Ultimate Twilight Wars

Twilight
How I got roped into seeing this teen swooning trashy novel about vampires and high school I'll never know. Oh wait, I do know and her name is Crystal. No stranger to trashy romance novels already a friend at work recommended the first book to her and took off from there. She burned through the first three books at a rapid pace and when the film was announced, she announced to me that we would be going. To be honest I knew nothing about the film or the books apart from vampires and the obsession middle school aged girls showed for it. Well to cut to the chase the film was crap, I won't dignify it by drawing out the reasons why, but I will throw some saving grace Crystal's way and tell you she didn't like the movie either.

Word Wars
Professional Scrabble competition as the basis for a documentary didn't not sound like the wildly interesting topic that I'm sure you think it is. Much like the King of Kong though it was about the eccentric cast of characters in the film, not the game they play. Unlike Kong though, their is no good guy to pull for. Scrabble players seem willing to throw much of their lives away for an addiction to the word game. Betting their winnings on back room games, purchasing ladies of the night south of the border and obsessing over cabinets full of herbal brain enhancers. Degenerate people does not a bad film make though. It is a fascinating look into a world that others would go unseen by most. Worth a watch and much like going to Walmart or the state fair it will make you feel better about yourself in the end.

The Ultimate Fighter
If you follow the numbering since season 5, the season that just wrapped up was number eight (Nogueira vs. Mir). While an actual rivalry between the coaches was near nonexistent (it was no Hughes vs. Serra), the rest of the show carried itself. I like having two weight classes and there was plenty o' drama. Outside of bed pissing, food pissing and things even worse, one of the fighters managed to push the shows no fighting outside of the cage rule to it's limits. Drama aside there were many good fights leading up to the finale on Saturday. If you've been following along, Bader scored a huge TKO on the one dimensional Vinnie and Nover was upset by Escudero. The end.

My Lonely Bike

Boo to the man who lets his tires go flat, his chain dry up and his ride sit unloved through the autumn and winter months. Sadly on this day, I am that man. The excuses run far and wide with various amounts of depth and breadth, but it all boils down to a few key steps.

1. It got hot
2. Crystal got pregnant and sick
3. Video games
4. It got cold

Of the reasons listed above the only one I could shamelessly defend is Crystal getting sick. It got bad there for a while and I was more than happy to put everything on hold to take care of her. So great I have a reason I didn't ride for roughly 2-3 months out of the 5-6 I have been sedentary.

So what is a boy to do? Circle the wagons and get back on the saddle is what. Grant is down with a bum leg, but the rest of the crew is out there. I'm sure Russ, Mehtul, Landon and Hose have been riding. I need to reach out and force myself back on the bike so I can see my friends with greater frequency again. I need peer pressure, obligations and commitments. Here I come!

Site Watch
Slate is already a site you should be checking on the regular, but the second annual "Year End Gaming Club" is worth every minute it takes you to read it. The authors come from various organizations of various renown and are all worth reading. Specifically, Newsweek, MTV, New York Times and Slate. Go to it.

Guild Progress
Malygos 25 (753rd US) down and only tough achievements to keep us busy until the next raid instance. I picked up my valorous shoulders and chest last night and its on to crossing my fingers and wishing for a Torch of Holy Fire tonight.

Left for Gears

Sorry, no video as promised in the last post, my days have been hectic as of late and video encoding has been on the bottom of my list. We picked up our Christmas tree from Tom Leonard's over the weekend and got it all decorated up. Sunday I was forced to sit through Twilight with Crystal, her friend from work and a room full of teenage girls. It was utter trash, but more on that in a future post. Now to the video games...

Left 4 Dead
L4D has been on my radar for a while now, it was announced back in 2006 and has been cropping up in magazines and on websites ever since. Aside the many delays I was still geeked to play it this fall and then WotLK came out. I missed the release date by a week or two, but finally put some time in with it this weekend. I don't know if it is all of the Walking Dead I have been reading or just a general love for all things zombie, but this game scratches my itch. It has just the right amount of intense highs and lows that you stay scared and adrenaline pumped the entire time. I have only played the four player coop so far, but sharing moments of panic with friends is really fun. Think hay rides at Halloween.

Gears of War 2
The first Gears game was an revolution in third person shooters. It had game play that felt impactful and graphics that jumped off the screen. The newest game in what is now becoming a series is more evolution than revolution, but still a blast to play. The story is still poop, but the world has opened up more. It is prettier and you do more than just move from cover to cover. All in all it is what a video game sequel should be. Unlike movie sequels that tend to just be the same formula, but worse, video game sequels tend to fix what was wrong with the previous title. I've yet to play horde mode or versus anything yet, but the single player and coop are a blast.

Guild Progress
Naxx (492nd US) and Sarth (171st US) 25 man down, only Malygos 25 to go. I wish there was more content to raid now more than the last time I mentioned it. After we down Malygos this week everything will be on farm save hardcore achievements.

It's a...

Yesterday we had another big milestone on the path to parenthood. Crystal had her monthly check up, but we also had an appointment to find out what our little rug rat is going to be. We spent the two days leading up to the big reveal like kids on Christmas eve. To preface the announcement, I have been predicting boy from the start and Crystal's guess has been girl, based on dreams and all manner of old wives tale test. So with out further ado...

We're having a...Boy!

Kaden Adam Tabib to be exact, we have had two names picked out for a while, so it is nice to put a name to the baby bump Crystal has been carrying. The name is a variation of the arabic name Kadeen which means servant of God. We wanted a name that could be used in both english and arabic, but also had some meaning behind it.

So now its on to shopping more gender specifically for the nursery and other bits. We have been furniture shopping twice now and I think we are good to go on what we want. The room needs another coat of paint, but it is two coats into a pastel yellow color already. We both have some reading to catch up on too. There are so many things to do now and he will be here before we know it.

I have a video of the ultrasound I need to put up on the interwebs. It runs for around 5 minutes, but is recored in HD widescreen so I need to mess with some settings to get the size down. Hopefully I will have it up for Tuesdays post.

The Red King of Solace

Quantum of Solace
I have been a Bond junkie since I was wee lad watching double oh seven marathons on TBS with my Dad. I'll tell you that Connery in Goldfinger is the best and that anyone who liked Dalton would not be invited to dine in my home. Quantum promised a continuation of the 2006 continuity reboot Casino Royale, a film I put in my top five for the year. The trailers sold me on that idea and when I finally got to see it last weekend I was disappointed. The parts were good, but made for a disjointed lifeless whole. Quantum of Soulless, as I have heard it described, just didn't capture the magic that the gritty first film did.

Superman: Red Son
Super hero comics are not really my cup of tea, I don't drink tea either so I guess they aren't my cup of coffee. Of all the super heroes Superman is probably my least favorite, the reasons why could probably fill a whole post. So when Crystal brought home Red Son from a friend at work I was tentative at best. I did like the idea of Superman re-imagined as a cold war communist Russian though. The book turned out to be really good. Mark Millar's writing was brilliant and coupled with Johnson and Plunkett's art jumped off the page. I guess it is time to reevaluate my disdain for super heroes sans Batman (who I love).

The King of Kong
I have been on a documentary kick as of late, with the implementation of Netflix on the Xbox 360. Just que up "watch instantly" films and TV series and sit down to watch them in HD streamed to your 360. No lag and it looks better than most DVDs. Long story short the best film I have seen in the last two weeks was the King of Kong. Kong follows the story of a Donkey Kong record that was set in 1982 and had not been bested since. I know a film about people trying obsessively to beat a video games high score sounds dull, but the cast of characters and the way the film is produced make for a really interesting piece. It is a story more about people than it is about the game.