You Missed It: Five hundred thousand penny edition

Guess who’s baaaaack? That’s right, Bryan McBournie is off on vacation, which means you’re stuck with me for this week’s edition of YMI. He’s off in glorious Florida at the moment. I’m not. Now, I’m not saying that you should hunt him down and ruin his vacation, but if you do see him, it wouldn’t exactly be a crime against nature to tell him that the Pats suck. If you were busy implementing a silly social media function all over the internet, odds are you missed it.

The Bay area just can’t handle their alcohol

Nothing says internet sensation like the newest Apple product, and boy, was the internet abuzz this week. A programmer at Apple managed to lose the prototype to the newest iPhone model at a bar. Said prototype was then found by a random patron and subsequently sold to tech website Gizmodo, who, after some time, had to send the prototype to Apple. Easy come, easy go, right? Tell that to the rumored six million hits that Gizmodo experienced on just Tuesday alone.

It’s not real if it’s not true

Even though the 2010 schedules just came out, it’s a bit too early for Bryan Schools to do his predictions. Nonetheless, you might not want to put all your eggs in the Saints’ basket: quarterback Drew Brees has been selected to be the cover athlete for Madden 11 and possible occupant of the Madden Curse. Brees claims that a curse can’t happen if he doesn’t let it, while other possible candidates for the game cover, Jared Allen and Reggie Wayne, simply breathed humongous sighs of relief.

This is the stuff that boggles my mind

Larry King and current wife Shawn Southwick were set to get experience the trials of a divorce (it’s about that time of the year for him) but have appeared to call it off. The reason for it to happen? It wasn’t rumors that she was boinking a youth baseball coach (as those were confirmed by the coach), but by the rumors that King was boinking Southwick’s sister. HUH? HE’S 76 YEARS OLD AND AT DEATH’S DOOR WITH EVERY SECOND THAT PASSES! HOW, NAY, WHY WOULD WOMEN BE ATTRACTED TO HIM AT ALL?

MasterChugs Theater: ‘House of the Dead’

Awful April begins, and boy do we have a doozy. German director Uwe Boll is one of the few to succeed in making most people cower in terror. Sadly, not because the movie we’re gonna take a look at is a scary movie per se, more that $12,000,000 was wasted on such a celluloid abomination. House of the Dead is that rare beast that goes beyond bad and then beyond “so bad it’s good” into its own little niche where even the most die-hard horror fans fear to tread.

When talking about this movie, think “so bad it’s irredeemable”.

Want to know why? Are you a hardcore masochist? Figure out for yourself the answer to both questions and just hit the jump already. Continue reading MasterChugs Theater: ‘House of the Dead’

Not asking permission and getting sued: still in fashion

The UK’s Change4Life campaign — which links playing video games with obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer — could draw fire from Sony for using a PlayStation-like controller in their print ad. Legal fire, that is, which — as we all know — is the third hottest fire that’s possible (behind orphanage arson fire and burning Benjamins in front of a hobo fire).

CHUNG-CHUNG.

The magazine ad in question features a young boy obviously not enjoying himself while holding a dual analog wireless controller, similar to that used with the PlayStation 3 and its predecessor. The print warns that even healthy-looking inactive children risk cancer, diabetes, and heart disease once they reach adulthood. Sony Computer Entertainment Europe is currently considering legal action against the ad creators.

CHUNG-CHUNG.

Now, having an active lifestyle? Top notch. Alluding that playing video games is a direct cause of not having an active lifestyle? Not as top notch. Using an ad that essentially equates their product with killing kids? Get ’em, Sony.

MasterChugs Theater: Brett Ratner serves a purpose

I just got the bad news. Blood pressure’s up. Stress is on its way to end it all. Granted, it’s genetic and runs in the family, but still–why now? Is there anything that can be done to help the situation?

Oh my. Oh my, oh my, oh my. What am I to do?

Well, the doctor recommends a form of catharsis. Think of it as therapy, he says. Maybe you should excise some of that gratuitous stress that’s all built up within, is his advice.

OK. Sure, that can be done.

Dear Brett Ratner,

Just who do you think you are? Continue reading MasterChugs Theater: Brett Ratner serves a purpose

Stealing games is a two star offense

Don't trust him. His smile and the butterflies belie the theft he's going to do.Not one game out there thrives on controversy more than the ones in the Grand Theft Auto series. Known for ridiculous violence involving jet packs, porn stars former porn stars taking a turn at voice acting, pixelated (literally) sex achieved through hacking peripherals and plenty of racial slurs, no one involves controversy more than these games. So what happens when a game that’s based on making perfectly immoral (but fun) decisions is the target of crime in real life?

Irony.

Grand Theft Auto IV, the latest in the series, comes out this week came out today; however, according to Ars Technica, a “surprising amount of copies are not making their way to the individuals that ordered them.” Yes, not even 24 hours before GTA IV hits the streets crime is already on the rise in the form of a few UPS employees helping themselves to your pre-ordered murder simulator of choice. Slow news day? Yes. Hearsay? Oh yes. Ars Technica even says that this is simply “a novel situation” and later tells Kotaku that “In one 24-hour period, three workers were fired, and more interviews were scheduled for today that would likely end in termination.” Isolated incident? Almost totally.

So, what have we learned? Don’t go with UPS. Spend the extra 2 dollars to get it sent via Fed-Ex. There’s usually less incompetency as a whole that way.