Last night was most definitely a game night, the likes of which I haven’t had in ages. Ian and Darek were both over to play some New Super Mario Bros. Wii and I was curious about whether or not I could ruin more friendships, so I started the evening with tomfoolery in mind. In our marathon session (from about 1800 to 2300) we played through worlds 1, 2, half of 3, and 6-8. Like most Mario games, the first two worlds were pretty simple and there were few instances where we all died that weren’t caused by stupidity, so we really started to let our jerk flags fly. Some things we discovered while being tools: ...

Deep from the trenches, it’s time for your Monday video feature: Embedded Reporter. New Super Mario Bros. Wii came out yesterday to the delight of many who missed old school Mario adventures and were looking for a chance to relive the fun of the old days with their family and friends. It also shipped with a 4-player mode that I’m convinced will end friendships, break up marriages, and devastate any other relationships you might have. Just one person acting like a jerk (hint: it was me) in the 3-player matches I played with Eric and Danielle was enough to have her swear off of the multiplayer modes, so imagine four people going nuts. ...

The pride of my trip to Japan no doubt has to be the 12 jersey collection I brought home with me. Here is a quick rundown of each of the jerseys, a little background behind each, and what I think of it. I’m gonna cover them in the order that I got them, so that puts the Giants jersey a little later, even though that was the first game I went to. ...

Deep from the trenches, it’s time for your Monday video feature: Embedded Reporter. What did I spend most of this weekend doing? Playing Dragon Age: Origins and watching The Wire. Only one of them is new and only one of them has a fancy new video review to watch. As a special bonus, watch the Giant Bomb guys Quick Look the demo for Left 4 Dead 2 and miss the best graffiti in the first safe room. ...

No Game Overview today, we’re gonna finish this up since I didn’t get to it today (World Series business) And so it came to pass that I went to Japan, saw some baseball, and came back home with a greater appreciation and understanding of Japan. If you remember the first entry in this series, I outlined a set of questions that I wanted to try and address while I was out there. Here’s what I found along the way: ...

It’s time for Wednesday Morning Quarterback, your weekly sports round-up. Look at that, a World Series actually amounting to something in this day and age. Heck, with Pettitte on the mound tonight, we may even get a Game 7 for the first time in ages! The series started out with a real bang and looked like it would be close after Cliff Lee took the mound against Sabathia, but it quickly took a turn for the Yankees as they mostly dominated the next three games with great performances from Burnett, Pettitte, and Sabathia. ...

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=“A blurry shot of the terminal from Japan on the day I left.”] [/caption] Wow, what an early morning it was. Up at 0430 to finalize my packing and get ready to leave, we made our way to the train station around 0515 to catch a train back to Tokyo leaving at 0600. It’s brutal getting up that early and we even had to wait a while for the station to open at 0530. Along the way I spotted some great Engrish that makes sense when you initially read it, but when taken literally seems like an ominous warning by a secret, evil lobby. ...

Deep from the trenches, it’s time for your Monday video feature: Embedded Reporter. Some of you have already seen this, but this is a clip from an insane Japanese prank show. This is precisely the kind of thing that could never happen in the States. I can’t even imagine how fast the lawsuits would fly in if a show was as intense with its pranks as they are in Japan. ...

Taking this weekend off. Be back whenever you see some posts from me!

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=“That’s the second largest autographed baseball I’ve ever seen!”] [/caption] The last full day of the trip! Even though I was ready to go home, it still felt like I had unresolved business out in Japan. I wanted to go home and be back in my apartment and not traveling, but I also wanted to stay and watch more Japanese baseball and chow down on more curry. ...