The Ruins

I remember seeing a trailer for this, and I wanted to go to the theatre one day to check it out, but never did. It looked interesting. So, hopefully, this movie will turn out to be OK.

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

I love John C. Reilly. I actually find him more entertaining than Will Farrell. I've been wanting to see this one for a while, and I'll probably start this tonight. I also can't wait to see Stepbrothers (I think that's the name) with both those two in it.

Please take the time to leave comments and gifts in her celebratory thread on her board, and please leave comments in her blog. Thank you all.

Been a while, I know. Read what happened about my computer. Anyway.... I'm not going to go back through all previous votes, so I'll just leave off with the most current ones.

Today's nationwide poll:

"Have you ever had braces on your teeth?"

Answers:

Yes
No

I have. I know a lot of other kids have too, but I'm not sure it's enough to warrant 50 percent. I'm really not sure. I'll guess that No will be more popular.

Nationwide Poll results are in. The question:

"Sharing an entree at a restaurant?"

Answers:

Rude
Not Rude

I voted Not rude. I mean, honestly, who really thinks that this is rude? I figured it would win, and it did in a landslide. It won with 81.4% of the vote.

We have a new worldwide poll. The question:

"Have you ever been swimming in the ocean?"

Answers:

Yes
No

I have, off the shores of California. This is a tricky one to predict, and for more than 50 percent to say they have swam, they'd have to live on or near the ocean. Hmm... I really don't know.... I'm going against my gut and saying that Yes will win.

We have worldwide poll results in. The question:

"Do you like having your photo taken?"

Answers:

Yes
No

Well, I lost this one. I thought that Yes would win, but No won with 53.3% of the vote.

Here is my voter data:

Vote Count: 153
Wins:110 Losses: 39
Prediction Accuracy 73.8%
How Tuned In Are You? : 432 points
Distance From Popular Opinion: 76cm

So now that the Nintendo Press Conference is over, it has left many people disappointed. They were eagerly anticipating something that could get them caring about the Nintendo Wiis they purchased a couple years ago, and just about everyone I've talked to about this conference says they're nothing for them. One person I talked to said Nintendo's "losing their focus." Well, before anyone thinks of Nintendo "losing focus", let's go back a bit before the Wii was out.

When Nintendo announced the Wii back in 2005, do you remember what they said their focus would be? "Make people who don't game interested in gaming." Well, taking a look at the Wii and what it's done since it came out, I think they didn't lose focus at all. In fact, I think they're fully focused. They said from the very beginning, their aim was going to be different. They knew they'd never get their original marketshare, so they created an entirely new one. Hell, Nintendo even said that thanks to the DS, there are now more female gamers.

Nintendo is successful, a hell of a lot more than most people give them credit for. The unfortunate side of this success is they no longer are the same Nintendo most people grew up with. As gamers who were weened on the NES and SNES grew up and got more mature tastes in gaming, Nintendo hasn't grown up with them. That's where the 360 and the PS3 come in to cater to those gamers' needs. Those gamers scorned by Nintendo who feel they no longer have anything to offer them are the ones who feel they've "lost focus", and in that regard, I guess they are correct.

I've grown up. Yes, I do like to play mature-type games, but I also still like the more laid back, silly, simple and fun games. I'm one of the gamers Nintendo is focused on; the "likes just about everything" type of gamer. Nintendo has kept them in spades. Some may scoff at Wii Fit, and Wii Music, and Wii Sports Resort, and anything else balance board related, but it's quite obvious that these new accessories and games are sparking the interests of people who don't game.

Sony and MS are trying to do so many things at once, with battlng over licenses and exclusitivity contracts (a big nod goes to MS for getting FFXIII ported over), marketing new SKUs and fleshing out online services. Nintendo is keeping things simple. They know what will work, and what is working, and that's all they're doing. Keeping simple sometimes is the best way to maintain your focus, and that's something the other two just cannot do.

Cleaner

I think I saw a trailer for this movie a while back, and I cannot remember at all what it's supposed to be about. It has Samuel L. Jackson, Ed Harris and Eva Mendes in it, so I was intrigued by the cast. I hope it's going to be good,

Dirty Jobs with Mike Row Collection 2

I finished watching Collection 1 about a month ago, and I loved that show. I hope Collection 2 will be just as entertaining. I need to stop eating everytime I watch one of these shows, though...

After more than a week of being without a computer at home, I am finally back up and running. I went out to Best Buy today to purchase a new notebook harddrive. I got a Western Digital 160 gig for about 120... I was debating on what size to go with and I didn't really want to spend that much, but I was just sick of being without a computer, and I didn't feel like shopping around. Western Digital is sound, and having 100 more gigs than I'm used to, so I think it's worth it.

So what's going to happen with all the data on my defunct harddrive? Not sure yet. My dad says he'll try to see if he can bypass the boot sector or whatever and try to recover the data, but if he can't, then the drive has electronically failed, and I'm pretty much screwed, unless I want to pay 200-300 bucks for a data recovery service.

What have I been doing this past week without a computer? Pretty much enjoying other things. I've been gaming over the 4th of July weekend, and during the week, I've been doing a lot of reading in the mornings and late at night. It was actually kind of refreshing to not be glued to a computer screen all night, or turning on the computer the first thing in the morning. Still, I've missed it a lot.

As for my comic... Not sure when I'm going to get that going again. I have to download and install the FTP again, and I can't remember what my username and password is for it. If I can't remember it, I'm sure I can contact my host's customer service and get it again. I also can't remember where the program I had to add the text to the images is. I've really missed doing my comic.

I've also sworn off Norton. I'm not saying Norton was the cause of my harddrive failure, but I wouldn't put it past them. It got attacked once before, becoming so crippled, it wouldn't even let me open it, and my computer was so bogged down with viruses that I had to reformat it. Shortly before my HD crashed this time, Norton kept telling me I had items affect my performance, but it wouldn't fix them. Regradless, I can't trust Norton anymore, so I'm now using Avast, which has been highly recommended by Andi.

So I'm back now. Hope you guys didn't miss me too much..