10.

.                                                     ..                 ..

Kirby’s Dream Land/Super Mario Land (Game Boy)

These two make it on the list for a very simple reason;  these were the first two videogames I ever owned.  My parents didn’t allow videogames for the longest time; I wasn’t allowed to have them.  However, after continuous pleading, they gave in somewhat, and must have decided that a handheld videogame, in the form of Gameboy was better than one that plugs into the TV.  So at about age 8 or 9, I got the old, house sized Gameboy, and these two games.  Awesome games.

9.

M.C. Kids (NES)

M.C Kids is one of a million games that came out during the NES’ lifetime that tried to capture the success of Super Mario Bros.  And to be honest it was actually a pretty fun game.  The reason this is on the list though, as far as nostalgic value goes, is because my neighbors Chris and Carlos had it and we would play it for hours on end.  Good game for a generic Mario game.

8.

Jaws (NES)

Jaws was a pretty terrible game that my cousin JJ had, and a couple times I would stay over at his house in Rockford and we played this game.  At the time I thought it was awesome, you swim around shooting baby sharks and jellyfish to get seashells, which in turn can be traded in to power you up to finally face Jaws.  I have played it since and it is terrible.  I only liked it because it was easy I think, because it is literally the exact same thing over and over again for hours.  I fire it up every so often to look back on it and I’m quitting within about three minutes.

7.

Super Metroid (SNES)

This game is a classic for most people that were big into videogames in the 1990s and this game would rank in my top 10 of best games ever made, nostalgia factor aside.  The reason this game is on my list is because it reminds me of all the nights when you are at a friends house playing Nintendo until 3 in the morning.  Eric Van Valkenburg had this game and him, myself and Mike Campbell played it on end, with Nintendo Power maps, and too many sodas strewn about.  I don’t even remember finishing the game, but this gaming session is reminiscent of every late night gaming session; and is one of the first I ever partook in.

6. 

Bomberman (SNES, Gamecube)

This game is on the list because for every version there have been many hours in my basement with all sorts of groups of friends playing non stop.  Just a great game that lends itself to a bunch of friends hanging out, eating white castle and too many cokes.

5.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES, Arcade)

I have played this game too many times.  Too many.  I will die knowing exactly what each different colored foot soldiers weapon is.  I played this at a very young age on the NES at my cousin JJ’s house.  At the time I was so young that as I jammed the buttons to attack, I also unconsciously made ninja sounds nonstop.  Then, this game showed up in arcade form at the local Fuddrucker’s, which fortunately when I was young my parents liked to frequent, and I put a lot of quarters into this game.  Plus, combined with the fact that I already loved the movies, and the cartoon, it really made this game pretty great.

4.

Harvest Moon (All Systems)

I never had a SNES when I was young, but somehow heard about this farming simulator called Harvest Moon.  Yep.  Farming Simulator.  I don’t know what compelled me to think it is cool but I wanted to play it.  I then somewhat shadily was able to download the game on our old Power PC Apple, the one with a 200 Mhz processor and a 300MB hard drive.  The game ran really slow but I stuck with it and somehow became addicted.  It sort of has the same appeal as many of those Facebook games where you are a virtual god in charge of a society, or city, or farm.  I’ve had a fondness for video game farming ever since.  However my odd loyalty to this game franchise made me never play Farmville for Facebook, and I am still going to blindly assume this is better.

3.

Legend of Zelda:  Link’s Awakening (GameBoy)

This was the third Gameboy game I ever got after Super Mario Land and Kirby’s Dream Land (both on this list), and this game couldn’t be more different.  Both of the aforementioned games basically contain “move from left to right” game play with the A button being jump and the occasional use of another button.  Link’s Awakening involved heavy puzzle solving and critical thinking, something my gaming resume had yet to contain.  The game was so hard for my young brain I had to send a letter to Nintendo’s “Counselor’s Corner” game tips center to ask for help.  I received a typed response with a photocopy of a map of the level I was having a hard time with.  I know the internet has destroyed the need for that but come on, that’s pretty cool.  I never felt so accomplished beating a game and later when my brother Dave asked for help with it, I remember refusing because if I struggled through it then dammit he was going to as well.  Not only is this one of my most nostalgic games ever, but it is one of my favorite games of all time.

2.

Bubble Bobble (NES)

I first played this at my next door neighbor’s house during their 4th of July party.  You play as Bub, or Bob, and you spit bubbles, encasing enemies and then popping the bubbles.  Repeat.  Not only does this game have addicting gameplay, but it has over 100 levels which makes it last a long time.  Plus, in order to get the real ending you would have to play through the game a second time.  I go back and play through this game with a friend every other year or so.  The music is addicting too.

1.

Super Monkey Ball (Gamecube)

The basic premise of the game is an updated version of Marble Madness.  You have to guide your monkey in a ball to the end of the stage.  There are a huge amount of stages with endless variety.  What made this game so good was it is impossible to beat.  It is insanely hard.  Luckily my group of Lombard friends takes this kind of game as a challenge.  We would stay up all night at times trying to get through this and beat our best scores.  Later games in the series came out, all waaay too easy, probably so people would buy the game, but none were ever as good as the original.

First, what I expect it to be called.  The two most obvious choices being tossed around are the iPhone 4S and the iPhone 5.  I’m putting my money on iPhone 5 for a few reasons; even though I may be betting on the underdog, I think it’ll turn out right.  When the iPhone 3G came out, it was actually the second iteration of the iPhone, where the iPhone 3GS was the third.  So by naming two phones concurrently with the 3 moniker, it started a possibly confusing trend.  All was righted with the iPhone 4, the 4th generation phone.

Now, the next iPhone will not be named 4G or 4GS, because then it will lead to confusion over whether or not the next handset will support 4G cellular technology, which it almost certainly will not.  Apple is smart in waiting for a particular technology, as in the case of 3G, to be proliferated and widespread before adopting it, as opposed to being an early adopter which leads to more upfront costs.

Another reason why the iPhone 3GS retained a name so similar to the 3G was the form factor stayed exactly the same, there was no cosmetic change to the case, only hardware changes were made inside.  Sources point to a minor upgrade, which would lend credence to the name iPhone 4S.  BUT…to be released along side the next iPhone will be the next major iOS operating system, the already named iOS5.  I think it sounds much better from a advertising standpoint to launch the iPhone 5 with iOS 5, as opposed to iPhone 4S running iOS 5.  That’s just me, but I can already envision the clever slogans Apple is coming up with using 5 and 5.    So as far as the name is concerned, I think Apple will stick with a nice numbered structure by calling the 5th generation of their iPhone the iPhone 5.

On to the actual hardware.

I’m going to make my predictions based mostly off of rumors from various news outlets, so expect no crazy predictions.  The two lines of thought for the new handset are a minor upgrade, retaining the form function of the iPhone 4, or a major facelift and a pretty new package.  In the iPhone’s short 4 year lifespan, we have seen a trend of two years of the same form, before a major upgrade; 3G + 3GS looked the same, then the 4 was a major change.  Sticking with that the iPhone 5 should look the same but I don’t entirely believe that.  There are people saying there will be a major upgrade but I don’t believe that either.  If it is named the iPhone 5, there has to be something to make it worthy of the name “5″, and not be a “4S”, so I think there will be minor changes, but nothing drastic.

A smaller home button would help the screen stand out.

Expect the iPhone 5 to be thinner, and have a larger screen. Battery life will be increased 30% as well. I also think the home button gets a tad smaller, as the whole footprint it takes up is prime real estate for more screen.  Upgrading the look slightly can also give Apple a chance to show that they listened to the “antenna-gate” problem, and have that solved.  No huge changes, but enough to go along with the name iPhone 5 and keep everyone happy.

Finally release date.  Shot in the dark, though we know it will be likely in September based on reports from parts manufacturers in China.  I’m going to say September 23rd.

There it is, my thoughts on what to expect from the iPhone 5.  As my iPhone 3G is preparing it’s last will and testament, I’ll be heading to the iPhone nursery to bring home my brand new iPhone 5 come this fall.

First and foremost, a man crush cannot be a “jumping on the bandwagon” type of thing.  You can’t say, “Oh I really like so and so a lot, now that he’s doing well”, and then drop them when their career hits a bump or they leave your favorite team. No.  You must continue to support him, after he has left your team.  A few exceptions to this would be if the circumstances of leaving were negative, AND the negativity was caused or created by the individual.  If a player gets traded, I understand.  Bad year and gets released?  Stick with your guy.  Alienates an entire team by making a spectacle of where he will be next year?  I don’t fault you if you drop your man crush then.  I’m looking at you Lebron and Favre.  That being said however, I won’t fault you for sticking with him through all that as well.

Without further ado, my top five man crushes:

• 5.  Matt Schaub

  By virtue of having Andre Johnson on my fantasy team for a few years, I discovered the greatness that is Matt Schaub.  Not a charismatic guy, you'll never see him pitching for Sony 3D TVs a la Peyton Manning, but man if he doesn't deserve to be considered elite; he's just in a bad situation. The Houston Texans have decided that an offensive line is like the top of the food pyramid:  it's nice to have but you shouldn't overdo it and use them in moderation.  Schaub gets sacked...all the time.  He is consistently in the top 5 in yards completed, but never gets "elite" numbers other than that.  Imagine what he could do if he had more than 2 seconds to throw the ball.

• 4.  Ted Lilly

  Ted Lilly gets the nod on my list because he is a solid pitcher that has no sort of drama associated with him at all, he just gets it done.  Not at a Roy Halladay level, but he's still darn good, and has a wicked curveball in his arsenal. Also on the mound he never smiles or displays any emotion.  A puppy could be dangling over a vat of acid and he wouldn't budge.  He's one tough dude. Plus he was on the Cubs for a few years which automatically ups him a couple notches in my book.

• 

  3.  Andre Johnson

  Andre Johnson catches everything.  That's it.  I should stop writing.

  He's just a great wide receiver that plays for a so so team but doesn't give in to the typical melodrama of most wide receivers that I can't stand.

  The only person that seems to rub him the wrong way is Cortland Finnegan.

   

• 

  2.  Roy Halladay

  I remember the moment vividly.  Fantasy baseball 2009.  Keepers had just been declared and BC decided to not keep Roy Halladay.  At this point, Jake Peavy was still a top option and if I believe right, BC had some pretty great keepers to begin with.

  I wanted him.  But there were seven picks before my first free pick of the draft.  I had accurately predicted who would take who and then it came down to about a 50/50 shot that I would get him.  Then KO decided to take Aramis Ramirez and that sealed Roy's fate with me.

  Roy leads the leagues in complete games year after year.  He pitches like a pitcher of the early days of baseball, before there were set up men and closers.  He doesn't need no closers.  And he's an extremely humble likeable guy.  Attributes that make him number two on my top man crush list.

• 

  1.  Rex Grossman

   

  This one goes without saying.  Everyone who knows me knows this was going to be number one.  There are a multitude of reasons why Rex is great, or rather, Rexcellent.  First of all, he was on the Bears, the best football team there is.  Second, he took the Bears to the Super Bowl!  Yes, I know he had some bad games.  But in the 2006 season he threw 22 TDs and had 20INTs...less interceptions than the coveted (not so much anymore) Jay Cutler.  And he had as many games over a 100 passer rating as Peyton Manning that year.

  Also, he looks like me a little.  So maybe I picture myself throwing sexy looking insta-TDs 50 yards at a time every time I see him.

  Rex is in an OK situation now.  After a few years in Texas, backing up Matt Schaub, he is now going to be the starter in Washington.  In the draft the Redskins didn't draft a QB in the high up rounds so if they do take one , likely Rex will still be the starter for the year as they work with a new QB.

I have always liked the Cubs more than the White Sox, but as a kid I went to more White Sox games, presumably because they were cheaper.  And I remember my favorite player was Robin Ventura.  Now I still support the Sox but am a much bigger Cubs fan.  At the time of the Nolan Ryan, Robin Ventura fight I’m sure I was on Ventura’s side, but now I respect how awesome Nolan Ryan is and how great it was that he was 20 years older than him and still gave him a licking.

Ken Griffey Junior was probably my favorite player for a bunch of years, as I’m sure with many kids as he was a superstar.  Of course when I was young I knew nothing of stats, just that he was in commercials and Ken Griffey’s baseball video games were the best.  Still rooted for him in his later years and believe that if he wasn’t so injury prone he’d have set lots of records.

Ryne Sandberg and Mark Grace were my favorite Cubs.  That’s about all I can say;  I was young and don’t have too many Cubs memories other than I had their baseball cards and they were the two stars of the team.

My most recent early memories are of the Cubs teams that included Kerry Wood and Mark Prior.  To be honest I don’t think I watched the 20K game by Kerry Wood, if I had I feel as though I would remember it better.  Still, now I realize just how sick that was.  I know this is relatively recent, late 90s early 2000s, but I’m still counting it as early because I still didn’t really “know” baseball until about 2005.  Of the two I actually liked Mark Prior a little better, and hope he makes it back to the bigs soon (he’s with the Yankees minor leagues now).

When I first started writing randomness in 2008 (2007?) , there was the newness factor to it all.  Wow, I have a website!  Super neato gang!  That “newness” fueled a lot of my early posting and I felt like I had a lot of material to write about.

At some point however, I just stopped caring.  Not that I’m a debbie downer or went into some sort of depression, but honestly, who cares?  I write a post about trying a new Thai recipe, or deciding between two pairs of running shoes.  Who cares!?  I wouldn’t read about someone else posting this so why would someone else.  At this point, about 2009, I became less and less interested in posting because my posts weren’t interesting.

On top of that, what interesting things I was doing I still wasn’t posting about.  The reasoning for this was super simple.  Everyone that I wanted to know about what I was doing already did.  The people close to me, my best friends and family already knew about things I was doing, so why be redundant and type them again.  I know, people that don’t know may be occasionally inclined to read it, but my internal costs/benefits analysis kicked in and I was too lazy.

There is also a fine line between blogging and simply writing online how cool you think you are and what you do.  And the people that are closest to me know that I don’t brag much, about anything.  Even if what I do is way cooler that what you do, I wouldn’t be a good human being if I felt the need to tell it on a mountain top.

Yes when I found out I was going to Japan for a year I became interested in blogging again, but only because I thought for the first time in a year or two, that people would honestly be interested in reading what I had to say.  Even if they aren’t interested, this blog does somewhat serve as like an online diary, so I really should keep pushing through posts.

Finally, getting to the title of this post.  I was talking with Joe today and he said that I shouldn’t get too worked up about the content or length of posts.  Just write little snippets, who cares if it isn’t a well thought out, well produced post.  Joe used a very good analogy:  “your parents would rather have you call and talk to them a little each day or every other day, than saving up and calling once a month with one big phone call”.  That pretty much sums it up.  And the more I wait for the “big phone call” blog post, the larger it gets, which means the more work it will take to write.  Then the laziness sets in and I just don’t write it at all.  But if I am able to post little snippets of what is going on in my life, and not get too worked up that it’s not a perfectly crafted post, then that’s for the better.

Japan is very famous for it’s cherry trees, called sakura in Japan. Prior to them blooming, I had heard a few things about the different traditions that people do here when hundreds of cherry trees flower with huge amounts of white petals.

The number one thing that I heard was that ohanami (flower viewing), was simply an excuse for the Japanese to sit around, not work and drink.

I had also heard that it is a big enough deal that people arrive early each day to lay out tarps to reserve spots in large parks throughout Japan to have a prime viewing spot. Are the flowers doing magic tricks? Does each petal play a different episode of I Love Lucy? This I didn’t really believe.

I can confirm that both of these are true. People gather en masse, to “look” at cherry trees. It really is just a great excuse to not work and hang out. I’m not trying to discredit the trees, in fact I wish in America when the leaves started changing in the fall, everyone would take vacation days and just enjoy themselves.

The trees do look great, and when they bloom, they are only in full bloom for about two or three weeks. As quickly as they bloom the petals are all swept away by the wind.  So maybe because of the short time that they are blooming (blossoming?),it makes the occasion to get together with friends and do some heavy duty people and flower watching that much more fun.  I did have Japan ranked number two on my personal list of most beautiful countries (Italy was #1), but after seeing all the sakura in bloom, I have to put Japan as number one.

Check out some more pictures below.  Also note, I don’t know the difference between some of the trees.  It’s also plum blossom season, and they all look pretty so just go with it.

Another year, another awesome day.  Draft day has to be placed right up there with Christmas and Birthdays, for a lot of reasons.  In some ways it’s even better, there is way more anticipation that builds as websites and periodicals begin to be released prior to the season.  Later I will do a round by round analysis of our FIJI league Baseball Draft results, a la ESPN style, but for now I’ll simply post my teams and my thoughts on my individual picks.   All my thoughts on my picks will be after the photos.   Here is the slideshow below:

So I’m writing this analysis of my draft and it’s actually about the third week of the season, but I’m going to write this with my thought process before Opening Day in mind.

Reach of the(my) Draft: Matt Wieters.  I did not have to take him here at all.  I like him, but hate it when I feel like I could’ve waited.  People might say Marmol, and I was hoping to get him in the 8th, but a closer run had started so I’m happy I got “my guy”.

Steal of the Draft: Jacoby Ellsbury.  My though process on him was the fact that he was a stud two years ago, I believe a first round pick, that was being overlooked this year.  Yes last year he was injured, but it was a rib injury; not a condition that tends to reoccur or hinder one of his top skills, baserunning.  Had it been an oblique injury, or a hamstring, I’d understand.  I’m expecting a big year.

“My Guys”: With regards to ADP and where you are “supposed” to take a guy, none of that matters if you aren’t happy afterwards.  I was targeting Cole Hamels and I really wanted Marmol, simply because his K/9 rate is sick, and I like to have one Cub on my team, and I think he’s the best cub to have.

Guys I missed Out On: Surprisingly not many this year.  The only guy that was “stolen” from me was Starlin Castro;  I was planning on taking him with my next pick.

Overall I was very happy with my first half of the draft, think I took guys early in the middle and did just OK at the end.  I’ll probably post in another week with my roster changes thus far.

Now I would love to give this game a glowing endorsement, however Matt apparently doesn’t like Steve Jobs and hasn’t released it for the iOS App Store.  He has said that his next game will be for the iOS store, probably because he realizes how much cooler it is.  That has to be the reason.  Check out the video after the page break…

Anyways, if you have an Android phone, download it, play it, and review it.  And if you want to see the game in action before you download, or if you just want to know what you are missing because you own an iPhone, check out the trailer for the game below: