thebitterguy

They're making a sequel to Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. But they're setting it in Civil War.

Feh. Thanks for fucking that up.

[Error: unknown template qotd]

I had to cancel a Halo day. Which is kind of annoying, but not nearly as bad as it could be.

Now, God willing, I won't have to worry about a sudden snowfall in the next few weeks (I shudder to imagine the kind of control issues you'd get with one summer and one snow tire).

Yeah, I need to keep my fucking mouth shut.

I want to go home, play some L4D, and cry.

At ACB, and I'm working on not killing umario.

Turkey is cooking, and the DL for the Christmas Special is annoyingly slow.

Have finally found A Blackadder Christmas Carol on the dvd set, and I will now go watch it. They keep it very well hidden.

There are a disturbingly high amount of foods from Sweden that come in tubes. Disturbingly high. I mean, cheese with smoked reindeer? Who wants to squeeze that out of a tube?

Swedes, that's who.

They also have a variety of candies that are strange, plus a Christmas themed soda pop that is not an adequate replacement for Holiday Spice Pepsi.

On the plus side: Aquavit. If I'm not fond of it, I can use it to disinfect things.

Cynra got me Rock Band 2, and I got her Lips, so that'll be fun. I wonder if the microphones are compatible?

Quiet day, in all. Happy Xmas.

So, our Kenmore upright that we'd gotten as a wedding present finally bit the big bag of dust and cat hair, so we knew we had to get a new one.

Cynra & I went to the Sears outlet here in town on Saturday and dropped off our old vacuum for disposal (hopefully they don't just toss it on the trash heap) and to see what they had.

They did have a selection of vacuums for sale. The store here is an outlet store, which means they have some appliances, some vacuums, a couple tvs, and some gear. It's mostly for making catalogue orders and dropping things off for servicing, and picking them up again.

We looked at the various models, and ended up getting a Dyson cannister vacuum. The Animal model, which is supposed to be very good for picking up hair.

So far, it's living up to that.

This machine, while far from cheap, tore through the various cat hair embedded in our carpet. I know it's end of season/shedding time, but this did a great job.

Then, everyone came over and we played Halo until we were sick. madmanofprague's girlfriend claimed she'd never played Halo before. Let me tell you: either she's a quick learner, or a great bluffer.


This song, btw, is on the Christmas album this year.

----------------
Now playing: Isaac Hayes - Mistletoe & Me
http://foxytunes.com/artist/isaac+hayes/track/mistletoe+%26+me

Yeah, yeah, look at me, Mr. "I'll get there when I feel like it." A week or so ago, I took a couple Blockbuster gift cards I'd earned at work and decided to use them.

I browsed the movies, and nothing there really caught my eye (which is odd, because movie rental places only need to rent movies for a week or two before they've earned their purchase price back, so they've got a crapload of "previously viewed" films for sale.l

I did scoot over to the video games section, where I found a copy of Mass Effect for sale. Being a huge fan of Bioware's other RPGs (at least the ones they finished before release, damn you Lucas!) I decided to pick it up.

Quite a lot of fun so far. The gameplay takes a fair while to wade into (I ran around the ship for about half an hour before I finally figured out how to navigate through space). The combat system is not hard (you just have to remember that the PC needs to be protected at all times). Managing gear is a pain in the tuchus. But overall, it's fun. I like running around the giant space station, and driving the galaxy's smallest APC around (seriously, three people?). I also bring along the hot chicks as backup (well, one hot chick and an Vorlon Victoria's Secret model).

But, yeah, fun. Whee! pyat would like it, as you start wearing pants.

So at FCBD my FLCS had a sale on some of their used console games. I picked up Crackdown, because it said I could participate in a Halo 3 Beta (rimshot).

It took a bit to get into, but it's gotten to be quite fun. I wave off any concerns of racism by noting that most* criminal organizations are racially homogeneous anyways.

So, yeah, I really suck at driving in the game. Really. Everytime I take a car out, I apply more carnage than the warring gangs do. I am good at shooting people, though, and I'm getting good at bombing people too.

But the jumping remains the most fun. There's nothing like leaping from ledge to ledge to the top of a large building and hopping from rooftop to rooftop. It's so much fun it's criminal.

So far, I've cleared out Los Muertos (after bumping into a few of the seven bosses entirely by accident), and am working my way through the Volk. I kind of accidentally found the hideout of the Volk's big boss, but he still had his full complement of bodyguards hanging aboot.

I like it so far. I'm still working to get a handle on the controls (I hate going to kick someone and instead jumping over their head).

I'm also fond of one of the Xbox Arcade games about a little fish who gets bigger by eating smaller fishes. I haven't bought the full version yet, but that's only a matter of time. I once thought "I liked this better the first time I played it. When it was called Shark! Shark! ", but I like this more than Shark! Shark!

*By use of the qualifier, TBG releases himself from any action that may result in someone posting about the rainbow coalition of their favourite Organized Crime group.

Getting ready to enjoy vacation.

Did not enjoy getting up to meet Mater & Pater BItter for breakfast only to find out that we had NOT sprung forward, and hence had to shower & shovel with great haste to meet them.

Amusingly enough, their flight to NYC to catch the QE2 for the Bahamas had been cancelled, so they're waiting for another flight. Possibly tomorrow. Ich.

Cynra & I watched Sideways today (so we can finally send it back to absinte_dot_ca and vampyrehunterm) and, well, I don't think we'll be able to watch Lost the same way ever again.

Took a tumble on the stairs to the basement while taking laundry down, so Cynra has me sitting on the couch with an ice pack.

I think WRT Oblivion "Im doing it wrong", as the Lolcats would say. Where the hell can I find the damn fighter's guild? The Thieves Guild is getting me nowhere.

Games what I played at Mike’s on Friday

Halo 3: Awesome. Good and getting better.

Gears of War: It’s like they built a game out of spare parts. My character busted Mike’s out of jail, and we fly in a copter to speak to a central casting Commanding Officer who shouts at us about The McGuffin (I translated his dialogue by shouting “McGuffin! McGuffin McGuffin, McGuffin!” at the screen) while his Hot Assistant looks on. I was ashamed to play that game, and more ashamed to enjoy it.

Guitar Hero X: Either two or three. Or possibly some Greatest Hits amalgam. I am not great at this game yet. Possibly having to do with practicing left handed and playing right, possibly because it’s the first time I’ve ever played it. It is fun, though, although I think it’s more enjoyable to watch people play than to actually play it. It’s particularly nice to watch to guys playing very intently and then suddenly shift their bodies to bring the guitar vertical (they’re activating their Star Power, you see). The onscreen graphics are also pretty much completely wasted on the players, as they are watching the falling notes like hawks of some kind.

Flying Plane Game In Fantasyland: Air Combat something or other. Strange game in which Not Russia and Not America go to war. The premise was so pulse poundingly dumb that I couldn’t really pay any attention to the gameplay, but it involved flying around a lot, locking on and shooting missiles. Top Gun, but without the excitement or homoeroticism (which are two different things for me).

I particularly enjoyed the training session, which told you to “fly slowly”, but never seemed to indicate what it meant by “slowly”. So I’d go as slow as possible, and then time would elapse. WTF? So I just crashed my jet into the ground repeatedly.

I DID duck my jet under a bridge, though, which is proof I am awesome.

Virtua Fighter: Two decades later, and it’s still down to puncheminnaface. Without the cabinet frame full of esoteric moves to attempt, it was a button mashing paradise. Wheee!

Assassin’s Creed: The greatest game EVER. “Jog around medieval Palestine and kill white people.” The Cake is Not a Lie.

I also managed to dive off of an Eagle Eye platform and NOT find the haybale below. Something of a record, apparently.

Amusing factoid: Wikipedia’s Assassin’s Creed page is blocked from my work.

We may have played a few other games, I cannot recall. 

At this time, My 360 catalogue consists of MUA and some racing game (included), H3 & Oblivion.  I suspect that last one will keep me busy for a while.