CM Punk, WWE Champion

This is old news by now, but it is something I feel like it is worth mentioning here anyway. So this past Sunday was CM Punk's (pictured above) apparent last show/night with the WWE. The story that was being built up with his leaving was the fact that he intended on walking out of their pay-per-view show with the WWE Championship.

And so it goes...

CM Punk did, in fact, defeat John Cena for the title and even Raw's Money in the Bank winner (this being a briefcase that holds a contract for a title match, anywhere and anytime the winner so chooses) Alberto Del Rio ran down to try and cash in. But failed. And so CM Punk escapes the PPV with the title and if that is goodbye for Punk, then what a way to go.

With this tournament to crown a new champ, I wonder if by some chance CM Punk returns to the WWE, if he'd stake his claim as being the WWE Champion that was never defeated for that belt. Hmmm...

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

It is almost always a sad moment, to see a series end after having a run that spans years. Maybe it was something of a comfort thing after a while, just seeing the movie from a series year after year. But of course, everything has to end someday and these movies are no exception. And to finally see the end of the Harry Potter movies was quite an experience, including some firsts for us.

To start, this movie was actually the first time we've (girlfriend and I) seen a movie in 3D and I really want to say that this was a great idea. But it really was not. Maybe this is the way 3D movies are, but there were only a few scenes that really popped out and we both agreed that the most awesome 3D scenes were probably the company logos at the start of the movie.

As for the movie itself? Again, while I did not read this book or any of those that came before this (yet I was still generally filled on in the major details of the story), I did go into this movie expecting that there would be deaths among the characters. Yet while the movie did acknowledge these deaths, it wasn't something central to the movie and pretty much wasn't shown when or how these characters were killed.

But nevertheless, the deaths fit right in with the much darker tone and this had to have been the darkest of all the Harry Potter movies. There is a sense of desperation between both Harry and Voldemort, both seemingly racing to their inevitable showdown.

For me this movie became worth the price paid because of the time spent filling in the gaps and tying up the loose ends. I guess what I am trying to say is this movie helps make sense of all the previous movies. It showed why Snape was the way he was and what the real person beneath the bitter exterior truly was. It provided a brief glimpse into Dumbledore's past and probably the most important aspect of this is the back story of Harry himself. 

 

Something I found interesting was how little of a role Harry's father actually plays in any of this. Everything seems to center around himself (Harry), his mother and even Snape. But what of the father? Curious to see how small a role he actually played in the grander scheme of things.

The fast forward 19 years at the end of the movie was interesting, interesting in the way that we could see the kids of the trio of misfits and one could imagine what sort of time these kids would have at Hogwarts. Funny enough though the characters themselves didn't looked at all aged.

So was this worth watching? I suppose the simplest way to say this is yes, yes it was worth it. I personally was satisfied with the way the movie's story was ended. It is rare to see a series of movies end in a way where everything generally feels finished. It didn't feel rushed at all and everything played out in a way where it just felt right. This was truly a bittersweet end to everything. As far as seeing the movie in 3D? I really can't say I felt like it was a great idea and I think I will be much more selective about what I see in that format next time. 

Final Fantasy XI: The Return

As I wrote about in the previous post, we've made a return back to Final Fantasy XI this week and the return has been fun so far. Things have changed and yet things have not, though one thing that became apparent to us almost immediately (we decided to try and pair off for a Puppetmaster double team) and attack stuff in Valkrum Dunes.

What is so odd about that? Well nothing really, except that the dunes that was once a hotbed for lower level ups was absolutely dead. Well besides the small army of level 90s in the area, there weren't any lower level people. The same could even be said for Qufim, which was generally the next step in level (or it was back in our time).

Did everyone really ascend to the higher levels? To the point where there were no low level characters left in the world? It seemed so, but something else we noticed was that any low level character that did appear almost always had a power level (higher leveled healer character) in tow.

Perhaps that is what happened?

Either way though, we couldn't complain about this lack of parties in the immediate area. We had the run of the place and thanks to that, we were pulling in levels pretty quickly (more about this a little later). And with the nifty level sync ability in play, my level 23 Puppetmaster and my girlfriend's level 17 Puppetmaster had no issues at all in getting pretty decent exp.

I think what I can't get over is the fact that this part of the game play had actually changed. By this I mean the ability to actually be able to level up without having to have a huge party and all of that. You could very well solo much easier nowadays and even with the two of us together, we were raking in exp a lot faster then a lot of parties that both of us could remember back in the day.

Back then, we'd spend a lot of time in the lower levels face down in the sand and leveling down was a common place thing. My old linkshell was named after a common occurance in the dunes, that being people training (pulling a long, long line usually) of goblins to whatever zone he/she could reach.

I don't know if I ever mentioned this, but I sure wish we had the level sync at our disposal some years back. I think we'd all be a lot higher level then we are today...

The Big 600

It is kind of hard to believe that this writing marks the 600th post for my blog here and while I may not have the most popular blog in the history of the world (I can't even say this blog has gotten all that much traffic in it's few short years of life), I can say that I am happy to have written here for as long as I have. I certainly wouldn't have believed in 2006 that I would still be blogging here in 2011.

While on the subject of the past and present, I suppose it would also be fitting to mention that we've returned to Final Fantasy XI recently as well. It is always interesting to see what changed in the span of however long it is from the time we leave to the time we return. Mostly though, it seems like there are some new pieces of higher level armor and the level cap goes up. But beyond that, it still looks and feels like the Vana'diel we grew to know.

Then again, while so much remains familiar to us, there are a lot of aspects that just will never be the same for us again. Like the linkshell we were a part of for most of our regular time in the game. All of the members have either moved on to other MMOs or have quit all together. And while it was not the most tight knit group ever, it was nice to have people around that you can at least be friendly with and joke around with.

Nowadays it is just a quiet, baron place for both myself and my girlfriend. Surely we could try and start over and try to make new friends and what not. But for us the memories are too strong to replace or work around. I mean what can fill the void of days where we'd all get into the game and do nothing but argue about if Sam and Frodo were more then just friends? Or why was it that a portion of our shell went out to hunt various species of cats (it was for a quest), whilst our leader's wife scolded us all for being virtual cat killers (she loves cats)? And this is all while everyone threatens to punt every Tarutaru in the shell (as well as the numerous ones that we'd see out in the world). Hell I had damn near daily auto-translate battles with our resident Red Mage/Bard, whom started the game as an Elvaan, then turned over to be a Mithra. We'd accuse each other of being blind as shit and couldn't hit the broad side of a neon pink barn in the middle of a sunny Summer's day.

And how could I not mention our little dysfunctional static XP group? The times when we could manage to gather up, we'd just tear through levels like no body's business. It was fun getting through the Valkrum Dunes in a couple of hours (which, at the time, was damn near impossible if you tried that with a pick up group without a power level. Which we didn't have more often then not). The times we didn't was usually not because of real life stuff, but because a person would have a fit because of whatever didn't work out their way that day.

But regardless of that, it was an absolutely awesome time nonetheless and I know I had a ton of fun while it lasted.

So yes, I suppose this is exactly how I will spend the 600th post of my blog; being nostalgic about things that were so awesome in the past. I try not to go overkill on this, by this I mean just being stuck on things that just won't be again. But being back in the game and running about through so many old stomping grounds just drags up all those fun and crazy times in my mind. And while we still do manage to have fun, it is a little bittersweet to be back without all of our old friends.

Edit: It seems that I am not alone in having these troubles of remembering the past and friends who've long since moved on. I suppose this is the way of things, especially in a game or place where you interact with other people. Plus after spending a few years with the same group of people, good or bad, they become friends and to return back and see it all gone away? Kind of rough...