Wow, this awesome!

If you ever at any point have found Mario to be awesome then you absolutly must check out Rise of the Mushroom kingdom. These flash movies are incredible

Part1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Notes from all over

I need to not suck so much at this whole updating thing, because I wait longer than a week and I have multiple things to blog about, so instead of things being clear and consise you get a jumbled mess!

First I have finally succeeded!! Abigail has joined the dark side! Everyday it is a race to see who can grab hold of the Nintendo DS first, and honestly I think she has played it more than me! She is fighting the dark hold Nintendo has on her, but the DS is full of games that tempt her to journey deeper down the black path in front her. Oh yes, Abigail is well on her way to becoming a gamer! (this is the point where when reading this she will do her best Luke Skywalker imitation and yell "It can't be! That's impossible". I reply, "Search your feelings, you know it to be true." She yells "Noooooo" and hopefully she won't then throw herself down some deep pit, because that would be sad).
Along with Polarium, the game that really has hold of her is Brain Age.


A few days ago, I bought a new CD. This is actually the first CD I have bought in two years! Now keep in mind that I have gotten 3-4 CDs for Christimas the past three years, and with the exception of utter crap (like the Wicked soundtrack) I also listen to and like the CDs Abigail gets, so it is not like I have gone 2 years without new music. Anyway the CD is the debut album of the band Flyleaf. Seriously, click on the link and listen to their song. If it is not your type of music, you can just close the window right away.

Finally, I won an online contest! 1up, was running a contest where 15 Americans would get to play against the Developers of Metal Gear Online.

I was selected as an alternate, and as luck would have it got alternated in. It was a lot of fun playing against professionals. Honestly, I know it is not a big deal to a lot of people, but it I had fun. I won't bore you with a description of the game. If you really want one, read it here.

I also really want an Ipod, especially since part of the deal with living in the cool house we are living in is that starting this spring we take care of the yard. An Ipod would be nice for that. I am also really enjoying listening to Podcast. It is like Talk radio, only I chose the subject and their are not comercials. I have spent at least a part of the past two saturdays playing the Nintendo DS and listening to Podcasts. Now that is a way to spend a Saturday afternoon!

And that is it, I think I am caught up in broadcasting my life to the world (though very little of the world actually stops by to read it.)

The Hits just keep coming!

So last month I mentioned that I got officially published. Well on Saturday, the same website released their latest pdf magazine and I have not one but two articles in there! Please go to Played to Death and check it out.

On top of that, I am going to be published again! Group Magazine, a Youth ministry magazine, is going to publish one of my games!

I don't to get to my head to much into the clouds, but I am wondering if I can consistently do freelance writing.

Touching is Good

When the Nintendo DS was first released last year I scoffed at as a very expensive gimick. However, as new games were developed I became more and more interested. DS games were really pushing the envelope of inovation and creating brand new ways to play games. A good example of one of these inovative games is Kirby's Canvas Curse, where the entire game is played by drawing rainbows for Kirby to ride on. It sounds silly, but is suppose to be incredible fun

There also inovative simulation games like Ace Wright and Trauma Center. Ace Wright has the player actually shout objection when they object and Trauma center has the player use the stylus to sew stiches.



To top all of that off this game came out:

an online Mario Kart was a dream come true for me!

However, what really made me want a Nintendo DS is how much potential it has. For example, this evening I was at McDonalds and after finishing my fries, played Mario Kart online against some kid in Japan. Seriously how freaking cool is that? Online gaming in freaking McDonalds. That is just the tip of the iceburg. A version of the Opera web browswer is coming out on the DS, so I can surf the web at any wi-fi hot spots without a PC. Also, a TV tuner is being released in Japan next month. To top all of that off, their is a SD card adapter that makes it so that the DS can play movies, display E-books, or function as an Ipod. It is a really impressive little machine!

I had decided in December that I really wanted one, but I figured there was no way that Abigail would ever go for spending over $100 on another game system. However, her resistence started to crumble. I told her about the web browser and that peaked her curosity. Then when I shared with her that a new version of Tetris was coming out for it, with a bunch of new modes, and it was playable online she genuinly became interested. I jokingly told her I could probably get a DS off of Ebay for $100 or less, and to my surprise she genuinly said go for it!! An hour later, I won an auction (it was my fourth attempt).

It was after winning, the impossible happened. Abigail bought a video game of her own free will! Seriously, the next day we went to Target and they had this game on sale:


Apperently it was a good buy for her because she has spent the past hour and a half playing it. I can tell that the DS is going to be something we fight over who gets to use it, and it is probably safe to say that Nintendo has coverted both of us to DS fans.

The Most Awesome form of Awesomness ever Awesomly devised . . .Seriously

Holy cow, it really is The Ultimate Showdown!

Late to the Party

It has been out for two weeks, but I just saw V for Vendetta. All I can say is Wow! I really, really liked this movie. There is a lot to like, but there were a few big highlights for me. First, I liked how the main character, V, was not a "clean hero." He was motivated by a higher ideal that people should chose their fate over a government yes, but he was also strongly motivated by revenge, and he freely killed to satisfy his. . vendetta. The idea was not explored, but one has to wonder if his motivation for toppling the facist government was not a virtuous ideaology but just the ulitmate form of vengence. I also enjoyed how this question raises several poingent questions, the one that stuck out the most for me was "What is the difference between a terrorists and a revolutionary?" Terrorists have really become the new "commuists" in a lot of ways, but we are quick to forget that many of our greatest "patriots" very easily could have been labeled a terrorist. I think the greatest reason why I liked this movie is because it's central theme really resounded with me. The idea that people should choose their own destiny instead of have it forced upon them is a theme in many of my favorite movies (The Matrix, Dead Poets Society, Serenitiy, Fight Club, heck even those silly Masked Banditz movies). Overall, I highly recommend the movie to everyone.

I also have missed out on this game for far to long:

I am one of the most unmusical people in the world, but after playing Iron Man on easy, I felt like a rock and roll super star. Watching the game's owner tear it up on expert felt like sitting in a room with a rock legend. If only the silly thing wasn't so expensive. . .