Badger drove into town for Wondercon. We stayed up chatting and playing the Soviet Missile Mastar minigame in Alien Hominid HD until 2 in the morning. When he got back from Wondercon yesterday, my family and I were excited to talk about what he saw, did, and heard, to the point everything else was all but immaterial.

Once the time came for the 'badger to go, wife and I left my parents' house in such a rush we forgot our 360 controllers. Without the controllers, Big Bumpin will be shelved, Crackdown won't get cracked, and the alien will have to wait to get his ship back on Easy and Hard difficulties for quite some time. This is a blessing. My final project for Organizational Structure and Strategy is coming due. I also have some Macroeconomics to study, and some pricing to prepare. On top of that, there is work. Fortunately I won't have to frame Guilder. If so, I'd be swamped.

If you see me online between now and Saturday, I am not really playing, I'm just turning on my box to continue my 60-day run.

Face it, if you are incensed by the irrational desire to accumulate additional achievement integers, this will only make you more depressed.

I am tempted to take my 360 offline permanently. Not because my wife wills it, or because I want to lose the rest of my XBL membership, but because I have a beautiful palindrome score. Check it. . . 23232.

I overshot the 22222 by unlocking an achievement of greater value than was required. Despite my best attepts I could not bring my score into palindromic agreement because of dedication to the joy of playing Lost Planet, and the allure of other low-hanging fruit in other titles.

Last night I got home from work and immediately commenced the download of Alien Hominid HD. If it weren't for Castle Crashers, Hominid would have been my most anticipated XBLA download from the Behemoth. Like my affection for palindromes, cel-shaded graphics make me warm inside. The little alien guy looks so adorable when he is biting heads off of FBI agents and carjacking. The achievements I unlocked this morning basically carried me back to a palindrome equilibrium. I will definitely play more, but I find myself obsessing again over ensuring my score keeps its parallel properties.

I still have four more achievements in PD0 (120 points) I am working on offline. My stomach turns every time I see that as my #1 game on mygamercard.net. A couple guys online and I wonder how drunk on new hardware some people were to give that game across-the-board glowing reviews. Sure, the light reflecting off of the tile was impressive, but the gameplay is so tedious! If I wasn't trying to finish the multiplayer to get me that much closer to the Old Spice challenge line, I'd just take that thing back to the GameCrazy from whence it came. . . but I digressed.

The thought of accumulating points offline is actually entertained often, but the effort required to map out which achievements I would need to unlock to correct my score has become tiresome. I would only reconnect my console to update my numbers, lest that delightful score be altered from its positioned nearest Nirvana. But in the end, I have friends with whom I enjoy playing games. I would miss playing more than I do now. Play time isn't just about the numbers it boils down to one thing: my 360 is only as good as the people I play with online.

Tomorrow, er tonight three fun bands are playing together:
OK Go
Silversun Pickups
Snow Patrol
That is one concert with all three of those groups!
Unfortunately, school projects don't complete themselves. Maybe I'll just have to catch One-Man Star Wars Trilogy at the Post Street Theatre.

At the behest of my wife I returned some of the acquisitions I made the other day. She didn't want them. Who knew?

While at the store, I discovered they had the Burger King games. I know a couple people who have them who said they'd share, but that goodwill hasn't manifested yet. Thus, with a return of cash, I spent some of it on the Burger King games.

Last night I started on Big Bumpin' during a break in my studies, only to discover nobody is online. Seriously, not one soul is out there looking to play Big Bumpin' over the Internet. Usually you can find a person or two willing to float a game in other XBLA back-catalog offerings, but nobody is hailing to the King these days.

If you are looking for some BK achievements, let me know because I can't get them without playing somebody online.

Today I took a walk to my local game store. While there, I inquired after some used games, found Wii Play, dismissed attempts at opening a line of credit, and overheard some curious comments.

While browsing the Under $10 bins, I was following an exchange between a minor and the store manager. You see, this manager was able to persuade the guy to pre-order God of War II . . . y'know, for the exclusive demo disc. :wink: While taking the money for the preorder, he set the perfect example for his subordinates by getting parental consent. He responsibly inquired, "You're Mom's cool with you getting this game, right?"

:roll:

That was quite the loaded question. No surprise the boy responded with a predictable, "Yeah." What was more of a surprise? The mother who was allegedly providing her consent was nowhere to be found.

Not only did that rekindle the disdain I held for that retail establishment, I was curious which of the parties was more at fault. Was it the mother who allegedly provided her consent? Was it the boy who put money down today that could have gathered interest until the day the game actually comes out?
Was it the clerk who manipulated the boy into making an unplanned transaction with an underage customer without obtaining direct parental approval?

If I had really been true to the disgust I felt at the exchange I overheard, I would have left right then and there, instead I bought something. Turns out I was probably the person most at fault for keeping a chain of stores I distrust and believe operate in manipulative self-interest in business. All the more reason why I should be taking what I bought back.

Don't do drugs. If you're under 17, don't buy or play M-rated games without parent permission.

For those of you who don't know, San Jose is the largest city in the San Francisco Bay Area. In terms of population it is larger than Oakland, San Francisco, and Petaluma. It sits at the base of some mountains (hills really) and was once the target of a James Bond villain.

Every Winter it is also the recipient of a lot of precipitation. Sometimes it gets cold enough for snow to fall in the nearby mountains.

Schools don't close in the city, and the snow rarely lasts longer than a day, but this might offer some comfort to those of you East of the Sierras. Snow may not fall in San Francisco, but San Jose is another story.

I came into work this morning only to discover . . .


The first rule of Milk Club: You do not talk about Milk Club
The second rule of Milk Club: You do not drink with Milk Club
The third rule of Milk Club: You cannot join Milk Club

This morning as I was driving in for my first day at the new job, I couldn't help but think of driving yesterday, Sunday, online. The sun was right in my eyes as I drove down 101. Surprisingly the freeway was moving at a pretty fast clip (uncharacteristic of the Bay's most notoriously crowded freeway). It is a holiday.

Need for Speed Most Wanted had some great bloom effects for daytime driving. I found that driving experience to be a lot more interesting and pleasant than the after hours motoring in Carbon. Most Wanted had charm from unintentionally campy FMV. Carbon just has viruses . . . viruses I have since spread to members of the GS staff.

Yesterday I got online to share the Carbon viruses with Jeff. That brought him 50 points closer to his 1,500-point goal. Hopefully driving down the dark streets was a pleasant relief from the pain-inducing gameplay of Eragon.

While I would like to harvest more points to get my 1,500 by the deadline, I can see school and work are both about to consume me. So, for those of you looking for game night tomorrow, you may have to ask Santa, because I don't think I will be hosting. Stay tuned to the GameSpot Live Union for any updates or notices as to when the next Union play time will be.

Back when I was studying for those standardized tests, word associations were all the rage.

This weekend I unlocked the last of the achievements for Tomb Raider: Legend. Last July I didn't think I would ever get all 1,000 gamerscore from that title, but my wife's friend lent me her copy. The time trials were made far more pleasant thanks to an exploit found here.

Before I ran off to school on Friday, Gus & Peldon let me trounce them in a Lost Planet Elimination match. That match provided the last of the XP I needed to move up to level 50. The achievement I unlocked may well be my last in the game. The other two require a lot of single player work at the EXTREME difficulty; something I am not wont to do.

Finally, a big shout out to Caro, who cycled (pun intended) through many levels of Paperboy while I unlocked the Smasher achievement. A very magnanimous move. For the last achievement I plan on taking my time. I have fond memories of playing Paperboy in the arcade. I don't want to spoil that retro enjoyment too soon.

Wife and I were at one of those warehouse stores the other day to update our memberships when I discovered two boxed sets. One was a compendium of U2 albums. The other was an Alfred Hitchcock boxed set. Both were packaged at a discount, but both had some stinkers in with the valuable offerings.

I presented both to my wife.

She seems to be learning a lot from my business degree. We decided to siphon our weekly date allowance to procure these movies:

We already watched Strangers on a Train. We both loved North By Northwest, and we are both looking forward to seeing how I Confess ends.

Unfortunately, the other evening we watched Mr. & Mrs. Smith (pictured). It is labeled a screwball comedy, but both of us found it pointless. I have very little interest in the prattling of people who don't really know what they want. After spending so long looking for the right mate, the scenario presented in Mr. & Mrs. Smith was almost offensive. The characters are flawed, but that was what made them seem so real. I know people like them!

Don't get me wrong, this movie has nothing in common with Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie action/comedy movie of the same name. That movie was kind enough to dispense with the insidious love triangle. My disbelief was suspended far more, but the entertainment value was somehow greater.

Hitchcock is the master of suspense. Nevertheless, he presented a technically sound comedy. Despite the annoying decisions of the characters, the story is told well. The visuals were tight.

Seeing a seemingly unconscious man drop lifelessly into the snow, the peering of a suspicious person out of a cracked door, and the confrontations in a fashion boutique are all tell-tale marks of Hitchcock. Okay, so the confrontation was different, the drama at the core of the confrontation had the same energy and desperation. Much of the action was built upon what was left unsaid verbally but articulated through action.

While we have yet to watch all of the offerings, I feel good about our purchase, despite the clear disdain for the Smiths' antics.