Uncategorized

Rambley Bits

/ skoce / Leave a comment

Rambley Bits 1-07-11: Video Games and NFL Playoffs

  • I hope for Rambley Bits to become my end of week random thoughts update, for ideas too small for their own posts.  The NFL Playoffs start tomorrow.  I am feeling the need to predict.
  • Saints over Seahawks.  Because the Seahawks kind of suck, and the Saints, depleted as they are with no Pierre Thomas or Chris Ivory, are the better team.
  • Ravens over Chiefs.  The Chiefs are a good young team.  But they got to the playoffs on the easiest schedule in football and the Ravens are better.  It will be close, but the Ravens win.
  • Colts over Jets.  The Colts are even more depleted than the Saints, but they’ve been stopping the run and running the ball well lately and the Jets faded down the stretch.  Plus, the Colts were my pre-season Super Bowl pick from the AFC and I’m not ready to let them go.
  • Packers over Eagles.  I have no faith in this pick.  I like both teams, but I think the Packers have been more consistent.   Plus, just like the Colts, they were my pre-season NFC Super Bowl pick and I think they’ll get out of the first round.
  • I’m going to beat Lunar Silver Star Story pretty soon.  Expect a final review next week.
  • Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor for DS is equally infuriating and terrific.  It’s a SRPG and the actual strategy parts are pretty great, but the open story paths, while laudable in their intent, do nothing but frustrate me.  This I consider my failing and not the game’s, but the endless escort missions are definitely the games fault.  This one is going back on the shelf for a few months.
  • I was reading Sense and Sensibility, and had a halfway through thoughts post ready to go, but I lost my copy of the book.  Now I’m hesitant to post it until I secure another copy and know I can finish.  Meanwhile, the hunt for the lost book continues
  • I’m reading King Solomon’s Mines in the absence of Austen.  I’m not far in, but I’ve read H. Rider Haggard before (She) and enjoyed him, despite the casual racism and sexism.
  • I’ve been reading through my old JSA trades.  I hope to start reviewing them soon.  I loves me some Wildcat.
  • Having Netflix has not exactly been the boon to my video watching I hoped.  Because apparently I can’t get enough of mediocre TV.  Why, with all of the Netflix on demand library at my fingertips am I watching Lois & Clark.
  • I really like Lois & Clark
  • Quick Comic Reviews: Green Lantern 61: goodish
  • Flash 8: great
  • JSA All-Stars 14: fun as hell
  • Freedom Fighters 5: see JSA All-Stars
  • Brightest Day 17:  ask me again in 2 weeks

We Are Finally Cowboys

/ skoce / Leave a comment

So the first year of me having a blog is coming to a close.  Well, I’ve only had it about 10 months, but it is the end of the year in which I started it.  I have not done such a good job of updating it regularly.  I hope to do a better job next year.

I have learned a whole lot this year.  I’ve learned I was a bit too ambitious with my plan to do episode-by-episode reviews of 4 or 5 television shows.  Even at a pace of an episode a day, it would take me more than a year to finish.  So I am not planning to continue my planned Watch This project for the time being.  Consider it on hiatus.  I will finish Futurama Season 1, hopefully by the end of January, but no more.  At least not until I can figure out a way to do it that I’m happier with.

I was also a little too ambitious with the 25 years of NES, as well.  Apparently, between work and my other hobbies I was not able to write 25,000 words about NES games.  Still I have about a third of them done and another third written and ready to go.  So I will finish that project.  And as long as I get it done before October next year it is still 25 years of NES, so it’s all good.

I also did not get around to writing much about sports or books.  I was going to post my thoughts about each weekend of football, but I ended working every weekend, so I did not get to watch enough football to feel comfortable putting out any observations or analysis.  Rare was the opportunity I had to watch a full game.  As for books, it is not that I did not read any.  I read more than 20 new books this year, along with rereading about another 20 or so.  The reason I did not manage to post more than once about them is that I try to make my writing about books more . . . substantial, and I simply failed to allocate enough writing time to get anything good done.

Moving away from making feeble excuses for my lack of output, I am happy with my movie reviews.  I am a little disappointed that I did not manage to write reviews for Red or Scott Pilgrim, but I’m not changing much about how I do movie reviews.  Other than, hopefully, doing more of them.

So this year has not been great, but it was a start.  “What am I going to do next year?” you probably did not ask.  For one thing, I hope to post with greater frequency and regularity.  I intend 3-4 posts a week.  To facilitate this, I will not do any big projects, like 25 Years of NES or Watch This, though that kind of thing may return later, but I think I would be better able to get into a writing and posting rhythm if I allow myself to write about whatever I want.  I will try for variety, but more important to me right now is quantity.

The big change I am planning, and enacting very soon, is a new blog title.  Critical Ramblings sounds like a lame placeholder name, but I couldn’t not come up with anything better, But now I’ve decided on one: We are Finally Cowboys.  It is the title of a song from the soundtrack of one of the greatest video games of the last 5 years: No More Heroes.  It doesn’t really mean anything, other than being somewhat childishly fanciful, which is exactly what I’m going for with this blog.   I will also try to come up with “catchy” names for posts on every category.  Something like “Scott tells you what to watch” for TV, but actually good.

I guess that’s it for my year in review.  Now a picture of Wildcat on his cat-o-cycle.

Rambley Bits

/ skoce / 2 Comments
  • An eternal question has been answered.  Well, maybe not eternal, but it’s been on my mind since at least last week.  What is the difference between a Heath bar and a Skor bar?  I had not realized the Hershey Company made both.  Why would one candy company need 2 separate chocolate covered toffee bars?  To unravel this mystery I gathered a group of candy experts, my brothers B-Dog and Clebob (their names have been changed to protect their anonymity) and we each sampled both bars, washing them down with that greatest of fruit flavored sodas,, Black Cherry.  All three of us came to the same conclusion.  The Skor bar is smoother, while the Heath bar is somewhat nutty, but the Heath bar is far superior in taste.  So if you feel the desire for a chocolate covered toffee bar, go with the Heath.
  • There are many things I wanted to have gotten done in the last week or so, including several half-finished blog posts, that I just haven’t been able to do.  And there is one big reason why:  Dragon Quest 9 for the DS.  DQ9 hits me in most of my video game pleasure centers.  It’s an old school RPG with a job system, a do it yourself party, and good old fashioned adventuring.  Best of all: it’s multiplayer.  It’s DQ with a healthy dash of Diablo and it’s perfect.  Also, a humongous time sink.  A more thorough write-up will come later, but right now I’ve several hundred more hours to put on this baby.
  • I’ve been getting back into my reading lately.  I just finished a reread of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre.  I really need to read some criticism on it and write something marginally substantial about it or at least a decent review on this here blog.  I really love how the novel combines the classic romance with an eerie fairy tale.  I mean looked at just right this is a downright horrifying novel.  The man keeps a person locked in his attic.  This has always been one of my favorite classic novels.
  • I also reread Francis Burney’s Evelina just before I read Jane Eyre.  An epistolary novel, one written as a series of letters, Evelina is something of a Proto-Austen novel of manners.  At times, this is a bit dull, but if you enjoy the works of Austen and others like her, it is a worthwhile read.  I like it at least.
  • The last book I’ve read recently is The Confession of Fitzwilliam Darcy by Mary Street.  I love spins on classic novels that tell the story from a different characters perspective because they often have interesting ideas or insights about the events of the novel, but this one manages to be pretty dull.  If you want to read Pride and Prejudice from Darcy’s perspective you will probably not be that disappointed, but it is entirely unchallenging.
  • To make myself look a little manlier I’ll write about sports for a little bit.  Specifically the Lebron James signing.  The criticisms against him are bordering on ridiculous.  Except the jilted lover comments from Cleveland.  Hurt feelings are appropriate there for at least a few months.  But he will not be the first great player to play with other great players.  Jordan had Pippen, Magic played with Kareem, and Bird played with Parish, McHale, and Walton.  Even Kobe played with Shaq.  And not the zombie Shaq that has been shuffling around NBA courts for the last few seasons, but prime of his career Shaquille O’Neal.  James playing with Wade and Bosh will not damage his legacy as long as they win.  I do predict a loss in the conference championships for them next year though.  You’ll see.
  • For someone who rests a ridiculous amount of his self-worth on his skills at Mega Man, Mega Man 10 is handing me my ass far too regularly.  I wiped the floor with 9, but 10 is giving me fits.  I’ve only managed to down 2 bosses in over an hour of play.  It’s sad.
  • I have also been playing Zombie Panic in Wonderland.  No, it’s not quite as awesome as its name would indicate, but its still loads of ridiculous fun.  Who wouldn’t want to play as Little Red Riding Hood or Dorothy from Oz as they immolate rotting reanimated corpses with flamethrowers?  Only soulless monsters wouldn’t.
  • So new Futurama continues and even though I’ve not managed to review each episode on my blog here, I have watched and enjoyed greatly each new episode.  It seems to be hitting that great Futurama stride, though there haven’t been any truly great episodes yet. Still middle of the road Futurama is better than 90% of what’s on television, so rejoice at out good fortune of continued animated goodness.
  • Also returning to T.V. is USA’s great detective show Psych.  I love how Shawn is just short of being a complete sociopath, but is reined in just enough to be a likeable and relatable character.  I also loved that they called the inferior knock-off “The Mentalist” on being an inferior rip-off.  With no Monk, Psych is easily the best detective show on T.V.

25 Years of NES

/ skoce / Leave a comment

It has come to my attention that that greatest of video game consoles, the Nintendo Entertainment System, will turn 25 this year.  To celebrate this I will post entries on 25 great NES games.  Not necessarily the best games, but a mix of great games and my personal childhood favorites.  Expect the first entry later this week.  I will start with the only logical first NES game.  If anyone actually reads this and want a specific game discussed,  tell me in a comment, because there are a few slots not set in stone at the moment.

My First Post

/ skoce / Leave a comment

Okay, now I have a blog.  My name is R. Badger, and in my shiny new blog I will write about TV, movies, video games, books, sports, comics, and anything else that entertains me, or fails to entertain me.  Hopefully, I will manage to be both entertaining and informative, and if I’m lucky both at the same time.   As the title of this blog suggests my arguments are not wholly serious, so please do not take anything wholly seriously.  I love me some hyperbole.  If all goes according to plan I will be adding things to this blog at least three times a week. We’ll see how that works out.