Save the Date: Free Comic Book Day is May 2nd

That's right, this Saturday is Free Comic Book Day all over this great nation of ours. If you're out and about this weekend make sure to swing by your local comic book shop and pick up some awesome free books. This is a great opportunity to not only check out some new comics but rediscover your local comic shop and see all great things they have to offer.

For more information on Free Comic Book Day, head over to their website. You'll find a list of the free books available this year and how the event got started.

Not sure if you even have a local comic book shop? Swing by Comic Shop Locator and find the closest store.

Even if you're not a huge comics fan, it's free stuff for you and the kids and is a good excuse to get out of the house. You can even bring the wife! I know I'll be dragging mine down to Bargain Comics after work to snag my stack of freebies and see what they have for my girls. Good times!

Don't Leave Daddy Home Alone....

Things get a little crazy after daddy gives Camryn an unsupervised bath:


Yes, I was using the blow dryer to full effect. She's just got way too much hair to dry before bedtime rolls around. And besides, she loves it!

Snack Hack

I tend to bring the same crap to eat at work each day, more out of economy than lack of wanting more variety. However, the same old shit does tend to get old after a while so anything to mix up the monotony is a good thing. Recently I stumbled upon a tasty enhancement to my old snack staple of pretzels. I usually buy a big bag of them and pack a sandwich bag full every day. Boring right? Well a few weeks ago I brought some leftover pasta and packed extra garlic powder in my lunch bag for added seasoning. Forgetting that sandwich bags are pretty permeable, the garlic's flavor seeped into everything I brought, including my pretzels. And you know what? They transformed into Kick-Ass Super Fantastic Garlic Pretzels! I was pleasantly surprised and scarfed the whole bag.

So now when I bring my formerly boring-ass pretzels to work, I sprinkle about 1/2 teaspoon worth of garlic powder (not garlic salt!) into the plastic baggy and by mid morning they have once again transformed into Kick-Ass Super Fantastic Garlic Pretzels. I highly recommend this to anyone looking to spice up their standard snacks on the cheap!

Fun With Street Fighter IV

I've been playing around with Street Fighter IV for about two weeks now and can say I am very happy with how this game turned out. It's not Street Fighter II Turbo perfect, but it's pretty damn fun. The graphics and animations are stellar and the online play is much better than I expected. The new characters are creative, not as fun or endearing as the classic lineup but they are all very well done. I'm making an effort to learn some of them, namely Crimson Viper and Rufus in arcade mode.

Having played with all the modes in this game and feeling very comfortable with it now, I've noticed a few things I like very much and some that are just head-scratchers:

The Good

If you enable online requests, you can get pulled out of your single player arcade matches by an online challenger. Normally this would sound annoying, but the game pops a big "A New Challenger has entered the ring!" message, almost like someone has walked up and slapped a quarter in your machine. I think it's pretty cool and had me feeling a bit nostalgic for my old arcade days. I leave the online requests enabled most of the time unless I'm working on unlocking characters or practicing.

The gameplay is pretty basic if you've ever played Street Fighter II. Gone are the parries and insane combos of SF III and Marvel vs Capcom. Instead you have a straight up fighter with the classic move sets, along with simple Super and Ultra combo specials. They've added a Focus counter system that is easy to use but has more advanced features if you choose to master it. I'm still working on the timing of focus dash cancelling through fireballs, it's pretty neat when you get it down. But, if you could hadoukan or dragon punch 15 years ago, you can still do it today.

The online play is nearly flawless. For a game that requires precise timing, I'd say that 90% of my matches are indescernable from offline play. You'll get the occassional laggy match, but they are usually so bad you just disconnect and start over. The added bonus of online play is the Ranked bouts, where you go up against players of much better skill than standard Player fights. I get my ass kicked regularly in ranked play but I'm learning some techniques and strategies I might have never seen otherwise.

The Bad

The kids that play this game online need to branch out a bit. Expect heavy doses of Ken, Ryu and Akuma if you venture online. Just last night, I played 15 matches and faced Ryu 10 times, Ken twice, Akuma twice and Crimson Viper just once. I've yet to face anyone playing as Dhalsim, E. Honda, Vega, El Fuerte, etc. I understand Ken/Ryu are easy to play and very popular, but learn some new moves guys! Just to rebel I've been playing as Cammy or Rose in most of my online matches.

Unlocking all the characters is pretty difficult. I've unlocked them all except for Akuma, Gouken and Seth. I will probably never get Gouken unlocked due to the crazy requirements, and Akuma is looking like a longshot for me even on easy. You need a combination of perfect finishes, ultra combo finishes, no continues and beating the game with every other character to get them all. I'm not necessarily worried about never playing with these guys but it'd be fun to try them in arcade mode at least. I think the unlocks should apply to online only, so if you earn them it has more bearing on the game.

This is a small complaint, but the menu text is tiny. I play on a 27" CRT and I can't read the text on many of the custom profile titles, the profile icons are small and blurry as well. I know I'm behind the times but the game should be viewable even if you don't have an HDTV. I don't like having to stand 6" from the screen to figure out what button it's telling me to press to see my ranking in online matches.


I'm still waiting for my Mad Catz Fightstick to show up despite pre-ordering it two months ago, so I'm going at it with the standard PlayStation controller. Not the idea way to play this game, I'd prefer a SNES gamepad if I could use it, but I'm getting by. This is a very fun Street Fighter game and probably the only one I'd recommend over Marvel vs Capcom 2 (which is still my favorite fighter ever). I will now leave you so I can practice my Hooligan combo with Cammy while getting pummeled online by 14 year old kids.

Valkyria Chronicles Review - Sorta

I had intended to write a full blown review of Valkyria Chronicles until I realized something. I liked this game way too much to just review it but it would probably be a 10,000 word article as I waxed poetic about all of the things I loved about this game and why YOU should love it too. That wouldn't really be fair or conducive to a real review. So instead I'm just going to tell you why I loved this game so much and why I hope it eventually gets the recognition it deserves.

I should start off by saying that Valkyria Chronicles is a Strategy RPG, but unlike any SRPG you've ever played before. All of the unit deployment and management is done on the combat map, overhead in 2D which is standard enough. However, all of your troop movement and combat is in 3rd person, and you have free movement of your troops over the field. This is a drastic departure from the grid based movement/combat of pretty much every other SRPG I've played and it is implemented perfectly. Trust me, it just works. That's about all the technical detail I want to get into, so on to the stuff I deem to be Good.

So just what makes this game so special? Two things: characters and story. Once you get past the initial bit of cheese every Japanese game seems to be instilled with, the characters are extremely likable and eventually lovable. I'm always drawn to a few characters with each game I play, but I found myself caring about nearly every main character on the screen, and even felt attached to the minor ones you only see during combat. Each character has a unique personality, voice and game traits, something I'd love every RPG to have. Second, the story will keep you motivated to see more of the game. There are a TON of story sequences here, some fully rendered in the game's beautiful anime/watercolor technique and some are just stills with voiceovers. All are very well done, with great dialog, even when the game is being silly just for laughs. Hans the Porcavian had me giggling every time he appeared. There are several twists and turns throughout and the ending was very satisfying, even if it leaves little room for a sequel.

There's not much else I can say other than try this game for yourself. It's the best 40 hours of gaming I've played in a long time, and I'm already considering a second play-through so I can unlock more characters and beat my best mission scores. Valkyria Chronicles will not get the recognition it deserves being a niche JRPG and I expect it to be very difficult to find at retail next year. Buy a copy now while you can before it becomes the next Ico on eBay, you won't regret it.

Point of No Return

My youngest daughter Camryn recently turned nine months old and suddenly she's not the little baby she was just last month. It's truly astounding how quickly kids learn and grow, watching the massive leaps she's made in just one month has kind of blown my mind. In what seems like no time at all, she's discovered how to crawl, wave hello, hold her own bottle, say "Mama" and "Dada" (although she hasn't quite connected the words to the people), pull herself up and stand on her own and get into everything she's not supposed to.

It all happened so fast and I'm now realizing the days of her being a baby are drawing to a close and she's charging off towards toddlerhood. On one hand I'm a little sad that her infancy is over but I'm also excited to see her doing all these new things. My oldest daughter Coral is nine already and I've forgotten how many new things there are to be discovered when you're little.

I suppose the next time I'm feeling this way will be when Cori starts high school and Cam heads off to Kindergarten. By then I'll officially be old and crotchety and probably won't blog about it with the whippersnappers.

No Bailout for Joo!

This image nicely sums up my feelings about the impending auto industry bailout:


I really don't see why failing, corrupt, poorly managed corporations deserve ANY money from the government. If the American auto industry isn't competitive anymore then they either need to restructure, retool, or fail. It happens to small business every day, no one is bailing out these owners or even larger companies that are just unable to cope with these tough economic times.

I foresee bad things in the future if this bailout goes through. We're fast approaching a state-sponsored economy and losing the free-market model we've had for so long. If this keeps up the government will have a managing stake in our banks, mortgages and automobiles. Of course maybe this will set a precedent and we can all apply for personal bailouts the next time we screw our finances up. Only time will tell.

The Truth about the GOP

Yes, that's right, they're DAMN DIRTY SKRULLS!



Now if only I could find a photo with the true face of a Mr. George Dubbya Bush, we could expose them for the shapeshifting aliens they really are. This explains so many things, such as why McCain's arms are so short (botched genetic code during shifting), why Palin's hair is always so impeccable and why G.W.B. is hellbent on world domination.

These hilarious images were created by Serena over at the Aspen Comics message boards. Thanks for the laugh Serena!

*I am responsible for the content of this message and imply no political bias on the behalf of Serena or Aspen Comics. Thank you for your support*