The West Coast

Well, I've not had a chance to blog for a while now because I've been in Anaheim, California. Oh and thats not some picture I found on the internet, as usual, I actually took it this afternoon.

Yes, my life is hard.

I've mentioned in the past that I work for an audio visual rental and staging company from North Carolina and this week, we've had the wonderful opportunity to be doing a show in the Anaheim convention center. The very same convention center that in a few short months Blizzard will be taking over with it's annual BlizCon.

It's been a wonderful stay so far. The hotel is very nice and I've had no issue with them, accept maybe the roach that ended up in my in room coffee machine. The Convention center people have been wonderful to work with, but it is a city facility, so everything is done at a snails pace. Lets not forget it took us 3 hours to get our gear in the room because the local AV company put a boom lift in the freight elevator that was too heavy and shut the elevator down for a few hours. But, other than those small things my stay in California and specifically Anaheim has been great.

I did make it over to Disneyland a few times, but it just wasn't as much fun without the wife, whom I had to leave home back in North Carolina. Still, it was nice to visit the west coast mouse. I picked up a few souvenirs but I am always reminded by co-workers that I can't take the park home with me. I took lots of pictures which I hope to share at some point.

I think it was a good thing for me to disconnect from WoW for a while. I was playing every night after dinner and started getting up early in the morning to do dailies before work. It's just nice not having to worry about what I'll do next in the game.

Don't get me wrong, I'll probably be back at it hard once recover from my jet lag, but for now, its been a very nice vacation from gaming. Course, I do have my DS with me.

Mrs. Oakstout reviews "Drag Me To Hell".

OK, you asked for my wife's review and here it is. First, I want to state, she didn't read my review. She asked me to send her a copy at work, since she can't see the website from her job, and I said "No". I wanted an honest reaction from her and that is what I got. Now, there is definitely a spoiler to the ending in her post, so beware, you have been warned.


(Spoilers to follow......but if you've read anything about the film you probably already know these things....)

When Mr. Oakstout initially asked me to write this review, I wasn't sure how I felt about the movie. You see, although I am an avid fan of the horror genre, I don't like what most horror fans like. I wasn't initially particularly interested in seeing this movie. since I am not a fan of the "Evil Dead" films, and I felt this film would be similar in style. I was swayed, however, when I read multiple glowing reviews of the film. So, I decided I wanted to see it, and of course had to drag my husband along for the ride. (yeah, yeah, I know...)

Reviewing this movie, as it turns out, is a difficult task for me because I liked it....but I didn't like it.

Since I am sure anyone who is at all interested in seeing the film is already familiar with the plot, just let me just give you some random thoughts instead...

• Very interesting premise for a film
• History to explain the curse. I really enjoy movies that create a mythology or legend to explain the evil entity.
• Plenty of loud, jump-in-your-seat shock moments...
• More than plenty of "gross-out", make your skin crawl, somewhat amusing moments...
• No serious gore, which I, for one, appreciate.
• One pretty transparent plot-twist which you can see coming from a mile away - and that effectively misleads the viewer so you absolutely don't see the next one coming....
• A realistic, albeit not very happy ending. This is where I differ from most hard-core horror fans. I like happy endings, unrealistic or not. I truly wanted Christine to win in the end, and for the old gypsy b***h to get what was coming to her...but I also knew that wasn't going to happen....

All in all, I think the movie is very good, but for me, it was also very nerve-wracking... which, now that I think about it, is to be expected with a good horror flick.

The "Drag Me To Hell" Review

I mentioned the new movie by Sam Raimi in my morning post. A friend and fellow blogger, Thallian, had inquired as to what I really thought about the movie, so instead of commenting in my comment section, I thought, why not just blog about it. So here is my review.

There might be some spoiler information, so I apologize. However, I do not think it spoils the overall movie.

My anniversary was this past Wednesday, so me and Mrs. Oakstout decided to take the day off from our respective jobs and do some stuff together and spend the day reminiscing about our 20 years of wonderful matrimony.

So, after lunch, I suggested that we go see Drag Me To Hell. I'm not a big horror person, but my lovely wife happens to be a fan of the genre. I need to clarify the term fan, when it comes to Mrs. Oakstout and horror movies. She has seen tons of them, whether in the theater, DVD or VHS. If she can't get it on video, then she'll read all there is about it on IMDB. She has an extensive Dario Argento collection and is a fan of Stephen King's work. So, when I say she likes horror stories and movies specifically, I'm not kidding.

I wanted to be a good husband on our anniversary so I suggested we go see the movie. Now, believe it or not, even after listing everything above and her love of horror, my wife is still not a huge fan of Sam Raimi's, but she had read very good reviews about the movie on line and it was something we could do together, so she said yes.

Now that explains why I was there to see the movie in the first place, so what did I really think of it.

Now, I am a fan of Sam Raimi's horror work. I've seen Evil Dead several times and the subsequent sequels that followed. Therefore, I kind of knew what to expect. Lots of dismemberment, gushing blood splatter, and lots of yelling with some slight campiness. I only saw maybe 10minutes of campiness or maybe it was 15. Hard to say, because the gross factor was at warp 20 for this PG-13 movie.

I mean, come on, how many times can viscus liquids of varying kinds come out of a human mouth? There were maggots, flies and talking demonic goats. Gum biting hags that seem to never die. At one point, the movie seemed to calm down from the loud shocking sound effects and grossness and really started to get me interested in the "Horror story" aspect of the movie instead of the over the top gross factor. If I wanted over the top gross in a movie, I'd have spent the afternoon watching Borat wrestle another man naked. Trust me, that is pretty gross.

The over all story was pretty good, aside from the tons of viscus liquids being squirted about. But I will say this about the story, at one point in the movie you just know what's going to happen at the end, you just do. It's so obvious. I won't say bad things about the ending because, well, that was the only bright spot in the movie, not because the movie was over, but because it was a good ending to an otherwise pointless movie.

Oh and there is no Bruce Campbell in this movie either, which was also a bummer for me. He seems to show up in just about all of Raimi's movies, including the Spiderman ones.

I would give it a c- for a horror movie, but then again, I'm not a huge fan of the genre. If you like your movie gross and over the top, then please, go see this movie.

DING 80

Well, I finally did it!

I managed to finally get one of my characters to end game... AGAIN. Technically, this is my third character to reach "End Game". My first was my mage, Gwion and the second was my protection warrior, Oakstout. But that was when End Game was 60, then 70. Now it's 80.

For now, Oakley, my paladin, will be my main level 80 character. I do hope to move my mage and warrior up, but right now, I want to focus on getting gear and other fun toys, like my flying drake. I did spend the 1,ooo gold, yikes, and dual spec-ed my paladin for damage as well as tanking, at least till I can get my warrior to 80.

I would like to thank fellow guild members Wtfrostshock, Silenced and Ax for helping me achieve this goal. They dragged me through the Culling of Strat last night at 12am and promised me a ding and I did. Thanks go to them for the great team effort and support. (tear)

Well, that is about it. I have lots more to say this weekend and some of it is WoW related I think, so stay tuned.

Oh, on a side note, I did manage to see DRAG ME TO HELL. Question, is it possible to unsee a thing?

The Bad Science

This will be short.

The Star Trek currently in the theaters, and directed by J.J. Abrams is a MOVIE! It is not a representation of life as we know it now, its a possible future and things like, transporters, shuttle craft, warp drives they don't exist except in the imagination. Therefore to say the science concerning something that is, well, not real, might be bad is just crazy.

The purpose of seeing a Science FICTION movie is that it lets one suspend their disbelieve so they can enjoy the unimaginable. The science is neither good nor bad in these movies because it isn't real.

So just shut up, enjoy the fake science and have a good time.

Thank you!

The AFK

I apologize for my absences of late. Really, I have no excuse, except to say that I didn't have much to say. Course, I have been trolling other people's blogs and posting, but nothing worth creating my own topic about.

So, what have I been doing? Other than trolling?

Well, I've managed to get my Paladin past 70 and into a sizable amount of Lich King content. Now, I had traversed a bit of Northrend previously with my warrior and gnome mage, but I wasn't really feeling it. I think a lot of it had to do with with how cluttered the Borean Tundra and Howling Fjords feel. The zone is pretty packed with animals, diverse terrain and other obstacles that tend to just annoy me. But, I decided with my paladin, the goal was to quickly level through those areas and head on, which I did, and I'm really enjoying the game much more.

There are areas of the new expansion that are just a visual delight. The art design for Lich King is very different than those of the core and BC. It seems to take on almost a graphic novel type of look with the shadowing and shading of the ground, trees and buildings. I'm just saying that I'm really digging the art work this time around.

The questing isn't much different than before. Lots of collection and kill quests. They have created a few themed quests that go along with certain areas you are questing in, like the D.E.H.T.A line of quests, which I won't go into here. They are fun to do maybe once, but after that they get annoying. Course, getting to ride a woolly mammoth is lots of fun. I just wish that Blizzard would stop making us look through animal crap for part of a quest. Bat quano and wolf droppings have no business being in a quest chain.

Getting a 5-man group as a retribution paladin seemed like it might be an issue. I figured most people would prefer a mage, warlock or Death Knight to a dps paladin, but I'm here to say, I've not had one problem. I've been inside the Nexus, Utgard Keep, Azjol- Nerub, Ahn'jahet and Drak'Tharon Keep. Everyone was pretty much a Pug, with a few guild members through in at times. We didn't have any problem getting along or getting the instance handled in a reasonable way and I had a blast doing each and every one. A lot of this new found ease is attributed to the way Blizzard created the instances in Lich King. They aren't very complicated and they are very very fast. Each instance took maybe 30 min to 40 min from start to finish, sometimes even less depending on your particular group make up.

Now here is the real problem, for me and my paladin anyway. There are 3 types of plate armor that drops in the game. Straight up paladin, mana regeneration, intellect and stamina heavy armor, protection warrior or paladin, stamina and strength heavy with defense thrown in for good measure. Then lastly they have some dps centric plate armor that's mostly designed for fury or arms warriors, but looks pretty good for a dps paladin at times, especially if nothing else is better.

So now I have to shift through what I have, whats dropped and who is in the party to decide if the item I'm looking at is worth rolling need for. I want you to know, it's getting pretty hard. I rolled need on two weapons over three days. Both looked to be better than the other, but upon closer examination and some attack dummy practicing, they are in fact, the same. No real problem because I didn't have any competition rolling on either item in the group I was in, but still. I don't want to hose someone out of a nice upgrade, especially if I'm not sure if the item is a true upgrade for me. I do have a mod that compares stats, but even that isn't 100% correct at times and I don't have the luxury of having the group hold up a roll just to make sure I'm doing the right thing for me.

Oh well, enough of that little bit of internal conflict.

Besides WoW, I've picked up two new DS games, Big Bang Mini and Henry Hatsworth and the Puzzling Adventure. Both very different and very good games. I've enjoyed both of them immensely, especially when away from my computer due to work. I still need to finish Final Fantasy 3 and Chrono Trigger, but I needed something light to play while I was working out of town. I don't want to be caught playing my DS the next time we have someone important on the stage.

I've also become addicted to Starbuck's coffee. I'm not going to link them in my blog because they are extremely evil and if you've not already heard of them, which would be a miracle, I'm not going to go out of my way to help them aquire fresh blood for their army of caffinated zombies. Needless to say, every day I have at the very least one large cup of their highly addictive coffee, if not two. Yes, it does tend to be a bit expensive, but I don't smoke nor do I go out and drink beer much, so I don't see a problem with a coffee addiction.

On a good health note, I've joined Weight Watchers with my wife. I've been on it a week and I've already lost a little over 8 lbs. Hopefully the progress with continue. Being a diabetic it's important to me as I get older to get better control over my blood sugars and with my weight being a little out of control these days I'm hopeful that Weight Watchers can help. The trick is to attend the meetings and write down everything you eat during the day. Make sure you excercise and eat foods that will fill you up but aren't fattening. Ok, no more Weight Watchers commercial.

That is about it.

I would like to recommend a new podcast. I've been a fan of The Player One podcast for over a year now and recently they recommended The Fanboys. I've listened to three episodes so far and it's very entertaining. They converse mostly about movies and games, but they do tend to go off topic a great deal and some of it can be disturbing, but so far it's always been funny stuff. It won't be for everyone, but if your into entertaining podcasts, then give this one a try.

I'm too lazy to edit this or check my grammar so if I screw up something, please forgive.

The Windmill is hole 15!

It occurred to me while replying to a recent post at "A wall of Text" on the changes to Wintergrasp, that World of Warcraft is to the MMO community what Putt Putt is to the golf.

I mean, Blizzard has slowly turned WoW into an easy entry point for newbie people who want to dabble in the Virtual world. Sure, some of it's hard, like the windmill on hole 15, but some of the course is just a few rolling hills that with the right amount of aim, can put your ball in the hole with one easy hit.

Wow has become an easy game for beginner MMO players. The management and design team at Blizzard have removed most of the depth and difficulty that was originally associated with the core game, pre BC and made it a grindless, bonus xp questing ground, where you never really touch anything of importance in any zone because your leveling so blazingly fast. It's a drive by and I haven't figured out who is getting shot.

A new player and guild mate, who use to be an avid Guild Wars player, told me that WoW was great and he enjoyed all the mob killing and ganking, but he wasn't being driven throught the game by the story line and he missed that aspect from his days of playing Guild Wars.

Apparently, Guild Wars had the questing and story set up in such a way that it flowed very nicely through the leveling process. Not unlike the way Lotro works with it's vast history and the books of the series. Events were scripted and worked with what the player was doing as he or she leveled up.

I told him that he was in error, that, in fact, WoW had a well crafted story arc designed specifically for each zone and that he had been adventuring in it. He wasn't being driven by it because, with all that fantastic extra xp for turning in quests and the fact that he was in the R.A.F program with a friend, he was only going through, on average, maybe, 1/3rd of the quests in each zone before moving on to the next zone. Therefore, he wasn't getting the entire story arc through the games questing system. He was missing pieces of the story puzzle, so he wasn't seeing the entire picture.

But who needs Lore and history at the lower levels when Lich King is all that matters now. Getting to that end game content where, apparently, it's just so easy to raid the 10 man heroic dungeons that Blizzard had to quickly introduce Ulduar to keep players in the game and happy. What a shame they needed to do this so close after the release of WoTLK. Course to hear them tell it, this was all planned. I just can't buy what their selling anymore.

I don't hate World of Warcraft, I just hate what Blizzard has done to a fine and wonderful game. They have been pounding the crap out of it with their famous Nerf bat that the entire game is spitting up foam every where you look. I don't mind if they put in a Putt Putt course or two, all I'm asking for is a place to play some real golf.