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Let the Marketing Begin… Gamestop recently put Pre-Orders for Xbox360 on their online shopping site. At different price ranges, and struck internet gold as the initial offer crossed the globe and ended up on many key websites. They hoped lightning would strike twice, by doing it again with a $2000 bundle, featuring most/all of the launch titles.

They must either think people are utter morons, and would “want” every single launch title. Just think for a moment, consider ANY game console ever released. Ever. Now, think about that coveted consoles releases titles. How many.. were actually worth playing? How many were worth buying?

That’s what I thought.

Pretty shameless, that Gamestop would put such an utterly lame and transparent bundle out there for the masses to snatch up. There is such a thing as morals and ethics in business. There is not one executive in their organization that thinks every XBOX360 launch title is worth playing, much less buying.

Trust me.. Microsoft doesn’t think they are all winners either. You won’t see MS pushing every launch title with equal financing and support in their own mags, much less independent trade and scene mags.

Even Xbox Freaks.. with cash to spare.. will not be buying EVERY title.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the $2000 bundle disappears weeks before the launch.  Least EB and others have more modest and realistic bundles, which will sell. EB may not be the greatest place to buy from, but at least they aren’t treating their clientèle as morons and retards with little common sense.

Read the “news” of this event on Xbox-Scene.

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Missed a day.. hope that doesn’t become a regular problem.

Watched the SUMMER SLAM PPV tonight.. was not impressed. Maybe I’m just getting older, but it definitely seems that what once drew me to watch wrestling with a fanaticism reserved for little school girls and their rock idols has now faded into casual boredom relief.

As a youth.. my dad used to take me to Maple Leaf Gardens, to watch the WWWF (yes.. it used to have 3 W’s) every 3 weeks back when WWWF Canada was run by Jack Tunney out of the Carlton Street Office (at Maple Leaf Gardens)
Vince McMahon Jr, then bought/took over the organization, removed a W from the name, and moved forward with some new ideas and dumped his champ of 6 years, with a short plan to have the title bounce eventually to Hulk Hogan, whom they were going to bring back into the company for a second tour.

That second tour.. saw the birth of Hulkamania, and the Rock and Wrestling Connection. With that.. then followed the birth of Wrestlemania and the birth of PPV.  These were the Golden Egg years as I call them. Vince and Hogan, could do no wrong.. 2-3 years with the strap on Hogan, and month after month Hogan wiped the floor with the talent on the roster.

How.. did an industry go from those wonder years, to where it stands today? A single company on top, no competition to speak of, with a dozen or so shows on TV, yet little of it is worth watching. (assuming.. you liked wrestling at all to begin with)

Some people blame the number of PPV’s, the lack of competition, and the fact that the industry went so hardcore in the last 90’s that it’s hard to entertain now with people having such high expectations.

Probably all true.

Check out the 3 big storylines of the PPV.

Eddie Guerrero and Rey Misterio Jr LADDER MATCH for CUSTODY of DOMINIC. Yawn. We were treated to what hopefully was the end of a month long storyline in which these two awesome wrestlers, came up with a story arc on their own, in an effort to getting back on the Marquee matches.  Both wrestlers were at the peak of their careers this time last year. This year, they treat us to a bogus story about family, adoption, and manipulation. I don’t blame them.. both have been shitted on in the last 6-8 months. But this story, is lame, even for wrestling.

Matt Hardy/Lita/Edge Triangle. Lovely, we get 3 minutes of an awesome beat-down. Referee calls the match due to Matt Hardy allegedly unable to continue due to the profuse beating he took. This whole story, is either a real shoot turned work, a work from top to bottom, or some twisted combo. I can’t tell anymore. Bottom line, real or not.. only one person in the trio will benefit, and that’s EDGE. This story, finally gave him something he lacked for 7 years.. a gimmick and a personality.  Nasty girlfriend stealing, cheating on wife, back stabbing friends EDGE.. is a lot more interesting than the pseudo goth vampire goth crap he’s nursed from day one.

Hogan/Shaun Michaels.  Least this had some nice build-up. A few high profile tag team matches, Hogan and Michaels sharing the spotlight. Then blame, the setup for the PPV match.. a super kick to Hogans 50+ year old Jaaw bone and we have the making of probably the best heated buildup this year. So what went wrong with this match? Shaun had agreed to the match, and started promoting it before details were inked. That screwed him good. Hogan, has full creative control, and used it to shoot down any ideas submitted by HBK. The result, Shaun Michaels was pissed off at the onset of the match, over-sold ever Hogan classic move.. did the job for Hogan that night. Monday night rols around, and HBK used his on-air time live to basically say Fuck-You to Hogan.

So.. with those 3 carrying the PPV.. it’s not hard to see why wrestling isn’t what it was 5, even 10 years ago. It just has nothing new or interesting to offer.. feuds have no time to build.. and gimmicks.. rarely have time to mature.

So.. as more people tune into Nascar and Monday Night Football.. more and more people tune out Monday Night Raw, and Thursday Smackdown. The end isn’t near, as Wrestling is timeless, and it will adjust and downsize to survive.

It’s just not my cup of tea anymore.

Time to download some Family Guy Movie I was just told about. Maybe some ECW oldschool stuff as well. I’m done with today’s shit.

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With only 2 articles under my belt.. it’s nice to be getting feedback already. Later down the road I might open this up to allowing people to post feedback here. For now though.. I’m procuring this entirely in MS Word. I’ve never made any claims to be some sort of Web design wizard.

I won’t dazzle you with animated banners, or slick audio mouse-overs. Just some daily thoughts from the Blue Bastard to his friends, fans, and enemies.

It’s hard to believe that some people can even be considered enemies. Enemy, is a pretty strong word to describe people I don’t even really know.  Not sure what word would apply to people who are repeatedly banned from the site.  Moron or twit comes to mind.

How do I begin to describe some of these twits? Many.. nay.. most.. start out simple enough. Some new, or worse.. long term users of the site (Xbox-Scene.com) commits the ultimate sin, and break one of the million commandments (rules). So.. I do what little I can do.. and drop the ban-hammer on them.

What follows.. is one of two things. Some.. the smart ones.. simply make a new account, with a new name, don’t advertise who they are and go about their lives. Then.. you get the other half.. who feel they have been slightest. Worse.. they feel they have some in-alienable right to access the site.

What do they do? They make a new account.. but it doesn’t stop there. Their first public post.. is usually to say FUCK YOU XS, HSD, or the moderator(s) of their choice. If anyone noticed that.. then the ban-hammer drops again.

Account number 3 usually gets made.. now of course.. our pissed off little twits usually threaten to own the board, and will continue to make new accounts. In a word.. YAWN!

What they fail to realize, is that for the staff and admin, it take but 2 clicks to close their account. It take more than that just to type in their new names on their accounts. What they also don’t understand.. is that accessing XS, or any site, is a privilege, and not a right. More so, their perceived notions of “Freedom of Speech” are a misguided pile of crap fed to them by generations of their governments. They actually think.. that in their country where this notion is spoon fed to them as a child, that it actually exists.

It doesn’t. Government and Industry and other selected interests control everything they see, read, and say. Good luck expressing yourself in a major publication and saying exactly what you want. You can’t, as the hierarchy of interests will control, manipulate, and spin anything that they attempt to put forth. Freedom of Speech?  Editors, Head Editors, Senior Editors, Media Company Policy Makers, Owners, Share Holders, Local, Municipal, State/Provincial, and Federal Laws all ensure, in the end.. you don’t get to speak your mind.

Freedom of Speech, is a great sounding idea, and in an ideal world, could prove very interesting. However, we don’t live in an ideal world.  People don’t actually want to hear anything and everything someone else has to say. In reality.. if an idea differs from one you yourself have, many will tend to ignore it, tune it out.. and in extreme case call you names or bully you to shut you up. That is the reality of Freedom of Speech. Good luck with your rights, when someone one the streets is two feet from your face expressing their freedom of speech in your face. You can’t stick your fingers far enough into your ears to shut them out.

Back to how this relates to XS..

Why people waste my time.. or that of my staff.. reminding us of their right to freedom of speech is laughable. Nay.. absurd.  Most countries, have the same or similar rights of expression. But some, take their belief in Freedom of Speech to extremes. What’s funnier.. is that the only time they give a crap about the law, or their rights, is when someone has “taken” their perceived rights away.

News flash morons, if you want to actually pretend to give a shit about your rights.. try voting in a public election in your country. Try getting involved in any of the accessible levels of government.  In case you haven’t noticed, the country who touts Freedom of Speech the most, has lost more rights in the last couple years than every other nation on the planet combined.

So, the next time you want to whine and bitch about your “rights” on a web site, you don’t own, run, or even really contribute to, take a step back, remember that’s it’s just the internet, and think about what you are saying.  In case I haven’t said it enough times before.. XS.. is run by 1 European and 2 Canadians.  It’s not an American site.. it’s an English site. There is a difference.

Expressing my right to Freedom of Speech…

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HANK, The Angry Drunken Dwarf, (Hank Nasiff Jr.) passed a while ago (September 4th, 2001) but the legend lives on. He died at age 39, which is pretty good for someone with Dwarfism. He was 95 Pounds.. and likely a lot of that was liquor and beer.

Hank first appeared on Howard Stern Radio Show in August of 1996, and entertained as he continued to get more and more drunk during the broadcast. His answers to Howard’s Questions and replies and comments on jokes became more and more belligerent.

For more fun info and facts about Hank, including some of HIS thoughts and poetry over the years, check out his Official site @ www.hankthedwarf.com

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You may or May not know who I am, but after a few weeks or months of reading this web blog you will.  I don’t even know what a Web blog is.. I’m too damn lazy to google for it.. but Xantium said I should do one, so here it is.

Allow me to properly introduce myself.

I’m the 32 year old son of a truck driver. I myself, am a forklift operator with almost a decade of experience in that field.  I’ve got a wife, and a 1 year old girl. For shitz and giggles I like to destroy game consoles.. and write reviews.. not necessarily in that order.

Around 3-4 years ago, I “appeared” in the xbox scene.. (no caps) under another name. At the time, I as the only one telling people to not use a popular program called XISO to make xbox game isos.. I was on sites like Xbox-Scene and Hacker.. trying to get the message out there. What ended up happening, was that I bumped heads with the popular existing moderators at that time on both sites.. and got removed from both sites.

Once I was able to show Xantium the truth, he brought me back.. I chose my current name (based from the name of a pirate BBS I once ran.. I’m far more legit now) and I became the first Head Mod on XS.  Shortly thereafter, I decided I would help run XS.. and have been an Admin, News Poster, and Scene Product Reviewer for Xbox-Scene ever since. Given the 3 hats I wear there.. I’m enjoying the Product Reviewer position the most.

I get a lot of great free products.. and I get a lot of garbage. When it comes to reviews.. I’m honest.. sometimes, brutally so. However, when I write, I write for me.. and the fact that any of it goes public.. is a bonus.  When writing a review.. if I find it doesn’t interest or entertain me.. you, the general public, will never see it. Some good.. and bad reviews.. sit archived on my pc.. for that very reason. No one wants to be bored and not entertained.  (you’ll also note.. that I pick and choose when and where to follow proper English grammar and sentence structure.) 

Somewhere after the first year or so.. (on XS) I took to using an avatar.. one of a Midget some of you might know. Fans of the Howard Stern Radio Show (radio and tv) might remember Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf. Well.. that.. is Hank.. and he is he source of the Midgets in my Avatars over the years. My favorite color is blue.. and I tend to Blue Hue everything.. so.. before Hank.. people would call me the Blue Bastard. When I adopted Hank, I naturally became the Blue Midget Bastard.

The name stuck. I like it. It’s better than most of the names people call me.. (asshole, n@zi, sob, back-stabber, etc.)

I’ve recently taken to writing for some sites run by some friends and associates.  GamersReports.com is a new upstart site.. covering in detail a lot of the console scene. I’ve already penned a few Reviews for them to help get them started and exposed. PSP-Spot.com is another, and clearly.. it’s PSP centric. I also write for some other non-underground sites.. but I do that under my own name so you won’t see me listing them here in association with my persona.

Truth be known, I’m at a point where I’m far more interested in writing reviews, and working with the review process as a whole. Taking time, to find new and interesting way to express ideas, and keep a review interesting enough for others to enjoy has revived my interest in the scene.

What can you expect from this page/site? Well.. I’ll try to update at least once per week.. and if it strikes my fancy.. daily. I’ll add any thoughts or comments on the scene, irc, or life in general I feel of interest. At time.. I’ll probably use this page as a sticky board, to throw and sling shit at people who’ve earned it.  I don’t suck up to people.. so don’t expect me to bend over backwards here to give props to people who don’t deserve it.. and I sure won’t use it to suck up.

It’s a virtual guarantee you find links to logs here.. mostly conversations where I outwit.. outthink.. and out survive retards who think they are special on IRC. (hmm.. hope the producers of Survivor don’t read this.. )

This page is uncensored, and will remain so. If you have a problem with what I say on it, feel free to write it on some toilet paper, and use it accordingly.

HSDEMONZ

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