I could of sworn they were doing something else for their next movie but I guess I’m wrong. This one seems weird but I’m sure they will pull it off because hey, it’s Pixar were talking about here.

As many of you know I’m a huge Dave Matthews Band fan.  Well while they are off for a bit after the death of Leroi Moore, I’ve really started listening to Kings of Leon.  Their last two cds are just fantastic (Because of the Times and Only by the Night) Buy them, steal them, whatever, just get your grubby little hands on them.

I paid 26 dollars to fill my tank up this morning.  What a glorious day.

Look’s like I’ve totally forgotten about my blog.  I’ve always updated my beer blog but for some reason I could never get into this one.  But I’ve decided to make a comeback and hopefully make this blog into something worth reading.  I’ve extended my domain name for another year. 

On Thursday my good friends Allen and Cattina welcomed their first child Cali to the world.  Emilie and I stopped by that night to say hello and meet the newest member of the Holt family.  Shes a beautiful little girl.  Congrats Allen and Cattina.

Dave wrote a song for the movie Joshua.  The song has never been released but I guess someone ripped the song off of the dvd.  It’s actually a very nice solo song.  A tad bit haunting.  Gives me hope for the new cd and whenever the band decides to quit, I’m sure Dave will do his solo thing. Warning though, the video the guy made to go with it kind of sucks.

I almost made it.  I almost made my 10th year at The Dirty (company name withheld so I don’t get my ass in trouble but my friends know the name).  It didn’t quite happen though.  Last Thursday I started a new job with a company in Norfolk.  I won’t say the company yet because god forbid they read this and don’t like the idea that I write about them in a blog.  Stranger things have happen.  I’ll miss The Dirty.  Heck I’m already missing it.  I mostly miss the people there.  I’ve been with most of them for a while now.  My best friend still works there. A lot of people I like their still work there but I guess life must go on.

Basically I left because there was a warning given to my group by my boss.  We were told that it would be in our best interest to get our resumes out there.  Why you ask?  Well for years now it’s been in The Dirtys best interest to replace their workers in the datacenter with cheaper salary employees that reside in India.  What the people who don’t work in the data center don’t realize is that the people who work in India are horrible workers for the most part.  What takes a US worker an hour might take an India worked 1 1/2 days.  Or what takes an US employee a day might take an India employee a week.  Yes I’m being serious. 

I’m not mad at the people over in the India.  It’s not their faults that the higher ups have ruined what was once a great place to work.  The admins in India are actually very nice people.  They are eager to help most of the time.  It just makes me very pissed that the management doesn’t see that their work ethic is horrible or that they take forever to get something done.  I honestly hope that place goes to hell and falls apart.  It will only make the people who work there realize that there is life after The Dirty and to the higher ups (not the Data Center director because hes awesome but higher then him) I hope you destroy your careers by the actions you have taken.  If those are harsh words then good.  You ruined a good thing.  You’ve ruined a good team of people.

Now on to my new job.  Like I said I started last week.  It’s very different in a lot of ways.  As much as I hated some of the stuff I had go to through at The Dirty I’ve come to appreciate it after coming to this new company.  Believe me it’s nothing earth shattering but just different.  I work with two ex Dirty employees so the move was easier for me.  But something funny did happen on my second day.  I didn’t provide HR with my SS card.  I couldn’t find it.  So basically I was thrown out of the building until I could provide a document stating that I am an actual human being and I’m real.  So I had to drive down to the Social Security Office that day and get that letter and come back to work.  It was quite the experience.  I know things there will get better.  I’m still getting used to getting up an hour earlier and getting home an hour later.  I appreciate sleep a lot more now.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Without giving away to much of the movie.  Sweeney Todd is a barber who comes back to London to get revenge on a judge who basically ruined his life.  In the process he kills a lot of people and turns them into meat pies with the help of Mrs. Lovett.  They both get what they want in the process but in the end it doesn’t go well for both of them.  Ok well there’s a lot more thrown into the movie but I don’t want to give away much more.  I hate musicals and there is a lot of this in the movie.  They break into song what seems to be every few minutes and while I was watching the movie I said to myself that I really wasn’t liking all the singing but then it started to grow on me.  I started to love the story and how dark and gory it ended up being.  It had what I believe to be the correct ending and it left me happy with it.  If you’re skirmish at all you might way to stay away from this movie.  Like I said it’s gory.  A lot of blood but maybe the awesome set design and feel of the film will get you past that.  Go see it in the theaters if you can. 

P.S. I Love You

Ok I will admit that I really didn’t want to see this movie.  But it was my girlfriends turn to pick a movie and well of course she had to pick a girly one.  But I will also admit that I walked out of the theatre liking this movie.  It does tug at your heart.  Of course you had a lot of people around me crying.  It’s that kind of movie.  It’s about a women who loses her husband to a brain tumor.  Before he dies, she has no idea that he planned a series of notes to be sent to her that would guide her through the rough time.  It makes her live life after the huge loss.  It takes her back to the place she met him.  It makes her eventually realize there is more out there after the loss and his notes help that.  Touching movie and is worth the drive to the theatre to see. 

Jackass 2.5

Straight to the internet and blockbusters all across the world is Jackass 2.5.  2.5 are stunts that didn’t quite fit into Jackass 2 or didn’t quite work.  Some of the stunts fail.  2.5 is full of some of the most disgusting stuff that these guys have ever done.  Piss, feces, puke, and blood rule this version of Jackass and I will admit I laughed my ass off at a lot of stuff.  There’s no reason to buy this on dvd for a few reasons.  You can watch it for free on the internet and I would only buy this on dvd if you were a total fan of the show.  It’s not exactly a full length movie.  I believe it came in under an hour but it’s defintely worth a view.  Just be prepared to watch some of the downright nastiest stuff they have ever done.

Once

Ok I’ve saved the best for last.  This is just a fantastic movie, story, musical (sort of) and everything else.  Here’s a tidbit about the story

“An Guy is a Dublin guitarist/singer-songwriter who makes a living by fixing vacuum cleaners in his Dad’s Hoover repair shop by day, and singing and playing for money on the Dublin streets by night. An Girl is a Czech who plays piano when she gets a chance, and does odd jobs by day and takes care of her mom and her daughter by night. Guy meets Girl, and they get to know each other as the Girl helps the Guy to put together a demo disc that he can take to London in hope of landing a music contract. During the same several day period, the Guy and the Girl work through their past loves, and reveal their budding love for one another, through their songs. (From imdb.com and Charles Delacroix)”

I couldn’t of written that any better so I didn’t try to =)  This movie is one I will be coming back to over and over.  Everything about it is just beautiful.  The soundtrack is every song played in the movie and it stands well on its own but even better within the movie.  Great movie.  Go out now and buy this on DVD.  You won’t be sorry.

Matti says Happy New Year! Enjoy yourself but be careful and don’t drink and drive kiddies.

  Thanks to my mom I’m now the owner of a little game called Assassins Creed. I held off on getting it because of the mixed reviews it received. You see this game has been in development for a very long time and it was supposed to be the first real next generation game. Sadly it doesn’t live up to that hype but it’s still fun as hell to play and I haven’t put it down since I got it. Basically here’s the story behind the game. I didn’t write this. I stole it. Yup I’m lazy.

“Our story follows a disgraced master Assassin (Altair) who embarks on an epic quest to restore his status within the Assassin Order. After failing to assassinate the Templar Leader (Robert de Sable) and recover the legendary Templar Treasure, Altair is demoted to Uninitiated (the lowest rank in the Assassin order).

Sinan, Leader of the Assassins, offers our hero an opportunity to redeem himself. Altair must venture out into the Holy Land and assassinate men said to be exacerbating and exploiting the hostilities created by the Third Crusade. In doing so, he will stabilize the region, allowing Sinan to usher in an age of peace.

When our game begins, Richard the Lionheart has just recaptured the port city of Acre from occupying Saracens. With a base of operations established, the Crusaders prepare to march south. Their true target is Jerusalem – which they intend to recapture in the name of the Church. However, Saladin, leader of the Saracen Army, currently rules Jerusalem. Stinging from his army’s defeat at Acre, he will now allow Richard to humiliate him again. The Saracens are massing at the ruins of Fortress Arsuf, intending to ambush the Crusaders and prevent them from reaching Jerusalem.

These war maneuvers have left the rest of the Holy Land wide open. While Richard and Saladin battle one another, the men left to govern in their stead have begun taking advantage of their newfound positions of power. Exploiting, manipulation, and provocation rule the day. It is into this chaotic mess our hero now finds himself thrust. He is ordered to assassinate those most active in their exploitation.

And so Altair begins his missions.

Along the way, however, he will begin to discover that his targets are bound by more than just a shared interest in personal gain. They seem to share membership in a secret society – a group all too familiar to the Assassins. And they are not simply looking for profit. The true goal, and how they plan to achieve it are secrets to be discovered during the course of our story.”

So there you go. Now for my impressions on the most important part. The gameplay and everything else. I’ll do this with some pros and cons

Pros

• The game is probably the most beautiful game I’ve ever laid my eyes on. Everything is just so detailed. This also goes for the music,sound effects, and voice acting. Everything is just top notch here.
• The cities you have to do your duty in are so huge it’s just overwhelming. They are filled with people.
• The combat system makes you feel like a god (it also had a con though). Taking on and killing 15 people as they circle around you really makes you feel like you can take on anything
• The main assassinations are well done for the most part. They are the best part of the game. Another con later on though to go with this.
• As an assassin you can climb pretty much anything. When the guards chase you it makes for an awesome foot chase through the city. Climbing and jumping are effortless. Makes for fantastic chases.

Cons

• Ok so I said the cities were huge and awesome and they are filled with people but the people really don’t provide much in this game. They are just there. A lot of them are just in the way and might make some rude remark as you climb up a house or building. They don’t provide much more. I wish they provided more life. I wish there were shops in this game. I wish you could go into a lot of the buildings and they actually mean something.
• The main point of the game is to assassinate 9 main people. Well for you to do this you have to gather a certain amount of evidence against them. This is fine but it’s the same old stuff for every person. You either have to pickpocket people for information about the target, eavesdrop, or beat information out of people. Gets a little boring
• There is other stuff you can do in the cities but they can be equally as boring. You get the save citizens against guards, gather flags from each city, do special missions from others in your group. For a next gen game I wish there was more to this. But if it wasn’t for these extra tasks you would probably finish the game rather quickly.
• AI is sometimes just plain dumb. If you kill a guard, they’ll walk right past his dead body and just keep on walking and no wonder who the hell did it. This doesn’t happen all the time. Happens once in a while.
• Outside the cities there is a nice bit of area you can ride your horse through but theres nothing to do in these areas. They are just roads and trails to get to the cities. It could of been so much more. The areas are beautiful but nothing is in them to do.
• I said in the pros that the combat made you feel like a god. It does but combat is so simple it gets kind of boring once and a while. You only really need to use one or two buttons. I wish there was a combo system in this game. It would of made for such a nicer combat system

Ok so there are my main pros and cons. It might sound like I’m totally bashing the game. I’m not. The game is fun as hell. It’s totally worth a buy or rent. It’s total fun running around these cities killing guards and running over rooftops. When I say you can pretty much jump anywhere or climb anywhere I mean it. Try this game.