Star Wars

LEGO Star Wars II was released about two weeks ago. I have it for the PC, and while the graphics look great, the controls are clearly designed with the console in mind. (It's also available for just about every current console you can think of.) I've played and finished the first game on my PC last year, yet I don't remember the controls being as difficult back then. I suppose I could remap the keys, which should make thing easier...

I think I'll probably just get this game for the PSP after I'm done playing LocoRoco. That way, I get better controls, and I'll be able to play the game anywhere, and not be tied to my PC. Anyone interested in trying this game out on your PC?

White Knight Story

Level-5, the makers of Dragon Quest VIII, have an upcoming RPG for the soon-to-be-released PlayStation 3 called "White Knight Story." This is the trailer they showed at this year's Tokyo Game Show.

To fully appreciate the impressive graphics of this game, you'd have to watch the full-sized trailer, rather than the one on YouTube.

White and Nerdy

"Weird Al" is at it again... This song is a parody of Chamillionaire's "Ridin'"--in case you haven't heard it or seen the video, I'm embedding it below for reference.

More Wii control

Here's another video demonstrating how Nintendo Wii's remote controller will supposedly work. The controller should work well with action-oriented games. However, like I stated before, a "music conductor" game would quite possibly be the most boring game in the world. Other things I saw in this clip that I don't think will be fun to play:

• Chopping food and cooking -- Um, no. It's not like you actually learn how to actually chop things really fast. If you really want to cook, just step into your kitechen.
• Dentistry -- WTF? How is that fun?
• Swatting flies -- Why would you want to "play" something on a simluation for what would be a chore in real life?

Other concerns:

• Driving games -- Who drives with a stick as a steering wheel? Either use a wheel, or a standard controller. None of this "pretend-this-stick-is-a-wheel" crap.
• Control using a motion sensor could be finicky. One false flick of your wrist, and your character jumps off a cliff...
  

Other than those, things should be cool. The controller should be great for most sports games, which is probably why Nintendo plans on releasing the system with a sports compilation game. I also imagine that the nunchuk control would make the system good for first-person shooters, solving the problem of console controllers not being on par with the mouse/keyboard combination PC users have thus enjoyed with such games.

The Riddle

Artist: Five for Fighting

There was a man back in '95
Whose heart ran out of summers, but before he died
I asked him, "Wait, what's the sense in life?"
"Come over me, come over me"

He said, "Son, why you gotta sing that tune?"
"Catch a Dylan song or some eclipse of the moon"
"Let an angel swing and make you swoon"
"The you will see... You will see"

Then he said, "Here's a riddle for ya"
"Find the answer"
"There's a reason for the world"
"You and I"

Picked up my kid from school today
"Did you learn anything, 'cause in the world today"
"You can't live in a castle far away"
"Now talk to me, come talk to me"

He said, "Dad, I'm big but we're smaller than small"
"In the scheme of things, well we're nothing at all"
"Still every mother's child sings a lonely song"
"So play with me, come play with me"

"And hey Dad, here's a riddle for ya"
"Find the answer"
"There's a reason for the world"
"You and I"

I said, "Son, for all I've told you"
"When you get right down to the"
"Reason for the world"
"Who am I?"

There are secrets that we still have left to find
There have been mysteries from the beginning of time
There are answers we're not wise enough to see
He said, "You looking for a clue, I love you free"

The batter swings and the summer flies
As I look into my angel's eyes
A song plays on while the moon is high
Over me, something comes over me

I guess we're big, and I guess we're small
If you think about it man, you know we got it all
'Cause we're all we got on this bouncing ball
And I love you free, I love you freely

Here's a riddle for ya
Find the answer
There's a reason for the world
You and I

New DVDs

This week, I picked up Lucky Number Slevin and The Wild. Lucky Number Slevin is an interesting crime drama/thriller/dark comedy. It's not on par with other dark comedies like Pulp Fiction, but it's still a fun ride, nontheless. The very basic gist of the movie, without giving too much away, is summed up by Lucy Liu's character in the clip above.

The Wild is one of the few computer-animated movies released by Disney, but was not done by Pixar. It has been described by some critics as "Madagascar meets Finding Nemo with The Lion King thrown in for effect." This is not untrue, as the story involves animals from the New York Zoo "escaping" captivity, roaming the city with the lion, Samson, looking for his son, who is practicing his roar, but still sounds like a little cat. Surface similarities aside, it's actually quite a different movie from Madagascar. I personally think the animation quality is much better than Madagascar, but while the story is fine, it lacks the humor in the other movies being compared to. That's not the say that the movie is completely devoid of humor--only that these moments of comedy are few, while at times it seems they're trying too hard.

Strange luck

So, after getting my car back from the shop, I had to go back because it wouldn't start, and then back again when I noticed my passenger headlight was flickering. The car still had its problems, which I'll slowly be getting to...

Then, this past weekend, my computer stopped working properly. For no apparent reason, it rebooted on its own, and then I got a slew of seemingly unrelated error messages. My instinct told me that this was a hardware issue, the most likely culprit being the motherboard. I supposed you could say that it was more of an educated guess. To be more certain, I even ran various virus scans, despite being protected through two separate anti-virus programs, and having kept my system up-to-date.

The next day, after cleaning one of my Ionic Breeze GP's, I noticed that instead of its normal operations, a red indicator light was on. Upon closer inspection, it turns out something inside had broke. I just replaced it earlier this year!

Then, "yesterday," I got back from work, and tried again to use my computer, only to find that my APC UPS suddenly stopped working. Its "overload" warning light was on. I unplugged everything that was connected to it, pressed the "reset" button, turned it off and back on, all to no avail. Bought the thing last year, specifically because APC was supposed to make quality products. It's only got a two-year warranty, so I guess I should be thankful that it broke down now, rather than later.

Figuring that whatever caused the UPS to fail probably sent its voltage rumblings down the line to my computer (despite being behind yet another surge protector), I was even more convinced that my problems had to do with the motherboard. I'd pretty much resolved on buying a new motherboard, when my brother told me that he had another one lying around. We spend about an hour replacing the motherboard, and hook the computer back up. Another hour and a half to reinstall all the drivers, and the computer is now in working order again.

I'll be calling APC about their defective UPS.

I've also packed up my broken Ionic Breeze. I'll drop by a local Sharper Image to replace it, again.


"Strange Luck" is also the name of an intriguing TV show. It's too bad that it was axed due to low ratings.

How Superman should have ended

Real Men of Genius

This is probably my favorite out of all the Budweiser's advertisement series.


Bud Light presents: Real Men of Genius.

(Real Men of Genius)

Today we salute you, Mr. Boneless Buffalo Wing Inventor.

(Mr. Boneless Buffalo Wing Inventor)

How do you improve upon a meat that is breaded, buttered, double-fried, and dipped in blue cheese dressing? Remove the only part that doesn't contain fat.

(Don't need no stinkin' bone)

Gone now is the race to eat the drumsticks first, leaving the wings for the other poor suckers.

(Hands off my drummies!)

Is it leg? Is it wing? Is it rear-end? Now every chunk is as identical as it is indistinguishable.

(Hope I'm not eating rear-end)

So crack open an ice cold Bud Light, Boneless Wing Mastermind, because we don't have a bone to pick with you.

(Mr. Boneless Buffalo Wing Inventor)

Travesty, indeed.

The above pics are allegedly from the upcoming live-action Transformers movie, that I've mentioned before. Fans of the original series should not be unfamiliar with the name of this particular character, and that would be the extent of their recognition.

I'll leave you with this thought from Penny Arcade.

My baby don't mess around because she loves me so, and this I know for sure...

This is an acoustic cover of Outkast's song, "Hey Ya!" done by Mat Weddle of Obadiah Parker. It totally changes the entire mood of the song.


Hey Ya!

My baby don't mess around because she loves me so, and this I know for sure
But does she really wanna, but can't stand to see me walk out the door
I can't stand to fight the feeling, because the thought alone is killing me right now
Thank God for mom and dad for sticking through together because we don't know how

Hey ya, hey ya
Hey ya, hey ya

You think you got it
Oh, you think you've got it
But got it just don't get it
Til there's nothing at all
We've been together
Oh, we've been together
But separate's always better when there's feeling involved
If what they say is, "Nothing is forever"
Then what makes, what makes, what makes
What makes, what makes love the exception?
So why you, why you
Why you, why you, why you
Are we so in denial
When we know we are not happy here

Hey ya, hey ya
Hey ya, hey ya
Hey ya, hey ya
Hey ya, hey ya

All right now, fellas
What's cooler than being cool?
I can't hear ya
I say what's cooler than being cool?
All right, all right, all right, all right
All right, all right, all right, all right
All right, all right, all right, now ladies
We gonna break it down in just a few seconds here
Now don't make me break this down for nuthin'
I wanna see y'all on y'all baddest behavior
Lend me some sugar, I am your neighbor
Shake it, shake, shake it, shake it, shake, shake it, shake it
Shake it, shake, shake it, shake, shake it, shake, shake it
Shake, shake it, shake it like a Polaroid picture, now
Shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it
Shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it

Hey ya, hey ya
Hey ya, hey ya
Hey ya, hey ya
Hey ya, hey ya
Hey ya, hey ya

The toilet is so clean, you can eat off it

After helping Angie move to her new place, we went out to eat. Earlier in the day, we were talking about the various gimmickly-themed restaurants, such as the one decorated like a Taiwanese classroom in Rowland Heights (I forgot the exact name), and as we finished our dinner and were heading back to the car, we passed by another "themed" restaurant. Once again, the decor was the gimmick, but the food wasn't that great.

This then reminded me of some photos that have been circulating on the Internet for several years--a restroom-themed restaurant, where the plates, the seats, and the food, are made to resemble... you know. I promised her I would find those pics and email them to her. And in my search, I've learned that there are now at least two such restaurants in Taiwan. One in Taipei (named "Matone," is apparently the first one, judging by the date of the article), which is in the northern part of Taiwan, and one in Kaohsiung (named "Marton"), in the Southern part of Taiwan.

As I obviously haven't been to these restaurants, I cannot say if the food there is good or bad, although the above linked article and these pictures seem to indicate that, unlike the restaurants we had been discussing, it's not just the gimmicky designs of the restaurants that help make them successful--they actually have good food! I would think that should be the first rule to operating a successful restaurant.

The above video is rather short, but if you pay attention, you'll notice that all the patrons of the restaurant are sitting on toliet-shaped seats, and the walls are lined with ceramic tiles (like in the public restrooms).

Below is a longer video, which shows food being served in the special plating, but without audio.

These restaurateurs in Taiwan are apparently not the first to use the scatological subject as their theme. According to the linked article above, they've seen pictures of the same theme coming from Japan. "Matone" seems to be the first one in Taiwan, as the article was written back in 2002, after photos had been circulating the net. The blog entry about "Marton" was written in 2005, providing a link to a now defunct 2005 Associated Press article, and stating the the first of the chain was opened a year prior (2004).

Of interesting note is that restaurants using the same theme have also opened in mainland China (the first in November 2005), but received with much more negativity in their press. Still, some do call for the people to be more open-minded.

Grocery store day-shift manager Vader

I feel that I would be remiss if I didn't include this hilarious set of sketches on my blog, so here they are. The third episode should be out soon.

George Takei roasts William Shatner

William Shatner showed up at his Comedy Central roast riding on a horse. It seems likely that he did it to setup someone to make the exact comment that George Takei did to end his roast.

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse

Riding on the coattails of Snakes on a Plane comes this "thrilling," direct-to-video movie, Snakes on a Train. Look upon this work, ye mighty, and despair!


Honestly, based on what I've heard of Snakes on a Plane from people who've seen it, it's actually pretty good. Not nearly as bad as its trailer might lead you to believe. And even that trailer looks much better than this one.