I See London, I See France

Tonight is the self-proclaimed "Sexiest Night on Television," the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show on CBS. I have no idea as to the purpose of this show. They don't even sell most of the stuff you see on the show in the stores. Regardless, you better believe I have my DVR set to record this on CBS-HD tonight at 10 pm. If nothing else it is an excuse to see some of my favorite models on TV.

Adriana Lima
Glad to see Adriana back after just having her first kid a few months ago. She has been one of my long time VS favorites. Hard not to think that her prime is probably past her (she is old for a model - older than I am) and she only has a few more of these shows left. Glad to see her back this year and wearing the multi-million dollar bra.






Candice Swanepoel
Candice has been everywhere this year. She has become quite popular and has taken over as the number one model, the spot Adriana had just a few years ago. I think she is a good choice as an Adriana replacement.




Too bad there was no Marisa Miller this year. She is one of my all time favorites as well. She blew up in 2008 but I haven't heard much from her since.




Finally, Katy Perry was the entertainment at the show this year. Her music really isn't my type. With that being said however, her music is catchy and I'll still rock out to her on a Friday night if she is on Palladia and the mood is right.



Enjoy the eye candy. Again, the show is on CBS at 10 pm for those interested. In the meantime, I just switched rotations so I will be posting on how everything is going job-wise sometime in the near future.

Gran Turismo 5: Initial Impressions

I didn't have to work this weekend and therefore I was able to get a lot of time in with Gran Turismo 5 (probably around 15 hours). Below are my initial impressions of the long awaited game. I will return in the near future with a full review once I have more time with the game in order to unlock some more of the features.

• Disc insertion to play time the very first time you try to play clocks in at almost an hour. Come on Sony, you can do better than this. We've already waited several years, why make us wait another hour?
• The graphics are amazing. You almost want to just watch and look at the cars instead of drive them. There are only a few very minor hiccups here and there. Otherwise flawless.
• The entire game has a very familiar feel to it which fans of the PS2 versions will like. However this is where part of the game disappoints thus far. I will expand more on this in the full review.
• Online play is a lot of fun.

So far the game is a lot of fun and hasn't disappointed in that respect. I only have one major complaint so far. Expect a full review in the coming weeks.

Changing gears a bit, this is the 100th post of this blog. Thanks to the few readers out there. I actually enjoy putting this site together quite a bit. I think 100 posts is quite an accomplishment. Thanks!

FINALLY!

After years of waiting, and after numerous delays, Gran Turismo 5 has finally been released! This is probably the most anticipated game release ever for me. I cannot wait to get this disc into my PS3 and turn some virtual laps. Expect a few posts in the future - Probably a quick first impressions post and a more thorough review following that once I've had some time to form an opinion. I'll be going home for Thanksgiving but hopefully I will get to turn a few laps for the first time tomorrow night. Everyone have a nice and safe holiday.

To spice things up a bit, I'd like to feature Scarlett Johansson on this post. Not only is she a very pretty girl, she is also a great actress. Unfortunately she plays to the more artsy crowd and thus I don't really see too many of her movies because they aren't really my type (She wasn't in Donkey Kong). I did enjoy Lost in Translation quite a bit. She recently had a birthday (It's hard to believe she is younger than me. She seems older for whatever reason) and hosted SNL, which reminded me of one of my favorite SNL clips below. Enjoy all!

King of Kong

I worked all weekend and thus unlike last weekend didn't have a lot of free time to do much. There was nothing on TV last night so I decided to fire up the Netflix on the PS3 and see what was available there. I decided to watch the movie The King of Kong, a documentary about a guy who is trying to break the long standing record for most points ever in a Donkey Kong game.

The movie stars Steve Wiebe, a likable but down on his luck family man from Washington state. After being fired from his job Steve had a lot of free time on his hands and didn't know what to do with himself. For whatever reason he decided that he was going to dedicate his free time to try to beat the long standing record for most points in a Donkey Kong game held by Billy Mitchell. Mitchell is considered to be one of the best video game players of all time. He held the Donkey Kong record for most points for over 25 years. He has played a perfect game (all dots acquired, no deaths) in Pac Man. He is considered to be the Michael Jordan of games.

Twin Galaxies is the official score keeper of video games, an organization who reviews all attempts to breaks records and verifies if they are legit or not. They are kind of like the Guinness record people for video games. They were founded in the early 1980s by a bunch of computer nerds who are every bit as geeky as you could imagine. Their founding came around the same time Billy Mitchell was becoming famous for his accomplishments. Subsequently, most of the people who are a part of Twin Galaxies worship Mitchell and Mitchell has major influence over them.

The film portrayed Mitchell as a master manipulator and a sore loser. Once Galaxies got word that Wiebe was the real deal, they did everything they could to not acknowledge his accomplishments. Often Mitchell would be the one pulling the strings in the background. When Weibe sent in a tape of him playing a game which beat Mitchell's score, Galaxies said that he must perform in front on an audience to verify it. Wiebe did just that and shortly after Billy Mitchell sent in a tape of a higher score and Galaxies credited him with the highest score over Wiebe's without any question. In the end Wiebe beat Mitchell's score and both Galaxies and Guinness World Records now acknowledge Wiebe as the all time Donkey Kong champion with a score of over 1,000,000. Overall it was quite interesting to see how this rivalry between the great champion Mitchell and the underdog family man Wiebe developed. To this day Mitchell and Wiebe are trading high scores back and fourth.

After I watched the movie I was in the mood to play some Donkey Kong myself and was curious to see if the game really was as hard as they were portraying in the movie. I wanted to see if I could get anywhere near the scores posted in the movie. Below is a screen shot from a Donkey Kong game I downloaded on Virtual Console on the Wii. Notice the top score in the middle of the screen. I am currently nowhere near the record!



I couldn't mention Donkey Kong without thinking of this scene from Billy Madison:



While we are on the subject of video games, Gran Turismo 5 is supposed to come out later this week. I'd say GT5 is my most anticipated game of all time. I really hope I didn't jinx it by posting that ticker as it has had numerous delays, including one earlier this month. I will have a full post (or posts) later on once I actually get my hands on it.

Down the Stretch They Come!

Sarah and I went to Churchill Downs on Saturday with some of her aunts and cousins. Neither one of us had been to the famed track before and be both had a fantastic time. We got there early before the gates opened so we decided to head to the museum to kill some time. The museum was very nice and I found several exhibits which I found to be quite interesting and informative. I know so very little about horse racing that even defining "yearling" and "colt" was interesting to me. They have everything on display at the museum from famous hats worn by ladies in the crowd to jockey uniforms to memorabilia from past Derbies. Probably one of the most interesting things for me was the pedigree chart they had showcasing all of the offspring from Northern Dancer, one of the most famous sires in thoroughbred racing history. He has several offspring that have won major races, including the Kentucky Derby. At one point during his stud career his fees were up to $1,000,000 per session which I find to be incredible.

After the museum we went up to our seats. Sarah's aunt Pamela was able to get us seats in Millionaire's Row (the same place the Queen sat when she attended the Derby) through her association with the Kentucky Colonels. We sat in this big banquet hall complete with a band, bar, buffet, and everything. It was kind of amusing because even though we were at a sporting event it felt more like a wedding reception. Of course we all had to try a mint julep, the signature drink of the Derby. It was loaded with bourbon and honestly I wasn't a huge fan of the drink. It was a bit too stout for my taste. I enjoyed the Hoak Lilly better, which apparently is the signature drink for the day before the Derby. Every thirty minutes or so we would hear the horn signifying that the horses were going to the gates then we would all mingle outside to watch the race. Once the race was over (they only last a few minutes) we would go back inside to chow down some more food (and drinks).



Besides eat we would also place our bets between races. I hate gambling but even I got into the spirit. The race guide was information overload for placing bets. It listed the horse's size and record, jockey's size and record, when the horse last worked out, even the medications the horse was on. It was amazing. Sarah and I won about 50% of the time. I was just betting $2 and $5 dollar bets so it was all minuscule stuff, but it made the racing much more fun because it gave you someone to pull for during the race. Despite all of the information in the guide, we made our bets based on the horse's names. The off-the-wall names are one of my favorite parts of horse racing.

Despite knowing nothing about horse racing, everyone had a really good time. It is a place filled with tradition, a unique sporting event (what other sports event do you wear a tie to?), and a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon. I was really surprised how much I enjoyed this place and hope to go back sometime in the future.

Super Mario Galaxy 2

System: Wii
Release Year: 2010
IGN Score: 10

Super Mario Galaxy 2 (SMG2) gets rid of everything that was bad about SMG1 (which was very little, honestly) and keeps everything that was great (with one annoying exception). The fantastic creative levels return along with gameplay that really isn't much different than the original Mario game from 25 years ago. Luigi and Yoshi both make early appearances in this game, though to be honest I am not a big fan of either. I guess this is exciting for some people. If you've never played this game I would highly recommend it if you get the chance. It is a unique game that really does so much right that it's a shame more games for the Wii aren't like this.

For the most part the gameplay in SMG2 is exactly the same as the play in SMG1. One of the best additions to this version is an improved camera system which is excellent. I never once had an issue where I would die repeatedly because of poor camera angles like I did in the first game. That was quite frustrating and I was really happy to see that they improved that part of the game. Though there were still points in the game where I would die 8-12 times in a row just trying to get past this one part of a stage. There is more to this story later, but the bottom line is that I don't have time to deal with that kind of stuff anymore like I did when I was a kid. Maybe I'm just old.

Gone from SMG2 is the incredibly weird and almost creepy storyline that was in SMG1. The story added nothing to the game and was down right weird. I was glad to see that they scrapped it. Also gone is the confusing space station where you had to travel to different portions to get to certain stages. This open-world roaming technique worked well in Mario 64's castle but was just confusing and annoying in SMG1. Instead, SMG2 uses a grid-map system seen in Super Mario World for the SNES and Super Mario 3 for the NES. I like this system much better as you spend less time wandering around a stupid space ship and more time playing the amazing stages.

All isn't perfect though. Nintendo was off to a great start by fixing the camera system and getting rid of the annoying portions of the first game. However the grid system kind of locks you into playing stages in a specific sequence. This would be fine except for the fact that at several points during the game, I could not advance to a new stage because I was 2 or 3 stars short. This meant I would have to go back and try to get some of the more obscure stars from previous stages. This wouldn't be a big deal except for the fact that some of the stars are annoying at best to get. Like I was saying before, there would be some stars where I would die 10-15 times before I could get the star. And I can only play dumb mini games with a monkey so many times before it starts to get old. Seriously, I played this one mini game probably 30 times before finally winning. These tasks really distract from the game in my opinion. I just don't have the time or interest to try stuff over and over and over and over again. Because of this, I haven't actually finished the game yet. I've been playing it for several months and I'm probably 95% finished but right now I just can't bring myself to sit through the rest of the game to play it. I need to take a break. I am sure I will finish it sometime in the future.

The bottom line is this: SMG2 is a fantastic game that every Wii owner should have. I think it's a toss up as to which one is better between SMG2 and SMG1. They both feature some of the most fantastic and original levels I have ever seen in a game. And you know you can't go wrong with the gameplay in a Mario game. SMG2 is probably overall a better game, but the aforementioned problems really annoy me and I didn't run into this at all with SMG1. However, I actually think the level design is a bit better in SMG1. Again, both games are great. I think IGN gets a little too excited about the scores. I think these games should score more like a 9 instead of a 10.

First World Problems

I had to log out of Ubuntu and into Windows 7 for the first time in over a month. Why? I have a powerpoint presentation I am giving to a large crowd that I need to work on. Technically OpenOffice can edit powerpoint files (or I could probably install Office using Wine) but I've already created this powerpoint in Windows and since it is going to be used at a conference I don't want to risk any formatting issues.

Anyway, the point of this post is to give exhibit 1 of about 100 as to why I abandoned Windows. When I logged in, I spent 25 minutes downloading updates to 10 different things (Windows, Firefox, Java, Adobe, antivirus software, the list goes on and on.). Then I had to reboot, which required installing the Windows updates, rebooting, then configuring the Windows updates. After messing around with everything for about a half an hour, I finally gave up and decided that I would work on the presentation at another time. It's really quite ridiculous.

Of course, all of this can be filed under the "First World Problems" category. Things could be worse. I could be starving (just ate a blizzard) or living without central heat. It's like "Hey, you know the bluetooth in my Audi doesn't work very well at all." First world problems...

Chris Hardwick gets credit for this post title.