Sorry if you missed me kids, I hope you got your news fixes from all of my favorite places while I was out. (See: MacRumors, TUAW, and Nintendo Wii Fanboy)

Let me start off by formally replying to a comment on a previous post, from my good friend: Edward C. Abinette, Jr.

Ahem: The Mac now has the ability to play all of those old Windows-only games that you wish someone had ported, and new ones that have not been ported yet, such as Half-Life 2, Oblivion, or Spore. You can either use Apple’s own Boot Camp or use Desktop from Parallels. So now you can have the beauty and power of your Mac, and for what seems to be an insatiable need for games, a Windows environment. And what’s even better, Windows will run even faster on a Mac than it will on a PC! Not to mention if you opt to use Boot Camp, it already supports Vista, because they’re continuing to use BIOS for Vista, instead of the industry standard EFI. And everything just works for a Mac, so you don’t have to buy a new keyboard, or mouse, or screen. All that will change is your outlook. Speaking of mice, Macs have supported multi-button mice since way back, so there’s no worries there. In fact, I currently use a Microsoft 5-button mouse (blasphemy!) simply because I get more work done with it. I know you’re no computer dummy, so most of my “your CD tray is not a cup holder”-ish comments aren’t directed at the likes of you.

Moving on. Peep the pic up at the top.

Notice the handsome bandana-weilding fellow? Vignetted guy near the center? Yours truly about to set sail upon the Three Rivers Float Trip. Or as it was more commonly referred to: The Floating Brewery. Seriously. I have never seen so many drunkards in boats before. Last year is was so tranquil and innocent, and this year the place went all mainstream and now it’s the veritable spring break of rivers. Makes me sick. Speaking of which, you might be happy to learn that my sister Lorna, who seems to use my comments pages as her own personal guestbook, happily downed 9 beers, promptly thereafter making sure to heave them all back out. Wonderful times.

Well now I’m sporting one bitchin’ sunburn (See: inner halves of my legs), and I hope you’ll all remember your sunscreen.

["Now you listen up you...coosed up gypsy!"]

[Update: I forgot to mention the good point Ed raised in his comment. The fact that people use Macs or PCs can be entirely preference driven. I'm not going to say Macs are the end-all be-all messiah, because whichever computer setup works best for you is your damn choice. Sorry for overlooking that.]

Took in a Cardinals game yesterday afternoon. That was actually pretty fun. It got a little warmer than I would have liked, and the rain delay kind of sucked, but overall it was a good time. Got to watch them play in the new stadium against the Colorado Rockies, and it just seemed like the Rockies just weren’t in the game. They either weren’t showing enough hustle, or were just kind of blasé in the field. But oh well.

Sorry about the brief stint of not posting.

I’ve been looking at camcorders in the brief moments that I haven’t been drooling in anticipation for August. I’m looking at the top-o’-the-line Sony camcorder that shoots in widescreen High Definition…sorry, I had to wipe my mouth. I believe the native format is 1080i, but I’m not terribly positive. It’s got a 3CCD system for added clarity and true-to-life color, and it’s got a very nice array of inputs and outputs and package features. I like the idea of an f-stop dial, so I can tweak the focus and whatnot, and there’s even a little mode in the menu that automatically flows from one f-stop to another that you specify that allows for a clean change of focus. Very nice.

But why am I waiting for August?

Well, for starters, it’s the month of the WWDC - the World Wide Developers Conference - in San Francisco. It’s essentially the the event that Apple uses every year to show off new software, hardware, and other new delicious Apple things. It is a known fact that they will be showing off OS 10.5 (Leopard) at the WWDC, but there are also rumblings and grumblings that they will also unveil their newest iteration of the PowerMac. I’ve heard it’s likely going to be called the MacPro, but that’s still undecided. Also, it’s possible they may take a new route with the enclosure like they did with the MacBook, but again, they didn’t change the iMac or the MacBook Pro (PowerBook) enclosure.

Secondly, August is also the month Nintendo will be appearing at Space World 2006. They haven’t appeared there since 2001, and Nintendo Exec. Satoru Iwata stated that in or before September, we will know the price and release date of the Nintendo Wii. All signs point to this news being unveiled at SW 2006. They could “pull a Sega Genesis” and surprise everyone by saying that it is “available this instant” at the show, but I wonder how well all the stock boys at Wal-Mart will be able to keep a secret.

Lastly, August is also when Nintendo will be releasing Super Paper Mario for the GameCube. If you’ve never played the original, or the sequel (The Thousand Year Door; my favorite), then you should at least give them a try or keep your eye on this third installment, from what I’ve read it’s sure to be one hell of a follow-up.

[But then again, so was Carpenter with that base hit.]

First off, I just got done closing a rousing debate about Apple’s iTMS. You can catch it over at TUAW using this link. Some people have all the fun.

In more prevalent news, I just got back from seeing the Disney/Pixar movie Cars. It was a magnificent flick. The only problem I had was not with the movie, but with the movie patrons. Every person in the theater seemed to be talking all at once for the entire length of the film. Some of the more poignant moments between the characters were muted or ruined because of all of these people’s lack of respect that everyone else was trying to actually watch what we paid to watch.

It seemed as though the most annoying ones were seated - quite mercifully - directly behind me. During all of the boring little pre-movie quotes and quizzes they constantly repeated the words to each other, as if neither could read nor hear properly. And then when they cycled around again, they found even more joy at trying to answer the questions a second time. It wouldn’t have been so bad if they were making a joke of it, but they actually forgot what the drop dead obvious answers were. Yes. The actor’s name is “Antonio Bander”. You’re a moron.

And then, to make the whole experience more delightful, they managed to find every little thing either absolutely appendix-burstingly hilarious, or eye-openingly wondrous. As if, like an infant, they’ve never seen a waterfall or a rock before. Here’s a little sample conversation they had at above-normal decibels for human interaction:

Idiot 1: Wow, is that a Porche?
Idiot 2: Yeah. Cool.
Idiot 1: Is that a Porche 911?
Idiot 2: I dunno. I know it’s a Porche, though.
Idiot 1: Yeah, but I’m wondering if it’s a Porche 911. That’s what I’m wondering.