Whoa, that's right, I work here...
      Geez, I've totally forgotten what it's like to write one of these "update" things. I'm just as useless as I've ever been. You can get your news and reviews elsewhere, and I certainly can't let you in on any trade secrets or advanced information, because I'm respectred by no one. So what's an update-writer to do? Well, I guess I'll just ramble on about some stuff some of you may care about and most won't! Go me!

      So lately I've been doing two things really- working and Pumping. Despite the sexual connotation, "Pumping" is just something I do with some friends to get sweaty and have some fun. Errrr, non-sexual fun! Pump It Up! is Korea's answer to Dance Dance Revolution. A dancing game with music and arrows you hit using, usually, your feet. However, given the fact that it's really all about style, hitting steps with your knees, palms, knuckles, elbows, ears and testicles is not unheard of. Sometimes more than one of the listed body parts at once. While I can't say Pump is better than DDR, it offers some advantages. Firstly, you stand a better chance of drawing a crowd of passers-by. Playing the US-friendly version of PIU, (Pump It Up Premiere) gives you a few songs American pop fans would recognize. Mambo No. 5, Oops! I Did It Again!, Bye Bye Bye, I Need To Know and, my personal favourite, Take On Me to go with the mix of Korean hiphop, techno, and pop you'll find in all version of the game. Also, you can adjust the speed at which the arrows which give you your instructions scroll up the screen, from 1x to 8x the default speed for that song, unlike in DDR where there is only one speed. A big bonus for people like me who play almost exclusively Double mode (two pads at once, with steps spread across them), is that "Double" is a normal mode in Pump and you get just as many songs for your credit as you do normally. In DDR, you need to put in 2 credits for the normal amount of songs. It also appears that the folks at AndaMiro (makers of PIU) planned the steps better than the folks at Konami planned the DDR steps. They really lend themselves to tricks and moves. Summary- Pump == good.

      Work is, well, work. For those not in "the know" I currently work at Domino's Pizza where I rape my employee discount and get paid minimum wage. Winnar is not me. Oh well, beats nothing. I'm working 5 days this coming week, but I should be able to get updates in regardless. That's no promise, but I'd like it to happen. The more updates I write, the higher the chances are that you bastards will write me an email or two ^^;

      It's also been far too long since I've done OBLIGATORY MUSIC PIMPAGE. So here it is. Today's OMP is the latest release from Saves The Day, "Stay What You Are". The only thing that disappoints me about this album is it's length. Like its immediate predecessor, "Through Being Cool", "SWYA" is only a shy bit over half an hour in length. Maybe I'm spoiled by ATB and the like using their whole 74 minutes, or Tool's "Lateralus", which requires an 80 minute CD, or even Rancid's typical 50-60 minute album, but 33 minutes is a bit less than I'd like on a CD which I actually buy. Luckily it'll only set you about about $12 to buy a new release at a decent store, and as much as I complain, this CD is worth whatever $12 or $15 you get charged to pick it up. It's 33 minutes, but I could listen to it for hours, and in the long run I guess that's what really matters. The beginning of the CD is really the highlight. Tracks 1-4 are probably the best tracks on the CD. Here's a link to the lyrics for the disc. I would link you to some place other than my journal, but I haven't seen a site with these lyrics up yet. A more popish approach musically this time around, and a bit more repetition in lyrics, a really good singalong CD, I'd say. Even the first time through you can usually pick up a song's chorus and sing it the next time around. My favourite track off the album is without a doubt Cars & Calories, which you can search for on your peer-to-peer file finder of choice, or grab from here as a last resort.

      And now to finish off this update, a picture of me playing D&D-