Saturday!

It is finally the weekend. Awesome. Sadly the weather is crap. I think I'm going to go swimming anyway though.

Mood: In love with Caitlin

Hooray for time off work!

So glad I don't have to go to work next week. Looking forward to a party my sister is throwing tomorrow and going to my aunt and uncles this weekend.

Mood: Excited

I don't want to go to work

Pretty much self explanatory.

Mood: Depressed

Laid off...

So I found out that after tomorrow afternoon's shift I will be off for at least one week. In a way this is so totally awesome and I'm so glad that I'm laid off, but it also means no money for me. I'm not too worried if it's only for the one week but if it lasts any longer than that I might be screwed.

I'm going to my aunt and uncles house this weekend for the Holiday. I'm hoping the lake will be nice and warm because I love to swim. I'm also hoping to get some wakeboarding or jetskiing done. I'll probably take my laptop up with me too so I can get a start on making some of the games I've been wanting to make all summer. I figure I should make some crappy games and get used to the language and pipeline before diving into making my own epic masterpiece.

Mood: Conflicted

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

I just read a preview for the new Star Wars animated movie on IGN and it's looking pretty neat. The movie will be around 2 hours long and is basically the first three episodes of the new animated TV series. The show will be hitting cartoon network in the fall.

According to the article, the plot centers around the kidnapping of vile gangster Jabba the Hut's daughter. The Jedi are given one "Tatooine rotation" to find the girl or the Hut clan will ignite a war against the Jedi. Of course this all happens during the current fight against the Confederacy of Independent Systems.

Yoda tasks our heroes Obi-Wan, Anakin, and his new Padawan Ahsoka Tano the job of finding the little Hut which leads them across the galaxy to several different battle zones. The only returning voices to the movie are Samuel L. Jackson as Mace Windu, Christopher Lee as Count Dooku, Anthony Daniels as C-3PO, and Matthew Wood as the lovely General Grievous.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars force crushes theatres on August 15th.

Mood: Excited

Sonic's Birthday

A couple days ago Sonic turned 17 and I never got a chance to say Happy Birthday. Sonic is the man(hedgehog?), unfortunately all the games he has been in lately have been suck-tacular. Recently announced is a new Sonic game called Sonic Unleashed which is looking pretty good right now and might mean a return to glory for the blue flash.

Also coming out soon is a Sonic RPG for the Nintendo DS. Developed by the one and only Bioware, makers of Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect, it looks to be an excellent offering that may actually leverage all the crazy side characters and put them to good use.

I really hope Sonic can turn things around because he is one of the greatest names in video gaming and if he isn't in a good game soon then he may lose his entire fanbase.

Mood: Nostalgic

My Brothers War

I think we have some kind of earwig infestation at our front door. Earwigs are probably the most disgusting of all bugs and Andrew can't stand the fact that they seem to be everywhere when we get home from work. Tonight on the way in I watched him try to kick several of these small bugs off the front step and knock some off the front door so they couldn't get inside. It was quite hilarious.

I'm hoping they retaliate by coming back in greater numbers and we see an arms race on the scale of WWI. I could just picture Andrew attack all these bugs with a machine gun or flamethrower.

Mood: Entertained

20 Console Ads From 1977 - 1995

Just watched this hilarious video. Check it out.

Mood: Nostalgic

A Goofy Movie

Does anyone remember this movie? It had Goofy's son Max trying to impress a girl by telling her that his family vacation will actually be a trip to the Powerline concert where he will be on TV. It was pretty pimp. I used to have it somewhere but I can't find it so I'm trying to download it. I'm pretty sure it was from 1995 so I don't know how likely it is that I can download the whole thing, which sucks.

My Mood: cautiously optimistic

Webcomics are the funny?

I've been reading webcomics probably for about as long as I've had internet. Most people have heard of Penny Arcade and know how awesome it is. There are several other great webcomics out there too though.

2P Start is and excellent webcomic that is updated weekly. They only started last year but they are very funny. Most often the subject is Sonic, the Wii, Super Smash Bros Brawl, or Sonic.

Dualing Analogs is a comic that doesn't always hit the mark but every now and then has pure gold. Most worth checking out is the "Rejected MegaMan villians" comics in the archive.

Fanboys Online has probably one of the best individual comics I've ever seen. It's a Seinfeld comic where they are all playing Dungeons and Dragons. Hilarious! Some of the other ones aren't bad but they often are a little too weird.

Ctrl-Alt-Del lately has been my favourite webcomic. It's weird because you'd think the funniest ones would be the best ones but the current story arc is actually really sad. While there are still funny comics mixed in he has tackled a very sad issue absolutely excellently. It's just excellent writing. The issue I'm talking about is that one of his characters just had a miscarriage. You should definitely check out the comic. If you have the time to burn, starting from the beginning is an excellently wild ride.

Also just for fun check out Natalie Dee, her comics are so retarded they are great.

My mood: Laughterous?

GTTV

There is an excellent TV show on Spike TV at 1 am on Friday nights. This is a ridiculous time for a TV show but luckily you can watch it on the internet anytime after it initially airs. It's called GameTrailers TV and is all about upcoming games and exclusive interviews. I think it's pretty pimp. You can check it out at GameTrailers.com.

Also of note at GameTrailers is a cool section where they do "retrospectives". The just finished doing a series of retrospectives on Metal Gear. They have also done ones on The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Mario Kart, and they are in the middle of doing a Star Wars one which is really cool. Basically its a cool site to watch video game trailers and movies.

Mood: Unexcited by the prospect of going to work soon.

The Incredible Hulk

I just watched a video review for the Incredible Hulk at IGN and it looks pretty cool. They gave it 4 stars. I really like what Marvel Studios did with Iron Man and I think that they would probably know best how to make a good movie about their characters. I know a lot of people didn't like the first HULK movie but I didn't think it was too bad. I'm also a pretty big fan of Edward Norton so I'm thinking The Incredible Hulk will be pretty pimp. I'm hoping to see it this weekend or next week maybe.

Mood: Intrigued

DRiP Investments

So I'm 21 now and if everything pans out alright then I'll probably have a future of some kind. I realize while I'm in school it might be a little to early to start thinking about retirement but from everything I've heard, the earlier you start saving, the better.

I've scoured the web and read several books about the best ways to save for retirement and I found a really unconventional method that I think would be an excellent strategy for me. It's called Dividend Re-investment and Share Purchase Plans. Most companies that are openly traded on the stock market pay out dividends to all share holders. These dividends are small amounts of money for every share you own and are paid out quarterly or monthly. It's important to mention that not all companies pay out dividends and that some don't pay them out regularly, often missing a month or quarter. However, there are a number of companies that have paid out dividends consistently for over 50 years! Even better, some of these companies have raised their dividends every year!

Some of these companies offer dividend re-investment and share purchase plans. If you enroll in this plan then instead of receiving a dividend cheque, your money is used to buy more shares in the company. Also, you can send a cheque in to buy more shares whenever you feel like it. This is called DRiPping or DRiP investing. The idea is that by sending money in every month or quarter and re-investing your dividends, by the time your ready to retire the dividends being paid out will be enough to live off of. Then you can cancel your Dividend Re-investment Plan and just get the cheques sent to your house.

If you want to read more about DRiP investing head to DRiPInvesting.org and read some of the articles and talk to people on the message boards.

Later on in the week I'll go over this some more.

Mood: Meh...

Friends S01E01

I just watched the very first episode of Friends. I don't think I've ever seen it before but I may have a long long time ago. It's weird that its on all the time and I watch it all the time but they never show the first episode. I don't think I've seen the last episode other than the time it first aired either. I wonder if they leave out ones like the first and last to give the illusion that the series is still ongoing or something...

Anywho, I'm going to watch all the episodes at some point this summer because I'm wondering if there are other gems that I've missed. Not right now though. It's too late and I didn't get enough sleep. If that damn dog wakes me up I might just kill it.

Mood: Sleepy with a hint of curiosity

Doesn't he have a mute button?!?

Lately I have been having a hard time enjoying my favourite bands. These bands include Blink 182, Angels and Airwaves and Plus 44. The reason I can't enjoy them lately is because my brother is too busy enjoying them. It's driving me insane! All day he plays the same riffs over and over again on his guitar. On the way to work and coming home from work he pops in an old blink mix CD that Gary made me when he first got a cd burner in like grade 8. He just listens to the same songs over and over again. He's also started to walk around with his new i-pod on and sing along to angels and airwaves. I swear I might kill him.

Mood: Murderous

Factory Work is the Lame!

I have had it with working in a factory. It sucks so much. Ok, maybe not all factories suck, i don't know, but the one I work for is horrible. I need to find a much better job that pays me good money. I shouldn't hate work this much. Its not cool.

Mood: Frustrated

Spore Creature Creator

If you have never heard of Spore than shame on you, but don't worry because come this September everyone will know about it. Basically Spore is a game from the creator of SimCity and The Sims, and its pretty much a sim everything. Starting from the primordial ooze you create the first single celled organism and then help it to evolve into a powerful space faring culture. The game is due out in September and is expected to be huge.

In order to get the hype going for the game EA and Maxis have release the Spore Creature Creator. Spore has several creators that allow you to design your single cell, your creature, your vehicles, buildings, spaceships and many other things. The idea is that you get to design all of the content for the game which is pretty pimp. The creature creator lets you design your creature by molding the spine and body, picking arms, legs, hands, feet, mouths, weapons and other accessories for your creature and then painting it to look like whatever you want.

When Spore comes out you will be able to take the creature you built and import it into the game to use. Basically everyone should go to Big Download and give it a shot because it is totally awesome. I haven't played with it too much and my skills are a few notches below "Mad" but I was still able to make some pretty cool creatures. Lots of fun to be had here.

Mood: Entertained

My Sisters Friggin Dog

My sister got this dog a couple weeks ago. She rescued it from a barn or something and it still smells like a barn. His name is Billy and he looks like a goat. I can't stand Billy because whenever I'm on afternoons(which is this week) Amanda brings him in here before she goes to work in the morning. He then eats things, chews on things, chews on himself and is generally a pest all morning until I finally get up. This dog is ruining any chance for a good night sleep.

The worst part is that the dog doesn't listen. We're supposed to praise him for doing good and ignore him for being bad. When we ignore him he just runs off and does more bad things though. I don't think he is capable of learning.

My mood: Tired and Pissed

My own blog?

I was randomly searching all over the internet looking at things like "how to make money online" and "get paid to take surveys" and other such junk, when I saw an ad that said you can get paid to write articles and stories online. Of course it turned out to be a scam which isn't that surprising but while I fantasized that it might be real I realized that writing articles, blog posts, and short stories might be fun. Also I thought that it would be good to write more often to increase my writing skills.

So here I am starting my own blog. I also thought it might be a better alternative to weekly e-mails that never seem to get sent out on time. I read many blogs, most about video games, and if I like this enough or turn out to be good at it maybe one day I might get a job working for those blogs. Here is a list of my favourite video game blogs:

Joystiq
Xbox 360 Fanboy
Wii Fanboy
Engadget

Take a look to see what I read pretty much every day on the internet.