Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Yes, it's that time of year again. A time that I get the day off from work. I get to see spread out family members. Acquire loot. AHEM, I mean give gifts to loved ones. And most importantly, celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. I know, for all the naysayers out there, it probably is not the correct date, and it's a holiday that has been terribly twisted by commercialism, but it's still a day that we celebrates Jesus' birth. So...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JESUS!!!!

It has been unseasonably warm here for December. (must be that dreaded global warming that Al Gore has been desperately trying to warn us about) We've had a few days in the upper 60's and low 70's. It's been great!

Last Sunday (the 17th), I even took out my motorcycle out for a short ride for the first time since I broke my leg. No really great mountain roads, just a few little, rough back roads around here, but it was awesome!

Karissa has finally taken to crawling sometime in the last few days. (she's 8 months old now) One of the first things that she did was head straight for the cat food dish! Thankfully she hasn't discovered the litter box yet. :-) She is also pulling herself up beside chairs and the like and sidestepping along them a little.

We got a "new" car a couple of weeks ago. We had our old one advertised for quite some time, and someone finally came by the shop looking for just such a car, and bought it. So, we got a dark green metallic '99 Volvo V70XC. It's the AWD Cross Country (XC) model, and has a few options that the old one didn't have. It was in a low flood at one point, and the carpet had gotten wet. The person that originally repaired it didn't bother to put the foam sound-deadener mats and such back in it, and hadn't bothered to fix the power seat electronics that got wet, so I had to fix that, and do some service work, but it's all done now, and we like our new car!

We had our (immediate) Martin family Christmas get-together last night (the 24th). Poor Karissa about got licked to death by the three dogs, and scared by Petey's barking. Debi was up from NC, and we initiated, I mean welcomed a new person for the get-together. Susan's boyfriend Karlin Schrock, that all of you that read this should probably know. The have been dating for a couple of months now, I think.

I have now finished Rayman:Raving Rabbids. I was a little disappointed at how short it was, especially since I paid full retail price for it, but I guess it can provide plenty of replay value, since most of the minigames can be playes as party games after you beat the single-player mode. And shooting dumb-looking little bunnies with plungers is so much fun!

I have now started playing Psychonauts. It's a 3D platformer that is has a very unique twist. You are Razputin, a big-headed little kid who has run away from a circus to attend the Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp, a Summer camp where kids are taught to use their mental powers. (telekinesis, levitation, pyrokinesis, etc.) And shortly after Raz arrives, someone starts stealing the kids' brains! And, of course it's your job to find them. What makes the game really unique is that all of the levels are inside the minds of different characters in the game. You battle creatures of their bad dreams, watch for figments of their immaginations, and collect mental cobwebs and sort out emotional baggage for them. Very interesting, and kind of wierd at times. I know that, with the mental powes, etc., it sounds like it could be kind of occultish, but it's really not. It' kind of cute, basically like what you'd expect from a platformer.

And, speaking of video games, I guess it's about time for my "Favorite Video Games of 2006" post(s). So, I guess that means I should be updating again before long, provided I can find the time.

Oh, well. Maybe if I updated more often, more people would check my blog more often. Of course my abnormal taste in entertainment doesn't help either. :-)

Anyway, until next time....

Wii!!!

Welcome back, everyone! (both of you) I am posting yet again, so soon! Not that anyone actually reads this blog anymore, but I guess it gives me practice with my writing (or typing) skills. So, read on, brave soul(s)!

It is official. As of a couple of weeks ago (Thanksgiving weekend, to be exact), I have become one of the few, the proud...... I have joined the ranks of those who......Wii?

To be exact, I have acquired a brand new Nintendo Wii. (pronounced "we", not to be confused with the popular little kids' slang term "wee") I decided to, for once in my life, get something like this new when it was released. So, I saved up, a little at a time, for months. Then, I expected that I would have to wait a couple more months to get one, because they sold out immediately upon the stores that had them in stock opening. But, my two younger brothers, one of which had his heart set on a Wii, went to Best Buy at 5:30 AM and waited in line until the store opened at 10 to buy one. And, since my brother that was desparate can't drive yet, my other brother was nice enough to take him, and, since there were two of them in line, they were nice enough to pick one up for me while I blissfully slept in. :-)

So, I got my Wii. It's quite unique for a video game console. as you can see in the picture of the controller and box, it stands vertically. It's about the size of three DVD cases set together, plus the little stand that it sits on.

The controller is what is the most unique, though. Instead of the traditional video game controller with the normal analog sticks and buttons, the main controller is like a motion sensitive TV remote. It senses motion as in you swinging it around, and gyroscopically, as well. So, if you point it up, or tilt it, depending on the game, your motions will control something in the game. Quite interesting. The wrist strap is also very necessary at times, to keep you from letting go and sending it sailing across the room!

The funny-shaped thing on the left is an attachment that plugs into the "Wii-mote" and is called a "nun-chuck". It has an Analog stick and two trigger buttons, and is also motion sensitive. This combination can make for some interesting moments playing games. It sounds pretty wierd, but, at least in the games that I've played, it works pretty well.

The box with the "Wii-mote" and nun-chuck.....

I got two games for it, as well as the Wii Sports game that is included with the console. Wii Sports is just that. A collection of sports games that, in part, are to teach you to properly use the controller. There is baseball, bowling, tennis, boxing, and golf. They basically require you to use the Wii-mote to make semi-realistic motions to do things in the game. For instance, in baseball, you swing the Wii-mote like a bat at the right time to make your character hit the ball. Same thing in tennis. In bowling, you hold the Wii-mote in your hand and make the motion of throwing(?) a bowling ball. Pretty neat, I thought.

Super Monkey Ball:Banana Blitz is pretty similar to the past Super Monkey Ball games. You have a cute little monkey in a hamster ball that you roll around through a maze toward a goal while trying to collect as many bananas as possible without running out of time. Only this time you use the Wii-mote's gyroscopic sensing abilities to tilt the maze. (kind of like an old Labyrinth game) And this Super Monkey Ball game has 50 party game that you can play with friends instead of the 10 or 12 the previous ones had.

Rayman:Raving Rabbids is a very interesting (and funny) game. You are a funny little critter with no arms, legs, or neck. Just a body, head, two hands and two feet. You are kidnapped by a bunch of psychotic little bunnies with a thing for toilet plungers who are intent on taking over the world, and are forced to take tests for their entertainment. Most of them are off-the-wall mini-games involving the bunnies in some way. For instance, one of them has you aiming with the Wii-mote and pulling worms out of a bunny's teeth. Another has you aiming at and then whacking over the head bunnies that pop up out of holes in a garden. There are odd races, and wierd, but funny tasks that you must complete. Possibly the best one so far, however, is one that has you moving through one of several scenes (you can't control your movement) armed with a plunger-shooting gun plugging bunnies that pop up out of nowhere with their own plunger guns and various other weapons that psychotic little bunnies would carry, trying their best to stop you. The whole game sounds kind of wierd, but it really is quite funny and entertaining.

The Wii also has a "virtual console" to which you can download classic games for from Nintendo's website. These would be classic NES, SNES, N64, Sega Genesis, and NEC TurboGrafx16 games. Ther haven't been terribly many released yet, but it definitely looks promising. The Wii will also play Gamecube games, so I guess, in Nintendo's eyes, it should replace all your previous Nintendo consoles. I guess time will tell.

Well that's about all I can come up with for now. I am enjoying my Wii, but I kind of doubt that I will be buying another console or somthing similar at launch, but I guess time will tell. You kind of get to be one of the few, the proud, but you also have a limited game selection, and the games haven't dropped to a reasonably affordable (at least for me) price yet. So I guess it has it's pros and cons.

Anyway, stay tuned, all you rabbid (sorry, I couldn't resist) fans!!!