Post For Two Days

I wrote up this post yesterday, but the Internet shut down hard, so I couldn't publish it. I'm putting it up before today's entry. Timeskips between today and yesterday will be separated by groups of asterisks.

***

Granddad came over today. It was his birthday. We went to Futureshop to drop off the desktop. Alix, the guy who sold us the computer, and Mitch, the guy who's fixing it for the third time, were there, but they didn't seem to remember us.

Even though they've had plenty of opportunity to snoop, and if they have, they've apparently found us decidedly unmemorable, I'm always uncomfortable handing our computer, with all the stuff I've put on it, over to them.

It's good that it's getting done, though. It was one of the things that was always being put on the backburner, because without a car it's really inconvenient, and our past experiences with getting it fixed have been discouraging, and because it was always not the thing that needed doing the most. So it kept being put off.

After visiting with Granddad, I caught a movie with Brenda. Brenda is the female side of my old Big Brother Couple. It's always hard to come up with a succinct way of saying that, so I guess I'll just call her my friend. She's the person I play Scrabble with on Facebook (coming up on a predicted one victory and two losses right now).

We went to Wendy's for a bite to eat first. There I saw two people I used to go to high school with. Both of them I hadn't seen since around grade nine. I was surprised I recognized them, but they really don't seem to have changed much. I know one of them recognized me, because her eyes bugged out and she jumped backward on seeing me, but she was working kitchen and totally just turned her back and went about her work.

The guy in charge of ripping your ticket was someone I knew, too, and a surprise member of my Facebook fan group (made by ex girlfriend and member, not me. I'm not THAT narcissistic. Although I took over as admin after she left).

We watched the Michael Jackson tribute. I didn't recognize any of the other titles, and it was what Brenda wanted to watch. I was a bit worried that attending such a film might mark you "on his side" because of the controversy surrounding his life, but I don't worry about that type of thing too much anymore.

I don't know if I'm on his side or not, really. My mother and brother are. They don't think he's a pedophile, basically. I'm not too educated on the subjected. What I do know is, there's a lot of pedophiles in the world, and if he was one, he was the only one that was given that kind of attention. I was brought up in a society where he was recognized as the freakiest, most monstrous human being on the planet. But of course, I don't know how much opinions like that count.

I don't know if I'm going to write up a review for the movie. I feel like I'd have difficulty separating the content featured in the film with my opinions on his history at large.

I see Disney's coming out with a new movie, with a new princess. A black one. And it's not done in that creepy 3D cartoon animation that they've grown so fond of. I know what's happened. The princesses of the old Disney movies have become popular for modern-day merchandising, and they've all become grouped together. And when you put them all together like that, you notice a lack of ethnic diversity. So what did they decide to do? Create a new classic film, featuring a character with a skin tone convenient for expanding their merchandising angle.

But their effort is lost, because it looks like the princess turns into a frog for the majority of the movie, making her trademark look be that of a frog with no human skin tone.

***

Today Duncan got a new videogame. Don't criticize us for splurging in such desperate times (please), Duncan worked hard and long hours and all of the money gone toward this purchase came from his own effort. Even I get a cut of what I make, theoretically, and, theoretically, I could make a purchase with the money I make from that cut.

Anyway, the game is New Super Mario Bros Wii. It's the sequel to New Super Mario Bros, and it's for the Nintendo console, the Wii. Alright, before I move on to anything else, let me tell you why this is a crap name. First of all, putting “new” at the beginning of a series name is always a bad idea, because if it's successful, it won't stay new forever. Secondly, putting the name of the console to signify a title is a bad idea, too, because it's as good as saying “This title is unique from the other titles in this series because it's for the Wii, therefor, there can be no more titles for the Wii”.

Do you follow? Yeah, so even if it's true, it's still a bit of a downer, and you shouldn't be depressing your consumers.

Well, the game's supposed to be revolutionary, because it's the first simultaneous multiplayer game for the Mario series, the longest-standing videogame series, and the trademark of the most successful console.

But... it's not that good.

I don't like the Koopalings, which are the main villains, and I think that Yellow Toad and Blue Toad, who are character options, were horrendously thought up and unnecessary, and the level of attention that was put to them in-game is obnoxious. But my biggest complaint is simple gameplay. It feels more like a single-player game with multiplayer option. I'm willing to allow the Mario team some practice shots, since this is their first go at it and all, but it's weird that it got such rave reviews.

I guess this could go in my reviews blog, but I don't think that's something I want to do, since I've only played it a little, and I guess it's a little early for me to pass such judgement.