Well, here I am posting again. I know that I haven't been a very good blogger and only updating every now and again. I know I have lots of things to talk about but I'm just not used to having so little free time now that I'm working. I also kind of tend to think that my entries are not that interesting but I guess I shouldn't let that discourage me from writing. Ok, so to star things off, I'm going to quote one of the comments in my last post which said "Mark, I need you and I want you. I'm sorry that you don't." I would just like to comment on this. I would like to say primarily that if this is not some sort of prank by a random person then I am extremely flattered because I tend to not think of myself very highly. In fact since I've been single for so long I was beginning to wonder if there's something wrong with me. Well, I do know that I'm not a normal person but I just figured most would consider me unattractive or I wouldn't have been single so long. I was complaining to Steve about this on Sun night and he made a point that some people do like me, but I just don't reciprocate it. I guess it's sort of true because I am extrodinarily picky and sometime you women just freak me out. Perhap I will pay for my pickiness with eternal lonliness but I'm willing to risk that to get what I want. I would also like to point out that I'm not so narcissistic to think that I have any right being as picky as I am but you can't help who you are and what you like right?
I'm going to continue on with that comment that was made, just because it's odd... I apologize in advance for going on about it :) Well, obviously I wish I had known who posted it because it makes wonder who could possible think that. If you feel like you want to indulge me please e-mail me (it should be on my blog somewhere) and let me know. Even if I don't reciprocate your feelings sometimes it's just good to talk about it, and I wouldn't be the sort to make fun of you behind your back or anything. That's not how I roll. I just think it's good to get things in the open. Take for example my friend Andrea. I like her but she doesn't feel the same way about me. We've talked about it and it doesn't seem to have hindered our friendship. Well, she might not go with me to my good friend Steve's Wedding (Congrats buddy!!!) because I get the impression that she might not be comfortable which I found out through Divine Intervention... Praise Jesus! ;) It's ok Andrea, I completely understand. The point being is that I just think that it's better to talk about things that dwell on your mind, whether it's positive or negative.
Ok, so enough about the comment. What else do I have to talk about? Well, there is no chance of me getting addicted to World of Warcraft again. I did post about this game before, with it's horrible addictiveness and waste of time I consider it to have been. I no longer possess the game or my account which had my characters on it. Recently I was talking to a friend of mine named Jon who wanted to sell his PSP which I had been wanting for a while, but the $300 price tag was really turning me off so I waited. When Jon offered to sell his PSP to me with 3 games for $130, I jumped on the opportunity. I knew that Jon was a WoW (World of Warcraft) nut and that he didn't posses the Collectors Edition that I did. Well, I offered to trade it to him with $40 for his PSP and 3 games and he decided to go for it. That basically put my WoW CE at $90, it's not really what I wanted to sell it for but considering how cheap I got the PSP it was completely worth it. Now that I have no game and the inability for me to ever access my characters again (meaning that if I did restart I would have to start from scratch) there's no chance I'm going to play again. The PSP is an awesome little system that has a nice huge screen and also good sound as well. How do I think of it in comparison to the DS Lite? Well, I think the PSP has better capabilities (in terms of programs and things it's caable of doing outside of gaming) than the DS Lite but there are more games that I like and have what I consider to be better games on the Nintendo portable.
So I have a PSP, and I guess I'll tell you a bit about what I've been playing. The main game that I have been playing is a Tetris-esque puzzle game by the name of
Lumines. I think it's perhaps the best puzzle game that I've played or at least the most addictive. Well, it probably resembles
Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo (which I still wish I had on PS1 >_< ) moreso than Tetris. I know at least two people who crave to get a PSP just because I let them play a few games of Lumines. Besides Lumines, the other two games I've been playing is
Mega Man Powered Up and
Loco Roco (which has only been released in Europe so far but will be out in North America soon enough). Mega Man Powered Up is basically a kiddified version of the original Mega Man game but with a lot of additional features. New graphics, new levels, new bosses (Oil Man and Time Man), playable boss characters and a level editor. There is more features than that but that alone is worth sinking hours into the game LocoRoco is a very odd game. Basically your main characters is a rolly ball with a face. You tilt the world left and right by using your L and R buttons on your PSP which causes him to roll and press you can press both and then release to jump. As your ball rolls around and eats fruit he will become a fatter blob. You'll traverse through the gorgeous wold with the singing blob of fat with crazy japanese tunage going on (think Katamari but actually catchy). It's just a simplistic side-scroller that's very fun due to the visuals and level design. I can't wait to get into more.
Onto movies. I think the only movie that I've mentioned so far this summer was Mission Impossible 3. Well, I'm after seeing in this order: MI:3, The DaVinci Code, X-Men 3, Superman Returns, Pirates of the Caribbean II and Clerks II. Well, I already stated that I wasn't fussy on MI3. The DaVinci Code was decent but the thing I found most interesting about it was the actual comments on Catholocism and I probably would have been better served with a documentary. Well, Ian McKellen (spelling) was great as always. Speaking of Ian, I had insanely high hopes for the latest X-Men move since X-Men 2 was probably my favorite super hero movie I've watched. Well, I saw it and again it was decent but it was very underwhelming considering how much I enjoyed the others. I guess it would have a lot to do with the new director, since Bryan Singer is no longer associated with it. Now Singer left X-Men to do Superman Returns so I was actually getting excited about it, especially with Kevin Spacey playing Lex Luthor. I have to say that again I was pretty underwhelmed by the movie. It was about 45 mins too long and not entirely entertaing. I was expecting a little more action but I thought the actors (note: actors and not actresses) played their roles very well. Maybe the next will be better.
After seeing all of the above movies, I was beginning to think that this was not a very good summer for movies and it had me worried about the remainding films. I had been anticipating the new Pirates movie for quite some time and figured it would probably only be decent. Upon going though I was completely blown away. It was exceptional and the best movie that I've seen so far this summer. I'm not going to go into any specifics, so just go see it for yourself. I didn't even really know about Clerks II or when it was being released, heck I hadn't even seen Clerks until about 3 weeks ago. I went to it and I have to say it was as funny as the original. Most people I know that have watched it tend to think the same thing which is surprising because people hold the original in such a high regard. If you liked the first you should feel safe going to the sequel. So, after seeing two good movies I'm hoping the trend will continue when Trailer Park Boys The Movie is released, I believe, sometime in August. I'm a huge TPB fan and have all of the seasons so far on DVD and the trailer looks awesome so I'll definitely be going to this one asap.
What else have I been watching? Well, I watched 4 animes lately... 2 series and two movies. After seein the amazing
Samurai Champloo, I had to sit down and watch
Cowboy Bebop. Bebop is a good series but I vastly prefer Champloo, with the exception of the music. The other series that I've watched lately is
Serial Experiments Lain. All I have to say is: EWW EWW EWW!!!! It was very weird, and not even in a weird but enjoyable fashion such as Akira. I'm not even gonig to talk about the series anymore because I consider it to have been such a waste of time. The two movies I watched are Samurai X and Howl's Moving Castle. I really enjoyed Samurai X which is based on the anime show called
Rorouni Kenshin. Samurai X is just another Samurai flick but I guess they aren't all the same because Samurai X and Samurai Champloo have a completely different feel to one another. As for Howl's Moving Castle, it was alright. There were things about it that bugged me and I vastly preferred other Miyazaki's work such as:
Princess Mononoke and
Spirited Away. I think I would definitely have to sit through Howl's Moving Castle again thought before I could give it a final verdict.
Well, I've type a fair amount and I haven't even touched on music yet so I will only mention on CD that I've been listening to lately and that's
Black Holes And Revelations by Muse. Most people consider this a 'love it' or 'hate it' sort of album. At first I thought it was their worst album to date but I could instantly apprciate the songs 'City of Delusion' and 'Knights of Cydonia'. Upon repeated listenings of this album it's really begun to grow on me like mold. I still don't consider it to be their best work, aka
Origin of Symmetry, but it definitely is a solid album that deserves some recognition. Well, I wasn't going to talk about any other bands but I just remembered that I ordered the US version of Pure Reason Revolution's The Dark Third album which is simply a masterpiece in my mind. I've owned the UK version of the album for quite some time but the US version has at least one new song that wasn't on the UK edition so I ordered it. It was released today but I ordered mine from amazon.ca so I probably won't see it for a bit. Go out and see what your missing!!
Ok, well, that's all I have for now but I do have some other things to talk about so hopefully it won't be a month until I do another update. In fact I'm hoping it will be this weekend, but I can't predict whether I will or not. I hope everyone is doing well and keep in touch, ok people? :)
~M