Chocolate Day

Enjoy the sweets, or religious reverie.  Whichever one is your thing.

So The Wife Was Right

Bayonetta is actually over 11 “heads” tall, when a normal human being is about six and a half to seven.  This post will only make sense to gaming nerds and artists.  Regardless it is now confirmed; Bayonetta?  Freak Of Nature.

That Time Of Year Again

Merry Christmas, folks.

Random Rock Band Stuff

For people that have played the previous Guitar Hero games and know the synth group Freezepop, here’s a surprise. They did a cover of the theme song from Jem. You really don’t need to read anymore. And yes, they will be appearing in Rock Band again.

Pre-Christmas Shopping

Once again, we were semi-successful in pushing back our waking hours. We’re still waking up obscenely late, but at least now when we do, the stores are still open. As a result, the Wife decided it was time to make a trip down to the mall (in this case, Eaton Centre) to beat out the crowds that will be doing some seasonal shopping. On the subway, she decided to kill some time by whipping out her sketchpad and drawing people around her. We happened to be in a car with a Toronto Transit Commission attendant, a big, friendly, smiling black guy, and as soon as he saw what she was up to, he demanded the he be the subject of her portraiture, which she was more than happy to oblige. It’s little, random things like that remind me of how much more lively Canada is than Singapore ever was.

In addition to her picking a few more clothes appropriate for the winter, I finally managed to buy a new recharger for my cell phone (it’s been dead for the last week, as a result of one of the cats chewing right through the cord), a birthday present for the Best Friend, and a meet up with someone from Singapore. The Wife did the meet specifically because this guy had just been back to Singapore and she had requested he make a run to one the local art supply stores to buy a whole bunch of pencil lead that, for some bizarre reason, is not sold here.

Aside from that the only other thing of concern to me today was a random look through the Rock Band forums and the surprising discovery that on a thread talking about least favorite songs in Rock Band, Courtney Love’s Celebrity Skin is #1 with a bullet. I have no idea why the music fans seem to dislike Courtney personally, since this seems to be their main beef with her, not her song, but her song seems to suffer as a result of its association with her, and many are quite unhappy with its inclusion. There was even one poster that went so far as to say, and I quote:

“Boo for people who killed Kurt Cobain.”

I obviously haven’t been following this much outside of the initial, “Oh, Kurt Cobain killed himself” shock, so maybe there’s a chunk to this story that I’m missing. All I know for sure is that I actually like the song, and it’s one of the ones I’m actually looking forward to playing the hell out of. I have no intimate knowledge of the aftermath of Kurt Cobain’s death and Courtney Love, I only know that it’s a catchy song, it’s a lot of fun, and whether its guitar or drums, it’s gonna’ be a hell of a song to play the crap out of.

Gobble Gobble Mark II

It was not too long ago that the last of the Thanksgiving turkey for Canada’s Thanksgiving celebration was finally polished off, and I thought that would be the end of the turkey flavored saturation for the rest of the year. Now, I find I am wrong. What I failed to take into account was that the In-Laws, now celebrating their American Thanksgiving next month, would suddenly invite us down on a trip to Maine to see what their American rural Thanksgiving celebrations will be like. And we have accepted. Meaning there is more turkey in the offing.

I’m actually curious to see what it’s like, having never actually had an American Thanksgiving dinner, and having never been to Maine before. However, there is also a potential dilemma in the offing.

It has recently come to my attention from my talks with Harmonix representatives that Rock Band will not, in fact, go on sale in Canada at the same time as it does in the USA. The reason for this is somehow they forgot about the bilingual requirement for Canadian packaging and are now sorting that out, but the end result is, they now have NO estimated date of sale for Canada although they are “shooting for as close as they can get.” In addition to this, they refuse to comment on what the price will be in Canada. Although the US version has already been confirmed to ship on November 23rd, at $170 for the full bundle, Harmonix won’t comment on whether or not their pricing will take Canada’s stronger dollar into account, or simply play it safe and do the usual gouge of pumping up the price For No Damn Good Reason At All Now, as still happens with DVDs and games.

Which leaves me with a situation where I am now perfectly aware of the fact that I will now be in America at the same time that Rock Band goes on sale. I won’t be reasonably near a game retailer (the town in the in-laws live in is close the New Brunswick/Maine border and has a population of less than 4000), but thanks to the miracle of mail order, GameStop has an overnight delivery policy which, if you splurge for it, guarantees you get your game on the same day that stores do, provided you are shipping somewhere in the continental USA, which Maine just barely qualifies as.

So now I have to debate risking the possibility of a defective Rock Band set which I might not be able to rectify should that scenario play out, or wait for it to arrive in Canadian stores, which–if the Guitar Hero I fiasco for Canada was anything to go by–could take upwards of five months, as the game went on sale in November 2005, and some places in Canada didn’t get it ’till March 2006.

I gots me somes thinkin’ ta’ do…

More Geek Stuff

I was completely blown away when I saw this video posted on the GameAxis blog, so I’m bringing it out here for you folks to see. Dubbed Ryan Versus Dorkman 2 it’s a sequel (with an actual budget of sorts) to a fan film that came out a while back. There’s no story here, just two guys that love Star Wars and light sabers creating the single best light saber duel I have ever seen. This blows away anything in any of the six movies, and what amazes me even more is through donations from fans of the previous RvD, they managed to scrape up enough money to hire an orchestra and composer to do the music for this short film. A truly amazing effort. Watch and respect…

Also, I just had my blog rated and I am proud to say I came out with this:

I’m not safe for the kids! You have no idea how much of a relief that is to me…

More Stories

A typical Monday in the Annex with some perfect weather (that is to say, warm enough to walk around with a jacket, but not warm enough to actually break a sweat). All the usual stops were made, Beguiling, Suspect Video, a resupply of coffee and some groceries. I still haven’t finished that second story for the Liquid City anthology, but soon, dammit, SOON…

The Wife herself is also going to be very busy. She made the mistake one day of saying, “I have no stories to tell,” and immediately had a big one she wanted to do before the day was out. I won’t say much about it here, ’cause it’s her story and all, after all, but between Nowhere, Liquid City the Other Anthology, a couple of stories she’d previously forgotten about, and this new one, she’s got a lot on her plate.

And on my list of reccomends for this week comes yet another anime series courtesy of Suspect:

Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi

This one is completely random. I’d heard absolutely nothing about it, didn’t know a thing in advance, and hadn’t even heard about it. The only reason we ended up watching it was because the cover of the DVD case caught the Wife’s eye and I figured, “What the hell, could be fun.”

It’s a weird amalgamation of Coming of Age and Sliders. The story starts out with two 12 year old kids, Arumi (the adorable one in the white dress in the foreground) and her childhood friend, Sasshi (the one with the hat) as they face their last summer together. Both of them have spent their entire lives living in shophouses on the north and south end of a large complex called the Abenobashi Shopping Arcade. Arumi’s family runs the Pelican French restaurant on the north side–adorned with a big pelican on the roof–and Sasshi’s family runs Turtle baths–similarly adorned with a big turtle on the roof–but the years have not been kind to the arcade. Now, plots of land are being sold off, and the old place is gradually being dismantled. Arumi’s family will be moving away and Sasshi’s not looking forward to it.

What starts out as seemingly charming young love/coming of age story quickly takes a turn for the strange when the kids end up getting caught in a kind of spatial warp that constantly moves them from one bizarre, fantastical version of their shopping arcade to another. They go from Japanese fantasy role-playing game styled arcades to giant robot science fiction ones, and even film noir. It is just downright hilarious, and while it’s only 13 episodes in total length, this is another one of those little treasures that I need to add to the list of things for the collection

And, on a totally random note, here’s a baby panda:

“Elmo Love Cutting Wrists!”

Lately both the Wife and I have been on a kick where we are once again turning an extremely critical eye to that latest bout of Youth Ideology known as Emo. It got to the point where I realized that this damn thing needs some better marketing in order to help us Old, Terminally Unhip Fogies and young children under the age of 10 understand exactly what this Emo stuff is all about. And so, as both a learning tool and toy for children, I present, with extremely bad photo-shopping skills (and the help of the Wife for word balloons) my solution to letting both young and old understand them crazy kids.

Tickle Me Emo!

This new doll has a built in vibrator that makes TME shudder in despair whenever he is poked and prodded by an uncaring world that doesn’t understand him. TME was raised with a horrifying childhood that defies all sanity or description, thus creating the traumatized, but deeply stylish and good looking wreck you see before you! When touched or poked, he confesses in jarring sobs, his deep, dark childhood secret that warped him so.

“It… it was… Oh God, I can’t go on… It was… safe! And boring! And… and… OH GOD, IT WAS MIDDLE CLASS, I CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE, I’M SO TORMENTED, HOLD MEEEE!”

When hugged, TME cries hysterically.

TME has a far greater range of interactivity than previous toys. In the presence of a flash camera, his photo-sensitive sensors will cause him to tilt his head down so his hair covers one eye while he grabs one arm in a deliberately insecure, yet androgynous sexually provocative manner.

TME will also only kiss boys, but not because he’s gay, so much as he’s just confused.

He also comes with several free pairs of razor blades so that you can play the hot new teenage game “Slashin’ For Fashion” which involves creating the most esthetically pleasing cuts on the arm for both style and the attention of counselors and girls wanting to “rescue a beautiful soul from his dark side if only he’d sleep with me.”

It goes without saying that TME comes programmed with several phrases. Here’s just a small sample of the Emo-isms you will enjoy.

“Nobody UnderSTAAAAAAAAAAAANDS! WAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

“Life is so black. So bleak. WAAAAAAAAAAH!”

“Don’t touch me there unless you’re a boy! WAAAAAAAH!”

“My life is an empty void. It’s like a poem… without words, y’know? Isn’t that the saddest thing you’ve ever heard? WAAAAAAAAH!”

“What can I cry about today?”

“This reminds of a poem I wrote once when I was really upset, let me recite it for you…”

“This reminds me of a girl who dumped me… WAAAAAAH!”

“This reminds me of a girl I like who I can’t speak to because I’m afraid she’ll dump me. WAAAAAH!”

“I have this perfect vision in my head of the angel girl who will save me from my black, black heart… But then she dumps me! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

“Do you have any idea who much it makes my paper heart bleed when you say you don’t understand how getting a shirt that fits properly instead of being to tight hurts me?!? WAAAAAAAAAAH!”

“I wanna’ kill myself! That’s so cool!”

“Let’s cut ourselves! It’ll be so fun and cool and tormented!”

“Ernie and Bert keep picking on me and Bert won’t kiss me anymore! WAAAAAAAH!”

Compared the original Tickle Me Elmo, this one is a steal at only $1000, and each one is an organic product that is acquired through a fair trade deal with the indigenous people of a country known as China where they get a penny for 8 hours of happy work in a nice, warm factory set to a comforting 38 degrees Celsius, and you get the doll knowing that you’ve just made someone in China a whole penny richer while at the same time getting to wallow with Elmo about how unfair your suburbanite, middle class existence is. AIN’T IT GREAT?!

Not A Cartoon Character

Instead, The Wife started wondering whether or not them crazy female devils ever decided to take up new and interesting hobbies. Like bodybuilding and professional wrestling. Y’know, wholesome stuff like that…

Also, after tabulating all the “funny books” I have now arrived at the grand total of us having approximately 160 graphic novels between us, most of it English, some purely in Japanese for art reference. Of those, there are two separate copies of the entire Sandman run, one in trade, which is mine, and one in hardcover, which is hers. Am now tabulating DVDs, and just. Doesn’t. End. So far, the only noticeable casualty of borrowing seems to be our copy of Triumph The Insult Dog, which was loaned to someone and for the life of me I can’t remember who it was anymore. Oh well…

Also, in retrospect, it was naive in the extreme to believe we had less than $3000 worth of stuff… So much for cheap insurance…