For those of you that don’t know, Nintendo Wii has something called a Virtual Console. This is essentially a purchase and download service where you can buy old games, store them on the Wii, and play them whenever you want. First of all, this is ingenious. Nintendo found a way to charge us $20 - $40 for these games when they first hit the market 10, 15, and 20 years ago. Now they’re charging us $5 - $10 to buy the game again. Brilliant.

But more importantly, the Virtual Console gives a 1980’s Nintendophile like myself the ability to download games that I used to love and play them today. Recently I’ve downloaded the original Legend of Zelda (for both myself and my Mom - she loves this game), Super Mario Brothers 3, Mario Kart 64, the original SimCity, Punch-Out featuring Mr. Dream (apparently Tyson was cut off from the franchise) and Super Mario 64. These games are awesome. I’ve definitely invested (wasted?) a bunch of time playing these games lately.

The best part is that Nintendo releases new games each Monday. Here’s hoping that some old Final Fantasy games get released as well as some more updated SimCity games! And for those of you who have a Wii and haven’t looked at the Virtual Console yet - take a look. For those of you who don’t have a Wii…go out and start looking for one!

My apologies, folks. I started writing this post two weeks ago and I just didn’t have a chance to finish it. Two weeks ago Howard Stern and his crew went on vacation (again). This was the week of President’s Day. I was shocked - what was the reason for the vacation THIS time?!

It is absolutely amazing how much these guys go on vacation! It’s funny because Howard Stern used to be a show that was about people trying to make it in the real world. Now it’s a show where the crew has every Friday off - how many folks in the working world get that? Not many… Now it’s a show where the staff has some 8 weeks of vacation each year (if not more). How many people have THAT luxury at their job?

Listen, I understand that Howard and the gang have earned these perks at this point in their legendary careers. But when they ask me to pay thirteen bucks each month to listen to a show that has 10 minute commercial breaks (mostly filled with smutty commercials) when he advertised the satellite service as being “commercial free” during his last year on terrestrial radio (check the tapes), I sort of expected more. I understand the need for commercials on satellite talk radio since they have more listeners than the music channels - fine, no problems there. But why do the commercial breaks have to be ten minutes (or more!) long?

But I digress…

What WAS the reason for the vacation two weeks ago? Did the crew celebrate President’s Day for an entire week? Seriously, does anyone know what the deal was with this vacation?

With all of this talk about the subprime mortgage market meltdown, I hope that this country doesn’t forget about the student loan scandals that are silently rocking higher education. Just as people were duped into loans that were bad for them, many students were duped into consolidating with organizations that provided a kickback to schools that referred a certain number of students.

If America wants to remain a country balanced between capitalism and socialism, then we cannot forget student loans. In other words, if this is a country where the free market can create situations where private organizations trick borrowers into signing mortgages that are inherently bad for the borrower and if this is a country where the people demand our government fix this “injustice,” then this also needs to be a country that does the same with ALL forms of financial contracts. That would include student loans.

Providing a bailout for the unfortunate masses who were tricked into signing these subprime mortgages means that we need to provide a bailout for those students who were tricked into consolidating with companies that had profit motives over the best repayment option for the student.

Prince Harry - also known as “The Spare” - was deployed in Afghanistan up until a few days ago. After word leaked that he was fighting on the front lines against remnants of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, the British Royal Army pulled him out of the country and brought him back home. This was a good decision for obvious reasons. From the article:

Harry, third in line to the throne, was withdrawn from his deployment after details were made public.

The prince’s mission had previously gone undisclosed under an agreement between the Ministry of Defense and major news organizations designed to protect the 23-year-old prince and his fellow soldiers.

You gotta feel somewhat bad for Prince Harry. One of the talking heads on TV mentioned that Harry said this was the closest that he’s felt to being “normal” in his entire life. That’s got to suck. Here’s a 23-year old kid just trying to be a regular guy and it can’t happen. I feel for a person in that type of situation, but in Harry’s case I have to admit that it was the right call to bring him home. The last thing these animals in Afghanistan need to do is get a hold of the third in line to the British throne and do to him what they do to “infadels.” God forbid.

The story linked above also mentions that Prince William - also known as “The Heir” - will be deployed by the British Air Force later this year.

Why is it such a big story that Will Ferrell’s latest movie is a huge bomb? This guy is one of the biggest “no talents” in recent history. How can anyone find a guy funny who plays the same shtick in every movie? All he does is overly exaggerate every few words in each sentence or play the role of someone who is just bewildered at the obvious.

Not only has he not made a good movie since Anchorman (in which HE was so-so at best, but the rest of the crew was alright), but he hasn’t played a new character since he was a cheerleader on Saturday Night Live. Speaking of which, the article linked above makes a good point in that Ferrell hasn’t invited Cheri Oteri to star in one of his movies yet.

Seems like now would be a good time, huh you dummy?