The best holiday present of all

About a week ago I was sent a link from a friend, to summarize, "after 16 years McDonald's is putting the McRib back on the menu nationwide starting November 2nd."

Despite being due to have surgery for, in simplistic terms, you might call a digestive condition I immediately reacted with the same giddy "Oh my God, oh my God" that any other hardcore McRib devotee would. And yes, I'm hardcore here's proof.

So as I sat there starring at my screen in disbelief - after confirming from multiple other news articles, since McRib loyalists have been the victims of many false reports -I anxiously began plotting in my head. I was about to mark the date down in my Google Calendar but then immediately realized how silly that was. Not because the idea of marking the return of the McRib on a calendar is dumb, but because the notion that I may actually forget what day the McRib makes it's glorious return is just plain ludicrous.

This morning I had to vacate the house for a few hours, so I headed over to McDonald's for breakfast and free wi-fi (became reliant on it while driving across the country). While I was walking in I noticed a small window sign, just below the giant "Monopoly is back!" banner. It showed the McRib (and thanks to stupid NY state law the amount of calories per sandwich, 500 in case you're interested). But it wasn't a "coming Nov. 2nd" or "Get ready for the best thing that has happened to you in the last decade, and that includes your marriage" sign. I was cautiously optimistic.

After McDonald's enforced their Stalinish no breakfast after 1o:30am policy, I headed back over to the counter to check out the recently displayed lunch/dinner/everything other than breakfast menu. To my delight it was there. The McRib, even available as a value meal.

What makes this story even better is this - that McDonald's has a 24 hour drive-thru. This calls for a song!

And if you'd like to find a McRib near you, go check out http://www.kleincast.com/maps/mcrib

Batman: Arkham Asylum - Preview

I've been excited about Batman: Arkham Asylum since I first saw screenshots on Gamespot. That was maybe a year ago. The treatment of the characters and the environment looked awesome. A few days ago I got my usual fairly spammy email from Playstation telling me about the new things at the Playstation Store. When I saw a playable demo for B:AA I got excited. Unfortunately, no matter how excited I am about a new game I still have to go to class and this week has been brutal.

Anyway, tonight I finally got a chance to download it and check it out. Uhm, wow. This may be the first PS3 game I buy new - it's that good. I'm anticipating at least an 8.6 rating from Gamespot and probably something in the 8.8 from IGN. Wait that looks backwards, IGN's numbers are usually lower. Whatever, I'm not going back to erase the sentence. Onward with my review.

The combat system looks beautiful - the moves that Batman pulls off are insane - and is incredibly user friendly - point the Bat in the direction of the guy you want to kick the shit out of and hit square. Someone coming up behind you? Back and square. Guy to the right? Right and square. And if some poor bastard tries to sneak up behind you while you're beating one of his friends - hit triangle to unleash a counter attack. Occasionally the camera will zoom in to give you movie quality close up of Batman being more badass than Val Kilmer was (George Clooney was too easy).

Not only is the combat fun but there's a not too forced (at least in the demo) stealth mechanism. It mostly relies on grappling around from parts of the ceiling and using "Detective Mode" to see infrared images of bad guys, wait for them to separate from each other and then take them out one by one. I died a few times during the demo for the same reasons I failed a bunch of times in Metal Gear Solid4, because there are so many options you want to experiment and push your luck. It was fun.

Other things in the demo. Apparently there are "Riddler Trophies" hidden through Arkham. I found 2 in the demo but wasn't enlightened as to what they do. In addition to those trophies you can unlock profiles of all the characters. They're pretty cool and some of the inmates have audio tracks of them being interviewed by the asylum's shrink. I suppose at this point I should mention that the voices are done by the cast of Batman the Animated Series, score!

My only complaint about the demo is that it ends just before the first boss fight. I'm curious to see how boss fights are handled. I'm thinking it may be a bit like how God of War does them, which would be awesome. But that's possibly a bit nit picky.

Batman: Arkham Asylum comes out on August 25th, so a little less than 2 weeks from now. If you've got the disposable income I would pick it up. I don't, and I still might. Marathon game session a few days to beat it and then turn it in. Although I'm sure unlocking all of the character profiles, interviews and extras will take some effort (which I won't initially put into the game) and cause me to hold on to it long past the time when it has any trade-in value. Maybe I can use some birthday money to invest in it. I haven't treated myself to a new game in a while.

Meet the Beat Alls

If you never watched, or up until this point in life had zero interest in watching, the Powerpuff girls, you need to watch the episode, "Meet the Beat Alls". It's just one giant Beatles reference with characters speaking in lyrics and the storyline mimicking the career of the band. I love the concept and it's actually what inspired me to write my biography in lyrics both for my Miami Ad School application and my goodbye email at Google.

Anyway, here's a short clip from the episode to inspire you to watch one of the best written episodes of a TV show ever. (You can find it on YouTube in 2 parts)

Back in the day

Animated shows were both funny and smart. If you were a kid in the 90s chances are you watched one of the brilliant shows produced by Steven Spielberg.