Valentine's Day?????

   I don't celebrate it!  At all! EVER!!!  I don't understand the holiday.  I explained to my wife sometime ago that the holiday isn't real.  I don't need a holiday to tell me I love my wife or significant other.  Sure the kids still get the cards or heart necklaces to take to school, like all kids.  I explained to my wife that I send flowers, when she doesn't expect it, because that's so much nicer.  Not on Valentine's Day, a birthday, or when she's mad at me.  I do it when it's special and not because everyone else does it.  The first year we were dating, I gave her a card with the picture below

The caption I made said "An Artificial Heart, For An Artificial Holiday".  She loved it.  

The card industry has continued to make Valentine's Day some commercial holiday (LIKE MOST), saying you don't love her if you didn't buy diamonds, dinner, flowers, cards, etc.....  As a matter of fact the "Roman Martyrology" maintained by the Catholic church doesn't even recognize Valentine as a Saint for sometime now, as they are not even sure who the holiday is attributed to.  Many scholars believe the church set the Valentine's Feast (which was much like Thanksgiving) at February 14th, to supercede the Pagan Holiday of Lupercalia, which was held annually on February 15th to avert evil spirits and to purify the city.  This celebration was held in place of the cleansing holiday of Februa, which is where the month of February gets it's name from.  

   So I just can't buy into this holiday.  Here are my choices for top Valentine's gifts if you simply MUST get that special someone something!!!!

The "Ex" knife holder for the kitchen.  Pretty clever.  I love that the Pairing Knife goes right through his head.  You can get this right through Amazon.  Also, consider

 This lovable, plush genital is available through Running With Scissors.  Anyway these are my top choices for gifts if you must get something.  If you celebrate the holiday, enjoy, but remember your significant other some other time when they don't expect it.  Happy Weekend to Everyone!!!!!  That should work! 

Re-Organizing My Office

    So I started re-organizing my office at work and decided to place some of my gaming figures I had laying around at home (mostly packed away) on my cradenza, just for the hell of it.  My office is open to the public, and I have foot traffic all day coming in and out.  I think everybody and their brother has coming in commenting about each game, with the most comments split between The Big Daddy and The Vault Tec Bobble Head.  (No room for my night vision goggles, plus when I did have them there the girls in my office kept running around the office in them).

So, now that I'm finishing up Mass Effect 2, when I get home from Parent / Teacher conference tonight, I am getting geared up for Bioshock 2.  I'm really looking forward getting back into Rapture.  I know it's available at Midnight tonight, but I just feel so damn old out there with Timmy!!!!  I know there are some really big Bioshock fans out there.  I did find Big Daddy Dolls like the Little Sister carries out on Ebay today, while I was waiting to bid on a Psycho Bunny tie by Robert Godley, that I really wanted.  These were pretty cool though.

Tax Season Dilemma..........What to do?????

      OK!!!!!!  I'm getting back a nice chunk of change on my tax return (about $7,000), and I have have a purchasing dilemma.  I have been thinking about replacing my 24 inch iMac (2 years old) with the new 27 inch, wide screen iMac.  This would be great, and then I would put the "old" Mac in my son's room, as this is what every school uses for their students.  My other choice is the new 55" Samsung LED 8000 Series.  The picture is unbelievable on it.  Looks like you could walk right into the picture, it's that good.  My wife is telling me to just buy both, but I want to put some into savings and take the kids to Disney World.  So what to do???

      Also, buying the TV means, selling my 60" Sony SXRD and my entertainment center to replace with a console cabinet to hold all my gaming goodness.  So I just don't know.  I'll take suggestions though.

My name is Todd and I'm an addict.....

Mass Effect 2 has become my new "Crack"!!!!!!!!  I can't stop playing this damn game.  It's so engaging.  At first, I thought it was a little slow, but I was coming off of playing weeks of Modern Warfare 2 "twitch reaction gaming".  The level of depth has astounded me.  I've made mistakes and bad decisions with my character or crew members that I wish I wouldn't have, but it's interesting to see how it plays out anyways.  This is one deep universe!!!!!

I never played Mass Effect 1, nor did I ever have an interest in playing it or any other Bioware game for that matter.  This one fell at the right time and I fell into the hype of the game and said I'll give it a go (I almost backed out of my pre-order).  Man am I glad I did!!!!!!  I know this has a lot of action elements to it compared to lots of RPG, but I think it has a nice balance.  Since it came out last Tuesday, I have logged 32 hours and I am a Level 21 Soldier.  This is a big deal to me as I think I finally just passed the 24 hour mark on Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer.  Now with Bioshock 2 (Xbox) and Heavy Rain (PS3) coming in the next couple of weeks......................what am I to do??????? 

iPad REALLY??????

   Are there any women on the Apple marketing team at all?!?!?!  This is the worst name they could have come up with.  I mean I see the similarity to "iPod", but bad choice in name branding.  I love Apple products and to be honest I was underwhelmed by the features and price point for it.  I was hoping for OS X instead of a modified iPhone OS, but oh well.  To get the top of the line model $830.  Why wouldn't I get a new Macbook for $100 more???   Mind you it would have 3G capabilities and the Macbook wouldn't.  I guess I will wait to reserve judgement for when gaming starts arriving on it.