Holster your Blu-ray versus HD-DVD arguments. My home is still grappling with issues from 10 years ago.

Frequently my wife and I watch movies. Given my schedule and her condition, we don't go out much. Watching a movie together gives us some semblance of date night once our daughter goes to bed. My wife and I have a list of movies we are looking to watch together. Whenever she is at the library and she sees one of these movies, she nabs it and we watch it. This last week she brought home a number of films not on the list. Saturday night we watched Cast Away. I had seen it before, she had not. In the middle of the movie we got a dreaded DRE on our DVD player. Not to let a perfect opportunity pass, my wife noted, "You don't get that problem with VHS."

She's right. We just get warbly, distorted movies. I guess by now you can see who is on what side of the VHS vs DVD debate. Personally, I felt the debate was settled in 1998. That was the first time I watched DVDs. Due to our attempts at frugality, we haven't replaced any of our VHS movies with DVDs. Thus, DUNE, Winnie the Pooh, and a couple other epics in our collection are still in VHS format. Neither of us really feel the need to replace our collection since we take care of our media.

When we check out movies from the Library, it only reinforces the disregard people have for publicly available media. We missed a minor part of Cast Away, but we still haven't seen I Confess all the way through. The discs are all scratched and the videos are in crazy states of disgusting. My wife has tasked me as the one to set up the movies. Every time I do, I wonder if she knows just how sticky and dirty the G, PG, and PG-13 movies we watch really are. Seriously, those tapes are gross. I can only imagine how many years and layers of human excretions have accumulated on those tapes. No wonder they are free to view.

She likes being able to fast forward and rewind at her leisure. She likes not having to run the risk of the player not being able to read the media. Those are all legitimate claims. In fact, if she is stuck on a deserted island, she'd still opt for VHS. She could unspool the tape to lash her volleyball to her raft. Yeah, my wife is pretty and determined.

Am I the only one with a VHS lover? Does anybody else have dead media preferences?

Let me know. Being a DVD convert from Laser Disc, VHS was always the second-rate media to me.

The first phase of the shake-up is complete.

I am now waiting for phase two to commence.

Stand by for additional details. Dave's fear should start to flare in the coming days.

For those of you who downloaded the July 31, 2007 ish-dition of The HotSpot, you may have heard the con can be . . . interesting. I found it entertaining and fun. Judging by the reactions of some game-playing, movie-watching individuals, mileage may vary.

Some people requested more examples of cosplay at Comicon 2007.

Along those lines, Warren Ellis said, during his Comicon panel, "The only way you can be heard, without being threatening, is to be a cartoon reflection of yourself."

You may recognizee him from the Austin Powers movies, but before he was a space rocket, he was the symbol of a dining generation.

A lot of Star Wars cosplay. A lot.

A cosplayer attempts the Freakazoid (cartoon) while The Tick's faithful companion, Arthur, is recreated on the right.

That reminds me of the name Warren Ellis has for his band . . . Fatal Robot Cosplay

During the last week, I have had a lot of opportunities for reflection. Badger and I had a lot of discussion about life, the universe, and everything. . . just not everything my wife expected us to talk about.

While at Comicon, I attended panels on breaking into various industries. I asked a lot of industry-specific and business-intensive questions. During those four days in San Diego, badger was looking to live his dream. I was looking for a way to make my dream a reality. I was networking. I was applying. I even interviewed. . . kinda. That said, it was a very productive trip. It helped me realize where I was last Fall and where I want to be this Fall.

During the car ride back from San Diego, badger and I talked about reviews. About a year ago I posted my most recent community review here. I had been pretty active in writing them. As of late, that time has been absorbed by work, school, and other initiatives. If my gameplay really is an effort to understand what is out there . . . If the hours I play has more meaning than merely completing titles, I need to write about it. I've given a lot of thought to the marketing aspects of the industry and the long-term business approaches for viable competition. What about ensuring product quality within the industry?

Thus, kind readers, I ask for your help and support as I commit to one review a week. It isn't much, but I am interested in improving my analytical evaluation of interactive media. If anybody has feedback on my contributions, feel free to PM me. Some things in my life are shaking up and I want to ensure the transition is for the better.

I know a lot of you are looking for Comicon pictures and additional details. Let's start here. . .

While seeing the original batmobile was as cool as you would expect it to be, the attire of the attendees was by far the most humorous and stimulating things I saw. I will be the first to admit I was once way too into Star Wars for my own good. While I have kicked the Star Wars and comic book habit, I definitely had a relapse over the weekend. Perhaps it was the attractive young ladies all dolled up in Leia-like metal bikinis, maybe it was the Image Comics founder panel, or perhaps it was the Warren Ellis panel. I haven't read a word of his writing, yet he was so compelling, I felt the need to ask a question.

All I know is I came home with 6 more comics than I really intended or needed to get.

The first day I really should have worn my PlayStation hat. The line was so long (just to get your badge) that it went all the way out of the convention center, across the front, looped around the South side, back up the rear of the building (by the G4 staging area), and then terminated somewhere near the Northwest corner by the docks. It was a long line. Fortunately it was only a two hour line, but those two hours were sufficient to burn the skin of many a convention-goer.

Many people had fashioned rudimentary protection from the sun using common objects, like cardboard 300 shields, cosplay capes, backpacks, and molded plastic stormtrooper helmets. All of those things were found with such frequency at the convention that they became commodities. After suffering in the heat and humidity I was able to get my badge. The air conditioning was certainly welcoming.

When 'badger and I met up with Dan Johnson, he was wearing his black and white fedora. Every time I see him wearing that thing I think back to the days when I wore my black fedora to church on Sundays. My roommates and I would walk a few blocks to the local meeting hall, so it was easy to dress up, but necessary to wear a hat. The sun burns bright on Sundays.

Now that I think about it, Warren Ellis wore a hat during the entire time he was holding session on Saturday night. He wore a fine black suit to match his black, wide-brimmed hat, and black cane. I am noticing a trend here. Maybe that was why Warren invited Dan to go out to eat Thursday night: it was a meeting of the hats.

Quite a number of individuals were wearing hats at the con. The hats were not limited to notable writers. Cryptobadger and I saw one person join the masquerade wearing a godzilla mask with a sobrero on top. No, for reals. It just didn't look right, even amidst all of the Naruto attire. Just about any character imaginable from that series was recreated by some loyal fan. I expected that, but I didn't expect the girl who made an excellent Twi'lek. She had two head tails and enough blue body paint to adequately cover the rest of her body that the swath of clothing she wore didn't. Seriously, she was blue.

That reminds me. There were probably about 1.5 males there for every 1 female. Those are staggering numbers when you stop to think this is comic book, video game, and science fiction convention. I had expected the demographics to be much like they were 13 years ago when I last attended: 90% male. Don't get me wrong, it was not an unpleasant surprise, just unexpected. Between the scant number of booth babes working the booths and the female attendees, I would say the attendees had the more revealing attire. No joke. On top of that, the underage ones who generally dressed more modestly were walking and/or standing around with signs reading "free hugs!"

We stayed clear of that.

I hope you don't mind the random, stream-of-conscious recounting. I just figured it would be more interesting than if I merely posted a quick note to inform you that I have unlocked the last achievement in Alien Hominid HD. Thanks to The Behemoth for patching the game! Replaying it at home helped me remember how much fun it was to play Castle Crashers at the con.

I just got back from Comicon and boy is my back tired. Cryptobadger and I rolled two-deep down to San Diego for the biggest comic book convention the world has ever known.

Highlights included: the Heroes panel, a chat with Warren Ellis, lunch with D. Curtis Johnson, getting my photo taken with gentrified Boba and Vader, winning an exclusive Planet of the Apes 12" action figure, hearing Todd McFarlane tell embarrassing stories about Jim Lee, visiting friends from Image, talking with Ron Lim, running into the uber-cool GameSpot crew, chilling with Mr Paladin at the Behemoth booth, and generally having some vacation time with an old friend. Rockin.

Hopefully I will be able to provide some spoiler-free updates on the panels and meetings I attended.

It's a shame others were not able to attend.

I confess. When Contra was re-released on the 360, I initially had some problems inputting the classic code. After additional tries, I got it to work.

It is possible I am again having problems putting in those game-extending codes. Perhaps I will try again after Comicon. I almost forgot how much more challenging Super Contra is over the original Contra.

Anybody else going to SDCC?

I haven't been in 13 years. I hear it has changed. They'll have games there.

Look for some video blogs. If anybody wants to meet up for lunch/dinner let me know STAT. I had lunch with somebody from Image the other day. I hear there will be some big news announced during their keynote.

Last night after our daughter went to bed, my wife and I watched Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. Neither of us saw it when it came out. To tell the truth, neither of us really had any interest in seeing it in the intervening 10 years since its release. However, given our marital relationship, it wasn't as awkward to watch the crude, sexual humor as I had thought it would be. The best part of the movie? Robert Wagner.

While the comedic spoofs of international spy movies have been done before, the presentation of Austing Powers fell flat. On of my friends in college mentioned the best parts of the movie were the Doctor Evil portions. Honestly, I'd have to agree. Mike Myers is at his best when he plays understated roles rather than the over-the-top ones. So I Married an Axe Murderer is the only Myers movie in my collection because it isreally the only one I feel is worth watching again and again.

I thought the Shrek movies were alright, but my wife is by no means a fan. It's a shame the Sprockets movie was never made. That said, I can't really look forward to the Myers-starring remake of Danny Kaye's The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. . . not that the original was all that great.

Friday was a special day. It wasn't special just due to the fact GameSpot editors and producers got to look forward to an awesome ride home to the Bay Area, but because Robert and VinceL joined the infamous Room 0 chat. Rawr, Dave, Don, edu, noweb, and many, many others frequent the first-room of discussion during GameSpot Live broadcasts. Both Robert and Vince were privy to Friday's discussion of the qualities and quantities of Cake and Pie. They were so enamored by our bar-room brawl they decided to let the community fly their flags of dessert with two new emblems . . . but there can be only one!

We all marveled not only at the care they dedicated to the new decorations, but also the mind-bogglingly fast turnaround of said decorations. Even though i was in and out of meetings all day Friday, i got to participate in some great discussions and catch a lot of the impressive media being pitched from the GameSpot stage. The revelation of the emblems cast a long shadow over the finale of the live program (as great as it was). With the advent of these new emblems, I was determined to finish the Cake versus Pie video blog I had started during the height of the first war of words. So, gentle readers, I leave you with my opinions cast in moving images. . .

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