Right now I’m studying for a test and in between I’m playing Hotel Dusk and watching Black Lagoon. Hotel Dusk is starting to get really boring, there is just too much story that I’m not interested in and basically no gameplay, not even in the point and click sense, so it has just become an irritating mess. Black Lagoon is going along exactly like I thought it would, I can already see the softness coming through and the love brewing, if it turns out like I think it will then it’ll be a failed series, but I wasn’t really expecting that much out of it.

Looking down at my posts things have changed a little, Scrubs turned downhill hardcore season 7 onwards. Season 7 was pretty blah and now season 8 is just an absolute garbage pile, not worthy of even watching let alone liking. Children of Men is still my favorite movie, the big winner academy award style this year was Slumdog Millionare which wasn’t the best movie ever, but I enjoyed it, didn’t make any sort of top list for me though, maybe on the year because the year just sucked.

Speaking of the year sucked for pretty much fucking everything. Hardly any game worthy of speaking of, littlebigplanet was the only new IP that didn’t suck hard, all the GOTY choices were sequels, which I guess isn’t that bad, I liked Metal Gear Solid 4, but it’d be nice to see something new win the GOTY instead of a seasoned vet, it gets old. Hardly any good movies at all, I haven’t even thought of purchasing a Blu-Ray yet, the number one choice is Children of Men when it ever fucking comes out.

Anyways, I just wanted to put something down on the blog since it’s been so long, back to the studying grind.

Season 1 starts off pretty slow in my opinion, it had definitely not hit its stride that it reaches in season 2, but its still great television. Theres quite a lot of drama in this season thats absent for most of the rest of the show. The 3 patients that die in episode 4 was a pretty big shock considering the tone of the show, and the drama that unfolds when J.D. and Carla fight when J.D realizes he knows more than her. Towards the end of the season is when the show really starts to pick up, when J.D.’s monologue becomes more than just small comments and really starts the total genius of the show.

Season 2 continues seamlessly and starts to really hit its stride with less drama and more of that comedic genius that is so rare. J.D and Elliot have their next sex adventure, and Turk and Carla are engaged. This season also exhibits the first of the “His/Her Stories” that are narrated from someone other than J.D, and offer some great perspective on how the others in the cast are thinking.

Season 3 is in my opinion the best season, this is when the show just starts nailing it every single episode. All the characters have their back stories pegged, and their personae are all in place and it is all glorious. The 2 episode arc with Michael J. Fox are just amazing, and all the other episodes are just as good. “My Screw Up” the so called Sixth Sense homage episode has some pretty good writing for a comedy, and definitely got me at the end.

Season 4 is almost as good as season 3, but it starts to get a little sillier. This season the show starts making fun of itself with the so called sad music piano tune, and a little more ridiculous situations. The story arc with Heather Graham was decent, but wasn’t all that interesting. The story with Kylie is a little better, but the quarantine episode was almost completely useless and boring. The episode “My Life In 4 Cameras” is pretty amazing though, one of the best episodes period.

Season 5 is a tad hit or miss, there is more drama in this season than in season 4, especially with the episode “My Lunch” which has Dr. Cox accidentally killing 3 patients, and the episodes following it. Some of the situations get a lot more silly in this season and sometimes get ridiculous like in the deja vu episode in which situations repeat themselves and leads to a really boring episode. “My Way Home” which is a reference to The Wizard of Oz, was an amazing episode and really does show Zach Braff’s ability to direct.

Season 6 so far is even more hit or miss, the episodes are still funny, but there is more drama and even more silly situations that aren’t nearly as funny as I’ve come to expect. While I do love some of the drama, there are plenty of other shows out there that can provide me with all the drama I need, and I’d like Scrubs to get back to its roots soon, at least for the last season if it is made. The clips episode was also really bad, even though it slightly made fun of itself, it was still a clip show so it didn’t serve as a satire in any way.

I am so happy that movie theaters still exist, and in a way I wish that movies like this were the reason that they still do. As fun as seeing a lot of huge explosions with bad acting is, the hassle of going to the movie theaters is just not worth it anymore, except for something that is really special. MJR four dollar tickets early morning on Saturdays is the savior of the movie going experience for me. Not only is it extremely cheap, but there haven’t been more than 10 people in the theaters besides me and Kellie, on the day after release for both movies we saw, although they weren’t blockbusters, they were still movies that did good at the box office, even when limited release.

IMDB summary:

In 2027, as humankind faces the likelihood of its own extinction, a disillusioned government agent agrees to help transport and protect a miraculously pregnant woman to a sanctuary at sea where her child’s birth may help scientists to save the future of mankind.

Alfonso Cuarón is officially my new favorite director, trumping Danny Boyle which is no easy feat. It only took the opening scene for me to proclaim that the movie was amazing. I can’t recall the exact order in which I watched Y tu mamá también and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban but I was very quickly enthralled with his disregard of the invention of the steadycam, (Y tu mamá también is one of the very few movies I’ve purchased twice, once for the rated and another for the unrated edition).

No action movie has ever put set me so on edge than the two major action scenes in this movie. Both of them were done in single takes and put the viewer in the center of the action, something that to me made all the difference. Too often action from far away may took cool if stylized enough like a Yimou Zhang film, but mostly it ends up just boring. I’ve never had the experience of feeling on edge in any movie in my entire life until this one, and all of this just two scenes from a movie that is more of a science fiction drama than an action movie.

Acting, writing, directing, music, everything in this movie was just right for the kind of movie that I want. Although it was not perfect, the story could have been a little darker for my taste, but it was good enough. Definitely my favorite movie of the year and easily in my top five favorite movies of all time. Thank you Kellie for introducing me to Alfonso Cuarón and this movie.

A beautiful picture Kellie took outside her house.

So, so addicting. Close to Dice Wars I’d have to say, but probably not there yet.

Simple Sudoku

I think I missed the big Sudoku craze, but I’m okay with that, I really liked word searches when I was younger, crosswords have always seemed lame to me being that the answers are not readily available, and the vast power of the internet ruins any sort of self restraint on my part to try to solve them.

The very first quest NPC, the graphics are damn gorgeous.

The quest report for beta testing.

The UI, looting, and armor tooltip.

Some scenery.