Mario or Luigi?

Alright, so I have been missing for quite a little while on here, but I hope to be back a little more frequently.

I haven't watched any new movies in a good two months besides the ones on the side of the page that need reviews - which I will try to do soon. I also hope to come up with some sort of game or fun little anecdote to have on here every so often to keep people interested - so that will come when it comes to me.

Anyway, one thing I have been doing a little bit of is playing Wii. My brother-in-law and sister come up pretty much every Friday and we usually spend that time playing Mario Kart. I was also excited that Mrs. Kano allowed me to purchase Mario Galaxy 2 a little while ago, so I have been playing a little of that as well.

That got me to thinking. During one of the levels of Mario Galaxy 2 (I am told there are a few of these levels, but I have only found the one so far) you are given the option of playing as Mario or Luigi. Throughout most of the game you play exclusively as Mario, so this is sort of a big deal.

So, my question is simply this - Are you a Mario or Luigi person?

Toss your answer and your reasoning in the comments section.

Wii Fit Arrives

The long anticipated arrival of Wii Fit has finally come. It arrived at our house yesterday around 2 p.m.

Erika was able to dive into the game while I was on my way home, and gave me a bit of a rundown of the game. She was also able to explain a few things to me when I got to try it out.

The Wii Fit game comes with what is called as a balancing board that is recognized by your Wii (minus the cords). When you first sign on, you will select a Mii that you have created for yourself. Then it asks you a series of questions - like your height and birth date.

Then you go through a series of tests to determine just how out of shape you are, which can be a bit disheartening.

I found out that I am, according to the game, an obese human being. I am about 28 BMI's over where I should be at. Then you get to select a goal for yourself. I selected that I would like to lose 15 pounds in two months - or about when we are leaving for the Outer Banks.

Once inside the actual game, you select a trainer (male or female) then can navigate through four different exercise types (strength, balance, aerobics, yoga). So far, I have only tried the balance and aerobics games that are available - depending how you do during these 'games' you get a certain amount of points. The more points you get opens up more 'games' in the game itself.

I hula-hooped, walked a tightrope, stopped soccer balls, did the step-up, had a brisk run, skiied downhill, skiied off a jump and tried to get balls into a hole. It was actually pretty fun - and it was exercise.

I will definitely be trying the rest of the game sometime this weekend. And I will try and keep you updated with how I am doing with my goals.

Last night, Kasey and I also got our haircut. It has been a chore in the past with Kasey, and it looked to be heading that way again. Even before Chas started last night, he saw her and started crying. Thankfully he did calm down enough to get his hair done.

Before we left I stopped in GameStop and picked up a copy of We Ski, which uses the Wii Fit balancing board. I haven't tried it yet, but it looks like it should be pretty fun.

Finally, last night Erika and I played online with Mario Kart - and were joined by Cyle later on. I have become pretty decent at the game, and when we have gone online have more than held my own against people throughout the world.

Last night, though, it appeared that everyone was out to get me. I would get near the top, and get smacked back down to the back of the pack - then work my way back, only to get smacked again. It was getting kind of annoying really. I did manage a few top three finishes, but not as many as I have been getting of late.

The bad part about that is, you gain points with how well you do. As you get more and more points, they expect you to do better. So even though I was getting near the top, I was actually losing points because the game expected better.

Oh well. Possibly could have another blog later today to get you through the long weekend. If not, please remember to vote on the poll to the right. And have a nice Memorial Day Weekend.

Movie Weekend

Now don't let me get your hopes up, no I did not get to go to the movie theater (although I should be able to see the new Indiana Jones movie next Saturday).

I did, however, watch three movies with my wife on Saturday - as for the first time in a long while, there was nothing truly scheduled to do for the weekend.

I, of course, allowed her to select two of the movies (I had originally intended to watch four films, with each of us picking two, but we watched Lost instead).

The first movie she selected was No Reservations. A movie starring Catherine-Zeta Jones, Aaron Eckhart and Abigail Breslin.

To me, a lot of these romantic comedies are pretty predictable, and this movie was no exception. The concept is usually always the same - someone can't find love, then someone comes into their life who at first they can't stand, but end up falling in love with that person. In some cases other plots are thrown into the mix, such is the case with No Reservations.

Zeta-Jones plays Kate, a very successful chef at a restaurant in NYC. She has substituted love, family and friends to become a world-renowned chef, and so far has succeeded in her goal. A wrench, however, is thrown into her life's plan when her sister and niece come to visit - but before arriving, are involved in a car accident, which the sister doesn't survive.

Of course, Kate is forced to play the role of mother to her departed sister's daughter, Zoe (played very well by Breslin). Not truly knowing the first thing about parenting, Kate fails miserably at trying to reach her niece.

On the work front, however, things have begun to unravel as well, as when Kate returns from her short hiatus, the restaurant has hired another chef to work with her - a sous-chef named Nick (Eckhart). Being the perfectionist that Kate is, having the fun, singing Nick in her kitchen is working her last nerve, and although she begins to fall for him - asks him to leave when she learns that he has been offered her job.

The ending, I will leave a mystery to those wishing to see it, but again it's pretty easy to pick up on. I would give the film a 3/5 ranking, due to the fact that it kept me somewhat interested throughout, and that I feel Breslin is an amazing young actress (lookout Dakota Fanning).

The second movie was a movie that I was able to choose (and Erika decided to take a nap), so I chose The Bourne Ultimatum.

This movie stars Matt Damn, Joan Allen, Julia Stiles, David Strathairn and Albert Finney.

I wanted to see this movie last year in the theater, but again life comes at you, so I was unable to. It is, presumably, the final installment of the Bourne Trilogy (although there is a chance for another).

This installment continues to follow Bourne (Damon) as he tries to track down what happened to him. In the previous films, we learn that Bourne is an experiment to create flawless military personnel, and Bourne was the first prototype.

Something, possibly the experiment itself, has created Bourne to have amnesia, so therefore has no recollection of who he actually is, or how exactly he became who he is now.

Slowly, he has been putting pieces together despite the CIA trying desperately to not only keep Bourne a secret, but to stop him entirely. Stiles plays Nickey Parsons, a former CIA member who in the past had been trying to stop Bourne, this time lends him a hand in trying to track down where he has come from. Pam Landy (Allen) continues her pursuit of Bourne, but after learning the plans of current leader Noah Vosen (Strathairn), she too begins to help Bourne - and expose the secrets the CIA have been hiding.

Bourne tracks down the leader of the Blackbriar project (or what created him), Dr. Albert Hirsch (Finney). Hirsch explains who Bourne was, but that it was him that volunteered for the project, he was not forced. During his escape, Vosen gets a shot off at Bourne as he falls 10-stories into the river below. This is where the franchise leaves it up to the imagination - is this the final installment, or will we see another.

I give this movie a 5/5. It was very well done, kept me interested throughout - mostly because I had become interested in Bourne through the first two films, and wanted to see where it was going - and the action was pretty intense.

The final movie that Erika and I watched on Saturday was Mad Money.

This movie stars Katie Holmes, Queen Latifah, Diane Keaton, Stephen Root and Ted Danson.

Out of the three we watched it was my least favorite, although I am glad I watched it once. It had a nice premise, but for some reason it didn't work as well for me.

Bridget (Keaton) is a high-class type of woman, who suddenly learns she can't afford to live in her house anymore and has to cut back on her expenses due to her husband, Don (Danson), losing his job.

She is forced to get a job at a local bank as a custodian, where she immediately becomes interested in what is going on there. The bank collects old, worn out money and destroys it, so that new money can replace it in the economy.

On a trip out shopping, Bridget gets the idea of how to rob the bank of some of this money. After all, it's going to be destroyed anyway, why can't she have it? Or, that was her thinking. So, she recruits Nina (Latifah), who works in the shredding department, and also lives in a rough neighborhood with her children - so she wants the money to get out of the neighborhood and get her kids into a better school. Also recruited is Jackie (Holmes), who lives in a trailer with her husband, and at work delivers the bins of cash to Nina to be destroyed.

Everything was working wonderfully for the group. They would install their own lock on the bin (done by Bridget), then after getting the number of the bin Jackie would take a bunch of money out and throw it in the dumpster (out of camera view), then deliver it to Nina. Nina's part was to remove the lock, and replace it with the original.

But, they got a little greedy. Despite having enough money for Bridget to keep her house, Nina to get out of hers and pay for her kids tuition - they still wanted more. And this is how, they end up getting caught.

The ending is pretty interesting, but I will not spoil it. I will give this movie a 2/5. It was good, but again something seemed to be missing. I am not a huge Holmes fan (especially from Batman Begins), but I thought she delivered in this role. And Danson, again proves to be a talented actor. I can't understand why he doesn't get more roles in movies.

So there was my movie weekend. Still have lots more to view of course - but I should have a review of Indiana Jones next Monday.

Other things that happened this weekend: We finally had our second softball practice, and it's a good thing too as our first game is Tuesday. There was a huge fire on Chapman Street (the street perpendicular to us) on Saturday night, which Erika and I were in the group of people watching on the street corner. My sister and her fiance got a Wii, so we played Mario Kart with them last night for a little bit online.

I guess that is basically the weekend. Not too busy, but we had some fun and got to relax a little.

Mario Kart Wii

I apologize to my two loyal readers that I was unable to come up with a decent blog yesterday, therefore, did not write one at all.

I am back today, though, as I had more of a chance to play some of Mario Kart Wii to give a better review of the game.

It's odd to be so into video games again. I am not going to lie, but before I got my Wii for Christmas, I can't even remember the last time I had played my PS2. It might have had something to do with the fact that my dog ate my RCA cables on two separate occasions, or the fact that I did have a young child running around the house - but, for whatever reason it was, I had not played many video games in a long time.

Since my wife gifted me the Wii, however, I am back into video games full-force. I was first into the Super Mario Galaxy game pretty hardcore until Super Smash Bros. Brawl came out in March. Since then I have been playing that game pretty much non-stop, with the exception of the week or so that I was playing GH:3 with Erika.

But now, Mario Kart Wii was released this past Sunday and I feel I might be into that for quite awhile. Like Smash Bros. before it, Mario Kart has unlockable characters, as well as new tracks, bikes, karts, etc. to be unlocked with certain things finished.

When we first purchased the game, Erika and I played the 2-player races against the computer and ourselves. The starting roster gives you 12 characters (Baby Mario, Baby Peach, Mario, Peach, Bowser, Toad, Koopa Troopa, Donkey Kong, Luigi, Waluigi, Wario and Yoshi) to choose from and four different races (with four race tracks apiece). We played that for the first night we had the game - and started to do the same on Monday.

Afterwards, however, we went online to play against others throughout the world. I wasn't sure what to expect, because when I received Smash Bros. Brawl the online capabilities were pretty lacking. I wasn't able to find just random brawls, and even when using the friend code, there was a lag - which has improved. But, on Mario Kart it was flawless throughout - it was quite nice.

Yesterday, Erika and I tried the battle mode a little bit. It's not as fun as the actual racing, but it's a nice little bonus that you can do. The battle zones that they have are also pretty amazing.

I would give Mario Kart Wii a solid 9/10. I have been a fan of the series since the original on SNES, but of course I haven't played any of the newer versions until now.

(HIDDEN CHARACTER SPOILER ALERT)

Aside from the 12 characters you can race with when the game starts - there are actually 12 other characters you can unlock, plus two Mii bodies as well.

So far I have unlocked Rosalina and King Boo, but also unlockable are: Baby Daisy, Baby Luigi, Birdo, Bowser Jr, Daisy, Diddy Kong, Dry Bones, Dry Bowser, Funky Kong and Toadette.

(HIDDEN CHARACTER SPOILER FINISHED)

Another good thing about Mario Kart Wii is that my wife actually enjoys playing it. I have always felt guilty/bad when playing Smash Bros. when she is around, because it is not really her type of game - although she has played it with me, which I appreciate. But, she thoroughly enjoys Mario Kart, so it's something else we can do together.

That's it for now - I will try not to miss any other weekday blogs. And I am always looking for hints on topics. I enjoy doing lists and having certain annual topics (like the Random Netflix Movie or Watch From Wherever Series) so if you have any, give me a shout.