My Favorite Memories: Bowling Time

I used to hate bowling as a kid, but in 2010 we had a pretty good time. We found out that our local lanes had a $1 per game deal on mondays so we used to drive down there all the time. But then I had to work almost every monday so we haven't been in quite some time. 

 There's a better lane across town I admit, the one we kept going to had a few problems. We often had to switch lanes simply because ours did not work correctly.

The games were mostly a competition between my brother and I (I'm in the blue shirt) rather than the group of 4. My girlfriend is okay, and so is his but we're quite a few steps ahead. By the time we stopped going, I managed to win most of the games. 

But as long as you have fun that's all that matters.

Fact of the Day: Not Based On Horses

Despite having a logo of a horse, Ford Mustangs are actually not originally named after the breed of horse of the same name. 

They're named after the P-51 Mustang fighter plane first used in World War II.

A Look Into History: U.S. Presidential Election of 1852

After Zachary Taylor died all of a sudden, Vice President Millard Fillmore became president. However he lost the nomination due to regional differences among the Whig party part of which led to it's collapse. 

Whigs nominated Winfield Scott, a heroic war general from the Mexican-American war. 

 Democrats nominated Franklin Pierce, former Senator and General. Because of the similar platforms of the parties, and of the candidates turnout was low. Making it one of the first elections where many were dissatisfied with both choices.

Despite not much campaign conflict and close popular vote, Pierce had a landslide victory. He received 254 votes in comparison to Scott's 42. 

A Look Into Video Games: Nuon

 The Nuon was a DVD player/Video Game console released in the early 2000s which allowed users to play DVDs and access certain features and bonuses. Only a few movies supported the extra features, but it did allow people to play a few video games designed for the system.

 One of it's biggest and really only games was Tempest 3000. The sad thing is that many companies made Nuon players, and certain games would play on one brand and not on another.

For example The Next Tetris only played on Toshiba players, and the system failed to sell many units without decent software to hype consumers. I thought it was a joke when it came out, and I would have never bought it even if they were cheap.

Fact of the Day: World's Hottest Pepper

The hottest pepper on earth is the newly formed Trinidad Scorpion Butch T pepper. It measures at 1,463,700 Scoville heat units. In comparison a jalapeno pepper measures a mere 8,000 units at the most. They are so hot that wearing protective gloves is a must, and safety equipment is needed if one wishes to cook it.

My Favorite Memories: Holiday Gaming Time With Cousin

That year we went to my cousin's house for Christmas. We had a pretty good time, we mainly played his 360 all day long.. I'm in the dark red shirt, and he's in that gaming chair with the white controller. I got to play Halo 3 the first time over there, and since I had a lot of experience in Halo 2 we had fun messing with voice chat and other players while online. 

[MV] Wonder Girls (원더걸스) -- Be my Baby

Wonder Girls (원더걸스) -- Be my Baby

dL MV : Wonder Girls (원더걸스) -- Be my Baby

[MV] Wonder Girls (원더걸스) -- Be my Baby

Wonder Girls (원더걸스) -- Be my Baby

dL MV : Wonder Girls (원더걸스) -- Be my Baby

Watched Beauty and the Beast: An Enchanted Christmas

 As I've said before, my girlfriend is in a Disney mood lately so among other films she checked out Beauty and the Beast: An Enchanted Christmas since we just saw the original film together. I wasn't exactly thrilled about watching a Christmas movie in January, but it could have been worse.

The film isn't exactly a "sequel" since it's set in the middle of the original story. Sounds a bit weird but the ending of the original film leaves little options. Belle and the Beast are not yet in love, but they are on more friendly terms. 

 The whole house decides to bring back Christmas after the Beast banned it since it brought painful memories. He was transformed on Christmas day, which must of ruined that holiday.

 There is a villain in the movie though, an evil organ named Forte. His computer-generated animation looks odd in the hand-drawn film, and he's pretty creepy. I didn't care for him to much.

But in short, it's a decent side-story but nothing above average. It's a safe pick for a holiday movie for a Disney fan, but other than that I wouldn't recommend it for much else.

[MV] Wonder Girls (원더걸스) - Tell me

Wonder Girls (원더걸스) - Tell me

DL MV: Wonder Girls (원더걸스) - Tell me

[MV] Wonder Girls (원더걸스) - Tell me

Wonder Girls (원더걸스) - Tell me

DL MV: Wonder Girls (원더걸스) - Tell me

As One - Only U (Feat. Donghae Of Super Junior)

01.Only U
02.Only U (inst.)

GD&TOP - OH YEAH (Japanese Ver.)

01. OH YEAH feat. BOM (from 2NE1)
02. HIGH HIGH (Japanese Ver.)
03. OH YEAH feat. BOM (from 2NE1) (Inst.)
04. HIGH HIGH (Japanese Ver.) (Inst.)

A Look Into Video Games: Donkey Kong's Fun With Music

Donkey Kong's Fun With Music (Donkey Kong no Ongaku Asobi) was a game planned for the Famicom (Japanese NES) in 1983. It was cancelled before release however.

 The game apparently had two modes of play. The first was Music Quiz which was a two-player mode. Donkey Kong would play notes then Mario and Pauline would copy it.

The other was Donkey Band, but little is known. Most people thought it would be a free-style mode to compose music. I don't know, but despite the audio limitations it would have been a neat little title at the time. 

Ironically about 2 decades later, Nintendo gave Donkey Kong his own music series with the Donkey Konga games. Which feature great gameplay but a lousy music tracklist for the American release.

Watched Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

I got this from the library a few days ago, and finished it last night. I was wondering if it would be any good or not, and I was very impressed by the results. 

 The plot of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is about a post-armageddon Earth except it's set over 1,000 years later which is a bit different than a few decades like other gloomy stories in fiction. The Earth had been taken over by a toxic forest with killer insects all around it. A few places on Earth are still inhabitable, but most are torn apart by tragedy or war.

The peaceful Valley of the Wind has a princess named Nausicaä who is pure-hearted and gentle. She then sets out on her quest to restore peace between not only the human world but the entire eco-system. I really liked her character, and despite her preference for pacifism, she knows how to fight and how to perform other amazing stunts. 

Despite being released in 1984 (original Japanese release date) the animation still looks top-notch, and the story hasn't aged one bit. If you're a fan of anime movies, then you have to check out Nausicaä, because it's hard to find others that match it's quality.

[MV] Teen Top (틴탑) - Crazy (미치겠어)

Teen Top (틴탑) - Crazy (미치겠어)

dl MV: Teen Top (틴탑) - Crazy (미치겠어)

[MV] Teen Top (틴탑) - Crazy (미치겠어)

Teen Top (틴탑) - Crazy (미치겠어)

dl MV: Teen Top (틴탑) - Crazy (미치겠어)

My Favorite Memories: Big Bird Big Wheel

I don't remember how I got it, but I do remember riding it all the time. My dad tried to teach me how to ride a bike at an early age, but his tough training style never worked on me. I had to self-teach myself when I was about 7. So Big Bird's Big Wheel was all I had for quite some time.

Fact of the Day: Clear Vision Geckos

Geckos have no eyelids, they have a transparent membrane that they lick clean.

A Look Into History: U.S. Presidential Election of 1848

The election of 1848 was open after Polk kept his promise not to re-seek office after just one-term. Zachary Taylor was the war hero and general during the Mexican-American war, and was sought out by both parties to run. The Whigs managed to get him to come their side.

The Democrats nominated Lewis Cass, a senator from Michigan. 

Former President Martin Van Buren was at it again, and sought another term. Except this time he ran on a 3rd party ticket. He ran on the Free Soil platform which opposed slavery in the expanding west. 

Also to note is that Van Buren's running mate was Charles Francis Adams who was the grandson of John Adams, and son of John Quincey Adams. The Free Soil party received no electoral votes. 

The Whigs and Democrats attacked each other with the same old rhetoric since this was an open election. It's hard to verbally-attack a president that's not running again. However Taylor's popularity as a war hero gave him a victory over Cass. Taylor beat Cass 163-127 with them winning 15 states each. Taylor managed to get the ones that were worth more.

Sunny Hill - The Grasshopper Song (MV)

2AM - Never Let You Go (死んでも離さない )

01. Never Let You Go ~死んでも離さない~

02. 笑ってあげられなくてごめん (I'm Sorry I Can't Laugh For You)

03. Missing

04. Never let you go ~死んでも離さない~

05. 笑ってあげられなくてごめん (Without Main Vocal)

A Look Into Video Games: Chao

 Chao are a group of small creatures from the Sonic series. They generally are good, and were used as virtual pets in the Sonic Adventure games.

I missed out on the Dreamcast version, so I eventually played Sonic Adventure DX after Sonic Adventure 2: Battle. Which was a bit weird on how Sega chose to re-release the two games. I had some fun, but the features on how to raise your Chao were gimp compared to the sequel.

 I had a lot of fun raising my chao in Sonic Adventure 2: Battle on my Gamecube, and I'm not afraid to admit it. They could evolve, change color, hairstyles, and play around. Sure they didn't do much, but it was a neat idea for the time at least. I can't believe a game like Sonic Adventure had this but not something like a RPG.

 You even had a few world stages you could later unlock for your chao. From Heaven, to Earth, and to a Dark-setting with red "water"...yes water. 

You could also battle and race your Chao. Which was a fun time-waster but got boring a little quick. 

What was really cool is that in both versions, you could transfer your Chao into a more portable world. 

Dreamcast owners got a few quests on their VMUs, though I never got a chance to play those. A few friends had nice things to say about them though. 

Gamecube owners could transfer their Chao to their select Sonic games on Gameboy Advance. I put some of mine in my copy of Sonic Advance 2. 

 I think my favorite Chao is the huge walker robot from the battle mode of the Gamecube version. It has a huge beautiful laser attack that I loved using.

My brother would always man the Dark-Chao walker to make it an equal match. Good times.