Classic Bite Commentary: August 15th, 2009

(2018 Update: Replacing an older post with an older Bite commentary.)




It's been a while since I wrote one of these, hasn't it?


The last time I've written a Bite commentary was WAY BACK in March 2009. A few months behind on stuff... and to be perfectly honest, not that many posts have been appearing on the blog, either. Unusual considering I've managed well over a thousand posts in a period of five years - an uncanningly disturbing statistic in itself. So let's get it out of the way...

I originally came up with the Bite as a means to vent about certain things. Whether they bare merit or not, this was considered to be my soap box for a bunch of stuff that will either please or annoy me. In times of better fortune or moods, it's become more of a rant box on various things and a pseudo-journal of things that have happened. It didn't mean I had nothing to vent about; it just meant that things were going well.

Well... that sort of changed back in July. Now isn't a time to rant about stupidities in other people's affairs. Now is a time to vent about bullshit in mine.

As I may have mentioned on my blog a couple times, I've been feeling intense pain as of late. Trips to the various doctors and hospitals, many sick days taken, and many examinations reveal that I have an inflammation on a portion of my small intestine. Chances are I may have developed Cronn's Disease, but nobody knows for sure - so more tests are required and the process is drawn out further with more wait times. In the meantime, I have to deal with occasion crippling pains that inhibit me from doing anything, as well as frequent bouts of diarrhea. And to top it all off, I've developed blood clots in my lower left leg, resulting in being barraged with blood thinners for three months all the while feeling intense pain whenever I try to move.

I'm not going to sit here and groan about how this shit happens, because I'm not exactly what you would call in 'fit' condition. Something like this was bound to happen sooner or later. But I'm not one to let it slide easily - it lingers in the back of my mind (and the bowels). It really challenges my faith in the so-called medical professionals who have us wait a mind-boggling number of hours for an emergency situation. And it really irritates me when the alternate to waiting in a hospital for weeks on end would be to visit on a private clinic, which is a really shitty alternate because those clinics are out to make money. It doesn't matter if things get done faster or better. Medicine shouldn't have a cost - it's already being paid for via taxes... remember, I live in Canada. We have public health care. It's a wonderful thing despite the drawbacks.

These past few months and most especially, the past few weeks have been excruciatingly trying and I'm presently in a state of mind that I haven't been in years. Years. The last time I've been in this state of mind, I was almost contemplating suicide before someone showed me a different light than the one I was seeing due to bad advice and the lack of cognitive functions to know better.

So for the most part, things have been really shitty and with a birthday party coming up soon that will probably resemble someone else's boring party than my own, I'm really at a point of deep reflection. It seems like for the most part.

But enough of my problems, right? Let's repost some stuff from the old commentary and I will respond in ugly, bold text.

- I feel fine.
For the moment, I feel pretty miserable... but I'll live.

- I'm still employed.
For the moment, I'm still happily employed. A lucky break considering the amount of time I had to lose waiting hours in emergency rooms for a roughly two-second meeting with the doctor... and the amount of time that I am going to lose to more tests. But I'm not going to be sour. The guys at work have been really supportive and I don't want to let them down with my problems.

- I still spend money.
Not so much now... time to save up a bit for a possible trip next year... or at least a notebook.

- Hard times is not a new thing for me.
Not at all.

- Any chance of selling that Super Genintari?
I really need a Super Genintari... especially since I've somehow come into possession of an Atari 2600 controller despite not only an Atari system of any kind. And no, it doesn't work (properly) on my Genesis.

- I come in to the video shop looking for the King of Kong and come home with the Wizard.
I've still yet to find the King of Kong film.

- A portable NES game player? Sweet! Not so much with the buttons reversed.
Some months later, a revised version was released that also came with a pair of wireless controllers and a gun. The buttons are fixed up and the clone hardware is actually improved. Not only does it play sound much more accurately, but it also plays Castlevania 3 without problems. Only drawback? The stupid screw on the battery cover - I've yet to find a screwdriver to open it with... thus, I can't use it unless it's plugged to a power outlet.

- The current Wii System update bears a much needed solution to your memory woes.
Seriously, this was a much needed update - as you can now run games off your SD card rather than swapping titles between the Flash memory and the card. Now they need to fix that issue with saving your saved games onto the card.

- Virtual Console Arcade? Sweet! Can't wait for the arcade Donkey Kong game to come out... eventually.
Not much of a big deal, was it? I've yet to see any addition to the Virtual Console Arcade, begging the question, "What's the point of an Virtual Console Arcade if you're not going to push it?" Even if Nintendo can't get other peoples' arcade games onto their service, there's no reason why they can't publish their own arcade libraries. I'm sure people are interested in playing original arcade versions of Donkey Kong or Mario Bros. before they got butchered on home consoles.

- There are still more games for the Genesis and TG16 than there are for SNES and N64. Weird.
Ditto.

- I'm still waiting for Dracula X to hit Virtual Console (they have it in Japan! I WANT IT!)
Ditto.

- Ric Flair makes a triumphant return ringside despite his better judgment to stay retired.
Haven't heard much from Ric Flair... but apparently Mick Foley has had a stint as TNA World Champion... hey, didn't he have a writing career going at one point? Guess it didn't pan out as well as he would have liked.

- Randy Orton should be in the Hall of Fame five years from now for his McMahon-killing skills.
Unfortunately, Randy Orton has yet to get a proper WWE Championship and instead is stuck carrying John Cena's defective sloppy seconds.

- Chris Jericho needs a better storyline.
Unfortunately, the best Jericho is going to get is being tag champs with the Big Show.

- The Wrestler was a fantastic movie.

- Watchmen was also a fantastic movie. Not so much with the blue penis.

- The Wizard is actually watchable. Not at all terrible.

- Wrestlemania 25 is not Wrestlemania-worthy. These matches suck on paper.
Outside of the amazing Shawn Michaels/Undertaker match and a couple noteworthy moments, the show was generally a disappointment. Nothing special and nothing worth my time. Leave it to a Triple H/Randy Orton snorefest to kill whatever goodwill remained in the show.

- AVGN posted quite possibly his best review to date involving a major Atari failure.
Which subsequently killed off with the follow-up, featuring his cat fighting off a cube. Neat-o.

- Classic Game Room HD is a good Youtube show worth checking out.
Seriously, this guy is amazing at what he does and with an incredible catalogue of reviews, he is definitely worth checking out. One of the few review shows that doesn't involve talking about shitfucks and fart knockers (and whatever swearing is there is bleeped out - almost preferable, actually.)

- Irate Gamer still hasn't posted an episode.
Correction, he posted one episode - The History of Video Games PART 1... and it wasn't one of his better efforts. He did post some E3 videos, but that doesn't really count.

- Now that I think about it, neither has Ericmansuper.
He still hasn't posted anything - and I'm willing to wait. But even a man of my (lackof) patience has his limits.

- Rangerboard shuts down at the end of the year. I won't be shedding a tear.
Apparently not... not that I care, but a lot of people apparently do.

- Power Rangers will endure... even if it's off the air.
Ditto.

- I have still yet to watch the new (possibly final?) Power Rangers series.
Haven't found any good videos on YouTube to watch them.

- I have still yet to watch Howard The Duck... despite owning the recently released DVD.
Did get to see it, but wasn't too impressed with it.

- I have still yet to watch the final episodes of Battlestar Galactica.
Managed to catch them... not terribly impressed.

- I still believe a re-imagining of Galactica 1980 is preferable over this Caprica show they're tooting.
Having seen bits of the pilot movie, I'd still prefer Galactica 1980.

- The Star Trek movie prequel comic is three kinds of awesomes. Hope the movie is as good.
The movie's excellent. Quite possible the best Star Trek effort since Undiscovered Country in 1991.

- RBI Baseball 2, a black-cart Tengen game, works on my FC Twin.
And yet, I don't play it.

- Speaking of which, the FC Twin unit that I bought in October 2007... still works.
And yet... it still works months later.

- The VCR I had hooked up to my Dreamcast through RF died... dang.
I've yet to find a replacement unit or even a A/V wire for Dreamcast, but at least I've found one for Genesis. Cool... but thus defeats the purpose of the FC3 Plus clone system I picked up - outside of the fact that I made a brief video of play footage on it.

- Handsome Tom beats Benzaie in a Street Fighter IV challenge on ThatGuyWithTheGlasses.com.

- I have yet to play Street Fighter IV... ass.
- I have yet to play Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe... ass.
Guess what? Still haven't played the games...

- I have yet to watch an episode of Flashback ever since Amy Jo Johnson left the show.
- I have yet to find incentive to watch Flashpoint ever since Amy Jo Johnson left the show.
Let me fix that. "I have yet to find incentive to watch Flashpoint even though Amy Jo Johnson returned to the show." I guess the initial wow factor of the show has worn off.

- I have yet to find that episode of Night Visions with Amy Jo Johnson in it.

- I have yet to find an FPS game on the current consoles worthy of my time.

- Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li is not worth your time.
Mind you, the comment was based on some trailers I've seen - now having seen the movie... the above still stands.

- Street Fighter with Jean-Claude Van-Damme is a better movie in comparison.
And really, I seem to be the only one that actually enjoyed the film moreso than others. Is it a good movie? Of course not, but it's still an enjoyable little romp.

- Sonic Unleashed... is not the answer.
Hard to believe that the only worthwhile Sonic games to play on the modern systems are featured in Sega Genesis retro collections or downloadable content... based on old games from the nineties.

- Managed to snag Wario's Woods. Not too impressed.
I've also snagged Tetris 2 for SNES, Tetris DX for GBC, and Tetris Plus for GB. Again, not too impressed. Then again, I've managed to get my hands on a multi-cart which features BPS Tetris (originally released in Japan only) and Quarth (another Japan-only game).

- Managed to snag Bionic Commando... the original classic... on NES.
Yet to play the Rearmed version or the shitty retail version - but that's okay, because the NES version is more than enough for me.

- Managed to run out of things to add to this terrible list.

- Expect more reviews coming soon.
The new site, Twisted Realms of DTM, will have a bunch of new movie and game reviews. There will also be a couple game and comic reviews in the work. I'm particularly aiming to get some new reviews on old shit ready in January, which will include a couple oddball pieces. That month alone will probably feature well over 20 reviews on various things.

- A fanfic should be posted within the next two weeks. Might be related to Classic MMPR.
Hasn't happened. An attempt was made to post two near-complete works up a couple weeks ago, but shit happens and the update didn't.

- Regular updates of fanfics should be in the works soon.
Presently aiming for this to start in a few short months depending on how much material I have ready. I'm aiming to begin regular weekly updates of content in October, but in case that doesn't happen, I'll probably have something ready for January. It is a long wait and I'll apologize in advance for any missing dates, but I'm trying to get stuff done as best as possible given all the shit going on. Please bare with me. The fact that I still get some views and even author alerts on FF.Net shows that there's some people willing to wait and for that, I thank you. I just hope that I can deliver something really special for the long wait.

So there we go... See you next time.

Later,
Dave