So my mom starts coming back tomorrow, so by Monday I'm already at home. Though I'm home at the moment too, since I came to check out my mail and visit my dad in honor of midsummer. In honor as in "hopefully he has couple of free beers for me". And he did! Good ol' pops.
I've been thinking about writing few entries of some AWESOME movies I absolutely love. In this case the word AWESOME would mean movies so ridiculous that you have to be a demented gorehound such as I to fully appreciate their greatness. I already have bunch of movies in my mind that I'm just too eager to present, but until I fully get home, I can't do much though. But we'll see, we'l see. There's also some articles I'd like to write, but I'm too drunk at the moment to remember what they'll be about. Oh, and I've been writing my poem collection a lot lately but it seems like I've got a little case of writer's block at the moment. No biggie really, since I'm a master when it comes to overcoming writer's block, but I'm taking this as a chance to rest a bit from all that writing crap.
And what else? Well I made a new sig:
Inspired by the movie 28 Days Later which I finally saw. I must admit that I've kind of overlooked that movie, since I tend to shrivel in agony when it comes to horror movies made in 00's, but holy hell that movie was good. Sure, it's pretty obvious where they got the inspiration for the movie but I was positively surprised by the fact that they concentrated on the way the characters handle in such a situation, instead of showing scene after another how dumb people get mauled by the infected. The relatively low-budget look was also a welcome change. Oh, the scenery of deserted London at the beginning of the movie was absolutely breathtaking. Plus it stars the sexyness known as Cillian Murphy, but I'm sure you don't wanna hear about me going on and on about his steamy hotness. Those eyes will suck you in. ;)
Oh, here's a couple of strange Spider-Man panels to lift the mood, that has nothing to do with the stuff I just wrote. But it's all in good faith:
[spoiler] 
Yes. It's Peter in ripped jeans, wearing an incredibly tiny shirt that says "Animal". Manly back then, cheesy comedy now. Much like Hair Metal.
This guy is Slyde, the "Slipperiest dude of them all", an incredibly lame villain that almost rivals the Stilt-Man for the price of crappiest bad guy ever. What were they thinking?
[/spoiler]
Adiós.
Yup, a new banner is up. Just opened up my trusty photoshop, pulled some sweet sweet brush magic and that's it. Nothing too fancy but it ended up exactly the way I wanted it to be. The silhouettes I snatched straight from Killing Joke's debut album, but don't tell that to anyone mm'kay? ;) I didn't really like that previous one, since it was just a re-colored cropping of a wallpaper-experiment I did (that one: Klik), so it was time to do something better. And it's a fun way to spend couple of minutes when you're bored like I am.
Oh, and I'm going to watch over my mom's place today since she's going to see my aunt and granny with my brother's baby (that's right, I'm an uncle). I'll be there around a week or so, so I probably won't be here that much. My mom does have an internet connection but her computer is just incredibly slow and crappy, and it's just a matter of time before it blows up (it's done it once already!), so I'm not going to take too many risks with it.
Take care of yourselves dears. Kisses and hugs for ya all (or if you're too shy then just a healthy handshake). :P
EDIT: Just a quick update. I landed the plane in Top Gun (NES) for the first time in my life! I hereby pronounce myself as God amongst men.
But enought talk... Have at you!
So now that my Xbox 360 is busted, I thought it would be fun to play with my old consoles. After a little thought, I decided to rescue my Game Boy Advance from the depths of the abyss (aka my closet) since I've never really given it a chance it deserves. From my local gamestore I grabbed a copy of Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (partially inspired by my recent playthrough of Castlevania: Bloodlines), being a huge fan of the series I was expecting nothing but awesomeness from the beginning to the end. Needless to say, the game totally delivered and I loved every inch of it. However after collecting all the souls, completing the map 100%, seeing all the endings and even discovering the weapons available from the Boss Charge Mode, I started to crave for more Castlevania goodness.
So what could have possibly cleansed my thirst? Well none else than the mighty Symphony of the Night. After plugging my PSOne to TV and going through a pile of old games, I finally found my precious copy of the game and popped it in. And boy, I had completely forgotten how awesome it was. Even the cheesy dialogue and horrible voice acting felt right from the opening moments where you defeat Dracula. I actually played through it in almost one sitting, though my percentage was only a pitiful 197. I especially loved the very final battle with Dracula, and finally getting to whoop Death's ass and recovering the stuff he steals from you at the beginning. I'm going to play through it the second time this weekend. After that, I'm probably going to go really old school and play the original Castlevania for the NES. :)
Aaaand on to the other news. I've been playing around with my Photoshop lately. I made two sigs that I'm pretty pleased with. This first one is actually pretty much a copy of the back cover of Kraftwerk's The Man-Machine album:
[spoiler] 
[/spoiler]
This one was inspired by the works of Kazimir Malevich:
[spoiler] 
[/spoiler]
And here's another version of the same sig. I don't like how it ended up, so I'm probably not going to use it, but it was pretty fun experimenting with lines:
[spoiler] 
[/spoiler]
But anyhow, how are you people? I've been a bit busy lately, so I haven't been here that much. Also next week I'm going to my mom's house since she's going to see her family, so I probably won't be around here during that time. :(
EDIT: Oh, and apologies for those who thought (thanks to the topic title) that this would be about me finally crawling out of my optimistic shell and embracing the ultra-nihilistic and ultra-misanthropic nature that is hidden beneath. ;D
Yay, my Xbox 360 has once again decided to be a b***h with me. I thought it would be fun to spend the summer just playing Forza 2 while waiting Bioshock, but I guess my precious console had other plans for me. The bastard just keeps freezing over and over again, sometimes I don't even get to the opening Xbox-logo when it completely freezes and laughs at me like the evil spawn of Satan it is. Weird thing is that the red ring of death doesn't flash. I guess I should be thankful with that, but at least then I would know what the problem is.
Microsoft's own support page was completely worthless. I did every possible problem shooting there was, but none of them helped so I guess I must call the Xbox support phone tomorrow (however I'm trying it again tomorrow, just in case it's just some heating problem) and complain why the hell their console isn't working. I'm actually suspecting that the disc drive is damaged since it seems like it just doesn't run the games like it should. Though strangely enough, it also freezes on the dashboard when there's no game inside and even while playing demos, so I don't know if I should buy and try one of those lens cleaning discs or not. What a bore.
It's not even the first time I've had problems with XO. After only six months of owning it, I god the red lights and had to send my original Xbox away and eventually got a new one. I do understand that the more powerful consoles go, the more complex the technology behind them goes so of course they have more hardware/software failures on the longer run, but this is just ridiculous. If I didn't love my Xbox as much as I do, I would kick it to the field. I just hope that they have some easy solution for my problem, since I don't have any warranty left, and I don't have extra money to pay for repairs.
On the other news, my friend started his civilian service and that means we won't be jamming together for a while since he's living in another city while completing it. All of my other friends are also busy this summer with their jobs so no fun for me, I guess. And holy hell does the Finnish television programs suck during the summer. There's not that many programs I even watch regularly, and even those are on a brake during summertime so that the channels can show TV chats and reruns over and over again. Even the movies are horrible. It almost feels like a conspiracy. :(
EDIT: So I tried my Xbox 360 once more, and guess what:
[spoiler]
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! :cry:
[/spoiler]
Today my summer holiday officially started. Meaning, I did the very last thing I had to do before summer. Sure, this week is still school but there's only boring stuff left like socializing with other students and taking part in various activities that "the powers that be" have made for our amusement, but nobody likes those right? However I must admit that basically I've been spending my summer holiday for two or so months already because there's not much studying left for me before graduation.
Also this day marks an end of an era for me. Why? Because I finally cut my precious hair, after sporting a beautiful long hair that just screams awesomeness for years. Doesn't sound like that much of a deal, but after having a long hair for so long, it felt really weird to let my sister cut it away. :( But no worries, I'm going to grow it back. It's just that I really let it go in last two or three years and it was a complete mess. People probably thought that I'm some sort of stalker or a drug addict. And hey, hopefully people won't call me androgynous anymore, because I'm not! As a side note, I'm growing a Frank Zappa-esque facial hair.
One thing that's really been rolling around my mind lately, is a thought about starting Aikido. I've been reading a lot about it, and I really love the philosophy behind it. And stuff like that would probably do good for me, since I'm in horrible shape. I thought I'd ask from this local Aikido club if I could take part in a c.lass or two and see if it's really my thing. Should be fun.
Oh, and since this is my blog number 30 I'd like to thank you few people who actually read this egoistical ("me, me, me, me") crap I write every now and then. You're the best! This is for you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61yKkQJSZVk
8)
Obscurity shrouds
The dismal euphoria,
Digital age
Sought it's rest
From the wild winds
Of conscious stream
While the rebellious mind
Swept the gloom
With a heavenly stroke
Full of luck and glamour,
Concrete angels
Drink sulfur
From their golden grail
As magnificent steeds
Vomit truthful serum
For their infant children
[spoiler] 
[/spoiler]
The upcoming Batman movie (The Dark Knight) has got me so hyped up at lately that I just had to scramble a new sig for myself. I'm pretty sure there's some stuff that I should have done to it, but at the moment I'm just too tired to care. It's almost 10 AM here and I haven't slept at all yet. I've played my NES all night long and it's finally starting to feel like a sleeping time for me. My neighbours probably think I'm some sort of vampire since I sleep at day, curtains closed shut and when the nighttime comes I rise from my grave... eh... "bed". But anyhow, here's the new sig:
Aaaand on to the other news... So how are you people (you, the imaginary one's who read my blog)? I hope you're doing well. I know I don't usually ask that, but hey... there's always a first time for everything right? :P
Like said, I've been playing my NES a lot lately. I mentioned in my last blog that I've been going through my game collections, and I've pretty much lived my childhood for the second time. It's funny to see how some of my old favorites feel like complete crap nowadays (Rush 'N Attack, yes that's a stupid pun in the title) while some of the others seem better than ever (i.e. The Guardian Legend, Blue Shadow, Metal Storm). Also some of the stuff is still quite entertaining, though doesn't really hold a candle the longer the gaming sessions go (S.C.A.T., that's right... the game is called "scat" :D) and of course there's still a bunch of games that are too damn hard, even for the toughest of gamers (Star Voyager, it's literally impossible to beat).
Well, that's it for now I guess. I'm pretty much out of ideas of what I should write here, since not much is going on in my life at the moment. I kind of hoped that I would get to the Blog post number 30 before running out of "material", but I guess you can't always win.
Good night.
EDIT: Just wanted to experiment with my new brushes. Ended up with this:
Don't know if I'm going to use it, at least not with that font, but what is done is done.
EDIT 2: New avatar too. Here's a bigger picture of it:
So I've been going through my game collection lately and I've re-discovered bunch of games that I loved as a little, snot-nosed punk I was. I thought it would be fun to go through some of them and see how I feel about them nowadays. For the sake of space and time, I'm only listing around 5 NES games. Also because I've concentrated most of my time to my NES games, since I thought that would be a great place to start this odyssey to the past. I would have started with Atari 2600, which was the first console I owned (my mom and dad got it for me as a Christmas present, even though I wanted NES) but I have no idea where I've put all the games for it. So here are some of the games little Jussi (me) played while growing up:
SHATTERHAND
Boy did I love this game back in the day. I always thought the main character is a complete badass since he didn't need fancy Master Swords or Mega Blasters to kick butt, for the little guy in green vest relied on his FISTS. Sure you could assemble a small bot that would shoot things (or even swing a sword) but most of the time it was the FISTS that that were flying towards the enemy jawlines. It's still an incredibly entertaining game with a healthy level of challenge. I'm glad I discovered this game again. It kind of reminds me of Blue Shadow (aka Shadow of the Ninja), except with FISTS.
GHOSTBUSTERS 2
Now Ghostbusters was the big thing, alongside of He-Man, for me when I was a kid. I loved those guys. So obviously my young and naive mind was willing to absord any piece of crap the game companies would put out as a part of Ghostbusters franchise. And so I ended up with the Ghostbusters 2 video game, since I (thankfully) missed the first Ghostbusters game for the NES. I can't say I never really enjoyed actually playing the game since it was kind of tough to beat, mostly because of horrible controls, but this was the Ghostbusters video game so obviously it didn't matter. Tears of joy filled my eyes when I could shoot weird green slime that did nothing at all kinds of things, and I went straight to seventh heaven during the rather lame driving stages where you would crash the Ecto-1 to everything. Looking at it now though, it's kind of embarrassing to think I used to spend hours playing it.
LIFE FORCE
Sadistically hard game (I've never completed it), but damn it was (and still is) addictive. I think I hardly ever made it past the first stage but it didn't matter, this game was sweet, like strawberries. Even though it was a pretty stereotypical horizontal scroller, it had tons of great charm that made it one of my childhood favorites.
IKARI WARRIORS
Another game that was hard as hell. Even with the mighty power of Game Genie it seemed to take forever to finally beat it. Sure, it's a clone of the legendary Commando at heart, but it's the co-op that made me and my friends spend hours and hours just blasting and shooting and destroying everything and everyone.
CONTRA/SUPER CONTRA
These two games are my alltime favorites for the NES. After Ikari Warriors lost it's charm, it was time to find another game that would satisfy my shooting needs... And it was Contra that answered the call. No matter whether you play them alone or co-op, Contra and Super Contra are incredibly entertaining (even by today's standards) thanks to their simple yet addictive gameplay, fast-paced action, great amount of challenge and well... just overall badassery. I mean, these games put you on the boots of a shirtless tough guy with a huge gun and incredible agility, and makes you shoot the crap out of everything. Enemies and bullets are flying from all the directions, things are blowing up and the bosses are huge and awesome. It's genius, though the final boss of Super Contra is shamelessly easy. I've actually thought about taking a Contra tattoo to my arm, that's how strong my following is, for these games rule.
Well that's it for now. I had more games on the list, but it's just too damn time consuming to write these blogs. Especially when my NES finger is itching for some sweet, sweet Contra fun. Of course I loved (and still do) all the c.lassics like Punch-Out, Mega-Man, Bionic Commando, Super Mario and Metroid, but everybody knows those games so I didn't really feel like writing about them. That's it for now. I'll put more stuff up once I've spend more time with my old games.
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