There is a lot if debate as to the worst pickup line in history, but the worst breakup line in history is pretty obvious.

"It's not you. It's me."

Seriously, whoever invented this line is probably owed by millions- no, billions of people for their inventiveness in coming up with the ultimate one liner that leads straight to a relationship's back door. Just give em a shrine where people can kneel and sing the praise "Thank you kind sir/madam for providing me with a way out of my relationship without actually forcing me to confront the other person with the true lingering problem(s) in our relationship."

But hey, let's be fair here. I mean, what if the breakup initiator Is telling the truth? What if, for once, it really was them and not you? Well, let's analyze the line from the initiator's standpoint:

"I have problems. But I'm not going to make you deal with my problems anymore. You shouldn't have to, although you've made it quite clear that you're willing to see past my problems to strengthen our relationship. Not only am I not going to let you deal with this anymore, I'm not even going to let you have this decision. I am keeping you from what will turn into a shitty relationship down the road because I'm just that nice. Seriously, I'm stepping on a huge grenade for you here."

Sounds like a load of crap to me. In all actuality, this line does nothing for each party except give them a false sense of security. A little more honestly means that the person getting broken up with now knows what they need to work on, especially if the problem generally makes them undateable.

Sure, I'm writing this column at a time when I'm a little more biased- after all, I have been hit with this line before (not exactly, but it was cloaked under a different set of words). I didn't think I did anything wrong, but maybe there's something that I have failed to see here that she could have brought to my attention. Still, being hit with a line like that, as genuine as someone may make it seem, still makes you wonder if there was a bigger issue at hand here.

Seriously, retire the line from your dating dictionary- if not for me, then for the good of the single people community.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Google Plus Needs a Multiplier

Just a quick random thought: if Google wants people to start using Google Plus and take away market share,they really should have launched with apps on every single major mobile and tablet OS. Why? Well, people are using their social media services on the go so much more these days. Plus, they could really dig into the iPad market. Facebook has yet to release an official app, and none of the knockoffs are especially good in my opinion. Plus, the main site through Safari works, but isn't very good. When it comes to social media, constant exposure is king.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Data Hoarders

Right now I'm on my lunch break at work, and I decided to take my iPad 2, newly christened with an activated 3G connection, and check the App Store for updates. I hit the "download all" button, and all of a sudden, I got an error message stating that apps that were more than 20MB in size would have to be downloaded over a wifi connection. Seriously? What the hell? The culprit, by the way, was X Men Arcade Edition.

I understand that Apple is looking out for me and my battery life. But I'm only sitting here at work. Even if it just sits here idly for the rest of the day (which it probably will), just give me a warning message stating that downloading a larger file will drain my battery life considerably faster. But give me that option. It's only 70 megabytes- I've got 1,024 each month, and I don't even use them all.

This is odd considering that Apple is trying to make the iPad such a mobile device. If I didn't have a wifi connection at home, I'd have to go to a Starbucks or an Apple Store to do such a simple task.

Come on Apple. Let me use my 3G connection as I please. Stop meddling.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Salmon Croquettes w/ Wild Rice

I love salmon croquettes. They're such an easy dish, and they're not half bad for you either. Take a can of pink salmon, about the size of a soup can, and debone and deskin the fish. Take what's left, and mix in two large eggs- this is to keep the patties together while they fry. Throw in some onions, green peppers, tomatoes, or whatever else you like, too. Canned salmon already has a salt in it, so you shouldn't have to season it too much, lest they become salty.

Coat the patties in a mixture of flour, bread crumbs, and lemon pepper seasoning. Lay them in a pan of hot oil until brown and crisp on both sides. Like pancakes, you should only have to flip once. Flip too much and they may end up soggy.

A can of salmon makes 3 to 5 patties, depending on how big you've made them. Serve with rice or pasta (I just made a box of Uncle Ben's Wild Rice), and serve.

Personally, I like my croquettes plain, but some people make a tartar sauce or other dip to go along with them. If cooked correctly though, these should taste fine all by themselves.

Sent from my Windows Phone

Mortal Kombat- Pure Genius

Mortal Kombat just got a whole lot more badass. Freddy Kreuger- yes THAT Freddy Kreuger, will soon be making his Outworld Tournament debut as a downloadable character. Take a look at the video below to see what the crown prince of Elm Street has in store for the other kombatants.



I'm so happy that the good people behind Mortal Kombat did this- I'm just wondering what took them so long. Mortal Kombat is a gory, no holds barred type of game that can scare the living crap out of 5 year olds and impressionable adults alike. That being said, wouldn't horror movie villains be the perfect characters to add to a game like this? The DC crossover seemed like a decent idea at the time...until we found out that none of the heroes would be programmed to brutally murder their opponents. Lame. The movie killers are primed for some incredibly inventive fatalities- I mean, who could forget this?

I'd love to see other movie killers make their way into this game. Maybe not so much Norman Bates (although he could replace Noob Saibot with the whole shadow thing), but the guy from Scream, the Texas Chainsaw Killer, or even Chucky.Of course, I wouldn't say any of this if it didn't lead up to Jason. I would love to see the REAL Freddy Vs. Jason happen in this game, but regardless of what happens, adding Freddy to Mortal Kombat was a great great move.

How To Survive The Working World

Superman lunch box and coffee. Oh yeah!



- Posted using BlogPress on iPad

Location:S 6th St,Springfield,United States

Fruit Ninja FX Review

Off the top of my head, the only other game I play that has the "just one more time" addictiveness of Angry Birds is Fruit Ninja. It's easy to play, but tough to master. You slice fruit that pops up on your touch screen all while trying to avoid bombs that are thrown in there for good measure. So imagine my joy when my cousin and I went to the arcade, and saw a Fruit Ninja game standing right near the entrance.

Fruit Ninja FX, as it has been named, takes the sixty second Arcade mode from the smartphone/tablet game, and actually puts it in the arcade as a redemption game (a game played for tickets), much to my initial pleasure.The game looks great on what appears to be a 30 or so inch monitor. It looks and plays like the original game, with one glaring problem: the touch screen is crap.





Now don't get me wrong- it could have been dirty or it may have needed to be recalibrated. But I can't imagine that either of those is the problem; the touch screen registered my swipes late and messed up my score. In a game like Fruit Ninja that requires players to be precise, that is a big flaw. I'm no pricing expert when it comes to touch screens, but a capacative touch screen with a durable shell shouldn't cost all that much to manufacture.

The game is meant for kids, and as such, most won't even care. But for some reason, I do, and because of the screen fault, I can only give Fruit Ninja FX a 6.5 out of 10.

Sent from my Windows Phone

This is a Test

Just trying out this "send from my email" feature that Google was oh so excited to tell me about. Might as well maximize blog accessibility, I guess!

Sent from my Windows Phone

Not Necessarily Part Of Their World: The 5 Most Underrated Disney Movies

Oh, the money Disney has made over the years from their movies. Noticeable enough, they have made their movie money in three very distinct eras. There was the "Classic Princess" era which gave us Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and even Fantasia, a marvel for its day. Then there was the "Renaissance Era", where Disney tales became animated musicals, and no doubt paved the way for the current era, the "Pixar Era", which was the single biggest threat to Disney Animation until they bought Pixar in 2006 for $7.4 billion. But in Disney's long and storied history, some of their best films fell between the cracks; many were overshadowed by the glitz of bigger budget films, and some just experienced bad timing.

Before I reveal my picks, let me just say that I wrote this list on my blog back in February. I saved it as a draft, so nobody could see it, but when I came back to this idea just a few days ago, I didn't even bother looking at the old list; rather, I decided to really think about my picks and why I chose them. Funny enough, when I sat down to type this post, I noticed that I had chosen the same five movies as before. The only difference was the order in 3-5, but my 1 and 2 were still the same. So without further ado, here's my list!

#5: Doug's 1st Movie (1999)

When Nickelodeon sold Doug to Disney in 1996, viewers my age were upset. How was Disney going to mangle one of the best Nicktoons ever? Guess what? They didn't, and not only that, they provided two things that Nickelodeon didn't- a movie, and closure. Doug's 1st Movie also doubled as the series finale, it being the last bit of Doug animation to come down the chute. Often times we find that we really don't want the characters in our favorite shows to grow up. But the Disney switch allowed that to happen, and with it came the prospect of growing with the characters. Doug's 1st (and only) Movie may not have been a box office smash, but Disney did a lot with the show that it doesn't get enough credit for, and for that, it earns the #5 spot on my list.

#4: Oliver And Company (1988)

A modern retelling of Dickens' Oliver Twist with stray pets, Oliver and Company was not just a great way to introduce the story to kids, but also can be seen as the first time that Hollywood was brought to Disney. Before Oliver and Company (and even during most of the Renaissance Era), one or two of your main characters would be recognizable names. Past that, Disney used regular voice actors. It wasn't until Pixar came along that Disney films became A-list affairs. But in 1988, this was some cast. Joey Lawrence, Cheech Marin, Bette Midler, Dom Deluise, and Billy Joel topped this cast of misfits. Most importantly, at the time of its release, this was the highest grossing film Disney had put out in TEN YEARS, and thus reaffirmed Disney's confidence in 1989's The Little Mermaid- we all know what happened after that.

#3: A Goofy Movie (1995)

First of all, props to Disney for giving, essentially, a bit character in the classic Disney lineup, a shot at a TV show and a feature length film AND making it work. The follow up to the 1992-93 television series Goof Troop, A Goofy Movie was unique in that it didn't have the traditional "musical" style of Aladdin or Beauty and the Beast; in those two movies, you knew when and how the music was coming. Here, the majority of the music seemed more organic for the situations, and it worked. Just listen to "Open Road" or "Lester's Possum Park", and it just may remind you of some music from a terrible family vacation you erased from your memory until now. Sandwich that between high energy selections from rock/pop star Powerline (Played by Tevin Campbell), and you've got a great soundtrack that doesn't sound forced. I also commend Disney for tackling "real issues". The highs and lows of being a teenager, having embarrassing parents, wanting to do just about anything to be cool and get the girl, etc. Until Pixar (there we go again), Disney really didn't deal with "people" issues- they really only told fairy tales with fairly predictable plot lines. Had they taken more storytelling risks like this back in the day, I think Disney Animation would be in a far different position today.

Besides, You can't go wrong with a dancing Bigfoot.


#2: The Rescuers Down Under (1990)

Remember when I said that Oliver and Company was the highest grossing Disney film in ten years? The Rescuers, a 1977 Disney effort, was the film on the other end of that ten year span. Its sequel, The Rescuers Down Under, takes a very similar plot to the original and reworks it with much better animation (the first of the Disney line to use computer animation for the entire film). Essentially, this is how the films work: There's a secret society of mice called the Rescue Aid Society, complete with anthem, who, from the missions of both movies, seem to be in the business of rescuing kidnapped children. The RAS is made up of a United Nations of mice, who, fittingly enough, assemble in what I assume to be the inside of some wall in the United Nations building. Two of the mice, Bernard and Bianca (from the USA and Hungary, respectively) are elite members of the society, having successfully rescued a young girl in the first movie.

The plot isn't anything to write home about, but everything else seems to shine here. Bob Newhart and Eva Gabor play Bernard and Bianca, and sound EXACTLY the same as they did 13 years prior. Add the quirky voice talents of Frank Welker, John Candy, and George C. Scott, and you've got a great cast. As mentioned before, the animation department comes up with some absolutely stunning visuals, and the masterfully orchestrated soundtrack by Bruce Broughton (seriously, it's playing on my iPad as I type this), and The Rescuers Down Under is a great overall film that suffers from middle child syndrome; Disney had done so well with The Little Mermaid (1989) that they were already looking towards Aladdin (1992)- I think this film got lost in the shuffle at some point, but can hold its own, referenced by the fact that its one of only three Disney Animation Studios sequels to go to theater instead of straight to video.

#1: The Great Mouse Detective (1986)

There really isn't enough for me to say about this movie. I guess I should start here: Through most of the 70s and 80s, Disney Animation was non existent. Save three or four films, all the rest performed poorly at the box office. Animation hadn't been the bread winner for Disney since the 1950s, and with the advent of Disney World in 1971, animation was seriously lacking- it even got to the point where Disney considered shutting the animation studio down altogether and focusing its efforts on the theme parks. Simply put? This film saved Disney Animation. Putting it another way: without this film, there is no Aladdin or Beauty and the Beast. There's no Toy Story, no Cars, no Up, no Wall-E. No Pocahontas, no...okay, you get the point.

Based off that alone, and considering that Disney has banished it to relative obscurity, you could easily see why I would put it at the top of the list. But it's not just that- the story itself was compelling, and ballsy- seriously? Sherlock Holmes with mice? And they expected children to actively watch this movie? It was a risky move, but their assumption that a good story is a good story definitely paid off. It takes the "mice living in a human world, but having their own similar mouse world" concept from The Rescuers, but they take the ball and run with it here.

A relatively unknown actor here in the US, Barrie Ingham played the role of Basil of Baker Street- and he played it well- Basil is constantly at odds with himself- he tries to keep the movie's mission in mind, but catching his nemesis is the goal that eats away at him. Ingham was joined by a relative cast of unknowns, save for Frank Welker and Vincent Price. Vincent Price played the role of Ratigan, the villain, to a T, in all of his Vincent Price-y goodness. Even before the Renaissance Period, where just about every villain was given an "evil" song, Ratigan's was the first- and to this day, is still better than them all. Better than Scar, Ursula, Gaston, or anybody else- Ratigan's tops the list.

The final fight scene of the movie is only the second Disney movie to use CGI, as the fight scene takes place inside of Big Ben. Like I said, a lot of risks were taken to make this movie, and the vast majority of them paid off. It worked out so well that The Great Mouse Detective got a re-release in theaters in 1992, and tends to make its way out of the Disney Vault a bit more frequently than other movies. Overall, though, considering the quality of the movie, its impact on Disney as a whole, and it's relative obscurity, this was definitely my #1 hands down, and considering the quality of movies that Disney puts out now, this could very well stay my #1 for the rest of my life.

PSP Vita: Is It Dead on Arrival?

The PSP's successor, the Playstation Vita, was announced this past January with a lot of fanfare. Many sites were cautiously optimistic to be downright excited about the new system- after all, the PSP turned six years old in March, and a subsequent upgrade was long overdue considering that time span.

First off, I am the owner of a PSPgo. I started as a proud owner, then a still kinda happy owner, and now it's just "meh". Here's why:

• There was little to no synergy between the PS3 and the PSP go
• No Trophy support
• 16 GB can't store that many PSP games
• System apps included in updates were either stupid or had a non-user friendly installation process
• The PSP Store had an underwhelming library, and the games in that library were way too expensive

For $250, the least the PSPgo could have given me was a better UI, more memory, and a couple of free games to compensate for having to get rid of my entire library of tangible games.

But enough about the PSPgo; let's move on to this generation's issues. The Sony Xperia Play, the PSP Phone that Sony addicts have been clamoring for over the past 3 years, made an underwhelming debut. Sure, it plays PSP games over an Android base, but reviews have cited it as too awkward and an overall "lacking" device. And because it's basically a PSPgo/Android phone, it comes with the issues outlined above that plague the PSPgo.

Sure, the PS Vita looks pretty awesome; it has a touch screen, dual analog sticks, and improved graphics; but is that enough to take back market share? Personally, I don't think so, and I'll tell you why.

1. It's a dedicated gaming device
Sorry Sony and Nintendo; your systems are slowly becoming less relevant. Gaming devices can't just be gaming devices; they have to be phones, office suites, music players and more, all wrapped up in a sleek little package that can beam 4G. The Vita is coming into a market where all-in-one devices rule. They're smaller, sleeker, and faster. Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 may be working out a few kinks, but it complements my Xbox 360- not to mention I can pull up Office documents on it or play Xbox Live games and inflate my gamerscore on the road.

2. Sony overcharges for their games.
Prime example: Angry Birds on the iPhone? Just under a buck. On the PSP? $4.99. That's a 400 percent markup on a game you can download on virtually any other device for less. EA has created- iPad specific versions of their better games, and the most I've paid was $6 for Madden '10. Even at full price, it would have only cost me ten bucks. On the PSP Store, Madden '11 and '10 were both $40. Sony has shown that it wants to continue charging a premium price, and in today's marketplace where you can get the same product for less on a different medium, they can't afford to do that.

This time around, Sony has to make a conscious effort to keep their games competitively priced; if that means that they have to charge $20 or $30 for Madden on the NGP, then so be it. Back in 2004, 2K Sports, then still making NFL games, charged $20 for a new copy of NFL 2K5, while EA Sports still charged $50 for Madden 2005. 2K Sports may have cut their profits, but they definitely increased sales, exposure, and market share- let's not even mention that those games often bested Madden in innovation. If Sony wants to put a Vita in every gamer's hands, they'll have to improve pricing; maybe even imposing a $30 cap on all games would help. My iPad may have set me back a small fortune, but the apps are so cheap that it balances out.

3. Their Minis suck
Around the time they released the PSPgo, Sony also introduced Minis to their store; these were to be sub-100MB games that cost little to nothing- obviously their attempt to cash in on the App Store craze. Well, it didn't work out so well. Sony only released a few Minis a week, and most of them were highly obscure games that nobody ever heard of. On top of that, some of these Minis cost as much as $5. Listen Sony, if you're going to capitalize on Minis, only one price needs to be on your mind. NINETY NINE CENTS.

As a final nail in the coffin, Sony announced at Minis launch that Pac Man Championship Edition would be one of the flagship Minis. Guess what? They waited so long to release it that the game's successor, Pac Man Championship Edition DX, the more than worthy sequel to the original, was released to consoles before the original made it to the PSP. Sony will definitely have to do a better job here if they want to compete.

4. Nintendo is still king
Yes, I said that dedicated portable gaming systems were becoming less relevant, but that doesn't mean that Sony still isn't a big seller. The DS was crushing the PSP even when the PSP was in its prime. The DS is seen a much more accessible device for all demographics, while the PSP is only aimed at serious gamers. Guess who wins that battle every time? That's why Microsoft began repositioning the Xbox 360 a few years back as a family device that is living room worthy, and that's a decision that has paid off really well for them.

Bottom Line:
Sony is releasing the Vita in the 4th Quarter (i.e. holiday season) of 2011, but if I were them, I would have pushed the launch up to August or September; the PSP product, for the most part, has been out of the public eye, and Sony just recently annunced that they were no longer manufacturing the PSPgo in all but a few countries. They need a clean break from the first generation system for now, and positioning the new system and building it's hype for the holiday season is what they need. Otherwise, we could see Sony exiting the handheld game a lot sooner than planned.

Yes, I know I've been absent lately. But do not fret, for I shall return soon bearing a cornucopia of stories! Have faith in me, and I shall reward thee.