All things considered, good weekend.

Dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets.

Make it happen.

Alright. This beer caught me off guard. Why? Because I didn't bother to look at the box before I bought it. It has 3.5% alcohol. I did not know this. I automatically do not like this beer.

Here is what Moosehead's marketing had to say about this beer:

"Generally, men and women 30 and up who enjoy a distinctive upscale light premium beer is the target behind it,"

and

"The Cracked Canoe idea is about taking things slow. The idea really resonated strongly with people."

I am a 20 year old university student who drinks from funnels, shotgun cans, and participates in drinking games that promote binge drinking. I don't beleive I fall in to this demographic. HOWEVER, I guess this is my own fault for not doing any research so I'll try and give this a proper review.

It tastes like...water. Really. People call most macro beers watery tasting beer, but this one actually tastes like carbonated water. The only way you'd know it was beer is by a bit of a hoppy aftertaste. I don't care how old you are and what style drinking you do, there is no need for such a water tasting beer.

THAT BEING SAID. I will say that this beer is good/useful under two conditions: 1) If its really hot outside and you want something refreshing and light that won't get you drunk at all. A BBQ orlawnmower beer if you will. 2) If you are hungover but need to keep drinking for whatever reason. This beer tastes like water so its still easy to take down even under the most upset stomachs, and it feels refreshing and hydrating. A good starter beer for those hungover saturdays.

So there you have it. If you're just looking for a case of something to get drunk off of for the night, stay away, but really I wouldn't mind having a few of these on standby for a few occasions.

Well I have two more weeks of this weight loss foolishness and then I'm kissing skinny-town goodbye! And that of course means time to stack overly expensive and kidney failing supplements!

Starting this week I'll start off with beta-alanine (I hear it's all the craze these days), next week I'll start creatine loading, and then finally after two weeks I'll start again with the NO-Xplode (a personal favorite) along with some BCAAs for during work outs.

So here's a sample meal and supplement plan for when I get into the full swing of things:

Breakfast: 5 eggs (3 whole + two whites), oatmeal and a grapefruit half, omega 3 tabs and multivitamin

Lunch: Bowl o' chili

Late-afternoon: grilled pork, grilled veggies and brown rice, multivitamin

Dinner: chicken breast, spinach salad, sweet potato

Pre work out: NO Xplode, Beta alanine, amino acid tab

Intra work out: BCAA/Fast absorbing sugar mix

Post Work out: Protein Shake, creatine, beta alanine

Evening: Canned sardines, toast, fruit

Before bed: Cottage Cheese, almonds, amino acid tab, ZMA, omega 3 tab

And of course water with pretty much anything.

Oh boy!

I just finished the first season (so about 15 hours in) and so far I'm loving it and I'm dangerously addicted. Here's some quick thoughts

• Retains all the good stuff from previous Harvest Moon and Rune Factory games
• Very nice looking graphics wise, the extra detail (especially to animals)gives the game more charm then the handheld Rune Factory
• Money is a bit better balanced out, there's always expensive stuff that's out of reach and you simply can't just start miningexpensive minerals right away.
• Wish I could turn the voice acting off (maybe I can? Haven't checked. Point is, voice acting is bad (especially the sound clipwhen you pet your animals)
• Character portaits could use a bit more detail
• Animations are a bit off, you look like you're runningway faster than you're actually moving
• Multi-tiered dungeons are funnerand more complex than those in the original, though not maze-like complex(a good thing in my opinion)
• Combat isn't deep but it gets the job done and is pretty satisfying
• Glad to see it's not automatic game over when you die in a dungeon (rather you wake uplater the next day in the hospital with low health and sometimes a cold)
• Cooking/Forging/Fishing is more interactive
• Managing Runeys is a good time waster once you've run out of energy point (Rune Points if you want to get technical)
• People actually haveinteresting things to say
• Seems to have it's own, self-aware sense of humour
• I still miss the old traditional cute looking cow and the standard bar-maid girlfriend

So I must say if things keep up this will definetly be one of my favorite Wii games, could even be crowned top in the series. Still too early to tell. But I'm loving this. I'm still waiting for a proper Harvest Moon title though, one that has this much care and effort put into it.

I can feel my testicles slowly converting into ovaries as we speak.

The worst part? I think it tastes really good.

Well I have finally retired the old girl, and boy what great times were had. In her memory, I will post my favorite, best of the best Gamecube games. I have about 50 Gamecube games so this is no easy task; and while there are some of the standards on there I think there might be a few not-so-obvious choices. Here goes!

Metroid Prime

Well, this one was a given. Everything about this game was amazing. Atmosphere, graphics, soundtrack, boss fights, everything top notch. Hell they even nailed first-person jumping perfectly. I can't really think of anything wrong with it. Too bad its sequel wasn't nearly as good.

Sweet moments: First getting the Phazon Suit

Music to check out: Tallon Overworld Theme http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzmGrQHSTho&feature=related

Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

While most people disregard the Gamecube version of the game, I prefer the Gamecube controller rather than waggle, as the game was originally designed for. Might not be as new and fresh as Ocarina of Time was in its time, but I consider this to be the best Zelda game made. And since Zelda is my favorite series ever, I guess this makes this one of the best games ever? Wow.

Sweet moments: The Twilight Realm.

Music to check out: Kakariko Village Theme http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTNNKFhaZFU

Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker

The sailing kind of sucked and it was a tad easy, but this game was still great Zelda fun. The art is amazing and the best non-technical graphics I've ever seen to this day. Top notch sense of adventure and exploration as well

Sweet Moments: Fighting the Helmaroc King

Music to check out: Ocean theme http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8M2WnpC98Jg&feature=related

Resident Evil 4

I'm not usually too big on third person shooters, or survival horror for that matter, but we can make an exception for this title. Violently killing parasite-infested hispanics has never been so satisfying.

Sweet Moments: Pretty much ever boss fight, but I really liked the lake monster

Music to check out: Save theme http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYxFjL2zHCo&feature=related

Skies of Arcadia: Legends

Probably my favorite RPG of all time, this is the game that really got me hooked on the genre. A charming story of adventure. And pirates. AIR pirates at that. Didn't do too much new, but what it did, it did spot-on. One little touch I really liked was that the boss music changed depending on how well you were doing in the fight (see my music link)

Sweet Moments: Meeting your Dopplegangers

Music to check out: Boss theme (starts off with the normal theme, towards the end changes to the "losing" theme, then finishes with the "winning" theme) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GMMFJc-mUo&feature=related

Harvest Moon: Magical Melody

I like to consider this title to be a "greatest hits" compilation of sorts for the Harvest Moon series. It really just takes all of the good ideas from previous games in the series, weeds out the bad ones, adds a few new things in and wraps it up in a charming little package. Probably my pick for most addicting game ever, and a great surprise after what I thought was a highly dissapointing A Wonderful Life.

Sweet moments: Getting married :)

Music to check out: Well, actually youtube doesn't have anything for this, and I don't really think there were many stand-out track anyhow.

Ikaruga

This is the only Gamecube game that I still play from time to time. Super challenging yet manageable difficulty keeps the game addictive, plus I'm a real sucker for games in this genre. The game looks and sounds beautiful, if I had to nominate any game to be "art", this would probably up there.

Sweet Moments: The satisfaction of figuring out how to get out of situations like this alive

Music to check out: Boss theme http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpKZCg22pXA

Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance

Perfect balance of strategy and role playing. This was the game that kept me company when I was home sick from school for a week with mono. I loved the story with a surprising amount of mature themes. This would get my "best story" award for the Gamecube, just a really great game.

Sweet Moments: Fight with the Black Knight

Music to check out: To Challenge Ashnard http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uh-eOXkCyoc&feature=related

Baten Kaitos

Just a really solid RPG with an interesting battle system and beautiful pre-rendered backgrounds. All of the different locales with very imaginative and a joy to explore, and it had a very pleasing story. This game was really a pleasure on the senses. Worthwhile sequel as well.

Sweet moments: Trumpet lasers.

Music to check out: The True Mirror (Guitar) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3Tx3DWeQcU&feature=related

F-zero GX

I'm not a huge racing fan, but this along with Diddy Kong Racing take my top spots for favorite racing game. This game has the most intense sense of speed I've ever experienced, and it has great visuals, music and challenge to boot. I still haven't unlocked the last cup. Geez louise.

Sweet moments: This track

Music to check out: Infinite Blue http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4RloO-wc3E&feature=related

Honourable mentions:

Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes

Paper Mario 2

Viewtiful Joe

Killer 7

Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader

Dishonourable mentions:

Mario Kart Double Dash

Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life

Well first off here is my Christmas gaming haul:

So we have De Blob, Chrono Triggers, Persona 4 and 2000 Wii points, which will soon be converted into Secret of Mana, Super Mario RPG and Harvest Moon (Sorry World of Goo and Shining Force, you will have to wait).

Unfortunately I now I have far, far too many games to play. Most of which are 40 hour+ RPGs.

On the play list there are currently four of the best SNES RPGs to be played:

Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VI, Secret of Mana (VC) and Super Mario RPG (VC)! Oh my!

Well those will be all fun, on top of the HUGE OTHER PILE OF RPGs that I need to play:

Yeah, lets see we've got: Final Fantasy XII, Rogue Galaxy, Persona 4, Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn, Eternal Sonata, Tales of Vesperia, The World Ends With You, Dragon Quest Monsters, Dragon Quest IV, Chrono Trigger, Etrian Odyssey, Etrian Odyssey II, Magical Starsign, Final Fantasy VI, Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, Mario & Luigi, Secret of Mana, and Super Mario RPG.

Oh God.

Then lets add these up to games from other genres I still need to play:

So on top of what I already mentioned, we have Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, Metroid Zero Mission, Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow, Lunar Knights, Phoenix Wright Trials and Tribulations, Phoenix Wright Justice for All, Trauma Center Second Opinion, Trauma Center New Blood, Super Paper Mario, De Blob, and Blastworks.

Every game mentioned here has either been barely started or still not played at all.

I actually don't think I will ever have time in my life for all these games. Problem is I will keep on buying new games as they come out.

Moral of this story: Don't buy games quicker than you have time to play them.

Well after well over 100 long hours, I finished the game. Well, The Journey. Still haven't beaten The Answer. With so many other games (over 20) that I still have to play I don't have time for expansions. I may have to just look up the story sequences on Youtube.

But yeah, Persona 3; what a game. While I haven't played too many games from 2008 it's definetly my favorite game since Mario Galaxy. One of my personal favorite RPGs ever, maybe only behind Skies of Arcadia. I don't remember the last time I cared about and felt so attached to characters in a game. The last boss/end sequence was very very satisfying, although it kind of left me depressed both because the game was over and due to some story sequences..

Well, I received Persona 4 today for Christmas and I hear that's even better. Although I'm not sure if I'm ready to embark on another 100+ hour persona quest just yet.

Persona 3! Hip hip, hooray!

I might even write a formal review !

So this happened to me a few days ago. At my school's meal hall we have this thing where people pledge not to use trays for whatever amount of time for environmental reasons (logic is they save water with less trays to wash and if people don't have trays, they won't take as much food and thus waste less food).

So I decided what the hell I'd pledge for a day and see how it goes.

Well instead of taking less food I just tried to carry all kinds of plates and bowls all at once. In a shuffle of dinner plates I dropped a bowl of bran flakes and milk. OH NO! Wasted food! There goes my pledge for the day! Then just to make things hilariously worse, when I dropped the bowl it spilled allll over a stack of trays (which were there for the non-pledgers), which then in turn had to be washed.

So because I tried to be ecologically responsible, I ended up wasting a bowl of cereal and set the place back by about 20 pledges in trays that needed to be washed. Success!

Needless to say I now usually take trays at meal hall, you know, for the environment.