I woke up just sober enough to wish everyone a happy Memorial Day. What are your plans today? Any interesting stories?

Lawrence Lessig: “dear Starbucks, say it ain’t true?”

Hmm. I never go into Starbucks because I’m just not a big coffee drinker, but after reading this I’m feeling like a quadruple freeza mocha wapa crapachino blast (light cinnamon of course) to celebrate a friend visiting me from AZ this weekend. You can bet your wrinkled teat that we’re gonna shoot stills and video of this joyous event. And if some high and mighty manager asks us holster those cameras… BAM!!! Someone’s getting an ass full of boot, LBC-style!

Look for those posts after the weekend. Maybe you should try it yourself to see what results you get. I’d love to check that out. Good luck to us all…

Wow! That was quite a game. Looks like the New Jersey Devils are going up again the Fu… err, Ducks for the Stanley Cup. You know how I feel about Ahahiem already and I don’t like the Devils all that much either, but Martin Brodeur is down right awesome so I’m going for NJ. It’s going to be a pure goalie vs goalie match.

I have a special treat for myself. I’ve renewed my Radio Userland license for another year. Yes, this means I can keep jotting down pointless posts like this and this.

That’s chesticle.com going live. Well, sorta. Still lots to do I think. Dear God, it is done (kinda). Oh dear sweet Jebus! Good luck to us all…

It’s coming soon… very soon.

I’m pooping. How’s that for an update?

There is no spoon. There is no story either. The most anticipated movie of 2003 easily becomes one of the most disappointing flicks I have ever seen. Although there are some pretty amazing sequences in The Matrix Reloaded, the one word that kept popping up in my mind was “sloppy”. The cuts were sloppy. The acting was sloppy. The score was sloppy. The story was real sloppy.

My biggest problem was with the continuity between the first film and this one. Forget the fact that Neo learns how to really break and manipulate the matrix code at the end of The Matrix. He seems to have forgotten it completely in Reloaded and there’s no explanation why. My guess is so he can do a lot of very pointless kung fu (and there is a lot of it).

Good points? Sure. The fight sequences are well choreographed. It’s great to watch Neo kick a little ass. Carrie-Anne Moss is very beautiful in it. The French guy (sorry, don’t know his name) was a stand-out performance. Agent Smith is still one of the coolest bad guys ever. All of this was still not enough to save the flick.

Everyone is going to see this movie no matter what. Still, take the blue pill and forget about wonderland. There’s no rabbit hole. Just a bunch of plot holes.

I don’t know if you can really call a movie opening in 2000 theaters today a preview, but that’s what Warner Brothers is saying about The Matrix Reloaded. I guess when you compare it to 8000 theaters nation wide tomorrow, you can get away with it.

So I got my tickets for tonight at 10pm. First show baby! You can bet your franks and beans I’ll be posting about it afterwards.

There’s a smell in the air and it’s sweet. No, this isn’t a “Thoughts From The Bowl” post. It’s E3 week and that means under/overweight guys who aren’t getting laid, rejoice! Video game heaven is upon us. Thursday is my day to go to the expo, but until then I can wet my lips to the always excellent coverage from IGN. Here are my initial thoughts.

The oh so quickly dying Nintendo GameCube has it’s fair share of exclusive standout games (as usual). Mostly sequels or spin-offs of already popular games: Rogue Squadron 3, Metroid Prime 2, Pikmin 2, Star Fox 2, F-Zero GX, Mario Kart, Resident Evil 4, and Pokemon crap galore. All sure to be great games on an average system that no one wants to buy. The only thing that’s grabbing my eye is Rogue Squadron, but it’s Star Wars so it kind of wins by default. Overall, I’m not very excited. Nintendo should follow with Sega’s game plan. Focus on the great games they make. Become a full time software developer for every console and dump their piss poor hardware development.

Here’s a surprise. I don’t see anything too interesting coming from the GameBoy side either. A lot of remakes from the Super Nintendo days, but that’s really it. And to top it off, it looks like Sony is gonna ante up in the handheld market. If there’s any company out there with a realistic chance to slice away at the Nintendo monopoly, it’s Sony. The specs for their system look hundreds of times beyond anything the GameBoy is currently doing which to me is just more proof Nintendo doesn’t care too much about evolving. I mean they’re using the same basic hardware they’ve been using for the last 12 years. I guess you don’t need to evolve when you’re the only one in town. Guess what? That’s not the case anymore.

As always, Sony’s PlayStation 2 has a very healthy lineup coming our way. Castlevania, SOCOM 2, Syphon Filter, Metal Gear Solid 3, Jak & Daxer 2, and Silent Hill 3 all have my attention. What really gets me hard? Two words (and one number)… Gran Turismo 4: the “end all, be all” of racing games. I can’t wait!

All seems good in the Microsoft camp too. Some standouts Xbox titles: Jedi Academy, Fable, Conker, Republic Commando, Brute Force, and Crimson Skies. Xbox Live looks like it’s going to continue its enormous success with the large amount of compatible games being released. Seems like I’m forgetting something. Maybe it’s that little sequel to what I consider the best game of all time, Halo! I also think the Xbox is usually the best console for cross-platform games. That’s why I’m gonna mention in here Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Starcraft: Ghost, NASCAR Thunder 2004, NFL 2K4, NHL 2K4, and NBA 2K4. You have to be blind or stupid to think MS is leaving the gaming console market with this kind of firepower. It’s easily my favorite system out there so far.

Of course, the PC where the hardcore gaming is at and there are way too many title out there to even begin to list. My focus is all on Star Wars Galaxies, World of Warcraft, Jedi Academy, Counter Strike, Unreal Tournament 2004, and (naturally) Halo.

Alright, I’m tired now. I’m sure I’ll have a lot more to say on Thursday after the show. Until then, I’m getting back to my Battlefield 1942. See ya on the servers.