Well, merry Christmas to all. The reason I haven't been blogging lately is because I've been spending my winter vacation in Los Angeles. I'm soaking up the rays while my family and friends back in Chicago are frozen solid.
So, I just got Dead Rising. (screenshot above) It's pretty hard, but even the most inexperienced of players can take joy in clubbing the undead with park bench, a samurai sword, an umbrella, a shotgun, a shopping cart, a chair, dinner plates, gemstones, boomerangs, chainsaws, books, a novelty plastic lightsaber, novelty masks, teddy bears, cash registers, sledgehammers, scythes, potted plants, cars, bicycles... Oh, the screenshot is an outfit you can get, not the standard one. Cause that would be gay.
So I was at Nordstrom yesterday ("God Patro, what were you thinking? It's two days after Thanksgiving!"). Sure, it was crowded as a Krispy Kreme on the season premiere of The Biggest Loser, but I actually found some great shoes that hadn't already been sucked up by the mainstream. I was in the men's department, and I decided to go look at the shoes. I was looking around when I saw this whole exhibit that said:" Nike+. Experience it" or something like that. So I found those great-looking shoes above, tried them on, and bought them. They're really cool shoes.
| Watch a hot girl strangle a tough-looking guy with her legs! Every man's dream.... | |
So it's out today. The long-anticipated PlayStation 3 came out midnight last night. I don't really want one (I have an Xbox 360), but I am a bit intrigued by it. It has a built-in Blu-Ray player which probably won't do too well because HD-DVD has apparently been more successful so far,and it also has built-in wi-fi. But probably the thing that interests me most about it is the thing that nobody cares about: tilt-motion tech. Inside the controllers apparently is something that tilts very fast (NOTE: I AM TOTALLY ASSUMING THIS FROM THE NAME) to make it vibrate, unlike rumble which was used in the Xbox 360.
On another note, I have discovered a cute video with a sad ending on YouTube called KIWI! Go ahead and search fo it, if you want.
Since I gave you a joke/skit thing, you now mu st give me something. I recently purchased an aloe vera plant from Home Depot and guess what, I have no clue how to take care of it. So...
Please dig up any information possible on the care of an aloe vera plant. How often to water it, what kind of fertilizer to give it, how much light it likes, etc. Do this, and I will be most pleased. Don't do it, and I shall wreak a terrible curse upon you and your children for all eternity. Seriously, just do it or not, I don't care, but at least one person has to do it. Gracias!
And now for the greatest announcement all day. Drumroll, please....
The brains at Ensemble Studios (the guys who brought you Age of Empires, one of my favorite games ever) have started working on one of those games that make you go "AWESOME!!!" They have started something so incredible, so amazing, so obvious yet so cool. That game is Halo Wars. They made a Halo RTS!!
For those of you not "in the know", an RTS is gamespeak for real-time strategy game. There are two types of strategy games in the universe: turn-based and real-time. As you might guess, turn-based is very similar to chess but with tanks. You and your opponent take turns to demolish each other or run away like a little girly-man. While it may take more brains, I consider turn-based games to be unnecessarily long and tedious. So I prefer RTS games such as Age of Empires. Age of Empires involves using villagers to build a city and then an army even while your opponent is doing the same. Once you have the fightingest army you can build, you lay seige to your opponent's city and then kill every man, woman, child, and dog to win. Or you can just build a Wonder, whatever you feel like. Now that you get the idea, (I hope) we can get on to the game. Halo Wars will be coming out for the Xbox 360, the awesomest game system in the awesomest market on the awesomest planet in the awesomest universe. It's plot is set before the events of Halo 1, and is about a group of marines marooned somewhere with those pesky Covenant doing all they can to beat the living snot out of these guys. It's too early to say more, but I can guarantee you Halo Wars is gonna rock the world.
So I saw it today. I don't see why critics are giving a bad rap. I think it's a good movie, with only some corny dialogue and this extremely gay dude.
I, El Patro, author of Tijuana Tortilla, have just celebrated his 1000th visitor.
GO ME!!!!!!
Heroes
Atticus Finch (To Kill A Mockingbird, as played by Gregory Peck)
Indiana Jones (Raiders of the Lost Ark, as played by Harrison Ford)
James Bond (Dr. No, as played by Sean Connery)
Rick Blaine (Casablanca, as played by Humphrey Bogart)
Will Kane (High Noon, as played by Gary Cooper)
Clarice Starling (The Silence of the Lambs, as played by Jodie Foster)
Rocky Balboa (Rocky, as played by Sylvester Stallone)
Ellen Ripley (Aliens, as played by Sigourney Weaver)
George Bailey (It's a Wonderful Life, as played by James Stewart)
T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia, as played by Peter O'Toole)
Jefferson Smith (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, as played by James Stewart)
Tom Joad (The Grapes of Wrath, as played by Henry Fonda)
Oskar Schindler (Schindler's List, as played by Liam Neeson)
Han Solo (Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, as played by Harrison Ford)
Norma Rae Webster (Norma Rae, as played by Sally Field)
Shane (Shane, as played by Alan Ladd)
Harry Callahan (Dirty Harry, as played by Clint Eastwood)
Robin Hood (The Adventures of Robin Hood, as played by Errol Flynn)
Virgil Tibbs (In the Heat of the Night, as played by Sidney Poitier)
Butch & Sundance (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, as played by Paul Newman & Robert Redford)
Mahatma Gandhi (Gandhi, as played by Ben Kingsley)
Spartacus (Spartacus, as played by Kirk Douglas)
Terry Malloy (On the Waterfront, as played by Marlon Brando)
Thelma Dickerson & Louise Sawyer (Thelma and Louise, as played by Geena Davis & Susan Sarandon)
Lou Gehrig (The Pride of the Yankees, as played by Gary Cooper)
Superman (Superman, as played by Christopher Reeve)
Bob Woodward & Carl Bernstein (All the President's Men, as played by Robert Redford & Dustin Hoffman)
Juror #8 (12 Angry Men, as played by Henry Fonda)
General George Patton (Patton, as played by George C. Scott)
Luke Jackson (Cool Hand Luke, as played by Paul Newman)
Erin Brockovich (Erin Brockovich, as played by Julia Roberts)
Philip Marlowe (The Big Sleep, as played by Humphrey Bogart)
Marge Gunderson (Fargo, as played by Frances McDormand)
Tarzan (Tarzan the Ape Man, as played by Johnny Weissmuller)
Alvin York (Sergeant York, as played by Gary Cooper)
Rooster Cogburn (True Grit, as played by John Wayne)
Obi-Wan Kenobi (Star Wars, as played by Alec Guiness)
The Tramp (City Lights, as played by Charlie Chaplin)
Lassie (Lassie Come Home, as played by Pal)
Frank Serpico (Serpico, as played by Al Pacino)
Charles Edward Chipping (Goodbye, Mr. Chips, as played by Robert Donat)
Father Edward J. Flanagan (Boys Town, as played by Spencer Tracy)
Moses (The Ten Commandments, as played by Charlton Heston)
Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle (The French Connection, as played by Gene Hackman)
Zorro (The Mark of Zorro, as played by Tyrone Power)
Batman (Batman, as played by Michael Keaton)
Karen Silkwood (Silkwood, as played by Meryl Streep)
The Terminator (Terminator 2: Judgment Day, as played by Arnold Schwarzenegger)
Andrew Beckett (Philadelphia, as played by Tom Hanks)
Maximus Decimus Meridius (Gladiator, as played by Russell Crowe)
Villains
Hannibal Lecter (The Silence of the Lambs, as played by Anthony Hopkins)
Norman Bates (Psycho, as played by Anthony Perkins)
Darth Vader (Star Wars, as played by David Prowse and voiced by James Earl Jones)
Wicked Witch of the West (The Wizard of Oz, as played by Margaret Hamilton)
Nurse Ratched (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, as played by Louise Fletcher)
Mr. Potter (It's a Wonderful Life, as played by Lionel Barrymore)
Alex Forrest (Fatal Attraction, as played by Glenn Close)
Phyllis Dietrichson (Double Indemnity, as played by Barbara Stanwyck)
Satan, by way of Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair and Mercedes McCambridge) (The Exorcist)
The Queen (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, as voiced by Lucille La Vern)
Michael Corleone (The Godfather Part II, as played by Al Pacino)
Alex DeLarge (A Clockwork Orange, as played by Malcolm McDowell)
HAL 9000 (2001: A Space Odyssey, as voiced by Douglas Rain)
The Alien (Alien, as played by Bolaji Badejo)
Amon Göth (Schindler's List, as played by Ralph Fiennes)
Noah Cross (Chinatown, as played by John Huston)
Annie Wilkes (Misery, as played by Kathy Bates)
The Shark (Jaws)
Captain Bligh (Mutiny on the Bounty, as played by Charles Laughton)
Man (Bambi)
Mrs. John Iselin (The Manchurian Candidate, as played by Angela Lansbury)
The Terminator (The Terminator, as played by Arnold Schwarzenegger)
Eve Harrington (All About Eve, as played by Anne Baxter)
Gordon Gekko (Wall Street, as played by Michael Douglas)
Jack Torrance (The Shining, as played by Jack Nicholson)
Cody Jarrett (White Heat, as played by James Cagney)
Martians (The War of the Worlds)
Max Cady (Cape Fear, as played by Robert Mitchum)
Reverend Harry Powell (The Night of the Hunter, as played by Robert Mitchum)
Travis Bickle (Taxi Driver, as played by Robert De Niro)
Mrs. Danvers (Rebecca, as played by Judith Anderson)
Bonnie Parker & Clyde Barrow (Bonnie and Clyde, as played by Warren Beatty & Faye Dunaway)
Count Dracula (Dracula, as played by Bela Lugosi)
Dr. Szell (Marathon Man, as played by Laurence Olivier)
J.J. Hunsecker (Sweet Smell of Success, as played by Burt Lancaster)
Frank Booth (Blue Velvet, as played by Dennis Hopper)
Harry Lime (The Third Man, as played by Orson Welles)
Caesar Enrico Bandello (Little Caesar, as played by Edward G. Robinson)
Cruella De Vil (101 Dalmatians, as voiced by Betty Lou Gerson)
Freddy Krueger (A Nightmare on Elm Street, as played by Robert Englund)
Joan Crawford (Mommie Dearest, as played by Faye Dunaway)
Tom Powers (The Public Enemy, as played by James Cagney)
Regina Giddens (The Little Foxes, as played by Bette Davis)
Baby Jane Hudson (What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, as played by Bette Davis)
The Joker (Batman, as played by Jack Nicholson)
Hans Gruber (Die Hard, as played by Alan Rickman)
Tony Montana (Scarface, as played by Al Pacino)
Verbal Kint (The Usual Suspects, as played by Kevin Spacey)
Auric Goldfinger (Goldfinger, as played by Gert Frobe)
Alonzo Harris (Training Day, as played by Denzel Washington)
Trivia
The actors who portrayed the #1 choices in both the "Hero" and "Villain" lists, Gregory Peck and Sir Anthony Hopkins respectively, won the Best Actor Academy Award for their roles.
Humphrey Bogart, Harrison Ford, Henry Fonda, Gary Cooper, Paul Newman, Robert Redford, and James Stewart are the only other actors to have portrayed multiple heroes. Cooper is the only actor to portray more than two characters in either of the lists.
James Cagney, Bette Davis, Robert De Niro, Faye Dunaway, Robert Mitchum, Jack Nicholson, and Al Pacino are the only actors to have portrayed more than one villain.
Pacino and Schwarzenegger are the only actors to have portrayed both a 'Hero' and 'Villain'
The Terminator character is the only one to appear as a 'Hero' and a 'Villain.'
Batman, It's A Wonderful Life, Star Wars, Schindler's List, and The Silence Of The Lambs are the only films to provide characters to both lists.
'Man' from Bambi (#20) is the only character on either list to never actually appear on-screen (unless one considers Satan from The Exorcist (#9) when referring to the possessed Regan MacNeil).
T.E. Lawrence is the highest ranking non-fictional 'Hero,' while Amon Göth is the highest ranking non-fictional 'Villain.'
Ironically, though not a single top ten villain is seen using a firearm on-screen, 8 of the top 10 heroes are (Rocky Balboa and George Bailey, numbers 7 and 9 respectively, did not).
3 of the heroes and 7 of the villains are not human.
Why else would so many people want to tag me?
I have recently seen a few articles discussing the new drink which came out yesterday. Here is one of them:
It's Coke with coffee, double the caffeine, and half the calories
Coke BlaK, introducted April 3, sells for up to $2 per bottle.
Up to now, the French have sipped a Coca-Cola product not found on U.S. grocery shelves: Coke BlaK, a grown-up soft drink that combines the fizzy flavors of Coke with coffee. On April 3, Coke BlaK was introduced throughout the U.S. Billed as a "carbonated fusion beverage," it has roughly double the caffeine and half the calories of regular Coke, and it is sweetened with high fructose corn syrup and two artificial sweeteners: aspartame and acesulfame potassium. Each 8-oz. bottle has 45 calories; regular Coke has 100. At $1.70 to $2 per bottle, Coke BlaK is a lot pricier than a can of regular Coke. But how does it taste? We asked four of our experienced taste testers to compare in a blind test the U.S. and French versions of Coke BlaK, plus regular Coca-Cola Classic. The differences between the U.S. and French versions are unmistakable. The U.S. Coke BlaK is sweeter and has more caramel-like flavoring, similar to Coca-Cola Classic. The coffee flavor is a bare whiff. The French version, by contrast, has a more pronounced coffee flavor, which better balances the cola flavor. The French version lists sugar in place of the high fructose corn syrup, which can affect the flavor. For the U.S. market, the sleek, contemporary can of the French Coke BlaK was replaced by a more familiar curvy Coca-Cola bottle silhouette. Cola tinged with coffee is not a new concept. In the mid-1990s, Pepsi Kona, Java Cola, and Café Cola were introduced, each trying to excite a flat market for carbonated beverages. All failed. Possibly in an effort to chase the coffeehouse crowd, Coke decided to give it another go, starting in France earlier this year. Bottom line: If you like the idea of a hint of coffee with your Coke, you might give this a try. But if you're looking for more coffee with your cola, you'll be disappointed with Coke BlaK--unless you buy it in France.
A fellow blogger, Nicole, had this to say about Blak. Sadly, I seem to be the only one who's actually tried it. Here is my review.
Coke Blak is almost a perfect unison of coffee and Coca-Cola. While the Coke does overpower the coffee, it still gives out a pleasant hazlenut-like aura. It does have twice the caffeine, but also only 45 calories. It's available at Target.
