So the big pressers of E3 have passed and just wow. There were quite a few stellar announcements made by all parties. So I suppose the best way to weigh up on them is the order they came out! Since this’ll run way long I decided to split it up into two entries. Here’s Monday’s entry!

First up on Monday was Microsoft. Started off with Call of Duty: Black Ops from Treyarch. Sure, they’re no Infinity Ward (who’s now defunct) but World at War was not a bad game by any means. Definitely looks like a lot of fun if a tiny bit stale. I’m getting all “modern warfare’d” out. Next big thing was Metal Gear Solid: Rising. Now this one got me excited. You play as Ninja Raiden and control exactly how you swing your blade. Pretty much in the style of the Afro Ninja game. Was gory beyond belief but hey you also get to cut fruit! Next up was Gears of War 3. Blah blah more of the same. Will stay play it though cause Im a nerd. 4-player co-op is interesting. Just gotta find 3 other friends who’ll play it with me. Next was a VERY brief clip of Fable 3. Showed some ship to ship action and.. well that’s about it. So far just looks like Fable 2.5.. which isn’t all that bad in my book. After that was a teaser of sword and sandals type game from the guys at Crytek. Definitely worth looking into considering the pedigree of the Far Cry and Crysis franchises. Lastly was some Halo: Reach campaign footage. Sure it got me all hot ‘nd bothered, but again just more of the same. Then they started into all the Kinect bullshit. Tech is extremely interesting but haven’t seen a game yet that just floors me. So far just casual games upon casual games. There was a Star Wars demo with a lighsaber and force powers but the video seemed highly suspect. Will have to wait on that one. And to wrap things up, Microsoft unveiled their new 360 design. Definitely sexy and would buy except for the fact that I’ve still got a working 360. Oh well.

Next up were EA’s and Ubisoft’s pressers. EA started off with New for Speed: Hot Pursuit. LOVED the old NfS’s but have hated the most recent ones with their stupid stories, etc. They’re claim they’re returning to their roots with this one so I’m very hopeful. Gameplay looks pretty awesome too. Next up they demoed the new Medal of Honor’s multiplayer on-stage with a 24-person team deathmatch. They announced DICE, of Battlefield fame, was developing the multiplayer-side of things so that’s definitely a plus. Looked fairly awesome. Sure more Modern-Warfare-esque type stuff, but still fun looking. Skipping over a few boring stuff (sports ‘nd casual) out comes The Old Republic. Not much really announced, just personal spacecrafts, but they did bring a new cinematic trailer to the party and oh my god. About had to change my shorts after watching the damn thing. Sexy sexy sexy. Next was Ubisoft. They started off with a new game from the creator of Rez called Child of Eden. Very trippy. Playable with and without Kinect. Up next was some Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood gameplay. Lovely stuff. Loved AC and AC2, undoubtedly will love this too. Next up was boring Shaun White Skateboarding, “laser tag,’ YourFitness for Kinect, some breathing “game.” Up next was the new Ghost Recon which looked like a cross between Modern Warfare and Splinter Cell. Definitely not a bad thing. Seemed a little less strategic than previous titles but still extremely kick-ass. Next biggie was the reveal of a new 2D Rayman game. His last few 3D outings werent exactly a hit so a return to 2D is much welcome. And that’s pretty much it for EA and Ubisoft.

Overall I was disappointed by these 3 press conferences. Nothing really exciting happened. There was a lot of hand-waving and jumping for Kinect which still has yet to reel me in fully. All they seem to have is casual shit to bring in the families. Where’s the hardcore stuff? Where’s Milo? C’mon Microsoft. As for the hardcore games MS did show, they were all pretty much the next iterations in already established franchises which we already knew about. So there wasn’t really anything to get excited about. The only thing remotely close was MGS: Rising since we hadn’t seen anything on it yet. It was the same for EA and Ubisoft. No real big announcements and just more of the same. Casual stuff and new iterations of franchises. And Ubi definitely dropped the ball with no Beyond Good & Evil 2 news. Made everyone a sad panda. Oh well. At least Day 1 of E3 with Nintendo and Sony pretty much brought everything from Day 0 to shame. But youll have to wait till the next entry to find out!

Yeah, I’ve seen a lot of good movies lately: Iron Man 2, Kick-Ass, How to Train Your Dragon. And then I’ve also seen Nightmare on Elm Street. Would write about them but eh.. it wouldn’t be that interesting. Well maybe Dragon would be but I digress. In case you’re fairly dense, the movie I’m writing about today is Clash of the Titans.

Went into the movie not expecting much. Just knew that it’d be a fairly good action ride. But sadly that was wrong. It was a freakin’ awesome action ride! Sure the story was barely passable, the acting was decent, and the 3D was shit, but man, if you want a good amount of fun, Clash of the Titans is the movie for you! I’d say it rivals Iron Man 2 in that regard.

Hmm.. wow. I guess that’s all I really gotta say about it. Guess it wasn’t an interesting post after all. Fuck it. It’s my website so I’ll write all the mundane entries I want. It’s not like more than a handful of people read this. So yeah, you 6 people, go out and see it.

Wasn’t planning on writing about tonight’s dinner but man, it was so good I just couldn’t pass it up! So I had some leftover Italian sausage that I was planning on making a simple throwaway pasta with some other extra ingredients. After all was said and done, it was probably one of the easiest pasta dishes I had made and one of the better tasting too. Though that may have been the wine talking. I’m not entirely sure yet. Again, wish I had taken pictures but I couldn’t bother trying to coerce my phone into working properly. Instead you’ll have to make due with a stock photo from the internet and your imagination!

Italian Sausage Pasta

Adapted from Peasant Pasta by Rachael Ray

• Olve oil
• 3 Italian sausage links
• 1/2 large onion, rough chop
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 28 oz crushed tomatos
• 1 package fresh basil, torn
• 1 tbsp sugar
• Fresh grated parmigiano-reggiano
• 1/4 cup heavy cream, room temperature
• 1/2 lb fettuccine

First start off with the sausages. Since I prefer things spicy I used hot Italian, but mild also works in this case. Begin by removing the casings from the sausage links. This can be done two ways. Running your knife along the surface of the sausage then peeling the casing off. Or the more fun way, just give the sausage a squeeze in the middle and work the meat out of one end. Repeat with the other half. After all the meat has been liberated, begin breaking it up by hand. If you don’t like touching raw meat or don’t mind a little extra work in the pan, you can skip this step.

Heat up a small amount olive oil in a nonstick pan then drop in the sausage. If you broke it up earlier, you don’t have to fidget with it much. If you didn’t, use a wooden spoon to separate the sausage. Once it’s gotten a nice crust on it, use a slotted spoon to take out the sausage and set aside. If done right, there will be lots of dark (but not burnt!) bits stuck to the pan along with oil secreted from the sausage. This is the where all the flavor is so do not empty the pan!

Drop the onions and garlic into the pan and cook until they’re soft. I had actually run out of garlic so instead I added some garlic powder later on which actually made me a little sad. Once soft, remove the pan from the heat and deglaze with the red wine. I used a 2007 Torres Sangre de Toro my mom had gotten me. Quite delicious and cheap. As the wine is deglazing the pan, scrape around with your wooden spoon to make sure all the brown bits have come off the bottom. Also make sure to pour yourself a glass or two if you haven’t already. Once the wine has reduced by half, mix in the crushed tomatoes and simmer.

After a few minutes of simmering, return the sausage to the pan and add in 3/4ths of your basil. I usually just tear it right over the pan to give it the nice rustic look. Also cause I already washed my cutting board and knife. This is also a good time to add a little bit of the grated parm, garlic powder (if you didn’t have fresh garlic), and the sugar to the sauce. The sugar helps cut down the acidity of the tomatoes. Let the sauce simmer uncovered for about 15 minutes. In the mean time, cook the pasta according to the directions on the box. Make sure the water is well salted!

Once the sauce is done simmering, add in the cream and the rest of your basil. Drop in your pasta, mix well, add more parm, and you’re all set! Sprinkle on some crushed red pepper flakes if you want more heat. Best served with garlic bread and a glass of the red wine you used earlier.

Really loved how it turned out. Will definitely be my go-to dish whenever I want a simple pasta dish.

Super boredom usually leads me to one of two things. The one I generally lean toward is going to the kitchen and cooking something up. But since I didn’t feel like being a fatty today I decided to settle on my second option: pondering. And no it’s not “if the plural of mouse is mice, wouldn’t the plural of spouse be spice?” and other fun Pinky and the Brain quotes. It’s more processing what I want to do with my life. Going over what I’ve done and how I want my future to unfold. A sort of defragmentation of my brain if you will; a nice way of keeping myself sane.

One of the main topics of my think session today was what I’m going to do after school. Sure I may have 2 more years to go, but those years turn into months and months turn into days pretty fast. With just a few more GECs before I get into the nitty gritty world of Food Science, the next two years will fly by. So I’ve got to start thinking about my future. My first priority is to get away from my parents. I don’t mean that in the unloving son sort of way. I just don’t want to rely on them like I do now. I’ll always be a momma’s boy. I just want to be self-sufficient. That means getting a nice stable career. No jumping around from hot bar to cafe to restaurant. I’m hoping my 2 degrees will be extremely helpful in that regard. I was told by my advisor that I’d be a great candidate for heading research and development with big food companies thanks to my culinary degree. But I can’t just rely on that alone. Hard work, perseverance, and all that jazz will play a role too.

My second priority is to get out of the country. Not permanently, mind you. Just for a couple years. Now I’m not talking about backpacking through Europe or volunteering in some third-world country. I’m caring and all, but good luck trying to get me away from civilization for an extended period of time. I’m talking about getting a job in a nice, developed country. The good thing about the food industry is that everyone needs to eat, so it won’t be hard to find work. My primary choices would be Spain, Australia, and Japan; Spain for the food, Australia for the beauty, and Japan for being fucking Japan. Hell if possible I’d like to a few years in all three places.

Lastly there’s the fact of settling down and starting a family. But that one is a little bit more personal so I probably won’t delve into that one here. Plus it’s still filled with way too many uncertainties it’s impossible for me to say exactly what’s going to happen. Even the things I’ve said above can be thrown for a loop by some unforeseen events. Still though, it’s nice to have a vague plan of what’s going on.