Dear Santa…

In fact, this would be my dream Christmas:

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Christmas Pranks: You’re Doing It Wrong!

It’s a holiday classic… You give someone a gift that appears really crappy, but when they open it further, it turns out to be totally awesome! You psyched them out but they came out as the winner in the end.

The video below is an example of the opposite. A family plays a mean joke on a little boy; making him think that he’s scored an Xbox 360, when in fact the box is filled with clothes. They proceed to mock the boy as his eyes well with tears. I find this act of cruelty to be indefensibly despicable.

The fact that this involved a video game is circumstantial. I fully believe his mother (or whomever’s female voice that is) that the boy knew that his family couldn’t afford to buy him something that expensive. But when he tore into that wrapping paper and saw that logo on the box (you can see that exact moment), that boy thought he’d experienced a true Christmas miracle. He’d had his heart set on this one thing only to have his own blood use it to ridicule him.

And that’s what gets me the most. There was no apology or remorse from his family. They continued to make fun of him for wanting the 360. As an adult, your values change, but when you’re a little kid, material things like that can mean the world to you. By mocking this boy, his family essentially told him that his dreams are a joke. And in turn, he was a joke for having such dreams.

I seriously hope this comes back to haunt them. Shitheads.

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Can you guess what it is?

This is one of the most original
costume ideas I’ve ever seen!

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“Believe your Justice”

In the spirit of Independence Day weekend, I thought I’d post the trailer to one of the most patriotic video games never to be released in America… Metal Wolf Chaos. In this game, you play as the president of the United States who has been betrayed by the vice president. As a fugitive, your only means of escape is by shooting your way out in a giant armored robot. The VP pursues you in his own mech while using the media to label you as a terrorist in the eyes of the American people. Your mission is to blow shit up, clear your name, and restore great justice. Fucking awesome.

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Happy New Year!

It’s that time to look back at the year’s past and, take what we’ve learned, and direct ourselves into where we want to go in the future. Put simply, let’s get to those new year’s resolutions!

I’ll stick with my usual lot of eating better, exercising more, saving money, and making more time to see friends. But I have a few more to tag on for good measure.

First, I want to keep on the guys at work for getting me involved in web development. I want to be working in that department full time by this time next year. Ideally to the point where I can do my work remotely, from home or anywhere. The goal is to be able to stay gainfully employed by the time Ashley gets her teaching license next year so that I’ll be free to follow her wherever she may go with it.

I also want to continue working on this site. Last month, I set myself up with the challenge of making five posts per week. I was inspired by a job listing looking for a game reviewer that had that as one of it’s requirements. I’m proud to say that I’ve been doing a pretty good job so far! I may bend the rule a bit by counting any day that I work on the site, not just writing posts. I’ve been reading up on how to manage a site and possibly capitalize on it. I don’t expect to make any real money (if any), but I would like to prove to myself that I can do something significant with it. Though it will be hard to top David Sirlin’s comment here.

Those are my biggest resolutions. I have tons of minor things I’d like to improve upon myself, but those are key. The only other thing I can think of is playing more Street Fighter. Even if I only play single-player like a loser. With all the hype around the franchise next year and the game room events at Animazement, I’d like to stay somewhat fresh.

Happy New Year, everybody! See you in 2008!

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The Story Of Stuff

Luckily, I was able to avoid enough of the holiday madness this year to not bring me to my almost annual Christmas rant. However, I still hold a deep distaste for how consumer-based our culture has become. It’s ironic that a holiday whose spirit gravitates around generosity and kindness actually tends more to bring out the ugliest sides of people’s character.

So instead of my going off for a few paragraphs about shit I’ve said before, I think I’m just going to link to a video that a friend of mine pointed toward me. This one is called The Story Of Stuff, hosted by Annie Leonard. There’s nothing about the video that we don’t already know somewhere in the back of our minds. I’d say it’s in the same spirit of the Game Boy Advance Rant I did a couple years ago. But it’s important that we expose ourselves to these types of media to bring that knowledge forward. When we actually put some cognitive thought into how the system is fucked up, it puts us into a better position to get ourselves out of it.

Below, you’ll see the introduction section of the video, but you can find the rest of the pieces under it’s YouTube profile or watch it in it’s entirety on it’s website.

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What ‘Ja Get? 2007

Alright, it’s that time of year to brag about the swag!

This Christmas, the bulk of my score contained a small stack of books I’ve been wanting. The brightest gem being Sun Tsu For Execution. It’s a book that takes “The Art Of War” and helps apply it to managing tasks and business. I got some graphic novels, too, including Star Wars: Republic Vol 1, Street Fighter II: The Manga Vol 1, and Street Fighter Alpha: The Manga Vol 2. I also got WordPress For Dummies, which I’d bought for myself but happened to get on Christmas. I’m hoping that will help me spruce up and capitalize on this site.

I got an Adam Carolla poster that I’ve had my eye on. It’s an odd size, so I’ll have to see if I can get a decent frame for it. And speaking of things to frame, my sister drew this cool picture of Cammy that’s definitely going up on my wall.

Additionally, I got the DVD for an anime that I fell in love with at COUp, Special Duty Combat Unit Shinesman. Transformers made recurring appearances with a cute mini figure 2-pack and a Transformers-themed Monopoly board game.

My family seemed to enjoy my gifts to them. One thing I got my sister was The Family Guy: The Game for PS2, which is actually a lot more fun than I thought. Not to mention hilarious! Heh, though despite that, we still spent a good few hours playing the ever-addictive Disgaea.

And of course, I got some money and loads of treats. Panther got a couple toys as well, so she wasn’t left out. My folks got a gift for Ashley, but I have no idea what it is. I guess I’ll find out when I see her next!

How’d you do?

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The Five Forbidden Gifts Rule

For Christmas, Ashley got me a sweet Pac-Man jacket. But best of all, she got me something I’ve been coveting for over 8 years now: A Utilikilt! This is why I love this woman…she knows me all too well.

You see, I have these rules for buying me gifts (of which Ashley is the only person who’s exempt). My family would always tell me how hard I am to shop for. They’d ask me for lists, but that kinda ruins the spirit of it all, I think. If I tell you what to buy me, how am I going to be pleasantly surprised by the sentiment. To me, a gift is a reflection of how well you know and care about the person. And for some reason, my family kept giving me junk.

I know… It sounds ungrateful. But when someone gives me a terrible gift, I feel bad that they wasted money on something I either don’t like or can’t use. Not only that, it sucks to learn just how much someone doesn’t know or listen to you. Then once I receive the gift, I’m then burdened with the task of getting rid of it. My loved ones lose money and I’m stuck with a chore…everyone loses. I honestly would prefer no gift than receive a burden.

So I came up with the idea of The Five Forbidden Gifts rule. There are only five types of things that I absolutely don’t want anyone to buy for me ever. Everything else is fair ball. I don’t even mind if you get me something I already have; that still tells me that you understand my tastes. And if someone gets me a movie or something that it turns out that I don’t like, I chalk it up to hey, at least you tried. And I appreciate that.

Anyway, here are the Five Forbidden Gifts:

1. Clothing
2. Furniture
3. Decorations
4. Cooking Supplies
5. Cat Toys

Clothing is something I think we all have difficulty with. Something is either not at all our style, or it’s the wrong size! One year my mom got an ugly shirt from a relative and when she said she might exchange it, she discovered from the receipt that it was bought from a store catered to fat women. There’s an insult I could do without… If the only clothing that you believe will fit your recipient comes from a fat person store…don’t buy them clothes.

By furniture, I don’t really mean like a couch or something… Even something like book shelves or end tables can be a pain. Aesthetic tastes aside, one thing I’ve noticed that people don’t consider is if the recipient even has room for what they’re trying to give them. One year I got a wine rack. it was cool, but in the few times that I have wine on hand, I keep only one bottle at a time…not enough to warrant an entire rack. Second, in my small apartment, I have absolutely no room for a wine rack. Up on Craigslist it goes…

Decorations can get ugly. And while you don’t have to worry as much about having room for them as you do with furniture, they do tend to pile up. I have enough Christmas ornaments to fill a full sized tree. Again, my apartment is only big enough that I can use a pint-sized tree. Of which I can’t use anyway because my cat will destroy it. People know this, yet buy me ornaments anyway…

I also don’t have much room for cooking supplies. I do enjoy cooking, but people seem to think I’m Alton Brown or something. Also, I have half a dozen sushi preparing and serving sets. It’s awesome that people know I love sushi, but I have no idea what brings them to think I can make the stuff, let alone serve it in my home. Whenever I eat sushi, I hit a sushi bar. Also, there are things that I do wish I had (like a blender) but I can’t because I don’t have room for one. Thus, only I myself buy my kitchen supplies when I see that there is a need and a place to put it.

Lastly, cat toys. My cat never plays with toys that people can buy. Her favorite toys in the universe are gift bags, milk jug rings, a laser pointer (which I already own), and my shadow.

Other than that, the sky’s the limit! Merry Christmas!

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Holiday Wrapping Tip

While wrapping up my Christmas gifts, I found a handy tip that others might find useful. Let it first be known, cutting out wrapping paper is a pain in the ass for me. Even with the sharpest of scissors, paper will often bunch and tear. If I’m cutting it on the floor (which I normally do), the scissors sometimes snag on the carpet, which again causes the paper to bunch and tear. Also, the outward motion of cutting with scissors causes me to frequently make cuts that are crooked.

So, my solution? Box cutter. With a box cutter, I get a nice, smooth cut through the paper. And using an inward motion makes it easier for me to make my cuts straight and level. As long as I don’t dig deep with the blade, I don’t worry about cutting while on the floor, either! So I hope that’s a tip that helps other people in a season that’s already stressful enough…

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Halloween 2007

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