Camcorder for Justin!!!

For the project that I keep saying that I'm going to do I need a camcorder. So, since we're getting our Federal return back this week... Jen is letting me have a little for a camcorder that I can use on my Mac. YAY!

The Olympics will be coming to the C.H.E.E.T. Museum in 2008!

I know I am WAAAY planning ahead for this but, since the announcement of the Wii, I have not been so excited for some video game.

So Nintendo has announced that for both the DS and the Wii, they will be bringing out a game for the 2008 Olympiad starring both Sonic and Mario. How cool is that?

So I'm going to spend this year making plans for next year's Olympics at the C.H.E.E.T. museum. Yup. I want to make a big thing of this. I want people to really have fun. I'll look for some cool prizes for winners and we'll see what comes of this.

My wife rocks!

She's being modest here... but she won a contest based on a Smashing Pumpkins thing.

The thing is that the lead singer of the Pumpkns (Billy Corgan) chose the winner from the three finalists.

BACKGROUND: So a long time ago Billy Corgan had an alter ego that he made into an animated alter ego. There were a few animations made, but it eventually fell apart (mostly because of the Smashing Pumpkins falling apart). Well, people were stoked to hear that the Pumpkins were re-grouping. So the story Glass and the Machines of God (a.k.a. GATMOG) was re-viewed.

Jen is a hardcore Pumpkins fan and so she entered a contest from a MySpace GATMOG fansite where the winner was to be chosen by Billy. The three categories were video, graphic arts, and story. When she became a finalist... that was exciting. But she won the whole thing.

My wife rocks.

What a fan-TAS-tic ending!

So I go home from work on Thursday sick. I'm tired as hell, but when I lay down my eyes are glued open. So what to do... what to do... might as well try to finish this game...

And just as the 35th hour rolled around, I defeated Gannondorf. HURRAY! Then I needed to escape the tower.

"Huh? Strange ending..." I thought. Then... I realized that it wasn't over... and I had to fight GANNON! And what an epic battle it was! That I had the uber-two-handed sword made it that much easier... the trick is: (SPOILER ALERT!!!)
...
...
...
...
...
...
Attack the crotch.
...
You heard me right. If you stay facing his 'package' you can eventually slip between his legs and hit his tail. He can't hit you if you're that close to him.

And then I enjoyed the fruit of my labors: the ending (at 35 hours and 46 minutes). And what an ending it was! Truly, one of the top three best endings from any game I have played (best one still being 'Kingdom Hearts').

Review time!
It took me some time to get used to how Ocarina of Time wanted me to think as opposed to the other games. It was different and annoying at times, but I enjoyed the game all-in-all.
The graphics were really good. And while they were very much Playstation 1 graphics genre... I loved having no loading times. I'll pay more for no loading times. The princess (grown-up) was absolutely stellar. She was well-rendered and quite beautiful (for a video game character) with her eyes that spoke volumes... (dreamy sigh)

The only bit I didn't like about the game was the expected venturing about. I did discover that the game map helped out more than I thought it did in that every location had a circle. If it was flashing, something there was unresolved. If it had an arrow, then the main side-quest had something there next.

For giving me such a fun game and for a really wonderful ending, I give Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 4 Driving Warios

Now, I have the cart for Majora's Mask and a RAM expander for my system. I'm sick at home this weekend (and pretty tired right now as I type this) so I'll start when I feel better.

Wife's sick this morning...

Bronchitis. So this goes out to her. Hope you feel better soon so I can kiss you again.

And my wonderful wife got me a Canadian copy of a movie that I had only seen the last 30 minutes of last year and fell in love with: Only Yesterday by Studio Ghibli. I cried and cried for happiness when I saw it last year when TCM was showing their month of Studio Ghibli... and I cried like a baby this time too. GREAT movie.

And a wonderful wife she is.

Sing it with me: Crap! I did it again o/~

"You got me into
A brand new card game.
Well darn it, darn it"

Yup... and it's a game I wouldn't think I would like.

The game is called 'Anachronism', and it's a game of gladitorial battle in an arena with cards as your miniatures.

The cool thing about this game is that it's collectible, but not: Every card is Rare. Or common... depending on how you look at it. So there is no rare card beats your common card. In fact, they come in set packs so you are guaranteed the same 5 cards in specific packs. So if you like how I played with 'Spartacus' then you can go buy the Sparticus pack and get the same exact cards.

Each set is set up in a clear booster pack with a hero at the front... so you know which hero you're getting right off the bat. An each hero comes with the same 5 cards every time... and they are VERY playable right out of the packs too.

So, to start the game, you can buy one pack (~$6.99) and stop there, or many and mix/match. And with ONLY 5 cards making up a deck, you can swap out cards quickly or create a new deck in minutes. VERY COOL!

And each one is based off of a real or imaginary hero from time (the game is sponsored by the flippin' History Channel!!!

The thing that surprised me was the ability to not only play right away, but that no deck is a 'killer' deck. And with games (literally) taking 5 minutes to play, you can really get some good games in and not fret about your loss (most of the time).

So last night I went to learn the game and just enjoy myself fully intending not to like the game. I have played card games before (Magic the Gathering, Legend of the Five Rings, Pokemon, Dragonball Z... the list goes on and on). I was a card monkey. Then I came across the fact that every three months new cards would come out, the games ALL became "He who has the most money to buy the best cards wins"... and so I stopped cold turkey.

So I sit down and see that there's a playmat that one plays this game upon. The heroes move around the arena to fight each other. But they can only hit the opponent when they're in certain positions... like a miniatures game.

The card are really spectacular with one artist creating the art for a specific hero pack. And their 'foil-y goodness' really makes the cards pop out.

Two games into it I was enjoying it... but not completely. I watched two more games before I REALLY started to see how combinations worked, and by the time I had gotten second place in the tournament that was run last night (that took 30 minutes to run for 5 rounds... so fast!!!) I was hooked. I must say that I enjoyed the make-your-own game better than the out-of-the-pack game. I noticed also that the players are not really cut-throat with this game as I have viewed with other games... but I think that's just the crowd at the Haven.

Thanks to Forrest for teaching me the game and buying me my first hero/pack: 'Lu Bu' from the novel/historical record 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms'. Thank you so much, my friend.

* Wikipedia Page for Anachronism Here
* Informative blog here

Zelda was right!

So, the comic of Wario wondering how the doors open when torches were lit was very funny... I wondered that myself...

But I'll be damned if an ancient inventor didn't figure it out!

Heron of Alexandria made many cool devices including the world's first VENDING MACHINE! And one of those inventions (I sh*t you not) was a door that was opened by lighting torches.

GameJew sings to Miyamoto

'THE' Miyamoto. As in Shigeru Miyamoto. As in the creator of Mario, Link... yes THAT Miyamoto!

CHECK THIS OUT!

That's all there is to it: GameJew is groovy. I'd really like to meet him someday.

Ocarina of Time: 7 Hours 20 minutes

Thanks again to Psyguy for letting me link to the Wario-in-Hyrule comic 'Greed'.

Well, I played more Zelda last night and i'm getting pretty frustrated with how this game plays. It's becoming too much like II and IV for my taste.

I am getting used to the controls, but this "figure this out on your own with no hints" is getting REALLY OLD REALLY FAST! I can't buy bombs, the Goron guy won't talk to me... and he hates both my songs (Zelda's lullaby and the Sun song), I can't get into the spinning pot although I could land on it when it wasn't spinning, and what the hell are all those bomb-flower thingys? And why do I need to talk to people three times to get information out of them? I don't want to talk to them three times... THEY TALK TOO LONG AND YOU CAN'T SPEED UP THEIR TEXT!!!

And why does that irritating bunny-eared/winged faerie thingy keep interrupting my travels?

"Hey! Listen! Let's brag to Saria about us saving the world?"

"Listen! She'd be impressed! Let's tell her!"

"LISTEN!! YOU'LL GET LAID IF YOU TELL HER!!!"

(swat) (flutters to ground)

THERE! Now you're a floor-rie!

PS3 Song

Thanks to Collin!