The Avett Brothers - I and Love and You

I was looking over the newer postings in the 100 Best Albums of 2009 list over at Bears Eat People [a site that The Zeppo highly recommends if you are into music] and saw The Avett Brothers' album sitting at number 2. I suddenly remembered with shame that I had not given the the CD a proper play-through in a few weeks. At the exact same moment the title track, "I and Love and You" fiercely implanted itself into my brain and demanded that I put it on repeat in iTunes. This song is just plain awesome and I now share it with you:

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Deadmau5 - Ghosts N Stuff

I have had this cd ["For Lack of a Better Name"] pretty much since it came out but I just saw the video for the first time. Good stuff.

Mt Eden Dubstep - Sierra Leon

I have not been able to get this song out of my head the last few days and am constantly humming the tune, to my wife's chagrin. I am sharing so that the rest of you might suffer the same fate.



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The cake was a lie: Portal

I know I am way behind, but I finally got around to playing/beating Portal. I really wish I had played this sooner! Since it has been out for a few years now I won't go into tons of detail describing it but lazily link to other sources (IGN, Wiki). Portal is basically a puzzle game that you solve with your gun that shoots portals. As accurate a description that is, this teaser video does a better job of explaining how this works itself out in gameplay:

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From the robotic voice of GladOs (that my wife hates) saying hilarious things to the fun of just falling through a line of portals, Portals is one of the funnest games I have played in a while. You can pick it up in a variety of ways: Xbox Live, stand-alone, or (the way I recommend since you get Half Life 2) as part of The Orange Box collection. You can pick up The Orange Box for $15 used most places. The Xbox Live version does have an extra 14 challenges though....

Seriously, if you are any type of gamer I can't recommend this game and more strongly. It will only take you a few hours to get through it, but you will definitely want to replay it. I leave you with a video made to the greatest credits song ever, Portal's "Still Alive" (sung by GladOs itself):

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Portable Emulator from ThinkGeek

Over at Techland they have a review up for a sweet new portable emulator that ThinkGeek is selling. (If you aren't familiar with ThinkGeek, it is pretty much the Mecca for all things geek merch.) The emulator costs $100, but I think it is actually a good buy for the apparent quality. I personally don't fair too well with portable devices so if I were, um, to use a console emulator I would keep using...scratch that...I would use my laptop. As ThinkGeek says:

"But ThinkGeek" you ask "where can I procure such old skool gaming roms to load onto the Pocket Retro Game Emulator?". Well young hardcore gamer, we hear tell of a mystical soothsayer whose name is "Google". Upon entering such phrases as "NES roms" or "SNES roms" a person may be directed to easily download such roms. But keep in mind that our attorneys do not approve of such behavior and the above statement is likely completely untrue. In fact you should probably forget about this whole conversation. A handheld gaming system that can play all your favorite old classic console games? Nope. Just too good to be true."

So, if you are one of those people with GBs and GBs of ROMS and want to take them on the road with you perhaps this is the perfect Christmas gift for you.




ThinkGeeek: a320 Pocket Retro Game Emulator

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Christmas Traditions

It is almost Christmas so that means it is time for three special traditions in my house:

1. Cranking "Christmas at Ground Zero" up on the stereo (10 sec commercial before it starts):


Weird Al Yankovic - Christmas At Ground Zero (Official Music Video) - For more of the funniest videos, click here



2. Watching "The Nightmare Before Christmas". This year I get to watch it in 1080P goodness on Blu-Ray thanks to my wife buying it for me last year. Huzzah!





3. Watching "A Christmas Story". Yeah, I know everyone gets sick of it because TBS marathon loops it for 24 hours, but I still love sitting down and watching the DVD. Actually, I may rent the Blu-ray this year and see how good the transfer is.


What are your non-traditional traditions?

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Are the popular kids actually popular?

Ok, so here is a question I have pondered and proffered since I was actually in high school:

Are popular kids actually popular?

My contention is that no, they are not popular. Allow me to explain.

Note: A lot of this is based off personal experience and anecdotal evidence. If your High School was different huzzah for you.

The "popular" kids tend to make up about 3-6% of the student body population, but to be generous we will say 10%. Except for the genuinely cool popular kids, 90% of the remaining students are apathetic to or straight up hate the popular kids. From my experience, most 'normals' dislike the popular kids.

My assertion is that the popular kids are in fact the most unpopular kids. I mean, a large section of the student body actively dislikes them.

If we accept my conclusion, why are the popular kids considered popular? Easy: treatment by faculty and administration.

Teachers, coaches, and administrators treat the popular kids (who tend to be athletes or the close friends of athletes) differently. They are given special treatment. I'm not really going to expand on this since I assume we all know what I'm talking about since about ten movies with this theme come out every year. The way they are treated by those that run the school MAKES the popular kids what they are.

What do you think? I am always interested in hearing people's response to this question. I think your answer tends to show if you were popular or not. ;) Seriously, though, let me know in the comments if you agree or disagree. Show me where I am mistaken; I'm open to changing my opinion.

Disclaimer: I was not unpopular in High School. I was friendly with most everyone and generally well liked. However, I definitely was not popular. I basically enjoyed High School for the most part (of course, I LOVE cafeteria food), but there were people that everyone absolutely hated that were still considered popular.

BONUS: Here are some pictures of me from High School for you to mock:

How was your November?

See that woman there? In the field?

Brace yourselves: She became my wife on November 7th this year.


I know those of you that read my blog - and even more so those of you that actually know me - are wondering what in the world would cause such a beautiful girl to marry me, a dude that posts Japanese rock videos and debates proper toilet paper placement? I'm chalking it up to God's sovereignty and just rolling with it!

But seriously, I'm extremely blessed and look forward to a lifetime with you, Christy.

I love you.

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