Scotty has been cast in Star Trek XI…

D'Arque Bishop

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/34406

Fucking Yippee, Harry Here!!! Ok – I’m in. Simon Pegg as Scotty is as wonderful as an Asian Girl Sandwich night. I’m fucking deliriously happy. This is the first piece of STAR TREK casting that JJ has done that has made me drool with anticipation. The word is that the budget has gotten bigger and bigger and that for the first time in the history of the franchise, STAR TREK is being given a truly epic budget to recreate, conceive and explore Gene’s universe. That news and SIMON “fucking” PEGG – make this the happiest day in Trek geek life, other than the day STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN was released.

Oh man. Fucking awesome. So awesome. Ecstacy. Simon Pegg is Montgomery “Giving it all I got Capt’n” Scott. Blessed be to God. He is great and glorious to make this happen for the greater glory of geekdom. We are truly the blessed people!

My reaction to this news was decidedly far more lukewarm.

Don’t get me wrong. I like Simon Pegg. I thought Shaun of the Dead was a great movie, and his guest role in the first season of Doctor Who showed he had some variety. The problem is… he’s just not Scotty. On the other hand, I know Paul McGillion (Carson Beckett from Stargate Atlantis) auditioned for the role, and I think he would have been a much better choice. He looks more like James Doohan than Pegg does, has a flawless Scottish accent, and Doohan’s own son endorsed him for the role.

I don’t know. I’ll wait and see. However, I just think this was a bit of bad casting.

One could argue Christmas 2006 is almost over.

D'Arque Bishop2 Comments

Some months ago, I mentioned that Missy had said that Christmas isn’t over until all of the presents have been bought or given. Well, among the gifts I had gotten for Christmas were a $50 Visa debit gift card from my father, and a $30 Borders gift card from Misty. I hadn’t used them yet, simply because I couldn’t think of what exactly I wanted to get with them. Well, I finally decided it was high time to actually USE the cards, as it’d be kind of embarrassing for Christmas to come around this year and not have used the cards from last year. So, on my way home from work tonight, I stopped by Fry’s and used the Visa debit card towards Halo 3. I’ve already started playing it, but I’m admittedly not that good at it so far. Ah, well… I suppose I will get better with practice. Now maybe Jonin01 and BloodySinner will stop getting on my case about not having the game. :-)

As for the $30 Borders gift card, that will wait for another couple of weeks. Transformers is being released on DVD on the 16th, and I’ll use the Borders gift card towards that. It seemed appropriate, as that was the movie Misty and I went to see when I went to visit her a month and a half ago. :-) The only real annoyance is that there really isn’t a Borders convenient to me; I suppose I’d need to go to the Woodlands Town Center or go to the Galleria when the time comes. Ah, well…

On a completely different subject, my trip to Vegas is getting closer, and Dad and I are getting ready for it. A couple of nights ago, I went ahead and booked our tickets for the two shows we’re going to see. On Monday night, we’re seeing Donn Arden’s Jubilee!, which is at the same hotel we’re staying at (Bally’s). On Tuesday night we’re going to be seeing Penn & Teller at the Rio. It should be fun; we’ve stayed at Bally’s enough times where it’s time we saw their showgirl revue, and I’d been wanting to see Penn & Teller for a while. At the very least it’ll be a break from playing at the poker room. :-) Now, the big question is whether or not Dad’s going to insist on doing the Klingon Encounter at the Star Trek Experience. We’ll see, I suppose…

In any event, I still have a month until the trip. For now, though, I’ve got work in the morning, and I need to get rested for that. Fun fun…

Funny enough, I was slightly expecting the Seventh Doctor…

D'Arque Bishop

Stolen from Ginny…

Your Score: The Tenth Doctor

You scored 30% intelligence, 48% compassion, 41% sense of humor, and 8% weirdness!

You’re a charming, friendly, easy-going sort — the type who looks just as comfortable in a suit and tie as in a bathrobe. Nothing fazes you…until someone starts picking on somebody you love. Then you get all intense and pull a face not unlike an angry bullpup. Yeah, it’s hard to take you seriously sometimes, but you’re nobody’s fool. Your turn-ons include pinstripes, Douglas Adams, incoherent mumbling, Elvis, Scots accents, and Kylie Minogue, apparently. Your turn-offs include Christmas angst, long-distance relationships, jealousy, and other people’s stubborn parents.

Link: The Which Doctor Who Are You? Test written by TottersLane on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

Taking a break from MK for a while…

D'Arque Bishop3 Comments

Those who have known me at Mortal Kombat Online (and even back when it was called MK5.ORG) know that with the work I do on the site, I need to do a complete disconnect every once in a while or I suffer from burnout. Usually said vacation occurs a month or two after the last major game’s release. Unfortunately, my last real vacation from the site was shortly after the release of Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks. I kept meaning to take a vacation from the site after the release of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, but with Scott Howell resigning as webmaster and various other things, said vacation never happened, and now I’m closer to burnout than ever before.

So, after talking to CCShadow last night, I’ve decided to take a month away from the site and channel. As soon as I’ve finished this post, I’ll leave #mortalkombat (leaving MKBot there just in case), close the channel stats page, and be a hermit, so to speak. I’ll still be available to everyone for non-MK-related issues (if you know where to find me… heh), but otherwise I’m doing as much of a disconnect as possible so I can return refreshed and ready for the build up to Mortal Kombat 8.

So, for the most part… to those of you in the MK community, I’ll see you all in a month or so. :-)

This building came down in a hurry…

D'Arque Bishop

Some people might remember the building on the East Loop that was gutted by fire back in March. Said fire was set by a vocational nurse hoping to cover the fact that she didn’t do some needed paperwork. As a result, three people died, several businesses were destroyed, and she’s in jail on felony murder and arson charges.

Well, the building was demolished today. What was most interesting about it, in my opinion, was the fact that they actually got video of the demolition. In the end, all one backhoe had to do was grab one specific beam and the entire building came down like a house of cards.

Take a look… it’s rather interesting viewing. :-)

Having fun with games and music…

D'Arque Bishop1 Comment

It’s kind of amusing in a way. I have an Xbox 360, but I can’t remember the last time I bought an actual disc game for it. In fact, the only three native games I have for it on disc are Gears of War, Rainbow Six: Vegas, and Sneak King. I have far more games off of the Xbox Live Arcade service. Granted, once Stranglehold, Halo 3, and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars come out, I’ll be grabbing those so I’ll have a few more games available on disc. The funny thing is, though, that the game I’ve been playing most often on my 360 has been Texas Hold Em. With me going to Vegas in November and planning on hitting the poker room, I need all the practice I can get. I’ve not been doing too badly, either; for the most part I’ve been playing single player tournaments and I get no lower than third place for the most part. :-)

Last week, though, one of my favorite classic arcade games came out for Xbox Live Arcade: Cyberball 2072. When I was playing Midway Arcade Treasures 2 regularly on my GameCube, I’d play Cyberball 2072 almost as much as I did Mortal Kombat II and Mortal Kombat 3. I’m enjoying the game on my 360, and have gotten a lot better at it than I was when it was in first in arcades. However, I have one serious complaint about the XBLA port: the only multiplayer is cooperative. I would REALLY like the opportunity to play against other people in the game, instead of only ever having the choice to play against AI opponents. Oh, well…

On another subject still relating to gaming, the folks over at OverClocked Remix have released yet another site project album, this time based on Final Fantasy VII. The release, called Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream is massive, taking up four complete discs. I’ve since downloaded it, burned the WAV file versions to audio discs (which are now in my library), imported the MP3 versions into my iTunes library, and have given it a listen. It’s pretty damn good, and definitely worth having in my library. I just need to burn a MP3 CD of the album now to put into my car… heh. If you want to download it and give it a listen (it’s free, after all), just head on over to http://ff7.ocremix.org/.

Anyway, time for me to get a bit more poker time in on the 360, especially while Misty’s watching Lady in the Water. At some point I’m going to have to get a game going with Dad and maybe Mom, especially after they’ve started playing Texas Hold Em using PokerTH. (Though, I had to send Dad a link to the rules from the World Series of Poker website yesterday.) Ah, well… we’ll see how that goes. :-)

The reputation some fast food joints have is well deserved.

D'Arque Bishop2 Comments

The following was emailed to me by my friends Brian and Becky. I am horrified and disgusted by what it said, and it’s more or less proof that fast food workers WILL do what they can to fuck you over. Brian and Becky were kind enough to give me permission to repost this, so read on…

Hey everyone,

Becky had a nasty little experience at the McDonalds on 4803 W 1960 this afternoon, and we felt that all of you who live in the area or may pass by should know about it.

Becky went through the drive-through lane, ordered, and when she moved forward to pay at the first window they realized that her order was incorrect, and the cashier told her to pull forward to the next window to pay. She pulled forward, gave her card to the girl, and her drinks were given to her…the drinks were incorrect and Becky realized that her order was completely messed up – no problem…right? She and the cashier/drink girl discussed it and still she couldn’t fix it, and proceeded to charge her for an extra drink (which Becky never got in the end). After Becky figured it was resolved she noticed that the girl still had her credit card. Becky asked for her card back and the girl DENIED EVEN HAVING IT. Becky and the girl argued about it for a minute until Becky actually pulled up a bit, got herself and the girls out of the car and went into the establishment. She asked to see the manager and demanded her card back, which was finally done without apology. Next Becky began to tell the manager about the problems…and when she looked over at the girl who had given her problems she saw the girl SPIT INTO A DRINK – A DRINK THAT WAS GOING TO BECKY!

Becky told the manager what she saw and all of a sudden the manager was “no compredo…no English…”

She tried to argue…tried to get her money back…tried to give the food back but everyone in the store started acting like they didn’t speak English and the ones that were OBVIOUSLY English speakers refused to speak to her.

Needless to say, she threw the food out immediately and never received a penny back.

Normally little problems happen at this McDonalds…every time we go there we’ll have a problem with the toys or the size of a drink or a simple mess up and we don’t really fuss much, but this time it’s gone WAY too far.

I know that some might think it silly, but I really encourage each and every one of you to avoid this restaurant and let others know about it so they can help. We’ve already contacted (via email) the corporate office with the complaint.

We just thought everyone should know – seems that the consequence for requiring adequate service at this McDonalds is spit in your food…but you decide…

My personal advice for people if you encounter this situation? Don’t just threaten to contact McDonald’s corporate. Contact the police… because not only were they trying to steal Becky’s credit card, tampering with food as was described is actually a felony. Still, this helps vindicate why I don’t go to many fast food places anymore…

How to make your girlfriend’s outlook a lot bleaker…

D'Arque Bishop

All right, so, I made a pretty big gaffe on the way home.

As usual, I was talking to Misty on the phone when driving home, and she was telling me about a conversation she had had with an old friend of hers. At one point, Misty sighed and said something along the lines of, “The whole point of marriage is spending time with the one you chose to be with.”

In what I thought was a lighthearted manner, I replied, “Oh? I thought it was because of the tax breaks.”

The resulting silence was more dead than Kevin Federline’s career.

Next time, I’ll just remember to keep my trap shut. Though, I should say that Misty did state later that her silence was actually her rolling her eyes at me. Still… heh. That wasn’t one of my best moments.