After watching a few of Yahtzee’s reviews, I found myself browsing The Escapist’s site and stumbled on some other humorous game videos. Think Mystery Science Theater 3000 meets video game cut-scenes. These two guys, known collectively as Unskippable, poke fun at various “terrible” in-game cinematics. They’ve been around over a year now and produce a new video every Monday. The humor is clean and the cut-scenes are spoiler free (most of the time it’s the opening cinematic). I picked two of my favorites that I’d highly recommend watching.

Onimusha 3

Resident Evil 5

I’m a big fan of Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw and his no-holes-barred reviews every Wednesday at The Escapist. His fast pace, crude humor, timing, and the simple animations that tie it all together, are comedic gold. To get an idea of what to expect, here’s his review of Silent Hill: Homecoming for XBOX 360.

* Be aware that swearing and over-the-top crudeness are always involved in his reviews, and shouldn’t be watched if you’re easily offended by such things. Having said that, I promise you’ll laugh at least once, especially if you’re a gamer.

There’s more stuff to be found at ZP, but I hardly ever get passed Yahtzee’s reviews.

I looked out of my window this morning and noticed that my neighbor across the street had the hood up on his Jeep. The hood has been up periodically for the last two weeks while he does some work on the engine underneath. Growing up in a family whose father did all the minor and most of the major maintenance on the vehicles we owned, I find it pleasurable to see that hood open. It brings back many enjoyable childhood memories.

One Saturday in the 1950’s my Mother and I had gone to town, twenty miles distant, to buy groceries and other items. We traveled this distance once a week and bought enough food and other items to last for the coming week. On our way home, about three miles outside of town, the car began to make a noise, unusual to any we had heard previously. We stopped at a nearby house whose occupants graciously let Mother use their phone to call my Dad. (Cell phones were unheard of in those days.) Of course he didn’t answer, as he was working outside and did not hear the phone ringing. Unsure of another course of action, we drove the vehicle home at a very slow pace, clunking the entire way.

Dad, upon hearing about the problem, took the vehicle into the shop and began disassembling parts in order to locate the source of the problem. It took several days (weeks) to get the problem repaired. It was farming season which meant he would only work on the car at night after chores were done and supper eaten. This amounted to one or two hours maximum each night, if other events weren’t on the calendar. And he wasn’t known as a fast paced mechanic.

Dad’s truck, our only other means of transportation, became the primary vehicle. A family of four in the cab of a 3/4 ton truck was a little crowded, especially on Sundays when we were all dressed in our best clothes. We would crowd into the cab of our truck to travel the three miles to the church building. Dad would drive so he got the most space. My brother or I would sit in the middle, straddling the gear shift, with Mother on the passenger side and the other child in her lap. She never complained, but I’m sure her dress was quite wrinkled by the time we arrived at the Church.

Eventually, the car was fixed and back on the road. Thinking back, I’m not sure which parent was the happiest to have it running once again. Daddy, because it was one less thing he had to do at night and could stay inside the house after supper instead of going out to the shop to work on a vehicle. Or Mother, who could now continue with her volunteer efforts in the community and drive herself to wherever she needed to go. You see, the truck was a manual shift and she only knew how to drive an automatic. While the car was down, she had to rely on my Dad to drive her around and he didn’t have time to do much of that. Therefore, they were both very happy when the backyard mechanic got the primary family vehicle running smoothly once again. As for my brother and I, we liked riding in the truck. Crowding into the cab and wrinkled clothing didn’t bother us.

THIS was a surprise. Back in October, I posted that I was attempting to grind out a Dark Whelpling. That lasted on-and-off until about mid-December when I stopped playing WoW due to real life vying for my attention. After a brief couple month siesta, I returned, but with no desire to work on this crazy project. Instead I shifted my attention to starting a priest with the goal of at least getting to the outlands.

Well, a little bit ago I was working on the Fiery Blaze Enchantments quest in which you have to slay Black Whelplings until one of them finally gives up its Black Drake’s Heart. As some of you may know, and as I’ve tried to allude to, this is not a fun quest as the drop rate is pathetically low (shouldn’t all Drake’s have hearts? …I hate these kinds of quests). To compound matters, there were three other dudes killing Black Whelplings, two of whom were level 80! I was just about to give up when I suddenly found myself all alone; everyone else had mysteriously vanished. Thankful, I went ahead and ground out the quest item which took about 20-30 kills. All told, about forty minutes of work.

After turning in the quest, I decided to hit up the goblin vendor, Jazzrik, and sell all the junk I had collected. That was when I noticed the dragon head icon, and time momentarily stopped. I thought, “No way, it can’t be,” but low and behold, I had picked up a Dark Whelpling somewhere along the way. It turns out it dropped the same time as the quest item – how crazy is that? I’m pretty excited about it, but now I don’t know whether to keep or sell it… I still can’t believe the dumb luck – practically hand-wrapped, couldn’t have been timed any better. I’ll let the picture speak for itself.

This March has proven to be a wonderful month in which to begin gardening. Many days brought us temperatures in the 60’s and 70’s which assisted in germination and growth. The container of peas, which I blogged about at the beginning of the month, has approximately 90% germination. The container was lifted into the house three times during the month when temperatures plummeted to a cold, overnight low of 32°F or below. The following mornings they were back outside as soon as the temperatures were above freezing.

The seedlings have been showing themselves for 3½ weeks and have grown to a height of 6 inches. I fertilized them today, for the first time, with pellets which are scratched into the soil. Even though the plants look healthy, I felt the soil could use a little help keeping up with the rapid growth that is taking place.

No, I am not a Master Gardener and have not had any formal training. While growing up I helped my parents with their vegetable garden, which was NOT my “cup of tea”. However, I did learn in spite of myself. Today, I very much enjoy gardening and the work it entails. Reading is one way I keep up on techniques, whether it be books, newsletters, the internet, or newspaper articles. Also, I have a brother who is an organic produce farmer with lots of ideas and knowledge to impart. It is from him that I learn practical instruction for home gardening and gain the courage to try ideas that I normally would not. Using the organic method to grow vegetables and flowers is my ultimate goal.