I’m smack in the middle of my craziest week ever. This past weekend I was in Eminence for the start of a family tradition we call “Cabin Season.” This season starts on Memorial Day and runs until the end of the year, where we close down our Cabin in Eminence and get it ready for winter. I’ve uploaded some pictures from the weekend to my flickr site. Tonight I will be attending the Nightwish concert in Sauget, IL with Steve and the Whatleys. On Thursday I’ll be flying to Toronto, CA to compete in the Hockey North America championships. What a way to kick off the summer!

I’ve mentioned Nigthwish before. They’re a band from Finland and can be best described as symphonic metal, a mix of melodic symphony music and classic heavy metal. Its kind of a rarity that we get to see them this close to St. Louis, they typically don’t tour the US, and its normally in larger venues. To get a good idea what they sound like live, check out this video for Amaranth. Needless to say I’m super excited about seeing them play live.

Recently KG and I watched The Andromeda Strain, an A&E mini-series. Minus a total cheese fest at the end of four-hour event, the whole thing was done really well. It was a faithful adaptation of the Michael Crichton book by the same name and centers around a deadly virus that appears out of nowhere and threatens all mankind. Although the cast was a collection of B-teamers, they performed admirably. You should definitely check this out as A&E will obviously be running this on reruns for the months to come.

As a mature gamer who’s transitioned from hardcore to casual gaming, rhythm games are my new obsession. Obviously I’m excited about the recent announcements regarding Guitar Hero 4 and their entry into the “full-band experience.” GH4 will feature the most realistic drum peripheral to date, choosing to up the bar on Rock Band and adding a 5th button. The Guitar Hero drum kit will feature a left and right drum, a center snare, a bass peddle, and two cymbals. It looks pretty awesome. Guitar Hero 4 will also feature vocals, and some yet-unannounced innovations to the guitar. Activision is also promising create your own track mode, and customizable characters. Here’s a video showing off the new drumkit featuring the drummer from Red Hot Chilli Peppers,who I swear was Will Ferrel’s twin separated at birth.

Taking a cue from South Park, Weezer’s new video pays omage to those viral internet celebrities. The video touches on just about every one of those lovable losers who will be forever cemented in internet folklore, from All Your Base to Numa Numa, this video has them. This digg post lists all of the references (middle of the page) to the original source material, just in case you’re not familar with Chocolate Rain or Popozao. It may be Peanut Butter Jelly Time, but Will it blend?

To steal another page from Digg, I found this hand drawn video of Counter Strike. I have a lot of friends who love to beat the dead horse known as CS, and I thought this video was pretty funny.

Just to clarify, I’ve never smoked weed in my life, but I do know quite a few people who do and c’mon lets admit it, potheads are hilarious. Thats why I think Pineapple Express is going to be awesome. There is a new trailer out that makes me want to go see this movie right now. It doesn’t hurt it features that great song by MIA. It stars Seth Rogen and James Franco as a couple stoners who witness a crime and a forced to go on the lamb. Of course being completely stoned out of their mind, they don’t exactly make all the right decisions. This is the new movie from Judd Apatow’s crew and will be out early August. I can’t wait!

Its been a crazy, awesome week. On Tuesday my hockey team won its division and secured a spot in the HNA Championships in Toronto, Canada. Myself and the rest of the St. Louis Cobras will be traveling north to play against other teams from around the country. This will be our second time playing in the HNA Championships and I’m really looking forward to traveling and playing in another country. We had a great season ending with a 19-3-1 record. This will also be my last season playing hockey, and what better way to go out on top!

Also this week the Kari job search is finally coming to an end…. potentially. Barring any missteps in a few formalities, Kari will be signing a contract for her first teaching job. We’re both really excited that KG will finally get paid to do what she loves, and the secondary income isn’t too bad either!

Last weekend I picked up Mario Kart Wii. I’ve been a fan of the game since the early days on the SNES and played almost every version since. The major innovation with the Wii version is the Wii controls. The game comes shipped with a plastic wheel that you use with your Wiimote to steer your kart. You honestly feel like you’re really driving, its pretty amazing. The game is your standard fare, you race in the Grand Prix to unlock new circuits, which unlocks you new characters, and new karts and bikes. The other major upgrade in the Wii version is the addition of bikes. The bikes handle quite a bit differently than the karts allowing you to pop wheelies for an extra speed burst, they’re actually my favorite thing to race with.  Finally the addition of online has hurled the franchise into the 21st century where Xbox Live and Playstation Network have dominated online console gaming. It was really easy to quickly jump into a 12-person online race, just to try and join a friend, or you’re going to have to really work for it.

Iron Man is possibly the greatest super hero movie I’ve ever seen. It has a great story, following fairly close to comic book mythos while staying very fresh. I can’t think of a better choice than Robert Downey Jr. to play alcoholic, playboy, millionaire, genius Tony Stark. He does an amazing job. The special effects are top-notch, and really immerse you into this magical world where super heroes roam. If you managed to stay until the credits were over, you saw the appearance of Nick Fury and the building of future Marvel crossovers. This is the kind of fanboy shout-outs that hase the community buzzing. Seeing Samuel Jackson show up dressed as one-eyed Fury was the cherry on top of a perfect sundae. GO SEE THIS!

Leading up to the premier of the new season of Deadliest Catch, Discovery aired a marathon of the previous seasons. While I don’t have an exact number, I’m certain Kari caught at least 20 episodes over the course of two days. The show is very compelling, and KG had just recently gotten “hooked” on the show. The new season kicked off with two new episodes, and airs every Tuesday. Already a huge fan of the show, I was really excited when Kari and I saw the Aleutian Ballad docked in Ketchikan, Alaska on our Honeymoon.

Want to own a piece of history? The “Yankee’s Curse jersey” is being auctioned off on eBay. In case you aren’t familiar with the story behind this sordid piece of baseball history, check out this article. Basically a Red Sox fan working on the construction of the new Yankee Stadium, smuggled in and buried a David Ortiz jersey which later halted construction while the contraband was searched for.

Y: The Last Man has been taking up most of my reading time. Its a great series by Brian K Vaughn one of the writers of hit TV series Lost. Its a post apocalyptic drama about Yorik Brown, potentially the last man on earth and survivor of a catastrophic plague that has wiped out everyone with Y chromosome. It a great what-if story and highlights the relationships between Yorick and his guardians sworn to protect him as they travel cross country and eventually over seas looking for his fiance’ while the team works to find a cure for the plague.

One of the most anticipated Wii games this side of Super Smash Brothers is in stores this Sunday. Mario Kart Wii will be tearing into stores this weekend. Featuring new tracks, improved graphics, and the revolutionary Wii controls, this game is sure to make Nintendo a small fortune. One of the cool things about this incarnation of the game is that it comes shipped with a plastic steering wheel shell that you can use with your Wiimote to drive your cart.

Two of my favorite things are colliding when DC vs Mortal Kombat his shelves later this year. A bizzare team-up of comic book characters from the DC comics universe collide with Sub-Zero, Scorpion, and the rest of the Kombat Krew. While this game has been taken all kind of abuse from fanboys across the web, I think this game will be fantastic. Imagine Superman vs Raiden or Batman vs Liu Kang. I can’t wait, I say release it now!!

In case you’ve been living under a rock, you might know about Star Wars: The Clone Wars, a re imagining of the classic cartoon of the same name done completely digital. Images and a really rough looking trailer are starting to surface.  If this is anyway half as cool as the cartoon, this is going to be GREAT!

Speaking of Fanboys,  there is an interesting looking movie set to release this summer appropriately titled, Fanboys.   It follows a group of Star Wars obsessed geeks traveling cross country hoping to steal a copy of The Phantom Menance shortly before the release.  This movie has taken some heat lately because it was re edited by the produces, but thats not going to stop me from seeing this! Check out the trailer it looks pretty sweet.

Check out this picture of Vincent wearing his new leash.

Last weekend I traveled to Chicago with Aaron and a handful of my VS playing friends from St. Louis to compete in the Chicago VS Mega Weekend. I was one of 80+ players that had traveled to the Windy City to compete for a Playstation 3, a Nintendo Wii, and tons of other VS related prizes. People traveled as far as California to compete. I didn’t do so hot myself finishing 4-5 in the day one tournament, and 2-5 in the tournament on day two. My teammates had mixed results, finishing as high as 13th in the day two tournament. The weekend was a total blast, everyone had a great time and took home some free swag. On the way up to Chicago we stopped off and visited with Joe and Hilary, they provided us lodging for two nights. You can see some of the pictures of downtown Rossville on my Flickr. Or you can see some of the pictures from the Chicago tournaments here.

Aaron and I have been playing through Army of Two. Its a fun little game from EA where you take on the role of one of two private contract soldiers. The game is tailor-made for co-operative play and features many game mechanics capitalizing on having a friend there to help you out. One of the revolutionary new features is the inclusion of the “cover system.” Each player has an aggro meter that measures how much the enemy AI players hate you. The more damage you inflict the more your aggro meter will go up. This will cause the other player who is lower on the aggro chart to become invisible to the enemy setting up flanking and other combat maneuvers. The game is a blast and although it supposedly satires private military, the satire doesn’t really come across and it just seems to glamorize private contract military. The story is good enough, and the game play is a blast, its especially fun to upgrade your weapons and “bling” them out. At one point Aaron was carrying around a 4-foot gold plated sniper rifle, it was pretty hilarious. Check it out its on Xbox 360, and hopefully soon on PC.

I typically don’t go for romantic comedies, unless there are Zombies involved (Shaun of the Dead), but Run Fat Boy Run actually looks good. Maybe its the fact Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead) stars in it, and its directed by David Schwimmer that has peaked my interest.

Check out the video for Handlebars by Denver based hip-hop group Flobots. This group is cool because they seem to appeal to a broader audience than just the hip-hop crowd. I’m not sure if its because they include horns and strings in their live act, or if its the political messages they talk about with their music. Needless to say they’re buzzing up the Indie stations and you will be hearing these guys soon if not already.

Sometimes you see something on the web and it just blows your mind.  Such is the case with Sillof’s Steampunk Star Wars characters.  The way he customizes the original figures to fit into a completely different genre is just amazing.  If Steampunk doesn’t tickle your fancy check out Sillof’s World War 2 re imagining.   I love Han Solo as a 1942 Air Force captain complete with bomber jacket. This guy is a genius.

So recently I made the switch from a MyYahoo! to Netvibes. Both sites provide a service that allow you to view the content from multiple websites on one customizable page. Almost every site now will provide you with a RSS feed, the internet standard for syndicating content on the internet. With a few simple clicks you can create your own collection of all the news, scores, and photos from your favorite sites and places them onto one manageable page. Its pretty cool. This site actually has its own RSS feed which can be found on the bottom left of this page.

One of my favorite new shows is Jericho, the now twice-canceled post-nuke drama. The story centers around a small community that struggles to keep it together after several nuclear explosions ravage most of the continental US. Having grown up in a small rural area, I immediately identified with the small farm community in western Kansas which was the setting for Jericho. The writing and acting for the show was superb, especially for network television; I would say this show is on par with 24, Deadwood, or the Sopranos. Every episode ended with a hook that compelled you to watch the next one. If you haven’t seen the show I urge you to check out the first episode and all of the other episodes on the CBS website, they’re streamed there for free.

Speaking of awesome shows that were canceled way before they should have been, Battlestar Galactica is set to kick off the fourth and final season on April 4th. The hype machine has already started, whipping fanboys and girls into a frenzy. Recently the entire cast showed up on the David Letterman show to do the Weekly Top 10.

My favorite game of all time just recently got an update. Rock Band was patched last Thursday with tweaks to the World Tour mode, the addition of an in-game store, and a few other performance tweaks. The in-game store has me a little nervous since it makes purchasing new songs so easy. With new, and surprisingly exciting content coming out every single Tuesday, its going to be an exercise in self-control.

Over the weekend I went to visit Granny Bird in Malden. Driving down KG & I were shocked at how much rain the south east part of Missouri had received. Several fields and ditches were completely flooded. Luckily my Grandma escaped most of the flooding with only a little water under her house. The food is always great when I visit my “Bootheel” Family, and the wife and I had a great time. You can see a couple pictures of KG fishing on my Flickr page.

Details are start to surface on the new World of Warcraft miniatures game. You know, because they haven’t quite milked enough money out of the franchise just yet. I love miniatures, and I used to be a WoW addict, so this is looking pretty tempting. I might have to buy a pack or two, you know, just to collect.

Today marks the return of my Super Pumped List.  This was a feature on my old website, and it got several positive comments, so I thought I would bring it back!   So without any further adieu, here it goes:

5) Hellboy II:  The Golden Army - the sequel to the severely underrated Guillermo Del Torro’s cult hit Hellboy, based on the Image comics character of the same name.  The trailer looks great and I can’t wait for it to hit theaters on July 11th.

4)  Soul Caliber IV, the sword smashing game from Namco is coming to the Xbox 360, Wii, and PS2 in June.  The graphics are absolutely stunning and will most assuredly be burning up my Xbox for several months.  The big buzz about surrounding this game is the appearance of Star Wars alum Yoda and Darth Vader.  I’m not exactly sure how fair it is to the other combatants who don’t have light sabres, but I guess we’ll see.

3) Walking Dead vol 8 -  The 8th book in the Walking Dead series has been promised to shake things up a bit.  I’ll admit the story was starting to get a bit stale, but this one should bring new life into the post-apocalyptic zombie franchise.   Look for it on shelves in three weeks.

2) The return of Battlestar Galactica to SciFi.  I’ll admit the fact this is the last season makes the debut a little bittersweet, but I’m still very excited.  The promise of a new prequel series entitled Caprica, and the possibility of a movie has got fans stoked.

1) There are two Marvel movies coming out this summer leading up to a possible Avengers movie somewhere down the road.  So the one thing I’m most excited about is the Iron Man and The Hulk movies which will no doubt make several millions for Marvel Comics and the studios that produced the films.  Its a really good time to be a fanboy!

The US Military has confirmed they have found a weapon of mass destruction or WMD in Iraq. Unfortunately its not the ones they were looking for. According to this story on Yahoo! Chuck Norris is the only WMD in Iraq. Don’t forget: “Chuck Norris puts the laughter in manslaughter.”

Finally a good use for that old Mac. Now if someone could only find a use for the new Macbook Air.

The poster for the next Indiana Jones movie is creating some buzz as the movie studios hope the fourth Indy movie can rescue the summer movie season. I’m not quite sure what they’re worried about with this one, plus the Iron Man and Hulk movies all coming out this summer. Check out the trailer for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I have to admit, I still get a little giddy whenever I see that Lucasfilms logo. The trailer looks cool, and even though Harrison Ford looks incredibly ancient in the movie, I can’t see how this movie could suck.

Speaking of the Incredible Hulk, the trailer for the new movie starring Ed Norton is online. I saw it last night and in a fit of fan boy awesomeness I went around the house breaking stuff. This movie looks fantastic!

If anyone wants to do some early birthday shopping, I’d love to have one of these Zombie Survival Kits. You never know when the inevitable Zombie Apocalypse will happen, so its best to be prepared.

While we’re shopping for cool gifts for me, please add this Guitar Hero Air Guitar Rocker to the list. Its a belt buckle that plays pre-recorded tracks when you wave the special pick in front of it. So awesome! Watch this video and tell me you don’t want one too! Speaking of Guitar Hero, with this T-shirt you can take guitar hero wherever you go. Wear your shread!

Check out this amazing picture of Alley Springs that I found while perusing around Flickr. Check out some more amazing shots of where I grew up, here. These make those crappy iphone photos I have on My Flickr page look pretty silly.

Fox and NBC breaking free of the tyranny that is iTunes, have formed a new online streaming partnership called Hulu. The service allows you to watch their shows and shows from their affiliates (FX, USA, SciFi, etc) as well as several movies. Other companies have already begun to jump onto the bandwagon. It will be interesting to see if this new media coalition can compete with the digital wild west that is YouTube, but this kind of competition only benefits the consumers. My main hang up with Hulu is that it has ads EVERYWHERE. One cool feature is that you can clip the best parts out of your favorite TV shows and movies. Check out this scene I clipped from one of my favorite shows Arrested Development, its entitled Afternoon Delight.

To “rick roll” someone, is to trick them into clicking on a Rick Astley video from YouTube. This phenomenon is absolutely huge on most of the bigger message boards. Recently a couple of my friends and I have been having IM wars with the losers getting rick roll’d, it has been tremendous fun. Well apparently yesterday was a sort of a holiday in the Rick Roll Universe as it was the 20th anniversary of Never Gonna Give You Up.

Now for something completely different, check out this video of two kittens playing in the snow.

While Kari might disagree, I am proclaiming this guy the biggest Star Wars nerd in the universe. Two thing I know for sure, he has the largest collection of action figures that I’ve ever seen, and I’m very, very, jealous. His collection contains over 2000 loose figures with an additional 800 that are still in the boxes. No word on whether or not his collection contains Ponda Bobba w/ detachable arm.

This weekend I attended Tony’s wedding in Kansas City. KG, Steve, Melissa, and I hit the road early Saturday morning and arrived at the KC Super 8 sometime around 1:30 in beautiful Parkville, MO. I arrived at the chapel a little later to get into my tux and to help keep Tony calm on his big day. The ceremony was very nice, and the reception was a blast. At one point we were able to organize a Professor Dance-Off which featured Tony’s new bride who is a Math Professor at UMKC, and several of her colleagues. The St. Louis crew, of course, was all pulling for our favorite Physics nerd, Dr. Alex Silvius. You can see a few of the wedding pictures I took with my iPhone here on my Flickr page.

Attention true believers, the second X-Files movie is just around the corner. The cast and crew gave several juicy tidbits at the recent WonderCon.

The trailer for the new M. N. Shyamalan movie is available online. After seeing Lady in the Water, I’m hoping the surprise twist in this movie is that it doesn’t suck. The premise The Happening seems pretty cool. Some kind of cataclysmic event has triggered mass suicides around the country. Looks promising! I can deal with this movie not being as good as The Sixth Sense or Unbreakable just as long as its better than Lady in the Water. Even Paul Giamatti couldn’t save this stinker.

Here’s a picture of the rockin’ Reiters, co-founders of the band Nothing But Gingers.

There has been a firesale on detachable red goatees in the St. Louis area as the Cardinals have decided to part ways with the iconic Scott Spiezio.

Here’s to the finest rock ‘n roll Clown working today. The best of Dr. Rockzo. (season 1)

Update: I almost forgot to mention one of the greatest moments of the entire weekend. Tony has been taking dancing lessons for quite some time and what a prefect way to debut his skills than with the first dance of the evening. With a little help from Journey’s Open Arms (marvelous choice) Tony skillfully glided across the dance floor with new bride in tow.

On Saturday morning I attended the grand opening of the Hughes Intensive Training (H.I.T.) Gym. Founded by UFC fighter Matt Hughes and EliteXC middle-weight champ, Robbie Lawler, the gym is located across the river in Granite City, IL. The event attracted well over 400 people, and showcased a brand new state of the art training facility. Check out my Flickr if you want to see a few of the blurry photos I took from the weekend. The new MMA school is open to everyone of all skill levels. Whether you’re interested in just training weights and cardio or you want to train along side a UFC champ, its a unique opportunity for people of metro St. Louis.

Speaking of Flickr, I was able to find an application that will allow me to send photos from my phone directly into Flickr. Watch this space, as more photos should start appearing.

Sunday night I watched Into The Wild. I had heard the premise of this movie and had been dying to see it for quite some time. The film follows the life of Chris McCandless on a journey to find himself, a trip that leads him into the Alaskan wilderness. Based on the short story Death of an Innocent, it documents Chris’ terminal case of wanderlust and follows him on a kayaking trip into Mexico, a short stay in South Dakota working on a grain farm, and finally to Alaska where he eventually succumbs to starvation. The lush landscapes and Emile Hirsch’s acting paint a beautiful picture of this man’s life. This is the type of movie that forces you to do a self inventory of your own life, and makes quite an impression on you.

Looks like even the World of Warcraft developers like Portal, as the Weighted Companion Cube is making a cameo in this week’s Valentine’s Day festivities.

We got a bleeder! A scary moment for Richard Zednik as his teammate’s skate slices open his neck.

Team Fortress inspired Valentine’s Day cards. Print them out and give them to your special friend. My favorite is the special greetings from the Pyro.

I uploaded the pictures from the Superbowl weekend with the Rolla Gang. I knew it was going to be a wild weekend when Alex showed up with a huge barrel of pork rinds and a case of Coke Zero.

Rose, one of my Lan Party buddies is having some customer service issues with VIORE. Apparently his VIORE television stopped working shortly after the warranty date and he’s made several attempts to contact them directly without much success. Their lack of service has troubled him so much that he’s created a I Hate VIORE website. Good luck Josh! Fight the man!

In case anyone was keeping track, Friday February 15th is International “That’s What She Said” Day. This unofficial holiday encourages everyone to use the phrase in conversation as much as possible on Friday.

The trailer for the movie based on the video game Far Cry is now online and available for consumption. Its not often that the video game looks better than the movie, a big thanks to Uwe Boll for making that happen. This movie is a Far Cry from the source material … huh huh

The trailer for Hellboy 2 is making its rounds online and looks absolutely terrific. The first Hellboy was a surprise hit, and left fans of the comic begging for more. Guillermo Del Toro is quickly becoming one of my favorite actors for his unusually dark style, and amazing visuals. This movie is coming out in a summer thats already packed with geek favorites like Iron Man, a new Hulk Movie, Indiana Jones IV, and many others.

Team Fortress achievements anyone can get, courtesy of Something Awful. My favorite: “This is why we can’t have nice things” - While playing an engineer, ignore a teammate’s turret while its getting blasted to pieces in plain sight. I think I’ve been on the other end of this achievement several times, especially when Nate is on your team.

Speaking of TF2, an update was put onto Steam this week fixing a few exploits and adding a new spin on a classic map. There is also a rumored update in the works that will add unlockable weapons (similar to Call of Duty 4), and will be the first of many “class tweaks.”

Tracy Morgan + Jackass = Funny. Check out this video of manic comedian Tracy Morgan putting his own spin on things with his own Jackass style video.

Super Smash Bros Brawl is out in Japan and will be stateside in a matter of weeks. This is the “next gen” version of one of the most popular Game Cube games ever. Sure to be a mega seller on a platform that is desperate for quality games. I am really fond of the GC version, and can’t wait for this one. The only problem is that nobody I know really likes this game, and I struggle to find someone to play with.

A huge UFC event this weekend on the eve of Superbowl XLII (thats 42 to the leighperson.) The fightcard features two veteran heavyweights competing for the vacant UFC title, as well as the debut of the human juggernaut, Brock Lesnar. Brock was 33-0 as an amateur high school wrestler, and the 2000 NCAA heavyweight champion posting a 106-5 record in four years of college. Despite the fact he spent three years wrestling for the WWE, this guy is an absolute beast of a wrestler and should make a splash in the heavyweight division. The UFC has decided to give him a baptism by fire by putting him against former champion and jiu-jitsu expert Frank Mir in his first match. Here’s the video for Brock’s actual first match. It wasn’t much of a contest, with Lesnar overwhelming an under equipped Korean fighter.

This article on the Onion reminds me. All you Obama people, tough luck!

From the files of the Smoking Gun comes the greatest mugshot ever! Although I’m pretty partial to the Nick Nolte, this one is definitely the champ!

This Lego Predator almost brings a tear to my eye.  I said Almost!