They’re pretty fucking neat.

Today was somewhat productive in the sense that I finally got around to upgrading to the latest version of WordPress, which is always scary with the threat of losing everything (even though I meticulously backup everything before I mess with anything). The interface is quite a bit different than my much older version but seems to be smoother and more intuitive which is nice.

Lots and lots of heathen green skinned wretches have been falling beneath my armored boots, within the realm of Dawn of War 2. Currently it’s only offered as a beta via Steam with online multiplayer the only option. Access is given to anyone who either pre-orders the game or already has Dawn of War: Soulstorm. This brought a rather rude awakening to my style of play. In most RTSs I generally trend towards hunkering down behind several layers of walls (made out of solid steel, not hopes and dreams and unicorn farts like some people (coughhcough)) slowly building up an end-game force to eventually dominate the enemy. DoW2 doesn’t even offer this as a choice; there simply isn’t any base building to be had at all. Rather, the focus is put squarely on your units. It makes for a lot of action and constant fighting as you contest the map for Victory Capture Points that will erode your enemies tickets (you start with 500; the game ends when a player/team reach 0). Overall a great game, it just needs some balancing done between the various races.

Somehow an Infected Mushroom CD was released without me knowing (all the way back in ‘07) entitled Vicious Delicious wherein a track found its way onto my Pandora play list. Sadly, every song that I’ve heard so far sounds exactly like some other song of theirs on a previous CD. In this they seem to have taken the CombiChrist approach to making beats, which is fine but monotonous and uninspiring.

Ugh… I made the horrible mistake of watching Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Nothing made a damn bit of sense in that movie.

I haven’t really gotten around to expressing my extraordinary remorse at seeing the only coach I’ve ever known (since I started paying attention to football) get fired suddenly in the post-season, as I still really haven’t come to terms with it. Coach (well, ex-coach) Mike Shanahan of the Denver Broncos was inspiring to watch and one of the better coaches in the league as far as I’m concerned. He didn’t make the best personnel decisions and had a run of bad luck this season, so Pat Bowlen decided to shitcan him. It came as a rather big shock actually, seeing as how Bowlen had previously declared that Shanahan had a job for life with the Broncos. Oh well… It’s all shit now. There was even a scare there for a while that he’d coach the Chiefs. While that would certainly amuse me, I think I’d puke if I had to watch him lead the Chiefs to a victory at Mile High. I was really hoping for ex-Steelers coach Bill Cowher to hop on board, but got former Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels instead.

The only real happiness I’ve been given this post-season is witnessing the Steelers and Cardinals advance to the Super Bowl. Looks like it’s going to shape up to be a damn good game though I think the Steelers will end up winning it. However, I like both teams so I don’t really care which way it falls.

So it’s fucking cold out. I normally am not bothered, but due to my health kick I decided it’d be an A+ idea to walk to campus for some exercise. That turned out be true for the exercise part (as it’s a decent uphill walk) but enduring the cold apocalypse made me question if it was truly worth it.

A few nights ago my cat decided that I needed a new keyboard and to accentuate her point she did me the favor of knocking over a nearly full glass of water on it (and everything surrounding it that she also apparently had disdain for). This resulted in my making a trip to the candy-land known as Micro Center and purchasing a Logitech G11. Honestly, I forgot just how much I love the sound the keystrokes make on a brand new keyboard. They just whisper sweet nothings to you as you type away, gently caressing your ears in a symphony of muted clicks. I also have a strange love affair of blue glowing shit on my computer apparati, which was extremely satiated to realize all the keys emit a faint blue glow. The best part about this keyboard and the main reason I chose it though, was the fact that it has 18 hard programmable macro keys, with 3 subsets to make a total of 54 virtual ones! This comes in handy for various games that I play and some programs that have a ton of silly menus to go through that can be condensed down into one hotkey.

Some time recently one of the radio stations I listen to decided to do my ears the favor of playing the entire new Mindless Self Indulgence CD. Mostly it sounds like You’ll Rebel to Anything to me which I absolutely loved (it has the strongest starting song of damn near any album I’ve ever listened to). It’ll be great to have along for the trip out to Burning Man this year!

So I was up late last night (par for the course) watching silly learning-styled television shows when I saw a familiar face, one that epitomizes everything I can summon to mind about douchebags. Originally he had been plugging this thing called the ShamWow and the commercial was run so often that I had to change the channel immediately upon its broadcast lest another tumor begin festering in my brain. That was awhile ago and I hadn’t seen the bastard and his damn dirty shammies for awhile, until all of a sudden there he was on my tube, except now he had some sort of hand-slapping-chopping device. Rather than change the channel I watched the whole damn semi-infomerical (I consider these commericals that run more than 2 mins) and at the end he used his same damn line of “This is a hella-good offer. You better call now because we can’t do this all day!”. My soul darkened just a shade more at realizing that this fucker is probably going to be the next Billy Mays.

While I’m at the product mentioning business, I’d just like to say that the Gillette  Fusion Turbo (the one that vibrates (bzzzzzzzzzzzzzz)) razor brings an absolute joy to my shaving routine. I don’t even use anything except hot water with it, it’s just that fantastic.

I noticed a crop of New Years Resolutions(tm) posts cropping up on several of the blogs I read and thought to give an update as to my own. Though I didn’t really officially make any for this year, I mostly decided to just be smart about my habits and try to improve them for a healthier lifestyle. So far I’ve worked out for at least 30 mins the last week and haven’t binged on any fatty-fat-fat-treats that are oh so delicious. I’ve also somehow mangaged to mostly keep my apartment clean as well as the interior of my car (Christmas miracles indeed!).

The next few months are promising to be ripe with a lot of PC games that won’t suck. Some such titles include Demigod, a new title in the Total War series, Dawn of War 2 (though originally thought to be out sometime in February, I think it got bumped back) and The Sims 3. DoW2 is of course at the top of my list, but I’m also extremely looking forward to Demigod as it’s suppose to be somewhat like the modmap for Warcraft 3 entitled DotA-Allstars. Right now I’ve been playing a ton of Sins of a Solar Empire, which is an absolutely fantastic game and a must-have if you’re into massive RTS styled games, while still trying to finish up Lost Odyssey for the Xbox360.

Also, I’ve finally decided to purchase the foosball table of my dreams, but that won’t occur until the end of the month when more monies come into my possession. Celebration should occur with a keg and a sleepness night filled with twitchy shenanigans!

Since I haven’t been updating regularly for awhile now, I failed to notice that the third party application I use for my comments, Disqus, now reroutes you to their website in order to post comments. This greatly irritates me and I’m going to look into how to stop it and if not, just remove the program from the site.

I’ve determined that Crest Pro-Health peppermint flavored toothpaste was designed to absolutely infuriate me during my morning routine. The stuff doesn’t come out of the tube in any sensible manner, rather it just sort of sludges out and haphazardly plops onto my toothbrush. Can’t say I’ve ever encountered this much trouble with teeth cleaning materials, but it’s been annoying.

One of my friends that I grew up with is having a kid. This is the same friend who would religiously drink Mountain Dew, not just to be EXTREME but also to destroy his sperm (which was his foolproof birth-control method at the time). So ya… there’s that.

Work… is uh… workie. With moderate amounts of work actually involved.

This week is suppose to be witch-tits cold, with like a high of 13 or something to that degree (hah!).

I’m finishing up the last two books in the Black Company saga by Glen Cook. After just starting Dreams of Steel I’m already pissed, but that’s because I hate it when major characters are tampered with (in the not-being-alive-anymore-so-screw-you-reader sense).

As per console gaming, Lost Odyssey has held me rapt for the last couple of weeks. It’s an RPGs heavily rooted in Final Fantasy traditions, following that game arch-type to the letter. The storyline and character development is outstanding however and has kept me slugging through its four disc set (currently I’m on three). If you have a 360 and enjoy RPGs that last for a solid 30-40 hours bare minimum, I highly recommend it.

I’m really hoping for a Cardinals/Steelers match up for the Super Bowl, but I think the Eagles might derail those plans after surviving the Giants. Hopefully the Steelers will win the whole thing, so whoever they crush really isn’t all that important in the long run.

Work time!