Read this story by Conan O’Brien to find out why.

A lion, a zebra, a giraffe and a hippo go into a bar. The bartender looks at them and says “What do you want to drink?” Madagascar was pretty crappy - don’t see it.

Last night, a collection of friends & I went to see a 40 minute documentary entitled Dream On, Silly Dreamer.

For those of you unfamiliar with the movie & too lazy to visit the website, it is a look back at the demise of Disney’s 2D animation department told mostly through interviews from various former mouse house employees.

Entering the theatre last night, I was concerned it was going to be a 40 minute CG-Animation hate-fest. Luckily I was wrong. The film really shows how egos & greed destroyed the group from Eisner all the way down to the animators themselves.

Overall the film is great - really great. One particular moment stood out for me though. About half way through the movie, the topic turns to how things changed from the most fun jobs in the world to practical mandatory 80 hour work weeks & how quality was suddenly being compromised for quantity. During this sequence one animator made this comment (pardon some paraphrasing):

“Twenty years from now people will look at these movies, and I doubt they will say ‘Well it doesn’t look so good but at least they made deadline.’”

Something about that quote really struck home for me.

Anyway….go see the movie if it comes around your neighborhoods.

As an added bonus last night, Roy Disney introduced the film. He got a rousing 2-3 minute standing ovation which was very well deserved.

Most of you are now aware that I sold my xbox. I would like to say it was a tough decision that I lost many sleepless nights over, but it wasn’t. I would like to say that I am better person with a much more interesting life now that I am socializing instead of staring at my television mindlessly clicking buttons, but it isn’t. I would like to say that I am losing weight because I am now in the gym during the hours I used to spend playing xbox, but I’m not.

So why did I sell the thing? Let’s break it down by the numbers.

1 - I needed to refocus my personal time. The animation bug has awoken within me from circumstances within my life recently. I figured with no xbox around to tempt me, free time would be spent better animating on the computer rather than saying I am animating while playing a game on that damnable console.

2 - I had a buyer. A coworker was constantly pestering me to sell him my xbox. Although he was partially joking, he was also partially serious. When I finally resolved myself to actually sell it, he was absolutely interested.

3 - The new games SUCK. I mean they blow ass. There are very few games I really consider to be good much less great. The few I do truly love are all available on PC. So even if the gaming bug does bite, I can still play them on my computer.

4 - Even if I made a bad decision, I still win. Xbox 360 is due out late this year. Should I realize the selling of my xbox was a heinous decision, I need only be patient for a scant few months and then buy the next generation system knowing I sold my xbox to a willing buyer while it was still worth more than a used kleenex.

So that’s it. The xbox is gone. My games are still here though. So I am selling the lot for cheap. $10 per game for anyone who is interested & 2 old controllers (the large size ones - not the puny S-Controls). Below is the list of games I am selling. Interested buyers can respond below or just contact me directly.

Armed & Dangerous
DOA 3
EA NHL 2003
EA NHL 2005
ESPN NHL 2K5
ESPN NFL 2K5
Fable
GTA 3
GTA Vice City
Oddworld: Munch’s Oddysee
Outlaw Golf
Spiderman 2
Splinter Cell
SSX 3
SSX Tricky
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic
Thief - Deadly Shadows

So obviously this site has been quiet. Given Ace & my wife are the only 2 people who actually read it, I doubt many people care. I should add that my boss, Scott, does keeps an eye on it to make sure I am not talking trash about him, and that I don’t think that Theresa and Ace really read this site so much as use it for a means to insult each other in an uncensored forum.

In 3 simple words: Life got busy.

Between work, out of town travels, work, out of town visitors, work, parties, work, bbq’s, work and work. I have not had much personal time.

That said…I will be updating this thing again regularly. Whether it’s interesting or not is solely up to all 3 of my readers.

more real entries coming soon….meanwhile enjoy these forthcoming movies