Gaming Memory Friday, and July 24th, 2014

Gaming Memories 03: Nintendo Cereal

(same post at my Gaming Blog)

When I was a kid, my mother would go to where my dad worked and pick up his check so that she could go to the grocery store.  I had relatives that lived right near where my father worked, so we would always stop by there and pay them a visit.  They always had some form of the "mascot" cereals and we'd always be there around breakfast time.  It was there that I found Boo-berry and Count Chocula, Fruit Bruit and Yummy Mummy cereals.  But it was also there that I first saw this:

Some say that rampant and reckless consumerism hit its peak in the 1980's... and I say those are people that grew up in the 70's.  Everyone thinks their childhood era is the "correct" one, and I happen to have fond memories of all the marketing directed at me in the 80's.  Everything from McDonalds to super sugary cereals, it was all magical and fun and since it was MY childhood, I think its better than the garbage they have now(waves his cane stick around).

Stale old boxes of this still show up on Ebay from time to time.  I'm not much of a collector myself, so I'd be happy with a reproduction box full of Styrofoam, just so I can take it out and remember when I wanted it more than anything else in the world lol.  You have to hand it to the people that made this stuff though, they look like they were actual fans of the series.  Even the music in the commercial is some Super Mario Brothers music put to some of the greatest lyrics of all time.

Check out that top right corner.  Its healthy!  They still do that today.  Load up 3x as much sugar as a can of soda, and sprinkle some vitamin dust into the batter, and we got ourselves some health food!  Still, ever since the 1930's, trashy kids cereal has been a part of "American" childhood.  I see no reason to force shredded wheat down a kid's throat.(weird aside, I've always preferred boring grown up creals, to this day my favorite is Product 19).

I guess in 30 years we'll be having people remembering Angry Birds chewy fruit snacks.

July 24th, 2014

Weird Al is saying this may be his last "traditional" kind of album, and I totally understand why he would want to stop that.  These days, everyone is in on the parody bandwagon, and you just can't wait 2-4 years before releasing your material.  Its pop music after all, its designed to interest you till you pay for the album, then get out of the way so their next artist can sell you something, its not meant to last.  I was reading that he had some up with a song making fun of "Let It Go" when he saw Frozen in the theater, it was "Make it So" a song about Star Trek the Next Gen, and Picard's catch phrase.  By the time he got in the studio, someone else had done the exact thing and released it on Youtube.  So as you can see, he wants to release material much quicker so that he can keep relevant and so that other people don't beat him to the punch on things.  I think the "8 Songs in 8 Days" video thing was him testing how hard it would be to make a quality video for a song he's doing.  Still... I bet his "Make it So" song would've been awesome.  Maybe he'll B-side it some time.

I like Duncan Jones.  He's the son of David Bowie, and has real practical talent as a movie maker... at least from the first few movies he's done.  Anyways, I like that he actively got them to agree to call his next movie "Warcraft" and to focus on the story of the past games.  Almost everyone before was ready to slap "World of Warcraft" on some mediocre fantasy garbage(SNAAAAAAIIIILLLLSSS!!!) and print some money, but Blizzard ain't no fool and Blizz don't give a fuck if there is never a movie.  They waited, and I really hope that deciding to let Duncan do his thing on the Warcraft movie will be a positive thing.  He's already gotten me from "no giving one care" to "anticipating".  Check out Duncan Jones' homage to 60's scifi with "Moon" and see his work with practical effects.  Disregarding Joss Whedon, Duncan Jones was my pick for the new Star Wars movie because of how good Moon was.

90% of DNA does "nothing" scientists find.  Look, I'm not a doctor, I don't science for a living, but this kind of stinks of another thing you'll be reading on tons of sites I'm sure: Lucy has unlocked more than 10% of her brain!  Yes, another movie about the "scientific fact" that we do not use 100% of our brain.  Evolutionary adaptation doesn't typically work like that.  Sure, there is an appendix, but the difference between an appendix and the most advanced anything ever found yet anywhere is vastly huge.  Really the only reason this movie is getting any business is because Morgan Freeman is basically narrating the trailers as if its an episode of "Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman".