This is pretty interesting. I saw the terminator season finale last week and I was quite amazed. On the one hand the series can end now and it will not be a major cliffhanger.

Sure we don't know where John Henry went with Cameron's chip and John was been transported to the future where no one seems to know who he is but I see this as a setup for a sequel series or a series of movies (or comic books as has been eluded by some entertainment blogs).

I would like for the series to continue though so we can find out what's going on...

• Who is the weaverbot and why is she fighting skynet?
• Did Miles Dyson's son actually create Skynet? (was he in Terminator 3?)
• Where is John Henry?
• What are Elisson and Sarah going to do now?
• What are the dynamics that thrust John to be in a leadership position now that we know that he did not survive J-day (like terminator 3 says), but skipped it altogether?
• Will we see Arnold? (I hope so!)
• Will we see the original Cromartie? (I hope so!)
• What's the deal with the human Cameron?

The one thing that people are complaining about is that the series is now disjointed, there is no straight line to follow. Well, if you change something in the past, the future changes! If the future changes, the present will seem a little more chaotic, no?

I am hoping for a renewal!

Tags: television, entertainment, terminator, opinion

Survivors is a typical BBC show - six episodes long. It's sort of like 28 days later, but without the zombies

The whole premise of the show is that a disease has wiped out most of the British population (and presumably most of the world), but a certain number of "survivors" got the disease and survived it. What we don't know is if this is man made - like a nation attacking another nation, or an experiment gone wrong, like the storyline of resident evil.

I find the series interesting in that it challenges preconception of how you should treat fellow human beings, and how a major event can seriously change your world view and how you act not just with yourself but with others as well. How the different groups choose to rebuild society is also interesting. It's like viewing an MMO civilization game.

I am glad that they revived the series. I am looking forward to next season.


For more information...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivors_(2008_TV_Series)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/survivors/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1258189/

Tags: entertainment, television, BBC, suspense

One of the games that happily took my 50 drachma coins back in the day was Snow Brothers. The game controls somewhat like bubble bobble in that you have a character (a snowman) going around a static screen and you attack firebreathing monsters with little boomerangs made of snow. Throw enough of them on an enemy and you make them into a snowball that you can roll onto other enemies.

The end goal, if I remember correctly, is to rescue your girlfriend (aren't most older games pretty similar in objectives?). I never got really far in the game - maybe up to the third boss (so 30 stages?), but it was a great game to play on those afternoons after school!

Tags: video, games, video games, arcade

I wasn't sure about this series when I first stated watching it but I have been convinced that it is good! It doesn't get a high score on IMDB - I don't know why!

This series has an interesting start. It wasn't picked up in 2004 when it was first shot, but because of the great writer strikes of 2007 in the US, the australian television execs gave it a second look and they gave it a go. Hey, if americans on strike give us great foreign shows, I say strike some more! (no disrespect meant to toward the writers guild! I just find that there is a void of good foreign shows on american TV).

Anyway, this series reminds me of Flashpoint (a canadian production, but currently also available on CBS). It follows a team of police officers - not quite SWAP (like in Flashpoint), but also not just patrolmen (Is there a something in between in the US?)

If it's not on a local station - go torrent it. It's worth watching.


For more information see here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rush_(2008_TV_series)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1258216/

Tags: television, entertainment, australian, drama, action

A while back I saw this comic book cover generator on one of my contact's profiles on Facebook.

Since I had nothing to do the other day I went through the generator and made myself info a super hero - batwings and all!

If you've got some time to waste and want a comic book cover of your alternate persona, head over to:
http://www.cpbintegrated.com/theherofactory/

Tags: personal, entertainment, Silly, comic

Back in the early 90s I had a super nintendo system. I didn't have that many games. One of the games I was dying to get was Inspector Gadget and luckily my mom pulled through and made my day one of those birthdays .

The game was really a straight forward platformer. Penny get abducted by Dr. Claws and Gadget is off to rescue her in typical gadget-esque fashion. He does get power-ups throughout the game, such as the mini-gadgets that attack enemies in front of you, suction-cup arrows, and the helicopter blades that allow him to float through the air (among other things).

I remember going up all the way to the amazon level and then dying...and dying again...and again. I never got to the end (my SNES and all my games were stolen when someone broke into my friend's house to whom I had loaded my system) but the game was nevertheless fun to try to beat. I never felt like I was gridinng through the levels. I did feel frustrated in the amazon though.

If you see this game on an SNES, emulator or gametap near you, give it a try.

Tags: video games, video, games, SNES

I've added a number of podcasts to my RSS reader in iTunes. When possible, I try to get enhanced podcasts so that I can get the 'chapter' option that enhanced podcasts offer.

In the past five years I've grown to really like to listen to a number of people because of the news, insights and opinions that they provide. Of course, just like a newspaper, I don't want to listen to every topic that someone podcasts about, like things in the "news" section of podcasts because chances are that I've already listened to straight news about that industry that week.

One of my frustrations on the 2 hour long podcasts is that I don't have the option to look at the chapters, see the topics and then pick which chapter I would like to listen to based on the chapter's topic.

Most of these podcasts are post processed by audio engineers so why not create an AAC edition with chapters? This would be useful not only for joe-average, but also for people in education that want to use podcasts but want to skip to a particular section.

Tags: technology, podcasts, entertainment, education

Yet another (short) series on BBC that is worth watching.

This series follows the adventures of a Martin Shaw, a catholic priest, who happens to be an exorcist. Of course the Vatican isn't completely on his side which makes his job not as easy. As the series starts out they seem (to me anyway) to be skeptical of all this exorcism hog-wash, but as the series goes on it gives us (or at least me) the impression that the Vatican is taken over by demons.

The series is pretty good, and it's only six episodes, so it's worth investing your time to watch it if you're into spectral drama. I hope it gets renewed next year!


Here's some more info
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apparitions_(TV_series)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1140939/

Tags: television, entertainment, BBC, drama

One of the video games, from my childhood, that really stand out on the Amiga platform for me is Chuck Rock. This game is a typical side-scrolling platformer. The overall plot isn't that sophisticated. Chuck's wife (or girlfriend) is abducted by an evil doer and Chuck being the cavalier caveman that he is must go rescue her.

Along the road there will be some dinosaurs that help chuck on his noble quest, and some that will impede him by draining him of life. Chuck can attack these bad dinosaurs by either throwing stones at them, or by attacking them with his belly (this approach resorted to a lot of button mashing because I couldn't figure out when to press the button to attack and not be hit back).

I think the thing that really comes to mind when I think of Chuck Rock is not the game itself, but rather the introduction to the game. It was a pretty cool intro! (see video).





http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Rock

Tags: entertainment, video, games, video games

One of this season's ITV series that I enjoyed watching is Demons.
It takes place in modern London (if I am not mistaken), and it follows the life of the last of the Van Hellsings (Luke) who just found out that all that was written about vampires and demons is true.

Philip Glenister (or Life on Mars fame) is his godfather who apprentices Luke into the world of cleansing this world of half-lives (their term for anything that is not human).

It's a pretty interesting series, and I don't want to ruin it for everyone, but what struck me is the stark contrast between this series and Sanctuary. This series takes the view that all demons are bad and must thus be purged whereas Sanctuary takes the view that these beings are part of the ecosystem and we must all learn to peacefully co-exist with one another.

Demons reminds me a bit of the steampunk genre with the weapons they use.

Here's some more info on the series:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demons_(TV_series)
http://www.itv.com/Drama/cult/Demons/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1157595/


More info on Sanctury:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanctuary_(web_series)#Webisodes
http://www.sanctuaryforall.com/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1302522/

Tags: entertainment, telephony, ITV, scifi

To tell you the truth, this was a somewhat non-memorable game.
It is true that it had some great graphics, compared to other games I had played on portable platforms at the time. The story is essentially Mickey falling asleep on a fairy tale book, and he becomes the protagonist that saves the land.


The stages in the game were good. As I see screenshots of the game, my memory is jogged, but it's nothing like some of the NES, gameboy and Amiga games that I haven't played in a long time, yet still I remember,


Land of Illusion is a standard platform game, and it took me a while to complete as far as I recall. It was quite an amazing game, at the time, but for some reason it failed to make a lasting impression on me.


I kinda wonder what the deal is, because most game gear games that I have, and that I have written about, are games that either sucked really bad (and I remember that), or didn't make much of a lasting impression other than "I had that game, I played it, I completed it, it was OK". Weird...

Tags: video, video games, gameboy, games, sega, gamegear, disney, disappointment

Monk is quirky.
Monk is obsessive compulsive
Monk is a crime solver
Monk is a show you should be watching.

This series, now in its final (8th) year, follows a former police detective Adrian Monk. He has a big case of the OCD and it's this quirkyness that makes the series funny among other things. Monk's life hasn't been easy, and after his wife is killed in a bomb explosion, this throws him in a loop. He leaves work and eventually starts working as a police consultant on difficult cases to get income to pay his bills. (apparently freelance work is less stressful than a full day of 9-to-5...anyway).

The series is smart. Initially I thought it was kind of dumb, but I've warmed up to Monk. Each episode is self-contained so you can pick it up from any point in the series, in my opinion anyway.

I hope that USA makes a spin-off series with Stotlemeyer and Disher - that would be fun.

Tags: television, entertainment, hulu, comedy

R-type was one of those games that came bundled with game boys one christmas in Greece (along with Gargoyle's Quest and Dr. Mario if I remember correctly). This was the point where many of my friends jumped into the whole game boy thing, and I could borrow this game from many friends.


In truth, I only got through the first two stages of the game, but the replayability factor of this game is sky high! Even today, I feel like buying the PSP version and playing R-Type, even though I've probably played through that first stage many, many times.


The two most memorable things about the game were the music and the power ups. The music was simply great. It had this techno beat to it and even to this day when I hear 8-bit music I am reminded of R-Type.


The power-ups were also great. Some games have the same dull weapon throughout the game. This game gave you not only new weapons for you main ship, but you could also get shields,a front or back cannon, and power ups for those too!


R-type was such a good game - no wonder the R-type name continues to this day!

Tags: video, video games, games, entertainment, nintendo, gameboy, awesome, great

Having written about Jekyll on BBC, I thought it only fitting to write about another series, similar to Jekyll, that is interesting. This season NBC brought us a new series called My own worst enemy.

Like Jackman in Jekyll, the main character in my own worst enemy has a split personality. A day time personality of a typical office worker who is married and has the 2.5 kid + large house american dream going for him, and an evening life of someone who is an international spy. The difference is that in this series there is a brain implant that created that split personality instead of it being genetic as in Jekyll.

I've been taking my time and watching the episodes on Hulu (I rarely watch things when they are broadcast now) and I am impressed. Sadly it seems that the series is cancelled, so I am hoping for a good closing to the story...or if we are lucky the sci-fi channel or some other cable channel will pick it up and continue the plot.

IMDB info

Tags: entertainment, telephony, action, NBC, hulu

This game I borrowed from the same friend I borrowed Metroid and Castlevania from. This may be the reason I did not enjoy the game as much No offense buddy!


You play as Firebrand, a gargoyle who is predestined to be the Red Blaze who saves the Ghoul Realm from the evil wrath of King Breager and brings peace to the land once again. I really don't know what this means, and I was completely puzzled when I was a kid and my english was not as good.


The intro to the game says:

A long time ago, the Ghoul Realm barely escaped great peril. A large army of Destroyers came from a neighboring universe. The creatures of the Ghoul Realm were no match for the powerful Destroyers. Just when everyone had given up hope, a great fire swept over the Realm, wiping out the Destroyers' army.
Several hundred years have passed and the Realm is threatened once again...


This game is a combination of RPG and platformer. You play the RPG elements (top down) to move from place to place, and you are in platforming mode when you enter individual stages and when you battle enemies.


I really loved the game when I was in platform mode, but when I was in the top down RPG mode, moving through the world - Boring!


I have mixed reactions to this game, but that was before I was immersed in the world of RPG games. Maybe I should try it again sometime soon!

Tags: entertainment, video, video games, games, gameboy, nintendo, RPG, gargoyle, aaargh

One of my favorite new BBC comedies this past year was Lab Rats. The show reminds me of the sitcoms that I used to watch in Greece when I was growing up. The series follows this really wacky crew of post-docs (or grad students) in a university setting.

Among the motley crew there is a professor (maybe a faculty advisor), and three of his supervisees that are conducting various scientific experiments, that in the end go horribly horribly wrong and make us laugh (or some of us anyway). The professor is always preoccupied with a noble prize, Alex is looking to make a name for himself, and Cara and Brian just mess things up, one way or another.

As a subplot to the story, Brian (one of the lab rats) has a crush on the Dean of the college that they are in.

There were only six episodes in the first season during the summer of 2008. Hopefully the series will be back next summer.

If you live in the UK, check out the BBC for online episodes.



Wikipedia info
BBC Homepage
IMDB Info

Tags: television, entertainment, comedy, BBC

Kirby's dream land was a great game. A great game along the same lines at Super Mario Land 2. In this game you play this cure like pink blob named kirby who's trying to take back the food that Kind Dedede has stolen from the people of the kingdom. In other words, Kirby is a regular robin hood.


The game play is quite good. It is a platform game where the main character can suck his enemies into his mouth and either eat them, or steal their powers. These power-ups range from wielding a sword, to spitting fire. In addition to the power-ups, Kirby can inhale air and float his was through stages - pretty convenient if you are looking to avoid enemies.


Kirby's graphics and music were great. I would play more Kirby games if they came along

Tags: video, video games, games, gameboy, nintendo, entertainment, kirby, awesome, great

Jekyll is a BBC mini-series just four episodes long staring James Nesbitt.

It follows a man called Dr. Jackman who has two personalities. Dr. Jackman, the day personality, and what we assume to be Mr. Hyde. Neither personality can control the other, things just happen.

Once they discover each other they communicate with various tape recorded messages that they leave each other before they go to sleep.

The show was pretty nice, and I think that we get to see an evolution of Mr. Hyde from someone who cares just about himself to someone who cares for Jackman's family.

The overarching storyline here is that Jackman/Hyde is being chased by some corporation looking to use him because of his unique gift of having two personalities, and one of them being quite violent like Mr. Hyde.

I really hope that the BBC brings this one back for a full season, or gives it a second mini season. This series does show promise.

Tags: television, entertainment, scifi, BBC

OK, this is not new, but I thought it interesting enough to repost.

I guess this was a Brazilian who liked Patapon so much that he got a patapon tattoo for 1000 brazilian real

Pretty cool, I don't know if I would spend tat much money though...

Tags: entertainment, PSP, video, video games, games

I had borrowed Metroid 2 from one of my good friends, and I *never* got to the end by myself. Sure I destroyed the ending metroid at the end of the game and saw the ending, but that was only by using the save files that my fiend had provided on the cartridge that the game was on.


Metroid 2 takes over from Metroid (on the NES). You crash land, your metroid escapes, and you need to recapture it (as far as I remember anyway). Along the way you need to pick up power-ups and kill enemies so that new areas are open to you. having come form a platform background, Metroid was quite a different game for me.


I liked the game mechanics, but when I was told that I had to go back to areas I had been before so I can blast a wall (with a weapon I just acquired) in order to move forward in the game my reaction was: whaaaat? but I just came from there! I have to go back? WTF?!?!


I've gotten used to this now, but back then this game seemed like such a hassle! I remember metroid fondly, but when I try to play any metroid now, I find that I don't have the patience. Maybe I need to find some save files

Tags: entertainment, video, video games, games, gameboy, nintendo, metroid, aaargh

Well, after Babylon 5 was over, there was a new spin off series created called Babylon 5: Crusade
. I was recently able to see all of the 13 episodes of the series. The series did have a rough beginning, but the series did get progressively better up until the time it was canned.

The series follows a prototype ship of human-vorlon-mimbari engineering that treks through the galaxy to find a cure for earth's plague unleashed by the Drakh at the end of the Babylon 5 series. It does have some good casting, and the story line isn't bad if you like the star trek type of story line. I liked the character of Captain Gideon, and the character of his first officer, a telepath, played by Daniel Dae Kim.

So what killed the show?

Well that's simple.
1. This show, just like Babylon 5, had some pretty bad writing. When I say bad, I mean really bad. JMS (the writer) needed to have someone proofread and edit his work because it was cheezy, corny, and highly unlikely.
2. It aired on TNT. This type of show should have been on the SciFi channel.

If you happen to see if in your local library, or on netflix, give it a go. Be forewarned of the bad dialogue!

Wikipedia entry
IMDB entry

Tags: television, entertainment, scifi

Dr. Mario was one of those games that was bundled (as far as I recollect) with gameboys in Greece sometime in the mid nineties and thus it was one of those games that most people had a lot of time to play and were eager to loan it out in return for some other more exciting game. Thus, I borrowed it from one of my friends to see what the game was about and hopefully be entertained.



Dr. Mario is a puzzle game. In a medicine bottle there are a number of bacteria (different colors) and Dr. Mario throws pills at you. The point of the game is to march the color of the pill with the bacterium in order to eradicate it, and the doctor doesn't make it easy for you (why Dr. Mario, I didn't know you were such a pill pusher!)



People who enjoyed Tetris, and other puzzle games, would enjoy Dr. Mario. It's certainly a good game to play while commuting to and from work. Beyond that, Dr. Mario was nothing special.

Tags: video, video games, games, gameboy, entertainment, nintendo, puzzle

I could have sworn that I wrote about this before...but just in case I haven't, here's Burn Notice. Burn Notice airs on USA, and it's available for Free on Hulu. The story is about a CIA agent who's essentially given the pink slip (fired, made rendandant, call it what you like), but he does not know why.


If he were just fired, that would be one thing, but all of his assets and bank accounts are frozen, so as the intro says when you've been burned, you've got nothing, no credit, no job history and you're stuck in whatever city they (the CIA) decides to dump you in.


In his quest to figure out who burned him and why, he's got Bruce Campbell and Gabrielle Anwar as sidekicks. Bruce Campbell plays a retired special forces soldier who's got no money (and probably an alcohol problem), and Gabrielle plays a former (current?) trigger-happy girlfriend that was part of the IRA.


It is a pretty interesting series (even though one of the Engadget HD guys doesn't like it).


I think you should have a look.

Tags: entertainment, television, burnNotice, USA, spy

Super Mario Land 2 was a departure from a regular mario game for me. I had not played Super Mario Bros. 3 on the NES so I was not familiar with the platform/RPGish element that Nintendo already had for the Mario series.

I borrowed this game from one of my friends and I was immersed in the world! This game was frikkin' awesome! I think it's one of the few games that made me space out and really visualize myself in the world.

So what did I like about the game? Well, pretty much everything.
The graphics? - awesome!

The world? - awesome!

The stages? - awesome!

The power-ups? - pretty good!

The music? - well, OK, the music I don't remember!

Wario as a final boss was not too hard, and not too easy. I was actually able to beat him without breaking much sweat.

The on thing that I liked in SML2 over SML was that I could save my progress. One of the major projects with SML was that I needed to play from start to finish, there was no in between! With SML2 I could play, complete a stage, save, and put the game away until another time.

This game was gold!

Tags: mario, entertainment, video, video games, games, gameboy, nintendo, great, awesome

The invisible man is another scifi channel series that is free on Hulu.


Now, it's not a series that I would characterize as "must see", but rather I would characterize it as "if you don't have anything better to do, and want to see something that doesn't suck, but it's also not excellent, see this".


The main character is a professional thief who gets caught because he is also Mr. nice guy. In jail he gets a visit from his brother who wants to use him as a guinea pig for invisibility experiments, and as payback he gets pardoned. Good deal, right?


Well, things go wrong, and he now works for the company, with no end in sight. He does have a goofy sidekick, and the humor is a bit sophomoric, but all things considered the series is not that bad.


It's a good thing to watch on a lazy Sunday afternoon, if you've got nothing else to do.


Also check it out on amazon - The Invisible Man: Season One

Tags: entertainment, television, hulu, scifi, humor

After the punishment suffered by the original Sonic game on the game gear, I went back and got sonic 2. It's like super mario on Nintendo systems, you gotta have them all!


Sonic 2 played like the original sonic, so once I had beaten the first sonic game I was in the groove, and I was able to play this game without the same level of frustration that I had with the original sonic. Of course I also had a power adapter for my game gear which made things much, much better.


This game wasn't really memorable, unlike the first sonic game. It was really more of the same, with the exception that you now had a cute, cuddly, fury sidekick named Tails that could fly.


I would play this game again - if only to remember why the heck I played it in the first place!

Tags: video, video games, games, gamegear, sega, sonic, entertainment

Farscape was a great series on the Sci-Fi channel before Stargate came into the picture. I remember the series being pitched as Star Trek's naughty twin, or something along those lines.

The story follows John Criton, and astronaut from earth who is supposed to perform some farscape jump, go farther than any man has gone before and come back. Well, things go wrong. He does go farther than any man has gone before, but he can't come back! To add insult to injury he is placed smack dab in the middle of a conflict.

In the end he is on the run, on an organic space ship, with a bunch of other (alien) characters who've escaped their political imprisonment. He is looking for a way home,and they are trying to not get caught again. The series follows Trek's 'alien a week' theme.

The series was quite enjoyable. It is a little different to get into if you've been watching trek, but give it a few episodes! You won't regret it.

Check it out on amazon - Farscape - The Complete First Season

Tags: television, entertainment, scifi, farscape, starTrek

I must say, I am REALLY disappointed!

Recently the 1UP network was bought by UGO. UGO went in and gutted the company! Got rid of the EGM publication and a lot of the excellent 1UP podcasts. There goes 80% of my video game podcasts that I listened to.

I am not a happy camper!!!

At least 1UP FM has been reborn as Rebel FM

Tags: entertainment, technology, annoying

SONIIIICCC!!!!! The bain of my existence, for a very, very long time! Sonic game with my game gear, and for the longest period of time it was my only game. The problem of course was that I did not have the foresight to buy an A/C power adapter for my game gear so my batteries kept dying just as I was making progress.

I think I finished the game three years after the original purchase due to both the difficulty level of the game and the fact that the game gear sucked the juice from the batteries faster than an alcoholic drinks beer at happy hour!

The game was enjoyable, and because it was my first color handheld game, it hold a special place in my memory. Both as the game that aggravate me immensely, and the game that I eventually beat after having been immersed in its wonderful graphics goodness. If I still had sonic, I don't know if I could still have the patience to play it to completion.

Tags: video, video games, games, gamegear, sega, sonic, aaargh, entertainment

Startgate Atlantis is the spinoff series to Startgate, on the SciFi channel.


On earth a gate is discovered which takes people to another galaxy. The trip unfortunately is one way because the power required for this trip is massive. An expedition is organized and they head to the other side. What they find is an ancient city, a massive floating ancient city - thus Atlantis.


The main antagonists in this series are the Wraith, a vampire like species that feeds on humans, essentially draining their life force. There are smaller enemies, and just like the regular stargate you do get to meet new civilizations almost every episode.


It's a pretty good series, but it only has five seasons - I wish it had more. You can catch the last season of Stargate Atlantis on the SciFi channel on Fridays if you are reading this now. If you've never seen SGA before, check the series out at your local library or amazon (Stargate Atlantis - The Complete First Season).

Tags: scifi, television, entertainment, stargate

I picked up this game back in the early '90s when it came out. I was in middle school, the teenage mutant ninja turtles were big, and I was visiting relatives in the USA. What better game to add to my collection of gameboy games?


The plot is rather simple. If you've ever watched the (old) animated series, you know that April O'Neil is in trouble, Shredder and Krang are the evil doers and you must save the day!


In the game you go through several stages (six if I remember correctly), to save your friend, and you are given control of the turtles, so in total you've got four tries to finish the game.


The game play was not that hard when I was a kid, I imagine it would be easier now. I managed to finish the game within months of buying it -my batteries kept dying and I did not have backups - so my gaming was sporadic.


The replayability was so-so. If you felt like going back through the levels so you can face off with Rocksteady, Beebop and the gang, then you could be entertained hours on end, even if you had finished the game once. If on the other hand you felt like 'been there, done that' - then it wasn't all that replayable.


The game was great from the perspective of a middle schooler. Now I don't know if I would enjoy it as much today, if you exclude the nostalgia factor.

Tags: video, video games, games, gameboy, entertainment, beatEmUp, ninjaTurtles

OK, Babylon 5 is not great, but if you are patient, the story line is worth it.

I started watching Babylon 5 in high school after a debate with a friend of mine on which one was better: Babylon 5 or Star Trek: The next generation. I thought that to make a better decision, I would have to watch Babylon 5. I did and I was hooked!

I recently watched all of Babylon 5 from season 1 to season 5, plus all the movies, and the sense I have of the series now, is different from the sense I had when I was in high school (10 years ago). This is a function of two things:

The first is that I started watching Babylon 5 during season 5 (which was good), and I really did not pay attention to the previous seasons that kinda sucked. I put up with them in order to get the back story.

The second was that I was in high school.


Babylon 5 as a concept is actually not bad. The story makes sense. The alien races are great and they really show they work as paradigms of the different natures of humanity. The main conflict is great. Where the series falls short is the absolutely horrible writing of J. Michael Straczynski (JMS).

JMS wrote ALL of the episodes and the subsequent movies, and his bad writing stigmatizes the whole Babylon 5 universe. His writing is just awful! There was also little thought on how the series was going to end.

Season 1 was a good setup for the conflict ahead (bad writing aside)

Seasons 2 thought 4 were good in terms of dealing with the conflict and giving us a climax for the end of that conflict (the shadow war)

Season 5...fell on its face! Really! What the heck happened? Season 5 stunk!

Then...there were the movies... I think you should check out IMDB and the different user ratings for the movies because those speak volumes, and I actually agree with most negative remarks.


Now should YOU watch Babylon 5? Well, if you don't mind cheesy, korny, and really bad dialog, you should. The sci-fi plot, or at least the underlying ideas are pretty good. The execution (and writing) is what sucks!

If you have little patience for bad writing...then perhaps you shouldn't

At this point I think that The Next Generation is better than Babylon 5. If you want to see a space station sci-fi drama you should check out Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Tags: entertainment, telephony, scifi, babylon5

A week (or so?) ago there was an insanely great parody of social networks on the IT crowd (a british sitcom). The social network? FriendFace! Have a look at the YouTube clip of the ad for FriendFace.

Also have a look here at the company's (employer) response to friendface

Tags: parody, entertainment, television, social, networks

Back in middle school there was a lot of game trading going around. Friends used to buy games that they would like to own, but would often lend these games out to their friends. Tiny Toon Adventures was one such game. I think I traded F15 for it one lazy summer and I spent time with this excellent platform game.


In this game your character (Plucky, Buster or Hampton if I remember correctly) tried to stop Montana Max from thwarting Babs' dream of making it big. Now what a platformer has to do with helping babs' realize her dreams of stardom, who knows. What I do know is that the game was very entertaining, and I actually played it a number of times to completion while it was in my possession.


If you have a classic game boy, and happen to stumble upon this game, I recommend giving it a try.

Tags: video, video games, games, entertainment, gameboy

Keen Eddie was a great show that was axed before its time (luckily The Complete Series is available on Amazon!). The show follows a New York cop who messed up and as punishment he was shipped off to England and was made an attache to scotland yard (if I remember correctly).



The store is really about a New York cop in England, and this theme (american abroad) has been explored in the past, but Keene Eddie was simply b~r~i~l~l~i~a~n~t!!!

Eddie owns a dog named Pete, who is extremely ill-tempered. Eddie attempts to leave him in quarantine at the airport when he arrives in England but Pete is rescued, by claiming Pete is a police dog.

Pete chews on everything and frequently destroys TV remote controls and cellphones. He also has strange sexual appetites, from Fiona's (Eddie's partner) cat to a fur coat to sleeping humans. More than once, he has aggressively cornered visitors at the apartment and forced them to stand motionless for hours until Fiona or Eddie come home. Eddie is just such a great dog!

I really wish they would add it to hulu so it could be viewed for free.



Check out IMDB to learn more.

Tags: television, entertainment, FOX, comedy, england

Streets of Rage for the Game Gear was one of those games that was supposed to be a substitute for going to the arcades. The dynamic of the video game is very much like Double Dragon or Final Fight, both games that I loved, the latter having played in the arcades.


The game allows the user to pick from one of two characters, and once you do, you can start your mission to clean up the city's dirty streets. The game is pretty straight forward, and it was enjoyable to play. It was a bit on the easy side (I beat it in a week as far as I remember), and I played it a few more times after beating it, but the replay factor is really low.


This is one of those games that I wish I could have rented.

Tags: video, video games, entertainment, gamegear, games, sega, beatEmUp

Firefly is a series that you SHOULD have heard of before (if not, have you been living under a rock?). Firefly is yet another example of an brilliant series that was axed before it's time.


Essentially there's been an intergalactic civil was between humans that are part of the 'empire' and those who are not (to use Star Wars terms). The separatists lost, and things did not turn out all that well for them, or the universe for that matter because the empire is corrupt (what else is new?).


The story follows captain Reynolds and his band of mercenaries that pick up odd jobs to get money. Most of their jobs are illegal cargo runs, but they are sticking it to the empire so it's OK. The series is 13 episodes long and a theatrical film is available that ties up the series. Both the series and the film are available for free on Hulu.


The Complete Series and the film are also available on amazon (for those interested) ~ I know they're on my wish list


If you have a weekend where you're doing nothing, I suggest making some popcorn, getting some pizza and beer and having a Firefly marathon! You won't regret it!

Tags: television, entertainment, firefly, whedon, scifi, FOX

All I have to say is LOL!

I recently watched this episode of the Simpsons on Hulu (I no longer watch FOX's sunday night programming live). If you haven't seen it, head over to Hulu and have a look. The Apple parody is simply awesome!

Here's an excerpt:

Tags: television, entertainment, simpsons, apple, parody, ipod

I had not played MK II very much in the arcades before I bought time game. Having just returned from Greece I did not spend much time in the arcades, so it seemed to me that a game gear game was a good compromise.

I was very happy when I went to the toys are us and plopped down some of my hard earned money to get this cartridge. I came home and put it in my game gear around 5pm. By 10pm I had beaten the game.

It would be sufficient to say that the game did not live up to my expectations. Just like Alladin it was way to easy! While I was able to play other characters and see their endings too, the replayability of this game was almost non existent.

Too bad my local movie rental place didn't rent game gear games. I could have save my money and bought a better game...

Tags: video, video games, games, gamegear, sega, mortalKombat, beatEmUp, sucks

I was bored a while back, when there was no TV, and I started watching a series on Hulu called the Dresden files. I think this show was originally on the SciFi channel.


The series has as a given that there is such as thing as a wizard, and Dresden is one of them. You're born with the gift, although I never really worked out if this gift was because wizards were a different species (like the Harry Potter universe) or if there was something else going on.


In any case, there is a council that determines the rules by which wizards live by, and Dresden is sort of an outcast. He's got a sidekick, a wizard he calls "Bob" who practiced black magic (a no! no! according to the council) and as punishment he was made into a Ghost and forced to live forever in non-corporial form near his skull.


The series is actually quite entertaining, and it's a bummer that SciFi didn't order more seasons of this series. I would have been interested in seeing more.



The series is free on Hulu - go have a look-see.

Tags: entertainment, television, scifi, magic, wizard

Mortal Kombat came out in the Arcades when I was in middle school. Many kids used to skip some periods to go to our local arcade to play MK in all of its arcady glory (those were the days).

I bought Mortal Kombat for the gameboy in order to capture some of that arcade magic on the gameboy, with mixed results. I remember having a ton of fun playing MK on the gameboy, and that is what matter.

Sure the graphics were...not that great, and the controls were stiff (at best), but I did manage to complete the game with a number of characters and I was entertained while beating the game. The difficulty of the game wasn't too easy, and it wasn't too hard - it was just right.

The one thing that left me a bit disappointed with the video game was that the endings were not at all arcady. I found the endings to be a little bland. Oh well, it was only an original gameboy game.

Tags: entertainment, video, gameboy, games, video games, beatEmUp, mortalKombat

A while back, maybe a year or so ago, BBC America had a series on called Life on Mars. The series follows detective Sam Tyler who is struck down by a car in present day Manchester, England and mysteriously wakes up in the the 1970s as a transfer detective to another police department.


His boss, Gene Hunt, is essentially an asshole cop who looks crooked but is actually trying to uphold the law. In the plot you've also got a couple of direct reports to Hunt that work with Sam. The humor in the series is derived when Sam brings modern investigation techniques to 1970s, and the rest of the force looks at him like he's got two heads.


Of course the underlying drama is that we don't know if Sam is in a coma and all of this is in his head, or if he did actually travel back through time. The ending I think is quite unique. The series had 2 seasons, and you can probably find it on the BBC's online store.


Highly recommended.

Tags: lifeonmars, BBC, television, entertainment, action

This is probably the weirdest game I've ever bought (by itself - not part of a bundle).

F15 is a flight simulator game where you pilot an F15 and go out and complete missions (I think this one took place during desert storm). Now I never was a flight simulator person. I would play a flight sim if I bought it as part of a package (just so I felt that my money wasn't wasted), but I never really went out of my way to buy a flight sim - except for this one.

So what happened? My friend's older brother played flight sims all the time, and it seemed that all the cool kids did so too! So in my 12-year-old-mind, if the cool kids are playing flight sim and they are by definition cool, then if you play flight sims, you are cool!

In any case, I bought the game and sunk a lot of time into it, not because I enjoyed the flight sim (I would rate this game a C+/B-), but because it took so damned long to get anywhere! I would put the game in autopilot and go grab a sandwich. By the time I got my sandwich I was at the destination I had to bomb.

Eh...I learned my lesson.

Tags: video, video games, games, gameboy, flightSimulator, simulator, sucks

Another Freebie on Hulu. This series is a Canadian series centering around NorBAC, a collaborative research laboratory between the US, Canada and Mexico. They are like the CDC on steroids. If there is an unexplained infection of virus, they're there!

Each season has an overarching disease they are fighting (or trying to find its origins) while injecting other personal issues into the mix, such as the main character's megalomania or...rather a-hole-ness. He's sort of like a mild version of House.

The first season features a kid that kept hounding the main doctor in the series to test him because he thought that he was a clone. Weird, but interesting.

The one bummer is that the series has four seasons (and still filming I think), but Hulu only has two season available! I hope more seasons are available soon.

Tags: canadian, scifi, immunology, television, entertainment, hulu, free

Terminator 2 was a video game that I loved to hate! I bought termnator 2 for the game boy when I was still living in Greece and I was vacationing in the USA. I was quite a huge terminator fan (still am) and I wanted to play the game. I don't recall what I expected from a game based on a movie franchise, but I remember liking it and then getting really frustrated and hating it.

In the game you start off as John Connor in the future. You start off trying to infiltrate Skynet's fortress so that you can get your hands on a T800 and send it back through time. Once you do that, you play as the T800 protecting John Connor's younger self.

The game was great and it sucked you into the world, one problem - I disliked puzzles back then (with the exception of Tetris). After you infiltrate skynet, you have to play this set of puzzle games to reprogram the T800. I kept failing in the last puzzle and eventually got booted back to the beginning of the game - frustration!

It may be good revising this game at some point in the future

Tags: entertainment, video, video games, games, gameboy, terminator

Now I know I recommend a lot of television on Tuesdays (I haven't panned a lot, I don't think), but this series is a MUST see! This is an Australian show on ABC1 (australian channel). It follows the work lives of a government think tank, complete with advisory committee and pollsters!

The PM (prime minister) goes to these guys to get feedback on new initiatives, or to get ideas to get the ball rolling on projects, or to deflect attention when shit hits the fan. Some of the themes are uniquely Australian, such as the cost of maintenance of The Lodge, but other topics are current in American culture, such as taxes, and low recruitment in the armed forces.

This series is just laugh-out-loud-funny - it's what happens when Dilbert meets The Office in the Political Realm in Australia.

My favorite line in the series is You can't call a Crisis a Crisis...unless you have a solution or it's someone else's fault.

You can watch the episodes for free on ABC1's website - here

Tags: humor, australian, politics

OK, Life on Mars, the US version, started recently and MUCH to my disappointment the role of Gene Hunt is NOT played by Colm Meany but by Harvey Keitel. Now I had read the previews and I did not care much about the series because I felt that it could not do justice to the original BBC production. In addition, originally there wasn't an Annie in the story (a main character in the BBC version) - this was fixed.

I was willing to give the series a try because Meany was going to be Hunt but now that they've gotten rid of him and replaced him with Keitel - thanks but no thanks! There's a lot of other TV to be had and I don't plan on wasting my time with the US version of Life on Mars. Since I never say never...I may give it a try next summer on hulu (or the network's site) when there is generally nothing much on TV.

Bad decision ABC, bad decision!

Tags: television, WTF, BBC, ABC

Another gameboy game that I got during my summer of Gameboy purchases in the early 90s was Robocop for the Gameboy. I had recently seen the movie and wanted a piece of the Robocop pie. I thought the game would be as engaging at the movie - wrong!

In the game you play Robocop (d'uh!) going around shooting criminals. Your regular gun gives you unlimited ammunition, while special guns that you pick up throughout the game give you limited rounds of higher powered weapons.

The plot, as far as I remember, was not bad, but the game play was. Robocop was stiff, kinda like Simon Belmont in Castlevania, and about the only way to clear the stages was to memorize where the enemies come out, and proceed through stages with guns blazing, rapid fire style.

I don't think I ever finished the game. I think I got bored of losing after a certain spot. Even for nostalgia purposes I don't think I would spend that much time with this game.

Tags: video, video games, games, gameboy, robocop, entertainment, sucks

OK, in case you missed it, while the writer's strike was going on, Joss Whedon experimented with the whole webisode thing and created a three Act series called Dr. Horrible's sing-along blog. You can watch each act separately or watch the whole thing end to end.

The story follows Dr. Horrible (Neil Patrick Harris) who is just a regular Joe during the day, and his occupation is to be an amateur Villain called Dr. Horrible who tries to gain membership into a prestigious villain group. His arch nemesis is The Hammer (Nathan Fillion) who keeps thwarting Horrible's attempts, and who is quite full of himself. I found Horrible to be quite human, despite his villain demeanor.

In the story there is of course a love interest for Dr. Horrible, but he is so socially awkward that he has trouble asking her out each time he sees her at the Laundromat.

The series is available for free on hulu, and for pay on iTunes.

It's only 45 minutes, so you should have plenty of time to sit down and enjoy it!

Tags: webisode, horrible, itunes, hulu, musical

Burai Fighter was one of those games that I bought when I was visiting relatives in the US while living in Greece. I will admit to this: I bought the game because of advertising! I saw advertising posters and ads in magazines about this game and I bought it (or rather asked someone to get it for me as a gift).

In this game you essentially play a man on a jet-pack going off to fight the aliens of the evil burai empire. I will give credit where credit is due: the game was actually pretty good, and the graphics were good enough for the time in which the game was developed, but the game was extremely extremely frustrating! I cannot describe how frustrating this game was ~ maybe even more than the terminator puzzle levels

One lazy summer afternoon, a year or so after I had purchased the game, I sunk a lot of hours into the game and I got to the last stage. I did not know this at the time. I fought the final boss and won. I saw the ending credits - wow! I had finally done it!

I never played the game again!

Tags: video, video games, games, gameboy, entertainment, buraifighter

I was a bit skeptical when I first started watching this series. I thought the humor would be rather sophomoric - not that I am looking for high brow humor, but anyway - I gave it a chance.

The series revolves around a group of friends (and later on a rather immature parent figure) who are running a bar in philadelphia and get into rather bizarre situations.

The humor is quite...unexpected, at least for me. It reminds me of the british office in an "oh-my-god! I can believe he said/did that!" type of way.

The fourth season should start airing on FX this year, and all three seasons are available for free on Hulu.

If politically incorrect humor is your thing - go watch a few episodes of this series, you'll drop down laughing.

Check it out!

Tags: humor, sophomoric, FX, sitcom

What is "the office" had a Japanese Remake?

Have a look at the SNL spoof on Hulu

I found it pretty funny

Tags: humor, hulu, SNL, office, spoof

Castlevania was one of those games that I really did not until I played Symphony of the Night on the Playstation. None the less I had a go at it when it was available on the gameboy.

I had borrowed the game from one of my friends, and I must say that I wasn't pretty impressed with it as a kid. I found the belmont sprite pretty stiff and difficult to control. I also did not like the whip as the main method of attack because it was slow to respond, so you had to time your attacks pretty well to make things work.

I had the game for a summer, but I never really managed to get into it.

Tags: entertainment, video, games, video games, gameboy, castlevania

The Knights of Prosperity is a series that was cancelled, I think it only had one season on ABC. The show is still available, as of this writing, to view online for free, on ABC's streaming site.

This sitcom's main idea was that there was a group of unrelated people who had one thing in common: they had financial troubles. What are they to do? Well, they decided that it would be a good idea to try and steal Mick Jagger's money... The story goes on from there, taking very comical twists and turns while the team tries to infiltrate Mick's home and steal his riches.

I think that this show is worth a look, before it bites the digital dust

Tags: ABC, humor, television, entertainment

Ahhh! Tetris for the gameboy!

When I bought my original gameboy (saved money for a while year to accumulate the 33,000 drachmas it cost) it came with a copy of Tetris. Tetris was quite mesmerizing, especially when you played the game with the background tune that is now recognized as the tetris tune.

As much as I loved tetris, I was never able to beat my best bud at it. I managed to get enough of a high score to make the rocket launch sequence happen, but I could never beat him (waves fist in air).

Tags: tetris, gameboy, video, video games, games, entertainment

The line is an original webisode series on Hulu that is seven episodes long. It chronicles what happens in the week before the final episode of FutureSpace (a movie that resembles Star Wars).

Two friends start a line one week before the premier of the movie...and comedy ensues! All I have to say is that it's funny and different. Each webisode is about 4 minutes long, so the whole thing should not take a long time to view.

Tags: hulu, webisode, humor, geeky

We were discussing Second Life in class the other day, or rather the like or dislike that some people have for Second Life and that whole virtual 3D internet double life that some people lead.

I came across this excerpt from the office on Hulu about Second Life - pretty funny

Tags: humor, hulu, office, secondLife

Back when I had a game gear, I bought Aladdin for it. I had played the Genesis version of the game and liked it, and it was quite challenging! I headed to a toys R us store a few weeks later (after I had saved up enough money) to get the game gear version. Mistake!

While the graphics were nice for the device, and the game play did not disappoint, the game was too easy! Quite literally I was at the final stage, beating the final boss of the game, within hours of having purchased the game! I remember being happy that I finished the game, but quite frustrated that I had plopped $30 for a game that took me two or three hours to finish.

Comparatively, Sonic the hedgehog, the game that came with my game gear, took me YEARS to finish! OK, this was partly because of the whole battery problem, but even when I got the power adaptor for my game gear it still took MONTHS to beat, it was quite challenging! Oh well! Live and learn?

Tags: video, games, video games, sega, gamegear, disney, badgames

Yet another Hulu discovery: American Gothic.

I have to say that this series was weird, X-files weird (or possibly the outer limits weird)!

I thought that since Gary Cole (Lumberg from Office Space) was in it, that it would be rather comical. I was wrong. The story revolves around a small town in the south that has a lot of inexplicable phenomena happening. If you make a deal with the Sheriff, your life is prosperous, but eventually you will have to pay him back. Throughout the series I was wondering if he was corrupt, if he was some sort of witch with supernatural powers, or if he was the devil himself!

Even though the series is rather dark and at times, I think, disturbing, I highly recommend it.

If you want some more info about the series, click here for the Wikipedia entry (SPOILERS WARNING!)

Tags: television, entertainment, hulu, officeSpace, dark, suspense

OK, so last week I wrote about Populous II. This week, on a similar theme, I am remising about a game called Black and White (and its sequel Black and White II). One of my friends, who is really into Real Time Strategy games, bought this pack, but he did not really like it (I guess he’s more of Panzer General type of RTS fan).

Never one to turn down a game, I took the games in and gave them a good home. In the game you play a god, and you use a giant hand to perform various miracles such as saving people, creating forests, encouraging crop growth, and so on. The game is almost like a SIM city clone. You can get people to worship you through good will, or through fear. I’ve used fear tactics when I was frustrated that my enemy god’s subjects would not worship me when I gave them food (and other) miracles. It’s surprising how much more worship you get through fear rather than being a kind god (or course in the end being a vengeful god reflects poorly on your stats, if I remember correctly).

In any case, I got to the last level of the game, but I had a hard time moving through and finishing. The last stage was de-forested, over cropped, and possibly over-mined. (in other words, humans were there), so it was difficult to expand my sphere of influence and maintain enough power to destroy my enemy god’s temple. On top of that, the game suffered from not being backed up, so when my hard drive died, so did my save-file. Oh well. If I ever have some time, I may get back to it because it was quite an entertaining game (despite the constant “we need food!” whines of the people)

Tags: video, games, video games, macintosh, SIM, RTS

I recently finished listening to Why Business People Speak Like Idiots: A Bullfighter's Guide during my commutes from home to work and vice versa. I was never really a fan of business speak, crazy work such as paradigm shift, or leveraging my assets to build up a best of breed solution. While in business school I tried to avoid such BS, but I do have to admit that I have in a number of occasions (when in the presence of Business people) used such language.

The book was actually quite refreshing for both people who actively seek asylum from such language, and people who should reform their vocabulary to eliminate such non-sense from their word banks. The book comes in audiobook form, and I highly recommend it. At the very least the book is entertaining and it won’t be a waste of your time. Who knows, the book might convince you to look at your own usage of business bull and encourage you to cut it out.

Tags: books, entertainment, business, bullshit, audiobooks

Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show !

Ok there isn’t much to say about this show that can adequately describe it! You just have to see it!
This is a series of short webisodes. The show is essentially a mocking of those crazy Japanese television shows, and the engrish and utter wackiness that you see in them.


Also check out their website: CLICK HERE

Tags: television, entertainment, hulu, japanese, humor

In the days of my Performa 635CD (somewhere between sophomore and junior year in high school), I bought something called a MacPackAttack at my not-so-local microcenter. The pack contained ten games (on CD-ROM!!!), and one of them was Populus II: Trial of the Olympian Gods. My initial reception of the game was a lukewarm one. I was more used to the Tetris type Platform type of games. One summer I was quite bored, so I started playing more of Populous and I got sucked in!

The game is Sim game, where you have control over a certain amount of land, and your goal is to increase the number of the people that worship you (oh yes, you play an up-and-coming God), enhance their standard of living, and obliterate the people that worship enemy Gods. While I found the difficulty of the game to be a hard one, I eventually made it all the way to the end. If I remember correctly there was an Achilles spell that I could use to make my people superhuman (after a certain amount of experience and population as reached) and they could do my bidding – i.e. obliterate the competition.

It was quite an entertaining game for what it was, and there have been others that have followed in its footsteps and have made games like Populous that are entertaining (black and white comes to mind)
Sadly, there is no YouTube video that showcases the gameplay.

Tags: video, games, video games, DOS, macintosh

Whenever I see a western, I tend to turn tail and run the other way. This has been a result of really bad television westerns when I was a kid.

Every now and again I try to be open-minded and watch a western. The Peacemakers is a western that I like!

You essentially follow a doctor/coroner, a US marshal, and an oxford-educated-former-pinkerton-lab guy in a crime solving mission. It’s funny to see the lab guy undertaking modern forensics while the marshal is busy contaminating the crime scene (since he doesn’t know any better). In short, it’s like “CSI: Will West”. I have to say that I really like the series. Too bad it was never renewed!

Tags: television, entertainment, hulu, western, CSI

Back (in 2004/2005) when I was rediscovering the joy of gaming on the Mac, one of the of the games that I bought at my local Apple Store was Spyhunter. This game is a reworking of the original top-down arcade game to bring it up to date with modern 3D graphics, sounds, animation and overall excitement. I don’t remember how much I paid for the game, but I remember not feeling extremely entertained.

Don’t get me wrong, I liked the game, but I vaguely remember that the price-to-entertainment value being low. I enjoyed the driving aspect of the game, but the shoot-em-up aspect was diminished by the difficult nature of driving while shooting, and the difficult nature of subsequent stages.

I recall getting near the end, but I never really finished the game. After my Mac hard drive died in and it had to be replaced, I didn’t have the save files backed up, and I did not want to start from scratch. The video bellow, taken from the PS2 version of the game, illustrates the game play.

While I have the disc, and I can most certainly play it on my Mac Mini, I don’t think I will be playing this game again any time soon as a ‘serious gamer’ (except maybe as a mini-game).

Tags: video, games, video games, macintosh, action

Recently I started listening to Retrocity, a retro gaming podcast, and Sega and the game gear were mentioned. Back when the Game Gear was released, I already owned a Gameboy (which I had bought with my own money), and I was vacationing with my dad. My ‘goal’ was to own an Atari Lynx, a Gameboy and a Game Gear. In order to get a day closer to the goal I asked my dad to buy me a Game Gear for my name day that summer.

The unit, as far as I remember, cost about $150. I was absolutely in love with the device! I only had two or three games for it, but by the time I donated it, I had amassed a whopping 7 games! The love goggles did muddy up my perception of the unit by a lot! While the colors were great, something that the Gameboy did not have, the thing ate up battery power like there was no tomorrow! The unit took six AA batteries, and that would give you an hour and a half to two hours of play time.

In order to make the unit worth while you needed to get a power adapter to hood directly into the car’s cigarette lighter port, or your home’s electrical outlet. The Game Gear went mostly unplayed before I bought the adapter (3 years after I got the unit!!!) simply because batteries were an expensive proposition, and in retrospect not environmentally safe. In the end I donated my Game Gear so it could find a good home with people who would play it a lot.

The Game Gear did have several different attachments one could buy, like a television tuner (I craved one of these since I did not have a TV in my bedroom – but never got one), and a Master System cartridge converter (also cool but in those days there was no ebay, so I could not get my hands on any cheap games)

In retrospect, for the money I paid for the Game Gear, Adapter, and all the batteries I went through, I maybe should have bought some more Gameboy games, and one of those magnifier/illuminator gadgets to play games in the dark. Oh well! This is what happens to early adopters, sometimes!

Tags: video, games, video games, sega, gamegear

I am a big Terminator fan, that is why I am happy this series is coming back for another season!

I initially approached this series with skepticism, but it ended up being quite good! My reasons for being a skeptic were that I really could not see anyone other than Linda Hamilton taking over the role of Sarah Connor, and the idea of a high-school-aged terminator T800 was laughable (at the time).

Well the show has made me a believer! The action is great, the story line is good, and it essentially keeps you in suspense throughout the season. One of the things that was not answered in the movies was the origin of skynet. I know that in the third movie we wee the military makes skynet, but did this mean that it was fate? That skynet would be built no matter what? Or could the future be changed? As the season went on we saw a number of various possibilities as to the origin of skynet, and as one by one they got eliminated, you kept wondering just who and under what circumstances, made skynet.

I look forward to the new season, and to the recap of the first season starting August 10. I really hope that the Reese family is explored more, and we see more futuristic shots. I also hope that they tie in the third terminator movie. I am all for time paradoxes and alternate timelines, but I really do want some sort of tie in.

Tags: television, terminator, action, scifi

Back in the days of the original gameboy (bought mine in 1990), I did not have that many games. I had Tetris and Super Mario Land. My first expansion was when I was visiting my relatives and I spent a lot of time at Toys R Us stores where relatives bought me games

One of these games was Megaman II. I had never played Megaman before, but my 11-year-old mind thought that “2” must be better than “1” so I got this Megaman to start with. I didn’t get to play the games I bought until I returned to Greece (which is where my gameboy was). I spent a lot of time on the first four bosses! I remember playing Metal Man first, and once I got to the end of the state and beat him (after many, many hours of game play), I found out that the game was not over! Darn!

I haven’t played many Megaman games after that. I have maybe played some stages on Megaman and Megaman 4 on the NES, and I have “Mega Man Powered Up” and “Mega Man Maverick Hunter X" on the PSP. What I failed to realize was that Rush (the dog companion) was not found in other Megaman games (at least the ones that I was exposed to), and it was quite a bummer.

While I no longer have Megaman II (I gave the game away, along with my gameboy), I would gladly play through it again. It was a lot of fun! Following is a video (1 of 6) that goes through the first two stages of Megaman 2, on the gameboy.

Tags: video, games, video games, megaman, gameboy

Thanks to Hulu, I have been exposed to yet another great television show (no I don’t spend all my time at home watching television).

Burn notice is a series about a CIA agent who’s been, well to put it bluntly, screwed. He’s off on a mission at the beginning of the series, tries to make a deal with some shady people on behalf of the US government and BAM! He’s cut lose! “We never knew you, we never heard of you” type of situation.

When he gets back to the US, he is essentially stranded in Miami, with an FBI tail, people trying to kill him, and all this time he is trying to work a few odd jobs here and there (utilizing his CIA skillset) so that he has food and a roof over his head. The series is pretty nice because the main character is not a Rambo ‘blow everything to bits’ type. He is a cool headed (most of the time) character that prefers non violence if possible.

If you do have some free time, check it out on hulu. You won’t be disappointed.

Tags: television, action, calmness, hulu

Who remembers Alone in the Dark? No! No! Not that awful Uwe Bohl film! The DOS (and subsequent Mac Port) Alone in the Dark! I bought the game back in 1995 (or was it 1996?) I still have the CD-ROM somewhere with my antique software holdings. I remember playing the game on my Performa 635CD on lazy summer afternoons. The video bellow shows how choppy the graphics were, but there was nothing scarier at the time than having a zombie come after you and you have no place to run and hide!

Maybe I should get DOSBOX to get reacquainted with this game…

Tags: video, video games, games, entertainment, DOS, macintosh, classic, system7

I’ve been hearing about Patapon on the 1Up Yours podcast for a while now, so I decided to do a YouTube search to see a bit of the gameplay. Every review I’ve seen gives the game thumbs up, and on Amazon it’s only $20. Seeing the video on YouTube made their silly little pata-pata-pata-pon song stick in a mental loop (I think I’ve been rick rolled).

Here is some wiki information on the game: CLICK

Also, the amazon product page if you are interested: Patapon




Tags: video, games, video games, patapon, PSP

OK, so the television season has been over for a few weeks and we’ve now found out which shows have been orphaned, in other words cancelled. Here are four shows that I wish would get picked up by another television station:


Jericho: Network: CBS. Post nuclear USA. If you haven’t seen it, you should! It’s a season and a half of great suspense. The end of the second season leaves us with the Eastern state alliance (remnants of the ‘old’ USA), the Independent State of Texas, and the Western alliance (run by corporate interests who instigated the attack). I would be interested to see what happens next! Aren’t you?

Moonlight: Network: CBS. It follows a relatively young vampire (80 year’s old? I think). In any case, he is a private detective, has a fling with a girl he saved from the crazy vamp that turned him, so in essence he is like Angel. Good show.


New Amsterdam: Network: FOX. The show follows a Dutch man who has lived in NYC since it was a Dutch colony who’s been given eternal life, until he finds his soul mate, at which point they can live until death do them part. It’s a good show, it shows him being frustrated at not dying, seeing his kids die, and former loved ones, and he longs to just grow old with that someone special. I personally want to find out if he ever finds that special someone.


Aliens in America: Network: CW. My final pick follows a Pakistani exchange student in Wisconsin. The strength of the show is not only showcasing the cultural differences and similarities between Americans and Pakistanis - or non Americans (alien #1), but also the awkwardness of being in high school – the clicks, the classes, the popularity contests (alien #2). The show also does a good job at showing the hypocrisy of human nature (smoking cigarettes when you are not supposed to, saying that you are a good Christian but hating going to church, and so on). The show tanked in ratings and I really wonder why. I wish someone else would pick it up


There are two other shows that got the can, Cavemen and Carpoolers. I never tuned in specifically to see these shows, but I did enjoy watching them two or three in a row on ABC’s website. I really liked both of the shows and wish that they would resurrect them as regular 20 minute sitcom episodes, but available online and on DVD only.

Tags: entertainment, cancellation, television, annoying

OK for those who don’t read (or speak) Greek, the show is called “Greece’s Children”, it’s sort of slang for the young people that are military service. The show is about these slackers who serve in the Greek Air Force, their commander, the local snitch, and of course the General that comes in on surprise inspection visits.

The show is of course a comedy staring Yannis Bezos (not related to Jeff Bezos of Amazon, as far as I know), who also starts in a few other classic television favorites of mine. This is a series that I would buy on DVD, unfortunately Greek series on DVD are something that have not caught on in Greece.

Tags: Greek, television, comedy

Back in the days of DOS and Windows 3.1 I witnessed the heyday of Shareware on disk. Even though I owned a Mac, I could not resist deals when I went into the Staples that was next door to my dad’s garage. I saw prepackaged disks with games such as Wolfenstein for $5 (if I recall correctly). My dad and I used to visit friends with Intel 386 machines, so I always brought along the shareware that I bought at Staples.

One of these titles (and the only one that I really remember) was Wolfenstein 3D. This game was something else! I think that Wolfenstein 3D was my first FPS, and in a dark room it scared the living daylights out of me.

Here is a quick video of the game play of Wolfenstein 3D:

Tags: entertainment, video, games, video games, wolfenstein, DOS

I am surprised at how many people do not know of The Tick. The Tick is a comic book, that became an animated series, and then became a live action television show with Patrick Warburton (also known as Putty from Seinfeld). The series takes place in “the city” where anyone can become a superhero, provided that they get their superhero’s license. The tick is superhuman strong, but doesn’t remember much of his past, and is so into fighting crime that he sounds developmentally challenged when interacting with non-hero types.

Sadly, the live action TV series only lasted for a season, but it was a good one! It is available on Hulu (and on DVD). The animates series is not on Hulu, but both seasons are available on DVD.

Here is the first episode on hulu:

Tags: television, amazon, DVD, hulu, tick, entertainment, comedy

Back in the day, when I had an SNES (version 2), and five games, one of those five games was Inspector Gadget. I got the game because I really liked the cartoon when I was growing up. The game, from what I remember, did not disappoint (mind you I was 12 at the time).

I never really got an opportunity to finish the game (a mix of family issues, eventual theft of my SNES and associated games, and relocation to the US), but when the golden age of emulation started, it was one of the first games I played on an emulator, and my response to it was a bit different. I don’t know if I had changed, if it just felt different playing it on a computer monitor than a television, or if using a keyboard instead of an SNES game pad was a turn off.

I still like the game. The game play wasn’t bad, and the aesthetics were in line with what I consider Inspector Gadget aesthetics to be. All things considered, it wasn’t a bad platformer.

This game video will give you a sense of how the game looked and played.

Tags: video, games, video games, SNES

I was out last weekend and I found a good deal on jPod by Douglas Coupland.

If you recall, I had heard the audiobook, and since I got a good deal on it, I decided to ‘splurge’ and get it. I am glad I did. The audiobook was quite funny, but the book looks even funnier, and the way it is set up makes you appreciate the humor even more.

I definitely recommend it! Amazon has it for about $15 new - I bought it for $13 at a used bookstore.

Tags: books, jpod, deals

Back in 1995, there was an interesting FOX show called Space: Above and Beyond. It was a great show, about fighting off alien invaders called the ‘chigs’. What made this show interesting (beyond the sci-fi nature of it) were the various societal conflicts between the ‘invitros’, humans bred to fight the battles of ‘natural’ humans, and who are treated as second class citizens, except when they join the USMC.

There are also cyborgs that were made before invitros for the same purpose, but they revolted and they are still around. I guess the lesson is if you are not man enough to fight your own wars, don’t expect others to do it for you. The show was promising, but it was plagued by bad programming decisions on the part of FOX. It didn’t have a regular night, it kept being shifted from time slot to time slot, and it kept being postponed for baseball or hockey games. In the end, it was cancelled after one season due to low ratings.

The show is unavailable on Hulu, but rather cheap on amazon.com

The show might remind you of Startship Troopers, but just remember: it predates Starship Troopers and it is actually better than that movie!

Tags: SAAB, television, DVD, shows, FOX

Not much to say today. Its just an all around great spy game.

I started playing it on my Mac (back before the malfunction), and managed to finish the game.

It really did bother me that they never ported Splinter Cell 2 and Splinter Cell 3 to the Mac.

Tags: splinter, cell, macintosh, video, games, video games

This past week I discovered a show on Hulu called John Doe.

It revolves around John Doe, a person who does not remember his past, but has some amazing, rain-man-like, abilities. He knows everything about everything. The show originally aired on the FOX network. I vaguely remember ads for the show, but I do not remember the reason I elected not to watch.

The show did last one season, and most of it is available on Hulu. The annoying thing is that Hulu does not have four or five episodes (including the Series Premier and Series Finale!) which are the binding elements of the show and which make the show great! I had to go to a korean site and stream the episodes from there.

I really enjoyed the series, and in the end there was quite a twist! (I am not telling though). I really would have liked for the show to have a second season given the ton of questions that still remain (it would be like watching a season of Lost, and calling it a wrap).

I highly recommend this series. Check it out on Hulu and pandora.tv

Tags: television, entertainment, FOX, cancellation, show

So this is a spoiler type of post, if you haven't seen the movie, don't read this post. OK now that you've been warned, I can go on.

I went to see the movie yesterday. The movie was quite entertaining, it had that popcorn factor. Beyond that, I really needed to suspend my disbelief and try to ignore the bad integration of CG. I was listening to this Friday's 1UP Yours podcast before seeing the movie, where they had a 30 minute segment on the movie, where they spoke about Indiana's death defying stunts, impossible escapes, and bad CG. Incidentally, the theme of Retronauts this week was also Indiana jones, and they did mention some of these things as well.

I don't know if I was influenced by the podcasts, or if they just made some of the absurdities obvious. The film was enjoyable, as I have already mentioned, but the crystal skull was that of an interdimentional alien being. Seriously? An interdimentional alien being? How does this fit in with the pre-existing Indiana Jones mythology? I suppose it's no more absurd than being vaporized by the arc of the covenant, but still! It just does not fit in. The other thing about this movie is that it is a bit derivative. If you've watched Stargate SG-1, you probably know that the team found a crystal skull, in south america, that summoned interdimentional beings.

Oh well. In the end it was a good movie, even though it did not live up to my expectations.

Tags: entertainment, movies, jones, weird

One of my first PC games was Prince of Persia, on my godmother’s 286 running Windows 3.1 and DOS. The controls were a bit clunky, the sword fights not that good, and I kept falling to my death in those endless pits. I don’t know what was worse for the prince, falling and dying from the impact, or falling and dying from the impact and being sliced by stakes on the ground. I never finished the game, but it was quite entertaining.

Tags: entertainment, video, games, video games, price of persia, DOS, 286

Last weekend was dedicated mostly to Metal Gear (at least in terms of games played). I ended up going back to previous stages where new weapons, medicines, and technologies were discovered, and picking them up for use in my little resurrection army. After I finished all of those missions I continued on the main ‘quest’ and I finally encountered Null again.

After getting my rear end handed to me time, and time, and time again, I turned off my PSP in frustration. Last time I faced Null I needed a week or two of ‘cool off time’, to think, relax and strategize. Let’s see how long it takes me to beat him this time.

On thing I was wondering is this: where the heck do I get more people with medical and technical expertise? My technical unit is only at level 27, and medical team around level 20. I really would like to get more qualified people on these teams to get some more development going…

Tags: metal gear, PSP, entertainment, frustration

Back in the day, my grandfather had gotten me an NES clone with a cartridge that supposedly had 100 games on it, it did not. The thing looked like the picture to the left, minus the Zapper clone. In any case, I spent a lot of time playing Contra on this clone system. The controllers on the clone were a bit stiff, but that did not impede my enjoying the game. I don’t think I ever finished the game because I ended up breaking both controllers – both of which were hardwired into the console. If you have an opportunity to play it, give it a shot. It is quite an entertaining game – especially when you get the power-ups.

Tags: NES, video, video games, entertainment, shooter

Back in the good ol’ days of the Amiga…well I didn’t own one! One of my good buddies though did and he had a ton of games! One of those games was the Chaos Engine. I really enjoyed this game.

The game play was great. I really enjoyed the top-down shooter, it reminded (and still does remind) me of the days that I spent in arcades playing such games. I never really played the game through to the end. The following YouTube video, even though long, should give you a good idea of what the game was about.

I had purchased Amiga Classix 1, 2 and 3 a while back. I think it’s included in it. Maybe I should fire up an emulator!

Tags: video, games, video games, amiga, chaos, engine, shooter

For the past few days I’ve been looking on YouTube to find a commercial for the Royal Bank of Scotland that’s been playing on BBC America whenever I watch the morning news.

The scene is a scene of graduation (probably middle school), and an alumnus of the school (looks like a private school) is speaking to the kids about what he took away from school, “the gift of language.” This guy was a boring as can be, and quite long winded.

Finally he says “Words are the means with which to achieve…” and a kid cuts in, yells “THE END” and everyone claps.

It’s a great commercial; it’s also a good example of why I dislike graduation ceremonies

I wish YouTube had a video of it, alas no such luck!

Update: OK, I found it on the RBS media centre site.
Here’s a link to it: CLICK

Tags: television, commercial, RBS, gasbag

Back in the day I owned an Atari 2600, but it was VERY difficult to get cartridges for it. My grandfather did not know, and I was too young to know. So in typical grandfather fashion, my grandpa got me a cheapie clone of an Atari 2600 clone with a number of games burned into the ROM. I remember the joysticks were pretty bad – they kept breaking! (maybe I was too rough with them).

In any case, I started playing this game which I later found out was called Pitfall. I enjoyed it, but I kept dying next to a scorpion. Maybe it’s time to revisit this game


Here is a review of the game (nice video of the game):



… and here is the original television commercial (yeah the video is pretty crappy, must be an old VHS dupe):

Tags: video, video games, atari, 2600, PItfall, joystick

Well, that was an interesting weekend!
With the end of the semester drawing nearer (and most of my deliverables done) I decided to take a small break from it all and make some progress on one of my games. I started with Daxter, but I am stuck, moved on the Prince of Persia: revelations, but again I am stuck. So I decided to continue with Metal Gear Portable Ops. I had made some progress, already, but hadn’t touched it since Christmas of 2007.

So…I spent most of the day recruiting enemy soldiers, placing spies, gathering new gear, and I even managed to kill python unfortunately in this endeavor I lost Centipede, one of my best soldiers – he had both great stamina and health levels – oh well!

I am now at the Airport, recruiting commandos so I can easily infiltrate without being spotted.

Tags: video, video games, metal gear, PSP

OK, I never owned an NES, but my brother did!
When I was visiting my mom and siblings in Canada back in the early early nineties I got a lot of NES time. Duck Hunt was something that came on the same cartridge as Super Mario Brothers and it used the Zapper (a gun like thing). That game was fun – but I really hated the hound that made fun of you when you messed up…

Tags: NES, entertainment, video, games, video games, mario, duck hunt

I enjoyed JPod so much, that I am seriously thinking of getting Microserfs either in an audiobook format or a physical book. I already have both of them on my wish list for books (liked them so much I would like to own them) – just deciding what a good time would be for the purchase.

Tags: books, microsoft, microserfs

Back in the days of the 2600, I owned two games (it was hard to find cartridges in Greece). One was Donkey Kong, and the other was Galaxian. I think that I spent more time playing Galaxian than Donkey Kong. One thing that stands vividly out is that Galaxian came with a small comic book that described the back story of the game! You don’t see that any more


Here is some game footage, and a review:

Tags: atari, 2600, video, video games, games, entertainment

I recently discovered a show on CBC called JPod. Having watched all episodes up to now, I discovered that the series is based on a novel by Douglas Copland (yes I know, the most obvious sometimes escapes me). Since I liked the series so much, I decided to buy the book and read it (or rather listen to the unabridged version of it on my iPod). I have to say that it was quite hilarious!

This was my first audiobook from audible/iTunes, and there were no reviews of the audiobook, but a number of reviews of the physical book (which were glowing!) I decided to take the plunge and buy it. This was one of my best purchases! The series on CBC veers off the course of the book, but both are funny in their own right.

I highly recommend reading the book, and also seeing the CBC series (which is being cancelled due to low ratings – what a travesty!) You won’t be sorry you read/watched it

http://www.cbc.ca/jpod/

Tags: books, audiobooks, parody, comedy

Recently I have started watching shows on hulu.com, and all I can say is “I wish there were more shows!” Hulu has really gotten it right when it comes to presenting streaming content with commercials.

1. I can pause the show, even overnight, and come back the next day and pick up without any hiccups. Fox and ABC’s players are almost the same in terms of the pause-quality of their streaming content, but CBS is by far the worst.

2. The commercials are timed just right, and shows just continue! Show-commercial-show, no need to click on anything. On CBS and the CW you are thrown out of full screen view to see the commercial and then you need to click again to get back to full screen. On ABC the commercials are not timed right, so the commercial might be over, but you are still waiting so that you can hit the “back to show” button – really annoying.

3. The audio levels of the commercials are on par with the audio levels of the show. This means that when you cut to commercial you are not BLASTED with audio. CBS and the CW are the worst offenders in this category, ABC, FOX and NBC are a mixed bag.

4. The video quality and audio quality of the shows is at least broadcast quality, if not better.

The only advantage of ABC.com has is that they offer shows in HD.

Tags: television, entertainment, online, hulu, video, streaming

Recently I've been playing Syphon Filter Dark Mirror for the Sony PSP. I've been wanting to play this game for quite some time, but only got it recently when it became part of the 'best hits' collection and thus the price dropped to a more affordable (in my mind) price of $20. In the game you play agent Gabe Logan (for the most part anyway) in his quest to root out some terrorist cell and stop their evil plot of causing great harm to the world (in other words it's sort of like Metal Gear Solid, James Bond, and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell).

I played through the game in Easy mode, and now I am in the process of playing through it in Hard mode. The story is quite interesting, and it doesn't get boring (at least I did not get bored), and the game was fulfilling enough to evoke yearnings of a sequel. I think for $20, this game is well worth the price, and if you don't mind buying used (or renting), I think it's well worth giving it a try. Of course, hard core games have probably already played this game, and I am just convincing the laggards (like myself) who wait for a game to go on the reduced pricing bin before they buy it. Playing through the game in normal or hard modes unlocks extra stages to play (which I guess complete the syphon filter story). The first one is Narbonne (a city in the south of France). This was a rather short stage. Having vacationed in Narbonne a few years ago, I was expecting to go around and explore some of the city and see if the game version was as I remembered the real version to be, however this was not the case. All things considered, I liked this game.

Tags: PSP, video games, espionage, entertainment

I bought my PSP back in November (In anticipation of my graduation from the MBA program), so I've had this game for quite some time now, but I did not really get into it until recently. Sure, I played a few rounds, cleared a few of the basic tours, but nothing more than that.

Recently, I picked up the game again, after a long time of abstinence, and I think I am hooked. I haven't completed all of the courses yet (I think I have 6 EX tours and 4 PRO left) but I am now the new Ridge Racer (i.e. I've completed the game). I find this weird.

Usually, in all previous games I have played (from my Atari to Sony consoles) you usually needed to finish all tours, all courses, all levels before you got to the "congrats! you've completed the game" movie scene.

I am still going through the game (although less now since the end of the semester is near and I need to really focus on getting those final projects done), so that I can clear all courses and see if there are hidden goodies in the game (beyond racing against some weird propeller propelled rocket car).

This game was really nice, but I did have one problem. When I hit walls head-on, or boulders, I would slow down (sometimes enough to lose a match), but my car was never totaled (or damaged in any way), so I could come back from a really bad crash. Now I could see myself annoyed by having a system that destroyed my car with every minor scratch on the side walls. All things considered though, a great game!

Kagaku ninja tai Gatchaman or Scientific Ninja Troop Gatchaman - also known in the US as Battle of the Planets and G-Force
This is not the first cartoon I ever watched, but it is chronologically the earliest sci-fi cartoon I used to watch (I am sure Tom & Jerry and the Bugs Bunny cartoons predate gatchaman, but anyway).


Back, when I was young and living in Greece, at a time there were only two channels both state owned, there wasn't much to watch on TV in terms of cartoons (certainly nothing like the cartoon channel!) When television was deregulated and private local and national stations could come into existence, I turned the TV on and tuned into the local channel, and there it was! G-Force! I did watch a great number of episodes when I was young, but I never realized that there are over 100 episodes in this series!

I was sucked in by the series when I was a kid. When I visited my grandparents a few years ago, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the series is still playing on that local channel! Of course, all of the episodes I have seen, but it is always great to get a blast from the past when you turn on the TV in a room that you have not been in for a very long time. It is a continuity point from the past, to the present.
At some point I do want to get the Japanese version, all 100+ episodes.
The American English version was more sanitized, while the Japanese version was more mature in that it dealt more with death, jealousy, ire and just plain ol' shit-happens.
Here is the intro of the series for you:

One of the funniest hours of comedy I have ever watched is the axis of evil comedy tour with Ahmed Ahmed, Maz Jobrani, Dean Obeidallah and Aron Kader (No North Korean comic yet). I think out of the whole group Maz Jobrani is my favorite, but all of these comedians shine on stage! The DVD was only about $13 on amazon, and it was the best $13 I have ever spent. I have seen it three times already in a time span of a week and a half. If you like comedy, this is something that you should go out and get as soon as possible (laughter after all is the best medicine).

Most of the jokes are ethnic, and as you might guess arab in nature and interactions of ethnic communities with off-the-street "americans" (people who've been here since the Mayflower), but if you have ever grown up in a greek or italian family, you can definitely relate to the comedy.
Also if you have ever known arabs or iranians, sorry persians, you will find tons of good laughs in this hour of comedy.

Here is a sample:

I generally wait for games to go down in price before I buy them (I am frugal like that). Recently I bought Sonic Rivals and I must say that it wasn't what I expected but it is enjoyable. I did read the reviews, and knew it was a racing game before I bough it, however I guess I was not prepared for how much of a racing game it was. I still have not gone though all of the manual, but it just seems like I only need to press the analog stick forward and then press the X or O buttons whenever necessary.

I am sort of stuck on level two (with all the characters) - I keep getting attacked by my racing opponent, and even though I have weapons I don't know how to use them yet...I guess I need to RTFM. This game has some pretty nice graphics and it fun to play. The one thing that really annoys me is the half-baked attempt at dialogue. When your racer (whoever you choose) interacts with Robotnik (Eggman for those of you who don't know Robotnik) or with another character there is text based dialogue, which is fine. What is retarded is the fact that the two characters involved in the dialogue speak the FIRST word of that sentence!

example of what is on screen: "Hey! You stole my Chaos Emerald! I will get you for this!"
What is spoken: 'HEY!'

It gets annoying when you realize that they won't speak the whole thing and you have a series of evocations or retorts for no reason at all... all things considered though, thus far, this seems to be a good game. I am still waiting for a 'real' sonic game for the PSP!

I had never heard of this song before...but now - thanks to pepsi, it's stuck in my head!

...and I am Bill Gates.
Have a look:

Just saw xXx: State of the Union.
It was not as bad as Bloodrayne and Raptor Island - but it was bad - at least I got a good laugh!

Some quotes from IMDB that describe this film:

State of The Union takes itself far too seriously with a plot so absurd you swear it was written by a focus group of 13 year old boys after a binge at McDonalds. Action sequences are spaced every ten minutes or so as bookends to move Cube onto the next dilemma, each new sequence becoming further and further detached from reality."xXx: State of the Union" employs the same method of action filming as many other Hollywood-movies of late. You know the method: "move the camera exceptionally close and shake it like if the camera-man was a spastic".

Much funnier than "Johnny English" - too bad it's not supposed to be a comedy

Suspending disbelief is one thing, but when you have a movie that expects people to believe that tanks can be handled like motorbikes... and which works in such daft plot turns as characters having their deaths faked just so they can be around for the climax (why not just kill them there?)... and that has a finale which depends on a car and a Presidential bullet train being able to fit on the same track despite the car being a compact if speedy sports car... in this case it's just impossible.

The action is as stupid and illogical as the plot itself but it is noisy, stupid, big and bold and is enjoyable on that level; it is a shame that it lacks any actual tension or excitement but the noise will be enough for the target audience. At times it all gets a bit much and just looks plain silly but it never really stops moving that long so the next boom or bang is only ever minutes away, preventing you turning your brain on.

It has barely if nothing to do with the first XXX movie. This time around, they took the usual patriotic fight-for-your-country propaganda but mixed it up with hip hop. It's the closest thing to taking a swim into a pool of puke.

This "movie" seems to be 100 minute rap video about the glorification of bums. It's filled with the biggest clichés: the bad boys from the ghetto riding in their hummers, the corrupt government officials, the abusive and aggressive use of computer-generated graphics (which are WAY off, Star Wars was candy compared to that), the endless fight scenes every five minutes, one-dimensional women characters with large curves and a hip hop soundtrack.

Watching Ice Cube trying to behave like Vin Diesel was just so embarrassingly pathetic, it has probably dealt a fatal blow to whatever acting career he might have otherwise had. Even if he could act, his pudgy physique is just ludicrously inappropriate for an action hero.

I can hardly wait for the next season to start!

I've had my PSP since last November - but I did not have a lot of time to play due to classes.
A few weeks before classes are about to commence (yet again) I have completed Splinter Cell: Essentials (altough I don't remember what my difficulty level was)
Nice game - really enjoyed it - now I hope that Conviction comes to the PSP - there are rumors that it is a microsoft exclusive (XBOX/360 and PC) - I hope this is not true
The last level of this game was a royal pain! No weapons, No killing. It was all stealth! I think I killed Sam quite a few times before the level ended.

Next up on my list: Untold Legends - Brotherhood of the Blade

Went to see Magdalen's play yesterday "How I learned to drive"
a bit depressing, but I was entertained. All of the actors put on a good show


here's the wikipedia entry for people who are interested in the play: click on me

If you have not seen this yet:

STOP THE PRESSES!!!!

Those smart TV execs came up with a new term! They've officially coined the term "Fall Finale"
So now what? Does this mean that more series get a Fall Finale? This was always known to me as a "break" from production for a month or so, until January.
The execs though thought that we should actually have a term for it. Add one to the jargon pile...

Why can't american TV series be more like British series? You produce something from end to end, you run it, and you are done!
I really hate cliffhangers!

As a tribute to the T-Mobile project that Glenn and I are working on
PoSeR MoBilE - yo!

The best new show this year is Jericho, on CBS.
There are other shows I like (more this year than last! the networks are really pushing it!) - but Jericho takes the prize!
I hope it doesn't get cancelled like other good shows (network execs have in the past proven to not be the brightest bulbs)
Have a look and get hooked:

Personally NONE of the candidates for Governor of Massachusetts do it for me

1. Kerry Healey is too snotty - PhD and Criminologist? Gimme a break! Look at the Romney administration - one disaster after another! - No thanks Kerry!
2. Duval Patrick? - I supported Chris Gabrielli - you might be good, but you don't talk enough (and your democratic collegues really did you in during the primaries)
3. Christy Mihos? - The greek that pretends to be Irish to get some votes, but he's got the best ad out there! Very in your face, very entertaining.

I don't know if I would vote for him just because of the ad, but have a look:

Super Mario Land!
I bought my game boy and super mario land with my own money - it took a long time to save up that money too.
I think it took me as long to save up to buy the game boy with super mario land as long to finish the game!
I think this is the final level

A few days ago I saw the Hellsing OVA.
I must say that I was both confused, and surprised.
Comparing the Hellsing series, the books, and the OVA, both animated versions follow the book - but the OVA seems to do a better job at doing that.
The OVA on the other hand seems to squeeze a lot of things together and we don't really see the conflict that Seras has with her vampirification. We don't see the struggle to remain human that we see in the series. I honestly don't remember how they spin this in the Manga - need to re-read it

I can't wait for the next episode!

Maybe little pinch?

FORZA ITALIA!!!!

I am not a big football (soccer) fan, but I was sucked into the World Cup craze, even though Greece was not in it.
I decided to root for Germany and France.
Germany made it to third place kicking Portugals derriere.
Then it was France - Italy.
It was a great match to watch, great performance by all athletes.
I was disappointed by Zidane's behavior near the end, but these kinds of situations are nerve wrecking and people act out of character.

So the two teams that I supported are #2 and #3 in the world - oh well.

back in 4 years - maybe Greece will make it then and I can support them

Saw some movies recently (some of them for the second time), reviews might be forthcoming, but do see:

Pitch Dark (Riddick Rocks!)
Shawshank Redemption (Really did not expect it to end that way - I was pleasantly surprised)
Remember the Titans
Duma (this was awesome! )
Fun with Dick and Jane (hilarious)
The Mummy
The Mummy Returns
X3


Stay Away From:
The Tesseract (well, OK, you can watch it, the plot did not seem to tie in - in my opinion of course)

ケロケロケロ！
This week I've had some downtime so I've had the ability to get back to watching a Japanese comedy called Keroro Gunso.
It's a story about an alien invasion force (that look like frogs) that try to take over the earth, and in the process they make fun of everything and everyone in our earth culture.

In some ways it reminds me of pinky and the brain.

I've been meaning to buy this movie for the longest of time. You cannot argue that the cover looks promising, and the plot (from the back of the DVD) looks great. I found it for free at my public library, so I borrowed it, and finally (after a year or so) I saw it, with much anticipation!

Overall, I woul give the film a 7 or 8 out of 10. The movie had an interesting storyline, an OK plot, and some great visuals. There was only one small problem - it took a little while for the plot to make sense! By the time it made sense, and everyone of the characters is on the same page, and it seems that shortly after that - the movie was over.

I think that in the end, what redeemed this movie was its ending.
Personally I would like to see the main character (miyamoto) in some sequel movie.

Have you see this ad?
It's pretty old, but it is still pretty funny.
Three protagonists:
1. Silly young MBA shouting konichiwa to the Japanese collegues that are supposed to be on the teleconference (guy in center)
2. Silly older MBA that thinks he is a techie, so he whacks the TV to make the video conference work (left side)
3. Cool techie that comes in (right, standing) that brings in a cisco telephone that does it all seamlessly.

小日和!