It's Early

And I'm tired, but I must say this: the Wii is awesome. I was able to play a few games of bowling and tennis with my daughter last night and we had a lot of fun. I can't wait to see what else this system holds for us.

Look at that face!

This is a picture of our daughter Camryn from our last ultrasound. I was pretty amazed when I saw this on the monitor and even more amazed the tech captured it for us. You can see pretty much her entire face, including those chubby cheeks and little nose! She was taking a nap and looked so peaceful. I can't wait to see her again in March!

Spike Video Game Awards

Last night brought us the Spike Video Game awards. This year's event was hosted by Samuel L. Jackson, and was held in Las Vegas. Yes, there truly is an award show for everything!

Now, when I think about video games, Samuel L. Jackson and Spike TV are the first things that come to mind, right? Of course, it makes perfect sense! And while we're at it, we'll have a performance from Kid Rock and appearances from Tila Tequila, Steve-O, UFC fighters and Ralphie the comedian. Don't forget the body painted babes that also served to reveal the winners of each category with the name of the game painted across their bodies. All of this just screams hardcore gaming doesn't it?

I consider myself a gamer, even though I don't get as many hours in as I used to and don't get to play every new system the day it comes out. But as a self-respecting gamer I really can't see how these "awards" are good for the gaming industry, except to give the Grand Theft Auto crowd more brainless drivel to soak up. The whole thing gives the impression that all gamers are horny 15-22 year old males that play Tony Hawk 4 while chugging a Bud Lite. After all of the years that video-gaming languished with the status of something only geeks and nerds enjoyed, I had hoped any mainstream attention it received would be more positive than the tripe Spike is producing. Maybe I'm over-reacting but I feel crap like these Spike awards do more harm than good for the video game industry and just serve to fuel the far right critics who are already convinced that your Xbox and Playstation are gateways to Hell.

I suppose the real absurdity is having an award show for video games in the first place. I don't think you can neatly categorize and judge the truly great games out there and then say "yep, this one is the best!". How do you judge, let's say, first-person shooters? Just based on the genre you'd have to include Half-Life 2, Halo 3, Call of Duty 4 and Bioshock. Sure, they're all first-person, but the gameplay and style of each is completely different. And how will you judge them? Base it on graphics? Controls? Story? Difficulty? Personally I see video games the same as I see artwork, and they really can't be judged as the "best" when the content is so subjective.

I guess the ironic thing about these awards is they actually chose some pretty good games. BioShock won game of the year (wouldn't have been my choice), and other gems like Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, Super Mario Galaxy, CoD4 and The Orange Box all won awards. I'm sure they were excited to receive their awards from such gaming notables as Tia Carrere, Criss Angel and Don King.

(yes that was sarcasm!)

Street Fighter IV

Today the first glimpse of in-games images from Street Fighter IV were made available. I had been following the hi-res makeovers that Udon Crew had been doing for Street Fighter II HD Remix over at Deviant Art. The majority of their redesigns were amazingly faithful to the original game graphics and added a great amount of detail to each character. Having seen how much life they breathed into my beloved Street Fighter characters made me very hopeful for a true sequel to Street Fighter III, which was released almost 10 years ago.

Well today we get the following screenshot from SFIV:


Although the graphics are clearly "next-gen" (and I truly hate that word) this just doesn't scream Street Fighter to me. I has none of the character of SFII and it's siblings and there isn't any of the 2D pixel magic in the background either. Capcom claims that although the game is rendered with polygons the gameplay is 2D. So in essence they are doing something similar to Street Fighter EX, which I thought was a spectacularly crappy game.

Granted, this is the first shot of the game to be released and I haven't seen any of the other stages or characters yet. But based on this I don't get any impression of the 2D gaming goodness that I grew up with. This looks more like Virtua Fighter or Tekken to me and I could never stand those games. Hopefully some gameplay videos will surface soon, but until then color me unimpressed.

The Itch

I feel like I'm getting that itch again. It's that itch to create something, to break out the pencils and sketch or design. Every so often it hits me, I feel like I'm spinning my wheels and just need to get the ideas and impulses out of my head and onto paper. If I were a better writer I'd have a few stories to work on as well but plotting has never been my strong suit.

The main problem with this urge is that I'm terribly out of practice. All of the ideas floating around my head turn into rigorous tests of patience as I try to get them down on paper. Perhaps if I'd have kept up with drawing over the years it wouldn't be so frustrating to get back into "shape", but unfortunately I've let myself go. Like any other physical skill, drawing skill deteriorates without practice and I just don't seem to have the time to sketch and experiment like I used to.

What I should probably do is take 30 minutes at home or lunch and just free form sketch. It takes time to get the eye talking to the hand but some short practice each day will help. I know this itch is just going to get worse until I can satisfy it, and that's not going to happen until I stop sucking at drawing!

Semi-Heroic

A few thoughts on last night's episode of Heroes:

Mohinder still appears to be aiding the company, but apparently only to destroy the virus. If this is really the only reason he brought Noah back remains to be seen.
Adam may turn out to be a good villain yet. But despite his intentions he still doesn't come across as very menacing. I wonder if Hiro will actually kill him.
Peter is extremely naive, to the point where it's almost unbelievable. And despite being the most powerful hero, he still stands around with that dumb look on his face and lets everyone he comes in contact with lead him around on a leash. Get it together Peter!
Niki, Micah and Monica are a complete waste of time at this stage of the story. They are contributing absolutely nothing to the show and merely serve to irritate me and take valuable screen time away from the other heroes.
Hiro is impulsive, but at least he takes action. His charge at Peter truly shows his character. I can't wait for an epic battle with Adam.
Sylar is still a badass, even without powers. I have a feeling that the more he manipulates and kills those around him, the more his powers are beginning to come back to him. He's also killed off one half of the Whiny Twins, which scores him bonus badass points in my book.
I'm surprised Victoria Pratt ended up being so insignificant. Sure, she knew the location of Shanti 138, but so did Bob, Kaito and probably Angela. It also appears that she didn't have any powers at all, but was merely a top player in the Company before calling it quits.

So we have one more episode left in this current story arc, and most likely the last episode for this season. There still seems to be a lot of loose ends and too much is unexplained. Is Sylar going to blackmail Mohinder into restoring his powers? Will Hiro kill Adam? Will Niki be cured? What deal does Noah make to rejoin his family? Will Ando join the action or be completely left behind? Will Maya turn on Sylar once she discovers her brother is dead? I hope we'll get answers to most of these questions before Heroes signs off.

Terminator's Salvation?

The Terminator movies have always been in my top 10 favorite movies of all time. T2 is simply one of the best movies ever, hands down, no doubt about it. T3 wasn't as good but still held the action to a pretty high standard. There is also a new series slated to hit Fox next year, The Sarah Connor Chronicles starring Summer Glau from Firefly and Lena Headey from 300. I have high hopes for this show but knowing Fox it'll get canceled about 5 episodes in.

However, these movies and shows aren't the reason for my post today. There is a new Terminator sequel in the works, called Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins. Now the title had me a bit worried, and the fact that McG is directing didn't fill me with warm and fuzzies either. Today, however, a very good piece of news was released: Christian Bale has been cast as John Connor. This fills me with much joy and happiness since Mr. Bale singlehandedly saved the Batman franchise and is just an all around great actor. Not to mention this may enable the producers to put together a much better cast than we had for T3. I'll be watching this production very closely now and hoping for a triumphant return for the Terminator franchise.

Kids are Great

So last weekend we were having a discussion with our eight-year-old daughter about school. It was one of those "what do you want to be when you grow up" type talks and we were explaining how college works. We were discussing the different types of schools and that I had almost taken up graphic design at an art college when Cori made the following observation:

"When I grow up I would rather go to Art college instead of Smart college."

If only I had been able to rationalize the difference between choosing graphic design and psychology like my daughter, I would probably be in a much different place today. Gotta love kids, they say the darnedest things!

System Overload

I can't do it like I used to. It's sad, but true. Actually I'm not sure I was ever really able to do it in the first place. What the hell am I talking about here? My ability to track, consume and absorb all of the media that interests me of course! What did you think I was talking about? :)

Recently it seems that there has been an overwhelming amount of good books, comics, movies, games, blogs, TV shows, music and other assorted sensory data, and I'm just having a hard keeping up with it all. This may sound stodgy of me, but it wasn't like this when I was a kid. There were still books, movies, music, TV and games of course, but it never seemed to me like I wouldn't have the time to get to all of it if I wanted. These days, there truly is too much out there. Even with family duties aside I don't think I could watch, read or play everything I want to.

I'll use my current queue of "stuff" to do as an example:
Read: Dark Tower III-The Waste Lands by Stephen King
Read this week's comics: New Avengers, X-Factor, World War Hulk, Thor, Captain Marvel, Serenity and Astonishing X-Men
Watch: Smallville (this and last week's episode), Californication, 28 Weeks Later, and this weekend's sports lineup
Play: The Witcher, Call of Duty 4, Hellgate: London, Siphon Filter: Dark Mirror
Browse: The remainder of my blogs, eBay

As you can see, that's quite a few hours worth of entertainment goodness. And I only listed what want to get this weekend. We won't even go into that list.

I suppose my point with all this is that we're surrounded by media on all sides now, and no matter what your tastes there is more than enough to keep you occupied 24/7. Whether or not this is a good thing is up for debate, I supposed it all depends on how well you can balance these distractions with the every day rigors of real life. I know this is an everyday challenge for myself and my family.

Do you feel there is just too much good stuff out there? How do you keep up with it all?

Bookbump

If you are an avid reader like myself, but also a poor organizer (like myself), then head over to Bookbump and try out their webapp for cataloging your book collection. It's fairly simplistic and lets you add currently owned books with the ability to track them by pages read, start/completion dates, condition and even who you loaned it out to. It also lets you create custom lists which is a nice feature for me, I have a written want-list that I lose every month and can now keep track of it online. Very handy if you are a non-programmer type and can't create this kind of database on your own.

Serenity Now! Er, next year actually...

I'm very excited that Joss Whedon's excellent series Firefly will be making a comeback next year. Unfortunately it won't be on television, but will show up in the form of another mini-series from Dark Horse Comics. If you haven't watched Firefly, or Serenity (the feature film based on the show), then you are missing one of the best sci-fi programs ever created. This is thinking man's sci-fi with a ton of humor and action packed in. The comics offer more of the same and help to fill in the gaps between the end of the show and the start of Serenity. If you're interested in reading the comic series I highly recommend picking up the Serenity: Those Left Behind graphic novel, shown in hardcover format below. You can also read an interview with Joss Whedon here.

The Results are In!

We're having a girl! Yes, it's true, I'm totally outnumbered! And since my wife and I already had a boy's name picked out, I suppose it's back to the drawing board.

Either way, I'm still super excited :D

Ouch

The Rockies received a brutal spanking last night in game one of the World Series. It was painful to watch, but I'm expecting a big rebound in Game 2. I didn't want to admit it but the eight days of rest did make them look rusty. This is a great team, they wouldn't be in the WS if they weren't, and they'll step up and give Boston some payback.

Heroes - Second Season Thoughts

After watching last night's episode of Heroes, there were quite a few things that both impressed and irked me. I feel I must start this post off with this thought:

Matt Parkman is a tool.

Yes, I said it. I really can't stand Parkman's character this season and after last night he has fully cemented his tool status. I was pissed at him last week for selfishly putting Molly in danger and this week he walked right into an obvious trap. I understood his urgency to find his father if he was in danger, but he knew his father was the one threatening Molly and he deliberately put her in harms way. He's supposed to be a father figure to this girl but he's blowing it big time. I suppose he has no real role models to work from, seeing as his father is the boogie man, but he's got to try harder than this. Parkman better get his act together soon.

My other concern is the sheer number of characters being thrown at us thus far. I think Kristen Bell's character has a lot of promise but I hope this is the last new character we see for a while. They still need to flesh out the situation with Maya and her brother, we have no idea what HRG is up to, Niki has had very little screen time and I still sense there is something fishy going on with D.L. I also feel Monica is a bit unnecessary right now, with her only real purpose being to give Mikah someone to relate too while Niki deals with her powers. With a cast this big it'll take a while to get to know each character and then figure out where they fit in the big picture. Which leads me to my next issue...

We don't really know what the over-riding theme for this season is yet. By this point last season it was pretty clear where our Heroes were headed , all the characters were beginning to become aware of the impending disaster and had started their journey. So far this season there is nothing to link the entire group together. You could argue that the threat on the original group of twelve is what will rally our Heroes this season, but only a few are even aware this plot. There could also be a focus on the Company and the effort to bring it down, but again only a small subgroup of Heroes is working against them. Our characters are much too fractured right now and although I believe they will eventually get back together at the end of the season to bring down the mystery killer, I think it's going to be too late in the season and this ending will be rushed. I really hope we see the story coalesce very soon.

Oh, and I'll throw my theory out there for the mystery killer now. I think it's Takezo Kensei. Also think that Whitebeard will turn out to be his father, who is also Linderman in the past. Both of these characters have the potential to live incredible lifespans, with Kensei's regeneration abilities and Linderman's healing power. I think that Kensei is killing the original group of heroes because they violated some kind of pact they had together, and he is coming to fulfill the oath. I could be completely wrong and I probably am, but this sounds like a fun turn of the story to me!

ComicFest '07

Thanks to a spectacular back issue sale at Bargain Comics ($.70 for most recent back issues!) I was able to stock up on some titles I had been meaning to read. Here is a breakdown of some of the books I read this past weekend:

Ms. Marvel #1-9
This is a title I had initially picked up on issue #20 thanks to some intriguing online reviews. Since I started reading the series after the Civil War fallout I was a bit out of touch with the current story, so I snagged the first 12 issues of the series and read through to #9 last night. Now that I have a better perspective on this title I can say that really like the story thus far. Ms. Marvel had always seemed a side character to me but Brian Reed has fleshed her out and given Carol Danvers a very unique personality.

The basic gist of the story is Ms. Marvel remembers the events of the House of M and her former status as the greatest superhero in the world. She was a celebrity, much like the Fantastic Four, and was codenamed Captain Marvel. However, after the House of M ended she returned to her current status in the Marvel universe. She is still a superhero, but she is not a household name and she feels that she should be doing much greater things with her life, especially after having the knowledge of what she was in the alternate reality. She decides she must be come "the best of the best", and this is the tag line for the first story arc. The first few issues deal with her trying to prove how great a superhero she can be, while juggling public appearances and a new villain that followed her from the House of M universe to ours.

There are many fun aspects of this series, the first being the guest appearances of Marvel characters I haven't seen in quite a while along with team-ups with bigger Marvel Heroes that are a bit less mainstream. So far we've seen Ms. Marvel interact with Doctor Strange, Arachne (Spider-Woman), Jessica Drew out of costume, Wonder Man, Shroud and Prowler. The first major villains she encounters before the Civil War tie-in is a sorcerer named Warren Traveler and the powerful alien Cru. Both were great villains and are outside the standard cadre of bad guys we've been seeing the past few years. I have a feeling both Cru and Traveler will have recurring roles in this book.

Overall I like this series, it's a fresh look at what could have been a standard spandex superhero title and is a lot of fun to read. You can tell Reed is a fan of the character and the Marvel universe, he's like a kid in a candy store with these stories. The art is solid with some extremely standout pieces (see the car chase scene in #7). If you're tired of the depressing turn in Amazing Spider-Man, Hulk's non-stop smashing or just looking for something new, I recommend picking up this title.

Fantastic Four: The End #1-6
Billed as the "last Fantastic Four story ever!", this out of continuity title by Alan Davis takes place hundreds of years in the future. All of "The End" titles are supposed to tell the last great adventure of our Marvel heroes. We've also had X-Men: The End, X-Men - Phoenix: The End and so on. FF: The End works a bit better than the other titles simply because the Fantastic Four has always been a sci-fi book and tossing them into the distant future seems much more natural than it does for the X-Men.

This mini-series opens with yet another brutal battle between the FF and Dr. Doom. However, things take a tragic turn when the children Franklin and Valeria Reed join the battle and subsequently die along with Dr. Doom during a freak reaction of their powers and Doom's energy fields. We then flash forward a couple hundred years to find the Fantastic Four have gone their separate ways. The life of all our favorite superheroes has been lengthened dramatically by the Methuselah Treatment. Earth is a utopia and we've terraformed Mars. But not all is well as some old elements are seeking to disrupt the peace in the solar system.

As you can imagine, having essentially five different storylines within a six issue mini-series is a bit difficult to pull off. You can tell Alan Davis had an interesting story with a huge scope, but various pieces of it must have been cut or omitted to fit the restraints of this series. In particular, the details of Sue Storm's mission and the purpose of many of Reed's experiments is just not clear. We get pretty much everything we need from Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm's stories, but we also don't know what is going on with the rogue dissidents until nearly the end of the series. And at that point it's all mashed into one huge battle with too many factions to really make sense.

I did enjoy the sci-fi aspects of the story, and as I stated earlier it works very well within the Fantastic Four setting. Davis's art is truly inspired, you can tell he had a lot of passion for this story and you can see it in the details of the work. The aliens are varied and interesting, the many locations are fun and the end panel of #5 is impressive. I can't imagine how long it took him to draw that many spaceships. I'd recommend this story if you are a big fan of the Fantastic Four, if not then solely for the art and sci-fi elements. I'd try to pick up the trade if possible, it's available in hardcover for around $10.

Long Time, No Post

It's been a long time since I updated anything here, in all honesty I forgot! Here's a quick rundown of what is new and what I've been doing:

Krissy is 17 weeks into the pregnancy and we're scheduled to find the sex of the baby on November 1st. She can already feel the baby bouncing around and it won't be long before I can feel it too. I'm very excited to know what we have coming, if for no other reason than to start setting up the room! We also got to hear his/her heartbeat again. How cool is that, to hear this tiny heart of our child beating away. It's really amazing.

Cori is back in full swing with dance class and school. She has a busy schedule this year but I think she'll do fine, I'm very proud of her first quarter grades so far. She has really picked up her reading and phonics and I'm extremely impressed with her progress.

The new TV season has started and there are a few shows I'm enjoying. Of course Heroes and Smallville are solid as ever, and I'm also really liking Chuck and Bionic Woman. Chuck is very smart and very funny, I'm surprised by the quality of this show. Bionic Woman is starting off slowly but I'm going to give it a few more episodes to really ramp up the action. All that remains is for Lost and Battlestar Galactica to get off their asses. Really poor management for those two shows but they're still so damn good!

My gaming lately has consisted of sporadic PC play and a lot of lunch hours with my PSP. I recently finished Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and may post a review soon. I'm currently working on Siphon Filter: Dark Mirror and I'm really having fun with this game. It's like a faster paced Metal Gear, with the best control scheme I've ever seen for a stealth shooter. On the PC I tried out Quake: Enemy Territory for a bit and Tabula Rasa. After playing TR I can safely say the MMO bug is completely out of my system. I didn't enjoy this game despite the sci-fi take on the genre and just have no interest to grind another character for ungodly amounts of time. I think World of Warcraft completely killed my desire to ever play a MMO again. Quake: ET was fun but it didn't really grab me. There are too many noobs out there for me to casually enjoy team based FPS games.

And now on to books and comics. I finished the first two books in the Dark Tower series from Steven King last month and should be starting the third next week. The series is quite different from what I expected and I think I'll stick with it. Besides, it's not like George R.R. Martin is giving me an excuse to not read other books right now (yes, George, hurry up and finish Dance with Dragons already!).



On the comics front my current favorite is the new Thor series by J. Michael Straczynski and Oliver Coipel. Issue #3 is out and the writing and art are top notch so far. Thor has never really interested me but Straczynski gives him such soul that I can't wait to see what he has in store for the character. Coipel's artwork is very detailed and slightly reminiscent of Steve McNiven's work on Civil War. And any comic that showcases Iron Man getting his armor trashed, the snot beat out of him and then being told to walk home is A+ material in my book.

I also plowed through a few trade paperbacks. The Essential X-Men Vol. 2 is highly recommended for any X-fan and contains issues #120-144 (which the movies X-Men 2 and X-3 heavily borrowed from). Supergirl: Power (issues 1-5) was underwhelming to say the least. I'm not sure I'll pick up the next volume. Next up will be Serenity: Those Left Behind, which will collect the tie-in issues released for the movie. I'm anxiously looking forward to this one.

Well that's the last 2.5 months in a nutshell. I'll be updating more frequently this fall, especially since we'll have lots of baby news to report!

It's Official!

That's right, my wife and I are having a baby! We just got back from the doctor and have a tentative due date of March 22nd. I will post the first ultrasound picture when I get home tonight. That was such an incredible thing to see, our tiny seven week old baby lying there and it's little heart beating away. I'm really excited about this and can't wait until we find out what the sex is. Now we get to fill the next 7 months deciding on names!

Hallows Eve

Tonight the final chapter in the Harry Potter saga is released, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I'm very excited to read this book and at one point entertained the idea of actually driving out to the bookstore at midnight and picking it up. Until I thought, am I actually going to read this book when I get home? Of course not, I'm going to hit the sack and get ready for work tomorrow. I suppose I will just have to be studious about avoiding spoilers and pick it up during regular shopping hours.

Having said all this, there has been a great amount of theorycrafting going on since the end of the last book, The Half-Blood Prince, and I've been guilty of reading and listening to some of it. In all honestly, I'm one of those people that absolutely hates to have a surprise ruined. I'm happy to be the last one to open presents on Christmas and I never read movie reviews before I see a film. This book is no different and I won't even post my own theories about the end until I've read the book for myself. I guess I'm just stubborn like that.

So, feel free to leave comments but be forewarned that I won't read them until the Deathly Hallows is returned to my bookshelf!

End of an Era, Start of a Trend!

Next week I start a full week of vacation. This will be the first full week I've taken off from work since 1998. I'm not quite sure I will know what to do with myself, but I'm sure my wife will has plenty of ideas to keep me busy.

The best part of scheduling this vacation is that it opened the door for me to take another week off in August for an honest to goodness vacation without kids and out of the country. We'll be heading to Ixtapa in Mexico for 5 days at a beautiful resort. We will also be traveling with six others, close members of our family. I'm really looking forward to this chance to relax and have some fun. I have a feeling coming back to work will be very difficult for the rest of the year.

Run Forrest, Run

For those of you who may be trying to get in shape, I've found a handy tool that helps in mapping out jogging routes. Map My Run is a great site and uses Google Maps to plot your course. Simply pop in your zip-code and start clicking where you want to run in your neighborhood. It'll give you details on distance, pace and calories burned. I've been able to tweak my current morning runs with this site and it's helped a great deal. The hardest part is getting out of bed at the butt crack of dawn.

Required Reading

Being an insanely huge fan of comic books, every so often I will post a comic that I find to be exceptional in either story, art or both.

Today's entry is Silver Surfer: Requiem. This book features words by J. Michael Straczynski and art by Esad Ribic. The story is basically this: The Silver Surfer is dying. Ok, I know this sounds like a gigantic spoiler but it's not, and is the premise for the entire mini-series. The Surfer, once being the mortal Norrin Radd who was transformed into the Herald of Galactus, must now face the imminent failure of his alien technology and begin to decide how he will spend his last days. Straczynski's script is moving and portrays the Surfer with a depth I've never read before. Ribic's artwork is nothing short of spectacular, with the fully painted pages pacing the story perfectly. I've always wondered how much of a pain in the ass it must be to draw the reflective surface of the Surfer and Ribic really nails it.

Personally, I've never been a huge fan of the Silver Surfer, as a kid I was always enthralled by the Uncanny X-Men and more of the mutant heroes as opposed to the "galactic" heroes like the Fantastic Four and our Surfer. However, this book caught my attention and I'm glad it did, there aren't many comics out there that hit on such an emotional level. I highly recommend this one!

A Thousand Little Stars

We just arrived home after another successful dance recital for my daughter. It's really amazing to see all of these young girls and boys shine and enjoy themselves so much on stage, even if only for a few minutes. I'm always beaming with pride when my daughter performs, she's an incredible kid.

Welcome to The Brain of F!

The Brain of F... sounds like a really cheesy horror flick from the 60's. Although potentially frightening, this will be home to all those fun, quirky, snide and sarcastic statements from the back row which I have become semi-famous for. It will also be a place for random expression and tales from Real Life. Keep your eyes peeled for actual content in the coming weeks!

Frank