PREPARE FOR 3 MONTHS!

I'm happy to see that the date for this year's Prairiecon has been set. June 1st-3rd for those too lazy to click the link. Hope to see the rest of you Manitoban nerds there!

Hey look! There's a Sasquatch documentary on CTV! WEEEE-OOOOO!

A little late there, Rick

I was browsing Newsarama and started reading this article. At one point, something immediately stood out:

The Kids WB announced its new programs for the 2007-8 season. The list includes the following:

* Magi-Nation - This one follows the adventures of teenager Tony Jones, whose world is forever changed when he is mystically transported into a beautiful world far beyond imagination that was created a millennia ago by a powerful race known as the Magi. Here Tony meets Edyn and Strag, two young Magi heroes in training, who help him discover his vast new magical environment. All is not perfect in Tony's new world as the Moonlands of Magi-Nation are threatened by the evil Shadow Magi. It's up to this young trio and their vast collection of Dream Creatures to thwart the evildoers' plans and protect their world.

A multi-platform entertainment brand, kids enter the fantastic world of "Magi-Nation" via the 2D animated television series. From there, fans can experience the continuing action of the three young Magi heroes via the Internet as they navigate their way through environmental obstacles and confront the constant challenges and creatures that threaten the vitality of the 12 precious Moonlands of Magi-Nation. It’s produced by Cookie Jar Entertainment and Daewon Media.

Wait, wait, wait...that Magi-Nation? That came out 7 years ago, and they are just coming out with the animated tie-in now? That's bizarro.

The Ultimate Team

The position is set, and the game is ready...I will attempt to get the newspaper spot.

Oh insanity today. Mario and Sonic team-up in Beijing. Well, it actually happened. Hopefully it will happen again in more, * violent * a setting (which you know exactly what I mean).

What gets me more excited than normal for this title is the fact that Matt Cassashghdkjf at IGN described it as Wii Sports + online. That's pretty good(1), because Wii Sports is good(2) by itself and adding more games and online play is certainly a good(3) thing. It is developed by Sega, which kinda puts a downer on it (Sega without AM2 or Treasure being the true masterminds of the games tends to be rather lacklustre). But Captain Smiley himself, Shiggy Miyamoto, will be watching like Uatu, so it could balance itself out. Hopefully the game itself will be able to justify further fangasm.

The Further Adventures of Nothing

I sure hope they didn't kill the paper today, because I just found out when I can apply!

If I must find a second job, I sure hope it's something that doesn't suck!

Maybe I should just rewrite and finish that one story I was cooking up. That could be something to do on one of these days off.

James Kochalka is awesome:

Filler

I wish my life was interesting so I could find inspiration for trippy concepts. Maybe I really need more drugs. Pancake mix just ain't doin' it anymore.

I really hope the university doesn't kill the newspaper. That was my big plan for the fall! Can't they think about how it affects me?

Why is Captain Marvel Jr. so happy? And why is Hitler so Miserable?

Possibilities:




Musolini is the best part of that.

Changes

Funny how geek hobbies can become life lessons.

Last week, it was announced that Heroclix would be going through a number of changes for it's fifth anniversary. There are some minor rules changes (figures will now come with cards that have information like their powers and abilities, including brand new character-specific powers, traits for theme team building, and character bios), but nothing that makes the new figures incompatible with older ones (they might even make downloadable cards for older figures, which is nice of them.) The major change, though, is in distribution and packaging.

Heroclix is abandoning the rookie/experienced/veteran model it has used forever, instead making only one version of each figure and using a rarity system similar to the one used by the D&D and Star Wars miniatures game. Since the extra versions of each figure made up the majority of each set, they've compensated by boosting the number of individual characters from 40 to 60. Booster packs will now contain 5 figures (with packaging that allows the inclusion of 'giant' figures without sacrificing slots), although the price has gone up as well.

There are positives and negatives about these changes. On one hand, the loss of the R/E/V system means we will likely only see one version of each character in the set, thus slowing those individual character's having a version on a certain team (for example, when they make a Guy Gardner figure, we aren't guaranteed to get a a version with the Justice League team and a version with the Green Lantern team in the same set.) This may also hinder some thematic team-building, as each character will have a set point cost and you probably can't find another version of the character that will fit what you need.

On the other hand, no more R/E/V helps some characters who don't fit that mold but would be hurt by all being Uniques or being forced into a Collector Set. The Runaways, the X-Statix, the Young Avengers, and various alternate-reality characters really get a way better chance to be made now. The character cards are good in that they help players know exactly what powers they have (some discussion has arisen over colour interpretation), and the character-specific 'white box' powers are a nice touch that will allow them to better interpret characters in the game. There are also the aforementioned packaging improvements, which is really nice.

Not that the changes themselves matter to this write-up, as much as the reactions to the changes. Players have been split right now over the issue. Some players (such as myself), are perfectly fine with them. Others have violent flashbacks to Mage Knight 2.0, which effectively killed that game (although there are more ill-conceived decisions regarding tournament play in that game that probably had more effect). They also don't see the need, pulling out the old "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

The problem with this philosophy is that even if it isn't broken, how do you know it can't be improved? I'm not saying change for the sake of change is always a good idea, but neither do I advocate standing still in time. Either one is not going to get you anywhere.

Some of the best things in the world are made when the creators take risks. I mentioned the X-Statix before, and I think it's a pretty good example: Milligan and Allred took one of Marvel's lousiest titles in X-Force and completely threw out the original concept, replacing it with their own (which later turned into it's own book), and it was brilliant. Fans complained early on, but that's to be expected. There are probably a few more good examples that I'm not worldly enough to know, but I just want to show that not everything is New Coke.

It's understandable that people have an aversion to change. Humans like the familiar, it gives them comfort. When introduced to something different, they are fearful of it because of the lack of familiarity.

I guess it makes sense when someone who has devoted some part of their life to something (even if it is something ultimately inconsequential, like miniatures games), having it go in a new direction can be worrying. What if it doens't work? What if what made this good in the first place is gone? What if all the time you spent with this goes down the drain?

All valid concerns. But really, how do you know until happens? And maybe, just maybe, experiencing the failure is better than experiencing nothing?

The Ancients

I pulled out a bunch of old tapes to see what was recorded on them. A cable access showing of a school play (possibly mine, but I can't remember who I was shoehorned into portraying in the background), a kid's hockey game, some sort of mystery show, Pokemon, what I'm assuming is Millenium (by Chris Carter, has some guy exploding some scientist's head and then burns the body, and there was some sort of mutant baby), and the Christmas episode of the Ace Ventura animated show. Nothing spectacularly interesting.

Still, some of the stuff you could find on old video tapes could be interesting. I'm especially interested in old commercials for whatever reason. I guess seeing them in the context of actually being between shows is somewhat interesting. Don't ask me why.

Modest Mouse

...I did get their new CD on Tuesday.

I'm going to have to listen to it a few more times before I can say what my opinion is 100%, but so far it's been pretty good. More in the upbeat/angry fashion of Good News for People Who Like Bad News, which I like.

March Into The Sea has the best use of laughing as part of the lyrics I think I've ever heard.

I finally decided to do it...

There ya go.

Stuff...Smash Bros. stuff

I honestly hate regaling about my pet interests to those who could care less, even though I can seemingly get the most material out of it (kind of like how unimportant Wikipedia subjects have a higher word count than actual worthwhile stuff.) But it's going to happen, I guess, given the nature of the blog. Bah, screw it; I'll do what I want.

I already explained how lurking forums caused me to start thinking about Smash Bros. Brawl again, which I know will only make me want to play the damn game even though I know (and have known since last summer) that the game won't be out for months. Since I haven't done any 'idea-sharing' since the initial appearance at E3, I guess it won't hurt to go another round today.

If you've been paying attention to the more intricate details that have come up, the game's director has stated that "Some characters will disappear. Definitely." No other specifics were given, but it sure set the world ablaze. Anyway, if there are characters from Melee on the chopping block, here's who I think they are and in what order they should be considered for elimination:

1. Dr. Mario - If you played SSBM, you know that several characters in the game have attacks duplicated from another character. These characters were thrown in at the last minute in order to have a satisfactory character count even though they didn't have enough time to make whole new models for them. These 'clones', as they are called, are who the director may have been referring to for the most part when he made the above comment. Some of those clones, however, are important characters from their respective game series, so they are relatively safe and could possibly be revamped (another thing the director said would happen to the returning characters in the game).
Dr. Mario is not one of those characters. He's my favourite character in the last game, but he's terribly boring and pointless as a character choice. It was pointed out by our director friend on the Japanese Melee site that Doc was chosen so they could include the infectious theme song from the game. He's an easy loss.

2. Roy - Okay, unlike Doc, Roy is actually a unique character rather than just one of the other ones wearing a coat. But what renders Roy expendable is the fact that he is completely interchangeable with the hundreds of other Fire Emblem protagonists, many of whom come from much more popular iterations of the series. Marth is the original and the fan-favourite, but Roy only has his Smash Bros. appearance to make him recognizable to the masses.

3. Pichu - Another clone, whose appearance in Melee was mostly due to the Silver/Gold/Crystal versions of Pokemon still being in the public conscious. Without being a tie-in, he's really not much more than just a slightly smaller Pikachu with a cuter voice. Cuteness doesn't cut it much anymore, I'm afraid.

4. Young Link - What throws the kid elf down a few ranks is the fact that he can revamped into the Young Link from The Wind Waker, complete with some new moves to separate him from the adult version and having the cel-shaded style to make him stand out. Otherwise, there's no reason to keep him around.

5. Sheik - The favourite of the tournament players is also pretty likely to get tossed. Why? She's not a clone or boring character, and adds a cool concept to the game. Well, that is true, but what else is true is that if Zelda ends up in the game, she'll have her Twilight Princess appearance. And if they base her on that game, it doesn't make much sense that they'll include something she only did in Ocarina of Time.
This isn't a completely bullet-proof theory, though. Generally, Link in Smash Bros. is supposed to be Link IN GENERAL, pulling abilities that appear throughout the various games in the series rather than whatever one his appearance is based upon. The same could very well be true of Zelda.
However, it has been noted that Zero-Suit Samus shares some aspects with Sheik, and could in fact be a 'replacement'. It's possible, but I hope that Samus/ZSSamus don't switch in the exact same method (mainly because that isn't very creative, but also because I find that it doesn't make such sense). The 'under certain conditions' comment on her official profile, however, gives me hope.

6. Falco - This guy has the 'fan favourite' and 'important' shields, but how good are they? Star Fox fans clamour for more characters, which is why Falco was in Melee in the first place, but if someone like furry wet dream Krystal get in, does Falco really have much of a point? You'd really need to reach to make him unique (although some have suggested that he should become the Luigi to Fox's Mario, which makes sense). He's also my 3rd favourite character in Melee. I'm conflicted here.

7. Ice Climbers - I don't WANT them to go, because they are fun characters with a unique concept. They were originally chosen to represent early NES titles over characters from Balloon Fight, Urban Champion, and Excitebike because of this concept. But...I dunno, out of all the non-clone, non-transformation characters in the game, they seem to be the odd out.
And no, they haven't already been cut. That's a bullshit rumour that is also seriously old and disproved a billion different times.

That's about it. You may have noticed that I didn't include Mr. Game & Watch. That is because Mr. Game & Watch is too awesome to be removed and represents a part of Nintendo's history, moreso than the rest of these guys. People who think he should be cut deserve a kidney punch.

Now, if only I could put this much detail into a political rant...

Technodrone - The Final Hate

Let's bash on a bad strip one last time.

Tundra
Now, this one might only be local, which is actually a good thing for most of you. It's another member of the army of Farside clones, and it just doesn't get what made Farside funny. Of course, it's hard to pinpoint what made it funny, but I know whatever it was Tundra doesn't have.

Honestly, if you think taking old sayings and jokes literally is hilarious without any other support, you need to get out of humor.

Hate Patrol

More hate from the hate-train!

Shoe
Shoe, in a reasonable conclusions, is a comedic void. Almost literally, nothing funny or even vaguely having to do with any human emotion, occurs. The only thing that can be said makes it stands out is that all the characters are anthropomorphic birds, and that don't mean jack. If it dissapeared completely I doubt anyone, not even Shoe fans, would notice.

More hate!

Part 3 of the epic bashing!

Garfield
At this point, it is recycling the same humor over and over and over again. Garfield likes to eat! Garfield likes to sleep! Odie is stupid! Although the robot writing the series tried to shake the status quo a bit by making Jon less of a loser, that has seemingly gone the way of Betamax, back to the cat's slobbery and arachnid genocide.

Soundtracktastique!

Now for the second of five comic strips that suck!

Beetle Bailey
Who knows or cares what war these guys are training for? If Beetle isn't being lazy, Sarge is beating Beetle within an inch of his beanpole life, or Beetle is having nightmare hallucinations of Sarge beating him. The rest of the characters are of absolutely no consequence (unless you decide to look deeper into things.) And the dog is just plain stupid.

I found this blog meme where I randomize my music player and see how the songs match up with specific scenes of a movie, forming a soundtrack. Let's give it a go:

Opening Credits
"Crazy Little Thing Called Love" by Queen - This appears to be a very cheery movie. Good start...

Waking Up
"Luna" by The Smashing Pumpkins - I wouldn't wake up to this. Unless it was playing at the same time someone is beating me with a cudgel.

First Day at School
"Creep" by Radiohead - My first day of school would have been a helluvalot more interesting if this song actually represented it.

Falling in Love
"One Great City!" by The Weakerthans - I guess if we both hate Winnipeg...

Fight Song
"Minus" by Beck - Hey, this one works really well! I never expected this to happen.

Breaking Up
"Let it Be" by The Beatles - It would comfort me.

Prom
"Getting Better" by The Beatles - If I actually went to prom, this would certainly describe my position in the social ladder. I was never angry and beat my non-existent girlfriend, though.

Life
"Man in Black" by Johnny Cash - I'm not this good or deep.

Mental Breakdown
"Once" by Pearl Jam - Another good choice. Good job, Party Shuffle, that's two!

Driving
"My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama" by Frank Zappa - I could see myself rocking to this song.

Flashback
"Paradise City" by Guns 'n Roses - Makes my past sound a lot more interesting than it actually was.

Getting Back Together
"Tiny City Made of Ashes" by Modest Mouse - Very shifty.

Wedding
"Feelin' Groovy" by Simon & Garfunkle - I'm happy. You're happy. We all feelin' good!

Birth of a Child
"In Bloom" by Nirvana - GUH!??!>!

Final Battle
"Release" by Pearl Jam - Not exactly as I imagined a final battle to sound like.

Death Scene
"Ramshackle" by Beck - Not bad. Not bad at all.

Funeral Song
"Nightswimming" by REM - Hey look! Another pretty decent choice. The funeral is about remembering, not being depressed.

End Credits
"Avalon" by Sigur Ros - It does work as an ending song. But is it really consistent with the rest of the soundtrack? Meh, doesn't really matter.

Happy Saint P's Day

I hope you all got good and drunk while I WORKED for money.

Isn't this a perfect time to tell you the first of the five worst comic strips in my local paper are? I'm avoiding the obvious targets here, as they obviously been beaten to death. Onward then, to comedic rage!

Hi & Lois
The kind of innocuous family 'observation' strip that hasn't changed for fifty some years, with nothing to say. At the very least when the comic focuses on the stupid family, it is usually just dumb. But most of the time, it seems, it focuses on the baby and it's psuedo-philosophical observations about...absolutely nothing, really. And yet it is treated like the awe-inspiring words of the DNA Digivolution of Confucius and Forrest Gump.

The Great Money Hunt

Wow, looking for scholarships is both easier and more difficult than I imagined. I have access to a pretty handy list, but because I'm a loafer who doesn't do nothing for nobody, I only have academics and "I'm here, ain't I?" to go by. Oh well, I got candidates. And I'm going to apply for an editorial job at the newspaper, which has it's benefits as well. I'm glad I finally did this.

I bought my very own copy of Watchmen, and have dutifully handed it to friends to read. I am doing my part. Really, though, the main reason I bought it sooner rather than later is because I had a friend of mine bug me about it after hearing about the hidden image in the extended 300 trailer. He only reads comics when there's a movie to tie into it. Hopefully once my trade collection grows, I get them to read more frequently.

But I still need to track down my precious Grant Morrison Doom Patrol books...

Times & Things

The night was spent attempting to remember events from two years ago in order to write about them into our movie musical. Trying to pinpoint events to exact periods of time is difficult but enjoyable!

But I'm strange.

Good sweet Christ.

There's some elements of that costume I like...but it honestly looks really lame overall. Why couldn't he just wear Cap's old costume? Oh well...it's only the third stupidest thing to come out of Civil War, the first being emo Speedball, and the second being Sally's inane-yet-somewhat-accurate argument.

HOLY LINKS WTF LOL

Just started reading Sandman: A Game of You. Not much else to be said about that.

I gets linked. LOL

GIMME BACK MY NAME YOU LIMEY BASTARD!

WTF WHERE DID THIS COME FROM?!?

I'm fed up and explaining my view in a concise manner

Since GDC, I've been browsing the Smash Bros. forums looking for whiny reactions (I guess I find Internet Rage funny...which I do!) Unfortunately, this has got me thinking about the game again, which I didn't want to do until new info came out...gaaaaaaaaaaaaah! I have found some whining, the same kind of whining that's been there for a while, about how long it's been since the last time we got info about the game.

Those grating, often malformed excuses for English sentences got me thinking, and now I've reached this conclusion:

Since we've had two teaser trailers already, I'd much rather they work on the game until they can show something that is as close as possible to the final build. I honestly believe I will be far more satisfied with a huge update that required waiting than a bunch of small updates scattered over shorter periods. You may not believe me now, but come back when it comes.

E3 seems plausible for this, and I expect most of the need-to-know stuff will come from it. However, since it is on July 11 to 13 (around 120 days away), I actually expect new info to arrive before then. Within the next three months, we will get something. I guarantee it.

The game itself will be released sometime between August and December.

Enough of my obsessions for today.

What's happenin' on this side?

I'm bust tonight, so watch the first (animated) meeting between two Jim Carrey movie characters:

New comic read

Finished Arkham Asylum today. It's terrible creepy. It also solidifies why Batman's rogues can be great even when they are lame (see Mad Hatter, Maxie Zeus).

Grant Morrison seems incapable of writing comics I don't enjoy. Even if I don't agree with that crazy stuff he believes in (see this vid), I still find it interesting. I still need to read the Invisibles and The Filth, though, so I doubt I'm getting the whole package.

I'm sure glad they included the notes after, or else I would've missed the imagery. I'm dumb, by the way.

I really should be reading one of my books now

I heard a good impression of the upcoming TMNT movie from a respectable source. May not always agree with him, but he's a big enough movie nerd that it makes me anticipate the movie a little bit more. I'm definitely guaranteed to be seeing with along with the peer group (and I don't have the work the night it opens. Score.)

I am constantly amazed at the amount of stupid people at a specific forum that I am not registered at but is related to an interest of mine. It just goes to show: official forums are the worst place to talk about things.

Reading Rain

Now that's just plain cool.

When I was in the closest bookstore to my home (located in the mall), I wasn't expecting to find anything of particular excitement (it's not the town's best bookstore, not by a longshot. And we don't even have anything that huge here, either.) But when I checked the small shelf devoted to manga books and trades (up to this point, it was mainly Marvel books), I was floored: Fables, Arkham Asylum, the DC Archive Collections, and all 10 volumes of Sandman were there. I ended up buying Arkham and one of the Sandman books. I am very happy about this turn of events.

I'm back on track for writing the 'script' for my peer syndicate's musical. The story involves time travel. There will be a scene where someone is beaten with a George Foreman grill. It will be glorious...to us, anyway.

Missture

I missed a night. I bet you all lived.

If you haven't bought Neon Bible yet, do it.

I'm missing the opening night of 300 because of work. I probably won't see it at all now, because everyone I know will have saw it opening night and won't want to go again with me. And I just find going to movies with others adds to the experience. But maybe I will, if they enjoy it enough.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Let's not go the obvious route and mention that this a video game where Michael Jackson primarily saves children. We should go the equally obvious route that this is a video game where Michael Jackson is using magic blasts to fight gangsters and robots. That's the kind of concept I'd expect from an indy comic artist (back in the late 80s/early 90s...after that, MJ kinda became untouchable for this kind of thing). I guess I could also expect it from the Japanese as well.

There's a couple of other obvious things needing to be pointed out: Michael Jackson turning into a robot with the help of his chimp. Michael Jackson's wussy death cry. The fact that this a three-player game (would all three players take control of a rainbow of Michael Jacksons? Or did the developers throw us a bone and have Jermaine and Tito playable?)Oh, and the fact that the graveyard level most certainly doesn't have Thriller as it's background theme. I mean, it's okay to be creative, but c'mon!

It also looks like Michael's last action before death is to grab his special area. Eh.

I got to hand it to Sega: this game doesn't actually look bad. And when it's a game where Michael Jackson fights things with magic, that's an accomplishment worth mentioning.


Michael Jackson: Pissed and ain't takin' no for an answer.

Visuals: Junk from the Image Host

Hey ho! Here's a new idea for Visuals. I'll find some pictures in my Photobucket account and talk about them.



Quite possibly the most embarrassing death ever.



Isn't Grant Morrison a sexy man?



I've always loved Pumpkinmon. I mean, he's just got an awesome design and an axe in his head.



Damn you, George Foreman. Fat never had a chance.



This is the Polish poster for Short Circuit 2. The Polish sure know how to make an awesome movie poster that looks almost nothing like the movie it advertises.



Comment unnecessary.



I may have too many pictures of Hitler.



Walt Whitman has the best picture ever taken. If I could only have one image and one image only, this would be it.



This man should be everyone's hero.



Holy crap.



The power of dolphin is a truly AWESOME power.



Oh how I love this picture so. It may just beat out Walt Whitman as my favorite picture ever.

It's made funnier by the one person who notices the sign.



This is published in newspapers. It's so utterly bizarre. How does one even think of something like this without actually realizing how stupid and surreal it is?

Got nothing Part Infinity

This is actually quite comprehensive and accurate.

I have a really good idea for an entertaining post. I must find the tools tonight, and get it up tomorrow. Wish me luck.

Even More Responding to Old Articles, and Lots of Junk

LOL

Whenever I got to Balent's stuff in Previews, I felt...wrong. I mean, it's not just the fact that they're bad porn comics, and that whatever pin-up character is there must carry a lot of change in their back pockets in order to keep balance...actually, that's it. Well, I guess I'm happy the man's GIGANTOBOSOM industry is still going strong.

***

My anticipation for Fantastic Four 2 is much higher than I expected. I still haven't seen the whole of the first, although I have seen the ending and it looked pretty blah (still pissed about Doom being a big bowl of suck). Still, can't ignore Galactus. It is hard to ignore something that big, and purple.

***

GDC is not E3. And Yet, apparently, there will be news from there. Apparently some cool stuff, too. Got no idea what. It sounds like it's not coming from Nintendo. But shit happens.

***

If the review scores are be taken without proper context (and I urge everyone to always look for context goddammit when using reviews because numbers are vague little assburglars, and that I'm going into hypocrite mode just this once), EGM liked the Wii marble game with the crazy name which I can't remember. Might have to check that one out. Maybe Sonic, too. Not a whole lot, but still some stuff coming out before Super Paper Mario next month.

***

I'm disturbed by the utter lack of Internet articles making fun of the Sonic the Hedgehog/Image Comics crossover from back in '98. It's ripe for the poking, featuring parodies of the X-Files, prominent use of the super lame Shadowhawk, Spawn appearing for a total of two panels, characters like Savage Dragon, Maxx, and Mr. Majestic popping up for little to no reason, and a villain who reminds me of fucking Moses Magnum.

Take that as a sign of things to come.

End of the week end

Yeah, I'm happy. Even though I'm going to wait a bit more to see it. It'll all be worth it, though.

And yes, I do know the story is a week old, so don't bother pointing that out.

How delightfully obscure:

Snow is such a bastard

Snow is a real bastard. It's been snowing pretty hard off-and-on this week, and the whole street is now into it's 'hard as a bitch to move around in' mode. This is made worsened by the fact that the city considers it a low priority when it comes to plowing. What a way to start the end of Winter. Fuck.

Nothing interesting today.