So I’m driving home from my parent’s house after the little Father’s day shindig, and I end up stuck behind an old 1st gen turquoise Dodge Neon which doesn’t feel like doing the 45mph speed limit. We get to the passing zone on Pine Island Turnpike, and this little voice in my head says “Don’t pass him.” I passed him, and in my rear-view mirror see him swerve out behind me. Ok, the guy’s an asshole. So I continue to drive home. He turns off towards Florida with a little girl in his passenger seat. I get home and look at the right rear quarter panel of my car and see what the mother fucker did. Looks like he used a pen or a key or something, stuck his hand out the window, and keyed my car from midway through the rear door back to the tail-light. Nothing deep enough that can’t be buffed out at all, I am getting the car re-painted at some point, but just the same, WHAT THE FUCK. Why do people take it so GODDAMNED PERSONAL when someone passes them? You have a SLOW CAR which you are UNABLE TO DRIVE AT THE SPEED LIMIT. FUCKING DEAL WITH IT. I proceeded to drive down every road between where he pulled off and Florida, NY looking for the car. I’m not sure what I could do at this point, I don’t even have a plate number. ’95-97 Neon 4-door, Turquoise in color, with shiny hubcaps that stick out. I see it again I’m gonna punch the fucker.
Last night I went to see Batman Begins, and finally got to see the Dark Knight represented properly. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the original Tim Burton creation with Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson, but just the same, this movie eclipses ALL the Batman films which preceded it, including the Burton films. Everything about this movie was bigger, darker, more detailed, and IMHO just plain BETTER than any previous effort to represent Batman on the silver screen. In 2 hours and 21 minutes they manage to not only develop the character of Bruce Wayne, they develop the character of Batman. The veil has been dropped on one of the greatest comic book characters of all time. One of my favorite scenes was the car chase between the new Batmobile and Gotham PD, it has got to be the best chase scene I’ve seen in the past few years. There were a few quirks, the time-line jumping in the beginning had me a little dizzy, and there is really no chemistry between Christian Bale and Katie Holmes…at all. All that aside, the movie just plain kicks ass. I think it may be a slow starter as people are used to Batman movies that suck, not one that will absolutely blow their mind… Which this one is. See it. Now. Go.
I’ve been playing Grand Theft Auto San Andreas since the day it came out. Tack on the fact I really can’t do ANYTHING for awhile, I can’t emphasize really how much I have played this game. I picked it up on June 7th, and have played it for no less than 4 hours per day since, and still am not even close to beating it. The level of customization in this game, all the different things that can be done, is beyond belief. You need to feed the character, exercise, weapon skills increase with use and lead to new abilities, fight skills increase with training, cars can be modified both cosmetically and performance wise, and not to mention the multitude of mini-games such as pool and arcade games. The first island you start at is easily twice the size of the whole Vice City map, there is just too much to list. The game has quite a few cameos from the other games, so it definitely ties in to the whole “Grand Theft Auto” universe, from the GTA 3 guy and the girl who double-crossed him, to a few characters from Vice City, and an actual mission where you fly to Liberty City to kill someone at St Mark’s Bistro, GTA San Andreas is a welcome and nearly perfect addition to the GTA universe. Violence is an understatement, taste and tact is non-existent, from the first time you load the game to the inevitable 100% completion of it, there is no question that this is Grand Theft Auto.
