1165 - Picks [and results] for WWE Night of Champions 2009
Topic: PPV Predictions

Been a while since I did predictions for a WWE pay-per-view, so why not? Anyway, tonight's gimmick show has all the titles up for grabs in some for or another. Unfortunately, the sad attempt to make all the lower-tier titles relevant fails as none of the title matches are all that interesting, but who knows? I may very well be surprised.

Um, let's start with the spares, shall we?

Note: Results came from Wikipedia... will cross reference with WWE.com later.

Generic Divas Match for the WWE Divas Championship
Maryse (c) vs. Mickie James
For some odd reason, I'm supposed to care about this match. Sure, it's Mickie James and she's the closest thing to a decent wrestler compared to the other Barbie dolls, but on the other hand, it's the Divas title... an ungodly abomination that actually takes the WWE Diva back to the days of bra-and-panty matches, but without any of the fun and titlation that comes with it. Anyway, I'd say Maryse wins the match... only because Mickie deserves better.

Pick: Maryse
Winner: Mickie James
Tally: 0-1

Piss-Break Match for the WWE Women's Championship
Michelle McCool (c) vs. Melina
Yeah, I'm really supposed to care about this match. McCool retains... just for kicks.

Pick: McCool
Winner: McCool
Tally: 1-1

Guess The Mystery Partner Match for the WWE Unified Tag Team Championship
Chris Jericho & A Mystery Partner Big Show (c) vs. Ted DiBiase & Cody Rhodes
No point in guessing a partner - Legacy wins the titles, Jericho beats up the mystery partner and we could care even less about such trivial matters such as unified tag titles that have very little to no focus. Remember when championships used to mean something?

Pick: DiBiase/Rhodes
Winner: Jericho/Mystery Partner (turns out to be Big Show)
Tally: 1-2

We Stopped Being Extreme Long Ago Match for the ECW Championship
Tommy Dreamer (c) vs. Christian (Cage)
I'd say go Tommy retains. If he were to lose the title in humiliating fashion, it won't be to Christian Cage. Sorry, Christian.

Pick: Tommy Dreamer
Winner: Christian
Tally: 1-3

Six-Pack Featuring Guys We Don't Care About Match for the WWE United States Championship
Kofi Kingston (c) vs. Big Show Primo vs. MVP vs. Carlito vs. Jack Swagger vs. The Miz
Please tell me this is a joke... it isn't? Oh... I see. Um, Coffee Kingston retains...

Pick: Coffee Kingston
Winner: Coffee Kingston
Tally: 2-3

One-on-One Contest for the WWE Intercontinental Championship
Rey Mysterio (c) vs. Dolph Ziggler
Ziggler? Seriously? No, Rey retains... if anything, his IC title reign won't be as much of a joke as his World title reign was... oh wait.

Pick: Rey-Rey
Winner: Rey-Rey
Tally: 3-3

One-on-One Contest for the World Heavyweight Championship
CM Punk (c) vs. Jeff Hardy
An interesting scenario - the straightedge champion defending his title against a guy with past drug issues. If there is any good will left in the world, CM Punk is going to walk away from this match as champion and Jeff Hardy is going to fade away for awhile... but even if that isn't the case, we'll at least get a great match out of these guys.

Pick: CM Punk
Winner: Jeff Hardy (I guess winners DO use drugs after all!)
Tally: 3-4

Triple-Threat Cure For Insomnia Match for the WWE Championship
Randy Orton (c) vs. John Cena vs. Triple H... again
Oh gee... a title match featuring HHH. Who will win? Here's a hint: starts with an H, ends with an H.

Pick: HHH
Winner: Randy Orton... surprisingly.
Final Tally: 3-5

And that's it... my picks were way off this time around... will have to do better next time.

1164 - Zero Hour Remastering
Topic: Fanfiction
Began uploading the first few chapters of the new version of Zero Hour, my Countdown To Destruction pseudo-adaptation and concluding volume to a trilogy I wrote years ago. In addition to a couple edits and fixes, there's been a couple major changes to the narrative - notable in a couple chapters.

1163 - From the soapbox: Power Rangers - Hollow Time
Topic: Fanfiction

To make up for the fact that I was supposed to have a wonderful return to fanfiction writing, here's a look back at a possible concept that was eventually abandoned in favor of... something else, like long-term isolation.

Power Rangers: Hollow Time - Part 1

According to the original file, I originally wrote this back in April 2006 and later abandoned it. In all honesty, I sort of cheated here and did a couple quick edits to make it readable. If there's an interest in the story, I might give it another go.

1162 - Because you so wanted it right?
Topic: Writings
As you could probably tell, there hasn't been a Bite commentary in quite some time. Well, the long hiatus is over. I'll be posting one next month and will explain why there hasn't been one in months. It was also go into great depth as to what's been going on with me as of late, because presumably I'll have my answers by then.

1161 - I'm supposed to have posted something today...
Topic: Fanfiction

...but unfortunately, I've been sick and sadly, little time I have not grinding in pain is spent outdoors and doing other interesting stuff. So sadly, no posting.

Oh, don't bitch about it. It's not like I didn't give you a fair warning days ago.

In any case, next week's update will happen - followed by another weekly update... not so sure about the one after - seemed like a good idea at the time, but now it seems stupid on paper, so that won't happen.

So after that quick shot, the next batch of updates (and possibly regular intervals) will happen in October. I'm hoping to get as much material done as possible so that I can possibly keep up.

Don't feel too bad. I'll have something up later tonight to make up for it. Check back soon.

1160 - One week delay - honest
Topic: Fanfiction

As I have mentioned a couple times, I'm pretty sick and in pain. This sick and in pain business is keeping me from getting shit done. As a result, I'll have to push back the postings of the fanfics by one week. So here's the revised schedule:

July 31st, 2009 - Solace: A Zeo Tale
August 7th, 2009 - Turbo: The Final Duel
August 14th, 2009 - Star Trek: Confusion

More to follow... honest.

1159 - Cogs of War BLOG opened
Topic: Fanfiction

Having decided to revive the old Cogs of War concept and having decided upon a fairly easy format to operate on, I've started up a blog exclusively for this project... and yes, it looks cheap and plasticky.

Link's on the sidebar.

1158 - Momentarily better for the moment.
Topic: Rants

Effective pain relievers and herbal teas are helping with my recent episode of torture - and with two weeks off, I'll have plenty of time to get some personal projects done... because I'm apparently not well enough to travel.

In any case, to make up for lack of regular posts, expect a whole bunch of them in a very quick amount of time. Starting... now

1157 - I'm starting to feel like Troi...
Topic: Rants

You remember "Encounter At Farpoint", the pilot episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation? Remember when they're down on the planet and Deanna Troi is suddenly whimpering "Pain! Pain! So much pain!" Remember that?

Yeah, that's what I'm starting to feel like right now.

Pain... so much fucking pain...

1156
Topic: Web Presence News
A bit of an announcement will be coming this Friday. Please stay tuned.

1155 - LoCL Addenndum
Topic: Black Hole Reviews
Just forgot to mention this, but certain copies of the new SF flick will also include a second DVD titled Street Fighter: Round One - Fight!. Supposedly, this is based on the SF comic produced by Udon. I'll probably check this out and give it a review later tonight.

1154 - Review: Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li
Topic: Black Hole Reviews

Oy... just oy...

Okay, I don't know where to start. Really. I just don't.

Contrary to what a lot of people may believe, I actually enjoyed the old Street Fighter flick with Van-Damme. Was it a great movie? Not necessarily, but it was still a fun little action movie with a dose of camp. At the very least, a number of the characters at least resemble their video game counterparts in some form or another.

This... this is just something else...

The Legend of Chun-Li is a basic, cookie-cutter martial arts action movie with a pretty typical plot (girl fights off drug syndicate in order to avenge her father's... kidnapping - weak.) and your usual cookie-cutter action sequences common with kung-fu flicks these days. This is barely a Street Fighter movie - if you were to have changed the title, I probably would have thought it to be nothing more than another wire-fu movie that seems to be the norm with most Asian folks these days, but even at its most bare-bones level, it still manages to be lacking in many different things.

On a sidenote, some of the visual settings featured in the flick are, honestly, quite nice and gives you a nice feel of the cityscape. Sadly, most of the important stuff takes place at night, which really kills the beauty and splendor of many settings.

As a generic action movie, it's a worthwhile moment if you simply turn your brain off. But as a movie based on a popular video game series, it's severely lacking. Practically none of the characters taken from the game remotely resemble the source material and what personalities they do have seems very wooden and not the least bit awe-inspiring. And most of all, there's hardly any Street Fighter-esque fights involved - say what you will about the Van-Damme flick, but at least they were able to translate some moves to live-action celluiod - albeit poorly translated, but hey, they tried. Here, you only get a faintly-subtle Spinning Bird Kick and a fireball. That's it. Weak.

Overall, this just seems like a disappointment for what is supposed to be a reboot of the Street Fighter movie franchise. It makes you wonder why they were bothering to make a movie based on the video game if it's going to have nothing to do with the video game. If you really need your fix of live-action Street Fighter, I suggest tracking down the Van-Damme movie from the nineties instead... or even better, just go online and watch the Street Fighter: Later Years online show. Even that's a better product than this.

AVOID.

1153 - Fanfiction Update - Present Release Schedule
Topic: Fanfiction

Figured I'd get this out of the way before all was said and done...

Here is the present timeline for the posting dates of the various fanfics I am currently planning on finishing and releasing on Fanfiction.Net (and eventually my own site when and if it gets done):

July 24th, 2009 - Solace: A Zeo Tale
July 31st, 2009 - Turbo: The Final Duel
August 7th, 2009 - Star Trek: Confusion

Just to clarify, these are the due dates that I'm aiming for to finish these stories. Once completed, I will be uploading them to the FF.Net page and hopefully, they will be appearing fairly quickly. Seeing as I haven't touched that account in years (literally), I can't say if the story will appear immediately or if there's some delay (presumably so), so I will inform you when you can access these works of fine reading... or not.

And if I absolutely miss the date, I'll let you know on that count as well. Hopefully, it won't come to that... maybe I'll make a deal with...

No. No, I won't go there.

Later.

1152 - Been sick for the past couple days...
Topic: Blog Servicing
Nasty little stomach virus has kept me incapacitated for the better part of a week... so bad I had to miss two days of work which pisses me off to no end, but I'm starting to feel a little better. A trip to the hospital has shown that I'm not suffering from any ulcers, faulty appendices, kidney stones, or any of that fun stuff. I still have to go back for a CT scan, but you know... I'm not going to jinx it. Bye.

1151 - William... oh who cares?
Topic: WTF?!

Trekweb.com has posted an interesting tidbit on why William Shatner (old Kirk) has yet to see the new Star Trek movie. Here's the link for people who actually care...

So the guy wanted to be in the movie, they made a cameo role for him, he shot it down because it wasn't a major part, ended up not being in the movie, and he decides for whatever reason not to see it. And yet he holds out hope that they'll fit him in the new movie? Really?

So why am I wasting my time with this? Furthermore, why is Shatner giving his reasons for not seeing the new movie anything resembling news? Is it really that slow of a news day?

Look, if the guy doesn't want to see the movie, fine. I don't care. Nobody's forcing him... just do us all a favor and don't give this guy any more attention than he deserves. I mean, what's next? "William Shatner's toenail makes cameo in Star Trek 25?" Please.

1150 - FIVE YEARS AGO...
Topic: Blog Servicing

On Canada Day 2004, I debuted two new things; the then-new version of the DTM Webstation site called "Webstation Black". Which didn't last long.

Also on that day, I posted my first blog post ever, beginning a strange and interesting journey along the way that has resulted in a flucuating mind and really, really, REALLY nothing to show for it.

So as of today, DTM Blog is five years old. And unlike Wrestlemania's recent anniversary festivities, my math is accurate. I started in 2004 and we're in 2009. Hence, fifth anniversary.

As to whether I have anything special planned?

Not really, but some neat stuff is going to get done here, I assure you.

In the meantime, enjoy your Canada Day, kids. I know I will.

1149 - Can't be bothered right now
Topic: Blog Servicing

I'm having developmental problems with the blog. Apparently, when I click on one of the topic lists, no entries show up. I'd try and figure out the problem, but I'm too damn sick now. If anyone else has this same problem, let me know and I'll try and find out what's going on.

Later.

1148 - RIP Billy Mays
Topic: Writings

Billy Mays, the energetic bearded pitchman who appeared in six hundred commercials to promote a whole bunch of stuff like Oxi-Clean and Orange Glo, passed away yesterday. The world has lost a talented salesman and a true, hard-working professional in a world that is lacking of such people.

Rest in peace, Mr. Mays. Hopefully, the afterlife will take heed of your loud sales pitches and buy the products you advertise.

1147 - T---t-- ------ -- -T----
Topic: Web Presence News

Webstation will be dead soon

Replaced with something else

More to come...

1146 - Donald Trump "buys" RAW
Topic: RAW Bytes

Been a while, but might as well comment on this:

- Donald Trump "buying" RAW just HAS to be a desperate attempt at getting back the show's sagging ratings... even though Trump probably won't show up for the most part during the show's run and will probably assign a general manager person, thus making the whole experiment pointless. Bottom line, expect this to last a few weeks before Trump sells it back to Vince for five dollars or something.

- Really enjoyed the Triple-Threat World Title match as well as the Jericho/Mysterio match, while I pretty much slept through the RAW portions of the show. Seems like Smackdown is finally starting to become the better show... it'll be a while before it hits 2002 levels, but it's getting there.

- Speaking of sleep, Triple H wins another title shot against the new champion... Randy Orton. Wow, I honestly don't know what's going to happen in their match next week.

- Commercial-free RAW? Probably not here. I expect a couple Molson ads and more "greatness" from Jack Korpella.

Anyway, enough waffle. I'm going back to bed.