The Blogdikan

Yakety Sax

2009-09-11T14:07:00.002-05:00

Sports: BULLSHIT.

2009-04-13T16:24:00.002-05:00

I hate sports.

Oh, man... just where can I begin with this? I want to keep it short...

Okay, I've got it. Today, someone tried to persuade me that college athletes should be paid because they don't have enough money to pay for anything. They are apparently forced into slave labor known as "entertainment." Yes, they are forced to play sports for everyone to enjoy.

...Wait, what? Really? They can't quit the team and go get jobs so that they can have money? Oh, they can? Then where's the problem? Since when have we ever been paid to do volunteer work? Never, that's exactly right.

Sports produce so much revenue at virtually every event that it's mind boggling. Coaches are paid millions of dollars (so are professional athletes, which is also bullshit). And players are paid... nothing, right? So why don't they get any of the money? Like I said, it's volunteer work. Don't like it? Quit. Get a real job. Coaching is a job, but is it with millions of dollars? No. Not by any means is the job of a celebrity, actor, athlete or a coach worth millions of dollars.

So, instead of spending all of this money on sports... why not spend it on something academic? I can think of some places that would put a million bucks to much better use - and it would be practical to boot.

I don't even feel the need to cover any holes in this argument. Ugh.

Someone else tried to persuade me that an NFL football player is a "nice, cool guy" that is apparently undeserving of all the flak he takes.

The more you think about this, the more angry you're going to get. I'm going to cut this off here and let you think about it instead.

And now, an April Fool's Joke...

2009-04-01T00:07:00.003-05:00

April Fool's! You thought I'd take the time to actually make an April Fool's joke?

The Worst Trip to Wal-Mart Ever

2008-10-21T13:08:00.003-05:00

Today I've actually been treated to the worst service ever at Wal-Mart; I'm sure plenty of people out there have had their own stupid garbage that goes on at Wal-Mart, but really, this is really one of the only times that it has actually happened to me.

So after class today, Wyndikan and I decided to stop by the local Wal-Mart to pick up a copy of Fable II. As he went to pay for his copy of the game, I already noticed that things seemed to be incredibly fishy; the cashier went to extra lengths to actually verify that the money used to pay for the game was actually real. As we started to walk away, we happened to catch sight of a classmate of ours, so we went over to say "hey." He was of course buying the same game. Anyway, after saying hey, we left for the front door. Just before I walked out, I heard "Wait! Hold on!" and so I turned around to find the guy from our class running after us. He didn't have his ID on him and asked if one of us could buy the game for him, so being the great guy that I am, I decided to do so.

I walked up front, forked over my ID, and then I stood there. For five minutes. All I saw was the dumb cashiers talking to each other, scrutinizing my ID. I kept looking back to see if anything else was going on behind me. The guy who wanted the game was pretty pissed. Wyndikan looked like he wanted to go home. So after those five minutes, a manager came out and told me that I can't buy the game because I had the intention of giving it to the guy with no ID; "It's a third-party sale," I was told.

So I'm not allowed to buy the game because I had the intent of giving it to the guy? Is Wal-Mart allowed to make those kinds of judgment calls? I mean, they aren't the police, are they allowed to judge me on intent? So, I wasn't able to buy the game for the guy. I apologized and gave him his money back. I suggested that he take his money to GameStop instead. So, we left, finally (I will never buy another video game at Wal-Mart, ever). Seriously; refusing a sale for such a stupid reason? I asked if we could leave and if I could come back and buy the game and I was told, "That's up to you." So, what, I have the intention of buying the game anyway but you're not encouraging me to actually buy it? Whatever, they're ending up losing 120 dollars from two sales, not just one. That's not a lot of money to a big conglomerate like Wal-Mart, but I will seriously never, ever go there again to buy a video game, and guess where I usually go to buy them?

We left, and got in the car to head back here to play the game before going back to class. Oh, but wait! There's construction going on in the parking lot so we had to pull in front of the store where all the pedestrians are (ugh). We didn't really get that far, though! As we pulled around, we got stuck behind this red pick-up truck. With a handicap plate on it. This asshole was blocking the only way out! We couldn't back out because we had another person behind us. It's not often that wailing on the horn is required, but in this situation, it was. Most definitely. We couldn't get around the idiot. It seemed like he was waiting for a parking spot to open up... but you can't do that. So he pulled around, finally, and then into a parking spot. Right in front of the damn store. You can't get any closer than that, so what's the problem with parking that close?

Man, I really hate people. If I rage any more today it might actually become a health problem.

GTA IV Review Update

2008-05-01T07:37:00.001-05:00

Alright, so I didn't give you a review. Wait on it. I feel like I'm almost ready to write it, but let me tell you this up front: I've been playing the game religiously for almost two days consecutively. It's a blast. The story is engaging. And get this: I haven't skipped a single side quest and I'm only 40%+ done with the game. It feels like it's never going to end... and that's a good thing. I'll be sad when it does.

- Wynd

Grand Theft Auto IV Review Coming Wednesday!

2008-04-26T03:00:00.005-05:00

In a timely, Blogdikan-style fashion, we will have the review of Grand Theft Auto IV for you on Wednesday, April 30th: the day after release. Stay tuned. This game is already looking quite amazing.

A Queer Definition

2008-04-14T20:17:00.006-05:00

Homophobic:
"irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against homosexuality or homosexuals"

I've got two words for Merriam-Webster. Fuck that.

"Faggot," "Queer," "Homo," "Gay," "Carpet Muncher," "Dyke," "The Fat Kid in Class Who Talks Like a Girl." These are all terms that many people of the mentally retarded persuasion tend to classify as "homophobic." I have a problem with that.

I happen to use the above words mostly to all of the time. So therefore I am somehow afraid of gay people? I have no fear of gay people. They don't scare me. So why am I considered to be homophobic if I use those words? This is one of those stupid old misconceptions that make the people getting picked on feel better. When kids get bullied, people (softies) tell them to just ignore the bullies because they thrive off of negative reactions. What a load of horse shit. Bullies thrive off of the hilarity. The same mothers and fathers also claim that the above bullies only make fun of you in groups because they have someone to laugh with them. Fuck no I don't... er... they don't. If I'm gonna make fun of you, I'll do it regardless of who is with me.

The same kind of fundamentally flawed logic is the kind that leads queermos to believe that those who make fun of them are somehow afraid of their gayness. Can't you just smell the bullshit? It makes my fists and teeth clench to hear such idiocracy. People that use derogatory terms towards gays are simply "gay bashers." They are not homophobic because they are generally not afraid of you. Who the hell makes fun of someone they're afraid of? They keep it to themselves and stay the fuck away.

I don't have anything against gay people. Just leave me the fuck alone when I insult you. You want to insult me by calling me a "straighty" or something retarded like that, then do it. Fuck you. It's evident you're not afraid of me and it doesn't bug me in the least bit. I'll just laugh at you and move on. Like I said above in my analogy, if you are the bully type, you're not going to stop so I'm just going to either have to get over it or take action.

I'm not a homophobe and you're not a straightophobe. Get the fuck over it, world.

Happy April Fool's Day!

2008-04-02T00:21:00.004-05:00

If you hadn't already guessed, our combined review of Brawl was a hoax. Considering some of our points were surprisingly ACTUALLY valid, I've decided I'm really not up to making a brand new real review. Just take it as it is. Below, all the hints we left are highlighted in red. Some are obvious, some are not.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl Review - Part 3/3 - Combined Final Review

2008-04-01T01:26:00.008-05:00

Wyndikan Xavier: Hey, everybody. Wyndikan Xavier here with Alex Stravier ready to give you part 3 of our Super Smash Bros. Brawl review. I know it's been awhile, but we've had some time to nail out every part of the game and let's just say... after further review... we're not as impressed as we once were.
Alex Stravier: Yep. I'm actually pretty disappointed with the lasting appeal that this game has. Collecting things in the game is pitifully easy or way-too-fucking hard. Clearing Boss Battle mode on Intense is awful, but getting all the CDs is as easy as thinking of a creative stage in which to do it! Trophies and stickers are just way too easy to collect, aside from a select few that take a ton of work (or luck), and, you guessed it: most can't be golden hammer'd on the Challenges screen!
Wyndikan Xavier: That's right, Alex. Many aspects of this game are disappointing, but some are tolerable. Let's review them part by part, shall we? Alex, in short, what's your final take on the character selection?

Character Selection – 2/5
Alex Stravier: Sucks. There are 35 characters to choose from, 2 share the exact same final smash, and the furry animals from space all have an extremely similar landmaster final smash. There isn't a whole lot of variety compared to what could have been. Sakurai could have easily brought in a lot more characters (instead of using the time he had adding in tons of useless trophies and stickers) from all over the Nintendo world, interesting ones, too. No Megaman or Bomberman? Come on, Megaman is huge! Why didn't he receive representation?
Wyndikan Xavier: Alex, I totally agree. And like I said before: characters get TIRING. 35 is not enough this time around. Feels like we've had more characters removed than added and none seem to be very gamebreaking either.

Kyle's Quip: I can't play most of the characters anyway.

Story – 1/5
Wyndikan Xavier: Next, it's on to the Story. I have to say that the more and more I play it, the more tiresome it becomes. The Great Maze is WAY too large and takes up half of the game. Also, I can't tell what the hell is going on! I'm wondering if you get that sense of abandonment by the story, Alex.
Alex Stravier: Yeah. The story really sucked (and so did the ending) and the overall repetitiveness of the Subspace Emissary was just enormously gay. I agree with your quip about the Great Maze, too; just way too damn long. And one time, when I was playing the game in the family room, my mom got scared and told me I was moving with my auntie and my uncle in Bel-air.

Kyle's Quip: I pulled up to the house about 7 or 8 and that's when I realized the story sucked.

Graphics – 1/5
Wyndikan Xavier: On to Graphics. I actually have to say that the graphics aren't too bad, Alex, but I do have problems with the alleged roundness of shapes. How am I supposed to enjoy Zero Suit Samus's giant jello molds when they're fucking square?
Alex Stravier: No kidding! And seriously, is Kirby octagonal or something? Christ.

Kyle's Quip: Being as I'm always at least 4 generations behind in videogames, I'd have to say the graphics are pretty good.

Sound –2/5
Wyndikan Xavier: Sound sound sound sound sound. That's all I hear about the people that hail this game as great. Nevermind the shitty gameplay, let's talk about how good the music is. I mean, what the fuck is with the opening theme? If I wanted to watch an opera, I would. But sorry Nintendo, I just don't tuck my junk between my legs.
Alex Stravier: The lyrics are all in Latin, too, which is ridiculous! Universal language my ass; we should just make English the universal language for everything (more on that requires another rant, so I will cut that off here!). There are 285 songs in the game, and most of them suck. You will find yourself going into "My Music" and turning off a lot of the music for most of the stages.
Wyndikan Xavier: If not all, Alex. If not all.

Kyle's Quip: Too bad I'm deaf.

Lasting Appeal – 2/5
Alex Stravier: We touched on this a little bit ago, but I'd like to bring up lasting appeal again. There is just no lasting appeal to this game. You can sit and play computer characters, which will trounce your ass infinitely because level 9s are impossible to beat, especially Pikachus and Jigglypuffs. Trophies and stickers suck, and the Subspace Emissary is not good for another playthrough, either. You can't even play people online because the online is so laggy and shitty.
Wyndikan Xavier: On top of all that, it just gets so freaking boring about about 20 minutes. There are only so many moves you can perform and they really wear themselves out after awhile. You can't really combo like in a traditional fighting game (something that SSB has been lacking for ages), which adds to the suck. Just give me a break, Nintendo. Lost your way and you can't seem to get it back so you give us another shitty game? The point of a fighter is combos and we're not getting any. Games such as Brawl suck.

Kyle’s Quip: Melee had so much more depth. Wavedashing and l-canceling added a lot more to the game, and you could combo people much more easily while still avoiding being hit. The technical side of Melee was awesome, but there is just no technical side for Brawl, so the lasting appeal that Melee had is gone.

Character Moves –3/5
Alex Stravier: We're going to move on to character moves now, and wow... some of these are just awful. Jigglypuff's Rollout got nerfed, big time. Pikachu's Thunder got a huge buff, and the cooldown time at the end is nonexistant, making him way lamer than ever. Mario's F.L.U.D.D. is completely useless, just like Squirtle's Water Gun. The lack of creativity is apparent with Zero Suit Samus and Diddy Kong, who have alternate "flip/kick jumps," which is just ridiculous. Oh, and did I mention the final smashes?
Wyndikan Xavier: Here's something you didn't mention, Alox, how unresponsive that damn controller is. I am sick and tired of it doing the wrong thing. I tell it to go in one direction and it decides to go in the other direction. On top of all of this, none of the characters feel natural. You were talking about Squirtle: don't get me started. Can't control the little fuck for shit. Give us the lowdown on stage selection, Alex.

Kyle's Quip: Wait... Squirtle's Water Gun doesn't do anything?

Stage Selection – 2/5
Alex Stravier: Oh man, the stages... they all suck so hard. The only stages I can stand playing are Battlefield, Lylat Cruise and Smashville. Final Destination is way too stupid in this game because of the fact that you can get caught underneath the stage trying to recover. Creating a flat stage could compensate, but why make us waste our time making such a simple stage? All the other stages, aside from Yoshi's Island, generally have some kind of really stupid hazard that dicks with you the entire time you play on the stage, which is completely and utterly retarded.
Wyndikan Xavier: I couldn't agree with you more. A little more on the stage builder: what the fuck? You have to create moar stages just get get more parts? I mean... you've got to be kidding me. That is incredibly retarded. What is this a driving test? Do we have to prove that we can do it so we can "get our licenses?" Give me a break.

Kyle's Quip: I make really gay stages.

Online Play – 4/5
Alex Stravier: I mentioned this a little bit earlier, but now we're going to get into the online play aspects of the game. I'll just tell you: they suck. If you accept the Smash Service, you get a Replay, a Snapshot, and a Custom Stage every day. They all suck because they're always from people who suck at the game. The lag while playing "With Everyone" is just awful. Hell, even "With Friends" is bad. Wyndikan and I couldn't even have a match without it lagging, and we live less than ten minutes apart. What the hell is that shit?
Wyndikan Xavier: I don't know, Alex. I actually really enjoyed the online play. Personally, I think it's some of THE BEST I've ever seen in a video game. THE BEST being that it's innovative. THE BEST being that no one has ever done it before. THE BEST being that I personally didn't experience any lag other than the first match I had with you. Simply THE BEST.
Which brings us to our Overall score...

Kyle's Quip: I heard you couldn't play this on dial-up. I was pissed.

Overall:
Wyndikan Xavier: Overall, I think Brawl is pretty... shitty. Melee was much better in nearly every aspect. The graphics weren't improved. Characters were innovative and fresh. Captain Falcon wasn't a starter. Whatdya got, Alex?
Alex Stravier: It's just awful; I could definitely give it up and let it down. Hell, I'd run around it and desert it, and make it cry, and then to end it, I'd say goodbye and tell it a lie and hurt it.
Wyndikan Xavier: You heard the man. Well, until next time, this is Wyndikan Xavier.
Alex Stravier: And Alex Stravier, suggesting that you stay the hell away from this crappy game!
Wyndikan Xavier: Agreed!

1 out of 5.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl Review - Part 2/3 - Alex's Take

2008-03-19T02:24:00.003-05:00

Hey guys. I've given the game a fair rundown by now; it's been out for over a week at this point. This has given me the opportunity to try out a lot of things in the game, and it has actually forced me to think of some creative things to complete some challenges (a combined 400 hit combo in training mode with all characters? To hell with that, I'll create a boxed in stage and just use Pit's Angel Ring attack to get that combo in just a few minutes!). Anyway, here is my review, in its entirety, as I did not feel like shortening it just because Wyndikan told me to make it short! Oh, and there are spoilers. Yeah.

Character selection - 4/5
There are 35 characters in the game. A lot of people wanted characters like Megaman or Isaac (from Golden Sun, who makes an appearance as an assist trophy), and there were just a multitude of characters that people wanted, to be honest. 35 characters is plenty for the game, and I personally like the selection of characters. I can't think of any other characters that I would really like to add; Richter or Simon Belmont from Castlevania, maybe? Nintendo could have added characters like Megaman had their respective companies (in this case, Capcom) contacted Nintendo in the same way that Hideo Kojima contacted Nintendo about wanting Solid Snake in the game. I do like the roster, but there were so many more possibilities. R.O.B. was definitely a strange choice.

Story - 4/5
We all know that there's the Subspace Emissary adventure mode in the game now, right? It does provide for a rather lengthy adventure (over seven hours), and that is for Super Smash Bros.; fighting games with an adventure mode that long? It's crazy. Unfortunately, it's pretty repetitive. Going through too many levels and beating up so many monsters can get pretty frustrating, especially on the harder difficulties. The bosses are a pretty cool touch and make for very interesting enemies. You'll also find yourself able to die here in ways other than falling down a hole or flying off the screen (e.g., getting squished between a rising floor and the ceiling). It's definitely a step above Melee's adventure mode, though. But gee, it sure could have done without some of the more annoying platforming parts. The stickers that you use to power up your characters might even be necessary--even on normal mode--if you find yourself being launched from the stage too easily. And you will discovery what I mean by repetitive (and predictable) once you get to the last couple of stages. It's a great addition, though.

Graphics - 5/5
It is so hard to rate a game's graphics nowadays. With games like Crysis out on the PC, we've seen what kind of graphics developers are capable of. I think that it's unfair to judge graphics this way; there is no way the Wii would be able to reach the capabilities of the PC. Ask yourself this: do the graphics push the limits of the console? Absolutely. That's what matters. The graphical capabilities of today may be superior, but as far as the Wii goes, the graphics are awesome. Character animations are fluid (characters like Game & Watch and Wario have their own little quirks that were designed on purpose) as well. This game looks even better than Super Mario Galaxy, and that is saying a lot.

Sound - 5/5
There are a ton of music tracks in this game. Including victory themes, we're short just a few songs of having a total of 300 music tracks. If you create a stage using the stage builder (more on this later), you will be able to put any music you want onto the stage (except for victory themes, of course). Some of the music tracks are really awesome, but some others are just... not. If you don't like them, you can set them to never appear on the levels they're set to appear on, though. Which brings me to my next point: you don't start off with every song. Sometimes when you're fighting, you'll notice that a CD will fall right out of the sky. It's a great idea to grab it to add another song to your collection, but they will disappear very quickly. Like I said, some songs are good, and some aren't. You'll also find CDs in the Subspace Emissary.

As far as voices go, though... it's kind of a mixed bag. The corny lines given to some characters, such as Pit and Ike, are just really annoying. For the record, though, Pit sounds much better in the English version of the game than he does in the Japanese version of the game. Some of Snake's codec conversations can be comical, but for some reason, Otacon, the Colonel, and Mei-Ling just sound different from how they spoke in Metal Gear Solid. Snake is still badass, though, but we all knew that from the beginning, right? Oh, and by the way, it's worth mentioning that Captain Falcon's Falcon Punch has changed again; it is more exaggerated and awesome than ever.

Replayability - 5/5
This is Super Smash Bros. Replayability is the biggest part of the game. It's automatically a 5/5 because of all the events, difficulties, stickers and trophies that you can collect, not to mention just how many vs. matches you're going to end up playing. Go look at how many matches you played in Melee. The special matches make a return, too, but you can set them up in more interesting ways (one certain way will allow you to unlock all of the characters pretty easily, as each vs. match you play could last less than a second... minus load times).

Character Moves - 4/5
The animations for characters are really, really fluid. Of course, there are characters like Wario and Mr. Game and Watch that move in incredibly awkward ways on purpose, but it suits them perfectly, and that's what this section is all about. Final smashes are pretty cool, but for some reason, Fox, Falco and Wolf share a Landmaster as a final smash (they differ, though; Falco's and Wolf's fly much higher in the air than Fox's, and Wolf's is much stronger, but doesn't last as long). Link and Toon Link also share the same final smash, with (what I've noticed to be) no differences. There could have been a bit more creativity with the final smashes, which were one of the most hyped up things in the game. For something that could have been so much more, three characters share a very similar final smash, and two characters have the exact same one? Falco could have piloted an Arwing, at least, and Toon Link could have maybe summoned a flood, or used the Wind Waker to do something crazy. It seems to make sense that Wolf would steal an idea from Fox and improve upon it, though, but nonetheless, the lack of creativity in the final smash department is a cause for a lower score. You can BAAAWWWWW at me as much as you want for this one, I don't care.

Controls - 5/5
There are four different control styles for the game: Gamecube controller, Classic controller, Wii remote, and Wii remote + Nunchuck. I played Melee a crapload, so of course I use the Gamecube controller. A big thing worth noting now, however, is that three of the four control styles do not have an analog trigger. This means that lightshielding is no longer in the game (lightshielding is where you push the trigger in to shield, but not until it clicks). You now must push the trigger in until it clicks to shield. Just as a short explanation, the analog trigger of the Gamecube controller can sense the depth that it is pressed, but the triggers of the other control styles can only be seen as "pressed" or "not pressed," therefore lightshielding had to be removed. Some people have planned to remove the spring from their trigger so that they don't have to push it as much to shield. If it interests you... do it.

But you don't need to. Why not just reassign shielding to a different button? You can customize your controller in pretty much any way you like; don't like reaching for Z to grab? Or you don't like shielding then hitting A to grab? Reassign it to the X or Y button (I use the Y button to jump, I dunno about you); you don't need two buttons assigned to jumping. If you jump with the control stick, you can change both of those buttons. You can even turn off the tap jump if you wanted to, so that when you tap up on the control stick, you will not jump. It would certainly make aerial attacks much easier, and you will probably screw up less (by accidentally jumping) if you're running back and forth on the stage. Disabling tap jump is one of the first things I did, and I love it. You might notice at first that the controls may appear to be a little unresponsive, but you'll catch on in no time if you're using a familiar style.

I personally think that the Wii remote + nunchuck control style is horrid. You can know exactly what each button does, but it feels so much more alien compared to a Gamecube controller. Do you shield with R? If you do, you're going to end up hitting B for a while. Using the control pad up or the c button to jump is just... weird. Don't modify the style and then try to use it, and you'll probably agree with me. At least I hope, or you probably won't trust the rest of my review! Oh, and I don't know if you use the C-stick for aerials or smashes on occasion, but I do; not having a C-stick sucks if you're used to using one. To combat this, they added a "shake smash" feature where you shake the remote to use smash attacks instead.

The wii remote? By itself? Okay, wait a minute. People suggest that, because this style is possible, Nintendo could create a Super Smash Bros. DS with a similar control scheme. Personally, I don't think it's such a great idea. Holding the B button on the back to shield feels completely weird. Having to jump by tapping up on the control pad is awful (granted, the DS has X and Y buttons that could be used for jumping, and L & R buttons for shielding), and you still have to be able to move through the air and use attacks, and the control scheme just doesn't allow for that kind of mobility.

The classic contoller is decent. Way better than the Wii Remote or Wii Remote + Nunchuck styles. It lacks the feel of a Gamecube controller, but if you've never played the game, you might find the classic controller to your liking. I found that I had to customize the buttons a bit more before I was comfortable using it (I didn't like the defaults), but it's not all that bad overall. I still prefer the Gamecube controller, though. With so many possibilities for control, you can't give this section any less than a 5/5, even if some of the control schemes suck. Just don't use them.

Oh, and by the way, something I noticed: you can use your up smash while dashing (just smash up on the C-stick while running!).

Online - 3/5
There are so many ways to take the online mode... it's no Halo when it comes to online play. You can play against random people, but only in two-minute timed matches where random items will be enabled, and the stage selection is basically a popularity contest (if everyone chooses a different stage, it will be a random selection between the stages chosen). There is no voice chat, and that doesn't bother me so much... I don't want little kids crying to me when I beat them, and I don't want little kids bragging to me when they win, either. I watched Wyndikan's little brother play Halo, and the sheer amount of annoying dumb kids on that game is ridiculous, and I am glad Brawl won't be that way. For matches with friends, though, voice chat could have been nice.

If you're brawling online, chances are you will use "With Friends" pretty often. Yes, you have to put in a friend code for your friends, and you must give them yours. You're able to customize the match, though, unlike the random online matches.

If your Internet connection isn't all that great, you may experience some lag in your matches. I've heard that Nintendo is working out the lag as best they can, but some lag will probably still exist even after they fix a ton of problems. I played a match with a friend and it froze so many times that I told him to pause it and give up. Some other matches weren't so bad, though. The lag is most likely dependent on your connection, though, so beware. I'd give the online a 3/5 simply because of the lag, and there's no reason not to have a voice chat feature with your friends. Having to set up something like Skype for it is definitely unnecessary. I guess downloading a new level every day that was made by someone with the stage builder is kinda neat, but some people really have no creativity with the levels.

Other notes
The stage builder is okay. You're limited on what you can build, though. I expect some people to create some fairly simple levels (maybe just a plain flat level to use in place of Final Destination, which now has a "crevice of death" that you can get caught in while trying to recover back onto the stage), and some other people may use their creativity to create a truly unique stage that is a challenge to play on.

The Masterpieces are... unnecessary. Really. I realize that Sakurai wants people to see Nintendo's history of different video games, but having demos of games that are on the Virtual Console is just kind of lame and not really needed.

The last thing I want to discuss is the Challenges screen. As long as you can complete one challenge, you can complete all of them, as you can see challenges around the ones you've already completed, and you will be given hints on how to complete the challenges. Before you ask, yes, it was borrowed from Kirby Air Ride. At least this way, you'll know what you still have to complete, right?

That pretty much completes my review, except for my final score, which I will get to in a moment. I'd be pretty surprised if you actually took the time to read all of my review (it's pretty lengthy, I felt I should be thorough for a game of this caliber). I will say this, though: this is a must-have game. If you have a Wii, you need to get this game or you are a huge faggot. I do not average my scores for a final score (I think that it is lame, and you will find that most websites that review video games do not average their scores so I might as well not be an asshole), and Super Smash Bros. Brawl deserves no less from me than a

5 out of 5.

(Seriously. It's good enough to keep me busy for years. It's a 5/5 game if it can keep me occupied for years.)

Super Smash Bros. Brawl Review - Part 1/3 - Wyndikan's Take

2008-03-10T02:31:00.007-05:00

Wyndikan Xavier here; ready to give you my part of the review of the much anticipated Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Part 2 will be Alex's review and Part 3 will be our short rundown and final thoughts with quips by resident Smash Bros. expert Kyle Reiter along with the FINAL review score.
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Character Selection - 4/5
Good, but could be better. There are more characters than ever now, but at the same time, it doesn't seem like that's true. A couple other characters such as Mega Man would be been pretty cool, but I guess you can only get so many rights to characters. Anyway, to sum up the character selection, I'd have to say I'm impressed. The new characters fit in very well (cept a few maybe) and perform admirably, though even with so many new characters, they seem to get tiresome after awhile.

Story - 3/5
I give this a 3 out of 5 for multiple reasons. The story isn't bad... if you can understand what exactly is going on. Most of the characters never really talk during the Subspace Emissary campaign, so you just have to go off of their actions. I've never really understood the whole trophy concept and this game just makes me more confused. You slightly understand what's going on, but you never really grasp the concept because it isn't being shown. But overall, I have to say that it's not terrible. There are way too many cutscenes, but on the bright side they ARE pretty. Also, I have to mention that the enemies in the Subspace Emissary are COMPLETELY overpowered. They do WAY too much damage in one hit; even the small enemies! (I'd also like to add that in Subspace Emissary, when you die from missing a platform or something stupid like that, you may respawn in the same place, miss the platform again and waste a life completely.)

Graphics - 4/5
GREAT for the Wii. Best I've seen so far, but there are problems. Some objects are perfectly round while others look like they came from the N64 days. For instance, Kirby is a perfectly round little mofo, whilst the rings on Pit's arm are jagged and far from round/smooth. The shading is pretty good and it isn't too much. At 480p, it does look amazing though; I have to give it some credit.

Sound - 5/5
Soundtrack: simply amazing. Insanely large and 90% orchestrated. The music is simply amazing. I had my doubts at first, but all the songs really work with this game. The sound effects seem to be spot on. The reason I can tell this is because I don't pay attention to them. If the sound effects sound strange or out of place, I will notice. Being a musician, I have keen ears for that kind of thing. The sounds overall in this game completely kick ass.

Lasting Appeal - 5/5
It's Smash Bros. Any questions? On top of the fact that... it IS Smash Bros., there are the special modes such as bunny hood mode, flower mode, etc. that make the game a lot more interesting. The multiplayer in this game is what it's all about and it is done excellently and it is, as always, a lot of fun.

Character Moves - 5/5
Spot on. The characters' moves seem very natural, even if they're a newcomer. I don't know what else to say about this. I think this is a good spot to put this in as well: the AI is awesome. Computer characters are smarter, quicker, and much harder. Look forward to an actual fight when you face a level 9 this time around.

Control - 4/5
I have some issues with the control. To ME, it seems SLIGHTLY unresponsive at times. This is not to say it's like this all the time, but you do have your issues where you seem to issue a command and it does the complete opposite. Could be all me, but for some reason, others have this problem at rare occasions too. So I don't know.

Stage Selection - 5/5
Like a freaking billion stages, even some from Melee. You can also create your own custom stages, which is a nice touch. Some of the stages are EPIC fail, but some are pretty well thought-out and interesting.

Online Play - 3/5
We've had some issues with lag, and then seen some matches without them. I'm sure the online play is usually pretty smooth if you're in the same country (we haven't play much of the online at this point), but there are other issues such as FRIEND CODES and the game seeming to lack the ability to play with your buddy against two other people online. Setting up a matchmaking room that your friend could join would have been a whole lot cooler. No voice chat kind of also kills the experience (thanks a lot, Sakurai). The online is pretty flawed, I'm sorry to say. Nintendo just cannot seem to get it right.

Overall

While it hurts me not to give this game a perfect, the multiplayer aspect is not the complete game. Some people may live far from others who will play Brawl with them and must rely on a shitty online play. The same kinds of people may be in it primarily for the single player play (which is not bad. It IS a lot of fun), but it's not as great as many other game. You will clock in about 8-9 hours for the Subspace Emissary depending on how fast you play it, so you'd expect it to be a little better than it is. All of the above aspects culminate to create the final product. Brawl is just not up to par on all levels, so I cannot give it a perfect score. If this were a multiplayer only game, it WOULD get a perfect score, but the imperfection of the singleplayer modes gives Super Smash Bros. Brawl a

4 out of 5.

The Blogdikan REVIEWS Super Smash Bros. Brawl!

2008-03-04T22:38:00.004-06:00

You've seen the reviews. You've seen the scores. But have you seen the bullshit? How will you know until we, the Blogdikan team give you our NO BULLSHIT review of Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Does this game deserve a coveted Blogdikan 5/5 or simply a 1/5? We'll tell you all you need to know come March 9th with our own review.

You'll get the honest reviews you've come to love with a length that doesn't bore you to death. Here at the Blogdikan, we know you want SHORT posts, NON-BIASED, NO BULLSHIT, NON-INFLUENCED reviews... and that's exactly what you'll get!

So tune in on March 9th when we give our full review of this highly anticipated game!

is it can be drink tiem nao PLZ?! PART DEUX

2008-02-02T02:52:00.000-06:00

Because of recent events, I now realize that I forgot something that I should have put in my previous post about this bullshit.

While age should certainly be an important determining factor in whether or not someone should drink, we should also be taking something else into consideration... something far more important. There are some people that should not be allowed to drink. At all. Why?

While some people are able to retain some kind of composure while under the influence of alcohol, other people cannot. People who cannot retain composure should not be allowed to consume alcohol. Period.

I awakened this afternoon to some loud noises. Yes, I wake up in the afternoon, and not because I'm lazy; I'm up late. My classes start late in the day (my earliest class is 4PM, 1PM if Wyndikan deems it necessary on Mondays/Tuesdays). I wake up late to compensate, and I stay up late, too. Anyway, those loud noises I was talking about... it was a voice.

You know how sometimes women have to go to the bathroom a lot? Imagine what it's like when they are drinking beer. And talking on the phone at the same time. A lot of people become annoyingly loud and obnoxious when inebriated. Needless to say, this was the reason I woke up. My bedroom is right across from the bathroom, so I can hear everything, especially loud chatting over a telephone.

So I got up. I consider Friday my day off from pretty much everything academic, so I got on my computer and started looking up more exciting Super Smash Bros. Brawl videos (more on this game at another time). I wasn't browsing for more than ten minutes before there was a return trip to the bathroom, complete with obnoxiousness. Fifteen minutes later, it happened again. Intoxication indeed!

Now, this person is not supposed to drink under any circumstance. She has been arrested for being intoxicated in public. I live next to a cop. The cop certainly did not enjoy having to deal with a neighbor banging on his door in the wee hours of the morning. Anyway, my dad got fed up with trying to sleep through the loud noise and got up. Arguing ensued and continued for a few hours.

I messaged my friend during this time and he mentioned that he was planning a trip out of town, and he invited me along. I took him up on this offer, as I didn't want to deal with the arguing anymore. It was dying down, but I still didn't want to deal with it. I discussed it with my dad, and he was initially worried about the roads from the big snowstorm, but we still went and the roads were fine.

So after a nice trip to Guitar Center and the mall, we went back to Wyndikan's house. We watched First Blood and then we watched Rush Hour 3 (I can't be bothered to use italics for movies in an article like this, it would look stupid, don't e-mail me about it). By this time it was 1AM and we decided to call it a night.

So I walk in my front door. Everything was dark, so someone forgot to leave a light on, but that's all right, it didn't matter. What I didn't realize is that the lights were probably off for a reason, but boy am I glad that I turned them on. If I didn't?

Good thing for electricity, it allowed me to see and pick up some pretty big pieces of glass! inb4pokemans (yes, I play Pokemon, I play vidya games, deal with it)

I didn't take any pictures of the papers all over the kitchen floor or the spice rack that was, I assume, thrown into the family room. I had picked them up before I thought about it. There are spices all over the floor, too.

Oh hey, as a bonus, I will include pictures of what I think that huge piece of glass did to my electrical outlet in the kitchen, and the wall as well.

Seriously? IS THIS NECESSARY?

Let's break everything in the house! Yeah! That will definitely work. Every time I have something nice, I will just eventually end up breaking it by throwing it out of complete anguish.

Since that logic doesn't apply to anyone with any sense at all, one can only assume that someone with no sense would have to do such a thing, and generally, people who are intoxicated are the ones most likely to have no sense of what's going to happen when they throw something. SPOILERS: GLASS BREAKS WHEN THROWN.

Anyway, I promised a picture of an electrical outlet. I guess that glass plate had to have been thrown kinda hard if it broke the plastic on the electrical outlet (I'm actually surprised that it didn't break the outlet completely, or anything else in it. Lucky miss?).

WHY?

You can see three things wrong in that picture as far as my wall is concerned, so I'm curious as to what else was thrown at the wall. I didn't find anything else by the glass, so your guess is probably as good as mine.

So... I still don't understand why drinking and getting drunk is a good thing, especially if it leads to things like this for some people. Anyone have any answers for me?

Cloverfailed

2008-01-19T23:02:00.000-06:00

So there's a movie out. A monster movie. I like monster movies. I barely liked Cloverfield. To be honest, it wasn't that great for one reason: it wasn't scary in the least bit. If the movie had been scarier, it would have been pretty damn good. Not enough spook tactics in this film. Not enough closeups of the monster. Too little of the tiny monsters (yes, there are tiny monsters).

Now look, I'm not saying that Cloverfield is a terrible movie and by no means is it a bad movie; it's just a movie. Plain and simple. Not terrible. Not great. Run-of-the-mill monster movie. You're going to start hating this movie when you start watching it simply because HALF the movie is wasted in the beginning introducing characters and talking to people at Rob's party. Stupid. I was about to get up and leave to be honest. It took too long for the movie to get going. The opening scenes of the Statue of Liberty getting decapitated was pretty cool and the explosion which I didn't quite understand was awesome, but there wasn't that massive scale after about 70% of the movie. It just lost its gusto. Scare tactics in this movie would have been perfect considering you could see every single thing coming. I don't know how many times I said to myself: "I bet Hud dies. I bet Hud dies." And yes, Hud does die. Spoiler alert. Whoop-dee-doo.

The entire Cloverfield movie in a nutshell pictured above.

Another thing that ruined this movie was the damn camera. The first person was pretty awesome, but the camcorder aspect was a stupid move. Too much shaking, focusing, blurriness, and closeup shots. I agree, this movie would not be the same shot from a 3rd person perspective. You miss that experience and that's really what the movie was going for, but they could have mounted a camera on someone's head and pretended that it was the person's own eyes that saw everything. Would have been cooler, but I guess it wouldn't have worked out too well anyway.

So, tl;dr, Cloverfield = okay. It wasn't bad. Wasn't good. Camera sucked. Sounds were above par. Acting was pretty bad. Quite predictable. Wasn't really all that scary. The scale was lost near the end of the movie, but it was still kept pretty well in tact. The experience was pretty cool. Hud dies.

Cloverfield gets a 3.5 out of 5.

is it can be drink tiem nao PLZ?!

2008-01-19T22:46:00.000-06:00

My articles generally involve me talking about things that I don't like, or things that I think are stupid. Tonight's article will be on something else that I think is stupid, but it's certainly a much more controversial thing than Guitar Hero (you're still not becoming one by playing the game) or PeoplePC.

This article is about drinking. In case you have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm talking about alcohol. I have so many places I can go in this article that I don't really know how to begin. The legal drinking age in the United States is 21. There are, generally, many reasons for this, but one of the most important reasons for this is because we don't want problems in public (and problems is an extremely broad category, containing tons and tons of possible scenarios, some of which I may get into).

So, what's the age that teenagers can get their driver's licenses (or are able to get them)? 16 (more recently the driving age has been changed to 18). When they finally get their driver's licenses, their egos are sure to inflate to maybe three times the size they were already, but they're still pretty much learning how to drive.

Driving is only semi-relevant to this article so I'll try to cut this portion short. You see, teenagers are arrogant enough as it is. There are quite a few of them who think that it's absolutely unnecessary for them to wait any longer before they start drinking. Time for some math!

Teenagers that are still learning how to drive + alcohol = ???

You really shouldn't have to think about this. It's just a really bad idea. Even people with years of driving experience can't drive well when they're drunk, and a teenager is most certainly not going to be any better. Plus, this is where you start putting other peoples' lives in danger. Oh shit, this might be one of those reasons why driving while intoxicated is against the law!

I absolutely can not find the appeal of being drunk. I have drank before and I have been drunk before (here's an event I'd rather not repeat, ever). Was it fun? No, it sure as hell wasn't. I was told by a few people that I was funnier when I was drunk, and I actually think that it was a bunch of bullshit, but that's not exactly relevant. I just about froze my ass off that night. Sure, I thought I was warm before I fell asleep, but when I woke up after a couple of hours? Hahaha, yeah. You know, my memory of that night is still intact, too. I remember refusing beer. I remember tasting my friend's beer (more on my friend later), and it tasted disgusting, just as I had remembered when I had tried it before. So a couple of my other friends egged me on and said that I should get drunk so that they could see me drunk. So, like an idiot, I did (but hey, this is where the whole "experience" thing comes in!). Have you ever heard of jungle juice? Hawaiian punch, orange juice, vodka (a fifth), and everclear all get mixed up for this one. Does it taste good? Nah, not really, at least I don't think it does. I drank it anyway, though; by the end of the party I had went through three 16oz. SOLO cups of it.

I didn't really feel anything after the first two cups. Maybe a little warmth in the stomach. It wasn't until later that I actually started feeling it. I threw up, too, and that was certainly not enjoyable. My friend had three beers and two cups of the jungle juice and ended up completely shitfaced. By comparison, I probably looked sober. But anyway, he passed out. Definitely not the best experience of my life. Anyway, I said I didn't find the appeal of being drunk, and then I sort of went off on a tangent, but hey: it sucked.

I do not, by any means, promote underage drinking. It's reserved as a privilege for people who are a lot more mature. Today, though, we're finding that age definitely isn't an accurate measure of maturity, but that's another article for another day. Should we allow teenagers to drink? No, lest there be all kinds of havoc. Should we lower the drinking age? No, you cocks! Here we go again.

I went to high school with a bunch of "popular kids." Popular in their own way, that is; they were all generally related in at least one way: sports. Mostly, these kids played sports, and this group included freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors. It also included both boys and girls. My graduating class had about 50 people in it, rounded up. I can quite safely say that at least 20% of the people in my class were in a debate for lowering the drinking age (x/50 = .2, solve for x and you have a number of people instead of a percentage!). That is, I should say, these were people for lowering the drinking age ("I CAN GO AND DIE FOR MY COUNTRY BUT I CAN'T HAVE A BEER? THIS IS MY ONLY RELEVANT POINT OTHER THAN 'I REALLY WANT TO DRINK' BUT SINCE I'M POPULAR YOU GUYS WILL ALL VOTE FOR MY SIDE"). I didn't participate in the debate because I didn't want to waste my time. I could have written the best argument in the world and I still wouldn't have won. If anything, I would have turned the classroom into a shouting match aimed directly toward me. But anyway, a good deal of people were for lowering the drinking age in the debate and these people feel that they're mature enough to drink.

So, on to my point. Are they mature enough? Gee, I dunno. Remember an article a few years back, where the W-Man got a prank phone call? They're the same people. Are these people smart? I suppose, in their own ways, yes, sure. They were able to keep up with my grades. They drank after a lot of big sporting events, too, so do I know how they kept up with them? No, I don't. Maybe I'm retarded! Maybe there was a little more going on than the eye could see! I don't know. These aren't the kinds of people I'd allow to drink, personally. Someone would be guaranteed to get hurt (yeah, I don't think the girl who hit a telephone pole on the other side of the road was sober).

I do happen to drink that drinking is okay in a social sense. As long as you're old enough and aren't fucking retarded and aren't drinking just to get drunk (being drunk doesn't equal fun, etc.). I think this has gone on long enough for me to tell you that underage drinking is retarded, and drinking to get drunk is retarded ("hay guise, i'm so cool because i'm 16 and i drink alcohol lol") instead of cool. So I'm going to go ahead and click "PUBLISH POST" because I'm done writing.

Guitar Hero: You're Certainly Not Becoming One!

2008-01-13T15:24:00.000-06:00

Guitar Hero is stupid. Stop messaging me about Guitar Hero and asking me if I like it because I obviously don't.

First of all, I will say that Guitar Hero could have had the possibility of being a somewhat decent game... if it was more like playing a real guitar. I can already picture you morons jumping at me, saying "BUT ALEX GUITAR HERO DOESN'T CLAIM TO BE LIKE A REAL GUITAR, MUCH LESS PLAY LIKE ONE LOL!" ...That's fine and everything, but wouldn't it be infinitely more productive for you to pick up a real guitar, look up some tabs online, and play songs that way? Or write your own? No, of course not, it'd be much better for you to pick up a plastic controller in the shape of a guitar, argue that the concept of the game is to "play guitar" without actually playing guitar, and push colored buttons on it in a proper rhythm (yes, Guitar Hero does require rhythm!).

Some people will argue that Guitar Hero is an awesome party game. How many players are able to play at the same time? Two? I'm pretty sure parties consist of more than two people, and parties even consist of more than four people, but four-player games get a lot more people involved and end up being a lot more fun. Just the other day, one of my friends was complaining to me: "Man, I went over to [mutual friend's house] last night, and he was like, 'Oh, you brought your guitar [controller]?' Of course I did, I thought we were going to duel, but what it ended up being was me sitting there watching him play Guitar Hero on the PS2 for an hour and a half. I got bored, so I left." Some of you may argue that it's the flaw of the friend that he got bored, and you're partially correct... but if people are left out of a game, it's not fun. What fun can a two-player game be if there are more than two people (especially if they want to play)? WarioWare: Smooth Moves, on the Wii, on the other hand, is a great party game. It combines the Wii remote with a whole bunch of different, sometimes hilarious, poses (which aren't required, as long as you hold the remote the right way or make the right motion, but where's the fun in that?) and you just play minigames by doing something with the remote. And you can have up to twelve players in certain modes, 5 in others, and 2 in some (but nobody plays those, unless it's just two people!). Guitar Hero a party game? No. I think not. I'm not going to get into the multiple TV setup because that's just stupid. It's not a party if everyone is divided, and that's all I will say.

I'm going to go back to what I said about the game not claiming to teach you how to play guitar. No, it certainly doesn't claim to teach you guitar. That's because it can't. It can teach you rhythm, but not how to play a guitar. What's the point of having rhythm if you're not going to play an instrument at all (like... I don't know, a guitar)? Why not pick up the instrument that the game is named after? And play that? Hell, who's (money isn't a who, don't be a faggot) stopping you and your friends from grabbing real guitars, going to the basement, or the garage, setting up an amp or two, and just rocking out (the cops, maybe, or your neighbors, so you could obviously try to keep it in good taste instead of being faggots)? That's more of a party than Guitar Hero is.

On the bright side, at least Guitar Hero doesn't get attacked by Jack Thompson for being too violent, right?

Guitar Hero (the series) gets a 0 out of party.

Your Friend Has Invited You To Suck Big Donkey Balls With George Bush While Eating a Crescent Roll in Pittsburgh Where You Save Trees With One Click

2007-12-07T01:48:00.000-06:00

Facebook is shit. Pure, steaming shit. It's amazing to me that some of the retards I know in real life use Facebook. There is this combined with the fact that an enormous amount of people on the internet CAN use it. I guess the harder a website is to navigate and make sense of, the easier it is to use for people who would die trying to find the "Contact Us" section of a corporate website.

Facebook.com is like a bigger, much harder version of Where's Waldo?, except instead of searching for some douchebag that is really fucking good at hide and seek, you're looking for some good web design. I take that back. You don't know what exactly you're looking for or what exactly there is to do! MySpace (god forbid I use them as an example here) at leasts gives you a list of options at the top of the main page, full of semi-interesting things to do. Facebook obviously couldn't be this easy as they need to create about 3 drop down menus that essentially do nothing for you.

My main problem with Facebook is that I don't know what the fuck I'm supposed to be doing. I get a billion messages from them telling me that my friend has invited me to "Truckers Opening Up a Can of Worms on Sunday x5 With Vampires" and that I should join them in it. What? I'm not on a social networking site to play games. I'm there to socialize within a network. Where do I do this!? Oh wait. Up at the top. Networks. Find a network. Okay okay. So maybe we have some redeeming qualities here... browse for networks. Okay. Let's see if I can find some networks for people who blog (or barely do in my case). Wait. No. I can only search for places, schools, and regions. What the fuck?

The only actual redeeming feature of Facebook is the "Post Secrets" application in which you can anonymously post your secret confessions... or taunt those who do so. It's hilarious what people actually post and since it's all anonymous, you can say whatever the hell you feel like and get away with it. It's great.

But that's besides the point. Look, Facebook. If you want to win me over from MySpace, then hire a website designer and stop letting coked up college dropouts decide how your website should look.

Facebook gets a 0 out of Waldo.

Fact

2007-10-16T00:28:00.001-05:00

This is turning fucking clockwise. End of discussion.

And now, another episode of...

2007-05-22T16:37:00.000-05:00

We'll just call this TV show "One of the Greatest Things I Have Ever Seen," (capitalized because it is my imaginary television show that I just thought up three seconds ago) and on today's episode, I am going to provide you with a video that was posted on YouTube on February 15, 2007.

Why Did All the Dinosaurs Die? Because of Psychiatry, That's Why!

2007-05-16T15:32:00.000-05:00

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those of the Church of Scientology. In fact, I'm guaranteeing you they are not. Also, nothing in this article has been cited as fact or should be taken that way. In this country, everyone is entitled to their own opinion: and this is mine, be it true or not.

Why did L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the psychotic cult known as Scientology, believe that psychiatrists were evil and harmful? Do you really want to know? Because he himself was crazy.

Or was he? L. Ron Hubbard has been quoted repeatedly as saying that the best way to make money is to start a religion. I don’t think L. Ron was stupid or crazy. He was a brilliant man. You see, he never believed what he preached. If you don’t seem to believe what you say, why the hell would others? Hubbard realized that by starting his religion, he could make millions and become more famous than he may have already been. He succeeded.

Now comes the question of: why no psychiatric help? Hubbard knew that the story of Xenu, which most of you are already familiar with by now, was completely unbelievable, yet, making it part of a religion, people would believe it anyway. When the story of Xenu had been leaked, Hubbard had already known the damage that would ensue upon his religion. His followers would be called “crazy”—perhaps even insane. And they were.

With this charge of insanity, the followers would either feel the need for psychiatric help or others would tell them to seek it, which would lead to the consequent realization of reality and the members would drop the church, which meant no more money for Hubbard. Thusly came the claim that psychiatrists are evil and cruel and the drugs prescribed were deadly and cruel. Now, in my opinion, psychiatric drugs are a scary thing and could potentially be damaging to the body and dangerous. However, to claim that psychiatric help beyond drugs is evil, I would have to be insane.

L. Ron Hubbard was not quite a genius, but he was clever. Whenever someone has religion under their wings, they are willing to believe whatever is taught. L. Ron knew ahead of time that his stories were too damn farfetched for the masses, so he prepared himself, and very well might I add. So is Hubbard himself really crazy? Well… maybe just a little.

Scientology's stance on psychiatry gets a 0 out of 1.

I have great news!

2007-04-01T14:05:00.000-05:00

Today I decided that I will update the Blogdikan with regular updates (what else would I update them with?)! I plan to have a long-running segment that will make an appearance every Wednesday and Saturday, and the occasional Sunday, and maybe even the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November in even-numbered years.

Wynd Says It For You: Boston Is Officially Insane

2007-03-02T20:47:00.000-06:00

My theory is that the entire city of Boston is absolutely insane. On top of the Mooninite ordeal, this just came in: Boston Police BLOW UP Suspicious Looking Man!

Yeah. That's all I have to say.

This Post Cost Me $650,000. I'm Suing Boston!

2007-02-02T16:41:00.000-06:00

You know, guys, the more I look at this situation, the dumber and dumber it seems to me. I've tried blowing it off, but my conscious begs me to write about how stupid it actually is. I am talking about the guerrilla advertising ploy that took place in many major cities around the United States. If you haven't heard the story yet, here is the indisputable summary. Two men (hired or work for an ad agency) hung circuit boards with LEDs laid out to show Err, a "mooninite", a character from the quite popular show Aqua Teen Hunger Force on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim, all over these major cities. One of these cities was Boston, in which the people are apparently are still freaked out about an event that happened six years ago that was nothing like this "bomb threat."

Many news agencies and networks keep referring to it as a "hoax" or "fake threat." It was neither. It's obvious it's neither. I don't blame the guys a second for laughing about the ordeal. Now what makes this story better is that the city of Boston spent, and don't quote me, I believe around $650,000 all to "disarm" the "threat." One, it wasn't a bomb. Two, how the hell does it take the city any more money than it would have had to pay the employees of the bomb squad and police to disarm the "bombs." Come on. I really would like to see a logical explanation to that. What did they do, just chuck money at the circuit boards. "Maybe this will stop them! Everyone loves money! Especially from Boston!"

If the late Charles Schulz had hired an ad agency to place little light up Snoopy figures for his upcoming movie, no one would say anything. But, is it not the same damn thing? Aqua Teen Hunger Force, whether you like it or not, is an immensely popular television show. It's not Turner's fault that you don't know your television characters.

But, I do realize that the measures taken do have some logical ground to them. However, the thought that someone could actually hang these things there that were mistaken for bombs... and all over the entire United States in at least 10 major cities either unnoticed or not have the cops called on them really proves its own point. Most people that looked at it must have thought nothing of it, as they should have, but this just proves that it takes only one complete culture moron to ruin it for everyone.

My question is: why does it take $650,000 for a task force to disable upwards of 10 LED circuit board lights and if nothing was wrong with them, what is the big deal? What is the fucking big deal? Even if these guys lose their suit, which mark my words, if the US legal system is still fair, they will not, what makes it such a big deal? Nothing happened. Nothing would have happened. Inciting fear was obviously not the goal, so what is to become of this lawsuit? It is utterly ridiculous. More to come on this story as it progresses, but I will leave you with a quote from Ignignokt, the other Mooninite character from the show.

"The explosion shall be of extraordinary magnitude. Just hang on."

Wyndikan's Guide to Time Management

2007-01-25T22:22:00.000-06:00

Get your shit done.

Milestones and New Beginnings...

2007-01-25T17:18:00.000-06:00

Alright, guys, we haven't been posting in awhile because we have been very busy with various activities, projects, and work, but hopefully we'll be back in full swing here shortly. I actually decided to get off of my ass and do some work, so yeah, here it is: The Blogdikan 2.0. We're back and we look better than ever with a new design, layout, colors, and logo to match.

The first thing you may notice is the new design, which has been reworked from the ground up. We even changed our Arial ways somewhat to move on to some different fonts, but the article text will remain Arial. Also, our colors do not involve orange at all this time, a change I like very much. We are much more dark now, and I don't mean just the colors, I'm talking about the articles too. I think our articles have and will mature from our humble beginnings and that really is one of the main reasons for the darker theme.

The next think you may notice is the collapsible month and year menus for our articles and now you can choose just which one you would like to view. I know it had been a pain in the past to find an article, having to go through month by month and then scrolling for eternity. Now you can find your articles much more quickly and painlessly.

Lastly, you will notice the lack of links. Yes, I got rid of them. Too bad. Live with it. But I've done this for a reason. One: they were old. Two: you need to get out there too, so if you would like your site advertised here, just email me at wyndikan@blogdikan.com with the url and I'll link to your site free of charge.

Alright, people, we will post more good material soon. Take care.

- Wynd