Video Games Live!

It's been a while since the last VGL here in Vancouver which was in 2005. I'm glad it's back and I hope they're back a lot sooner than another 3 years again. Unlike the previous VGL at the QE theatre where it wasn't packed, tonight's showing at the Orpheum was packed like a can of sardines. It was full, full, full!
It was a lot more interactive this time around and it gets better and better.

Positive highlights of the show:
1) Soldier with glow in the dark exclamation mark and Tommy Tallarico in a cardboard box going around on stage.
2) An interactive game of Space Invaders where the guy had to wear a shirt with the Space Invaders icon and move around on stage to move the ship. (He lost the challenge and didn't complete the challenge of beating the first level in 2 minutes).
3) A Guitar Hero: Aerosmith challenge of Sweet Emotion on Expert. (The kid didn't beat the challenge of 175,000 points, but they gave it the prize to him anyway because he was so close. He hit ~173,000pts.)
4) A rock arrangement of One Winged Angel from Final Fantasy 7.
5) Some guy shouting out "LEEEEEEEROYYYYY JENKINS" during the World of Warcraft music.
6) Random filming of 'Reviews on the Run' with Tommy Tallarico and Victor Lucas doing a review of Warriors Orochi 2. They totally burned it! It's a piece of shit, and they totally deserved the dissing they got. Even X-Play's review rated it as terrible.
7) Girls in front of me doing Nintendo DS chat during the intermission with totally weird drawings and Japanese chat.
8) Longer running time. It started at 8, and ended at around 10:45.
9) Exclusive premiere of music from Need for Speed: Undercover including a live performance by a winning submission for the soundtrack by the Vancouver band, Splitting Adam

Negatives:
1) The lights are so annoying. During the Metroid and Metal Gear segments, they kept shining directly in our eyes. Though it was probably the section I was in and just somehow the lighting just focused on our section. Agh.
2) Random shouting during the music. Some of it was just inappropriate and served no effect but obstructing the music :(
3) SSX Tricky remix session with three EA DJ's blowing out our ears because of a feedback loop. (It might not have been their fault, it seemed more like a technical glitch)

Video Games Live is so much fun! It would be a lot more fun going with a bigger group of people though.

Supper vs Dinner

I just looked up the definition of supper on Wikipedia. It's funny how many different definitions there are since in most places in North America both terms have no difference. However, reading the wikipedia entry opens up a can of worms since different regions have different definitions. A couple of places call lunch as "dinner" and 'supper' for dinner. Another grouping uses dinner as a major evening meal and supper as a light evening meal.

Credit and Debt

I am lucky that my parents instilled a sense of being frugal into me and taught me to not embellish spending. I just finished watching a movie called In Debt We Trust. You can watch this on the web on this link.

I had heard of this problem before. Credit and/or credit card companies target vulnerable students who are not psychologically prepared with the pitfalls of lending. Youths are enticed with offers of credit cards and the allure of "buying now, paying later" not realizing how not paying the credit balances on time could and will eventually lead into a cycle of perpetual debt. People's lives are ruined in the blink of an eye of a miscalculation of the power of credit and shatter futures one by one on a daily basis. It's crazy to think we live in such a world of greed and capitalism, with the rich feeding on the poor and misguided.