...is Billie Piper otherwise known as Rose Tyler in the BBC series Dr. Who!

Wait! Wait! Don't run!

I'm not a big Dr. Who fanatic who will talk at you ad infinitum over which actor was the best Doctor and why (although the answer is pretty obvious). Sure, I grew up with the character and greatly enjoyed the series, but I was much more a fantasy reading type of fellow so I never became particularly fanatical about any sci-fi series.

The new series has however had a great hold over me since its inception. I'm still not that fanatical, but I am keenly interested in the show and the characters which in my opinion have been very well fleshed out. I am however, a bit enamoured with Billie Piper who played the good Doctor's 1st companion in the new series. Although it was slow to build, there really seemed to be a deep connection between The Doctor and Rose and it was heavily alluded to that the two have actually spent a lot more time together than the series on the surface lets on. Though I suppose absorbing all the power of the Tardis and being able to see everything that exists in time at once will probably bring you rather close to a Time Lord.

But eventually the need for apocalyptic drama reared its ugly, but quite necessary, head and the good Doctor and Rose were separated by a dimensional rift that neither could cross. In one of the arguably most heart-wrenching scenes (pictured above) of the series they share a quiet moment in which to say goodbye knowing that neither one has the ability to hold the other although the desire to do so is quite intently palpable. In other words...

Holy crap it was amazingly sad and touching and just a great moment!

So her stinct with the series had ended and off went Miss Piper! Doing some modeling, doing voiceovers for commercials, and filming more series for the BBC for which she is contracted to do a series of Pullman novel adaptations. She's keeping busy and getting good jobs so good for her!

But the void she left in the show was quite noticeable. Sure the other actors who portrayed later companions were all very good in their own way, but Billie seemed to have brought something very special and fans longed to have her back. There were quite a bit of ye olde rumouring but nothing ever came of it. She was always busy and the writers didn't seem to think it would ever happen and so I, and others, had somewhat given up hope.

The it happened last episode. Rose Tyler was back! She was still caught up in another dimension but she found a way to use an older victimized companion to bridge the gap and deliver the good Doctor a chilling message of ultimate annihilation! When the Doctor realized that somebody in the other dimension had knowledge to convey he stiffened at the description of the bearer of the news and was thunderstruck by the words she spoke -- end part 1.

To say I was excited and had chills running down my spine would be something of an understatement. Actually I suppose that would be a quite apt description but it sounds more dramatic when I type it out that way you understand.

So this coming Friday comes the second part and the romantic in me desperately hopes those two crazy kids somehow end up sharing some kind of intimate moment for once. The BBC America channel has hinted that a death will be in the offering so perhaps Rose will meet her end but as long as it's done right I wouldn't mind -- as long as they share that moment that is.

Kiss her dammit!

*ahem*

But life goes on and Billie Piper's acting career goes forward. She has a series in the States on the Showtime network called Secret Diary of a Call Girl for which I thank telvisnostic for turning me on to as I had erroneously thought that she had joined the cast of the Showtime series WEEDS due to the way the show was being advertised. I have yet to see an episode yet but I'm keen to watch it because as you might have deciphered by my subtle clues, I'm somewhat keen on her.

I thank the very few of you who read this for enduring my Dr. Who rant and yes I realize that probably a decent amount of the handful of my viewers won't really understand or care what I'm talking about but I needed to vent.

I'm not sure how I did it. I didn't get paid for it. I didn't get accolades for it. I didn't even get free food for it. Yet somehow, for some unknown reason, I managed to get up early each and every day and immerse myself fully in the world of the latest E3 Media and Business summit.

I watched every feed I could find. I kept detailed notes of my likes and dislikes of every conference. I furiously scribbled names and titles on any handy piece of paper for further reference fearful, always fearful, that my brain would become easily distracted by all the swirling colors and shiny pulsating lights and ever so easily unburden my mind of a precious shred of knowledge.

I even doubled-up my coverage by leaving a feed open on G4 playing in the backround so that the second a piece of information was uncovered I would be there. I could turn from feed to feed and...um, feed upon the knowledge being spewed forth like a technicolor display of dancing waters -- so bright and shiny, so dark and gritty, I could reach out and touch it but it would only run through my fingers as if it never existed. No, the games aren't ready for release just yet. But I was ready, very ready, to find out everything. No stone would be left unturned.

Did I mention that I consider myself a casual gamer?

Obviously if you watched what I watched and you are a gamer of diverse tastes then you are fully aware of the onslaught of gaming goodness coming our way. I could go and on about my favorites, or games that really disappointed me, or perhaps games that completely confounded me. But after that intense barrage of gaming glory I thought I'd just concentrate on a few games from a few questionably named categories that I created, that I had little to no interest in before E3. That's the whole purpose of the E3 coverage after all right?

THE EPIC

Resistance 2 for the Playstation 3

This is really the only game that just took me completely by surprise and just floored me. You see...I'm just not really much of a FPS or Covert OPS gaming type of guy. I do like to play FPS games here and there, but usually just WWII or fantasy types of FPS games. I'm really just generally bored with Sci-fi oriented FPS games and I think that the death match modes just killed the growth of the games. I'm just old school -- give me a machine gun, a pistol, and a shotgun and I'm good. I'll kill that monster for you ma'am don't you worry.

But this game just blew me away. Going into a city overrun with aliens monsters and fighting off monsters quite literally as large as a skyscraper?! I have to knock a building on it to kill it?! So I have to play a cat and mouse game with the monster from Cloverfield in order to put it down?! Awesome! I'm down!

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed for multiple platforms

Okay sure, sure -- I'm a nerd. I was there in 1977, a very diminutive lad who always had to sit in the front row so that the towering adults wouldn't obscure my vision, watching Star Wars and happy as a pig in mud. But my joy for the Star Wars universe has diminished quite a bit since those days. Those prequel films really did a lot of harm to my psyche.

So when this game was announced my feeling was slight interest tempered with vague apathy. Sure I liked the Jedi Outcast and Jedi Knight games for the Xbox but I really wasn't that excited for another game treading the same ground. Boy was I wrong. This game looks and seems to play exactly how I hoped it would. The fighting is fast and furious and it really put me in the mind of the sorely underrated game Psi-Ops for the PS2.

Tomb Raider - Underworld for multiple platforms

Much like Star Wars the Tomb Raider license just seemed really played out to me. They did make some improvements in making a decent game in the last iteration, just not enough to interest me. From the footage that I saw of this game they have definitely piqued my interest once again. The action looked really good and responsive, the sense of exploring the unknown without being forcibly led seemed intact, and Lara's curves - I mean environments look really...um, inviting.

The Interesting

inFAMOUS for the Playstation 3

A sandbox superhero game in which your decisions and actions will decide whether you are considered a hero, a villain, or perhaps somewhere in between. You control and can summon and shoot electricity and the city is overrun with criminals. Now go! I really like the simple but fun mechanic of this game. You can jump on vehicles, crawl and scale any building and have a duck and cover firefight with villians trying to shoot them while you fry them!

...or do you? You could just create electrical handcuffs and knock them out. Some citizens got caught up in the firefight and were struck down. Will you use your electrical powers to revive them? Did I mention that your electrical powers just arc like crazy all over the place? Cool game that I never heard of until now.

Dark Void for multiple platforms

Do you remember the awesome Crimson Skies game for the XBox? Well this is made by most of the people from that team! That alone was almost enough to win me over but then I calmed down and watched the gameplay footage. The designers have decided to make a fully 3D environment but they included the ceiling. You have a future-retro jetpack and you can fly. Sure you can run around like normal just shooting up the bad guys, but then you can just jump off the cliff and scale your way to victory.

They created a nice camera technique so that when you come across a cliff face the camera will flip underneath you so that you engage in a duck and cover firefight utilizing the rocky projections as protection. Nice stuff and the mechanical designs are really nice.

Valkyria Chronicles for the PS3

This was shown ever so briefly at the Sony conference and the graphics really caught my eye. The character designs are similar to the fantasy WWII anime designs used in Operation Darkness but in this game they give them an odd watercolor look. The game's mechanics are strategy RPG and it looks to be a real hidden gem! I'm not much of a strategy gamer but this game might just make me change my mind.

The Downright Odd

The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom for unknown platforms

An independent game that is being shopped around in an attempt to get it published. Things look good for a XBL and Sony online entry and I certainly hope it does as I really want to play this game. Obstensibly a puzzle platform game but you create time paradoxes in order to obtain delicious pie! My descriptions really won't do this game justice so just stop the creator's website and enjoy!

Official Site

Deadly Creatures for the Wii

An action/adventure fighting game in which you play a tarantula and a scorpion? Sounds like and odd idea and so immediately I'm very interested in it. The developers are really pushing the power of the Wii engine and it's nice seeing somebody actually really trying to make a different but interesting game without resorting to shovelware tactics. The lizard boss fights look epic!

Onechanbara Revolution for the Wii

This is basically a port of a game that was released on the XBox 360 in Japan but it never came out in the States. I always hoped it would especially after they released another game from this company, Earth Defense Force 2017, but they never did and every day I cried and cried in despair. Let's get one thing straight -- D3 doesn't make good games. They quickly make rough games with funny themes that are slightly above the Burger King games in terms of quality. Sometimes they're kind of fun and other times...not so much.

The games are part of a series called simple games and that's what they are. Simple, sometimes fun, but simple. On the upside the simplistic nature of the controls should actually transfer well to the Wii which isn't really generally tooled for lightning quick moves. Oh yeah the game! You basically play a bikini clad warrior (along with some other various sexy girl types) and you shoot and chop up zombies like there's no tomorrow. That's it! Have fun warrior!

Oh yeah, one more thing...

The Lost

Where the hell is Tekken 6?! It was suppose to be the game that was going to make me have to buy a PS3! A year ago they had a teaser trailer and now a whole year later -- NOTHING?! WTH Namco?

The bee-yooo-tee-ful Kodak Theatre is now quiet and empty, a condition brought about by the obvious lack of programming on this fair night and the simple fact that long ago the Kodak theatre employees would have surely called the police on you if you insisted on staying long after all the conferences had ended. Honestly! I can't take you blog readers anywhere! As purty as it is you can't stay here and play DS games all night long! So what happened here? In an excercise to sorely test my self-editorial skills I shall attempt to write a brief impression of each conference. I'll surely fail so if you're bored and just want to humor me you can flip down to the bottom to get my final concise word.

Microsoft seems to have turned into the what everyone wants to force Nintendo to be, a company with a solid insight into the future of gaming and plenty of games for every genre and gaming sensibility. They attacked from almost every side of the gaming community. They immediately launched into Fallout 3, Resident Evil 5 and Gears of War 2 -- all just awesome looking titles that demand your attention when they are being demonstrated.

Hardcore gamers - check

They hit upon new XBox Live games and content like Galaga Legions, Geometry Wars 2, Portal: Still Alive (!) and new content in the form of GTAIV stuff as well as community developed games for download. They announced an agreement with Netflix in response to their weak movie presence which could be huge in the near future. This further solidifies their online dominance to a vast audience of gamers of all types.

Online gamers - check

They announced a new Banjo and Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts and a proper sequel to their suprise smash hit Viva Pinata. They also included an odd You're in the Movies game in which you splice yourself and your friends into films as well as an update to the Scene It! game.

Kids and casual fun gamers - check

Then they went on to hit on every level with announcements of sequels to Guitar Hero and Rock Band as well as a new singing game called Lips which allows you to sing along to any song on your iPod or Zune.

Massive trendy games and popular technology tie-ins - check

Then suddenly it happened! The next Final Fantasy would be on the XBox 360! This was an actually stunning announcement and drew a lot of positive reaction from the crowd.

End on a bang and to leave them mumbling excitedly all the way out the door - check

Oh wait! There was one more thing...

...the hell? This was the one moment in the presentation in which there was much confused mumbling which was quickly followed by polite and erratic applause. You know...the kind of accolade you give to a drunk person attempting to tell you a joke in the hopes that they will just go away? Yeah. Everyone is a tad iffy about the whole change. Most think it's a Wii-ification and others think it's MS's attempt to make the online XBL look more like the much maligned Vista OS.

Overall though I was very happy with the presentation and it seemed to have a little something for everyone. Even though it was long-ish, the whole affair seemed to move along fairly well but that may be due to my heavier interest in the 360. In fact I'm pretty sure it was...DON'T TRUST ME!

Whoof! This seemed like the longest presentation in the world even though it wasn't any longer than MS's. Again, it might due to my lack of PS3 goodness in my house but it also might be because I was very ill whilst watching the whole affair. At any rate let's forge ahead and try to hit this quick and dirty as to be brief.

The Good - Resistance 2 is crazy beautiful. I'm not a big sci-fi oriented FPS type of guy but immediately I wanted to stop everything and playt his game once I saw the showdown with that giant monster. You don't understand! It's you, a super soldier, against the monster from Cloverfield!!! My God it looked awesome! Nice job! Star Wars - The Force Unleashed is great! God of War 3 holy crap! Loco Roco and Patapon sequels for the PSP! Great PSP support! Online DC game could be cool! A montage of awesome games coming out that I had to go back and quickly figure out what was what. In that montage I saw something interesting.

Well this looks interesting. It puts me in the mind of Operation Darkness. Silly me and my proclivity for grabbing on to odd little side games that nobody plays.

The Bad - Yakuza 2 (AKA Ryu Ga Gotoku 2)? While it's nice to finally see this game come out it's been a loooooooong time and they would have been better served to immediately try to get Ryu Ga Gotoku - Kenzan! out right on its heels. Throwing in the announcement that Sony is offering a new exciting bundle...for the PS2. Dude I've heard of hedging your bets to get money from every port but seriously, do this stuff away from the crowds. This kind of stuff just makes me worry about you Sony. Speaking of which...

The Ugly - Sony aired various testimonials from programmers insisting that the PS3 was not hard to program for and that they love programming for it because you can just keep getting more and more power from it. Now if you know any programmers that indeed work on games for the PS3 then you know that this is completely untrue. I constantly have to hear from my friends on how painfully awful it is and exactly why in ways that I don't fully understand as I'm not a programmer. Oh Sony...if somebody insists over and over again that they don't have a problem without anybody prompting them to do so then they probably do.

Overall though - just tons of games that are very exciting even though I don't have a PS3 which speaks volumes. Hmmm...no Tekken 6 though.

Oh man here we go! It's the program that seemingly everybody was whining about. Indeed I will admit that I really don't enjoy my Wii system. To top it off I thought last year's presentation was the worst I've ever seen as they spent most of it concentrating on the perplexingly awful Wii-Fit board. But that was last year so let's let bygones be bygones and move on.

I actually enjoyed Nintendo's presentation. It was incredibly brief which, although I'm not sure was the greatest idea, did make the whole affair move along quite smoothly. Although the presenters weren't great, they did juggle them around a bit so their presence didn't seem to wear as much as the other presenters.

There was much Nintendo fun-nessness to be had. Raving Rabbits, Star Wars - Jedi, Wii-Sports resorts, that scary Wii-music thing with all that electronic sax and flute noise, and then lots and lots of exciting DS goodness. Good lord lots of DS goodness! Also...GTA IV for the DS?!?! Good Lord! Although I was still very sleepy and not at all well, as soon as Animal Crossing came up I almost fell out of my chair in excitement. Jeez! What is it about that game? I love it so much!

But...what about the hardcore gamers Daemon? What about our needs?!

Here's the reality. Nintendo didn't abandon the hardcore gamers, the hardcore gamers abandoned Nintendo years ago. Remember that N64 that you didn't play as much of because the Dreamcast had shiny games with hot chicks and blood which you then quickly abandoned for the PS2 which had even more blood and more detailed hot chicks? Why didn't you buy any of that 3rd party software?

Remember that Gamecube system which was actually very solid and awesome but you didn't buy? In fact you spat on it and called it kiddy whilst beating hookers down and blowing up the heads of aliens. Guess what happens when you ignore and abuse somebody? They pick themselves up, get a haircut, buy some new clothes, and go out looking for new friends that will accept them for who they are. Guess what happened?

They found friends. Lots and lots of friends. Friends who thought nobody thought about them either. Guess what? These friends have lots of disposable cash -- and lots of kids. So now the folks in Wii-land are supposed to take you back and worry about your needs? Didn't we give you a Zelda and a Mario? You want one every year?! Have we ever done that?

So am I surprised that Nintendo didn't address the need of the "hardcore" gamers? No. Why should they? Hardcore gamers have demonstrated quite clearly that they don't care about them and Nintendo has always -- ALWAYS -- been about Nintendo. They are notorious for their lack of concern towards third party developers and that's that. So here's fun Nintendo stuff to play with. Shut up and have some fun you killing machine you.

The funny thing is that there are in fact serious gamer games coming out for the Wii. If you do something as simple as to look at the E3 listing of games and select it to filter all the Wii games you will see awesome things like Mad World, Megaman 9, Castlevania Judgement, and a new Tales of Symphonia among others. Sound like normal adult games for all gaming types doesn't it?

So overall, even though I didn't really like most of what Nintendo had to offer, I could clearly see why lots of people would and so I give them a big thumbs up and I reserve a different digit entirely for all the furious hardcore gamers that won't stop whining about the mother they abandoned long ago.

Awww crap I really typed a lot again didn't I? Well I'm feeling much better so I'm riding on a high of sorts I suppose so lets sum it up for those of you that skipped ahead.

Microsoft - The leaders of the core gamer crowd -tons of cool games - Something for everybody - all things to all people - Very exciting.

Sony - The foundation of the core game crowd - a decent amount of really cool games - not as many exclusives in order to differentiate themselves from the 360 lineup but they're getting there - they need to move ahead faster and get more stuff out before MS develops a new system.

Nintendo - In a world of their own making and boy it feels good - Nintendo just gleefully plays around and makes tons of dough laughing at the hardcore gamers that spurned them - The DS is a unstoppable juggernaut - some interesting Wii-sclusives (my word! I made it up!) from third parties coming up but buried under Nintendo's hype machine. Go play!

So who won Daemon? That's what everyone wants to know right? Isn't it obvious?

Everyone.

No that's not a cop out. You might not have noticed but we are in the middle of a gaming renaissance. If you stop and think about all the great games that you'll never have time to play because there are so damn many of them then you'll go crazy. No matter what system you have there's plenty of games to play and have a great time with. So get out of here and go play some games you crazy kids!

Now for that pesky cat that posted my last blog...

Awwww...I can't stay mad at you, you little ball of fur.

Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing! Animal Crossing!

*faints*

Shoes here -- Please forgive my owner. He really meant to write a small blog about the E3 show but he's been up all night and he's not at all well and, well, you know...Animal Crossing. It looked like he was busily writing up some nice little entry summing up his thoughts on the whole affair but he just suddenly got up and collapsed on the couch mumbling about bugs, fishes, fossils, furniture and how big the new houses were and other stuff I can't understand 'cause I'm just a cat. I came over here and all I saw was Animal Crossing over and over again so I thought I'd post it 'cause it must be important.

Anyways...I'm sure he'll be fine tomorrow and it looks like he put a lot of foods in my bowl so I won't go hungry and...hey, is that a bug? 'Scuse me...

Meow.

The Natsu Bashou has come and gone once again and all that's left is to check the scoreboard and see how our favorite rikishi did and flip a coin to guess which of the Mongolian Yokozuna took the prize once again. But what's this?! There's a giant caucasian sitting on the throne?! Yes indeed for the first time ever a European has won the Emperor's cup and that person is the very quiet, and very, very tall (6'8") Bulgarian Ozeki Kotooshu (koto-o-oshu). Congratulations big guy!

Kotooshu's father flew out for the last few days of the matches when it became obvious his son might actually win. Since most people's eyes were still on the Yokozuna they didn't really notice Kotooshu's dad in the crowd and when Kotooshu clinched the tournament on the 14th day his father exploded with joy and stood up waving the Bulgarian flag and shouting.

At first the people around him just thought he was an over excited fan, but it quickly became apparent that it was indeed his father and the Japanese audience rallied behind him and gave his father a giant round of applause! The Japanese sport audiences remind me a lot of the French in this way. Although they completely support their hometown favorites, they just love upsets and underdog wins and will quickly support outsiders as long as they show determination.

Along with the win comes a bevy of fun things of course...

A parade! Every victory gets the usual big parade to display the winning banners and to give everyone who didn't attend the tournament a chance to come out and demonstrate some support for the winner! Unfortunately just a few minutes after the parade started it began to rain and poor Kotooshu and company had to roll up the windows and put up the roof in order to escape the weather.

Curse you Odin!

The up side to this is that the people who came out to show their support for the Ozeki didn't run from the weather. Despite the fact that Kotooshu had to wave at them from a tiny window they firmly withstood the weather and cheered their man on all the way home to his stable. Kotooshu was said to be overwhelmed with emotion at this demonstration of support and Kotooshu is not a man to demonstrate any kind of emotion.

Alright fish! Yes indeed these are mighty good luck fish that only winners of the yushou are allowed to hoist in such an ostentatious manner! Bow down your mighty Bulgarian fish-fisted master! Bow I say!

Then of course a nice hearty handshake from your boss to end an incredibly long day of a thousand cups, banners, and sponser prizes! I'm not sure why they decided to go for a photo op in front of what must be the angriest painting of a sumo wrestler...EVER, but who am I to judge? Perhaps it's another one of those mysterious closed-door hush-hush good luck sumo things. >_>

This gentleman's name is His Excellency Demon Kogure. As you might have guessed he is indeed one of those big production heavy metal perfomance artists in which all the members assume an identity to be something other than human much like the band members of GWAR.

Although he may seem a tad over the top to be involved with Sumo he is actually very knowledgable and has been following the sport for some time. The Sumo association, starved for attention and desperately wanting new younger fans, enjoys having him stop by to do additional commentary from time to time.

This time however he chose to throw everyone a curve ball and he decided that he wanted to sit in the booth doing the English commentary. Apparently he's been working very hard at learning English and he jumped head first into an opportunity to try out his skills. Although his abilities didn't quite match his enthusiasm, the English folks (and yes, quite a few of them are British) were keen to help him express himself properly so it was all very entertaining and fun. Kogure, or "Kakka" as he likes to be called, is very blunt in his criticism and does not pull punches. I look forward to seeing more of him in the future.

The rikishi Ama was a big spoiler in this tournament and he took down a lot of wrestlers along the way. He still has a little ways to go to stay consistant enough to make the Ozeki rank, but for now he remains the stand out guy that nobody wants to wrestle. In the match pictured above, He turned a costly mistake of a perfectly defended throw attempt by winning at the edge of the ring with a perfectly executed Utchari (backward pivot throw) move.

His opponent, the Russian Wakanoho, was having a very up and down tournament and desperately needed more wins. He was sure that he had victory in the bag when he perfectly read Ama's throw attempt and blocked it and got him up against the edge of the dohyo -- just one more inch and...victory! But instead all he got was another defeat.

This door paid the price for Wakanoho's loss.

You can watch the whole thing here in the replay from the broadcast which, somewhat humorously, begins with Wakanoho's immediate reaction once he was away from the crowd as he walked over to the replay monitor. Enjoy at Ama's ability to instantly shift and change with his opponent!

There was a somewhat ugly incident on the very last match of the tournament. The two Yokozuna's met up for the last match but a win or a loss was meaningless at this point as Kotooshu had already won the tournament and had beaten both of them. Asashoryu won but as Hakuho was going down and Asashoryu was beginning to mount a further attack in case he did not, Asa's momentum carried him into Hakuho's back into what Hakuho perceived as an extra shove (which Asashoryu has been known to do to lesser ranked opponents).

Now as you might have heard me said before, Mongolians are "Mui Macho" people especially with each other, and Hakuho is a Yokozuna no less. When Hakuho arose he shouldered Asashoryu hard and glared at him as they both walked away. Luckily, Asashoryu attempted to play it off as an accident (which is debatable) so at least the main ugliness came from just one man but still it left a somewhat sour note in people's minds.

Both were reprimanded by the way.

Not the prettiest tournament, but a strange one that ended in a unexpected manner which was nice for a change.

Death came and spread as silent as the wind -- a hot, very focused wind. The air itself, the very air that provided life to man and plant alike became the enemy of the very stuff of happiness and joy. The figurative metal which bound that happiness and joy was slowly weakened over the years. Slowly that figurative became a literal and the metal foundation of Daemon's happiness cracked -- just a tiny crack mind you, but that was more than enough to end it all.

Yes indeed dear readers, I have finally been struck by the three rings of death and my beloved 360 is now silent and probably a lot cooler than it's ever been. I suppose I'm rather upset but not for the reasons you're probably thinking. Sure, sure...I'm annoyed that I can't currently fire that baby up and play a pile of great games. Indeed, it is annoying not to be able to annoy people with my inability to compete competently online whilst we chat it up. Yes, yes...of course I miss all those little online games that I became so happy to play around with.

What really gets me is that it happened to me. You see, while so many units have heated up and broken over the years mine has never had even the slightest problem. This is despite the fact that I pretty much abandoned my other gaming systems for the 360 and I bought it just a couple of months after the launch. All those long, long hours of gaming for the last two years and not even a hint of trouble. I always enjoyed being the guy who got to annoyingly pipe in on 360 death threads with a hearty "mine is rather old and is perfectly fine" but that's all at an end. Now here I sit. A commoner.

*sigh*

I've had pretty good luck with consoles in the past and I still have a 1st generation PS1 that were also supposed to overheat and die at an alarming level -- or did everyone forget that? Yet there it is, sitting underneath my dresser working perfectly fine every time I have to pull it out. I was hoping this would be the case with my 360 but alas it wasn't in the cards. It's been a few weeks but I just keep putting off calling up those folks at MS to get myself a send off box for no particular reason. Sure I've been busy with insane stuff at work but I just keep putting it off.

So what have I been doing?

Yay it's Wii time! A friend of mine bought me one a few months ago but I really don't play it much. I've been trying to get into it and have a good time and all that jazz but...it's not really working out. I honestly don't care for the system cute though it is. Honestly, if it wasn't a big deal of a gift from a close friend I probably would have sold it by now. I'm going to keep at it and try to have some sort of fun with it, but the hate keeps building and I really think more than likely that I'm just going to end up back playing with my PS2.

The upside is that I've certainly had a lot more times to devote to movies which is a very big passion of mine. I've been watching an incredible amount lately and I suppose I should post some reviews of them here instead of just always in Fozzy123's movie threads just so people will see I'm not dead. Also I apologize to my other blogging and Myspace peeps as I just haven't been checking in lately.

So here I sit in a prison of my own making -- sulking and watching movies.