Black Friday? How about an Orange iPod?

Hi Everyone,

Saw this and thought that I would pass it along to my faithful readers, all 3 of you. Apple has released it’s list of deals that it will have on Black Friday, and it looks pretty good.

iMac: $898-$1958
MacBook: $998-$1398
.Mac: $68
iPod Nano (except Reds): $138-$228
iPod: $228-$318
Wireless Mighty Mouse: $58
Shure earphones: $78-$238
Contour iPod Cases: $14-$24
Belkin TuneBase FM: $58
JBL On Stage Micro: $78
JBL Spot Speakers: $108
LaCie Hard Drives: $148-$888
Incase Sling Pack: $48
Xtreme Mac Micro Memo Voice Recorder: $48
Sonic Impact Video-55 Display: $238
Nike+iPod Sport Kit: $24

Those prices look pretty good! I am sure that many of you will be partaking in these fine bargains, and I wish you good shopping. Nothing like the first day of the “Christmas Shopping Season” (put in brackets for the absurdity of starting to shop for Christmas so early) to get the blood flowing. I know if I had any extra money, tomorrow would be my favorite shopping day of the year. Not to shop for anyone else, but to shop for me!

Good luck, and good shopping!

Have a good one.

Problems with Electronic Voting? Nah, never gonna happen!

Just a short post for now.

I found this article (here) about a problem that occurred in a small town in the US. Apparently this town uses an electronic voting machine. You see, after all of the votes had been counted, it turns out that one of the candidates receive no votes. The problem comes up when you speak to this candidates. Well, it turns out that he voted for himself. If he voted for himself, how did he get zero votes, you ask? That’s the problem. I guess that there might have been a problem with the machine.

I am so happy that Canada is not seriously looking at electronic voting. Mind you, we only have a fraction of the population of the U.S., but I don’t know if I would be comfortable with it. And I am a big fan of all things technological.

Good luck in your pursuit of the perfect voting method U.S. citizens! At least you won’t have any more hanging chads!

Have a good one.

Bond, James Bond. I think…..

Went to see the Casino Royale last night. Late night, expensive Babysitter, but very worth it. It takes the traditional Bond film and throws it right out the window. It also messes with the traditional movie structure a little as well. There are heavy spoilers ahead, so don’t read if you aren’t interested.

 

As has been mentioned by several other reviewers, the opening sequence is fantastic. By having this section in Black and White, the director creates a “Film Noir” feel, and gives Bond a chance to show that he is, as always, deadly serious about his work. The opening sequence also takes the opportunity to show how an MI-6 agents gains Double-O status by showing how Bond earned his. This section is slick, as most Bond movie are, but show a bluntness that most Bond movies lack. Great intro for the movie.

 

The title sequence was very disappointing in my opinion. It was a cool idea, but one of the iconic things about a James Bond movie is the women in the opening sequence. Instead of an esoteric sequence, with lots of women, it turned out to be a long, abstract fight sequence. Reminded me a little of those new iPod commercials.

The rest of the movie was very well put together, with the plot moving along quite well. I won’t go into too much detail, but I will say that this is definitly a Bond that is learning who he is, and how to do what he does. He makes mistakes, and lives to ensure that he does not make them again.

The one part that screws with the normal flow of the movie is the “fourth act.” Most movies have a three act structure (read more about that here). Just when the story ends, and you expect the film to start wrapping things up, it keeps going! I won’t give away any more of the story, but I have to say that the torture scene made me very uncomfortable. It made my wife so uncomfortable that she put her head into my shoulder for a few minutes. I did find myself, about 10 minutes into this fourth act, saying to my wife “Will this movie ever end?” It’s not that it was not entertaining, it’s just that it felt like it was going, and going, and going…….

Overall, I would highly recommend this film to anyone who liked the classic Bond movies, as long as they understood that this one messes with the formula. I would also recommend this movie to anyone who would never watch a Bond movie. I would compare this one more to The Bourne Identity than to the classic Bond movies. Pretty much anyone who likes a good spy action movie.

Enjoy the movie, and have a good one.

Had a draft for a Casino Royal review, but then I read this Draft story.

I was all prepared to finish up the review of the new James Bond movie, Casino Royal, when I saw this story (here) about the possibility of the U.S. starting the draft again, and it scared me enough to put off finishing the review and write this post instead.

My first thoughts when it comes to the issue of the U.S. starting to draft young men and women into the armed forces was to think about a recent sculpture that was unveiled in a small town in my province recently (here). This sculpture, which is meant as a memorial to the people who helped those who did not report after receiving their draft order, cause quite the controversies here in Canada, with people worried that it would damage Canada-U.S. relations. In the end, I do believe that the statue was erected in southern B.C., and that there was a reunion of sort with many of the original “Draft Dodgers” attending.

This shows that the idea of the draft, even 30 years after it was fased out in, it still a hot topic.

Now, with Democrats taking control of the House and the Senate, this new leader, Rep. Charles Rangel, of the Ways and Means Committee (Find out more about the Committee of Ways and Means here), plans to introduce legislation bringing back the draft. This could mean several things:

1. All young men and women would have the possibility of being drafted hanging over their heads while they are going to school, working, living their lives.

2. All men and women below a certain age (probably somewhere in the mid 40s) would have the possibility of being drafted hanging over their heads while they live their lives.

3. Perhaps mandatory armed forces service would be introduced? Many countries in the world require their young people to give up 2-3 years of their life in mandatory military service. Could this be coming to the U.S.?

I think that, if there is going to be a draft, the second choise is probably the most likely, as it would give the armed forces a broader range of people from which to choose.

As far as to whether or not I think this will actually happen, my answer is no, I don’t. Rangel has mentioned that he hopes that draft legislation, once enacted, would make leaders think twice about going to war. It would make them think about the fact that now, it would not only be those people who had volunteered for military service that would be sent away, with many of them not returning. It would also be the next door neighbours kids.

I think that that is a really stupid idea. Here, lets use these people as pawns, so that when the next President of the United States decides to go to war with some country, that the death of these everyday people with make it politically uncomfortable for him. Yeah, that sounds great. How about we find a way to make sure that the most powerful military in the world doesn’t go to war needlessly without using the deaths of non-volunteer troops as a POLITICAL motivation.

Man, that idea just pisses me off.

Why can’t Wii all just get along?

OK, I know, pathetic title, but what are you gonna do about it? At least you have some idea of what I am going to write about today. While most people are going to be busy writing about the PS3 launch today, I am going to conform in my anti-conformism (is that even a word?)

The Wii. A pretty novel concept, if you ask me. The idea that you would be able to just move the controller in front of you, and have the game pick up the movement and accurately represent it in game is just a really cool idea. It sounds like, from the previews and reviews that I have read so far that is have been implemented pretty well. So far, it seems that the Nintendo Sports game and Zelda are the best at using the controller to its full advantage. In one preview that I read, it mentioned that you use the Wii-mote to pull back the bow string in Zelda, and that when you release the bow string, the speaker embedded in the Wii-mote gives the “twang” of a bow string. Pretty darn cool. The one thing that I am MOST excited about though, and that I may beg my wife to let me buy a Wii for, is that Lucasarts has said that they will create a Star Wars game for the Wii. And you will be able to use the Wii-mote to control your Lightsaber. I MUST HAVE THIS! Oh, and can you tell that I like Star Wars?

For those of you non-gamers out there (why the hell are you reading my blog if you’re not a gamer?) here is a first impression that you will probably find interesting, from a non-gamer.

This is definitely something that I will rent when I get the opportunity. I am still a pretty big fan of Nintendo. I mean, I rented the Virtual Boy several times. Yep, I was one of the 10 people that actually enjoyed playing on that system.

Have a good one.

This is just cool

I stole this from someone else, I admit it. Thank you youtube!

Would you like some O.J. with that? Hell no!

Just when we where all finally done with O.J. who, in my opinion, got away with murder, here he is in the spotlight again. I read this article (here), and see that now he has a book deal, the book title being “O.J. Simpson: If I Did It, Here’s How It Happened”. Man that just ticks me off. Here is a guy who, I have to admit, was found not guilty in a criminal trial, but was then found liable in a civil trial (here), had FINALLY fallen into obscurity. We had just gotten rid of the guy for crying out loud! And now we have to have all this…. stuff….. dragged up again. Talk about desperate for any publicity.

Anyways, so we finally have him as a joke in the world, and he come out with this book. Yeah right, “If” he did it. Uh, huh. Well, it turns out that the publisher of the book, Judith Reagan, considers the book a confession (here). Don’t we all.

Gonna post a more tech/movie intensive post in a few. Feel free to comment on your opinions about this new O.J. “news.”

Another day, another… ahh heck, why bother?

Hello again everyone. And by everyone, I mean Bill and Taigi, since you are probably then only people that read this right now. Com on guys, feel free to pass it along!

Read a few articles about the Zune, and I have to say, I like what I read. After I wrote the other day about the Zune, I spent a lot of time looking for more information to follow up once it had actually released. One of the articles that I found was actually two articles, the first (here) gives some information about what the Zune can and can’t do. I won’t bother repeating everything here, trusting that you are intelligent enough to look at the damn thing yourself. Needless to say, lots of cool features. A little disappointed about the DRM that is added to shared songs between Zune. The last I had heard, DRM was only for songs that originally had it on them, and that songs that where DRM free would stay that way when you shared them with another Zune. Now that ALL songs have DRM (you can listen to the transferred song three time or for three days, whichever comes first), I don’t think the Wi-Fi is, at this point, as cool as I originally thought. Mind you, I still think that it’s cool, just not the “O my God, I HAVE to have it” kind of cool.

The second part of the article (here) is more of a hands on. I agree with the writer about the fact that this will take off in schools. Being a member of the Education System myself, I can see kids going nuts with this device. The ability to share songs, even in it’s limited fashion, will be used extensively by kids. I also agree with the writer that having to buy blocks of “Microsoft Points” is not a good thing. But then again, I have never bought anything from iTunes either, so I guess I should really try out both systems before I give my opinion. Oh, wait, this is my blog and I can pretty much do whatever the hell I want. 

Next up: Bond………. James Bond. OK, I couldn’t resist. Sorry. I was really divided about this movie, and the new bond. I was, and still am, a big fan of Pierce Brosnan as James Bond. He was my favorite Bond, after Sean Connery of course. I always thought that he carried the role very well, even when the movie wasn’t that great. Die Another Day anyone? Well, from what I read now about the new Bond, Daniel Craig , he kicks ass! I have been hearing about this movie, as everyone else has for quite a while. One of the sequences that I am most excited about is the Parkour section. Find out about Parkour here. I had a student really interested about Parkour at my former school, and he talked about it so much that when I heard that there was going to be a sequenced in the new James Bond film based on it, I was intrigued. Overall, it sounds like this new Bond film re-invents the series, which, unfortunately, needed a little updating. I’ll try to convince the wife to go see it this weekend. She wants to go see Happy Feet. Hmmmmm. Anyways, here are a few reviews.

Last, and probably MOST IMPORTANTLY. Again, sorry, I needed to put it in caps because it really is that important. I read an article that linked me to this post. Although the post is a couple of months old, I hope there is still something that we can do. Basically, Pallidium Books is in danger of going under. Having played, well, ALL of their Roleplaying Games at some point during my teenage years, some well into my twenties, I have a great deal of respect for everything that that company puts out. To quote a part of the article:

“At a time when Palladium Books’ future has never looked more promising, we have been dealt a crippling blow.

For legal reasons, I cannot go into details about exactly what happened. Suffice it to say that betrayal of trust, theft, and embezzlement has inflicted what we estimate to be $850,000 to 1.3 million dollars in damages to Palladium.

It is a blow from which Palladium cannot recover. At least, not without YOUR help.”

 

Well that sucks, doesn’t it? I think that it is very important that everyone out there do whatever they can to stop this company from going under. Hell, they were on a D20 combat system YEARS before AD&D switched over. They have the best Sci-Fi RPG available in Rifts, and the best thing is that once you learn the rules, you can transfer them over to all of the different worlds that they offer: Rifts, Palladium (D&D like setting), TMNT (yep, Teenage Mutant, blah blah), etc. Do what you can, I know I will.

 

Well there you have it. Two days in a row. Doubt that will happen again.

 

Have a good one.

 

 

Here we go…..

I figured since “everyone and their cousin” was writing a blog, I wouldn’t want to let one of my cousins down. Ok, bad joke.

What do I plan to do here? Just write. Talk about some of the things that interest me.

Here is the first thing. I was surfing around Ain’t it Cool News when I saw this article: New Spider-Man Trailer WITH Venom. All I have to say is WOW. I wish that they had finished and released this trailer instead of the one that they did. As a very big fan of Spider-Man for many years, it excites the inner fanboy in me. And the questions of the day: My thoughts on Venom? Well, we hardly got to see him, but what we did see was cool. It looks like they took almost an “anime” approach to him. They would have to with Topher Grace playing Eddie Brock. For those of you who don’t know, in the comics, Eddie Brock (the guy who turns into Venom) has a body builder type of physique, and Venom is huge! From what I can see in the trailer, it looks like the have Venom about the same size as Spider-Man, but at least it looks like they got the face right. If you don’t want to read through the comments to find the link to the trailer, here it is. EDIT: Sorry folks, but it got pulled. Search the net for it though. It’s worth the effort. There is more talk about this trailer here. Feel free to start a new discussion here.

 

Another thing that I think is really cool right now is the launch of the Zune on Tuesday. I like what I have heard so far about this player. With a screen larger than the current iPod, and the Wi-Fi capabilities, this thing is going to rock. Now, some of you might say that the Wi-Fi is not as important as I might make it out to be. For those of you who don’t know, at the moment, the Wi-Fi for the Zune will only allow you to share songs with friends wirelessly. If the song on the Zune has DRM on it, then the song that you send to your friend will only work on their Zune for 3 days. If it is DRM free, then the transfer has not time limit. The thing is, I am sure that they will add the ability to purchase songs through Wi-Fi at a later date. They would be crazy not to. Can you imagine walking into your local Starbucks, hearing a song that you like, and then just popping onto your Zune and downloading the song through the Wi-Fi hotspot? Wow.

As far as the Zune goes compared to the iPod, here are my thought: Right now, nothing beats iTunes for simplicity and ease of use. I have been meaning to play around with Songbird, but haven’t gotten around to it. I hear good things though. I like my 1GB iPod Nano, although I have been having technical difficulties lately. The darn thing just won’t connect reliably. I think that the cable AND the connector on the actual iPod are shot. I would hate to send it in though, cause I hear it is very expensive. Let me know about your experiences with Apple Repair.

Not, another thing that has been fun for me lately. Dungeons and Dragons Online. The first thing you have to understand, it that when I was in high school, and pretty much until I had kids, I was a hardcore Pen and Paper RPGer. Mostly Rifts, from Palladium Books. Since I and most of my friends have had kids, we have tried everything from Play by Email, to playing over IM, but nothing has kept going. Now, we have Saturday night, once all the kids have gone to bed, set aside. We all downloaded the 10 day trial for DDO, and are trying it out. I think that we are all going to get it. The tactical aspect of it (you can just click on a monster and auto attack, you’ll die pretty quick), and the built in voice chat make it a great experience for everyone. It just feels right.

Anyways, thanks for reading my blog. I will try to update twice a week, but we’ll see.

Have a good one.