Random thoughts...again.

Today I was thinking about movies. Yeah, that's kinda vague, but I'll explain it. I was thinking about how weird it is that when I was young, I absolutely hated certain movies or thought they were boring, or just didn't care, but now some of those same movies are among my favorites and I actually LIKE the boring drama type movies that I hated as a kid. It's just weird when I look back on watching stuff like The Good the Bad and the Ugly, To Kill a Mockingbird, and maybe even Anne of Green Gables (I HATED it as a kid, but I haven't watched it since so chances are I'd actually enjoy it now) and I now realize how big of an influence they had on me. Anyways, just something that popped into my head.

Tonight I went over to Houlton with Gemma and Jess. It was fun for sure and it was infinitely better than sitting around home doing nothing. We ate supper and then went over to Marden's and Wal-Mart. I was feeling kinda awkward and out of it while I was following them through the women's clothing section, but that's probably because I've never shopped with girls before and I have a tendency to get confused easily to begin with. No big deal I guess, I went and looked around by myself and found a few cool things. A toy for Pepper (which he hasn't seen yet because he's outside, stupid cat), some little picture album for when I get a digicam, and the Rushmore soundtrack (I recall the music being really good and it was only $7). Not too bad. Definitely better than anything I've found in Saan. So yeah, I had a lot of fun even if we didn't get to watch the movie we had planned on seeing. And just for the record, you two aren't that bad at all and I have no problem hanging out with the two of you. I just have a tendency to be unenthusiastic about things, so that's probably something I should work at. Anyways, that's all for tonight.

Miyamoto: "Get that s#*% away from me."

I know I've already told most of my friends about this, but I found a pic and it's just too funny. The look on Miyamoto's face is just priceless. What kind of idiot asks the creator of Nintendo's most popular characters and games to sign a Sony game machine? LOL

And while I'm at it, here are some more humerous Miyamoto pics. The guy is obviously on drugs, just look at him. Besides, he was influenced by his garden to make a game about Aliens and little weeds that come alive.

Miyamoto - "bring it on you punks!"
Either he's raising the roof or he was caught sneaking into Sony HQ.

Miyamoto and Iwata - "We're taking over the world!!! Bwahahaha!!!"

Well, I just got home from youth and I really have no idea what to think of small groups. I struggled last year, but I got through it alright just by reading from the sheets that Neil gave me. This year I share a group with another leader, and I find it really hard. First I was with Rocky in his group, and I just found it hard to know what to say and how to be a leader when he's taking charge. Not that I dislike not being the one talking. I just felt useless and like I wasn't needed. There were also only 3 to 6 teens in the group, so I decided maybe I should switch to a bigger group. I did so tonight after talking it over a little with Brett and Glen.

Glen's group has more people in it so it wasn't quite as bad, but I still don't feel like I'm a decent leader. I have the feeling that I'm not really needed and I don't know how I would be able to cope on my own. I just can't imagine myself coming up with all the things that I've heard Glen and Rocky come up with. I'd be alright asking questions, but otherwise I don't think I could get through it. I know I shouldn't feel down about this. I'm much better with hanging out with the teens the rest of the night and I'm going to make an effort to get together with them through the week for lunch and stuff. I guess I'll talk this over with Glen on Sunday and tell him the way I feel. See if he has any advice and I can also keep doing what I've been doing and just add some comments to what he's saying. And if anyone else has advice I'd love to hear it.

Grand Theft Auto is over-rated

I couldn't really think of anything worthwhile to post about today, so I decided just to ramble on about my thoughts on a series of games. This probably won't be long anyways. I'm feeling kinda meh and don't really feel much like thinking up stuff to type. Anyways.

Of all the highly rated and overly popular game franchises, the Grand Theft Auto series is the one I hate the most. Other games I can at least see why people like them and I can usually agree that while I don't like the games myself, I do think that they are good games. Not so with Grand Theft Auto. Not only do I dislike the content (I just don't see what's appealing about cursing, blood, violence, and sexual content), but I also think the games themselves are boring and a waste of time. Sure, I never really got into the missions (I only finished around 6 in GTA3, and only played the last two games for 30 minutes each) but I feel that I gave the game enough of a chance to hook me, and it didn't. I have to admit that the first time I played GTA3 I was immediately impressed by the amount of freedom the game gives, but after only an hour I had gotten tired of driving around, running over pedestrians, shooting up cops and beating old people to death. Sorry, but these games don't interest me and as far as I'm concerned, they are average at best.

Also, I don't really want to get into the "hot coffee" debate (for those who don't know, they found a hidden sex mini-game in the latest game causing it to be re-rated and pulled from most stores' shelves) but I was reading something that really annoyed me so I'll take a moment to share my thoughts on it. Apparently a few parents and grandparents feel that they can sue the makers of the game because they "didn't know that the game had graphic sex scenes" when they bought the game. This is the stupidest excuse I have ever heard of people trying to get money out of a lawsuit. Seriously, what part of Intense Violence, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, Blood and Gore, and Use of Drugs did they not understand when they bought the game? Considering it says right on the box that those things are in the game should people be allowed to say they didn't know that they were exposing their kids to bad content? Ugh, parents are so stupid these days. If I ever have kids I'll not only check ratings when buying games, but also monitor what they play. *end rant*

Too tired to think of a title.

Well, I've had a pretty busy week for once. Especially in the last three days or so. The first few days of the week I was kept happy with the season premiers of Arrested Development and Lost, both of which were frickin' awesome. And of course there was youth and church on Tuesday and Wednesday, so that was fun. Thursday night I hung out with Gemma and Jess. We were going to watch a movie, but I don't think we were too involved in it, so we shut it off and watched a few episodes of Arrested Development instead. Not sure how much they enjoyed it, especially with me talking about it non-stop. Probably getting annoying to some people for sure. But I had fun hanging out with them and was glad to get out at all. Friday afternoon I hung out with J-Ro for a few hours at his house. Somehow I think he just wanted me to be there so he could have a ride and play Burnout Revenge. He got to play it longer during the rental period than I did. After awhile Jess called, so after I grabbed some supper we went to her place. J-Ro was being a moocher like usual, getting free meals and services, but at least he's thankful. I have to admit that he knows how to charm people. After he finished mooching we went to Movie Gallery and visited Darrek and got a couple of movies. We watched some movie called A Lot like Love (I think that was the title). It was strictly average and I didn't care for it much, but I enjoyed hanging out so I had no reason to complain. I think we're still going to watch the other movie sometime so I have higher hopes for that. Today I spent a couple of hours making sausage chili for tomorrow's church potluck. This is the third or fourth time I've made it, but I still had some help from my mom. What would I do without her? After supper I went to the youth event at the Hopkins', which was fun of course. So that's what my last few days have been like. I have no idea whats' going on tomorrow. There's church and the potluck, and I think I'm going to my sister's to watch Aliens, but otherwise who knows. I'll have to find out if/when we're watching that other movie I guess.

About a Boy named Doug

This week I've been thinking about how I'm just like Will from About a Boy. No, I'm not a jerk like he was (at least I don't think I am), I just feel that each days activities are like units of time. Just like how Will described his days. For example, the other day I woke up at 10, had a nice warm shower, had breakfast, read a chapter of the book that I'm reading, played Burnout for an hour, had lunch, went outside with Pepper and played with him for 30 minutes, went for a walk, went to the library, played three rounds of Dance Dance Revolution, had supper, went to church, watched Lost, chatted on msn, did my devotions, and went to bed. A very full day I'd say. And each day I do the same things, only with a few other activities thrown in and all in different orders. Yup, it feels like I'm living in the movie. Maybe this doesn't make any sense or I seem like an idiot, I don't really care. Just my thoughts on my life right now. Oh, and if anyone has any ideas for other things I can do, feel free to let me know. I need variety and I'm willing to hang out and do things. (I know the title is cheesy, but I suck at thinking up cool titles)

Okami. Another example for games being art.

After watching some videos of Okami, I've been blown away by how amazing the visuals are. Of all the games I've ever seen, this one is probably the most artistic and beautiful. Take a look at these beautiful screen shots. It's not quite like seeing it in motion, but it still looks like a drawing come to life on a TV screen. Definitely can't wait for this one when it hits the PS2 next year.

Dance Dance Revolution has killed me.

Well, at least it has tired me out so much that just sitting down feels tiring. It all started when Josh and Joel convinced me to bring DDR to youth tonight. I didn't have to play it. I know that I've been out of shape all summer and therefore very rusty at it, but I couldn't pass up a chance to beat Josh and Joel (which I did). After only five matches I could hardly stand up with my knees wobbling all over the place. I even see that I have huge bags under my eyes. Craziness. Maybe I should stay away from DDR until I'm in better shape.

weekly weekend post

Well, it's time for my weekend wrap-up post. Not really much to talk about this week. About the only things that happened were the Three Season Ant concert on Friday night (which was awesome, btw), and I went to my sister's house to watch Alien, which really isn't as scary as it used to be. Otherwise I just sat around the house being bored and depressed (nice combo eh?). I really wish there were more young adults at my church. Aside from married couples I mean. Nothing against married couples, but they tend to stick to other married couples and are too busy to hang out, so yeah, I would love it if some more single young adults came to the church. Or even if I met non-Christian people my age. I'm just getting tired of not having things to do, especially with J-Ro off with his friends all the time.

I've also been thinking about how I don't want to get married or date if I can help it. Screw all the people who push questions about dating and whether I'm gonna get married. I don't plan on going into this stuff unless I meet the right girl and everything goes smoothly. I just find it all so intimidating and scary. This is actually something that I decided a long time ago. I haven't cared about finding a girlfriend since I was a teen. But anyways, enough about that.

Finally, I'd just like to say that I am officially desensitized to scary movies. Seriously, as far as I can tell nothing makes me jump anymore. Blame it on the Silent Hill games for scaring the crap out of me so bad that nothing else compares. After going through hellish environments in the dark with nothing but a flashlight and a knife to fend off little demon kids there isn't ANYTHING that can scare me. Well, not in a movie or game. People can startle me rather easily in real life.

Random poll.

Just a little something until the weekends over and I do the usual weekend post. Josh and Joel have been bugging me about how I need to grow my hair out and start a goatee. No way will I consider growing a goatee no matter what people say (I had one last year and didn't care for it), but I might consider growing my hair longer simply because I've never done it. So what does everyone think? Should I let my hair grow, grow a goatee, or am I fine the way I am?

What the heck?

Well, Nintendo finally unveiled their new controller at the Tokyo Game Show last night, and frankly, I have no idea what to think of it. I've come to the conclusion that I won't make fun of it until I try it for myself. Personally, I don't like the idea of using motions to control my games and I have to wonder if my arms will get tired from holding the two controllers in the air all the time. The only genre that I could really see it working for is the FPS genre. Being able to move with the stick and look around and shoot with the remote should be a lot better than using two sticks. I'll likely buy a Revolution simply for the ability to download classic games, but for now I'm skeptical that this controller will work. Anyone want to share their thoughts on this? Does it really look as simple as Nintendo thinks it is? Is this something that will convince non-gamers to pick up the controller and try a game?

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow hype post.

My recent posts have all been on the more personal and serious side, so it's time to get back to games for once. My most anticipated game of the year is hitting stores in 19 days so I'm gonna put up some pretty pics for myself to drool at until it comes out. Ah, 2D hand drawn visuals will never get old! Why must people demand 3D games? Do these screens not look absolutely beautiful and amazing? Am I the only one who appreciates these visuals? Seeing it in motion is even more amazing. Anyways, I'll leave it at that for now.

The start of another year.

At youth that is. I just got home from the opening night of the year and it went pretty good. I think a lot of the teens didn't know how to act with a new youth pastor there, but I'm sure that things will settle down after a week or two. They just need to get to know Brett (and the new youth leaders) and things will be crazier than ever. The youth band did pretty well for their first time. They probably would've done better if Steve had been on guitar, but they did alright anyways. Small groups should really be interesting this year since I'm helping Rocky with the grade 8 and 9 boys. I acknowledge the fact that I suck at leading groups so it should be a lot better having Rocky to help me. From what I saw tonight it looks like he's the type of person to take charge and lead the group, so I'll just let him do his thing and help out where I can. For tonight all we did was play games, so that was fun. So overall it went really good and I can't wait for things to pick up. I also got a ticket for the Three Season Ant concert. I missed out on the last concert they had in the area, so I figured I'd try to go this time. I'm gonna have to ask J-Ro if he's going. And speaking of J-Ro, he's gonna have to get his priorities straightened out. His absence tonight saddened me. It's just not the same :(. Anyways, I guess that's all I have to say for now.

Update: added links to Gemma and Becky's blogs. Because I'm too lazy to click on links in other people's blogs.

Time for a new hobby.

Well, it's another boring Sunday afternoon with nothing to do, so I guess I might as well make another blog entry. If only J-Ro wasn't off kissing Jole's feet (or whatever he's up to). I've been doing some thinking the past few days and I think I'm going to look into getting a digital camera and try taking some pictures of various things. For some reason the idea of putting pics of my cats and maybe of stuff outside on my blog seems quite appealing. Experimenting never hurts I guess. I've never had any interest in taking pictures in the past mainly because I always thought of it involving taking pictures of people, and I never liked the idea of upsetting people by taking their picture. Also, I was always too lazy to figure out how to make my camera work and go through the hastle of getting the pictures developed and the cost of all that. Too much hastle for a lazy person like myself. Anyways, I guess I'll ask Jody or Gemma where they got their cameras and maybe to show me how to work the things. And I'll probably have to sell off some more games so that I can afford a cheap camera, but I'll wait and think about it some more first. Anyone else have any ideas/thoughts on this?

Another exciting time babysitting the Hopkins boys.

Well, I just got home from my latest babysitting adventure at the Hopkins' house and thought I'd share my weekend story. Although it might be kinda boring. It started Friday morning when I got a phone call from Charles. He was planning a last second weekend anniversary trip and had decided to call to see if I could watch Josh and Joel. I'm sure they don't REALLY need to be babysat. If anything my job is probably to make sure that the house doesn't get burned down or something. Anyways, nothing much happened after I got there until the time we went to bed. We had some supper (they cooked me some spaghetti, which I probably shouldn't have eaten since it had wheat) and then we watched Arrested Development (natch) until we went to bed at 11:30.

I had a crazy amount of dreams through the night that woke me up three or four times. They were all pretty insane, but I can only remember one of them. It involved a phone call from Charles and he told me that they were in the badlands. What was even funnier is it was a State, which it is most definitely not. He then told me that they were on their way to Texas and I was trying to figure out in my dream how they could have driven to Texas in one night. I found the whole thing rather humerous while thinking about it during the day and was tempted to ask them how the Badlands were when they got home, but I forgot.

When we woke up this morning we ate breakfast and squeezed in another episode of Arrested Development (so predictible). Then we took off for M.E.S. Music since the guys were supposed to play sometime and they needed to help set up. After I dropped them off I took off to get something to eat, since I can't eat hotdogs and pop. First I tried Subway and after standing in line for 5 minutes I noticed the sign saying that their debit machine was down. I figured I'd just have to go to Dairy Queen and get a salad there but when I got there the store was still closed (something that took me a couple of minutes of sitting in the drive thru to realize). So I gave up on lunch for the time and went to pick up J-Ro. After I dropped him off at the event I went back to Subway with money from the bank and finally (!) got my salad.

Not much else happened during the day. I hung out with everyone at M.E.S. Music and listened to the bands. The youth band was good, but only played three songs, and I would've liked Dean's band better if they had played 70s and 80s rock. Most of what they played was too close to being country for my taste, although they were definitely very good. Then we went back to Josh and Joel's and watched a lot more Arrested Development. J-Ro joined us for awhile but he still doesn't seem to appreciate the hilarity and awesomeness of the show. When Charles and Karen got home I took off and made my way back home (to my glorious computer).

Star Trek sucks.

I'm sure that I'm just begging for hate mail and flames, but I really don't give a crap. My father is watching Wrath of Kahn tonight, and I just thought I'd state how much I really hate Star Trek. Now, I love other sci-fi. Star Wars, Blade Runner, etc is all amazing. But I just don't see what's so great about Star Trek. I don't find the characters appealing, they always get into the same bad situations, holodecks are retarded, and the space battles are completely boring because all it ever shows is ships shooting each other and everyone on the deck falling down. So yeah, I hate Star Trek and I don't care what people say. I'm sticking to that opinion.

And on a completely random and unrelated note, I absolutely love hot showers. Don't know where that came from, I just thought I'd say that. Although I'll probably regret my hot showers once I get skin cancer or something.

What's up with Saan?

I just went in there today to see what DVDs they had (Jody mentioned something about them having a large amount of new DVDs) and was shocked by how many good movies they had at cheap prices. I wasn't expecting to see stuff like Sideways and Shaun of the Dead for $10-$15 new. Before you'd be lucky to find one or two decent previously viewed movies. I'm guessing that they restocked when they went through all the trouble they had earlier this year. In any case, I picked up A Beautiful Mind and Notting Hill (for my mom) and will probably go back sometime for About a Boy and a few other films. I was also kinda ticked off when I saw that they had Schindler's List for $15 new. I paid $30 for it last spring and it ended up being full screen! Dang it, I should've waited!

Oh, and now that I have A Beautiful Mind on DVD, I have no use for the VHS tape. If anyone wants it, let me know. Yup, another freebie that J-Ro will probably get.

My rant of the week.

Dear person responsible for keeping Blade Runner's SE DVD off shelves:

You are a jerk. I've been waiting three years for a good Special Edition of Blade Runner and it's thanks to you that Ridley Scott can't put it out on shelves. I was reading earlier this week that Ridley has even cut a new version of the movie and had planned on including the theatrical version on the DVD with the new version. This makes the long wait even worse, since Blade Runner happens to be one of my favorite movies. Its perfect mix of film noir and sci-fi is something that no other film shares. Now stop being a jerk and let them release this DVD so that I can spend my money. Thanks.

A tribute to my childhood

I'll let the pics speak for themselves. It's in two parts because stupid blogger wouldn't let me post more than 5 pics at a time.

A tribute to my childhood. cont.

Random thoughts.

A lot of things on my mind lately, so I'll just dump them here.

1. I'm kinda depressed after watching the news all day yesterday and seeing what's going on in New Orleans. I'm losing even more respect for the Bush Administration. I'm also disgusted with "Christians" saying how this is vengeance from God for homosexuality and other sins that had taken over the city. Idiots...

2. The Constant Gardener is yet another critically acclaimed movie that looks really good but has a bunch of sexual content and nudity. I'd like to thank directors for putting garbage in their movies. I just love how you get me all excited about your upcoming movies only to have me find out that I can't watch it due to content. *end sarcasm*

3. It looks like I'm definitely selling my car. My father has it sitting at the bottom of the driveway with a "for sale" sign in it, so if it sells I'm gonna have to share the truck and van with my parents. Should be interesting.

4. I already told a couple of people, but I'm switching doctors. McLaughlin doesn't know crap about my condition and is taking forever setting up tests, so I'm switching back to my old doctor, Dr. Goodine. She promised that she would do her best to get things done to help me, so I guess it's worth a try.

5. In anticipation for the new Castlevania game coming out, I've dug out my copy of Symphony of the Night. It's amazing how addictive this game is even after playing through it 10+ times. I'd even say it gets better with age.

6. I'm disgusted with myself for buying Nintendogs. After playing it for 30 minutes I came to the conclusion that I hate it. I should've known better than to try something that has no purpose or goal. Looks like I'll just have to trade it in and lose $20.

My thoughts on the Star Wars movies

Nothing interesting has happened this week, so I figured I'd make a post about my thoughts on each of the Star Wars films. I'll go in order of release, rather than start with the prequels.

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope - Still a great movie that hasn't aged too badly. The first half of the movie is a little on the slow side, but I still love the characters, story and music. I could do without the crap that Lucas put into the Special Edition, but I can put up with it. And the death star battle will always rock my socks off. Final Score - 9/10

Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back - By far the best in the series. Empire will NEVER get old. The Hoth battle frickin' rocks, the asteroid chase is one of my favorite moments from any movie, and the Cloud City scenes give me chills! I even enjoy the Dagobah training scenes. I also thought this one had the best moments between Han and Leia. I love all the snappy remarks they give each other. I will love this movie till the day I die. Final Score - 10/10

Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi - My least favorite of the original trilogy, Jedi has too much of George Lucas' goofy side in it for me to truly love. I find that the Tattoine stuff is a little slow and the Ewoks are just too goofy for me to like. The only things that I still love are the speeder bike chase, battle over the sarlac (sp?) pit, the battle of Endor, and the chase through the Death Star. Final Score - 8/10

Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace - A steaming pile of crap. The only thing keeping me from giving this a lower score is the awesome duel between the two jedi and Darth Maul, and even that is ruined by other scenes cutting in. I suppose it's not too bad at the first before they go to the planet as well, but that's not saying much since it's only about 10 minutes. Jar Jar sucks, Jake Lloyd sucks, the writing sucks, and pretty much everything else sucks too. Final Score - 3/10

Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones - Not quite as bad as TPM, but still far from being good. While I enjoyed most of the action scenes (the factory scene sucked though), the rest of the movie was horrible. Most notable was the horrible dialogue between Anakin and Padme. "I hate sand"? What kind of crap is that? This movie confirms that George Lucas is over-rated and can't write a script worth crap. Final Score - 5/10

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith - I've only seen this once and the experience was ruined by the sound being warbled for the first 40 minutes, so I can't make a good judgement on the movie yet. I did like it better than the two previous films(which isn't saying a lot), but I still thought the dialogue was horrible and I hated the reasons for Anakin's turn to the dark side. I also hated what they did to the usual awesome James Earl Jones. Screaming "NO" was beyond cheesy. However, I loved all the fight and action scenes and Ewan McGregor WAS a younger Alec Guinness. Temperary Score - 7/10