X-Games

Here's a quick summary of what I watched tonight.

Skateboard big air - Bob Burnquist and Jake Brown tie for first place, during the final run Jake wipes out. Bob throws his run to give Jake the gold. Bob's a legend and I honestly believe he could have won the competition, but being the veteran he is and Jake being a young star without a gold medal, he threw the run just so Jake could have it. I don't deny that Jake is a very talented skater and definitely is due a gold medal, but I really feel like he isn't grateful for Bob's gesture at all. On one hand, I do find it honorable that Jake didn't want the medal just given to him, but to an extent I think it's that he's overly confident and doesn't give Bob the respect he deserves.

I watched Moto X Step Up next. Ronnie Renner and Ricky Carmichael both earned gold medals after Carmichael crashed. I really feel like the competition should have continued. If Carmichael couldn't continue, then he lost, sorry. I don't really see why they felt the need to award both gold medals.

Hopefully we'll see something good tomorrow.

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Gamefly, Mercenaries, Wolverine, Batman, and Marvel vs Capcom 2

Let's have a video game inspired update.

A few days ago I subscribed to Gamefly. The service itself has always interested me, but for some reason I couldn't justify the X amount of dollars per month it would cost. I finally looked over at the list of games I wanted to play but would not offer me enough replay value to be worth a full purchase and decided that this was the best way for me try those games out. So on Friday night/Saturday morning, I registered and queued up a few games. I got my first game, Mercenaries 2, on Monday and my other game, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, on Tuesday. Overall a pretty quick delivery, I'm interested in seeing how long it takes when it's not over a Sunday.

Mercenaries 2 is alright. For the most part, it's pretty simple and has a few difficult things thrown in here and there. I really don't have much to say on this game other than it's fun for a bit. I guess you would classify it as having a sandbox world because it is pretty much open as GTA, Crackdown, and Assassin's Creed. However, in comparison to the games I just mentioned, the world seems a lot smaller. While I admit that some aspect of driving seems to be a little extreme (mainly the hand braking), the vehicles handle very well in my opinion, by far better than GTA and Crackdown. I'll probably finish Mercenaries 2 before sending it back for the next game, we'll see.

I had heard the Wolverine game was actually good, unlike the movie it's based on. I must admit, I'm having a blast playing it. While talking to Ryan he made mention that it really is hard to screw up a game of this genre (third person beat 'em up) and I do agree, however, I also believe it's difficult to make a game of that genre really memorable. Wolverine's gore is absolutely over the top and it just appeals to that macho persona deep within me. The battles are so fluid in every aspect and while there's dramatic slowdown during crucial kills, it never got to the point of where I found it to be annoying. One of the first "wow" moments I had was when fighting Sabertooth, there's a moment where he bends over after a blow and Wolverine did a barrell roll over him before throwing him across the room. Flawless transition. I believe my favorite mechanic of the entire game is the lunge ability. For me, it's just so much fun to be able leap a fair distance and skewer a soldier. Overall, I'm enjoying this game very much and highly recommend it as a rent.

This brings me to my next tidbit. I really hope Batman: Arkham Asylum is good. Also, a picture of the Scarecrow made it's way to the web today. Here's a pic, taken from Kotaku's article. http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/kotaku/2009/07/scarecrow.jpg

I love the way he looks. The Scarecrow was redesigned in Batman: The Animated Series volume 4 to be a dark figure with a noose around its neck. I'm very glad to see that it retains that aspect. The gasmask is a nice touch, not something I would have immediately though of, but considering the usage of fear gas it makes a lot of sense that he would wear one. The best part is the glove with syringes as fingers. Freddy Krueger would be envious of such a glove. The Scarecrow isn't a fighter, but with something like that he might actually stand a chance in a bout. I'm loving this design.

Marvel Vs Capcom 2 came out onto xbox live today. It will take you for a ride. I've played about two hours of it and I'm really enjoying it. After I get some sleep I intend on trying out the actual online aspect of it. Hopefully I won't get completely mauled.

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Vacation in Review

So I've had a day to recover from my vacation and now it's time to post things that really stand out to me from the week.

This was my first time back in Florida in about 10 years or so and my first time to Destin. It was nice being able to go on a vacation with the sole purpose of just being able to relax, as opposed to having a schedule and things to do. The only thing that we ever had to make sure to plan for was dinner time and besides that, we were on our own to do whatever we wished. In hindsight I feel like I should have made it down to the beach at least once more than what I did, however, I really can't figure out what day I would have sacrificed to do so.

Being someone who doesn't care for seafood for so long I finally saw this as my opportunity to try some of the best seafood to see if I liked it anymore. For the most part, this wasn't true. Every piece of seafood I tried, I couldn't help thinking to myself how much I would have rather it been another type of meat. Some of it was tolerable and I could definitely eat it all had I ordered it, it just wasn't my preference. I did get to try a fried softshell crab sandwich though, that was interesting in its own way. I also did get to try real sushi for the first time in awhile. That I managed to eat without many problems and even enjoy. The only one I can really think of that I didn't care for was cucumber + cream cheese. Oh and hush puppies. Those were absolutely delicious down there.

As I've said many a times, the beach was absolutely beautiful when we went. For the most part the water was almost perfectly clear, the weather at all times was excellent. Everyone told me that it was a rarity to be there without a single day of rain or a day of extreme humidity. Not once while we were outside did I ever feel my shirt clinging to my skin as it so often does around here. Of course with the beach you also get the beautiful women. While not every female was absolutely gorgeous, there were quite a good amount of attractive women. Not just on the beach, but everywhere we went. Also, this trip reaffirmed that I love southern accents. Something about the phrase "sweet tay" really catches my ear.

Entertainment wise, we played a lot of games and saw a few movies. The movie theatre down there was excellent, as my post from a few days ago details. We definitely overestimated the amount of games we would play through while on vacation and were left with quite a few cases unopened. I wish I would have remembered that my monitor I brought was bad so Ryan could have brought his and we would have had two xboxes going uninterrupted.

Everyone keeps asking me if I'm glad to be home and I guess so. I'm really going to miss Destin though and will always remember this vacation. And as I've said many times during this past week, thank you very much to Ryan and his family for bringing me. In just a bit over a month I enter the work force that I've been dreading so much, this is definitely going to be one of my fond memories of my youth. So long, and thanks for all the fish.

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Our final day of vacation. Today we woke up about noon, went to an all you can eat sushi bar and hibachi grill just down the street for lunch. Ryan, Cam, and myself went down there and despite talking about it all week, the only one of us to get the all you can eat deal was myself. Three sushi rolls, a bowl of fried rice, a piece of cheesecake, and a scoop of fried ice cream later, I was stuffed to the point of feeling sick. Well worth the money.

Following that we went down the beach. Another beautiful day with absolutely clear water. Not the best waves, but definitely an enjoyable day at the beach.

For dinner we went to Old Bay Steamers again. This time I got the chicken alfredo and comically, they forgot to bring it out. So for the second time during this vacation, I got my food after everyone else.

Following dinner another night of boardgames with the other family. It was a good time, despite me losing most of the time. With us leaving early tomorrow morning, I should have been asleep a lot earlier than...well 2am. When I get home I'll write a full review of the vacation as a whole, since there are things that I'm sure I forgot to mention throughout it all.

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It's rather depressing to think that my vacation is almost over. Tomorrow is pretty much our last day here since we leave so early on Saturday.

Today we went down to the beach again. The water wasn't as clear as the other day but the waves were bigger. The sandbar was about the same as the other day. Overall a good day at the beach. For dinner we went to Osaka Japanese Steakhouse. It was my first time at a hibachi grill and it was a pretty good experience. The food was absolutely delicious and at the suggestion of Ryan's dad, I finally got some sweet tea since we are in the south. Normally I'm not the world's biggest tea fan, but I must admit that it was delicious as well.

Following dinner we went to Santa Rosa mall. After hitting up several gamestops and a Sears (got Crackdown for 10 bucks) we just explored it a bit. Nothing really stellar, but nothing horrible either.

After the mall we went over to the place where the other family that's vacationing with us are staying. There we played Rummicube (rummikube?) and even though I lost, I enjoyed myself. I wish we would have at least one game of up words, but it was getting late at that point so I can understand why we didn't.

Tomorrow we plan on heading to an all you can eat sushi bar and hibachi grill. I'm assuming the hibachi is not all you can eat and we're in reality just going for the sushi. Hopefully it'll be good. That's for lunch, not sure what's going to happen for dinner yet.

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So Wednesday's day of vacation consisted of Peggle, Sega Superstar Tennis, dinner, and Up.

Dinner was at a place called Perry's. It's about an 30 minutes to an hour outside of Destin's, a neat little hole in the wall seafood place. I do believe that place has filled me up more than any other restaurant we've been to. The hush puppies were better than Dewey's but not as good as the Lagniappe's. My actual meal was on time and probably better than the one I had at Dewey's.

Following dinner we went to see Up in 3d. I must say, Pixar is extremely good at invoking emotion with any actual dialogue. The movie itself was pretty good and definitely enjoyable. Not really a whole lot to say besides that. There was a short film before it that I really enjoyed concerning clouds and storks.

I feel the need to describe the place we went to go see the movie at. First of all, the theatre is done by a theatre called the Rave. The movie itself is cast on a DLP screen, versus the simple projectors at the theatres back home. Additionally, this one has an extremely nice surround system, something that I've always wondered why our theatres lack. I think this theatre was 14 screens and during peak hours would have three concession stands open, one in the center and one at the end of each wing.

The theatre itself is located in a place called the Destin Commons. I really love this place, it's pretty much a mall but located outside yet not lumped into the classification of a strip mall, at least in my opinion. I guess an appropriate way of describing it would be a village of strip malls. There's blocks like you would see in a regular residential neighborhood, but rather than separate buildings would be just one big building with multiple stores occupying it. Everything is done in a sandstone that just looks wonderful. The aesthetics of the place are only enhanced by the lighting and the foutains. Just a really pleasant place and I really wish I could spend more time down there. My only complaint is that the majority of the stores are all clothing stores that you'd expect to find in any mall. It just doesn't seem like the kind of place you would go to buy clothes, at least I wouldn't. It also lacks any form of electronics store which is a bummer for me.

I also feel the need to plug Sega Superstars Tennis. I bought this before we left on vacation for 5 bucks or so at Gamestop. This game has brought me hours of enjoyment since owning it. A highly recommended buy since you can get it pretty cheap. There's also a Sega themed racing game set in the same vein as Mario Kart on the horizon. It's from the same studio, so I'm definitely looking forward to that.

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I really should have done these blogs at the end of the day instead of at the end of the next day. I'm having a tough time remembering what all I've actually done.

Yesterday we actually made it down to the beach. It was my first time swimming in a large body of water (the Gulf of Mexico isn't actually an ocean, right?) and it was pretty amazing. While I can't really say I did a lot of 'swimming', the water was absolutely beautiful and so clear. I've never seen anything like it before. The sandbar at times was pretty high, resting only a few inches beneath the shore of the water. Yesterday was also a day when that hotel sold hot dogs and nachos. I guess it's not a frequent event because there was tons of people in line for them. They weren't bad at all and made a delicious lunch. Sadly, we didn't get any nachos because they ran out.

Because it was such a nice day, everyone decided to stay out on the beach for longer and we went to dinner later than usual. We went to a place called Dewey Destin's, the certain numbered grandson of the founders of Destin. After waiting a good hour and a half we were finally seated. The server came by and took our orders, whenever she finally delivered our food we noticed something was missing; my food. The server looked at us and said she'd check on my order. She came back out after 10 minutes or so and said that my food should be up any minute. Another 10 minutes pass and she came back out and informed me that they for some reason didn't cook my food and offered me a salad while I waited. So after crunching on some lettuce for a bit, she comes back out and informs me that they apparently ran out of pasta for my dish, so someone had been sent to go buy some from a local grocery store.

...

Yeah why I wasn't informed of this an hour ago when I ordered is beyond me as well. So then I waited, and waited, and waited. I finally got my dish (to go) and a free piece of pie. We also weren't charged at all for my meal. When everything was said and done, we spent somewhere in the realm of three to three and a half hours at this restaurant where only thirty to forty minutes of it being actual eating. To comment on the food, other patrons of our table complained that the balsamic dressing was nearly nothing but vinegar with a bit of worcester sauce mixed in. My salad was simply iceberg lettuce with ranch dressing and a quarter of a tomato. Their hush puppies were edible but not very flavorable, especially when compared to the amazingness of the ones we had the night before. Ryan's fried crab sandwich was alright as well. I tried a leg of it and found it to have an interesting texture but it tasted mostly just like fried batter with an odd aftertaste. The pasta was definitely not worth the wait. The alfredo sauce was good though, probably one of the better that I've had, but definitely not the best. The piece of key lime pie wasn't very tasty in my opinion. The crust was good, but really, just about any pie crust is.

While we were sitting there waiting on my dish, a server came up to who I assume was a manager or owner of the place and said something about a table getting ready to leave. The guy simply just said "I know". Very shortly after that while he was still standing there, another server walked up to him and informed him that a table just walked out, to which he responded again with "I know". So in addition to our table not having the best of experience with the restaurant, apparently another table was so tired of it they just left without paying their bill and the person in charge let them because it was the house's fault. Overall not the best place we've eaten and "alright" at best. I'd eat there again, but not if we have a repeat of what happened last night.

In video game news, we beat Dead Air on Expert last night and Ryan got his What Are You Trying to Prove achievement. We played Peggle for most of the day.

In closing, I present to you this image of how Twilight should have ended: http://imgur.com/3GUnR.jpg

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Day 3 of vacation. Woke up at around 2. Played some 360 (Penny Arcade episode 1). Saw the new Harry Potter movie last night. Everyone had told me that it steers very far away from the books. I guess I really don't remember the books because there wasn't anything absolutely staring me in the face that was wrong. Overall I thought the movie was pretty decent. There were parts that were somewhat slow and seemed unnessecary, but overall I thought it was good. I feel like I need to go and rewatch the previous movies as well.

Last night we went to a restaurant called Louisiana Lagniappe. It was quite a nice place, the wait staff was dressed fairly formal and the place had the most delicious hush puppies ever. I feel the need to type that in all capitals so you know I'm serious. Honestly though, I don't think even capital bolded letters would stress just how much I enjoyed those little deep fried balls of goodness.

I beat Penny Arcade episode 1 last night. I haven't actually seen the ending yet because I'm trying for an achievement that you can only earn during the last boss. I wasn't able to do it so I'm just reloading my save that's right before it. Hopefully I'll get that taken care of in the next day or two. Ryan and I also started a game of Marvel Ultimate Alliance. Hopefully we'll clear that as well. Tonight's game plan is Left 4 Dead expert run on Dead Air. With that beat, Ryan will finally get his What Are You Trying To Prove achievement and I hopefully will too, but I might not. If not then we have No Mercy to beat on expert again.

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Vacation Part Deux

Yesterday's events of vacation were pretty much resting up from the travel down. Played Penny Arcade Episode 1 a bit. Had a nice 7 hour session of Left 4 Dead where we attempted to beat Blood Harvest on Expert. We got stuck on the finale for a few hours until we finally found a glitch/exploit that actually worked for us to win. There's apparently two trees on the finale that you can just stand "in" and it will take you off the map. So at 6am today, we finally got it over with and I'm now half way to my What Are You Trying To Prove achievement.

Last night's dinner was at a place called Old Bay Steamers I believe. Ryan and his dad split a huge seafood medley consisting of King Crab, another kind of crab, mussels, oysters, and shrimp. I tried some in an attempt to see if I enjoyed seafood any more down here than I do back home and I'm pretty sure I don't. It's one of those situations where if it were in front of me, I'd eat it, but when ordering I'd prefer something else. Additionally, I tried capers for the first time last night. They're extremely salty and honestly remind me a lot of gorgonzola cheese. Not a big fan.

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Vacationlol

In an effort to blog more, I'm making myself scribe the happenings of my vacation. It began comedicly whenever it was discovered we were actually leaving a day early. I was under the impression the whole time we would be leaving Saturday the 17th when in reality, it was the 17th we would be leaving but that was actually Friday. So I scrambled to pack in a hurry and made my goodbyes. We left in the evening and drove throughout the night. The only real interesting things to note of the drive are a stop at a gas station where a statue of a giant chicken wielded a butcher's knife and wore a chef's hat located next to two strip clubs, one called the Boobie Bungalow. Scores points for alliteration and win. The next story is stopping at a gas station around 5 am where 12-15 people were sitting outside of the gas station and just shouting at each other in conversation.

Our actual arrival in Florida occurred at about 7:30 or 8 in the morning. With our place unavailable, we stayed with some friends of theirs for a bit. Throughout the night most of us were only able to sleep but a couple of hours, so it was nice to finally be able to stretch out and rest some. I went from sleeping in the back of a van to a single person loveseat + table chair. For some reason I felt like sleeping on that combiation would be a good idea. After a few hours, the friends we were staying with had their actual vacation room/condo open up, so we left this place and went to that where I got to crash on a bunk bed for a bit. After another hour or two our place opened up.

The place we are staying in is a 3 bedroom condo. It's pretty nice and I really enjoy it. My room is nautical themed which is pretty awesome. I have a wall fixture detailling all the different kind of knots one could tie. We aren't far from the ocean at all and I really should visit it one day this week. The complex we're staying at also has a pool, if for some reason I feel like swimming but not walking down to the ocean for doing so.

So far the sleep I've had has been sufficient. I'm hoping to get back to a somewhat normal sleeping schedule after today. I've had some weird dreams so far on this trip, mostly all in the same day. While napping earlier I dreamt that I ran into an exgirlfriend in a Mass Effect MMO. My last bit of slumber was plagued with a dream where someone would duel me and the duel would be a game on the PS3 where we'd have to rapidly tap either Triangle + Circle, or Square + X. Winning the duel would result in me not dying, only to be challenged to the duel again. Losing the duel meant I would have to replay the duel until I won. I'm pretty sure that's some interpretation of hell.

Of course, the most important thing to catalogue while on vacation is the food. This morning when we arrived into town we went to a place called the Donut Hole. Delicious omelletes and potatoes there. I can't comment on the actual donuts, but I'm sure those were tasty as well. Tonight we ate at a pizza place called the Mellow Mushroom. I believed they said that would be the only chain we eat at this week. I've never heard of this restaurant and I must say it too was quite delicious. I ordered a Buffalo Chicken pizza to see how it compared to some of my favorites back home. The flavor wasn't quite as spicy as I'm used to, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. For the amount of spice it 'lacked', it made up for by being sweet. Ryan and I noticed an all you can eat sushi place not too far from where we are staying. It definitely might be worth checking out. I'm making an attempt to overcome my dislike for seafood while we're out on vacation this week and hopefully that will happen. That's all for now folks, have a good one.

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Start the countdown

August 29th and I'll be a resident of St. Louis. Security deposits sent in already.

Last night I went to see No Doubt and Paramore in concert. I enjoyed the bands, but I feel bad for having low expectations going into the concert. Admittedly, the only reason I originally planned on going was for the cheap price of tickets. Paramore was good but I didn't really get excited for. No Doubt was awesome. It amazes me that Gwen Stefani has gone from being the frontwoman of such an awesome band to such a horible solo artist. I also destroyed my phone at last night's concert, but found a replacement today.

Had a long conversation with a good friend tonight. I'm really lucky to have people like that to help keep me grounded. Conversations like the one I had tonight really help to put things into perspective.

Last few days have been really busy for me. Finding an apartment, celebrating the fourth, celebrating two birthdays, and a concert. Really looking forward to relaxing in the next few days. But a trip to the zoo may be happening.

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Another sleepless night.

Despite my best attempts I am once again unable to fall asleep. Luckily there's a marathon of the Twilight Zone going on so I do have some entertainment.

I've found lately that I've been lacking enthusiasm (lolz) for updating my blog. I've come to realize that when posting on an "anonymous" and public blog there's a fine line between being too personal and not providing enough "entertainment". For those identities I know and are close friends of mine, I have no qualms about posting information about my day to day life and thoughts. Yet for those *checks Google Analytics* seven other people that have visited my site whose origins I cannot determine, well really what do they care about my life and what goes on? Thus I must also provide content that would be entertaining. One may ask, "what does it matter if a stranger views your blog?" Well I suppose it really doesn't. Strangers obviously don't care about specific people or events in my life, so then why do I care that they're entertained on my site?

Lately I've been entertained by Aimee Brock's blog. Despite a lot of her posts and twitter postings being reposts of others', I really do find her to be an interesting and witty person. It's this persona she has created of a sarcastic bitch that I find so amusing. Her site is one that encorporates both personal postings and ones for purely entertainment value. However, she tends to steer clear of posting items that may be too personal and thus not entertaining to all of her readers. So essentially, her blog is for entertainment purposes first, personal notes second. Almost the complete opposite of mine thus far. In a way I would really enjoy to have a site like Aimee's, where anonymous people visit and can get a laugh or two on a fairly regular basis. Conversely, I almost feel like that is the opposite of why I started a blog in the first place. I'm not entirely sure I'd be able to post on a regular basis and with content that someone would really be interested in reading. Maybe one day I'll try it.

On another note, despite being made nearly fifty years ago, the Twilight Zone still scares the hell out of me. It's just so creepy and I love it. Currently on are the episodes from the 80s. One that I just watched is literally a remake of one of the classic episodes. Sometimes I'm really amazed at how often shows and movies that are made now borrow plot devices and even entire story lines from this show. Ever since I first read The Monsters are Due on Maple Street in the sixth grade, I found Rod Serling to be a clever and skillful writer. The constant mimicry of his ideas only reinforces this belief of mine.

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