Afro Samurai (the game). My review.

Thus far, I give Afro Samurai a B-.

The graphics are good, not great. Game play seems kind of easy and repetitive (mind you I’m only in a couple of levels thus far). The actions are also kind of confusing. Pushing the d-pad down gives you an on screen guide (Samuel Jackson) to point you in the right direction. But he’s very quick. Sometimes you don't have a chance to find him before he disappears.

There are no traditional health bars. There’s a star kind of thing that trails behind you that changes colors as well as some heart beat sound effects that activate when you’re close to dying. You definitely need to read the instructions on this one, they tell you how to restore health and restore your "focus". “Focus” is kind of weird, but kind of cool also. It allows you to concentrate your attention towards one enemy (or direction) as well as perform special offensive maneuvers.

Speaking of fighting, you can actually hit two or more characters with the same sword swing. Nice! Not that the fighting in RPG’s should be too complicated, but here it seems a bit too easy. All you need to do is move the stick in the direction of your enemies and push the jelly bean colored buttons like a crazy person! Now, there are fighting “strategy” directions available when you push the back button during game play. But I was able to get the character through all the major moves without even reading it. Carpal tunnels risk is greatly increased with this game. So make sure you put the controller down frequently and massage the wrists. Oh, and no greasy finger foods either, trust me. Otherwise your controller may become a deadly UFO.

All-in-all, it’s not bad. It sure as $%^* ain’t worth no $59.99! (Which reminds me that Samuel does a fair amount of cursing in the intro and during gameplay.) Fortunately, I paid much, much less than that. Else my grade for it would be quite a bit lower.

I owe it to my pocketbook to put more time into the game. However, only time will tell if I'll be a true fan of the Afro.

Happy Cinco de Quatro?

Latest Obama Gaffe, "Happy Cinco de Quatro"

Just another silly slip of the tongue I agree. However, would the media jackals have ever let Bush 42 get away with that? We all know the answer to that question.

This president's likeability factor is HUGE! I have to admit, it is genuinely nice not to hear the press badmouthing a sitting American president. On the flip side though, they adore him so much that they let him get away tearing down America, brick by brick..

One has to listen to conservative talk radio and scour the internet for stories on what President Obama is doing after the cameras get turned off. Yes it is up to the citizenry to stay informed. But part of how we stay infromed is my responsible news organizations doing their job.

Heck! Here in DFW we have been bombarded by stories about what happened at the Dallas Cowboy practice facility. But we hear nothing about the "Former Gitmo Detainee Now A Taliban Boss". Obama still wants to close this facility even though these prisoners are about to end up back in the saddle again; but doing much worse things. And mass media says...

I pray that the media wakes up soon TO DO THEIR JOB.

Oh What A Day!

...Oh What A Day!

Yesterday was a serious getting school work done day.

Other than drop my daughter off at school, take my wife's car to get her front tires changed, get her car reinspected, then picked my daughter up from school, at 11am, I've got the whole day to properly prepare for tonight's class.

Sooooo, I drop Jamy off at 8:00, just in time to hear the bell ring. Then I head straight to Discount Tire. They tell me it's going to be about a 30 minute wait.

*15 minutes later I'm out the door.

I had to run back by the house to pick up the inspection paperwork, no biggie. The shop is like 2 minutes from the house. But when I get there, the inspection machine is down. No problemo, I'll drop back by after I pick up Jamy.

I get home and hit the books till it's time to pick up the little one. Oh yeah, I've got a video copy job for a friend that I'm doing. No big deal, I'm just transferring some gymnastic competition and home movies to DVD. I can multi-task that into homework time easy. :thumb:

10:48 rolls around and it's time to skee-daddle to pick up Jamy. I get Jamy, *we do the happy dance, and head to the car. She tells me she's had a big day and wants to have "5 minutes" (Family code for nap time) when we get home. Sure baby, all we have to do is get mommy's car inspected right quick and you can have "5 minutes".

Get to the shop and the machine is up and running. The prawlem is we are 4rth in line. 20 minutes per inspection x 4 customers in line = 1 hour & 20 minutes. Like I said before, Jamy was ready for naptime. So I can't check that off of the honey-do list today. We leave, with no inspection. The wife ain't gonna be happy! Oh well. I put my mind towards finishing the stuff I needed to do for tonight's class.

The wife comes home around 4:15 and I'm still not done. So, I coax her into helping me with some stuff that I was having trouble with. We're doing that until it's time for me to get ready for class.

I had a group teaching lesson assignment to do, so I had to all get pretty. So, I scramble to put together a descent outfit, get my materials together, and get packed up.

Done. I emerge from the chamber to get my gear together. Jamy had a playdate scheduled about that time. Jamy's friend's mom and the wife were sitting in the living room talking about girly stuff. I can tell from the lsudden silence and the look on the ladies faces that I had put together a nice ensemble.

*Wow! Am I a gorgeous hunk of man or what!

I kiss the wife, daughter, cats, snakes, and iguana goodbye...:eek2:, hit the freeway, set the cruise control for 78, and try to relax. Maybe I should put on some music...no...some talk radio...no...some Christian preaching...no...heck! I'm all wound up in knots. I can't relax! Hmmm...why the heck is there a silent "K" in knots?! What's the point of that? Arrgh! Why am I distracted by stupid random thoughts like this? I'm supposed to be mentally preparing for my presentation!

As you may have noticed, I'm a little stressed.

To top it off, I realize that I had left my journal assignment sitting in the printer tray, AT HOME!

*Luckily, my handy-dandy wife was able to email it to me so that I could print it out at the computer lab at school.

My drive to school (Rockwall to Commerce) usually takes, at relaxed speed, about 45 minutes...

*...30 minutes later I'm in Commerce.

I stop at Brookshire’s for my usual munchies, plus a soft sided binder to turn in my teacher portfolio in. Yes, I'm nerdy like that.

(Oh, I forgot to mention that I'm studying to be a coach/P.E. teacher. This means I have to study all this teacher stuff; stuff that goes over my head most days. This doubles my stress load don'cha know.)

AAAARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH!

Get to school, meet up with my group, and go over our PowerPoint. “Everybody good? Uh, sure. I guess.” (Sigh) Too late now, class starts in 2 minutes. :shrug:

Almost forgot. I need to print out my journal assignment. Sugar Honey Ice Tea! I don't have any credit on my Lion Card. THE COMPUTER LAB DOESN'T ACCEPT CASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ohgawd! I’m gonna get a zero on this assignment because I don’t have 20 cents on my student credit card?

*Fortunately, one of my classmates was in the lab and let me bum some credits off of her card.

Got my assignment printed, after some minor technical difficulties and head to class. After the usual shuffling around, getting things organized, and idle chit-chat class starts. Our presentation is up first.

*We did a fantastic job! 23/25 points possible.

Considering the time we actually spent collaborating on the thing our score was nothing short of a miracle. Another group was up after us. Not to brag or nuthin', but they were not even close to as good as we were:trust:. After that, teacher tells us some stuff and things. We turn in some more stuff and things. I needed to talk to her about some stuff and things. It’s now about 10. I grab my stuff and things and start on the 45 minute drive home.

I usually take a coffee to the head on the way to class or while sitting in class (to stay awake in class), then I take another one on the way home (so as to not fall asleep on the drive home). By the time I get home I’m still pretty wired from all the coffee. But, I have to get to bed early enough so that I can get the kid off to school.

So, I’ve taken to drinking a beer or or two (or four) to wind down. I stop at the gas station for a single serve. Grab my brewski and hit the counter. Then lo and behold what to my eyes see? 50% off six-packs at my feet. SCORE! Let’s see, what on sale here?

*6-PACK, FAT TIRE, $4.45!!!

I get home, unload, get into my p.j.'s, and let the games begin.

Four bottles later, I startle awake, Xbox 360 controller still in hand, Lara Croft has died in some horrible fashion (because her puppeteer had drifted off into La-la land), my wireless head phones sitting so askew on my head that the arm of my glasses was just about ready to take out my good eye. I’d better get to bed, I say outloud. It’s almost 4:30.

What a great day I had yesterday, I say to the cats as I pull my feet under the covers.

Thank God for the little things (*)

All Hail Obama!

photo source: http://musicologynyc.blogspot.com/2008_11_01_archive.html

This truly is a historic day! We are welcoming the first non-white male to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. This is no small event. MLK thought it would take 25 years. He was off by a few years, but he, among others, gave their lives to see this day. Congratulations my fellow Americans. We are evolving.

(Maybe now we can finally put Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson to pasture. THAT, would be something to celebrate!)

However, I am sickened by all of the Obama worship! Sugar-Honey-Ice-Tea people! Obama...is...just...a...dude. I've had it up to here with the school girl fawning by the mass media, not to mention the masses. No man deserves this kind of adulation; especially considering one that has not accomplished a darn thing.

Yes, becoming Mr. President is a great feat. I'll give him that. Otherwise, what has he done? He's the husband of one wife and the father of two children. For that he deserves much respect, but worship...no.

Then there's the merchandising. Holy crap, there's a lot of Obama crap out there (and not just the stuff that spewed from his mouth, pre-election ).This week Target started selling Back Obama trading cards! Seriously, trading cards?

Are you freaking kidding me! Only the Beatles could rival this kind of hoopla. At least the Beatles could live up to the hype. Yeah, I said it.

This country is run by the president, the congress, and the judiciary. It is a trinity. Together, they run the family business. Obamamaniacs seem to think that the "Golden One" is going to change everything; Obama will make things right. What they fail to realize is that the president has limited powers.

CONGRESS has been responsible for a lot of what has gone wrong for the past few years. A Congress controlled by the Democrats, no less.These are the folks we need to really pay attention to. Even more so, we need to pay attention to whom we elect to city council, mayor, governor, and the like. These are the folks who personally effect our lives.

One thing Obama does have carte blanche (excuse my French) with is foreign affairs. I pray to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost that Obama makes wise decisions in this arena. I pray that he makes the right decisions, ones that are right for America. Even ones that further hurt our popularity.

I've always said that Barack Obama may turn out to be the best president that America has ever had. Duh! The better he does at his job the better off our country will be. Therefore, I wish our new prez, may I call him prez, all the best.

Hail to the new Chief!