Recent Obsessions

Yeah, it's been a minute again. Got caught up in a slight obsession, but we'll get to that in a minute. Getting ready to go back to work after 3 days off; before that I spent 125 hours at work over 10 straight days; figure they thought the hospital stay didn't kill me, so they'd finish the job?

In the meantime, thought I'd write again with Tropical Storm Fay hanging right overhead...



But yeah, haven't been on in a minute because I finally discovered the joy and rapture of the X-Box. Bought one while I was convalescing after the hospital stay. My wife has hated it ever since, because she's now, in her words, a "wrestling widow" and "computer widow" already, now she's a "X-Box widow" to boot. Ah, well. Still put aside time here and there to spend with her because I love her to death.

Back to the hardware. In buying the X-Box, I've managed to get myself hooked on a couple games. Most notably, the first two Halo games. So addictive to run around and blow shit up with no consequence! It's different with this as opposed to the Grand Theft Auto games (which I'm borrowing one of and played for a minute or two before going right back to Halo); doing it with aliens - nasty little things that are supposed to die anyway because they want our planet and we won't give it to them - is one matter. I have no qualms about detonating those little bastards.

People, however, are another matter. Just can't do it with as much abandon. Probably something in my makeup. Hell, in playing Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic (another game fast becoming an addiction), I can't even bring myself to be enough of an asshole to join the Dark Side - and I named my character after an Electric Kingdom villain specifically because I planned on him joining the Dark Side!

Getting off the self-analysis train, another perk of Halo is, whenever you die, you pick right up from the last checkpoint (a few feet back, relatively speaking) and keep right on going. No continue countdown timer. No re-loading. No setting yourself back at the beginning of the level. None of that annoying shit. Just pick up, dust yourself, and go blow up more stuff. Base and simple, just the way I like it.

Other highlights have been Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (nice to play with some faves like the Avengers and the new team of the Outsiders - Luke Cage, Elektra, Spider-Woman and Deadpool...although I rarely play with the Fantastic Four because they're not that great in this game), XIII (a similar story to the "Bourne" movies with comic visuals...neat stuff) , and Doom 3 (DUH!). More to come on that front as I pick up more games (looking forward to getting Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction for some REAL stress release). So yeah, there's been the latest obsession in a nutshell. Because Lord knows I need something else to keep me offline and away from updating this thing.

One last bitch before I go...

Saw SummerSlam this past Sunday. Decent show. A lot of people seem to think different, however - in so far as the last 2 matches weren't nearly as good as I've heard a LOT of people - trusted colleagues and trolls alike.

Batista And Cena worked pretty hard to put on a decent match, I'll grant them that. But as far as "they sold everything really well"...did I miss that while I was in the bathroom? Cena spent a hotel stay in the Figure-4 and Batista had his leg bent back in the STFU so bad and so long I thought he may pull a Sid Vicious...yet both of them got right back up and were pulling power moves out of their ass like nothing was wrong! How on earth is that selling again?

And the Hell In A Cell seemed to move in slow-motion. Setting up tables for spots 20 minutes early isn't quite "unpredictable". Again, some cool stuff - the spear through the cage door as well as on/through the announce table(s) were neat, but the rest was standard HIAC fare. And no one can say the outcome was in any doubt the entire time, with Undertaker hitting Edge with everything Edge did to him over several months all in a 30-second span just put the exclamation point on the fact that this was designed for Undertaker to get his win back and little else.

Geekery As Therapy, Episode 02

I stand corrected – it’s Aronofsky. So be it.

Time for a little more geeking out before I let a night like I had tonight get to me and I start thinking about creative ways to destroy things I really shouldn’t...

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Movies

If you’re the type that still likes to partake in eating ‘shrooms and dropping acid, then have I got a movie for YOU!

I got the chance to see Speed Racer a few days ago. Pretty decent flick, all-in-all. Once you get used to the visuals, anyway. Definitely a hallucinogenic paradise.

Other than that, it played pretty solid. Bonus points for Trixie; she reminded me a lot of my wife (a good thing) – smart, capable, tough, and stands behind her man. What more could you ask for. A few more points for keeping the “triple-swoosh” sound effect whenever the Mach-5 used the jump jacks. A small touch of nostalgia goes a long way.

Also finally got to see 16 Blocks recently. Bruce and Donner can still turn out a good flick when needed, and Mos Def has impressed me as an actor now. It’s not often I find myself actually on the edge of my seat rooting for the good guys (I’m a sucker for a good villain and a better tragedy), but I did here. Solid stuff.

Next up is probably Near Dark (Kathryn Bigelow’s first flick, I believe), as well as finally taking in Sweeney Todd. Further bulletins as events warrant.


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A Tale Of Two Matches

...involving the two same competitors.

Back in 1994, Mike Awesome (RIP) faced Kenta Kobashi under the All-Japan banner. Got to see that and their decade-later rematch in NOAH this evening and realized I may have had my eyes opened to the Japanese style a little more than I already did.

See, it’s not that I don’t like the puroresu style at all. I’m normally to absorbed by what the US has to offer (particularly the indie scene as of late) to watch a lot of the Japanese product. I may have to go back for the older stuff, though, after this.

Awesome and Kobashi circa ’94 was, to me, everything that Joe and Kobashi should have been in 2005. Granted, ’94 was Kobashi’s prime and all, but the match between he and Awesome back then was just that. 20 minutes of two powerhouses pounding on each other in a power match clinic. Kobashi took (almost) everything Awesome had and came back for seconds. Great stuff.

Fast forward 10 years to NOAH, where Kobashi defends the GHC Crown against the “Gladiator”. Clocking in at 10 minutes longer, it was very similar to their last match with a lot of the same spots. Differences here were that they played the epic feel with a slower (NOT “methodical”; that sort of thing is reserved for Mark Henry and Great Khali matches) pace top play off of each other more. Awesome hit the top-rope Awesome Bomb this time (~!), as well as another from the apron to the floor through a table. In the end, Kobashi still emerged victorious in a harder-hitting but still slower version of their match a decade earlier.