I’ve loved videogames since I was about five. Whether it was playing my dad’s Atari, or going over to a friend’s house just to play Super Mario Bros., they’ve always brought me a lot of entertainment.

I’ve had a PS3 for about three years now, and in that time my love for games has really increased, and it blows me away how awesome current games are. Back in the day it was rare to find a game that could keep my interest until the end, but that’s common fare now.

I think a big part of this is trophy support, and having those accomplishments recognized. But I also think game developers have reached a new level of quality. Check out some videos of God of War III. It’s amazing what they can do now.

I just finished Modern Warfare 2′s single player campaign, and now I’m working on Uncharted 2. I have never played the God of War games, but I have the first two coming for PS3. They remastered them in hi-def, added trophies, and it’s only $30 on Amazon.

But there are so many great games to play. Heavy Rain looks awesome, as does God of War III. And who can forget FFXIII.

It is a great time to be a videogamer.

I forgot that they had enabled new updates to the PSN Portable ID in the last firmware. Actually, it took them a while to update the portable ID so it shows trophy info…but it’s finally all working! Now you can track my trophy progress on the right, and even click on it to see what games I’ve played, and how many trophies I’ve achieved!

Right now I’m working on Platinum for Uncharted, and then I’ll be moving on to Uncharted 2. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 looks pretty sweet…but I think I’ll be waiting on that for the time being. The God of War collection looks cool too.

Too many games, too little time!

Ever since the boy turned one I’ve been promising my thoughts on being a father, and I’ve finally been motivated to do that.

This morning I stepped onto our small back porch to water the few surviving green plants of winter. As I did, Luke crawled out onto the prickly mat just outside our sliding glass door and stared up at me. I walked over with the water nozzle spraying and sat down next to him. He stood up, held onto my shoulder, and grabbed the handle with me. We stood there, watering the backyard together, and it was perfect.

While a lot of work at times, I wouldn’t trade this time for anything in the world. Watching Luke grow and do new things is priceless. It gives me an appreciation for life and family that I otherwise wouldn’t have. I get to see how loving and caring my wife is, and what a great mother she is. I now understand the joy my own parents felt when I was a child, and what it was like from their perspective as I grew up. I realize what an important task God has given us as parents to raise and nurture our children. I’m sure it will be tough at times, but it is all worth it.

Being a daddy is awesome.

I’m not sure I can make this a completely non-baby post, but I might be able to go half and half.

Last month we drove up north to Turlock for my Grandmother’s 89th birthday. This was a place we went several times a year for my entire childhood, and I have very fond memories of those trips and the people we went to see. I bought my video camera just in time to take it on this trip, so I shot some video to help me remember the place. If you’d like to watch it then go here:

Turlock Almond Orchard

For the geeks out there, I’ve decided to render all my videos twice. The first is a super high quality 1080i AVC/264 that can be played back beautifully on the PS3 (or the htpc if I can get 264 material hardware accelerated), and the second is a smaller 720p version that can easily be played back on a modern computer using quicktime. That should give me the best of both worlds with just a little extra rendering time and storage space.

So this baby of ours is a fussy little booger. He likes to eat all the time, and rarely sleeps for big blocks of time. He also loves to be held, and 9 times out of 10 if you lie him down to sleep he’ll wake you up with his cries a few minutes later. The worst part is that it means very little sleep for mom because she is getting up constantly to feed him. She’s upstairs sleeping right now and I’ve got the baby entertained (and quiet!) downstairs.

I think God knew he had to make little babies cute so that people would put up with the lack of sleep and crying. Every time this little man poops it is fart city. It’s like he can’t poop without making massive amounts of noise, it’s great. And his little sneezes are the cutest thing in the world. How they go from cute little baby sneezes to obnoxious adult sneezes I have no idea. His mouth even made a smiling motion this morning, but I think it was more of an accident than anything. Shortly after though he sounded off with a loud fart, so maybe the two were connected.

I still have some more Turlock video to edit, but after that I’m on to some of the baby footage.

Child has surgery to keep her a "child."

Discuss.

Sorry..the light-hearted posts didn’t last very long.

In light of the government believing they should be able to tax certain products more than others (ie cigarettes and gas), I thought I would list a few things that should also be heavily taxed to deter bad behavior. After all, if the government can tax cigarettes because they’re bad for you, and gas so a bunch of guys can sit around and dream about alternative fuels, I think it follows logically to tax the following items:

1) Body Piercings – Piercing organs is dangerous, it should be discouraged.
2) Tattoos – It defaces God’s temple!
3) Motorcycles – You can die way easier than a car.
4) Fatty Foods/Obesity – Unhealthy lifestlyes should be discouraged.
5) Plastic Surgery – People should love themselves for who God made them.
6) Skis – You could die! (That one’s for Mike)
7) Videogames – They rott your brain.
(Insert the behavior you dislike here).

To all the people supporting the cigarette and gas taxes…if at any point in our country’s future a majority of the citizens support a tax on one of the above items, I don’t want to hear you complain. You did the same thing.

Just because a majority of people dislike a "bad behavior," it doesn’t mean the government should deter them.

Sorry for the absence of postings this week. They will return to normal very shortly.

Denise’s blog is broken. I think God got mad at her.

Heroes is so freaking cool. Here’s a website Angelo sent me that is also cool.

I’m planning on doing a proposition/voting guide series of posts pretty soon since we’ve only got a couple weeks to go, so look forward to that! Woo Hoo!

I’m curious what people think of the CIA’s use of "torture" that has been in the news lately. They must be doing god awful things to the poor terrorist prisoners right? Maybe poking them with burning things, ripping off nails, gouging out eyes, that kind of thing right?

Anyone agree that what the CIA is doing to terrorists is wrong, and they deserve the same rights as any US citizen enjoys?

Update: You didn’t really think I’d leave it at that, did you? I’d heard reports about the atrocious things that the USA was supposedly carrying out in secret torture camps around the world. Of course those reports were never specific and left everything to your imagination. So what’s really going on there?

Luckily there’s been an independent investigation by ABC that not only explains what types of coercion (not torture) are being used, but how it has produced information that has stopped upwards of 12 terror plots. I won’t even bother touching on the fact that we face an enemy who beheads POWs and doesn’t give a crap about the Geneva Convention.

Video at HotAir.com