From last time where I left off, I did make some way into disc 1 and seem to be on track to complete this resolution.  This past month, is no different.  I went all old-school gamer boy to get my goal, my resolution, my bane of my gamer existence to be completed.  In fact, I think I went a little too gamer boy on this past month.  It was almost every waking moment that I had that wasn't tied into work and family time I was on my PS3 playing VII.

As far as progress has went, I was certain that I would be finished with the game by June.  But I wanted to saver this moment and by the end of the month I knew that I should ween myself back to take in all that need to be taken in.  So let me just start that I didn't think I would make it to disc 2 so soon.  But before I go any further, let me just start from where I left off.

So onward towards the Nibelhelm's Mako reactor in which what did most people would have expected to happen would be a Cloud freak-out.  But alas, it wasn't so.  Just a bunch of mid level monster bosses and a tad mention about Sephiroth.  But since the game must go on, we climb down on the other end of the great mountains and find ourselves a new plain of field to level up (and man was there some level upping being done, mostly because I was lost.)  Our party finally find their way to Rocket Town.

Why is it called Rocket Town you might ask?!?  Maybe it's because of the huge friggin' piece of 'failure to launch' sticking up like a sore pixelated thumb.  That's my guess.  From here you'll get your next member of our entourage, Cid.  We finally meet up with the Cid of the game, and as far as Cid's go in the Final Fantasy universe, this one is one of my favorites.  He's a formal pilot that got screwed by Shin-Ra when they scrapped the space program for more capitalistic agendas.  And now fat bastard Palmer is trying to steal his plane to chase Sephiroth in some other continent (obviously.)  So you kick his ass, try to take off in the plane but it gets shot down and is only a glorified water ski that can only go in shallow land.  Queue up the Final Fantasy fanfare music we have a new mode of transportation.

So now we go to what is needed to go to which is the Temple of the Ancients which is the other major plot point.  But just before that I realize that I am being tailed by some annoying teenage ninja (as if any other character in the Final Fantasy series isn't normally annoying.)  I beat her, she joins my team, and we are introduced to Yuffie.  And because I know what's gonna happen if I continue to go to the Temple, I decide to go to her homeplace, Wutai.  I get there, because why the hell not, let's continue with other people's storylines.  Big surprise, it bites me in the ass and the little bitch stole all my materia.  And to make it worse, she gets herself kidnapped with my materia by the Turks.  I'm almost like, kill the kid, but I want my materia.  Thankfully they're on holiday and don't want to get their hands dirty.  Let her go and my materia's a mess.  I then decided to go back to Nibelhelm to get Vincent but I made a blank at that time.

So I decide to go en route to the Temple, where I then find out the whole damn game up to this point is to obtain some powerful stuff called Black Materia.  Apparently it has the power to destroy the world by unleashing a giant meteor and causing the Ancients to heal the earth and eventually embody someone to make their second coming into the planet.  Which makes me think why would anyone want to rule the world if they're the only one in it; taking the master of their own domain thing too seriously I think.  So to keep things going, the team tries to get to get it before Sephiroth does.  But the Temple requires a sacrifice, so Cait Sith decides to let himself be it.  The team says, let the back stabbing double agent sunnuvabitch take the bullet.  And the team does the biggest mistake ever and let their schizophrenic leader take the materia.  Two seconds later, Sephiroth swoop's in and convinces Cloud to give it to him.  It makes me sick on how stupid this "Hero" is.  Oh, and along the way, Aeris leaves the party to go all Dog the Bounty Hunter and get Sephiroth.

We head north because, well, that's the only untreked placein the game.  We find the place that is called the City of the Ancients.  Man, these Ancients really get around.  This is where we finally catch up with Aeris as she is ready to return to the planet, whether she wants to or not.  Yup, THE BIG KILL SCENE where Sephiroth falls from the sky and impales our heroine as she releases her white materia into the pool.  We then lay her down to rest and end Disc One.

Disc Two starts with us making way further north to some snow resort where there has been a "Man in a Black Coat" sighting and they want to go down and get them in this snow maze.  After getting lost a couple of times, I finally able to find myself to get to the next place in the journey and fight another boss.  That leads me into a crater from the last Meteor attempt years ago.  We find a bunch of Sephiroth's oompa-loompa's making their way to the center and sacrificing themselves to give him, well, as far as I know, a god-complex boner.  No, it's to summon what they call Weapon, it's a beast that the planet created to protect it from harm, no matter what the cost is.  Of course I'm playing the American version of the game and there's three Weapons (more on that in future posts.)  The team makes it to him and then Sephiroth pulls some crazy jedi mind trick and tells Cloud that he's just a failed experiment and wasn't meant to be.  Hojo (the crazy Shin-Ra scientist guy), Scarlett, and the Turks come in and pretty much comfirms that Cloud was a failed experiment.  He finally realize that he's a threat to the team and abandons them to be Sephiroth's bitch in his hibernation status.

Oh, and the team gets captured and is prepped for execution, fan-fuckin'-tastic.  Well, Weapon comes and causes havoc where the team is being held for execution by Shin-Ra and it causes mass confusion and hysteria.  The party escapes and hijack's one of their airships.  And that's just about as far as I gotten in January.

I almost felt bad that I went this far and it's only been a month into it.  But keeping in mind that this game is a real pain in the ass to complete, it was worth getting as far as I did.  We'll see how February pans out and see what comes in next month's update.  Until next time...

BootLeG sampler.. signing out...

Parenting for this Generation

Well, since it seems that there's another viral video out there, and for the most part I don't usually pay much attention to them. But every now and then there seem to be one that draws such an impact that it has to be noted for how awesome its stance is. And I don't mean awesome in my usual coin of the term as in "Holy crap, WTF, that's so winning..." (even though I think it is, but that's besides the fact.) This draws me in awe in wonderment on yes, sometimes we need to take things to these extremes. 

I'm certain if you have a Facebook account that you've seen your friends posts links such as this on your wall of news-ish stuff and either nod in approval (like me) or throw up in disgust (which I think you're a total pussy for doing such a thing.) This goes for a generation that as we grow older, and more mature that we forget that our environment also grow and spiral out like some crazy weed on a pristine sidewalk. I just wanted to make my stance on the matter and say, BRAVO TOMMY JORDAN, BRAVO!!! 

Most parents I think don't have even enough balls to discipline their children, and I don't approve of that lame-style of parenting. I come from the old school where if you did something wrong, you were punished based on the level of severity it was. Everything from no ice cream from the ice cream truck to getting a switch from the near by tree and get swatted on the backside for my crimes. As you can see, I'm not a bad person for experiencing such nor a bad influence in society (for the most part.) I think in times like these you have to lay down the law for your kids so they don't stray down the path. And Tommy Jordan did such a thing in this viral video. So for this, I solute you and let this be a lesson to kids that don't appreciate the things us as hard working parents who want nothing more form their kids but their love and dedication for what they do to provide for them.

 

I just had to state that while it was still fresh. This isn't going to throw off anything for next week. In fact I'm going to try hard to get a Valentine's Day song in for this month's Lyrical Revolution Resolution and an update from last's month's progress of Final Fantasy VII. Until later in the next week or so (man what a weak ending...) 

BootLeG sampler.. signing out...

WTF PEOPLE!?! Super Bowl XLVI

Well, at least this year after watching the Superbowl, I'm not waiting a couple of days before I write it.  But man, I'm almost ashamed to say this since I'm a diehard Eagles fan; but "I bELIeve in ELI..."  That was just one helluva game on both parts.  Quite honestly, I was a little bit worried on whom I should root for.  The Giants are divisional rivals of mine and, well, I can't stand Tom Brady.  And since I rather have championship won from someone within the NFC East versus anyone in the AFC, I went with the Giants.

So let's go over the game itself, since that's what I was mainly focus to watch (we'll get to the commercials in a bit, trust me.)  I was feeling pretty damn good in the beginning with that early safety.  It gave me hope that there were be flaws in the Patriots system.  The touchdown afterwards was just a confidence builder that the Giants could also make plays without relying on opponents mistakes.  My immediate thoughts was "Repeat?!?"  And then shit started to hit the fan.  A Patriot's field goal middle of the second quarter and I thought; "Eh, no big deal."  Then the touchdown in the end of the half; "Fuckin' A, really!?!  So that is how it's gonna be."  I mean New York was supposed to be some big deal about their defense and more importantly their pass rushing and it wasn't there at that time.  No problem, they'll pick it up at the half.  First drive in the half, Patriots did what they do best, score that knock out punch to start.  Now I was friggin' worried.  It was sloppy play going up to the red zone for the Giants and eventually came up with a couple of field goals.  I was still worried for the whole game.  Then the Giant's last drive.

Where the hell do I start.  Well, obviously the Manningham catch to the end zone.  That was just great and also lead to a really bad challenge by New England.  I mean, Stevie Wonder could see that both feet were in bounds and it was a clean catch.  Way to burn a time out and I was thinking, we got a chance at this.  I was hoping for at least a field goal.  Then, from one of the most beautiful plays I've seen in the game to the ugliest touchdown that I've ever seen, just happened.  I mean, I can understand stopping and momentum kept him from staying on the one yard line and going in, but Bradshaw could have just dived, or took a knee even to run out the clock.  I was thrilled but I was also hoping for at least some more time to drop before a score.  So 'Wonder Boy' Tom Brady had :57 left on the clock.  "Crap, really?!?  Well, let's hope for the best," is what was going though my mind.  Then back to back drops and a sack.  "Hell yeah!!!  Pat's are goin' down," then he made the first down.  "Crap!"  But just like things should be, you can't script a better story.  No more advancement from there and the last :05 left in the game my heart dropped.  As the last second ticked off the clock, Brady threw that Hail Mary and you could cut the tension with a spoon.  With nothing but white jerseys covering Hernandez, the blocked catch and the game was over.  A great game that could rival other Super Bowl's and even what I still cling to of being the greatest game of my generation with the Eagles's 4th. and 26.  But that's the game that was, and I couldn't have been happier with the results of how the game was played, none the less, the outcome.

But what's a Super Bowl without commercials?  And this year had some good ones, not great ones, just good ones.  The favorites (or at least memorable ones) in my opinion were the GoDaddy commercials, just as provocative as usual.  Another reliable source of good commercials were Budweiser's prohibition commercial.  It made me want a beer, but I was having a margarita at the time, and I'm a responsible drunk where I don't mix liquor and beer.  Hyundai's Rocky montage was pretty memorable being that I support anything Philly and what's more of an underdog story from an underdog town than Rocky Balboa.  As far as any others, they were either stupid or easily forgetful in my book.  Of course I was more focused on the game itself this year versus the commercials because, I wanted to see a repeat (as noted from my beginning of this post.)  And there was a matter of the half time show.  Quite honestly I didn't see much of it.  My kids were playing outside and I went to blow off some steam on how badly the first half ended and spend some time with them.  I did make it in to see a little of Madonna's performance with Cee Lo Green, and quite frankly, I was more interested in Cee Lo.  The whole performance was crap in my opinion, and I'm glad I didn't get a chance to see the whole damn thing.

Well, that just about sums it all up here.  One helluva game, and that's what the spirit of what the Super Bowl is supposed to be about.  A great game against two giants, and in the end, the Giants were on top.  Kudos to them, good try for New England, and on to see what it will be for next year..

BootLeG sampler.. signing out...

2012's Lyrical Resolution Revolution: January Edition

I figure if I'm going to do this, I can't fail on the first month, right?!?  So here's what I have in store for January.  I wanted this song to reflect my re-institutionalization to song writing and I felt that this brings it out just right.   It reflects on what I learned and loved in the past about how things were and hope for how things are to come.  I pretty much feel that it shows not only maturity from my usual standard in writing, but also on how I grew as a person in my life.

So here's to the first song of the new year.  Ladies and gentlemen, I present for your written-verse pleasure: Seasons.

There was once a time in our lives, when we thought we were invincible // And there were times within our lives, when we wished we were invisible // And there were those times in our lives, which we thought were incredible // And there will be times that we’ll be tried, to either stop or to let it go

They’ll be a season where we’ll have to be tested // Will we make it today, or we doomed to yesterday // From the sins of our fathers to what fortune tellers call // To either live for the moment or experience old

This season – we’ll make the best of our time // Last season – we reminisce of our crimes // The reason – that we continue together // Next season – we’ll live like its forever // This season – // No reason –

There are times within our lives, where we go through a crucible // And there are times within our lives, where we go through such a spectacle // And there are times within our lives, to tame the bull or grab hold // So many times that we’ve been tried, to either step up or to let it go

They’ll be a season where we’ll have to be tested // Will we make it today, or we doomed to yesterday // From the sins of our fathers to what fortune tellers call // To either live for the moment or experience old //

This season – we’ll shine the light on our times // Last season – remember a sobering sign // No reason – we can’t continue together // Next season – will be better than ever // The reason – // This season – // Live in rhyme – // And reason –

There’s no rhyme – // And no reason – //  There’s just time – // And passing seasons –

This season – we’ll make the best of our time // Last season – we reminisce of our crimes // The reason – that we continue together // Next season – we’ll live like its forever // This season – we’ll shine the light on our times // Last season – remember a sobering sign // No reason – we can’t continue together // Next season – will be better than ever // This season – // No reason -

I sure hoped that you enjoyed this being the first of many songs to come from me this year.  Here's to living up to a resolution, being productive, and doing some good with my talents.

BootLeG sampler.. signing off...

WTF PEOPLE!?! Ninety's Nostalgia

Maybe it's just be turning thirty later this year, maybe it's because I think that that was the greatest decade that I lived so far.  But it just seem to me that there is an overflow of what I call "Ninety's Nostalgia."  That is to say that every kind of media that I seem to glance over is on the hook of reliving the whole Gen-X era.  Technically I am considered to be Generation Y, but that's besides the point.  The point is that everywhere I go, something from the 90's pop back.  It's neither good, nor bad, but it does bar the question, WTF PEOPLE!?!


Of course I'm a big fan of The Nostalgia Critic and this kind entertainment I approve of.  Hell, I might even approve of all those VH1 best of the 90's bullshit that come to show every know and then. (Then again, I don't know of anyone that ever watched VH1 after 2002.)  It shows all the stupid, stupid crap that was for the light of a better word, decent, at the time.  The good thing about those examples is that they don't just focus on the 90's.  Which is refreshing for someone like me that prefer variety.  The problem lies in those that dwell with the reliving it like some sick Peter Pan syndrome.  These are the ones that I enjoy just enough to get pissed off about.


One thing that I grew up with was the serge of all the cool crap that was on Nickelodeon.  It was the birth of original cartoons and content for a network meant for kids.  The original set of NickToons set the wave of what would make the network the juggernaut that it is now.  From Doug, Rugrats, and Ren and Stimpy; to Spongebob, Fairly Oddparents, and Fanboy and Chum Chum; it's totally meant to be for kids.  Then they branched out to different sub-stations if you will, which are Nick Jr., NickToons, TV Land, and TeenNick.  And as part of TeenNick, they have a block of programming that set aside tweens the whole back in my day mentality.  Four hours of 90's programming of the same crap that they fed me they're feeding them, and looking back at it, it was indeed crap.  And the bad part about it is that it's all the stupid crap, not any of the good stuff.  Seriously, Doug, Kenan and Kel, and Hey Dude; c'mon man!?!  That's like the filler before all the good stuff.  I rather be watching the current crap than the old crap.  Yeah, I know, Nick was on it's infancy, but that's what stood out. Bring back old episodes of Double Dare or remake Wild 'N' Crazy Kids, but not this crap.


And the isn't all folks, there's seem to be an influx of remaking every damn thing from back in the day.  Cartoon Network did a rebirth of Thundercats, NickToons is doing Voltron and bastardizing the different Dragonball series of cartoons, Hub is doing yet another variant of Transformers as well as a new generation of G.I. Joe.  Sure I used some 80's stuff in that, but it's still the same aspect.  Are we really running out of original ideas that we have to rehash stuff form our youth?  Have all the good ideas been taken?  Hell, even Haim Saban reclaim control of the Power Rangers franchise and what did he do with the current season/series of the show, bring back an original cast member (Bulk) to the cast.  Playing it up to the current youth and the young at heart like me.  It's just bizarre on how much we can cling to that past, that it becomes a Lazarus Pit of entertainment.  Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it can't be a primary source of new shows.  It's like the oldies of television when the oldies station add in new content from the next decade.


Speaking of which, there's a local radio station, and maybe there's others but I'm talking about mine locale right now, that plays 90's rock music on the weekends.  They call it "Edge of the 90's Weekend" and it happens every damn weekend.  The selection is decent for the most part, but still, it's the principle of doing it every damn weekend.  It's not really all that special if it's all the time.  Maybe if it was a once a month thing and I can enjoy a playlist of Soundgarden, Smashing Pumpkins, White Zombie, Faith No More, and Limp Bizkit in between commercials in my weekend trek home from work.  Like I said, I understand the urge to relive our past, but to a point.  You gotta take it in strides. I just know that once I start to hear Pearl Jam playing on the oldies station, I am giving up and committing myself to the nearest old-folks home.


But that's just about does it for this WTF PEOPLE!?! for the time being.  It was a treat bringing in the new year with a WTF, and of course there will be more to come.  Next week, a song and maybe a Final Fantasy VII review.  Now that's something that the 90's got right.

BootLeG sampler.. signing out...

Busy as Hell...

Figure I might as well tell ya now...  It's that time of year again where in my day job it's get busy as hell and to try to find time in writing takes up a whole lot.  I figured I try to make a schedule to fit in some posting, but damn, it's hard.  Between work, family life, and the added on task of doing my resolutions (I've been playing FFVII and actually reading, didn't even have time to write down any lyrics for January just yet), it's been pretty damn hectic.

So just to let you know, I haven't forgotten my commitment to the blog, and in fact, I'm trying to make right to make it more appealing.  I've been prepping a new look using WordPress (I truly recommend that format, nothing against blogger, it's just my preference) and hopefully within the next few months (by spring 2012) I've completely move my site over to the new format.  I'll still update stuff here, just using the blogspot.com domain versus using BootLeGsampler.com.  The reason being is that working with WordPress sites as a 9-5, I've come accustomed to how it can be greatly expanded.  I've even been thinking of doing some custom jobs for some friends of mine.  So if you wanna look into some decent semi-pro work done for a website of your choosing (yes, I know this is a shameless plug, but damnit it's my blog I can do whatever the hell I want), just email me and I can see what I can do for ya.  But until then, this is just an update on what's to come.  Actually, as soon as I'm done with this post, I'm gonna start with that lyric for the month.  It'll be a simple one just to see what I got under the hood still.

But as for now, I'm certain that next week, it'll be a WTF PEOPLE!?! post.  What's it going to be about?  Like I'm going to spoil that now...

BootLeG sampler.. signing out...

Quest to Beat Final Fantasy VII: Pre 2012

In my effort to make good with my resolutions, I decided to post some updates on the blog giving my thoughts of what was the best game of all time 15 years later.  Final Fantasy VII was a groundbreaking success when it came out in 1997 and redesigned the RPG genre since.  Although they're have been critics that doubt that the Final Fantasy franchise is nothing more than just a lame emo-complexed love story, but I think they're engaging and yeah, they're confusing to hell with some of their story, it's still captivating.  But so far, let me just breeze though this to get to my main goal.  It's been a long way coming and I am determined now more than ever to finish that damn game before the end of this year.  


Of course to do so, I took the initiative and started playing it about 3 weeks ago, with a little time set aside to obtain my goal.  Also I'm going to try to get though this based off of memory alone, no GameFAQs, no outside saves to get me to the end, not even my old strategy guide from Brady Games.  It's all a la BootLeG from this point forward.  Here's my progress so far.  I'll give it to you in text form for now, still planning on recording my progress to video, another one of the many things I need to get going on.


So far I'm 21 hours into the game.  I'm in awe with getting my base characters revisiting them all.  Cloud, my swordsman with apparently more of a mysterious past than the meat in Wendy's chili.  Barrett, who all I can think of at this point in the story is a gung-ho hippie with a machine gun.  So he's spreading his message with fire power instead of flower power.  Tifa, who's along for the ride because she new Cloud before he became a member of SOLDIER and a complete tool, wanting revenge for her father's death.  Aeris (not Aerith, because dammit I'm playing it the way it was developed not how it was actually in the story) is the lovable Ancient who is the last of her kind trying to live a simple life.  Red XIII, who is a mysterious creature that wants nothing more than to just go home to his grandfather.  And last (but not least, so far in my game) is Cait Sith, a fortune telling cat riding on an overweight mog.  


The game took me (as in they took Cloud) to blow up a reactor with a rebel group full of disposable characters as well as Barrett and Tifa; and eventually led them to their death.  Along the way Cloud meets up with Aeris rescuing her from a tyrannical militant group subcontracted by the government, which is run by a major energy sucking corporation.  All I can say at this point is "how very pre-post apocalyptic this sounds."  Later to find out this super powered being killed the president and the rebel group is caught in the middle.  They escape and flee from the home city and is on a quest to track down Sephiroth, the main antagonist from bringing the end of the world because he thinks he's an Ancient that is bent on purging the humans from existence bringing a peace to his kind only genocide could provide.  In the mean time, my team is being man-hunted all across God's green earth trying to find the sunnuvabitch that is actually trying to kill everyone.  It's like if they made The Fugitive into an emo, semi-steam punk-ish RPG.


They go to a near by place called Kalm where Cloud eventually tells his side of the story and why he needs to bring Sephiroth to justice; being that he on a mission burnt down his and Tifa's home town of Nibel and killed her father in nothing short of a powertrip thinking that he was an Ancient because he read a book with his mother's name in it.  That, and he hears voices too.  From there they start going near and far tracking Sephiroth's path to no avail.  They find themselves in a place where Barrett's story start to unravel on how he caused so much trouble to his home town of Corel to the point where he was banished.


Along the way we meet with Cait Sith who is just wanting to tag along because he read the future and doubts his own abilites to tell such and want to see it though.  We get captured and thrown in jail only to be whored out as chocobo jockeys for our freedom.  Yeah, because prison is totally like that.  Barrett meets another person with a gunhand that wants nothing more than to just die.  So he kills him.  I'm certain the story could've developed that more but it's all backstory for a secondary character and that doesn't mean a damn for later on in the game.


Later on, we go to Red XIII's home and he has to make the decision to whether he should stay home and be a complete pussy whining about his parental issues, or continue to fight with us.  His grandfather (which is practically a hybrid of Modok and Bob Barker) tells him to go and continue to fight.  Why was this so important, because everyone needs a fuckin' backstory, that's why.


Now I'm currently in Nibelhelm, where it looks completely normal, outside of half the population is in black cloaks with tattoos based off of which one drank Sephiroth's Kool-Aid first.  Cloud's shocked that everything isn't burnt to a crisp and is starting to doubt his own recounts of what happened a few years prior.  They start their trek to the Mako reactor at the top of the mountain to see what the hell is going on.


And that's where I'm stopping at this point.  Join me next month for what I've done for all of January in playing and eventually beating Final Fantasy VII.  In the mean time, a normal post for next week.

BootLeG sampler.. signing out...

BootLeG Year in Review

As another year near its end and a lot of stuff happened to say the least.  There have been much stuff happening around the world and, well, if you want some perspective for that, you could visit some other kind of credible place.  But for now, I'm just gonna place some of the things that I think were important to me and what impacted my blog.  So here's a year in review of the blog that just is for 2011.  Just for the record, it's not like I don't pay attention to current events and what not, it's just that it's my blog and I want to give myself a little praise.


First off, it was a good year in the fact that I try to be as proactive as posting as frequently as possible.  I honestly and earnestly made the valiant effort of doing a once-a-week blog here.  And for the most part (obviously some weeks were a little off because of scheduling and holidays) I did my part.  For 2012, I hope to continue with that effort and keep the caliber of the content at least at the level that it is now, but always trying to expand on it.  Which brings me to my next point.  I wanted to expand on more of a video aspect.  This also comes across as a time and scheduling constraints that I had.  Honestly, time management is something I still need to work on.  Hence why I'm gonna try my damnedest on 2012 to put up more video content.  Let's not forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel to see all the crap that I'd put up so far.


As far as gaming is concerned, it was all well for me finally experiencing the epic awesomeness of all that is the PS3.  Sure it's about 4 years too late, but still, it's badass.  The power of blu-ray and all the games I've played so far, it's gonna set me up for one helluva new year.  It's the main driving force for me to get back on what I stated for my 2012 resolution of playing Final Fantasy VII and complete it by the end of 2012.  It's just that friggin' awesome.  I'm in love with it, it's the only acceptable mistress that the wifie will allow me to have.


Music related, it's just been me listening and enjoying.  Although the urge to play have been great, I've been learning little by little how to play my 12-string acoustic guitar and also thinking of new instrumental accompaniments that also will help with my resolution of writing a new song a month.  So it's all good that I've been just laying it low, and feeling refresh for everyone.  Once again, it'll be a better year next year for that.


As far as other stuff, well, with the work that I'm still putting on the eventual transformation to a new design for the blog, it was pretty laid back.  I promise you, look forward to 2012.  Adios 2011, it's time had left us to a pretty damn good year and set for better times for the next year.  So I leave you with a line from of course one of my favorite bands, doubleDrive; "Give us some confetti here we'll have us a better year"  Hot damn it's almost 2012, see ya next year (or Tuesday, whatever comes first...)

BootLeG sampler.. signing out...

Early Start on New Year's Resolutions

Here it is getting towards the end of the year and I'm certain among the list of holiday parties and presents and get-together's, I'm certain that somewhere you might have contemplated about what you're trying to do to improve yourself for the next year.  The setting of resolutions and the eventual breaking of them by spring.  Hence why I didn't set any this past year, but I'm feeling a little different this year.  I was thinking about what I could do to improve personally and what goals I thought of what I should do that I haven't accomplished yet.  So I've compiled a reasonable list and this is what I think would be great for resolutions, at least for me.

• Beat Final Fantasy VII, finally :: It was the RPG that changed the landscape of all other RPG's for a generation.  I remember when I first played it back in high school and was fascinated by how badass it was.  It's been a goal since I can remember for such.  So I figured why the hell not.  I've already downloaded it off of the Playstation Network and figured this will be the year I will beat the game that haunted me for the past 15 years.  I'll even post some updates about it later, but this will finally resolve my obsession of beating my white whale.
• Read, something else that isn't webcomics :: As a homeschooling parent the wifie and I stress very strongly the importance of reading to my sons.  They see my wife read a lot, me not so much outside of articles online.  I feel that this is a personal resolution to not help myself be more literate, but be a good example to my sons.  I'm a strong believer that reading is indeed fundamental, and I want to take that example across the board to my sons.
• Write a new song/lyric a month for next year :: I've been personally neglecting myself with writing new material for the past two and a half, well, close to about three years now.  A lot of stuff happened and I wasn't feeling much creative and that I was kind of depressed at that time.  But now since I felt that I've took a long enough hiatus, I want to bring my musical juices back and ripen them for the thoughts that I've had the past time.  I feel pretty good about this and I am assuring myself to put a new song/lyric up once I'm done by the end of each month in 2012.  Get ready for some kickass stuff to come out of this.  And to further on with this, by the end of the year, I will make sure that I learn how to play the guitar and preform one of my songs via a youtube video.  I figure guitar because bass solos, even though I like them, not as sexy as an acoustic guitar.  So look forward to some great content on that end.
• Learn to manage all that's on my plate ::  Lately I've been trying to work on other web content manage systems such as Wordpress and Joomla to help with other's requests for sites.  I have been stuck putting my stuff on the back-burner thinking of other's need before mine.  Which is in essence a good thing, but I need to take some me time to get my stuff off the ground.  I didn't do as much as I thought I would do such as videos on this blog or even upgrading the look and feel just yet, but I will with this resolution.  I want to make time for me to do what's good for me while not neglecting any of the time I devoted for others.  Of course I still need a day job and family time, that's not gonna go away, but I feel that with this resolution, I can get something going for myself as well as others.

So those are just some of the resolutions I plan on taking.  It's not as serious as others like losing weight (which I do need to do) or stop smoking (which I don't smoke to begin with), but it's stuff that I contemplated for for a long time and I really want to get this going.  I love to continue on with this blog post but I really feel that this is enough for now.  It'll be a great year, and I hope that your's will be as well.

Happy holidays and a wonderful new year.

BootLeG sampler.. signing out...

WTF PEOPLE!?! Electronic Cigarettes

There's just something that I don't get at times.  Why to people try to gun a yellow light from 500 feet away?  What is the fascination of the lottery to most people?  Why the hell don't my kids listen to me?  But those are other discussions, well, maybe not, but it's open.  For now it's all about a growing trend that, well, just about as stupid as the one they're trying to abolish.  Electronic cigarettes trying to make way as the new trend to stop the hazards of smoking but making you look like a complete tool doing it.  I know there have been other things like patches, gum, twelve-step programs, and a bunch of stuff.


But these things now are like the big fad and they look stupid as hell.  I can't believe how popular it become.  Essentially the premise is that they charge from an AC outlet and you can puff and puff from your heart's content and blow out water vapor to look like smoke.  It's like a grown-up version of candy cigarettes.  Really stupid looking and impractical.  And not to mention it's like hella-expensive.  I've seen commercials for such going for a pack of e-cigarettes for $130.  A lot of money for smoke and mirrors (really bad joke, I know)  And for what, to look like this?!?

Of course I'm a big fan of good ol' going cold turkey.  I haven't had a cigarette personally for four years now.  Luckily for me I haven't been smoking all that long, so the process of going cold turkey was good.  And the fact that I was cheap just drove me to quit faster because cigarettes cost money; and that was money taking away from bills and family.  So one and one made two and that's that.


In closing, the point of this rant is smoking is stupid.  No matter what medium you use, it's friggin' stupid.  Unless you're that guy in the video, and then it's funny and stupid.  The easiest thing is if you don't smoke just don't, and if you do, stop.  You'll thank me and everyone that's been telling you to stop later.

BootLeG sampler.. signing out...

What The Phuck, Eagles' Season is Over

Welcome to another installment of What The Phuck, my perspective for Philly sports as a Philly fan, and an excuse to rant about it in a general forum.  The 2011 season for most NFL teams and fanatics have either been filled with wonder, awe, or heartbreak.  Sometimes a mixture of the three.  For me being a Philly fan, it's just been God-awful.  Let me emphasize on this a little bit.  It's week 12, there's 5 more to go, and a team that was held high for so much of the season even after failed ridicule and a hell-gauntlet of a division, the NFC East, to end up at this point being 4-7 is all but humbling at this point.  It's damn right embarrassing.  I like to point out my views on how come there is so much fail in the organization.


I'm not gonna point fingers to the players, yet...  Don't worry they got their share in this BootLeG approved ass-chewing, but the bulk of it have to fall on the coaching staff.  Andy Reid can't seem to place the players he have or lead them in a way to constantly perform.  The defensive coordinator can't seem to get their front line to hold a rush for anything.  Can't really place blame on the offensive coordinator, that's realistically the players fault.  But I've seen the decline of Andy's coaching performance throughout the years.  Hell, even when Donovan McNabb was still flying high and wearing green, it seemed that he couldn't even coach a kindergartner to eat a pizza at a Chuck E. Cheese.  This guy is really gone down the shitter in the past years and now here we are looking down the barrel of our first losing season since the late 90's, it's real disappointing.  I hope Jeff Laurie is reading this cause this should not continue if he wants his organization to be successful again.  Now, that's just the tip of the iceberg that I want to get out of my chest.  Let's dig a little deeper in the rabbit hole.


Sticking to what I love (now loathe) the most of my birds are is the offense.  I just can't wrap my head around such atrocity that have came into them.  Starting off with the QB that PETA and dog-lovers love to hate, Michael Vick, out with a rib injury because he want's to be a big tough dumbass and take every hit that comes to him instead of trying to keep away and stay healthy.  I swear he's about as useful as Matt Leinert to the position, not much for anything long term.  Not to mention the interceptions, on God, the interceptions that he threw.  It's not all his fault, but it's safe to say that 70% of all the picks that occur is because he can't or won't throw to the boys in green.  Almost like he doesn't give a crap now that he got his contract.  I got news for ya, that crap does not fly with me or any fan, and I'm sure it's not gonna fly with the organization as well too.  And speaking of QB's I'm really pissed at Vince Young pretty much jinxing the team calling it the Dream Team in the preseason and eventually dooming themselves to a Nightmare on Broad Street.  Finally bringing in something to the picture in the past two weeks now that he's been off of his injury in the preseason.  Ugh, these friggin' guys.  And keeping up with the pace with being offensive heavy, how about DeSean Jackson.  He's been on-again-off-again most of this season not being in top form for as long as I can remember.  When was the last time he made a decent punt return, oh yeah, the Miracle at the Meadowlands last year.  Also he's been dropping passes left and right, and when he does catch, it's for little yardage.  In fact, all of the Eagles' wide receivers are playing like crap this year.  The only decent player is LeSean McCoy.  Just about the only solid performer we have this year.  I have to say that he's the only pro-bowl athlete on the Eagles roster this year.  


But now, let me shift your attention to an extremely lacking Eagles defense.  I mean, the front line offers nothing to rush the opposing QB like what Trent Cole used to do a season or two ago.  It's just so pathetic and even worse the ones that do bring up effort in when it supposed to count, in the deep end where you should find the likes of Jason Avant and others that seem to have a hard-friggin' time catching up to the opposing teams wide receivers.  Especially in the forth quarter where they seem to forget that the game actually has that many.  That I think is what pisses me off most of all, is the fact of all the fourth quarter blown opportunities, hell, you could contribute to the fact that after the half they start to decline.  I think Andy Reid gives them stupid pills threatens to stomp on their balls if they actually start giving a damn after the half.  It's almost like their half time preparations consists of booking their bus tickets and hotel stays for the next loss in the next place.  Regardless, the only thing worse than the defense, but still in relation to it, is their special teams.  No real good returns for position, or touchdown for that matter.  And as for the kicking team, well, lets just hope to God that the other team either call a fair catch or take a knee.  All I have to say is please for all that is good and decent, just show up for jeebus sake.


So I'm willing to concede that the Eagles' season is over.  There's no way to compete in such debotchary.  It's not to say that we have the worse record this year so far, that's goes to the Colts being at 0-11.  But that could be easily contributed to the fact that they aren't shit without Peyton Manning which is true; versus that we have a slew of Pro Bowl contenders and with out a doubt completely blow it out their butts.  It's ridiculous and I'm pretty much done with it.  Thank God that I'm a football fan overall, and yes true my alliance is with all sports Philly, it's just that like all hardcore Philly fans, when shit hits the fan, we make sure they know about it, HARD.  Thank God the Flyers are doing well and hopefully the Phills can go for another 100+ win season next year.


BootLeG sampler.. signing out...

WTF PEOPLE!?! Gameshow Videogames

It's been a long friggin' time since I've done anything videogame related.  It is indeed a part of my roots obviously, and it wasn't my intention to abandon it for other ventures such as music, television, and other random stuff.  Even though those things are indeed awesome, I digress.  I want to get back to the root of why I started to blog.  I wanted to present an obscure look into videogames and other subsets as well.  And what better way to do that than to bring back an old classic, the WTF's.  Now the last What The Phuck was not an official WTF PEOPLE!?!, so this is bringing it back with a vengeance.  So that's why I'm bringing to the table a view on videogames that I feel that have been lacking by most people and professional reviewers, the gameshow genre.


I know, I've done a Gameshow Month earlier this year, and well, this is not something that I forgot to include with that.  This is indeed something in relation to my choice of videogames that I play and, well, it's just damn good, so deal with it.  So without further ado, here is my rant of all things gameshows to ever graced upon home consoles.


Of course you know about my obsession with gameshows if you follow me at all (BTW, happy belated 7,500th. episode to The Price is Right) but when it enters in a home in any other way besides the television set, the end result is questionable at best.  Board games aside, you have to also look into the main heart of what gets my attention; an interactive method where I become part of the show instead of a houseparty rendering when we don't want to break out Scrabble or Monopoly (both of which gameshows that did not live a long as they should've) is the ticket.  And what better way to become interactive with a gameshow outside of being a friggin' contestant is to play it's videogame.  But there's some flaws in such, and sure as hell, I'm here to exploit them.  Not to be a complete douche (which I can be), but to make the experience better for the end user at the end.  One main culprit is the Merv Griffin duet of Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune.  It does bring the table the richness of it's game, weather it is questioning an answer or buying a vowel, it's no different than it's board game doppelgangers.   It just allows an error-proofing method with having a virtual host be a proxy between the player and the game's objective.  I remember the first Jeopardy! game for the NES way back in '87 or '88.  I played the begeezus out of that as a youth because I was a fan and a trivia whore.  My friends had Wheel of Fortune for the Genesis and N64 when we wanted to take a break from Mortal Kombat and Madden.  It was fun to a point.  


With these types of games the only flaw, which is a big one,  is that once you're done with all the questions they present to you, you know what to expect.  Like I said, I played the begeezus out of Jeopardy! for the NES, and played it enough that I could get close to $50,000 in a single game if I time my daily doubles correctly.  Even with the computer at Kamehameha-Hard mode, I buzzed in within seconds of the question entering it in and keying it with my controller to become the Ken Jennings of the cartridge before there was even a Ken Jennings.  Ok I lied, there's a second flaw to this debauchery.  Keying in the friggin' answers are a pain the ass at best, especially on an NES controller, and with NES's limitations.  It pissed me off to no end playing my copy of it that the game's letter layout is alphanumerically listed and not QWERTY based.  It was even more of a pain because of system limitations (even stemming up to playing Wheel of Fortune on the N64) that the letter-selector-thingy wouldn't let you go to the other side once you're on the edge of a row of letters.  Obviously these games would be great for individual use on a PC or hell, even throw up a LAN party and play the hell out of that, of course if you were a bad ass back in the days of LAN parties, you were probably playing Unreal Tournament and I can see your point not picking up that.  I just know that with word games like these, a keyboard is a helluva good way to play it.


Now I bring to the table other gameshows that have entered into the realm of videogames.  The prize shows, most famously noted by that long running gem of a show, The Price is Right.  I grew up with the show, one of my earliest memories is watching this at my baby sitters while my parents were at work (said that watching the big wheel and screaming out "ONE DOLLAR" is a childhood memory of mine, but that's just me).  And since I never gotten to play the Atari version of the game I was crushed because there was not a console release of it for me to play, otherwise I would've done it in my youth.  Luckily when I bought my Wii about 3 years ago, one of the first games I got for it was The Price Is Right.  I was in Nerdtopia with I thought was the most original console out in the market and my most cherished gameshow that I watched for all my life in all of it's home console glory.  I spun the Big Wheel, I won both Showcases, I bid one dollar and won a chance to play, I played Plinko dammit, PLINKO!!!  The only thing missing was Bob Barker kicking the living crap out of Adam Sandler in tournament fight mode, but I digress.  It does have it advantages being the age of easter-eggs and all where if you unlock something you get to see an epic classic clip of the show.  Alas, it to fell to the monotany of once you've played everything, it doesn't present new stuff, just recycle the old prizes, hell, even the prize amounts are the same so I could get $65,000+ on a single game if the cards were right (I usually average around $32,000 if I make it past the Big Wheel).  And other games like that also fell to this trap like Press Your Luck and Family Feud, pretty much anything owned by Fremantle Media in this current age of gameshows.  It's not expansive.  Which is why probably the only app I play on a social network outside of Words with Friends is the Price is Right app on Facebook.  It's online, so there's always room for expansion.  


There's just need to be a way, and I'm pretty damn sure they could but either the game developers or the game producers don't want to include it, but have it so that if people want, they could pay for updated content.  In an age where gamers are on Steam to get new mods and there's an expansion pack for an MMORPG every friggin' week, what is stopping them to add such a thing on.  Hell, I would love to pay five bucks to get online expansion content on my game console for Jeopardy! or The Price is Right until the next version of the game comes out.  I'm sure that there's a lot of game junkies that would love to have that fix.  In an age where gameshows are interactive in the fact that they have play at home contents where people could call or text for a chance to win a prize or free third party advertising crap, why the hell not incorporate it for downloadable content on my PS3 so that I can beat Ken Jennings or play the accordion with Drew Carey on set with the Price is Right models.  Why deny us unsung sect of gamers that joy.  I think it's because the producers of the show don't give a damn about anything else but the show and just think that they could get a few bucks with a cheap-ass game.  That's a whole load of bullshit, and I don't care for it all that much.  Jeopardy! and Sony have a marriage on how it looks on set, they blatantly make sure that Sony is a presence on the show.  Why not bring a game and give me content to update via the Playstation Network, how friggin' ingenious!  But that would be logical, and we live in a would where videogames about gameshows are completely for the illogical, and that's just bullshit in my book.  In short, I do recommend that you at least try and pick up the games and play them.  I just with that there were more content to offer than what was, and that there was more of a following than just me and a bunch of desperate housewifes that watch nothing but soaps and GSN all the time.  So I'm just gonna leave you with that thought while I bring up my Price is Right mobile app and see if I can make it to the Showcase.  That and this following youtube video because it's funny and it's about gameshows.

BootLeG sampler.. signing out...

Can't get the words out of my mouth...

Quite frankly, I feel like crap right now.  I came down with something this past week and now I'm writing with all my strength just to say hey, I'm human and I get bugs just like everyone else.  I had something great lined up as far as a great video game review, but it's just gonna have to be delayed for another week now.  My bad.  I'll have it done and give it 110% once that comes out.  I feel really bad not bringing it out for anyone that actually reads this.


So for now here's my apology on record to say that stay tuned.  Here's to something that's gonna be mind blowing or just plain stupid.  But stay tuned none the less.  


BootLeG sampler.. signing out...

Why we Still Listen to Bush

So here's another installment in my attempt to understand music that just doesn't seem to die. Here we listen to Bush and some of what makes them still producing stuff for the masses. And since they just came out with an album recently, their first one in a long time, I figure what the hell. Let's not delay much longer ladies and gents. So here is my synopsis of why we listen to those crazy ass Brits, Bush.


• They're the only other good music act besides the Beatles and The Who that came from the UK : When it comes to rock, I tend to stick to stuff that's stateside.  not to say that acts outside of the states aren't bad ass either.  I know for a fact that music is an international language, and since I'm stateside, I figure why not profile something abroad.  And I've been a fan of them since I got interested in rock back in the mid 90's.  It seems that every decade or so something big comes from England, like in the 60's you had The Beatles and The Who, 70's you had Queen, in the 2000's I was a little fascinated by The Darkness, well, not much, but their b-sides were decent.  But I'm a ninety's cat and I liked the sounds of Bush back then.  They were the it sound back then, and made themselves known for their fusion of alternative and quasi-electronic sound in later years.  Take it as you wish, but I like it.


• Gavin Rossdale is married to Gwen Stefani : The sunnuvabitch, you know the saying some guys have all the luck.  Well this is one of those guys.  A talented hottie like Gwen Stefani of No Doubt fame with the likes of Gavin Rossdale. I mean I guess I still liked her when she was still punk not pop and all chic.  Not to say that she isn't a hottie now, but she was then and I was in to their music with the whole punk/ska thing back then too.  It just does not compute in my book.  But then again look at Shannon Tweed and Gene Simmons...  But that's another topic.


• A refreshing change from the 90's grunge movement : By far the best part of 90's music in my opinion was grunge.  With greats like Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Nirvana, Foo Fighters, and a whole slew of others, it's kind of hard to like one from another without pissing some people off.  So you look for new sounds that are just a little off the beaten path.  The second I heard Machinehead I was hooked.  I was 14 and bought Sixteen Stone and the next year Razorblade Suitcase which I thought was their best work.  And like most things 90's had to change for something stupid.  Metallica were becoming less and less metal.  Rap music became more about cash, cars, bling, and bitches.  Ska music had a revival for like an 18-month span and then crapped it's bed hardly to be heard from again.  Grunge music were slowly turning for more ballad and alternative stylings.  And Bush became more electronic and stupid with The Science of Things, and eventually their whale of a fail in my book Golden State.  Which leads me to my next bullet point.


• Their new stuff sound like their old stuff : This isn't all that bad.  Very Razorblade Suitcase-ish in it's delivery.  It makes me want to listen to it more and more.  Maybe they're not trying to gain new fans, just regain the ones that were wanting more from them during their breakup.  It seems pretty damn good in my book and I would recommend it.  And I think that's why we still listen to Bush, because they do have potential if they don't try to alter their formula.  Stick to what you know works, look at AC/DC.  They haven't changed shit since the 70's on how they deliver their music and still people friggin' love those Aussies.  Just goes to show the old adage, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.


So there's my perspective on why we still listen to Bush.  It isn't really much like the greats like I profiled from before with Biggie and 'tallica, but still, it's pretty damn good in their own rights, and I have my reasons on why I picked them.  Mainly because I'm a 90's junkie when it came to music and that's just my thing.  Now to break out the guitar and start playing some Everything's Zen.


BootLeG sampler.. signing out

What The Phuck, Philly!?!

I just don't friggin' get it.  What is it about Philadelphia sport teams that always seem to bite the bullet at the end.  Even with all the hype, even with all they shown coming up to a point, it always seem that when it comes to close the deal, they phucking choke.  And I am nothing short of a die-hard Philadelphia fan.  I love my Phillies, I love my Eagles, hell, even the Flyers and Sixers (when the Sixers had something to make of themselves).  I am just disgusted like other true Philadelphia sports fans are right now.

Take the NLDS and the Phillies.  Coming in to this they had the best record in MLB, 102-60.  They were favored to breeze into the NLCS past the wildcard Cardinals.  And what happened, they choke a few games and wasn't able to score shit for game 5.  Thus, pissing away a sure thing.  Now I'm thinking with such a great lineup like Cliff Lee, Ryan Howard, and, well do I have to spew out the entire lineup.  It's friggin' mind blowing how such talent produce such little profit.


And speaking of talent pissing away, how 'bout them Eagles.  Starting the season off at 1-3 after the so-called Dream Team they have been hyping up is now becoming a Nightmare at the Linc.  With the acquisition of star players like Vince Young and Nnamdi Asumugha to an already stacked lineup of Vick, McCoy, Jackson, Avant, Celek, etc., it was a shoe in for at least the playoffs.  Now it's a laughing stock of the NFC, if not the entire NFL.  I'm practically ashamed to support such a crap team.  And it's not really even the team, outside of those that are inactive to play and Vick's inevitable series of interceptions each game, it's the coaching that need to take the blame.  Many of years we stuck with Andy Reid taking us to the playoffs and when it counts, it fails.  We need a new coach.  We need new coaches.  We need a new dream here in Philly.


We need to wake up and smell reality and do something about these accusations.  It's too late for baseball, we got next year.  It's still not too late for football, but I"m not gonna hold my breath.  the NBA is postponed for at least two weeks for the strike, so it's not like the Sixers are gonna fill that void.  Hell, I'm just glad that hockey starting up and here's to the best for the Flyers.  So I ask again, WHAT THE PHUCK, PHILLY!?!


BootLeG sampler.. signing out...

Death to Farmville

I believe you all know my stance of flash games by now...  They are meant to be enjoyed at short spurts to pass the time between one task to another or a quick release from reality.  But once it becomes an empire where it requires your undying allegiance to it to just continue and maintain your virtual world, that's when it becomes more of an obsession and even worse, an epidemic to the masses.  And now, Zynga's Farmville finally pushed me to the point where the only acceptable place for it is the scenic underworld of the corner of Hellfire and Brimstone.  This I present to everyone is another installment of my Death To series; Death To Farmville...

(Special thanks to Jack Brimstone for the kick-ass illustration.)

Now, this isn't an attack on Zynga itself, I'm a big fan of some of their products.  I played Zynga Poker and Mafia Wars once upon a time prior to Facebook being nothing more than a social hub of flash games as well as some of their mobile fares with their "With Friends" line of games.  Which you can find me and start up a game with my twitter @BootLeGsampler, but that is just a testament to what they have done.  But none of which compare to what they have done with the onslaught of idiocracy that is Farmville.  So what's wrong with Farmville, what isn't wrong with it is the shorter answer.  But I'll try my damnedest to explain why I'm laying down the law and sentencing Death To Farmville.


If you don't already know I'm totally anti-gaming on Facebook, it's meant for networking and socializing, plain and simple.  Banter and contacts, that's what I see it as.  And from the last time I check watching The Social Network, they did not mention crap about games.  I was tolerable about the games and all.  I tried it, sure I was suckered in, but I blame the wifie on that.  It was just a thing I did to help with the wifie  But I was soon to notice that it was just a tedious load of crap that sucked more of my time that needed to be wasted.  It started innocently as plant some potatoes, pick some apples from some trees, and maybe milk a cow or two.  That's it, not much more to it.  Maybe, and just MAYBE, you would help a friend or two with their farm.  But then, like all things Zynga, it got friggin' ridiculous.


I was a fan of Mafia Wars too, and I weened myself out of it when they started introducing different missions and locations for quests and all.  It loss a lock of it's luster and became weak in my opinion and flooded with a bunch of bots and cheaters trying to rack up a bunch of points for what, nothing more than notoriety from Zynga at best.  Fast forward the couple of years since and all of the popularity of people on Facebook just for the fact of playing a game, it's overbearing and stupid.  Now Farmville just introduced it's third world of playing, it has quests among quests of doing, and it's ridiculously stupid on how much time it takes to maintain all of the stuff it presents to you.  Seriously, it's an old, blue haired ladies version of WoW, and I've already did a Death To about that earlier.  It is too damn much work and maintence to keep up with all the crap.  I knew of people that spend so much time and effort in the game that it became practically a second job for them with all the man-hours they did.  And let's not forget the factor that some resources you have to pay to complete.  You might not have enough of one thing and needing to buy it from them, thus feeding into the monopoly of flash games that is Zynga. Okay, so this post did become somewhat of an attack on Zynga, but not fully, I'm still focusing on the precedence of it being that Farmville will suck you of your time, money, and eventually your soul.

(Thank to The Oatmeal for providing such kick-ass content, really, you should be here more than you're on Farmville people.)

But I digress, I mean if you really don't have anything else to do, and you don't have any means of communicating with anyone in the world, and all the time in the world to do nothing but click on a mouse and burn though your paypal, sure, go for it.  But keep in mind, there are better addictions, like gambling, drinking, or interacting with a healthy relationship with actual people. But if you plan on going on with this abysmal existence, I suggest you pick up this...

BootLeG sampler.. signing out...

Ceiling Rat and Basement Rat

Sorry, not much for posting this week, looking into stirring up the pot for something pretty damn kool next week.  As for the mean time, I wanted to share this with you guys...


Since there's an influx on Cheezburger about basement cat vs. ceiling cat, I figure I put out my own spin to the matter.  Since I have rats as pets (well, the wifie and the kids do, I live with them), I present to you Ceiling Rat and Basement Rat...

Just as an FYI, these are just two of the seven female rats I have (I have three boys in a totally different cage), I figure I would just share them.  That and it was pretty damn funny on what she was doing last night.  Enjoy...


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Forgotten Freshness

If you don't already freakin' know I am a huge fanboy when it comes to some kick ass music.  And one of my favorite bands of all time is doubleDrive.   You might have heard me mention them a time or two.  So now that I got that out of the way, I can segway to what I wanted to present to you guys.


A couple of days ago I was browsing YouTube just for shiggles, and every so often I do a search for my favorite things, some times there is new content.  And just so my luck, there is new stuff from the band.  I don't mean just bootleg concert footage from way back in 2003, which I don't mind, trust me on that.  I mean new material, well, sorta.  They're not getting back together anytime soon, they all moved on to other commitments, but it seems that some guy leaked unreleased material from them.  'I can't believe it, so friggin' awesome, new shit from dD' is what I initially thought.  So being the sucker that I am, I had to give it a listen.  And from my ear for music and memorization of all things aural, I can say without a doubt that at least one of them is a genuine doubleDrive unreleased track.


The one that I am doubt a little bit is the track listed "Hey Hey".  It sounds like Donnie Hamby's vocals and after listening to it a couple of times, I can see why if it was an unreleased track why they didn't put it on any of their albums.  The style was off as far as how as guitar and drums accompaniment, but it's still a good listen, so here it is if you want it...





Another one which I am certain is the true genuine article that is doubleDrive is a track called "Fed Up".  it sounds absolutely right and fitting for it to be one one of their albums, most likely Blue in the Face.  It's heavy yet melodic and the way all the instrumentals play is true to their form.  Here it is for your enjoyment...



So that's that in a nutshell, me being all fanboy out for such a kick-ass band, and now I can get to my regular scheduled mondane music listening.


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I remember...

I remember where I was and what I was doing ten years ago today.  I'm pretty sure that everyone knew what they were doing and where they were that day.  It was traumatic for everyone here in this great nation and we as a nation did not let it cripple us, but used it to strengthen our stand and our beliefs.


I was enlisted in the Marine Corps and stationed in Okinawa that day.  I was watching footage in disbelief and awe that our nation was under attack.  I was hoping that my wife, then fiance, was safe since I heard of Flight 93 crashing in western Pennsylvania not knowing if she was anywhere near the site.  I was mentally preparing myself for the worst and praying for hope for my friends and family.  I was awaiting orders on what to do next due to the base being locked down in the middle of one of the worse typhoons to pass though the island.


I was terrified, scared, angry, hurt, angst, ravage, wanting revenge, wanting to take action, and most importantly wanting to be with the ones I love.  I see people in tears of this day due to sorrow.  I feel sorrow, don't get me wrong, but I also feel a since of readiness, as well as a since of being proud of taking a part of the defending our nation and making it safer due to the horrible attacks in New York, DC, and Pennsylvania.  I feel honored to have done what I could have done and look at the men and women who still out there protecting us.  I feel the pain and angst of those who loss love ones in the rescue efforts in NYC and the Pentagon and the heroism of the passengers of Flight 93.  I feel pride and sense of relief for those whom survived.


I remember Tuesday, September 11, 2001 like it was yesterday.  I can't speak for anyone else but for my own actions and my own feelings.  I hope that you feel the same as well, but I can't control you.  All I can do is preach on what I remember.


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