Monthly Archives: December 2007

Happy New Year

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Ringing in the year with Peter’s and my Wii. Guitar Hero III and Galaxy in the same room, at the same time?

I feel a rift in space-time-awesome happening.

The ball is dropping in New York!
Well, that was fun and stuff. Back to the game.

Here’s some video of the festivities for family not in the room.

Update:
New things have been learned already in ’08 (Dickety Eight):

  1. Captain America returns.
  2. Peter learned that you don’t need to swing your remote like a crazy person in Lego Star Wars. Just press the trigger for all attacks.
  3. I learned that the Wii sensor bar was just two LED lights. I also learned that setting up a Wii next to a lit Christmas tree will actually throw off the sensors.
  4. My wife learned from my daughter that the only babysitter that she needed was Jesus.
  5. My daughter learned that she can make her dad laugh by putting a hair tie around Blue’s (from Blue’s Clues) ears and calling it Ninja Dog.

The Haiku
Do not make any
resolutions that I would
not make about monkeys

Madden 08

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So I guess it’s not just my brother and I who have had trouble. Here are some of the issues (the article also lists XBOX and PS3 issues) that I thought were just me being lame:

For the Wii:

• Kickers missing many of their field goal attempts in SuperStar mode
• Regular system freezes
• Connection problems during online play
• Substantial lag during online play
• Offensive players, including quarterbacks, being placed on special teams plays
• Quarterbacks often don’t hand off the ball as they are supposed to during running plays
• ‘No huddles’ occur at random
• “No huddles’ result in offsides penalties
• Quarterbacks automatically throwing the ball as soon as it is hiked

Frustrating.

Christmas II

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Rawr

Christmas II happened today – many emotions transpired, including my newfound desire to be a rap star:

Here are some highlights:

  1. Getting time with my friend Jason from New York and helping him get going for his plane.
  2. Finding out last night that someone else is on Twitter.

    Being stalked
  3. My mother-in-law got a bracelet. My nephew walked up to it and said, “They went to Jared’s.” (even though they hadn’t)
  4. My fake business letter and purchase/shipping e-mail made Jeremy Google my fake company.
  5. Rock ‘em Sock ‘em Robots (I miss the MacBook…Windows Movie Maker doesn’t recognize my camera’s files.)
  6. My wife’s enchilada casserole.
    The following was found, like all other recipes, without my wife’s knowledge:

    3 or 4 chicken breasts (cooked) cut into pieces
    into pan w/ 2 cans Cream of Chicken soup, slightly diluted (I like to do things slightly deluded)
    Add 2 cans of diced green chiles, onion and garlic salt to taste (I’m assuming to add to the taste – but why else would you add something to a recipe?)
    3 cups grated cheese (3/4 lb.)
    12 corn tortillas (quartered and lightly fried)(between paper towels)
    Oblong pan (I’m assuming put the mixture in it) – spray
    Thin layer of sauce
    Layer tortillas, sauce, and cheese (continue – maybe 2)(layers?)
    End with cheese (like a Nicholas Sparks book)
    Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes (unless previously refrigerated – then cook for 45-60 minutes)

  7. Disney Scene It with the Shout Out Loud option enabled.
  8. The continuation of my favorite book series.
  9. Getting a phone call from Jason saying he wasn’t in New York (flight canceled) but instead was on my doorstop to show his friend Jeff Newton the Wii.
  10. Finding out later in the conversation that Jeff Newton has taken some photographs of some big time people. I just thought he was Jason’s friend Jeff. I would love to post his art, but I don’t want to break copyright on the big magazine covers. Go check it out. He’s a great guy who can tackle you in tennis but gets his behind kicked online in Mario Strikers (like all of us).

My own photos somehow pale. BUT they are of my family, who call me more frequently than Wayne Gretsky.
Please add more photos:

The Haiku
Celebrities have
no sway compared to spending
some family time

15000+

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Today we passed the 15,000+ visitors mark (and I swear that wasn’t all me on different computers). Thanks to everyone for making this a fun hobby.

Kindof ironic with regards to today’s events, as told in a haiku.

The Haiku
I weep for MacBook –
tumbler of water from
my daughter beat it

Death Star by Michael Reaves and Steve Perry – First Impressions

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I started reading Death Star today after finishing Something Rotten (a fun re-telling of Hamlet).

I like the book. I know that it’s gotta be hard to please everyone’s hopes/dreams/questions/obsessions about the most powerful battlestation confused for a moon. My beef is the fact that it jumps the 20 years between III and IV, but I know that Star Wars TV is on its way, scheduled for that time period, and Lucas has told people to keep their hands off his Tatooine 90210 soap.

It does do a good job (so far) of tying things together. Devin and I had concerns with which we liked better, the Geonosians or the Maw Installation coming up with the plans, and the book actually does a decent job resolving the continuity conflict. The two authors are known for their Clone Wars books, so it has some fun “what about that guy?” moments reminiscent of Michael Stackpole and Aaron Alston. (What would you feel like being the gunnery sergeant who pulled the trigger on Alderaan?) Names are dropped, like Daala, Qwix, Ohran Keldor, Raith Sienar, and even a reference to the Hammertong Project and the 501st stealing the power source from Mygeeto (yeah, Battlefront 2!).

But my biggest sentiment? Yeah, Star Wars book! I get to read for my own assignment (Homework for December 27, 2007 – Nerd Out) and not any targeted booktalk. (Sometimes it gets to be like Time Enough at Last.)

Happy Boxing Day

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Keep Christmas with you throughout the year, like we do at the library:
Overhead Bulb Wreath
Burned out overhead bulbs don’t need to be thrown away.

Thoroughly enjoyable Christmas, hanging out with my side of the family on the Eve and the Day. (And I’m not just saying that because I found out this week my dad regularly reads the site.)

Some updates:

  1. My daughter got a very funny calendar of the Disney princesses with magazine covers each month parodying the different movies. This was on Sleeping Beauty’s issue:

    Chance Meetings: Future husband or creepy stalker?

    Quite funny, Uncle Jeff.

  2. I got the Death Star book and the Fury book, which is bloggingly ironic.
  3. I picked up Mario Galaxy using a gift card from work. Did you know that I found it for $37 at Target today? And it wasn’t that crazy. I even helped a stressed out mom who had a cracked Wii remote sensor cover (WiiBowling with the Incredible Hulk, more than likely). I helped her find what she needed. It’s like when I go into Barnes and Noble and the workers start making lame recommendations to books to searching parents of junior highers and I jump in. I’m that guy.
  4. Peter updated about the router information about the Wii. I got my info straight from Nintendo:

    Try adjusting the “Channel” your wireless router broadcasts on. We highly recommend setting your wireless router to either channel 1 or 11. Be sure to try both channels if the first one you try does not work.

    but Peter’s way makes a lot of sense (well, because it’s Peter…duh!).

  5. My brother couldn’t find MOH: Heroes 2 so he got me Vanguard thinking that the multiplayer would be versus AI. Nope. Max you can have is 2 on 2 or 3 on 1. Real tired recruits trucking across Sicily to capture the flag. The single player is actually fun, but know this. It was a launch game, so the graphics are straight from PS2. AND it was before Metroid 3, so the controls are funky. Shake the nunchuk and about-face and shake it a lot and reload. Awkward situations that make me laugh and take me out of the mood created by storming a reloading gun emplacement. But the music is gorgeous (like a love sonata from Mr. Spielberg to Private Ryan) and the photos, narration, and scenarios are cool. I know that people critiqued the repetitiveness, but sometimes war really is take building/hold building/move to new building.
  6. I now have new white undershirts. This isn’t that kind of blog. But I will say this – new white undershirts are a good thing. If someone from this Saturday’s celebration also got me shirts, also a good thing. I need a stockpile (any more information would be TMI, indeed).
  7. If you love pretty things and/or games that tempt you to tilt your head while you play, get Galaxy. The textures look amazing compared to what we’ve seen. Yes, it’s not PS3, but I won’t complain about great graphics being in a Wii game either. I must add that the game has one of my favorite lines in a game so far. Bowser is attacking the palace, flames crash from skyships, and a mushroom guy runs around flailing his arm while his head is on fire, screaming, “Panic and fear! Panic and fear!”
    Tilt and drool
  8. The church service on the Eve was great and Christ-honoring. Thanks to my parents for agreeing to meet on our side of town. (I liked the service even without the fact that I was the storyteller.)
  9. My newborn fell asleep on my chest smiling at me. Life is good – cut to Haiku and roll credits.

    10. The Haiku
    I am a bigger
    fan of my dad than Hewitt
    is of Mit Romney

    Tonight’s soundtrack of “Prelude et Ballade for B flat Trumpet and Piano” is performed by my hermano.

New Cloverfield Website on top of Tagruato and an I am Legend Review

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Slusho drinks is produced by Tagruato Industries. Check out the crazy story about Tagruato workers going to an animal shelter. Here’s an excerpt:

Bearing armfuls of Slusho! happy drinks for all the lower wage workers, the girls also organized a Slusho! drinking contest for two dozen of the center’s caged puppies and kittens.

Don’t drink Slusho! It makes you grow huge and rampage cities.

I think that one of the themes of the movie will be the U.S. obsession with being informed and addicted to media. I also believe that Tagruato’s deep sea drilling, with the help of Bold Futura, unearthed something mega-bad at the Chuai station. I think Deep Sea Nectar is not good.

But if you want to fight (perhaps rage, even) against the machine, you should check out the rebels at http://tidowave.com/

Did you catch the new website for Cloverfield? It includes a contest where if your display of the widget gets viewed the most, you get tickets to see the movie.

There’s actually some new footage:

The best line, besides all the “Is this a terrorist attack?” is “Rob! I saw it! It’s alive!” at the end.
So those sparks shooting off? Totally smaller versions of the bigger monster. And I love the fact that the Statue of Liberty just got its head tossed across town, scratch marks and all, landing in front of the twenty/thirtysomethings…and they all bust out their cameraphones and as a controlled mob start flashing.
(Just like how with the “Don’t tase me, bro!” we didn’t see actual protests as much as we saw people whine about it on their blog.)

The new website is Cloverfieldmovie.com.

Also, my friend Clayton (a producer for Nickelodeon, of all things) saw I am Legend and liked it, but gives some caution. Very violent (which you would expect from zombievampires) and don’t expect to leave the theater with a positive outlook on life (unlike most Will Smith films). But what he does say is great about the film is that not since Cast Away with Tom Hanks has there been a film where one man is the entire show and it works so well. There’s no Wilson, but Will Smith does set up mannequins to converse with.

A Message from a Brother

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Just got this e-mail (I have a couple of family members over seas as well as a bunch from church. Keep these men and women in your prayers (not just the ones connected to me)).

I also have a prayer request. I have been in Iraq for 8 months now. My first few months were filled with daily mortar and/or rocket attacks. I have had a couple close calls. If fact, I was involved in one incident where even the explosives experts cannot explain why I was not injured. I have no doubt that He is watching over me. The past two months have been relatively quiet. I am about to celebrate Christmas in Baghdad and I would like to ask everyone to pray for a quiet Christmas in Iraq.

I would also like to ask everyone to pause for a minute and think about all the people here trying to help the Iraqi people establish and maintain a free and democratic nation (to include the Iraqi’s). Pray that God’s will be done in Iraq and that all the sacrifices made will have not been made in vain.

Have a blessed CHRISTmas!

Lance Cross
Lieutenant Colonel,
US Army Reserve

Wii Fix

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  1. The actual metroids in Metroid are scary. The music gets all low, you can hear your heartbeat, and then they phase through the wall to eat your face. I hadn’t run in the game until tonight, when I ran outta missiles. “Game over, man! Game over!”
  2. To unwind from unwinding, I played some Strikers. The connection lag was horrible. I played through it but got very frustrated. I tried browsing the Wii Store (since my Wii Internet browser was running so slow) and it locked up and gave me error code 209600.

    I finally decided to check support.nintendo.com. Timed out error code, check router. My MacBook works just fine, so why would the Wii have trouble? I don’t know if you’ve heard this, but change your router channel to 11 instead of 6 and wow!

    I tried Madden 08 but everyone was in a game. I tried Strikers and I got my face handed to me, but this time it was because of an 8 year-old prodigy in Idaho instead of lag.

  3. Now I just need to try out Heroes 2…