Yearly Archives: 2007

There are Two parts to this post

Part 1: The Microsoft Xbox 360.
I have adored the Xbox 360 for some time now. Although i’ve never fully embraced my dark fueled love for this system – it’s always been there. I didn’t want to admit it because of the lofty price tag and initial investment, but jesus the Xbox 360 is pure Vanhood in a plastic shell. I eased into this console with slow and careful enthusiasm over nearly a year. I played a ‘few’ games for it. I read a ‘little’ about it. I played my brother’s 360 ‘sparingly’. I played Enguego’s 360 ‘once’. I tried to ‘forget’ about them both. I hate ‘Sony’. I like using “Quotations”.

That slow and careful path has officially blown wide open further than the cast of “Fox’s hit show 24″. I am now fully embracing the 360 as my hetero life mate; and I’m doing so with reckless abandon. Moving onto the 360 – Mainstay titles like “Gears of War” and “Forza 2″ lead the cast of Microsoft’s hit show 360, and also get strong support from titles like “Call of duty”, “Saints Row”, and “Not Metroid Prime” who round out the ensemble. Then we have Up-and-comers “Bio Shock”(out today) and “Halo 3″(out in September) that are sure to push the bar even further up to levels that cannot be met by competitor consoles. This is the tip of the 360′s iceberg, and I am licking it like a Flintstone Push-up.

August has proven to truly be my sign of the cosmos, three fold. “Leo” has aligned the planets and given me a three paycheck month, a birthday with gift money and gift cards, and a $50 price drop on the Xbox 360. Never has a life path been so clear: August was the time for buying a 360. Thanks to Vanbergs, Vanlandw, Best buy, and me taking Friday off work (Yes, i took a day off to buy an Xbox 360) – I am a proud 360 owner with Gears of war, Forza 2, and Saints Row. Neither Gears of War or Forza 2 need an introduction, but Saint’s Row was a surprise hit in my book. In previews and commercials Saint’s Row looked like nothing but a Grand Theft Auto ripoff. It is indeed a ripoff of GTA, but it accomplishes a new level of playability due to rag doll physics and improved Gun/Rocket/Explosion warfare. I can’t even explain it – it just has to be experienced. I almost hate to say this, but I like Saints Row more than Grand Theft Auto. Virtual Vanberge agrees with Physical Vanberge. I can’t even really say any more about this subject, except that I have tapped an untold happiness that can only be compared to care free childhood bliss. Part 1, out.

Part 2: Mountain Dew Game Fuel.
I heard “buzz” about this limited edition soft drink. The Cherry Citrus Mountain dew. Then my lovable freakishly tall brother allowed me to sample from his 20 oz. I love Game Fuel. And it’s only fitting that a weekend of complete Xbox was ‘fueled’ by game AND game fuel. Vanbergs and I bought a 12 back of GAME FUEL and also each got a 20 oz (the 12 pack wasn’t cold). On Friday, August 17th, I drank a 20 oz. AND 4 cans of Game fuel before the sun had even thought about setting. You might say “dude, that is 5 sodas… so what”. Well, turns out that Mountain Dew Game Fuel has 72.6 milliliters of caffeine PER CAN. That is more caffeine then Jolt Cola (71.2). More caffeine then Vault (71.5). WAY more caffeine than any regular soft Drink. Regular Mountain Dew is the only one in the ball park. (55.0). Sodas like Coke, Pepsi and Dr Pepper are not even worth mentioning. Red Bull technically has more caffeine per ounce (80.0) – but Red Bull’s only have 8.3 oz. compared to 12 in a normal can – So a Game Fuel technically has more caffeine than a Red Bull.

Needless to say, I did not sleep very much on Friday evening.

Now the smoke has cleared. The weekend is over and the Game Fuel is gone – but I am a huge fan of the soft drink known as Mountain Dew Game Fuel. If you want do deprive yourself of sleep in order to fuel some game, that stuff will definitely do the trick.

…to Television and Movies?…

Seriously think about it – Try this yourself right now, off the top of your head. Try to name 5 good television shows that are on current network television. And then, try to name 5 good movies that have come out in 2007. Without doing hours of research, here is what i can come up with (even with some help from Vanbergs):

Movies:

• 300
• Transformers
• Knocked Up

TV Shows:

• The Shield
• The Black Donnellys (Which, is cancelled)
• The Office
• Rescue Me (which is skating on very thin ice)

Now try the same exercise, exept with ‘bad’ movies or TV. These lists of ‘bad’ items aren’t worth an unordered list, or even comma separation for that matter. Movies: Spider man 3 Die hard 4 I know who killed me Stomp the yard The simpsons Breach Oceans 13 Ghostrider Rush hour 3. TV Shows: 24 house nip tuck so you think you can dance american idol anything on mtv prison break The bachelor Singing with the stars Really any reality tv show now that i think about it.

If my point is not already understood, it is that most current TV and Cinema are waste of time, film, money, and the electromagnetic spectrum in general. Of course, these are MY opinions. I’m sure plenty of people like watching “The Hills” or “My Sweet 16″ on MTV – but, those shows ARE God-hideous in an un-debatable sense. Additionally, I haven’t even seen all of the shows/movies I listed. The reason is, mostly, you can tell what shit is without having to lean over and smell it. I don’t need to see Die Hard 4 to know that it all but ruins the first three.

So now the question is “why?” – Why has it come to this torrid level of production? The answer, i am confident, is Generation Y. I can’t blame the movie/TV companies because they are just giving the masses what they want. The masses, the “little brothers and sisters” of Generation X; have been spoiled and fed life with a silver spoon. As best I can tell, this is probably due to the fact that the parents of Gen. Y have grown up much rougher. I can understand that, the parents come up tough and fighting, so they want their kids to have it better than they did. I understand that completely, and I’m not criticizing it. I’d want the same for my kids. But, the spoiled nature of Gen. Y is breeding the forward thinking out of the equation. Hence, people do not want to watch forwardly intelligent programming. Instead, they want to see stupid attractive people doing stupid attractive things and then send their friends text messages about it.

It’s really too bad – I almost hardly watch television anymore. And, in looking at my netflix queue almost half of it is filled with ‘older’ movies. But, maybe I’m just officially ‘old’. I’m sure my parents probably felt this same way when i started listening to Motley Crue and playing Nintendo. Maybe they just need to make an “oldies” television and cinema network.