Monday, November 29, 2004

Monday Morning Roundup

Quite a few things here and I don't feel like breaking them up into separate posts.

First, I hope y'all had a nice holiday! Mine was okay. The usual. I'm contemplating a post on my grandparents (really my grandfather) sometime soon. I'd do it now except I ran across at least 6 other things to post on.

Btw, I'm not from the South. I only use the phrase "y'all" in an online context, e.g. e-mails, the blog and the like. I never, repeat, never use it in day-to-day conversation. I think it would sully my mouth.

I forgot one BIG critique for World of Warcraft. (And I'm too lazy right now to link up my previous 2 posts on the game.) The character creation. I've played a few MMOGs, namely Dark Age of Camelot, Star Wars Galaxies, Second Life, City of Heroes, and Asheron's Call 2 (beta). Wow has the worst, again repeat, worst character customization of all. The choices you can make on your character are not only limited but the characters end up looking moderately ugly! As a human male your face will resemble all other human males. Period, Q.E.D., end of story. Very annoying. Especially when coming from games like SWG, Second Life and CoH which all offer insane amounts of character customization. Then again, if that's the worst aspect of WoW, it's more than bearable.

I got my WoW Paladin, Belic on Argent Dawn (US East RP Server), up to 13th Season and 65-some Blacksmithing. I'm just now going to take him out of the starting region (Ellwyn) and start exploring Westfall. Sometime I'll make the trek up to Ironforge. Thus far I'm loving the Paladin class. Rather versatile and pretty darn strong. My only complaint is that he won't be able to pull monsters. That is, he won't have a ranged attack to use in order to draw an enemy monster to him. Kind of annoying and strange but manageable. At some point I'll probably try out a Druid and/or a Warlock but not until I get Belic fairly high so he can supply money and items as needed.

I've also reconnected (or started to reconnect) with my 2 old DAOC guilds, namely The Enclave and The Stonecutters (link pending as it is not easily remembered). I chose Argent Dawn so I could meet up with The Enclave again. Good group of players, very helpful. They're pretty much the reason I was able to really get into Dark Age of Camelot. If anyone out there is interested, come on over to Argent Dawn (Alliance) and look me up. I'll help you out as I can. Plus I'm sure you can join up with the guild if interested.

As a helpful update and self-directed reminder, movies I'll likely see soon: Spongebob, Christmas With the Kranks and Alexander (maybe).  Opening this Friday there's Closer and House of Flying Daggers.  On Dec. 8 there's Blade Trinity; Dec. 10 is Ocean's Twelve; Dec. 17 is Spanglish, The Aviator (won't see) and Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events; and Dec. 22 is Meet the Fockers and Flight of the Phoenix (won't see).

Also tomorrow sees the video/DVD release of Spider-Man 2. I'm going to pick it up tomorrow since I absolutely loved the movie. Saw it twice in the theater this Summer. Well worth purchasing and probably my vote for best movie of the Summer. Where Spider-Man annoyed and bothered me, Spider-Man 2 remedied and remediated. (Peter Parker of the comics would never, never have said "no" to M.J. Seriously!!!) I can't wait for the third installment, especially given where the second left off! Man, I'm almost drooling in anticipation.

Another self-reminder to do a post on subsequent releases of Special Edition DVDs.

Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Extended Edition) is finally making it to DVD soon. I don't have the exact date but it might be tomorrow. If not, it's sometime in the next month. I can't express (or maybe I can) how annoyed I am that they delayed the Extended Edition release by ~1 year. Truly annoying. I have the Extended Editions of the first two and refuse to purchase anything other than the like for the third. I have to say, the Extended Editions are well worth the extra money and not just for the bonus material, rather more so for the extra footage in the films. It adds even more depth to the story, if that's possible. Very nice.

I think that's everything except for the 2 CNN pieces that follow. (And the subsequent, separate post on another CNN piece.)

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Julia Roberts [37] gives birth to twins:
Roberts, who is married to cinematographer Daniel Moder, delivered Hazel Patricia Moder and Phinnaeus Walter Moder at a hospital in Southern California [on Sunday morning], said Marcy Engleman.
Congratulations!

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Daughter turns in dad who called police on her:
NEWARK, New Jersey (AP) -- A father's attempt to teach his daughter a lesson about drinking backfired when the teen led police to a stash of drugs and weapons inside their home.

Kevin Winston, 46, called police at 2:45 a.m. Friday after his 16-year-old daughter came home drunk and unruly. When police arrived, however, the girl told them she feared for her safety because her father stored drugs and weapons in the home.

The girl led officers to a crawl space above the ceiling where they found four semiautomatic guns and more than 600 vials of cocaine.

Winston was charged with numerous weapons and drug charges. His five daughters were placed in the custody of a relative.
Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. And let the parent who has things to hide not be the one to call the police. Just incredible. You can practically smell the irony.