Great Week to be a Geek

It's a great week to be a geek. I mean, most weeks are good weeks to be geeks, you know, unless it's sports week in high school, but this one is particularly great.

Reason #1: New Doctor Who! TODAY! Seriously, guys. It does not get much better than that. It could be a terrible week otherwise, and it would STILL be a great time. It's been a few months since we've had our last dose of the Doctor, and I couldn't be more excited to have it back! After everything that's been happening in the show, I need to know what's next! And the 50th anniversary is coming up and THAT is looking like it's gonna be pretty fantastic.

Reason #2: New Game of Thrones! Season 3 starts TOMORROW! I managed to get myself all caught up for the new season, so bring it on! Now I can feel out with the best of 'em as the episodes air. I'm very interested in seeing what's gonna happen next. The season finale was pretty crazy.

Reason #3: The season finale of The Walking Dead! Also tomorrow! This one I'm not actually caught up on though, so I'll just have to assume it's super exciting. At least now I can watch the whole of season 3 all at once and not have to wait a week for a new one. But still, I need to make sure I'm caught up on this one for next season.

Sundays have been a pretty great TV night... Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, Once Upon A Time. Plus Revenge, and while it lasted, 666 Park Avenue. Anyway...

Reason #4: Actually not TV-related, but this week was pretty awesome for comics too. Age of Ultron #3 was out this week, and I've been pretty unsure about that one so far, but the last page was somewhat shocking and has definitely got me hooked now. Uncanny Avengers has really brought up its game this week and I definitely recommend giving it a read, however it would help if you've read Remender's run on Uncanny X-Force prior to reading this. New characters and the beginnings of some really interesting plot points.

Astonishing X-Men brought the next chapter of the X-Termination crossover which I'll admit has me wanting to pick up the last few issues of X-Treme X-Men and Age of Apocalypse so I don't miss any of the story. Young Avengers is really kicking it up, and I'm enjoying it a lot. Uncanny X-Force seems interesting but also pretty jumbled. The different points really need to come together and make some sense or I might get bored. Wolverine and the X-Men is trying hard, but I'm struggling to stay interested. The current arc just isn't doing it for me. And Ultimate Comics: Wolverine is turning out to be a pretty interesting mini-series. I'm enjoying the story, and the artist is great. Even had a fun little cameo by some familiar scientists.

Anyway, those are the main points of geeky interest from my week. What made your week great and/or geeky? Have a great Saturday! And Happy Easter!

King of the Nerds

Day 5 of the trip, day 3 of Comic Con. Saturday? What day is it today? Right, Sunday. So yeah, yesterday, Saturday. Can you tell I'm having trouble keeping up with my blogging?

Saturday had a pretty great start. We were able to sleep in a little bit, and made it to the convention centre about 9:30ish? I don't remember precisely. But we made it in time for what we were going for.

At 10am at the Legendary booth, the king of the nerds himself, Chris Hardwick, was signing autographs and meeting the fans. And we made it! He was dressed as the tenth Doctor, and he seemed pretty excited when I handed him my ticket from the previous night's podcast to get signed. I was pretty excited to get my picture taken with him.

Andrea of course was very happy to meet him, she's been a fan forever. And he was great! He even took a picture with Anne! I don't think I mentioned previously, but our friend Anne couldn't make it to Comic Con with us, so Andrea crocheted a doll of her to bring along so she was with us in spirit. So yeah, Chris Hardwick now thinks we are crazy.

After that, we went to the Indigo Ballroom at the Hilton beside the convention centre to catch the Geek & Sundry panel. I had no idea what it was, but Felicia Day and Wil Wheaton? I'm there! So we listened to them talk about all the cool stuff happening with their Geek & Sundry YouTube channel. I think I'm going to have to subscribe to that! The cast of the Guild was also there, with a couple other special guests. It was pretty fun!

After that, it was the Nerdist panel! We were totally getting our Nerdist on. Chris Hardwick and a bunch of other people talked about all the exciting stuff coming up. Most exciting to me: Celebrity Bowling with... wait for it... the Doctor Who cast! So awesome. Looks like I'll be watching a lot more YouTube in the future!

Outside between the Hilton and the Convention Centre there was a thing selling burgers and hotdogs, and a cool Batman setup. Burgers and Batmobiles! We grabbed burgers and then went to look at the different ones. There were 5 of them. Two versions of the Bat-tank (or Tumbler as its ACTUALLY called) plus three older batmobiles. It was kinda cool.

Once we got back to the convention centre, we walked right past Felicia Day, just walking along in the front lobby area of the building. I was all, " Is that Felicia Day? Did we just walk RIGHT PAST Felicia Day?!" You probably don't realize this, but I love Felicia Day.

Anyway, next: coffee! And then the Avengers vs. X-Men panel! I love Marvel panels. Again, there wasn't all that much info that I hadn't already heard about, but it definitely got Andrea excited for comics again. Sadly, I was foiled in asking my question in the panel due to the question line being cut off directly in front of me. And the guy was an idiot. He asked a question that EVERYONE already knew the answer to. And I had a much more interesting question. But oh well.

After that, we decided to check out the line for Hall H. There was a panel for Iron Man 3 that looked interesting, and the line didn't seem so bad, so Andrea and Neil got into line, and I took off. We had 2 hours to wait, so I went to explore the floor again.

Went and said hi to Steve and Shane in the Artist Alley again, but they were both pretty busy so I took off to hunt down some elusive swag. No luck though. Sorry Paul. Everything is getting sold out so fast too! I guess it's not that surprising. I wasted a good half hour or longer playing Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance at the Square Enix booth. On my way back across the room I walked by a Doctor cosplayer that I thought was actually Matt Smith for a minute, and then I saw the guy that played Gunn on Angel at a booth. Someone told me to tweet it, but I had no wifi, so I couldn't do it. Oh darn.

After that, it was about 5:30, so I headed back to the Hall H line, and by a stroke of luck, Andrea and Neil spotted me and I jumped back into line with them. However, we didn't make it into Hall H, so about 6:15, we took off back to our hotel and had dinner.

At that point, it should have been the end of the night, but with so much sitting in panels, I didn't reach my fitness goal for the day, so I went and walked laps around the hotel grounds for half an hour. Thanks Nike+ FuelBand. Thanks a lot.

More Evidence That I'm a Nerd

So, I had planned on typing up this great big E3 review blog (and I had actually typed most of it), but I decided that there was far too much useless stuff that I just didn't care about in it, so this is E3 blog attempt number 2! Every year I get super psyched for the Electronics Entertainment Expo (or E3, for short). It's where all of the big gaming companies get together with the press and show off all the new stuff they're working on. It's all very exciting for a nerd like me. This year I was actually a little bit disappointed with a lack of actual release dates for games, but I was pleased with what they showed off.

Now, the main events of E3 are the "Big Three" press conferences, those three being Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo. There are a few other "big" press conferences, but I'm not gonna lie, I didn't watch them 'cause they seemed pretty darn boring. But even two of the "big three" were pretty boring to me.

Microsoft kicked off E3 with their press conference, showing off all that's new with the Xbox 360. Which really wasn't exciting to me at all. I actually quit watching partway through. What I did get out of it was that they are really trying to push the Kinect (which I don't want) and they have a lot of sequels and remakes of games I don't care about (war games, shooters, and more Halo...). Tomb Raider actually looks alright, but I don't think I'll play it. Fable: The Journey seems like a step backward for the series, I like free play, I don't want a game-on-rails. The new Xbox Experience (dashboard) looks pretty cool though, and TV through the Xbox would be cool (but Telus already does that here).

Sony held their press conference on everything Playstation later that evening and this one I got to watch live 'cause it was after work. Once again, I wasn't overly impressed. There was a lot of similar stuff to the way the Microsoft show went. Sequels of games I don't care about (war games, shooters) and a real push to get with the 3D gaming experience (I don't like 3D). They did release a cool 3D monitor bundle, and talked about the new feature that eliminates split screens using 3D glasses technology, but I'm still not buying it. They also talked about the NGP, now dubbed the Playstation Vita, or PSV as I'm gonna call it. Looks like a pretty nice piece of hardware, but it seems like they are just trying to cram as much into it as possible to make it seem cooler than the 3DS. I may buy it, especially since it's only gonna cost $250, but so far there aren't any games that interest me coming for it.

Nintendo was the star of E3 once again this year (as far as I'm concerned anyway). They opened up the show with a special look at the 25th anniversary of the Legend of Zelda. They did some fun little musical stuff, and talked about the Zelda games they've got coming out this year. Link's Awakening being released on the 3DS Virtual Console that day, the N64 classic Ocarina of Time 3D coming to the 3DS on June 19th (which is this coming weekend! I pre-ordered mine, did you?), GBA classic Four Swords coming to the DSiWare shop for free this September, and Skyward Sword for the Wii on it's way this holiday season. There was some more stuff to do with that but it wasn't important enough to remember.

After that, they showed off a string of 3DS games on their way: Mario Kart (which appears to have a few new gameplay elements added to it, air and underwater racing sections), Star Fox (boooooring), Super Mario Bros. 3D (which looks AWESOME! Can't wait to get my hands on that. Tanooki suit!!), Kid Icarus: Uprising (looks cool, but is really old news since it's reveal last year and STILL no release date), and Luigi's Mansion 2 (So cool! I don't even know why! I had no interest at all in the first one but I want this one so bad!). They also talked about a few 3rd party games but they were all dumb so I won't mention them.

Afterwards, they announced the Nintendo Wii U! It looks pretty exciting, but as time goes on, I lose enthusiasm, so I really should have blogged about it sooner. It's basically an HD Wii, for the most part, even using the Wii controllers and such, BUT it's got one big difference. The main controller for the system is basically a tablet computer fused with a motion sensing controller, with buttons. Minus the CPU. It can be used as a second screen for all kinds of different things, plus some games even allow you to switch gameplay from the TV over to the controller so someone else can use the TV for something else. See how it doesn't sound all that exciting? But it IS! I SWEAR! Watch the videos! Maybe I'll make another post entirely devoted to the Wii U later. Good plan, I think.

Anyway, that was pretty much it for the Nintendo conference, the rest was them talking about the Wii U and different developers weighing in and pretty much from there it was just boring crap. Elsewhere at E3 Nintendo also announced a few other games. A new DS Kirby game that looks a little lame. A new Wii Kirby game that looks AWESOME. And... uh... I don't remember what else. There was nothing new about Paper Mario, which made me sad. There was a new trailer for it, but that was it. Square Enix was pretty weak on their presence at E3 with an absence of ALL of the games I'd been looking forward to see from them. They DID however have some good stuff on FFXIII-2 which looks like it will be good. Now just to finish the first one... Natsume brought their new Harvest Moon and Rune Factory games which look very nice (I like the farming games...). There was also some new stuff on X-Men: Destiny which I want very very badly, and a new Spider-Man game which looks like it will be good, but I doubt I'll play it.

And I think that is pretty much it. I really had to rush through all that 'cause there was a lot of stuff announced. I'll probably do future blog posts dedicated specifically to certain game/system announcements once I absorb more info, and you can expect a review of the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D sometime in the near(?) future 'cause I went down and pre-ordered it today. I'll probably be there right when they open to pick it up on Sunday too. To be fair, they open at noon, and I'll just be leaving my weekly family coffee thing right about then, so it's not like I'm a rabid fan or anything. Anyway, until next time...

I Eat My Words

In this latest entry of The Nintendo Hero, I eat my words. On January 21st, I posted another entry on the 3DS in which I said that I probably wouldn't bother getting the 3DS at launch day... I pre-ordered it a few weeks ago. And technically I didn't get it on launch day, but I got it the following day. Let me tell you. It is AWESOME! I'm a big fan.

So yeah, I pre-ordered from Future Shop, 'cause they had a better price for the game I picked up with it, and the 3DS also had a pre-order bonus in the form of a starter kit which includes all kinds of useful things, like a car charger, carrying case, screen protectors, and I dunno what else 'cause it's gonna be a little bit delayed in getting to me. But that doesn't really matter.

With the system, I decided to pre-order Nintendogs + Cats: Golden Retriever and New Friends (there's a mouthful). It was really the only launch game that seemed even relatively interesting to me. And I'm actually pretty happy I did pick it up. I've got my little Shiba Inu puppy named Bean, and I'm teaching her tricks and stuff. If I can't have a real dog, this is the next best thing!

But again, I'm getting side-tracked, I really just want to talk about the system itself. The Nintendo 3DS is a pretty nifty piece of technology. The obvious improvement over the original DS and DSi is the 3D top screen. I'm really not a fan of the 3D craze going on right now, but for this system, I think it really works. The 3D effect works without glasses, so that's one big hurdle gone for me. I hate wearing the stupid glasses. And the effect can be turned off and you can enjoy the games in 2D.

The 3D cameras on the outside, coupled with the system's motion sensing technology (accelerometer and gyroscope) make for some pretty fun times as well. The AR cards are one feature of this, you can play a whole game based on one little card sitting on the table. The other more interesting one (in my opinion) is the Face Raiders game preloaded on the 3DS. You take a picture of your (or someone else's) face, and then play a game where little flying robots with the faces you've used fly around and attack you. I was dancing around my living room turning this way and that avoiding and attacking the weird little face-bots. Clearly more of Nintendo's attempts at more active gaming.

Now, the feature that I find most interesting is StreetPass. When you leave the 3DS in sleep mode (closing the lid without actually turning it off) it will still search for other 3DS systems to communicate with. If another 3DS in sleep mode comes in contact, they will swap StreetPass info (depending on whether or not you have it enabled, and what you choose to share). Different games use the feature in different ways, but the 3DS StreetPass Mii Plaza has it's own exciting uses of the feature. Every time you run into someone, you'll swap Miis, and with the Mii, you will also get a piece of a puzzle that presumably creates something fun. And there's another game within the Mii Plaza called Find Mii, which is some sort of RPG game that requires you to run into other Miis to help you along your quest.

So far, I haven't actually run into anyone else with the StreetPass feature 'cause I've only had the system for 3 days and have yet to take it out with me anywhere, and somehow I feel like it might be a little bit difficult to find other 3DS users in my little northern city. But I suppose I'm gonna have to start carrying it around with me so that I can check out the StreetPass features. Aaaaaand that's it for this post. I'll probably think of something else fun to write about later, so look out for a follow-up post down the line!

Oscars

So, I am currently watching the Oscars. Not how I had planned on watching them, which was decked out in my nicest clothes at my friend Angie's place for her Oscar party. The plan was to dress up and bring some celebrity themes food and whatnot. But! Due to the crazy snow coming down outside, the party was cancelled, so I am sitting here in my Charizard pajama pants watching the Oscars on my couch.

Now, one of the fun parts about watching the Oscars is predicting the winners. Well, it's supposed to be fun. But I never seem to have any luck with the predictions. For some reason, all of the movies that I think look really boring are always the ones that make it into the Oscars. The movies that I think are awesome? Not a one. That's not actually true though, 'cause a few movies that I really liked were nominated, but I'll be amazed if they actually win anything.

It would also help if I actually understood what the categories meant. I have no idea what the eff cinematography is. And how in the world am I supposed to judge sound editing? Or film editing? Sound mixing? Is that different than editing? I've also got this problem with choosing the movies that I want to win versus the movies that I think will actually win. For example, The Social Network is probably going to do really well again, but I have no interest in watching a movie about Facebook. I already don't trust Facebook and think Zuckerberg is a douche.

So it is not surprising that so far my score is two for seven. I'm actually impressed with that score. I'm thinking I probably won't get any more right, but I will update you if I do.

I've never really paid attention to the Oscars before. Last year was the first time I'd ever actually sat down and watched them and did the whole prediction thing, and that was only because I was invited to an Oscar party at my good buddy Andrea's place. Since then Andrea has moved away from the frozen north, so we're keeping track online. Andrea, her mom, our friend Kim, and I all submitted our predictions, and Andrea is tracking them on twitter. Surprisingly, Andrea, the big movie buff, is not in the lead at the moment. Oh, correction, it's just been tied across the board... minus me...

This just kind of proves that I should never be a movie reviewer. I know what I like, but I don't know what makes a "good movie" apparently. I should be the nerd movie reviewer. Is the a geek awards show? There should be. If not, I'm gonna start the anti-Oscars. The awards show for all the movies that are actually good. The categories will be more interesting too. There will be Coolest Super Hero Movie. Best Alien Movie. Best Action Movie. And the best lead actor and actress would be whatever hotties were in those movies and not some boring people like most awards shows. And there would be a Suckiest Movie category. For movies that are lame. Like The Social Network.

Latest update, I am now at three points out of twelve. Rock on. My favourite part about this awards show is the hosts. Anne Hathaway and James Franco are both really awesome. Anne sung a song dissing the sexiest man alive (Hugh Jackman) and James has come onstage in drag. And there was an old man hitting on Anne at the beginning, and I thought he might die before he got through with the category. Apparently he's a big deal so I am probably being rude. But he was actually hilarious.

I think I've rambled on long enough for one post, so I'm gonna leave it here with my score sitting at 5 out of 16! Not as bad as I thought I'd be at! I'll give an extra update with my final score once the show is over.

More About Comic-Con

So, the Comic-Con ticket sales website was an epic fail. But chances are you've already heard as such. I went on the website that morning at 9am, and it took until mid-afternoon before I was finally able to get through their "over-capacity" screen and actually purchase tickets. Unfortunately, once I finally got through all I was able to get my hands on were the Thursday and Sunday tickets. Next year, Comic-Con really needs to rethink their ticket sales options. Ticket Master maybe? The best option would probably be to just buy next year's tickets at the show this year if we decide to go back. And why wouldn't we?

That's enough whiny-geek. Next on the to-do list for Comic-Con: travel and accommodations! Andrea and I have been researching flights, and it looks like the best bet would be to bus it from Vancouver to Bellingham, and then fly out of there to San Diego. Of course, I've gotta add the flight from the middle of nowhere to Van, as well, but still! Not bad! We are gonna try to get the best deals possible.

I'm hoping that hotel information will crop up soon. Hopefully there will be some good deals for Comic-Con attendees, and in nice hotels. It's interesting trying to look at hotels somewhere so far away. Websites aren't always 100% accurate. But really, I don't plan on spending much time in our room anyway, so it's not that big a deal. As long as it's decent enough to sleep in, it's good.

There's still more research to go. Gotta figure out what else we'll do while we're down there. And there's a few other details to iron out, but it is definitely coming together. Also, I need to talk to my granny about my costume idea... Perhaps she'd be able to help me design/create it. Okay! I'm off!

Comic-Con

So! Comic-Con tickets go on sale TOMORROW! This means that one more piece of the puzzle is about to fall into place, and my buddy Andrea and I will be one step closer to San Diego. Figuratively speaking, of course. I think I take a lot of steps closer, and then further away again, every day if you look at it geographically.

I was just thinking about what I should bring with me when we go. Once we know a little more about the guests that will be there, I'll have to pack some things to get signed and such. But I wonder if I should get my butt in gear and attempt some writing to bring with me. I've heard of people being discovered at Comic-Con before, but I seriously doubt I could come up with anything stellar by then. But maybe.

A coworker of mine told me yesterday that I should dress up for the convention. To this I responded, "even I'm not that big of a nerd... Wait... I'm going to Comic-Con. I totally am." So that is another idea. But I'm thinking it's gonna be stinking hot down there, so a costume would probably add to that. And I'm not hot enough to go as any of the semi-naked heroes out there. Maybe that's another project to work on.

That's all I've got for today. Time to go to work. And find something to eat. Not in that order.

SDCC 2011

This year, for the first time ever, I will be going to Comic-Con International in San Diego. I don't think I can sufficiently express how excited I am for this in words. I will be making the epic journey with my amazing pal, Andrea, and we will have a fantastic time. I am a little nervous, though. I haven't been to the States in about 16 years. I haven't been out of the country in about 5. I do really enjoy travelling, but I really don't do much of it, so it is a little nerve-racking every time a trip comes up. And most of my trips over the last few years have been within Canada (Vancouver a few times, Toronto once, and some other places not worth mentioning). This small-town Canadian nerd just doesn't get out enough.

Anyway, I am very excited for San Diego. I'm interested to see what artists and writers will be at the convention, not to mention celebrities and what-not. And we'll be right in the action with any of the exciting news and announcements that always seem to come out of these things. And there is no one in the world I'd rather go to something like this than my right-hand-geek, Andrea. Now if only registration would FINALLY open up.

Well, this post isn't anywhere nearly as exciting as I had intended it to be, but it wasted a few minutes of my boring Saturday night at home, so mission accomplished! Now I'm going to research things to do in San Diego and the surrounding area. If you have any ideas, let me know! (he says to his non-existant following...)