The Games Afoot

As its unseasonably freezing here in Seattle, here's a brief post to be followed by elaboration. So I think I've plowed through most of this season's main attraction, triple A, video game releases.
Quick thoughts:
Dead Space - Awesome. Fantastic visuals, bloody satisfying gameplay. A little repetitive, some silly bosses and minigames, but a fine entertainment nonetheless
Fallout 3 - Warts and all, one of the year's best. Sure the visuals arent quite up to snuff with some of the years other titles, but the gameplay is damn fun and completely engrossing.
Left 4 Dead - My personal favorite. Sure there isn't THAT much content (don't bother playing solo) but I've had more hysterical, memorable, "cinematic" moments playing this game more then just about any other.

Gears 2 - Bloody gorgeous, fun Horde mode, but for some reason this didnt stick with me. Its a good game to be sure. Just...something missing.
Resistance 2 - Didnt care for the campaign much. Some nice visuals, variety in locations, neat scripted moments but some frustrating design decisions (one hit kill enemies, for starters). More so then Gears 2, something was really, really off putting in Resistance 2. Co-Op was fun till I tried Left 4 Dead and Horde. After those, it felt kind of simplistic and flat. More to come...
Fable 2 -Awful. One of the worst games of the year
Far Cry 2 - Awful. One of the worst games of the year
Mirror's Edge - A really, really mixed bag. Loved the look and core sense of first person parkour, but the level design almost kiboshes the whole works. Playtest your shit, y'all.
Call of Duty: World at War - Mildly amusing campaign mode, with some decent scripted moments. The unlockable zombie mode though, is the real reason to check this out.
Prince of Persia - Interesting, frustration free design but ultimately too repetitive and kind of boring
Little Big Planet - Haven't completely runthrough it, but it looks charming as hell and fun to check out what people have created BUT I find the core mechanics of moving Sackboy around to be somewhat frustrating. Now if he moved more like Mario.... :)

K, that was longer then I intended. I'll elaborate a bit more as the year comes to and end and try to cover the year that was.
Allez !

Werewolf Barmitzvah !

Damn the new Netflix app that MS added to the NXE for 360 !! Good christ, the nerd-dom expressed in the prior sentence....
Anyhoo, I finally started using the handy dandy Netflix streaming app this past weekend. My stream of choice: the tv show 30 Rock. I caught the pilot of this a few years back and didn't think much of it. It came out at the same time as a similarly themed show (anyone remember Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip ? Uggh, yeah me neither). I had written both off as too high concept (SNL style show within a show) and quite frankly not funny enough to carry the weight of the idea for very long. I was on the money on Studio 60 (The New Paris Opera House, are you shitting me ?!?) but 30 Rock seemed to survive. A pretty damn funny promo for the 30 Rock Season 2 DVD on the recent The Office DVD caught my attention, and I tried a random episode from season 2 off the Netflix service this past weekend. Fast forward to Sunday night and I had nearly imbibed the entire run of the show. God love this service. On demand content ! Because we demand it !

The Bo and I

So for the past few months I've had the pleasure of the company of my overly nice and more or less well behaved Shepperd/retriever (?) mix/mutt Bo. A fine fine fellow, if there ever was one i.e. he's awesome. HOWEVER, the Bo does have a few faults, one being is his insistence on leash pulling. Generally, this happens whenever he sees another critter of the canine persuasion. Bo's response is to say "Hi" regardless of my feelings on the matter. This also happens whenever he sees more lowly creatures i.e. squirrels, birds, to whom Bo doesn't necessarily want to say "Hi" so much as, "I want to know how you taste". He's also generally attracted to people, lights, and any and all high frequency stimulus. His unbridled enthusiasm and boundless charisma usually results in me trying to reel in the hurricane and nearly having my arm ripped from its socket. Since I've had the pup, I've settled on a kind of 50/50, turn the other cheek attitude, but as time gets on, my tolerance has dropped for this behavior....
So last night, I decided to initiate Leash Training ala Nattam. I did a wee bit of googling on the subject of leash training, and found what read at least, like a sensible technique. The tenets seem simple enough.
Step 1: Make sure the pooch is sitting calmly before attaching the leash. Bo already passes this step since he's already sits quite calmly waiting for the leash to be attached.
Step 2: As soon as the dog starts to pull on the leash, the walk "is over". You stand still, force the dog to come back to you and tell him/her to sit and calm down for 5-10 seconds. You then resume the walk but if the naughty behavior persists, you stop and stand (or for Bo, sit) again. This part requires monk-like patience, since you'll probably have to stop repeatedly during a walk. The idea is to teach the dog that you (human) dictate the walk, not t'other way round.
So, I tried this all out, shortening our usual 40+ minute walk to a leisurely stroll to empty Bo of his detritus and down to a local teriyaki shop so I could snag dinner (Fremont's friendly neighborhood Yak's, serving fine yakisoba since 197...something). There were a few hiccups along the way, but, much to my delight and surprise, the furry bastard complied and managed to reduce his insistent pulling to a mere few feet of pattering in front of me. A few more weeks of this, and I should have Bo following complacently right beside me. Grand.
Don't you love how I set up this story to appear as though there would be a humorous finale ?
As Chappelle says, "Aint no point to it, thats the end of the story"

Finnegan, begin again

Alright, after hemming and hawing, bitching and moaning, yakking and...whatever rhymes with "yakking" I've finally decided to start a blog. Considering that my timing with most social revolutions/movements tends to be on the downward swing i.e. late to the party, then this much delayed grand entrance to the blogosphere (cripes what an awful, awful word) comes as no surprise.
What will emerge from my pen/keyboard ? How often ? Only the gods know.

Strap in. Lets see whats in store....