Abducted By Some More Aliens!

Sorry for the lack of posts latly. I've been pretty busy with homework and Windows 7.

Anyway, most of my work is now being focused here. Follow. Subscribe. Become blinded with awesomeness. This is Abducted By Aliens: Collectors Edition.

An Unveiling

Ok, let's make this short: When I was little, I wrote ad-libbed and recording songs and distributed them to... others. These songs made no sense, included nonsense words, were written ad-libbed within hours, and included fake "features."

Well, for those of you that didn't pick up your copy, too bad. BUT, I can compensate by creating a Collector's Edition with remixes and bonus songs, right?

Yes, Abducted By Aliens: Collector's Edition is currently in production. I suspect it will be ready by this holiday season, but seeing as I just got this idea this morning, that could just as easily change. However, to prove to you guys that this isn't CSM 3, or George and Tom, or any other project I backed out of, Josh and I have created some album art. FUN STUFFZ.

Adobe Fun!

I finally got Adobe Master CS3 thing. I got all the awesome products. Photoshop, Flash, Dreamweaver... Expect awesomeness in the next few months.

Here is our first Photoshop picture. Josh made this one.

Video Games and Violence

Want to know how bored I got? So bored I wrote something. Check it out. Discuss in the comments.

Computer Time

This summer, I've been on the computer. A lot. After I combined my two computers, I was able to play Team Fortress 2, and that game is awesome. Josh and I keep on playing it. Over. And over. And over.

Apparently, my parents have been concerned about this, saying it has caused me loss of sleep, grumpiness, and lack of activity. This morning, I was told I'm going to have a limit of 6 hours on the computer. Great.

However, that's just in the summer. During school (which starts in, like, a week) I get 4 hours. Whoopie. I realized that that's just 3 hours until after school, and an hour after dinner. But that's when I use the computer the most. No body's outside, no one's willing to do any physical activity... The only people around are the ones on Team Fortress 2. No, I'm not about to go on and say, "My only friends are virtual friends..." I'm not friends with any of these people (half of them curse all the time). I'm just saying that that's what I do at night.

Still, if I don't use any of my "hours" after school, that leaves me to 10:00 PM, which is when I go to sleep on a school night. So, I'm kind of mad right now, but I'm sure I'll get over it. :P

8th Grade Orientation Is Tomorrow.

No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no.

Spore

GameStop is having a FREAKING HUGE SALE that only lasts until the second! Buy buy buy! Hundreds of games under $20!!!!

Today, I'm going to get Spore. In case you didn't know, Spore is one of the biggest games ever. It allows you to create and run a whole entire species. It's like the ultimate life simulator. It will be awesome.



EDIT: Never mind. I found out it's $40, which is still pretty expensive. Now I'm passing the time playing demos of World of Goo and Wallace and Gromit: Fright of the Bumble Bees and the full episode of Sam & Max: Abe Lincoln Must Die! Fun, huh? :P

Walmart Neighborhood Market

I just remembered something from my trip to Dallas I thought I might show you.
Did anyone know there was such a thing as the Walmart Neighborhood Market? I had never heard of them before, until we went there at our trip to Dallas. It's apparently a Walmart Supercenter with all the Walmart stuff taken out. So, really, it's just a grocery store. I had never seen these before, and I thought it was so interesting that Walmart, which is really just a generic department store, is making money off of a branch off a branch. Walmart never intended to sell food at the Walmart, but that's what they do at the Supercenters, just because it could make more money. Now, they're rolling out something that, if the Supercenters weren't even made, would have nothing to do with Walmart.

And get this: They're making something else that's the same thing! The new "Marketside" is the same thing as the Walmart Neighborhood Market, but it doesn't carry the Walmart label. Weird, huh?

Bored again!?!

Obama will save our country. Literally.

Today's REAL Blog Post - Belated Anniversary

First of all, I just wanted to say happy vera belated birthday to my blog. A couple years ago, I made four posts. One told readers that Wal★Mart sucked, and tried to explain why. Now, I explain further...

The year was... Uh... 2007... I was in the grade of the fifths. *coughcough* Ok, so, in 5th grade, for our "learn-how-to-type" class, we had to make a newsletter about something interesting. Or... Some interesting things. So, I wrote about a TV show I had seen on PBS, showing how Wal★Mart killed off the Rubbermaid brand. I thought the topic was controversial, yet sense-makeable, so I picked it as my topic. Now, around that same time, I probably made this blog... Or, at least its counterpart. So, I decided to try and post my views there. Unfortunatly, the post wasn't being graded, so I made little effort to explain my opinion. Evenually, the post got smothered with other classics, such as the "It Stink's To Grow Up!" and "It's The End of the Blog As We Know It..." Anyway, there you go.

Another post was about how video game companies should all exchange positions every few years, and we could vote on top dog. This post just showed how broken my imagination was, and how freakin' bored I was at the time. It only exemplified the fact that my life was really mundane, and my only hope was this small blog. My first post wasn't really attracting readers either, but I was impatient to see it go down. In other word, this was just another failed attempt at at least 3.5 seconds of fame.

My third post of the day tried to throw a celebrity into the mix, and hope that some viewership came out of it. All it did was show that I really didn't know the celebrity (or how to speel) all that much either.

My fourth, and quite honestly first, post told all 'yalls to come here, where teh REAL partyz at! *coughcough*

So anyway, there's another insight to my dull life. Hoping for some more blog action tomorrow.

boredom

See, this is what happens when you lurk around the internet. You find pictures like this.

Today's slow progress and Dallas.

Don't you hate it when you think of something to do when it's late at night? Last night, I thought, "Tomorrow, I'm going to do so much stuff!" But I woke up today having no idea what that stuff was. So, I wasted away my day getting my iTunes Library ready. Then, right now, I remember that I was going to post my new bathroom blogs. At 10:00. Oh well. Look for those tomorrow. (Hopefully)

Anyway, today, after I had gotten all the music I wanted into my library, I started converting them into AACs. (For those that don't know, AAC is slowly becoming the preferred music codec over MP3s.) I thought iTunes was smart, but alas, no. It started converting of my music into AACs, regardless of weather or not they already were, which erases some somewhat important content, which I would rather have if I didn't need to get rid of it. It also converted the file, but kept the old one in the library, requiring me to delete the old files. This makes the process much harder. But it will get done sometime sooner or later.

Also, in case you were wondering, yes, Dallas was awesome, and I can't wait to go again. And trust me, we WILL be going again.

Team Fortress 2

(For some reason, I couldn't add any more text to my lat post...)

Anyway, my computer is fast enough that I can start playing TF2! I love the game, it's a lot of fun. Josh and I are going to be playing it all night!

Biking and Team Fortress 2

Today, Karen and Sarah, Josh's sister, wanted to go on a bike ride to Planet Smoothie. Josh and I went with them, but told them to hang on, because we just ate.

After 20 or 30 minutes, they started continualy bugging us on leaving. After a while, we left.

Now, Karen's a bit slow. That's understandable. But these two kept stopping and slowing down for no reason. We told them that they need to pick it up a bit, and left it. But then, as we ride up a hill, they start yelling, "Slow down!" We slow down and wait for them, but as soon as they gut up the hill, they start going, "Come on! Let's go!" O_o

We stop, and say, "Look, we don't care if you're slow, just don't tell US to speed up." "Why?" I then explain what just happened. "So?" Sarah says, with a smile on her face. Josh says, "Sarah, stop."

Everything was fine until we got ready to leave Planet Smoothie. I say, "Ok, let's go." "No, we're not done yet!" "Karen, we've beenhere for 45 minutes. I just went into Dierbergs, bought something, and came back." "So? We haven't finished yet!" "So throw it away." "But I want to finish it!" "So take it with you." "I can't do that!" Now, Karen poked a hole through her's, so she thre her's away. But Sarah wouldn't give her's up. We finally convinced her to bring it. But as soon as we leave, "I can't take this! I'm just going to throw it away." *FACEPALM*

Also, we went down a hill, and saw them breaking the entire way down. We tell them, "Look, you're far away enough as it is. You can't be braking down the hill." "But we're scared!" *sigh*

On the way back, Sarah keeps stopping. We stop, and see what's up. She said something keps falling off her bike. I look, and it's just the cap covering a screw. I just took it and gave it to her afterwards. So yeah, we won't be doing THAT any time soon.

But, in other news, I've started combining my two computers! I'm almost done, I just need to put in a video card and do some cleanup.

But now, my computer is fast enough

Twilight

No, this isn't going to be a rant on Twilight. Just a run-in I had today. I was up at Josh's, and so was Karen. She was watching Twilight with Sarah. Josh and I were going downstairs, when we see the girls watching the movie. We race downstairs and slam the door. We then discussed plans on grabbing our electronics and foodstuffs as fast as we could. As we got the food, the girls didn't understand that Twilight was a chick flick.

We tried explaining to them that it was a gender issue, and that the movie wasn't for guys. They still didn't understand. Then we said, "How about Alien VS. Predator. The movie is for guys, not girls. It's more mature." They respond, "But it has cussing and blood!" I said, "We're talking about a gender issue here, not a parental view. Guys like more 'mature' titles." Still, no idea. We gave up and left.

Please tell me that this isn't just me, and that you agree that some movies, such as Twilight, are for girls, and some movies, like Alien VS. Predator, are for guys.

More Than Harrasment

A few days ago, I posted on here about EnzoLegend. Well, guess what? He's not done yet. He's continued with his shenanigans, what with the lying, and the making everything a big deal, especially when he is involved?

Well, we took another look at his profile the other day, and something scared us. He signed up with Josh's junk e-mail address. We quickly created a UT against him, telling the moderators just that. They too seemed confused. Investigating, they told us something even more shocking: This person signs on with Josh's IP address.

Which begs the question: Who is this person? He's either a great hacker, or someone we know. Could it be a family member? A neighbor? Josh himself?

YOU DECIDE
2009

Fourth of July at Innsbrook

As some of you may know, our family goesout to a chalet owned by our grandparents every Fourth of July and Memorial Day. At least, we try to. On Memoial Day, there's a big party thing with free food, live music, and children attractions. On the Fourth of July, there's a big fireworks show. So we cameout here on Thursday, both because of the fireworks show and because my dad loves the place, and gets Friday off. Really, I wasn't up to it. I thought we were leaving on Friday afternoon, and I would much rather be with Josh checking out the only two Bugatti Veyron Grand Sports in the Western hemisphere.

However, once I got out here, I realised that I was just really tired from staying up until two-thirty the night before, and had forgotten how much I loved this place. Wow, has time flew. Here I am, writing this in the last few minutes before the end of the day, and I can't believe the weekend is almost over. But anyway, that's not why I'm writing you.

The real reason I'm writing is because of the fireworks show. I was so settled in that I hadn't gotten out of my pajamas, and it was 6:00. We ate, layed around some more, knowing that sooner or later, we would all leave to see the fireworks show. Well, we left unprepared. We just got up, grabbed a bunchof stuff, and left. Bad idea.

We forgot the fact that it looked like it was going to rain. Sort of. We had some umbrellas and stuff, but really, if it rained, we wouldn't really be prepared. So we got out there, set up, waited, and it rained. We alljust picked up everything and ran back to the car. Then is started pouring. We all just sat there and wondered if it was still on or not. We watched others. Some were leaving. Some were moving. Some were staying. What were we going to do? Mom and Karen decided it was too wet, and they weren't getting out again. Should we leave as well, and find a better place to park and watch? Would it matter if the show was canceled? If we can't park there, could we get our spot back? We weren't sure. So, instead of deciding, we just sat there. We rolled down the window to see if the music was still playing. It was.

Then, the rain stopped. Dad and I got out, to hear what they were saying over the speakers. We were going to grab the chairs, just in case, when we heard someone say it was officaly canceled. We looked at each other, and told mom and Karen. But, we still wanted to hear, so we left the chairs and went anyway. Good idea! It was either canceled, then started, or started, but it was on.

It was so cool. As cool as it always is, of cource. :P I ran back and grabbed the tripod to take some great pictures, which turned out really well. I also took a few on my phone. But when I turned around, I saw something really cool, and also a little sad.

A van had driven off the side of the road, and needed the assistance of a tow truck to drag it out. This stopped all the trafic of people coming and going. But as the fireworks started, everyone got out of their cars and stood on the side of the road and watched. It was just like one of those movies, where two people go do something, and the whole community gets involved, and then there's a street party.

Now, I wrote this post and hour ago, and the internet connection out here is so intermetient, that I took me an hour to post this blog. So you better like it.

(SIDE NOTE: As I ran to and from the car to grab the tripod, I felt like I was running from a bombing. What with all of the lights, the booms, the people trying to leave as fast as they could, me running as fast as I could... Or maybe I just have mental issues.)

Billy Mays

Ah, yes, I almost forgot...

REST IN PEACE

BILLY MAYS

JULY 20, 1958 - JUNE 28, 2009

ACC and EnzoLegend

Many of you may know that I hang out on a website called Animal Crossing Community, or ACC for short. It's a forum where I can talk to other people about video games and stuff like that.

So, the other day, I got a private message titled "U R wrong." This person told me that I was "retarted" and that the Nintendo DS Browser didn't exist. I OWN the Nintendo DS Browser. We went back and forth until I couldn't bear it anymore and said that it doesn't make any sense to argue with a loser, and I left.

Well today, he expanded, and let his stupidity go public. For more of EnzoLegend's antics, please, read below.

EnzoLegend Lies About the DS (in Private)
EnzoLegend Lies About the DS (in Public)
EnzoLegend Lies About Cars

(For a better viewing experience, please read posts regarding what EnzoLegend says. His avatar is the large bear with a purple background.)

Also, some more information about this person. Here is his profile. Points of interest are the "Currently Playing" section, the "Signature" section, and the "Other Stuff About Me" section.

Currently Playing: With my girlfriend
Signature: IT amazes me how stupid some people r...
Other Stuff About Me: I like cars and stuff like that. If you disagree with me, you will get owned by my superior smartness. I play DS and Animal Crossing all the time. I kind of consider myself a video game genius. I know tons about video games. So you will see me around on the boards and remember, stay out of my way.

Previously, his signature read "It doesn't matter how rich you are or where you've been, it matters how many girls you have following you around." (Something like that.) He also previously stated that he had "a lot of girls" and continued to rate them all on a scale of one to ten, with "7/10, 6/10, 8/10, 9/10, and 7/10." He has removed those things in favor for showing how stupid he thinks I am.

Please also note that this icon:...means that he is new to the site, which sheds some light on as to why he thinks he is suddenly the best on this site.

UPDATE: He has recently erased his signature.

Scout Camp Issues

I lost the e-mail Pete gave me from Scout Camp so I could finish a requirement and send it to him to finish a merit badge. I thought I knew it, but woe is me. So, I decided to scout the internet because, as I learned from my Internet Safety class that I also took at Scout Camp, small traces of information can lead to big things.

So, I searched his name, which is very unique (and by that, I mean his last name). I found out that he has a Facebook account. I don't have a Facebook account, but from what it could show me was his picture and his location. His picture showed it was obviously him...

(IMAGE DELETED)

and his location showed a small city in Illinois, which is where Camp Bunn was.

Thanks to some good work by my dad, we found out he had a Steam account. Thanks to us goofing off a little at camp, I found that he had Steam games (Portal, Left 4 Dead, etc.), so it made sense. Unfortunately, he had to be my friend to send him a message, and he disabled being able to leave comments on his profile. And begin inactive for the past 2 weeks didn't help either. But, there was still some small light of hope.

I searched up his username and found that it too was unique. The only places I could find his username were on technology-related sites, so I knew it was probably him. However, in each of his profiles, he didn't give away any of his personal information. (Good for him.) The only way I could find his email address with my information was to pay some money to some service, which I was not doing.

Or, I could just email the camp director Miss Lisa, whose email was provided on the Camp Bunn website, and ask her for Pete's email.

So sure, I didn't get as far as I planned, but think about how close I got, and how easy it was to get the information. Plus, if I just continued to refresh his Facebook page, I could probably see all his friends. But then again, I did have some previous experience with this guy, so I knew what he looked like, what his interests were, and where he lived. But, still...

UPDATE: She has e-mailed me back, and said she'd be happy to help. Yay!

Back from the Scouters

Back from camp. Lots of stuff to say. But, I'll keep it short.

There was this German exchange scout, Alex, that got to go to camp for free. The first-year boys would not stop gawking over her. (She taught Cooking)

Me: "What's your favorite merit badge?"
Some kid: "Cooookkkiinnggg...." *slobbers*
Me: *SMACK*

Me: *eating lunch*
Some other kid: "See Alex?"
Me: "Yeah?"
Some other kid: "She's getting fruit. She always does."
Me: *SMACK*

But that wasn't the end of it. What was such a funny, disturbingly strange coincidence was that during the Family Night Skit Night, he pants sagged, and showed her underwear. Of course, I'm sure this was on accident, because as soon as she stood up, it fixed itself.

Also, for those that care, here are my three favorite counselors from Camp Bunn this year:
1. Pete (Computers, Climbing)
2. Booger (Was at Climbing)
3. OopieDoopie (Backpacking)

It was fun. By far, better than S-F. Highly reccomended.

Boy Scout Camp

I'm leaving today to go to Boy Scout Camp. I won't be back until Saturday.

One More Thing...

Ah, almost forgot. Well, I forgot. But, here it is:

Check out my brand new blog: the Projects Blog. Here, I'll post any of our plans or goings on related to our YouTube channels, websites, or my podcast. Check it out.

A Job?!?

Let's face it: Everyone texts. No matter how old you are, everyone texts. I would much rather text some people than talk to them. Many other people feel the same way.

Today, I tried to just get my dad to think about getting a texting plan. However, instead, my dad told me I needed a source of steady income. All I get is $5 a week, and that isn't enough. So, what's his idea? A job. Yes, a job. I don't think he understands that, even though I only need 3 hours at minimum wage to pay for texting, that no one would give me a job for three hours, more or less pay minimum wage. And besides, do you know how much time it would take out of my day if I got a regular job?

E3 2009

Anyone else know that E3 was this week? The Electronic Entertainment Expo? It sure is. Here's what caught my eye so far:

Ubisoft:
Assassin's Creed 2 out in November

Microsoft:
Project Natal
Facebook and Twitter coming to Xbox 360
Games on Demand

Bungie:
Halo 3: ODST
Halo Reach

Valve:
Left 4 Dead 2

Konami:
Metal Gear Solid: Rising

Nintendo:
Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story
Metroid Other M
Wii Vitality Sensor?!?
Super Mario Galaxy 2
New Super Mario Bros. for Wii
Wii Fit Plus

Telltale Games:
The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition

Find more information on these and more at Kotaku.com

Schools' Out.

'Nuff Said.

Video Game "Deaths"

Here I go, expressing my views again. Today, I read this article. I was mad. Almost as mad as the person that wrote the article. Yet another suicide, related to video games, blamed on the creators.

There are so many other stories like this. A kid hanging himself because he couldn't play his Wii, now a kid jumping off a building... And these are blamed on the creators of the games?

A somewhat similar occurrence is seen in mass shootings. The Columbine shootings, the teenager in Germany... Blamed on video games.

Ever heard of Jack Thompson? The lawyer who will blame whatever he can on video games? Sad, sad stuff.

Here's the truth. The kid that jumped off the building didn't do it because of something in the game... He did it because his dad wouldn't let him play it anymore. The same with the kid and the Wii.

The Columbine and German teenager are different stories. Sure, the game could have taught them how to shoot a gun, but you learn the same thing in Boy Scouts. Are we going to start blaming them for random deaths too? I hope not.

Disturbing Bus Happenings

I'm not sure if you know this or not, but strange, disturbing things happen on my bus. If I explained here, I'm sure I'd be breaking some social laws, but it's weird.

The part I hate most, however, is when the 6th graders "fight back." Not in a revolt sort of way, but they actually try to intervene in some of the activities the 8th graders participate in, like cussing each other out. All they end up doing is messing with the wrong people, who are just too... old, I suppose, to even mess with them.

Today was one of those days. I was listing to my iPod, when I saw everyone laughing. I stopped the music and listened to hear that these kids had somehow, with the permission of the bus driver, got a hold of the intercom so they could talk to the whole us... Specifically the 8th graders. Here is a short summary of what I heard. [Names replaced for personal reasons]

*laugh laugh*
"And Mitch, pull your pants up!"
"I don't give a **** about what the **** you say! I don't care if my ****** is hanging out!"
"Sara's eating my granola bar..."
*feed back*
*everyone overreacts and quickly puts their hands over their ears*
*purposefully creates feedback*

Then the bus driver took the intercom away from them. While I'm sure the 8th graders deserved it, the 6th graders shouldn't have bothered, since the 8th graders didn't seem to care anyway.

RSS, Music, and YouTube

As a quick update to all my "palz" out there, just wanted to let you know that our RSS feed is acting up. I'll be on it later.

Also, don't forget to check out my Spring Concert videos (for those who care) on my YouTube Channel.

I also have uploaded a new, less disturbing episode of Deciphering the Song, with the subject being "Every Breath You Take" by the Police. Sorry for the horrible lighting.

Bias Kickball

Today, my sister, her three friends, Josh, and I all played kickball. Karen was the referee. We hated the game.

Josh and I thought the rules were totally unfair. You can't throw the ball at people, you can only kick it so far, etc. And to make matters worse, she was bias. Then, we got to kick. We were leading by, like, 3 points, but Karen said it was by 1. So, by this time, I had had enough.

I told her that, just like in real games, the referee is switched out, to make sure that this kind of thing doesn't happen. I suggested that we do the same. She totally took this the wrong was (as an insult) and decided to let Kelly be the referee.

At the end of the inning, I say that Josh should be the referee, because, even if he is bias, it would be one bias referee for one team, and one bias referee for the other, making it even. Of couce, this idea only lasted a few minutes, before the Jacksons had to go in, at which Karen and Sarah quit.

So my point is this: If you're going to play a game, play it right. Don't become bias, then hate other bias people, then quit when you're behind anyway. That right there: That makes no sense.

Fever 1793

Ok, so, today, I finished my acrostic project. Basically, I had to make an acrostic and then plaster it on some poster board related to the topic. So, I finally finished that at home today, the day before it's due. However, this reminds me of a past project. One that will haunt me for the rest of my life...

*cut to wavy flashback*

Ok, so, in 6th grade, I had to do a project. It was based on the book Fever: 1793. Basicly, I had to do a bunch of stuff: Write out summaries of the chapters, do some little character thing, fill out a packet... All that stuff.

However, thanks to Ian and his antics, I could never get any of it done. So I ended shoving it all off to the day before it was due. Pretty much ALL OF IT.

So I spent the whole day working on it. I HATED IT. It was the worst- well, not the worst. One of the worst days of my life. I think I got a 73% on it. Oh well. Better than a 0%.

*cut back to real life*

So please, PLEASE listen to this plea: Don't wait until the day before for ANYTHING! Even homework! I do my homework the day it's assigned, in case I have any questions! I was talking to someone who had to start and finish their acrostic today, and I felt so sorry for him. He didn't know what he was walking into.

So be forewarned, my friends. [INSERT GOOD ENDING HERE.]

New Computer!

Ian's giving me his old computer. He just recently built a new one, with separate parts ordered from different places, all high-tech stuff. He's giving me the computer with everything in it. Memory, video card... All that stuff. Can't wait to get it tomorrow.

Gnite, Mark.

Twitter!

Follow me on Twitter! I need some friends! The only person I'm following is Weird Al. So, come on. Join.

Technology Is Your Friend

I recently just uploaded my new podcast, Technolgy Is Your Friend, onto iTunes. (If you don't know what a podcast is, watch this.) If you don't want to download iTunes, you can use any RSS reader, like Google Reader, to be alterted when a new podcast has been added. However, you'll still have to download the video. (Here's the RSS feed.)

The podcast informs people on how to do realitvily easy stuff on the computer. The first podcast is "How to Add Subtitles to Your YouTube Videos." The other videos may be "How to Understand Chatspeak" or "How to Use RSS Feeds."

Thanks a lot for your support!

Xbox 360 or DSi?

I saw 17 Again tonight. I'll let you guys know how it went tomorrow, but I'm really tired right now.

I just want to ask you guys: Should I get an Xbox 360 or a DSi? The Xbox can do more, but costs more. The DSi is cheap, but doesn't do as much. Not that it's some cheap thing I want to get just because I can afford it. I want both.

So, go ahead and leave me some comments on what you think. Thanks.

EDIT: Sorry, this was supposed to be posted on Friday. My computer has been really slow lately.

DSi and Acolyting

For those that care: I have made a playlist of videos on YouTube that explain almost every feature on the DSi. As is says in the description, I will only list videos that AREN'T about the Japanese version. Not only can you not read it, but the DSi has been in Japan since October of last year, so it's a lot more different than the one here. See my DSi post for more new information.

Ok, so, yesterday, I acolyte for my church. Now, I acolyte a lot. It's easy. Get up, light the candles, leave. But that's a the contemporary service. And the one I acolyted at was a traditional service.

Now, I had done this before. Once. And that was a total breakdown for me. I bawled at the realization that I had to acolyte then and had no idea how. This might have also happened because I had a test in confirmation that night. Or so I thought.

My pastors were nice enough to give me a run down of what I had to do, but that doesn't mean there weren't problems. Because it was a Lent service, people were allowed to request opening hymns, so they weren't in the bulletin. Well, I had no idea, and by the time they started singing, I realized that my hymnal was lodged between my seat the the brick wall behind me. That was really the only problem.

But this past service was a Maundy Thursday service, meaning there was communion. I had no idea what I had to do. I knew that I had communion at a different time than the rest of the congregation, but I didn't know when or how. Even after I got that figured out, I still didn't know what to do. One of our church staff came out, dressed just like me, and had communion with us. I figured I should do whatever he did, so he got up, stood behind the altar, and watched. Was I supposed to stand there? Well, it wouldn't hurt. Then he got up, bowed, and entered the altar, and I knew I should have just sat down. So I did.

Now, honestly, this doesn't sound as interesting as it was. If you went to my church, it probably would have made more sense. Or maybe if you were me. But, you aren't really either or those. So, good night.

April Fools Day

Yeah, I know, I'm a day late. I was thinking about how I missed out on all the great April Fools jokes on the internet yesterday, and I thought I might tell others some of the one's I've heard of.

Homestar Runner: Following a previous video, where they told viewers jokingly that they would redo all of their videos and feature the main character, Strong Bad, the site intro was edited just like that, where Strong Bad greeted the viewers with an e-mail instead of the site's normal intro. Check it out.

Smosh: Uploaded a video, telling viewers that LeVar Burton from Roots, Star Trek, and Reading Rainbow, had bought the "company," promising to redo the website and videos so they featured him. Check out what their site used to look like on April Fools day. Watch the video.

Google: This year, as a tradition, Google announced Gmail Autopilot, where Gmail would automaticly respond to emails. You could adjust the amount of typos, capitalization, brevity, and emoticon use in the message. Check it out.

The Guardian: Announced yesterday that it would now be a "Twitter only service," forcing all articles to be 140 characters or less. "Twittered" articles includes "OMG first successful transatlantic air flight wow, pretty cool! Boring day otherwise *sigh*" from 1927, "W Churchill giving speech NOW - 'we shall fight on the beaches ... we shall never surrender' check YouTube later for the rest" from 1940, "Listening 2 new band 'The Beatles'" from 1961, "Berlin Wall falls! Majority view of Twitterers = it's a historic moment! What do you think??? Have your say" from 1989, and "RT@mohammedalfayed: FYI NeilHamilton, Harrods boss offering [$$$] 4 questions in House of Commons! Check it out" from 1991. Check it out.

Yahoo!: Released a new search option on their website, where you can search topics based on your political party. Try it out. Check it out.

Monetate: Invented Smellr: ads you smell. "It's like Flickr, but for your nose." Check it out.

YouTube: Fliped the whole site upside down and backwards, including the videos. Even though it's gone now, you can still enjoy their instructions on how to view the videos.

Amazon: Launched their new "cloud computers." Cloud computing was a metahpor meaning computers you can't see, but now, they've taken it to the skies, and sent up blimps with computers in them. Check it out.

Expedia: Now sells flights to Mars for only $99. "Save $3 trillion!" Check it out.

Microsoft: Announced their new game for the Xbox 360: Alpine Legend! Based off of Rock Band and Guitar Hero: World Tour, yodel and blow through countless hours of fun! Check it out!

Economist: Opens its new theme park: Econoland, litteraly applying the term "roller coaster ride" for the US economy. Check it out.

HowStuffWorks: Told the world what "rechargable gum" is really made of. Check it out.

Hope that's enough laughs to bust your gut... Or, maybe not.

Running Errands/iPod Dock/Geomerty Wars: Galaxies

Today was pretty boring. All I really did was run a bunch of errands. We had to go get a present for my mom's birthday, and I wanted to get a dock for my iPod. So, we left early in the morning to- wait, I'm wrong. I forgot to mention, our car battery was dead.

See, because my mom had surgery, we hadn't been driving "her" car around lately. When we realized it might be dead, it was too late. So we called to AAA man to come down and take care of it. Well, he jumped the car, it worked fine, and we were happy. Until today. It died again. So, we jumped it, and went on our way.

We couldn't really find what we were looking for (in terms of Mom's birthday present) so we headed on down to Best Buy and got me a docking station for my iPod. While we were there, Karen looked at cameras. Most were out of her price range, and I had found my dock, so we left.

And what do you know? The car died. Again. After realizing the battery had died, we looked for a police officer that could help us jump our car. One pulled up in front of Bed Bath & Beyond, so dad went for him. We kept telling him to run, but he didn't care. And he gets there and just stands there. So I call him on his cell phone, and he says he lost him. So we sat there for, like, an hour, and the police officer came out and jumped our car.

So, we get out of there, and go home. We wait a little, then dad leaves to take the car to National Tire and Battery with my grandpa, and he comes back. He picks us up to go to Steak N' Shake, and then, we go to the other Best Buy, hoping Karen can find a good enough camera there. As I walk around, I go through a bargain bin and find a game that I had been thinking about getting for a while. So I decide with my left over money I could get the game for cheap.

Well, Karen of course find a camera she thinks is adequate, and so she tries to convince dad that she should get it. Well, dad said it's cheap looking, and she doesn't have the money. Well, she wants to go home and look and see if she can find any money laying around. I had to go home and get my gift card anyway, so we left.

On the way, dad brings up the option of selling some stuff on eBay that Karen doesn't use anymore in order to get the money. She thinks it's a great idea, and decides that when she gets home, she should find some stuff to sell in her room.

Well, dad drops us off, goes back to get the car with my grandpa, and comes back for dinner. After a wonderful dinner, thanks to the Palazzolas, dad and Karen and I leave to drop Karen off at her friend's house for a sleepover, then we go to Best Buy and get my game.

So, today was really busy. Here's some reviews.

Apple Universal Dock:
It's sweet. Besides the price tag ($60??) and my stupid computer, it works really well. The remote is cool, too.

Geometry Wars: Galaxies:
This game is ok. The game is fun, but it gets boring after a while. Though it's a quality brand, it seems kind of thrown together. But for $10, it's pretty good.

Songs...

What is this, three posts in one day? I'm scared, this has never happened before...

Anyway, I just wanted to let you all know that I'm going to post a new video series on my account. It's about song meanings. It's the first one, about Crank That by Soulja Boy. It's a popular song with disturbing meanings. Please do not watch the video if you are under 13 or can refrain yourself from looking up terms used it the video. I've tried to make it clean, but it's hard to talk about "Health" related subjects without getting a stare.

Thanks for your support!

EDIT: Here's the video! Watch out for suggestive themes!



If you can't see the video, you can find it here on YouTube.

Angry and Scary Day

Oh my gosh. Today was... Scary. But, we'll get to that later.

First off: Ball Tag. It's a game we made up that's like tag, but with a ball. You have to hit people with the ball, or they're not it. We play with 4 or 5 people and have a wide playing area across the neighborhood that we can play in, which makes the game a lot more fun. However, this game starts WAY to many arguments. It's normally about time-outs at "inappropriate times" (like if someone's running towards you with the ball, and you call a time out.) Not cool.

Yesterday, we played a fun game of ball tag, and Connor and Lexie got into a fight. It ended up being a "Lexie picks on me all the time and always tries to tag me" argument. Now, normally, I'm the moderator in these games, and I always keep my cool. I told Connor that it was his and Lexie's choice on who does what to each other, and that I don't want to be a part of it, sense it doesn't have anything to do with ball tag.

Well, today, the same kind of conversation came up again, this time with Connor and Conner. Again, Connor brought up that Conner has "hated him since first grade," and "I have a big grudge against him." Conner didn't do a good job of keeping his cool in this argument. In fact, it jumped right into it. So Connor tries to get me into it, and I bring it up again that I don't want to be a part of his relationships with others, and that he can do whatever he wants to do with Conner.

Well, Connor didn't like that very much, but we still tried to play. Eventually, Connor couldn't take it anymore and he quit. I hate to see games end up this way, because that's almost always what happens. But, we go on with the game until everyone else quits.

Now for the HORROR SESSION of the... blog... post... So, Josh and I came out to play with Clayton in Metroid Prime: Hunters. He eventually didn't show, making us think that he probably couldn't come out and play. So, we decided to bike around for a while. Then we saw this stray dog running around. We decided we probably shouldn't hang around it, so we biked back up to the end of the street. Well, the dog decided to tag along. So, we figure we should get inside as soon as possible, and so we get ready to head down to my house, and the dog just couldn't resist. I veer to the right, Josh to the left, and it chooses to follow him. He rides up down the street and up the hill, the dog right beside him. I call my dad, and tell him that this rabid dog is chasing us and to unlock the door so we can jump right inside.

So, Josh comes back up the hill, the dog STILL following him, and I tell him the plan. We run up the yard, jump off our bikes, run inside, and slam the door. We look outside, and sure enough: The dog's a robot. No, just kidding. But the dog was still there in our front yard, right next to our bikes, staring at the door.

Then we found another challenge: We left our DSs outside. We open the back door, and listen. Sure enough, the dog was smart enough to wander back there too. We waited about three minutes, then looked outside again. Still there. Eventually, it went away, and we grabed the stuff and ran inside.

But I still had to hang up the extension cord, and Karen had her flip-flops outside. So, we go out into the garage, I hang up the cord, and Josh goes to grab the flip-flops. And of cource- the dog is standing there in the Bruggemann's yard. At the sight of us, he dashes twords us and we run inside.

Eventually he disappeared, but man was it weird. Here to comment: Josh.

"Yeah, I was chased by a dog..."

Uh, ok. Bye, kids!

A Poor Argument

Sometimes I get along with my sister. Sometimes I don't. Yesterday I didn't.

See, we play this game called "Country" or "Kingdom" where we pretend to own different parts of the neighborhood. We have war sometimes and we trade sometimes, and it's usually where Karen gets mad. However, it was different that day. We had this plan to take over another part of the neighborhood. It was a secluded place in the woods atop some common ground. This land had been part of many feuds in the past, none of which included me. But now we thought was a good time.

Normally, DJ, Max, and Jack are up there building something with all the wood up there. We thought we should spy on them and check out what they were building. Well, Karen and some of her friends wanted to help, so we let them. They walked back and forth, checking to see if the coast was clear. We set each other up with walkie-talkies and continued to spy on them. Eventually, everyone left but Karen, and then she left of bordum. This is where the argument began.

We kept trying to ask her where she was going and why she had left. Apparently the signal was really bad, because she kept trying to answer and we couldn't hear her. We'd repeat ourselves and we'd get no repsonse. We thought she as ignoring us. Eventually, we got through to her and she repeted to us for the fifth time that she was going to Hannah's. We apparently ticked her off so much that they got Hannah's dad to play a trick on us, saying "This is the Wildwood Police Department, who is using this frequency?" We completely fell for it, and tried to get them to get off of the channel. So, they explained to us that it was a joke. Not cool.

We then decied we had to get them back. So we kept double-pressing the talk button, making a paging noise that lasts for about five seconds. Josh and I would do that on and off, so the girls had no chance to speak. Then the argument began.

I really don't want to get into details because I'm sure I would hurt someone's feelings. It wasn't anything that was really that bad, but it's still some hurtful stuff. But we both got over it, and forgave each other for hurting each other's feelings. No damage done.

So, I thought I might tell you that before I head on out and leave for some outside activities. I guess. And Batman, if you're reading this, "Why so serious?"

What the...

Today, I went to one of those Friday Night Teen Night things at this place called the Lodge. Just take Lifetime Fitness and cut it in half. I guess it's like the YMCA. Anyway, this place was scary. Not because it was big, or because it had weird food, but these people were... Blech.

I'm talking about the kids. It was weird. Basically, it was just at the pool. There were a BUNCH of girls running around, talking to each other about these cute boys. Now, I understand some girls talking about some kids pumping lead, but this was some kid with a white hoddie and skinny jeans. Like, skin tight jeans. On a guy. Awkward. And plus, it was like a huge clan of girls. Like, 20.

Speaking of "clans" there was also this... strange group of people. One of them kept flirting with Josh. It was just about the weirdest thing. This kid was, like, a 6th grader, and she kept telling Josh to "stay two inches away." First of all, she thought two inches was a foot. Second, she could not drop it. One minute, she's talking to what she calls her "committee" (AKA friends,) and the next she's yelling at Josh "TWO INCHES!" And he would just stand there and stare. So, we decided to see what would happen if I walked right up there and just stared them down.

So, I wade my way on over there, and do that creepy eyebrow thing, where I lower my eyelids so low, you can't see my pupils. One kid goes, "Don't gimme that look." Another says, "That's creepy," then another says "But no one cares. No one likes you." I just continue to stare them down. Then the "two-inches girl" comes up and says, "Hey, you're two-inches guy's friend! Why don't you tell him to-" Then she got whistled at by a life guard for hanging onto the rope in the middle of the pool. Apparently, they didn't care that I was there anymore and decided to go and start jumping off the edge of the pool like some other kids were doing. As they waded away, one of her friends gave me the, "I have no idea why she is doing this" look.

Then there's the locker room. Now, surprisingly, there wasn't any "inappropriate conduct" here, but there were these two kids hanging around by the swimsuit dryer, and trying to act "cool" by saying the word "gay" as much as possible. One says to the other, wrapped in a towel, "Hey, are you wearing anything under that?" He responds, but I kind of forget what he said. Then I hear "I'm not that gay," and "Dude, that's gay," and "That's so gay."

It got me thinking on a few points. One, I'm glad my school is not like this. At least, not this bad. Second, when did kids get this way? I mean, all there was was a lot of flirting and eating food and hanging with friends. I was happy to see I didn't really know anyone there and that I wasn't really involved with any of the stuff going on there.

So, to wash my brain out, I watched some "Monster Buster Club." Please, never watch this show. It's like Ghostbusters, but they replace everything with "kid-friendly humor" and "kid stars.' It's an animated show about some kids saving the world from aliens. It's also one of those shows with, "Hey everyone, let's get out our super-high-tech-awesome-wristwatch-communicator-computer-text-message-receiving-GPS-device!!!" And of course, all the same cliches repeat themselves. "Oh no, some snooty kid started lying about me!" "Oh no, these cool new massage chairs I bought for the school are attacking us all!" Oh no, because of my broken leg, I can't catch up to you guys! Go on without me!" "No, a team never leaves a friend behind!" And don't forget the all important weird jokes only 8-year olds would understand. "Let's go pour slime in his ears!" "Oh, that's not how you great a leader on your planet?" Yeah, because on their planet, everyone takes time out of their day to go buy some slime and pour it down some guy's ear canal.

And for my friend Josh out there, this is for you. "Accelaratronininators."

Clothes with Weird Names

Here's something to think about. What's with boxer shorts? Do boxers really wear plaid pants that are paper thin? And tee shirts. I thought golfers wore polo shirts. And do polo players wear polo shirts or tee shirts? And jeans? Were they named after someone named Jean? And what is khaki, a Japanese word?

Super Bowl Sunday

First of all, don't forget to read my first post on my Restroom Ratings blog.

Anyway, surprise, surprise, I'm blogging about the Super Bowl. Ha ha.

Super Bowl Sunday is a tradition in many households where we party, watch TV, and laugh.

Party:
Food. Food food food food food. One of my favorite aspects of the Super Bowl is that we get to eat a whole lot of greasy, fatty, favorite foods. Chips, soda, little wieners on toothpicks... Good stuff.

Watch TV:
The game, of course. Stealers or Cardinals? I choose Cardinals.

1. My mom would kill me otherwise.
2. Kurt Warner, who used to be one of the Rams, pwns.
3. The Cardinals used to be our football team, until we would build them a new stadium. So, after they packed up and left, we got the Rams and built them a new stadium. :P

I'm not much of a football person, so I don't have any favorites. I just choose Rams because they're our home team. So, yeah. Baseball's my fav.

Laugh:
No, none of that "get together, friends and family" stuff. I'm talking about commercial marketing. That's right, TV advertisements. No Ad on during the Super Bowl is every serious. They're always funny, or at least try to. I remember last year, the only time I would take a break from my homework was to watch the commercials. This year, thankfully, I have no homework. Yay!

So, that's about it. Anyone know who's playing at Halftime this year?

Bathrooms, Blogs, and Snow

First off, I'm starting my Bathroom Blog again. With my new phone, it's easier to remember the pros and cons.

Also, I'd like to show off this blog. I love it.

Anyway, now onto our main topic: Snow and their Days... Get it, Snow Days? Ha ha hab bla blar blarhhg.gg...

Ok, so Snow Days. Everyone loves 'em, but I just want to share a few things for those who don't know. Too many snow days mean too many school days. See, the school sets a limit on how many snow days we have before they pool those over to the end of the year. If we have a cap of 5, and we get 7 snow days that year, then we would get +2 days of school.

Also, snow doesn't matter. Temperature doesn't matter. It's all about ice. No one cares if there's snow on the ground, we're still going to school. It doesn't matter all that much about the kids but the commute. If it's dangerous for the buses to leave the lot, let alone the kids leave their house, then let the fun begin. But just because you can see your breath or see snow on the ground doesn't mean you should stay home.

I know you're not stupid, but I just thought I might let you know.
Hey kids! Flush those ice cubes, wear those PJs backwards, and sleep on those spoons!

Cell Phone Features

I'm getting a cell phone today, so I'm writing today about cell phones and their features.

Now, I understand, some parents are fond of all the features, but I like a lot of them...

Camera with flash
SMS/Texting
Full size keyboard
Not so cluttered menus
Good memory
Video capture support
Internet
Touch Screen

So, examples of a good phone? This one, and this one. Bad phones? This one and this one.

Why? Well, let's see.

So, the goods are that they're all touch screen. I've seen the interface on those, and they are amazing. Plus, camera? Check. Keyboard? Check. Internet? Check.

The bad ones? Look at the first one's screen. It's not touch, and the menu stretches throughout the whole page, making it look extremely awkward. As for the second one, it tries to fit a full size keyboard on a regular size phone. BIG no-no. I'm not a big fan of frontal keyboards.

(Don't even get me started on the Jitterbug...)

The other thing that freaks me out is the price. I know a lot of you guys that have the LG Rumor. If you didn't pay for service (which means you pay full price) the cost is $160.

EDIT: Just letting you know I got my phone. It's a Samsung Blackjack II smartphone. It was only $30, and is the same as my Dad's.

Presidential Inauguration and Obama - The Sensation That... Well...

Don't call me racist. Don't call me mean. Don't call me stupid or ugly or republican just because of this post. I'm not a big politician, I'm just typing "What I Think..."

Ok, so, presidential inauguration. Traffic, do-overs, and Purple Tunnel survivors. People called, and still call, this the most inspiring moment of our nation's history. Why? Again, don't get me wrong, a black president is cool and all, but does it really mean that the country should go crazy over it? I mean, when George W. Bush or John F. Kennedy was inaugurated, were they over hyped?

And what about the whole election thing? I mean, now, you can buy Obama trading cards, Obama bobble heads, albums with 49 songs about Obama, even an Obama Chia Pet! I mean, seriously! This is just too overhyped!

(Comments, anyone?)

Sarcasm II - A Way to Show You Care minus the Actual Effort

First of all, read the post about Sarcasm ("New Stuff and Sarcasm) before reading this (Part II)

My dad suggested there be an emoticon of some sort that show sarcasm, and I thought that was a great idea. There are some others, such as a :P, but there should be one directly related to sarcasm.

So, here's my challa- Sorry, let me start over.

ITLTDIMS CHALLENGE!!!
(I'm Too Lazy To Do It Myself Challenge)
BTW, you pronounce it "Ittle-T-Dims."

Anyway, I need you to come up with an acronym, emoticon, or keyboard art that symbolizes the use of sarcasm. And it can't just be your pet or something. It has to have an actual meaning or something along those line. Wanna give it a shot? Comment on this post, or e-mail me at rct2guy@hotmail.com

EDIT: Apparently, someone has the same idea. I'll convey some of their ideas.

" I’ve always been fond of the *snerk*. I picked it up years ago back in the days of fandom mailings lists, and it’s stuck ever since. I have been known to actually say “snerk” to people in real life.

For example: Man, Toby, the background to your website is so bright that I can’t read any of the text. *snerk*" -Johanna L. Gribble


"The most common one I’ve seen is /sarcasm at the end of the sarcastic remark. Similar to the /sarcasm/ tag, but without HTML problems." - Sarah Miller


"I’ve been thinking about this lately as well. Most of my comments are made with a smirky smile on my face, and I think that humor or jest is being lost in the reading. Most times I just use a smilie, to say I’m not being serious about this (but then I also use it to say I’m happy about something). Sometimes I use the wink smilie ;), or if it’s self deprecating, the off kilter smilie :\." - Steve Buchheit

"Sometimes people don’t pick up on my sarcasm in real life, either. I do like this idea though, and I hope we can find one and start spreading it through emails everywhere!

Does this mean anything yet? It looks kind of smug, but maybe it’ll do for sarcasm too:

:-\

Or perhaps this, which is a bit more deadpan, like my usual delivery:

But I bet those are taken already." -Eugene

"I mostly use the wink smile, too: As if I’m denoting a joke, see? But I also like *snerk*. I tend to be sarcastic almost all the time, though, so I really should have a tag that designates when I’m not *snerking*. That’d probably look like / which seems too complicated." - Rachel

"The smiley was intended to convey sarcasm. At least it was according to it’s inventor.

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~sef/sefSmiley.htm" - Chris

New Stuff and Sarcasm

First, just wanted to say that I'm planning on making more frequent posts, probably every day. I'll try it out first, and see if I like it. Second, I'm thinking about making a podcast. I'm not exactly sure what it would be about (Reading the blog, an expanded blog, or video game reviews.) I'll let you know if I get around to anything.

Anyway, today's post is on Sarcasm and people that try to use it.

Today, I was on a forum, and I was on a thread, discussing how a game should be improved. In this game, called Animal Crossing: City Folk, you have a chance of getting stung by bees. Well, this person though the bees should talk to you to alert you that they are coming after you, so you could take cover or whatever. I thought this was just a horrible idea. So I told them no, and I told them why. Well, not to long after, they reply and tell me "Gosh, I was just being sarcastic!!!1!!"

Which brings us back to our main point here: There are people that can use sarcasm and people who can't. Let's discuss another example, my sister.

This is a common argumentative discussion I have with her a lot, and we never really get anywhere. Today, I came back from school, and she was on her computer, writing an e-mail. She let me read it. It basically said that she was moving to Dallas, Texas and that she would only come back for her birthday. About 7 lines down, however, she tells her friends that she was just kidding. And this isn't the first time.

Many times has she just told anyone, and I mean anyone, that she hates them. Then she just sits there. This is exactly what she did to my grandma. I mean, imagine telling your grandparents or aunt or something that you hate them, and then just stair at them for a few seconds before they say something. How bad is that?

That is an example of bad sarcasm. Now, for you people that ask, "Well stuck-up-so-and-so, how do you propose we use sarcasm, HMMM?" Well, my main point here is you have to make sure of two things: That you make it abundently clear that you are using sarcasm, and that you use it with the right people, just in case there is a misunderstanding.

So, there you have it. Two good examples on how not to use sarcasm, plus a guidline. Of cource, this is "What I think..." so take this all with a grain of salt, but just know that I told you next time you're yelled at. :P

Nintendo DSi

(This post goes out to you Michael.)

For those of you not into the gaming industry, or tend to ignore facts stated by your friends, I'm here to help you learn about the Nintendo DSi.


Announced on October 1st, the DSi boasts many new features.

• 3.0 Megapixel camera on outside


• 0.3 Megapixel camera on inside hinge


• Built-in web browser


• Pictochat with more features


• Nintendo DSi Shop


• Better speakers


• Power button


• And probably some other stuff.
  
  The DSi will have apps, kind of like how the Wii has channels. The Pictochat will also have enhanced features, such as rainbow drawing.
  
  It's rumored (like, just today) that the DSi will ship June 17, and sell for $179.99. More information as I run across it.
  
  (Sorry about the picture. I can't fix it, but if you click on it, it will send you to where I found the picture. You can also click on the link to the right that says "Nintendo DSi" to get a better view of the picture.)

Revised Information:
The DSi was released on November 1st in Japan, April 2nd in Australia, April 3rd in Europe, and April 5th in North America. It sells for $170 and comes in black or a baby blue in North America, and black and white in other areas. It includes a camera, SD card slot, power button, three lights (wireless communications, charging, and power,) volume buttons, and not a GBA slot. Built-in applications include Pictochat (which includes a rainbow color) image editing software, music editing software, DS Download Play, and access to the Nintendo DSi Shop, which lets you buy and download more applications for your DSi (such as a web browser or new WarioWare game.) If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment. If you need more information, check out this YouTube playlist I made.