I think it was the fourth of July

I'm writing a rare Saturday blog because I have stuff to say but couldn't get to it yesterday because my day was kind of busy – at least by my standards. I met my dad at his restaurant around 11:45. Then, I drove home to Wilmington, stopping at the Star-News to pick up The Munchables. Yeah, I'm excited about playing that. When I finally got back to my house (after 10 days away), our house had fleas, like it was a living animal. Bryan had already flea bombed the house, but we still had to clean up. By the time I was done with that, it was night, and then I went to bed. So no time for blogging.

The main reason I'm writing a Saturday blog is because I feel the need to at least mention that Futurama is returning from its oft-disturbed grave. Futurama is definitely in my top ten shows of all time, so I was visibly excited the last time that it was resurrected as four straight-to-DVD films, all of which I own. But then the movies weren't fantastic, and I was kind of let down. I'm hoping Futurama has a trajectory similar to that of The Simpsons, which clearly peaked years ago, probably when they employed a future The Tonight Show host as a measly writer. For the middle part of this decade, though, The Simpsons has been sub-par, especially considering it then had to compete with shows like Futurama, King of the Hill, and Family Guy. I think The Simpsons has experienced something of a renaissance, though, in the past couple of years, including the movie that lived up to what looked like insurmountable hype. My hope for the future Futurama episodes is that they also reach or at least near the standards that the show's original run set.

For those of you who either haven't read my thesis or barely read my thesis, you probably didn't get to the Futurama reference that I included. I'm going to put it here because, well, I love Futurama:

In an episode of the animated TV series Futurama, the Planet Express crew uses a what-if machine to see hypothetical situations. Delivery boy Philip Fry asks the machine: what if life were more like a video game? In the process of this hypothetical story arc, Fry is gobbled up by a Pac-Man-esque Dr. Zoidberg. Leela, the captain of the crew, says, "Oh my god! He ate Fry! Fry is dead." But Fry slides in from off-screen and responds, "It's OK. I had another guy" ("Anthology"). Another-guy-ism is a common component of video games. In arcade games, players are often forced to buy extra "lives" with extra quarters, so in that sense it is purely an economic decision made by the game designers. Some games make players earn extra lives with tasks, like gaining points or opening treasure chests, thereby rewarding skill or just simple curiosity. But other games just give players extra "lives" or somehow create mechanisms for the player's character to cheat death so the game experience can continue even if the character falls off of a cliff, is shot in the head, or otherwise experiences the sting of mortality. CoD4 is one of those games.

Speaking of my writing, I've posted a review of Grand Slam Tennis on the Port City Gamers blog, or whatever it's called. The review is less than glowing, and after one game with Bryan back in Wilmington, it may have been too glowing.

By the way, I'm giving the most important QotD of all time about a week to simmer to see if I get any more response. *Ahem* Jenny...

But by next Wednesday, I/you will have made a final decision.

QotD:

Most annoying bug, which includes insects, arachnids, assholes, etc.?

My take: Gnats, not to be confused with Nats, who are by no means pesky.