We have two birthdays to celebrate today! First, a birthday wish banner for my cousin Christina. She’s 8 years old today. Way to go, Christina!!

We also have Steve Angel, our friend in the Chicago suburbs, celebrating his birthday today, too!

We wish these two a great birthday!

Cheers!

Ok, I just had to do this! While cleaning, I was detailing the entertainment corner of the living room and put one Nintendo next to the other. Suddenly I had the crazy thought to drag out Christine’s old original Nintendo Entertainment System and put all three systems together. From left to right:

– The original NES. The one that started it all. No equal in sight for pure 8-bit gaming fun. The flagship game for this system was Super Mario Bros.
– The Nintendo 64 System (N64). Arguably the best Nintendo system in between generations. The Super NES came out between the NES and the N64, and some hard-core gamers say that one is the best… but I digress. The flagship game of this console was Super Mario 64, and both the game and the system set new standards in 3D gaming for the industry.
– The Nintendo GameCube (GCN). When this bad boy came out, it had fierce competition from Sony’s Playstation and Microsoft’s X-Box. Because of the nature of the different games across the competing consoles, gamers woefully labelled it as a console geared for the kiddies. However, the game offerings from Sony and Microsoft were found to not have as much substance as Nintendo’s so-called kiddie games. Of course, another Mario game was the flagship game… Luigi’s Mansion.

Also, I had “The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time” game sitting in the N64 bay (I was playing it earlier). In the spirit of the picture’s theme, I thought to display the other great Zelda games for the other consoles. Again, from left to right:

– The Legend of Zelda. Again, the one that started it all. A very complex (for it’s time) adventure game that forced the gamer to think for a change, not just hack-and-slash.
– The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Do any search on the internet and any site will tell you that this is one of the top 10 games of all time. Every gamer’s mouth dropped when they played even a few minutes of this, and left them crying for more. The gameplay was nothing short of revolutionary. I bought the N64 system just for this game!
– The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. Another milestone in gaming, this time from the graphics perspective. The cel-styled animation, at first making Zelda fans cringe, eventually won them over with how expressive the game’s characters are.

(Another copy of the pic to accompany the last paragraph)

Well, three awesome generations of consoles and games that Nintendo can be proud of, as well as any gamer can be proud to have in their collection. I also have a Sega Genesis console, but it just collects dust. Maybe I’ll drag it out just to play Earthworm Jim sometime. Cheers!!

ABC News: Pa. Man Signs His Name As ‘God’

Just goes to show everyone that idiots can come in all shapes, sizes and ages. Even forty year old men can be quite clueless!

Hamster, snake best friends at Tokyo zoo – MSNBC.com

This is just too cute… and cool! Apparently this hamster, named Gohan (Japanese for cooked rice) was supposed to be a snack for Aochan, a four-foot long ratsnake. The snake instead decided to make friends with his furry would-be meal. Read the article for more details.

If this isn’t a sign of the coming Apocalypse, I don’t know what is!!

“… Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together… mass hysteria!!”
– Bill Murray as Dr. Peter Venkman in “Ghostbusters”

I thought this was amusing. Place your bets, everyone! I’m a cat person, but in this case I’m putting a cool $100 on our feathered friend.

Who do you think is calling who dinner?!