Viva Piñata- the most addictive game on the 360 is back with a sequel. I traded in a few of my more irritating titles and picked it up last week. I anticipate a fair few late nights on the couch (till I sell it) tending to the game. If I don’t answer the phone odds are that’s why, sorry in advance.
Sarah brought some Kinoki foot pads on her recent trip after I commented about always wanting to try them. If you aren’t familiar the pads stick to your feet and draw out all your body’s impurities and toxins through your soles. Sound pretty hockey eh? Well I have wanted to give them a shot since seeing them on TV but never brought myself to actually doing it. I am still very skeptical as to the ‘toxins’ part of it all but after a few nights of trying them out I have to say they are getting some nasty looking stuff out of somewhere when it comes time to take them off in the morning. I fell so rejuvenated!
So it’s official. Come the end of the month I will be moving back to Virginia. It’s going to be hitting the two year mark next week since I left, and while I have had a lot of fun, met some fantastic people and had some really interesting experiences down here, its time for me to head back home.
The guys at work understand that I need to go, but are sad to see me leave. Though they are interested in keeping me on the Colorvision team long-distance on a freelance basis, which is terrific news. The creative outlet that the job offers, as well as the great team I work with are not things I want to have to give up, and it’s nice to know that the feeling is mutual. I plan on spending the remaining weeks here with the great friends I’ve made and enjoy the people who have made this two-year venture so easy and memorable.
p.s. does anyone need a couch?
Brighthouse- my internet provider just left a few hours ago after hooking my internet back up. It went down mid last week much to my chagrin and I’ve been limping along sans-internet since. After a good hour or so of phone calls, being on hold and trouble shooting with tech support, it turns out that the connectors outside of my building has been knocked loose, I’m guessing when they installed the cable for my new upstairs neighbors or something of that nature. Oh well its back now and not a moment to soon. Its sad how reliant I am on the net, but I am very glad to have it back!
The real tragedy here is that Hamlet 2, as a comedy is not as funny as the tragedy it’s based on. This is one of those movies where if you have seen the commercial you have latterly seen all it has to offer. There is nothing that brought a smile to my face that I hadn’t seen in the ads, and while that is to be expected somewhat with most films, this movie really did pour all the chuckles into a 30 second spot- which tells you something about the remaining 1 hr 30 min.
I will say that the movie deserves some recognition for the charming character interactions between Katherine Keener and David Arquette’s ‘Gary’. The conversations between the two are priceless and do ad some level of depth to the otherwise cardboard characters. Everyone else on screen is written and acted to fulfill a specific role in the film and does nothing to seem like a believable, likable or even very funny addition to the cast. The real shame is with Steve Coogan though, who as the lead is as unbalanced and random as Homer Simpson as far as teetering between quirky and absentminded to downright retarded. This imbalance makes it hard to find him funny and makes the plot borderline irrelevant by the half-way-point.
It seems the whole movie was geared around the Jesus musical at the end, which while funny, isn’t worth the build up and drudgery leading up to it. Unfortunately the only thing that will be remembered about this movie is the catchy interlude “Rock Me Sexy Jesus” and that’s only because I cant get the annoying chorus out of my head.
So Castle Crashers is the best Xbox game ever (at the moment) and there is no further purpose to this post that to try and convince you to download it for your 360 (or buy a 360 and download it if you are that far behind). It’s a multiplayer brawler akin to the old Simpson’s / Ninja Turtles arcade cabinets, and I totally love it. Unfortunately I don’t have anyone on my friends list who has the game to hack and slash besides me with. That’s where you come in. Go grab all the stuff you need at a Labor Day sale and meet me online. Oh yeah Happy Labor Day. Now go.
Yesterday Sarah and I headed out to Melbourne beach to hang out on the water with Sarah (work-Sarah) and Neil and to help move Jenn’s overly heavy furniture into her moving Pod. She decided last week she was moving back to Chicago on Tuesday…short notice. I was a shame to see her go even after the short time I’ve hung out with her, but I know her absence is going to be hard for Sarah and Neil who have known her forever. We hung out together at the apartment and grabbed some lunch at a steakhouse down the road. Then we grabbed desserts from a little market and hung out on the beach. The weather was far from delightfully sunny (as one expects at a Florida beach) but we had a good time walking along the shoreline and just chilling for a bit. Ali (a friend of everyone else) was there with her son Devin who was pretty adorable, so we spent some time throwing shells into the water and talking about Ninja Turtles (as adults do) though he did seem a little afraid of Squid-Man-Tree (see below). After a long and overly sweaty carried back we called it a night. After stopping for some pain killers for my blown out back of course (damn you all-wood-furniture and narrow stairways!).
The Celica hit a milestone today and broke 99,999 miles right when I was pulling into my apartment after work. Eight years and a hundred thousand miles after rolling off the factory floor- and counting!
Check out this bizarre video I came across while trying to stay up past my bedtime. It’s of a crazy Japanese deep water shark that has an extendable mouth akin to something from Aliens. Doesn’t seem to be able to do much damage to the guys arm…but he will die later from pure evil. Now granted my Japanese is a little rusty but I am pretty sure the guy is saying something to the effect of: “HOLY CRAP!? Goblin Sharks! The water is not safe. We are all going to die!!”
Last night while I was lazing about watching the news my apartment was invaded by Mega-Roach. The ballsy little bastard scampered right in front of my TV paused for a second in front of Coolio and darted with super roach speed over to the lamp. It scaled the thing and dropped onto the couch. By this point I was on the other side of the room running for the fly swat screaming “Kill it! Kill it!” at Coolio (who was more impressed with shiny stuff on the TV apparently to even notice the intruder). The flyswat did nothing but send the horrible thing across the room and give him a head start in what would be a 5 minute round of hide and seek. I eventually found him and sprayed him directly with bug killer until he was slovenly enough to flyswat in half. I disposed of the two halves in two separate locations (to avoid them from reproducing) and went back to watching the TV. The thing was huge. The apartment is new so I haven’t had anything besides a few wood ants since moving in, and after rampant roaches at the old apartment I have laid trap after trap and continually spray perimeters to avoid roaches from moving in. I am not worried about other roaches really after Roachzilla last night, primarily because I am confident that he ate every other roach within a 5 apartment perimeter (aka it was big and gross). But also because he happened to come in form the kitchen right when the trash guy was doing his rounds. I think he was in the large dumpster or bags those guys lug from door to door collecting our waste from the bins in the hallway. Least that’s what I’m telling myself so I can sleep at night.
Odd things happen at the office from time to time, and today was a pretty good example. While working away at the computer Victor comes back to the department and places the Nextel Cup Trophy on the table. Turns out NASCAR had the sucker made for a photo opportunity at Universal Studios’ NASCAR restaurant. While not the real deal, this official custom replica version of the cup weighed a fair bit and cost the restaurant $2500 or so to get the thing made (or so I heard- the original is made by Tiffany and is worth over 9 bajillion dollars) which makes it much better than any trophy I’ll ever earn racing the Celica anywhere. The thing looks EXACTLY like the real deal. Taking advantage of the fact that it was back in the department we headed outside for some Rickey Bobby poses. Dave snapped these shots of me acting like an ass by the Celica. Remember if you ‘aint first, you’re last.
Last weekend Sarah from the office, came over with Neil and Jen for pizza and Scene It-night. I don’t often get to entertain at my apartment so it was nice to have the round. It was extra nice because I finally got to break out Scene It on the Xbox, which hasn’t had any attention in a long time. (It requires more than just me and a cat to play properly). After trouncing them in a few rounds of redundant trivia we watched some Christopher Walkin SNL and had a few rounds of Mario Kart. Fun night, I need to have people over more often. It was a great way to spend an evening during the crappy weather we've been having thanks to good old Fay.
Fey is approaching, though from looking outside you wouldn’t be able to tell. The weather reports make the storm looks rather sizable at this point but are all very spotty on which direction it will head. Erring on the side of safety our office manager shut down the building today at 12:30 so I am home early which is nice. Sirens can be heard in the distance as I type this, and the sky is a miserable light grey. There aren’t any cones touching down or cows flying through the air though, and nothing is supposed to really hit
