World Air Guitar Competition

air guitarYes you read that right!  Apparently Air guitar is taking the world by storm.  The are currently 17 countries that host “National Air Guitar Competitions” with the winners going to the “World Air Guitar Championships” in Finland to compete where one of them is “hailed as the Air Guitar World Champion, the master of an invisible instrument”.    Ironically the main prize for winning this competion is an ‘actual’ guitar.  According to the AGWC (Air Guitar  world championship) website ” Air Guitar is all about surrendering to the music without having an actual instrument. ”  Of course certain rules must be adhered to in order to ‘compete’.  Here are a couple of my favorites:

1) “The instrument of an Air Guitar player must be invisible, i.e. air.”
2)”An Air Guitarist may play an electric guitar or an acoustic one – or both.”

 acoustic or electric??? lets not forget that they are playing air! 🙂

3) “Personal Air Roadies are allowed. ”

4) “An Air Guitar player may use a real pick or play by strumming or finger picking.”

To view some video clips of the 2006 competition click here. 

All in all it looks like a good time is had by all. 

I quite enjoyed some of the video clips… hilarous stuff… at least to me as there is nothing quite like seeing grown men run & jump around a stage surrounded by thousands of screaming fans while they ‘rock’ the house playing AIR GUITAR!

*Please note I did not see anything inappropriate on these pages but as this is not my website view at your own risk)

Beware of Koala Bandit’s

I read somewhere the other day that the finger prints of koalas are virtually indistiguishible from humans. So much so that “that they could be confused at a crime scene”. Of course this peaked my interest so I set out to find the truth! I scoured the internet for what seemed like 5 or 10 minutes blissfully unaware that I was still on the clock at work. At long last I found that apparently it’s true! (read about it here). And Gorillas prints are also very similiar to humans. that got me to thinking… what would happen if a there were ever a raging band a koala bandits on the loose? The police would likely never apprehend them, I mean who would ever suspect a cute little koala could be a master thief. Also I bet they could hide all kinds of stuff up their tree’s or in gorilla caves. I don’t know about you, but now that I have this information the next time a koala comes strolling along i’m going to keep my eyes on them! Also be warned that they can be extremely dangerous. The dictionary defines them as something that “eats shoots and leaves” so i’m guessing that not only can they be a master thief but they may be armed as well. You can consider yourself warned!

I’m offended at the moon

The other night I went outside to put a bag of garbage in the trash can.  It was already dark outside, and there’s not much light behind my house, because I’m on the edge of the city, so it’s country-esque behind my house (meaning no street lights back there).  This is one of those times that the moon should’ve provided a small amount of light to illuminate my path, but it failed me.  The moon was nowhere to be found.  It was a clear night, yet there was no moon shining.

We’ve discussed this before, how the moon is broken.  I’ve encouraged my readers to petition their state representatives to get NASA to fix the situation, but obviously it’s not working.  In fact, I have heard nothing about the government’s plans to fix the moon.  (Why isn’t this ever asked in the Presidential debates?  This should be an election issue!)  Since my first attempts have not accomplished much, I’m forced to take more drastic measures.  I’m going to sue the moon, or at least whoever claims ownership of it.  This will get their attention (and put some money in my pocket, to add more motion-sensing floodlights on my house, and perhaps to upgrade my home theater, and other important stuff).

I know, some may say the moon is owned by nobody, but didn’t the U.S. claim it when we landed on it in 1969?  Or perhaps someone else claims ownership, like has happened with Mars. (If you don’t know, three Yemeni men sued NASA for trespassing on Mars in 1997, claiming they inherited the planet from their ancestors 3,000 years ago.)  I researched this, and found that a man named Dennis Hope claimed ownership of the entire moon in 1980 and has sold plots of land on the moon to some 300,000 people.  (He started selling it for about a penny an acre, but now it’s $27.15 an acre; and he’s made $1.6 million from it.)

Either way, I’m offended at the moon.  It was unsafe for me to walk outside that night, due to the surrounding darkness.  What if I would’ve stepped on a pitchfork and injured myself, or what if there had been a disgruntled woodland creature about to attack me?  I was in potential danger — peril, even — because the moon is broken.  This is an outrage!  It has been broken for years now, and none of our politicians seem to care!

Some of you may wonder what right I have to be offended at the moon.  I’m glad you asked — I will enlighten you.  NASA, which is funded by our government, landed on the moon and planted an American flag on it, claiming ownership (as has been done by explorers for thousands of years).  My taxes help fund these NASA expeditions.  Part of my paycheck goes towards space exploration and such, and they need to be responsible with how they spend it!  So I’m calling them on it.  I am an American citizen, thus I have inalienable rights by the Constitution.  So somebody better get to fixing the moon before the lawsuits start flying.  If I can’t get someone to fix the moon, then I’ll at least get a payout large enough that I can buy robots to take out the trash for me while I live in luxury, safely inside my newly-remodeled home theater with a wall-sized high-definition projection screen, M&K surround-sound speakers, and of course, an industrial-sized popcorn popper and an ice-cream dispenser.  (Hey, it’s the American way…)

beating Tyson’s Punch-Out on Nintendo

intro screenI’m sure many of you remember playing on Nintendo (NES).  It was a legendary game, not only for its colorful characters, but for the difficulty of it.  Many people never were able to beat it.  If you’ve played it before, the list of characters will take you down memory lane : Glass Joe, Von Kaiser, Piston Honda, Don Flamenco, King Hippo, Great Tiger, Bald Bull, Soda Popinski, Mr. Sandman, Super Macho Man, and then Mike Tyson.  They just don’t make games this unique anymore.

I found a video / short film that chronicles the adventure of a kid in junior high who decided he had to beat it.  There’s a full story behind it, but I don’t want to spoil it for you.  If you have any interest in this at all, you’ll probably enjoy the movie. Little Mac training  It was well-done, and it captures the situation well.  It even has an authentic ’80s set to capture the feel of the era.  (You’ll probably notice several things, like cheese balls, Big League Chew, the clothes.)  It sure brings back some memories of junior high and competing against friends on video games.  It’s somewhat like going back in time, because I can relate to how the main character felt.

The video is 16 minutes long, and it’ll probably prompt you to install some software to watch it.  (The software is okay — DivX is a video standard, similar to MPEG4 on DVDs.)  Here’s the link : .

In the interest of full disclosure, I’ve beaten Tyson over a hundred times (trying to get the best time), and even beaten him several times without him ever hitting me… even back in high school.  No brag, just fact.  🙂  I even have witnesses to verify these facts.  I think my best time was 1:09 in round 2 on the original Nintendo (not emulation).

Mike TysonNow, here’s a few quotes I’ve come across concerning how legendary and awesome this game was.

Sadly, defeating Mike Tyson at the end of this game was something I was never able to do.  It’s probably one of the most famous and most difficult accomplishments in video game lore.  If you were able to take out Tyson without using any cheat codes, you were the uber gamer. ~ Viper, at funkdiggityfresh.com

The set of all natural numbers can not adequately represent the number of times I’ve been schoolboyed by Mike Tyson.  I’ve entered the “Tyson code” so many times it’s permanently etched in my brain.  I can’t remember my girlfriend’s middle name but I can remember 007 373 5963 by heart.  Crap, I can’t remember my social security number and it has less digits than the Tyson code.  No matter how many times I fight him I rarely make it into the second round and have maybe knocked him down twice in 15 years.  Twice in 15 years!  I’d like to think I’d have better odds fighting him in real life. ~ Hughes Johnson, concerning Tyson’s Punch-Out on Nintendo

I must admit, if you can beat Tyson (which is obviously an impressive feat, deserving of an audience) then you can do better than me.  I never was able to down that sucker! ~ Kri’, 1/19/05

So there you have it — according to other people’s words, I am “the uber gamer”… obviously.  🙂  I’m not surprised.  But I do feel honored.  It’s nice to be recognized by my peers for my greatness.  Thank you, thank you.  Ever since I started gaming in the late ’70s / early ’80s with my , I recognized that “I’ve got skills… I’ve got game.”  Even today, the legend continues… and grows.  🙂

I hope you enjoyed the movie.  Feel free to share some of your early gaming memories in the comments section.  I’d like to hear from you.