You can probably guess what I have been doing as soon as I had the time. I'm on the second planet and loving the game so far, my wife even stopped to watch for a bit (totally unheard of). It is way too early to give it a score, but I'll let you know when I do. :)

I also picked up Starfox Command and Metroid Prime: Hunters recently, but I know I'll need to buy my own DS if I want the opportunity to really enjoy them, someone else always seems to be on the damn thing.

I watched "The Last Mimzy" with my daughter as I had promised her yesterday. It was pretty good, and the special effects were very well done. If you have kids, this is a good family night movie.

And now I'm off to bed, I need to get on a "real" schedule again with the kids back in school soon. /sigh

It has always amazed me how large companies can make the same massive mistake twice. The bigger the size of the company the more costly the mistake, so you would think that once they know where not to step they would avoid it like the plague.

But somehow Sony has found the same giant PR turd that they stepped in previously, and have happily tromped through it again.

Once again they have been caught as a party to Rootkit use in the form of SecuROM, this time with the recent release Bioshock. That in itself would be bad enough, but the kit is installed with the demo as well! Sony, what are you thinking? The last time you were party to forcing Rootkits on users it cost you millions!

My only thought in this is that this is part of a "try try again" strategy. Either to get consumers used to the idea of putting up with required monitoring of their PC's for select product use, or to try to find a court that is of a more favorable position for them.

The only problem is that they loose a great deal of goodwill with their customer base, and Sony is fairly short on that already. I also don't see what they hope to gain that could offset that loss of customer faith and goodwill. Granted they are not the only company that is going to face these issues from SecuROM use with Bioshock, but they are the only one with a well established history of rootkit use.

Maybe their press statement (if they decide to make one) will shed some light on their reasoning. But my advice is to bury the software and don'tlet it be used again.

I watched Pathfinder last night, and it was a pretty good movie. Worth a spot in the Netflix queue in my opinion.

The problem is that it was hot and muggy last night, so I watched it in the bedroom where we have air conditioning. I got distracted so I never really left the room after, and so didn't get to the Metroid video's.

As they have already been uploaded by m0zart, I'm not going to now. So if you came looking for them I'll just have to link you here and here.

I reserved my copy of Metroid Prime 3 yesterday, and convinced my wife to pick it up for me on the 28th. Just 4 more days....

I managed to squeak into level 23 last night, Super Bagman!

Seems this was an Arcade Game, though not one I have ever played. Despite it being a level name here there is not much activity on it's own page.

I other news, I seem to have become very unexciting. Not sure if it is the video posts in my blog or my comments on obscure book reviews that is keeping people from posting, but either way I need to come up with a solution.

However, I will be posting the next two Metroid video's in my blog as I am usually one of the first to upload them. I'll see if I can do it a bit earlier in the day (night) this time, I don't like being second ;)

No, I'm not talking about Bioshock or the upcoming Metroid Prime 3 review. I'm not even talking about a video game review.

I'm talking about the best book review I have ever read. It has caused the reviewer a few issues, but I doubt he is losing any sleep over it.

Professor PZ Meyers of Pharyngula was given a copy of the book Lifecode by its author Stuart Privar. By all appearances it was given to him to review not only for the "professional" opinion but also to give the author a degree of credibility. However, the review didn't go exactly as he had hoped.

Mr. Privar was more than a little miffed, so he went to plan "B" to become rich and famous. He is suing Dr. Meyers for $15 million.

You should read the review, it is very funny and points out the error of ignoring known facts to try to make your point.

Here are the most recent videos from Nintendo. The Month of Metroid has given us a lot of back story and game play updates, and these video's follow that trend.

[video=dXY3wzGv5b8IujDb]

Nothing wrong with a little plundering....but I didn't like what I saw after the plunder was done...

[video=KiAxwTT85b8IujDY]

I am really really happy by what I saw at the end of this one. Bowling for Pirates? I'm hooked already.

I nabbed and uploaded the two latest Metroid Prime 3 trailers from Nintendo.

Relax and enjoy if you haven't watched them at home yet. ;)

[video=I301xDH45b8PsjTb]

I liked this one for the insight it has provided. Though I of course wonder about the long term effects...

[video=ICYznjD85b8PsjTY]

And this looks like a hell of alot of fun. Just a little bit longer...

Back in December I spent part of a month applying to a great many contests and drawings. They ranged in prizes from a current album to an area rug to a tour of Europe. I thought this was a decent way to spend a little time for possible payoff at first, but the hours add up quickly and discouragement came quicker than I expected.

After several weeks of an hour or two a night I had only a pair of free movie tickets to show for it and a ton of waiting as some of the contests I entered didn't close for a year. I expected that to be the end of it, as the odds of winning something big down the line were pretty small.

However I did get a nice surprise around March as a Bacardi contest I had entered had been "broken" on the web and was giving out false winner notifications. I had gotten a few myself and it was obvious that it was a mistake, so I had just ignored it and kept entering. Seems that Bacardi decided that everyone who received one of the messages should get something for the false hope, and sent out a swag kit that included a key-chain bottle opener with light and a tee shirt.

I figured that would be the end of my winnings, and it was more than I had come to expect. What had started me on the contest binge was one by Shaw carpets, the grand prize was reflooring your entire house (wood flooring if you wanted that even!) with smaller hourly prizes of some very nice large area rugs. Of course, I didn't win either but the idea compelled me to enter many other contests figuring on strength in numbers.

And that brings us to yesterday. My oldest sons birthday is in two weeks, so I have been expecting a few small packages to show up at my door. But to my surprise an enormous 75 pound box was delivered from a company I didn't recognize. My first thought was that one of the grandparents went overboard (and was making me wrap the thing) so I called around and left messages. I of course had taken a peek in the box before I had heard back from everyone, but there was no easy to find note in the box that was now dominating my living room.

I looked up the sending company, and was surprised to discover that it was an advertising firm. Now I had an idea of why we received it, but of course what contest? And why wasn't I notified? I had entered too many contests to keep track of them all, and there was still the remote possibility that someone was using my credit to purchase things and this company had simply shipped it to the billing address.

I waited until my son was in bed just in case, and pulled the top of the box all the way back to get the exact name of what arrived. I entered the name "Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest Arcade Pinball" into Google follow by the word "contest" and was surprised to find a Disney contest I barely remembered entering even with the web page as a reminder. The pinball table was the second prize, I was floored at both my luck and the fact that a company like Disney hadn't notified the winners!

I finished unpacking the box and found a small note from Disney congratulating me, it would have been a lot easier if they put it on the outside of the box. Of course this is now my sons birthday present from us, and it didn't cost a dime!

Seems that entering contents is worth it, as long as you're not really expecting much and have a bit of luck on your side.

Texas was nice, though really wet. San Antonio was flooded more than I would have expected, but I did have a nice dry evening in Dallas. Big thanks to a couple of old gaming friends who took me to see the Rangers while I was there :)

Still working on the house slowly, I have had other things to do that have slowed it down. My wifes sister having a garage sale and shopping around for new health insurance being a couple of them.

I "finished" Mario Party 8, as in got enough points to get everything. It is a fun game with the kids, but the long term playability is lacking unless you have pleanty of beer and friends handy.

I picked up RE4 for the Wii and started playing that. I never got real far on the GC version, mostly cause I only play it at night. I'll try to change that this time around. I am loving the Wiimote for aiming, it is alot more intuitive and immersive.

The house still has more to go, painting doors takes way too much time. More so when they are closet doors, I'm really starting to hate the smell of paint.

I had a vacation in the middle of this as well, and I have a buisness trip to Texas coming up as well. I think I like winter better as I get to relax!

I still find the time to log in and read a few things every day, but not much more. Maybe I'll have more time on the road, not much to do at night most of the time.