ChrisTalbot.com

Take the quiz at dicepool.com

Seriously, how is The Prisoner DVD set still approaching $150? It's been out for several years, and ... well ... the damn show was only seventeen episodes. That's nearly ten bucks an episode. What the hell?

I hate Durham buses.

I hate GO trains.

I hate downtown.

I hate commuting.

And for no rational reason, I hate everybody today!

The Empire must be in dire straits. Those AT-AT pilots are getting younger and younger.

A possible companion for Guitar Hero. Oh, it's tempting.

Speaking of poor Guitar Hero: It hasn't been getting much love since the Wii invaded the entertainment centre.

Poor Guitar Hero. Don't worry; I still love you.

Technology can still give me a geekgasm. I was fiddling with Orb to see if I could get it to stream music to my Wii. It worked. Tee hee!

I'm so easily amused.

You've probably heard of these people who have supposedly used the Wii to get fit and lose weight. I still remain a little skeptical about it, but I've already found that playing a lot of Wii Sports (and really getting into it) does give me a basic workout. After the first twenty-four hours or so of playing Wii Sports, my arms -- from my forearms all the way up to my shoulderblades -- were quite sore.

My stubborn streak combined with how much fun I was having didn't stop me from continuing to play, though. I just cut down on the boxing a bit (it's definitely the most physically-stressful game in the set). After a few days, my muscles started to get used to the punishment I was giving them and I'm about halfway to pro in each of the sports. Heheh.

Add in a bit of jogging I've started doing (I'm still dying out there, but it's slowly getting better -- I can't go for very long, though; maybe five minutes -- and I'm probably most concerned about looking stupid ... says the guy playing the Wii ;)), and I'm damn sure I'm getting more exercise on a daily basis than I have in about four years (the biggest reason to miss working downtown is all the walking I was doing).

Now if I can only cut some more junk food out of my diet, maybe I'll stand a chance of actually getting into shape.

My love of various classic games led me to buying some Wii Points yesterday and using them to grab Mario Kart 64 and Punch-Out for the Wii Virtual Console. I spent a couple of hours playing them last night, too.

Even so, I somehow managed to find the time to finish watching Stargate SG-1: Season 3. That show is really disappointing me. It has some neat ideas, but every problem that comes up seems to be solved in a single episode. Any open ends get tied up all too nicely in a future episode. There also seem to be far too many instances of deus ex machina, where the SG-1 team works to solve a problem, but then the problem is solved by the god-like aliens instead. Laaaaaaame.

This will likely be of interest to anyone tracking the high-definition video war. Blockbuster has announced it's dropping HD-DVD titles and supporting only Blu-Ray.

I can't say this is all that much of a surprise. I think it's been fairly clear for awhile that Blu-Ray has been doing better than HD-DVD. Walk into the electronics section of a major department store and look at the high-def discs. They're almost all Blu-Ray. I don't even see all that many HD-DVD movies on sale (but granted, I could simply be missing them).

I want to take up jogging.

No, wait. Scratch that. It's a lie. What I want are the physical benefits from jogging (read: I want my waistline to stop expanding) without actually having to do the dirty deed itself.

However, as I'm beginning to realize I'm going to eventually have to up the size of the pants I buy, I know that I have to take the initiative and start forcing myself to get more exercise. After all, I've probably got more exercise in the last couple of days by flailing the Wii remote control wildly about than I've actually gotten in months.

So this morning I went for a jog.

And I swear I thought I was going to fucking die. I started imagining myself keeling over right on the side of Harwood as rush hour driver sped by.

The worst part of trying to get in shape is that starting point where you're just a pathetic, flabby sack of dough with no muscle tone. No wonder North Americans are getting so fat and out of shape -- it's just such a pain in the ass/neck/lungs/whatever body part to get going. It's so much easier to stare at the TV and munch on potato chips.

Mmm ... potato chips.

I have drunk the Wii Kool-Aid and I now have a Wii. Yay! Good-bye, sleep. Hello, Wii Sports.

Thanks to Jacquie and Pauline, who found a Wii while away on a trip to New Brunswick. :D

Mr. Wizard has died. Like countless other kids, I first thought science could be cool because of Mr. Wizard's show. I can't remember the last time I saw an episode of the show, but even after all these years, I still remember his quirky nature in showing off science as magic -- and then actually explaining that it's not magic; it's just really cool.

While in Wal-Mart last night (yeah, I know -- sometimes it feels like I live in the bloody store), I did my usual popping into the electronics department. Also as usual, I checked out the Nintendo Wii stuff and drooled on the floor a bit. And as usual, there were no Wii consoles on the shelf.

After browsing the area for awhile, I finally decided to just ask about the consoles, knowing full well what the answer would be.

Me: Just out of curiosity, do you have any Nintendo Wii consoles in stock?

Friendly Female Wal-Mart Employee: No.

Me: So Nintendo's still having their manufacturing shortage, eh?

FFW-ME: The last time we got any in was a couple days ago. We got three and they were sold out within an hour of putting them on the shelves.

Me: ... *rolling this over in my mind*

FFW-ME: There are just so many people that want them right now. Eventually there will be less people who are buying them.

Me: *thinking "yeah, right"* Oh well. I had to check. Thanks.

I have to admit I'm impressed at how much the demand for the Wii console is outstripping the supply. It's more than six months after launch, and you still have to fight tooth and nail (and have a lot of luck) to get a Wii.

In a way, I'm happy Wal-Mart didn't have any in stock. If they'd had one around, I have a feeling I would have been up all night playing Wii Sports. ;)

On Friday, I hit the local comic stores and picked up my monthly issues, as well as a couple of trades -- Ultimate Iron Man and Cerebus: The Last Day.

Ultimate Iron Man had come with very high recommendations from both Logan and Lawrence. While it had some neat ideas and it worked in Tony Stark's alcoholism quite cleverly, I wasn't really impressed by it at all -- especially the complete lack of ending. The story was a bit weak, and it didn't really grab me. It really could have been spiced up a bit.

Now I'm working my way through the last volume of Cerebus (finally). Latter Days has me worrying a lot about The Last Day, but I'm crossing my fingers and hoping the hundreds of pages of religious rantings from Latter Days won't be repeated in The Last Day. So far, there's still some very heavy religious themes (which I expected, anyway). With any luck, I'll be happy with the ending -- and then I can start reading the whole series again from the beginning (when Cerebus was fun and funny). ;)

Zombie minis galore.