Guild Hero

So a quick post on some things wrapped up tonight. I watched season 2 of the Guild. Just like the first, it was a whole lot of fun and a joy. The characters are great and I think that's the biggest appeal. The jokes and situations are funny, even though I don't play any MMOs. Great stuff.
Heroes Volume 4(?) also finished this evening. It's clear that it's improving and has improved from it's low and horrible volumes 2 & 3. I like how they killed off some of the characters and feel that at times the writing is good creating unusual situations and bringing back some unusual powers. I feel that overall it's not as good as the first season, but it's back on its way up. I felt the ending was a little bit of a cop out, but they can definitely have some fun with this for next season. (Although the ice woman's recurrence was surprisingly unexpected.)
Other than that, I went to the dentist today. Good to have nice clean teeth :D I guess they'll hurt tomorrow though. One thing that came up was the possibility of braces to straighten up my teeth and fix some of my alignment problems. Although clearly cosmetic and not necessary for me since I'm only minor, it still is something to think about, especially since I'm eligible for invisalign. I still have to do a bunch of research before I make any decisions.

I Can Drive!

Just a quick post about this weekend. It was a beautiful weekend, but besides for taking a bunch of walks outside, I wasn't able to truly enjoy it, although it did warm up the apartment which is always good. Saturday I was stuck in a Defensive Driving Course for most of the day. IBM was offering it so I signed up to get a great discount on my insurance. It was mostly all common sense, but the instructor was pretty good even if he did stray off topic a lot.
I also saw Zack and Miri Make a Porno later that night. I found this comedy to be pretty good actually. Maybe walking in with a title like that sets the bar kinda low, but it passed it. I laughed at several moments even if it was a low brow comedy. The plot was totally predictable and boring, but weak plots in low brow comedies combined with retarded plots in pornos isn't going to produce something amazing.
Didn't really do much else this weekend. I wanted to beat the main plot of Valkyria Chronicles, but some of the parts took longer than anticipated. It would have been nice to go back to PSU this weekend for Blue and White, but maybe another year.

Sunset Strip Bitch

So last night I went to an Eve6 concert at The Chance. I never saw them before and figured it would be a good night out. I was a little concerned about the turnout at first. It was relatively sparse, but people turned out before Eve6 went on. The openers were all local bands. The first and third were pretty good but the second was total crap. Some sort of eighties hair band where the lead singer was like a gay, British cowboy. Eve 6 put on a good show playing most of the hits and a lot of new stuff. I guess most of it sounded ok, I'll have to see when a new album comes out. I really like having the Chance close by to get good bands like this, although everything about the whole ordeal seemed expensive though. There were over 7 dollars in fees on top of my ticket price, I had to pay for event parking which was an additional $5, and the drinks were kinda expensive ($4 for a beer plus tip). It just seemed to add up for only one night out. Oh well, I had fun. Plus, this was my first concert in a long time where I didn't go wild at the Merch table. In fact, I didn't get anything. Can't remember that happening in like forever.

Squeenix and it's Body of Lies

Tonight I saw Body of Lies. This was a great political thriller in the world of spies and the Iraq war. It was a really good movie keeping my attention and following the subtle nuances. My main thing I feel like pointing out is how good Leonardo DiCaprio's latest movies have all been. He has been a very consistent actor and someone who I now respect in all of his movies. I look forward to any of his upcoming movies since they seem to be really good. He's definitely turning into an Edward Norton class of actor in my mind.

So a little bit ago, I posted about the recent love of PS3. I think I spoke too soon, or rather lumped in one company I shouldn't have. Square Enix has really been pissing me off as of late. They used to be my favorite and most dependable game company and now I feel they are worthless. First it seems like they haven't developed anything significant in recent years and not having a DS has certainly made that even worse since I didn't get The World Ends with You. Even more so, they have show absolutely no love to the PS3 and the Sony brand in general even though they used to be almost exclusive publishers. The PS3 has gotten a little love in Japan only with a few PSN titles and re-releases. In America, they have not released a single thing and have taken away exclusivity from future titles. They were planning on a Last Remnant port, but that even seems to be out the window. They seem to now be in love with the Xbox with a few disk based games already released. They even have Crystal Defenders which is fully translated and available in Japan only, but for some reason Xbox only in the US. What got me started was that Square Enix recently announced I think 2 more new Xbox Live Arcade Games. Meanwhile they show nothing for the PS3. It is truly ridiculous how much they are pandering to Microsoft nowadays. The only exclusive that is left is FF Versus 13 and since the regular 13 is behind schedule, seems development is extremely slow as of late. At one point they were saying similar release windows and now it seems like the game will be distant, at best. I'm afraid E3 will hold some sort of evil surprise and this game will lose exclusivity. All I know is that it's difficult to see a company that I once love show no respect for a fellow Japanese system, which happens to be the camp I'm in. I feel a lack of loyalty now. I used to buy a game just because of the distributor was Square, now I almost feel the opposite. Instead Distributors like NIS and Atlus have replaced them. It's a shame when a childhood friend like that drifts away.

Budgeting Woes

So I seem to be having some trouble with my budget. I'm not necessarily breaking my budget or going over it. It's more along the lines of if I allotted money for it, I seem to spend it and having a surplus is no good. Lately I feel I've been keeping the whole floundering anime industry alive with my incessant spending. I've rediscovered Rightstuf's awesome sales and have been purchasing titles like crazy. Now even though I've allotted a set amount each month for entertainment and haven't really gone over it, I still feel guilty. This recent anime addiction is going to turn into my video game addiction where I have a nice collection, but haven't played nearly as many. The same is going to happen to my anime I've been buying I feel. I've bought several series lately: Boogiepop Phantom, Noein, Gunslinger Girl, GTO, Beck, Getbackers, Basilisk, Tsukihime, and several more that are staring me down. Maybe it's just me catching up for not really being into anime that much in the past 5 years after drifting out of it or me only really buying about 1 series in the past 5 years. Maybe it's how I'm kinda caught up buying all of the video games I wanted to get for the current and past generations (which aren't prohibitively expensive). I just know I feel bad for spending my budget.

Passing time

So a really slow and boring week for me, but I wanted to make a post just to say the few small things I've been up to. Work was pretty slow this past week again, but it appears it will pick up this coming week. I've got the outline of three different tasks I need to get done now, so that's good and I'm excited for it. This weekend was incredibly lazy. I first did some regular 'ol chores and errands including picking up some new contacts since the past pair was wrong or something. Also, I renewed Game Informer at Gamestop...hopefully they did it correctly. The highlight of the day was most likely passing my NY inspection for my car. It's a major relief, although I wish they would have put a May date on it. Beyond that, I did some reading and played a bunch of Valkyria Chronicles. I'm advancing really far and feel I'm very close to the end.

I also saw two movies this past week. Nothing too exciting, but I saw Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist and Special. Nick and Nora was a pretty good and just a decent teenage romantic comedy. The soundtrack was very good but some of the acting felt fake. Tonight I saw Special. It was a decent dark comedy about perceived superpowers during a drug trial. It was good and all, but wasn't really drawn in to the movie. I ended up just feeling sorry for the main character. It also was incredibly short at just 81 minutes. I did enjoy that it was independent, if nothing more than to see other independent trailers which normally don't get much exposure.

I hope to make some more posts this week, but we'll see how that goes...

An Easter with Doubt

So I had a pretty good weekend at home for Easter. It was good to spend some time with my family and get some good food out of the occasion, which I swear I must have gained a few pounds this weekend alone. I was also happy that even though it was Easter, not really any religious conversations came up. I don't know if this was just by chance (more than likely) or if they actually realize that I'm not religious at all anymore. On that very topic, it created some interesting topics of discussion this past week at work, with some members finding out others are actually religious or that others aren't religious at all. I found the situation pretty funny since I at one point was in both camps and now I'm looking back on the whole thing. (And this whole past week I found myself more and more cynical to religion and Easter in general so I was curious how this past weekend might go)

This past week I saw the movie Doubt. It's about the suspicion of a priest in a catholic church doing inappropriate things to a young boy. The movie itself never lets you know whether it is true or not since it is supposed to cause "Doubt". The film was excellent and I found it pretty riveting since I was trying to find indication of one way or another. My main problems with the film all stem from just the setting of the film. The film does a very good job of depicting judgmental attitudes along with holier than though attitudes among other things. Basically it easily reminds me of tons of things I hate about the Catholic church and made me angry at several parts. Having that battle between a good movie and something I hate provided an interesting viewing experience.

Also last week was the premiere of some new shows on NBC (and some more coming up). Particularly, I saw the first episodes of Parks and Recreation and Southland. I thought Parks and Recreation was a little awkward but had some potential and was kinda good. I remember some of the initial Office episodes being a little awkward and it turned out quite well. My main problem is that it might be a little too similar to The Office. It is the exact same thing and I think Steve Carell does a better job than Amy Poehler. I though Southland was ok at best. It mainly seemed like another cop drama that didn't bring anything new to the table. I think I may stick with both shows at the moment though since they have some good time slots on Thursday nights. P.S. that night's 30 Rock episode was one of the best episodes I've seen in quite some time. I was actually laughing out loud for once and it just kept me laughing. Good stuff.
My main fear with adding two more potential shows I like to watch is that I'm following way too many shows as it is. I barely have time to do anything else and I know I'll have trouble once fall comes around, although it seems like some may not get renewed.

Lastly, this weekend I briefly tried out Boxee. I've heard lots of great things since it's supposed to be a decent streaming aggregate software. I have to say, I'm not impressed. I had tons of problems that aren't enough to win me over. The main site I use is Hulu, so I checked this out first. It doesn't really support my queue feature as it was grabbing from the bottom of the queue which kinda defeats the purpose. It also was unable to go back many episodes of shows like anime. I then decided to go try another channel so I checked out Netflix. After some trouble logging in, I tried to stream something but got another error forcing that channel useless. Lastly I went over to Rev3 to just try and stream something and found the quality to be pretty crappy. Missing from the main Boxee are features like a main queue and key channels like ABC, CBS, Fancast, and Crunchyroll. As it stands, I do not like this software one bit and don't see what the fuss is about. Maybe in due time I will come to check it out again, but right now I have no problem going to individual sites.

PS3 Love

I am getting so stoked about some upcoming games for the PS3. For a short while there, it looked like absolutely nothing was coming out and I wouldn't really have a purchase until FF13 rolled around after Hell freezes over. A bunch of announcements for Japan releases give me a bunch of hope that some may come stateside. hopefully E3 turns up some juicy goodies about even more good RPGs coming forward.
So besides for some of the big name other genre releases coming up (Uncharted 2, Assassin's Creed 2, New Team Ico game, Katamari, etc.), I wanted to focus on RPGs at the moment since that is where my core interests lie and what I'm currently overy excited for. Coming up recently we've got Cross Edge, which I know is solely Fan service, but it's got Etna and Prinnies and for that I'm sold. Also in the next week or maybe even tomorrow, more DLC for Valkyria Chronicles, which is great since I'm enjoying the game immensely. (Although I'll probably skip on the Extra Hard mode since I doubt I'll replay (especially without a tank) and the game is pretty challenging already). Already released, but have seen very news about is Demon Souls and White Knight Chronicles. Although not my immediate style of RPG, I would probably still pick them up since I imagine they might be pretty cool. Recently announced we have the Tales of Vesperia port, Atelier Rorona, and End of Eternity. Probably all would be preorders for me, especially if they through in some bonus. I love Nippon Ichi and I have heard great things about Vesperia. The Tri-Ace could be pretty cool and from what I could tell is not cell shaded. Other distant games include both FF13, FF Verses 13, and Last Remnant. Last Remnant I'm a little hesitant but being Square-Enix, I'd probably pick it up to show SE that there is support on the PS3 (even though they have essentially abandoned us). Overall, I love the recent announcements and hope some new games come over here.

Quick Random Thoughts

Some more slow days this past week or so but wanted to post some quick comments on a few things since I haven't made a post in a while it seems.
- Heroes is starting to pick up again. Although Monday's episode was pretty predictable, I found it to be fun again which is an improvement from some of the earlier episodes. Hopefully they can keep up that pacing.
- Fringe is back! yay! Although I'm mad at American Idol for running over by like 10 minutes. What's the deal with that? You have a time slot. Stick to it. I don't tune in for a reason.
- I've been watching a bunch of Naruto recently. Although I'm not the core demographic and it's old news by now since I'm starting from the beginning, I'm having fun watching it. I definitely stated watching at the worst possible part of the entire series which helps explain my initial dislike for it. I'm still a little embarrassed about it though.
- I watched Seven Pounds. Pretty good movie. A good story although pretty predictable. Not nearly as good as Will Smith's other movies, but still good
- I am glad I don't have Time Warner. There are rumors that they may soon start charging based on usage plan and $1 for each extra gigabyte, effectively raising charges for customers. Cablevision is a pretty big company so it seems it may be only a matter of time before they try something similar. (Frankly I'm surprised it hasn't happened yet) I wonder if FIOS would be a viable option. If so, I think I may have to go that route.
So this weekend I'll be heading home for Easter to see the family. Can't hurt for more good food.

Statue of Catching Up

So it's been a busy week. Work has been picking up (outside of today) and this past weekend my parents came up to visit. Since then, I've been mostly trying to catch up with stuff since I was out of whack. The one thing we did do was go down to NYC on Saturday. We first went to the Statue of Liberty. It was a nice site and I'm glad I finally got to go see it. We also went to Ellis Island. I found this extremely interesting seeing all of the immigrant's stories. The artifacts they had were cool to look at. I never realized just how similar the situations in America relate to the ones of today. I knew it was close, but it was amazing how exact. We also got to walk by the WTC site, Chinatown, and Little Italy. I was a little disappointed with Chinatown since it wasn't as good as the one in San Francisco. Little Italy was cool and it was a nice place to grab some pizza. We also walked around midtown Manhattan too. I think in total we walked over 7 miles. It was quite a long day.

Other than that, I watched the latest Coen Brother's film. I thought it was pretty good. It was a little over the top and pointless from a plot perspective, but I had fun with it. I seem to be a fan of the Coen brother's films.
It's also good to see the Penn State Basketball team having some success. Tomorrow they are in the NIT championship game. If they can win against Baylor, that would be awesome and huge for the school since we are normally bottom dwellers. Let's go State!