I’m back at work this week from a hard week of gaming in Indiana.  I attended the annual Gen Con at the Indianapolis Convention Center in downtown Indy along with Alex, Steve, Matt2, and DM Dave.  We had a great time playing VS, crawling through dungeons with DM Dave, and getting to shop the Great Hall, the ultimate nerd shopping experience.   I took a ton of photos with my digital camera and my phone and loaded them all together,  I’ll leave it up to you to tell the difference.

Driving back Sunday afternoon I was pretty wiped out.  We packed in as much gaming as we possibly could only taking breaks to eat, sleep, and walk the great hall otherwise we were gaming!  I can’t wait until next year, only 355 more days to go!!!

When I returned from Indiana I was greeted by  a brand new 46″ Samsung LCD.  I had ordered the TV from Amazon since they were able to provide me with the best deal.  Not only was it the lowest price anywhere online but they also gave me free shipping and no sales tax!  Thats a huge saving on something like this. The first thing I noticed when I sat down to watch some TV is that the traditional analog signal is just not going to cut it.   Talking with Charter I found I could rent the HD box for a mere $10/month extra, and after just a few days of HD television, I have to say its well worth it.  Seeing the Cardinal games in clear 1080i resolution is awe-inspiring.

One of the main reasons for wanting a new HD TV was so that I could play my Xbox 360 and have it look the way its supposed to.   Lately I’ve been playing a ton of Soul Caliber IV.   This is the fifth in a series of very successful fighting games starting with the original Soul Blade for the Playstation One.  This game takes a different spin on the genre and features unique weapons for each of its characters.   The game looks amazing in 1080, but without an HDMI cable I’m not completely satisified as it could look if I had an HMDI-ready Xbox 360.  SC4 is really fun and features a unique spin on character creation.  I’ve literally spent hours customizing my favorite characters adding new weapons and outfits.  It really helps keep the game fresh and I’ll be playing this for many weeks to come.

Yesterday I was THIS close to driving to California and burning down the SciFi Channel offices.  After hearing  about the cancellation of one of my favorite shows Stargate: Atlantis, I was seriously ticked off (and rightly so!)  Today comes word of the launch of the third Stargate series Stargate: Universe.  Although the plot sounds very similar to that of Star Trek Voyager, at least its something.  I am really going to miss the adventures of Colonel Sheppard and the crew of Atlantis, but I guess if this is the worst of my problem then I’m pretty lucky.  There is word of a 2-hour straight-to-dvd movie from the Atlantis cast.  I guess the two previous SG-1 movies were successful enough to warrant more.

Last week I turned 31.  Not a great achievement by any means and not something I was looking particularly forward to.  Granted its nice to get presents from your loved ones, but each year makes turning 40 and middle-age even closer.   On Wednesday my actual birthday, Kari treated me to lunch at Quiznos and dinner from Cecil Whitakers, I also got my new Alpine car stero installed, not a bad day!  On Friday my mom and Aunt were in town for my adopted cousin’s wedding.  Dr. Guttman and The Kat took everyone out for dinner at Kobe Steakhouse.  For special occasions it doesn’t get any better than a hibachi grill.   The mix of food and showmanship by the chef make it a really fun night.  On Sunday my dad came into town a day before his flight on Monday to Utah.  Mr. Kotter was sporting his new “old man” glasses.  Plastic frames that are big enough to fit over his reading glasses.  You can see me modeling them on the picture below.

On Saturday KG and I saw The Dark Knight.  There isn’t much I can say other than this movie is absolutely terrific.  Its not so much a “super hero movie” as a heavy drama with super heroes.  It was simply amazing, and very well done.  All the hype surrounding this movie is warranted.   Go see as soon as you can.

There is a HUGE UFC card this weekend.  The main event which has huge title implications is being over shadowed by a pair of under card matches.  The return of the Next Big Thing, Brock Lesnar taking on heavyweight journeyman Heath Herring, and a match many are calling potential fight of the year in Roger Huerta and Kenny Florian.  This card is stacked and is guaranteed to deliver excitement.

Speaking of the UFC, Dana White has been doing video blogs all week long as he travels the country promoting UFC 87.  They’re pretty interesting and provide some insight behind the scenes.

Pictures from the Puckfest 2008 tournament I played in a couple weeks ago including one of me holding the trophy!

So who gets the Madden Curse this year?  The cover of Madden 09 on the Xbox 360 has Brett Favre pictured… in a Packers uniform.  I’m leaning towards the Packers.  I just can’t understand how you dump a Hall of Fame quarterback like Favre like yesterday’s garbage.

Kari and I celebrated our 1st anniversary this past weekend ( officially it was Monday.)  As part of our wedding package the Sheraton gave us a free room on our anniversary date.   Fortunately for us the Sheraton was booked the night before and it took us a while to get a room, the fortunate part being we were given free drinks and free breakfast vouchers as compensation.  Another mix-up on the Sheraton’s part found us finding free deserts and champagne in our room (they were meant for another couple.)  We started the day with by visiting the St. Louis Art Museum, had a really nice dinner at Alexander’s, and ended the night by visiting the swimming pool.  I had thought about making this an anniversary tradition, but after seeing the retail price of the room, I quickly sobered up.

The guy who did the Steampunk modifications on the Star Wars action figures is back with the Empire Strikes Back collection.  This guy is totally amazing, and the figures all really capture the style and feel of the Steampunk genre.  His Boba Fett is absolutely incredible.

If this rumored setlist for Guitar Hero World Tour is even halfway accurate, its going to be a must buy.  It features at least three Tool songs, and the debut of both the Doors AND Jimmy Hendrix.  Looks like a great list.  I just hope my rockband instruments are compatible.

There were three great MMA events over the weekend.   The UFC provided counter-programming to try and disrupt the debut of the newest MMA company Affliction.   Both shows featured each company’s best fighter, and the #1 and #2 pound-for-pound respectively.  The question is who is #1?   Fedor Emelineko is often regarded as the best fighter on the planet, but with lack of quality competitive fights as of late his prestige has started to tarnish.  Anderson Silva looks absolutely unbeatable at this point.  Its hard to choose between either of these fighters and neither disappointed as both main events this weekend lasted less than a minute.  While you decide check out this awesome Silva HL video.

Speaking of Affliction, they have some the coolest t-shirts I’ve ever seen.  Their new “Bamboo” line looks especially cool.  At $66 they’re a little out of my league, but if I ever start fighting in the UFC maybe I can get one.

There is one more major fight card this weekend on CBS promoted by the EliteXC folks.  This event will feature St. Louisan Robbie Lawler and is a rematch from the last CBS/EliteXC show.  Also on the card is one of my favorites Nick Diaz.  Nick is one of those fighters that fans love to hate.  He’s brash and it would seem he likes to look for trouble.

The trailer for the Watchmen is now online.  This movie is based on the most highly regarded comic of the same name, and features 300 director Zach Snyder.  I only made it about halfway through reading the Watchmen, but it looks like I may have to give it another look before the movie hits theaters.  We’re still a year away, but next year’s lineup of movies is really starting to take shape.  It seems like comic books are an endless resources of awesomeness for Hollywood directors.

Over the holiday weekend, Kari and I traveled to Ozark to help my mom with her concession trailer.  We were both employees of Patty’s Concessions just for the day. According to one report there was over 120,000 people that showed up for the annual I Love America festival, and business was great!  We sold out of nearly everything we had, with a line of over 30 people from 4 to 9 PM.  Check out the picture of Kari on the left below.  She may have been all smiles when we setup that morning, but it was a bad scene when we closed.   It was tons of fun helping out mom in the trailer, I just wouldn’t want to do this every weekend.

I forgot to mention in my last post, but my Aunt Linda won Citizen of the Year in Malden.  This is a pretty big honor which is must deserved for all the charity work she does with in the community. I think thats pretty cool!

Its non-issue, the best American Gladiator is Gina Carano aka Crush.  Check out this video of Crush taking out some old lady on pyramid.  The good stuff happens around 1:25

I wish I had a copy of this poster for my office.  Personally a cool picture of Han Solo gets me more pumped up than a picture of some dude’s in row boat and some crap about Teamwork.

The new Hulk movie is FANTASTIC.  I saw this a couple weekends ago with the biggest Hulk fanboy I know, Aaron “P-Diddy” Holmes.  We both agreed this movie was almost as good as Iron Man, and definitely the better than anything out there. This was relaunch of the franchise and is no way related to the debacle that was the Ang Lee movie from a couple years ago.   Ed Norton was brilliant as Dr. Bruce Banner and the special effects used on the Hulk were top notch.  Go see this or the Hulk will SMASH you!

In case you’ve been living under a rock, you know that Diablo 3 has been officially announced.  This game is of course done by the makers of World of Warcraft and looks awwwwwwwwesome.  I don’t expect this to be done anytime this year as Blizzard is notoriously bad for taking forever to release games.  Look at Starcraft 2, that game was announced last year, and it still isn’t out.   Check out this video on two of the classes in D3.

The greatest footie on the planet.  All 42 goals from this year’s Champions League.  The goal at 6:33 is just mind bottling.

This web comic is GREAT.  It makes light of the ongoing “arms race” between the different rhythm games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero.   Neil Pert is of course the drummer from Rush who’s most famous for his 31-piece drums setup.

I survived a wild trip on the river with the Reiters this past weekend.  We did an overnight float trip on the Big River near De Soto, Missouri.  We headed out Saturday morning, floated for about five hours, and then made camp on a gravel bar.  The next morning we floated another four hours before we loaded up the canoes and headed to Imo’s for lunch.  You can see the pictures from the trip I took on my flickr photo stream.

This email just arrived from our Publisher’s administrative assistant: “As you are all aware of, the building has had a water main break.  There will be no water and bathroom facilities today.  The building owners are providing porta-potties outside.  Arrival of the porta-potties will be sometime this morning.”   I have been drinking water all morning and the situation is getting critical!

Here’s a picture I snapped this morning of the “Corporate Washroom” here at the SBJ.

I love covers, especially when they’re done by artists that are drastically different stylistically from the original.  Crazy by Gnarles Barkley was one of the most popular songs of last year.  You couldn’t go anywhere without hearing it The Violent Femmes, one of the great bands from the 90’s that was “indie” before it was fashionable.  Their cover of Crazy is now available on MySpace or iTunes.  Check it out, its pretty cool.  In case you haven’t seen it, the Mtv performance of Crazy by Gnarles Barkley featuring Chewbaca on drums.  Instant classic!

Speaking of Gnarles Barkley, here is their latest video. DJ Dangermouse is such a genius!

This cartoon really made me laugh, I know how you feel buddy! If I can just raise enough money maybe I can get KG to let me get the 3G iPhone.  You can donate money here!

Even though its been like 18 years since Diablo 2 came out, that doesn’t temper my excitement for the sequel!  Thats right, Blizzard has officially announced Diablo 3 at Blizzard World.   They also unveiled a fully interactive website with art, trailers, and much more.  This has quickly lept to the top of the heap of games that I am excited about!  Check out the teaser trailer and tell me you don’t feel the same way.

KG and I saw Indiana Jones and The Temple of the Really Long Annoying Name last Sunday.  Being a fan of the original trilogy of movies I was really excited to see this one.   The movie started off really good, classic Indy: he was taking on the Russians, he was trying to save the world while comically winning fights against outlandish odds, he was saving the damsel in distress.  About halfway through the movie they started mentioning the origins of these mystical crystal skulls which everyone including Indy was searching for.  That is when the movie started to take a turn for the worse.   Anytime George Lucas is involved in a project you have to sort of wonder what kind of shenanigans he is going to pull.  Sure enough, in the final moments of the movie the aliens show up and leave earth in a giant spaceship while simultaneously ruining a potentially good movie, and a great series.

We did it! We’re on the map.  St. Louis is now available to the awesome Street View feature in Google Maps.   You can see where I worked previously, downtown at the Post-Dispatch as well as tons of other local landmarks.  Not all of St. Louis is covered by Street View, but you can see all the major parts of the city like the Musial statue at Busch Stadium.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock you’ve probably heard of the grand unveiling of the second generation iPhone.  The new device will have built-in GPS, super fast wireless internet, and a host of other new features.   In addition to all these wonderful upgrades, Apple will give this phone to you for a mere $200.  Sounds great huh? Of course you’ll need to sign a 2-year service agreement.  Did I mention the mandatory data plan has increased by $10/month? Just some quick math, the new phone will cost you an additional $240 over the life of your service plan.  Don’t get me wrong, this is still an amazing little device.  I just need to figure out a way to convince KG to let me upgrade!

Wizards has released the 4th Edition of Dungeons & Dragons, and it is sweeeeet.  It features stream-lined character creation, and a new rule set that has been described as “elegantly simple.” Of course D&D nerds world-wide are mixed on the changes.  Personally I welcome the modernization of the rules, and the simplification of certain aspects of the game.  I think this edition will be easier to get new players into the game, and should be a lot of fun.  I’m currently scheduled to play in DM Dave’s new Haldane campaign in the early Fall.  I can’t wait!!

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.