Alright, I’ll admit there was no real “snow day” since it all happened over the weekend, but we got more snow in the Niagara Region last Saturday than I can remember getting in a very long time. Thinking back to when I was a kid in elementary school back in the 80’s, I feel like we got a heavy snowfalls a lot more regularly back then. Who knows, maybe it just seemed like a lot to me at the time — either way, over the last few years I think I’ve only had to pick up a snow shovel maybe once or twice. Global warming is very real as far as I’m concerned!

Anyway I’m sure there are places that got it much worse, but I thought I would post a few pictures for the newbs who live in warmer climates. See what you’re missing out on?

The ol’ personal blog has been pretty slow as of late, and I’ve been feeling the need to provide an update so I thought I would throw up a hefty post to cover some odds and ends that I’ve been putting off. I’m bringing back the long-play format for this one, so if you don’t care to read my extended ramblings you can just skip to the “bytes” below.

We launched the new Film Junk website last month and I’m pretty stoked about how Kevin’s new design turned out. We’ve still got some additional ideas that we’re going to try and massage into place over the next little while, but one thing we still want to do is put some emphasis on our video content.

Jay did another great job with our Year End Video Podcast, and we had a lot of fun putting it together (at least, those of us who weren’t editing until all hours of the morning did). I’ve been brainstorming ideas for a quick 5-minute video podcast that would be easy to produce on a regular basis, so that maybe we can get on board the whole video podcasting wave that is continuing to gather steam out there. Some people are predicting that the internet will officially kill TV within the next year or two. Consider me among the believers (although it won’t be just because of amateur podcasters like us).

Speaking of which, the writer’s strike is currently decimating my regular TV viewing schedule, so I’m finally starting to put a dent in that intimidating stack of DVDs that I’ve been meaning to watch. For a while there I never thought I’d catch up. I’m doing my best to log just about everything I watch over on Flixster, so if you’re at all interested, you can add me as a friend or just check out my short reviews in the sidebar widget I’ve added on this site.

Recently I stumbled across C. Max Magee’s blog and reading queue, and it connected with an idea I had a while back. I’m pretty bad for trying to read a whole mess of books at once (and effectively taking forever to finish any of them), so I thought I might try setting up a reading queue for myself, and do my best to stick to it. From there I thought, why not set up a queue for all of my media consumption? I’m a complete junkie when it comes to seeking out cool new things, so much so that I sometimes forget to actually sit down and experience them afterward. I’m looking at a couple possible plug-ins for Wordpress that would allow me to manage something like this and include it on the site. I’m still not 100% sure I want to commit to such a geeky project, but it might force me to focus my attention, and hopefully give me more substantial stuff to write about too.

The last thing I will mention is that sometime this week I am going to start posting my del.icio.us bookmarks directly on the site, one link per post. Consider it an experiment at this point, but hopefully it will help keep this blog a little more active. I just want to avoid flooding the front page with short links and no real content. I will probably be a little bit more picky about what links I decide to share on del.icio.us.

Brian K. Vaughan’s Y: The Last Man comic series comes to an end this week with the climactic issue #60. I’m still a few issues behind, but Chian just reminded me that I had better get caught up in time to experience this massive grand finale at the same time as everyone else. I want to savour the home stretch as this has been my favourite running comic series and now I’m not quite sure what I will replace it with. On the other hand, the best thing about the series has always been the fact that it was working toward a definitive end, and considering that there were some parts of the storyline that kind of dragged, it’s probably for the best.

If you’re into Facebook and you’re also into music blogs, then I’ve got an app that’s going to change your life (sort of). The Yahoo! Music Blogs Plug-in allows you to add feeds for all of your favourite MP3 blogs (like Muzak For Cybernetics!), and it will scan the posts and stream all the MP3 files for your listening convenience. It’s a pretty decent way to sample a lot of music without having to download a ton of audio files from bands you’re not even sure you’re going to like.

Speaking of music, I’m pretty stoked to have tickets to see From The Jam next month in Toronto. For those who don’t know, this is Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler, former bassist and drummer for The Jam, touring and playing their old songs — without the band’s original frontman Paul Weller. It’s a strange situation, because on one hand, they can’t be The Jam without Paul Weller, but on the other hand, this may be the closest fans ever get to a proper reunion. All of the reviews I’ve read online say that they sound great, and the energy and atmosphere is comparable to seeing them back in the day. If they can even come close to matching what this band used to be, I’m sure I will be a happy man. (YouTube videos like this and this also have me convinced it will be a great show.)

Friend and fellow game junkie Shaun Hatton recently launched a video game review site called Toronto Thumbs. He also collaborated with his wife Leslie on a nifty little pop culture fanzine called Popshifter. Both sites are very cool and I urge you to check them out now!

For all you people who have been playing Rock Band and thinking to yourself that something is missing, let me introduce you to the official Rock Band Stage Kit. No longer will you need to imagine yourself inside the game, you can actually have a real light show and smoke machine in your living room with you. Your parents will be so proud! The truth is, no one knows if this Stage Kit thing is real or not — it was apparently spotted on the Gamestop site before it was mysteriously taken down. I have my doubts… I certainly hope it’s a joke, anyway. Then again, with stuff like the official Guitar Hero Belt Buckle out there, who knows where the madness will end.

A track runner with prosthetic legs was denied a shot at trying out for the Olympics last week because the IAAF decided that his mechanical limbs give him an unfair advantage over regular humans! Amazing… a disadvantage has, in this day and age, actually become an advantage. Stories like this blow my mind. The merging of man and machine is happening faster than we are willing to admit, and mark my words, it’s only a matter of time before all athletes are enhancing themselves with technology. It may sound crazy, but if you’re smart, you’ll start start saving up money for your inevitable bionic makeover now.

This fun little Flash game allows you to create random Jackson Pollock-inspired artwork on the fly. Ever since I saw My Kid Could Paint That I’ve been wondering whether or not I could do some cool abstract painting of my own. Now I know the answer is yes… and I don’t even need to get a drop of paint on me.

Have you ever read a humourous rant out there on some anonymous internet message board and thought to yourself, someone really should be documenting this because future generations will want to know about it? No? Okay, maybe I’m the only one. At any rate, bash.org houses a strange archive of random yet amusing IM dialogues and internet discussions that can be submitted by anyone, apparently. It seems unlikely that all of them are real, but there’s no denying that many of them are flat out hilarious.

I sure hope I don’t develop Alzheimer’s when I get older, because you wouldn’t catch me wearing one of these helmets if my life depended on it.

Are you excited about the season premiere of Lost this Thursday? I am, although apparently they’re doing everything they can to bring new viewers on board at this point. Not only have they put together a rapid fire recap of the first 3 seasons that runs just over 8 minutes, they’re also re-airing an enhanced version of the Season 3 finale on Wednesday with special pop-up trivia bubbles pointing out hidden clues and backstory. Great, just what we need… all the mystery stripped away in exchange for higher ratings! (Okay, I promise to keep my cynicism contained, for now.) In other J.J. Abrams news, it sounds like his new show Fringe is going to be the closest to an official X-Files successor we could have hoped for. Hey, I’m sold already.

An interesting thing happened shortly after we got back from the U.K., which was every bit as expensive as people had said it would be. (After a while you just had to stop calculating the exchange in your head because it was simply too painful.) Here in Canada, our dollar rose in value to become on par with the U.S. dollar, which doesn’t happen too often. I guess the Canadian dollar hasn’t been this high since 1976 (ie. before I was born), and is expected to stay strong for a quite a while. Living only about 15 minutes away from the U.S. border, it’s always been a pretty common thing for people around here to go shopping in the States at times like this. (Fun fact: 90% of Canadians live within 100 miles of the U.S. border.)

American list prices for most products are usually anywhere from 10 to 20% cheaper than the Canadian ones, with the assumption that our dollar is always worth about that much less. So when the dollars are equal, we can usually indulge in some pretty great deals. (Example: The Xbox 360 Elite is $449 in U.S., $499 in Canada.) Unfortunately, if you spend too much, you get slapped with a duty fee, which can cancel out the savings. Not to mention the fact that the whole practice usually ends up bringing our economy back down again… but it’s great while it lasts!

A week or two ago, Alicia and I decided to take a quick drive over to Niagara Falls, NY (also known as going “over the river”) for some shopping, and it brought back a lot of memories from the 80’s when my parents used to take my brother and I shopping over there.

The store names have changed, but a lot of it still feels the same. There’s an army base nearby on Military Road that always seemed so intimidating when I was younger. It really ingrained in me, even as a kid, the view that America can’t get enough war! It used to be a Dwyer family tradition to stop for some Cherry Coke as soon as we arrived (one of the many “exotic” soft drink flavours that very rarely came north of the border), before heading over to Child World (now Toys R Us), Hills (now Ames I believe) and K-Mart (still K-Mart). I swear they had such a better selection of toys there than anything we had in Canada (and probably still do now). My brother and I would wander through the aisles in awe, staring at things we didn’t even know existed. My favourite toy line when I was a kid was M.A.S.K. (sort of like Transformers, but with special agents driving vehicles that could transform into another form). In stores around St. Catharines, we were lucky if they had one or two M.A.S.K. toys, but over in the good ol’ U.S. of A, there was no limit to the bounty that they offered. In the end, we’d each pick out one small toy and then my parents would drag us over to the Factory Outlet Mall where we suffered through a couple hours of clothes shopping (ugh!).

I also recall making frequent trips years later to a store called Media Play with various friends. The franchise no longer exists (I think it was bought out by Best Buy) but last time I was at this particular location I wasn’t too impressed anyway. They used to have the best assortment of CDs and VHS movies I had ever seen in our area. I remember Jay C. used to always buy more stuff than everyone else in the car, so we’d always have to lie and say we bought some of it to try and save him from paying the duty! It was all worth it though, since he does have a killer laserdisc collection to show for it.

There’s also a certain nostalgia about the actual act of crossing the border and getting grilled by the customs officials on the way over and then again on the way back. Some people really crack under the pressure. I can recall a few times having people in the car make some smart ass comment which lead to us getting pulled over to have the car searched. I remember one time my good friend Cesar drove, and I think it must have been his first experience with a border guard because when they asked what we were going over for, he replied, “We are going… visiting.” At which point the incredulous look on my face must have raised the suspicions of the officer questioning us. “Umm, actually we’re going shopping. At Media Play.” Eventually he let us cross without incident, but for a minute there I thought we were going to get strip searched.

So what was my point here? Hmm. Well, I can say that if you want to buy HD-DVDs, you’re better off shopping in the U.S.A. Aside from that, the economics of foreign currencies seem awfully complicated and are probably something I will never comprehend. All I know is, I’ll take cheaper prices wherever I can get ‘em. For this reason, I’m definitely going to change all my money over to the new intergalactic space dollar the first chance I get.

You may have noticed that this blog and Muzak For Cybernetics have been getting thrown on the back burner a lot lately. It’s been almost two months since the last Muzak For Cybernetics Mixtape. The guilt eats away at me, until I realize that I’m really only letting down a few people… and to those few people, I apologize. I blame Fall TV mostly (and some new video game releases), but it also has to do with the changes and improvements happening over on Film Junk. We’re excited about making the site cleaner and more user-friendly and I think we are slowly building a great community there. Our good friend Kevin Watts is the man who’s helping us realize this vision. Please bear with us. I could probably do a lot of quick posts here and there, but for some reason I like to take my time writing and this has been my downfall. In the meantime, I will try to get another mixtape recorded in the near future, and I hope to get back to posting more regularly here as soon as I can. And those travelogues are coming. Eventually.

My friend DK introduced me to the wonderful world of Austin Stevens: Snakemaster this past week. If you are still mourning the loss of Steve Irwin, this guy will totally brighten your day. In some ways he seems crazier than The Crocodile Hunter, if such a thing is possible. He gets in the face of venomous snakes and just generally annoys the hell out of them, all in the name of getting the perfect photograph. The best part of the show is that when a snake tries to strike, they insert this ridiculous Matrix-esque bullet time effect of the snake in slow motion from multiple angles. Check out this clip on YouTube and see what it’s all about. Then watch this clip of him actually getting bit by a cobra and getting rushed to the hospital.

I have my doubts about how real this is, but apparently someone has invented a wearable device called Massage Me, which allows you to actually play a video game while massaging someone. It’s a sort of vest that has pressure sensors built into it that act as a substitute for your video game controller. “Because giving a massage can be a boring and rather tedious task, the interface simultaneously acts a game controller which motivates the masseur by involving him in game play.” Next thing you know, Nintendo is going to come out with a massage game for the Wii. Just you wait and see.

I’m calling it now… “Don’t Tase Me, Bro” will go down in history as the single best catch phrase of 2007. Not only can you buy Don’t Tase Me, Bro t-shirts, but it seems that taser use is catching on in somewhat disturbing ways. This past week, a man in Florida was arrested for tasering and killing a possum. Keep on top of the latest taser-related happenings over at this fine blog called www.donttasemebrodonttaseme.com.

If you’re jonesing for the next season of The Amazing Race and you just can’t wait until next year, you might be interested in this innovative internet TV show called Around The World For Free. Alex Boylan, winner of Amazing Race 2, has set out on an interactive trip around the world with nothing more than a small backpack, relying on viewers to tell him where to go next and to help him find accommodations and transportation. It kind of reminds me of that One Red Paperclip guy, seeing how far you can get on the generosity of others, but also it’s just an intriguing DIY travel show.

Is it sad that I actually considered buying a Sony PSP just so I could pre-order the new Castlevania game and get this cool pixellated Simon Belmont figure? Well hey, I actually wouldn’t mind playing the game either. But still… yeah, I know. Pathetic.

Speaking of pathetic, I have absolutely no comment about the video embedded below, I’ve included it merely for the sake of nostalgia for the few people who know what it is. I might be the guy wearing a wig and hopping around on stage like a complete doofus. Then again, I might not. Thanks to Gordo Productions for the memories!

My how time flies when you’re doing anything but blogging. Maybe there’s something to be learned there… on second thought, nah, I doubt it. A month has passed since my last post, and in that time I’ve been across the pond and back again. It was a great trip, better weather than you could ever hope for in the U.K., and overall just a welcome time out from the usual daily grind. Although most people would be hard-pressed to call a hectic sightseeing trip overseas a “vacation”, I have found that the best way to truly take a break from life is to completely remove yourself from your day to day surroundings. Go to a strange city on another continent in a different time zone where people speak a foreign language (or at least speak with a weird accent). Navigate unknown streets and strange transportation systems, eat new food and sleep in a different bed. You’ll come to realize that there’s a pretty massive world that exists outside your own little bubble. Just be aware that when the trip comes to an end, you might not want to leave!

I’ve posted some pictures from the trip over on my Flickr account (which is already way past the free account limit of 200 photos), but I’ll also be posting some travelogues when I get the chance as well. They’re already written for the most part, I just have to type them out. Hey, maybe I can give you some ideas for a trip of your own.

Last month, after weeks of searching, I was finally able to find a new desk/workstation for my computer. The old desk was getting kind of beat up, plus it didn’t have room for a dual monitor set up. (Not to mention the fact that it wasn’t really convenient for recording group podcasts.) If you’re wondering, the desk comes from Ikea of all places. I didn’t think they would have anything in this style, but I can’t recommend their Galant line of desks highly enough. During my search, I also stumbled across an interesting site called On My Desk, that posts pictures of desks and work areas from random artists, designers and creative people. It’s strangely fascinating, although I’m not quite sure why.

I read an interesting post a while back on Clive Thompson’s blog that claims that there are certain key differences between morning people and night owls. Apparently morning people are generally more “logical” and left-brained, whereas the people who stay up late are more creative. I was really hoping to use this study as an excuse for why I am a complete waste of space in the morning, unfortunately I must be an exception since I fall more into the logical category than the creative one. Well, okay maybe I’m a bit of both, but I’m certainly not “risk-taking” and “non-conformist”… am I?

The Brock University Film Society (BUFS) has announced their Fall 2007 schedule of films. I’m definitely interested in Fido and Waitress… and if you have yet to see Rescue Dawn, and you live in the Niagara Region, seriously don’t miss out!

Jim Munroe and Salgood Sam have a new independently-released graphic novel out called Therefore Repent!. It is highly recommended for fans of Preacher, Y The Last Man and Philip K. Dick. Who would have thought the Bible could inspire such great post-apocalyptic science-fiction/fantasy?

Speaking of post-apocalyptic, did you hear about the potentially toxic meteor that landed in Peru, causing over 200 people to become strangely ill? And did you hear that germs get stronger in outer space?! The end of days may be upon us after all.

If controversial and exploitative reality TV shows are your thing, you can forget Kid Nation because there’s something even better on the way. Redline Films are producing a new series called Office Fight, where co-workers can settle their beefs once and for all on national TV. This better not be lame like Fox’s Celebrity Boxing crap… I want to see blood! And maybe a choice of weapons too.

The creators of the cover art for Nintendo’s upcoming Super Mario Galaxy have a secret message they’d like to pass along to you. And it is: “U R Mr. Gay“.

This guy’s gallery of Etch a Sketch artwork is absolutely insane. I had no idea you could draw anything other than squares and rectangles with that thing.

I was planning on posting some of my impressions of recent video games like Bioshock, Metroid Prime 3, and a handful of X-Box Live demos, but you know what… screw that, I’ve got some Halo 3 to play.

In terms of crazy things I’ve done in my life, jumping out of an airplane is probably right up there with that time I took 5 hits of acid and went skeet shooting off the roof of a moving golf cart. (In other words, it’s definitely the craziest thing I’ve ever done.) I’m not one for taking risks, unless they are carefully calculated ones, and I’m still not sure how this happened so quickly. A few weeks ago it wasn’t even something I had even considered doing, but when it was proposed as a team-building exercise at Alicia’s work, she invited me along… and I couldn’t let her do it without me, now could I?

We chose Niagara Skydive in Dunnville, mainly because they offered the option of going solo even on your very first jump. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure why this was deemed to be the preferable method, and as we sat through the 5 hour training session I began to question it even more. Most places will only allow you to do a tandem jump for your first time (that is, with an experienced sky diver strapped to your back doing all the work). While the system we used didn’t require you to pull the chute yourself (it gets automatically activated by a smaller chute that is released by the instructor as you jump), there’s still an unnerving level of responsibility involved in a solo jump. If, for instance, you somehow happened to pass out due to the stress of the free fall… the parachute would deploy, but you certainly wouldn’t have a very soft or predictable landing.

The first thing we did upon arrival was sign waiver forms saying that we understood that skydiving was dangerous and that it could result in death. If it hadn’t yet sunk in that this was more than just some silly amusement park ride, I was now beginning to understand the true gravity of the situation (no pun intended). We all heard a lot of things that morning that we probably didn’t want to hear. We learned how to properly climb out of the plane and hang from the wing before letting go. We learned how to adjust our direction while descending and how to read the ground signals to avoid potential obstacles such as rivers, trees and hydro wires (not to mention the high speed car test track that was right beside the airport’s runway). We were informed of the many things that could go wrong with our main chutes and how to identify when it might be necessary to release the original chute and deploy our reserve instead. We learned that skydiving was better than cocaine (well, okay, that tip was from some random passerby, not our instructor). After all this preparation, my stomach was in knots and I was wondering why we didn’t just do the tandem thing in the first place. At least it would have been over by now.

Once we got suited up and found ourselves kneeling on the metal floor of a noisy, cramped little plane, ascending toward the clouds, I wasn’t really that nervous anymore. There was no turning back. Alicia wanted to go first (I think because she wanted to get it overwith as well), and I was okay with that. Then the door opened and the deafening roar nearly knocked me on my ass. Okay, I was nervous again. Alicia got the go-ahead and stepped out onto the wheel of the plane, fighting against the wind and shimmying out to the strut where she hung there, looking back up at the instructor. I saw this brief look of terror in her eyes, and then he yelled “Go!” and in a split second her body was whipped backwards and out of sight. That’s when I thought to myself, “Oh shit. I should have gone first.”

The plane circled and we spotted Alicia off in the distance, floating down with no apparent problems. I breathed a sigh of relief. Okay, I can do this.

As cliched as it sounds, the best thing about the solo jump is having to conquer your own fear of climbing outside the plane. The rest is easy, because all you have to do is let go. All I really remember is that as I climbed out, my body was half numb and my feet were all prickly because I had just been kneeling on them for the past few minutes. Once I got myself out there, received the green light, and took the plunge, my 5 hours of training remained up there in the plane without me. We had been taught to arch our backs and look up as we fell, but which way was up? It was all happening so fast and I couldn’t tell where to look. Then I remembered we were supposed to count down out loud as we fell, before checking that our chute had deployed properly. I had just started to count down when I heard someone from ground control come over the radio and say, “Congratulations jumper! Turn right… right… right”. I stopped counting and immediately grabbed the steering toggles. The rest of the fall was peaceful and serene (and a little bit cold) but I wasn’t completely enjoying the view because I was worried about where I was going to touchdown. I felt like I was right over that race track for most of my fall. In the end, they brought me down right in the middle of the open field and the landing was so soft I barely felt it (possibly because my legs were still numb). At any rate, I just wanted to lie there and kiss the ground but I had to gather up my gigantic parachute and carry it inside.

There’s a lot less free-fall when you jump solo as you only have a couple of seconds before the parachute gets pulled, but I’m still glad we did it the way we did. I would do it again too — although it certainly hasn’t turned me into some kind of adrenaline junkie. Regardless of exactly how crazy skydiving is on your own personal insanity meter, I think it’s definitely an experience you carry with you afterwards. The next time I get worried or anxious about something, I will just look back and think, “Fuck it, I jumped out of a plane. This is nothing!”

I finally got around to finishing an article I had been working on a while back about the advent of “advergames” (video games created to help promote a particular product or brand). Jim Munroe was kind enough to publish it over at The Cultural Gutter, so head over there and give it a read if you’re interested.

For anyone out there who happens to produce a podcast, if you haven’t yet discovered The Levelator, you’re totally missing out on an amazing piece of free software. This program will automatically clean up and normalize the levels for your audio recording after the fact — simply drag and drop a WAV or AIFF file and let it go to town. I used to use the Normalization and Hard Limiting options in Adobe Audition, but this is a lot simpler, and I think it sounds better too.

I am always fascinated to hear what kinds of weird new gadgets are in the works over in Japan, and once again they appear to have outdone themselves with another masterwork of unnecessary over-engineering. Researchers at Osaka University have created a new iPod remote control that is worn as headgear and manipulated by clenching your teeth. I suppose any sort of hands-free interface has some value to it, and they’re talking about using it to move wheelchairs next. The question is, will it still work if you’ve been cursed with an overbite?

In yet another case of things that would happen only in Japan, there is a news story this week about an arm wrestling arcade game called Arm Spirit that had to be pulled out of arcades after actually breaking some people’s arms! It would seem that they built this thing with Sylvester Stallone in mind, but according to a spokesperson for the game’s distributor, “The machine isn’t that strong, much less so than a muscular man… Even women should be able to beat it.” Obviously they didn’t count on the severe lack of fortitude that most video game nerds tend to suffer from. Now if it had been a thumb-wrestling game on the other hand… maybe the geeks would stand a chance.

Zak sent me this story about a guy who came up with WikiScanner, a program to cross-reference the IP addresses of people who edit Wikipedia entries and match them to the IP blocks belonging to major organizations. In other words, it exposes instances where various companies and organizations were manipulating Wikipedia entries for their own benefit. This changes everything. Not only does it reveal how unreliable Wikipedia is, it also puts the power back in the hands of the average user instead of the big corporations. I’m surprised no one thought of this sooner.

After my disappointing experience with the iMac and the cult of Steve, I decided to return to somewhat familiar territory in buying my next computer. I finally ended up ordering a Dell Dimension 9200 online, and although it was my first time buying a Dell, I have to say I was pretty impressed with both the price and the speed of shipping. The CPU case in particular is elegant and well-designed and has probably the easiest access for adding PCI cards I’ve ever seen, plus the machine runs ultra-quiet… which is a pleasant change from the vacuum cleaner sound that emitted from my previous AMD Athlon system.

The one catch with this purchase was that it came with Windows Vista pre-installed, and I had been hoping to hold off a bit on Vista until a lot of the software and driver compatibility issues had been worked out (although I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t at least a little bit curious). As it turns out, I didn’t run into any major problems, with the exception of the on-board audio driver, which for some reason did not have a Stereo Mix option to record sounds that are currently playing on your PC (something I need for our podcast recording). It seems ludicrous that the hardware wouldn’t support it, but there is speculation that the RIAA is somehow pressuring sound card manufacturers into disabling this functionality. I certainly wouldn’t put it past them. In the end i just bought a new sound card… problem solved. Adobe Audition 2.0 is also not fully compatible with Vista but after running some tests it seems like it should get the job done for the time being.

For the most part, Vista is not much different from XP, it just looks a lot flashier. It’s full of unnecessary transparency effects and graphical enhancements that will drain your system resources, but with a dual-core machine and 2 GB of RAM, it’s pretty negligible. The Gadgets Sidebar and the Window Switching option were both ripped straight from Mac OS X, but I will admit that they’re nice additions to have. I’m still looking into whether or not there are any truly useful new features; some of the so-called “security enhancements” may be valuable, but they’re also an additional hassle for users who actually know their way around a computer.

Last week Alicia and I finished booking hotels and planning our itinerary for next month’s 9-day trip to England. Our destinations will be London, Bath, York and Edinburgh. If anyone has any recommendations of sights to see in those general areas, don’t hold out on us! I’m pretty psyched, although I’m slightly disappointed we won’t get a chance to see any of Ireland. As usual, I will probably post a travel log and some photos afterward. Believe it or not, we’re also going skydiving next weekend… yikes, I have no idea how I got roped into this, it’s all happening so quickly!

If you’re a DVD addict like me and you’ve been using DVD Profiler to catalog your collection, you may have noticed not too long ago that the original creator of DVD Profiler started his own company and released version 3.0. Since the database format changed, it’s basically a forced upgrade, but the new version comes with a lot of the features locked unless you register (or unless you have less than 50 DVDs). I thought I would take my free business over to MediaMan instead (the Delicious Library knock-off for Windows) but unfortunately the free version is only a 30 day trial. So while I debated actually paying to register one of these programs, I stumbled across something even better: an online service called DVD Spot. Not only does it make more sense from a Web 2.0 perspective to have something like this online, I was really impressed with their interface, the ease of importing my collection from a .csv file, and the size of their catalogue, not to mention some of the cool features like stat tracking, lists of what you’ve watched recently and a friend network. I think I’m officially a convert. The only thing they don’t have yet is an XML feed for sharing what you’ve bought and/or watched recently, but this guy came up with a solution on his own.

I downloaded the first episode of the new Masters of Science Fiction series that debuted on ABC last weekend, and I have to say that it’s a pretty cool little show for sci-fi purists, although I don’t know if it will appeal to many mainstream viewers. The episodes are based on short stories from famous authors, and they certainly feel like it; the first episode “A Clean Escape”, was mostly just a conversation between two people, with a few flashbacks to flesh it out. Still, there’s so much great source material to draw from. If they can do 13 episodes per season for Masters of Horror, why only 6 episodes for sci-fi? One thing that struck me as a little weird is the fact that it’s “hosted” by Stephen Hawking, and really all that means is that a synthesized computer voice does the narration. Hey Lost fans, Terry O’Quinn stars in tomorrow’s ep!

It’s been an extremely slow summer for video games, and with all the major delays being announced, it looks like the fall may also be a bit less crowded than expected. The one thing I’m looking forward to later this month is Metroid Prime 3: Corruption on the Wii. As a big Metroid fan, I am hoping this will give me a reason to turn on the Wii for more than a couple minutes at a time. Even Zelda hasn’t really been able to hold my attention for very long. As great as the Metroid Prime games are though, I gotta say, I still miss the 2D Metroid games. Ever since the Metroid DS game was released as a 3D shooter, I worry that we may have finally seen the last of the old school style. (As a backup, John Woo’s Stranglehold seems to hold some promise as well… the Xbox Live demo is pretty damn fun.)

Some researchers at the University of St. Andrews have supposedly come up with a potential breakthrough for levitation and hovering technology. Using something known as the Casimir Effect, they’ve managed to get objects to repel each other in a frictionless environment. It all sounds pretty exciting, but I refuse to get my hopes up. I remember back when Dean Kamen unveiled the Segway, there were rumours in the days leading up to it that he had invented some sort of crazy hovering vehicle. Man, what a letdown that was.

Is Resident Evil 5 racist? There seem to be a lot of people speaking out about the fact that the newest trailer for the game shows a white guy gunning down hordes of zombie-like African villagers. Is it just another example of repackaging the white man’s fear of black culture, just like, as Michael Moore argued in Bowling For Columbine, the TV show COPS has been doing for years? Didn’t this same debate come about with the Klingons in Star Trek being black? Personally I just thought it looked like an interesting new setting to bring to the survival horror genre, but I guess I can see why some people might find it a little risque.

How cool is this? Someone developed an online emulator for the old Texas Instruments toy Speak & Spell! I used to love this thing when I was a kid. If not for this toy, I would never have become the anal retentive speller than I am today! Unfortunately, this online version doesn’t seem to play any of the extra mystery word guessing games. Boo.

A New Zealand couple have one-upped Nicolas Cage and decided to name their baby Superman. Don’t feel sorry for the kid though… it’s a lot better than what they would have named him, if it hadn’t been rejected by the government registry: “4Real”. For real, yo, I couldn’t make this stuff up.

Oh, and by the way, Keith Richards really did snort his father’s ashes after all.

I’m back. You know, I really hate neglecting a blog, even when it’s beyond my control and not many people are reading it to begin with. I guess I have commitment issues, just the opposite kind you usually hear about. Crunch mode kicked in at work over the past few weeks, so not only did I lack the time to keep up my posting here, but I also really had no life worth posting about. You know how it is. Fortunately, I’m going to be returning to the land of the living again for the next little while, so I’ll be able to write a bit more.

What I’m planning to do is scale back this blog to a regular posting schedule I can handle. I’m finding that the longer mixed-topic posts are difficult to maintain, but after looking into the Tumblelog thing, it didn’t really appeal to me either. So rather than overload myself, I think will aim to write one longer post a week (probably on the weekend), with an occasional short post here and there during the week (plus my usual del.icio.us linkage updated daily in the sidebar). We’ll see how that works out. At least this way it will still be worth subscribing to the ol’ RSS feed and you loyal readers can know when to expect an update. I suppose this means the “Daily Drivel” has just become the “Weekly Drivel”, although that name kind of sucked anyway so I’ll have to think up something else.

Over at Film Junk we’ll be doing a special Top 100 Movies podcast in the near future, discussing at least some of the movies on our personal Top 100 lists that we recently tabulated for the Online Film Community Top 100 project. It was a difficult task, to say the least. Not only do you have to produce a list of 100 movies that you enjoy, but it also has to be a list that you can stand behind and feel personally satisfied with. How can you possibly rate movies from so many different genres and eras on an equal playing field? In the end it comes down to your gut feeling and personal preference I suppose. I know my list is completely flawed by my lack of knowledge of older films in particular, but what can I do? I’m sure it will result in some interesting discussion either way.

There should also be a new Muzak For Cybernetics Mixtape recorded very soon, and maybe… just maybe… a new “season” of Fishing With Tom. We’re not making any promises at this point. It all depends how long we have before Mr. Bajuk gets shipped out for his military training… and also how long his contract negotiations take.

I recently watched the first couple episodes of G4’s new animated series Code Monkeys. It certainly seemed promising, what with the blocky 8-bit sprite style of animation and the old school video game inside jokes. As it turns out, I thought it was just okay. I’ve read some reviews that completely slammed the show’s brainless, male-oriented sense of humour, but I mean… what do you expect from a TV network that is trying to steal Spike TV’s demographic? It reminded me a bit of South Park, which I’m not a huge fan of, but it has some moments of surreal humour too. The main problem, I think, is just that the style and the concept wear thin halfway through each episode. Code Monkeys would have been much more enjoyable in shorter segments (series creator Adam De La Pena previously did the show Adult Swim show Minoriteam). It’s still worth checking out though. You can watch the first three episodes on Google Video: Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3.

Clive Thompson had an interesting piece on Wired recently about the idea of “b-video games”. He wonders why we can watch a bad movie and enjoy it from an ironic standpoint, while bad video games derive no such pleasure. The point is a valid one, although I’ve recently found myself discussing the game Earth Defense Force 2017 with people in exactly these terms. I think it might qualify as a “b-video game” as it is sorely lacking in production values but it still has an addictive element of gameplay that makes it fun on some level. Still, as Thompson points out, a game with frustrating controls is simply stressful, not laughable. And need I mention that, as it stands right now, even the best video games feature voice acting that is borderline b-movie material?

Metallica’s James Hetfield has apparently been exercising his rock star right to grow crazy long facial hair… unfortunately for him, his appearance recently got him mistaken for a terrorist at an airport in London. They described his beard as being “Taliban-like”, and briefly held him for questioning. Sad but true.

Believe it or not, this freakishly muscular whippet and the Michael Vick dogfighting indictment are not the most disturbing dog-related news I’ve heard this month. Over in Lockport, NY, a pitbull allegedly sodomized a two-year-old toddler. Yes, you read that right. When the mother scared the dog off, the kid was still… err… attached to the dog. If that’s not the most stomach-churning imagery ever, I don’t know what is.

Donald Trump is apparently planning a celebrity edition of The Apprentice. Boy that guy never gives up, does he? The question is, how many celebs actually have enough business experience to work for The Donald?

This fake letter to Optimus Prime from his GEICO insurance agent is kinda funny.

These Asian Harry Potter bootleg books are even funnier.

The past couple of weeks have been pretty busy both at work and at home, so unfortunately I haven’t had time to post anything here. I’ve been considering turning my personal blog into a Tumblelog in order to make it easier to update, but most of the Tumblelogs I’ve seen look like ass. I also don’t want to use it as an excuse to get lazy. We’ll see.

Here are some short snippets of what is new and exciting at the moment:

Our new rec room/movie room is almost complete! I just need to get a new computer desk, and the two missing wheels from our ottoman that Sears doesn’t seem to want to help us replace. You’d think they’d actually take care of people who order big home theatre seating sets. I’m also looking at ordering a couple more classic movie posters to bring it all together. Of course, just when I was feeling pretty satisfied with our room, someone has to come along and make something like this. Jerk.

Who would have thought there’d be so much good TV on this summer? I’ve been especially enjoying the American version of Creature Comforts on CBS and Flight of the Conchords on HBO… both feature amazingly dry humour. The mockumentary-style Entourage season premiere was a nice change of pace too. I’m looking forward to the third season of Weeds in August.

I’ve been considering giving one of the Canadian versions of Netflix a trial run. After transferring all my DVD shelves downstairs, Alicia forced me to think about exactly what will happen once we run out of space… I didn’t have an answer. I like to think that by the time that’s an issue, DVDs will be obsolete and everything will be digital on demand or something. At any rate, maybe I don’t need to own every movie in the world, but I do like to watch DVDs on my own time, and I need access to more titles than what the local Blockbuster keeps on hand. Has anyone out there ever tried Zip.ca? Is there anything better for us Canucks north of the border?

This is probably old news for some people, but I recently started using Google Docs, and found it to be surprisingly functional and perfect for my needs. Basically it is a free word processor and spreadsheet program that you can use through your web browser. The great thing is that you can store documents online in a central location so that if you switch computers a lot, you don’t have to keep e-mailing them back and forth. I think web-based services like this may be the future, although whether or not they’ll always be free is another story.

Did you hear about that Six Flags accident last week? A girl had both feet severed due to a malfunction on a drop tower type ride. Sounds like a freak accident, but it still has a lot of people nervous. Drop Zone has always been one of my favourite rides at Canada’s Wonderland, so I just hope this doesn’t mean it will end up getting shut down permanently.

The release of Manhunt 2 has been temporarily suspended until Rockstar Games can figure out what to do about the Adults Only rating they received from the ESRB. I find it amusing that Rockstar and their publisher Take Two Interactive are taking a stand and trying to appeal the decision, as if this is a game that is deserves special treatment as a work of art. They obviously made it to be as controversial as possible, that’s just how they roll. And now they’re kind of screwed, because cutting out elements of a finished game is a lot more difficult than simply editing a scene in a movie. I do feel bad for some of the developers though, including the group at Rockstar’s Oakville branch, who worked on the Wii version of the game. There seems to be little hope of Nintendo releasing the game at this point, and it sucks to work hard on a game only to have it yanked out of the hands of the consumers at the last minute.

Looking to make a little extra cash? Got 17 months of your life to spare? The European Space Agency is looking for 12 volunteers for an experiment that will study the psychological effects of long term space travel in a confined area. Apparently they’re investigating the feasibility of a manned mission to Mars, and will monitor 12 people living in a facility that is approximately 19,250 cubic feet in size… for 17 months!!! I have serious doubts about whether or not anyone could handle that. These epic space voyages aren’t gonna happen until they figure out the whole cryogenic sleep thing.

Oh, and by the way, I’m going to start syndicating this blog on Facebook now too.

More Links For Today:
New Contra Game Coming to the DS!
Voltron shoes?
Find The Movie Critic That Most Suits Your Tastes

One of my goals for this summer is to put a major dent in the overwhelming stack of books I currently have sitting beside the bed. If I’m being realistic, I have to say the probability of this happening is pretty small, but I prefer to remain optimistic. Alicia is understandably peeved about me buying new books when I still have 50 others that remain unread. The truth is, I really do intend on reading all of them eventually and soaking up the knowledge and enjoyment that they bring. Having the books close at hand somehow makes it seem more likely to happen, although in actuality, it may be barring the process by giving the impression that I can take as long as I want to read it.

In an attempt to motivate myself a bit, I thought I would attempt a post in the style of Nick Hornby’s Polysyllabic Spree, listing the things I’ve finished reading recently and discussing what’s next on my reading list:

Recently Read:

28 Weeks Later: The Aftermath - This is a cross-promotional graphic novel that hit stores around the same time that 28 Weeks Later was in theatres. It’s a lot better than you might think, with 4 separate stories filling in the blanks between 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later, all penned by acclaimed comic writer Steve Niles. The only problem is that the stories are too short (a fifth chapter is included in treatment form only), and deal with different characters, preventing the reader from ever really getting involved.

Rant: The Oral History of Buster Casey by Chuck Palahniuk - In some ways this is a fine return to form for Palahniuk, in other ways it’s a bit muddled and disappointing. I’d be curious to hear what hardcore Palahniuk fans think of it as it seemed a bit forced in my opinion, but it was still a quick and enjoyable read nonetheless. I posted a longer review of this book over on Film Junk for those interested.

Currently Reading:

Bambi vs. Godzilla: On the Nature, Purpose, and Practice of the Movie Business by David Mamet - If you’re not a film student, this probably sounds like a pretty stuffy book, but coming from the writer of such movies as Wag the Dog and Glengarry Glen Ross, it’s actually quite readable and funny. It flits between personal anecdotes, essays on how to make a good movie, and examinations of what’s wrong with Hollywood — mainly that pesky intersection between art and commerce.

Jennifer Government by Max Barry - I’ve been trying to get through this one for a while now, and I’m not sure why it’s taking me so long. (Maybe all those other books I’m trying to read at the same time.) It really is great so far, and totally up my alley. Max Barry’s writing style is witty and sarcastic, and his exaggerated near future world is surprisingly believable. I think if the book has a flaw, it may be that the premise is a little bit cooler than the actual execution.

Recently Bought:

The Cult of the Amateur: How Today’s Internet is Killing Our Culture by Andrew Keen - This book just hit stores a couple days ago and I somehow magically stumbled across it without ever having heard of it. The title immediately beckoned to me though, as it clearly addresses the possible dangers of letting non-experts run the show via the democracy of the web. As a blogger and podcaster I’ve always been conflicted over the opportunities the web can create versus the large amount of crap that it facilitates. Sure I love taking part the the larger conversations going on out there, but I don’t want fanboys to control Hollywood, nor do I want Joe Blogger to overtake real journalism. Looking forward to diving into this and posting my thoughts afterward.

Where’s My Jetpack?: A Guide to the Amazing Science Fiction Future that Never Arrived by Daniel H. Wilson - Wilson previously wrote the book How To Survive a Robot Uprising, and although I never read it, everyone else seems to love it. As a sci-fi nut and self-proclaimed futurist though, I simply couldn’t resist his latest book, which examines old concepts of what the future would turn out like, compared to the disappointing reality of the present day. The illustrations and overall design of the book only add to the fun.

It’s a Guy Thing: Awesome Innovations from the Underdeveloped Male Mind by Scott Seegert - As some may know, I’m a fan of weird inventions, particularly ones that are completely trivial and useless. Seegert’s book collects some of the most ridiculous U.S. patents that have been submitted over the years, and hilariously dissects the warped mind that must have dreamed them up. The only thing missing is for someone to actually take the blueprints and try to build some of these messed up machines.

The Walking Dead Vol. 1 by Robert Kirkman - After reading the 28 Weeks Later graphic novel I was in the mood for more zombie comics, and this is supposed to be the grandaddy of ‘em all. I had actually been meaning to check out this series for a while now but never got around to it. The good news is that if I end up liking it, there are like 6 more volumes waiting in the wings.

I noticed today that DVD Profiler 3.0 was out and I decided to download it and give it a try. It turns out the program has been taken over by a different company and the newest version is no longer free. I only realized this after spending a good half hour trying to get the damn thing to recognize my old registration key, which of course is no longer valid. You can still continue to use the old version free of charge, but personally I think I’m going to try importing my database into MediaMan instead. On the other hand, there may be some new features in DVD Profiler 3.0 that actually make it worth the $30 price tag. The one advantage DVD Profiler has over all the other cataloguing programs is a user-built database instead of relying on Amazon and other retail sites for data.

Alicia and I booked our flight to England this week… we’ll be travelling in September, which should be a nice change of pace from our usual habit of travelling during the dead of summer. The trip will be about 9 days, give or take, so now it’s time to build a decent itinerary to make sure we hit all the stuff we want to see. I think we’ll try to see some of Scotland too, although an investigation into my Irish roots will be a bit too far off the beaten path for this particular trip. All I know is Stonehenge is a must see for me… I don’t care how lame and touristy it is. If it’s good enough for Spinal Tap, it’s good enough for me!

More Links For Today:

Leonard Nimoy Photographs Nude Plus-Size Models?
Dutch Kidney Donor Reality Show Was A Hoax
Retired Ex-Cop and Ex-Marine Subdue Crazed Airplane Passenger

Well I’m still reeling a bit from the outpouring of “help” from the Mac community in response to my last post… I wasn’t really prepared to have so many Mac folks invading my personal blog and cheerfully telling me that I wasn’t worthy of owning one anyway (yes I’m paraphrasing here). Regardless, I don’t really have much more to say about the situation except that I was frustrated and didn’t feel like going the extra mile to stick with a Mac. I don’t think I need to justify it. It’s all good though, I am actually seriously looking at getting a Dell now — the Dimension 9200 to be exact. This looks like a pretty sweet machine and I am stoked… the memory of the iMac is already starting to fade!

Has anyone else been checking out the new applications that have launched on the “Facebook Platform” last week? Everyone thought the owners were crazy for turning down a $750 million offer a while back, but obviously they had bigger plans. This opens the network up to be used in an unlimited number of fun and novel ways, and the timing is perfect because I was honestly starting to grow a little bored of Facebook (shhh… don’t tell). These applications are sort of like Firefox extensions, and from what I understand anyone can develop them. So far I’ve installed the Delicious, Flixster, Xbox Live, and iLike applications, but the number of apps already out there is staggering. I’m starting to understand what this whole Web 2.0 thing is all about… everything’s connected! Flixster is a way to post quick reviews of movies you’ve seen, while iLike is useful for sharing upcoming concert info and music recommendations with friends. (Unfortunately it seems that iLike doesn’t list Canadian concerts as of yet.) The Bunny Picture app is also perhaps the most innovative of all.

On the topic of Facebook, I also found this nifty Facebook toolbar for Firefox.

There is an interesting conference at Brock University next week that I will be attending through my work called Interacting with Immersive Worlds. I realize “interesting” is a somewhat relative word… I’m sure many would find it to be an absolute snoozefest, but I’m looking forward to it. One of the main speakers is Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who wrote a book called Flow that explores the idea that we all subconsciously seek out activities in life that engage us with just the right level of challenge… not too hard, not too easy. Like video games. Other topics range from instant messaging, Second Life and Wii-motes to video game music and cyber-bullying. I really enjoy geeking out over material like this; in fact, if I hadn’t gone into computer science I probably would have majored in communications or cultural studies or something like that at university. Sometimes when I start talking about heady topics with people I feel like the entire world is absolutely knowable if one only had enough time and energy to sit down and puzzle it out. Of course, I’m also aware of how pretentious and self-important some of this research can be too, which is why I’m content to be a mere “armchair academic” if you will, casually mulling over some of the ideas in my spare time. For those who may be inclined, the conference is open to anyone, although it’s $75 for students and $150 for non-students which might be a bit much to pay for your average nerd.

Yahoo! had an interesting article through the Associated Press this week about the consistently craptacular results from video games that are based on movies. It’s a point worth making, I think, because everyone talks about how terrible video game movies are (ie. Resident Evil, Alone In The Dark, Doom, Super Mario Bros) but they tend to forget that the opposite case is also an equally bad idea. The problem is, both continue to make money (can you believe that the Cars video game was the second highest-selling game of 2006?). Fortunately, there is one upcoming game that is clearly going to reverse the trend and restore credibility to video games based on movies: Dirty Dancing: The Video Game. You think I’m joking but I’m not.

Microsoft made waves this week with the unveiling of their new touch-sensitive user interface technology, Microsoft Surface. When I was at Wired NextFest last summer there were a couple of different companies showing off similar gadgets, and I think it really is the next logical step. The popularity of the Wii is inspiring all kinds of alternative input devices everywhere you look. Of course, what I’m more interested in is what’s going to come after this… an interactive 3d hologram? Direct brain wave control?

Well just when you thought reality TV couldn’t sink any lower than it already has, along comes Dutch show The Donor. The basic idea is that three contestants are competing for a new kidney, courtesy of a terminally-ill woman who has agreed to donate it to the winner. I have to admit, I’ve defended reality TV in the past as I think it does have redeeming value, but I can’t say I support such a ridiculous thing. Just to play devil’s advocate though, is competing for a body part really that much different than competing for a million dollars? Both are life-changing propositions. There was also controversy on the latest Australian version of Big Brother where the show’s producers refused to tell one of the contestants that her father passed away until after she had left the show. That’s pretty sleazy too, and besides… why wouldn’t they welcome the added drama anyway?

Lastly, The Strokes recently released a new video for the song “You Only Live Once” and it’s freaking fantastic. I had no idea they were such big sci-fi nerds. It does seem a bit weird that they’re still making videos for an album that’s a year and a half old now, but I’m not complaining.

More Links For Today:
E.T. spotted on Google Maps?
New Leisure Suit Larry Game Coming to Cell Phones
The Guitar Zeros: A Real Band That Uses Modded Guitar Hero Controllers

More dog stories today. As I mentioned previously, at only 7 months of age, our dog Chopper is getting to be quite a hefty size. He’s currently weighs about 55 lbs, which doesn’t seem all that big to me, but upon further reflection, he may already be bulkier than my last dog, which was a German Shepherd/Husky mix. On Monday we had a couple harsh reminders that he’s certainly not a puppy anymore.

Alicia and I went to a local park for a spur of the moment picnic and decided to take him along. After walking him around for a bit, we found a nice tree with some decent shade and sat down to eat. We tied Chopper up to the tree with a 20 foot lead that was made for big dogs (it’s called “The Beast”), and he seemed content to lie down and chew on one of his toys. An old guy walking a little yappy dog came by and asked if Chopper was friendly, to which we replied yes, and so he let his dog come over to meet him. Chopper seemed more interested in his toy, but the guy proceeded to tell us the sad story of how he had bought this dog to help with his wife’s Alzheimer’s therapy. Not too long after that, we saw another old guy walking another yappy dog. We didn’t think Chopper would notice or care… but he did. He took off, barrelling towards the smaller dog and approaching the end of his leash. We winced just as he was about to hit the end of his line, but instead of snapping him back, his collar just broke off and he kept right on running. It certainly scared the crap out of the old guy, who picked up his little dog and shielded him from Chopper’s playful advances. So that was pretty much the end of the picnic.

Later in the day, we were back home and Chopper was lying, defeated, on the tile floor in our foyer. He seemed dead to the world, when suddenly the dog who lives one house over started barking outside. Chopper bolted upright and darted towards the back door. Out of the corner of my eye, I was just able to catch a dog-shaped blur as he burst right through the middle of the sliding screen door, leaving it flapping in the breeze. So much for the intelligence of German Shepherds and Collies.

We recorded our first podcast using the new Mac on Monday night, and it didn’t go so smoothly. While the recording itself worked up until we reached the max time limit (whatever that is), I have to say I was pretty disappointed with GarageBand overall. I had heard so many good things about this program, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s a pretty far cry from Adobe Audition. I realize it was originally created for music production, and maybe that’s why it was so awkward to use, but on top of that it seems really limited for the sake of being “easy to use”. You can’t even export in .wav format. What gives? I ended up trying to edit the show in the free program Audacity before giving up and booting to Windows and retreating back to Audition instead. Am I missing something, or is GarageBand really this unintuitive? On the positive side, I have read that you can create enhanced podcasts with chapter stops and pictures using GarageBand, so I want to try and learn how to use it properly.

I’m not the biggest Heroes fan in the world, but I thought the season finale was pretty weak. For all the epic build up they were trying to generate, the best they could manage for a climactic fight is someone getting hit with a parking meter and stabbed with a sword? What a sad, ragtag bunch of superheroes they all ended up being. I read a review somewhere that said the problem with Heroes is that all the writers come up with snappy one-liners that work in comic book form, but they seem goofy when inserted into a live-action drama. I tend to agree. The cliffhanger for next season was straight out of any number of bad movies. The Black Knight, Just Visiting or TMNT III for example. (Okay, Army of Darkness is an exception.) The Lost season finale on the other hand was both riveting and mind-blowing. I may or may not be a little bit biased at this point.

Speaking of Lost, Apple just released a Lost video game for your iPod. It seems like a lo-fi adventure game of some sort, and I’m somewhat curious, but I have a hard time believing it will be worth even a $5 download.

Mark Burnett’s newest reality show On The Lot premiered this week, and so far it’s got me hooked. It’s basically the Hollywood version of Project Greenlight, with a panel of judges that includes Carrie Fisher and Brett Ratner deciding what young filmmakers have all the right stuff to make it in Tinseltown. So far it has the same feel as Survivor or The Apprentice, but with a little bit of Rock Star mixed in. As expected, most of the people competing have huge egos, which makes for some pretty spectacular fights when the teams are put under pressure. Their original works are pretty typical and underwhelming so far though. You can see 20 minutes from the first episode here, or you can watch full episodes here but of course it’s not available outside the U.S.

Boing Boing’s Cory Doctorow recently wrote an interesting article in Locus Magazine called “In Praise of Fanfic”. He makes a strong case for why fan fiction should be encouraged and supported instead of ridiculed. I, myself, still fall somewhere in the middle on this debate. I suppose that for someone who wouldn’t otherwise be doing anything creative, fan films and fan fiction are a worthwhile activity and could serve as a gateway to doing something more serious and original. On the other hand, it’s still hard for me to fathom all the effort that some people put into recreating someone else’s intellectual property though.

The Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in Chicago is launching a special one year master’s program made for computer science graduates. I guess the idea is that they will turn out some forward-thinking people who can use their technical background to re-invent the idea of journalism for the future. This seems like a really cool program that I would seriously consider applying for… if I didn’t already, you know, have a decent job that I really enjoy.