I'm just now returning to the land of the living after a long, NARP-induced hibernation. I remember arriving, loading up a WiiMote candy despenser with Smarties, and setting up the PA. From there, its hot-sauce-soaked blur of wings, Amber Bock and people in GTA shirts partying like it was 1999 (it may have been!).

I had a blast playing, and huge thanks to everyone who hung outside and gave a listen. GuitarAtomik absolutely tore shit up (well done man!). The Call of Duty tourney and Rock Band marathons were both suitably epic. Joe, Ninoog, and Ron got this thing up off the ground in style. I was very impressed with how it all came together.

I wish I'd been around Friday night so I could have gotten to know some of you a little better, but it was awesome putting faces to names and meeting you all! Next time (and it seems clear there will be an epic NEXT TIME) I'll be sure to hang out at whatever hotel/brothel/bakery/baby-food-factory the crew is at for the duration.

I spent about 20 minutes snapping pics at the end of the night (beginning of "round 2" of the night ;-) ) but they pretty much didn't come out (Britini put up a flickr site, to which I posted the handful that are almost passable). Except the one below. That one is awesome (see Steamy, I told you that one out of every hundred would be cool! I think I said that, anyway. Maybe I said something else entirely. Something offensive and troubling. But I'm pretty sure I said the first thing!!)



NARP Flickr

Pedro's (kickass) pics

{edit: did I do like a 10 minute awful cosby impression in the hotel? Is that on a memory card somewhere? Can that memory card be destroyed/burned/fired into space?}

{edit 2: I put up this page a few days ago for shaemeless self promotion. So, uhm Click Here SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION!!!

DeviantArt and Capcom are having an Okami themed contest (details here). The grand prize is a Wii, a copy of the game, and a DeviantArt subscription package. Not a bad haul :-)

This is my contest entry, drawn on my Tablet PC using Art Rage Starter Edition (which is the free version. It's a great app, check it out). Click the pic to get to a higher res version.


Okami Contest Entry by ~TinyWindow on deviantART

Just random GameVideos amusement. Should I be working right now?

That logo is all washed out. I'd fix it, but I recently picked up Rock Band and now I can't be bothered to do anything but rock the junk off those plastic drums.

Anyway, I thought I'd give a brief follow-up report on Episode 1 of Mommy Are The Monsters Gone?. Despite all my testing and Rock-Band-avoidance in getting set up for the thing, we had last minute technical difficulties with the audio. We went on about 15 minutes late and weren't able to grab audio for the promised podcast.

Technical glitches aside, I think our 8 viewers all enjoyed themselves. It was downright entertaining, as first tries go, and I'm prepared to call it a success. A Success. And then there was Joe's ass.. but then, I think that's how most stories end (don't believe me? Go read A Tale of Two Cities and TRY and tell me the ending isn't an elaborate allusion to Joe's ass).

There was ranting, there were unsubstantiated rumors, and there were Mad Libs.. which I'm going to call Mad Gibs or something. Look for Episode 2 this Thursday night. I'll post the details here a bit before-hand. Topic suggestions welcome (and possibly ignored)!

Ep1 Highlights:

* I can't change my GamerTag region. Angels weep.
* Squeenix might love on the 360 more than you think.
* UMD: Now with 80% less Vin Diesel!
* Joe's pretty positive you're never going to see a Blu Ray player on the 360. Like, very positive.
* Don't be shocked if GTA IV slips its release date one only one of the two systems. Why? REASONS!
* MGS: Snake Eater sold WAY better than I thought it did.

Namelessted was kind enough to capture some screens.

Hello All!

Tonight, Joe "Buck F1tches" Burling and I will be recording our first podcast, "Mommy Are The Monsters Gone?" and you can help! (Please help!!!). Joe will regale us with tales of his CES adventure and will answer dtoider questions about the event, to the best of his ability (mediocre at least!) using a mysterious conveyance city-folk call 'CHAT'.

We will be broadcasting live at 8:00pm TONIGHT via ustream, which you will be able to access by clicking THESE VERY WORDS.

The password is: mommydtoid

A trimmed down, audio-only copy will follow, but the wise and the knowing will witness the event LIVE.. sorry, caps lock.. live this evening.

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/mommy-are-the-monsters-gone

As two, maybe three of you know, I am an American presently residing in Canada. Canadian Thanksgiving was last month, so today was business as usual around here. I have decided, however, that holidays ought to accompany the person, not the place. So I sneaked out of work a little early today (I didn't so much sneak, as I walked confidently out. This is a technique I developed back in high school, realizing that one is much less likely to draw attention to oneself if one does not appear to be sneaking about.. doesn't one? ..one.).

I arrived home and, once the rush of newly acquired freedom had subsided, realized I had nothing to do with myself. Everyone else was at work. Daytime TV is hot, stinky garbage. I'd exhausted my gaming supply last week after playing entirely too much Ace Combat 6 (this is untrue.. you can't play too much Ace Combat 6.. only too little). Does this spell defeat for our hero?!

Not nearly! You see, I don't have Mass Effect, which is to say, I've yet to experience TEh FX. But payday is not until tomorrow, and I blew my last ten bucks on gas. I started writing up a list in my mind of games I'd be willing to trade in at EB. I'm sure this is a mental exercise we are all familiar with. For the unknowing, it goes something like this:

Should I trade in R6:Vegas? I mean, the sequels coming out next year, so it's not like I'm gonna need both.. but what if I feel like playing it again before the next one comes out? I haven't played Table Tennis in a while, that can go.. of course I never did beat it. When was the last time I even touched Gears...

I knew that without making some serious sacrifices to the collection, I wasn't going to get anywhere near the retail price of TEh FX. So it occurred to me that I should round up all of the loose change in my bedroom. I don't really spend change so much as discard it. I had a healthy pile of silver on my nightstand, and some more scattered around my computer desk. So I loaded up a plastic bag and hit the grocery store for to coinify their Coinstar machine.

I had a lot of change. Like.. a bunch. Rather than tell you the grand total, I thought I'd show you what I was able to purchase with the bounty (that bit in the lower left is a KFC Chicken Bowl):



It's a Thanksgiving day miracle!!! So, I I may be far away from home and family on a holiday, and I may have failed to secure for myself the prized Rock Band kit (congrats Guitaratomik!), but sipping a cold beer and firing up Mass Effect seems like a half-decent consolation.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!

:)