Well, I haven't made a blog post in a while. I havent even been super active. So, lets make a big update. I was hoping to wait until GTA4 for this, but that deserves its own massive blog.

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to order several movies off amazon.com. I ordered Kill Bill Volume 1 and American Gangster on DVD for steals. I also got I Am Legend Blu-Ray for only $19. I spent $40 and I dont regret it at all. I love Tarintino movies. Kill Bill is just a kick ass movie and should be viewed by everyone (except maybe young children). Its violent, its stylish, its even got some funny moments. Uma Thurman does a great job as the vengeful bride, and I have trouble picturing her in other roles. I also love the music like always in his movies. American Gangster stars Denzel Washington, my favorite black actor with Samuel L. Jackson and Will Smith. I was hyped for this movie way before it dropped in theatres. Denzel is brilliant as Frank Lucas and actually makes you root for the villian. Once again, its extremely violent, but this ones got less violence and more nudity. hooray. I Am Legend is the least violent of the three. Its also the worst, but by no means bad. Its still good, but doesnt have the best story. Watching Will Smith act is a treat in this movie though. Blu-Ray looks stunning and this was my first Blu-Ray movie.

Well, I also saw a movie that I owned. Ive started seeing the classic and amazing movies that I havent seen yet. I noticed Taxi Driver with Robert De Niro on DVD in my house. So, I watched it. A yound Robert De Niro is amazing in this film. I dont know how it didnt win Best Picture. The last 20 minutes are a treat to watch. I STRONGLY recommend this. I gotta see some more Scorsese movies.

I also played games. I recently rented and beat DMC4. It was pretty good. The story wasnt great, but it wasnt terrible. The game wasnt too hard and wasnt very long. I personally had WAY more fun as Dante. Nero was nowhere near as fun or cool. Its too bad Nero steals the majority of the game and most of Dantes mission are going through where Nero went. Id give it an 8 out of 10

I also bought the new maps for COD4. They are pretty cool. Its too bad Kill House never comes in ranked games. They were defintely worth $10.

And now, I wait until after school to try and find a copy of GTA4. I hope I can cause I didnt reserve it.

Before it can be decided whether games are art, a solid definition of art must be decided on. Seeing as art has many different possible meanings, I'll give my umbrella definition. If you don't agree with it, you probably won't agree with the rest of my points. An artform is a form of expression that conveys a higher level of beauty or meaning. There are four different things I will go over in this blog: Art, books, films, and video games.

Obviously art is an artform. That goes without saying. Art is almost the definition of expression and higher meaning. I'm not even going to bother making an examply because you cannot argue that art is not an artform.

Books convey meaning and have a very deep depth. Better books have intriquite plots, astounding imagery, and complex themes. The themes are the most important part of deciding books are art. Some books have no meaning and are not meant to be art.

One book that is definitely art is No Country for Old Men. The book has heavy themes of fate in addition to astounding imagery and intelligent dialouge. The plot is intriging and develops in intelligent ways.

My contrast is "I am america and so can you" by Stephen Colbert. Its an entertaining book and its very fun to read, but it is not art, nor is it meant to be. It has no meaning, but that was never the point of the book.

Movies carry similar properties to books, probably because most movies are based off books. The main difference is movies are visual and translate literary imagery visual imagery. The plot and themes still carry the same properties as a book, but much is commonly left out because there is too much in books for a 2 hour movie. Like with books, many movies are not even close to being an artform

No Country For Old Men won Best Picture this year. As I mentioned earlier, it was a book first. The movie is very similar to the book and much of the dialouge is exactly the same, though some things are left out. It definitely remains art.

Moresoe than in books, many movies are just gross or funny and have no depth. Many horror movies just have cheap thrills and no depth in story. A lot of comedies are just about getting high or poop jokes. These movies can be entertainment, but like in books, they are not art.

I personally think some games have the potential to be art, but almost none succeed. Some games like Okami look very artsy and have a unique style, but the story usually doesn't have strong themes, so it is debatable about whether it is art.Once again, some games have no depth and are all about fun, so they are not art. Some manage to have intriquite stories, but once again, they lack themes. I can't think of a game that had strong themes that could compare to a good movie or book. If a game did, I would personally call it art. Until then, games are only entertainment to me.

Well, I recently purchased Rainbow Six Vegas 2. I played the first one for a while and I really liked it. #2 has a fun system called ACES where you unlock guns by killing enemies in certain ways. It's a nice addition. Not much is really new in #2. A lot of the online maps are copied from the first game and they left out the best, ie. Calypso, Casino Vault, and LVU. Despite this all, I love this game. It's a great change of pace and mixing it up with COD4 is amazing. The game has serious issues though. I've had a lot of freezes and some issues while trying to play splitscreen with my friends. Thats just the offline. Online play is a disgrace. During times when people get home from school, I can't even do coop story with one friend without a lag out. I lag out of multiplayer matches constantly, that is if I can connect to any of them. Nice job Ubisoft. Also, hosts have the ability to kick people DURING the game. One guy was such a prick that he kicked whoever killed him. I was kicked very quickly. He is now the first member of my block list.

On a completely unrelated sidenote, I also bought Patapon and it's so quircky and fun.

Well, I purchased two new games. The first is God of War for the psp. It's really fun. My friend beat it in like 6 hours and my other is playing it RIGHT NOW. Im not that far personally, but I love it. I love the series and this game is worthy. I also bought Gears of War for the pc. It's pretty good. I had to mess around with the settings a lot. Had to turn it down quite a bit, but I got it right. gonna play some more of both. My next two purchases will be Rainbow Six Vegas 2 and Patapon

Well, for the last couple of months, I have been in a clan called Kool.Clan.Killers, or KCK. We're a semi-professional group of gamers and some of the best. We had a slow start on COD4, but we have gotten some amazing talent and others have improved to lead us to playing at about an 80% win over our last 50 or so matches. Here is our gb roster showing our standing. We are ranked 11, though this will shift a bit as we are moving up and clans will pass and fall below us, on an extremely competitive ladder. It has over 3,000 registered teams, though many are unranked. COD4 roster

Many of our members came from a clan I was in before it fell apart. We were #1 on Warhawk and we are going back to it to play again. We stopped playing after everybody refused to play us and we'd get booted out of rooms. Our clan tag and name is changed, but its the same roster and it shows our 32-2 record in the fall season. We have to re-invite people because they left or even get them from other clans. Warhawk Roster

Well, I recently downloaded the Lost Planet Online demo. This game has gotten decent/good reviews. Also, it's an online demo, so I was excited. Unfortunately, it turned out to be worthless. This demo is so bad, I can't even get into a room. I tried for 20 minutes before giving up and deciding that I would not even rent this game. This experience really made me mad.