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.)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
"Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is Alchemy's First Law of Equivalent Exchange. In those days, we really believed that to be the world's one, and only, truth." Sephiroth: …I've always felt since I was small… That I was different from theothers. Special, in some way. But…not like this…
Sirius: I would have died! I would have died rather than betray my friends, as we would have done for you!
Rufus:I'll control the world with fear. Freya: Ahahaha... What irony. To find the man about whom I have dreamtendlessly... ...only to discover that he cannot even remember who I am!
Auron:Legendary guardian? I was just a boy. A boy about your age, actually. I wanted to change the world, too. But I changed nothing.
Roy: I once executed two people, two doctors. "There are no sides, just patients." That's what they said as they treated our fallen enemies in Ishbal. But the people they were healing would just rise up again to fight us. The military asked them to stop, but they wouldn't. And their makeshift hospital was becoming a den for insurgents. I got my orders in the morning, and I shot them that night. After that I tried to kill myself, but I was too much of a coward. So I took an oath instead: to never follow unreasonable commands again, to reach a position where I wouldn't have to follow them, and I stayed true to that.
Locke: I've lost all sense of purpose... My life will have no meaning until I can right this terrible wrong...
Squall: ...Even if you end up as the world's enemy, I'll...I'll be your knight.
