So I've made a decision: I'm getting a Mac soon.

I've been using the Windows 7 beta since it was released. It's nice, and I could see myself buying it except for the whole four-hundred dollars for the premium edition thing. And a Mac Mini is what six-hundred? I've been wanting to switch ever since I feel head-over-heels for my iPod Touch anyway. I figure if I get a Mac Mini I'll be getting a slight upgrade to my hardware (snappier processor, integrated bluetooth, and dual-layer DVD burning) and a real change to my OS. I mean W7 is nice, but it's basically a (slightly) snappier, shinier, more intuitive version of XP.

I know one thing for sure. I'm not switching to Linux again. I mean with distros like Ubuntu out there that hand hold you as much as Windows or OSX, the geek cred really isn't there unless you hate yourself enough to run Gentoo. Plus Ubuntu has ceased to get cooler with each release and has retreated into the "Same OS, updated packages" thing that Debian does.

Plus, lets face it: I have to have a shiny new gadget to lust after. It's ape law.

mood: chipper music: Say Hi - Hallie and Henry

Watchmen was the kind of comic book movie that was like "Screw you people who don't "get" comic books. I'm not going to make concessions to make myself more accessible to you; I never liked you anyway. D:<"

In other words it was AWESOME.

mood: impressed music: M. Ward - Carolina

Texting simply because I loathe talking on the phone. Seriously. I can't even call for pizza without stammering. I think I could count the times I've talked to A. on the phone on both hands. Every time I call I end up stumbling over my words and constantly losing my train of thought.

Oddly enough, the very first time we did a video call it felt completely natural.

Next time I buy a cellphone I'm going for one with a full QWERTY keypad.

mood: tired music: M. Ward - Post-War tags: cell phones, text messages, writer's block

Dear God, I like this. Next thing you know I'll be watching NASCAR and CMT and yelling "FREEEEEEBIIIIIRRRRD!" at every band I see. Someone kill me while I'm still a man! T_T

mood: distressed music: Old Crow Medicine Show - Wagon Wheel

It's creepy how accurate this thing is. Ganked from gunslingerborn.

Ohht took the free ColorQuiz.com personality test! "Wants to make a favorable impression and be recogn..." Click here to read the rest of the results.

mood: calm music: Frontier Ruckus - Adirondack Amish Holler

  This is kind of the best unofficial music video ever:

mood: headache music: Deerhoof - Kidz Are So Small

So I just got through watching a great movie. It was a Spanish film I'd never heard of before called Specter. And it was a perfect, creepy, understated, classic ghost story. It's right up there with The Devil's Backbone and The Abandoned as my favorite Spanish ghost film and it may just have been creepier than either one (this requires repeated watchings to determine).

But holy crap. Creepiest ghost I've seen in forever, and a great sense of "I know what I'm about to see, but I really, really don't want to see it..."

Suffice to say this one just seated itself firmly atop the stack of movies that I'm going to make Ann watch when I finally get up there. <3

mood: impressed music: The Avett Brothers - The Weight Of Lies

DUDE! While we're at it, we should have an "All Your Base..." day, or a "Respond to Everything With 'O RLY?'" day. Hell, why not a "Numa Numa Day?"

Cause, you know, none of those things have been run into the ground at all either...

mood: apathetic music: The Long Winters - Mimi tags: writer's block

I keep watching the trailer for Fallout 3 over and over and I swear it gets better every time. Black humor + horror + turn-based combat = sheer love.

mood: impressed music: Beck - Cold Brains

When is it time to stop playing a game? When you've beaten it, are playing it on a harder difficulty just to get some unlockable that you know will be disappointing, and every time another fifteen Black Spider Clan ninjas drop onto the screen your first thought is no longer "Bring it!", but "Ohhhh CRAP!" Seriously. The normal difficulty in Ninja Gaiden Black was hard, and occasionally cheap, but was rewarding more often than not. Hard is just CHEAP. The only way to beat it is to be just as cheap as the enemies, and even then it's a "one false move and you're hosed" kinda thing.

Time to get a new game before I need to buy a new controller.

mood: aggravated music: Black Francis - Threshold Apprehension

FINALLY saw The Hulk today. It was pretty darn awesome. The Hulk didn't look as plasticky as I had feared, and -despite a few "LOOK! WE ARE ACTING!" moments- it was as believable as a movie about a ten-foot green giant who uses halves of a police car as boxing gloves can get. It also really impresses me how much Marvel seems to be focusing on creating a cohesive celluloid world for their heroes now, rather than just letting the directors treat the material however they see fit.


Oh and, I almost jumped out of my chair with glee when he finally said "HUUUUULLLLK SMAAAAAAAASH!". My sister is a trooper for going to these things with me.

mood: dorky music: Radiohead - You And Whose Army?

NInja Gaiden Black is like one of those teachers in some Oscar winning movie or other that is all abusive and punishing and forces you to repeat the same thing over and over until you are at your breaking point. Then suddenly in a moment of sublime clarity, you are able to overcome whatever obstacle was in front of you because you had the power inside you all along and just needed to realize it. Or somesuch. My gaming skills are going to be legendary if I ever beat it on Hard.

Either that or I'm going to snap, and trap all of the developers in a hellish deathmaze where one wrong move will result in a bloody death and every time one of them dies I'm going to scream "CONTINUE!?" over the loudspeakers.

mood: weird music: Ladytron - Runaway

So I FINALLY got around to buying myself a physical copy of Flood by They Might Be Giants. I've been meaning to do this for quite a while, since it isn't available on any of the legal download services I use and I don't do that music stealing thing anymore.

Now I'm sitting here listening to "Birdhouse In Your Soul" and scowling at my computer. Apparently my bad mood is even impervious to TMBG. This might be bad

Back to listening to The Bends on an infinite loop again, I guess. Fweeehhh...

mood: cranky music: They Might Be Giants - Birdhouse In Your Soul

Well I managed to hold off on buying some of the new Animated toys...

mood: new toys! music: Ladytron - Ghosts

Story of Ricky is the greatest martial arts film of all time. Sure Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, or any given Jet Li film has better cinematography and choreography and a plot that sort of makes sense if you squint and tilt your head a bit, but do they have a villain that eats mints he dispenses from his false eye?

I didn't think so.

mood: impressed music: Ramones - Blitzkreig Bop

I'm filled with conflicting emotions about No More Heroes: My artsy, postmodern, liberal arts graduate side loves the fact that it's a deconstructionist take on video games and gamer culture. My gamer side finds the "jam on the A button then flick the remote" combat and annoyingly repetitive "jobs" you have to perform just to make it to the next group of identical enemies that need to be mulched (again, it's as much or more a critique of video games as it is an actual video game) "gameplay" somewhat lacking. I'm not even going to get started on the large-yet-empty city that has to be traversed in order to get to the next bout of lawnmowing or coconut collecting.

Then there's the presentation, which I absolutely love. It's reminiscent of M. Dot Strange's We Are The Strange (although I'm fairly certain NMH is going for irony while We Are The Strange is -as someone once said to me- trying too hard on nearly every level) with a sort of Tarantino-meets-FLCL glaze over everything that works a lot better than it has any right to. Plus there's something about the tinny eight-bit music that loops as you're slicing thugs to ribbons with a lightsab- BEAM KATANA and giant, pixelated powerups and goal markers that appear throughout the slick cell-shaded world that fills me with a sense of dorky glee.

The last game I was this conflicted over was Rule of Rose (which I am determined to finish... someday). At least NMH's gameplay has its moments, and the boss battles are enjoyable in an extremely simplistic way.

mood: confused music: My Brightest Diamond - At The Top Of The World