As a birthday present for me, my in-laws all got together and got me a gift subscription to Netflix

We’ve received three movies so far : T3: Rise of the Machines, Bend it like Beckham, and a interactive DVD game called Scourge of Worlds..

While I’ve never seriously considered a Netflix subscription before (I prefer to buy the movies, not rent them). I think its going to be a good thing overall since Kael has come along we haven’t exactly had a lot of time to go to the movies, so this will give us a chance to catch up on what we’ve missed, and I can use it to watch the movies on my ‘maybe’ list so I don’t go out and spend 20 bucks on a movie that ends up being lousy…

However, I don’t like Netflix’s website, its to slow and not intuitive to navigate… so.. I use Netflix Freak (available HERE ). I haven’t ponied up the share ware fee yet, but I will before the trial period runs out. It is a much better interface then the website and adds some cool extra features like the ability to shuffle your rental queue! a must have for any Netflix member (err..provided -of course- that you’re using a Mac….They don’t make a windoze version)

So, after getting stuck trying to get to ‘the control room’ in HALO, I decided to give Jedi Academy a try.

For those not familiar with the series, it picks up after the last Jedi Knight game (Outcast), instead of reprising the role of Kyle Katarn, you pick up the role of one of the students. Haven’t got very far yet, but so far its an entertaining game. To keep performance up, I did turn down some of the video options, so it looks a little grainy… and its yet another video game that doesn’t take advantage of the full screen on widescreen displays. Must be because its a port of a windoze game..and so few windoze users have wide-format screens….

Now…if I could just find a way to make the deaths of the things I kill with my lightsaber gorier! =)

So, the first episode of Celebrity Mole aired last night. Since I had to work, we taped it (Man..I miss the PVR features I had with Dish Network..Hurry up TiVo…make a HDTV compatible unit!). And watched it tonight..

since its just the first episode, its hard to say for sure who the mole is (Although, we know its not Ananda Lewis, since she was the first person voted off).

Right now, my hunch is that Mark Curry is the Mole. Janice thinks its Tracy Gold.

So it will be interesting to see how it plays out this season…

One interesting tidbit that Steve Jobs revealed about the iTMS yesterday during his Macworld keynote, was that 1 customer (he didn’t say who) has spent over $29,000 (yes..that’s 29 THOUSAND dollars) at iTMS since it opened!

All I can say is..DAMN! that’s alot of music

29,000 / .99 = 29292 songs which is 3 of the 40 Gig iPods filled to capacity (ok..so the 3rd would have a little room left on it)

so.. this person has got enough music purchased..to listen to all their music for about 3 months..and never repeat a song!

Way to much spare time (and cash) on their hands…

:sigh:

Unless you live in a cave (in which case, how are you reading this?) By now you’ve heard of the Broncos’ incredibly poor performance in today’s playoff game against Indianapolis

Apparently, there was only enough room on the Charter flight out to Indy for the Offense, and the Broncos were forced to leave their Defense here in Denver…because they certainly didn’t show up on the field to play the Colts today! So, it looks like the best thing about the Superbowl, is going to be the commercials (hey…maybe the rumors of Apple running a 20th Anniversary commercial are true).

On the plus side…. the Raiders sucked even more then normal this year!

For those into RPGs, and Fantasy reading, here’s a quick link to the first part of a short story written by Ed Greenwood (he basically designed the Forgotten Realms campaign setting for Dungeons and Dragons). Click here

I thought it was entertaining, and I’m looking forward to the second half, when ever Wizards of the Coast posts it on their site.

Finally got a chance to play Halo

Granted, its’ only been out for like a week. But Its one of the most delayed games ever for any PC. It was originally supposed to be a simultaneous release for Mac and Windoze, but after M$ purchased the developer, they killed everything except X-Box development. So its finally released!

Loads of fun.. only had a chance to play through the first level (just got off the ship, and landed on the big ring), but its a good FPS. I’m going to remap some of the keys, so I can use my Nostromo gamepad, which should make it a bit easier. Haven’t had a chance to play Multi-player yet…but based on past FPS games, the multi-player should be fun too. If you don’t have it.. go buy it! its a good shoot-em up!

EDIT: One big complaint… The game doesn’t take advantage of my widescreen monitor, which supports up to 1440*900 resolution. It looks like the highest resolution supported is 1024*768, I don’t know if thats a game limitation or a limitation of my video card.

Got a chance to go see the last movie in the trilogy on Friday.

We considered trying to go Weds. night, or even to the midnight showing on Tuesday night.. but Kael was not cooperative.

So we went to a matinee on Friday… and all I can say is DAMN! it was an awesome movie. Good Special Effects, good acting, good script. Hopefully this one will get Peter Jackson a Oscar for Directing… but.. probably not, since we all know that the MPAA doesn’t like giving Oscars to Sci-Fi or Fantasy movies (the ‘technical’ Oscars don’t count).

Back to the movie:

Even with the differences between the books and the movies (all 3 of them) Overall, the trilogy did a very good job bringing the story to the screen. The battle scenes in “Return of the king” were amazingly well done. Even the “cheesy” special effects looked good.

Definitely a must see.

The Sci-Fi Channel aired part 2 of the Battlestar Galactica mini-series last night. I had to work, so I didn’t get a chance to watch it until today…

Part 2 was better then part 1, it had a much faster pace, more space battles (well.. one big battle), good character development and a few surprises..

Definitely something I’ll watch if Sci-Fi decides to put a series out…

However (there’s always a however isn’t there?) I have one complaint about the mini-series in general.

What’s up with having Faster then Light engines, but no lasers? I mean.. I know that Space:Above and Beyond (another great series that got cancelled before its time) had FTL engines and machine guns in their fighters…but that series was set to be much more “real-day” (or almost) then BSG seems to be…. so if you guys at Sci-Fi are listening..add some lasers in when you make the series… even if its just for the handguns!

the Sci-Fi Channel aired the first part of its 2 part mini-series of Battlestar Galactica….

It’s billed as a “reimagining” of the original series, which ran for one season back in the 70’s. It has a few controversial changes from the original series (some of the major characters have had sex changes and are now females).

I’ve been lurking in the Battlestar Galactica forums on scifi.com off and on for the last 3 months or so. And I can say, that I am honestly surprised by how many people have been threatening to boycott scifi and all their advertisers because of the changes to the series..

I’ve even seen some people say that they should have used the original cast (uhh.. HELLO! Lorne Greene (Commander Adama in the original series) is DEAD… exactly how did they want Sci-Fi to pull that off?????)

While I understand that the “die-hard” fans of TOS are upset, I’m not sure what they were expecting? Galactica: 2003? More of the same bad stuff that showed up in Galactica: 1980???

To me.. the complaints about Sci-Fi’s BSG being different then the original, is like complaining that Star Trek: The Next Generation is different then the original Star Trek series… they both tell the same story (man goes out, explores stars, sleeps with alien chick, gets in a fight.. repeat next week) yet they use different ‘versions’ of the same character….

Overall, I have to say that I like tonights first part of the mini-series, and I’m looking forward to watching the conclusion tomorrow night, and I think I’d watch it as a series if Sci-Fi goes that route with it.. My only complaint so far is that there haven’t been enough space battles!