Later today, I'll be taking our spiffy new vacuum cleaner for a test drive and see how that thing performs. Oddly enough, I like vacuum cleaning and always have since I was a kid. No idea why ....

We're also going on the hunt for a wireless router so we can hook up the Apple TV box (barely bigger than an iPod) and see how Netflix streaming works on the HDTV.

Entertainment-wise, currently reading Killer Elite (history of the US Special Forces), we watched NCIS, Justified, and Hell's Kitchen while playing Vindictus and Super Scribblenauts (not as easy as we thought it would be).

Hurray, it's Friday already! Bagel Friday and the weekend on the horizon: a winning combination!

Yesterday was quite a good day. I got to hang out with the fine folks over at Nexon, who showed me all about the forthcoming updates on Vindictus. The North American version is running about 10 months behind the Korean version, so it's very promising that there is already a bunch of game content just waiting to get localized. Thanks to Yi Eun-Seok from the development team for putting up with all my fan boy questions!

We also received our AppleTV, so this weekend we'll go hunting for a wireless router so that we can start streaming all our video/music content to the HDTV in the living room. Sweet!

Our summer is really arriving late this year. It's fall, and the weather hasn't been this hot all summer, save a few days here and there. I'm not complaining; it's just kind of weird.

The pizza fest from the other night kinda blocked our TV schedule, but we rallied back last night with House, Sons Of Anarchy, The Good Wife, Stargate Universe, and Hawaii Five-O. Don't remember much from the latter's original series, but we were pleasantly surprised.

Vindictus is back with an open beta, so everybody can join as long as you are in North America, so I had to check that out. The initial impressions are quite positive. The new areas are different, with more missions, a raised level cap, and increased customization options. Good stuff!

Medal Of Honor has shipped and is in stores. Just to show you how interesting the game is, I've had my copy for a week, installed it, but have yet to try it out. Just saying ...

I've been playing Global Agenda, leveling up my tank, and waiting for Vindictus to launch the open beta so I can reprise my leveling there.

No TV watching last night. We were all ready to dig in when our neighbor invited us over for pizza. A few hours later, it was time to get back to work. Tonight, double duty!

Quiet day yesterday due to some dude named Columbus discovering one country or another. Who knows? Not really observed in our parts (apart from banks and the postal service), but the East Coast seems to think it's a big deal.

Gave us a chance to catch up on Dexter (polished off season 3), some Smallville and Chuck. We finally dipped below the 50% mark on the DVR! Got some catching up to do on Criminal Minds and Leverage, but we might see about that later today. We've also got The Event lying around, and it is said to be catered to people who liked Lost, so it could be good ....

The weekend has flown by in a hurry again, and we didn't even have all that much planned. A relaxing Sunday with lots of Dexter watching, Global Agenda, Titan Quest, and some Bejeweled 2.

I'm still shocked and surprised at how much vacuum cleaners cost. We've had this upright model for about a decade, but I never liked it, so we went shopping around for the canister version. It's a vacuum cleaner, for crying out loud! Every household has at least one, and it doesn't get much more common than that. So why the hell are these things $300 and more? Luckily we managed to get 25% off, but it still rang up as $450. Ridiculous!

So stuffed from last night's dinner! We started off with potato leek soup, foie gras (both seared and terrine version), duck breast, rib eye, all washed down with a few glasses of wine, topped off with coffee and profiteroles. No, we usually don't wine and dine ourselves this way, but this was a special occasion, so a little excess was in order.

We got all our groceries for the week, watched some more Southland, Bones and Supernatural, so tomorrow we can dig into Dexter and Leverage.

Yesterday we finally managed to see Resident Evil: Afterlife 3D, which, unlike big-budget titles like Clash of The Titans, was actually filmed in 3D from the get-go and not tacked on afterward. While it wasn't as visually impressive as Avatar, it was quite good, and the fight scenes were intense. There were also loads of video game references such as Chris and Claire Redfield teaming up, a Jill Valentine cameo, axe man (damn that's a big hammer), mutant dogs and so forth. So far, Paul W.S. Anderson has been doing a good job. While none of the RE movies are going to win Oscars by any stretch of the imagination, they are quite entertaining.

Been playing some Global Agenda and finally starting to enjoy it. I used to have graphical issues with the game (actually with several of the Unreal Engine 3 games), but something must have gotten fixed 'cause lately, the problem has disappeared.

The weekend is upon us! Yay! More time to do nothing. :)

Apart from us going out on a fancy dinner date tomorrow, we have no special plans, so you know what that means: DVR time! Last night we watched an old episode of Southland, two hours of Hell's Kitchen, and the latest episodes of Sons Of Anarchy, Chuck and Castle. Unfortunately, by the time we were done, three new episodes had recorded, so we'll settle for a small dent this time around. We've also been neglecting Dexter, the last DVD of season 3 has been lying around for a week or two, so we'll probably polish that off as well.

Music-wise, we been listening to Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (Beat The Devil's Tattoo is such a catchy tune) and Five Finger Deathpunch (preparing for the upcoming concert). Kind of disappointed that the "new" Soundgarden is nothing but a  collection of old tracks, and I already had the "rare" ones ....

What was supposed to be merely a nap turned into an all-night snooze-fest. What's up with that? Alarm set and everything, all I did was pinch it off. How useless!

Yesterday I watched Jennifer's Body, which wasn't exactly super, but not all that bad either. I'm sure the many make-out sessions and girl-on-girl scenes had some redeeming value. We also watched Glee, House, The Good Wife, and Stargate Universe. At least we had a productive night, I guess ....

The week is only half over, and it's been quite busy already. With the run-up to the holidays, a lot of developers and publishers are having press events to show off their goods, and this week, we've seen Ubisoft's Kinect titles, Kalypso's lineup and Tron. We can talk about some titles, and others are still under embargo. If nothing else, I got a cool Black Ops sweatshirt out of it (thanks, Adam).

With all these press junkets, we haven't been able to watch much on the DVR, but I've checked out an episode of Southland, and we skimmed through Glee and Dancing with the Stars. Oh wait, I wasn't supposed to admit to those last two ....

We just rolled in from a night on the town with our friends from Kalypso, who are showing off a few of their upcoming games today, but more on that later. A great time was had by all, an entire slow-roasted pig was consumed, and we're so stuffed that we vowed to eat no more meat for the rest of the week.

Here's a blast from the past: A new patch for Soldner came out, and out of curiosity, I'm currently reinstalling the game. I used to love playing Soldner, so let's see how well it aged.

Yesterday was kind of a mixed bag. We went to the museum to see the Pixar exhibit, and it turned out that they only allow a limited number of people per day, and they were sold out an hour after opening. While we were there, we decided to check out the rest of the museum, since it happened to be free admission day.

We went to see The Town (bank robbery movie from/with Ben Affleck) which was quite good and very intense. We also watched No Ordinary Family, a new TV series with Michael Chiklis (of The Shield) about a family who gets superpowers. It's very reminiscent of Pixar's The Incredibles.

Then the power went out for a few hours, so it was pitch dark and quiet. It's amazing how little there is to do without electricity these days ... well, except going to bed and sleeping.

We had quite the busy day yesterday. We had to make a postal run, stop by the FedEx office to ship off two huge packages, had a haircut, got our groceries for the week, watched Supernatural, two hours of Fringe and played a bit of Vindictus (waiting for the open beta content on the 13th), some Global Agenda and briefly checked out Dead Rising 2.

Later today, we're going to the Pixar exhibit, see Ben Affleck's "The Town," and then rush home to feast on some slow-cooked ribs, coleslaw and beans in tomato sauce. Tasty!

The weekend is off to a good start with four hours of Hell's Kitchen (my goodness, that Raj dude is a whack job!) and two hours of Sons Of Anarchy (good stuff). Maybe later, we'll scratch off a few more episodes (itching for some Fringe), so unlike our failed attempts of last week, we might actually make a dent in our backlog.

This weekend will also feature a cultural outing, as we are taking a trip to the local museum where they have a Pixar exhibit, so it shouldn't be too horrific.

I've been playing Darksiders and having fun with it, and I've also played some more Vindictus before they end the closed beta. I reached the level cap a little while ago, but mat farming is always fun, and we still gain points to upgrade skills.

It's official: We're loosing the battle with the DVR. We watched NCIS, Castle and The Good Wife last night, and by the time we were done, there was more on it than when we started. It's time to admit that we have a problem. We're slackers, and we need to step it up!

Out of my new game acquisitions (Lara Croft, Darksiders, Dead Rising 2), I have checked out the first two and am enjoying the Tomb Raider spin-off. It's a somewhat old-school, top-down action game that's not too complicated but fun. Darksiders is obviously a console port. It's visually passable, and they've done a good job in making the controls work, but it's mainly the premise and story that are of interest here.

Not quite sure what we are going to do this weekend. There's Guitar Hero: Warriors Of Rock to play, a multitude of new games have arrived, and there's a DVR full of TV series. My goodness!

We watched some House, Chuck, Supernatural, and Stargate Universe (yay), and there's plenty more like The Good Wife, The Event, and so forth.

It seems our concert drought has ended as well. Godsmack, Five Finger Death Punch and Drowning Pool are in town for a concert, so you can bet we're going to be there. What a lineup! There is also the Bridge School Benefit with acoustic sets from Pearl Jam, Billy Idol, Elvis Costello, Kris Kristofferson and a slew of others.

It's a good thing we don't mind working in the middle of the night because with this heat, it's about the only comfortable time of the day. Luckily, the weatherman is anticipating things will cool down by end of the week.

Lots of games coming out this week, and there probably won't be any slowdown for the next month or two as we gear up for the holidays. It's a good time of the year to be a gamer, although it's killer on the budget. I'm currently installing Dead Rising 2, Darksiders, Lara Croft And The Guardian Of Light, as well as Chaos Rising, a somewhat older Dawn of War 2 expansion.

Wow, what a warm day that was yesterday, and it's said to be even hotter today. Summer's over, and it seems the hottest days are yet to come. Weird.

Due to our drink-fest Saturday night, we did not get up until noon, which kind of messed up our schedule for the day (sorry, Adam), and we scrambled to get our dinner prepped.

Dead Rising 2 is coming out this week, so I'll be checking the PC version when it arrives, and if there's some spare time, I'd love to have a look at Alien Breed 2. I've always loved the Team17 games.