Finally picked up Fatal Frame 2, but I doubt I'll start it for a couple weeks. I'm really enjoying Ratchet & Clank 2 right now, and I have The Hobbit already started as well.

Seen Return of the King twice now. Doing my bit to help that opening weekend box office. Still missing Saruman something fierce, but there's still the EE to look forward to. After the movie ended, some jackass behind me said "I heard they're not going to release an Extended Edition of this one, they're going to do a big three pack of the long versions of all three movies, so you have to buy the first two again to get the third." Shut the fuck up, you moron. This was the same guy who laughed - laughed! - when Denethor was pouring oil over himself in preparation to be burned alive. I don't mean ironic boy-is-he-going-to-get-it laughter, I mean Ha Ha Monkey Picked Nose laughter. Maybe he farted.

I've discovered a long overlooked piece of Pokemonabilia, the "Pokemon Adventures" manga. At first glance, it didn't seem like much more than another way to milk off the franchise... but the actual story grows quite dark and complicated once you get past the initial chapters. It's an interesting take on the original Game Boy games, almost good enough to be considered a "real world" version. As in, what if pokemon actually did exist. This particular manga (I know there are others) isn't afraid to look at pokemon as actual animals, with all the necessary evils that the natural world requires. So some types of pokemon will eat other types, sometimes a battle will end when one pokemon dies, etc. Circle of life, baby.

We even did some Christmas shopping this weekend, although no shopping trip is complete unless I buy something for myself. FYE had the Spider-Man DVD Collector's Set on sale... it's the two-disk Spider-Man movie DVD and the Kevin Smith / Stan Lee interview DVD "Mutants, Monsters and Marvels." While I was in the FYE checkout line, I saw these stupid Marvel Mighty Beanz in the coveted impulse buy position by the cash register. Somehow I stopped myself. I can't help but think back to when all the Marvel Zombies hated DC because of that terrible Super Friends cartoon and the prevailing opinion that DC books were geared for kids... and today Marvel is licensing themselves out to anybody who walks in the door. Anything to stave off another round of bankruptcy, I guess. Have you seen those embarrassing Genio Cards? They're fucking flash cards dressed up to look like a TCG.

Only the blindest of grandparents are going to be fooled by this. And only the blindest of children will see any excitement in collecting educational factoid cards where The Thing briefly expounds on Terra Cotta Soldiers. I wouldn't be as critical, larnin' is larnin' after all, if the company wasn't so dead convinced on marketing Genio Cards with so much hype. The commercials show a club of EXTREME kids flopping these things like it's the Magic Nationals.