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Sunday, December 31, 2006

Aquarium Video

My first venture into loading my own YouTube videos is pretty basic stuff. Here are some clips from the aquarium.



Aquarium

I went to Ripley's Aquarium in Gatlinburg with the family today. It was a really nice day, but everyone seemed pretty tired. All the men are falling apart (due to one reason or another), so we basically just spent the day trying to keep up with Mom.





Friday, December 29, 2006

Santa-Come-Lately

Christmas came late this year, but that's better than not at all. The folks are in town for the weekend (parents, brother, grandpa, but sadly no niece). Presents came with them (evidence of which can be found below). Let me tell you, there is nothing more awkward than to be the only person opening Christmas presents in the room.
It's nice to have the feeling that Christmas has actually happened now. This was my first year being away from home on the day. It wasn't miserable or sad, it was just different. It didn't feel like I was missing out on Christmas. It just didn't feel like Christmas at all, which is probably better.
Special thanks to Graham and Michael, and the whole Case Clan, for inviting me into their home on Christmas morning for a delicious breakfast. It was the highlight of what could have easily been a morose day. And thanks to everyone else who extended invitations.

Now, the important part. My new toy:



Ah yes, the ol' taking-a-picture-of-oneself-in-the-mirror picture. Calling card of amateur bloggers and Myspace junkies everywhere. Finally, the cliche is within my grasp.

Monday, December 25, 2006

Merry Axe-Mas!

I've posted these on the old blog. But that's old. This is new!



Pee Wee's Christmas Special

I loved this show when I was a kid, but looking back on it now I realize how cool my parents were for letting me watch such insane, subversive stuff.
Oddly, this is probably only the second weirdest performance from the special:

Peanuts Christmas

Where The Hell Is Matt?

Not sure what this video has to do with Christmas, except that it makes me very happy. And the music is beautiful.

Sunday, December 24, 2006

Sing A Slaying Song Tonight - 2006 Edition

'Twas the night before Christmas
When all through the house
Not a creature was stirring
‘Cause I killed that darn mouse.

The stockings were hung
And the traps were all set
In hopes that St. Nick
Would get caught in one yet.

Ma with her shot-gun
And I with my rifle,
Our hopes were still high
St. Nick’s plans we would stifle.

When out on the lawn
There arose such a din
St. Nick had arrived,
That nasty villain!

Away to the window
I flew like a bird,
Tore open the shutters,
'Twas this that we heard:

“Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas!
Bad tidings to you!
I’ll kill everybody,
That’s just what I’ll do!”

And what to my grief-stricken
Eyes should reveal,
But a bulbous old troll
stealing kids for his veal!

To the top of the porch
To the top of the wall
Now slash away, slash
Away, slash away all.

Then he flew down our chimney
That cold winter night
Our guns full of ammo,
Our hearts full of fright.

And that’s when we saw him,
His true form unraveled.
One slip up from us and
And we'd soon be cadaveled.

With his big, bloated belly,
And razor bicuspids,
His gaudy pimp clothing
In blood was encrusted.

He crept closer and closer,
And Ma shouted, “Run!”
We began to head out.
I remembered my gun.

“One more step,” I decreed,
"And you’ll be a goner!
Then I’ll feed you to Rudolf,
And Blitzen, and Donner.”

Perhaps 'twas my warning
That made him to pause.
Up the chimney he crawled
With his damned Santa claws.

And the last thing we heard,
As the fat monster fled
Was the tormented wail
Of the Christmas undead.

Friday, December 22, 2006

The Future!

I'm totally updating my blog from my Wii right now. The trial version of the web browser just became available. Welcome to the future of communication. Actually, this is very cumbersome. I definitely won't be doing this very often.

Christmas Time Is Here

For those of you with cable television: Tune in to the PAX network (yes, the Christian channel) this Saturday at 5PM. One of the Christmas concerts I performed in will be airing locally. You can check out my sweet solo.

Also, I'm getting the word out now: New Years Eve at my place! Or should I say...New Years Wiiv? I don't feel like going out and doing anything crazy this year, so everyone is welcome to come over and kick back, sip on some gin and juice, and generally just fart the evening away (much like last year, but with a change of venue). It's a BYOB affair. Nothing fancy. Pretty lame actually, but what else are you gonna do?

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Celebritiis

Someone hosted a contest for best Mii celebrity look-alikes. The results are very impressive. I've mostly just turned select friends into Miis so far, but I did make one of Michael Jackson. I haven't done anything as good as what these people have done, though.

The Mii creator is much more versatile than I initially gave it credit for (although I'd still like to see more options in the future). Someone even made an Admiral Ackbar.

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Saturday, December 09, 2006

Last Minute Notice:

I am in a Christmas concert at First Baptist Church (downtown) tomorrow night at 6:30. It should be quite lovely and I have a solo. Be there.


Unrelated item: I have a Wii now. More on that later when I can pry my hands off of it.

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

He Sees You When You're Sleeping...

Here is a fantastic gallery of kids freaking out in the presence of Santa.

If you look at some of the Santas in these pictures you'll see that the kids have every right to be terrified.

Oh, Those Crazy Loveable Japanese!


Check out more of these pictures from the Japanese Wii safety manual.

Scary Mary

This could be my favorite movie trailer re-edit ever:

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Hot Fuzz

I can't wait to see this movie. And that's based on the video alone. I won't actually be able to hear the trailer until I watch it at home (I'm currently updating from school). Still, the people involved in this movie are geniuses. If you've seen their television series Spaced or (more likely) the film Shaun of the Dead, then you don't need me to tell you. If you haven't seen one or both of those previous works than I pity you.

Best Video Game Ever

Monday, December 04, 2006

Shut Up, Donnie

I've been waiting for a YouTube version of this since I first saw it (the original was in a much more annoying format). But here it is. A scene from The Big Lebowski starring Nintendo Miis:

Friday, December 01, 2006

Sleeping With The Enemy

I was supposed to meet up with Graham and some other people at Family Bowl last night. I was going to dominate the lanes and make everyone ashamed that they even dared to challenge my ten-pin skills.
Instead, Graham received a PS3 as an early Christmas present and the bowling plans kind of fell apart from there. I hung out at Graham's for a few hours to witness the spectacle. Of course, the entire time I was just cursing my own luck in not having procured my Wii. But I didn't want to rain on his parade entirely, so I mostly kept the anti-Sony rhetoric at a minimum. I played a single death match round of Resistance: Fall of Man, which everyone seems to agree is the killer app for the system launch. But it pretty much wins by default. Almost every other launch title is multi-platform, and the few that aren't are fairly lackluster. Genji looks pretty enough, and I really didn't see enough of it to form a solid opinion, but the reviews have not been favorable. Resistance has been getting great reviews, on the other hand. My brief play time was not unsatisfactory, and the single-player campaign looked interesting. But it's not the kind of game I go crazy over. It looks like a Call of Duty game, but with aliens. I'm just not into the shooters that much these days. The problem might be that I compare every shooter experience with the Goldeneye days of yore. And nothing will ever live up to that. The other problem is that I've played Gears of War, and that game just raises the bar for shooters above and beyond anything else. Sure, it's not really a first-person shooter. You spend most of the time hovering just over the character's shoulder. But it switches to first-person when aiming, so I find the differences between the two genres negligible.
One area I did notice Resistance excelling in was with the physics engine. It's very cool to see objects (especially the bodies of your fallen enemies) slide down slopes, or off ledges, realistically. Too many times when playing similar games you'll see a dead soldier or alien lying halfway off of a staircase, stiff as a board, an entire half of their body seemingly defying gravity. It's like the fastest-setting rigor mortis ever. Or even worse, as they slump against a wall part of their body will fuse through it like something out of the Philadelphia experiment. But Resistance seems to avoid these pratfalls for the most part. At one point Graham passed a fallen foe who was half crouching, half leaning against a wall. It looked eerily natural, as if he had been killed in the midst of reloading or seeking cover. Pretty cool stuff.
Other than this I wasn't too impressed by any of the games. Tony Hawk, Tiger Woods, and Madden all looked very good. But again, they aren't exclusive, and the graphical quality isn't very far removed from the XBox 360. It still boggles my mind that the system can come out a year after the competition with supposedly much more powerful hardware (and price to match), and not look significantly improved. The PS3 still has to prove itself as far as I'm concerned.
So, that was my experience with the PS3. My hands didn't boil when I touched the controller, it didn't explode when turned on, and it didn't shoot blinding rays into our eyes. So at least in that respect it's not as bad as I would have guessed.
Enjoy it, Graham.