Full On Wrestling!

So this one ends up being my real last post of the month, since the month is over after tomorrow anyway. But that isn't what this is about! No, not even close folks! Instead, I'm going to write about something I haven't really written about in ages.

Wrestling.

Being that I had been out of the loop of things for the past year, I didn't really bother to write about it or really mention it all that often. Add into that the whole Benoit tragedy and really, I just didn't have anything I felt that was worth saying. What makes today so different? Well I am still out of the loop in that I haven't watched an actual show in a long while (not counting ECW online these days).

But I still do try and catch whatever I can, whenever I can, thank you YouTube.

Good example of this was the return of Chris Jericho, which was pretty interesting to say the least. I think for a guy that has been gone for 2 years, he can still cut a better promo then most guys around today. What I haven't found yet, however, was his recent match against Santino Marella on Raw. I am still curious to see how and what the years away did to the guy.

I just picked up both the John Cena and Shawn Michaels DVDs, both of which are basically biographies on both wrestlers. I've only gotten to watch through John Cena's so far and it isn't really a bad DVD. But what I enjoyed the most about these types of DVDs are when the wrestler shares what he/she thought about the periods of their careers, lives, etc and not all too much about what family and friends thought about it. This DVD ends up being heavy on the friends and family commentary and absolutely NOTHING from the man himself.

In a lot of ways, it reminded me of Stone Cold Steve Austin's DVD, which had a decent pick of matches and promos as extras, but I thought it was a tad bit ruined with the laughter and chatter of family members. Salvation for that comes later, probably next year, when a real bio DVD for Stone Cold is released. Hopefully they keep it strictly to Stone Cold and not to everybody else.

Beyond that, I think that is it for the time being as I still can't really comment all that much about wrestling in general. One last thing I will share was a theory I read (I forgot where at) about the influx of former WWE wrestlers jumping ship to TNA. Maybe it is all set up? Maybe it is a plan orchestrated by the WWE to infiltrate and destroy the competition before it becomes a threat.

Possible? Yes. Impossible? Probably not.

I mean take a look at the number of ex-WWE guys on TNA right now. That list is getting to be pretty long and growing with each passing release. I am surprised that the former Chris Masters hasn't appeared in TNA yet. I can't imagine it'll be far off, not when everone from Test down to Rikishi have all appeared on that show.

Just don't get me wrong, I am not either for or against this theory. It is, after all, just a theory. What I do believe is TNA is on a fast track of being the new WCW, which did sign everything WWE dropped/fired/let go or however you'd like to put it. Am I wrong? I guess only time will tell.

One More For The Road

So I've been slacking a bit in my writing this month and for good reason. Umm... Ok, so maybe that ends up being a tiny little lie. It has been more like me being lazier then ever, not to mention I got to spend Thanksgiving sick for most of my time away from work.

But besides a small bout of sickness, Thanksgiving was nice and quiet for us this year (as it usually is). My girlfriend cooked up a mean turkey, which has been so for the past 3 years and counting.

I think I'm keeping this thing short and sweet, since Blogger helped me butcher the last 2 entries of mine. All in all, I suppose life is going pretty OK. My legs are killing me right now and I'm afraid this will lead back to the knee pains I had a few weeks back.

No, this pain isn't relevant with age.

Ah hell, so long as my hands can still hang onto a game controller, I think I'll be OK.

Speaking of which, I wish I wasn't feeling so tired that I don't even feel like turning my XBox on tonight. And we're talking Assassin's Creed here! Yes, I am still enjoying the game and it's killing. The story telling isn't too shaby still, either. I just wish I could "read ahead" in both halves of the storyline. Maybe I'll write this out better in the very near future...

Well, my other option is to watch (again) a Korean drama by the name Winter Sonata. I think it is still safe for me to say that this is the only series that I have watched and enjoyed, more often then not. The few others I've watched didn't cut it for me and I usually walk away and wash dishes or something.

Me washing dishes instead of watching TV = Bad.

Whatever I end up doing, I think this will end up being my last entry for the loverly month of November. I kind of can't wait for Christmas, if only because it'll mean a longer weekend for me (hopefully). I swear, I am getting old...

First Impression: Assassin's Creed

Now here is a game that I really didn't have any expectations built up about. Sure, I did read about it here and there in a few gaming magazines, but otherwise it was just another game to me. So understand my uncertainty as well as my surprise when I found myself a mere day or so ago, in a game store with Assassin's Creed in my hands.

The narrative is pretty good from what I've heard so far and the story itself intrigues me to say the least. The graphics itself is nothing short of beautiful and to think that I say this and I do not own a HD TV.

What surprised me even more so was how easy it was to pick up the control and play the game and yet there was more to it then it seemed. I think my favorite past times in game (so far) are the assassinations and taking every opportunity for a "Leap of Faith."

As I said, while one of my favorite things is the assassinations, it also is the only thing I can complain about this game thus far. Let me set the scene here...

I entered a town and I immediately see a pair of guards with their swords drawn. As I've learned oh so very quickly, that spells trouble for me. So I quickly hop onto a rooftop of a house and drop down a short distance away from one of the guards. I hold a button and the Ancestor (as one half of the main character is called) "blends" in. I double check to make sure I have my hidden blade ready and I proceed slowly towards the guard. In a split second, I drop my hands and drive the blade into his back and he quickly drops to the ground dead.

Now comes my surprise.

There were actually a total of 6 guards in that immediate area and they were all basically facing each other, so it wasn't like I was all that stealthy. I take my time and wander around and drop the guards, one by one. What gets me is each time I kill a guard, the remaining said aloud: "Who is responsible for this!?"

Because surely, a hooded man with a sword on his side and a horse following behind of him who, by some stroke of chance, happens to be nearby as each of the guards drops dead. No, no... that just doesn't look at all suspicious.

Again, that is the only thing I can really say that stands out to me and I suppose it really is just a minor thing.

Otherwise, this is a fun and different game (at least for me anyway) that looks to be that great game I've been hoping to find/play on the XBox 360.

Oh Thanks a Lot...

Thanksgiving is upon us and all I can say (and do) right now is cough. By some stroke of luck, I've managed to get sick on what would have been 3 days of rest, relaxation and food! While all of that is happening still, I can also add on the following:

1. Four days (after calling in sick this morning) off.

2. What feels like a dripping feeling at the back of my throat.

3. Coughing.

4. Body aches.

5. A boss at work who probably is under the belief (again) that I am plotting something dastardly against him. Because rest assured folks, messing around with my boss in a grocery store is definitely top ranking of "Must Do's."

To top things off, the doctor I was hoping to see today was booked up all day today. So all I could do today to fight off this throat problems was down cough drops and hope for the best. Not the greatest solution (or idea), but it is as good as I could do. Yay.

But enough about all of that, I am feeling slightly better now or at least better then I did this morning. What sucks worst is every time I lay down to sleep, I wake up feeling worse then when I was awake. Someone up there must be really watching out for me! *grumbles*

Anyway, god I wish I had cable to see WWE Raw this past Monday night. After reading the results online, I think the biggest news was about a certain returning wrestler. At least it answered who and why all of those "Save_Us" promos have been playing for the past month or so. They were, in fact, for the returning Chris Jericho.

Thankfully, I did get to see his return on YouTube.

Speaking of whom, Jericho's book was a pretty damn good read and definitely one of the best wrestler bios I've read yet. I think the last time I read a biography that I actually read from start to finish was the Hardys (WWE tag team).

What I enjoy the most about these wrestlers' stories are the tales they share from their years of travel and working around the globe. It does add a whole different perspective to the individuals and it is interesting to read their thoughts and feelings about major happenings throughout their careers.

Besides that, I have been picking back up on listening to Evanescence's music and more importantly, giving their latest CD a better listen through. Yeah, it isn't the most awesome thing to have ever been done by a person, but I am sickly and my options for "fun" are extremely limited!

Anyway, the music wasn't all that bad, but I think I liked their original outing better then this. I think I can say the same for other groups like Disturbed and Drowning Pool also. But to each his/her own, maybe I am just truly stuck living in the past.

Or maybe a lot of these group's music has gotten that shitty.

Hmmm.... Now I'm going to go and play a little more of Naruto: Rise of the Ninja and feel and hear the pain of English dubbing. Don't get me wrong, some series do a very good job at dubbing and the voices don't annoy my ears to the point of bleeding. Good example here would be Fullmetal Alchemist.

But as far as Naruto goes... Please, Stop the violence. Or shut the hell up. Which brings me to the only gripe (so far) concerning the game: Lack of dual language voice overs. Dear lord this game could use it... (in my opinion anyway).

Thankful am I indeed. Surely I am! Now shut up and pass the cough drops... =(

P.S. And thank you to Blogger for taking my words and smashing it all together to form such a beautiful wall of text. Thank you, thank you so very bloody much... -.-

Life, Memories & Old Friends

Tonight is one of those nights for me, the kind that just seems to slow to a snail's pace. With all of this extra time, I find that my mind (as it usually does) has begun to wander and when it wanders, it remembers. That last line does sound bad, huh? But that is the absolute truth folks. On a typical day, my mind is usually everywhere else besides the past. For me personally, it helps sometimes to not actively remember those things because I think I'd end up being homesick if I think about it for too long.

Which makes tonight an extra long one, for reasons which I shall attempt to explain.

God, it's been what? Five years since I graduated from high school? I suppose five years isn't really that long when one thinks about it. But man, how the time just flies by when you lose sight of it. Before long, it'll be ten years and I'm going to be an old bag by then.

Five years... and I can't say that I have done all that much in the accomplishment department. Yeah, I live on my own with my girlfriend. No, I haven't made any reasonably serious attempt at college. On the flip side, I have experienced certain parts of life that have made me somewhat wiser and I suppose the challenges of trying to live life without a college degree have given me a glimpse of what life could be like, should I continue to make no real efforts.

Don't get me wrong though, I mean my present job isn't the greatest in all of the world, but it pays the bills and the position I am in is what I wanted. At this stage in my life, I'd rather keep active and moving and not sitting behind of a desk or something like that.

To kind of go back to the beginning, this whole thing about thinking about the past came up tonight while I was looking around MySpace. I went down the lists of old classmates and man, how the years have changed everyone. Not all of them were friends, but I knew them all and to see the differences tends to be a little mind boggling.

I even saw a friend or two that I used to play Counter-Strike with in high school (I mean that literally too, we had class room LAN battles far too many times to count). I miss those days, when it was all about fun and not having to worry about anything else.

On the subject, I remember it was during those days when I began to develop an actual "taste" in music. Hell, the song that helped me pick up onto listening to new and different music was Linkin Park's "Runaway." Just listening to it now takes me back... wow that was so incredibly corny...

And so now, with a mind full of memories, I think I'm going to bring this one to it's end. Just thinking about the past is, in fact, making me miss home with every passing second. Then again, the home I remember isn't anything near what it is now. Friends are long gone, carried away on the seas of life. What remains is just a memory or two, that's all that is left to cling to...

Maybe today, I'll make a promise to myself that I can actually keep for once. To be, at the very least, a better friend then I have been these past years. For reasons I won't entirely get into now, I think this promise to myself will be much easier said then done. And for once, I do hope I am wrong.

2007 Just Around The Corner

Time seems to fly by so quickly, I mean it feels like only yesterday that 2006 was here and 07 was coming. Now 2007 is just about gone and 2008 is looming on the horizon. I sort of wonder what the coming year will bring, hopefully better sense and a little luck is in store for yours truly.

It has been admittedly slow for me this month as it just feels like I haven't had all that much to write about. Or at least I haven't had much energy to actually sit down and write it all out. Life has generally been good to me lately, though work still is about as exciting and grand as trip into the mud. Why haven't I changed or found a new job?

Well, I think the primary reason at this point for me is because of a company called Whole Foods. They are coming to Hawaii and hell, if they pay better then where I'm at now, then why the heck not? Loyalty is one thing, but paying bills and eating? That overrides all of that, as far as I'm concerned.

Jumping gears, I guess life hasn't been all that kind to me or at least not to my body. My right knee has been bothering the heck out of me for the past few weeks. Luckily for me, I guess, is the pain in it hasn't been all that bad and it is more like a nagging pain.

Onto a different topic, I just read an article on MSN about a 13 year old girl who committed suicide after she had made a friend through MySpace, who just chopped their friendship off out of no where. She had a history of depression and the sort and obviously it was enough to send her over the edge. What is even more screwed up about this is the person she befriended, wasn't even whom she believed it to be. It was some family in the neighborhood! Not just the kids, but the goddamn parents were involved with this too!

Ok, so yeah we all know that the world can and is generally a screwed up place. But this!? This story took the cake! What is this world coming to? I just can't grasp the logic the parents had when they actually condoned this. I mean, shouldn't they be setting a better example? Or maybe stop this sort of thing and not encourage it? Yes, a parent I am not, but I don't think it takes much experience or anything to know that this whole situation was just flat out wrong.

And I think I'm going to cut this off here and give it a rest before I rant on for days and days. Besides that, my knee is still a little sore too. Old age, this is not. Hopefully it'll go away soon. Ah well, if worse comes to worse, at least I'll have more gaming time! (Yes, I realize my bad logic is on display once again)

Slew of Insanity

I'll be a man here and just fess up to the truth, the whole truth and nothing but. It isn't easy for me to say this, which such a reputation that I humbly have (don't laugh too loud, the neighbors might think you're nuts), but I know I must do what is necessary for the 'greater good.'

I'm lazy.

Earth shattering, yes!? But please, for my sake, you must suspend your disbelief and just say a small prayer for me and hope for the best. I've been doing that since the beginning of the month and I just think it'll take a few more people (or a couple of dozen) for me to get back on track!

And with the craptacular attempt at being cleaver and/or witty now out of the way, yes I have been a lazy bastard this month. I haven't gotten to write here all that much with work being the drama queen of my life (oh bloody yay there) and the number of games that has been released is mind boggling. With that, I shall unleash a new plot! Er, a new idea!

- SD! Vs Raw 2008: I've been playing it a fair bit since picking it up this past Saturday, which surprised me a little because the game hasn't officially been released yet (god I love Toys 'n Joys). Personally, it is much better to me then 2007, but still not quite as fun as 06 in my view. Like so many of said too, the roster this year is just ever so slightly weak.

- Naruto: Rise of a Ninja: I just rented this one tonight and it isn't really as bad as those freaky folks at Game Stop played it up to be. The English voice overs still give me a chill down my spine and the lack of dual language is a let down. Still, it is a decent game (and not bad on the eyes either) and maybe I'll write more about this one later, once I've spent a little more time with it.

- Halo 3: What!? Halo 3, again?? Yes, it is Halo 3 yet again and this time it is about experiences with online play. Besides a particular match against two guys that were ranked "Captain" (Note: My girlfriend's bro and me got our asses handed to us), it was a fairly good experience. And fun. I just might lay the cash down for XBox Live to continue...

- Guitar Hero 3: I. Still. Suck. At. This. Game. 'Nuff said.

- Heroes: So I picked up the first season of Heroes recently and lemme tell you something from my perspective. That show is like crack! And I end up being the goddamn crack addict! It is quite a feeling, to know that you've watched about 7-10 episodes straight and still feel like you can go for "just one more."

And I am out of time or at least out of things to quickly jot down here and babble on about. Oh, one last little tidbit before I call this quits and go do something that may end up being productive. I've just recently set up shop (new blog) over at WordPress.com. It looks interesting and quite different then Blogger. You can basically set up like a website over there, which is a change over this.

As to whether or not I'll write more there then here... most likely not. I've invested a fair lot of brains into this blog and I just don't think I can part with the little guy. Still, I am checking out the options, just to see what the grass is like on the other side of the fence.

Milestone Morning

After waiting for this bugger to load up for what felt like an eternity, at last I can share a word or two on this amazing morning. Why is this morning so amazing? Because for the first time in maybe a month or three, I've actually gotten up early for work.

Feel that disappointment?

Yes, I know that isn't any impressive and as for why I am blogging over something like that. Hmm... I'm not sure! But in any event, here and I am and this is the way it is going to go down.

A few random thoughts here...

- Guitar Hero 3 is what my girlfriend wants to pick up so we can 'challenge' each other. Meh, I've played the second game maybe a half a dozen times at best. She, on the other hand, has been playing it like a crack addict. Seems a little one sided, no?

- WWE SD! vs. Raw 2008 is my answer to her challenge, which, in turn, she will have to play. Just like GH, she has only played games of this series maybe six times or less and I have been the crack addict. We are a weird pair, I will not deny that.

After reading for months about Final Fantasy XIII... it makes me wish I had picked up a PS3 over the 360. At least I wouldn't have to worry about the damned thing overheating, breaking down, growing legs and joining a global invasion from outer space, etc.

Other then that... hmm... nothing else really to say I suppose. Work is still so very fun! (lie) and hell, yesterday was the first day of this huge sale and the particluar section where the store I work is located had a few electrical issues. Well, enough so that they shut down the secion and we all pretty much left early!

It is a sign! Work = BAD. Finding a million dollars on the ground = Why haven't you come to me!?

Oh well. Back to work today, maybe it'll fly by and be over and done before I even know it. Electrical issues: ROUND 2! I need to get back to sleep...

The Road to Hell

So I've been a little out of my own loop lately, which isn't say much... but still! Work has been my central focus for the most part and from now and until sometime in January, we'll be swamped by a mass of Japanese gift sets and varieties of mochi, teas and the list goes on. I remember how this sale was last year (I had the good fortune to have started working just as this sale began) and I expect to be crazy by mid-November, if not sooner.

Blue Dragon progress report: I've finally reached to the 3rd disk and I think it is safe for me to say that the favorite character around this household is easily Marumaro. That Devee has got character... and gas!

Oh and dare I omit the fact that my XBox 360 has begun to forget how to read disks and inform me that the games I am inserting into it need to be XBox 360 games. If memory serves me right, my first 360 pulled this crap off just before it tossed the ever popular red rings of death at those bloody idiots at Wal-Mart. Yes, good times are ahead... *sigh*

Another way I've been passing some of my free time lately has been watching the first 2 seasons of the Tenchi OVA series. That is easily among my all-time favorites, which is more then I can ever say for that goddamn 3rd season that was released a few years (?) ago. The ways a series can be butchered... yeesh... and to top it off, it ends just like Ranma 1/2 and Inu-Yasha! NO FREAKING ENDING!

*Cough*

But that is a different story for a different time, which might be next time considering how brain dead I've been lately. I kind of can't wait for some turkey this year, for reasons which I cannot quite spell out simply because. Well, I don't really know to be honest.

Maybe it is just the simple thought of food?

Or maybe some pie?

Mmmm....

A rather off subject here folks, in compairson to the other stuff today that is, but man hasn't the weather in Hawaii been a bitch? Rain, no rain, rain, no rain... just let it rain damn it! Downpour is good! Hmm, Flooding...? Eh... So long as it takes all of those (and only those) Japanese gift sets and all that other stuff back out to sea, I. Am. Happy.

The End.

P.S. If anyone happens upon a few million dollars or so, just laying around some place... that would be mine. Yes, that would be the funds from my own... Um... Video Games for Terminally Bored and Hapless Individuals. Hawaii. Federation. Association. Foundation. Group. Inc.

Side Note: I was/am surprised to see the Nintendo Wii being advertised in the sale ads lately. Does this mean there is finally stock to meet the demand? Or is this just another round of sick, twisted and disgusting humor on the part of those that simply cannot keep up? But decided to run it in their ad just for shits?

I should hope not...