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Annabel Taylor Hall is quite lovely. (Photo by through-pan*flashing)
I was back in Ithaca for Yin and Lee’s awesome wedding. Being in the wedding kept me from taking too many photos on my own, but I’ll put up what I’ve got later. I had a fantastic time back in Ithaca and I wish them both the absolute best.
Movies
Too busy with weddings!
TV
The League – Always raunchy and hilarious. I really enjoyed the high school reunion episode when it aired and I liked it yet again. Excited for the return of this show.
Top Gear – I selected the ever popular carboat episode for Duffy’s enjoyment. She did, in fact, enjoy it.
Music
Google Music has (had?) a huge sale celebrating the 50th anniversary of the phonograph. Go get some cheap albums!
Books
Not really, no. I’ll sure I’ll pick something up this week to replace 1Q84.
Video Games
Persona 4 Arena – 20 minutes of text, two minutes of fighting, if that, yet I love it. Lots of fun to see where these characters are and the fighting system is actually pretty neat. So far I’ve beaten Yukiko and Charlie’s (Yu Narukami for those who didn’t watch the Endurance Run) first stories. Can’t wait to get to the rest of the characters to find out exactly what’s going on.
Spelunky – Still just trying to master the game and eventually get to hell. Always tons of fun to mess around and die a bunch.
Metal Gear Solid 4 – Konami added trophies in like years later, but it’s motivated me to go back and get my stealth action on. Lots of fun so far. I think I got like three or four trophies already.
Just a ridiculous movie… (Photo by nxusco)
It was a long week, but also a fun one. I got to see some dear friends of mine and their awesome new house, so I’d say it was a total win.
Casa de mi padre – I was expecting a telenovela parody and a silly comedy, but I wasn’t expecting Ferrell to translate his entire schtick to Spanish. It was pretty much exactly that. Best joke payoff was the silent cigarette rolling one going on in the background the entire time. It seemed like everyone had a great time making this too.
The League – I’m surprised at how many S2 episodes of this I missed. Really enjoy this show.
Burning Love – You know what? I think watching the Bachelor(ette) has actually been useful solely because it makes this parody that much funnier. It’s brilliant how well it captures the aesthetics of the genre. Just perfect.
Episode 4 features a favorite actor of mine, Kristen Bell. Naturally I think it’s fantastic and I just had to embed it:
Definitely watch these. They’re hilarious.
Breaking Bad – The cathartic fight between Jesse and Walt at the end of “Down” was just amazing. I’m starting to see why everyone thinks this is one of the greatest shows on TV.
Had some April Smith stuck in my head. Enjoy:
1Q84 – Finally finished the epic. Murakami is an absolute pro at surreal, weird imagery. I love how he touched on all kinds of weird themes from his old book too. Reading a lot by the same author helps you spot a lot about their personality…Anyway, if you like everything to be neat and tidy when you finish reading a book, no, this isn’t for you. If you want to go along for the ride…pick this up. I’d warn first-time Murakami readers to start with another one of his books instead. This is a bit daunting if you don’t know what to expect.
Max Payne 3 – Finished the main campaign. Gritty and rough and just violent and ugly. I ignored the execution stuff because I found it distasteful, but this is an ugly game, like all Rockstar joints. It’s just brutal and mean and vicious. I take that as the right thing to do since it deters glamorization, but I wonder if people still think of the stuff in this game as “cool”. The execution stuff doesn’t help that. That’s definitely glamorizing.
Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion – Big game with Min that I thought I was gonna lose for a while. Lots of fun.
Spelunky – Guys…I finally made it to the City of Gold. I’d never made it there before! So proud of myself. Of course I immediately died, but I’ll make it there before. Next stop: Hell!
SWEAR TO ME!
Smaller audience and better preparation allowed Min and I to finally see The Dark Knight Rises this weekend. Along the way we decided that we were going to become professional blackjack players*. Can’t wait to start my new career!
Man on the Moon – I pretty much associate this movie with Eric because I remember him renting it or going to see it in the theaters or something. Odd that this sticks out in my head, but it does. I haven’t seen enough footage of the real Andy Kaufman to know if Carrey does a good job emulating him, but it seemed not like Carrey and I dug that. Decent movie.
The Dark Knight Rises – It’s hard to live up to the best superhero movie ever, but TDKR makes a strong effort. It’s a different kind of movie, for sure, and its perhaps too sprawling for its own good, but it’s a good ending to the trilogy. Worth seeing, even if the Bane voice is just so stupid. Honestly, it’s dumber than Bale’s Batman voice.
The League – Turned this on to have something on in the background forgetting that I hadn’t seen the first two episodes of the second season. It’s a pretty dumb show, but it makes me laugh pretty consistently so I’d recommend it.
Breaking Bad – The polar opposite of The League. I definitely enjoy the show, but I’ve yet to see the true greatness that makes fans froth at the mouth for this show. Highlight of S2 so far has been Tuco’s uncle. Great old man character and the bell dings were chilling and kind of awesome. Great to see the affection for his insane nephew from the otherwise senile-seeming old man.
Go check out the Humble Music Bundle. Bunch of albums for like $8.
1Q84 – Was not expecting the Aomame pregnancy. This book is in full on mystery mode to me. I have no idea where anything is going.
Greed Corp – Played a game with Eric. Like the risk/reward that permeates the game, but don’t love most of the mechanics. Maybe I’d come to appreciate it with more rounds? Not sure.
Puzzle Agent – What a delightful little game! Had lots of fun just blowing through the puzzles and laughing at all the weird characters of this tiny town. Might pick up the sequel when I finish with a few more games.
Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion – Played a big, multi-star map with Min that went really well. I enjoy the deliberate pace of this game and I also love just sending huge fleets of doom to crush my enemies.
Spelunky – I came so close to making it to the City of Gold, guys. I promise it exists! I PROMISE! I’ll make it there some day…
Saints Row: The Third – Played a little of the alien movie xpack. Fun. Had a game-crashing bug keep me from finishing it, but I’ll get around to it.
The Old Republic – David started a free trial and I’ve been having a blast playing with him. It even inspired me to level up my Bounty Hunter some. I’m playing a totally cocky, darkside-leaning Jedi Knight and I think it’s very interesting to see how NPCs lightly chastise me. Hopefully they start to genuinely fear Cornell Threepwood by the end of his story. That’s an intimidating name, right?
May Payne 3 – Gritty. The shooting bits are tough too and the checkpointing can leave you in a bad way with no painkillers to help. I’m stuck in a particularly brutal firefight right now. I dig the weird presentation bits, but I need to give the game more time.
BIT.TRIP.RUNNER – I was having fun with this until I hit 1-14 and replayed that level for damn near an hour. Then the boss was annoying too. Not a terrible rhythm-ish game, but starting over from the beginning every time is a little brutal.
Sonic Generations – It’s pretty much the same thing with every modern Sonic game. You play the first level and you think, hey, this isn’t so bad! Then the Sonic Team starts introducing more terrible ideas in each subsequent level. By level three I realize that Sonic truly is a dead franchise.
*Not actually true
“Hey Dan, are you still gonna buy tickets in advance?”“Naw, that won’t be necessary” (Photo by Wonderful Malaysia & Veelzijdig Maleisie)
I was supposed to see The Dark Knight Rises with Min. We were pretty excited about it too, but I was a real dummy and I didn’t get tickets days in advance. Whoops. Maybe this week.
The Dark Knight Rises
Breaking Bad – This show came back this week, but I’m still in season 2. All of the praise being heaped upon it reminded me that I should be watching, so I’ve started pushing through again.
The Bachelorette – I…ugh…:sigh:…Listen, I love spending time with Tiffany, but sometimes it’s tough. Guys, guess what? Emily picked Jef. Yes, he spells his name with one ‘f’. If I write more words about this my brain might explode.
1Q84 – Things are starting to heat up. Oddly enough that’s with both of the principals kind of locked into their locations. I might finish this week, but we’ll see.
Usher’s “Climax” is a great song.
Penny Arcade Ep 3 – Got to the bank, but things got super tough. Took a break.
Tropico 4 – Steam sale started and I got my hands on this as soon as I could. I love island management and the soundtrack is pretty sweet.
Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion – Still the best 4X game I’ve ever played thanks to the time pressure of the RTS mechanics. Would love to play more multiplayer games with Min.
The Binding of Isaac – One more challenge left and it’s the hardest one. After that then it’s time to beat the game with all the characters again. Not looking forward to the ??? completion.
Spelunky – Keep getting frustratingly close to the City of Gold and then mucking it up. I’ll get it soon. Then I’ll make it to hell!
When you go to a burlesque show you pretty much expect dudes with mustaches like this. Maybe knives too. (Photo by tmronin)
The Peepshow (not the NV one, but a different traveling troupe) was in Harrisburg this weekend and Tiffany and I were super thankful to have something to do around York. Seriously, guys. It’s kind of boring up there. Knife throwing, sword swallowing, nail pounding, and, naturally, burlesque dancing were on the menu. It was lots of fun. I think it was their last show of the summer, but if you see that they’re coming to a venue near you, definitely check it out.
The Amazing Spider-Man – I don’t understand why everyone’s so mad about this movie. Ok, so it’s a reboot ten years after the last one, but who cares? Garfield and Stone are both orders of magnitude better than Maguire and Dunst as is Martin Sheen as Uncle Ben. It’s a fun movie and I hope they make more of them.
MLB All-Star Game – The National League blew out the AL by getting to Verlander early. It was a pretty sweet game, but I couldn’t get a proper feed the way I wanted so it was the first one I’ve listened to and not watched in like three years
Louie – This show is so impressive. Check it out.
Futurama – The Richard Nixon presidential run is a perfect example of a Futurama episode that bores me to tears. Nixon is such a safe target for “satire”…I dunno, the whole episode was pretty lukewarm, but I did chuckle when Nixon was a giant robot monster destroying everything.
Fashion Police – It’s kind of cute how much Tiffany loves to watch this and gets bummed if she misses it. I can’t complain.
Boston is awesome, guys. Enough said.
1Q84 – I’m really worried that Murakami let Aomame pull the trigger. I’m deep in suspense wondering if she actually did it. On the other hand, I understand why Murakami might feel like that character has served her purpose.
Spelunky – Remains perfect, but my schedule this week has really kept me from playing all that much. Gotta keep at it!
Penny Arcade Ep3 – Sharp writing and sharper combat still. Got my second set of class pins and they’re really creative. I mean, I can be a Dinosorceror. That’s a class that transforms into a dinosaur!
The cutest game to ever make you want to murder your entire family (Photo courtesy Giant Bomb)
Spelunky finally arrived last week and it was GLORIOUS! So good, as a matter of fact, that I managed to rack up 21 hours in it while taking a day off to go to Pennsylvania to celebrate the 4th. Spelunky is razor sharp, guys. Razor sharp.
21 Jump Street – I can’t think of another trailer in recent history that has inspired more ambivalence upon the people I know, but I was secretly amused by it. It turns out that it’s because it’s an amusing movie. It’s not as funny as The Other Guys, but it’s got a similar vibe. Plus it’s got almost every comedic actor working today in bit parts all over. It’s funny, but I wouldn’t spend more than $5 to see it. Oh, also, Dave Franco is like a little James Franco clone. It’s so weird!
Goon – Watched this again with Min since it was on Instant. The major reason this movie works is because it doesn’t make fun of Doug for being a oaf. He’s lovable and he means well and he just wants a place to belong. It’s really quite touching, just very, very violent.
Louie – I’m honestly shocked that something as surreal and arty as this show can be is on FX and is doing as well as it is. I don’t know how the man on the street feels about Louie, but I know that I’m constantly impressed by its reach. Great show. That speech to Pamela in episode 6 was beautiful.
Lupin the Third: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine – Speaking of arty shows, how crazy is the opening theme to this one? I mean, it’s called “New Wuthering Heights”, for Christ’s sake! I wonder how much of the look of the show is based on budget, but that’s actually the show’s strongest point. It doesn’t look like anything else on tv and it’s certainly more mature than most of the other anime I’ve ever seen. Fujiko is an interesting character, but, seriously, there’s not a single episode without her topless (nor can there be! She’s nude for the entire opening song).
Heard a track by The Oneups this morning. Reminded me that they’re pretty good (if you like vidya game music)
<a href="http://theoneups.bandcamp.com/album/volume-2">Volume 2 by The OneUps</a>
1Q84 – Haruki Murakami has never met a plot that didn’t need metaphysical, sometimes bizarre sex to advance it. Not a problem, more something to mark on your Murakami checklist. I do wonder what this means for Tengo and I worry about Aomame. Will she make it through the narrative or will Murakami use her to further motivate Tengo? What is Tengo now? Is he going to be cursed like Leader was?
The Walking Dead – If Spelunky didn’t also come out this week I’d be drooling over this to everyone. Telltale has really figured things out and they’re knocking it out of the park with each episode. Pick it up now!
The Binding of Isaac – Came so close to knocking out the penultimate challenge. I’ll get you soon, BoI. I’ll get you…
Penny Arcade Ep 1 – Finished off a replay of this to prep for Ep3. The game has decent writing, but I think it’s less funny than the other Hothead episode (that or it’s less fresh for me?). Still, easy-ish S-Rank.
Spelunky – Gaming perfection, guys. Perfection! What Spelunky has that very few modern games do is fearlessness. Derek Yu is so confident that his game is good and that it makes sense that he refuses to put in handhold-y player incentives to coddle and usher along gamers. No, you lose “everything” when you mess up and die…everything but the knowledge that you obtained on the previous run. You’d be surprised how much you learn from each death and how things behave. Obstacles that seemed tough to deal with for me are trivial now. I’m starting to see two or three reactions ahead (chess style) of everything I do. Death only comes when I’m careless. Spelunky is hard and it wants you to move quickly, which also makes it harder, but getting that knowledge allows you to just fly confidently
Skullgirls – I picked this up to check out a sweet fighting game and support Min’s cousin msh. The first thing we did, I kid you not, was watch the credits to look for her name. Congratulations on the game credit, msh. It’s a fine game with fine art and I think it’s super cool that you worked on it. Now if only they could put the move lists, you know, in the game proper…That would be nice. I’m glad they got an official tournament at Evo this year, but I hope they’re a bigger part of the tournament next year. It’s a sharp game.
Jamestown – Hadn’t tried this game multiplayer until this past weekend with Min. Lots of fun, but the final boss is so hard!
Penny Arcade Ep. 2 – Funnier than Ep. 1 and a little more creative in its puzzles and areas too. Didn’t dig the final boss/puzzle, but it was fine. Really pumped me up to keep going with Episode 3 even though it was midnight on Sunday.
Penny Arcade Ep. 3 – Had to play this on Insane, did you, Dan? Ugh….SO HARD! I fought the Crabomancer like 20 times, but I finally beat him. Finished playing at 2AM. Whoops! This game has razor sharp RPG mechanics that I LOVE and even sharper writing than the previous two episodes since they’re not leaning on the art or voice acting as much as they could before. Loving it so far, just wish there were steam achievements.
I wish I could make up the fact that I’ve seen two episodes of this show. (Photo courtesy Screened.com)
As you may have figured out from the picture, weekends with Tiffany are a little different for my media experience. I like to think of it as a way to broaden my tastes and attitudes, but it’s also kind of tough to deal with some of these shows without laughing at how terrible they are.
Snow White and the Huntsman – Speaking of stuff I wouldn’t normally go to see…Look, this movie isn’t terrible, per se, it’s just…overlong. Like really long. It’s technically only 127 minutes, but it’s a long 127 minutes of watching K-Stew kind of pull it off. At least Chris Hemsworth has plenty of charisma. There were lots of lingering shots or just plain odd directorial choices, but I’m glad they trimmed it to what it was already. Also kind of weird that all of the dwarves were played by non-dwarves digitally put onto dwarven bodies. At least that allowed us to get Nick Frost smarming about, but I bet the dwarven union wasn’t happy.
Futurama – Nothing says biting, relevant social commentary like an Ally McBeal parody, right? Right?! At least the criticisms lobbed at TV were less dated. Did enjoy the visual homage to Star Wars though. Beyond that, the Slurm episode was tremendously good. The show’s definitely on the uptick for me.
Louie – Season 2 hit Netflix, which is awesome. Didn’t get to finish the first episode because the power went out, but I’m glad it’s there and I’ll be checking it out for sure.
Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives – Best thing on the show: the stuffed porkchops. They took porkchops and, get this, they stuffed them with sausage. So much pig! So delicious looking.
Fashion Police – I think I’m starting to get the hang of this. Joan Rivers makes an inappropriate joke and everyone laughs at the wicked barb. Then they talk about a starlet’s dress. It could be worse, I guess.
The Client List – Not one, but two Lifetime shows this week. In this one Jennifer Love Hewitt lives in Texas and her husband abandoned her and her two kids. What’s a mom to do?! Work in a massage parlor called “The Rub” (not lying, that’s the name) and just do her best. Except her deadbeat husband showed up out of the blue and the cops are on to her…This show is just so melodramatic it’s hilarious. The deadbeat husband, he suggests they put peanut butter on the sandwiches his daughter made and it’s like he shot one of the kids. Why? She’s allergic to peanut butter. The way the music and their expressions changed…THAT made the whole thing worth it.
The Next Food Network Star – This is just like The Voice, but with cooking. Not terribly interesting to me because they were focusing more on being on-air personalities than on food this episode.
Cupcake Wars – All of the house, Tiffany’s roommate and his boyfriend, included, watched an episode where they were making cupcakes for the USO. I love when the show feels the need to subtitle Florian’s French accent.
Drop Dead Diva – I guess this is a show about a model who died and reincarnated into a larger woman’s body, but you wouldn’t know it from this 4th season episode. I mean, this show seems like it left its premise behind years ago (or maybe this is just an isolated episode?). The episode was kind of lawyer show-lite. I mean, it was like your typical network law show, but less good.
Eric started checking out his last.fm milestones and he reminded me that I used to listen to The Zutons a lot. They were my first listens on the service and I hadn’t listened to them in a while. Guys, they’re good. At least I think so.
1Q84 – Continues to be wildly interesting. I mean, this is good reading. Lots of suspense as Aomame prepares to assassinate Leader while Tengo is hiding out with Fuka-Eri.
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom – Look, this isn’t a bad book by any means. It’s just not for me. I admit I went into it with a lot of prejudice, but it does suffer from being over-technical, which I attribute to its author being a technical writer. Doctorow is a little more enamored with the interfaces and technology than he is with the character and action of his story. It’s a story driven more by nostalgia and rejection of technology than character action. Maybe I’m being nitpicky…I dunno. It’s worth a read since it’s so short, but it’s not gonna win any literary awards.
No More Heroes: Heroes’ Paradise – Didn’t get to play as much of this as I wanted to because I was so tired this week. Still enjoying it, just gotta put more time in.
Mass Effect 3 – Did you guys realize how well written this game is? I started playing again to get to the new endings, but man does the game put you a far way back. Not to mention that I’m not confident about my readiness level. Want to play more this week, but Spelunky’s coming, so we’ll see.
The Binding of Isaac – Beat another challenge. Love this game. Got like three challenges to go (and they’re toughies).
No More Heroes is good for some easy cosplay. Travis Touchdown is pretty awesome (Photo by Elliot Trinidad)
Last week felt super long! Thank god it’s all over. At least I enjoyed myself plenty. Week two of the swimming experiment continued as well, reminding me of how woefully out of shape I am. Glad to have seen Kai again too. It’s a bummer that she no longer has work/business in Baltimore.
Prometheus – I went to see this with Ian last Monday. Despite what some critics might tell you, it’s not aggressively terrible. I think that my lack of prior Alien knowledge is what allows me to enjoy the movie so much. I came in with zero preconceptions and zero expectation and I left having seen the coolest surgical procedure ever and a pretty sweet squid vs. Engineer fight. This is not an A+, high-caliber piece of cinema, but it’s a fun summer film. Oh, before I forget, Michael Fassbender as David was INCREDIBLE.
Rampart – Woody Harrelson plays a dirty cop who is all kinds of damaged. The movie kind of starts in the middle and ends in the middle, but it was interesting, if not fragmented. I think most of you guys wouldn’t really dig it.
Futurama – I’ll admit that the fat robot in the Mars University episode was pretty funny. I’m enjoying pushing through this show a few episodes at a time. I hope to get some more in this week.
The Thick of It – Watched the entire first series (I mean, it’s only three episodes. British television, everybody!). The first episode wasn’t particularly funny at all. It was just a lot of meanness and snarkiness, although it’s situationally hilarious in retrospect. In fact, it’s making me smile quite broadly. This show, in case you didn’t know, was Armando Iannucci’s show about English politics that precedes Veep (although it seems that they’re making a new series for 2012). It’s biting and it’s downright mean most of the time (meaner than Veep), but it’s still quite funny, especially past the first episode.
You can get “Black Sheep” by Metric off of the Scott Pilgrim soundtrack, but if you want the Brie Larson version I recommend searching for it on last.fm where they have a downloadable 128 kbps one you can get. Great song.
Here’s another good Metric song:
1Q84 – I’m in so hard for this book. It has gotten so good. I finally know how Tengo and Aomame relate to each other, but I’m not even 1/3 of the way done with this epic. So far the Little People are the scariest thing I’ve ever heard of. I think Aomame is gonna end up infiltrating Sakigake and maybe Tengo is gonna have to save her and Fuka-Eri. We’ll see.
Diablo III – Inferno…yay? As you might expect I’m more interested in playing new or unfinished games so I haven’t logged into D3 in a while. I’ll get more time in this week during Marlins games (unless I end up reading between innings instead).
Civilization V – The Gods and Kings expansion pack came out and I’m really enjoying it. The new Faith system is neat and I enjoyed founding Buddhism, but I have yet to see how it will impact the whole game so far. Haven’t put too much time into it (sometimes I try and rest my arms when I get home since being on the computer all day makes my shoulders hurt), but I expect to win as the Siam empire!
No More Heroes: Heroes Paradise – There’s so much going on in this game that it’s hard to pick out just one thing. It seems that Suda51 is intentionally satirizing the video game fan and his pathetic existence in Travis. He has a lust for blood, is an otaku (he is mocked for this), and he endlessly and pathetically lusts over women. Most of the other assassins are similarly psychopaths and the game pretty heavily breaks the fourth wall. For what you’d think would be a mindless game, this has some hidden depth that I’m thoroughly enjoying.
Alpha looks seriously creepy there. Wow. (Photo courtesy ComicVine)
In a weekend full of grief over some terrible Marlins losses thanks to anemic offenses I finally got around to finishing Dollhouse…
Indie Game: The Movie – Steam’s first movie! I didn’t kickstart it, but I was more than happy to support it post-release. It’s not super informative if you don’t already know a bunch about indie video games, but it’s entertaining to see three artists at three stages of their careers and the minds and personalities that go with each. It makes me really crave postmortem analysis of Fez as well.
Dollhouse – I think it’s safe to say that this is Joss Whedon’s weakest show (although I haven’t seen Angel yet…). Most of the complaints were with Eliza Dushku not being up to the part, but I think she eventually grew into the part. The second season was full of a lot of melodrama and, as Min noted, felt very rushed, but I think that Joss had enough time to put a perfect little bow on the series and wrap up all the loose plot threads rather nicely. I’d much rather recommend that people watch The Wire, but if you’re looking for something second tier to enjoy and you’ve already seen Firefly, you could do worse.
Patton Oswalt: No Reason to Complain – Comedy pairs perfectly with Diablo or another similarly mindless game. This isn’t Oswalt’s funniest work, but I enjoyed it alright.
Louis C.K.: Hilarious – Man, Louis C.K. is funny! I don’t know why I’ve never seen his standup before, but you should catch this before it leaves Instant on 1 July. I loved the bits about how unappreciative Americans are. Good stuff.
Futurama – I’ve only seen like six episodes of this show. Everyone seems to love it. I’m checking out the first season. Saw the garbage ball one and the one where Bender gets hooked on electricity. Had some funny moments, but not hilarious ones. I liked the musical bits in hell and seeing the Beastie Boys was bittersweet.
Guys…the video to Girls’ Generation’s new single, “Paparazzi” came out. The stealth conversion of the site to a K-Pop repository continues.
1Q84 – How long has it been since I last read this book? Holy cow! Got a bunch of chapters in. One of the characters has realized that something might be up, but I don’t know how Aomame is gonna tie in with Tengo’s story. I’m intrigued, but I’m frustrated by my usual pet peeve of men writing women like they feel like women think. I mean, I can’t confirm that Murakami is being inaccurate with his portrayal of Aomame’s thoughts, but it doesn’t quite feel right to me. Then again, what the heck do I know about how women think/act?
Diablo III – I’m in Inferno! Now I’ve just gotta beat Diablo again. Lost another Hardcore Min. Rest in peace Min the Demon Hunter. Your deeds will be forever remembered.
The Binding of Isaac – Great time killer. Gotta make more progress, but these challenges are tougher than I realized they’d be.
Poker Night at the Inventory – Trying desperately to get the four-of-a-kind or straight flush achievements, the odds of which are 72,192.33 : 1 and 4,164 : 1, respectively. Got a lot of poker ahead of me…at least Texas Hold ’em has softer odds.
No More Heroes: Paradise – The recent release of Lollipop Chainsaw reminded me that I’ve got a Suda51 backlog that needs clearing. Lotta character and personality to this game. I like Travis Touchdown and I like the fighting for now, but I don’t love the busywork nature of it all. I’ll survive the part time jobs and assassination missions mostly by thinking about the statements that Suda is trying to make, but I have a much harder time dealing with the temperamental motorcycle and overlarge overworld.
Stay calm everyone, but the Bounty Hunter class quest deals with an albino wookiee!
This is suuuper delayed, but I’ve been traveling and enjoying the holidays and recovering from sickness and that all takes time, you know?
Bridesmaids – Viewing number 4ish. I love the flip out scene where Kristin Wiig and Maya Rudolph have it out. Great scene.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (US) – My favorite game to play while watching this movie is to count how many walkouts from people who didn’t realize there would be violent rape scenes in the movie. I was a huge fan of the remake’s casting. Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig did fantastic jobs in their roles. Some people prefer the original Swedish, but I think these actors have more sizzle. Also, Rooney Mara’s got a fantastic body. Just sayin, guys.
Mad Men – Watched the first episode again with my parents, Dave, and Kendra. Guess what, Dave, you’re wrong. We are all born alone and we do all die alone. Don and Rachel’s interactions were so amazing in season 1. I don’t think any other person challenges Don in the same way the rest of the series. It’s quite interesting to watch it again.
How I Met Your Mother – So great to just be able to pull this up and watch it anytime I need to with Netflix now. I definitely like pulling one up right before bed.
Have I ever mentioned that I don’t like Christmas music? I don’t like Christmas music, guys. Thank god I’m not home anymore, I almost strangled someone.
1Q84 – Got about two chapters into this bulky Murakami epic. Seems very intriguing. The part about the literary prize stuff especially makes me wonder where the story is going. Could be lots of fun.
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) – Turned out to be a light, but funny read. Ultimately it’s a women’s book, but I found it to be appropriately funny and fun.
Chrono Trigger DS – Inspired by the Giant Bomb Endurance Run, I revisited CTDS on my plane ride home. Lots of fun, but it’s weird to see the name changes and translation changes. Good stuff.
Star Wars: The Old Republic – Man, the class quests continue to be awesome! Turns out that Darth Zash wasn’t trying to kill me, per se. She only wanted to take over my body with her spirit. Then Khem Val went and interfered and, whoops, now they both inhabit his body. It’s pretty awesome.
