Mind Dump

Comic-Con and E3 just wrapped up out in California which means there has been a media blitzkrieg for the past two weeks that is just dieing down. Between the podcast, videocast, news sites and trailer sites my nerd shield has been inundated by a flood of the geeky media I love. It is filling like chocolate turkey at Thanksgiving, but at this point it's leaking out of my ear...

Castle Crashers in August
The screens and trailers for this game have been rattling around in my head for ages (two years). It is finally coming out August 27th and hopefully my RRoD machine will be fixed in time to play it. Think Streets of Rage with a better art direction and four player online co-op. If I have to get a second mortgage on the house and buy this game for all of my friends to play with then so be it.

Tron 2 in 2011
That's right it has been 26 years since the first film that I have never seen was released. Beyond a few light cycle flash games there is not a lot I can get excited about from this sequel, well until I saw the bootleg trailer.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine in 2009
I am tentative on this movie after the first three films were good, but not great. The trailer at Comic Con did a bit to change my mind, but I am still in a wait and see mode.

Red Sonja in 2010
The 1985 film was less than gosu, but anything that lives in the Conan lore gets me geeked none the less. So why should anyone else get excited about a remake of a bad eighties movie? Because Robert Rodriguez is producing it and the posters with Rose McGowan look bad ass. I hate getting psyched up for movies two years away, but I just can't help it with this one. Oh and this is yet another comic adaptation film coming in the near future, craziness!

Mirror's Edge Mini
Attendees at Comic Con this past weekend were treated to a Mirror's Edge mini comic that was exclusive to the show. Well guess what there is this thing called the internet and it makes things available for everyone. Mirror's Edge is an EA published parkour first person platformer by the way.

WEC This Weekend
This is not info coming out of either event held this month, but the WEC is exciting and on for free this weekend. Damacio Page from TAP Out's reality show is fighting in the undercard and Carlos Condit always puts on a good show.

48 Hour Hell Brothers

Step Brothers
Friday night we rolled into the theater to see another Will Ferrell master piece. Granted I am using that term very loosely when talking about a film where there is male nudity in the first thirty minutes, but it is a hilarious none the less. The story is unnecessary for the most part, as it is there to string together sketches that are side splitting funny. Reilly and Ferrell pick up where they left off with Talladega Nights and carry the ridiculousness even further. Don't take your kids, but go see this movie. Boats and Hoes!

48 Hour Film Project
If it were not for Mehtul's participation in the 48 hour film project Crystal and I would have never heard of it. Saturday we went down to Carry St with the intention of seeing Mike's film were pleasantly surprised by everything else that was shown too. It is incredible how much work got done on some of the films with in the allotted time frame. Upon leaving Crystal and I went to Ginger for lunch and my head was spinning with ideas for 48 hour films. Maybe next year I can leech on to Mike, Chuck and Phillip's production or even do my own?

Hellboy Library Ed Vol 1
I am four years behind on my plan to start reading Hellboy, but after seeing the second film this summer I decided to act. Thankfully the library editions from Dark Horse make it easy to get caught up. Volume one collects the first and second Hellboy arcs from 1994 and 1995. The art and writing in this book make me appreciate the films on another level. Mignola crafts a world that is dark and chaotic, with heavy use of shadows in his art and writing that seems to come from ancient text. Volume two comes out this fall and you can bet your ass it will be sitting on my bookshelf soon after.

Arr Arr Oh Dee

It's not a super secret pirate cult password (that involves a handshake), but the death of a good friend.

Time of death was called on my Xbox 360 at 9pmish Wednesday night, July 23rd, 2008. I guess I was just like every naive teenager that doesn't think pregnancy, gateway drugs or car accidents can happen to them. Lets be honest, that just happens to other people, it won't happen to me. Saturday it choked and stalled twice during Gabriel's and my NHL 08 season. I thought like any self aware organism my 360 was just entering it's terrible twos. When I came back to it Wednesday I found out those stalls and chokes were cries for help, not a tantrum over a toy it couldn't have.

Three restarts later and I was just another victim to the RRoD. I am in good company though, I have five friends that have had it happen (one of them twice) and even the proud papa isn't safe from its own spawn. I have heard tales of excellent customer service and I have read great tales of woe as well when it comes to the repair process. Thankfully it is all free of charge, if I had lint in my dvd drive it would be a flat fee of $99, but because of the PR nightmare that is RRoD the fix is on Microsoft's dime. Maybe a free shirt could ease all this pain.

Watchman Trailer
I forgot to mention that prior to Dark Knight there was a trailer for the Watchman film coming in Spring 2009. It looks right out of the graphic novel and I am already losing sleep in anticipation. Apparently there is going to be a game as well, hopefully it is better than the rubbish Iron Man one. By the way where is the Dark Knight game?

Site Watch
InStockTrades is where I am buying my trades from this point on. The appeal of my local comic shop is soured a bit by the high prices, poor selection and the lack of a Cheers "where everybody knows your name" enviorment. If any one of those was fixed I would at least consider buying locally, but for now my LCS might as well be a 711 and the internet wins another round.

My Wife the Geek

In the past I have written about the great extent of my geekdom and politely left my better half out of the fray. I often joke with her about putting up with my geekiness and wonder aloud if she knew what she was getting into. Earlier today a study linked on 1up caught my attention though. Apparently women are picking up game controlers like hot cakes. That got me thinking more about our roles as geek husband and geek sympathiser wife.

After collecting my thoughts and reevaluating everything I know in this life, I came to the stunning conclusion that my wife is actually a geek. Apart from hobbies that have tried to introduce to her, she has sought out and taken up a geek scepter of her own. She scrap books, knits, sews and makes jewelry...craft geek! She goes through books a mile a minute in the summer and give me grief for not keeping up with her...book geek! She owns two bikes and likes wearing bike hats in public...bike geek! She grew up playing Super Nintendo, the Wii in our house is hers and she owns a pink DS, that she has played until the battery dies on many occasions...*gasp*...game geek! Oh and did I mention she is a math teacher?

I love my geeky wife, it just took me a long time to realise that she was in fact a geek. Last night she had finished 8 of the 10 Y: The Last Man trades and wanted to make sure I had ordered the last two. We stood in line for an hour Friday night just to be seated for the Dark Knight and she even got excited about and enjoyed Hellboy 2. Life is good in our geek house. I used to make a big effort to get her in to playing WoW. Now I know that she doesn't have to participate in all my geek hobbies because she has her own. I know I don't want to knit.

Site Watch
Web comics are a procrastinators best friend and a geeky math and science related comic seems appropriate given today's topic. Go read xkcd!

R.I.P. Estelle Getty
She passed away at the age of 84 yesterday.

Knight of the Arts

Dark Knight
The last comic movie of the summer is the best comic movie to date. It is rare that a sequel will eclipse its predecessor and even more rare in the genre of comic movies. Dark Knight is not the light hearted, drawing brought to life movie that Hellboy and Iron Man were. It is a gritty crime story that belongs in the same breath as great thrillers, not abominations like X-Men 3. It is truly a genre redefining film.

Heath Ledger should get an Oscar for his role as the Joker. It has a depth, creepiness and raw insanity that Jack Nicholson's Joker never approached. The scenes between Batman and the Joker are true to the comic in so much that they create an air of a rivialary that will gone on forever. I left the film with nothing in my mind that hung it up or should have been added. It is very near perfect.

Affliction: Banned
Fedor "The Last Emperor" Emelianenko is a monster in the MMA world. He was the undefeated heavy weight champ in Pride and the star of the highlight reel I send to everyone who starts running their mouth about Kimbo Slice. Saturday night was his first real test since 2006 and he crushed his competition. Tim Sylvia is no slouch, annoying yes, but he was the former UFC heavy weight champ. Fedor finished the fight in 36 seconds! Sylvia had 30 lbs and 8 inches on him and he finished him in 36 seconds. Monster I say!

UFC Fight Night
Not to be out done by the upstart Affliction's card, Dana White announced this Fight Night just one month ago. Surprising many with a weight class move for pound for pound best Anderson Silva. He was pitted against James Irvin who is 3-1 since coming into the UFC at 205lbs. Both fighters made weight and Silva made short work of Irvin with a knock in the 61st second in the first round.

More Comic Movies
Wired has an article up today about the comic movie coming down the pipe for the next three years. There a lot that I was already excited about and others that I had no clue were being made into movies.

Politics = Boring

I have always had my nose buried in a history book, so politics and all things government related were an obvious extension of that interest. My wife sits on the opposite end of the spectrum, the sardines to my political peanut butter if you will. In the twelve years we have known each other I have made every effort to change her outlook from boredom to mild interest. She voted in the 2000 presidential election, primarily because of my efforts and by the time the 2004 election came around her interest was her own. With the 2008 election fast approaching she is doing research on each candidate in an effort to convince her parents and sister to vote and to vote by the issues that effect them.

Proud as I am of my wife's new found interest, her task is proving to be a bit of a headache. McCain and Obama are just too similar on too many social issues. The big divide is of course the war in Iraq and the international relationships both candidates could foster or crumble should they take office. This is a big deciding factor for many, but when you look beyond that they are both steering toward the middle of the road. Both candidates are on the "green" bandwagon. McCain is even parting with the republican base in his less strict views on abortion. Taxation is still by party line of course, but McCain distances himself again with his support of stem cell research. On education McCain would continue "no child left behind" and a push for private school vouchers. I could expound on what is so terribley wrong those educational stances for 5-6 more paragraphs, but I'll move on.

At the end of the day the war and education (Crystal is a teacher) have already helped me make my decision. Any information we can provide to uninterested parents, siblings, friends and coworkers will hopefully make for a more informed conversation at least.

Cyclist Hero
Sure politics don't get most people's juices flowing and on a Wednesday to boot. How about a good story told in photos of sportsmanship and caring for your fellow man? 2k from the finish line Chris Horner saw a crashed Billy Demong and offered him a ride. Class act!

Hellboy, The Betrayer & Camera Slacking

Hellboy 2
Comic movie summer two thousand eight continues with the release of Hellboy 2 this past weekend. Crystal and went out for dinner and a movie a second time this week Saturday night and caught Hellboy. We both liked the original, so we were geeked to see the sequel turn out so well. The mix of humor and action seems genuine and the special effects never drop you off at that looks lane. I have yet to read any Hellboy comics, after making plans to do so four years ago. If you look on the right hand side of this here blog you can see my to do list that I am slowly working through. I might just toss Hellboy to the front of the line after seeing the movie Saturday.

Camera Slacking
My kingdom for a sharper memory in the face of group rides to be remembered. Twice this weekend I went on great group rides and forgot to bring my camera. Friday night I went out with Russ and Grant for a 23 mile stomp around Richmond with a dip into southside. Sunday morning Grant, Russ, Gabriel, Crystal and I met up at the Glen Allen Cultural Arts Center and did a shortened 16 mile ABC loop. Both rides without a camera, what was I thinking.

The Betrayer
I will most likely never see Illidan on my new Shaman, look he is sixty! That doesn't mean I can't use my family connections to get a glimpse of the Lord of Outland though. Tazeer (mein brother) was over at my place two weekends ago and jumped on his mage to give Mike and I a tour of the Black Temple and some face time with Illidan himself. When I first started raiding three years ago it was an arms race above all else. I needed gear to win at pvp and had to use pve content to do so.

Now that honor gear is passed out like candy and arena gear is just expensive Bavarian chocolate there is no need to pve for pvp. Then why raid? It is still about the gear, but only in that gear is a medium to see end game content. It is a lore nerds wet dream to throw off the shackles of gear greed and know that every piece of gear the guild gets benefits me in my goal of seeing more story. I know there is still greed, I see it everytime I log on, but my new outlook sets me free from that squabling.

A Knight Beyond the Wall

Batman: Gotham Knight
Similar to the Animatrix, Gotham Knight is a series of anime shorts inspired by a Hollywood movie. In this case Knight is five shorts that link Batman Begins to The Dark Knight coming out this summer. Unlike the Animatrix the plot of each short links in reverse to the one ahead of it. A tip of the hat to Memento in a way and very well done at that. The directors are not the all star cast that worked on Animatrix, in fact their notable titles include works I consider second tier (Gundam, Neon Genesis, etc). They did amazing work on Knight though. The art is top notch and the writing although not theirs matches the on screen perfectly. Oh and the voice of Batman is done by Kevin Conroy who voiced Batman in Batman: The Animated Series, very cool.

WALL-E
Last night Crystal and I had a dinner and movie date night with Japanese hibachi and WALL-E. I started taking 3D modeling classes the year after Toy Story came out, more for the drafting side of things, but my interest has been forever peaked in Pixar films since. WALL-E falls right in line with the rest of the amazing movies Pixar has created. It is story first then technology and even without a lot of true dialogue the characters are endering and adorable. There is a bit of a message in the story about humans destroying the enviorment and becoming too reliant on technology. It is probably a bit over the head for five year olds, a good message for ten year olds and teens and just a little too preachy for adults.

Beyond the Dark Portal
While I have yet to finish the next novel in the Warcraft series I am far enough in to recommended it to fellow lore nerds. It pays a lot of lip service to second tier characters that were not a big part of the lore previously. It is nice to get some more back story between Warcraft 2 and 3, but admitely is not the best book to date. Not yet at least, the first half of the novel is played out in Azeroth and the second half, which I just got to, is in Draenor. Hopefully there will be some more Deathwing parts, because he is my favorite character, and hopefully Kil'jaeden will make an appereance to interact with Ner’zhul.

Fourth Tradition

Fireworks on the fourth is an American tradition. There is joy and amazement in every child's eyes the first time they see explosions in the sky. What about the 26th time though? Frankly I'm tired of fireworks on the fourth. Specifically the act of attending a fireworks show. Give me a beer and a gross of bottle rockets and I'm a happy man, but that could be any day of the year.

So this year we had friends over, grilled up some burgers and went to the movies. That's right the movie theater is open on our nations birthday and there is no one there. Crystal and I go to the movies quite frequently and usually brave waves of kids, tweens and teenagers to do so. We go to late shows in an attempt to cut down on the kid to adult ratio, but it is never full proof. Well the one day that there are absolutely no kids at the movies is the fourth of July. Until we have kids of our own we will make plans to go to the movies on the fourth of July for the forseeable future.

Wanted
Yet another comic based movie. Unfortunately I can't speak to how true the film kept to the pages, but I can say that I enjoyed it. It was the definition of a popcorn movie. The kind of film you can just sit back and enjoy. There were no complex plot elements, it required a strong suspension of disbelief and it delivered loads of action. The majority of the CGI looked incredible save one or two scenes that looked terrible and the comedy elements held up nicely.

Site Watch
World of Raids used to be my site of choice for WoW news, then I found MMO Champion and started following it instead. After my six month break from WoW I came back to find World of Raids redesigned and much more aesthetically pleasing. It is now my WoW news site of choice for the second time.

Welcome back...

Like a two wheeled bicycle phoenix Gabriel (my brother) and Crystal (mein wife) rose from the cycling dead to attend their first group ride in many years last weekend. Mike and I took it easy on them with an eight mile refresher out and back. We rode to Deep Run Park took a few laps on the asphalt and gravel and made our way home. Nothing to strenuous, but we are building layers like a tasty bicycle lasagna. Pictures...

Crystal and MikeGabriel

Our Abby Road

Wheels!

Gabriel

Crystal

A different kind of group shot

Mileage update
As predicted I eventually missed my goal of surpassing my previous months mileage. I just wish I had ridden an extra lap around the neighborhood. I was just 1.2 miles short of matching my May total.

February: 46.6 miles
March: 82.25 miles
April: 121.42 miles
May: 135.22 miles
June: 134.02 miles

2008 Year to Date: 519.51 miles

The Golden Child

Blizzard has done no wrong since their inception in the early 90's. Save their Super Nintendo titles that are just a foot note now at the colossal feet of World of Warcraft. Their games sell like gangbusters and not because they are over hyped smoke and mirrors (see: Assassin's Creed). They take time to build games that are polished to a blinding shine and then they buff them a little more. Over that time many gamers have come to whorship at the throne of Blizzard and given their track record there is little argument that can be made against them.

Blizzard's previous model did not include a massive multiplayer online game though. Their releases have become spaced and hulking. The last game before it was all WoW all the time was five years ago and it looks like Starcraft 2 won't be out until 2009. I wonder if Blizzard still has the chops to make great non MMO games? Some critics are looking at Starcraft 2 and the newly announced Diablo 3 and not seeing the giant leaps forward that Blizzard made previously. While the games certainly do look pretty, there seems to be nothing in terms of an evolution in game mechanics. To wait six some years to release a next generation dugeon crawler and graphics update for your best selling RTS might be considered a bit conservative.

They are Blizzard though. Is it a cop out to take them to the mat and then just give them a hug? Yes. Do they deserve the hug? Yes. Not one of their games in the past thirteen years has been a critical or financial failure. They might be taking a long time to produce retreaded franchise sequels, but if the baker makes you a tasty cake today and closes shop for a month; will you spend that time speculating on the failure of his next confectionery creation or just day dream about how tasty it will be?