I Am Legend Is The Saddest Movie Ever

We watched I Am Legend this last weekend and it's now the saddest movie ever to me.

I had heard some warnings about the movie when it came out. About how the part with the dog is pretty rough. I had no idea that it was so bad!

One of my deep dark secrets has always been that the end of the movie Armageddon where Bruce Willis says goodbye to Liv Tyler always turns on the waterworks in me. I don't know what it is, but that scene just gets me every time. Maybe it's because I love Bruce Willis so much. Maybe it's because Liv Tyler can't act. Whatever it is, it makes me all soft and moist...around my eye sockets. Basically, it's my Beaches.

Until I Am Legend.

Seriously, if you have a dog you probably shouldn't watch this movie. I sat there enjoying the story and Will Smith's ripped physique...I mean acting chops. Then, out of no where a mannequin pops up in the street and Mr. Smiff was hanging upside down. I have no idea where the mannequin came from or who set the trap, but the end result was that his dog was infected with the disease.

If you haven't seen the movie, (by the way, spoiler alert) here's some background on the dog. It was his daughter's dog. His daughter and wife were killed in the helicopter he put them on to get them out of the city. That's all he has left is the dog. Plus, he's all alone except for the dog, which to him obviously represents his family, his friends, and pretty much the entire human race.

So, there I am, bawling like a baby while he snuffs the life out of his best friend. Rhea actually woke up to see what was wrong, but I couldn't pull it together to even tell her.

Yes, I'm a big pussy. Whatever!

Busy Busy Busy

Man, I've been busy. Between my birthday, working my 2 jobs, and everything else I haven't had time to blog at all. Not that I'm complaining. I've been doing some cool shit.

I got my little Phillips mp3 player in the mail on Friday. I've been using it's built in microphone to record some segments for the new podcast I've been thinking about. I'm not sure when it will come out or if it will come out. I've got some ideas that have been percolating in my brain for a while. Making them a reality is another thing altogether.

We worked overnight on Saturday, then I went with my parents and Alana to Winstar in Oklahoma. It was a ton of fun. I didn't win anything. We did get our lunch comped by the casino. Good times!

My parents gave me some shirts and cash for my birthday. My mom made an awesome cake. My sister got me 1600 Microsoft points, a blue Xbox 360 controller (FTW!), and a sweet shirt. I upgraded to a Flickr pro account. It's something I've wanted to do for a while, so I'm pretty happy about that. We went to Target last night and I found a rechargeable battery pack for my new controller. I couldn't believe it was on clearance for like nine bucks!

I also downloaded a bunch of new music this weekend. New stuff from The Last Shadow Puppets, Filter, Death Cab for Cutie, 3 Doors Down, and 10 Years. All good stuff and all thanks to ThePirateBay.org.

The Big Three Three

Yesterday was my birthday. I'm 33. Not much of a milestone, but it's all good. Here's a photo tour of the fun. :-)

After we got home from work, we headed to Buffalo Wild Wings for some delicious $.50 boneless wings and even more delicious Michelob Ultra.


We had a great time. I really do love that place. I love my wife even more!


When we got home, she put the candles on my Iron Man cake and lit them up. I have more pictures of me blowing them out. Those will be up later.


Rhea bought me a really cool Jalapeno Pepper Roaster from Williams Sonoma. I can't wait to stuff some jalapenos and grill them up in it. Gonna be delicious...although my ass may not agree.


Buffy, Buttercup, and Baylee pooled their money and bought me Super Smash Bros Brawl for the Wii. I was so impressed. I didn't even know they had money!

Advance Wars: Days of Ruin

Got started on the new Advance Wars game last week once it finally arrived from Amazon, no thanks to the idiot post office.

Anyway, so far it's a pretty fun game. It's standard Advance Wars gameplay, but the new setting and units are really cool. The only irritation comes from all the damn text you have to read between missions. I understand there's a plot, but do I have to read all the "witty" banter? Pass!

Days of Ruin is definitely worth buying. It's the best franchise on the DS in my opinion.

Red Alert 3

Holy shit, EA is making a sequel to one of my favorite games of all time. I loved Red Alert 2. I played it daily for probably almost 2 years. I will probably have to upgrade my pc to play it, but that's ok. I don't want to play it on the console because I didn't think the other Command and Conquer was very good on the 360.

Comic Book Movies

We went to see Iron Man tonight. 5 o'clock twilight show only cost $4.50 a person. Gotta love a deal!

I really have to say that Iron Man is up there with the all time greats as far as comic book movies go. It stands toe to toe with the first Spider-Man, X-Men, and Batman. Marvel continues to successfully move their characters from the page to the screen with so much attention to detail and love. Of course, there have been a few hiccups along the way (I'm looking at you, Hulk), but overall if you're a fan of Marvel Comics this is a great time to be going to the movies.

I keep a mental list of the best comic movies in my head. I'm going to put it right here so it's official. Here we go!

• X-Men 2 - Yea, I know. The sequel was better than the original. A rarity for sure, but it gave us everything we wanted in the first one and more. It's the pinnacle to which all other comic book movies aspire.
• Spider-Man - The definitive origin story coupled with the greatest hero/villain combo the world has ever known.
  
• Batman - This is hard. I love Batman Begins, but you have to give it up to Keaton and Burton for making Batman a bankable franchise in the first place. The sequels do not count. Returns was ruined by Devito. Forever was ruined by Kilmer. There's not enough room to explain what went wrong with Batman and Robin. Bat-nipples.
  
• X-Men - The move that made Hugh Jackman a star. He is Wolverine. Seeing him pop his claws for the first time was bliss.
  
• Iron Man - The perfect plot, great acting, and incredibly believable special effects. And we saw Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury. Nerdgasm!
• Blade - It's been pushed down the list lately, but it still holds a warm spot in my heart. We wouldn't have any of these mighty Marvel movies if it weren't for this guy.
• Superman Returns - The thing that keeps this movie out of the top 5? Kate Bosworth. Lois Lane is not a ultra-skinny 20-something. She's a tough as nails reporter in the big city of Metropolis. The only mistake Brian Singer ever made besides leaving X-Men 3.
• Batman Begins - Anything would be better than Batman and Robin. Thankfully we got this masterpiece. And whoever decided to use the same Batmobile in the sequel deserves a big raise.
• Hellboy - Who doesn't love Big Red? And who knew Selma Blair was so hot?
  
• Blade 2 - Goes hand in hand with Hellboy. Guillermo del Toro did Blade as a precursor to Hellboy. And the world is a better place for it.

Those are the best. Here's the rest.

• X-Men 3 - What the fuck? Everyone involved in this abortion should resign from the industry immediately. Bret Ratner not only made the Juggernaut a mutant (he's not), but he decided that mutants can have more than one power. The worst comic movie ever made.
  
• Dardevil - I didn't hate this movie, but I can see why it's not loved by the majority of the geeks. You have to give it up to the director for killing Elektra the exact same way as in the comic book. I remember my jaw hitting the floor when I first saw it. That being said, Bullseye was the worst translation of a villain ever.
  
• Elektra - All I can say is, "huh"? I've seen it, but I couldn't tell you what it was about. Not a good sign.
• The Hulk - Can we please pretend like this one never happened? Thanks!
• Superman IV - Seriously? Anything after the 2nd one shouldn't exist.
• Spider-Man 3 - Two words - Emo Peter Parker. And did anybody think to explain where the Venom symbiote came from? Nope! Let's just say it came from space. Who needs details?!
  

I didn't mention the Fastastic Four movies. Those are pretty good so I put them in the first list. Same with Ghost Rider. They're good, but the lack of a big budget holds them back from cracking the top 10.

Wearing Pants Is Overrated

I've been super busy this week so I haven't had time to post anything. Here's a quick update on where I am, what I'm doing, and why I'm doing it. (It may not be that detailed, but damn that sounded good.)

I got my package from Amazon earlier this week. The post office didn't screw me on this one. Shocker! They still haven't called me about anything, but what do you expect? I did e-mail Woot.com and ask them about it. They actually refunded my money! I was amazed and happy. Now that's customer service!

Speaking of Woot, they had a woot off today. It wasn't that great. I didn't buy anything. They did have a USB missile launcher, but I missed that one. Dammit!

I started my overnight job at Kohl's this week. It's not too bad, although working overnight then going to your regular day job does wear a brotha out. It's a decent job and a good way to get some money into savings, so I'm all for it. Rhea works there, too.

We took Baylee and Buttercup to the vet this evening for shots. Baylee threw up on me on the way home. Poor baby. I'm not very happy with her because she's decided that chewing on electronic cords is a fun thing to do. She chewed my play and charge cable to my 360, the power cord to my router, and one of my CAT-5 cables. WTF? Buffy and Butter never did that. I sprayed all the cords with some stuff that's supposed to taste really bad. Hopefully that will deter her.

It's time for Lost, so I'm gonna end it here.

Peace out!

I Hate The Post Office

I'm not exaggerating when I make the above statement. It's a point of fact that has been cemented into my brain. It's an interesting thing, too, because my wife and sister both work for the post office. But here I am, wishing I could declare a jihad on the whole damn organization. I'm like one of those senators that speaks out against gay marriage, meanwhile I'm banging dudes in an airport bathroom.

As some of my twitter buddies know, I was working for the post office earlier this year and eventually quit. I'm not going to get into the nitty gritty details about what happened in this post, but suffice to say that I was bent over a mail cart and corn holed by those bastards. I've talked to everyone I can get to answer a phone, including the union, and I got no help whatsoever.

There are so many things wrong with the post office. First off is the union. They make it so it's impossible to get rid of people that don't do their jobs. The post office is powerless to take any action against an employee for fear of the union. This does nothing but create an environment where the employees think they are bulletproof. Therefore they do the least work possible. Meanwhile, hard working people like me that do a good job get the shaft because the lazy regular carrier doesn't train worth a shit.

The second thing is the fact that the postal service, whether they would admit it or not, is a monopoly. There's no such thing as quitting the mail or going to a different service provider. If you want your bills, letters, and junk mail, you have to use the post office. They use UPS and FedEx as justification for being a monopoly, but the reality is that nobody in their right mind would send a letter using UPS and no company is going to send out their billing statements using FedEx. As soon as I can change my service provider like I can change my cell phone provider, then we will have progress.

What put me over the edge about the post office is not what happened to me while I was employed, but what has happened recently to me as a postal customer.

Recently my wife ordered a new pair of eye glasses off the internet. We tracked the package and it showed delivered. We did not have the glasses. We ventured down to the mail boxes at our apartments and found the package in an unlocked parcel locker. It was unlocked because the lock was broken. The carrier just left it in there with no notice in our regular box. This is the issue that prompted us to buy a P.O. box and put in a forward for our mail.

A few weeks ago I ordered a couple MP3 players from woot.com. They were only $10 each. Not a big ticket item, but it's still something I would like to receive. The package was lost due to the incompetent carrier forwarding the parcel. It's currently languishing in Dallas, probably being used as a doorstop or booger receptacle.

The final straw was yesterday when I tracked my Amazon package. I ordered Advance Wars: Days of Ruin from Amazon for cheap the other day and I've been excited ever since. The tracking showed it as delivered on the 28th. WTF?

I called 1-800-ASK-USPS and finally got a woman on the phone. I told her my story and she transferred me to someone else for no other reason than she didn't want to deal with me. I was livid and let loose on the new guy. Shockingly, he was very helpful.

Now, I sit here and wait for the post office to call me and bless me with information on my two parcels. Meanwhile, they are in no rush to provide any useful information because they have a monopoly on the industry and employ lazy, union protected jackasses who would rather complain about how many breaks they get instead of deliver me my fucking package!

Of course, when I refer to all postal employees as lazy, union protected jackasses, I don't mean my wife or my sister. They are the few that actually try to make a difference. My only wish is that someone would walk into that organization and fire 90% of the people and start over with people who actually want to work. Who actually have a vested interest in making sure you get your mail, as opposed to just being interested in getting done as fast as possible no matter how many mistakes they make and how many parcels get lost.

...and I'm spent.

Mario Kart Wii

I traded in a few games at Gamestop on Sunday in order to get my hands on Mario Kart Wii. I know, Gamestop is the devil, but the games didn't sell on eBay and I wasn't willing to wait to start racing. They did give me $15 for the games, which is more than I expected. It doesn't matter, because in the end it's all about Mario!

I didn't play Mario Kart DS much online. I played the Wii version online last night and pretty much got my ass handed to me in every race. I came in 2nd once, but that's the best I could do. Not that I'm complaining. It was a ton of fun. I did get a little frustrated at times, but it wasn't because of the game or controls. Just my unfamiliarity with the new courses.

Rhea and I played on Sunday night in some VS. races. I love playing with her because she cusses like a sailor when she's playing. It's probably a good thing there isn't voice chat in the game because both of us get pretty raunchy. There's a lot of "fucking Baby Mario!" and "Shit!" and "Oh, that's nice, I fell off!". The last one isn't that bad, but it's always punctuated by "fuck!".

The cool thing is when you're first connecting. I always chose regional races, so it showed a big map of the U.S. and it would pop up people's Mii's on the map where they are located. It was a cool feature I wouldn't mind seeing on Xbox LIVE. Maybe Nintendo has some online game after all.

The friend code thing is another story altogether. I got messages from some of my buddies, but it was just a note with their friend code in it. I couldn't say accept or anything to automatically add them. I had to write the number down, boot up the game, then add them. Pain in the ass!

Overall I'm super happy with the game. I'm especially happy that I threw some money at Nintendo instead of at Rockstar for GTAIV. Vote with your wallet, I say.

Hornet Takedown

I continue to love jumpcut.com.

My Mongoose Mowdown

Iron Man Demo Gameplay Video

Circuit City Legendary Map Pack A-Go-Go

Last Tuesday, X3F broke the news that, if you pre-order Ninja Gaiden 2 from Circuit City, you get the new Legendary Map pack for Halo 3 for free. Now, I'm always up for getting something free, especially if it means screwing "the man". So, on Tuesday evening, Rhea and I headed up to our local Circuit City.

We got there and looked around a few minutes before we headed up to the registers to take care of business. We walked up to the faux hawked gay guy at the register and asked about the game. First he wanted to know how to spell Ninja. I spelled it. I also went ahead and spelled Gaiden. He couldn't find it, so Rhea and I looked at the screen to see he had spelled Nina Guyden. Ooooookay...

I corrected him and he finally found the pre-order. He told me to swipe my card, so I asked him about the map pack. He found on the site where it told about the free deal. Then he told me that it was only available online. It's at this point I decided to take myself up to the customer service desk for some real help. I don't trust guys with faux hawks. Especially when it comes to my games. And especially if you can't spell ninja. Everyone should know how to spell ninja.

The customer service chick told me the same thing. It's only available online. I was noticeably irritated and used phrases like "this is ridiculous" and "glad we drove all the way up here". We went home and I got online.

I started to do the pre-order, but it looked like the site was going to charge me full price for the game instead of the $5. I called their handy dandy 1-800 number and talked to a lady. It turns out that you don't get charged until the game ships. Sweet!

I did the pre-order and the wait began. Then, to my delight, the code for the map pack was delivered to my e-mail address as promised! My next step is to cancel the pre-order. I'm going to wait a couple weeks so as not to arouse their suspicions. I'll call and use some line like "I decided I wanted to get something else" or "my family was killed by ninjas so I'm going to go in a different direction".

The Hammer

Why I'm Not Buying GTAIV

With the release date of Grand Theft Auto IV quickly approaching, the internet is filled with information, speculation, and hype. Avoiding it is like trying to avoid the Halo 3 hype last year. Not possible.

A little background on my experience with the GTA series. I bought the double-pack of GTA3 and Vice City back when it came out on the original Xbox. I played a bunch of GTA3, although I only did probably 2 missions. I only played Vice City once.

I mainly played GTA3 with cheat codes. I would give myself a tank and go on a rampage. Rinse. Repeat. Yawn.

When the whole hot coffee thing happened, I realized how Rockstar does business. They use the controversy to sell their games. Not that this was a big revelation to anyone else, but it just brought it into sharp focus for me. It doesn't matter how much damage they do to the industry, as long as they sell games.

Anytime the industry is attacked by outsiders such as congressman or lawyers, GTA is always the title that's brought up. Not once have I ever heard them decry a Mario Bros game or hurl insults at the latest Madden.

Now, I'm not speaking out against violence in video games or anything like that. I love my Halo, Crackdown, and Gears of War. But the hype that surrounds these games is not because they're "destroying our youth", but because they're monuments in the industry. They have merits that elevate them above just being about mindless violence.

The bottom line is this. I'm not buying GTAIV because it supports a developer that creates games that are detrimental to the industry at large. They bring unnecessary attention to our favorite pastime if for nothing more than to make a buck. I'm not going to give my money to a company like that.

If I buy a game on April 29th, it'll be Super Smash Bros Brawl.

Guitar Hero 3 And Stuff

I played a bunch of Guitar Hero 3 tonight. I made it all the way to Knights of Cydonia before failing a song. Well, that's not entirely true. I had to play the Slash boss battle like 8 times, but that doesn't count, right?

I really don't like the guitar battles in the game. I had to make him fail before the end of the song, and I would always be higher on the rock meter than he was. Then my notes would end and he would just rock out and drain my meter. Talk about frustrating!

I also heard that Flickr is starting to let you upload videos. People are complaining that they don't want videos on their picture site, and I would tend to agree. Not because I don't like videos, but more because there's already a site that lets you upload videos called YouTube. Maybe you've heard of it.

It also doesn't make sense to me that Yahoo apparently owns JumpCut.com, which is all about videos. So why integrate it into Flickr? I don't get it.

That brings up another question. Why aren't more people using JumpCut? I've been making videos and it's pretty fun and addicting. I've searched for more Halo 3 videos and found very little. And nothing recent except my stuff. It's really wierd.

Anyway, I just want to say that Baylee is cute!

Surprise, You're Dead!

Grifball FTW!

We played a shit-ton of Grifball last night thanks to the double XP weekend that Bungie put on. The game is a lot of fun and the medals flow like cold beer from the tap. I actually got my first killtacular playing Grifball. I also got an extermination medal, but I can't find that film. I really wish they would add some more information to each saved film. The date and time is fine, but that really tells me nothing when it comes to medals or even number of kills. When you play 50+ games in one sitting, they tend to all look alike in the Theater.

Our New Pup!

In Bed
Originally uploaded by Gemini Ace

Rhea brought home a new addition to our household yesterday. Her name is Baylee and she's a Chihuahua. She's 7 weeks old and adorable!

Winner (in my pants)!

I listened to The10k.com Zunecast yesterday after a twitter buddy named Assassinated gave me a heads up. They relaunched the site a little while back and held a contest to celebrate. I entered it (as I do with all contests), and I won! Runner up, baby!

The prizes include:

• Xbox 360 Games: (1) PopCap Arcade Vol.1
• PC Games: (1) BookWorm: Adventures
• Shwag: (1) Signed Call of Duty 4 Poster (signed by entire Infinity Ward Staff), (1) Frontlines: Fuel of War T-shirt

This is pretty cool considering I've entered contests on X3F and countless other sites and never won anything.

Thanks, Rodsmack and everyone at The10k.com. You rock!