This is a great time to live in my world, the world of the consumer. I don't mean "consumer" as "one who buys", but rather "one who consumes content." I've come to peace with the fact that much of my time is spent consuming content (comics, movies, videogames, television). I'm basically walking around all day with a sign on my face that says, "Tell me a story." Here are some recent highlights and upcoming dates to look forward to for you consumers out there.

• Recently released - X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse [Xbox]
• Recently released - Ultimate Spider-Man [Xbox]
• Recently released - Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War: Winter Assault [PC]
• September 30th - Serenity in theaters
• September 30th - A History of Violence in theaters
• October 4th - Black & White 2 [PC]
• October 11th - Quake 4 [PC]
• October 18th - Batman Begins [DVD]
• October 18th - Age of Empires III [PC]
• October 18th - F.E.A.R. [PC]
• October 25th - Call of Duty 2 [PC]
• October 31st - Star Wars Battlefront II [PC]
  
• November 1st - Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith [DVD]
  
• November 8th - The Movies [PC]
• November 8th - Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter [PC]
• November 18th - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in theaters
• November 21 - Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion [PC]
• November 22 - Xbox 360 launch
• November 22 - War of the Worlds [DVD]

And that's just movies and videogames. You can see all of these dates and more at Geek Calendar. EDIT: Corrected an oversight.

posted by Travis at 9:33 AM

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Friday, September 23, 2005

Kim and I went to see Tenacious D last night at the Wiltern. It was a benefit concert for Hurricane Katrina victims. Also performing were Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters, Nirvana), Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age), Jesse Hughes (Eagles of Death Metal), Fiona Apple, David Cross, Bob Odenkirk, and Sarah Silverman. It was a great show. Seeing some of these guys performing solo without their bands was pretty cool, and seeing Dave Grohl sneak on stage and play drums during The D's song Tribute was worth the ticket price alone. He's still got it.

We were, once again, reminded of our age as we limped out of the concert when it finished. What happened to my retail legs? I used to be able to stand for 8 hours with no problem. Now standing for 3 hours leaves me with muscle stiffness and tired legs. I guess that's what happens when you sit down for a living.

posted by Travis at 8:41 AM

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Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Just a couple of quick links here. The story I wrote for Tom's about World of Warcraft mods got posted today. You can read it here, but it's going to be pretty dry to anyone not playing the game. Just flip through the pages and look at all the pretty screenshots I created. Also, Tom's interviewed me about a recent "feature" in World of Warcraft concerning a plague killing characters. You can read that article here.

posted by Travis at 8:55 AM

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Tuesday, September 20, 2005

The new TV season has started and I'm glad to see that, due largely to the success of new shows like Lost and Desperate Housewives and the continued success of C.S.I., scripted shows are making a strong comeback. Someday, you'll all get over this reality TV phase you're in and look back on it with shame. Sci-fi seems to be the dominating theme so far, and I like it. I've watched the season openers of Threshold, Surface, and Supernatural and we put season passes on all of them. I also plan on watching the premiere of Invasion. However, I am curious to see how any of these shows are going to carry their stories into a weekly television format without driving me away like Lost did. I understand that Lost is very popular, but I just don't like it. I watched a few and it started strong, but I missed about 5 episodes. When I went back to watch it again, I didn't feel like I'd missed anything. I fast-forwarded through the finale, and they didn't answer any of my questions, so I stopped. I understand about teasing the audience, but give me something. Anyway, I'll give these new shows a few weeks.

I plan on watching all episodes of Firefly before the release of Serenity so I can sneer at the people who haven't seen them all...despite being one of those people for some time. I just finished watching what I think was the pilot movie and the first episode. The pilot movie is a much better introduction to the show. The episode Fox premiered (which is actually the second episode) just did not hook me on the first run, but I enjoyed it much more after seeing the pilot movie.

I'm still doing work for tomshardware.com, and they are sending me to San Francisco for a day in October to be wooed by Microsoft. Microsoft is going to try to convince me that the Xbox 360 is the greatest thing ever. We'll see...I have my doubts.

Also in October is Blizzcon, which Kim and I will be attending. Yes, at this point you may point and laugh. But I'm going for work! I'm doing a couple stories from Blizzcon, so I have an excuse. However, we were going to go anyway.

posted by Travis at 11:19 PM

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Thursday, September 15, 2005

We recently had a mild power outage in Los Angeles. I found it interesting how uncomfortable people got the longer the power was out. I was downstairs in our lobby eating lunch with some people when it happened and at first we just assumed the power would come back on in a few minutes. The longer it was off, the more uncomfortable people became. The lobby started filling with people on cell phones calling friends, husbands, and wives only to find that a majority of them were also without power. Kim called me and told me that the power was out downtown. Downtown is some distance away from Burbank which meant that the power outage was fairly large. That is when I became mildly concerned. I rarely worry about my own well being (unless I'm in an airplane), but my alert status goes up a notch or two if something can affect Kim. So the wheels started turning. I remembered how just the day before some white guy in a Halloween costume sent a video tape to all the news networks threatening Los Angeles. Then I thought that attacking the power grid would be a pretty good way to start a terrorist attack because it disrupts communication and traffic. I didn't really think it was an attack, but I did tell Kim that since the power was out downtown and it didn't look like it was going to come back on soon, she might as well go home. The power did come back on hours later.

While sitting in the lobby and observing the general discomfort of the people around us rising as time we by, these were the things that most worried me and those at my table:

• How long will it take for the lobby to turn into Thunderdome and who was going to be Master and who was going to be Blaster?
• What is the proper time to start looting the convenient store in the lobby?
• Would looting early and hoarding food be a good idea?
• Would office supplies have any value outside of hand-to-hand combat?

posted by Travis at 9:26 AM

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Friday, September 09, 2005

Today is my birthday. I'm 30. I suppose turning 30 is a time to reflect on where you are in your life and all that. Is this where I thought I'd be by at 30? Yeah...I think so. I think I always knew I'd hit level 60 in World of Warcraft and get an epic mount before I was 30. I'm still going to play games, watch movies, read comics, and completely ignore national news and politics. If something important happens, I'm sure someone will let me know. Personally, I'm much more concerned about how House of M is going to end then missing girls or looting.

One of the first things I'm noticing about getting older is that I have pains that don't go away in a few days. I've even started consulting doctors. Normally my policy for seeing a doctor for something was there needed to be lots of blood. The last time I went to a doctor was a few years ago when Kim convinced me that the flu I had might be strep throat. I was a contractor at the time and did not have health insurance, but I figured I'd go in and they'd give me a perscription and I'd be done. Instead the doctor examined me for about 20 seconds, told me I had the flu, and charged me $75. That's when I decided I was done with it. No more doctors unless there was lots of blood. Well, I guess I'll have to modify that now. Pains that don't go away aren't good either, but I'll give them a week or two.

posted by Travis at 9:22 AM

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Thursday, September 01, 2005

WARNING: COMIC BOOK POST

Last week's comics were Ultimates 2 Annual #1, Day of Vengeance #5, The Omac Project #5, Wolverine #31, and Black Panther #7.

This week's comics are The New Avengers #9, Young Avengers #6, Captain America #9, Green Lantern #4, B.P.R.D. - The Black Flame #1, Runaways #7, 1602: New World #2, and Astonishing X-Men #12.

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I recently got these off eBay. They are the Strange mini-series #s 1-6 and the Ultimate Spider-Man #4 trade paperback Legacy collecting #s 22-26. I have not read any Dr. Strange comics and this mini-series was kind of an origin story, so I wanted to pick it up. Also, I've been trying to catch up on both Ultimate Spider-Man and Ultimate X-Men by buying the trades paperbacks on eBay for cheap.

posted by Travis at 12:01 AM

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