Happy Thanksgiving and so on

Thanksgiving break was great, but I must elaborate the pain of beginning work again after what was basically an entire week's worth of time off. I didn't realize that I love breaks... but here I am, 6:44 AM, and I wish I was getting up in an hour to take my dog on a run. It's not so bad, but it was extraordinarily tough getting up this morning. Also, now we can all listen to Christmas music.

A few things that bug me about the Health Care Debate

I'm bothered by the fact that the people debating and voting on whether or not our country reforms health care absolutely have little or no personal stake in it. U.S. representatives and senators have some of the best health care coverage out there, so it seems easy for them to blow it off for one reason or another. Similarly, I'm also annoyed by people with health care who rain down their worries upon me about the 'possible' decline in their health care. I understand why they are worried. I haven't seen any proof that their worries will come to fruition yet... but frankly I don't care if they do. The fact of the matter is that I've been in the situation where I lost my health care and had to buy private insurance. It is not feasible to do so. If you lost your job, I highly doubt that most people have a hundred some dollars every month for health insurance (and that was the price for only me... the non smoking, marathon running, 22 year old...) Moreover, I have crappy health insurance now with Americorp. All I'm saying is that the college educated guy who volunteers to serve his country for a year by helping school children shouldn't have to declare bankruptcy because he breaks his leg or gets some other obscenely expensive to treat disease. That is not the kind of country I want to live in because that sucks.

Catching up

I know I haven't posted in a few days. With my birthday on Wednesday and then work on Thursday and Friday I just have neglected to make time to write. However, I am planning some good stuff for the next week or so, specifically for those interested in some of the new video games of late. For my birthday, I ended up owning three new games: Left 4 Dead 2, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, and Assassin's Creed 2. I'm planning on putting up reviews for at least the first two games and probably in the order listed. That's about it for now.

PS... if you got an invite to the Christmas party, you should go.

Posting Early: Writers Blok...

Tomorrow morning I need to run to the bank... so I'm not going to post anything incredible. On top of that, I will be attempting to pick up L4D2 at some reasonable time. I read that it is being released at midnight at some gamestops, but I can't stay up that late. So tomorrow...

On a different matter, I need to write an article about Elizabeth Hall, but I'm having the hardest time making it not suck. I would blame myself, but the subject matter isn't exactly great. It is a school after all... People learn, eat, and ride buses.. bada bing bada boom...

Best Dog Video Ever

To counteract the last post (kind of depressing)

Modern Warfare 2

This weekend I played the new Call of Duty game at a friend's house. Like the last one, it looks and plays great. That's not what this post is about. I want to discuss a specific mission called "No Russian." In this mission, you are playing as a CIA agent in a Russian terrorist group. You and your crew are in an elevator and everyone is packing some heavy firepower (It's a Call of Duty game so that's a given..). As the doors open, the leader says to everyone, "No Russian," and before your eyes is an airport terminal filled with people. I think it is obvious where this situation goes... it does go there, and you are given full discretion to shoot a bunch of unarmed people. I didn't (which is kind of boring in a game where your only method of input is with a gun). I kind of walked around horrified for a bit. I tried to shoot my bad guy friends, but the game doesn't let you do that.

I'm a bit conflicted on the whole thing. First, I think this is an interesting step for video games. The medium is maturing. The fact that a developer and publisher put this in is a big step. This kind of content is for a very mature audience and it's a risk to put that kind of content in a game (also, this is Activision's largest game this year... so a bit of an extra risk). On the other hand, I'm not sure this is the right game for this content. As stated earlier, the only method of interaction is with your weapon. That is all. That isn't a criticism... that's just what a first person shooter is... You aren't given the luxury of stopping the terrorists... I think you should be... On top of all that, the next mission of this game features a comical Russian invasion of the U.S. that reminds me of Red Dawn... I get confused over what tone the game wants to have..

On another Nintendo related note, New Super Mario Bros. Wii comes out this week. Apparently it is very similar to Super Mario 3 and Super Mario World which are two of my favorite games ever. It should be good.

Gifts at Target

So last night, my roommate and I were at Target to buy some paper towels. We had been out for about forty-eight hours at that point and we had both been dreading a Yuki accident for which we were not prepared for (although we're at about hour thirty-six now and still no accident... but now the crutch of the paper towel is back so she'll probably start going all over the place). So we're walking down the aisle and on one of the end-caps is a number of items with no real theme other than being packaged in red. After a bit more observation, it became apparent that these were impulse-buy gifts. I don't have a problem with those existing, but it makes me wonder who is walking through target and all of the sudden says, "Hmmm, yeah... Uncle Billy does need a 20-piece stainless steel grill set... or a clock radio or pen that's also a radio or coffee mug that's also radio, or a stainless steel grill set that is also a radio." I'm just not sure who these people are. Probably the same people who buy tennis balls for their dog out of the dollar section near the entrance. Oh shit...

Yuki and the Wonder Years...

Sometimes I like to think that Yuki is narrating her life like she is Fred Savage...

"Yep. That's my dad. And he's angry. Why do you ask? Well... it's a long story. It starts in the fall of 09'. He had just made dinner and was preparing the final parts of his meal. I didn't want make him angry... I just really wanted the rice. So he put his plate down and I only put my nose near it. I swear. However, somehow the plate went flying and here we are. However, I think he and I both learned something that day. First, it's that no matter what, we will both always love each other. Also, he learned never to let me near the plate ever again."

Why Nightmare Before Christmas is awesome but unnecessary

So last Saturday night I went through what has become an annual event... watching Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas. The music, voices, and the movie's sense of humor are pretty great overall. Yet, I couldn't help shake the idea that the movie's plot is totally unnecessary. Like I needed an hour and a half movie to teach me that it would be a bad idea for a skeleton to hijack Christmas. I think I could have predicted that outcome.

Moreover... other parts of the movie don't make any sense. Like when Jack is telling those dumb trick-or-treat kids to be careful with Santa Clause. They bring Santa back in a garbage bag dumped in a walking bathtub and Jack is just fine with the situation. Worse yet, after Jack gets Santa's hat, he again sends Santa with the kids (who inevitably bring Santa to Oogey Boogey... which Jack also knows about... jeez). Clearly I have no reason to trust Jack's judgment. However, I don't see why the people of Halloween town trust his judgment any more than I do. This skeleton is the one who after Halloween mopes around for 20 hours and walks off into the woods. Afterward, he comes back talking about a magical land with snow and lights.... Again, why isn't the town committing him to the doctor's crazy lab with the doll girl.. actually that would work out pretty well for the love story. I guess I shouldn't expect a lot out of a town that elects a mayor with a head that spins. Also he's a moron.

Rock Band Influence

So I've had this thing where I play a song on Rock Band and if it is good, it will work its way into my rotation of songs that I listen to on my ipod or computer. One example is "Maps" by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Not really for any particular reason other than I just happen to remember it. I don't know how many others there are, but the list numbers is likely over fifty songs (which is a lot considering I know most songs that are in the game).

Last night, I was driving my friend home and she asked, "do you have the Beatles' songs on your computer?" Of course, I answered yes... but it was obvious to me that her interest was born out of Beatles: Rock Band. She even admitted that her parents had never really listened to the Beatles, but she has started liking some of their music after playing it in the game.

I don't have much else to say about this other than if a majority of people end up experiencing what I've described in this post, I would be interested in seeing bands use Rock Band as a promotional tool. Post a few songs for free on Rock Band from a new album, get people hooked, maybe they will buy the real thing off of itunes.

PS.. I don't proofread these posts... and I likely never will

The ERICTalk Blog

Yo everyone. It's like I'm yelling "Eric" and saying "talk" in a not as excited manner. I'm trying a new blog that will just be a collection of my observations on current things in my life.

For instance, sometimes I end up just loving a particular part of a song even if it should not impress me in any way. In "Hello Goodbye," the Beatles play a C scale on guitar over and over and I love it. It's just a C scale. Congrats to them I guess.

That is a pretty boring example of what I expect to write about on this blog (to be fair, I just finished listening to "Hello Goodbye" so it was relevant for me at the time).

If you don't want to be on the email list for this, just let me know. I'll take you off, but I added those who may have a small interest in what I'm up to.


Eric