I loved the Portal trailer.

Maybe not for the same reason everyone else does. Yes, it is a great game mechanic with an interesting puzzle elements, but the presentation was very amusing.

My daily labors have and continue to include providing content and tutorials for end users. That has seemed to be a diplomatic euphemism for the least competent person to atempt a task using a proprietary software application.

The portal instructional video segment was a beautifully sardonic vehicle for delivering one of the most wonderful gameplay elements yet to emerge from the Source . . . code.

Hopefully the same humor will be included throughout the single-player experience.

This weekend I had a rare opportunity to connect my 360 to a network port. Thus, my points have been updated (but now rendered out of date).

I had downloaded a number of XBL games. Wik, Uno, and a few others have become part of my playing experience. My wife has also caught me playing games that are less deadly than DoA4 and GRAW on our brand new machine. But when I was in a position to actually buy the full versions, like they say I can, I couldn't due to my lack of the points they accepted. My credit card was there. I would have even telephoned it in (an insame thought these days) so I could acquire a collection of budget-priced games and achievements.

Unfortunately, somewhere between the launch of XBox Live on the original XBox and the launch of the 360, Miscrosoft decided they didn't want to accept people's credit cards. Now I have to go to *shudder* a retail store to purchase the right to buy an electronic game over an internet connection.

Do they not want my money? Are they afraid of keeping the accoutn information on file? I doubt it. When I connected my original XBox to a network the other day, XBL was happy to take my credit card information to bill me for that service. So why not let me pay for microtransactions with my credit card?

Wait, I figured it out. . . the accredidation charges assessed by credit card companies are too much. The microtransactions are too small to make credit card payment a justifiable process. Dang.

Who would have thought the printing, encoding, shipping, and shelving of credit-like cards would be less expensive than taking electronic credit card orders over a secure network connection? Seriously, that boggles the mind. I'm just going to have to use my digital credit card purchasing power to get an analog card, enter the printed code into my digital system, and start a series of digital downloads. I suppose that will get me a free download of Joust.

Priceless.

It's Friday night. That is synonymous with Date Night in our household.

In the cafeteria coworkers compare plans over a corporate lunch. Truly everybody's workin' for the weekend.

This weekend?

Work

School

Podcast 2

Family Time

Sunday Time

Somewhere in there I intend to continue my points rampage. . . er, stroll. I am currently at 3,127 or -1,873. A modest score. The space of time left for my July rental is narrowing. Better get on that.

Also, I expect some additional tasks will, of a necessity, have to be done. Example: hair cut. I've been looking pretty shaggy lately.

I hope everyone in GameSpot-land has a great weekend.

Today was a turbulent day. Not merely for the socio-political reasons, but also for the pop-culture reasons.

Weezer is done. I know. Say it ain't so. Matt Sharp left long ago and formed the Rentals. Good things come from bad things.

UMDs are all but dead. Good things come from killing bad things.

Disco died, but it was the best part of the Mystery Men.

Smashing Pumpkins broke up, but they . . . may? . . . be getting back together. We'll always have Zwan.

Snakes on a Plane. I've got nothing for this. While Cobra Starship sounds intriguing, it would be a nom de plume best suited for this gem Snowgrey discovered . . . snakes on a plane.

This is the end.

The only thing left to do is go home and play games. Maybe eat.

I need to go to Best Buy and conduct a competitive analysis. That can wait until tomorrow when I can work rather than play.

I feel like that Carl's Jr/Hardees guy. . . "Don't bother me, I'm [playing]."

Make no mistake, Mister Muffin makes masterful mischief. This isn't going to be some random post about how muffin eating gives people super powers. It is an allegory of sorts.

Last week my wife made a batch of muffins to share with her new friend. Since the two of them and their children did not devour the full measure of muffins, I got to partake. Since I did not eat all of the muffins, we took them to my parents' house to share. Even they couldn't eat the remainder of the delicious blueberry muffins. Finally, I finished the muffins for lunch on Sunday.

This tale of baked goods is what hardware manufacturers should be prepared to do during a console launch: make enough for everybody. Microsoft was the first to attempt the console sold 'round the world. Unfortunately, they did not make enough for the market demand in areas outside of Japan.

Nintendo followed suit with the DS Lite. Only they didn't make enough to satiate the appetite of consumers in Japan.

So, what we need now is not only just-in-time (JIT) delivery, but also just enough supply. And marketers say consumers are demanding. . . pshhh.

We have compiled and edited the podcast. It is fit for download, but I have insisted on sampling from a test market. It is not that we will edit it more, but merely waiting for the inner circle of friends to weigh in on what they think. If the close friends don't like it, we may just have to start our publishing run with Episode 2.

If you want to hear the comic and game comments of an aditional pair of critics, feel free to PM me. I'm willing to share but an official website and comments won't be available quite yet.

. . . and for goodness sakes, listen to the HotSpot tomorrow night!

The Badger and I finished our podcast test run today. Skype came in handy, but my contribution seems to have suffered from some static and latency issues.

Also, for anyone who will be looking to listen in, the first forty minutes is us talking about comic books. I don't know if that is a problem. Our game discussion doesn't start until  . . . 35-ish minutes into the podcast. We're looking to trim the final run time down to a paltry 60 minutes.

My wife wanted to surprise my parents this morning with a visit. I brought my 360 along to update my achievements online. After going back home, I played some more Dynasty Warriors, gathering even more points not reflected by today's totals.

Hopefully the home connection will arrive soon as I think my 30-day live trial has begun.

A couple of my friends are getting together tomorrow to put together our own podcast. It will be all-ages appropriate and will cover three topics:

Comics

Games

Movies

With my recently uploaded video blog, I figured it was time for a podcast. Given Cryptobadger's stylings I anticipate a great show. In no way am I looking to detract from the excellence that is the HotSpot. This is simply an opportunity to learn more about alternative media distribution.

. . . And to create my very own video game killed the movie star comment.

I would post more, but like any working man who'd rather be playing games and hanging with his family . . . I'm going to go home and hang with my family.

. . . Maybe play some Hexic, if not some GRAW, or Dynasty Warriors. I am all but determined to harvest the 1,000 points available in Dynasty Warriors before I get my Internet connection hooked up.

Maybe I'll bring the 360 into the office this weekend and hook it up to our World Cup flat-panel in the breakroom. That'd be a change of pace.

Classic movies watched over the weekend:

Ocean's 11 (1960 with Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr)

It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World

Tonight:

The Man Who Knew Too Much