April 2010
This is a list of posts published in April 2010.
A Boy and His Dog
Editor’s Note – This piece was originally published in September 2008. I’m republishing it today in honor of Abby’s 9th Birthday. Enjoy!!!
This marks the 289th full-sized post on this site since I started scribbling away in cyberspace a little less than three years ago. That means we’re 11 articles away from the big Three Hundred – the day I effectively pull the plug on this whole sorry operation.
289 Posts with an average length of 3-4 printed pages over three years means I could have been making some serious scratch as a novelist instead of spinning my folksy yarns for the benefit of friends, family and Internet predators – at the very least in some Bizarro universe. Of course, crafting The Great American Novel requires discipline, dedication and some... Continue reading »
Sam & Max Save the World – XBOX 360 (game review)
Editor’s Note: As some of you know, I’m on staff as a game reviewer for the electronic entertainment site, Avault.com. I intend to publish all of my reviews on these pages to insure I have a full record of everything I’ve written. If you haven’t read this before, enjoy!!!
Earlier this month, developer Telltale Games pulled off a real coup at E3 by wrestling away the spotlight from some of this year’s big-budget behemoths (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Halo ODST) with their own megaton announcement that Guybrush Threepwood and the denizens of Monkey Island had joined their growing stable of character-driven episodic adventure games. Fans of the old LucasArts adventure titles could now check another buried treasure off their Wish List and set their hopes high for... Continue reading »
Lost – ‘The Last Recruit’ – 6.13
Ever since Lost debuted back in 2004, the networks have sprinkled their Fall seasons with any number of genre fair looking to bottle that same lightning. And, for the most part, none have come close to finding Lost or their The X-Files or Twin Peaks. I think these shows that instantly capture the zeitgeist before paring down to a carefully cultivated cadre of fans who would follow it down whatever dark rabbit hole they travel, are few and far between. It’s as if mankind hasn’t the mind strength to tackle these brain benders but once a decade.
So, knowing the end was coming and that the Fall sched would likely be chock full of another round of also-rans (see Threshold, V, FlashForward, Heroes, and the list goes on) – I had the sneaking suspicion that my last Lost post would be tru... Continue reading »
Double Dip
Just the other night, I watched the fifth-season finale of Lost, in anticipation of next week’s final-season premiere. As I re-watched pivotal scenes pregnant with all kinds of possibilities inherent to the true nature of the island, I came to a quick realization. I have a good idea what’s going down now, but my theories are completely contrary to what I thought was doing way back when.
Using this as a springboard, I then turned my powers of prognostication to the gaming frontier in hopes that some fears I currently harbor will eventually be countered. That said, where Lost is an entertainment obsession that is free to rewrite its own rules as the story dictates, my real-world concerns are less malleable. Especially when tackling a rock-solid monolith like Microsoft and some recent, troubling de... Continue reading »
Lost – ‘Everybody Loves Hugo’ – 6.12
Is it just me or are these weeks flying by with reckless abandon.
Seriously, with the 3-hour series finale looming on May 23rd, we’re only 4 episodes away removed from ‘The End’. And it seems like it’s only just begun.
I think a lot of this may have to do with the scheduling. For the first few seasons, Lost ran on Wednesdays. It made for a nice Hump Day spell – you looked forward to it all week, and when the hour was up, the weekend didn’t look that far away. Then they moved the show to Thursdays and the wait between episodes seemed interminable.
Tuesday seems to be the best spot. We get an episode and then get busy with the rest of our week. The weekend of course flies in and out in a hurry and once we’ve turned the page on that Manic Monday, w... Continue reading »
Super Mario’s World
Late last week, Nintendo released its latest round of sales figures. While touting the continued dominance of the Nintendo DS as the most successful video game handheld to date (all four iterations have moved a total of more than 125 million units), they took time to underscore a fairly significant milestone. The Nintendo Wii has officially eclipsed the original Nintendo Entertainment System by selling 67 million units, as opposed to 61 million for the NES, arguably resurrecting video gaming as a legitimate entertainment form since Nintendo first rolled their Trojan Horse up to our doorsteps in the mid-1980s.
That number is huge. Sure, it’s well off the approximately 150 million lifetime sales that the Sony PS2 has rung up in the last decade, but it’s an important number, as the Nintendo Wii ... Continue reading »
Lost – ‘Happily Ever After’ – 6.11
I write this latest dispatch to you in desperate times. No – I’m not talking about my April Fools-related shenanigans that took advantage of my real-life jobless concerns and desire to feed and clothe my kids for a cheap, shameless laugh. 4/1/10 has come and gone and my own personal Christmas, as I like to call that day, won’t come around again until the Earth completes its second to last rotation around the sun at which point, come this time next year, I’ll likely be apologizing for faking my own death or marrying Heidi Montag or some other wackiness.
Well, that’s not entirely true. My assumption is that after last week’s fake-out, where I cried foul, shrieking to the heavens that the sky is falling while also running home and taking my ball with me (and any other cliche I... Continue reading »
Lost – ‘The Package’ – 6.10
Suckers!!!
I can’t believe y’all thought I’d just up and drop this column with only 8 episodes left to go. Sure my kids gotta’ eat, but I’ve got to take care of my faithful followers too, right?
Anyway – I cooked up this April Fools trick last Friday when out with my buddies for our fairly regular Guys Night Out. As many of you know, I’ve sprung some elaborate tricks on this site in years past. Last year it was the “questionable ad content” that had so many of you clicking on a sham Ashley Madison ad. So nice to see your loyalty is more with me than your significant others. Then a few years back I dropped the bomb that Andi and I were pointing our wagon train westward – to Des Moines, IA. That trick snared quite a few flies before it all came u... Continue reading »
Lost – ‘The Package’ – 6.10 – Hijacked by Sean Edition
Humphries has voted himself off the island, so I am going to pinch hit this week so this thing can keep rolling. In case you missed his post yesterday, be sure and read that first before continuing on here.
Now, when the man says he is out, he is out. That means he wouldn’t even clue me in to where he procures the sweet HD screencaps, so you’ll have to suffer with what I could pull together. (Although, maybe they are also on hiatus since there weren’t any last week.)
Oh, and last disclaimer, going forward I will do my best to keep with the traditional Wednesday post, but no guarantees. At the very least I should be able to post it by Friday. If any other regular contributors want to take a swing in the remaining weeks, I wouldn’t be opposed to that either. Let me know in the comments.
That sa... Continue reading »
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