Our favorite day of the week has arrived again, my gaming PC is running smoothly, and we have no plans for tonight. That means it's DVR time! Last night we watched Castle and Bones, and maybe later today, I'll squeeze in Repo Men.

Later this weekend, we may bust a few moves in front of the TV now that a few more games for the Kinect have arrived.

I've always been a big fan of the Stronghold titles, so I downloaded the Stronghold Kingdoms open beta and will be checking it out.

Most of yesterday was spent re-installing Windows on my gaming machine. It had started freaking out a few days ago up to the point where I couldn't install any new games because they would always error out. After fiddling with it for a few hours, I decided to rough it and format the damn thing and start with a clean slate. Putting a fresh Windows install on a computer is the easy part, but re-installing all your programs, games, and updates with the need to reboot a hundred times — now that's the real chore.

Yesterday we got a new governor, and today, we got a new mayor. Out with the old, and in with the new. Our previous mayor gave himself a 100% raise, only to have to admit shortly afterward that he owned a bunch of money in back taxes and ran the city into the ground. Exemplary job there, buddy.

Yesterday was all about politics. Not only did California's Supreme Court have a hearing about the Schwarzenegger vs. EMA case (lots of discussion but no clear decision yet), but the Terminator's terms as governor have also ended, and his successor has been elected. We've actually met the incoming governor not too long ago at a local pub where he was drinking beers in sweats after hitting the gym. Not bad for being 72, I'd say.

Vindictus is down for maintenance, which oddly enough will take 11 hours, so I played some Global Agenda and World Of The Living Dead, a new Zombie MMO/strategy game that is currently in beta testing. So far, it's captivating.

We just came back from the Godsmack, Five Finger Death Punch and Drowning Pool concert. The turnout was a bit smaller than anticipated, but with the SF Giants still in the running for the World Series championship, I guess a lot of people stayed home to watch the game on TV. (SF Giants won, btw.)

Either way, it was a good show. Surprisingly, Drowning Pool opened ahead of FFDP. The lineup order was fine by us, since we were mainly there to see them anyhow. While Godsmack is a little more subdued compared to the opening acts, their performance was top-notch with lots of video footage, lasers and other gizmos. The highlight of the evening was when the lead singer got on a second drumset. Jolly good show!

Tomorrow, California's Supreme Court will decide whether electronic games — like films, books and every other form of art and entertainment — are protected by the Constitution's insistence on freedom of speech. As soon as there is an update on the Schwarzenegger vs. EMA case, we will report on the matter, as the result will define whether video games are protected by the Constitution.

On a more everyday matter, we managed to not do anything today, so we had plenty of time to watch a few episodes of Hawaii Five-0, No Ordinary Family, The Losers and the 1934 black & white classic, It Happened One Night.

We did most of our errands yesterday just so we won't have to leave the house today ... sweet! While we're baseball fans, neither the Giants nor the Rangers are of any interest, so the World Series is not really on our radar. It's funny to see all these people sporting crispy new t-shirts and jerseys just because it's the thing to do. Proud to be Angels fans for the past 20 years!

Later today, we'll put the AppleTv to some good use and watch a bunch of movies and TV series. We're pretty much caught up on all things DVR, apart from a slew of Caprica and Criminal Minds episodes we've been accumulating. Maybe we should dig into those ....

Hope you have a safe and happy Halloween!

We kicked off the weekend in style! We stuffed our faces with delicious food, plopped ourselves on the couch and watched John Stewart's Daily Show (with President Obama) and Supernatural. Prior to that, I hopped and skipped from one game to another, checked out Dogfighter, Vindictus, Medal of Honor multiplayer and Global Agenda, but nothing could really hold my attention for more than 30 minutes. Not sure why ...

Tonight, we have a dinner date with some friends, and we're in charge of making cupcakes for dessert. Tasty!

Monday's going to be a rockin' evening, as we're going to go see Godsmack, Drowning Pool and Five Finger Deathpunch. Better not be calling on Tuesday because I won't understand a word you'll say.

Vindictus launched earlier this week, and I was hoping for some new content beyond a new character. While it is good for new players, the game is currently filled with new mages. I can't to be bothered with starting a third character just to find out what she's all about. Playing through the game another time isn't any fun.

Props to Nexon for addressing the token issue that had the community up in arms (they raised the count from 100 to 150 and added an extra reset date mid-week), but I was hoping for some new missions, weapons, armor, etc.

There is still the huge question of what the guilds will be able to do; for now, all you can do is invite people to join your guild, but nothing else. It would be nice to get more details of what we can expect — perhaps some hints at some sort of PvP, if there will be any at all. I'm starving here...

It seems we are having on issue with the "Today's Big Story" feature. For some reason, it picks one/the first article and gets stuck. We'll be looking into that and get it fixed ASAP.

Somebody slipped me a dose of the sleepies last night, and it kicked my royal behind. Hope I didn't snore too loudly ....

If you are a fan of music games, you must be having a field day or making a tough decision about which game to play. Among the games that have shipped recently are Guitar Hero, Rock Band 3, DJ Hero 2, Power Gig: Rise of the Sixstring, and I'm sure I've forgotten one or two. While we enjoy the game type, we've gotten over the entire craze a few versions ago, and the declining sales numbers indicate that many others feel the same way. Time to stop milking the cow and put her back in the barn; she ran out of milk.

Watched some Stargate Universe, Chuck and Castle, played some Vindictus (new mage character being added today), Global Agenda (Halloween patch with new content coming in a few hours), Medal Of Honor multiplayer, and briefly checked Dogfighter, an arcade flight game that made me think of Crimson Skies.

This week should be another good one for new games. With Zombies in Red Dead Redemption, Fable III, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2, The Sims 3, Shaun White Skateboarding, God of War on the PSP, there's something for everybody on every platform.

If I get some free time, I'm inclined to boot up the X360 and pop in Fable III and quickly give it a spin, so I can get a taste and decide whether or not I want to wait for the PC version.

In case you hadn't noticed yet, we're giving away copies of Halo: Reach, complete with a Recon armor DLC code and an exclusive Mountain Dew/Doritos, "Honor the Code" Halo: Reach promotional box.

I was afraid of this, but I had a sneaking suspicion when I went to bed that the cold and rain had seeped into my bones. Getting up yesterday was a bit of a drag, so we decided to bundle up, hunker down, and not leave the house (aside from getting groceries).

The upside of that is that we had plenty of time to clean up the DVR, and we're down to a historic 40% after watching Chuck, NCIS, Supernatural, Castle and House.

I kind of felt sorry for the people attending the Bridge School Benefit concert today, as rain came down in buckets all day long. I can only image how nasty the lawn area must have looked today after 25,000 people trampled it into a muddy mess yesterday. Yikes!

Kicking off this week in style, we have a new contest with some sweet Halo: Reach, Mountain Dew and Doritos goodies.

We just rolled  in from the Bridge School Benefit concert, and without a doubt, the highlight of the evening was Pearl Jam and Billy Idol, with the low point being Kris Kristofferson, although in his defense, he was supposed to play with Merle Haggard, who fell ill and canceled. Either way, it was a good time, even though it started raining a few times, but we came prepared with a tarp and plastic sheeting, so everybody stayed dry.

Later, we're going to run some errands, possibly meet up with Adam, or maybe get a case of the lazies and plop in the couch and watch stuff on the DVR. We'll see how we feel when we wake up...

Later today, we are off to the Bridge School Benefit concert, where a slew of artists will perform acoustic sets, such as Pearl Jam, Elvis Costello, Billy Idol, Elton John and many others. They are still predicting rain, albeit mostly on Sunday, so let's hope we luck out and stay dry.

Last night we watched a few more episodes of The Event, and it's intriguing so far. Each episode ends with a cliff hanger or something unfolding that makes you want watch more. It's a good sign that the series will keep you coming back for more.

Music-wise, Avenged Sevenfold, Superjoint Ritual and Lamb of God have been in the queue.

The weekend is upon us, and we are getting ready for an open-air concert this weekend. The weather has been sketchy for the past few days, and rain is expected. We've decided to buy some plastic sheeting  in case it starts pouring on Saturday. The funny thing is that the venue frowns upon smokers (I light the occasional Marlboro), but getting baked on weed is perfectly acceptable.

Last night we watched some more Smallville, Sons Of Anarchy, The Event, and No Ordinary Family. If we get time over the weekend we may  check out a movie, like Red or Life as We Know It.

While playing the open beta of Vindictus, we came to the conclusion that the game is overpriced for a free-to-play game. Although you can play the game for free and there's no sign-up fee, purchase or subscription needed, it relies heavily on "tokens" to take the ferry to instances. Twice a week, you are given 50, with each ride costing you 2 to 5 tokens, depending on how much you play. Once those tokens run out, it starts getting really expensive, really fast.

While 50 tokens may seem like a fair amount, anybody playing a few hours per day will easily run out that very same day. One of the ways Nexon is monetizing its game is by selling platinum tokens, at 50 cents per token, so only taking 1 extra boat trip per day will cost you $15 a month. Sorry, Nexon, but that's just outrageous!

Oops, I did it again!

We watched (Weeds, Smallville), we ate, and we slept.

It's good to sleep now and then, I hear.

And here we go again, kicking off another week in style.

The world is full of surprises. Jackass 3D earns more money than RED with major stars like Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman and Helen Mirren (known for  The Queen and  Elizabeth I). Even worse, it might break the record for highest-grossing October opening of all time. Don't get me wrong; we will most likely go see it at some point, but wtf? :)

We bought a new wireless router (Linksys E3000) and set everything up. Our AppleTV is working like a charm, with no hassle whatsoever.

The weather has cooled down considerably yesterday, so we didn't feel so bad about staying in and hunkering down in front of the TV. Watched some Justified and Bones, tested our brand-new vacuum cleaner (awesome!) and played a whole lot of Vindictus. I also managed to play through Medal of Honor, and while it's somewhat short, the experience turned out to be quite pleasant, including the rather touching ending.

We ran some errands but didn't get around to checking on a wireless router for our AppleTV gizmo, so we'll have to take care of that later today.