Curtains down.

I've been doing my best to avoid this post for three months now, but there's no point in drawing it out any longer: staticEchoes.com, as it currently exists, is closing shop.

I began this entertainment blog a few years ago in order to practice a type of writing style my 9-to-5 journalism job doesn't lend itself well to. It also gave me the chance to write about the stuff that truly interests me: Movies, music, video games, comics, etc.

With a full work load and a second job writing for joystickdivision.com, I find those needs are now being filled elsewhere and, sadly, I no longer have the time to commit to staticEchoes.

Starting today, you'll notice the blog's mission statement has changed; as now it will primarily serve as an archive for the bigger pieces I write for JD. In the event I put together some freelance work for another entity, this is where I will document that as well. Think of it as a digital resume'.

It seems oddly appropriate that this, my 500th post on staticEchoes.com, wrap up what has truly been a three-and-a-half year joy to put together.

None of this would have been possible without you readers, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for going on this journey with me.

staticEchoes as it used to be may return some day but, for now, it's time to ride off into the sunset.

Thank you once again for joining me. Be excellent to each other.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog

So....Yeah. The lack of posts has continued. I aim to have everything back to normal beginning next week.

The work load has continued to keep me busy and, I'm not going to lie, I've been playing a lot of Dead Space 2 and Dreamcast classics, killing what little free time I've had to get any extra work done. Can you blame me? Yes? Well now you're just being rude.

Thanks for your patience. Tune in next week for a return to form. The beginning-of-the-year-lazies should be worked out of the system by then.

Hip-hip-hooray for Christmas blogcation

I know, I know. I had one of these like a month ago in order to eat criminal amounts of turkey.

But it's December, and here in 'Merica, we like to do things up nice and big to properly celebrate the birth of the Lord baby Jesus, and also capitalism and insurmountable debt.

Lots of events and travel mean I'm going to be running wild through the new year. I'll get up as much sporadic content as I can, but otherwise, we'll hit the ground running in 2011.

Enjoy yourselves and thanks for spending another year with me here at staticEchoes. It's been a blast.

Thanksgiving blogcation

It's time for my annual one week cop-out wherein I explain that I'm taking a blogcation for the holidays.

With Thanksgiving just a couple days away and all sorts of other personal and professional jibba-jabba getting jumbled as a result, it's just easier to take this one thing off my plate for the next five days.

Speaking of plates, I plan on eating myself into a coma this year. Assuming said nappy-nap doesn't last too long, I'll see you back here next Monday for a return to your regularly scheduled bloggings. Expect reviews, a double dip of Joystick Division posts and buckets of love.

Last Minute Halloween Costumes III

There’s only a couple days until Halloween and you are without a costume idea. Never fear. Staticechoes is here to once again save the day with some last minute costume ideas that range from brilliant to “why would you even think of that?”


Where’s Waldo?
Similar to my “invisible man” costume from last year, this one allows you to stay home for the day doing absolutely nothing. When anyone asks why they didn’t see you on Halloween, you simply argue, “I was dressed as Where’s Waldo.” When they respond with “I didn’t see you,” you reply “That’s because my costume was really, really good, you dummy.” (Thanks to EDel for the inspiration on this one.)

Be sure to hit the jump for more ideas.

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Sick day: Five things to occupy a gamer's time

I've been sick for a couple days now and it's starting to drive me mad.

I'm sure we all have a list of things we would do in the event of faking a sick day, but what happens when you're actually sick, groggy, and unable to put forth much effort beyond glugging loads of orange juice and keeping up a steady diet of chicken noodle soup?

If you're like me, you hate letting a day go to waste, even if you are stricken with a cold. Therefore, I've put together a little list of things that might help you get through those long hours of achy nothingness.

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Advancements in technology mean a step back for gaming

Technology is in a perpetual state of forward motion, making useful everyday items smaller, faster and stronger with each iteration. By the time these products make it to market, a bug, glitch or misstep occasionally occurs. For the most part, though, I think it’s safe to say technology usually gets better with age.

Not so with the current generation of videogames and consoles.

With the exception of the appropriately named Wii, modern gaming machines are a mammoth testament to the horsepower crammed under the hood. The problem is, all those electronic whozzits and whatsadoos are supposed to make the gaming experience better, but they’ve accomplished the exact opposite. When the result of all this new technology provides a plethora of hindrances to the end user, what’s the point?

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Lack of scarcity breeds greedy gamers

As is the case with most of these rants, I read something online the other day that finally pushed me over the edge, forcing a self-indulgent post out of me.

I know it’s the job of each generation to hate the one coming up behind it, and I swore I’d never be that guy (as I’m sure most people do), but I can’t help it when it comes to the “modern gamer.”

As I began Ratchet and Clank, I decided to click on over to gamefaqs to get an idea of about how long the title is.

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Summer blog-cation blowout 2010!!!

That's right, friend-o. Echo is taking a blog-cation to interact with people and the outside world.

We'll see you back here in a week (or so). Stay golden!

World Cup 2010!

Just a reminder that the 2010 World Cup is officially underway.

For those living in the states, a schedule of events and listing for channels airing the matches can be found on ESPN's website right here.

Only getting into the sport a couple years ago, I truly feel like kids in the U.S. are missing out not having soccer be a bigger part of their lives. I, for one, feel cheated out of a childhood of goals, yellow cards and hooliganism.

Luckily, footy seems to be picking up steam in the good ole U.S. of A., so now is the perfect time to jump on board and see what all the fuss is about.

ecstaticgeckos.com

staticEchoes.com is proud to announce its sister site, ecstaticgeckos.com, is finally live.

I’ve been a gecko enthusiast my whole life and now my love for our lizardy friends has a home on the interwebs.

From care tips to aquarium design, activities to a frequent update on the lives of my two current geckos, Starsky and Hutch (both of the European leaf-toed variety), ecstaticgeckos.com will be your one-stop-shop for all things gecko!

Be sure to check it out at ecstaticgeckos.com.

Check it out: Quarterdown.com

I received an e-mail from a friend yesterday containing a link and the line “a videogame website that doesn’t suck yet.”

He was talking about Quarterdown.com and, yeah, his comment was accurate. These guys are just starting out, so there isn’t a crapload of content to plow through yet, but that means you readers have the opportunity to get in on the ground floor of a budding gaming website and watch it evolve.

Get active and you might even help shape its future.

Anyway, while reading an article on the trouble with game reviews, I felt inclined to make a reply. The problem with me, of course, is that I can’t keep anything short. So, instead of trying to edit myself like any decent writer would, I decided to just let the rant flow and post it here instead.

Do me a favor and at least check out the article first. Afterwards, if you’ve still got some readin’ left in ya, head back over here and see what totally random stuff I had to say in response. Here it is:

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Best of 2009!

It feels like I’ve taken in a lot of entertainment over the past 365 days. Despite that fact, I had some real trouble coming up with a few of these “best of 2009” selections.

In the end, I just sat down and wrote down the first thing that came to mind when asking myself, “what (fill in the blank) did I enjoy most this year?”

Keep in mind staticEchoes.com has an editorial staff of exactly one person and, as such, I still missed out on loads of games, movies, etc. this year From what I did get around to, though, the results follow.

Game
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves- This one, at least, was a no-brainer for me. Three months later and I still find myself returning to the single and multi-player modes of this gaming gem. Uncharted 2 had a fantastic story, top-notch gameplay and enough going on onscreen to warrant multiple playthroughs just to catch everything. Games don’t get much better than this.
Honorable mention- Demon’s Souls

Television Show-
Battlestar Galactica- Season 4.5 came to a close in early 2009, but this year marked the beginning, middle and end of the journey for yours truly. I finally invested in the entire series in boxset form and consider every penny money well spent. Season 4.5 was one of the best of all with a conclusion that literally left me weeping like a small child. Every episode of the series was of the highest quality, making BSG one of my favorite TV shows of all time. It’s that damn good.
Honorable mention- True Blood

Comic Book

Hotwire- Picking a favorite comic from the year was especially tough for two reasons. 1) Due to their size, I’m able to get through more comics in a year than anything else, making recalling many of them a real chore. 2) Despite the number of comics I got around to, many still sit on the backlog stack just waiting for my attention. Some of those, I’m sure, are absolutely fantastic. In the end, Hotwire-the story of a digitally enhanced super detective cutie who hunts down ghosts-got top honors for the simple fact, no matter what the backlog looked like, I always stuck Hotwire on top. I enjoyed the story so much, I refused to wait any longer than absolutely necessary to continue it.
Honorable Mention- The Boys

Album
Tom Waits: Glitter and Doom Live- I know I just reviewed this album a month or so ago, but I can’t seem to keep it out of my CD player for very long. My favorite musician of all time, I have yet to see Mr. Waits live in concert. Glitter and Doom, at least, gave me the opportunity to pretend I was actually there. Beautifully flawed, I can’t stop listening.
Honorable mention- Them Crooked Vultures

Hip-hip-hooray for Christmas vacation!

Well, I'd love to stay and chat, but it looks like Echo is heading out the door to join the family on the other side of the state for some good old fashioned Christmas...um...happenings?

Anyway, per usual, that means staticEchoes.com will be going on a little blogcation for the rest of the week. Expect a few more updates before the New Year, including the first annual "Best of the Year" post, the idea for which I am officially stealing from our friends over at Peppered Thought.

I'm lazy, though, so the staticEchoes version will be a single post pulling together my favorite movies, comics, music, games, etc. from the previous year rather than a whole bunch of different posts.

Anyway, have a safe and happy holiday and see you back here in a week...or so.

Turkey Day!

With a crazy work schedule and the holiday coming up later this week, staticEchoes.com will once again take a Thanksgiving blogcation to enjoy blogturkey, blogfootball and blognapping after eating too much blogturkey and watching too much blogfootball.

See you back here next week!

staticEchoes.com turns two!

Wow. Has it been two years already?

It's hard to believe. One the one hand, it feels like just yesterday I was firing this thing up with no real idea of where it was going. On the other hand, going back over all those posts, there sure have been a lot of good times en route to this, the two year anniversary of staticEchoes where I still have no idea where the damn thing is going.

But hey, I've stuck with it. And so have you, my beautiful and intelligent readers. We are nothing if not aimlessly somewhat dedicated.

In short, thanks a heap for making staticEchoes.com a part of your internet perusals. It's a big world of information out there and, though not a lot of what you'll find here can be filed as legitimate "information," I'm honored you clicked over to check the blog out. To first time visitors I say "Welcome. What took you so long? We've been quite busy." To those who have been along for the ride since day one, you are why I do this.

Here's to another year of not-all-that-regular posts, Monday mini-movies, rejected t-shirt ideas, comics, movies to miss, games to get, rants, raves and more!

Night of the cheap Halloween costumes- The Return

I love Halloween. From the awesomely terrible horror movies shown on SyFy all month to the costumes to the hordes of candy to, well, you get the idea.

It’s always been my favorite holiday. However, I know that it can sometimes be difficult to come up with a decent costume idea. For those of you cutting it close, here’s another few cheap and simple last minute costumes to try out.

A Cylon skinjob from Battlestar Galactica- They look like everyone else, so you don’t really have to do anything special with this one. It’ll be even more convincing if you have a twin to hang out with all night. Otherwise, flying solo will work just fine.

Amazing Man- When people ask why you aren’t doing anything “amazing” like flying around or using laser vision, act really offended and explain that your powers are for dispensing justice, not for their amusement.

The invisible man- Perhaps the easiest costume there is. Simply don’t show up to the party. But here’s the kicker: when people ask why you didn’t show up, explain to them that you did, but your invisible man costume was just THAT good. If you search facebook for photos of said party on Nov. 1, you can even provide enough details to make them question the validity of your claim.

Deadbeat dad- Squirt a mustard stain on a white tanktop, carry around a beer bottle and, for authenticity, be sure to wear a decently tattered belt. Just know that you might have to pay a few psych bills for friends who leave the party crying hysterically.

A terrifying hitchhiker- Jeans, a flannel shirt and a large duffle bag filled with stuff from around the house. Is it clothes in the bag? A body? A variety of mangled household pets? Nobody knows. And THAT is why this costume is so terrifying. Be sure to act the part and beg folks for a ride home while giving them crazy eyes.

Blogcation: Be back in a week

Well, it’s that time of year again.

Time for the entire staff of staticEchoes.com (read: this guuuuy) to head off into the wilderness for the annual camping trip.

Luckily for you, “the wilderness” and I have worked out an exchange program and Humphrey, a Cardejack bear, is on his way into the big city to take over the site for the next week.

Humphrey’s computer and blogging skills are questionable, however, so to be safe, I’d just not expect a post for about a week if I were you.

See you back here in seven (or so. You never can tell with camping trips these days) days when we’ll be back to the normal schedule of updating whenever we get around to it.

Tootles!

Slightly remodeled

I know what you're thinking, "There's something different about this wicked-awesome blog."

Well, you're right. In an effort to add a face to the content (no matter how confused that face may appear) I've finally let slip a little info about myself. I'm keeping with my promise to not let this turn into a day-in-the-life-of blog, so no worries there. But in the past two years of bloggin', I've received three e-mails (the most recent of which came just last week) from folks wanting to know just who the heck I was.

When the reply "Teh Awesomez" did not suffice, I decided to be a little more personable and finally added a little profile (Located on the left, at the bottom). Don't expect much. Echo is still a man of mystery, after all.

I've also added a handy little search thingy for you to quickly locate any words or phrases you may want to look for on the blog. It hasn't been tested yet, so good luck with that one!
(Update: I have tested the search feature and it works like a charm. I searched for the word "poop." Conclusion: I don't use that word nearly enough.)

Also, the banner is now freaking huge.

That will be all.

LOLOMFGROFLBS

I've been noticing a problem getting increasingly worse for the past several months, so I feel its time somebody say something about it.

I'm no fuddy-duddy, but considering how 90 percent of today's youth are butchering the English language, I've often found myself shaking my fist in the air while yelling, "Damn kids."

Now I'm not too far removed from the "youth" of today, but my generation occured just before the wide-spread use of computers, cell phones, fizzy pop and goofballs. (I think I'm going to use fizzy pop and goofball references wherever possible in future posts.)

I appreciate the evolution of a language. However, I think there's a time and a place for it. If you wanna say "wanna," or "I'm tired of this shizz. Y'know what I mean?" or perhaps "I'm a student, irl" or even "Octomom ftw!" online or in text conversations, I'm fine with that. Blogs, texts and the interwebs are appropriate places for words like "interwebs" or "rofl." Made up words and abbreviations that are a part of a generation's dialogue are dandy in these cases.

Now, most would assume I'm going to go on a rant about how some kids these days are using such "words" in school work or elsewhere in the real world. I'm not going to rant on that because I'd never shut my mouth about it. In short, if I were a teacher and a student turned in a test with "IDK" for an answer to a question, I'd rip up the test and ask them to retake the whole damn thing. Maybe that's a bit extreme, but the line has to be drawn somewhere.

No, my gripe today is not with Generation ?'s use of such things in inappropriate places. My gripe is primarily with the fact it's gotten so bad, even the people who use the stuff aren't using it correctly.

You know that guy who tells you "There seems to be a stigmata attached to artists these days where everyone assumes they're half-crazy?" You know how something like that makes you want to scream? (Note: If you don't know what the fuss is about, I'm saddened for whichever facility claims responsibility for your education.)

Well, crap like that is happening in the blogosphere, on posts and in message boards quite a bit these days.

Just today I read a post that stated "OMG my God. Can you guys believe that?" But that's not what's been bothering me the most lately. No. What I've seen at least a dozen times a week is the use of "lol" in the most unnecessary places.

It's not a damn period, people. Nor is everything you say funny. So what gives with using it so often?

Example: "Yeah, I'm looking forward to this game. I might pick it up later today. LOL."

Another example: "Who here is going to see this movie? LOL. I know I am."

And another one: "I thought their fourth album was the worst. LOL. But hey, that's just my opinion, imho."

When you type "lol," ask yourself, if you were talking out loud, would you actually laugh where you put that "lol?" If the answer is no, remove it. It's for attaching to the end of jokes or responding to something funny. I just don't get why it's being used 80 percent of the time I see it these days.

These people are driving me insane. You want to know why my teacher-tearing-up-a-test scenario is not extreme? Because this has proven if we as a society give an inch, the artards are going to take a mile. If you're going to say something, even if it is "made up," you better damn well know what it means and how to use it. The ignorance is baffling.

LOL