PixlBit

Animal House was on either Netflix or Hulu. Can't remember which now. I thought it was pretty funny.

Allegiance was a one night showing across the country at numerous movie theaters. It was well worth the $20 per ticket I paid. No way in hell was the theater getting any more money for over-priced concessions out of me, though.

I hate the Christmas music that is piped into every mall and retail store across the country. If I hear Santa Baby (a song I loathe to the nth degree) one more time, I will shove chopsticks through my ear drums. Luckily, if it's busy at work, peoples' conversations will drown out whatever shite pop crap is being played over the speakers. If they stuck to classical, I'd be ok. As for Christmas music in general, what I like tends to be more trad, folk, and classical than what I'm likely to hear over the radio or in stores.

And happy holidays back at you!

Thanks for sharing, James.

I know you loved 3D Dot Game Heroes, I bought it because you recommended it!

Yeah, I have Lulu equiped with Cait Sith right now. I'm enjoying the game so far (except for Blitzball).

Happy Solstice, Matt!

And you should totally check out that Medieval Christmas music CD. 

Spending Christmas with Jason's family. We invited my mom, but she'll probably cancel last minute like she did for Thanksgiving.

Luckily for me, I have Beau to keep me honest in the exercise department. That, and the three snowshoe races I'm signed up for. I was doing really good with the running until the snow hit last Monday. It's a lot harder running on snowshoes, by the way, as if you couldn't figure that out on your own.

I liked Morrowind, but something else that was shiny and wonderful came out while I was playing it and I left my character out in the middle of the wilderness, never to be heard from again. I was lucky and found an introductory walkthrough that taught you the basics and then recommended that you throw out the character you'd just made and start over from scratch with whatever type you actually wanted to play as and start over. Worked out really well for me.

As for Tales of Zestiria, I pretty much completely ignored the whole weapon synthesis and skills crap and did just fine. The combat and a few other things in that game were overly complicated, in my opinion.

The only Christmas-themed game level I've ever played (to my recollection) is Grubbins On Ice, the dlc for Costume Quest, but I can't say as I noticed the music.

As for favorite Christmas music, there's a lot I like. Mostly folk stuff that most people have never heard of and traditional carols and hymns. The stuff I tend not to like is the secular stuff, especially the stuff that's been given the modern pop treatment. It's kind of like someone scraping their fingernails down the blackboard as far as I'm concerned. I was planning on doing a Christmas music blog soon, so you can see what I do like when I write it.

Happy looting!

I have a hard time with strategy games, too. Jason loves them, though. Me, I just want to run in and hack and slash or sit back froma distance and snipe the snot of things. My favorite weapon in the second Ratchet & Clank game was the Pulse Rifle. I took down most of the creatures in the desert area with it.

That cassette thingie is a must have for me! I have a pretty big collection of cassettes from various folk musicians and other groups that were never big enough to be commercial or have since disappeared off the face of the earth and will never be found on CD. I had a cassette player in the Outback, but the Forester only had a six CD player. I do have a working cassette player in my boombox, but I don't know how good it is.

Ah, jury duty! It seems like everyone who doesn't want to serve gets picked and those of us who would love the experience never will. I'd get excused for any trial involving domestic violence or rape, though. I have family members who have been victims and I know I wouldn't be able to be impartial.

For me, it depends on the game. Some games, like the Ratchet & Clank games, make going after the achievements fun (for the most part). Some games, like a lot of rpgs, the achievements seem like they're tacked on just because the game needed to have them. I've learned to go for the ones that are either fun or increase enjoyment of the game and ignore the rest.

I think most of us have experienced "Achievement Fever" where we obsessed too much over achievements and lost sight of the game at least once.

I really like Blood Dragon, I'm just not very good at it and kept dying in the same spot. I'll get back to it one of these days.