Tuesday, September 30, 2008

5.09 - The with not much...

not much to blog about...nothing exciting happening...I'm kind of upset that there will be no new episode of The Office on Thursday due to the Vice Presidential debate...that's about it.

This though...is hilarious...


[via Angela and Andy - Official Wedding Site for Angela Martin & Andrew Bernard]

Thursday, September 25, 2008

5.08 - The One with the new "Knight"

I checked out the new Knight Rider TV series last night...and to be honest...it was pretty bad. I really was hoping that it would live up to the original series that was so good in the day (from what I remember). If I was a betting man...I'd take this show to be the first one canceled this season. They made this new character named Mike Tracuer and throughout the show his past comes back to haunt him...although he has no memory of it. So they fake his death and now he needs a new name. I think the writers need to be fired for this line, "Hi can we start over? I'm Michael Knight..." *FACEPALM* Very original guys...

Oh and what's up with John McCain? He wants to postpone the Presidential debate. Obama's camp says no...and now McCain says he won't show up? I don't get it. McCain said something about helping President Bush with the financial problem? Why? Bush is still the President...not McCain...this is why I don't get politics. WEAKSAUCE

One more thing...it's the Fresh Prince's 40th birthday today! Big Willie is 40! wow...I used to have the theme song memorized...then I googled it and found out that there's a lot more of the song than I knew...check it out...

Now, this is a story all about how
My life got flipped-turned upside down
And I liked to take a minute
Just sit right there
I'll tell you how I became the prince of a town called Bel Air

In west Philadelphia born and raised
On the playground was where I spent most of my days
Chillin' out maxin' relaxin' all cool
And all shootin some b-ball outside of the school
When a couple of guys
Who were up to no good
Startin making trouble in my neighborhood
I got in one little fight and my mom got scared
She said 'You're movin' with your auntie and uncle in Bel Air'

I begged and pleaded with her day after day
But she packed my suite case and send me on my way
She gave me a kiss and then she gave me my ticket.
I put my walkman on and said, 'I might as well kick it'.

First class, yo this is bad
Drinking orange juice out of a champagne glass.
Is this what the people of Bel-Air Living like?
Hmmmmm this might be alright.

But wait I hear there're prissy, wine all that
Is Bel-Air the type of place they send this cool cat?
I don't think sow
I'll see when I get there
I hope they're prepared for the prince of Bel-Air

Well, the plane landed and when I came out
There was a dude who looked like a cop standing there with my name out
I ain't trying to get arrested
I just got here
I sprang with the quickness like lightening, disappeared

I whistled for a cab and when it came near
The license plate said fresh and it had dice in the mirror
If anything I can say this cab is rare
But I thought 'Now forget it' - 'Yo homes to Bel Air'

I pulled up to the house about 7 or 8
And I yelled to the cabbie 'Yo homes smell ya later'
I looked at my kingdom
I was finally there
To sit on my throne as the Prince of Bel Air

Monday, September 22, 2008

5.07 - The One with the Unleashing Rock Band Force

So I picked up Rock Band 2 and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and I've been playing both a lot lately...here's my reviews on the two games:

Rock Band 2
It's essentially the same game as the first one. Gather a bunch of people together and rock out on your pretend guitars and drums. The World Tour remains very similar...although there are more cities and venues for your virtual band to play at. Also you can hire people to help promote your band. Of course your first employee is your mom...always there to support you no matter how much your band sucks. The create-a-character mode hasn't changed...they added a few more items for you to buy, but again...it's pretty much the same.

The new things in the game include: challenges where you play a set and your scores are matched up to your friends who are online, a drum trainer, and online World Tour mode, and a No Fail mode for those who just can't figure out how to play these plastic instruments. You can also transfer 55 out of 58 songs from Rock Band 1 to play in Rock Band 2, as well as the songs that you downloaded.

The game play didn't change, it's a sequel to an already excellent game. I just bought the game disc and not any of the new instruments (which are all wireless)...if you have Rock Band 1, I'm sure you already have Rock Band 2...if not...go out and get this game...you and your friends will thank you.


Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
As you are all well aware, I'm a huge Star Wars fan...and to have a new Star Wars game come out that looks so good...I jumped on this right away.

The game play is pretty good, you play as Darth Vader's secret apprentice who's missions are so secretive he must destroy all evidence that he was even there by disposing of the all of the good guys and bad guys. Basically you run around with your lightsaber and force powers and destroy everything. It's a fun concept as the game attempts to show how powerful a Jedi can be. I haven't felt like I've been unstoppable in the game yet, but it still is really fun. The only major gripes I have about that are that it's glitchy at points...for example: I used my force push to knock a boss over the edge and he never came back up to fight me. He wasn't dead and all I could do was run around and I heard him taunting me. Also the game is pretty short. I believe that I'm close to the end and I'm wanting to play it more. I'll probably go through the game again on a more dificult level just to get my money out of the game.

But overall, it's a solid game...a must for any Star Wars fan...



...Lego Batman comes out tomorrow...that looks like a lot of fun as well...

Thursday, September 18, 2008

5.06 - The One with the McCain-berry

I'm never too interested in politics...but with the American Presidential election coming up (not to mention the Canadian one as well...), you just can't avoid it. This is my favourite story so far about John McCain.

A top McCain policy adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin. Waving his BlackBerry personal digital assistant and citing McCain's work as a senator, he told reporters Tuesday, "You're looking at the miracle that John McCain helped create."
...uh...FYI, the BlackBerry is Canadian...

Monday, September 15, 2008

5.05 - The One with the Tropic Thunder

Finally got my new home theater set up...and it sounds really good. I'm pretty happy with what I got, and I'm sure I'll get a few knocks on the door asking me to turn down the volume cuz it's too loud. They're all just jealous of it...

Naomi and I saw Tropic Thunder over the weekend...and I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was. I went in expecting it was going to be stupid humour...which there was lots of...but Ben Stiller pulled it off and I enjoyed it. Tom Cruise was barely recognizable in it...and he did a great job...almost makes me want to convert to Scientology. Ok maybe not...

Picked up Rock Band 2 yesterday...new Star Wars: The Force Unleashed comes out Tuesday, Lego Batman next week...you might not see me for awhile...

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

5.04 - The One with great Facebook debate

New layout or old layout? It seems like there are a lot of people who just can't handle the changes that Facebook has made on their site. I'm getting tired of people who keep complaining about it. First it was a petition for them to remove the "is" from the status...and when they did...there was an outcry for it to come back. So...I'm going to take a look at the old layout and the new. Here's a screen cap of my profile page under the "old" layout.

Having the search bar and a quick look at you top applications is nice. But to me everything under your profile picture just seems too cramped. Having all your applications there just seems like a bad use of space. What happens if you have a ton of apps? Ads of the left didn't work well either. You're forced to look at it. Also all your information is over the news feed...it's the first thing you see. There's a lot of dead white space around that can be utilized...So...here's the new layout:

So Facebook took that dead white space and made the page wider while placing the ads on the right...where it is less intrusive and most of the time I don't even notice them. They also removed the apps and the non-sense that's under the profile picture...placed your info there to the side, out of the way. If people want to read it...it's there...but it's not the first thing they see on your news feed. I like how Facebook placed the apps under a drop down menu...clean and accesible when you want it. They also cleaned out all of your useless apps that you have on your page and placed them on the boxes page, not strewed all over your profile page. Not everyone wants to scroll down your page for hours to find your wall.

I'm not saying that I love all the changes that Facebook has made. There are a few things that I could do without...but it's a step in the right direction. Theses guys are on the cutting edge of technology and they are trying to share it with you. Could you imagine if none of the websites changed for the better? The changes made were to make the page load faster, and let you manage your page better. Remember it's a free service...I'm sure if Facebook wanted to charge a subscription fee...they could and they could make a lot more money. Facebook is the most user friendly social networking site around...and more and more people are joining it by the second. I'm sure the staff are working their hardest to make it the best user experience they can. If you can't handle the new layout...then stick with the old. But bear in mind...the internet is a fast changing environment in a fast paced world. Blink and you'll be left behind...

Oh...and one more thing...a note to Facebook...get rid of the spam messages!

Monday, September 08, 2008

5.03 - The One with Slap Face

I picked up The Office Season 4 on DVD last Tuesday and we're working our way through it before the new season starts. Check out the one of the promos NBC aired during the Olympics...



...oh I miss The Office...

[via YouTube]

Friday, September 05, 2008

5.02 - The One with the 'Cuban' Michael Jackson

Thriller is probably one of my favourite music videos of all time. I love the dancing in it...at the Resort we stayed at in Cuba, they had a show on Tuesday night that featured Thriller and the dance...check it out...they're really good...



click here if you're watching on Facebook...

Thursday, September 04, 2008

5.01 - The One in Cuba

This is my first post as a married man. Crazy isn't it? The wedding day went by so fast. I remember waking up, going to the golf course. The next thing I knew I was married and in the limo heading to the honeymoon suite. From what I recall, the day was great. Couldn't ask for better weather. It was nice and sunny...quite a change from previous weekends in the summer where it must have rained 9/10 times. I'll have to look back on the video to relive it all.

We headed out to the Sol Melia Cayo Santa Maria all-inclusive resort in Cuba for our Honeymoon on the Monday. When we got there it was dark, so the 1 1/2 hour bus ride to the resort was pretty uneventful. The tour guide on the bus was trying to point out the different things but we really couldn't see much. One thing I did notice is that most of the Cubans houses looked all the same.

Anyways, the resort was great. The food...not so much. We ate well, but it's just not the same as the Canadian cuisine that we are used to. They tried to emulate the food, but it just wasn't the same. The cheese just tasted weird and didn't sit too well with my stomach. But it's not like we went hungry. The a la carte restaurants were pretty good. There was an Italian and a Mediterranean one. With only about 13 items on the menu, I'm sure they have perfected their dishes.

We spent most of our time hanging out in the pool and getting tanned. The pools were so nice and since it was the low season, they weren't too crowded. I loved the swim up bar...so much fun. The beach was nice as well...although since there weren't any reefs around the resort, the water was pretty rough. But it's the ocean...we don't get to see such clear and blue water much up here in Canada.


The night entertainment was pretty good most of the time...the best show was on Tuesday night where they had the 'Cuban' Michael Jackson perform for us. Everyone loved that show. I've never seen anyone do the Moonwalk live as good as this guy. It was unreal.

On Saturday, hurricane Gustav hit Cuba, mainly Havana. Since we were on the other side of the island, all we got was rain. We didn't even know that Gustav hit Cuba until the next day when CNN was covering it 24/7. I think we were pretty lucky weather wise all week. I think it only really rained once or twice. We did see lightning in the distance but it never hit us.

The journey home was an adventure in itself. Check out was noon and the bus was supposed to come pick us up at 3pm. But of course the plane was delayed until 10.30pm. So we were all let back into our rooms. We came out to check on the flight again and it was delayed another 4 1/2 hours. At least they kept us at the resort so we could hang out in our rooms and go eat at the buffet. Finally at 11.30pm the bus showed up to take us to the airport. Naomi and I paid for the VIP lounge earlier in the week (20 CUC each) and it was worth it. We sat in a nice air conditioned room and had our own bartender who served us food and drinks as we watched some tv and waited for our flight. The best part was that when it was time to board the plane, we were escorted to the front of the line. I'm so glad we did that because we didn't have to sit with all the other people who had kids who were obviously over tired.

Around 6.00 am we finally saw the familiar Toronto skyline. After an 8 hour delay we were finally back in Canada. Overall the trip was loads of fun. The resort was great, (even better because ours was an adults only one) but after a week away, it's nice to be home.