today a group of little kids stopped by the studio. i’m not sure how it came about, but a local day care brought some kids that must have been ages 4 to 7 by to see the shiny buttons and flashing lights of radio. well for those of you who have had a chance to grace the insides of our work area, we decorate pretty heavily. we are the sports guys, so we have fun. plus we spend way too much time in there, so we wanted to make it our own.

but back to the kids. they are so funny. i love their energy. they all got really excited when i asked them about sports and some of their favorites. some of them telling me about how they like football and were going to play tee ball or soccer. then one of the taller kids got really pumped, and blurted out, “my favorite sport is hotwheels!” to which i responded, “that is awesome! we are talking about hot wheels on the show today!”

another little girl told me with great conviction that she liked soccer a lot but didn’t play it, while a little blonde sweetheart fought her way to the front of the group to tell me all about how great hockey was and all the renegades games she goes to.

it was hard to take in and remember everything great that was said today. i do recall one little boy before he left, telling me his favorite football team was the green packers. i know this. i’ll be rooting green packers to win the hot wheels this year.

thanks to ajay for tonight’s simple webdump. dan abrams keeping them honest on msnbc :

Years ago jels played me this rap song about Mario Brothers. This vulgar little rap was the most amazing video game song I had ever heard. Jels proceeds to play other songs for me. The songs get better and better.  Using samples of Sesame Street and The Goonies, among other things, B.E.N.E.F.I.T quickly became a cult hit between me and all my buddies. We tried finding more information, but unfortunately doing a google search for “benefit” pulled up everything but our clever rapper. Last night, around 1AM I found the holy grail. Listen to his tracks on myspace, and better yet, go but the album on his site or click here to buy it on itunes.

http://www.benefitofficial.com/

http://www.myspace.com/benefitedmc 

good news! i didn’t get picked to be on a jury today! i know it’s my civil duty and all, but it did take most of my day. after that i worked at the vcu game, which we won, so that is another w for me. now here is what scored the w around the net today (imo at least):

first up, uncrate shows us the beard cap! no more itchy efforts to grow that winter beard to keep warm. now you can just slap the beard on and go.

we all know scientology is fake, but is it a rip off of something else? boing boing says l. ron might have stoled some ideas. the also have some new furniture for tony hawk.

the consumerist gets a double dip when they let you vote for the worst company in the us. somehow the guy bringing back zubaz pants didn’t make the list.

why does richmond get stuck with doug wilder and lose our baseball team? g4 has the person i want running my city.

i know troops were lacking body armor, but is this what the us is sending to iraq now?
gearfuse takes balloon animals to a whole new level here with some interesting art by german hans hermert.

did that make you lol? did it really? there’s a new website policing the lol.

and thanks to my buddy tvar, hooking me up with a great parting shot by comedian lee camp taking it to fox news on their airwaves. outstanding grab by the raw story on this one.

the democratic party’s debate tonight. the twentieth one of this campaign. that is 20, two zero. eight months ago in south carolina we had the first. i have made it very clear that i would like to see obama. overall, in the last few weeks the dirty campaigning has given me a distaste of all three participants left. and that is a shame because there seemed to be a sense of excitement and charge among the voters, and the dirtier this gets, the greater the likelihood of that interest going away. and on a personal note, hillary please stop it with the george w. bush jokes. he sucks. he did a terrible job. we all know it. a 19% approval rating doesn’t fly under the radar. if i wanted to hear lame jokes about the current administration, i would watch jay leno. this is a presidential campaign hillary, not a late night talk show.

and now teh funny!

• Wired.com steals the show again first with their breakdown of the new MMO Lego Universe. Basically it’s a World of Warcraft type game, but with legos instead of lame-o’s. But read further. If you build it in the game, you can order it, and build it IRL!
• Boing Boing TV reminds us all that raccoons are jerks.
• Zack Selwyn of Attack of the Show (and also the guy that should have won the first ESPN dream job) has a new song with some friends. It’s hilarious and on You Tube. It has some language so don’t open it where you don’t want people to hear the eff bomb.
• And lastly (because, well once you read this you’ll get it) is a great post from Drivl.com about being popular and failing with digg.com

so the day is finally here. the day where i have to decide if sony will jack me for 500 dollars so i can conclude my dance with solid snake. that’s right: metal gear solid 4 has a release date.

and not only, are they dropping the most anticipated game of my lifetime, they are doing it with an amazing bundle! did you see snake’s face on that ps3? plus the new dual shock 3 controller?! i have not been able to get my heart rate down since seeing this. for those of you who don’t know, i try to be pretty responsible with my money. i work a lot and don’t like to waste what i earn. plus i work in corporate radio, so i know the hatchet man could drop through the ceiling at any moment on a zip line, fire one shot to the head, and i’m looking for work.

with that being said, i really really want this game. it’s not just a video game. it’s an experience. it’s closing a chapter that has been with me through most of my developing life. the metal gear series has plagued me (in a good way if that word can have a positive connotation) since child hood. from getting killed by dogs in the jungle on metal gear on the nes, to never finding that last key card in snakes revenge, then jumping to the psx where things got solid. i’ve been there.

battling revolver ocelot in the past and present. having psycho mantis read my memory card and then killing him after he did that. losing meryll and fighting liquid snake. solid snake and i have been through it. then on to metal gear solid 2, where i learned of the patriots and sons of liberty. cartwheeling around the big shell with raiden. (i know you guys hated him, but that game had an amazing story), and then flashing back to the origins of the big boss in mgs3.

enough with the trip down memory lane (which just gave me a really bad idea for how to waste my weekend). all of this has delivered us to this point. the final chapter. between the game play, character development, cinematics, action, dialogue, and intuitivness of the “sneaking espionage” type engine, this series to me has put hideo kojimi in the all-time video game hall of fame. it’s like the best qualities from your favorite action/espionage/government conspiracy movie (not like steven segal, but the good kind), but you are in control. i can’t really put it into words, you just have to have played through them all.

now to really make it tough, the plot and conclusion of a 4 game long story as intricate as mgs is not enough. they also brought back online play. some of you didn’t know me the first time metal gear online was out. it was bundled with the re-release of mgs3, subtitled “subsitance.” and for those of you who did, well you never saw me unless you played online too because that is where i was.

so with that said, i have a big decision to make. to ps3 or not to ps3. but i think i already know the choice. snake wouldn’t let me down. i can’t let him down.

ps. check back in late june/early july for my ebay link to a special edition ps3 for sale with mgs4 so i can make my rent. thanks!

So if you don’t have the money for an iPhone with TiAIN coating, here is how to do it on the cheap. Maybe you don’t want to ship your beloved Apple phone to an industrial coating plant. Or maybe you really need protect that shiny gizmo from scratches, drops, and other things that keep me up at night. You can get a ruggedized rubber case from the folks at iSkin in an assortment of colors, black included. I personally own the black one and I love the way it looks. The case is a strong rubbery material that stretches and wraps the phone. There are cutouts for headphones and charging/syncing. The side volume, home, and lock buttons are molded into the design. The corners are thick and reinforced. If you were to drop the iPhone on its edge, it may have a better chance of surviving the fall. (I wouldnt guarantee that, but its much more protected than a “naked” iPhone) Check out the features and technology over at iSkin.

things that caught my eye around the internets today:

what makes a monday better? toys! wondercon is going on and it has a lot of neat stuff. the people over at wired magazine give you a preview in their blog of some of the neat things being done there with toys. since those tofubots are a bit expensive, someone else buy me them.

also, is nintendo growing up? apparently in japan, the wii is getting nsfw. young girls with gigantic eyes covered in soap suds and eating a banana? yeah that sounds about right for the japanese market.

on the silver screen, morgan spurlock has taken risks with his body in his hit documentary “super size me,” and asked important and hard hitting questions on his show “30 days,” on fx. now his latest project, really brings all of that to a head. i can’t even spoil it with the title, just check the link.

and finally, kids here in richmond love building tall bikes. basically welding two bike frames together to make the same bike tower over the rest. but they still just have the same set up of a regular bike, just with a stretched out frame. well, sorry richmond kids, this guy owns you.

and before calling it a night. hats off to paul for making this amazing layout. srsly. buy him a tofubot too.

i was driving to meet a friend for dinner tonight after work when i passed an apartment complex with a huge banner out front. “we love our residents!” it was a yellow banner with pink letters and hearts all over it. in fact, there was a heart cut out of the center of the o in the word love. and it made me think. does my landlord love me?

does he really love me? i mean sure, he appreciates me. i pay the rent on time and always let him know when something is wrong with the house. and if i don’t my roommates do. in fact, they do it more often than i do. so if he loves them more, well, i’m ok with that. but i’m getting distracted from the real issue here.

does my landlord love me or am i just another fling in a long line of flings who shows up, pays him money, and gets a place to live. it’s troubling. after dinner, i was driving towards the interstate on my way home and passed another complex. they had two signs that jumped out at me: “free rent offer” and “we have hd tvs.” i guess that pretty much answers my question about how my landlord feels about me.

If you have known me very long, you know that I love black. In high school other kids asked me if I loved satan. Odd question… no… I just love black. Lets be honest here, I am a big dude. Black has a slimming effect that I can’t live without. Plus, black makes me look mad cool.

This guy coated his shiny iPhone with a materal called TiAIN. Titanium Aluminum Nitride, the use the stuff to coat specialized cutting and milling tools.
via TUAW.com