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This weekend I went to Hart, Michigan for the Memorial Day weekend. I’m not going to do a “rundown” of what happened but it ended up being a fantastic weekend. I haven’t swam in over a year so it was nice to get in a heated pool and catch some rays. My skin is so fair I had to make sure not to spend too much time in the sun. I got hit with a slight burn but nothing as drastic as what the gato has. After a fridged shower and a tad of aloe I was fine.

Vanberge posted some photos (found here) and they are good. I grabbed the best photo and posted it on vanlandw.com because it makes me lol.

Just a few notes so I don’t have to write another post about them later. I’ve started watching The Sopranos. As this writing I have one more episode to complete in Season One and so far I’ve enjoyed it more then I thought I would. Personally I’ve never been a huge “mob/mafia” viewer. I’ve never really sat down and watched The Godfather movies but oddly enough Goodfellas is one of my favorite movies ever. I remember a long time ago watching the first episode of The Sopranos and totally not understanding what was going on. I figured it would be this huge mob war type movie but really more of a family drama. If vanberge keeps buying them I’ll keep watching them

I’m sure a small amount of people have been checking this space to see how I feel about 24 Season 5. The 24 party at my home went as expected. Early in the day went to the driving range (hopefully a video ala “heroics” is in the future). At night I ate a lot of food drank some “Stones” and chilled out. The attendence was quite small but overall nice. Everybody had a confortable seat and who did show up was a fun bunch.

Now that all the hoopla has died down I feel AOK about posting my thoughts. After letting all the information sink in I’ve come to some conclusions. Season 5 was quite simlar to season 4. With Jack’s character in season 4 he was orginally fueled protecting those who he cared about ala season one. After the first six episodes he was pretty much “caught in a moment/middle” just doing his heroic duties.

Season 5 he was a different animal. Revenge and Retribution abit not coveyed much though episodes 3-22 was the backbone of motivation. To a degree he avenged the deaths of Tony, Michelle, Edgar, Palmer and innocents by almost entirelly thwarting terrorist attacks and murdering or incriminating a good percentage of those behind their demises. Sadly for Jack Bauer it once again comes at the expence of his humanity and happyness.

Overall I think I set season 5 above season 4 but I really do need to rewatch both at some junction. Season 5 pretty much delivered as being entertaning and a good extension of the story but season 5 failed on giving me what I was hoping the show would give. TV drama’s these days have this great way filming a finale giving the viewer a small glimpse of what COULD happen in the next season and not delivering in the least. Lost and Prison Break are a prime examples of this theory. After season 4 (to a degree the season 5 prequel) who didn’t have all these great ideas of new avenues the show could take. Jack Bauer is in exile WTF is going to happen? The same could be said about season 5. Who wouldn’t enjoy seeing 24 leave LA, have no terrorist plots, all the while CTU is a thousand miles away. All the while Jack Bauer is in China risking life and making new relationships in another country.

Sadly there is no way the show is going to deliever that. Also almost any fan can see that is not going to happen. Thus giving the viewer that impression is self-defeating. I’m sure next season we will see a slight tweak to Jack’s character and sadly I’m sure there will be another terrorist plot and more CTU bullshit. OK i just had to get that off my chest…..

Ok this post is getting way to negative. The finale was exciting and hilarious all at the same time. The opening action was kickass. Henderson getting owned/murdered was fantastic. Aaron Pierce NOT dying was nice change of pace. Jack showing that weathered psycho side and finally getting the best of Logan was again cool. Logan “completing” with his wife in a minute. Logan going “juggernaut” on his wife was a huge LOL moment as well. The Chinese FINALLY playing a factor was nice along with the IDEA of Jack being captured was well played.

Will I be watching next year…of course. Even with faults there isn’t another show on TV like 24. It’s a fun show. I laugh when watching it. Jack Bauer is without question the uber male and still the most compelling character on TV. One hour a week I have a good time and I can always expect my AIM to be flooded with yelling faces and people wanting to talk about the show. IMHO season six NEEDS to go in another direction. Maybe if CTU comes back they can have a “mobile” unit headed by Curtis, Chole and Buchannon. Maybe the terrorist plot can be smaller in scope. Bigger doesn’t always mean better. Oh well my readers can thank my absolute bordom at work for all this scribing.

Also bauercount at this point thought season 5 is a completed work of art. All the videos are updated. All the mistakes SHOULD be fixed. I may even help vanberge complete gamgeecount if I can get around to it.

For eight days I drove 402 miles. In eight days I filled up my gas tank twice for the grand total of $83 dollars. For the first time ever my car got that much mileage one one tank. Personally it was quite the accomplishment for me. On average I was getting 325-350 on a tank. Most of my driving was city driving. Recently with new crummy drive to work everyday I’m driving about 30 miles a day more then half being highway. I also drove to Fowlerville and back and that is about 200 miles on the highway.

I have been thinking about keeping track of the amount of money I spend on gas and the type of mileage I get. Honestly it would be just a depressing endevour. I hardly make any money and the amount of money I spend of gas is a good percentage of what I earn.

This is a pretty stupid post other then to to remember this moment. I’m sure my horrid car will never perform this well again.

As everybody knows it seems like a semi-tradition that everybody gathers at my home and views the 24 finale. Again I’m inviting anybody who wishes to view to come to my home and partake. This year I do NOT have to work the day off so I will be free to eat drink and be merry the ENTIRE day of Monday. My rough plan is to go golfing in the early part of the day, then at about 4-5pm either grill or just order pizza. Mostly it depends on the turnout. I’m hoping to have a pretty nice gathering.

Again….everybody is invited. BYOB but depending on who’s coming I may spring for some burgers and hot dogs. jjafuller…i will pay for your gas. enfuego your switching to get the night off. If anybody needs my new address e-mail me or call. Also post any questions or comments….in the comments.

I also found the jack pack on amazon. I’m debating buying it. After tax and shipping it comes out to a shade under $30 bucks. Yay or nay?

Deviation is a lovely short film about a video-game character’s existential crisis. It was made using the Counter Strike game-engine, and was selected for incusion in the Tropfest@Tribeca Film Festival.

I remember back in college watching CS movies and thinking they were fantasic.  I still have my favorites on a HD somewhere. The Militia series were always cool I’ll try to find a link at some point. In the mean time watch ‘Deviation’ and tell me what you think.
Link: ‘Deviation’

That is about the best way I can sum up my feelings on E3. As much as me and “fulljeff” disagree about the MGS series the only game that left me with the “I cannot wait to see what they do” feeling was Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. The two released teasers were fantastic. Hideo Kojima and his team of japs have showed there is no other game that can tell a story quite like MGS can. The 2min teaser was the best trailer I’ve ever seen and that even goes for motion pictures. Some will complain “no game footage was shown”. I don’t give a flying crap, MGS4 game of E3 2006. MGS is my favorite series of games ever and MGS4 will be the best game ever.

Other then that the PS3 sucked total balls. The Final Fantasy XIII trailer was more guys looking like girls crap. Nothing for Resident Evil 5. Nothing for Grand Theft Auto 4. Nothing for Devil May Cry 4. The price point of $500 makes a Wii way to attractive. Sadly God of War 2 for the PS2 looks more exciting then anything else they showed. For a console launching in under a year I was hoping to see MUCH more.

Gears of War looks great. The Xbox 360 keynote showed some gameplay footage and it looks pretty damn intense. Loud and very next gen. The Halo 3 trailer was kinda “blah”. When compaired to the MGS4 teaser it showed next to nothing. No new weapons. No new locations. Very vauge and I hate to say it almost boring. Yes I know the development process is a long process but I would figure Bungie would have more to say about the only game they showed. Graphics were great music was great but other then that it was “blah”. After showing at the least 15 mins of MGS4 2 mins of Halo 3 pails in comparison.

Now to the WIIIIIIII . I know vanbergs loves the Wii and to be honest I’m starting to as well. The name is still suspect but Nintendo’s showing was the strongest of the big three. I have to say this because they acutally had games to play. Nostalgia plays a huge part with Nintendo and it’s about time they relized that. Seeing Twilight Princess seriously just makes me happy. I’ve waited for so long for a truly epic Zelda adventure and it should be just fantastic. Also seeing Pit from Kid Icarus rocks so much with his apperance in the new Smash Brothers game. Hopefully Nintendo will make a DS adventure for him as well. Also I’ve been hearing rumors of Metroid Prime: Corruption being a launch title. If that is true with Zelda and Metroid coming out on the same day it maybe hard to reist the power of the Wii :-[

Ok that is all I can remember for now. I may post more about the conference but what I’ve said hits the key points. I’m glad Nintendo is finally getting some good press. I’m so sick of everybody giving me grief for liking Nintendo.  Seems even the mainstream is behind me now.  jjafuller posted about E3 and for the most part I agree with him.

Perfect timing. Friday morning while your at work or before doing fun activites on the weekend vanbergs and vanlandw.com bring you priceless video content on the WWW.

The long awaited sequel to “Heroics” has finally arrived. After hours of slaving away infront of an underpowered imac vanbergs has edited together maybe the best 6:13 of video footage ever created.

After running into every possible complication I was able to encode the video and get it onto the WWW. jjafuller turned me onto ffmpegx and the videos turned out MUCH better. Also sorry goedge but you are in the video.

OK no more sugar coating. Here are the links to the videos. There is a ipod video version. The sound should be in stereo and better video quality and smaller file size. Enfuego tested it but post any issues in teh comments because I didn’t test it directly. Also the youtube link (prefered) is up and running.

Link: iPod Video – Heroics 2 (right click save as upload blah)

Link: Youtube – Heroics 2 – A “Guitar Hero” Music Video