GO PLAY THIS FUCKING GAME BITCHES!

Mad, big, awesome props to my friend Scarybug for creating Chronotron, a lovely little puzzle, time-traveling, robot game that features a talking pie!

Go play it. It's awesome. He deserves a lot of love for this game. And for friends -- give some love to him on your blog. The dude deserves it.

So what plane did Gygax end up on?

Well, according to Jack Chick, Gary Gygax ended up in the nine hells.

Because you know kids -- D&D leads to suicide, murder and Satanism (and not being a dumbass)! /eyeroll

HOLY FUCKING SHIT!

Gary Gygax died!

Bummer. There goes a gaming legend.

ETA: And Brett Farve announce he's retiring!

This is not a good day to be a Cheesehead.

Happy Birthday Raizel!

Today's Raizel's B-Day! For those of you who don't know her, she's Keidra's fabulous roomie and friend who's special powers are crippling grown men with hugs. I hope you had a happy day today!

And in other news -- I recently got to try out Michael and Katie's new Wii (the poor boy braved sitting out in the cold at the Target here to get one -- waited for six hours). It's pretty freaking sweet. I think I want one now. And it's so shiny, white and cute that I wanted to cuddle with the remote control for a few hours.

We played the Wii sports which includes tennis and bowling. While the controls may take a bit to get used to, it's a lot more intuitive than doing the "Press the A button, then down, up left, Z button and X" thing. Bowling was pretty smooth (even though I accidentally threw the remote at the television --- fortunately, no damage) for me, and I think the increased physical nature of the system promises to be a lot more enjoyable for a lot of people in the future.

Not to mention -- it's probably a hell of a lot easier to get than a PS3. I'm sure as hell not shooting someone to get a $600 game system.

I blame Shasta for this one

On her blog, Shasta's been talking about the Sims 2 and how she created a little world featuring some folks we know. After trading some comments back and forth, I started getting the craving again.

This time I've been focusing on Lil' Erich, a nice, single sim who's into the pursuit of knowledge and really enjoys painting, stargazing and his job as a doctor. He's also become one hell of a piano player.

But man cannot live on knowledge alone. Since his only company was pretty much his maid (except for phone calls he'd get every day from Lil' Sean Bean -- wherever Sean Bean goes, slash doth follow) they got to talking and he started to fall for her. She'd hang out after work and they'd sit and play chess and talk. While she rebuffed his advances at first, saying she just thought of him as a friend, she eventually came around and they got it on in the hot tub. That same day Lil' Erich proposed and she accepted!

It was a great wedding party: Lil' Jeff, Lil' Christy, Lil' Sean Bean and a bunch of other people showed up for the wedding and it was so lovely.

What's funnier is telling Erich about this and seeing his facial expressions. Admittedly, his Sim is a lot easier to deal with than the resident 'ho Lil' Keidra.

My conversations with Lil' Keidra, Lil' Raizel and Lil' Sean Bean go like this:

Lil' Keidra (as she's trying to seduce someone else): "I WANNA SEE SEAN! I WANNA CALL SEAN! I WANNA FLIRT WITH SEAN! I WANNA KISS SEAN! I WANNA WOO HOO WITH SEAN!"

Me (aka Lord and God): "Damn girl. What about your goal of getting three loves? You can't just obsess on his ass."

Lil' Raizel: "That slut! Sean's mine! And she doesn't even clean up after herself!"

Lil' Sean Bean: "I wanna see Dina Calentie! No! I want to call Keidra! No! I must see Raizel! No! I need to Woo Hoo with five people in a public place."

Me: "Damn man. You're a walking STD. Chill. Don't you sleep or anything?"

The worst thing about this article?

I swear, I've dealt with someone like this before online -- either that or a composite of every bad party experience that I've ever had.

Perhaps one of the geekiest questions ever

After playing World of Warcraft, I just had a completely random thought. The main mode of transportation is Griffons and Hippogriffs, which are similar to low-flying aircraft. You ride one from place to place like a horse, except that you're flying.

Here's the thing -- how does one stay on those animals? There's no saddles or seatbelts. Some of the angles that the animals would cause people to fall off. But when you ride a Griffon or Hippogriff, it's always safe, fast and the scenery is great.

So how does one stay on? My theory right now is that the fur/feathers are similar to velcro and will adhere you to their backs for a safe journey. Any other ideas would also entertain me right now.

Media tidbits

To reward myself for an ass-kicking week, last Friday I did a bunch of media purchases. Other women buy shoes, clothes and bags -- I buy books, CDs, video games and a shitload of DVDs. It explains why I look like a homeless woman when I go out (or a two-year-old who dressed herself).

Anyways, I managed to listen to a bunch of new CDs and downloaded a few singles from iTunes, so I've got a bunch of mini-reviews.


1. U2's Fast Cars. This single should've been on the last album, but for some reason, the band decided to leave this delicious single off of the American version of How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. Damn shame really. It's a great song -- Middle Eastern meets flamenco after a few too many pints of Guinesses. If I could belly dance to this song, I would. Aw hell, what am I talking about -- I have shook my ass to this song. It's too damn infectious.

The lyrics have a sense of information overload and disconnect. Not to mention it's a lot of fun to hear Bono rattle off "I got CCTV, pornography, CNBC" in a fast pace and whooping in other parts of the song. I'm just annoyed that I had to buy this single because it wasn't on my CD, and it should've been.

Another good song by U2 -- Big Girls are the Best. It's worth it for Adam Clayton doing his best impression of the 70s bass "wakka wakka" sound.

2. Franz Ferdinand's You Could Have It So Much Better. I was a little worried about this at first -- would Franz just do a rehash of their debut successful album. But the more I listen to it, the more I like it. The band's gotten more melodic, but not to the point that we lose sense of what Franz Ferdinand is supposed to be. The bass line is still strong, Alex Kapranos' voice is still has that distinctive, great sound. I love hearing him sing "I love the sound of you walking away" -- it's yearning, sad and at the same time, really, really cheeky.

But the more I listen to the lyrics, the more I'm seeing the band as seriously ambiguously gay -- fuck that, they are gay. I mean, the lyric "Your famous friend, well I blew him before you," isn't exactly subtle. But that doesn't take away from the overall, tasty CD goodness. Thanks Keidra for forcing me -- the cheapskate -- to buy this one! It's totally worth it.


3. White Stripes' Get Thee Behind Me Satan. First off, Jack White needs to get rid of the Snidley Whiplash moustache and wash his damn hair. Second off, I've heard this CD before and I love the hell out of it. It starts out with Blue Orchard and promptly veers off into uncharted waters. Don't expect to hear the same typical White Stripes stuff. This CD veers into marimba waters with The Nurse and heads off into bluesy alt-country land. My personal fave single right now is My Doorbell.

4. We Love Katamari. The fantastic sequel to Katamari Damacy. Not much is changed -- you still take a sticky ball and roll up random crap -- mah jongg tiles, thumbtacks, mice, buildings, people, airplanes, islands -- into a big ball of fun. There's a couple of new challenges such as keeping your Katamari on fire as you take it up to a campsite and two-player cooperative mode to keep things interesting. It's a good game for people seeking "family-friendly" fare and also something that's not the usual first-person-shooter with monsters, gang members or scantily-clad space demons.

5. The Transporter. Still crack filled goodness. 'Nuff said.

6. Chappelle's Show Season 2. This DVD purchase was worth it simply for Charlie Murphy True Hollywood Stories. The dude's a natural storyteller and funny as hell. He's got some wild stories about life on the fringes of fame, as his brother, Eddie (remember him? He did some cool stuff in the 1980s) rides the elevator to the top. His story about playing basketball against Prince is worth the DVD alone.

But it's also got another favorite of mine: "I'M WAYNE BRADY BITCH!"

Photo by BonoBaltimore via Flicker. I don't know how the man does it, but he's got some seriously droolworthy concert photos.

Snoogans!

As September melts into October (thank heavens!), I'm prepping for another round of fun with another live-action roleplaying event in the Chi-town area. For those of you not familiar with live-action roleplaying, think of it as a murder mystery dinner night. It's basically that.

Last year, I took part in the Curse of Whatley's Monster. This year, we're heading back to the 1970's for Scooby Doo. Within our little motley Madison crew, me and Eva are the two women that will be participating that night.

Eva's Velma. I'm Jay from Jay and Silent Bob. Yes, you read the last sentence correctly. I'm Jay. Enich is going to be Silent Bob (because no one else can rock that look as well as Enich in my book). It's more appropriate anyways, because I can be that foulmouthed without any problems.

Not to mention, the thought of hitting on Daphne and Velma all night amuses the hell out of me as well as the thought of calling Enich my "hetro life-partner Silent Bob."

Anyways, thanks to this little adventure, I'm getting back into Kevin Smith movies. Enich and I watched Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back on Thursday to get into the spirit of things, and I'm rereading Kevin Smith websites.

I forgot that I also had a crush on the man too (much to the horror of Raizel and Keidra when I admitted that one -- I've got a strong thing for geeks). He does dialogue writing really well and in a patter that's completely believable for me. I know I've had conversations similar to the ones in Clerks and Dogma. I never saw Jersey Girl (just looked a bit to schmaltzy for me), but Dogma and Clerks are two movies that I'll always enjoy.

His dialogue can be a bit mouthy to perform, but I think that in the hands of the right people (Jason Mewes, aka Jay), it just flies. Ben Affleck for some reason also can rock Smith's dialgue alright. His performances in Dogma and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (Lion Face! GRRR! Lemon Face! Sad!) are pretty damn good.

The man's also got a blog, My Boring Ass Life that I've been compulsively reading for the past few days. It's kind of boring (as the title says), but there's something interesting about reading what he's doing. It's voyeuristic (especially when he talks about jacking off to nude pics of his wife) and it falls into the vein of "yesterday I did X, Y, Z and fell asleep to the Simpsons" type of blogs, but every now and then -- there's some oddball gem in there. I'll probably keep reading it as I prep to become a blond stoner boy.

I normally don't dig trading card games...

But if this game existed, I'd be tempted to buy it. Damn shame they don't have a Bono card.

WOOT!

Gotta give mad props to my friends for getting the second edition of their card game, Let's Kill, published by Atlas Games. It's not a pretty game, nor is it a "nice game," but it's a bit of mindless fun that I can advocate. Yay guys!

My new soap opera -- Desperate Sims!

I love the Sims 2. But I love any game that allows me to create little dolls, dress them up and make them do goofy stuff such as play the piano for about eight to 14 hours straight.

This time, in tradition of many things, I've created Sims that mirror me and Jeff, and our friends. While some of them I'm going to play a little straight and like reality -- Jeff and I are married (after being roomies for awhile), with a kid on the way -- I'm also going to warp reality a little bit.

My best case of that right now is Lil' Keidra and Lil' Raizel. Lil' Keidra's a naughty girl. She has a job at a gas station and is slacking off. Lil' Raizel's an EMT and a very nice, sweet girl who likes to learn stuff.

Being that this is my world and I'll do what I want, I decided to introduce a Lil' Sean Bean for Lil' Keidra. For those of you who don't know who Sean Bean is -- he's Borimir from Lord of the Rings. And apparently, he induces ovulation for many women, judging from some of the fanpages and random postings that I've seen about him.

My story is that he's chosen (like the rest of us) Pleasantview to live in between filming movies. He's also an incredible manwhore who's been spreading love to Lil' Keidra and Lil' Raizel. I think that Jeff's convinced that I'm just doing Sims porn now when I play the game when I yell, "Oh yeah! He bagged her!"

I'm not sure where I'll go with this. I'm pretty certain that I need to step away from the game at times, because it's so damn addictive to me. Nothing like playing with electronic dollies to make (a not-real) life entertaining.

Torn between two lovers . . .

I've been humming this tune ever since I got Sims 2 -- which satisfies all of my lustful longings for little soap operas and paper dolls to mess with. Jeff, the darling dear, picked it up for me this week and I actually had time to sit down and play with it today.

Sad thing is that well, I'm still in the throes of my City of Heroes addiction. It's tough choosing between bashing heads in and beating up the slime of Paragon City or trying to get my little Jeff and Viv to hook up (I made the mistake of making them roomies instead of spouses).

I've always been fond of The Sims. It's like a little soap opera gone that I have complete control over and now, it's a hell of a lot prettier. Not to mention the goals are a nice way of keeping the game in check and running smoothly. The options for creating your own Sims is also quite nice. While I didn't get lil' Jeff and lil' Viv looking exactly the same, I got it close enough to how I think we should look -- that is pretty much the only similarity is that the lil' ones have glasses and the same hair and eye color. Heh. They're my damn Sims and I'll make them as attractive as I want them to be.

Now I'm toying with the idea of creating everyone I know and planting them in Pleasantview to interact with the Goths and other folks.

Tough choices. I can't have both running at the same time, lest my computer throw up all over the place, but I also want to indulge my superhero side also. *sigh* I figure that the Sims attraction may die down a bit -- and there's nothing like interacting with your friends online -- but for now, you might find me playing with my little dollhouses.

My secret life

I'm not a frequent poster on this blog -- frankly with my schedule and such, it's hard for me to have the time to post because -- well, I have a confession to make.

After I come home from a long day at my normal job, I've got a secret life at night. At night, I suit up as a superhero with Wolverine-esque claws, a tight red and black catsuit and beat up criminals in Paragon City as Li Mao, the wildcat stalking her prey.

Yes. I am a City of Heroes addict. What makes you ask?

I've already stated how much I love this game normally, but the honeymoon isn't over yet. I'm still enjoying playing it immensely -- to the point where my IM messages aren't as rapid-fire as they should be at times. And they're often punctuated with phrases like, "Sorry took so long. Killing bad guys."

The best part of this game is that even though my friends may play more and be higher level than I am, we still can play together. And that rocks. If I'm gonna play a MMORPG, I'd like to play with my friends -- and the sidekick option allows for that. Frankly, Jeff and I haven't worked together so much since, well, ever. It's cool being a superhero crimefighting team.

I also have to say, as Li Mao, I look more badass than Halle Berry in Catwoman.

City of Heroes RAWKS!

The couple that games together stays together. Jeff picked up City of Heroes for the two of us and I have to say that I'm already enjoying this game much more than Everquest.

Character creation is absolutely awesome. You can spend literally hours creating your vision of a character, toying around with concepts and other fun stuff like that. Unlike EQ, where it's not impossible to run into your doppelganger at least once a day, I have yet to run into my twin. Jeff has yet to run into his twin too. It also appeals to my girly nature because I can create cool looking outfits instead of using a pre-perscribed look. My only complaint is that you can't have "huge" female -- I mean, a large, muscular woman would be a cool superhero -- think Valkyre or Angry Nun prototype.

You can solo! The one thing I hated about EQ is that the higher level you are, you must have a group, If you play as infrequently as I did -- say a few hours each week -- and didn't have a guild, you were boned. Sitting around for 30 minutes screaming, "Level 51 Rogue LFG, PST." isn't fun if you can only play for a few hours a week. Subsequently, I gave up on that game and wandered back to TV land.

I honestly don't know if I'll stick with it for the long term or not -- but we'll see. I really enjoy it right now and if the honeymoon phase can last -- I'll really enjoy it.