Where I Belong

"I spoke to the prophets,
gave them many visions
and told parables through them."

- Hosea 12:10

Beer Pong... THE VIDEOGAME!

Yes, the Wii game that nobody asked for has finally been announced! Now you can play the popular college game Beer Pong... ON YOUR WII! There's no joke to be made there! None at all!

And that's not all! Developer JV Games is planning on making even more games like this, under the "Frat Party Games" label. As the Kotaku story says, "Frat Party Games: Stomach Pump and Frat Party Games: Date Rape shouldn't be too far behind."

Now, I don't drink, so I could be wrong... But isn't one of the primary draws to Beer Pong, you know... the beer?

Here's the very exciting trailer!:



Look how much fun those people are-- Oh, wait... Most of them look kinda bored, actually. And perhaps stoned. And probably drunk.

The game will be downloadable over the WiiWare service at some point in the future. On that day, the earth will mourn.

Our Prince Has Come

Sooooo... The Hollywood Reporter did some Hollywood reporting today and announced that Jake Gyllenhaal (Donnie Darko, Brokeback Mountain, The Day After Tomorrow) will be playing the Prince of Perisa in the upcoming film based on the game series of the same name. Starring opposite Gyllenhaal in the leading lady role will be up-and-coming new Bond girl, Gemma Arterton (Quantum of Solace, RocknRolla).

The film will be directed by Mike Newell (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) and is being produced by Jerry Bruckheimer (Pirates of the Caribbean, National Treasure).

All told, I think that this has a chance of being one of the first good video game to film adaptations... But while I think Gyllenhaal is a talented actor, I'm pretty worried about that as a casting choice. A GameSpot commenter may have said it best:

"[I] was expecting Prince of Persia, not Prince of Caucasia."

Yep.

You Can't Beat 100%

As of about midnight this/last night on May 19th/20th (whichever you wanna call it), I reached 100% in the "Game Completion" statistic of Grand Theft Auto IV. Time taken: Around 52 hours (more when you factor in loading saved games and multiplayer).

Hopefully it'll be enough to earn a "Key to the City" prize from Rockstar... I may have just barely snuck in under the time limit for the contest.

That gives me 40 out of 50 of the achievements in the game. I still have to win some races, roll over my car 6 times, and then play a whole lot of multiplayer.

Review will come soon, but in the meantime, if you're over 17/18, I HIGHLY recommend the game. Which is still funny to me, since I've despised the series in the past for various reasons, not the least of which that I found the games boring after a short time. The story and moral conflict in the main game alone are worth the price of admission, easily.

(Partial) Summer Reading List

Apparently I'm also reading that Halo poster on top of the stack, there. Sorry for the sucky image quality.

And yeah, I think I'll be reading at least most of these when:

1) I get my wisdom teeth out tomorrow. Prayers are of course welcome.

2) I'm at my job, getting paid to sit by - I mean, umm... watch. Not as a lifeguard, just as a... guard - a pool and read.

Books I'm most excited about include:

The Dark is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper (I've read 1.5 books so far)

The Dark Tower Series by Steven King

The Lost Books Series (part of The Circle) by Ted Dekker

Adam by Ted Dekker

The Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyer (while definitely written for teen girls, I think, it's quite good so far)

Writers of the Future Short Stories - 'cuz I hope to write one of them myself

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

Broken Sky Series by Chris Wooding - I started these years ago and loved them, but never owned them all. I've since tracked them all down.

Bad Twin by Gary Troupe - 'cuz it's somehow related to Lost, maybe.

The Foundation Trilogy by Issac Asimov - 'cuz I've never read it

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Shame I can't be smoking my pipe while reading all this stuff by the pool (no smoking and all that). That would be cool.

I'm sure I'll be getting a lot of writing done too. I need to expand "The Awakening", start a novel version of that same story, and finish up "Tobias" (in addition to rewriting the beginning). Lots to do...

Roll Call

I added a blog roll... It's over there on the right ------> It may move down a bit, closer to the other links. Who knows?

Shame it's not more like a Rick Roll... 'cuz that would be AWESOME.

Mostly it's just links to those other blogs I sometimes read (as they don't have fancy e-mail or even RSS subscription features like I do. Again, look to your right ----> ), but you can read them too. Heck, maybe you're one of the people over there? Again, who knows?

If you read this blog, are a friend (or not) and want a spot on the blessed blog roll with these other proclaimed people, make yourself known, peasants! Heck, make yourself known anyway, because I'm not entirely sure who reads this thing. I can SEE you, I just don't know who the heck you are. You see?

That said, I'm gonna go do something... Probably watch Sweeney Todd again. Maybe read some Twilight (by Stephanie Meyer. Good book so far, despite the fact that it's obviously written with young girls primarily in mind) or Infidel (by Ted Dekker, who's always awesome). Maybe play some GTA IV or Rock Band.

Who knows?

NHL Playoffs

So we've got two battles starting in a few days. The battle of the P's and the battle of the D's.

Dallas will take on Detroit, and we know that Dallas is the "Big" D, so they'll of course win that series. They're not favored to, but they weren't favored to win the last two rounds either, and look how those turned out. You'd think some of the analysts might have learned a lesson by now... Even if the Red Wings win the Western Conference (which I admit is possible), it won't be in 5 games.

Over in the Eastern Conference, it's Pittsburgh taking on Philadelphia. I'm gonna say the Penguins take this one, just like they've taken the others.

So it'll come down to the Stars and the Penguins in the Stanley Cup final, and since the West is the best, the Stars will take Lord Stanley home. A friend of mine (a poor Canucks fan) pointed out last night (after an epic overtime win to send the San Jose Sharks back home) that the West has much better goaltending, for starters. Whether it's Dallas or Detroit, I'm gonna say the West has this one... but maybe not.

Regardless, Go Stars! If we were ever gonna start winning against the Red Wings, now would be the time.

What I Would Rather Do...

...than study for finals/finish schoolwork:

1) Play GTA IV: It's really freakin' good... I'm still extremely impressed - maybe even moreso the more I see of it and the further the story progresses.

2) Read Good Books: Keyword being "good". GOOD books. Not this schol stuff that usually sucks... I'm stoked to read the latest Ted Dekker stuff, like "Adam". I'm suprisingly anxious to finally read the "Twilight" series (and I know my sister wants me to as well). I desperately need to finish "The Dark is Rising" sequence and start Steven King's "Dark Tower" series... The list goes on for awhile.

3) Write Good Books: I really need some days where I just do nothing but fix the numerous problems with "Tobias" (now that I have an idea of how to do that, I'm super excited again) and finish the story... Then move on to books II and III.

4) Learn To Play Guitar: I guess I bought that thing for a reason... Just haven't had the time to practice it.

5) Take A Long Walk on the Beach and Watch 'A Walk to Remember' Until I Can't See Through the Tears: This one may be a lie. Unless there's a gorgeous girl involved. Like that's gonna happen...

6) See Iron Man: It looks and sounds freakin' amazing.

7) Invent a Banana Phone: Then you could have your phone and eat it too...