It's Aliiiiiiiive, Or Is It?

I am trying to resurrect this blog from the depths of inactivity. Who knows, this could be the first of many posts this year, or it could be the only post of the year. Only time will tell (free time, that is).

Happy St. Patricks Day

So a couple nights ago Angela was telling the kids that the
leprechauns were going to come in the middle of the night to look for
a pot of gold. I mentioned to them, not thinking of course, that
leprechauns were little evil guys that suck the life out of babies.
Now why would I say something like that to a 5 and 2 year old? I have
no idea. I think I was tired and probably was imagining the movie
Cat's Eye or something like that. Needless to say Makena had her
blankets pulled all the way over her head that night and told Angela
she was hiding from the evil leprechauns. Last night I found this taped
to the outside of her and Christian's door. It was good to see there was nothing about the life being sucked out of babies mentioned in the note. Hopefully she forgot about that part.

Facepaint!

Christian got his face painted as his favorite superhero at the kid
safety expo today.

Happy Birthday Makena

Today we celebrated Makena's 5th birthday. We told her she could have a party and invite a few of her friends over. We kind of went with a movie theme based on the Little Mermaid. I printed out some 'movie tickets' with an excel program by bro-in-law sent me. The kids watched The Little Mermaid 3: Ariel's Beginning. Angela made a bunch of popcorn and we put it in those paper popcorn bags for the kids. Angela passed out these fake coins to the kids and they got to 'buy' their popcorn and drinks with those coins. About 3/4th through the movie the kids started to get restless and then went out back to play on the trampoline and with a few hundred of those little colored plastic balls. When I went out back to see how things were going it looked like a tornado had hit. The last guest finally left at 9 (yes 9pm) and now it's clean-up time. The backyard is a complete mess, the kitchen is a mess, the upstairs living room is a mess and the theatre room is full of smashed popcorn and pizza remnants. I'll let Koa, the living vacuum, in to clean up all the food bits on the floor. All in all I think Makena had a fun time.

If anyone wants a copy of the excel program that prints out tickets that can be customized to your liking then let me know and I'll email it.

Bring the pain!

Two posts in one week! I'm going for a record here folks!
So I've been trying to get into my 2-a-days again and I thought, why suffer through this alone? I decided to see if I could get my cousin Spammon to join me. We used to lift together until he moved jobs a couple years ago. He was actually the one that got me lifting again after my mission. So in my pursuit of entering a powerlifting meet sometime early next year (TBD) I have recruited his help in this endeavor. Yesterday was day one with the Spammon. As you can see here we worked the deadlift. I am not in the habit of filming myself lifting but it seems like these days everyone is doing it so why the heck not? This was more of a form check to see if I am actually doing them properly. What I did notice was 1. my deadlift form needs improvement, 2. I have a huge spare tire and 3. I need to get a home gym setup like Spammon's (shown in the video). Here is the video for comedy's sake:

Another One

Well, let's see it's been almost 3 months since my last post so I guess it's about time for me to get on this thing and make another one. While I may try to pretend to be as good a blogger as my cousins and friends let's not lie - I suck. Bad. So this will just be an updater to what has happened in the world of Hagoth. Ok what do I remember the most about the past three months... oh - Christian's cousin pushed him down and he cut his forehead open. A couple hours in the ER and he was all stitched up. Let's not talk about the fact that Angela and I were supposed to be watching The Dark Knight on IMAX in the cushy leather seats with the tickets I had purchased A MONTH IN ADVANCE. Oh well at least the little guy was ok, he's a tough kid, just like his mom. Ok I went on a week long camp with the scouts up in the Uinta's. The 2.5 mile hike with an 80+lb pack on my back kicked the shiz out of me. Yes I am a wimp and have no wind - I lift weights at the gym, I don't run on the treadmill. Ok what else... oh my little sister had a miscarriage at 17 weeks (I think). She had a pretty scary experience and had to be rushed to the hospital by ambulance. She lost a lot of blood and her blood pressure was dangerously low. I'm glad she is ok, but I'm sad for her loss. Anything else... oh I think I gained back all the weight I lost on the weeklong scout camp and then some. Gotta start lifting twice a day again to get this dang weight off... That concludes my quarterly post. I leave you with a picture of Christian Ikaika.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

After waiting for almot four years, the final installment of the Metal Gear Solid series has finally arrived. I pre-ordered my copy back in April and have been waiting impatiently ever since. I got my friendly Gamestop phone call to let me know that the game was in and went and picked it up yesterday. I have been a huge fan of the Metal Gear series ever since the first one came out on the NES so I was stoked to get home and try this one out.
The game had about an 8 min install which was not bad because it gave me time to read the manual, which has some pretty cool artwork in it. I decided to play the first 10 or 20 minutes upstairs on the LCD tv so I could get a could 1080p experience out of it. After about 20 minutes I took the PS3 downstairs so I could experience the soundtrack (upstairs tv - 1080p no sound system, downstairs tv - 1080i 7.1 sound system). The game still looked great in 1080i so I think I will be playing the majority of the game downstairs. The sound was absolutely amazing. Every little detail has been brought out in the sound. Bullets whizzing by your head or hitting the ground or the wall next to you have very distinct sounds. The explosions had my sub rockin. I knew I had it turned up too loud because Angela was doing some work in the bedroom down the hall and I heard her shut the door.
After having played it for roughly 45 minutes here are my initial thoughts:

Graphics: 10
Sound: 10
Voice Acting: varies but average 8 or 8.5
Fun Factor: 10
Controls: 9