Borderlands-2

The characters don’t actually look this good, but this game is super fun with multiple people. There was a point this weekend where I thought I was gonna clean to prepare for David and Kendra’s visit this weekend. Then I ended up playing Monaco with David and Min, Borderlands 2 with Yin and Lee, and Dead Space 3 with Dave, not to mention all the Poker Night and Bioshock Infinite I played on my own. Oh well…I’ll get a chance to clean later this week, right? ...

Fun fact: The blonde in this picture is Julia Stiles! (Photo courtesy emrahozcan) Wow guys, this is pretty late, huh? Sorry bout that! Movies Silver Linings Playbook - It may be the most accessible Oscar nominee to watch, but that doesn’t preclude it from being just astonishingly well acted. Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper turned in fantastic performances. I have a hard time imagining a person who would dislike this movie. ...

Even the Pittsburgh Pirates played video games this year. Knock on wood, you guys, but I managed to get through 2012 without having all my video games stolen from my house while I was sleeping [EDITOR’S NOTE: It’s 2013 now, you dummy. You don’t need to knock on wood]. Should that even be an achievement? 2012 seems to be a shift in the status quo. Perhaps it’s because the new console generation hasn’t yet kicked off, but I feel like fewer and fewer AAA, big budget titles have been grabbing my attention lately. Of the 56 games on this list I feel like very few (about 12) were big, huge landmark games. Maybe that’s not all that different, but it feels different… ...

A French (I think) poster for Django Unchained (Photo courtesy Lyricis) I had a really fun weekend hanging out with Eric’s family as they went to catch movies in shifts. Maybe when she gets a little older I’ll just babysit while you guys go catch the movies together. Movies This is 40 - During the movie I realized that Judd Apatow is making slice-of-life style movies. Sure, not a whole lot “happens”, but there’s tons of character work. Sure, some of it is just there to be funny, but the movie was the funny version of all those indie dramas about lost love and/or the maturation of relationships. Going into this think more Funny People than Knocked Up. Also Apatow’s kids do an alright job acting. ...

Ron Swanson from Parks & Recreation Lino Block Print Not everything’s back yet, but TV! It’s back! Movies Cabin in the Woods - Watched about 20 mins while Scarlett was napping. I wonder what Danielle’s gonna end up thinking of the movie. I’m a huge fan. Love Fran Kranz TV The Daily Show - The Romney gaffe-fest made for some interesting commentary this week. Love the bit about how being Latino would make everything easier. Yeah, try being a minority for real Romney… ...

Dead Redshirt It was a really video game-y week with (nearly) finishing Mark of the Ninja and the Friday launch of FTL: Faster Than Light and I don’t think it’ll get any less video game-y with Borderlands 2 coming out tomorrow. I’m actually glad FTL didn’t come out until Friday because I would have gotten nothing done otherwise… Movies The Words - The movie tries to be poignant and interesting as it examines the consequences of decisions that none of the characters suffer very much for making. In fact, the framing device is clumsy and not nearly explored enough so no one cares that Quaid was really Cooper. No one understands why Olivia Wilde is so obsessed with Quaid either. Additionally, it suffers from that problem where this book, The Words, is supposedly an excellent piece of fiction, but the narration which is presumably prose coming straight out of the book is stunted, weak, and unimpressive. ...