoreless through four innings. At one poin, Screech, the Nationals fat eagle mascot somehow snuck up on me. I guess I have a giant blind spot on the left side of my vision. He started poining at me and even made a "shooting a basketball" gesture. I just sorta froze. I thought about shaking his hand but just waited for him to go by. He lost interest in me but a dozen kids suddenly wanted pictures of themselves with him. This blocked the game for a few minutes. I finally decided to take a picture of him but my phone was off so I was only able to get a picture of his back before he was too far for my phone.
Behind me a large group of people filled out the second row. I was a little annoyed that I got women behind me, because women tend to be annoying when it comes to sports. There, I said it. At one poin I was thinking to myself that women should be banned from sports games. There's something annoying about women shouting "Whoo!" at sports game, but behind me I got the chatty kind of women. These women were only barely interested in the game and I was annoyed by their distracting conversation, but luckily the crowd started to drown them out. Still, why would anybody go to a ball game and talk about stuff like their weight or the vice president? Relax! Enjoy the game! Jeez. Later, my dad and I switched seats and I started to hear the mens' conversation. I was annoyed to hear their conversation too until they started talking about interesting things like the opening day of this season.
The Washington Nationals have a gimmick where they have the presidents from Mount Rushmore racing. It started as some computer animated thing, but by midway of last season they actually had people wearing costumes with big heads racing. Tuesday was the first time I was able to see it in person, and I was really looking forward to it. I was at first disappoined because the racing started on the big screen and I thought I was being cheated. The presidents were running around D.C. and Teddy stopped to get a hot dog. That's probably why he never wins. Never keeps his eye on the prize. Since the theme of the day was PGA, Teddy and Lincoln burst through the side of the stadium and quickly started playing golf. Washington and Jefferson watched for a minute, until they got bored and ran for the finish line. Washington won. Teddy got confused and started running the wrong way. And that's why Teddy is the real star of the Nats! (Lincoln, by the way, apparently had spikey anime hair. The 1860s were a different time!)
My dad got some peanuts before the game started, and had attracted ants by the time he was only halfway through the bag. Before long I told him to get a hot dog for me when he asked me what I wanted. The hot dog was good but I wish I could have gotten more to eat that night. I could have eaten a pizza or chicken strips with fries (the latter is something we've gotten a few times before.)
I guess I should mention the game. At the fifth inning both teams started scoring. Our pitcher had a rough inning and gave up to runs, and he could have given up more the way it was going. I was disappoined and worried that my dad and I were going to go 1-3 for our trips to the Nats. The bottom of the fifth turned that around when the Nats scored four runs. Three of those runs came from Zimmerman, one of the few Nats that I recognize by name, most likely because he's been with us since the start. That would have been the play of the game, if not for the second baseman (short stop?) making a great defensive play during the sixth. Ronnie Belliard grabbed a ball that the pitcher managed to kick as the ball went by. Belliard had to go to his right, away from the second base to get the ball. Rather then turn all the way around before throwing the ball, he simply flipped the ball behind him to whoever it was that was covering second base at that poin. Beautiful play, and the replays made it look like he was having fun. I wish I could have watched SportsCenter that night just to see if they showed it, which they damn well should have.
The Nats gave up another run later on, but then put up two more runs to secure the win. After my initial grumpiness I really got into the game, and at the end all I was thinking was that the only thing the game was missing was a home run from the home team. That didn't happen, but the Nats still won 6-3. It was a fun night, and I hope we go to another Nats game this year.
Anyway, I went to a Nats game with my dad on Tuesday. It was the first time I went to a Nats game since the end of 2005. The game was the first of three vs. the Cincinnati Reds and started at 7:05.
We got to RFK Stadium about a half hour early. Dad got the tickets and we ended up sitting in the upper left side of the stadium. We sat in the front row in front of the divide between the upper second and the upper lower section. We thought this was great because it gave us a good view of the field, although I was later annoyed by the hundreds of people that walked in front of us. Also, I wanted to slouch, but the bars in front of our seat wouldn't allow it. I had to sit at an angle or let one of my legs dangle underneath. We also had to hear every guy who was selling beer, hot dogs, or cracker jacks.
I should have taken the opportunity to walk around the stadium. I had never gone to RFK even though my parents promised to bring me sometime. Although I'm not sure what I would have done. RFK feels like a parking garage.
(One thing that bugs me about RFK? There's a wall of Washington greats in the outfield. For the Redskins, it includes Theismann and Doug Williams, but not Mark Rypien. I can understand Theismann, but how long did Doug last after the superbowl win? I don't understand how he gets the nod but Rypien doesn't. )
Before the game the big screen was talking about some PGA thing. I wasn't really paying attention but that was the theme of the ball game. The person who threw the opening pitch was from the PGA. The anthem singer might have been too, but I didn't pay attention to who it was. During the anthem, I was glad to see that nobody shouted "Os!!" during the national anthem. I find it really rude when people shout during the anthem, especially people from Baltimore. I remember being really angry when I heard "Os!!!" at a Caps game. (Does it make me a hypocrite if I think it's rude for people to shout out their team name during the anthem yet I thought it was cool that fireworks went off towards the end?)
The game started and was scoreless through four innings. At one poin, Screech, the Nationals fat eagle mascot somehow snuck up on me. I guess I have a giant blind spot on the left side of my vision. He started poining at me and even made a "shooting a basketball" gesture. I just sorta froze. I thought about shaking his hand but just waited for him to go by. He lost interest in me but a dozen kids suddenly wanted pictures of themselves with him. This blocked the game for a few minutes. I finally decided to take a picture of him but my phone was off so I was only able to get a picture of his back before he was too far for my phone.
Behind me a large group of people filled out the second row. I was a little annoyed that I got women behind me, because women tend to be annoying when it comes to sports. There, I said it. At one poin I was thinking to myself that women should be banned from sports games. There's something annoying about women shouting "Whoo!" at sports game, but behind me I got the chatty kind of women. These women were only barely interested in the game and I was annoyed by their distracting conversation, but luckily the crowd started to drown them out. Still, why would anybody go to a ball game and talk about stuff like their weight or the vice president? Relax! Enjoy the game! Jeez. Later, my dad and I switched seats and I started to hear the mens' conversation. I was annoyed to hear their conversation too until they started talking about interesting things like the opening day of this season.
The Washington Nationals have a gimmick where they have the presidents from Mount Rushmore racing. It started as some computer animated thing, but by midway of last season they actually had people wearing costumes with big heads racing. Tuesday was the first time I was able to see it in person, and I was really looking forward to it. I was at first disappoined because the racing started on the big screen and I thought I was being cheated. The presidents were running around D.C. and Teddy stopped to get a hot dog. That's probably why he never wins. Never keeps his eye on the prize. Since the theme of the day was PGA, Teddy and Lincoln burst through the side of the stadium and quickly started playing golf. Washington and Jefferson watched for a minute, until they got bored and ran for the finish line. Washington won. Teddy got confused and started running the wrong way. And that's why Teddy is the real star of the Nats! (Lincoln, by the way, apparently had spikey anime hair. The 1860s were a different time!)
My dad got some peanuts before the game started, and had attracted ants by the time he was only halfway through the bag. Before long I told him to get a hot dog for me when he asked me what I wanted. The hot dog was good but I wish I could have gotten more to eat that night. I could have eaten a pizza or chicken strips with fries (the latter is something we've gotten a few times before.)
I guess I should mention the game. At the fifth inning both teams started scoring. Our pitcher had a rough inning and gave up to runs, and he could have given up more the way it was going. I was disappoined and worried that my dad and I were going to go 1-3 for our trips to the Nats. The bottom of the fifth turned that around when the Nats scored four runs. Three of those runs came from Zimmerman, one of the few Nats that I recognize by name, most likely because he's been with us since the start. That would have been the play of the game, if not for the second baseman (short stop?) making a great defensive play during the sixth. Ronnie Belliard grabbed a ball that the pitcher managed to kick as the ball went by. Belliard had to go to his right, away from the second base to get the ball. Rather then turn all the way around before throwing the ball, he simply flipped the ball behind him to whoever it was that was covering second base at that poin. Beautiful play, and the replays made it look like he was having fun. I wish I could have watched SportsCenter that night just to see if they showed it, which they damn well should have.
The Nats gave up another run later on, but then put up two more runs to secure the win. After my initial grumpiness I really got into the game, and at the end all I was thinking was that the only thing the game was missing was a home run from the home team. That didn't happen, but the Nats still won 6-3. It was a fun night, and I hope we go to another Nats game this year.
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