Ranking Pixar

So Toy Story 3 finally came out this weekend, and Pixar continues it's streak of awesome films. Now, there are some I liked more than others. But they were all enjoyable, solid movies and I own all of them. (Well, except Toy Story 3, obviously.) Here's my ranking of them, from lowest to highest.

11. Cars
This movie is really popular, and while I like it, I'm not really big about cars. I didn't even see it until years after it came out, actually!

10. Ratatouille
This movie was so hyped, and while it's good, it didn't quite reach it, in my opinion. I'm sure many people can argue with me on this, but I don't think it was the strongest story Pixar has done.

9. A Bug's Life
This was Pixar's second movie, and I just love all the little supporting characters. I also think Hopper is a great villain

8. Finding Nemo
I was surprised to see how low this one ended up, because this is really great movie and I've watched it many times. Just goes to show how great Pixar films are. Who can't love Dory and Crush?

7. Monsters, Inc.
Just love the characters in this one. And the ending is great. Can't wait for the sequel that's on the horizon.

6. The Incredibles
This movie is just so much fun. No capes!

5. Toy Story
The one that started it all. I just watched it yesterday and found I was still laughing and enjoying every minute of it. "The word I'm searching for, I can't say. Because there are preschool toys present."

4. Up
My husband will defend this movie to the death, and he's not even a huge Pixar fan. But the story of an old man's journey to complete what he and his late wife always dreamed of is such an engaging one.

3. Wall-E
There's hardly any talking in the first half of this movie, and yet it's so engaging. The first time I saw this I came away amazed at how easy it was to love characters that couldn't even speak.

2. Toy Story 2
More of the same great characters plus some new ones - including The Prospector, a great villain. "You're outta your box!"

1. Toy Story 3
Pure brilliance. A great continuation of the story. I've never cried at a movie so hard in my life. Very emotional and deeply touching. Pixar's finest one yet.

Imersed

I am like the most boring person recently because I did the exact same thing every night this week. Came home. Had dinner. Worked on my book. Went to sleep. That's it. I have been working on this chapter non-stop for the past few weeks. I have one scene left to go and then it's onto the last chapter of this book. There's still another book to come, but I can't believe how much progress I've made. I'm somehow keeping myself motivated considering I've written two chapters (that are 150+ pages each) in a few months. That's really quick for me, considering the previous chapter to that took me a WHOLE YEAR to do.

How long have I been working on this? Actively, well, since 2006. So four years. But I started off really slow. I kind of started working on it when I still worked at my old job, and then when I was unemployed I kind of picked it up again and wrote a chunk. But then I got a new job which ate up a ton of time. So I wrote less, but I still worked on it, writing sections here and there. I finished the first book sometime last year. And I started the next one.

And I stalled, stalled, stalled big time. I guess I was busy and unmotivated and lazy and all of that. Because I stopped writing for months. But then I picked it up and forced myself forward. And now here I am, 2 (almost) done chapters later.

And I intend to press onward until it's all finished. I can't possibly hope that I'll stay this motivated forever. The words will be harder to come by and life will get busy again, but I'll get myself back on track.

You know what the biggest motivating factor for me has been? The whole E-book movement and self-publishing. Because now I know that even if no one will buy my crap, I can get it out there anyway. And maybe someone will read it.

Rising

Yeah, I'm still alive. I've totally been neglecting this thing. It's not that I don't have anything write about, it's just that I've been writing other things. Like my book. Which is coming along. I'm past the halfway mark, which is something to be proud of...I guess. In fact I should probably be working on it right now, but instead I've decided to revive this thing.

Here are some quick reviews of things I've seen/played recently:

Iron Man 2 - Awesome, I actually liked it better than the first one.

Final Fantasy XIII - Really great, but there were some issues and kinda lacking some of the draw of the earlier titles.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 - Currently playing this. Super fun. Retains the charm of the original while managing to still be fresh. The addition of Yoshi and the ability to let you play as Luigi is awesome.

Okay, you don't get briefer than that.

The Sex Ed Debate

This is what's in the news this week. I'm glad to see there are quotes from students and even parents basically saying "WTF?!" Teaching a kid how to use a contraceptives is contributing to the delinquency of a minor? Really? Get real.

Here's the thing. I don't understand why sex ed is such a huge issue. Sex is a part of life. Everybody's gonna do it at some point. (Well, most people. Many people.) Teenagers are more mature than you think - they deserve to know the real deal. Should they be having sex? Noooo... Will they probably anyway and should they have all the facts? ABSOLUTELY.

At my high school - guess what: health class was REQUIRED. And my mom didn't have to sign any stupid note that it was okay for me to learn how human biology works. We learned all about sex. The good and the bad. Did they take the time to emphasize how you probably shouldn't have sex? Yup. And guess what? I don't remember any pregnant teens walking around my school. Not that it never happened - no school is immune. But not while I was there. Not that I saw.

There are more important things worth fighting about. Let the teens learn about sex properly. The more you hide from them, the more you try and convince them not to do it...the more curious they get. Human nature. Give them the facts. They'll be adults soon enough. It's okay to treat them like one once in awhile. Give them some credit. And move on to something that's more important to argue about. Really. Showing someone how to use a condom really isn't worth fighting over.

Ticket Scam - Part Two

Do you remember my last blog? Where I complained about how difficult it was to get baseball tickets? Well, here's an interesting follow up.

Over the weekend I was checking my email, as people are known to do, when I got that seemed a little strange to me. The subject line was: Thank You For Purchasing Yankees Tickets...only the email hadn't come from Stub Hub - the "3rd party" outlet I'd been forced to buy my tickets from. It came from Yankees.com ticketing. And when I opened it up, there were all the Yankees graphics and the Yankees disclaimers and links and all that lovely crap. (Of course, this really originates from MLB.com)

The real kicker here...was not only did the official Yankees site apparently know I had purchased tickets from STUB HUB (no mention of that website in the email, by the way) but it knew the EXACT GAME I had purchased the tickets for. Then it tried to pimp out tickets to another series - a series of the Yankees vs. The Mets. Yeah, because those tickets are still available.

Are they kidding me with that email? Just shove it in my face some more that you know exactly what's going on, and you could care less about it. It's not right, and it's not fair, but that's business in the society we're living in. You're getting screwed, and we don't give a shit. Thanks for the money.

Well, I won't be buying tickets to any more Yankees games or any other game where I can't purchase them directly from the box office or the official website. And yeah, there will be someone else happy to spend their money in my place. But I don't care. Because it's not mine. And it makes me feel better.

Getting Baseball Tickets Sucks

So, as I've previously mentioned, I'm a Yankees fan. And I haven't been to the new stadium yet. This is not cool. I also have many family members who are fans, so for various relatives as Christmas/Birthday gifts, I told them I would buy us all tickets to a game.

Well, single game tickets went on sale on Friday. I needed to get six. Do you know how many I managed to get via the official website? ZERO.

I was pissed off. You know why? This whole ticket thing is a SCAM. They pimp their season ticket plans all damn winter long. And then, roughly two weeks before the season starts, they put the single tickets on sale. And there are none? I was trying RIGHT when they went on sale at noon. Oh, and I have to point one thing out - there were tickets available. Oh, there were. If I was willing to pay $150 or even $300 a damn ticket. Are you kidding me? I guess someone's gotta pay Arod, but you know what? It ain't gonna be me.

So the reasonably priced tickets are gone. Can't get any. Not for any weekend game anyway. And that's the only time we can go, since we live kind of far from the stadium now. We can't just jet down after work like we used to. What to do now?

Why there's StubHub of course! Get tickets for any game from people who have tickets they want to get rid of! How convenient! I need tickets, and these people just HAPPEN to have EXTRA tickets they don't need!

Hi, people who bought season ticket plans JUST FOR RESALE BECAUSE THEY KNEW THEY COULD MAKE A PROFIT. It's disgusting. Yes, I'm sure there are people selling tickets on StubHub who are season ticket holders and do need to get rid of tickets to a game or two they can't make. This is understandable. But you know most of these jerks bought tickets during the winter long season ticket pimpfest, intending to list them on StubHub to make a profit. Because it's so easy to scalp these days. Thanks, internet. Who cares if people who actually want tickets to go to an actual game. Just give us our money. It's so frustrating, and it's really not fair. StubHub has built their business around this, obviously. And do you think the Yankees or Ticketmaster give a crap? Of course not! Either way, they're getting their money.

This practice disgusts me. And I didn't want to use StubHub, just out of protest. Because I shouldn't have to pay more than face value of a ticket I was willing to buy as soon as tickets went on sale. And it's not like this is a 2 or 3 day concert event - there's at least 20 weekend games this year. But unfortunately, I had promised other people tickets. So I had no choice. But you know what? In the future, I'm keeping in my money in my pocket. Sorry, Yankees. I'm still a fan. But unless the ticket situation improves, I'll just watch from the cheapness of my living room. Somebody else can shill out for Arod's paycheck.

Review ~ Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth

Saddest sentence ever.

I'm a big fan of the Ace Attorney series - I've played all three Phoenix Wright games as well as the Apollo Justice title. Miles Edgeworth has always been my favorite character, so when I heard they were making a game all about him, I knew I was going to be all over it. Who else can pull off a fuchsia suit and a caveat and still be awesome?

This game is not like the other games in the series - you are never actually in court. Instead, Edgeworth, Gumshoe, and a cast of new and familiar characters cracks cases by investigating and taking testimony out in the field.

Gameplay - You're investigating crime scenes now, and you actually get to move around. No more just pointing to stuff on the touch screen, unless Edgeworth decides to go in for a closer look. As you can see from my above screencap, you still get the sprites and all their amusing quirks. You can still shout objection if you so choose. And you're still presenting evidence and pressing people when their testimony doesn't quite add up. What's new is the "logic" feature. As you investigate, Edgeworth will occasionally come to a conclusion that will be added to the "logic" section you can access in the upper left hand corner of the screen. You can then put two together and come to a conclusion that pulls you further into the investigation. The new features in the game aren't much of a departure from past titles, and I feel it's much better then that perception crap you had to do in Apollo Justice where you basically got up in someone's face to see if they were slightly sweating on one word. Ugh. Hated that. Logic is an easy system, both to use and figure out. There's not too much mystery when you're trying to put two and two together.

Characters - Edgeworth, obviously, is the focus of this game. You're accompanied most of the time by your old pal Gumshoe, who I always enjoy seeing. There are a bunch of new characters in the game but there are also a lot of familiar faces as well. I was happy to see what characters came back for a spin in this new game. But if you're expecting to see Phoenix...don't get your hopes up.

Story - I would have to say this is probably the weakest part of the game. That isn't to say it's bad by any stretch, but compared to past games, it's a little lacking. There are five cases in the game, and they're all tied together. You kind of jump around taking on the cases out of order, which can make your mind spin a bit. The storyline is clear and enjoyable, but not particularly engaging like in past games, even though all the cases are related in this case. I found many of the cases were pretty short, except for the last one. In the true tradition of an Ace Attorney title, the last case goes on and on and on with no end in sight. And by the end you're screaming at your DS. Fun times.

Graphics and Touch Screen - The graphics are the same as they've been for the other titles. Touch screen use is pretty much the same too. You can use it to advance dialogue or move (or you can use the control pad) and you use it to access your evidence and sometimes make a response or too. You can also interact with specific pieces of evidence by zooming in and turning them around - but we've seen this in past games already too. There's really nothing new to report. Unfortunately there's no cool luminol or other crime scene tests like we've enjoyed sporadically in the past.

I really enjoyed this game - but I think I enjoyed it more because I'm such a huge Edgeworth fan. If you're a fan of the Ace Attorney series though, regardless of whether you're an Edgeworth fan or not, I think you'll enjoy it. Yes, it's a little different and I did miss being in court a little bit, but overall it's more of the same enjoyable experience with a few new twists.

8 out of 10 (The fact that Edgeworth was the main character jumped the score about half a point)