Most people know about the financial troubles that California has right now.  State workers are having their pay reduced, budgets are being cut, prices are increasing, and the state tax returns were delayed.  I filed my taxes in January.

I got my state tax refund today.

It came at a very good time.  I was running a bit short, and we’re going out of town tonight, so the extra few hundred dollars is great.  Hell, this means I can afford to buy pre-sale tickets for the NIN|JA show in Mountain View at the Shoreline!

WE’RE COMING, TRENT, PERRY, AND TOM!

-Because I said so

Hello, World of Meh!  As has been mentioned on Twitter, Episode 10, and on the Episode 10 recap, Episode 11, originally scheduled for Friday, March 20, 2009, has been rescheduled to Sunday, March 22, 2009 at 2:00pm Pacific Standard Time (5:00pm Eastern Standard Time).  We don’t like to do this, but we had a scheduling conflict that could not be solved.  We will be out of town, and Lindsey will be in a conference from 7:00pm to 10:00pm on Friday night, making a live broadcast at that time impossible (and incredibly boring, as it would only be me.  Who wants to see that crap?).

The MehCast still broadcasts from http://www.ustream.tv/channel/world-of-meh/, and Episode 11 will start broadcasting at 2:00pm this upcoming Sunday.

Sorry for the inconvenience.  Hopefully everyone can still make it!

-Because I said so

It’s about god damn time.  Yesterday morning the announcement was made that, come summer, the iPhone comes complete with MMS, cut/copy/paste, landscape keyboard functionality in Mail/Notes/SMS/etc, and more thanks to the 3.0 software update!

Unfortunately, we still don’t have the freedom to run background processes, and the camera is still comparatively sub-par, but hey, can’t win ‘em all.

Back to the topic at hand, though.  In all honesty, I believe that if the iPhone had been anything other than the hype-machine it was when it was first released, or if it didn’t have such a beautiful and seamless user interface, or such a perfect marriage of phone, toy, internet device, media player, etc, the lack of MMS, background applications, copy/paste, etc, would have been very detrimental to its success.

I know when I say it that way, it sounds kind of stupid, but in my defense, most phones nowadays (even the cheaper ones) come standard with MMS functionality and a much better camera.  Then when you look at smartphones, serious communications devices that are supposed to have a wide range of functionalities, you expect to be able to run background processes.  In a nutshell, the iPhone lacked many basic features that most people take for granted on the majority of cell phones being produced.  Some of the major detractors of the iPhone have held up the aforementioned lacking features as their rallying banner for why the iPhone is terrible.

At least they still have background processes and camera resolution to keep them cohesive.

Back to the happy notes, however, these minor updates will be making a major difference in the usability and functionality of the iPhone.  It’s a great time to be an iPhone owner!

-Because I said so

Seriously!

I just got an email from her right now in my inbox and I have the proof to show you all (click the image for a larger shot):

Lucky me, eh?

Wow… how did she know that this is exactly what I needed? It’s like we are the same mind, body, and soul.

Yum…

- She Who Has The Last Word

(oh… and obviously I sent her straight to the SPAM folder lol)

On Sunday Chris and I went browsing through WordPress Themes and came across this (amongst others). I personally started to get a little sick of the all black background and the silly looking decoration near our blog name. It didn’t make any sense because it had nothing to do with our topics or the feel we are going for.

So far the both of us are digging the new look but we want to know what you guys think.

Did you like the old version of World of Meh? Do you like the new look? Do you think both of our choices are total crap?

Let us know in the comments below! We are looking forward to your input and greatly appreciate it!

Thanks in advance!

- She Who Has The Last Word

Lately I have been wanting to shoot, bludgeon, and destroy things in a video game but we don’t really have anything like that for our Wii. Over the weekend we checked out Target and Best Buy to browse through their selections but left disappointed.

We knew when we purchased the Wii that it would be mostly kiddie games but the Game Cube was promoted for being family friendly as well and I had 2 Metroids to choose from on top of multiple Resident Evils.

I was already miffed that Resident Evil 5 wasn’t brought over for the Wii so when I saw the lack of “kill em and grill em” games at the stores I pouted. Sure there was Mad World but I want something with a better story than a guy on a TV show and Sin City style graphics. I know there is a version of Dead Rising but no jumping? Come on! While House of the Dead never appealed to me. I am not too keen on “track style” shooters.

Yesterday while Chris was at work he sent me a link about upcoming Resident Evil titles for the Wii. As soon as I saw the headline on the page I got excited. Zombies for the Wii? Hells yes! When I read the article more my elation turned into bitterness. I thought for sure that RE 5 would be announced but nope. Instead I got to read about how a sequel to RE: Umbrella Chronicles (a stupid track style shooter) is in the works and how they are making (yes… again) the original Resident Evil and RE: Zero.

What the hell! Why is it so difficult to come out with a new game? If PS3 and Xbox 360 can get one, the Wii should too! It was a rip off when they made a Wii version of RE: 4 and that really irked me. I already own the Collectors Edition for Game Cube so there is no point in getting the Wii version.

As for the original RE, I owned the one for Play Station and I still have the revamped version for Game Cube. The graphics were great and I had no complaints. Why remake it AGAIN for the Wii? It makes no sense!! All they are going to do is make people sick of that game. How many more times do they expect me to purchase it? How many more times do they expect me to go through it? They honestly can only do so much.

With RE: Zero, it was originally meant for the N64 but they held off on it due to them wanting to release it on a disc based console. A cartridge couldn’t have held all the goodies they had in store for that game. While I don’t own it, I played it and beat it. The game was nice, graphics were great, and the end with how the bullet comes out of the chamber was brilliant. For them to change it over for the Wii depresses me. There was nothing in the game that I thought..”yeah, when they come out with a next gen Nintendo they totally need to redo this.”

So now I am left with no Zombie love. No slow walking undead beings groaning “braaaaiiinnnsss,” no magnum ammo to blast into anything that moves, no heart attacks from T-Virus infected beasts jumping through windows… I have happy go lucky characters.

GIVE ME DOOM AND GLOOM DAMNIT!!!

- She Who Has The Last Word

Normally I don’t care about charities or fundraisers. It’s not because I’m a cold hearted bitch (maybe I am…) but because typically the money raised goes towards something entirely different than their cause.

Yesterday I was on Twitter (big shocker) and I saw some tweets made by Greg Grunberg. For those of you who don’t know who that is, he plays Matt Parkman on the popular and fantastic show Heroes that is on NBC. He is a blast to follow and really takes the time for his fans. It’s pretty commendable.

Greg was tweeting to his followers about a walk he is participating in March 28th in DC for Epilepsy. Sadly his son Jake suffers from it so him and the rest of his family, along with many others, are using this walk as a way to raise awareness and to help find a cure.

His cause struck a chord in me because while my daughter might not have epilepsy, she has had a seizure before. I will never forget the day either. She wasn’t even a year and a half old when it happened. I was at my job because I was supposed to meet the District Manager. I had recently been promoted to Assistant Manager and I can’t remember why I had to meet him but I just did. My daughter was sick with a cold and had a doctors appointment the same day. My Mom called me at work asking me if there was anything I wanted her to ask the doctor but I had nothing. She is really thorough so I knew she would cover it all. After getting off the phone with her she called back 5 minutes later in a panic.

She was getting ready to walk out the door when my daughter just dropped and had a seizure. She stopped breathing and my Mom had to do CPR on her. While on the phone with her she was a mess. I could hear that she was crying and she told me that Paramedics were on the way to take them to the hospital. Hearing those words come out of her mouth made my blood run cold. Never in my life had I been so afraid because my daughter is the reason I wake up every morning.

Luckily she was OK and after having to go through many traumatic tests over the next few weeks, the doctors told us that she was fine. They couldn’t find out why she had the seizure and she was able to resume her normal activities. To this day that was her only seizure and hopefully the last.

With all walks the teams ask for people to help sponsor them. While I wish we could have donated more, Chris and I gave $10.00 to help out. Even if you don’t know somebody with epilepsy please check it out.

If you live in the DC area and are available on the 28th go and walk with them. It is for a great cause and you will be helping a fantastic man find a cure for his son. What could be better than that?

For more information please go to :  Jake’s Crazy Brainwaves Team

From there you can choose to join the team or to donate. Another thing I loved is that they don’t have a minimum amount. If you can only afford to donate $1.00 then do so. If you can donate more, then that is an option as well. It’s super easy and you can use your debit/credit card right then and there.

Please spread the word and just think… $1.00 from you and your friends could help change lives forever.

(Those of you on Twitter can follow Greg here)

- She Who Has The Last Word

Today Chris and I went out running errands and around 3:00 PM he asked me what I wanted for lunch. Since I hate making decisions I told him that it was for him to decide. He suggested Chipotle but I wasn’t in the mood for it so he mentioned sandwiches. I said sure but then he asked me if I wanted them from Subway or Quizno’s. Both are near our apartment so it honestly didn’t matter to me.

On the way home was a Quizno’s so we stopped there. For the local people (Fresno/Clovis area) reading this, it is the Quizno’s off of Shaw and Villa.

The last time we visited that Quizno’s they were ridiculously slow and it seemed like today was no different. There was a lady behind the counter who had to have been in her 50′s and she was the one making the sandwiches. Now… in no way am I saying that people in their 50′s are slow at making sandwiches or slow in general, I was simply letting you know what we were dealing with.

She was already helping one guy and there was another man waiting who seemed to grow impatient. Instead of ordering a sandwich he grabbed a cookie, paid for it, and left leaving Chris and I next in line. When it was our turn we were still undecided on what we wanted, since there are so many different options, and instead of the lady standing there she started fiddling around with stuff.

I want to point out that she was still wearing the food service gloves from when she was helping out the guy before us.

While wearing the gloves she started to disassemble the deli slicer, lifting the shield (google it if you don’t know what part I’m referring to) and taking it to the back area. Since we weren’t done yet deciding, she then grabbed a rag and started cleaning the counter area underneath the deli slicer and touching other things…. all while wearing the same gloves.

Are you starting to detect a pattern here?

Before coming back to where we were she threw away whatever cloth thing she was rubbing on the counter and asked us if we were ready. I had decided that I was going to have a turkey sandwich and Chris was asking which meat was used in the Prime Rib one.

Chris is a freak about germs and notices little things that I normally wouldn’t because I just don’t, and I am honestly shocked that he wasn’t picking up on what I was seeing. When Chris told her what he wanted to order and the type of bread, there she went…. old gloves and all.

This crazy lady, who obviously knows nothing about being sanitary, started touching the bread that she was going to use to make our sandwiches. With the same glove, she grabbed his meat to toss in that beef broth they have (in which that actually creeps me out because I always think of cross contamination but whatever…), and she started cutting the bread.

As discretely as I could I whispered to him about what I had seen. Immediately I saw panic in his eyes and I knew that our Quizno’s adventure was over – as well it should have been! (By the way… I am laughing about the panic in his eyes as I am typing this and when I told Chris he says to me “that’s nasty ass shit.” Straight from his mouth.)

We then tried to think of a way to get out of there and got pretty damn uncomfortable since she was already brothing his beef. We told her that he had changed his mind and we pretended to converse between each other before seeing a moment where we could bolt.

Needless to say our mood for sandwiches was ruined and ended up going to Yosemite Falls Cafe where he got a massive 1 pound burger and I got a tasty turkey sandwich with chicken noodle soup.

I highly doubt we will ever be going to that Quizno’s location ever again, and it will be a long time before we even eat at any of their locations.

Ew, ew…. and ew.

- She Who Has The Last Word

Episode 11 is done and gone!  We were worried at the start of the show because we had absolutely no viewers!  However, as we soldiered on, our awesome viewers started popping in.

We had a short show, clocking in at well under two hours, which was actually kind of strange.  We had a full week to talk about, and a prepared list of show notes, but were only able to jibber-jabber for a little over an hour and a half.  Length aside, though, we feel it was a good show.  We discussed our visit with The Married Gamers and our feature spot on episode 90 of their weekly podcast, as well as our need to reschedule our upcoming Episode 12!  We will be out of town Friday and Saturday, and will be unable to broadcast at our regular time.  We’ve scheduled Episode 12 to take place on Sunday, March 22, at 2:00pm PST (5:00pm EST).

Other than that, we had a variety of topics ranging from movie news to gaming news to irrelevant news.  You know, the usual.

Thanks for watching, and we’ll see you guys on Sunday!

Episode discussion at:

http://worldofmeh.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=35

-Because I said so

I could try to express my shock in words, or I could show you a picture that will explain everything completely.

Feast your eyes on this:

What the crap?

I hate Hollywood.  This movie was supposed to have a September 2008 THEATER RELEASE.

THEATER.

RELEASE.

It ended up being released March 1, 2009, on Cartoon Network, with the DVD following shortly after.

Seriously.  Go look at your local Blockbuster Video and see it for yourself.

-Because I said so