My Spring TV Dates!

Jan 10 - Chuck
Jan 12 - American Idol
Jan 12 - Southland
Jan 13 - Leverage
Jan 17 - Human Target
Jan 17 - 24
Jan 21 - Burn Notice
Jan 22 - Caprica(meh)
Feb 2 - Lost
March 4 - FlashForward
March 14 - The Pacific(Band of Brothers 2)
March 30 - V

Gaming Season

As the temperature drops and so do the leaves, its a signal to me for one thing.


Gaming Season is here.

Starting in November, the holiday season of games starts and runs through the first quarter of the next year. FOr some reason this year, December is void of any real big releases, but November has the true juggernaut. Here is the listing of games im looking forward to from now until spring next year.

November
11/10 - Modern Warfare 2
11/17 - Left 4 Dead 2

December-ish
World of Warcraft Content Patch 3.3 - Icecrown Citadel

January
1/5 - Darksiders
1/12 - Dark Void
1/26 - Mass Effect 2

1st Quarter(no set release date)
Star Trek Online
Alien Vs Predator
Dante's Inferno
Command and Conquer 4
Starcraft 2 - Maybe?



Looking forward to this.

Fall TV

Time for my annual Fall TV premiere dates! No, this isnt all shows. Yes, its only the ones i watch.

Thursday, September 17
8 pm Bones(FOX)
9 pm The Office (NBC)
9 pm Fringe (FOX)

Monday, September 21
8 pm House (FOX)
8 pm Heroes (NBC)
10 pm CSI: Miami (CBS)

Tuesday, September 22
8 pm NCIS (CBS)
9 pm NCIS: Los Angeles (NEW! CBS)

Wednesday, September 23
10 pm CSI: New York (CBS)

Thursday, September 24
8 pm FlashForward (NEW! ABC)
9 pm CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (CBS)

Tuesday, September 29
8 pm Hell's Kitchen (Fox)

Friday, October 23
9 pm Southland (NBC)

Tuesday, November 3
8 pm V (NEW! ABC)

Top 5 Questions about Cataclysm not answered at Blizzcon 2009

So i know the last blog i had that mentioned my World of Warcraft addiction said that i had quit for good. I really thought that for a while. I realized it wasnt the game i had an issue with, but that i just needed a break, focus and center myself and take some time to take care of other aspects of my life. Since then ive started dating a great girl and done a lot of stuff. I slowly got back into playing and have found a great balance of RL and WoW. That being said...


I took some time to get the web stream of Blizzcon from DirecTV this weekend. I loved the blizzcon coverage on directv this weekend. I have some gripes about it, but its more about scheduling of panels than actual coverage.

That being said, im not going to reiterate all the new info about the FANTASTIC looking new expansion to World of Warcraft, titled "CATACLYSM". This year was a big departure from blizzard which keeps most info under wraps, as they had tons of panels, tons of info and tons of availability to answer questions.

That being said, here are 5 big questions I would love to find answered about the expansion.


1. Does the Cataclysm affect Northrend as well? All the shots show Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms, but doesn't talk about Northrend. They talk alot about the 1-60 experience, but does "all zones being affected" mean that Northrend is as well?

2. Are there new faction cities for worgen and goblins? They said that worgen are getting a new district in stormwind, so im guessing not, but what are gobs getting? Rumors of a total rebuild of orgrimmar and even that org is going to get destroyed...but no concrete info.

3. We know the Goblin mount(car/go kart) but what about worgen?

4. How will the cataclysm event happen? All at once? Over time? Does it tie into the defeat of Arthas?

5. Why oh why cant you up the character per realm limit?! You want us to reroll some alts! Some of us are already capped!


Hope to find out some answers soon!

Tim is a terrible person

Wow.


15:29] Brian: Tampa Bay Online: Billy May's official cause of death is a heart attack but cocaine in his system contributed to his death.
[15:29] Brian: SAY IT AINT SO BILLY
[15:29] Tim: dude
[15:29] Tim: i can imagine the hilarity of the conversation when he tried to get his friends to do cocaine with him
[15:30] Marrow: HI BILLY MAYS HERE TO TALK TO YOU ABOUT THIS EXCITING NEW WONDER DRUG CALLED COCAINE
[15:30] Brian: lol
[15:30] Brian: you are so bad

Mind Blown.

Since i mostly "blog" on twitter now, this thing has kind of slowed down.


My dad is outblogging me now. Hes on a roll this summer.

http://jdwaggoner.wordpress.com/

I Told You So

I guess my rants about movie critics, while i do feel that way, doesnt really matter.


People saw the so called "reviews" of Transformers 2, and apparently didnt care. They wanted to see it for themselves.

60.6 Million in its first day (a wed, too) which puts it in #1 for wed opens and #2 for all time single day revenue.


While im not some crazy Michael Bay or Transformers advocate, i think this really shows that the general public doesnt give a shit what reviewers say and will go see a movie regardless of a review.

What they think of the movie after that remains to be seen, and thats how well see if the movie keeps a high ranking in the next few weeks, a la Star Trek.


I think its easy to see though that Transformers 2 will be the biggest money earner this year. Sorry Trek :(

Transformers 2

There has been a lot of criticism and speculation about Transformers 2 by the media and so called "critics". I went to see it last night and a bunch of people wanted to know what i think, so ill try to put some initial thoughts down without giving too much away.

Likes!
- Story: Was a very covincing story giving more weight to why the Transformers are on earth. I thought the whole idea of the NEST team was cool, would have like to see them doing more ops instead of fighting with the Obama administration over how they operate.

- Character development between Megatron and Starscream. Showing their rivalry, starscream's shady side and how they both need each other to survive. In the first movie, they were just bad guys. In this one, they are allowed to grow their characters a bit.

- Shia and Megan: Great on screen chemistry. If only the Star Wars prequels had that.

- Bumblebee: The essential figure of the movie, but doesnt utter a word of dialogue outside his radio. Hes so emotive that you can tell what hes thinking just by watching him. Its amazing what the guys at ILM can do.

- EPIC scale battles. The last 30 min or so of the movie is one for the books. Robots, amazing amounts of military hardware, one of the coolest explisions in movie history...so cool.

- Michael Bay: I love his filming style, his epic scale of movies and his no holds barred attitude when doing movies. Noone could make these kind of movies but him.

- Steve Jablonsky's score. With the help of Linkin Park, they did another great job. Its not as thematic as the first movie's score, but fits great in the movie.

- The witwicky family. Sams parents, especially his mother are just plain funny. Love the addition. They were great near the end as well during a very dramatic part as well. Kudos to those 2 actors.

- Glenn MOrshower. While i thought they killed him off in TF1, hes back now and with a MUCH bigger role. Loeved him as Agent Pierce on 24 and his other roles. He was perfect in this as the General in charge of NEST.

- IMAX: the IMAX scenes were incredible. The non IMAX scenes sounded amazing and looked great too. I love how more and more movies are doing this.

- Peter Cullen: Dude is just flat out amazing. His voice gives me chills when i hear him do voiceovers.

- Frank Welker as Soundwave. While its too bad he couldnt voice Megatron, im glad hes in the new Transformers iteration. Guy is a legend.

- Scorponok back, if only for just a shot or 2.

- Jetfire: what a cool way to do some history/exposition. I loved the character and his whole schtick.


Dislikes:

- Character Development: 44 Robots in the film alone. Way too many. Fallen, Devastator, Constructicons, Demolisher, Megatrons group....too many groups of Decepticons. Needed to either tie it together somehow or pair it down.

- Autobot usage: Less Twins, more Sideswipe/Ironhide. Sideswipe got almost 0 screentime talking to anyone. While most people hate the Twins, likening them to JarJar, i didnt mind them. However, Ironhide/Bumblebee/Rachet are more interesting characters, imo.

- Rachet: Love the character, but for another key point in a movie, his role as team medic is never used. Either hes a crapass medic or they are out of their league. I see Autobots getting blown up and hes standing there firing some weak ass gun. YOU ARE A MEDIC, SO GO HEAL.

- Overabundance of Testicle Jokes: Wether its the wrecking balls on Devastator or John Turturro saying "scrotum", i could have done without em. I wasnt offended or anything, just was a bit trashy, imo.

- Political overtones: The bit about the Obama Administration trying to shut down NEST is played out and dumb. Whats wrong with saying, ok, we have this team, its US VS THEM. GOOD VS EVIL. Also, who is Obama to choose if the autobots can stay on earth or not. If Obama wants them gone, then cant another country take them in?

- Length: hate to say it, but it could have been edited down a bit. No need for the whole "Pretender" bit in college. Cut that whole subplot out and youll save a good 10 minutes. I know its tied into some other areas of the movie(aka sam/mikayla tension) but i thought that was kind of forced as well.

Im sure im forgetting things, but thats my overall thoughts. I would love to see it again, and its a day 1 buy on blu ray.