Storypost | 2009.11.26

Army of Two screenshot
VA

Two weekends ago was a trip out east to the Commonwealth. J and I co-opped Army of Two, ODST, and New Mario, start to finish on consecutive days. Monday featured some epic Halo firefight scenarios. Of course we mixed it up with some MST, Always Sunny, and a trip to the Dulles air museum. Mandy was awesome throughout, and filled me in on some of the great new J-isms that I've missed.


Mario provides some nostalgic sidescrolling action, with a few new motion control elements that tend to be very challenging. The game resurrects the Mario 1, 3, and 4 formula but adds three more simultaneous players. Two at a time provided some helpful bootstrapping and agonizing coordination, I await and fear the day Kevin, Cheryl, and Ty come over.

Weimaraner Las Vegas MGM grand car
LV

I finally made it to the annual Friendsgiving event at Bret and Courtney's place in Vegas. After a lengthy drive everybody met up to hang out at the MGM. I think everyone did well after leaving the craps tables.



Dawn broke shortly after we finished our Del Taco and *bertos, and it was much like old times.

Air compressor ping pong ball Wiffle ball Las Vegas street Talking Surprise air compressor to the face

Compressed air


Many a ping pong ball was thrown, with the fantasy-inspired keeping of statistics and awarding of trophies.

Weimaraner lab play yard toy tug of war


Out back, Kaffey got along splendidly with Buddy and Chunko. The dogs spent most of the weekend flopped on the ground.

Weimaraner and labs Weimaraner and labs playing Weimaraner and labs playing

Turkey deep fryer thanksgiving


Saturday night was all business as every capable chef prepared their dish, and the chef de chefs deep fried the seasonal entree. Of course the meal was top notch.



Sleeping followed. With fantasy matchups and wiffle the next day.

Wiffle ball batting
LA

Proper Thanksgiving for me was courtesy of Jessica's family. Again, an excellent meal with novel variations such as sausage stuffing and chocolate bourbon pecan pie.

I had a fun experience on the return trip. The v1 was getting two very strong signals on my tail, and I was soon passed by a chip. The clutchness of the device was demonstrated as the two signals indicated now in front and behind, encouraging me to let the second cop speed past and nab the guy following the first. I'm not sure why they had radar on, but it was a fun procedure to watch.
SD, at last

Today I saw my house in daylight for the first time in weeks. So I put up some Christmas lights and researched appetizers for Connie's thing.


ScottD and I went to see The Road. It was very faithful to the book, I almost pined for a few new scenes since I knew how each would play out. While McCarthy's prose does not lack visual descriptiveness, seeing his world is a great way to experience the story. I'm not sure the sense of despair comes across quite as well, but I don't know how it could have been achieved without excessive monotony.

Dragon Age Origins screenshot town village Redcliffe


I downloaded Dragon Age since it's Bioware and got killer reviews. I have a long way to go, but it doesn't strike me as much of an improvement on Mass Effect. Of course, anytime EA's involved...

And lastly, a message from Kafka's nose:

KafkaKafka n chyt6



Comments

Do you sleep?

Chris

Tell him eight watts. He better not own a car.


did someone mention lights? do you need more xmas lights, i've gots more. go show ET what phoning home is all about!!


He drives a Prius.

Chris

I'm sure he's heard the argument about resources required to produce a Prius. Just call him out if he drives with the radio on.


I just found out the neighbor is petitioning for part of the DM property tax be used to purchase rain forest in S. America to offset DM's carbon footprint. What a twit.



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