Forbidden Kingdom

Watched this movie over the weekend. While the plot was a bit predictable, I liked how it tried to incorporate different aspects of Chinese mythology. Things like Monkey King, and Yu Huang Da Di (Jade Emperor) and the peach party. While they did mix it all around and made up their own spin on things, the movie was very entertaining. The fight scene between Jackie Chan and Jet Li was definitely the highlight of the movie. The best scene ever for unintentional comedy has to be after Jet Li knocks Jackie Chan down, he utters the phrase "No FOOL!!!" in the worst possible chinese accent ever. Hilarious.

Deadliest Bake

The trip to Illinois has been pretty good so far. Monday was just a massively long day of driving with the highlight being my getting my first speeding ticket ever for going 82 in a 65 zone. Strangely, they gave me the option to pay $75 cash and mail in the citation and within a year, it would be wiped from my record. Seems a bit sketchy but I'll take it.

Tuesday was more driving and visiting power plants. The setup went really well and the people were generally very happy with how the barcode scanners worked. The highlight of the day was lunch at this local restaurant. They offered such awesome food as the "Widowmaker" burger where they give you a living will with each meal. This burger was 2 patties piled high with bacon, dressing, cheese, and I presume fresh Kendall Lard or whatever it was. I ordered the chicken pot pie which was totally awesome. I couldn't even finish this pie because they packed sooo much stuff into it. The most ludicrous offering they had though was the 6 layer chocolate cake. This beast is literally 6 whole cake layers thick with frosting between each layer. I swear the oven is it's blood.

What is Rondo? and Why is it of Swords?

I have had a craving for a nice turn-based rpg (ala FF: Tactics style) for a while now, and Kira had told me about this SRPG. I had not really considered getting a DS at that point, but with the recent change in events, I decided to pick this game up.
One interesting little trick is that you don't actually "attack" enemies, rather, you set a course to move through them. It's a pretty unique system and one that I think should be employed by other games in the future.
Another nice thing about this game is the absolutely punishing difficulty. This is probably the ONLY game where I have lost repeatedly in the TUTORIAL missions. There is a in-battle save system, but it's not exploitable as the instant you save, it kicks you to the menu and the instant you load the in-battle save, the game deletes the save. However, being the masochistic, OCD gamer that I am, I absolutely love this.

Addendum: Well, turns out Rondo is the last movement of a sonata, so this can loosely be translated as A Symphony of Swords.

DS? PSP? DSP? DPS?

Want to get a handheld gaming device since I might be travelling a bit more for our Datasplice rollout. I heard Crisis Core was awesome for PSP, but Rondo of Swords and the larger selection of games makes the DS attractive as well. Suggestions? No, lugging around XBox360 everywhere I go isn't the best option =)

Ikaruga

Bullets....everywhere....

Operation Crawfish *

The crawfish boil this past weekend was awesome. Instead of actually boiling live crawfish, we decided on purchasing cooked crawfish from a local place called Seafood Shoppe. This place specialized in boiled seafood and BluPnutMM claimed they had the best crawfish she has ever had.


I was also able to get some cookies from a a privately owned bakery owned by a 13 year old girl. Her father works here and was passing out flyers in the lunch room. These cookies were both awesome and cheap (only $1.50 per dozen). I think I might bring like 10 dozen to VO4. =)

Besides eating crawfish, BluPnutMM also brought her Wii over. The Wii Olympics was pretty fun...although the shooting game was probably one of the more frustrating experiences I have had. Smash Brother's Brawl was really cool with my favorite being the Home run competition. There was also plenty of BANG!ing going on.

All in all, it was a lot of fun. Here's looking forward to the next one.

*DISCLAIMER* All crawfish involved were definitely harmed in the making of this operation.

Sick and Tired of VGI

Seriously, after years of using the Veggies pseudo-clan name, I am growing tired of it all. I mean what the heck is a Cucumbernator anyways? Some kinda lunatic cucumber? Anyways, I think it's time for a change. I propose reinventing ourselves as the CarneRou(4). This would be a total rebellion against all that is green and leafy. So onto proposed name changes:

GrapesOfWrath: Ohhh, I am shaking in my boots, a scary grape. This is just not intimidating enough, I say he becomes =CR= DeathBeef. Just looking at that name instills horror in opponents.

KiraTomato: A tomato..that is kira? No, just no, he needs to become =CR= ChickenDevastation. See, combining chicken with devastation? It even rhymes..sorta

Cucumbernator: A green squash is going to kill me...I quiver in fear. =CR= DemonLobster is more like it. If I don't kill you, my cholesterol content will.

Catnipped: Gets cats high? =CR= SlaughterCat. Much better, a homicidal cat. Very scary.

eLemonator: Tangy, but is it scary? No. =CR= PorkChop. Unsuspecting, but just when you least expect it, karate pig gets you.

theDragonFruitS: Anything is scarier when it's THE something, so =CR= theDoOmfriedShrimp. Keeps with the naming convention but also signifies the apocalypse.

SourTomator: What? Two tomatos? =CR= ExtraBacon. Ahh, now there's something that more of is always better.

jOrangeJuice: Teh Juice is LOOOOOOOSE!!!! =CR= GoatBlood. Just as runny, just as juicy but so much more repulsive!

MaizerBeam: One of the newer members and a vegetarian. =CR= SubstituteMeat. It's only fake in appearance, but just as potent as the others.

DataSix: Scary enough as is, I think it's fine. I mean...Data....Six...AHHHHHHHHHH!