Random Ramblings

Today, I decided to buy two CDs of gospel quartets, one from Gaither Vocal Band and one of Ernie Haase and Signature Sound. To me, nothing struck me as unusual about this. But, I got another perspective on it, and while I don’t think it’s weird, I can understand why someone might think so.

Y’see, I just worked the last year at Christian Supply and the only CDs I bought were general pop/rock or hard/alternative. My staff doesn’t know that I’ve ever listened to southern gospel, and having never been to my church, they also wouldn’t understand it if I had. But regardless, end of my shift I picked up a copy of “Give it Away” and “Get Away Jordan” and dropped them on the counter. The incident went a little something like this:

Danielle: What?

Me: I’m off.

Danielle: What do you want done with those CDs?

Me: Ring them up.

{Danielle pauses, staring blankly at me. Kristi starts giggling}

Danielle: You’re joking, right?

Me: No…

Danielle: Are you crazy?

Me: What?

Danielle: You don’t even listen to that stuff!

Me: Don’t I?

Danielle: You do?!

Me: {Nods}

Danielle: Why?!

Me: I’m Baptist.

Danielle: I used to go to a baptist church, I never listened to them!

{Kristi’s giggling to the point where she’s almost not breathing at this point}

Me: {turns to Melody} My staff thinks I’ve lost my mind.

Melody: Why?

Me: {Holds up the CDs}

Melody: Are you insane?

Me: WHAT?! Is there something wrong with liking gospel quartets?!

Yeah… The humor in the little things, I suppose.

Tags: Humor, Writing by Andrew Laine
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Metroid Prime 3 is out!

This game I’ve been waiting for since buying a Wii. This was originally supposed to be a launch title, but it got pushed back (in Nintendo’s defense, they already had Zelda as the epic game at launch, I wouldn’t have thrown out all the cards right away either in hindsight). It’s the first shooter that has been totally built from the ground up for the Wii. It was apparently mostly ready during the launch, but according to Reggie, they didn’t want to release it until it was perfect.

Reggie, I don’t care what anyone else says, you’re my hero.

I’ve only played the first hour of this supposedly 20-odd hour of the Magnum Opus in the Metroid Prime trilogy, and let me say: It rocks.

The first hour, I feel, barely scratches the surface of the game, but so far, here’s what I can tell you. The motion system for actions feels fairly natural. Took me a while to get used to some of the motions, but once I got them down, it made sense and just kind of flows. The controls took some getting used to because I expected the shooting to be done with B and jumping with A, but it’s the other around, but I didn’t figure out until an hour in that you can flip them, and now I’m used to it, so flipping it’s pointless, except maybe to save me trouble in my other shooters.

To put it into perspective, how many have played Halo?

*waits for a show of hands*

Good, Halo 2?

*waits for another show of hands*

Good. Now, who remembers those annoying little dudes with the blaster pistol and shield combo, that you had to usually nade because you couldn’t shoot through the shield.

*waits for show of hand*

Mmmkay. Picture those guys, only instead of doing that, you use the grapple lasso to rip it off their arm, then put them down with a rapid burst of fire. Sound more fun?

*waits for nodding*

It is. And Samus is officially my hero, after fighting Ridley in a Lord of the Rings Gandalf vs. Balrog falling scene, and finishing him off by shoving his beak open with her feet and putting a charged shot down his dinosaur-looking, plasma-spewing throat.

Well… That’s all the update for now. I’ll keep you posted.

Tags: Games by Andrew Laine
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