My four-day weekend starts tomorrow so I'm looking forward to lounging and celebrating Easter with chocolate and num-num fancy dinner. I found that dreaded beetle crawling up the stairs, coming after me. What I love is how my cat was resting right next to it, like it was her Buddy (♪My Buddy, My Buddy, he's a creepy beetle and he wants to kill my owner! My Buddy and Me!♪). Hey, do your friggin' job and kill it! I ended up throwing shoes at it and maneuvering around it to reach the vacuum. I know how this sounds and what you're thinking about me and you're wrong. That thing was HUGE! I could just imagine that thing sitting in my closet and sharpening a knife on its boot, waiting for me to come back: ......no picture? Oh, okay. Well, you can picture it in your mind. Well, so now the basement is safe. I was playing "Symphony of the Night" before I caught that thing, though, because no one is stopping me from playing with Alucard: NOBODY! Except maybe those undead brutes in the Colosseum...they slashed up my poor vampire until he exploded into a cloud of blood. Sigh...I need to be more careful. So, that's the most recent saga of my life: bug huntin' and fightin' the undead. I think that looks like this: That's how Spanky REALLY bug hunts...with a muthertruckin' sword. On a side-note, I've been reading the play "Volpone" by Ben Jonson in class and I realized that British humor really hasn't changed that much over the years (the play is from 1606). It's a lot of banter that you really have to listen to to get. I'd provide an example from the play but you're better off just reading it yourself. Check out this poster I found for an old performance of it: Just awesome.
Floundering in my low spirits for the past few weeks, I've been trying to keep myself amused by reading humor articles and watching YouTube videos. One of my favorite sites (www.adultswim.com) provides several links to www.cracked.com for various hilarities, often lists of things. One list I found while searching the site featured this priceless picture: The provided caption: "This is what happens when 'Batman' is written by Liberace. Also, Robin can call it red all he wants, but according to our Crayola box set, Batman's costume is actually pretty-princess-pink." This was only the first entry in "The 20 Most Ridiculous Batman Comics Ever Released," which is here: http://www.cracked.com/article_16870_20-most-ridiculous-batman-comics-ever-released.html That list is fairly amusing, but the best one I've found on Cracked is this one: http://www.cracked.com/article_16990_lost-in-translation-20-baffling-foreign-movie-posters.html I can't describe it without giving away the funny parts (it must be a surprise), but I can say that it's pretty funny as hell. As for the video portion of this episode, I've been finding humor in the YouTube stylings of the Angry Video Game Nerd. He's not the most eloquent fellow in the world but I can appreciate what he does. It's his job to play very bad games for the NES, SNES, Genesis, and Atari (and, soon, the N64) and review them...with very much cursing involved. I've never played a lot of the games he reviews (the older games I do play are the good ones he ignores) but that doesn't make his reviews any less funny for me and that should be the same for any gamer. As long as you like video games (you don't even have to play them regularly), you'll appreciate this guy. This video is my favorite one, featuring a review of a game accessory (the Power Glove from Nintendo). The Nerd tests it on several NES games and, needless to say, it does NOT go well (WARNING! EXCESSIVE CURSING AHEAD!):
The hilarious "Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest" and "Top Gun" jokes will be funny to anyone who has played those games before, but for those who haven't and/or don't know what they are, here's the Nerd's review of them to help clarify some things (WARNING STILL IN EFFECT!):
Trust me, all of the videos this guy makes are great, so you should check out his YouTube channel if you liked these. It doesn't matter if you've never heard of the games he reviews. He'll make you regret learning about them and never want to play them. Oh, joy of joys. PS: Losing to Glass Joe is quite a calamity: As Cracked put it: "Look at him, it's like he thinks there's a guy out in the audience with a rifle on him." (For the fantastic list that came from, follow this link): http://www.cracked.com/article_15696_10-most-irritatingly-impossible-old-school-video-games.html
Still sick...I was just playing "Symphony of the Night" in my basement, minding my own business, when I saw this dark object on the side of my folding closet door. I thought perhaps it was the door hinge and ignored it. Some minutes later, I caught sight of it again...on the surface of the door...frightened, I clicked my lamp on and spied its true from: a rather large, beetle-like insect (I'd find and provide a picture, but that'll just sceeve everyone out). I stared at it, unsure of what to do. It froze, then crawled across my door some more...gently rapping, rapping on my closet door. I first tried to vacuum it up with a hand vac, but the suction wasn't strong enough (!!), so I grabbed a game box, determined to smash it. It slunk between the door and the above jam, so I seized the knob, slid it open, and thrust it shut over and over until I heard a buzz: "Nevermore." It tumbled down and I shrieked, hopping back. I stood still for a moment, then put a box in front of the bottom door jam, adding footstools in front of that. I played on, for I wasn't going to let that beast stop my fun, and after an untimely death, I turned the game off and went upstairs. It lives in my closet now...waiting for my return...okay, that was a bit dramatic, I'll admit. But it was fun to write. I love Poe...but, seriously, that thing is down there waiting for me and I'm afraid to confront it. It's HUMONGOUS. My blockade won't stop its pursuit. Perhaps I'll go back down there and finish it off...I'll need to get in my closet eventually. Sigh...I'll end with this video that's really only a song accompanied by a picture:
It's the song heard in Master Librarian's chamber and my favorite song from "Symphony." Despite the video showing a picture of the album cover, this song (of course) isn't included on the soundtrack, for whatever reason. It makes me think of a crowded street in Medieval Europe, like in England or something, and there's one suspicious person slinking around the people. I just finished reading "The Merchant of Venice," so maybe that's why. I must be thinking of Shylock, since this song sounds very Middle Eastern and he's the Jew. I'm being very creative today...
Nothing really interesting on this end. I have been struck with a terrible illness and I pray that the cause is only allergies from the intense wind and not a virus. I've been playing "Castlevania" lately and I desperately wanted to play today but I didn't want to sit in my basement...in the cold...and the dark...very fitting for a "Castlevania" game but not for my condition. I just bought a used copy of "Lament of Innocence" for ten dollars and it's a lot of fun. Hot whip-on-demon action. It's funny how I play because I know there's a bunch of combos to perform but I'm kind a of button-masher so Leon just ends up flailing. Speaking of Leon... Good God, Kojima Ayami is a goddess of an artist. Her androgynous illustrations of the "Castlevania" cast are like the music of Yamane Michiru: they define the series (interesting, both women. Dracula loves his ladies). Anyway, it's a great game. It's dark as hell (both figuratively and literally) and it leaves a great unsettled feeling in the pit of the stomach during and after playing. Highly recommended to fans of "Castlevania" and fun games. I've also been playing "Symphony of the Night," which I've had for a while. There's not much I can say about it that hasn't been said already. It's a classic for a reason, folks. Well, two reasons: it's fun and... Come on , now. Alucard is every game gal's fantasy boyfriend. Alucard and papa Dracula are the best vampires ever. They would destroy all of those "Twilight" wannabees. Well, I have nothing left to say, so here's some eye candy of Leon: And Alucard: and, of course, the big boy himself, Dracula:
