Top 5's Redux: Video Games

So in honor of me thinking about the movie High Fidelity today in an interview I was just thinking that I would bring back my Top 5 Lists.  So before any of you say anything, I would just like to say you are very welcome for all the things that I am about to say.  Just kidding, really stop reading right now because the rest of this is just going to be written masturbatory drivel really.  

So here with no further ado I will start with my Top 5 video games of all time list.  I know everybody can really sink their teeth into this one.  And seriously feel free to disagree with me... You will obviously be dead wrong, but I'd love any and all of your input out there. (he said sarcastically)

So let me get this list started right and start with a video game  that is near and dear to my heart.  1.) DOUBLE DRAGON 2: THE REVENGE.   Now this game was on regular Nintendo and all I can really say is that this game is just so amazing.  Now I must admit that I haven't played this game since I was but a wee boy so it could in fact not be the best of games but in my mind there will never be one better.  I take an unusual amount of pride in this game because it was the first video game that I ever beat.  I remember being a child and playing this game for hours upon hours and when I beat the game no newspaper wrote about it, history didn't alter and head off on another path, hell I don't even think I told my parents about it. But sitting in my parents bedroom, that I shared with them by the way in a little two bedroom apartment when I beat that game there was something magical that happened for me.  And as sad as it may sound that is one of my first big accomplishments that I really remember.

2.) Super Mario Brothers 3.  This game too was on the regular nintendo and let me just say as far as I am concerned it is probably my favorite video game of all time!!!  I mean I feel like this game had everything.  It was super challenging and it took so long to beat the damn thing.  And I remember I would spend like 2 weeks a summer up in Ponca City, and that game was pretty much the main feature.  Me and my cousin Micah spent soooooooo many hours trying to beat and finally beating that damn game.  I remember the first time we found a glitch in the game that we called "turtle topping", where mario would get get a turtle and he would get it stuck between him and a block and he would basically just continue to bounce up and down on the turtle gaining almost unlimited extra lives.  Those were some of the best summers of my childhood, watching the BREAKIN' movies and playing Super Mario Brother 3. 

3.) NCAA FOOTBALL 2008 thru 2010.  This game was on the Playstation 2 of course.  because once Playstation 3 and XBOX 360 got a hold of this franchise and pretty much ruined the damn thing as far as I'm concerned from a purest standpoint.  And you heard me correctly, once these bigger badder video game systems got a hold of this game they lost all integrity and the game play just turned to shit.  It was all about the graphics and not enough about the substance.  But really the reason why this game is so special to me is that at a time when I was at my competitive peak in college. I was playing baseball, booze cruising, and not crushing as much ass as I should have been and there was one thing that I could always count on, and that was that I could dominate anybody in NCAA FOOTBALL.  Now there is my best friend Bryan who was basically the only person in the world that was as good at this game as I was and could beat me. And boy did we have some battles. I use to love kicking ass at that game.  And then there was also the funniest moment I ever had in video games when I walked in on my college roommate Cooper Hagedorn beating the computer some 75 points to 0.  He was playing the game on Junior Varsity or the easiest level and when I asked him why he would do that, because the game wasn't a challenge.  He proceeded to tell me he doesn't spend a lot of money on these games to feel bad about himself when the computer beats him.  he spends money so he can dominate, and I must say there is something so true and noble about that statement.

4.) MARIO CART 64.  This game was on the Nintendo 64 which was such an awesome system.  I remember as a kid when this video game system came out I just couldn't freaking wait to get this system.  I know my parents must had just hated hearing me talk about at because it was all that I talked about.  I even got my parents to get me a subscription to the nintendo game informer magazine.  But let me tell you that some of the funniest times that I had in college were drinking beers and playing Mario Cart 64.  We would lose hours of study time, and hours that we probably should have been out hitting on girls playing Mario Cart 64.  And let me just say that I pretty much owed everyone as WARIO who was like me a vastly underrated character.  There was even this "Fantasy Life League" game that we all played, I came up with by the way.  And part of the game had to do with playing Mario Cart 64.  Another part of the game had to do with hitting on girls, helping your friends hit on girls, and buying beers for your buddies.  We were so mature when we were in college.

5.) BOMBER MAN 64.  This game was also for the Nintendo 64.  Now I know all of you out there might just think that I am crazy and you are probably saying to yourself that I never even played this game so how could this make anyone's top 5 list.  And let me just say that there is one reason and one reason alone that this game made my top 5, and that is one Bryan Ozuna.  Some of the best memories of my young life were me and him staying up all night, and when I say all night I mean sun coming up because we lost track of time playing this game all night.  We would play this ridiculous two player battle mode that was on the game and we would cut the time all the way down and the outcome would be these epic battles that had both of us in awww of what had just happened.  I mean we would be just giggling like two little school girls all night long.  He recently got married, well he got married a year ago to the amazing Kyla by the way.  But before he did, you bet your ass we played a little Bomber Man 64 to ring out the last of his bachelorhood (that can't be a word, can it?).  

Anyway, that is the first of my top 5 list and I know you my think that you have a better list but let me tell you, you don't.  But I would love to hear what any of you out there think.  Some on the honorable mention games that just barely missed the cut were.... SUPER TECMO BOWL, MARIO 64, DOUBLE DRIBBLE, LARUSSA BASEBALL 95, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 2, ALL-STAR BASEBALL

My Religion

Well, well, well, what do we have here?  If you are reading this I really can't even believe that you are still tuning in to read about the adventures or really the mis-adventures would probably be a more appropriate word for it.  But here you are so I guess color me flattered.  I will do my best not to completely bore you all and to not go on one of my completely out there tangents that I have been known to go on a time or two.

I guess that it's fitting that I am writing this post today as it is Sunday and I feel as if just not too long ago I just had a sort of religious experience.  And before I really get into all of this let me just start out by saying to all of you back home in the midwest reading this I do believe in god and I do have my own personal relationship with him that is totally my own thing.

Now that I've gotten that little precursor out of the way I can really get into the meat and potatoes of this whole thing.  It's funny but on a the day that I went to the movie and saw what for me was just such a moving movie, The Butler, I will not be using this entry to talk about it.  No I will save that for another day.  Today I am going to talk about something different.  Something that a great friend of mine has said a few times since I've been out here on my quest and the longer I'm out here and the longer that I have to think about it the more that I realize just how true it is.  How true it is that I believe and subscribe to the religion of Movies.

And before any of you say it I know, you have heard this all before.  It seems like every so often I come up with another way to get on this blog and talk about how much I love movies or what writing means to me.  What can I say, you are pretty much just going to have to deal with it.  Because every so often I'm going to get on here and talk about how much it means to me.  I'll spend the rest of my life trying to put into the perfect words what movies and writing mean to me.

So on this Sunday sitting in the movie theaters getting ready to watch The Butler, while the trailers are running for other movies I just felt this relief move through my entire body and I began to tear up.  Which is just what I do.(I know I'm a big giant vagina because I cry a lot.)  And as those tears rolled down my face as I was watching the Catching Fire trailer it all became clear to me and all I could think at this exact moment is that Cooper is totally and completely right.

When I left for LA my mom made sure to get me a new study bible to take with me, fearing that my soul is becoming more and more lost I'm sure.  And I have read this bible a few days each week and I do feel as though it has been the best thing for me.  And I do feel a closeness to that I haven't felt in quite some time I must say. 

And what I'm going to say I don't mean to offend anybody and by no means am I worshiping false idols or anything like that but that experience that so many people go to church a feel, I get that from being inside a movie theater.  It's the place I go to pray, or the place I go to let the weight of the week go.  And I really do believe in a lot of ways that is why I tend to get a tad bit emotional when I'm in a movie theater.  

And I know right about now if you are reading any of this you probably think this guy is completely crazy or how completely immature of him, but really and truly I just don't care.  Because that is exactly how I feel.  And there are very few things in this world that have ever made me feel like that so the things that do I have to hold them close to my heart.  And I say that being in a movie theater is this sort of religious experience for me because when I'm in there watching a movie or waiting to watch I movie I have this feeling deep within myself that there are still some dreams out there for me waiting to come true.  And I guess by now you out there already know this, I am a very big dreamer.  

When I go into a movie theater it doesn't matter what has happened or is happening in my life.  I get to get lost in a completely different world for a couple of hours.  And I get to watch somebody else's story and how they view the world and I get the chance to imagine that someday there will be a time when people will get to go into a dark room and watch my vision of the world.  

So that's it, that's what I wanted all of you to know, what I felt today that I felt I just couldn't not say.  And on a night like tonight, a thousand miles away from home I'll sleep easy knowing that I believe that there is still some magic left out there in the world.