Magic Online account status, Halo Wars, Pokemon, and HSM

So, a few weeks back I wrote that my account was suspended on Magic Online. Well there has been some development on that. It took them over a week and a half to get back to us, but our sentence is to be suspended for 30 days including time served, and then reinstated with full privileges. So, on the whole, not too bad. Just happy to finally know, I think the "Not Knowing" of whether or not I'd ever get my account back was worse then the actual suspension. It looks like April fools day will be a very happy day for me indeed. Until then I can busy myself with this new game I just got:



Now I love me some good Halo. I also love me some real-time strategy games. Put them together and you have Halo Wars. It's an RTS game that satisfies both the Halo and strategy crowd. It takes the most boring parts of the Strategy game (building houses for troops, cutting wood, mining gold), and replaces them with building supply pads, and fixing your population limit to a certain amount. The game is the most fun I've had playing an RTS in a long time. Usually i really like these games at the start, but grow bored of them. Well, it's been a week, and I still can't wait to play again. This has become my midnight to 2 am game that I play when my wife goes to sleep. Multi-player is wicked fun, but I wish more people had Mics. I've had some lopsided matches, some slaughters, some come from behind victories, and the best where it's back and forth, and back and forth, and then you triumph with a slick strategic move in the end. Those types are rare, but they are gems when they happen. Anyway, it's a really fun game to rent for a weekend, and a must have for Halo fans.
NOTE: If you buy the limited edition Halo Wars you get the Mythic map pack before anyone else can! A great game and new multiplayer maps for Halo 3! SOLD! Let it never be said that Microsoft did not know how to market it's products.

This past weekend, my wife and I were in Target, and I had an idea (yeah, they were just coming to me this weekend, I dunno). How about a new activity that my wife and I can share, but also do separately. But what would satify this condition....then I saw it in the Nintendo section. Staring at me was something from my past that I'd forgotten long ago. POKEMON!



















Yes, Pocket monsters, the sensation that invaded the country in the early 2000's was still going strong with it's latest entry for the Nintendo DS. I had played the original red and blue Pokemon games when they had come out in 98. I was in college at the time, and the games were very fun to play during the downtime between classes. I remember that after about 3 months of playing both games I finally did "Catch them all". Just in time for the release of the Gold and Silver Versions. While I purchased these games, I never finished playing them, mainly cause I got into computer games. However i never forgot my time with the game, and what great gameplay it had. So I thought, why doesn't my wife get a copy, and I'll get a copy, we'll play together and apart, and then we can battle our pokemon against each other, and trade with each other when we need/want to. My wife liked the idea too, so now we're playing these games with each other. It also lets her do something that her kids that she's student teaching are probably doing too, so it can give her an idea of how to relate stuff to them. Hey it's a game for all ages, what can I say. It's really fun, and I forgot how addicting the game can be. It's all in good fun though, but i really have to remember to save my game. I lost and hour's worth of playing last night cause I fell asleep in my bed playing, and the gameboy ran out of power.


So, like I said earlier, my wife and I watched HSM for the first time. Yeah Yeah, I know, we're behind the 10 year old times. But, like I said, we were curious about it, and my wife might gain some insight into her new target audience for student teaching. So after watching HSM 1&2 I have this to say about it: It's not as bad as I thought it would be. I like the plot better in 1, but the songs better in 2. I can definitely see the appeal of the series, and the song and dance numbers are nothing if not impressive. However, I am not wholly lacking in criticism. Some things about HSM just urk me a little bit. They are as follows:

A)Zac Efron is FAR too short to be a basketball star. I know I know, there are shorter people who play professional basketball very well. I just don't know any. So it's just stretching my 'suspension of disbelief' muscles a little bit.
B) Everyone is always the "bigger person" in these films. Like they do petty and stupid things like actual High School, but within a day or so realize they're mistake, and make nicey nice, which is decidedly NOT like any high school experience I've ever had. Now yes, I know it's not reality, it's a movie, and a family fun Disney Movie at that. It just seemed kinda sudden, like they didn't see Troy being upset then decide to come clean, they just came clean to fulfill the story requirement 15. It just seemed off, you know.
C) SHARPEE! God this girl is annoying! I know she's meant to be, but GRR! All the songs are really good, except I generally don't enjoy her solos at all.
D) These people have apparently unlimited resources, amazing time management skills, instant teleportation, photographic memories, and instant matching clothing. What I'm referring to is the ability for them to do all the things they do in the film almost without thinking. Like the call backs in HSM1 are resceduled. In the two days, they manage to hack into the school's lightning system, arrange stink bomb to go off and look like an accident, bake a very elaborate cake, design a colorful whiteboard design. All this.....and study, and learn the song, and practice for the game. in the end of HSM 2, the unbelievably levels almost boiled over. In the final number, when Sharpee is already late for her performance, Troy makes a deal with her to go on, and save the performance. Now, they are already overdo to go on, but apparently there is enough time to
A) Have Troy change into a sparkly show suit outfit
B) Troy memorize a NEW song
C) Gabriella to be contacted, do her hair, change her outfit to match Troy's, and learn the song!

So after that, I've just accepted that these kids are apparently extraordinarily gifted, and therefore can do all this. At the end of the day though, you ignore all that, cause the movies are very fun and just plain wholesome. I do plan to watch HSm 3 later this week, and I'll let you knowif the improved budget helped, or hurt.



I'll close this marathon day of blogging (it was immensly slow at work today!) with a real nice quote that me and my wife said last night.

MrsRileyScott: This is so cool, we're playing Pokemon and watching HSM, it's like what every kid says they are going to do when they grow-up.

RileyScott: hey, just cause you're an adult, doesn't mean you have to grow-up.

*shared laughter*