The Lark's Nest

Ranking Pixar

2010-06-19T21:41:00.002-04:00

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

2010-06-18T13:44:00.002-04:00

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

2010-06-04T14:28:00.003-04:00

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

2010-04-09T22:09:00.002-04:00

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

2010-03-29T17:56:00.002-04:00

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

2010-03-22T18:43:00.003-04:00

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

2010-03-13T09:59:00.003-05:00

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)

Why I'm breaking up with American Idol

2010-03-07T07:48:00.002-05:00

I'll admit it - I've watched American Idol since season one. I didn't catch the whole thing, but by the time I started tuning in, there were about six or seven contestants left. And I've watched most of every season since. I say "most" because I tended to lose interest in most of them, and stopped watching by the time there were only a few contestants left. You gotta admit, the show is basically the same every week. People sing. A good chunk will butcher their chosen song. A few others will be good, and one, two or maybe even three if you're lucky will be amazing. This is one of the reasons why TiVo was invented. So you could fastforward through all the crap in American Idol.

This season began for me like all the others. I started watching. Even with Paula gone and Simon leaving, I went back to it like an old familiar friend. The auditions rounds were pretty standard. Hollywood week is my favorite, and it was pretty enjoyable. But once the top 24 were chosen, my already waning interest in the show pretty much died completely.

Why? Well, there are several reasons.

1. I'm not digging Ellen as the new judge. Don't get me wrong - I really like Ellen. I just don't like her on the show. I don't think she makes a good judge and I really miss the unpredictable antics of Paula Abdul. Nothing could replace that.

2. The talent this season mostly sucks. Every year they put a bunch of people through who clearly are getting pushed ahead by the producers. And America is stupid and will vote for these people because they are voting with their hearts instead of their ears. But this year, after hearing Randy proclaim "Most talent ever" like 40 times like he does every year, I quickly realized he was clearly lying. Big time. I haven't watched any of the top 24 performances. I haven't had time, so I've been reading the recaps and I was planning to go back and watch them from my DVR later. Well the recaps proclaimed pretty much every performance bad, and not only bad, but terrible. So why would I waste my time? And I'm not going to fast forward through 45 of bad singing just to see one good performance. Not worth it.

3. Which brings me to something that has never happened before. Probably the biggest reason I stopped watching American Idol is that I just don't care about any of the contestants. Not enough. Every year there's always a contestant or two that I really like and want to root for. And I'll tune in faithfully at least until they get eliminated. But this year...I was drawn to no one. And the repeated reports of subpar performances is maybe a good indicator as to why. So if I don't care, and most people aren't delivering anything worth watching, why is it worth my time?

So right now this season is a total wash for me. Oh, I'm sure I'll keep tabs on it. It's American Idol - I always do. I can't help myself. It's habit. But as far as actually watching it again... I'm sorry. It's over. And since Simon will be gone next season, I'm done.

I'm sorry, American Idol. I appreciate the entertainment you've given me over the years. But I just don't feel that spark anymore.

Oh, and it's totally you. Not me.

Trip Report - Day Three ~ Part Two

2010-02-27T07:38:00.003-05:00

Well, I have absolutely no pictures for this segment (there really wasn't much that was photo worthy) but at least I have some video.

So when I left off, we were enroute to get our rental car in a taxi. We rented the car from Alamo, which was located near Union Square. It was the best price I could find for a one way rental, and I actually booked it online through Orbitz.

So the taxi dropped us off, and I dragged all our luggage inside and waited while Brian signed all the paperwork and got the GPS I had also rented. I thought about bringing ours from home, but across the country and a two week vacation seemed like too much trouble for one day. So decided it was worth $11. There was a little confusion as to where our car was, but we got pointed in the right direction. We had to go into another garage and find our red Chevy Aveo. (Yes, of course I had reserved the cheapest type of car!) The trunk was small, but we had all the backseat, and so we loaded everything into the car and I started to try and get the GPS to find us.

I don't know what it is with GPS', but they always seem to take forever to locate us! We knew we had to leave the garage in order to get a signal, so into the roads of San Francisco we went. Of course the roads around Union Square are pretty congested, unlike the rest of the city we had seen. It was kind of stressful, driving in one direction waiting for the GPS to catch up with us! (I had TOTALLY forgotten that I had written directions in my phone. Yeah. Way to fail.) Anyway, the GPS finally got with the program and we got on the highway and headed out of San Francisco to San Jose. The drive was rainy but fine and the roads weren't very crowded because it was before rush hour. I found a decent station on the radio and enjoyed the lovely CA scenery. Despite the rain.

We arrived at the DoubleTree San Jose about an hour later. It was still raining. We went to check in and our room was ready. We were also given two delicious chocolate chip cookies. I love those! Brian had a little confusion with the parking situation, but we got to our room and brought our stuff in. It was very nice! Big, and we had a small balcony, even if the view was of the parking lot and it was raining.

We just relaxed for awhile and discussed what we wanted to do next. We both wanted to see a movie - sherlock Holmes - so I researched where the nearest theater was and we decided to head over there (with the help of our GPS) to see the movie.

I forget what time the movie was, or what time we left, but it was dark when we got there. We didn't have any trouble finding the mall (Thank you, GPS) but the parking lot was crowded and it was still raining. We weren't really sure where we were going, so we just parked where we found a spot and went into the mall. This mall was technically in Milpitas and it was called Great Mall. I swear, that's what it was called. Anyway, this mall was one level and it was HUGE and full of great stores. There was actually outlet stores in the mall! Man, I wish our malls were that awesome out here. I saw some stores I wanted to stop in, but there wasn't a ton of time before the movie and we still had to find the theater, so we kept moving.

The theater ended up being at the total opposite end of where we were - and it was outside. And still raining. There was a bit of a line, so we hopped on it, and gawked at the prices. And we thought NY was expensive! It was almost $11 a ticket. But more than that, I was perplexed why they felt the need to post a sign stating that firearms were not allowed in the theater. We weren't in a bad area or anything! Very strange. But luckily we just made it in time to get the matinee price, which I think lasted until before 6.

Anyway, we grabbed some snacks and saw the movie, which we both enjoyed. I just love Robert Downey Jr. He's a very good actor. Afterwards there wasn't too much time before the mall closed. Brian wanted dinner, but I had eaten popcorn and I was good, so I went shopping while he headed to the food court and had a hot dog or something. I ended up buying this really cute dress. I don't remember the name of the store, but it wasn't a store we have out here. It was kind of like Forever 21, because the clothes were cute and inexpensive. It was called Love Culture actually. Afterwards we found our car, went back to the hotel, showered and went to bed. We had a big day ahead of us!

Here's a look at the weird street lights in San Jose and a brief review of the our night:

NEXT...

Winchester House...of Mystery!
An important lesson about rental cars
San Diego delays

Following Team USA

2010-02-24T17:40:00.003-05:00

Well, I'd love to make a long post detailing all the medals that Team USA has won in the past week and a half, but as it stands right now we're up to 26 medals (as of the time I'm writing this) and that would take awhile.

26 medals! That's insane! We only won 25 in Torino. We only won 6 (6!) in Calgary - the last time the games were in Canada. And the games ain't over yet!

Right now the medal count looks something like this:

Alpine Skiing: 2 Golds (Lindsay Vonn and Bode Miller), 2 Silvers and 2 Bronze.

Snowboarding: 2 Golds (Shaun White and Seth Westcott), 1 Silver, 2 Bronze.

Speed Skating: 1 Gold (Shani Davis), 1 Silver, 1 Bronze

Freestyle Skiing: 1 Gold (Hannah Kearney), 2 Bronze

Short Track: 1 Silver (Apolo Ohno), 2 Bronze

Figure Skating: 1 Gold (Evan Lysachek), 1 Silver

Nordic Combined: 2 Silvers (First medals EVER in this event!)

And I apologize for spelling any of the athlete's names wrong - those were off the top of my head.

So! With several events to go, how many medals can we rack up? I'm expecting some in bobsled, definitely at least 1 in hockey, and the short track speed skating isn't over yet either! There are so many great performances and so many great moments - this is what the Olympics is all about!

Trip Report - Day Three ~ Part One

2010-02-20T17:12:00.025-05:00

It's our last day in San Francisco already? But we just got here!

We packed up our stuff (including the huge bag of chocolate I bought on our first day...and am still working on finishing over a month later) and headed down to the lobby where I enjoyed another delicious blueberry muffin. We had to leave our bags with bell services since we weren't picking up our rental car till that afternoon. We had to wait for a bit, but eventually someone showed up, we checked like 5 bags, and headed back outside into the 50 degree weather.

Finally no fog! Beautiful.

We'll be back here later - The Cannery.

Our goal? To ride the damn cable car finally!

The Powell/Hyde cable car started (or ended, depending on how you look at it) right near our hotel, so we took a ride over there. I wanted to go first thing in the morning because I had seen longer lines later in the day. It was nice and quiet over there. We bought our tickets, which amounted to $5 each way for each of us. Expensive, right? Well, you can get a pass for cheaper but there was no point in us doing that at this point. There was a car about to leave, and we could have gotten on if we wanted to stand, but we decided to wait for the next one. Standing on the cable car...not the safest looking thing to do. Those things pass very close to cars and other cable cars! But...we'll get to that later.

Took this video while we waited:

So we waited awhile for the next car, and we were the first ones on. The car filled up pretty quickly because a line had formed behind us and so before we knew it we were heading up the hill and riding the cable car!

I was filming as much as I could and enjoying the view until the second stop - that's when this guy got on and stood right in front of me. He couldn't stand in front of someone not clearly filming? Thanks a lot, buddy. Anyway, I tried my best to film around him. He got off at like the second to last stop.

Riding the cable car was really cool. I don't know how the brakemen control those things. Cars zoom around them, and they have to stop at traffic lights - it's pretty crazy. I think the video tells the story better than words could. But we rode the cable car all the way to the end, which was Union Square. And you have to get off at the end of the line.

The line to get back on the cable car? SUPER LONG.

And we were a long, long way from Fisherman's Wharf.

Oh well! Might as well make the best of it. We wandered around Union Square, and ended up in the huge, beautiful mall. This was probably the nicest mall I've ever seen. It had escalators that kind of curved around like spiral staircases. And it was packed full of high end stores, of course. There was also a really nice looking movie theater. And there was a gorgeous dome. It was pretty big, and we explored the whole thing but didn't go in any of the stores.

The beautiful dome.

Once we were sick of that, we started thinking about how we would get back. There was no way I was waiting on that long time. So we decided to walk a ways back up the cable car line, and just catch it at another one of the stops. We wanted to check out Lombard Street anyway, which is right along the cable car route.

So we started walking. In San Francisco. And have I mentioned how hilly it is in San Francisco?

A beautiful city it may be, but a walkable city it is not.

But we toughed it out. And we walked up about three or four stops. This British couple joined us in waiting for the cable car. One came along after a few minutes, but there wasn't a lot of room on it. We let the British couple go ahead of us since we saw another one was coming right behind it. So we got on that one instead. I got to sit, but Brian had to stand and hang on for dear life. He wasn't too thrilled with this, but it wasn't as bad as he thought it would be.

But there was a problem! We were on the Powell/Mason line! Oops! Wrong line! Brian discovered this - I had no idea. We came to a stop where we could transfer, so we hopped off and waited for the right cable car line. This car was crowded too, but we were able to stand inside - at least there was no hanging off the side this time! We listened to a family from San Francisco chat with a family from Canada. It was funny, because the San Francisco family were acting like such tourists - they had small children with them, I'm thinking maybe the kids had never been on a cable car before?

At no point did anyone ask to see those extra, expensive tickets we had paid for. What up, California? And this wasn't the last experience we had with that.

The stop for Lombard Street came, and we got off. Lombard Street is really cool. There are houses right there, and people literally have driveways right on the street. I wouldn't want that to be my driveway! The view from there was awesome, and there are stairs leading down, so we walked down the street. Lots of people were driving down at the snail pace of 5 mph. Lombard Street is part of the much advertised 40-something mile drive through San Francisco.

Check out that view!

Yeah, it's just a little windy.

Me taping, what a shock!

Lots of cars coming down!

After taking some pictures and video, we decided to head back down the hills towards the Bay and find somewhere to have lunch. Along the way, we saw a truck that had run into a pole (the truck was hardly damaged at all - it wasn't a bad accident or anything) and there were a couple of police and firetrucks around. So, I took a picture by the firetruck. One of two accidents we saw in California, and the only one I wish I saw.

The walk back was nice. The streets in San Francisco are so much quieter than any other city I've ever been to.

Do not do this in New York City unless you want to wind up in a hospital.

Once we were back in tourist land, we headed to this place called The Cannery. If you guessed that it used to be a cannery, you're right! Anyway, now it's a bunch of shops and restaurants, but there really isn't much there. It's kind of a shame, because the building is really cool. We went in a sock store, but didn't buy anything. According to the directory, there was supposed to be a hot dog place in there somewhere, but we didn't see it. Maybe it closed. We kind of just wanted to grab some hot dogs, but since that clearly wasn't going to happen, we decided to go to The Buena Vista, which had been recommended to us. It's the first place in the U.S. to serve Irish coffee.

It's right by the cable car stop, so we headed on over. I don't remember exactly what time it was - kind of early for lunch - maybe somewhere between 11 and 12? Anyway, the place was small and it was packed! We walked through the whole thing and there wasn't a seat to be had - even at the bar. It's kind of a casual place, and there's really no one there to seat you. It's really pretty inside though. We weren't sure what to do, and we were just kind of standing there when the bus boy found us a table - a table for six! But we sat down anyway. And I was cold! So I just ordered some hot tea and a grilled cheese. Brian had the Irish Coffee and I forgot what he ate - maybe a hamburger?

Anyway, we were sitting there for a few minutes when an older man and his grandson approached us and asked if they could share our table. Of course we said sure. We had a table for six, and we were only 2 people after all. Anyway, the man was very nice and his grandson was adorable. (I think he was about 4.) He was from CA - just outside San Francisco, and we started telling stories about New York and such. He was very emotional about 9/11, and talked about how much he admired the NY police and firefighters. Since his grandson was visiting and they were planning to ride the cable car, Brian gave him our tickets that no one had taken on our return trip.

Mmm...Irish Coffee.

We had a very nice meal. The little boy, Casey, was very well behaved. The older man got an Irish coffee too and he got crab cakes that he offered to share with us, but we don't eat crab. Anyway, when our check came, the older man grabbed it and insisted on paying! We tried to talk him out of it, but he was insistant. He told us in exchange we could just buy a drink for a cop or firefighter from the Hurley family. It was so nice of him! Needless to say we thanked him profusely and headed back out to kill some time before we picked up our rental car.

So we wandered down in the direction of Ghiradelli Square, but we stayed at sea level. No more hills for us! There was this historic bathhouse place, so we walked inside. There wasn't much in there - just a pretty mosaic on the wall and a nice view of the Bay outside.

Shot this out there:

I thought we could walk down these steps and head to the path that runs along the Bay, but there was like a senior center down there with a bunch of older people exercising. Um, nope! Can't go that way! So we went back outside and found our way to the path and just walked along the bay for awhile. It was really nice. I miss San Francisco! It's such a fantastic city - I can't wait to go back.

The Rock

After that we found our way to this free ship museum. I know it sounds boring as hell, but it actually wasn't that bad - and there were benches! They had an interesting section on shipwrecks (there have been plenty off the coast) that I spent time reading about. When it was nearly time to pick up our rental car, we headed back to the hotel, picked up our luggage, and had the valet call us a cab. (Using this interesting whistle... I had never seen anything like it. But then again I don't really ask valets to call me cabs in large cities.)

Just one more thing I want to say before I forget - at some point I decided I wanted to get the paper - you know, the San Francisco Chronicle. I decided I wanted the newspaper from every city I visited. Well, that dream died right in our first city. I could not find one! I tried a couple of drugstores (they carry the paper here in NY!) and even our hotel gift shop, but they did not have it. Unless I wanted USA Today I was out of luck. Very strange. Oh well.

Next!

Oh god, we really do have to drive here!
Another lovely mall...
The clothes here are better. They just are.

Every 4 Years

2010-02-14T20:51:00.002-05:00

I'm obsessed with the Olympics. Winter or summer, it doesn't matter, I'm there. I tend to prefer the summer Olympics only because there are more events (and I'm a huge fan of gymnastics), but I love the winter games as well.

I've been following the Olympics since I was a kid in the early 90's, but I would say I've been following it closely (aka obsessively) since the mid 90's - 1996, if you want to start getting specific. I don't watch the opening or closing ceremonies - I find them boring. Just give me the events!

So. This year. What am I most looking forward to? Why Apolo Ohno, of course! I just love him, and I've been a fan of his since the Salt Lake City games in 2002. Already he tied Bonnie Blair for the most decorated U.S. speed skater ever - one more and he'll surpass her. And, with 3 events to go, I would say his odds are good. I like speed skating in general - it's one of my favorite events.

Usually I'm a big fan of the figure skating usually, but since I don't except the American's to contend in the pairs or the woman's skating (I hope I'm wrong...) I'm not really too excited about it this year.

Yeah - I'll admit. I tend to get more interested in the sports Team USA is likely to medal in. I'm a big time couch cheerleader. You should have seen me cheering on the Nordic Combined this afternoon. (That was exciting!!) If an American isn't contending I still enjoy it, but not nearly as much.

Mostly this year I'm looking forward to the skiing and snowboarding events. I REALLY enjoyed the woman's moguls last night - amazing performances. I hope the American men do as well!

So - go Apolo! And go Team USA!

Trip Report ~ Day Two - Part Two

2010-02-09T22:46:00.019-05:00

And so day two of our trip continues in the lovely city of San Francisco.

Only we were about to embark to a place that isn't quite so lovely. In fact, I referred to it as the "Unhappiest Place on Earth" - hey, something had to be opposite of Disneyland. I think Alcatraz fit the bill.

Our night tour left at 4:20, and I knew we had to be there about an hour before, so after relaxing and uploading my videos, we left our hotel room at about 3 and took the walk to Pier 33. It wasn't too far.

Once we got there I picked up the tickets, and noted the tours were now sold out until Thursday! I'm so glad I got the advice to buy my tickets online a few weeks before! (If you're planning to go to Alcatraz, I can't stress that enough!) Tickets in hand, we got in line to wait for the ferry. They didn't keep us waiting out in the cold for too long. Soon enough we were moving towards the boat. They made us pose for a picture in front of this Alcatraz backdrop like we were having some Disney character breakfast. the photo was also ridiculously overpriced - like $25 bucks or something for a 5x7. Et tu, National Parks Service?

Once aboard the boat, we chose to stay on the first level near the door so we could get off quick when we docked. We grabbed some seats and eventually we pulled out, heading for the island.

I actually taped the entire voyage out, but it was too long to upload to YouTube - over 10 minutes. Along the way we heard the history of the island and got some pretty nice views of the bay and the bridge. When we were nearly there we passed a buoy that had seals on it! Unfortunately it was on the other side of the boat, so I didn't get very good video. But it was cool.

Once we arrived at the island, they explained how we'd be walking up a steep incline towards the island. They did have a transport that took people who couldn't make the walk to the top. Anyway, when they opened the doors we were in the first group that headed up. We had a guide and along the way he paused to tell us a bit more about the history of the place.

Down near the docks. You can still see the evidence of the Native American occupation in the 70's.

This, if I remember correctly, was once the Officer's club - both when it was a military prison and a federal prison. It was burned down during the Native American occupation.

It was a pretty steep walk up there! It kind of zig zags - you climb one big hill, turn a corner, and then go up another big hill. One of the stories we heard along the route was how once someone took the tour who had actually served time on Alcatraz - he can now be heard on the audio tour.

At last we arrived at our destination. The prison.

So we were taking the Night Tour - which I cannot recommend enough. It included the audio tour, the guidebook (which you usually have to pay like a dollar for, it's not very big) and tons of extra talks about the prison, but I'll talk more about that later. For now we were led into the building to pick up our headsets - and we got to see the showers.

Yeah, this looks like fun.

So we picked up our headsets and put them on to start the tour. I was happy that they were real headphones - not those stupid ear buds that don't stay in my ears.

If you've never taken an audio tour before (as I hadn't, before this one) they basically lead you around by telling you where to go - so there are a lot of people moving to the same areas at once! You can pause at any point, which is good if you want to hang back a bit. I took advantage of this a few times. It was also kind of weird because it was so quiet in there with everybody listening to the audio tour! Alcatraz creeped me out enough as it was. It was pretty scary in there, honestly. And just thinking about all the history there...I was a bit unsettled! But it the audio tour was really fascinating. Definitely don't tour Alcatraz without it!

So one of the first things we saw, was a cell. There are a lot of them, as you can probably imagine! Now I'd never seen a prison outside of TV or movies before (thankfully!) so I had no idea what to expect. And I was a little surprised, as this video shows:

After that the audio tour really got started, and we saw pictures of the 4 former inmates and 4 former guards that we would hear on the tour. And then everyone started shuffling around at the same time.

Our crappy camera sometimes takes some pretty neat pictures in low lighting. There are 3 rows of cells on each side. It's really overwhelming.

A better look at a cell.

The most dangerous place on Alcatraz - the kitchen and mess hall. They had the actual benches you could sit on...I declined. Creepy!

A view of the recreation yard.

Brian inside a cell. Again, I declined. Have I used the word creepy yet?

Hmm... This might be a picture of D-Block - where the difficult prisoners were kept. This was also where "the hole" cells were - you know, the isolation cells. You could go in one if you wanted. Brian did.

I, once again, declined. ULTIMATE CREEPY. You can see on the video how QUIET it was in there.

This damage on the floor was done during the battle of Alcatraz - an escape attempt gone horribly, horribly wrong. There were a lot of escape attempts on Alcatraz, but this one resulted in the deaths of a few guards and so much control at the prison was lost that marines had to drop grenades down to try and subdue them. This is damage from the grenades.

Eventually we got to see the administration offices and such - then we were led outside where we got a great view of San Francisco at night. It was pretty cold outside though, so we didn't stay outside too long. Though it wasn't much warmer in the prison.

Administration offices.

After this we learned about the famous escape attempt where the two brothers and their friend put fake heads in their beds and escaped on a boat of raincoats - they were never found. We'd learn much more about escape attempts later.

After the audio tour ended, we had our choice of a few talks that were happening that night - this was all included in the night tour. There was a talk about bank robbers, escape attempts and a cell door demonstration that we were interested in. There were two more boats leaving that night - I think the earlier boat left a little after 7 and the later boat left around 7:40. They made sure to let everyone know that they would make sure everyone got on that last boat! (Can you imagine getting left behind? Yikes.)

Anyway, first we went to the bank robbers talk. Many of the prisoners on Alcatraz were bank robbers. It was interesting - she gave us a little quiz to see how well we knew what it took to make a bank robbery attempt more successful. I got all the questions right!

After that we went outside to wait for the escape talk. It was cold, cold, cold outside now! It was pitch dark, and we were on an island in the middle of the bay. Brian had brought a hat with him that he didn't want, so I quickly stole it.

Anyway, despite being cold, this talk was AWESOME. In one of the escape attempts, the convict managed to steal a whole military uniform over YEARS, finally sneak on a boat - only to sail to nearby Angel Island where he was quickly caught and returned. In another attempt, the guy actually managed to swim all the way to the shore near San Francisco, but he was suffering from hypothermia and passed out. The teenagers who found him called the police. It was a really fascinating talk.

After that there was a little time before the cell door demonstration, so we checked out the store. Brian got on line to buy a few things and the line moved super slow because the store was closing soon so everybody could get the hell off creepo island. So we were a little late to the demonstration. But we made it in time to watch them open and close the doors a few times - you can see why they call jail the slammer. They could open all doors at once, or just one if that's what they needed to do. And when a door was open you could see it perfectly because of the red paint on the inside of the door.

After that we headed back down toward the dock. We caught some of another talk on escape attempts, but this guy wasn't as interesting as the first talk.

While we waited for the boat to board, I recorded this:

On the boat back, we sat in pretty much the same place. I was starving, and while there was a snack bar on the boat, it was nothing I wanted. The people who worked on the island were also on the boat, which makes sense. It really was the last boat off!

After we disembarked, we looked for our overpriced picture just to see how terrible it turned out - pretty terrible. Then we started walking back to the hotel. We were both hungry and just wanted to grab something quick - so we started wondering if there was a McDonald's nearby. We hadn't seen one yet. I knew there as an In & Out Burger on the Wharf somewhere, but in the dark who wants to go wandering around, you know? Anyway, believe it or not we ran across a McDonald's. Lucky us! So we got some food there (I think I got chicken nuggets), took it back to our room, and just relaxed for the rest of the night.

In conclusion, the Alcatraz tour was AWESOME. Take the night tour. It's totally worth it. It's really well done.

Next time:
Omg, we have to drive in California?!
Mmm...cookies.
No firearms in the theater?!

The Super (Ad /Puppy) Bowl

2010-02-08T17:21:00.003-05:00

Watch the Super Bowl? I did. I'm so not into football, but I always end up watching it anyway. There's something about the Super Bowl...it's like an unofficial holiday. Last year I had tickets to something and didn't watch, and I felt strangely empty. Anyway, I actually enjoyed the game (Congrats to the Saints) and the half time show - but what's always talked about almost as much as the game itself?

The commercials, of course.

I, like many people, usually hate commercials. Most of them are just so stupid. There are very few commercials in my entire life that I actually enjoyed watching. The Super Bowl is like the most expensive ad time a company can buy all year, and for good reason, and most of them feel they better bring it. And they damn well better. Because people are waiting for those entertaining ads.

Well, this year I felt the game was better than the ads. But I did enjoy a few:

Monster.com Beaver - this was adorable!!

Betty White for Snickers... I think everybody enjoyed this one. Betty White is awesome.

Griswolds!! I laughed my ass off at that one, I must admit. This is the full length "movie" the commercial had clips from. It's pretty entertaining.

Bud Light House - My favorite of the beer commercials.

Careerbuilder.com - Casual Friday. Ew. But hilarious.

There were a couple of other good ones - you can visit Hulu to rewatch any you liked.

Of course, there were a couple I did like, like the GoDaddy.com ads (Totally lame), I've never been a fan of the eTrade babies, the only Doritos one I liked was the one with the Samurai, the TruTV one with the football player Groundhog was horrible, as was the one with Kiss (for Dr. Pepper, I think.)

But the cutest thing on TV yesterday? The puppy bowl, of course. How can you NOT love puppies, a kitten halftime show, bunny cheerleaders that sleep the whole time and hamsters in a blimp! If you missed it, you can check out highlights over at Animal Planet's website. Watch out for that unnecessary rough-rough-roughness and excessive napping.

On Broadway

2010-02-03T19:02:00.004-05:00

In between trip report, I'm going to start a series on something very dear to my heart - Broadway musicals. As I've said before, I was obsessed with Annie as a kid. I also really enjoyed Peter Pan, starring Mary Martin, which you cannot find on video anymore, which is a real shame. Mary Poppins was another favorite.

Living close to New York City, I've been very fortunate that I've been able to see quite a few Broadway shows in my life. Several more than once. The first show I ever saw was The Secret Garden. It was fourth grade, and we had just read the book in school. (Still love that book!) We went on a class trip, and I remember we sat in the mezzanine. And the song about the garden being a maze still pops into my head. I bought the cassette tape (this was the early 90's) and I used to play it a lot as a kid. I used to love the music, but I'm not quite as enamored with it anymore.

The second show I saw was Guys and Dolls. Nathan Lane was in it at the time. I believe we went for my dad's birthday, and I remember enjoying it, but I don't really remember specifics. Guys and Dolls is a great, classic show with several well known songs like "Luck Be a Lady" and "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat'. Why do I not own the soundtrack?! I haven't seen the whole movie, but I would like to sit down and enjoy the whole thing sometime soon. Frank Sinatra plays Nathan Detroit.

The third show I saw was Show Boat. And Oh. My. God. I was enamored. (I want the soundtrack so badly, but unfortunately it's now out of print.) The sets, the music, the story - Show Boat was the first musical that had song kind of story. And a dark story at that. It deals with interracial marriage. Pretty heavy stuff for 1927. I was in 8th grade and it was a class trip. This was the year I really started to get into musical theater, mostly because I was in my first show, but that's a story for another time. I would love to see a production of Show Boat again. It's a classic show - the kind that changed what people thought of when they thought of Broadway. Probably the most famous song from the show is the iconic "Old Man River". Great, powerful, song.

So what other shows have I seen? Well, this is a list of all the shows I've seen on Broadway. I've seen other shows in touring productions, community theater and dinner theater. (And since we're so close to Broadway itself, our dinner theater is pretty damn amazing and features Broadway talent.) But these are the shows I've actually see on "The Great White Way". I've seen shows with a * more than once.

And these are in noooo particular order. That would take forever:

Beauty & the Beast
1776
Les Miserables
Phantom of the Opera
Miss Saigon
Jekyll and Hyde *
Rent *
Aida
The Scarlet Pimpernel *
Ragtime
Kiss Me, Kate
Spring Awakening
The Producers
Civil War
The Full Monty
Little Shop of Horrors
Movin' Out
Spamalot *
The Music Man

I may have forgotten one or two. I haven't seen a Broadway Show in over a year, so I'm a having a bit of withdrawal!

I (heart) Netflix and Broadway

2010-01-31T21:23:00.004-05:00

More trip report will be coming up in the coming days. But I needed to take a break from that for a bit.

I signed up for Netflix awhile ago, and after the free trial was over I kept it. I have the cheapest plan - one DVD and unlimited streaming. I use the streaming the most. Between the PS3 and our Netflix enabled Bluray, it's really handy to have so many movie and TV shows ready to watch whenever I want. The streaming library grows all the time - just today I discovered they have Into the Woods! Into the Woods!! Really?! That isn't exactly a common movie to have. When it comes to musicals their selection leaves a lot to be desired, but there are a couple of good choices and I'm sure there will be more as time goes on. (Where is Show Boat?! I know it's old as hell and probably never came out on DVD, but come on! Find a way!)

I've been on a bit of a Broadway kick lately, which is evident in what I've watched on Netflix streaming lately:

Stagedoor - A documentary about the musical theater camp in upstate NY. It was interesting, and a quick watch.

Life After Tomorrow - This was an interesting and slightly disturbing documentary about the girls who were in Annie during the 70's and early 80's on Broadway and on tour. (Including Sarah Jessica Parker - totally forgot she was in that.)

Broadway: The American Musical - this was a six part series that originally aired on PBS, I believe. Hosted by Julie Andrews, it chronicles the history of Broadway from the turn of the century until like 2004. Very interesting and entertaining.

Singin' in the Rain - Can you believe I had never seen this before? It was really good - Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor. Man. Stars don't have talent like that these days. And Gene Kelly was like 40 when that movie came out and he's dancing all over the place.

Besides being on a musicals kick, I'm also on a old movie kick. I plan to watch a bunch in the coming weeks... I'm sick of new movies. Most of them suck. Why can't people write a story any more? It seems to be we're just relying more and more on special effects and computers to tell our stories for us...which is impossible.

I have seen two new movies lately - The Hangover and Zombieland. Both were good. The Hangover was amusing and entertaining but not the non stop laugh-a-thon people make it out to be. I only laughed out loud a handful of times. (I do, however, finally get what's so hot about Bradley Cooper. Yum.) So over hyped, but still good. Zombieland was amusing, the perfect length and not very gory for a movie about zombies.

That's about it for now - FYI, if you set up a station on Pandora Radio for Wicked (Original Broadway Cast) you mostly seem to get music from Rent, Disney movies and Glee. (And Wicked, of course!) That's what I've been getting with my latest station, anyway.

Day Two ~ Part One

2010-01-31T14:53:00.022-05:00

If you're ever looking for other parts of this report, you can view them all by scrolling to the bottom of any entry and clicking on the trip report tag.

The next morning we got up around 8 and took showers. Then we started thinking about what the hell we were gonna do.

Remember how earlier on in this report, I mentioned how I didn't plan this trip as much as I would have liked?

Yeah. This would be a great example of that.

After we got ready we headed down to the lobby and I bought a blueberry muffin and a juice from the little cafe downstairs. That muffin was goooooooood. Brian just had some cereal we had brought. There was a concierge desk in the lobby that had a rack of brochures nearby, so we perused it and found some tours we were interested in. We were kind of trying to save money (at this point in the vacation, anyway...) so there were a few that we thought were too expensive. But we did find a tour we thought looked good, so we decided to just walk down to the office listed on the brochure and check it out.

Using the iPhone maps, we found the place. It was a few blocks away. And...it was basically a hole in the wall place that wasn't even open yet. So I was kind of annoyed that we had just wasted our time walking all the way over here for nothing.

A shot we took on our journey.

So we started heading down back towards the Bay (hey, it's downhill that way, can you blame us?) and we run across this tour company office. There are a bunch of people inside waiting for buses and such, and I send Brian up to inquire how much it would cost to do a city tour. They were offering a few different tours, so we decided to take the cheapest one - which was a hop on/hop off city bus tour. I forget what time it left - 9:30 or 10 - but whatever time it was, we had a few minutes to wait, so we milled around and sat on the benches until it was time to board the bus.

I did not take my jacket with me today (I had meant to, but I forgot) and I was a little chilly. So when we got on the bus, we did go to the top level (it was one of those double decker buses) but we sat under this covered portion. It had rained yesterday, as you may remember, so things were a bit wet up there, but under the covered portion it was fine. I wasn't exactly sure what to expect on this tour, since I had never been on anything like it, but I was hoping to see a good chunk of the city.

In this case, I must say, not planning ahead definitely worked in our favor.

On the bus we had a guide who told us all about the different areas. His name was Stephen and he was British and very informative. Brian really took a liking to him, and so he never wanted to get off the bus and get a different guide.

Our first stop was the Golden Gate Bridge, which I was super excited about. I have a weird obsession with the bridge - it always looks so great in pictures!) so I couldn't wait to see it in person up close.

It was a little foggy that morning. Here was our ride over the bridge:

I was totally excited to be going over the bridge! I know that must sound lame, but to me the bridge kind of summed up San Francisco for me. (From my tourist standpoint, anyway.)

On the other side of the bridge there's one of those scenic points where people park and take pictures. It was a very large area, and the bus stopped there for a few minutes so we could take some pictures.

After our photo stop, we got back on the bus and went back over the bridge to San Francisco again. We went by the Presidio and Golden Gate Park. There was stuff in the park I wanted to see, like the Japanese Tea Garden, but there just wasn't time this trip. Along the way I took some video of the many gorgeous Victorian houses in San Francisco. They are also very expensive if you want to buy one! If I ever get super rich, I'm totally buying a Victorian here. I just love Victorian houses.

We also passed by Alamo Square, where the house from Full House is located - it's part of Postcard Row. I don't know why I don't have a picture taken of the houses, but I wasn't in charge of the camera, I was in charge of video, so I got some of that instead.

Next we saw city hall, which is the area where they finally stopped the fires after the earthquake in 1906.

After that it was on to Union Square! The bus stopped for quite awhile so we had some time to really see things - at least from the bus! This is the premiere shopping area of San Francisco - tons of high end stores, and in the winter they even have a (very crowded) ice staking rink.

A shot of Union Square - complete with a beautiful Christmas tree.

It was getting kind of cold on the bus at this point - for me, anyway. In order to see better we moved to the uncovered part of the bus. Brian let me have his coat. I still don't understand how he can have short sleeves on and be fine, and meanwhile I'm freezing my butt off.

Next we cruised by Chinatown and Little Italy. More places I wanted to check out, but we didn't have the time.

Chinatown Gate.

That's Lombard Street up there in the distance.

So we cruised around downtown, and then we headed back towards the Bay. We stopped at Pier 33, where the Alcatraz tours leave for, and they were sold out until Wednesday! (This was Sunday.) We would be back later to take our tour, and we were looking forward to it.

After that was the last stop on the tour - Pier 39. This is a very touristy area full of shops and restaurants. We got off here because we had a coupon for the Hard Rock Cafe and they also give a AAA discount. Yeah for discounts!

The Hard Rock Cafe wasn't very crowded and we were seated right away. I had never technically eaten at a Hard Rock Cafe before, believe it or not. (I say technically, because I went to one once at Foxwood's for a special corporate event and the food sucked.) Our server was really nice. They didn't really seem to have any awesome rock memorabilia that sticks out in my mind, but we enjoyed the music videos that were playing on the TVs scattered around. (Even though I totally don't wanna watch Tom Petty's "Last Dance With Mary Jane" while I'm trying to eat. Yuck!)

I don't remember exactly what I had, but it was some kind of salad, and it was very good. I don't remember what Brian had, but it was either chicken fingers or a burger most likely. That's all he eats! After our meal, we used our coupon to get a free lanyard and we got a free sundae with the AAA discount that Brian enjoyed. Then we headed out back onto Pier 39.

It was crowded! This was definitely the most crowded area of the city we had experienced so far. There were people everywhere. As we walked along, I stopped a tiny puppet store and just HAD to go in. I'll admit it - I'm a fan of puppets. I used to collect them when I was a kid and they all had elaborate names (most of which I unfortunately forgot.) and sure enough I found a puppet I just had to have - a cute little rabbit!

There was a carousel right by the puppet store. I kind of wanted to ride it, because I love beautiful carousels, but I decided I'd better save my money.

Next I wandered into a candy store and bought a really expensive coconut cluster candy. It was like 3.50 or something. It was good, but not really worth that much. Brian had wandered into the Del Sol store - I was kind of surprised to see one in San Francisco. It's not exactly sun central there. But I guess one pops up wherever tourists tend to gather in large groups.

We didn't do too much more at Pier 39. We wandered into a couple more stores, bought a few more souvenirs, and headed back to our room. It was really crowded, and I wanted to rest a bit before our Alcatraz tour.

Huge Christmas Tree at Pier 39

COMING UP...

More hills?!

"I am not getting in there."

Getting all bundled up at the unhappiest place on Earth!

Trip Report ~ Day One, Part Two

2010-01-29T17:39:00.007-05:00

Okay, there are no pictures and only one video to go with this part. Sorry!

So my friend Emily moved to CA after fourth grade. She's come back to visit NY a bunch of times since she moved, but this was my first time visiting her! She and her husband had recently bought a house in Livermore, which is a suburb of San Francisco. So the plan that night was to go and visit her.

Emily had given me instructions on how to get to Pleasanton, and part one involved taking the MUNI to the Embarcadero BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) station. The closest MUNI station was only like a block away, so after relaxing in the room and freshening up we ventured back outside and started to head towards the MUNI station. (With the assistance of my iPhone map.)

Now, while wandering around San Francisco and riding in that awful taxi cab, I had seen some bus looking things that were attached to wires overhead. (I've tried to find a decent picture online to no avail.) Anyway, we were expecting a subway of some sort. Not a bus on a wire.

So we stumble upon the station. And we have a few minutes to wait. And...it starts to rain. More people gather around. And more people. And I'm getting nervous, because I have no idea what I'm getting myself into.

So the MUNI pulls up, and everybody crowds around to board. The bus driver starts SCREAMING at people to have their tickets out - she was seriously being really nasty. Now I understand she was probably having a long day and there were a lot of people, but holy crap was she rude! I had exact change for our fare, and thank god I did because that was another thing she was screeching. We moved to the back of the car and found two seats together. They were some of the last seats on the bus. And then it quickly filled up so that people were standing from the back to the front - it was like after closing time at the Magic Kingdom. The seats were tiny and the bus was gross - there was stuff carved into the windows.

It gets worse.

So we continue along, rain slapping against the graffiti decorated windows, and the bus driver has decided she hasn't yelled at everyone enough. Oh no. She gets on the PA and starts screeching about how it's a dangerous city and there are pickpockets everywhere and to watch your stuff. Um, hello? I've been in this city less than 10 hours - this is what I get treated to? And she doesn't just say this once. She says it REPEATEDLY. Like four times. Seriously. I could not get the hell off that horrible bus fast enough.

Finally our stop came, and we ran off and never looked back. The BART station was right there, so luckily we didn't have to do any more wandering around in the rain.

And I decided what MUNI really stands for - Massive Under-performing Network of Incompetence.

So we purchase our tickets, and we're a little confused at how no one takes the ticket...it's not like the subway where you have to insert your ticket to get through the turnstiles. You just walk right through.

BART trains run like the metro North trains we have here in the NYC area, but they look like subway cars. There was a guy behind us who decided he had to share his rap music with the rest of us, and some panhandlers came through (they were all over Fisherman's Wharf, too, and they were aggressive) so it was REALLY like the subway. But I just relaxed and we rode the train for about 45 minutes to the end of the line - Pleasanton.

When we got off the train, we realized that we had to put our tickets into the turnstiles to get OUT. Bizarro land...

It was raining pretty hard outside. I had texted Emily from the train, and she was waiting to pick us up at the station. We looked around for her car, but she spotted us first. We quickly greeted each other, and then we were off! Emily claimed that we brought the rain with us, since it hadn't been raining a few minutes ago. Sorry! We New Yorkers bring the crappy weather with us. It's a curse.

She offered to take us on a tour of Pleasanton, and we took her up on that offer. Even in the rainy darkness, it was a really cute town. Hopefully I'll be able to go back soon and see it in the daylight! After the tour, we got on the slow moving highway and headed to Livermore.

When we got to Emily's house, we got to meet her husband, Ivan, as well as their rescued greyhound, Fantom, and Ivan's sister's pitbull puppy they were watching - Tila. This was our first time meeting Ivan since we weren't able to make it to their wedding and they hadn't been able to make it to ours. He's really nice, and we all got along well right away. Emily gave us a quick tour of the house and then we all talked for awhile while she made dinner. It was really comfortable in their house because they had the fireplace going - but I was surprised at how NOT TIRED I was. I'm not a night person at all, so I thought I'd be jet lagged like crazy, but I was actually doing really well.

So we just sat around and talked, and I got to see their wedding album. (We had the exact same album cover - weird, right?) Emily made chicken and rice for dinner and it was delicious. We also had this really good natural soda - it was like ginger ale. I can't remember what brand it was! Anyway, after dinner, Ivan wanted to play this game he had.

And so it began.

The game was called "Last Night on Earth" and basically it's a tabletop RPG game that pits zombies vs. humans. That means it involves fighting and rolling dice to see who wins. I'd only played one game like this before, and it was overly complicated and took forever and we had monsters lined up outside our town waiting to get in like it was Space Mountain. But this game was much simpler and much more fun - Emily and I played as the zombies and the boys were the humans. We won! Okay, it was kind of cheap, but we still won! Brian immediately fell in love with this game and it became his goal to own it. (Ivan also made some yummy brownies for us while we were playing the game.)

When the game was over, we talked for a bit more and then decided we should probably head back to the city. Emily offered for us to spend the night, but all our stuff was back in San Francisco and I didn't want to impose, so she took us back to the BART station. It was a really fun night!

The rain had mostly stopped by this point, and even though it was after 11, it was still like 50 degrees out. While we were standing on the platform waiting for the train, this young couple were asking us about the stops - I guess we looked like we were from San Francisco. (One city for another, I guess.) I fell asleep on the ride back, so it went quickly. We caught a cab (this cab driver was much nicer and didn't drive like an escaped maniac), went back to our room around 12:30.

Here are some reflections from our first day:

By the time I got ready for bed and laid down, it was 1 a.m. PST - that's 4 a.m. EST. And I'd been up a full 24 hours.

And I never had jet lag the whole trip.

That, my friends, is how to kill jet lag.

COMING UP...

A Trip Over the Golden Gate
The house from Full House!
And how I'm a sucker for puppets

Trip Report ~ Day One, Part One

2010-01-28T09:49:00.013-05:00

Saturday, December 26th, 2009

Well, here we go.

4 a.m. was here before we knew it. I got up quickly and got ready. My parents wanted me to wake them up so I knocked on their door. Within a few minutes I was all set to go in my comfy plane clothes and had tucked all my last minute items into my bags. I didn't want to eat anything so early in the morning, so we just sat down on the couch and waited for our town car to arrive.

Now, the previous day I was nervous about the weather for that morning. I kept checking it obsessively because they were talking about freezing rain. But I wasn't worrying about it too much because I figured by the time we had to leave it would be too warm to be icy. Before I fell asleep the night before I could hear the 'clink clink' of the freezing rain on the windows...which made me nervous. But by morning the roads were fine, and the freezing rain had turned over to plain old rain.

Within a few minutes our car arrived (nice and early!) so we said good-bye to my parents, loaded our bags into the car and started the hour ride to JFK. It was raining all the way but the roads were fine. It was a nice, smooth ride. When we got there we unloaded our bags and started looking around for where we could check our one bag, since there was no curbside check-in.

There were counters for several different airlines, and some of them were crowded, so I was a little nervous. We started looking for Virgin America, and ended up walking all the way down in the opposite direction! Anyway, we eventually found it and got on the really short line for bag check only. We checked our one bag (I had pre-paid for it and we already had our boarding passes) and headed down to security. There was a little line, but we got through it pretty quickly. Then we just waited for the plane to board.

They loaded the plane and we ended up taking off a little late. I watched Home Alone and some other shows. Somewhere over Nebraska we lost TV signal so I listened to some podcasts. There was no free food (but I did get a free water) so we just ate some of the snacks we brought. It was a pretty uneventful flight, and it wasn't as bad as I had imagined a cross country flight to be. Especially since they told us the flight wouldn't be as long as it usually was because the headwinds weren't as strong.

Here's a compilation of some video I took on the flight:

Once we got the airport, I was kind of in shock. After so many years of waiting, I was finally in California! We had left at 7 am EST and we arrived at about 9:30 PST. So it was about a 5 1/2 hour flight. We made our way to the baggage claim area - which was kind of strange. It was this huge room with no windows and one huge baggage carousel. It was like a closet! Anyway, we started waiting for our bag, and once they started coming, some idiot jumped on the carousel to get his skis, so the whole thing stopped and we had to wait for them to restart it. Thanks, asshole! But we finally got our bags, and headed out to the taxi stands by following the helpful airport signs.

We got in a cab right away. And the cab ride, was, well...interesting. If by interesting I mean FEARED FOR MY LIFE. It was so bumpy, and the guy was rude, and well, we'll get to it more than a minute. The important thing is we arrived at our hotel safe and sound. We were staying at the Holiday Inn Fisherman's Wharf. I was happy our room was ready. So we went upstairs, and dumped our stuff.

And here's a video where we describe our cab ride, and you can see our room:

Me in the doorway of our room.

So, since we hadn't eaten anything but snacks all day, we were pretty hungry. We didn't feel like wandering around, so we just went to the nearby Denny's that we referenced in the previous video. It was a really quick meal - I had pancakes and they were fine. Brian probably had chicken fingers.

After our meal, we decided to walk around for a bit. It was about 50 degrees in San Francisco, and for some reason on this particular day I was not finding it cold at all. We started to walk down near the Bay, just soaking in the new scenery. I knew San Francisco was hilly, but I didn't realize just HOW hilly until I saw it for myself.

Brian snapped this picture on our walk down.

Anyway, as we were walking along, I had a vague idea of where I was going, so I wasn't too surprised when we ran across this...

Ghirardelli Square! I love this shot. It looks like a post card.

So we headed up the hill (you're always heading up or down a hill in San Francsico) towards Ghirardelli Square and started to explore.

Hill! See! That's Alcatraz back there. This was taken from the upper part of the Square.

Christmas Tree in the Square. We had to wait for some other people to take a picture first and they took forever! How long does it take to snap a picture? Anyway, even though Christmas was just the day before, it already seemed like kind of a long time ago by this point. You can also see I'm wearing gloves in this picture - it was chilly, but I wasn't cold enough for a jacket. This is important to remember later!

A fountain in the Square.

Ghirardelli Square got its name because it was once a factory for Ghirardelli. Now it's a bunch of shops, restaurants and several (yes, several) Ghirardelli stores. Plus I'm pretty sure they were building condos in there or something.

So we just walked around and explored. There was this pet shop selling all manner of dog outfits and collars. A doggie boutique. Nothing we'd buy for our dogs! We also went into a store selling extremely expensive soaps and bath products.

After that we ran across this place called Kara's cupcakes which kind of reminded us of Crumb's Bakery, but the cupcakes were not as huge. They were, however, quite expensive - they cost $3.50! But they were all natural ingredients. And we're a sucker for cupcakes. So we bought some vanilla thing with a chocolate reindeer on top. It was good.

After our cupcake, we went into one of the many Ghirardelli stores and were handed a sample of their peppermint bark. Mmm... Peppermint bark... That stuff is good! They were having a sale on some of their products, and I'm a sucker for chocolate, so I started buying stuff, including a chocolate bar for my dad and a huge bag of assorted chocolates for me. (I'm still working my way through the bag.) There was also this cute little cable car tin filled with chocolate, but I didn't buy it. When I went to pay, they offered me this nice looking Ghirardelli logo reuseable shopping bag, so I bought that too. It actually came in handy during our trip.

So yeah, I've been in San Francisco for only a couple of hours and I've already bought souvenirs.

Ghirardelli is also famous for their ice cream, but we were too full to enjoy any of it now. We said we'd come back. Spoiler alert - we never did. :(

I kind of wanted to find Lombard Street - one of the several touristy places in San Francisco I totally had to see. I tried using the map on my iPhone, but I wasn't totally sure where we were going and didn't want to get totally lost, so after venturing up another hill (of course) we decided to head back down to the bay.

We wound up wandering around a pier where there were a bunch of historic ships. We didn't want to pay money to go on any of the ships (I'm not really into that kind of thing) but we explored the Hyde St. Pier and I was horrified by the people swimming the San Francisco Bay. I could not see how it was at all warm/clean enough to swim in. We made some East River jokes, checked out a souvenir shop, and then started to head back to our hotel. We were heading out to the San Francisco suburbs to see my friend Emily in a bit and I wanted to freshen up and get myself organized before we caught the BART train.

Here's a quick movie that shows our exploits at Ghirardelli Square and down by the historical ships (it bounces around because I just made a huge movie out of all the videos):

On our way back, we stopped in that Spy shop I posted a picture of earlier. Wow - did they have a lot of weird stuff in there! There were hidden cameras, weapons, books that had cameras in them and a whole bunch of these creepy powders you could use to ruin somebody's car or make them sick, among other things. It was interesting, to say the least.

We didn't buy anything, and retreated back to our hotel room to get ready for our evening.

And I want to let everyone know that my Flip video camera takes better video than YouTube leads you to believe. The upload quality is not as good as the actual quality.

COMING UP...

What MUNI really stands for...
A Rainy Tour
Brian Takes On A Quest

Trip Report ~ How This Trip Finally Came To Be

2010-01-21T17:35:00.007-05:00

Welcome to my very first trip report! It's going to take me awhile to cover two whole weeks, but I'm sure I'll finish sometime before we ring in 2011.

First, a brief introduction to ME (and my husband):

I'm Lauren - he's Brian. We're both in our late 20's, work full time and live in New York, about an hour from NY. We got married in May of 2007 and bought our first house together in September of 2008. We have two old men beagles and an adorable angora rabbit. We're both nerds who enjoy stuff like Star Wars and video games. And I'm a HUGE Disney fan. Obviously. And that about sums it up!

Us on our last trip to WDW together in May 2009

So anyway, I guess the best place to start is how we got to go on this trip in the first place.

When I was ten, my best friend's family moved to California. And ever since then, I've wanted to visit. Well, it took me a long time to get there, but better late than never! Brian also has a friend who moved out there, and he also wanted to visit. It was a trip we kept putting off because of the money and time commitment. And while the topic of going to California came up early in 2009, we initially dismissed the idea (again) because of those concerns. But then I decided - you know what? Stop putting it off, and just go already! Otherwise the day is gonna come where you REALLY can't go! So I figured if we went right after Christmas, we'd be able to take a 2 week trip by using the rest of 2009's vacation and the rest from 2010. I explained all of this to Brian, and he finally went for it! We were on!

All the planning was on my shoulders. Of course. I plan all our trips. Most of them involve Disney World, which I'm extremely familiar with. This time though, I was planning a complicated trip involving many places I'd never been before. It was a bit overwhelming.

Oh, right. The complicated part. Well, since we decided to do two full weeks, I decided we better make the most of it and see as much as we could in that time. My friend now lives in the San Francisco area. Brian's lives in San Diego. Those two places were a long way apart. I couldn't visit California without going to Disneyland. And Los Angeles was so close by it would be silly NOT to visit... And we both were interested in seeing the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, which is not far from San Francisco. So that's how we ended up with this schedule:

December 26th, 2009: Fly to San Francisco
December 28th, 2009: Drive to San Jose
December 29th, 2009: Fly to San Diego
January 3rd, 2010: Train to Anaheim
January 6th, 2010: Train to L.A.
January 9th, 2010: Fly back to New York

Yeah, it was a bit busy. And complicated. And it scared the hell out of me. But it ended up working out well for us.

So I relied heavily on Trip Adviser when planning this trip. I did a lot of research on the different hotels, and searched the internet for the best prices on said hotels. I'm happy to report that Trip Adviser did not steer me wrong - we liked every place we stayed, and would definitely stay at any of them again.

But something weird happened with this trip. Normally I'm an overplanner. I start planning waaaaaaaaaaay ahead of time. Even when there's not much I can do. So this time, instead of doing that, I decided to wait. And wait. And wait. And then all of the sudden so many things started happening in my life that before I knew it, the trip was days away and I hadn't done the extensive planning I would have liked to do. (Mostly involving places we wanted to visit while on the trip.) So I was a bit nervous that I hadn't planned enough. But I'm the easily stressed type!

Packing was also a bit difficult. I figured Southern California would be warm, but not warm enough for shorts. And I was sure San Francisco wouldn't be warm enough for a t-shirt. I must have looked at the average temperature chart dozens of times. I even went out and bought a new carry-on size piece of luggage. I had never been on a 2-week trip before in my life - never mind packed for one!

The day before we left was obviously Christmas. That morning we opened our gifts, had breakfast and finished packing some last minute items. Then we said good-bye to our dogs (Brian's dad would be arriving soon to take care of them while we were gone) and headed down to my mom's house to celebrate with family. (We had dropped our rabbit off with her the day before - she got to bunny-sit!)

We had a very nice Christmas (I got my Flip Video camera I knew I was getting!) and after everyone left, we showered and got ourselves organized for our 3 a.m. wake-up time. We were sleeping over since my mom's house is closer to JFK than ours is. Then I tuned into some Christmas movies that were still on TV and tried to get some sleep around 10. I actually managed to sleep much better than I thought I would.

Well, that ends part one. Not to exciting yet, I know. But next we'll get to the part that actually matters - you know. The Trip!

The Trip Report ~ Preview

2010-01-09T10:20:00.000-05:00

Well, we're leaving California today, so the trip isn't quite over yet. (You bet your ass I'm hanging onto every last second of it!) But we're nearly there.

It's been an amazing trip. I've loved every second of it. California is beautiful (and warm!) and there's so much to see and do here. We're already talking about coming back because there was so much we didn't get to experience!

But there's tons of stuff we did get to do, and I've got tons of pics and videos to prove it!

But for now, here's a bit of a preview. Our trip by the numbers:

Airplanes taken: 3
Taxis Ridden in: 5
Egg McMuffins Consumed: 3
Fast Food Joints Visited: 8
Kids Meals Eaten: 3
Different Tour Buses Ridden On: 5
Movies Seen: 4
Good Movies Seen: 3
Movies Seen Starring Robert Downey Jr: 2
Malls Visited: 5
Theme Parks Visited: 4
Rides on the Indiana Jones Ride at Disneyland: 5
Dole Whips Consumed: 1
Airports Visited: 5
Public Transportation Taken: 5
Hotels Stayed In: 4
Steps Taken: Yeah, thousands probably
Money Spent: I don't even wanna know...

2010 Greetings from California

2010-01-01T12:58:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year, everyone! And happy new decade! I was gonna do a post with my top 10 movies of the decade...but meh. I didn't feel it was really worth it.

I'm on vacation right now in California, actually, enjoying some warmer than NY weather and seeing some pretty awesome things. I'm having some down time in San Diego right now. Tomorrow I'm heading to the zoo and then it's on to Disneyland!

So happy New Year, and when I return home (January 9th) I'll have an in depth trip report with videos and pictures to share!

Top 10 Christmas Movies

2009-12-21T21:05:00.004-05:00

Okay, it's that time of year. (Obviously) Every year I tell myself I'm gonna watch alllll these Christmas movies, and I never do. Oh, I manage to squeeze one, two - maybe even three in there. But I never watch as many as I'd like to.

Until this year. I've actually watched 8 of the movies on this list! Plus I've watched other movies and TV specials that didn't make the list/couldn't make the list. (I didn't include TV specials, otherwise forget it!)

So without further ado, my top 10 favorite Christmas movies of all time.

10. The Santa Clause

I've always had a soft spot for this one. You gotta admit it's pretty original - Santa dies so this working single dad gets stuck being Santa and has a year to accept it. Meanwhile his son runs around telling everyone he's Santa, and everyone thinks he's warping the kid's brain. Funny and touching - all the things a good Christmas movie should be. I even like the sequel, I must admit.

9. A Christmas Carol

I like the old school one starring Alistar Sim - it's my favorite version that doesn't involve puppets. Everyone knows the story here - unless you're secretly from Mars. It's the most classic Christmas story out there. Seriously, it's a brilliant story - far and away the best thing Dickens ever wrote in my opinion. ...And I don't like anything else he wrote, so that's not hard. But I love, love, LOVE a Christmas story, and yeah, I read it. Under my own power. This version sticks pretty close to the book, which is why I like it so much. "Bah! Humbug!"

8. A Christmas Story

"You'll shoot your eye out, kid!" There's a reason this movie is shown in a 24-hour marathon every year - it is hilarious! Oh, little Ralphie's quest for a Red Ryder BB gun never gets old. Who can forget Flik's tongue getting stuck to the pole? Or dad's "major award"? Or the Bumpass' dogs? There are just so many memorable scenes. Most memorable is probably the scene with Santa, where Ralphie grips onto the slide for dear life to tell Santa what he wants, only to get a shoe in the face. Ho ho ho!

7. Muppet Christmas Carol

Muppets? Songs? The story of A Christmas Carol? Yes, please! The Muppets can do no wrong in my book. And they certainly brought their unique sense of humor and their entertaining tunes to this version of the classic tale. Gonzo and Rizzo are great as the Narrators. And Statler and Waldrof as the Marley Brothers? It's packed with great stuff.

6. Bad Santa
This isn't your typical Christmas movie. It's rated R.
And for good reason. The main character is a drunken criminal named Willy who robs malls every year with his accomplice after he's been playing Santa and has had a chance to scope out the place. There is foul language and sex all over the place! But there are tons of laughs - and there's definitely heart here too. This is such a well written movie - you will root for Billy Bob Thorton's character despite his many, many faults. If you haven't seen this one, you're really missing a great movie.

5. Home Alone

If you were a kid in the early 90's, you've probably seen this movie many, many times. I know I have. What kid wasn't captivated by Kevin's fight against the evil burglar's? Plus he got to eat all that junk food and set up all those cool traps! This movie puts a smile on my face every time. And I even like the sequel. But those other movies were never made as far as I'm concerned.

4. Miracle on 34th Street

Colorized? No. That new one they made back in the 90's - hell no! How dare they! The original is an amazing film with a smart script and fantastic acting behind it. There was a reason Natalie Wood was a top child actress - she was brilliant. Just look at her face when Kris Kringle tells her he's really Santa Clause that first time. I absolutely love the scene where all the letters get dumped on the judge's desk. This is the kind of movies they made before they could rely on stupid special effects.

3. It's a Wonderful
Life

Another old school classic. Watch poor George Bailey's life get messed up time and time again! But in the end, he realizes how much he's has. Jimmy Stewart is an amazing actor. You really feel for George at every twist and turn. And the part where he and Mary are sharing the phone - now that's real sexual tension for you! Also, if you don't at least have tears in your eyes by the end, you're a robot.

2. Elf

Elf is everything a great Christmas movie should be - original, clever, funny and it makes you believe in the magic of Christmas. Okay, call me corny, but I really love this movie. Will Ferrell is always awesome, but he's truly endearing as Budd the Elf who meets up with his real dad in a human world he just doesn't understand after being raised by elves. Sure, maybe the ending is a little corny, but I think the best Christmas movies have a little of that too. Plus, "You sit on a throne of lies" is one of the best lines ever.

1. Christmas Vacation

A small paragraph is not enough to truly convey my love for this film. I can quote large sections of it. Basically the whole thing is one awesome scene after another. It's hilarious and endearing - the best family related Christmas movie ever made. Well, in my opinion anyway. All Clark Griswold wants is to throw a fun old fashioned family Christmas - but his family and boss keep getting in his way. By the end, you'll be singing along with everybody else. And you gotta love Aunt Bethany and Uncle Lewis. And that squirrel.

My Top 10 Christmas Movie Quotes

2009-12-13T17:11:00.000-05:00

Okay, this was a difficult list to make. I LOVE Christmas movies, and so narrowing it down to just ten movies was hard enough. But then I decided to choose only 1 quote per movie. Many of these movies have many quotable lines, but I stuck to only the best of the best and, in some cases, the most classic lines. And yeah, some of these are technically TV specials, but what're ya gonna do.

So here we go. These are in no particular order.

Hey! If any of you are looking for any last-minute gift ideas for me, I have one. I'd like Frank Shirley, my boss, right here tonight. I want him brought from his happy holiday slumber over there on Melody Lane with all the other rich people and I want him brought right here, with a big ribbon on his head, and I want to look him straight in the eye and I want to tell him what a cheap, lying, no-good, rotten, four-flushing, low-life, snake-licking, dirt-eating, inbred, overstuffed, ignorant, blood-sucking, dog-kissing, brainless, dickless, hopeless, heartless, fat-ass, bug-eyed, stiff-legged, spotty-lipped, worm-headed sack of monkey shit he is! Hallelujah! Holy shit! Where's the Tylenol?

Christmas Vacation (1989) This movie is full of classic lines - many of them ones I know by heart from watching it so often! If you've never seen this movie, you're seriously deprived - it is THE funniest Christmas movie ever, hands down. There are so many classic moments. "SQUIRRRRRRRREL!!!!" - Just one example. But the above quote comes at the climax of the movie, where the main character and family patriarch, Clark Griswold (played by Chevy Chase) snaps after finally getting his much anticipated "Christmas bonus". Ah, the holidays.

The old man stood there, quivering with fury, stammering as he tried to come up with a real crusher. All he got out was...
Naddafinga!

A Christmas Story (1983) Yet another classic movie chock full of quotable lines. It was hard to pick just one from this movie. "You'll shoot your eye out, kid." immediately comes to mind, of course. But I just had to go with the father's reaction to his "major award" being destroyed beyond repair. The whole lamp saga is my favorite part of this must see holiday staple. If you've somehow managed to avoid seeing this movie, um, TBS? 24 hours of it starting on Christmas Eve? Seriously. No excuse.

Didn't I ever tell you about bumbles? Bumbles bounce!

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (1964) I'm actually watching this classic TV special as I write this. Love, love, LOVE this one. I have tons of figures and ornaments based on the characters in this beloved Christmas staple. Yukon Cornelius is my favorite character - and he's the one who gives the line I chose to quote. The "bumble", of course, being the Abominable Snow Monster - post dental work.

You sit on a throne of lies!

Elf (2003) This movie may be only 6 years old, but it's an instant classic. Again, soooo many quotable lines. "I love smiling. Smiling's my favorite." Will Ferrel is hilarious and endearing as Buddy - a human who managed to accidentally sneak into the North Pole as a baby and wound up raised by elves. It's a movie I have to watch every year. The ending always puts a big smile on my face. I wish they made more Christmas movies nowadays in the same spirit as this one. Anyway, the quoted line comes from Buddy when he confronts a department store Santa. It's a scene you really should see for yourself, if you haven't already.

And what happened then? Well, in Whoville they say that the Grinch's small heart grew three sizes that day. And then - the true meaning of Christmas came through, and the Grinch found the strength of *ten* Grinches, plus two!

How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966) Yeah, I'm talking about the classic, original cartoon version that was made for TV - not that horrible Jim Carey movie that I couldn't stand watching for more than 10 minutes. Dear god, that was an abomination. Anyway, I absolutely love this version, as well as the original book. I know large portions of it by heart. I used to own Grinch hats and t-shirts and all that crap. I have a much loved stuffed Grinch that's comes out every holiday season. I'm sure everyone has seen this special. The quote I chose comes from the ending, and it pretty much speaks for itself.

Faith is believing when common sense tells you not to. Don't you see? It's not just Kris that's on trial, it's everything he stands for. It's kindness and joy and love and all the other intangibles.

Miracle on 34th Street (1947) Again, I'm all about the originals. Remakes. Bah! Humbug! Anyway, this movie is another classic, of course. It's timeless. And, of course, I love it. It's just a movie with a great story before the days where special effects took over. The quoted line comes from Doris Walker, played by the beautiful Maureen O'Hara, who has spent her entire life teaching her daughter to view things realistically - that there's no point in make believe or believing in things you can't see. But after meeting Kris Kringle, the man she hired to play Santa at Macy's, she begins to see the world in a whole different way.

Look, Daddy. Teacher says, every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings.

It's a Wonderful Life (1946) The movie the studio tried to kill by releasing it in summer, believe it or not. They thought it would bomb. Well, little did they know they had produced one of the best Christmas movies of all time. Like many of the other movies on this list, it's a classic, a classic that's been parodied many times. It's a wonderful story with a feel good message. The line I chose is, of course, a classic, from the very end of the movie. Atta boy, Clarence.

This is my house. I have to defend it.

Home Alone (1990) If you grew up in the 90's, you've probably viewed Home Alone many, many times. To kids, this movie definitely fulfilled some fantasies - being alone and having a house all to yourself. All of the tricks and traps Kevin sets up are awesome. Seriously - my favorite is still the part where Kevin makes it look like there's a party going on using his Michael Jordan cardboard cutout and some mannequins. Anyway, this is another movie chock full of great quotes - but I felt this one summed up the movie. Kevin says it right before the burglar's start their break in.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night! When I get home, I'm getting a CAT scan!

The Santa Clause (1994) Okay, probably not a classic to most people, but I really enjoy this movie. It's clever and always enjoyable to watch. Tim Allen plays Scott Calvin, a man who accidentally becomes Santa Claus after the prior Santa dies on his roof Christmas Eve night. He then must cope with the fact that he's now Santa, and his young son won't stop telling all the unbelieving adults about it. My quote comes from Scott after he finishes delivering the gifts on his first reluctant Christmas.

If they'd rather die, then they had better do it and decrease the surplus population!

A Christmas Carol (Done soooo many times!) I love A Christmas Carol - I don't like Dicken's books, but this one is fantastic. I'm sure everyone knows the story here, so I'm not gonna bother rehashing it here. But Scrooge is a pretty quotable guy, and I never met a version of this story I didn't like, so it was impossible to pick a particular movie, and I had a tough time picking just one quote. I ended up settling on this Scrooge-ism, mostly because it's really the most evil thing he says. Enjoy your ghosts, jerk.

In case it wasn't obvious...I really love Christmas movies! And these aren't my only favorites. What are some of your favorite Christmas movies and quotes?

Tune In To ~ Million Dollar Listing

2009-12-07T21:36:00.000-05:00

I ran across this show when I was sick a few months ago, and I was immediately hooked. It involves a bunch of things I like: real estate, rich people, and good looking guys - who could ask for anything more?

The show is on Bravo and the season finale for the third season is airing in like half an hour. (10 pm on Monday nights.) Basically the show follows three real estate agents in the Los Angeles/Hollywood/Malibu areas of California: Josh, Chad and Madison. They sell these fantastic multimillion dollar mansions (for the most part) and I enjoy just seeing these amazing homes and the gorgeous views of California. It's also entertaining to watch the agents interact with their clients (especially in this declining market) and occasionally with each other... Chad really doesn't get along with others, but his "business partner" aka a tiny dog named Starla, is cute.

The show is addictive. If you like reality shows, give it a shot. It's an entertaining look at a completely different lifestyle.

Christmas Crap

2009-12-02T22:55:00.000-05:00

Right now my house is like Christmas exploded. Seriously. There are plastic tubs of Christmas related crap strewn in every direction. I'm spending my week working late...yay...so hopefully this weekend I'll be able to tackle my holiday hell and put up my tree, town etc.

Since I don't have much time, here's a quick run down of what I've been up to:

Thanksgiving was good, although I didn't pay as much attention to the parade as I would have liked. Every time we did look it was another music star we'd never heard of - they always parade (haha, intended) out these up and comers they want to get exposure for at the parade. The whole thing really has gone so commercial. My dad was laughing because one of the floats was sponsored by Jimmy Dean sausage, or something ridiculous. Well, it's kinda sad but kinda necessary. The parade don't pay for itself after all. Just look at the balloons - they're pretty much all corporate mascots. But I still think a corporate parade is better than no parade.
So...we got up at 5 a.m. for Black Friday. (We almost didn't get up on time at all because of an iPhone alarm snafu, but I digress.) Anyway, we get to the mall around 5:30 and the parking lot is PACKED. Seriously. It was re-fucking-diculous. I could not believe what a scene it was. It was NOTHING like that last year. So we go inside, and the line at Best Buy wraps around the entire store. Meanwhile, the same stuff is selling online for the same prices. Haha. But I leave my husband online with some stuff anyway, since we're already there and all, and my sister and I go to Old Navy. Line is to the back of the store. I'm not too impressed with the merchandise for sale, but I find a few things, she finds a few things, and she stands online while I check out Target. Another line that wraps around the store. "Fuck this", I say, because I am not about to stand in a line like that for a $10 pack of pajamas (which I was able to buy the next day, with no crowds, thank you very much.) Apparently there was 2 fist fights in Target, and while I thankfully did not see any such displays (seriously, people?! Seriously?! It's stuff! Not the last lifeboat off the Titanic!) I did see a cop. So I go to J.C. Penney. And omg, it was nirvana in there. So not crowded, found pretty much everything I wanted, and checked out quickly without waiting on a line that stretched on endlessly to a department I didn't even know existed. Thank you, J.C. Penney. They ended up getting more of my business because of the chaos at Target. I returned to Old Navy after this, where my sister was still waiting online (she was finally at the front) and had only been recently joined by Brian, the Best Buy line survivor. Once we were finally done there, it was on to Express (totally fine) and Bath and Body Works (crowded, but certainly manageable) before we headed to Modells. That store was also pretty quiet. Then we went home and shopped online. This was my fourth Black Friday, and I've always said the craziness was worth it...but this year I don't really think it was. A lot of the stuff was available online. I don't know if I'll get up early again next year.
Have you seen Million Dollar Listing on Bravo? It deserves a post all to itself, but I certainly suggest watching it if you should stumble across an episode.
Streaming Netflix? Amazing. How did we ever live without this stuff? It's so easy to get spoiled isn't it? Remember VCRs? I shudder just thinking about it. We had a separate device just to rewind the tapes!

All right, well that about does it for now. I've seen no good movies lately, I'm behind on my TV shows and podcasts, and I've got a trip to California coming up in 24 days and a major holiday I still need to buy for coming up in 23. And before all of that I need to get some sleep.

Tis the Season To Gobble

2009-11-23T18:01:00.000-05:00

I love Thanksgiving. The food, the parade, and yes, how it marks the beginning of the Christmas Season. (And yes, how the next day is Black Friday. Amazon's already started their Black Friday deals.) But it annoys me how the stores go straight from Halloween to Christmas like Thanksgiving doesn't even exist. Of course they do that because people don't exchange gifts for Thanksgiving. They don't buy costumes. They buy food - a lot of food, yeah. But that only benefits the grocery stores. People don't really decorate too much. (Even me, I have minimal decorations, despite how I love the holiday - how many smiling turkeys do you want to look at while you're eating one?) Most people don't send cards. It's not much of a commercial holiday. It's a family holiday. And the stores don't like that so much. So they go right to the motherload - Christmas.

But Thanksgiving deserves it's due, dammit. It's really the only major holiday everyone in the United States celebrates. You get tons of yummy food. And the parade is awesome! I just love the Macy's parade. I watch the whole thing every year. I think the balloons are going downhill a little...the parade is getting a little too commercialized (especially with NBC plugging their shows the whole first part...) but I still won't miss it. I enjoy the performances from the various Broadway shows, as well as the marching bands and the familiar floats. (I particularly like the Sesame Street and Turkey floats) And you can't forget Santa, of course!

After the parade, it's time for the dog show, followed by the classic Miracle on 34th Street. Will I actually be able to eat any desert this year? Probably not.

But this year will be a little bittersweet, since we lost my grandfather in June, and his presence will certainly be greatly missed.

How to Save Money and Make Money Online

2009-11-20T20:11:00.000-05:00

Okay, I'll say it. I'm a big time cheapskate. So I spend a lot of time online looking for ways to either make a little money in my spare time (or at least earn some free stuff...) OR save money. Here are a bunch of sites that I use. Before I begin, though, let to admit up front that some of these links are affiliate links - which gives me a little something if you do sign up for the site. But rest assured I seriously don't sign up for any old crap, and I definitely wouldn't take the time to recommend a site I didn't really like.

Disney Movie Rewards - Do you buy a lot of Disney movies? Then this is the club for you! It's totally free to sign up, and when you buy Disney movies or Blu-ray, they'll be a code inside that you can enter on the website for points. They run promotions sometimes where you can earn some bonus points, too. You can then turn in your points for prizes. I've gotten some limited edition pins using my points, and they really do have some really nice stuff.

Ebates - Like to shop online? Then you'll probably make good use to Ebates. It's free to sign up, and you basically get cash back for shopping online. The cash back ranges anywhere from 1% - 20% depending on the store, and there are lots of stores (hundreds probably) that participate. Ebates also posts coupons and offer codes so you can save even more money. You can get your cash back through a check, Paypal or you can even donate it to charity. You get paid every 3 months, as long as your balance is $5.01. (If it's not, don't worry - it'll just roll over until you have enough.) I've been a member since 2007 and have gotten over $60 in cash back - and I don't shop online too much. Most of that is just from Christmas shopping.

Slickdeals.net - Looking for a deal on something? Look no further than Slickdeals. You can find great prices on all sorts of stuff right on the front page. You can even sign up for deal alerts, and the forums there are great to get deal info from other deal seekers. There's a whole section just for coupon codes, too.

Swagbucks - Want to earn prizes just by searching? Then Swagbucks is for you! Use it just like you would use Google, and you'll randomly earn "Swagbucks". You can also earn Swagbucks via codes you can find on Facebook, Twitter etc. You can then turn your Swagbucks in for gift certificates, merchandise, or enter various Sweepstakes. What I like about Swagbucks is that the prizes don't cost a lot and it's easy to earn a few Swagbucks a day. I've been a member for not quite a month and already have well over 100. Also, if you have old video games or cell phones you don't want anymore, you can turn those in for Swagbucks.

Retail Me Not - Looking for a coupon or a coupon code? You'll probably find it here. It's easy to search for coupons for local stores, groceries, or coupon codes you can use online. I never buy anything without checking to see if there's a coupon available first. What's also great is the coupons are rated by site visitors, you can see how reliable a coupon is before you use it.

Sunshine Rewards - Want to earn money by taking surveys and shopping? Or just by clicking on a link? Sign up for Sunshine Rewards. There's several different ways to earn money here (which you can turn in for gift cards or cash - if you have at least $20). You can take surveys or shop and get cash back, like through Ebates. Sunshine Rewards has some stores that Ebates doesn't. Taking surveys is the best way to earn money, but it can sometimes be a little annoying to find a survey you qualify for. It's something to do once and awhile when you're bored, though. I've been a member less than a month, don't do surveys every day, and already have almost 15 bucks from just doing some surveys while watching TV.

Black Friday Ads - Excited about Black Friday? I know I am! Well, if you want to see what deals are going to be out there, you can check the ad scans at this website. You can also check out their shopping guides and make a shopping list.

RewardTV - Want to earn points for watching TV or going to the movies? Then sign up for RewardTV. You can take quizzes about TV you watch (they're mostly interested in the commercials...), movies you've seen, and other random surveys. You'll then earn points you can turn in for gift cards, enter sweepstakes, or bid on auction items. This site doesn't have the best rewards - it takes a LOT of points to get anything, but it's something fun to do when you're bored.

Istobe.com - Like free shipping? Sure, we all do. Well, this site will show you whether or not a store offers free shipping - and if it does with a minimum purchase, it'll tell you what that number is too.

Amazon - Everybody knows about Amazon. But did you know they're going to be having Black Friday deals starting Monday, November 23rd? You can use the link right there to find the deals starting Monday. Amazon also has gold box and lightning deals every day. There's only one gold box item a day, and popular items can sell out fast. There are a few lightning deals a day - the exact number depends on the day of the week. Amazon also has various other sales and stuff all the time - you just have to do a bit of research to find the specials. And don't forget about the super saver shipping for orders over $25.

Well, I think that about does it. In my quest to save a few bucks here and there, I'll post more updates on how to be a cheapskate. :)

Review ~ Up

2009-11-17T19:35:00.001-05:00

I always enjoy Pixar movies. Some more than others, but I've enjoyed them all. Still, when I first heard about Up and saw the trailer, I wasn't too excited about it. An old man floats his house using a bunch of balloons? Seriously? It seemed rather far out to me - and it is. But by the time you're done watching, you won't care.

Up is the story of Carl Fredrickson, a retired balloon salesman who lives in what was once a beautiful residential area, but is now a construction zone. Carl dreamed of being an explorer as a child, and rather than be dragged off to a nursing home, he attaches his house to a bunch of balloons and takes off to finally follow his lifelong dream. Only he discovers Wilderness Explorer (think Boy Scout) Russell has accidentally stowed away. And then there's this bird named Kevin. And a taking Dug named dog. And it's an hour and a half of laughs, tears and entertainment that will have to riveted from beginning to end.

It's hard to talk about the movie without giving much away, but it really is a touching story and it kind of tells an important lesson. Carl may seem like a cranky old man a lot of the time, but you'll find yourself rooting for him all the way. Kevin the bird never says a word but will have you laughing anyway. And Dug is quite possibly the cutest and most darling Pixar character ever. You can't help but love him. Even if he isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer.

The voice acting and animation in this film are both top notch, of course, but the important thing is this movie is not all pretty pictures and clever one liners. Pixar knows how to tell a gripping and emotional story, and they've proved it again here - big time. In fact, I'll be bold enough to say that this might be the best story they've told thus far. (And that is some high praise coming from me - especially on the heels of last year's WALL-E.)

So if you haven't seen this movie yet, you're doing yourself a disservice. You will enjoy this movie, I promise. If you don't, I'm sorry, but you have no soul.

Review ~ Ratchet and Clank: A Crack In Time

2009-11-10T17:47:00.000-05:00

This Ratchet and Clank game has been a long time coming – and with the rumors that it’s the last game (though I’ve heard that before…) this game has a lot of hype to live up to. Does it? Well…

First – graphics. Well, it’s a PS3 game, so of course it looks pretty. The in game movies are especially attractive. The environments in the Ratchet and Clank series have always been lush, and this game is no exception.

Story has also been a huge component in this series. This game picks up where Tools of Destruction and Quest for Booty left off. Clank and Ratchet are still separated, and Ratchet (with the assistance of the bumbling and always amusing Captain Quark), is looking for him. Along the way, both learn more about their pasts and battle that devious droid Dr. Nefarious. While the story in the game is solid (and often very funny and heartfelt), I didn’t feel it was as strong as some past titles – mostly because it still leaves many questions unanswered. It also seems much shorter than past games, and there are far less planets to explore, but I’ll get into that more later.

As far as sound goes, voice acting has always been a prominent feature, and once again there’s wonderful voice acting here. The game is fully voice acted, but of course you have the option of turning on subtitles if you wish. The music is fine, but not particularly memorable. But you’re not playing this for the music.

Now for the main event – the gameplay. As there are many aspects to the gameplay in these titles, I’m going to break this down into categories:

WEAPONS: Weapons have always been a HUGE part of Ratchet and Clank games. Over the years we’ve seen all sorts of wacky weapons, and in more recent titles we’ve been able to upgrade them. After such a rich weapons history, I was somewhat disappointed with the weapons in this game. Of course, you have your basic weapons, but many of the funkier options – like the gun that turns enemies into monkeys – are just variations of weapons we’ve seen already. (Remember when you could turn enemies into chickens?) This isn’t such a big deal, really – how many different effective weapons can you dream up before you start repeating yourself? But what disappointed me the most was the amount of weapons I found to be kind of useless. Too many spots on my quick select were taken up with weapons that merely incapacitated enemies. A gun that temporarily freezes enemies comes to mind.

I’d say that about half of the weapons in the game I either used very rarely or not at all.

You get most of your weapons by purchasing them from vendors – a few others are won. The vendor this time is called GrummelNet, and whenever you purchase a new weapon from them you’re treated to a cute video about it featuring a cartoon Ratchet.

As in some past titles, your weapons level up. 5 is the max level, and it’s really not hard to level your weapons up to the maximum. In some of the past games you were able to upgrade your weapons further by giving them customized features. Well, in this game you can find upgrade packs on various planets and moons which add enhancements to certain weapons. These upgrades are free, and you can switch between them as often as you like. There are several upgrades that affect shots, range, power etc. These enhancements are pretty good, but not nearly as powerful as past games. Also, these upgrades are only available on 4 of the weapons, which I found disappointing. While all the weapons transform into a new weapon at level 5, this doesn’t really make up for the lack of customization.

Gadgets also used to be a big part of the game, but not any more. Aside from the grind boots, which come standard on Ratchet’s shoes nowadays, there are only four gadgets in this game. FOUR. And considering you start the game with swingshot again, and another gadget never requires Ratchet to use it, there’s really only two. While it’s easy to access these gadgets on the fly (just press up, right, down or left on the D-pad – each corresponds to one) only having a small amount of gadgets was a huge disappointment. I fondly remember the old days where you had to use several gadgets just to get through an area – not so much the case any more. And with the tiny gadget selection comes the absence of minigames where you unlock doors or solve other puzzles (Those aspects aren’t totally missing, but I’ll get there.)

Ratchet levels up in this game, too. And as his level rises his nanotech does too. You can also buy armor upgrades, but there are no wrench upgrades here.

There are crates a plenty – and once again bolts are not in short supply. I had no trouble affording anything ever.

There have always been sections in past games where you play as Clank, but it’s never been as much as it is in this game. Clank has long sections to himself, and while he does fight, a little, mostly he solves puzzles involving copying himself and using these copies to push buttons and open doors so he can progress further. Clank also has a minigame that I thought would play a bigger part (and is kind of a spoiler to explain) but you are only required to play it about 3 or 4 times. Neither of these aspects were tons of fun, but they weren’t horrible. Despite that, whenever the game switched to Clank, I couldn’t wait to get back to Ratchet.

Space battles have been a large part of the last few games, although this time there are far less missions and I found the battles easier in general. Your ship is upgraded as you find various Zoni scattered across the galaxy. This gives you better armor and weapons. I liked that system, but I didn’t really care for the new navigation system. Instead of going directly to the planet, on your first visit you must first go to the solar system and fly to the planet yourself. (On subsequent visits you can go directly to the planet.) Each solar system has 1, 2 or 3 major planets/ships to visit – these locations are where the story happens. Each solar system also has various moons where you can find Zoni/gold bolts/upgrade packs. These moons take the place of the multiple paths you used to find on the planets. Each planet pretty much has only one direction to go in now, and in all honesty I missed having multiple objectives on each planet. Most of the moons involve either killing a certain amount of enemies, or platforming elements that lead to your prize. There is no environment to these moons, and they’re pretty uninspired graphics wise. You also cannot warp directly to the moons – you must fly to each one yourself every time.

There are additional missions you can do in space to gain extra bolts. Most of them are very easy and take only minutes to complete. For many of them I felt like I was being paid more bolts than I deserved for the work I was doing. …Not that I’m complaining.

Gold bolts are a staple in Ratchet and Clank games, so of course they’re back. But, in continuation with the trend you’re probably noticing, most of them were very easy to find. Lots of them were in plain sight. In past games the gold bolts were often tucked away in hard to reach areas. Not so much here – I found many without much effort.

Skill points are also an expected feature that has returned. Skill points unlock cheats and other additional content. They range from easy to difficult and they involve completing skills you wouldn’t normally perform during the course of the game. The difficulty range in this game is on par with past titles, but I felt there was less of them this time around. There is also trophy support. You get most of them just by progressing normally through the game. If you’re looking to get rewarded for doing tough stuff, stick to the skill points.

This review was based on playing on medium, and I found the game to be pretty easy compared to past game. I had no problem affording anything I wanted to buy, ammo is plentiful and I didn’t find myself being slaughtered by enemies (even bosses) very often. Makes me wonder how easy the easy version is. (And yeah, I really think the game is easy – I haven’t become a better player.)

Overall I’ve been pretty down on this game during this review. The story and graphics certainly held up to Ratchet and Clank standards. But the game as a whole was too short. I didn’t feel like it had the depth of previous installments. There were fewer gadgets and too many useless weapons. There wasn’t as much to do. Not as much customization. Gold bolts are not hidden as well. The degree of difficulty is also kind of low. But even after all that, it was still a very good game. The thing is, despite all that negative stuff, Ratchet and Clank games are always so excellent that even one that isn’t quite up to par is still a fun, engaging experience. I’d definitely encourage everyone to play – but fans of the series, don’t expect the best one ever. This game is flawed, yes, but it’s still way better than a lot of other games out there. Not every game can be a masterpiece, after all.

8 out of 10

WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!

2009-11-05T17:46:00.000-05:00

Oh, World Series win. I missed you so much. I will never take you for granted again.

We did it! Game over, Season over, World Series over - the YANKEES WIN!!!!

I was seriously so excited last night. I had a feeling they would win last night, and I'm happy to say I was right. It was basically the Matsui show (with a teeny bit of help from my man Tex) and he rightfully won the MVP award.

When it came down to those final outs... Man, I was nervous. Not because I really thought they would blow a 4 run lead and lose (THOUGH NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE IN BASEBALL AND YOU MUST NEVER FORGET THAT) but because I wanted it to be over! I wanted to watch the celebration! I wanted it to be real! And that one guy just kept fouling off pitch after pitch after pitch. God! I kind of wanted Rollins to be the last out - just 'cause he ran his mouth so much - but it was not to be. And as there were 2 strikes on that last Phillies player to come to bat... I wasn't sure if I wanted a strike out, or the ball to be put in play. I usually like the ball to be put in play - then you get to see everybody running in all excited - but at that point I just wanted an out to happen! Well, I got my wish and a grounder was hit to Cano. Tex caught it, and IT WAS OVER!

I have a lot of baseball memories. The Yankees have been a big part of my life. I'll have to get into some of those memories another time. But a new memory was made last night. After years of shrugging my shoulders and knowing there would be no World Series championship this year - even dissing this years team early on - oh, the things that come out of my mouth when they're not playing well...even in postseason games... Anyway, to be in that moment...watching them win again. You know, you try and remind yourself it's just a sport. You're not playing. What does that win really mean to you? But I guess when you support a team for so long, when you're bound together with your family and it's ingrained into you from when you were born...it becomes an emotional thing. It's more than just entertainment. It's part of you. I don't know if I explained that right. If you get sports I think you just get it. And if you don't...well...you just don't.

But last night was another memory. I screamed as that easy grounder headed towards Cano. And when Tex caught it, the jumping up and down started. As I watched them celebrate on the field, I have to admit I cried. A little. For two reasons. First, they won the first year in the old stadium - way back in 1923. To have them win the first year in this new stadium...that cemented it. It's been broken in. The ghosts are there. They may have moved across the street, but it's still business as usual in the Bronx. Secondly...my grandpa passed away in June. He was a huge Yankees fan. We actually buried him with his hat. And to have them win last night... Well, I know he was up there watching, but I wish he was still around to talk about it. Still, I kind of felt in my heart like that win was for him.

And I totally regret never seeing this team play. Blah.

Oh well.

Anyway.

Well, championship #27 is ours! Also, I'm 27. Pretty neat! Maybe they'll win 28 next year when I'm 28! I can dream, right?

Tune In To...Great SNL Clips

2009-11-03T17:42:00.000-05:00

This clip is kind of old...but I love it.

And then there's this one... I still quote this one all the time - "What you swattin' at?"

Halloween Tunes

2009-10-31T13:48:00.000-04:00

I totally forgot about 2 movies last time: Ghostbusters, and Casper. (When you're 13, the scene where Casper transforms into Deven Sawa and dances with Christina Ricci is like the most romantic thing ever.)

So, in preparing for a party I'm having, I'm working on a Halloween tunes list. Here's what I have so far:

Addam's Family: Addam's Groove (The song from the end of the first movie - awesome!)
Devil Went Down to Georgia (Charlie Daniel's Band)
Don't Fear the Reaper (Blue Oyster Cult)
Ghostbusters (The movie theme, of course.)
Grim Grinning Ghosts (From the Haunted Mansion ride...I have 2 versions of this actually.)
Monster Mash (Bobby Pickett)
Munsters Theme (From the TV show)
Oogie Boogie's Song (From Nightmare Before Christmas)
Over at the Frankenstein's Place (From Rocky Horror Picture Show)
Phantom of the Opera (Techno Version of the Andrew Lloyd Webber classic.)
Psycho Killer (Talking Heads)
The Purple People Eater (Sheb Wooley)
Re: Your Brains (Jonathan Coulton)
Science Fiction Double Feature (Rocky Horror again)
Sympathy for the Devil (The Rolling Stones)
Theme from Halloween
Theme from Puppet Master
This is Halloween (Nightmare Before Christmas again)
Thriller (Michael Jackson)
The Time Warp (Rocky Horror. AGAIN.)
Zombie Zoo (Tom Petty)

Not a bad list, but I'm hoping to add a couple more before next Saturday... Any suggestions?

Tis the Season For Scary

2009-10-27T18:19:00.000-04:00

So, I hate scary movies. I'm a big wuss. Always have been, always will be. I hate horror movies. I just don't see the fun in gore or getting scared.

That makes Halloween a hard season for me TV/Movie wise.

I don't have too many favorite Halloween movies. Most Halloween related movies are scary/gross, which makes sense I guess, but I wish they would make some more kid friendly ones. I can handle kid friendly! Anyway, here are some Halloween movies I can handle:

The Nightmare Before Christmas (My all time favorite.)
Hocus Pocus (A classic.)
It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (Another classic.)
Garfield Halloween Special (Although it scared the crap out of me as a kid.)
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (The Disney one.)
Claymation Halloween (You probably haven't seen this.)

That's all I can think of for now... Anyone else have any suggestions? I'm more into Christmas movies.

Movies On Base

2009-10-24T22:45:00.000-04:00

So, with baseball season coming to a close, I've had a yearning to watch some baseball movies. Enter Netflix. After a simple internet search, I created a list of movies I wanna watch having to do with America's favorite pastime. Some of these are movies I've seen before. But most of them I haven't seen.

Here's the list:

bold - watched it since starting since project.
italics - seen it before

Mr. Baseball
Field of Dreams
61*
The Natural
Cobb
Major League
Major League 2
Angels in the Outfield
The Sandlot
The Rookie of the Year
The Babe
Pastime
Bang the Drum Slowly
The Bad News Bears
Bleacher Bums
Bull Durham
Eight Men Out
For Love of the Game
Damn Yankees
Everyone's Hero
Fear Strikes Out
Mickey
The Winning Season
The Life and Times of Hank Greenburg
Finding Buck McHenry
A League of Their Own
Hustle
The Pride of the Yankees
The Rookie
The Scout

So yeah, I've only watched one movie so far, Mr. Baseball, which is from the early 90's and stars Tom Selleck as a fading major leaguer who goes to play in Japan. It's a comedy, and I actually enjoyed it more than I thought I would. It's pretty funny. Plus, Tom Selleck is just plain awesome. Also, it has the guy from those State Farm commercials. A good start to my project.

Next on my list? I'm not sure. I have a bunch of the movies waiting for me from Netflix, plus I actually own a few. I'll probably watch either Cobb or The Natural next.

The Wovie Channel

2009-10-21T17:01:00.000-04:00

OMG.

The Weather Channel's gonna have movies.

Yeah. For real.

This is just so sad to me. I understand people can't watch weather all day...well, most people anyway, but seriously - movies?! That just seems wrong to me. And some of their choices - Deep Blue Sea?! That movie is hilarious - mostly unintentionally - is that really the kind of movie a respectable channel such as the Weather Channel wants to associate with? I mean, for the love of god, the ending theme is LL Cool J singing about how his hat is like a shark's fin. (I am NOT kidding!)

Though, when you resort to movies...is there any respect left to give?

You'll have to look for your local forecast while Samuel L. Jackson yells about shit.

An ad worth rewatching again and again and again...

2009-10-18T21:31:00.000-04:00

Can I tell you how obsessed I am with this commerical advertising this new NY lottery game? It's the cutest thing I've ever seen and it always brings a smile to my face. I've enjoyed ads in the past, mostly because they made me chuckle, but I have watched this ad a sick number of times. It's just soooo cute - especially since I own a rabbit. I know there are advertising awards, and I don't know what agency made this ad, but they deserve to win something. Brilliance. I don't play the lottery and it almost makes me wanna buy a ticket.

Are You Ready For Some Baseball?

2009-10-16T17:34:00.000-04:00

I love baseball. It's the only major sport I get into.

I love the Yankees - I'm from New York, my father is a Yankees fan, my grandfather is a Yankees fan - my whole family bleeds pinstripes. My husband borders on fanatical. But I have to admit I've distanced myself a bit in recent years...so many bad memories...bad moments. I think I hit rock bottom when I literally could not get out of bed for 2 days after the 2004 ALCS collapse. It was pretty pathetic.

After all, it's just a sport, right? So I told myself to take a step back and go on with my life. I couldn't let my life get controlled by a game anymore. If the Yankees lost, I couldn't let it ruin my day. Life went on. It wasn't controlled by a ball and a bat.

But I've never stopped being a fan. And now that we're back in the ALCS again I'm very excited. Nervous, but excited. I have a good feeling about this year. And while that may mean nothing to you, I normally have a very good feeling when it comes to baseball. No joke - I predicted the entire 2004 ALCS before any of the games even started. Well, kind of. But that's a story for some other time.

So. Baseball. It's going to be a great series. The teams are pretty evenly matched. I hate the Angels, mostly because they always tend to beat us, but this year we ended up even in the season series. It's gonna be a toughie.

But let's christen our new stadium the Yankee way, okay?

That means we take home the championship.

Don't be the team from the last couple years. The team that lacked heart. That lacked drive. I think this year they want it - they've already proven they don't give up. So I won't. Not until the end. 'Cause it ain't over till the last out's recorded.

Let's play ball.

Toy Story 3!

2009-10-14T18:21:00.000-04:00

The first full trailer of Toy Story 3 is out - Andy is going off to college and the toys find themselves stuck at a daycare. I'm sure hijinks will ensue.

Toy Story and Toy Story 2 are still my favorite Pixar movies - (even if I didn't go see them in 3D... I know, I know, but I just don't have the time to sit in the movies for that long) so I'm super excited about the 3rd installment. It's been a long time coming, but better late than never!

Review ~ Final Fantasy IV DS

2009-10-12T18:20:00.001-04:00

Okay, this game is a little old. Well, technically the game itself is a LOT old, but this incarnation isn't so bad.

So on Saturday I finally beat the game, which I had previously complained about here and here.

(Oh, and this review contains no crappy iPhone photos taken in a car.)

Let's get down to it.

Final Fantasy IV originally came out for the Super Nintendo a number of years ago. It has been reincarnated several times since, and I'm pretty sure I own all of those efforts. However, this version of the game was improved with new graphics, cut scenes and junk, which refreshed it a bit. After starting and stopping this game so many times, I was determined to finally beat it. (Success! Yay!)

Story: In the early days, Squaresoft (remember those days?) was obsessed with crystals, apparently, because it seems like the story of all their early titles revolves around them in some way. This game is no exception. An evil guy is stealing all the crystals in the world for an evil purpose and it's your job to stop him! OMG! To the 16bit airship! Okay, so the story isn't going to win any prizes, but it's really not bad as far as early RPG's go. There's a clear purpose and actually plenty of twists and turns along the way. What more do you need, really?

Characters: At most points in the game you have a 5 character party. A what? Yeah, it's worth repeating. 5 CHARACTERS. IN YOUR PARTY. AT THE SAME TIME. We can only dream of that in this gaming era, but the fact is you kinda need every last character you can wrangle into your band of misfits. But more on that later. As far as the characters themselves go, aside from Cecil, your main dude, and to a lesser extent Kain, his pal, there's not too much character development. They all have their own personalities though: Rosa, the annoying homemaker wanna be; Rydia, the mysterious one; Edge, the brash one; Yang, so full of pride and honor; Palom and Porom, the vivacious kids; Tellah, the old guy; Edward, the sissy; Cid, hardworking and determined - you get the idea. You don't get to pick and choose what characters you want to use at any point in the game. You use who you have and you deal with it. Characters rotate in and out of your party, but unlike most other games, they don't usually come back. It kind of makes it hard to power level, because there's a good chance you'll be losing a character or two in the not too distant future. One of the characters you finish the game off with doesn't show up until the final few hours of gameplay.

Battle System: There's really nothing special here. It's pretty basic for an old school RPG. Each character has a set job they're forced into. It comes with various abilities. You learn new spells and the like by leveling up. You can't see what spells or abilities you're going to learn, nor can you choose or control it in any way. There's no skill to learning stuff except grinding. However, there was a new augment system added into this version that reaps pretty good abilities - but if you don't understand how this system works, as I didn't, you'll miss out on a lot of good stuff. The game never really explains how this works. Once your character learns an augment they can use that ability. Some are battle abilities that you can add to your menu to use on the field, but others are default abilities you just have all the time. I strongly suggest using one of the good guides you can find at Gamefaqs if you want to get all the augments. It's worth it. Because a lot of them are pretty awesome.

Gameplay: Battles move fast in this game, even when you don't have the ATB set to active. (If you're not a gamer, that last sentence will mean nothing.) I found several bosses to be very difficult to defeat, despite being over leveled. (And there were even a few random encounter enemies - dragons, mostly. WTF is with the crystals and the dragons?! - that slaughtered my ass.) I was over level 70 and still had a hard time with the last boss - something I never have a problem with in Final Fantasy's newer installments. Cecil was the only one with decent HP when it finally fell. Another character had 2 HP and everyone else was KO'd. So you remember when I said you'd need every last character? Yeah. But there's more to this game than level grinding. Many of these bosses and enemies require good strategy to go down. Not just brute force.

Graphics: The updated graphics are pretty, if kind of cutesy. You even kinda wanna cuddle armored Kain. For a DS game, though, it's fine. The game has voice acting in most of the cut scenes, which really isn't a lot, but it's enjoyable nonetheless. The new graphics and updating really does a lot to make this game fresh, but at the same time proves that older games can stand the test of time.

Sidequests: The older Final Fantasy games aren't really known for their side quests - but there a few. Most of them involve getting better summon or equipment and can be completed later in the game. There's also the obnoxious Namingway side quest, which I never finished and don't feel about. If he wants to wait forever for that stupid pudding, so be it. You also get items for map completion, which I thought was a nice touch and really had me going into every nock and cranny of the dungeons in order to reap the rewards - which were pretty decent, especially towards the end of the game.

Overall: Great classic RPG with good story and characters, solid gameplay and appropriate, enjoyable updates. Fans of both new and old school RPG's will have fun with this one - I know I did. It really does stand the test of time.

93 out of 100

South Park!

2009-10-07T18:06:00.000-04:00

I don't really watch South Park anymore, but EW put together a list of the 20 most controversial episodes, and I've actually seen a large chunk of them. How many have you seen?

'Arrested' in Development?

2009-10-05T18:03:00.000-04:00

Looks like the Arrested Development movie might finally be happening sometime in the near future!

I really hope they get a script done and start filming already. I wasn't too satisfied with how the series ended, and I'd love to see more of the crazy Bluth family.

Arrested Development has to be my favorite TV series EVER - and that is pretty high praise coming from me because I like a lot of shows. (I'm a bit of a TV snob, I guess you could say.) Gob is my favorite character - I just love Will Arnett. He's actually working on a show for FOX, which doesn't sound like the type of show that I'll enjoy, but since he's staring and writing (and so is the creator of Arrested Development) I'll give it a watch should it ever appear in my local listings.

Killing Your Childhood, One Doll At A Time

2009-10-01T18:11:00.000-04:00

So, last year I was horrorfied to find out my favorite American Girl doll, Samantha was being "put in the American Girl archives".

AKA she was being discontinued.

I was very saddened by this - I've had my Samantha doll since I was like 8 and I've always kept great care of her, even though I played with her frequently as a child. When I found out all her stuff was being discontinued I ordered all the outfits and accessories that I didn't own before they went away for good.

So when I got a letter from American Girl today, saying there was big news about Kirsten, the only other doll I own, I knew it wasn't gonna be anything good.

Sure enough, she's being shipped off to the archives "soon" as well. And if I bought all the clothes and only SOME of the accessories I don't own for her, with the outrageous shipping charges ($16?! Are you kidding me?!) it comes to over $150 bucks.

WTF, Mattel? (Mattel owns the company now.) Is this how it's gonna be? You gonna kill off Molly next? Or Felicity? I guess you want to put out all new dolls. I guess I can see why - it's expensive to how so many different ones, but it's still a disappointment. Now I can't buy for my daughter in the future (assuming I have one, but let's not get into that) a doll like the one I had as a kid.

In my opinion, the dolls have gone downhill. You used to be able to buy all kinds of cute accessories with the historical dolls - right down to their school lunch. (I have Samantha's.) Not anymore. Most of the focus seems to be on the girl of today. I remember when that doll was introduced, and that's all well and good - I know I sure as hell wanted one as a kid - but I think you're concentrating too much on $$$$ and not enough on what the original purpose of the dolls were. I loved history as a kid. It interested me. So having dolls that taught me about history was very appealing. And I think you're doing the real girls of today a disservice by churning one more ice skating outfit for the girl of today, while shoving another classic historical doll out the door.

Learning through the dolls is fun. It's different. I can get a modern doll with modern clothes anywhere. The historical dolls are what made the American Girls different. It's why I was so excited to get the catalog in the mail. Please, I beg you, don't forget that.

Kirsten, we'll miss you and your frontier spirit.

Fox Sunday Line up Premieres - Review Time!

2009-09-28T17:48:00.000-04:00

So, last night was the premiere of FOX's "Animation Domination", their animated Sunday night line up which kicks off with The Simpsons, then the premiere of the new Cleveland Show, Family Guy, and finally American Dad, which I don't watch. But here are some quick reviews of the other 3.

I love The Simpsons. I've been watching the show for many of the 20 years it's been on the air. Yeah, not every season has been great, but I think it's recently started to find its stride again. So I was excited for the season premiere.

The episode was co-written by, and co-starred comedian Seth Rogen, who I greatly enjoy in his various film roles. So I guess my expectations of this episode were a little higher than they should have been. Don't get me wrong, the episode still had plenty of funny moments - mostly because I'm a nerd and all the nerdy humor involving Comic Guy appealed to me - but it wasn't hilarious from start to finish. There was no secondary story, which was a little strange, and aside from Homer the Simpson's family didn't play much of a role. The beginning of the show was definitely the strongest part of the show - once Rogen's character, a Hollywood trainer to the stars, showed up, the show went downhill a little bit. The character he played was amusing, and they did a pretty good job of poking fun at Hollywood (they usually do), but they simply couldn't keep up the momentum they had built up at the beginning of the episode.

What got me was the line that was bleeped out of the show - I think that's a Simpsons' first, if I'm not mistaken. It wasn't just the curse that bleeped out, but the whole rest of the line. I guess the FOX censors didn't want to take any chances with the FCC. It was odd, but still hilarious. There were also some great sight gags, of course, mostly involving some movie posters.

Overall, it was a solid episode. Entertaining, but not fantastic.

When I first heard about this show, I was like, "They're giving Cleveland a show? He is the most boring character on Family Guy!" Needless to say, my expectations were low. I just didn't see how they could create an entertaining show with such a dull secondary character.

Well, the show was about as boring as I anticipated. The show started off with some scenes with the Family Guy characters back home in Rhode Island before he left town intending to head for California, but once Cleveland and his son packed up their car and drove off they left the humor behind. I did enjoy how they used the Cleveland in the bathtub joke one last time - also, Stewie's line: "He's getting his own show?" probably summed up the thoughts of most viewers. I know it did mine.

What started with weak, lame theme song, continued with fifteen minutes of lame, boring characters and lame, boring attempts at humor. Maybe there's some potential with his red neck neighbor across the street, the other two neighbors, including a bear named Tim, just seemed uninspired sidekicks. As for the family, they were pretty dull - and I already can't stand the foul mouthed kindergartner. Also, what the hell happened to Cleveland Jr.? He goes from hyper-active 8 year old to fat 14 year old? He was another character that had me checking the clock, waiting for the show to end.

The only laughs in the show aside from the beginning scenes were some the Family Guy like flashbacks.

So I guess in the end my expectations were met - The Cleveland Show was a boring show centered around a boring character. I know I'll be tuning out in the future.

That leaves Family Guy, which has been, in my opinion, declining in recent seasons. It tries to be cutting edge and offensive sometimes, going more for a shock than a laugh. Last night, however, the show was the clear winner, as the episode where Brian and Stewie found themselves in a variety of different universes was funny from beginning to end. I normally complain when a show uses certain characters too much - and that's certainly the case with Stewie and Brian, but in this case I don't mind. They interact so well, and are always entertaining to watch.

There was something to make me chuckle in each dimension the duo visited in the episode - including a dimension where Brian was a real dog and Stewie a real baby. There was also a dimension where everything was drawn Disney style - the animation was great, as was the accompanying song about pie - but I kept waiting for the scene to end badly and couldn't really enjoy it too much. Sure enough, it ended horribly, making me cringe. But that's Family Guy for you. Can't have an episode of Family Guy without it.

But overall I'm looking forward to what lies ahead for The Simpsons and Family Guy this season. As for Cleveland, I wonder if he'll stick around. And if not, will he return to Family Guy? I hope so. That'll always be his home to me.

Review ~ "The Lost Symbol" by Dan Brown

2009-09-25T17:39:00.000-04:00

Say what you want about Dan Brown - the man can write a gripping and fascinating tale by weaving in art and architecture and history. Since I love all those things, I really loved both "Angels and Demons" and "The DaVinci Code". (I slightly prefer "Angels and Demons".) Anyway, when I heard his newest book was finally coming out, I snatched it up, hoping for another fast paced adventure that was hard to put down.

In "The Lost Symbol", Robert Langdon, the Harvard professor from the previous 2 books, finds himself running around Washington D.C. Someone is in trouble, and apparently Robert is the only one who can save him. It's hard to give a decent synopsis without giving too much of the book away.

The book was good. But I didn't like it anywhere near as much as I liked his previous 2 efforts. Since I'm a big American history buff, I thought a book set in our nation's capitol would appeal to me. But sadly the book does not really infuse art, history and architecture as much as the previous 2 efforts - instead it focuses mainly on the history and workings of the Freemasons, which is a famous organization I'm sure you've heard of. Well, they play a huge role in this book, and while there was still interesting history, art and architecture tidbits, it just wasn't much. It just wasn't the same.

Aside from that, I found that while I cared about what happened in the book, I really had no trouble putting it down. Unlike the other 2 books, which I quickly devoured, I kind of read this one leisurely, over the course of a week. The story is good, but it's not quite as fascinating as the other two books. There are shocking moments, but I have to say only one really got me. The others didn't really do much to affect me emotionally.

And while all of this books have moments where you step back and realize how absurd the whole thing is, I've always been able to kind of overlook that in the other books. In this one, however, I found that much harder. I even found myself rolling my eyes a couple of things at the actions of Langdon and his comrades. And I didn't really care for the ending either.

I know it sounds like I'm being really hard on the book - if you're a Dan Brown fan, I still suggest reading it. It's more of the same, but I don't think it's up to the same standards. I was disappointed. In the end, I was hoping for more than the book delivered. But I think he had a lot to measure up to based on the success of his previous two books. It's not easy to always live up to the hype. He still manages to weave a good tale, and his use of mixing history with fiction is still pretty strong.

If you've never read one of his books, though, I wouldn't start with this one. I'd start at the beginning - read Angels and Demons. Save this one for when you've got some time to kill.

Premiere - Modern Family

2009-09-23T17:35:00.000-04:00

Last week, me, and probably every other person signed up to receive "news and special offers" from ABC got an interesting email. It invited me to watch the premiere of the new comedy, Modern Family, online - several days before it's actual broadcast premiere.

I had never heard of the show. And considering I spend a lot of time reading entertainment news, that's pretty unusual. But I was intrigued at the opportunity of being able to watch something early, so I kept the email.

A day later, and suddenly I had heard of it. People and several other sites gave the premiere rave reviews, gushing over how funny it was. Brian also told me he had heard it was supposed to be good. So I took the password of mystery ABC emailed me, and I watched the show, expecting great things.

And great things were delivered. Holy crap, this show is FUNNY. I don't really tend to laugh out loud when I'm watching something alone - I don't know, a weird quirk of mine or something, but there was one part where I was practically in hysterics. The show is a mockumentary (kind of like The Office where the people do interviews to the camera) that follows three different families: an older guy and his new, younger, wife and her 11 year old son; a 10+ married couple with 3 kids and a gay couple that just adopted a baby. It's a simple concept with tons of possibilities.

So, even though this show conflicts with Glee, (it airs at 9 EST tonight on ABC) I definitely plan on setting my TiVo and following these families. Very funny stuff.

...I can't believe how many new shows I'm watching already this season. I'm lucky if I pick up one new show, and usually it's one that's been on for a few seasons already and has already defined itself. Maybe they're finally getting some people who can actually write again.

The Emmy's! ...Meh.

2009-09-21T18:01:00.000-04:00

So, Neil Patrick Harris hosted the Emmy's last night, and it was pretty meh. Not really his fault. The writing just wasn't that funny and some of the people who won... Well, we'll get to that in a minute. Anyway, the opening song just wasn't that clever - not as good as the one written for the Oscars. (Which took home an Emmy last night, actually. I didn't think it was better than "Motherlover", but the guy who accepted the award was a hoot.)

Anyway, here's the full winner's list.

No complaints about the Drama awards - the only drama I actually watch is Lost. Michael Emerson won and I was happy. He is awesome on that show. But...

It's always bothered me that the same person can win for the same part year after year after year for as long as the show it on TV. It gets kind of boring. For instance, there were several repeat winners this year, including Bryan Cranston and Alec Baldwin (who I love on 30 Rock, but I'll get to that.) Sometimes I wonder if the same person should be able to win unlimited times for the same role. On one hand, it gets kind of boring at after awhile to watch. On the other hand, with TV the actors have new challenges to deal with each season. So should someone be able to only win twice for the same part on the same show and then be retired? How many times can you be told you're great playing the same part? I don't know. I'm pretty torn on the issue.

Comedy categories... Okay, I watch a lot of comedies. 30 Rock is a great show. Totally deserved to win. And I watch many of the shows that were nominated this year. The ratings for 30 Rock aren't that great and it's really a shame, because it's one of the smartest, funniest shows on TV. If you're not watching it, you're depriving yourself. Alec Baldwin is hilarious on it - I just love him. And Tina Fey...well, I greatly admire her. She's just so talented.

Having said the word talented... JON CRYER?! REALLY?! REALLY?!

Can I tell you how much I HATE Two and a Half Men? It consistently has the best ratings of any comedy, and that just makes me sad. I'm sorry, but I just think the show is juvenile, with one dimensional characters and easily predictable jokes. A monkey could write it. Oh no. That's mean. I'm sure the monkey could write something better.

I can't believe he won over the likes of Neil Patrick Harris and Rainn Wilson - hell, anyone in that category deserved it WAY more than him. Anyone could play that stupid part. Ugh, everything about that show just grates me in the worst way. There's always something in every award show that pisses me off and this is the winner for this year.

Plus, what was with the sweater vest? He looked like a bee! (Speaking of fashions, here's EW's Best and Worst list. And AOL's. My favorites: Drew Barrymore, Sandra Oh, Alyson Hannigan, Jenna Fischer, and Vanessa Williams And least faves: Sarah Silverman, Kristen Wiig, Hayden Panettiere, Kyra Sedgwick, Patricia Arquette - ugh! Jane Krakowski, and Christina Applegate)

And Toni Collete? Really? That show is horrible. She's okay in it, but...come on, people.

Here's a list of the Best and Worst moments from the broadcast. Some thoughts:

Loved the colorful commentary provided for the winners by the guy who plays PC in the Mac commercials. (Especially since Mac, Justin Long, was there as Drew Barrymore's date.)
Kristen Chenoweth! Love her. Wish I watched her show. I heard it was good. Better late than never - I hope it's on DVD.
I have to admit that Neil's reaction to his loss was funny.
I don't often think Jimmy Fallon was funny, but his musical bit was hilarious.
And thank you for showing Bea Arthur as Maude and Dorothy. She'll always be one of my favorite comedienne's of all time. RIP Bea.

Oh, but the best part of the night?

This should have won an Emmy.

Must See TV... Kind Of.

2009-09-18T09:36:00.000-04:00

So last night was the season premiere of The Office. I can't believe they're on their 6th season already. I'm a big fan of the show, but I didn't love last season so much. Very hit or miss. I was especially disappointed with the season finale. Not enough to make me stop watching the show, of course.

So, it premiered last night with an episode called, "Gossip". And I really enjoyed the episode. I heard it was more classic "Office", and I felt that was an accurate description. The ending was a little...strange, but overall I'd say it was a solid season premiere. Not as good as last season's premiere, "Weight Loss", (which was probably one of the best episodes of Season 5, if not THE best.) but still good. I laughed out loud, which isn't such an easy thing. Got me excited to see what's in store this season for the Dunder Mifflin crew.

I also tuned in for Community, which was a brand new show that premiered last night after The Office. I had heard good things about the show, the previews looked appealing, and I like Chevy Chase. And while I didn't it laugh out loud hysterical, I found it to be a good, solid first episode that introduced the characters well and amused me at the same time. I think the show definitely has potential. I'll be tuning in next week again.

So, can it be true? Is there 2 new shows this season that I like? (First Glee, now Community) I can't remember the last time this happened...if ever. There's a first time for everything, I guess.

Final Fantasy Dissidia ~ Thoughts and Complaints

2009-09-17T18:04:00.000-04:00

So, I'm basically a Final Fantasy whore. I'll pretty much any game featuring those two words. ("Final Fantasy's economics textbook adventure? Sweet!") However, I am also notorious for being critical on the games. I thought 10, 10-2 and 12 were all gonna suck. I loved them all. So I tried to keep an open mind about Dissidia, even though deep down I wanted to use the word suck so bad.

Well, I had to be right eventually.

Okay, let me correct that. The game doesn't suck. It just doesn't appeal to me. I'm not a fan of fighting games as it is. Not from my experience with Final Fantasy that aren't RPGs, this isn't necessarily enough to turn me off. In fact I beat and rather enjoyed Dirge of Cerberus, even though it's a shooting game, which I hate even more than fighting games. But I think Squarenix went wrong in several ways before I even got my hands on the game:

It's on the PSP. Seriously, is there a worse system to put a fighting game on? Usually with a fighting game you want to play against other people. The PSP being a pretty expensive handheld system, with not too many great titles on it, I only know a small amount of people who own one. And while Brian and I each own a DS, there's only one PSP in the house. They should have put this out for PS3 - or at the very least make downloadable on the PSN. That way at least all you'd need to play with a friend is a second controller.
The character line up. So, with all the characters Squarenix has to choose from in the Final Fantasy games, they chose only to use the main hero and villain from each game. Well, kind of. I hardly call Jecht the villain of X. Seriously. Seymour would have been better. But I digress. No one gives a shit about half the characters in the game. I don't think anyone saw the character choices and thought, "Man, I can't wait to play as the Warrior of Light!" And you know what, I could have stomached the line up of losers from the games that time forgot if they had some decent unlockables. But no. There is a total lack of that as well. No kicking ass with Auron or Cid for you.

Top Line: 1. Warrior of Who Gives a Shit. 2. Random Guy #2. 3. Character so pointless they don't have a name. 4. Cecil. 5. Kid Icarus. Or Bartz. Or something. Who can tell. 6. Terra
2nd Line: 7. Cloud. 8. Squall. 9. Zidane. 10. TIDUS! It's Tie-dus! How does that look like Tee-dus in any way? I refuse to call him that! You try and make me! 11. Are you fucking kidding me? 12. Cosmos, or something.
Villains, 1st Line: 1. Ugly guy. 2. Crazy hair. 3. Skanky boobs. 4. Golbez. 5. X-DEATH THE ELIMINATOR 6. Kefka, the scariest clown in existence.
2nd Line: 7. Um...it's on the tip of my mind...uh...oh, I don't know. Seph...something. 8. Ultimecia. 9. Kuja, the oh so fabulous one. 10. Jecht, who's suddenly evil. 11. Seriously?!?! Does that game even count?! 12. Super McEvil Dude.

With all the potentional they had, they kind of screwed up from the beginning. The idea of a Final Fantasy fighting game, even for a non-fighting game fan like me, was appealing. Who wouldn't want to see some of your favorite characters go head to head against a friend? Well, for that the game would actually have to have some favorite characters. And I hope your friend has a PSP.

Other things that suck about this game:

Level design. Holy crap. With all the locations to choose from, they instead chose to do either boring plains of non-existence or walls upon walls of colors so brain numbing they must have been conceived during an LSD trip. And way too many cliffs and bottomless pits. Why do so many fighting games have that? These people should fight somewhere a little more stable. Anyway, they should have gone the route of Super Smash Bros. and given us some more levels that were actually relevant to a game, instead of a monkey on mushrooms could have programmed.
The story is awful. Now, admittedly this is not a strong suit of fighting games as whole, but I think I could think of something less lame in about in about 2 seconds, as could the monkey on shrooms I previously referred to. It's something about crystals and friendship and other gag inducing crap I zoned out immediately. Can I play as the villains now? They're trying to destroy all that, right?
Overly confusing systems. Well, that's Final Fantasy for you, one could say. And you'd have a point. And I'm sure if I spent a lot of time with the game I'd get the hang of it at some point. But I shouldn't have to read every single tutorial to shed some light on what the hell's going on.

There was something I liked about the game - the chocobo. He was pretty cute. Oh, and the help menus. They feature characters from past games and it was kind of cool to see them. But if the best thing about the game is the Help menus, you know there's a fucking problem.

Overall, I think this game is a disappointment. Even seeing Sephiroth without a shirt could not save this game for me. I think you have to like fighting games to enjoy it - Brian, who does enjoy fighting games, seemed to really enjoy it. This game is not enough fan service for Final Fantasy fans in general. I hope if they choose to do another one they take some of my complaints into consideration. (Because you know Squarenix is sooooo reading this.)

Yup. Not even worth it for this.

Self Promotion

2009-09-15T17:27:00.000-04:00

[Warning. This post is shameless self promotion.]

So, I love podcasts.

And I love video games.

And yet, I could not find a video game podcast that appealed to me. I couldn't find one that featured men and women, discussing game topics in a way that was both informative and humorous.

So why not do it myself?

I thought I'd have trouble rounding up people to do it with. Nope got it. Check!

Then I thought all the work to put it together would be overwhelming, and something would fall apart there. Yeah, it was a lot of work, but nothing I couldn't handle. Check!

Recording the show itself would ultimately be our undoing. Something would go wrong and we wouldn't be able to record anything decent. Well, the first time we went to record, things didn't go so well. But we figured it out, pressed on and recorded a good sounding first show.

I wouldn't be able to find affordable hosting. This was the biggest pain. But I found PodBean, and I'm very happy. No complaints.

iTunes would reject our ass. Nope! We are up and listed!

So if you're looking for a different kind of video game podcast, check us out! We're Gamester's Paradise. We've got a blog, a Twitter and a website. Right now I'm promoting all I can, since I worked really hard to get this up and running!

If you give us a listen, I hope you enjoy what you hear!

< / end shamless self promotion >

Squeal of Glee

2009-09-13T17:26:00.002-04:00

So I finally sat down and watched the 2 episodes of Glee that have aired so far. I've heard many great things, and I thought the show looked great from the commercials, so I was really expecting to love the show.

I'm happy to report, I was not disappointed.

Usually I don't like shows right off the bat. Usually they have to have at least half a season (if not a whole one) under their belt, because it takes me a few episodes to warm up to the characters. This is true with a lot of shows that I love: The Office and Arrested Development come to mind. But I found myself attracted to the characters.

A big thing about Glee is that it's so different - it's not just another sitcom. It's not really laugh out loud funny - but it's thoroughly entertaining because it's smart. It's not some stock characters and a laugh track. The characters are real but quirky at the same time. They're truly endearing. And have I mentioned that the music is fantastic? (As is the cast.)

I definitely suggest everyone give this show a try. If you're looking for something on TV that's different from the usual crap - you've got it right here. I'm really looking forward to see where the show goes over the rest of the season.

Glee airs Wednesday nights @ 9 EST on FOX.

Follow The Yellow Brick Road

2009-09-10T17:54:00.000-04:00

So I got this in my email yesterday:

We're proud to present a 70th anniversary celebration of the classic movie The Wizard of Oz later this month in New York City.

We're hosting a free outdoor screening of the movie in Central Park, preceded by a free, live concert featuring special performances of songs from the movie by: Jennifer Hudson, Julianne Hough and ?uestlove of the Roots.

Date:     Tuesday, September 29th
Concert:     7:30 pm
Screening:     8:30 pm
Address:     Rumsey Playfield
    Central Park, New Yor

For more details please visit: www.netflix.com/wizardofoz

As part of the celebration, Netflix will also be inviting the general public to instantly watch The Wizard of Oz for free online on Saturday, October 3rd, at the website noted above. Be sure to tell your friends not to miss this classic movie and try out the Netflix service.

See you in New York.

–Your friends at Netflix

Doesn't that sound amazing? Too bad I can't go - going to the city on a Tuesday night is not exactly feasible for me. But I would love to see that concert and enjoy watching the movie outside in Central Park. I love, love, love The Wizard of Oz. Not just the movie, but the book, too. I have a gorgeous hardcover edition with full color pictures and I've read it numerous times. I'm not sure where the book came from - I've had it ever since I was a little girl, and it's my most treasured book.

I think the amazing thing about the film is how it holds up no matter how many years go back. The movie is from 1939 - 70 years ago, and yet children still enjoy it. Goes to show what a great movie it is, not only story wise (Classic. Timeless.) but production and casting wise. Who can't love Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale? She's just darling. And Margaret Hamilton as the witch - she'll be delighting audiences for 70 plus years to come. And the music...the music is iconic. "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" is quite possibly one of the most recognized and beloved songs ever made for a movie. What little girl doesn't want their own pair of ruby slippers? (I know I did... I still do...) And no matter how many times I watch it, I'm always captivated when Dorothy steps out of her gray fallen farmhouse and into the colorful world of Oz.

So I urge you to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the movie by watching it. And hey, pick up the book if you've never read it before. It's different in many ways from the movie, but I've always been able to enjoy each for what it is. Even though it's missing a lot next to the book, the movie still a great adaptation and captures the heart of the story - after all, there's no place like home.

(And I urge you to check out the movie trivia on IMDB. Fascinating stuff!)

It's Gonna Be Legend...Wait For It...

2009-09-08T17:52:00.000-04:00

So you know who's hosting the Emmy's this year?

He made the Tony's watchable again. I am so in. Plus he's a nominee. Has a host ever been nominated before?

And here's a list from Entertainment Weekly of stuff that should have been nominated, but wasn't. I have to say I do agree with some of these - especially Psych. That's a great show you're not watching. And if you are...10 points.

REVIEW ~ Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box

2009-09-07T18:46:00.000-04:00

The best observation this detective ever made.

Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box

I very much enjoyed the first Professor Layton game, so when I heard about the sequel, I was stoked. I expected more of the same - puzzles, mystery, a guy in a huge ass hat - and I wasn't disappointed. Plus there were a few improvements along the way.

(You must excuse my blurry pics - most were taken in a car with an iPhone. I did the best I could. I actually went and retyped the dialogue so it would be easier to read.)

Just like in the previous game, Professor Layton and his "apprentice", Luke, set out to solve a mystery. This time they're trying to find out of this box really killed Layton's mentor. (I will not make a joke... I will not make a joke...) This time they get to explore several different areas and once again meet a slew of colorful characters. Along the way you solve puzzles to move the game along. (There are 138 in the story, but you don't have to solve them all to beat the game.) There are also a few minigames you'll want to complete, but we'll get to that.

You don't have to play the first game to enjoy this one - it will help, because there are several characters that carry over, but if this is your first adventure with the Professor, you will not feel like a kid who starts coming to class in the middle of the semester.

The great thing about the game is the story draws you right in from the beginning and it's hard to put down. Once the Professor and Luke start adding up the mysteries, you won't want to put the game down until "SOLVED" is stamped across all of them. The gameplay operates as it did before - point and click to move and talk to people. It can't possibly be more simple.

Animation, music, voice acting - all great. I wish there was a little more voice acting, but there was a decent amount of cut scenes, and they are limited by the size of a DS cartridge.

The puzzles are pretty diverse. You might be moving blocks or pancakes, filling every piece on a chess board, finding the area of a garden, dividing estate or answering a riddle. You won't get bored with the variation. Once again you'll find hint coins scattered around that you can spend for a clue if you need one. The hints aren't always the best, but for the most part they steer you down the path to the answer.

My complaint only really complaint concerning the puzzles is that I wish there were less that involved math. To me, a puzzle that asks me to find the radius of a circle, and then use that to find the area of this weird quadrangle area is way too much like school for my taste. If I need more than a simple calculator to figure out the answer - forget it. This is a video game, not a final exam. (Can you tell math was never my best subject?) I'd also like to see an "undo" feature - that would have helped me quite a few times. Sometimes all you want to do once in awhile is take back a move instead of starting the whole puzzle over.

New to this game was the memo feature you could activate during a puzzle. Although it's not really a lot of space to write, it was usually all you needed to jot down a thought or a number. What I also liked was that you could go back to look at the puzzle and then return to your scribblings - whatever you wrote on the memo screen didn't disappear unless you cleared it.

Using the memo feature for something totally nonconstructive.

Were there a few puzzles that I thought were kind of ridiculous? Yup. But those were few and far between. I wouldn't say it affected the game at all.

There are 3 mini games that you can access throughout the game. You don't really have to do any of them, but 2 are definitely worth completing. The other...eh. We'll get to that.

The first involves putting a camera back together. You find pieces as you do puzzles. Once you put the camera together, you can take pictures of certain locations and find the differences between the actual location and the picture you took. Once you find three, you'll be able to find a hidden puzzle. I thought putting the camera together was interesting, but finding the differences in the photos was certainly a highlight.

The second involved playing personal trainer to an overweight hamster you get to name. (I named mine Rocky.) As you solve puzzles you get various toys you use to lead your hamster around the board, trying to get him to take as many steps as possible. As he meets his goals, he slims down and once he's lost all his excess flab he'll be a big help to you. The only drawback to the hamster is his voice - he sounds like some cranky stereotypical New Yorker. (I can say that, because I'm from New York.) I cringed every time I heard his voice, but otherwise I thought the training was pretty fun and definitely took some planning and thought.

Youz guyz betta go easy on me, or you'll be swimmin' wit' the fishes!

Finally...there was the tea. Oh, the tea. First of all, who carries around a full tea set? Second of all, where the hell are they heating up this tea? I'm scared at the amount of equipment Layton is making Luke haul around. I hope he'll be willing to spring for the chripractor.

So, as you solve puzzles you get tea ingredients. You can mix 3 and try to create one of 12 different tea recipies.

This part of it is okay, if you can overlook the logistics I pointed out. It does get frustrating to create cup after cup of "bad tea" that the characters then passive aggressively mock you for.

I think Layton is covertly brewing poisons, judging by the skull and crossbones.

Trust me. That whole crying thing isn't even the worst of it. I think the game's goal was to get you to cry. Anyway, once you finally concoct a blend that's not gonna kill anyone, people around town will starting whining about various problems. Tea is apparently Layton's drug of choice, 'cause he's pushing it like he's makin' a profit. (To even get someone to request tea, you often have to enter and reenter areas numerous times. It wasn't so bad that you were waiting several minutes or anything, but it was kind of annoying.) Anyway, you'll next have to choose which kind of tea you want to serve them. And it better be the right one.

I found that often it was kind of hard to choose exactly what tea the person wanted, and had to try several before I chose one they wouldn't throw back in my face. And if you want to unlock every puzzle in the game, you better like to play tea time. Because you'll have to serve a successful cup to everybody in order to unlock them all. I just found this whole game silly and often frustrating. The logic behind the whole thing was also just too much for me to accept. Seriously - Layton's investigating something kind of important here. I understand a gentleman is always nice, or whatever, but come on. You don't have time to be brewing tea for everybody in town - especially if you're building a fire to boil the water, which is the only marginally reasonable explanation I can think of - especially when you're pulling out the cups and crumpets in the middle of a forest. Also, I don't know where Luke's parents are, but I don't think they'd want their son to be your tea toting pack mule.

Now that I've torn that mini game apart, I feel better. That's really the only gripe I have with the game, and it's not even a big one, really. There's so much to like about this game that one low light really falls into the background. Even after you complete the story there are more puzzles to solve - you can even download a new one every week by connecting to the online network.

So I highly recommend this game if you enjoy a good puzzle and a good story...perhaps with a nice cup of tea. I just hope you actually have a stove.

My rating: 88 out of 100.

Friday, 9/4/09 ~ News and Junk

2009-09-04T14:12:00.000-04:00

Definitely more this week than last week.

>> It's a boy for Idina Menzel and Taye Diggs! Congrats to them.

>> Looks like Danny Gokey is getting an album...wonder how many people will actually shell out money for it.

>> TV Guide Lists the most anticipated shows of the Fall. Glee was on this week, and I missed it, of course.

>> Looks like SNL will be getting 2 more female cast members.

>>And more promos for The Office:

MOVIES

>> In case you care, The Final Destination was #1 last week. In taking a longer look at the title, I can't help but notice it does say THE FINAL Destination. So it really gonna be THE FINAL one? After being #1 at the box office, (Halloween II was third), I doubt it.

>>John Krasinski directs and stars in Brief Interviews with Hideous Men. Check out the article and trailer - it looks awesome. Plus Will Arnett is in it. I'm there. It comes out on the 25th of this month.

>>Aaaaaaand it looks like Warner Bros. is set to win the summer. Harry Potter, Terminator, and The Hangover are the movies they have to thank for it.

>>Oh, and Disney's gonna buy Marvel. Who the hell saw that coming?

>>In Theaters Today:

All About Steve (I have a friend named Steve. It's not about him.)
Extract (This'll be on my Netflix queue in a few months. I love Jason Bateman.)
Gamer (Young men will flock to this one.)

VIDEO GAMES

>> That "Hot Coffee" crap is still going on?! They shouldn't have to pay a dime, in my opinion. Ridiculous.

>> Wii games are getting better according to critics. That's good to know - though looking at the shelf of the local game store is still depressing for people not looking to dress up pets or play games with some creepy, soulless looking character.

>>A bunch of games that I could care less about but I know tons of other people will be excited for are slated to be out by next July. Some wives and girlfriends might wanna start bracing themselves now.

>>Nintendo is going to release a cooler version of Wii Fit, now that everybody already owns it.

Vide Games I've Beaten - Part Two

2009-09-02T17:30:00.000-04:00

I'm just gonna stick to two systems this time and make this rather short.

N64
I bought this system specifically for one game, and only ever purchased one other game for it. I got distracted with the Playstation. (Which I'll tackle another day.)

Donkey Kong 64This was the game I bought the N64 for. Great game. I keep waiting for it to come out in the Wii store so I can download and play it again. Another game worthy of its own blog post.

Kirby and the Crystal Shards
...And this was the "other" game. I normally love all things Kirby, but ugh. I think this game was seriously made for 5 year olds. I've actually blocked most of it from my memory.

Super Mario 64
I think almost everybody who had an N64 played this. I borrowed it from my cousin. Moving Mario around in 3D took a lot of getting used to. There were too many places to go - how would I ever find my way around? Those first 3D games were quite a system shock, weren't they?

And now we come to another short list... Most of the games I owned for this system were remakes, and therefore not worthy of my list.

GBA

Castlevania Aria of Sorrow

Great game - one of my favorites of the series. I got every single soul you could get...some of those took forever. But I had no life back in those days. Because you definitely need to have a lot of time to kill in order to complete a lot of games fully.

Castlevania Harmony of Dissonence
Because you can kill Dracula AND tastefully design a room. You go, Juste Belmont.

Castlevania Circle of the Moon
Probably my least favorite of the Castlevania titles I've actually beaten. This game is so hard! And the card system...yuck. It's one of the few games I put down for a long time and actually picked up and finished without starting over. I was not about to go back and deal with all that level up bullshit again.

Next time...I'll tackle the Playstation. And the RPGs are gonna start coming to town.

Video Games I've Beaten - the Video Companion

2009-09-01T17:38:00.000-04:00

Time is bit short today, so I thought I'd share some great videos involving the games I posted about yesterday. Enjoy!

This is the famous video where the kid beat Super Mario Bros. 3 in 11 minutes - it's totally not legit, but still neat to watch anyway.

Here's a 9 minute-ish speed run through Maniac Mansion. You rescue Sandy, kids!

And finally, here's the last few levels of the Barbie game - including that horrible level with the moving floor I was telling you about. And the bone chilling last boss.

Video Games I've Beaten - Part One

2009-08-31T18:07:00.001-04:00

So in my blog about Super Mario Galaxy I mentioned I was going to embark on a quest to make a list of every game I've ever beaten.

Quest complete.

This is only part one of the list - although I haven't beaten an overwhelming number of games in the twenty or so I've been playing, I didn't wanna go and list them all at once. So today we're cover the earliest systems: NES, Genesis and SNES.

Here were the rules of list:

Finishing the main story of the game and seeing the ending counts as beating it. I didn't have to do all the extras/side quests/whatever.
ROM games are okay as long as no cheats were used.
It didn't have to be a game I played alone.

Here are some things to remember when you're reading this list:

I did not own a lot of games as a kid at all.
I relied very heavily on looking at the games I own in compiling this list. Over the years I've traded in some games and forgotten about others. I know some games got left out.
I play a lot of games you can't beat i.e Animal Crossing, Mario Tennis, etc.
I didn't count games I replayed when they were re-released on another system.

Okay, enough of that. Here's the damn list.

NES

Super Mario Bros.
Yeah, the original, of course. I can remember my struggle to get past "Cheep Cheep Land", which was what I called world 2-3. But finally I made my way all the way to Bowser's last stand...and I ran on him/used the elevator. (I don't remember. This was a long time ago.) And I rescued the Princess once and for all. And I was stunned at what I had accomplished. I was expecting some kind of major payoff for this - not being told I could replay the game with fuzzy beetles in place of Goombas. Oh well.

Super Mario Bros. 3
Still one of my favorite games of all time. I owned one of the earliest issues of Nintendo Power that was basically nothing more than a full walk through of this game. In the days before the internet, that was a big deal. Remember the hands in the last world? Did they scare the crap out of you, too? Where were they coming from?!

Barbie
This game deserves a blog all it's own. The story was anything but deep, but for a little kid some of the game play was pretty difficult. One of the last levels involved jumping on a bunch of narrow music notes that were hovering over a moving platform that took you all the way back to the beginning if you fell. Oh, and did I mention that Barbie jumped like a stiff piece of plastic, too.

The Little Mermaid
I was a little girl, and little girls had girly games. I was obsessed with The Little Mermaid, so of course I owned the game. Goes to show you how early they started making movies into video games.

Maniac Mansion
I didn't beat this until I was much older, and I'm glad of it. How scary was this game? That creepy blue guy finding you and locking you in the basement. And don't even get me started on how hard it is. If you don't have the right combination of kids, forget it.

Genesis

Crystal's Pony Tale
This was a ROM. Shut up.

SNES

Super Mario World
I still love this game. I could replay it over and over. I actually finished everything you could do in this game - star levels and all.

Super Mario Bros. - The Lost Levels
Maybe you noticed, but Super Mario 2 was missing from my list. I never defeated Wart. But I did beat the REAL SMB2.

Kirby Super Star
Still my favorite Kirby game ever. I beat all the games that were included under the Super Star heading - my favorite being the one where you found all the treasures.

Donkey Kong Country
One of those games that definitely changed how I looked at games.

Donkey Kong Country 2
Probably tied for my favorite SNES game.

Donkey Kong Country 3
Tied with this. What a great game. Remember when RARE made good games? Me too...

Yoshi's Island
As much as I like this game, it was often frustrating as hell.

Super Mario Kart
Oh, the hours I spent playing this game. I guess you could argue that you can't really "beat" this game, but I disagree. If you beat the Star cup grand prix on 150cc - you've beaten it.

Next - N64, PSX and GBA.

Back In the Day ~ Annie

2009-08-29T18:17:00.000-04:00

I was obsessed with several movies a kid, but I have to admit this was probably the most influential:

My mom loves to recount the story of how I got up on a chair at a diner and started singing "Tomorrow". I believe I was 2. Luckily, I remember none of this. I have no idea what would have possessed me to get up in front of a crowded restaurant and start belting out show tunes. Sounds like a scene from some musical all by itself, doesn't it?

But yeah. Annie. My mom had taped it off TV and I watched it over and over again. As I grew up and heard people bash this movie I was horrified. How could anyone hate my beloved movie?

I don't understand it to this day. Maybe it's the memories clinging to me, but I still love this movie. What's to dislike about it? First of all, the movie has Carol Burnett, Tim Curry, Bernadette Peters, Albert Finney and Ann Reinking. Carol Burnett and Tim Curry alone are both amazing. (I have admit I always thought he was very good looking as Rooster - haha!) Add in Bernadette Peters and "Easy Street" is one of the best movie musical numbers ever - in my opinion anyway. Ha! How could you not love sliding down the banister while Rooster and Lily consistently leave Miss Hannigan to fall all over herself. And what about Rooster's sudden gymnastics? It's so much more than just dancing. If it entertains a 2 year old, you know it's gotta be pretty damn good.

Let's go back to Carol Burnett for a minute. I just love her. She is a legend for good reason. She plays Miss Hannigan with such a perfect mix of drunk and crazy without making her look evil. Then there's her duet with Albert Finney as Daddy Warbucks - "Sign". Another fantastic number. I'm embarrassed to admit my sister and I used to perform this for relatives when we were kids. (Guess who was Daddy Warbacks... Yeah...) Anyway, the song, which involves Miss Hannigan trying to seduce Warbucks until he points out all the dirt he has on her, has classic lyrics. Here are some of my favorites:

Hannigan: You ever been to "Bonas Ires"?
Warbucks: Where?

Hannigan: Buy me a ruby.
Warbucks: No!
Hannigan: Why shouldn't you be mine!?

Warbucks: You spend your ev'nings in the shanties
Hannigan: You had me followed?
Warbucks: Imbibing quarts of bathtub gin!
Hannigan: Bronchitis!
Warbucks: And here you're dancing in your scanties!
Hannigan: Great gams!
Warbucks: With some old geezer called Little Caesar.
Hannigan: He's an uncle!
Warbucks: You lock The orphans in the closet!
Hannigan: They love it!
Warbucks: You hock their Christmas souvenirs!
Hannigan: A drink?
Warbucks: You steal the funds you should deposit.
Hannigan: It's fresh.
Warbucks: You make them grovel, while you buy lavaliers.

What the hell are lavaliers? Per the dictionary: an ornament hanging from a chain, worn around the neck.

Anyway, while we're discussing classic numbers you can't forgot "Sandy" (how cute was that dog?) "You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile", "It's a Hard Knock Life", and, of course, "Tomorrow", the pinnacle of classic.

I'll tell you what song and scene is my least favorite - "Let's Go to the Movies", which I always found way too long. And the movie they show, (Camille, from 1936) always tends to make me drowsy, so I don't blame Annie for falling asleep during it. Runner up: "We Got Annie". Too much dancing, and you can't say much for the lyrics to that one. ("We got Annie" x 1000. Okay. We get it.)

I love the whole ending scene where Annie gets away and Rooster chases after her (slapping his own sister in the face in the process.) and they climb up the bridge. In pure dramatic fashion, she's rescued by helicopter.

I guess for a little girl this movie had a lot to offer: orphans, a spunky girl, a dog, a mansion, singing, jewelry (I loved that broken locket), drama, and the ending - with the animals and fireworks - who could ask for anything more?

Annie will always have a special place in my heart for sure.

Friday, 8/28/09 - News and Junk

2009-08-28T14:05:00.000-04:00

Kind of a boring week for entertainment news if you ask me.

>> Whoo hoo! Preview of the season premiere of The Office. Looks promising, but at the same time I am also nervous that this could easily be turned into something ridiculous. I'm just hoping season 6 is better than season 5.

>> Looks like Kristin Chenoweth will appear as a guest host on American Idol. She's one of the many celebs who'll be filling Paula's vacant seat during the initial auditions. Another celeb pegged to fill Paula's void? How I Met Your Mother's own Neil Patrick Harris. Guess I will be watching this season. At least the audition rounds.

MOVIES

>> Seems somebody didn't want to be interned above Marilyn Monroe after all, and the crypt is back on the market. That lady must really need cash if she's going through all the trouble of moving her husband's corpse.

>> The big movie that's getting attention all over the web this week is Inception, starring one of my favorites - Leonardo DiCaprio. Check out the trailer and see what you think. It's not coming out till July 2010.

Looks weird, right? I thought so. Here's a bit of the plot for you. Sounds kind of interesting, but not something I'd rush out into theaters to see. Sorry, Leo.
Oh, and apparently Leo is fat. He looks fine to me. But I guess I'm just glad it's an actor instead of an actress for once.

>> In theaters today:

The Final Destination (Yeah, they're still riding that train, I guess.)
Halloween II (Because just one sequel wasn't enough.)
Taking Woodstock
Big Fan
The September Issue

So, in the battle of the "They're still making those?" horror movies, which will come up on top? Personally, I hate horror movies. But that's another blog.

VIDEO GAMES

>> Big news is the Xbox price drop. But more importantly, they claim the whole red ring of death debacle is behind them. I guess only time will tell on that one, but I'm not holding my breath. Of everyone I know who has an Xbox 360 - I know only one person who hasn't seen that famous ring yet.

>> And finally, Beatles fans, the Beatles Rock Band is coming September 9th. And if you don't already own another Rock Band game, you can pick up the bundle from Amazon or Best Buy for $140 bucks. Not a bad deal.

That'll do it for this week.

Tune In To...Podcasts

2009-08-27T17:28:00.000-04:00

So you know what form of media saves my brain on a daily basis? Podcasts. And if you have an iPod or an mp3 player or hell - even a computer - and you listen to any podcasts, then you're really doing yourself a disservice.

Podcasts are basically Internet radio shows. You can find a ton of them on iTunes. And what's great about them is that you can find a podcast on practically any topic - from travel to sports to arts and entertainment and more. What's even better is you can find many podcasts that focus on very specific topics you enjoy - like a certain tv show or car or travel destination or book series. There are also plenty of podcasts that can teach you a thing or two - like history, current events, or even how to speak a language.

But the best thing about podcasts? They're free. Yup. That's right. Free entertainment.

So for these reasons, and many more, I am a big podcast fan. I leave you today with a list of podcasts I currently subscribe to, and I'd like to hear about any you may enjoy - I'm always looking for new ones to download. And if you've never listened to a podcast, I highly suggest you head over to iTunes and give one a try.

The DIS Unplugged - A Disney podcast, and my favorite podcast period.
WDW Radio - Another Disney podcast, great interviews here.
All About the Mouse - Yet another Disney podcast.
Mugglecast - A great Harry Potter podcast.
That's What She Said - A great podcast about the NBC comedy "The Office".
Stuff You Missed In History Class - Great history podcast.
Stuff You Should Know - Always entertaining and informative.
Stuff Mom Never Told You - Another very informative podcast.
NPR's Wait, Wait, Wait Dont Tell Me - Very funny game show involving the news.

Somebody Finally Said It...

2009-08-26T18:44:00.000-04:00

Today being Wednesday, I'm supposed to have a feature. However, I'm working on another project and I'm a little short on time. So instead, I give you this.

Glad somebody said it.

This is from Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box, of course, which came out yesterday. Love what I've played so far - my review coming soon. You can read GameSpot's here.

Date:	Tuesday, September 29th
Concert:	7:30 pm
Screening:	8:30 pm
Address:	Rumsey Playfield
	Central Park, New Yor