Wii Sports Tennis is My New Obsession

Santa was pretty good to the kids this Christmas and got them a Wii (no, it’s technically not called a Nintendo Wii., like the “Nintendo DS” but just Wii. Really!). Actually, I hear Santa was smart and stored one of these away for the kids all the way back in August. And the kids are loving it. They especially like the LEGO Star Wars and LEGO Indiana Jones games.

As for me, I am really enjoying the launch title, Wii Sports. And while the Bowling and Baseball games are fun, and Boxing is a hoot if you have a partner, the game I most enjoy is Tennis (the less said about Golf the better). Having played a little tennis myself as a kid this game is hardly realistic, but at least the old “skills” translate fairly well.

wii-tennis

The graphics on the game are okay. I like that the default surface is grass, like tennis should be played on. There’s an Easter Egg to allow you to play on a hard surface (hit the 2 button after selecting players), which eliminates some funny ball hops. But overall I like the vibe from this game. I’ve been playing the computer and have gotten pretty good at the game. After you play a game you are awarded points based on the number of winners or errors. When you reach the 1000 point level you’re considered a “Pro.”

I’m up to 1684 points now, almost as good as the best Pro in the game (2000 points). Problem now is that if I don’t beat the computer I can actually lose points. The horror!

I also like the Tennis training games where you can try to return the ball into a moving target. Lots of fun and just long enough for a quick game after work or before bed or something.  

I hear there are some “realistic” Tennis games for the Wii. Probably something I should look into, though I suspect they’re not as fun as Wii Sports Tennis.

Disneyland Dream

I’ve got to thank my friend and fellow blogger (Bay of Fundie) Ron Britton for setting me hip to this. It’s a home movie from 1956 that features the Barstow Family with their contest-winning trip to Disneyland. Now I’m a big Disneyland fan. Actually, more like a Disneyland nut. I listen to a half-dozen Disney parks podcasts, read over a dozen Disney blogs each day, and have a couple dozen books about the parks, Walt Disney, and the Imagineers. And, truth be told, if I had a time machine it’d be hard choice not to travel to Dealy Plaza in 1963 to learn the truth, but if I didn’t go there I’d surely go to Disneyland in the summer of 1959 when Tomorrowland had its big expansion with The Monorail, The Matterhorn, and The Submarine Voyage.

So, this video with circa-1956 footage of The Happiest Place on Earth is certainly of interest. What makes this 30 minute video all the more interesting is the exposure of 1950s culture and social moires. The Barstow Family is shown traveling to Southern California and the dad must have been a film nut because he used a lot of trick camera techniques and great storytelling skills to shoot a great movie. The narration was recorded in the mid-90s but still has that Fifties feel.

But hey, don’t take my word for it. The Librarian of Congress added this film to the National Film Registry this year. They add 25 films per year, so the fact that this home movie made the list alongside cinema greats like The Terminator, Deliverance, In Cold Blood, and others. And, in researching this post, I see that the Zapruder Film is also in the National Film Registry. So, this post comes full-circle…

In any case, you should definitely check out this video. It’s a lot of fun, and if you were around in the Fifties it might take you back. And if you weren’t it might take you there anyway.

Top Songs of 2008

This is my first post on the all-new Kevdo.com blog. Instead of creating another “personal” blog to go along with my iPhone releated blog, Useless Productivity, I decided to merge those into one, allowing me to blog about any topic and on a more regular basis. So, here we are… hope you like it.

In 2008 I decided to leverage the Play Count feature in iTunes and on the iPod to see which songs I listened to most during the year. I have looked at the statistics and in 2008 I listened to 1295 songs at least once. Of course, that number does not count any songs I listened to on CD, radio, XM, or elsewhere. It also doesn’t count all the podcasts I listened to, which are averaging about 2 hrs worth per day (and the sad part is that number might be a conservative estimate). 

So, out of those almost-1300 songs, which songs were listened to the most in 2008?  Here’s the top 20, with the song play count listed next to the artist.

  1. Fistful of Sand (Moon Version) - The Bravery (50)
  2. Every Word Is a Knife In My Ear (Moon Version) - The Bravery (44)
  3. The Name Of The Game (The Crystal Method’s Big Ass T.T. Mix) - The Crystal Method (41)
  4. Love Me Sexy (Frat Pack Remix) - Will Ferrell (41)
  5. Believe - The Bravery (39)
  6. This Is Not the End (Moon Version) - The Bravery (35)
  7. Paralyzer - Finger Eleven (35)
  8. Give It 2 Me - Madonna (34)
  9. Above and Below - The Bravery (33)
  10. The Little Things - Danny Elfman (33)
  11. An Honest Mistake - The Bravery (30)
  12. Fearless - The Bravery (30)
  13. The Ocean (Moon Version) - The Bravery (30)
  14. North American Scum - LCD Soundsystem (29)
  15. Reptile - The Church (28)
  16. A-Punk - Vampire Weekend (28)
  17. Funplex - The B-52’s (26)
  18. Crushcrushcrush - Paramore (26)
  19. Bad Sun (Moon Version) - The Bravery (22)
  20. Tyrant - The Bravery (21)

Well, obviously The Bravery take the cake in 2008. And their appearance in the top 20 has a lot to do with their 2007 Sun and the Moon album that was remixed and re-released in 2008 (hence the label “Moon version”). I like both versions of the album, though I like the remixed stuff better in general. But in any case I did listen to this album and my “Bravery Best” playlist quite a bit in 2008. 

Also note that the number above does not found the number of times I’ve heard at least a snippet of the Moon version of “A Fistful of Sand.” You see, I made a ringtone out of that song and it’s the default on my phone. So, I actually heard that song more than 100 times in 2008!

Number four on the list is the remix that I created of Will Ferrell’s “Love Me Sexy” (MP3 Download) from Semi-Pro. You could download all the individual music and instrument tracks and I was able to put them into GarageBand and tweak some of the levels and add additional musical cues. It was a lot of fun and obviously I ended up liking the results.

It’s also interesting to see a couple of my 1980’s icons on the list. “The Little Things” was from The Wanted Soundtrack and is very Oingo Boingo-ish. I really liked Madonna’s latest album overall and one of her tracks ended up in my top 20.

Of course, this list favors tracks released earlier than later in the year. As such, The Killers are the most likely “victims” of this since their recent album was only released in November. So, maybe it’ll be their year in 2009.

So, I guess I’ll reset all my play counts for 2009 and see who I end up listening to this year. If you had a favorite song, album, or artists in 2008 please leave a comment!

Happy New Blog Year Everyone.