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April 30 LOTR: The MusicalWent and saw this today. It was so amazing to see. The set designs, the costumes, the music, etc. was all amazing. The only thing I wasn't too impressed with were some of the songs and some of the casting. Not that any of it was bad but I think it could have been better. The music during the battle and actions scenes was nearly as good as the movies though. The set and stage design were completely amazing though. The stage was broken up in different pieces that could be raised and lowered as required depending on the needs of the scene. The ring wraiths were really cool and creepy. The fighting scenes were really well done as well. I mean the fight scenes looked more like a dance than a straight out fight but they were so cool. Helms Deep was amazing though.
Obviously, they had to cut a lot out of it due to time constraints. They cut out parts of the story but they also cut out characters as well. The play was about 3.5 hours and had two intermissions. Obviously I would recommend that if you can get up to Toronto, you should definately check it out. I think it's going to other places like NYC and London soon but I'm not sure when.
The next play I plan on seeing is Monty Python's Spamalot. It's coming to Toronto this summer. Can't wait to see it. April 29 Silent Hill Review..zzzzzzzzI went and saw this last night. I gotta say I was none too impressed. I thought the writing was not exactly up to par and the acting was definately not that great either. I realize this is a horror movie and I can accept bad acting but I like bad acting when it's meant to bad and the movie obviously is low budget. Not even Sean Bean could save this movie for me and that's saying a lot since I think he is one of the most talented actors out there.
The female cop in this movie was such an over the top bitch that it wasn't even funny. Plus I've never seen a bike cop wearing leather pants. She looked more like a dominatrix than a police officer.
I also didn't think the movie flowed very well either and it made absolutely no sense and was not wrapped up into a nice neat little package at the end either. In fact the ending just pissed me off. The movie dragged in so many parts I nearly fell asleep.
This movie was also not even remotely scary to me as well. Granted I am immune to most horror movies but I still can find things creepy and I didn't think this movie was creepy at all.
In fairness I haven't played the games so my review is just from a horror movie point of view. The other thing that really disappointed me was the fact that the director Christopher Gans directed the really good Brotherhood of the Wolf.
April 27 Lord of the BraceletsYesterday I came home and found a nice shiny package from ICandee that contained the movie Suicide Club, which I will touch on later once I digest it a little more, and a surprise. The surprise was a bracelet that she had picked up during her recent trip the Big Apple earlier this month. She picked it up at Best Buy. She also grabbed one for Ruffneck. They are for the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. I have included some pictures of it.
You will notice that one side says "Challenge Me". I have decided that this will be my gauntlet. If someone dishonours me or someone I care for, they will taste the back of my hand as I demand satisfaction and put an imprint of the words "Challenge Me" into their skin. I will do this of course until I meet a professional dueler from Charleston who talks like Foghorn Leghorn, in which case I will hide out on a farm and grow some sweet Tomacco.
Gaming Physics Have Come a Long WaySometimes when I play games I am amazed how realistic the characters movements are. Not just the way they run or walk but in other ways too such as blinking or the way the mouths move to match the words coming out. Last night I was playing a game that totally blew me away in the way the characters moved like real life. This game was Dead or Alive 4. I was playing it online last night for the first time with some friends of mine and I couldn't help but notice that when one of the female characters were selected there was some noticeable jiggle action going on. Now this was really only the second time I had played the game ever and I never noticed it before. It was like real life because as we all know the girls in that game are based on the average female. Of course if that is what someone's idea of the average female is then they either watch too much porn or they spend too much time in strip clubs. I know that everywhere I go there are girls in dominatrix outfits walking down the street jiggling away. Hmm...was that too vulgar to say....naaahhh.
If I could be serious for a moment (I promise this never lasts long), I did have a lot of fun playing last night. I didn't do as poorly as I thought I would. Although I got demolished in some levels including one where my opponent, ICandee, was experiencing huge lag and didn't even know she was whipping me good. However, I entered with a C ranking and left with a C ranking. One of our group got an achievement for having a D ranking which earned him 0 points. I'm surprised it wasn't a "DD" ranking considering the game we were playing. The game was a lot of fun although we had a lot of lag issues. One of the highlights was listening to one of our friends frantically pound his joystick while playing the game . Of course I am referring to the DOA4 joystick that he purchased.
However, I think the sheepish moment of the night went to yours truly. I was fighting ICandee on the Vegas level when I knocked her over one of the partians in the middle of the road. By this point I knew how to jump over the partians but before that I didn't so I revealed my original strategy of walking around the partition since she kept knocking me back over it ever time I tried to jump it and attack. Everyone kinda laughed and said "look Sean's just going to walk around the partition" when I revealed that this is what I was doing any other time I played because I never knew how to jump over it. Everyone had a good laugh at my expense, including me of course. I mean if you can't laugh at yourself from time to time then sometime needs to surgically remove the stick from your ass. Thank you.  <--that was me last night. April 26 Mid-Day Ramblings a.k.a. WorriesI've now decided it's time to get back on the horse and start dating again. I had the post-break up life sucks period and now it is time to move on. The only problem is I'm scared shitless about doing it. After being in a relationship for nearly 7.5 years I'm not sure I know how to act on a first date anymore or what to do. I mean I know the basics of being a gentleman and all that, which I like to think I am, but I'm just nervous as hell and I don't even have a date yet. I guess I need to work on my shyness.
What I'm worried the most about is what to do on the date. Dinner? Movie? Coffee? God forbid dancing? Then what does one do after the date vis a vis a goodnight kiss? I'm really worried about this. This may make me sound like a wuss but like I said I was in a relationship for 7.5 years. Really it's no different than people who were married for a long time and then are all of sudden back out on the market. I've even though maybe I should join a dating site like Lavalife. However, all the girls I read the profiles of on there are all complaing about having to resort to that method to find someone. Then they go on to say that they want some Brad Pitt look a like who'll whisk them away on some worldly voyage or some crap like that. I realize that everyone can be superficial about another's looks but shouldn't you worry about other things like is this a nice person, will they treat me well, will they play games with me (and I don't mean video games), etc. Maybe it's just me but I think they are on there because their expectations are too high. I realize that I'm no George Clooney but I still think I would make a good boyfriend. I'm nice, considerate, respectful and sometimes I like to think I'm funny. I definately love to laugh and joke around as some of you may know.
Maybe it's the whole geek stigma that hurts me. I'm not going to apologize to anyone or stop playing video games just because I think it would help me get a girlfriend. They're a part of my life and an even bigger one now that I have so many new friends on Live that I could never give them up. I realize that a relationship will cut into my gaming time. I see how some of the married people in our group can't game probably as much as they would like but hey that's life. At least they get to play games sometimes.
Hell, I read one girl's profile on Lavalife and she said that anyone who likes wrestling can just keep on going. Some of these girls are just going to wind up old and bitter and they'll have no one to blame but themselves.
Maybe the problem is, and I have read this elsewhere, that no one wants to put the time into a relationship anymore. Everyone is too busy with other worries like their jobs to want to work at it. I hate to break it to everyone but there are no quick fixes around. If you want a relationship to last then you need to work at it. To expect some fairy tale to come true with the perfect Prince Charming to come riding out of the sunset (or is into the sunset) is wishful thinking.
I know this makes me sound bitter and really I'm not...ok, maybe a little. All I know is I better figure something out soon because the hair is not going to stay on top of my head forever. This blog will return to it's regular programming shortly.
<--- I don't know why I put that there. :)April 25 99 Nights Hands OnThis is a game (http://xbox360.1up.com/do/previewPage?cId=3149931&did=13) that I cannot wait to get my giddy little hands on. The screens look incredible and I love this type of game. It's going to be so incredible. This is one of the main reasons I wanted a 360 when I first saw screen shots last fall. How about everyone else? April 24 God of War IIGamespot has a pre-E3 report for God of War II (http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/action/godofwar2/news.html?sid=6148166). Personally I cannot wait for this game. I loved the first one and I'm sure this one'll be just as good. I just hope it'll be longer than the original. I rented it and beat it in a weekend. The graphics and gameplay were incredible though. Simpsons Quote of the DayToday's quote is:
'Look, the thing about my family is there's five of us. Marge, Bart, Girl Bart, the one who doesn't talk, and the fat guy. How I loathe him."
I just saw this one on the weekend. We get so much Simpsons up here in Canada one could almost OD on episodes - if that is even possible.  April 23 Simpsons Quote of the DayToday's quote is:
"Marge, you being a cop makes you the man! Which makes me the woman - and I have no interest in that, besides occasionally wearing the underwear, which as we discussed, is strictly a comfort thing. "
I know this one is a little obvious but it is funny as hell.  Call of Duty 2Over the last few nights I've had a chance to play this on Live a little bit and I've got to say I love it. I already had this on the PC and really had no desire to pick it up again for the 360. Then I started to read on Tehbias how the downloaded patch fixed the online and made it fun to play so I went out and rented it. I loved playing it so much Friday night that I ordered it from Futureshop yesterday. I think the controls are great and the online play is fun as hell even though you can't get as many people in a game as you can with GRAW. The levels are so much fun and are built just right for a game with 6-8 people in it. I think I may even like playing this online more than GRAW. I know that sounds blasphemous (sic.) but I just love how smooth it runs but again its unfortunate that we can't get more people into a game due to the 8 man limitation (at least that's what I think it is).
First we played some deathmatch which was loads of fun. I like that everyone can talk to each other while we are trying to blow each other away. It allows us to compliment each other after a nice shot or even do a little harmless trash talking. The one thing I really love about the online is the killcam. I love seeing how someone got me through their eyes.
After the deathmatch we played CTF. This was great. My team won the round 5-0. I think I would have liked it regardless of whether or not I won. Last night we did deathmatch and CTF again (tasted my first defeat in this mode; my record is 2-1) but we also tried a different mode. I can't remember the name but basically is like seek and secure in Far Cry. There is a radio randomly placed on the map and each team has to try to take control of it. The first one that takes control of it has to defend it against the other team. The players on the defending team only get one life each (i.e. no respawns) and the attacking team gets unlimited respawns. The defending team gets one point for every second they control the base until 100 or so I think. The other team gets 10 points if they can take the base away. Once the time has run or the base is taken away then the radio is respawned somewhere else.
All I can is I have had a blast playing this and look forward to more. I'm hoping to play with some others who I haven't had a chance to play with yet or they just ordered it themselves. Here's to hoping there's many great WWII battles yet to come. April 22 People in Glass Houses....Last night we had a rather nice, large group for some GRAW action. I think we got up to about 14 or 15 people. Thankfully our ever gracious host, Ruffneck, has a rather nice bandwith to handle that all. We're playing a few games when someone in the group happened to accidentally kill one of our own (he is also her boss, whcih did make it kind of funny). For some reason a portion of the group (and one person in particular) decided to give her a lot of flak for this. It's not like she was the first person to do this. When you have a group that large, it is bound to happen where someone is going to cross into a teammate's line of fire or someone accidentally launches a grenade and a teammate happens to wander in that area. I'll admit I killed someone by accident last night but then again I was also taken out by a teammate's grenade. Shit happens.
Anyways, time to get to the main point. During the game or maybe the second game after she killed her own teammate, this player was taking a lot of shit from one person. He was rather relentless. I know it was all in fun but what happened next was rather funny and ironic. This relentless person killed one of his own teammates. I'm sure you all know which teammate it was he killed. I made sure he know right away as he wasn't aware of what he had done. This is why people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. At least I think that applies here. Until next time, happy gaming everyone (or whatever else it is you do).  April 21 Would I Do Something Like This?Wednesday's edition of Penny Arcade got me thinking. It would help I guess if you read it first - http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/04/19. Would I do something like this to a significant other? I think I can honestly say that I would. It's not that I am horrible person (at least I don't think so) but I am a technology whore. While I haven't bought an HD-DVD player yet I'm sure I will eventually. I don't have an HDTV yet so there's not much point to it. Maybe in the fall, provided I have a girlfriend by then, I'll come home with some shitty romance flick and the PS3 and say "look honey, I got something for us to watch together". Unless of course I'm lucky enough to get with someone who's like me and then uh oh there could be trouble. :)
I mean I'm going to justify buying a PS3 just because it'll have a blu-ray DVD player. That is what I say to people when they're like but you don't need another game system. So far the blu-ray excuse seems to be working on most people. Not all though. I guess we'll have to wait and see what happens in the fall. :) Can't wait.
Speaking of finding someone like me - is it just me or is impossible to find a girl who doesn't look down on games? Maybe this a problem localized to the Toronto area. Just because I play games on the train to work doesn't mean I deserve to receive weird looks. Sometimes I like to play games on my lunch break and I get comments like there's Sean with his games. People poke fun at my because I love games. I think it's because games still have a stigma to them of just being for kids and a 25 year old shouldn't be spending his time playing. I don't know if anyone else has had this problem but I'm sure others do. I know girls who spend more on clothes in a one shopping trip than I spend on games in 2 months. Oh well, just me bitching again. 2006 Stanley Cup Playoffs - Round 1Well, the "real" hockey season starts tonight with the first round of the playoffs. Even though my beloved Leafs are not int it, I will still watch some of the games. I am now going to give my predictions for the first round. I won't bother with how many games I think each series will go as I never get that right. So here we go:
Eastern Conference
1) Tampa Bay over Ottawa
I'll admit I'm a little biased here as a Leafs fan but I don't think Ottawa has the goaltending to make it.
2) Carolina over Montreal
It's hard not to pick Carolina when they spanked the Canadiens all year. Plus I have bias here too.
3) New Jersey vs. New York Rangers
Jersey finished the year with an 11 game win streak and even took the division. The Rangers finished the year with a 5 game losing streak. Besides, I usually take Brodeur over anyone else.
4) Buffalo over Philadelphia
This one all comes down to goaltending. Unless of course Peter Forsberg has recovered from his injury and can light up the Buffalo netminders.
Western Conference
1) Detroit over Edmonton
While Detroit did win the President's Trophy (best record in the league) I do think their points was a bit bloated due to the rest of their division being weak. However, I still think they have the better goaltending and they also have Yzerman's leadership.
2) Dallas over Colorado
Unless Theodore is fully healed and can have another playoff like he did a few years ago this will be over quickly.
3) Calgary over Anaheim
Hard to argue against this gritty Flames team especially with Kiprusoff in net. He had over 40 wins this year. Unbelievable.
4) San Jose over Nashville
Nashville lost their goalie Tomas Vokoun due to a blood clot in his stomach. I hope he recovers quickly. They can be very scary. However, due to the loss of Vokoun and the fact that Joe Thornton is absolutely on fire for the Sharks I'm picking the Sharks to win this series.
Thanks to anyone who read this. I'd love to hear some other predictions. I will post my predictions for the next round and my results for this round in a couple of weeks (give or take) depending on when the next round starts. :) Game Time: Will the Curse Continue?According to a story over at 1up.com (http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3149824) Seattle Seahawks running back Shaun Alexander will be on the cover of the next edition of Madden football. There is a theory going around that being on the cover of the game is like being on the cover of Sports Illustrated - it puts a curse on you. Eddie George was on the cover of 2001 edition of Madden and was injured that season. Donovan McNabb was on the cover of the last edition and suffered many injuries during the season. It almost makes you wonder why anyone would agree to be on the cover of the game. Hopefully he is able to reverse the curse because he is a damn good football player and I'd hate to see him get hurt. April 19 Simpsons Quote of the DayToday's quote is:
"I notice that your house smells of feces. Not just monkey feces either"
This scene always has me rolling on the floor in laughter. Movie Review: Scary Movie 4Went and saw this tonight. I gotta say it was pretty gorram funny. It's pretty much what you expect from this kind of movie. Some of the jokes they overused but overall it was funny as hell. The segment from the trailer where they spoof Tom Cruise on Oprah was probably one of the funniest parts of the movie. Some of the scenese spoofing the Grudge were really funny as well. Craig Bierko (Cinderella Man, Dickie Roberts) was great as the lead man in the movie. The Brokeback scene was friggin hiliarious. Bottom line is that if you enjoyed the other movies and movies of this kind in general I would suggest that you see this. April 16 Simpsons Quote of the DayToday's quote is:
"Smither's Halloween is upon us. Hang the decoration." Afternoon Delight (and other late night ramblings)Yesterday (Saturday) I woke up in one of the best gorram moods that I've had in a long time. Then the day just got better as I got to have a little afternoon delight with a couple friends of mine. Got me some online gaming in the middle of the day instead of always at night. It was a nice change of pace. Played some Burnout Revenge (I have some work to do rival wise as someone has 4 rutting takedowns on me). That game's always lots of fun, even if I only get $6,900.00 in crash battle. Even if I took some flack because I happen to live in a country with good beer and hockey. I kid of course or even being the youngest in the group. Can I help it if I was born a mere 4-5 years before them? Unfortunately I was unable to follow them into DOA4 as I do not have it. Man was it sweet to play some games midday.
Now, the two people I played with, and I would hope they know who they are, I would like to think are not just my best gaming friends but are also becoming just plain good friends. They are definately 2 of the best people I have ever known. Hell they still put up with me and my weird ways (well the ones they know about anyways). I just wish we all lived a little closer so that we could actually hang out in person and not just online. Here's hoping we get that opportunity one day. They both helped me through a rough time and I really appreciate that. *sniff* I promised myself I wouldn't cry.
 Speaking of crying, I watched Field of Dreams again today. The movie that is said to be the one that can make grown men cry. Now I've seen this movie quite a few times, but today was the first time I felt the faintest urge to shed a tear. This definately has to be one of my favourite movies of all time. Definately my favourite Costner movie followed closely by The Untouchables.
Now, I don't know why I woke up this morning in such a great mood. I had my usual amount of sleep. Granted I did have a good night of gaming last night. Btw, thanks for the Gauntlet Ruffneck and ICandee. Maybe it was because I am finally past the breakup and ready to move on with my life and maybe even start dating again. I'll have to see if it lasts but man I felt good today and it was awesome.
Going back to the topic age (touched on very briefly above), it's amazing how differntly people view getting to a certain age. While one person could feel great and youthful at say 40 another could feel old and ripe at 25. Now, I'm 25 and I can that I do not feel old at all. I may like to kid around with those older than me that I am an old man at 25 but I realize that I am not. What do I think is old you may be wondering? I dunno. I guess it's not really for me to judge. It's more about how an individual person feels. If someone's 60 and they don't feel their age then I guess they are not too old yet. I guess this is especially relevant today with older women dating younger men. While this was not too common 10 years ago, it sure seems common now. They have "cougar parties" in Toronto, and I'm sure other places as well. Now I personally would not have a problem dating an older woman but I think 5 years would the maximum age difference. I'm heading into a time in my life when I want to settle down and possible start a family. I don't want to start a relationship with someone who already has kids and all of that and doesn't want anymore. This may sound selfish or shallow but I think I'm allowed to have this opinion. Although at this point, I may have to take what I can get. The one thing I know for sure that I'd like to meet someone, get married and then possibly have a couple new geeks running around the world. Although if I marry someone who is as big a geek as me, the poor children could be named Homer or Bart or something else along those lines.
At this time though I would just like to thank everyone who reads my ramblings and provides their comments. I always look forward to reading them. Until next time, I'll catch y'all on the flipside. April 15 Game Time: WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2007I, for one, am eagerly awating this game. Gamespot has some videos and screen shots up and all I can say is I just drool looking at the pics. So sexy (I mean the quality not the wrestlers). Here take a look for yourself: http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/smackdownvsraw2007/news.html?sid=6146959&mode=previews
I love wrestling games. My favourites were the WCW games on the N64. The gameplay was amazing. I wish the new wrestling games would have gameplay like that with these amazing graphics. The wrestlers look so real that you think the sweat would just come through the screen. I just wonder how current the roster will be. Will it include God (Shawn Michael's tag team partner at the next pay-perview)? As stupid as some of their storylines are getting, I still am really looking forward to this game.
On a sad note, the Leafs have been offically eliminated from the playoffs.  I guess I just have more time for gaming with my friends (according of course they aren't getting sick of me yet)  . |
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