WOW!!!Gotta give it up for the crew at Epic Games.This is certainly a remarkable time for the art of video games. And that is exactly what Gears of War 2 is: art of the highest caliber.Everything about it is just darned perfect. And there's one scene in particular in the game... you'll know what I'm talking about if you've played it already... that is absolutely heartbreaking. For that bit of music alone, Steve Jablonsky deserves beaucoups of...
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Dobson should "Focus on the Finances" instead!
Focus on the Family is going broke. The ministry ummm... "organization" is being forced to lay off 202 employees, supposedly after campaigning for Proposition 8 (the "gay marriage" ban) in California cleansed its coffers of over half a million dollars. It still has 950 employees though.(What does any outfit like Focus on the Family need with more than a thousand employees?! I know of a few others who get by with much less overhead.)Maybe if Focus...
Recession to rob many of fried turkey this Thanksgiving
See the photo on the right? That's me a few years ago on Thanksgiving, holding a golden brown, succulent deep-fried turkey. It's considered the second most dangerous form of cooking known to man (after preparing fugu) and I've done it plenty of times since 2002. And especially for family and friends, who have always enjoyed the exceptionally juicy meat that comes from preparing...
Fabled "lost" Beatles track may finally see release
Back in 1967, about the same time that the band was working on the "White Album", the Beatles recorded an extremely avant-garde track they dubbed "Carnival of Light". The 14-minute long song was said to consist of the Beatles going completely off the chain, with screams of "Barcelona!", a church organ being played full-tilt, and a bunch of other seemingly random sounds. It was never released because it was deemed too weird and "ahead of its time".In...
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
"You'll shoot your eye out!"
A Christmas Story, the classic film of Ralphie Parker (Peter Billingsley) who pines for a Red Ryder BB gun in his stocking in Indiana circa 1940, was released twenty-five years ago today, on November 18th 1983..."How about a nice football?"I saw it twice in theaters when it came out. First Mom and Dad took my sister, my best friend Chad and I to see it, and then two weeks...
Thirtieth anniversary of the Jonestown Massacre
This is what happens when otherwise normal individuals don't think for themselves with the minds that God gave them...It was thirty years ago today - November 18th, 1978 - that the Jonestown Massacre occurred at the People's Temple Agricultural Project near Kaituma, Guyana. Following an ambush at a nearby airstrip (which took the life of United States Representative Leo Ryan),...
Monday, November 17, 2008
This is a STAR TREK trailer?!
This is positively unlike anything that I have ever seen done with Star Trek......and I think it's awesome!For this one, I'm gonna direct you to the full glorious Quicktime version (it's Trailer 2). I just took a look at it in 480P and was blown away. Wait 'til you see the first scene in this thing: it's probably the most UN-Star Trek-ish image produced in the entire forty-some...
The night the Star Wars empire almost self-destructed
Today marks an extraordinarily dubious anniversary for the Star Wars saga. Because it was thirty years ago tonight, on November 17th, 1978, that CBS aired the first and last broadcast of The Star Wars Holiday Special.The two-hour schlockfest is now widely considered by many to be the absolutely worst block of television in the history of anything..."One of these things is...
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Awesome new promo for LOST Season 5!
"Where we going Mommy?""We're going on vacation, baby."And among the other intriguing things in this new promo: Juliet uncovering what looks to be another hatch, Daniel wearing a mining helmet underground, Locke at Jacob's cabin, Sun locked in a room demanding to be let out, and what looks to be the words "DHARMA Initiative" that flashes by very rapidly (don't blink or you might miss seeing it).DarkUFO has an even better quality version for you to...
Soviet-era Buran could replace NASA space shuttle
Twenty years ago yesterday the Buran (shown landing at left), the Soviet Union's answer to the American-made NASA space shuttle system, launched from Kazakhstan for its first test flight. It wound up being its only mission to date. A few years later the fall of communism left the program in limbo. The only flight-worthy Buran was destroyed during a roof collapse at the...
Saturday, November 15, 2008
How does Chris spend a Saturday?
In no particular order, today I......saw the new James Bond movie Quantum of Solace (it kicks seriously crazy cool boo-tay!!!)...filmed a lot of footage for a commercial that I'm making for a new client....played Classic Battletech and had my derriere handed to me (especially after the legs were shot off my BattleMech)....was told during rehearsal for the Theatre Guild of Rockingham County's production of Oliver Twist that I had a great British accent...
Monty Python "Dead Parrot" sketch is 1,600 years old
A Greek scholar has conclusively proven that the classic "Dead Parrot" sketch made famous by Monty Python's John Cleese and Michael Palin actually goes back sixteen hundred years.Hierocles and Philagrius were the original comedy duo who came up with the concept. Except in their version it wasn't a dead bird, but a deceased slave. One man complains to a friend that the slave...
Sign of the times: Spam production can't keep up with demand
The New York Times is reporting that Hormel is pulling out all the stops to keep up with a sudden demand for Spam. The classic "mystery meat in a can" was first introduced over seventy years ago and ever since has become a staple food for hard economic times, having cemented that status during the lean years of World War II. And now as many seriously wonder if we might be...
Friday, November 14, 2008
IBM using lawsuit to keep Apple from giving you the last iPod you'll ever want?
A few weeks ago Apple hired Mark Papermaster to be its new head of development over the iPod and iPhone lines. All well and good... except that Papermaster was also previously the vice-president of the microprocessor and chip technology at IBM, and there was a "no-compete" clause in his contract with his former employer. Papermaster has countered that he's going to be involved in entertainment devices: something that IBM has never pursued and thus,...
Thursday, November 13, 2008
The second WATCHMEN trailer!
It's gonna be so weird to finally see the movie adaptation of Watchmen. Ever since this blog's beginning I've been writing about the efforts to get this film made, and usually it's to share some pessimism about whether it could be done right... or at least done at all. Like yesterday evening I conveyed some concern about Zack Snyder's admitting that the ending of Watchmen, which he's directed, is going to be different from the book.Funny how things...
First photographs made of extra-solar planets
We've known they were out there for over a decade. Now two groups of astronomers have captured the first photographs of planets orbiting stars far beyond our own solar system. Images of the star HR 8799 turned up three planets, including this first-ever direct photo of an alien world...And the Hubble Space Telescope has imaged a planet circling Fomalhaut.In case yer wondering:...
Federal air marshals abusing power, commiting crimes
USA Today is running a story about the high rate of crime among the Transportation Security Administration's federal air marshals. One marshal used his badge and top secret security clearance to smuggle cocaine and drug money. Another attempted to "disappear" his ex-wife via a contract killer (who was another federal air marshal). Still another used his authority to engage in child pornography. There have been dozens of such cases since 9/11,...
