RagingBull888's blog

Well, I was one of the many who helped Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (PotC) beat many box office records over the weekend. It certainly was the most enjoyable summer movie I have seen this year, even though it was by far the longest. The thing that impressed me the most about the movie was the action sequences. There were some extended bits of action that really kept you involved despite how long they were progressing. I give high kudos to whoever came up with those innovative scenes.

It is hard to believe I have actually written 20 of these. Sure, some folks pepper their blogs almost every other day with a little snippet and some folks post a nice sized blog every now and then but I have tried to make this a weekly entertaining reading experience. On that note, I would like to point out that the last (seemingly) major summer movie is going to be released this Friday; the movie of course is Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. The first PotC movie kind of snuck up on me.

This should be a less contentious issue of the Bull Pen, mainly because I have found much joy in Halo 2 since the last issue. The reason for such joy is the latest update to the matchmaking play list. Two major new lists have become instant favorites and offer me a great chance to one again feel comfortable going into matchmaking on my own or with my clan mates. The first list that I must mention is BTB Slayer, which is an unranked list that was split off from the original Big Team Battle.

After a two week hiatus from playing Halo 2, I jumped back into the swing of things last Friday during clan night in order to once again unleash another round of Battle Royale on the OMM. Over the course of the evening and the next evening, it was clear that time off does not help you one bit; the layoff even made me a bit more hostile than I normally am since I came back looking for an enjoyable evening (which for me usually involves being a solid team player and contributor with a positive KpD ratio) and had a couple of experiences that had me screaming obscenities into the headset.

Well, on Sunday the 11th, I returned from my first vacation in almost a 1 and ¾ years. The destination was the host site of the 1996 Olympics, Atlanta. I mainly chose the destination because of a new B&M roller coaster that was being built at Six Flags over Georgia. However, numerous other attractions, such as the Georgia Aquarium and World of Coca-Cola appealed to both me and my wife as well. We drove down on Wednesday and drove back on Sunday, in both cases, arriving at our destination between 4:30 and 5:30.

Well, vacation week is here for the Bull and that can only mean one thing: riding roller coasters. My vacation is not completely revolving around roller coasters but a new roller coaster is the reason for my destination. I am visiting the city of Atlanta from the 7th through the 11th and the new coaster Goliath at Six Flags over Georgia is the star attraction. Of course, I will not be spending all my time at the amusement park; on the contrary, my wife and I also plan on visiting the other new big attraction in Atlanta, the Georgia Aquarium.

One of my more anticipated summer movie releases opened over the weekend and I managed to catch a Sunday matinee. I will start off my comments about X-Men: The Last Stand (hereafter referred to as X3) by stating that I used to read comic books so I have some idea of how a comic book generally operates. It really helps to have read comic books in the past to appreciate the pacing of X3 because the movie takes on a comic book style plot structure, as opposed to a more traditional movie structure.

It is semi-depressing to be a Halo 2 player and member of the Old Man Mafia right now; especially if you are one of those folks who are unable or unwilling to own an XBOX 360 right now. I say that because a good chunk of the clan has become enamored with the various multiplayer games of the 360. They have set aside half the week for various 360 related activities while leaving one night of the week set aside for Halo 2 action. In fact, some of them do not even play Halo 2 unless it is Friday.