Moving Forward

I've been keeping myself busy lately, or at least I have been keeping my mind busy these past few weeks. I think that has been the only way I've been able to keep myself from just telling either sides (or both in some cases) to go to hell.

The hardest thing to deal with is actually coming from my first job, my Japanese grocery store job.

It feels damn near impossible to function in a working environment where these managers, these "adults," act as if they are still in grade school. The kind of things they do and how they think is just plain ridiculous to me. I mean in our present economy, you would think a small company who has lost pretty much all of their other stores, would pull together right? I mean that should "rally the troops together" right?

Wrong.

Instead, these people are more interested in picking sides and taking care of themselves. Who cares if we are all really the same company, I gotta make myself look better! How stupid can that be? Hey, lets divide ourselves up and bury everyone else! Gosh, what a great fucking idea!

Gah, whatever. I'm just a lowly grunt in the overall lackluster scheme of things. I intend on just getting in there, doing my job and getting the you-know-what out of there. I hate work place politics... always have and always will. Yeah I know with an attitude like that, I will never be promoted anywhere. But if that is truly the only way to play the game, then screw it all anyway...

See why I've been keeping myself occupied? Anyway, I've been doing what I enjoy in playing games and watching movies. There have been some pretty good movies out there lately!

In my opinion, a good comedy to watch is Paul Blart: Mall Cop. It is funny, but nothing outrageous and overly stupid which works out great here. I like Adam Sandler's movies and even the stuff that his own production company makes have been pretty good too.

Another funny and good comedy is Bride Wars, which has one of my favorite actresses (Anne Hathaway) playing one of the lead roles. Then again, both she and Kate Hudson were awesome here. They played the roles of best friends really well, I mean I would have swore these women had really been best friends outside of the movie. Maybe they are?

Anyway, it definitely made for a much more believable and realistic story. But where the fun starts is when the shit hits the fan and they duke it out for their wedding dream. The kind of stuff that they do to each other, man I can't imagine how a pair of people could be friends after then hell they unleash.

One more movie: Angels & Demons. It was a good movie and while I don't remember the first movie all too well now, I did have a little problem with this one. To me it was like watching an extended version of CSI. I mean the so called "mystery" gets solved by the end and it is amazing to me how easily the clues just fall out of the sky and gets pieced together.

If nothing else, it made me wonder how these secrets could remain as such for all that time? I mean once one clue appeared, man they just kept piecing them together and everything just fell into place. Surely Tom Hanks's character couldn't have been smarter then everyone that lived for the past 300 years, right?

Onto the video games or game I should say, because I have been hellbent on finishing off my created fighter's UFC career. And I can say at last that is is all over now.

Apparently, whether you've won or lost, in 7 game years you are forced into retirement. The "athletics commission" has ruled that your fighter has taken enough punishment to warrant your retirement. As such, you are informed that once your contract is up, the commission will not allow you to fight anymore then that and that means you are done forever.

What a lousy way to end my perfect 31-0 career. And as the UFC Light Heavyweight Champion of the world no less!

But that is the way it all comes to an end, with as little fanfare as you came into the sport with. And what does my fighter have to show for it? A lame glass trophy with his face on it! Then again that should mean something because that glass trophy proves that old Johnny boy was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame! Wow, but you guys are throwing me out...?

I wonder if that is how the real UFC operates too? Thanks for getting punched in the face and for pounding down every single fighter we have ever put before you! You are a legend! Anyway, here's your trophy and good bye!

Regardless, it was a good and legendary run for old Johnny "The Fury" Haze. With a name like that, he could easily make a hell of a run in pro wrestling! Ha! Eat that UFC!

I'm losing it, it referring to my old noodle of a brain me thinks. One last thought of sanity before I lose it all: Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete comes out on Tuesday for us US folks! I wonder if it will also come with a FFXIII demo? But with our luck as US fans, probably not huh?

Now that would be lame...

300th Time is the Charm!

There are a lot of random little things that happen that I never thought would happen. For example, having another job at a grocery store. I worked at a store during high school and thereafter swore that I would not do it again. Four years after that, I found myself working at a grocery store.

Speaking of jobs I never thought I'd have (and never wanted to have), one of those happened when I was unhappily employed at McDonalds for some years. Needless to say, that experience reminded me why I didn't want that in the first place and it also served me with motivation to never get that low again.

Ha, but that is another story entirely...

Back to the point at hand. another random thing happens to fall onto this blog of mine. I never would have imagined that I would be writing a long term blog, mostly because my mind and my attention tends to wander away from things before too long. Hell, I wouldn't even have thought that I write up a whopping 300 posts for said blog neither. And yet here it is, plain as day, and I am still writing for it today.

300 posts!

Either that is a little bit of dedication or perhaps a sign that I end up with nothing better to do more often then not? Hmm...

Anyway, I was surprised to have read that my favorite former WWE Diva, Victoria (who claimed to have retired some months ago), has resurfaced recently in TNA Wrestling under her real name (Lisa Marie Varon, pictured above). And my god does she look hot! It looks like her MMA training got her back into top shape!

What? Don't judge! I am only human...

Now as much as I think TNA is a weird paradox of a wrestling company, I have to admit that the former Victoria's appearance there has sparked my interests in that strange place to a certain degree. In my opinion, it is about damn time they got some REAL talent in their so called women's division!

On the subject of wrestling, I just got my first wrestling Blu-Ray disk (WrestleMania 25) and my thoughts? It really isn't worth the extra money in my opinion, I mean the only thing that really seems to stand out is the onscreen graphics. Is that worth shelling out an extra $10? It is a mistake I won't be repeating twice, that's for certain.

But what did make the purchase worth its coin were a few great matches. For starters, the pre-WrestleMania tag match for the Unified Tag Team titles was awesome! I hadn't had the chance to see Carlito and his real life brother Primo tagging before, but they are a pretty solid team. And their opponents, John Morrison and The Miz, were their usual awesome selves. I liked that team! But I suppose the WWE felt their run as a tag team had come to an end, which I hope means they won't fall into the same hole like a lot of broken up teams (meaning failed solo runs).

What was so very sad is the fact that this unified tag title match managed not to make it onto the actual show itself. I agree with what was said by others here on the net, in that those involved must not have been too thrilled not to have made it onto the biggest WWE show of the year.

The Money in the Bank ladder match wasn't as bad as I heard, even though the winner of the match is a repeat of last year (CM Punk). Surprising to me was how Kofi Kingston was absolutely amazing! I think he was rivaling Shelton Benjamin in the insane spots department, though the "Gold Standard" had his share of holy shit moments, too. Personally, I'd love to see both he (Kofi) and Shelton Benjamin mix it up in the future.

But the biggest draw for me was the Shawn Michaels versus Undertaker match. Ever since this event, I've been reading about just how great a match these two guys had. And needless to say, my interest was tickled. And after watching it, I can wholly agree with what people have said!

Everything from the pre-match promo video to the match itself, man the whole thing just gave me goosebumps! There literally wasn't a dull moment in the match from bell to bell! What took me by surprise was actually seeing a great Undertaker match (his matches tend to be a bit on the slow side usually). But both he and HBK stepped up their respective games that night and it easily can join the short list of favorite matches in my book.

Last thing to write about is focusing on Suikoden, which I have picked up on PSN a short time back. Yes I did have the PSP version with both the first and second games. But it was all in Japanese! I can't read it and playing a RPG you can't read just doesn't end up being a fun experience (at least not for me).

What has been a bitch is actually trying to recall things about the game (like where and how to recruit the 108 characters) and I think I've been doing okay so far. One screw up in the road was Pahn's death, which I prevented before, but was very, very ill prepared for this time around.

Regardless, it has been a fun experience to be able to relive this classic RPG. Everything from the full scale wars to the castle itself... oh the memories...

Next up for me is Wild Arms... I still got a bone to pick with the original version!

Oh and a funny story in relation to Wild Arms. I actually bought the original game twice, the reason being was the first time around just pissed me off. You see, I didn't realize you could switch between characters and in doing so, use their abilities (bombs, the little rat, etc). So after just barely starting up into the game, I was terminally stuck! And it didn't take long before I swore (figuratively and literally) that I would not touch such a shit game again!

Imagine how stupid I felt the second time around? It just goes to show, it would be wise to sometimes read the game manual from time to time...

UFC Thinkings

As I mentioned in my previous writing, I just picked up the new UFC game and have been playing that fairly often since. Needless to say, I am fairly impressed with just how much better a game it is compared with the other old UFC games.

And while the game is interesting and all, there are just a few things that have been bugging me.

One thing that has been an absolute bitch to learn is the submission holds and basically everything related to ground work. I've gone through the tutorials a few times and it helps, but it just doesn't provide enough information for my liking.

This does not become that big of a deal in the beginning, I mean you can basically take out much of the early competition with just straight up striking. But once you start to near the top 10 fighters, you will quickly learn (as I did) that it will take far more then a few punches and kicks to win the title.

I will say this about the game though; it sure is a far cry from the wrestling games that THQ has been putting out these past many years. The challenge this game presents, even on the lowest possible difficulty level, is just unreal.

Then again, it could just be the fact that I am terrible when it comes to fighting games...

One other gripe from me is the lack of variety in the create-a-fighter mode. As I've stated in the past, I am a fiend when it comes to creating people/stuff and the more choices there are, the better in my book. And while UFC 2009 does have its share of choices, overall it just feels so shallow. Maybe it would serve better to give a bit more freedom in shaping the actual physical appearance of your created fighter?

I suppose, at the end of the day, any real changes are being saved for the next inevitable game. I mean if a game is even moderately successful, then it is almost a guarantee that a sequel is not far away. Besides, how else can a company justify a sequel without the mandatory updates, upgrades and all that other jazz?

It makes me wonder though... will this game support downloadable content? New fighters perhaps? That could be a litle extreme, considering how many fighters this game is packing already. Then again, more old school UFC fighters could switch things up a bit too. Besides that, personally I'd like to see perhaps more arenas added? Surely it ends up being nothing more then a background to the actual fight, but still. Its all in the small details!

Overall it is a fun game in my book and unless you are a prodigy, it will take quite a bit of time and patience to learn the ins and outs of the game. And it will help if you are into Mixed Martial Arts, that way a lot of this stuff will make a lot more sense.

What the hell is rubber guard...?

Concentration

As the title implies, I am indeed concentrated these days or more specifically, on gaming. PS3 gaming. I've been checking out what I can and I am enjoying having this new system of mine. I must be enjoying it because I really have not turned my Xbox 360 on in about a week or so now.

Outside of games such as Disgaea 3 and Little Big Planet, I have been playing the new UFC 2009: Undisputed and Burnout Paradise. While the latter two games are also on Xbox 360, I have been enjoying it on the PS3 no less.

UFC has been an interesting experience for me, especially with trying to learn the ins and outs of the game. I wish I could write about how much I dominated the competition and how I am a living, breathing example of what a true Ultimate Fighter is. But I'll be honest here: I've gotten knocked out and submitted on numerous occasions already.

Despite getting my ass handed to me (Street Fighter 4 laid a meaner whooping on my ass then this game), UFC 2009 is still a fairly fun game and knocking out your opponent is satisfying (TKOs are even better!).

As for Burnout Paradise, I know it isn't a new game and considering I bought it as a Greatest Hit, it has been around for a while I know. Still, considering how I've never fared well in racing games, I am surprised to find myself enjoying this game as much as I am.

While I have not ventured online, offline I have enjoyed the tasks you are given throughout the city. The Marked Man events are a bitch, especially when getting sandwiched between both enemy vehicles and being plowed into everything bolted down or otherwise.

My other favorite task would be Road Rage, which as the name should imply, you are tasked with taking out an ever increasing number of rival drivers in a set amount of time. All of this while speeding through the city. It is madness and the further along you get, the more aggressive the other drivers become. As I've learned, it would be best and wisest to be prepared to be launched and slammed a lot after obtaining your Class C License.

I don't know what it is, its just something about playing these games on the PS3... it just feels right. Maybe just having that familiar controller shape in my hands just does it. All the memories of past conquests, all of those victories and defeats just bring back those good old memories of yesterday (and yesteryear in some cases). It feels like home. It feels like I've been away for a long time and at last I've come back. Oh yes, the connection has been almost spiritual to a certain extent.

I am a dork!