Thursday, June 18, 2009
R.I.P.
So just a quick note and shout out to a dear friend that The Geeks With Attitude lost. Our friend Don Peak finally ended his fight with cancer with a loss. We've known Don since high school, even played in a cover band with him. He was a good friend and we will miss him greatly. Here's to you Don Peak, "Lechyd Da!!" (That's bottoms up in Welsh for those who don't want to google). Don you were a good friend, good father and a good soldier. My only regret is that I wasn't able to be there at the end like the rest of our friends.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Who ya gonna call...
Well many a thing has happened over the past few days that I'd like to mention briefly.
First of all, still haven't decided if I'm gonna bite the bullet and get the Iphone. Many a good compelling argument, I'm just a wuss and don't want to spend $100.
Let's talk sports for a bit. Thank God the Lakers won, or should I say Phil Jackson won so I can stop saying I want the Lakers to win. 10 RINGS! I'm going to have to jump on the band wagon and say I think that Phil Jackson is, to date, the best NBA coach of all time. 10 championships! 6 with my beloved Bulls and 4 with the not so beloved Lakers. I think it's a testament to Mr. Jackson to reach the top with egos like Shag and Kobe then quit for 2 years and the come back and win 2 more. Even though I don't like Kobe Bryant much, anyone can see the punk from 4 years ago has change to a team leader under the hands of Phil Jackson. I even remember Phil say that he couldn't coach Kobe. I guess the break was all he needed to get enough strength to punch through Kobe's attitude. Phil's quote of his mentor, Red Holzman sums it all up, "Individual sacrifice for the good of the group." Congratulations Phil Jackson.
So I picked up Ghostbusters from the store today and I've played it for probably an hour now. I must say that I'm impressed with the game so far. I tend to enjoy games more when they have a story. A good story. So far the story coming from Ghostbusters is thoroughly enjoyable. I was a little bit dubious when I heard that Dan Ackroyd and Harold Ramis wrote the script. I wasn't sure how guys who write movies were going to be able to translate a script for video games. I think they did alright. More impressed with the fact that they got the original cast to do the voices of the characters.
Gameplay, it's 1st person shooter where, you guessed it, you use your proton pack to shoot ghosts and evil beasties. Of course there are upgrades you can buy for your pack like, you can reduce the stream wavering so it shoots more in a straight line. You can upgrade you PKU scanner and such. I like how you have to wear down the ghosts by hitting them constantly with the stream until they're a bit knocked down then you have to "wrangle" them by using the capture stream and work them toward the trap which you have to drop. My only negative is that it is easy to lose the trap when you throw it down. It's hard to see the guide light during game play when you have 3 or 4 streams flying about the room, and then you lose the ghost trying to find the trap. I'll talk about this more as I invest more time into the game.
I'm hoping to get some painting done sometime soon, I think my next project will be to finish my team tournament army from Adepticon 2 years ago. It's my pre-heresy Thousand Sons Space Marines. I'm going to have to retool my list as GW changed the damn codex again for the, oh I don't know, 12th time. When I get motivated to start that, or should I say finish that project I'll try and post some pics of my progress.
Motivation to paint right now is a rare commodity in Chicago right now.....maybe I can get some imported from Baltimore....
First of all, still haven't decided if I'm gonna bite the bullet and get the Iphone. Many a good compelling argument, I'm just a wuss and don't want to spend $100.
Let's talk sports for a bit. Thank God the Lakers won, or should I say Phil Jackson won so I can stop saying I want the Lakers to win. 10 RINGS! I'm going to have to jump on the band wagon and say I think that Phil Jackson is, to date, the best NBA coach of all time. 10 championships! 6 with my beloved Bulls and 4 with the not so beloved Lakers. I think it's a testament to Mr. Jackson to reach the top with egos like Shag and Kobe then quit for 2 years and the come back and win 2 more. Even though I don't like Kobe Bryant much, anyone can see the punk from 4 years ago has change to a team leader under the hands of Phil Jackson. I even remember Phil say that he couldn't coach Kobe. I guess the break was all he needed to get enough strength to punch through Kobe's attitude. Phil's quote of his mentor, Red Holzman sums it all up, "Individual sacrifice for the good of the group." Congratulations Phil Jackson.
So I picked up Ghostbusters from the store today and I've played it for probably an hour now. I must say that I'm impressed with the game so far. I tend to enjoy games more when they have a story. A good story. So far the story coming from Ghostbusters is thoroughly enjoyable. I was a little bit dubious when I heard that Dan Ackroyd and Harold Ramis wrote the script. I wasn't sure how guys who write movies were going to be able to translate a script for video games. I think they did alright. More impressed with the fact that they got the original cast to do the voices of the characters.
Gameplay, it's 1st person shooter where, you guessed it, you use your proton pack to shoot ghosts and evil beasties. Of course there are upgrades you can buy for your pack like, you can reduce the stream wavering so it shoots more in a straight line. You can upgrade you PKU scanner and such. I like how you have to wear down the ghosts by hitting them constantly with the stream until they're a bit knocked down then you have to "wrangle" them by using the capture stream and work them toward the trap which you have to drop. My only negative is that it is easy to lose the trap when you throw it down. It's hard to see the guide light during game play when you have 3 or 4 streams flying about the room, and then you lose the ghost trying to find the trap. I'll talk about this more as I invest more time into the game.
I'm hoping to get some painting done sometime soon, I think my next project will be to finish my team tournament army from Adepticon 2 years ago. It's my pre-heresy Thousand Sons Space Marines. I'm going to have to retool my list as GW changed the damn codex again for the, oh I don't know, 12th time. When I get motivated to start that, or should I say finish that project I'll try and post some pics of my progress.
Motivation to paint right now is a rare commodity in Chicago right now.....maybe I can get some imported from Baltimore....
Friday, June 12, 2009
Lord of the 10 rings....
I can not wait long enough for the Lakers to finish off this series. There was a time when I thought the Magic could pull this off, but after watching them kinda self destruct in OT....again, I'm more than confident enough to say that I think Phil Jackson is going to win this series. 2 days off before playing game 5 in LA. Odds are in Phil's favor now.
Let me be clear that I'm rooting for Phil Jackson...not the Lakers. I want Phil Jackson to have 10 rings....one for each finger...as a head coach. I know he has eleven total, 2 as a player and 9 as a head coach. One for each finger. I want Phil to be able to go to some upstart punk like Marbury or D Wade and wave both hands in their face and say, "TEN BITCHES!"
Ok, now I want to talk Iphone. Who has one? Jay I know you do, but what I'm specifically asking is how is the battery life...really. All the tech geeks, who load it full of shit and then say it's runs out constantly. I want to really know, from regular users, how is the battery life. 1 day, 2 days, etc. I'm wavering on getting one. 99 bux is not a bad price now.
Anyone know of any good Warhammer 4ok tournaments going on in the Illinois area? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? Anyone?
Let me be clear that I'm rooting for Phil Jackson...not the Lakers. I want Phil Jackson to have 10 rings....one for each finger...as a head coach. I know he has eleven total, 2 as a player and 9 as a head coach. One for each finger. I want Phil to be able to go to some upstart punk like Marbury or D Wade and wave both hands in their face and say, "TEN BITCHES!"
Ok, now I want to talk Iphone. Who has one? Jay I know you do, but what I'm specifically asking is how is the battery life...really. All the tech geeks, who load it full of shit and then say it's runs out constantly. I want to really know, from regular users, how is the battery life. 1 day, 2 days, etc. I'm wavering on getting one. 99 bux is not a bad price now.
Anyone know of any good Warhammer 4ok tournaments going on in the Illinois area? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? Anyone?
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Getting Older?
Okay...I really thought I knew myself. I got up this morning to cranberry muffins baking. Rebecca (my lovely wife) enjoys making breakfast for the family on weekends. A few minutes after I got up, the buzzer goes off and here comes said wife with 2 muffins for me....with butter. I know, I know. "Wow" you're saying. Would your significant other, or insignificant other as the case may be, butter your morning muffins? Would they??? Would they really??
Rebecca and the kids are fighting over who needs to clean the children's bedrooms. Brennah feels that since Braeden made the mess in her room, she should make him clean it. Braeden wants his mother to clean his room because he stepped on Superman and hurt his foot. I clean the living room and even break out the vaccum and quickly run it over the floor.
After finishing the living room, I have a decision to make. Break out the new GW Commissar Lord I need to paint, go lay down in the bedroom, or help the kids clean their rooms. Two of these decisions will no doubt get me in trouble with the misses, who has a wedding to go to later and "doesn't have time to clean up after her three children". I should take offense, but been there, done that...and it does not lead to French Toast with warm mayple syrup on Sunday morning.
My decision??? You would think it was suck up the anger and just sit down and start to paint? But no...I actually decide to go outside and mow the lawn??? What the Hell??? Being the weekend, I should want to be lazy and enjoy the time. But I actually brave the heat to make my lawn look just a little bit better. I tell ya....I really must be getting old. The Jason I know just wants to relax and veg out on the weekends. Some where with this age comes responsibility and a small case of pride in my house, or at least the way it looks to everyone else.
Rebecca and the kids are fighting over who needs to clean the children's bedrooms. Brennah feels that since Braeden made the mess in her room, she should make him clean it. Braeden wants his mother to clean his room because he stepped on Superman and hurt his foot. I clean the living room and even break out the vaccum and quickly run it over the floor.
After finishing the living room, I have a decision to make. Break out the new GW Commissar Lord I need to paint, go lay down in the bedroom, or help the kids clean their rooms. Two of these decisions will no doubt get me in trouble with the misses, who has a wedding to go to later and "doesn't have time to clean up after her three children". I should take offense, but been there, done that...and it does not lead to French Toast with warm mayple syrup on Sunday morning.
My decision??? You would think it was suck up the anger and just sit down and start to paint? But no...I actually decide to go outside and mow the lawn??? What the Hell??? Being the weekend, I should want to be lazy and enjoy the time. But I actually brave the heat to make my lawn look just a little bit better. I tell ya....I really must be getting old. The Jason I know just wants to relax and veg out on the weekends. Some where with this age comes responsibility and a small case of pride in my house, or at least the way it looks to everyone else.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Seasons Ending..
Well I've finally caught up with the Tivo, watched all the season finales so far and now I'm left with the decisions of which shows to continue watching and which ones to get rid of. I guess I'll start with Dollhouse only because I've been scanning the web and I've seen that they've renewed it for another season. Just let me point out how on the fence I am about this show is that I never even really DVR'd the show. I would just watch it at work on Hulu.
So I was never into Joss Whedon shows. I never dug Buffy or Angel, though I do love me some Firefly and I thought Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog was genius so to be honest I didn't even realize this was Joss Whedon show until I saw the credits. I basically started watching it because Eliza Dushku was in it and she's number 3 on the stalk list. If you haven't watch the finale you can stop reading here. While throughout the show I was like it's ok, it never really knocked my socks off. It is very interesting concept though. Tailor made companions, all you have to do is pay a lot of money, tell them what you want and boom you got a hot woman who loves to play video games and laser tag. So the main bad guy is a guy named Alpha who one of the original dolls, who you find out is actually a criminal that they used to trial the program. So long story short, he loses it, kills a bunch of people and is the bad guy behind the scenes. In the season finale you find out he's Wash from Firefly. Now as an actor I like this guy. His character in Firefly was awesome and my favorite. As Alpha, a bad ass killer/computer hacker/schizophrenic, I'm not so sure of. Still undecided if I'm going to continue watching this show, though now that Alan Tudyk is a character, I'm leaning towards continuing though I doubt I'm going to DVR it, I'll just continue to watch it on Hulu as time permits.
Now I come to Supernatural. Season 4 done and I've got to say it's really gotten me excited about the show again. Season 3 wasn't bad but it definately lost me a little. With the bringing in of Angels, flawed some of them, was a great idea. Now what I really love about the angels being brought in is that they got some kind of coup going on. What they're shooting for I can't guess but I'm sure we'll learn more in season 5 since you find out that the upper echelon angels are actually helping the bad guys release Lucifer from Hell. My guess though, is maybe the delusional Archangels think that if they defeat Lucifer that Heaven will come to Earth and bring them closer to God since a couple of times they mentioned that they can't believe humans are God's favorite. Who knows, but I am excited to see what comes next and next season is 5 so syndication here they come. So I'm hoping for a big season if the rumors are true that it will be the last season. My favorite character of the last season is the prophet Chuck. Chuck in the show has been writing comics about the Winchester boys and they find one and figure the guys must be some kind of psychic. When they confront him they find out from the angels that he's one of God's prophets Charles. Still makes me grin when I think about a comic book writer being a prophet.
While there are other shows that I do love I'm just going to finish up with Chuck since we were just talking about the Prophet Chuck. Love this show and I'm glad it was picked up for a 3rd season. I love the fact that Scott Bakula gets to be the father, is the creator of the Intersect and is a spy. So after months of trying to find the guy who created the Intesect, you find out it's his dad that created it and turns out to be a spy. Chuck finally get the Intersect outta his head with the help of his dad only to get it put back in but upgraded to be more bad assed as at the end of the season finale, Chuck lays down the whoop ass on 6 rogue agents and ends with him saying "I know kung fu!" Great cliffhanger. While NBC only renewed just for 13 episode I hope they'll see the light and order the other half to make it a full season. Just really bother me that there can be 37 seasons of Shit Survivor, but a decent show that cares about the storytelling and just doesn't ride the comedy along barely makes it along. Let me just say that that Sarah Lancaster is pretty hot and might just make the top 10 on my stalk list.
So I was never into Joss Whedon shows. I never dug Buffy or Angel, though I do love me some Firefly and I thought Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog was genius so to be honest I didn't even realize this was Joss Whedon show until I saw the credits. I basically started watching it because Eliza Dushku was in it and she's number 3 on the stalk list. If you haven't watch the finale you can stop reading here. While throughout the show I was like it's ok, it never really knocked my socks off. It is very interesting concept though. Tailor made companions, all you have to do is pay a lot of money, tell them what you want and boom you got a hot woman who loves to play video games and laser tag. So the main bad guy is a guy named Alpha who one of the original dolls, who you find out is actually a criminal that they used to trial the program. So long story short, he loses it, kills a bunch of people and is the bad guy behind the scenes. In the season finale you find out he's Wash from Firefly. Now as an actor I like this guy. His character in Firefly was awesome and my favorite. As Alpha, a bad ass killer/computer hacker/schizophrenic, I'm not so sure of. Still undecided if I'm going to continue watching this show, though now that Alan Tudyk is a character, I'm leaning towards continuing though I doubt I'm going to DVR it, I'll just continue to watch it on Hulu as time permits.
Now I come to Supernatural. Season 4 done and I've got to say it's really gotten me excited about the show again. Season 3 wasn't bad but it definately lost me a little. With the bringing in of Angels, flawed some of them, was a great idea. Now what I really love about the angels being brought in is that they got some kind of coup going on. What they're shooting for I can't guess but I'm sure we'll learn more in season 5 since you find out that the upper echelon angels are actually helping the bad guys release Lucifer from Hell. My guess though, is maybe the delusional Archangels think that if they defeat Lucifer that Heaven will come to Earth and bring them closer to God since a couple of times they mentioned that they can't believe humans are God's favorite. Who knows, but I am excited to see what comes next and next season is 5 so syndication here they come. So I'm hoping for a big season if the rumors are true that it will be the last season. My favorite character of the last season is the prophet Chuck. Chuck in the show has been writing comics about the Winchester boys and they find one and figure the guys must be some kind of psychic. When they confront him they find out from the angels that he's one of God's prophets Charles. Still makes me grin when I think about a comic book writer being a prophet.
While there are other shows that I do love I'm just going to finish up with Chuck since we were just talking about the Prophet Chuck. Love this show and I'm glad it was picked up for a 3rd season. I love the fact that Scott Bakula gets to be the father, is the creator of the Intersect and is a spy. So after months of trying to find the guy who created the Intesect, you find out it's his dad that created it and turns out to be a spy. Chuck finally get the Intersect outta his head with the help of his dad only to get it put back in but upgraded to be more bad assed as at the end of the season finale, Chuck lays down the whoop ass on 6 rogue agents and ends with him saying "I know kung fu!" Great cliffhanger. While NBC only renewed just for 13 episode I hope they'll see the light and order the other half to make it a full season. Just really bother me that there can be 37 seasons of Shit Survivor, but a decent show that cares about the storytelling and just doesn't ride the comedy along barely makes it along. Let me just say that that Sarah Lancaster is pretty hot and might just make the top 10 on my stalk list.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Time does not stand still...
Well I've been waiting a bit before commenting on some of the movies that have come out in the past month. Let me start with the new Star Trek movie. I'll go on record and say that I did like it. Enough that I went and saw it on IMAX for a second viewing. I see the points where they tried to stay canon. Capt. Pike showing up was nice and seeing Kirk as kind of a punk before stepping up to be a man was kinda cool. There are only two things in this movie that are negatives. The first one is not that big and can be directly related to the second. First off I'm not sure how I feel about Spock and Uhura knocking boots. I find it weird, but doesn't take too much away from the movie for me. Second, is there ever gonna be a Star Trek movie that doesn't involve the friggin' Time/Space continuum? Couldn't we have a Star Trek movie without someone from the future coming back to the past. Hell Spock alone should have 25,000 frequent Time/Space Continuum flyer miles enough to last the next 2 movies. Again I'll say it didn't really ruin the movie for me, but I'm just saying.
Second movie I would like to talk about is Wolverine: Origins. Now I'm not the biggest Wolverine fan, in fact my favorite X-Man is Cyclops, not the whiny Cyclops from the movie but the solid leader from the comic books. Still I went because it is a comic book movie and I like to see how these pan out. Hell I even rented the most horrible Capt. America movie on VHS tape no less. As expected Wolverine kicks the shit outta everything. I did like that Ryan Reynolds was Deadpool though I didn't like the movie adaptation of Doomsday. I personally would've liked to see Ryan let loose before becoming Deadpool, though I've read he's coming back to reprise the role in his own movie. If they let him be Van Wilder with bad ass sword moves I think it'll be a great movie. Liev played a great Sabretooth, much better than that mook they had in the first X-Men movie. Going back to Deadpool the only thing I didn't like was that he had Cyclops' eye blasts and the extending swords from his hands. The thing I love about Deadpool is he's a sarcastic bad ass, so let him be one! (edited because of sleepy and stupidity.)
Now to sports....Denver-Lakers....this is turning up to be a great series. Holy crap. I thought Barkley might've lost his mind but Denver is here to play and this time they didn't screw up. I know a lot of people are placing the laurel on Kobe but Carmello is playing and cancelling out the Kobe factor and it seems to me that the Lakers bench is not stepping up, but not as bad as the Cavs bench. LeBron rocks 40+ points and they still lose? That third half was re-cock-u-lous! You might as well had LeBron out there by himself with 4 dead bodies as much as his teammates were moving around. In my opinion all that did was make the bench cold so when LeBron shuffled a pass to them and they took a shot, they missed. Turrible, just turrible.
Second movie I would like to talk about is Wolverine: Origins. Now I'm not the biggest Wolverine fan, in fact my favorite X-Man is Cyclops, not the whiny Cyclops from the movie but the solid leader from the comic books. Still I went because it is a comic book movie and I like to see how these pan out. Hell I even rented the most horrible Capt. America movie on VHS tape no less. As expected Wolverine kicks the shit outta everything. I did like that Ryan Reynolds was Deadpool though I didn't like the movie adaptation of Doomsday. I personally would've liked to see Ryan let loose before becoming Deadpool, though I've read he's coming back to reprise the role in his own movie. If they let him be Van Wilder with bad ass sword moves I think it'll be a great movie. Liev played a great Sabretooth, much better than that mook they had in the first X-Men movie. Going back to Deadpool the only thing I didn't like was that he had Cyclops' eye blasts and the extending swords from his hands. The thing I love about Deadpool is he's a sarcastic bad ass, so let him be one! (edited because of sleepy and stupidity.)
Now to sports....Denver-Lakers....this is turning up to be a great series. Holy crap. I thought Barkley might've lost his mind but Denver is here to play and this time they didn't screw up. I know a lot of people are placing the laurel on Kobe but Carmello is playing and cancelling out the Kobe factor and it seems to me that the Lakers bench is not stepping up, but not as bad as the Cavs bench. LeBron rocks 40+ points and they still lose? That third half was re-cock-u-lous! You might as well had LeBron out there by himself with 4 dead bodies as much as his teammates were moving around. In my opinion all that did was make the bench cold so when LeBron shuffled a pass to them and they took a shot, they missed. Turrible, just turrible.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
It was a good game...
Well what can I say....as soon as Phil Jackson gets 10 championship rings I can stop rooting for the Lakers. In all honesty, Denver had that game in the bag. They dominated almost all 4 quarters and then they unraveled. Carmello pushed Kobe around like a little girl but it was nice to watch the physical game between the two. Denver was right in it till the inbound steal by the Lakers that shut the door on the Nuggets.
Now my latest heartbreak. The Blackhawks. Boo. Though I really really really want the Hawks to win, they're a young team, and the Red Wings are the reigning champs. This second meeting was a great game. Lost by one in OT. I'll give Detroit they're props. If any sports team in Detroit is consistant, it's the Red Wings. Still I'd have rather had the Hawks play Anaheim with home field advantage.
So we've been playing the Arkham Horror campaign that Fantasy Flight has put out. It's the second campaign they put out. For those of you who don't know about the campaign, it's a storyline that makes you use certain aspects and expansions of the Arkham Horror series. I'm really digging it and my gaming group is enjoying it also. When we're finally done with the story line maybe I'll post our results in story form. Maybe.
Now my latest heartbreak. The Blackhawks. Boo. Though I really really really want the Hawks to win, they're a young team, and the Red Wings are the reigning champs. This second meeting was a great game. Lost by one in OT. I'll give Detroit they're props. If any sports team in Detroit is consistant, it's the Red Wings. Still I'd have rather had the Hawks play Anaheim with home field advantage.
So we've been playing the Arkham Horror campaign that Fantasy Flight has put out. It's the second campaign they put out. For those of you who don't know about the campaign, it's a storyline that makes you use certain aspects and expansions of the Arkham Horror series. I'm really digging it and my gaming group is enjoying it also. When we're finally done with the story line maybe I'll post our results in story form. Maybe.
Coming back with a bang?
Well, just a quick note since I'm really not sure where I'm going with this. Many moons ago I had a website up about games, both video and board. Covering almost everything from Formula DE to Warhammer 40K and everything in between. That being said I think I'm going to be heading in that direction again but I think I'm going to add my love of comics and sports to this version of Geeks With Attitude. Let's keep our fingers crossed.
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