TDNCY

To break the streak of dead-beat contributors here (Hoyt, I apologize to you), I thought I’d put together a listing of the movies that I fondly remember the most from my childhood. I’ll post as many video clips as I can find.

#1) The Goonies. Does this really require an explanation?

#2) The Wizard. Wow, this was obscure but the thought of getting across the desert to keep some guy’s powergloves off my lady friend was just the coolest thing ever. Not to mention this movie had ACTUAL LEVELS from the soon to be released Super Mario Brothers 3.

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When I was in the 2nd grade, I got to participate in my first ever election. We were voting for officers for the following year at my elementary school, and there was one girl, we’ll call her Regina, who was running for president. This girl promised us the world; I’m not exaggerating. You can ask Mark for more details, she was in his grade (5th at the time) and he probably has more vivid memories of this. The biggest promise I remember was that we would have Street Fighter 2 on Sega Genesis in the computer lab. I think she may have also said something about chocolate milk in the water fountains (Mark?). Everyone was buzzing about Regina and her life-changing ideas for our school. Needless to say, she absolutely steamrolled her opponent. Now, I switched schools after that year and didn’t get to experience the disappointment, but, as you would expect, Street Fighter 2 wasn’t played for a single second in the computer lab the following year. Kids were anointing Regina the greatest visionary since the guy who invented toilet paper before she had even taken office.
Wait…gosh…I don’t know why, but I feel like I’m experiencing deja vu. I can’t quite put my finger on it…SURELY it can’t be because our nation is obsessing over someone who, so far, hasn’t done much other than show us he paid attention in his public speaking class in college. Hey, I took public speaking too. In fact I got an A. Does that make me worthy of being considered someone who will change the world at the drop of a dime? Make no mistake, I’m not trying to say that I think our esteemed new president will not be good for this country, or that he will flop. I am in no place to judge that; I don’t know much about politics, to be honest. Even if I did, he has four years in front of him to make good on his promises (that right there gives him an edge over Regina, she only had one year). But what I do know is that actions speak louder than words. I’m not predicting a letdown. If our new president flops, I’m not going to come back four years from now and say “I told you so.” Nor do I think I should apologize if he’s able to make the changes he’s being praised for alluding to (e.g., help the Lions win a superbowl, or make Notre Dame relevant again). Don’t tell me. Show me. Like Nike says, “Just do it.” I’m not a pessimist. I’m not an optimist. I’m a realist. President Obama was sworn into office on Tuesday, and today I still have to put my pants on one leg at a time, wait in line at Panera, study for my certification exam, and stop at stop signs (well…do a “California roll”). I hope our new president will be able to bring some of the changes he is talking about, but until he actually DOES something, allow me to quote “Office Space” when I say “What would you say….you DO here?” Good luck, President Obama. The way people are talking about you, I’m hoping you can put chocolate milk in my water fountain and Street Fighter 2 in my computer lab before the end of 2012.

CNN appears to be quite enamored with new United States President Obama

these pictures are hilarious, click for larger versions. In a new window? You’d better believe it.

First of all, let me apologize for the delay since the last of my rants. A lot has been on my plate, beginning with a new #1 for worst traveling experience of my life. I was going to rant about that, but that would just be like shooting fish in a barrel, and I wanted more of a challenge and to broaden my horizons. Plus, I hear John has some connection to the city of Philadelphia, and I don’t want to hurt his feelings too bad. The idea for today’s topic came when I was reviewing my Netflix account last night and stumbled across my history of movie ratings. Over the last year, I’ve gotten a lot more into movies. I especially like ones with multiple plot lines that somehow intertwine, have a twist ending, or multiple interpretations. Vanilla Sky, Pulp Fiction, Mulholland Drive, that sort of thing. There have been a few instances in which I hear about how absurdly great and earth-shaking a movie is, I watch it, and leave feeling the same way I do after eating at Panda Express: unsatisfied, robbed of $9, and ashamed that I didn’t realize beforehand it would be a bad idea to do this. And it’s all due to hype. It happens with movies, television, sports, music; you name it, and hype ruins things. After looking at my movie ratings on Netflix and getting angry I ever watched some of the ones I gave 1 out of 5 stars to, I have decided to rate the top 4 most overhyped things I have ever been exposed to.

4. Dancing
How on earth can girls think it’s pathetic for guys to kick back and watch Sportscenter or play Playstation but waste just as much time when they dance at a bar or club? Wow, you’re just moving around, how terribly exciting. You know in my profession we call that hip, elbow, and knee flexion and extension, and oh heck, maybe a little torso rotation too. You moved your body around while Journey sang about about a girl meeting some guy from Detroit. Sure you may have burned about 31 calroies, but seriously, dancing just serves no purpose and is absurdly overrated. Congratulations, you just wasted four minutes of your life. But it’s ok, dancing doesn’t make me half as ticked off as I was when I watched…

3. “Citizen Kane”
How this is rated one of the greatest movies of all time is seriously one of the greatest mysteries I have ever encountered in my entire life. I heard all about how great this movie was, and then was forced to sit through it back in high school. This was so bad that the Grim Reaper himself was standing at our classroom door, and when he went back to his car to check his messages he left his to-do list. It read: “Kill Jack McCormick due to excruciating boredom.” I realized I better stop paying attention to the source of that boredom before my visitor got too comfortable. Mr. Moss, you were an incredible 11th grade English teacher, heck of a guy. Unfortunately, I will forever remember this class as the one for making me want to puke on a Thursday afternoon. Wow, some guy goes crazy and tries to build some huge empire. In the real world we just call this the New York Yankees, yet apparently everybody hates them. Hey George Steinbrenner, I guess all you have to do is buy a little sled and name it “Rosebud” and everyone will all of a sudden think what you’re doing is a masterpiece. Incredible. This movie was awful and was massively overhyped, but not nearly as overhyped as…

2. Snow
When I was 9 I loved snow. Naturally, that was because if we got enough of it school would be cancelled and our days would be spent with snowball fights, having enough time to make breakfast, and daytime reruns of Sportscenter. Fast forward 15 years, and snow is now only a nuisance. “Ohhhhhh, it’s so pretty!” No, it’s not. Pretty is Santa Barbara, California. It isn’t having driving and running options eliminated by a disguised form of rain. Sure, when it snows it might look kind of cool…for like 6 minutes. Then it just sits on the ground and makes everything a lot harder. You don’t see people going on honeymoons to Denver or Mt. Washington, New Hampshire in February. There’s a reason for that. Snow sucks. For the life of me, I can’t see how people love being around snow. At least people who don’t get a day off from school because of it. But it’s alright, I’d still take snow over the disappointment I experienced when drinking…

1. Wine
I just don’t get it. Girls treat this stuff the way a guy treats sports in HD. Only problem is that sports in HD actually IS that incredible. Wine…It’s grapes that have been altered and enhanced with chemicals. I know because my old roommate was an assistant wine maker who was making it in our garage. Nothing special. The one good thing about it? Red wine has some antioxidants, oh and it can also help prevent alzheimers(sp?) if you enjoy it in moderation. Other than that, you couldn’t pay me to drink this stuff (well, everyone has a price I guess, and so do I, but you know what I mean). It’s just awful. You want me to pay $100 for some grapes that have been sitting around for 30 years because it’s “vintage?” Please, I wasn’t born yesterday you snake-oil salesman, so don’t treat me like I was. And I haven’t even MENTIONED white wine. I went to a bachelor party last year and we had this incredible dinner. Only problem was my $35 entree was ruined after being covered with a marinade that included white wine. Chicken is quite delicious on its own; it’s horrible with wine. You don’t see me soaking pizza in wine, why would you do that to anything else?

I really don’t have anything clever to say, just look at the awesomeness of this picture.

I’ll let you be the judge

EDIT-Ok, it occurs to me that this might not be the most SFW picture on the net, so i’ll let you decide for yourself. With new window goodness

Click it up, bitches

While i’m at it – this IS the most SFW pic on the net:

Pretty much self-explanatory. Who knew a gem lay in the tobacco country of North Carolina A&T? Is this a college basketball game or a rap version of high school musical?

A year has passed since HD-DVD was given its fatal blow by Sony and the rest of the Blu-Ray consortium.  I hopped on the HD bandwagon in the Fall of ’07 when I purchased the HD-DVD add-on for the XBOX 360.  While not as robust as a dedicated player, it was much cheaper and it came with King Kong, the first season of Heroes, and five free movies by mail to sweeten the deal.  After Toshiba bowed out, I pulled the trigger on a PS3 so I can have access to Blu-Ray (BD) media and games that I couldn’t play on the 360.

Sony stormed the market with the original PlayStation, and dominated with the PlayStation 2.  However, the PS3 is shaping up to be a bust by comparison.  A year ago, a $400 PS3 bought you a fantastic upscaling DVD player, the most advanced and updatable Blu-Ray player, and game console that was starting to come into it’s own.  Sony has yet to drop the price on the console, and is rumored to still be selling it at a loss.  Microsoft dropped the price of the 360 and it sold like crazy during the holiday season, while sales of the PS3 dropped nearly 10% over last year?  What is the difference?  

Cost is a major determining factor.  A year ago, BD players were still over $500 and the cost was not coming down very quickly.  Now, you can get a brand name player for under $200, which makes the PS3 a much less attractive option at twice the price.  Secondly, there are very few exclusive AAA titles that are worth playing.  Uncharted was somewhat fun, but the end of the game was frustrating as hell, and I just plain gave up on it.  The paid demo of Gran Turismo 5 is VERY underwhelming.  Little Big Planet is innovative, but it just lacks something.  The PS3 has no standardization of online play, which Microsoft excels at.  The Playstation store is clunky and has had a number of redesigns.  Overall, there are a lot of aspects that are good about the PS3 experience, but nothing great aside from movie playback.

With the Wii STILL flying off the shelf, and the 360 selling strong, it is clear that Sony’s approach of using crazy new hardware (the Cell) that is hard to program on has failed miserably compared to the ease of development on the Wii and 360.  Microsoft and Nintendo both set out to make their consoles easier to develop for this round, and Sony did whatever they wanted because they thought they owned the marked and the developers would always support them.  Arrogance has put Sony in a position where Atari, Sega, and not so long ago, Nintendo have found themselves in the past.  And we all know what happened to the first two companies…

You know, I am not sure how they actually thought this was a great name for a product.

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