I wish to tell you to try the Uncharted 2: Drake's Fortune MP demo. It's a lot of fun, and it's got a cover system, sweet weapons, and the visuals are fantastic, and you can usually climb to higher ground, see a burned out building? Climb the holes in the wall to get to the second floor and use it as a sniper nest.

I'll go on the record saying I liked it. It was campy, cheesy, and stupid fun full of explosions.

A lot of the negativity towards it is people wanting an adult plot or crying that it's a commercial for the toys. I don't know where these people come from, but G.I. Joe is never that dark or serious (some comics I've seen may cross that line a bit though) and the entire series we grew up with was a giant commercial. So I think it was delivering what it aimed to deliver, mindless action and advertising. The fights were well done and had some awesome weapons. The whole mech/van chase through Paris was sweet and the COBRA guns that shot giant shock wave energy blasts were cool.

I went in expecting fun, and it delivered. So reviewers, kindly stop trying to compare it to Shakespeare!

Anyone see GI Joe yet? I'm not looking for an amazing piece of cinema, but explosions and campy/cheesy fun with big budget explosions. Plus, I love me some powered armors. If it hits the mark on being stupid fun, I think it's a good tribute to the series.

Ikasucon was pretty meh. I think if I had money and wasn't in the broken down rape hotel that a serial killers dreams are made of I would have enjoyed it more. I did have a damn good reuben, so you know, that makes up for about 70% of the lame right there. Then add in shark week and a cheesy goth styled MST-ish styled show playing 70's horror movies and it was a recipe for fun. I had nothing prepared for my panel, so we just kind of bullshitted. It was pretty good.

Thanks to the guys I met at/after my Kamen Rider panel at Ikasucon, I've started emulating the Dreamcast hardcore. Classics I've played but never finished like Grandia II, Shenmue, and Skies of Arcadia are all currently being put on disc
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Rini is addicted to Space Channel 5, but my copy freezes on part 3 for some reason. Hopefully it's only temporary. Jet Grind Radio screams awesome cosplay. It's a damn shame most cons would say hell no to rollerblades.

Life has had its ups and downs lately, nothing much to concern me.

I'm biking at least once a day now. I just pretend I don't have a car when I need to run errands and take off on my bike. My only complaint is that I look like an idiot on it. It's too small for me, rusted out, the brakes screech and barely work. Oh, and if I peddle to hard or fast, the chain either falls off or just jerks around, making me look like a spaz on top of making intersections dangerous since I can't rapidly pick up speed or start. Ah well, it's burning calories and saving me money, so I can deal with looking a little foolish.

Ikasucon hasn't told me when my panels are, and it happens that I won't bust my ass running on their schedule. Less than a week before the con and they still don't have schedules up? To say nothing of the fact security never got a hold of me about volunteering.

Since the rabid fanbase has started to dissipate, I've gotten into Harry Potter a bit. I think the fans chased me away from the series more than anything. I really enjoy it, makes me nostalgic for when I was in L.A.R.P's that actually Role Played.

The new apartment is coming along great, even though I've essentially given up on making sense of the bedroom until spinafewtimes shows up for her more permanent stay.

School is soon, so I'm excited!

Sorry I haven't been active online much if you've been trying to get a hold of me. between moving in, moving out, and just randomness, it's been a little hectic to sit at the computer and idle on AIM and such.

Rini has been over, and she is getting extremely comfortable with our new place, which is great. Means I picked a good apartment.

At night, she's been playing Fable II and I've been playing Fable: the Lost Chapters. It's cool. I've really dug the series and really enjoy the artwork for it.

I just wish that Fable II had more of the cutscenes and polish of Fable I in the character interactions. Where Fable/TLC walks you through and gives you cool close ups to admire details, Fable II just sort of locks you into a dialogue where you can walk around and look like an extra lost on set. I really look foward to Fable III. And no, I don't care that Peter Molyneux and Lionhead failed to deliver everything they promised. I would rather a developer reach for the stars and fall short than just not try to begin with.

Oh, and Black and RX are going to be in Kamen Rider Decade, as in the series, not just the movie. Awesome.

I've finally got my computer hooked back up. Means I don't need to bother using the barely running laptop for, hopefully, a good long while.

Moved into the new place. Lots of organizational stuff left to accomplish, but that is okay.

It's been pretty exciting and Rini has been over for quite some time as well, which makes it even better.

This week was turning out very poorly.

List of Negatives:
Damn near broke.
Looked like I couldn't move stuff to the new place early.
A Tiffin friend got worked up at goth night. Shit his pants, then trashed the waffle houses bathroom while we ate, leaving shit smeared everywhere. Then turned into a "OMG Dont say a word, this is only hard on me" drama queen. Oh, and tried to get me to run his ass all over multiple towns.
Lack of Sleep.

Luckily, the week improved;
Rini is here.
Lolita meetup tomorrow.
Mechwarrior 5 is announced.
Mechwarrior 4 and expansions coming as FREE downloads.
I can move in this weekend. =D

All and all, I feel less stressed and better in general. I just wish I had some money. I hate having to put my folks on the spot until the end of August.

When did all of my social contacts start to wither and die? I mean, in my home town. The people I laughed, cried, and grew up with for the last 22 years. Most have become attention seeking drunks, drug users, or have made it a point to quit being productive in any facet of society.

I only have a few people I contact from my home town outside of the occasional bumping into someone late at Walmart. Those select few mean the world to me, while everything around them was collapsing they stood strong and even notice the problems I see.

I've just being getting sicker and sicker hearing of them, and what they've become. Examples: One of my closet ex-friends got married, had a child, and was/is still currently cheating on his wife with the whore ex-fiance of another ex-friend, who has a kid of her own. I want to blow the whistle on this badly, but doing so could land one of my friends in trouble of the physical sort. Another thinks he is tough shit because he thinned out due to rehab and drug addictions(cocaine) and constantly relapses, he is simply too good to hang out with me or anyone else and chooses pot over internet or food. Most don't think they have to work, as society and their parents will provide them everything they could ever want if they bitch enough. I even remember years back when they found it funny to douse frogs in gasoline and ignite them for kicks, or throw flaming toilet paper at houses, or shoot up peoples property with BB guns.
When did my friends become sick, self absorbed monsters? We came from lower/-middle class families in a small town. When did they get this sense of entitlement as well, that they should be cared for? I know it's supposedly an issue cropping up in younger generations now, but where does it come from?


I guess I'm looking for a way to say I stand taller than them without sounding arrogant. They gave up on being creatures of reason and morality. I am by no means a Saint, but I know the difference between right and wrong. Between moderation and addiction. Between justice and crime.

I used to joke that I wanted to go into law enforcement so I could arrest everyone in Tiffin. I really can't say my desire to have them removed from the streets is really a joke anymore.

It pains me, keeps me up at night, and hurts my heart to the point of tears at times to think back fondly on growing up with them. The friendships forged and the good times shared, and then to realize that we don't even resonate at all with one another. Once strong and unbreakable bonds crumbled into nothingness. Sometimes, to be honest, I just want to cry. All I have are fading memories and laundry lists of empty promises made years ago.

I wonder if this is why I have such conflicting social values. I think, at my core, I want to be a relatively social person. It's why I do random things at cons, or I won't turn down an invite somewhere even if I look miserable; a part of me is happy. I live in perpetual, almost paralyzing, fear of people leaving me or outgrowing one another. I find it hard to make friends close to me because of a past of more fights and hatred spawning from things as simple as knowing right from wrong.

I'm sorry. I had to rant.

South Carolina serial killer taken down

A long list of charges and past of criminal activity, and now 5 people died before he was exterminated. America needs stricter sentencing for repeat offenders. He should have remained jailed and rotted away.

Back to cleaning.

I've been picking up the apartment all day today(Well, my room.). Getting stuff around and cleaned up little by little. I think I'm going to reward myself with a game rental or a movie later this week for doing this. I have a tendency to procrastinate with things like this and then I get all worked up. I mean, hell, I don't even move out for another 14 days.

It's weird, I loved this house when we first moved in. It was fine when it was just Megan and I, then our other roommates moved in and we all started having disagreements and arguing. So I took the road less traveled and committed myself almost exclusively to the basement levels save for making food. Then Megan and I broke up and things got even worse as far as wanting to leave the basement, my room in particular since Megan has the other room in the basement. So the last several months I've essentially been paying full price to live out of one room, the hottest room in the house at that. I can't say I regret it though. I just wonder if I should have taken more care to befriend my other roommates and gone about things like Josh destroying the upstairs in a different manner.

I would like to move back here eventually if I ever find 3 roommates I can tolerate(Note: Or if I can ever afford the 4 bedrooms with one other person or by myself), but I'm also excited about the prospect of my new place. spinafewtimes and I are renting a 1 bedroom in a quite neighborhood from a woman who usually rents to grad students and foreign students because she stresses things being peaceful.

current worry is the fact I'm supposed to move into the new place on the 1st, but my current lease is up the 20th. I really hope I can convince the Landlord to let me move in early instead of having to move back down to New Riegel or Tiffin and then back up to BG in a week.