Friday, November 28, 2008

Thanksgiving

Yesterday was Thanksgiving. Not sure why I needed to actually tell you that, but now you know. I was thinking about what I'm thankful for this year since that's what you do when you're stuffed with turkey and...well...stuffing. So, without any more puns, here is what I'm thankful for.

Life is pretty good.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Streaming Netflix

Damn. Has it really been five days since my last post? I've stared at this screen on more than one occasion in the last five days and just been blank.

Still kinda blank.

I've been watching a bunch of stuff on my 360 via Netflix. I watched Waterworld, Red Dawn, Team America World Police, and some old Voltron episodes.

By the way, how awesome was Voltron?

Friday, November 21, 2008

Avatar Schmavatar


avatar-body
Originally uploaded by Gemini Ace
So I created my NXE avatar. It looked stupid. So I created another one. It was gay. So I made this one.

The avatar creation thing is not very deep. There aren't as many options as you get on the Wii when you create a Mii.

The whole NXE thing is a little underwhelming. It looks good, but I haven't found it to be a quantum leap forward. Of course, I haven't browse the marketplace yet.

The Netflix feature, on the other hand, is amazing. It works incredibly well with nary a hiccup in sight. I worked from home yesterday. While I worked I queued up The Crow City of Angels, Red Dawn, and Superman/Doomsday. I also threw in an episode of Voltron for good measure. Awesome!

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Bad Service Great Food

As everyone knows, Buffalo Wild Wings has $.40 wings on Tuesday. It's tough to resist, especially given the fact that they have my favorite flavor of anything there, mango habanero. It's so good I would slather it on a brick and eat it. I've actually made the comment to Rhea that I would put it on my wang and attempt to lick it off. That wouldn't hurt at all, would it?

Anyway, the only problem with BWW is the service. We've gone there quite a bit since we discovered the place and I can honestly say that we've had good service maybe twice.

Last night continued our streak of bad service. It was almost novelty bad. I mean, we sat there for a good 10 minutes before I decided to flag down a waitress to take our drink order. The funny thing is, she was our waitress. So, she finally came back and took our order. Then the wait began.

We literally sat there and watched people all around us that came in AFTER us get their food, pay, and leave. After like 30 minutes of this I flagged down a guy that looked managerial and told him that we had been waiting for a long time. Of course we find out that she's new. Maybe you should be on top of her then instead of letting her ruin the experience of every table she waits on.

Anyway, we finally got our delicious wings. He also gave us 50% off, so that helped.

What I think is funny is that no matter how bad the service is there we keep coming back. I guess that's a testament to how good the wings are. And that says nothing about the fiery after effects in the bathroom the morning after.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Left 4 Dud

I got to try the Left 4 Dead demo when I was over at Alana's on Friday. I came away disappointed. One because you can only play 2 player split screen (and we know I hate that), and two because the game just wasn't that fun.

I didn't really feel a sense of urgency while I played. I didn't think the weapons felt very effective. I also didn't feel that the zombie horde was that scary. I'm not even sure you can die completely. I got vomited on by that fat zombie and got swarmed, but I didn't die. I just waited for it to wear off while I peppered them with my shotgun.

I really thought this was going to be the game to beat this holiday season, but instead I found it's just a slightly better version of The Club.

So Much To Say

Man, where to begin. Do I bitch about the annoying people that I come across every day? Do I talk about the podcast? Do I just rant about miscellaneous stuff, like why miscellaneous is so hard to spell? How about all of the above!

So, what is it with people that just blindly do what they're told? I don't understand. If you know that what you're being told to do is A)wrong or B)stupid or C)coming from someone who isn't qualified to manage his own Mountain Dew intake. What drives me insane is people that don't even question shit. I'm sorry, but I'm an adult (supposedly) and I can make my own decisions. If you're telling me to do something that's obviously retarded, I'm going to do what I know needs to be done. Of course, the person I'm talking about is extremely religious, so I think that pretty much explains the whole thing. Personally, I think Jesus would want the ad to get done.

Anyway, we got episode 60 of the podcast done on Friday. We gave away a copy of City Folk and touched on our initial impressions. And Val Kilmer. Funny shit, go listen.

Gemini Friend Code

So, what is the deal with miscellaneous? Why does it have to be so long? And what's up with the two l's? I mean, how crazy is that? And the eous? That doesn't get confusing at all!

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Jon Lajoie

This guy is fucking brilliant. I love his videos. Makes me lol all over myself.



Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Wasting Away

I weighed this morning and found I've lost another 4 pounds. That's a grand total of 19 pounds in the few weeks that I've been dieting. Thank you, SlimFast!

And contrary to what you probably think, that picture is not of me. I'm way hotter. And my crank is the size of a python eating a really fat possum.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Missing Game Requirements

I was able to go to Alana's house and play some Gears 2 yesterday. Horde mode is fun and frustrating. I liked it a lot, but I probably won't be getting it until at least Christmas.

One thing we did notice when we sat down to play was the 2-player limit on co-op play. The game won't even let you have a third gamertag signed in. It warns you that you can't have more than 2 tags signed in and you have to sign the third one out to even continue. Bullshit.

The fact that there is no 4-player split screen in Gears 2 made me think of some of the other games that have glaring omissions. Features that should be required in all games this generation.

The first game to come to mind that was missing a required feature is Call of Duty 4. The first time the three of us tried to play some online deathmatches, we realized that two people can't play online on the same Xbox 360. WTF?! It boggles my mind that Halo 2 on the original Xbox featured 4-player split screen over Xbox Live, yet Call of Duty 4 limited you to one player per box. Ridiculous!

Another game that I've really been a hater of is Burnout Paradise. Now, I've been playing it on the PS3 and I have to take back a lot of the hate I've spewed about the game. That being said, I still hate the fact that you can't automatically re-start an event or jump to races. It's obviously a concious decision by the developer, but at what point do you just give us what we want? It's really the only thing holding this game back from greatness, in my opinion.

And, of course, the afformentioned Gears of War 2. I cannot get over the fact that a AAA title like Gears can't manage to include 4-player horde mode on the same console. We have had four player split screen since the N64 days. Yes, it wasn't co-op, but it still worked just fine. And if that's not enough, Halo 2 and 3 has 4-player split screen with zero issues.

I really think that these missing features boil down to nothing more than developer decisions. Basically, it's not an issue of console power or coding prowess. The devs made the decision to not put these features in the game. In the case of CoD4 and Gears 2, it smacks of the dev wanting you to go out and buy another console and another copy of the game if you want to play with more than one or two people in the same place.

What really hits this home for me is the fact that Forza 2 came with a mode that allowed you to to use three screens, three Xbox 360's, and three copies of the game to play across the three screens. Maybe .001% of people will ever use this feature, but it's there.

So, tell me again why Gears 2 doesn't have 4-player split screen?

Friday, November 07, 2008

Back To The Funny

I took a couple days off from my last post because I didn't really have much to say. Well, that's not exactly true. I typed up a little something yesterday about some political stuff, but decided to just leave it unpublished. I'm going to get back to funny Gemini, not asshole Gemini. Although some would say that funny Gemini is a myth, much like the female g-spot. And you know what? That hurts a little.

We worked at Kohl's last night. I came across a sweet Gears of War hat. I think I'm gonna get it.

We have a new girl up there lately. She is an interesting chick. And I use the term chick loosely. Seriously, I'm not a fashionista. My idea of hot apparel is basketball shorts and a t-shirt with Spider-Man on it. But, some people just have zero ability to dress themselves in any sort of style that relates to their gender or age.

Basically, the two times she's worked, she's worn men's jeans and a t-shirt with a wolf or tiger on it. Very 50-year old lesbian-ish. I mean, to own those type of shirts you either have to be in like 6th grade or in a committed, sexless relationship with a jean-shorts wearing lesbian. There's not really any middle ground there.

The funny thing is, she had moved away with this guy she was in love with. That begs the question, what does this guy look like?! I mean, you have to be a pretty dorky guy to look at the giant tiger t-shirt and Levi's and go, "I'd hit it".

But, I don't mean to be a hater. Some people just don't know. Anybody that looks at me probably thinks the same thing.

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Why I'm Not Voting

I don't understand the compulsion that everyone has to go out and vote today. I've voted once in my life and I'm certain it made no difference whatsoever. Now, all of the sudden, everyone is freaking out because this election is so important.

Is it?

What will really change in my daily life as a result of who is president? Will my bank account increase overnight, or worse, decrease? Will I suddenly be thinner, fatter, happier, stupider, angrier, faster, stronger, more/less likable? Will my daily commute be shorter? Will I get a bigger cubicle at work, or possibly a secretary? Will Rhea suddenly learn a foreign language and start reading for the blind? Will we be shot into space in order to study zero gravity sex? Will our phones get more bars in more areas? Will our credit score change? Will I find a new respect for the homeless? Will I begin each sentence with "According to Obama"? Will I require fewer visits to the dentist? Will my farts smell better? Will I not need to buy Christmas presents for my family? Will food taste better? Will I realize that I'm really good at Scene It?

It's ridiculous to think that something like will change your life on anything other than a mental level. You still have to go to work. You still have to pay your bills. You still have to raise your kids. There is nothing that McCain or Obama are going to do to change that. You still have to worry about the same shit you worried about yesterday.

So I say fuck it. Who ever they announce as the next president will be just some asshole that has his own agenda. He will have said whatever it took to get elected. The promises mean nothing once they're actually in office, so why get all worked up? It's a waste of energy. Energy that could be spent doing something that actually matters, like paying your bills or teaching your kid the difference between right and wrong.

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasure. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by a dictatorship.

The average age of the world's great civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through the following sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependency, from dependency back to bondage."
Alexander Tyler

Monday, November 03, 2008

Scares And Repairs

It was a busy weekend. As you know, my 360 was in the process of dying. I called Xbox support on Saturday. As I was told by a twitter buddy, once I mentioned the red rings, the replacement process was automatic. Just verify that your power supply has a green light and done. The support guy was awfully chatty with his Canadian accent. Anyway, I will be sending it in this week.

I also dropped my truck off to have it fixed today. Got a nice rental car. Not much else to say about that...

Anyway, I decided that I wanted a scary movie for Halloween. I put The Shining in my Netflix queue and got it on Friday. I should have chosen something a little more recent.

The movie was creepy, but not scary. I understand that back when it came out it was considered the scariest thing ever, but by today's standards it's pretty weak.