My Date with Kate

This is video from the motel in the Catskill Park in NY State.

Playing Games

Worst father of the year award is going to be given to me this September. Apparantly, video games are more important than my son's first birthday. Yes, I will be abandoning my son as he turns the big 1, so I can be in a bar in Oregon City to watch people play BBH Pro. I am not a happy camper about this, but I will be back the day after, so he gets to have a long celebration.

I am so sorry, little man.

rc

Packing Up and Ready to Hunt

I am going to be going to lovely Cleveland for the week for work. Many of you may not think that going to different bars each night and playing Big Buck Hunter Pro is work, but in my case it is. It is simply amazing that this game has been out for over 2 years and I am still getting such a strong reaction in so many different areas across the country. There is something to be said about drinking PBR and dispatching digital deer across a virtual North American landscape.

I imagine soon I will be going on Safari across the nation in search of the best trophy collectors in the lower 48. However, I may need to check out how the players are doing in Maui next November...

rc

1 Week, 1 Day and 1 Solid Neck

Wii Fit has been perfect for me. I imagine most people find the exercises a breeze, but since my figure was copied by Pillsbury, it has been a little tougher for me. I just unlocked all of the yoga exercises and everything was good until the shoulder stand. If I pushed myself any more, I would have ended up as a joke in a Kevin Smith film.

Seriously, someone is going to break their neck doing that pose and Nintendo is going to have issues. I am very surprised that exercise was included.

Maybe Mario has secretly been training to be a chiropractor.

rc

The Joker's Girl

As I am getting deeper into Wii fit, something is starting to bother me. The exercises and games are great and the balance board seem to be working like a champ. The issue is my trainer. She is really creeping me out.

She talks and moves her head in weird little jerks, but the fact that her mouth does not move is really messed up. She reminds me of Jerry Hall in Batman, when she is wearing the mask. The only thing that could send me over the edge, is if she was a little kid with blacked out eyes like all of the current American versions of Japanese horror flicks.

Nintendo, please don't scare me out of my fat ass.

Shiggy, Does My Ass Look Fat?

Mr. Miyamoto,
You are a genius and because of your imagination and hard work, you kept me out of trouble and in my den while I was a kid. Armed with my NES Max, I destroyed the creatures of Hyrule and saved the princess several times. Hell, I even played on the power pad about 6 times. You gave me hours of entertainment that I cannot thank you enough for (either can my parents).
However, you also did a couple of things to me that were not so good. I did not get laid until I found the one that most looked like Princess Peach and my ass is fat. Yes, I am blaming you because you are a scapegoat and you will never read this (either will anyone else). I now have the tools to become a healthier nerd and of course, you created them.
I tried Wii Fit for the first time last night and I am a bit sore. The goal is to stick with it and make this work. Mya from Yourself Fitness was doing a good job for awhile, but she was not making it fun.
There is an army of overweight men and women in their late twenties to late thirties that have you and your cronies to thank for the extra cushion for the pushin', and now you have to bring us back from the brink so we can by more of your games in the future.
Shiggy, you have your work cut out for you.

-rc

Putting the Work in Social Networking

Social Networks can be very fun and entertaining and every once in a while, they can help out with work. However, the entire social networking phenomena is out of control. I am a huge facebook fan because of the ease and clean look that it offers (I am aware that they are further streamlining it), but I do poke around linkedin, plaxo pulse, twitter and myspace. Since I am one of three people in the world that actually purchased a Zune, I am also a part of that network as well.

The zune network is a great concept, but they have yet to work all of the kinks out (where the hell is the fav button?). Besides the fact that the zune network is a bit clunky (it could be so great) the main issue is that I have to tell 6 different networks the same damn thing every day. With Twitter, I have it changing my facebook status, but that is as close as it gets to a solution. To me, that is as crazy as AIM not working with Windows Live Messenger (the current name of the week). I should not have to download Trillian or anything else to talk to people with an AIM account.

All of these networks need to start lifting up their skirts and showing each other what they have and let the best application win. My fingers cannot take anymore abuse from the keyboard.

-rc

ReLAX

On my trip out to the greater Los Angeles area, I put my DDR skills to test. I went to the airplane bathroom about 20 minutes before we landed. As soon as I started to rinse the silver bowl of any remaining blue liquid from the prior passenger, the airplane hit some serious turbulance. I was bouncing all over, but I did not veer from my target. It was truly amazing.

So I am in Huntington Beach for the second round of the Beat the Pro Events for Big Buck Hunter Pro. The last stop included a very entertaining but quite intoxicating young man that was shouting "Shoot! Cock! Shoot! Cock!" to the lady that he was trying to coach.

Ahh, the wonders of alcohol and video games.

Ryan

Omahama

I am in the lovely land of Nebraska right now and besides the bumper stickers that inform me what marriage is, this is a pretty suprising place. I actually just left one of the best bars in America, in fact it has enterd my top 3.

1. Shorty's Coney Island in Seattle, WA
2. The Crown and Anchor in Las Vegas, NV
3. 49er Lounge in Omaha, NE

The 49er has one of the best Jukeboxes is America as well as a Big Buck Hunter Pro and a Family Guy Pinball.

I am going to get a cot and put it under the FG Pinball and move in.

rc

Long Time No Post

A few things happened on the way to this post.

Lost my dad.

Gained a son.

Got a 360.

Got Rock Band.

Also, I have been traveling and working a lot.

More to come...