2007: This Year in Youtubering

I'm trying to make a list of the most significant moments for me the past year, but that's proving harder than I thought. I'll be done before New Years, but to tide the time, here's a list of my favorite 25 Youtube videos. Now, I never said these were interesting, as some of them are full game speed runs, but they were the ones I have become addicted to or were addicted to. Plus, its easy to do.

This is dedicated to the Youtube channel that hosted most of my beloved arcade playthroughs, recently taken down. I shed a tear for you, Moffstarr ;_;

Here you go:

25)


24)


23)


22)


(I don't know, I really like the music. And it seems to be a pleasant enough game. I'm totally lame).

21)


20)


19)


18)


17)


16)
Bastard won't let me embed

15)


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13)


12)


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9)


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6)


5)


4)
(Tie)



3)


2)


1)

Who cares?

Needless purchases of today, made in the name of DEALS:

-Mini-Fridge, where I can store...something!

-A 2.2 Litre water bottle...for those with BIG hydration problems.

-4 CDs - Sloan's "Twice Removed", The Weakerthans' self-titled album (AKA "Fallow"), and two by Ween: "Chocolate and Cheese" and the latest, "La Cucaracha".

-Another cheap calendar, featuring various wildlife captured in their native habitats, before being shot and stuffed.

-An address book, with two removable note pads.

-Two packs of black pens, which has proven very useful in my senseless note taking life.

-4 large plastic containers, which will (hopefully) help my closer become less of a gigantic clusterfuck.

Plus, I swear to God the Wonderbread was staring at me.

Christmas Sympathy Post

Happy almost-not-Christmas-anymore everybody! Today wasn't entirely busy: had a good dinner, went to visit some relatives, and did some reorganizing in my living space. I'm sure you're all dying to hear about my gift haul, so here it is, with added comments:

Comfy new winter gloves! - My old standbys are torn to shit, so I got some new ones. They aren't as thick, but I can actually GRIP things with them, and they are all soft and warm. I am very happy.

Contra 4 - Well, it's Contra. This is one of the few times you can enjoy a game that repeatedly kicks your ass on the first level, as it's just simple shoot the shit out of things. With the Spread Gun, no less.

Wii Classic Controller - I want only so I can test out all 4 control schemes in Smash Bros. Brawl, but it's good for playing Bonk's Adventure, too.

Sandman: Brief Lives - Oh, I'm so close to completing the entire series. Just three (or four. I can't remember the exact number, and I don't feel like looking it up right now) more trades to go. Then they will release the omnibus, which will cost half of what I and other people for all of the books separately.

Filing Cabinet Dividers - Actually, the little thing that the dividers came in has been the most useful, as it now houses all my Quills.

The Best of Bowie - I've been on a Bowie fix since my friend bought a bunch of vinyls and gave me the torrent for Low (which is awesome, BTW). This is starter-level DB, but its good to get some of these great songs in one place if I ever need to redownload my music.

Socks - Everyone loves socks!

Gift Certificates - Really not the most thoughtful gift, but I don't expect the relatives I have very little contact with to know my personal needs and desires, so it's perfectly fine.

i-Cy - I saved the best for last. What is i-Cy? This is i-Cy:



As you can see, it is a vaguely penguin-shaped device (that also bears a not-so-surprising resemblance to an eMac's 'soup' mouse). It's purpose is to either listen to music you play or hook up to your music playing device (which it uses to play the music itself, which is pretty cool) while simultaneously shuffling about and squawking to the beat, with little light patterns appearing on its chest. If I'm going to get something to play my iPod music out loud, isn't so much better to get a something that happens to be a dancing penguin robot thing? It even has mood swings, displaying different light patterns when not grooving to tunes, depending on how much sound you 'feed' it. What a bizarre concept that is...a life form that eats sound. And is a penguin.

And now that me is over, I'll garble about some Christmas TV I skimmed past:

I don't think not-TBS was having a Christmas Story marathon, which is surely a sign of the apocalypse. It was on CBC, and probably a billion other channels, though, so eh.

Aw, Christopher the Christmas Tree, an inane children's cartoon that has become somewhat of an in-joke in my friend circle. Mostly because one of my friends defends it for no discernible reason, while another makes fun of that goddamned owl.

This one was different: PBS was airing an animated special based on Charles Dickens' Cricket on the Hearth. I wasn't exactly paying attention, as I was throwing away notes, but I did note some things about it, namely that nobody seemed to care that the titular cricket was wearing a suit, and that three gangster animals were shot by a ship captain. That's totally hardcore.

This may be the first year that I haven't even sped past the old Rankin/Bass standbys. Not even The Life & Adventures of Santa Claus, which is a very bizarre affair (featuring the only time you'll ever see fairies take out dragons and ogres in battle, and this is a Christmas movie), but one that shows up frequently nonetheless. To be fair, I personally felt that Christmas creeped on me, and I had barely any time to get festive. I don't think I know what my festive mood is like, so maybe I'm just being stupid.

But anyway, tomorrow I'll partake in the mindless consumer riot called Boxing Day, but not by camping at 4 AM to get a TV, but rather by casually using my gift certificates to get lots of stuff for barely anything. I mean, I have i-Cy, why would I need anything like a cheap widescreen TV? Bah.

In which I look over my mean streak

Generally, people use this time to chronicle the best/worst/other of the past year, but I think I'll wait until after Christ Mass.

I think over the past year or so, I've gotten to be more angry and spiteful on the Internet. I think it's because I've been lurking other forums and just take the style I've found there. Which means not only have I become a hateful person, I've become a hateful person who can't even develop his own personality without copying others.

*Sigh*

I'm going to finally get some Mario Galaxy play time.

End of an Error

And the last exam is done, and I can relaxe. Holllllleeeeee shit.

And what do I do to celebrate? I go see I am Legend.

The Problem with I Am Legend is that it is neither exciting nor interesting. It's just rather dull and meandering. It was just...Will Smith doing stuff, and then LOUD NOISES every once in a while.

There were some things that were good. Will Smith hunting deer in the street, with lions there too? Cool. Will Smith going insane and talking to mannequins? Also cool. Neither stay around too long, except when Will Smith knows the lines to Shrek by heart and flips out over bacon.

If it really did go the distance of showing a lonely man going insane in this apocalyptic scenario, I would even have been able to forgive the Bad CGI Gollum people. Who all wore the same tattered clothes. For some reasons. And used the generic movie monster squeal, and all roared exactly like Imhotep.

I haven't read the book, only a Wiki synopsis. I wasn't really thinking about the book when the movie was going, so it really doesn't matter that it was Bad CGI Gollum people with identical clothes instead of superstitious vampires. But after a while, it just dons on you that the movie doesn't really have anything interesting to offer.

Not terrible, but nothing memorable in the least.

A Potpourri of Potpourrian Potpourris

Visit my friend's blog. He is a good person, despite his apparent lack of hotlinking knowledge.

YES I love it.


"I am Banoctopus!"

YES YES YES WANT WANT WANT NOW NOW NOW HARD HARD HARD

NO LONGAZ

COLUMNZ ON WEBSITEZ

Okay, he does make the point that videogames do not promote illiteracy, which is about the easiest point in the world to make. But I the other issue here is that kids aren't reading enough books, and he doesn't address that really all that well...

"So if English children are not so much interested in picking up a paperback, maybe that says more about the quality of books currently being foisted upon them than it does about the evils of digital entertainment. Children are, after all, quite discriminating. If someone writes a new Harry Potter, they'll curl up with it for days. If not, there's always the games console."

Because no books existed before Harry Potter.