Holiday Shopping Guides

Each year around this time the guys over at Aint it Cool News post their annual Holiday Shopping guides covering great geekdom gifts. (Look at my use of alliteration, I'm so proud of myself...hehe) They cover all the must haves movies, electronics, clothing, books, toys, video games, collectibles, art and music. Some of these items would be cool to have, but sadly I'll just have to get my jollies from looking at them in pictures.

Here's the links to check them out
Part 1!!! DVDs, Blu-Rays, Electronics and Geek Clothing!!!
Part 2!!! Books, Toys and Video Games!!!
Part 3!!! Collectibles, Art, Music and Super Rich Stuff!!!

On another site frequented by myself they have a horror themed Chopping list. Covering the same topics. Check it out here

Migraine

For the first time ever in my working carrer I went home sick. I have a great work ethic; that in my mind is hard to come by these days. I show up to every shift no matter how crappy or sick I'm feeling. Basically I'll always show up short of being in the hospital. But even then I'm sure I'd try to make it in. Today I woke up to a killer migraine at 4am. I scheduled myself for 6am to work but decided to go in for 7 instead to get two more hours of sleep hoping that it would go away. When I did get up it was still kicking around but wasn't too bad. I've felt this way a few times at work and usually with some meditation, water and a shit load of pills it goes away by the afternoon. Instead of it getting better it progressivly got worse. I was going to stick it through to the end of my shift like I usually do but I feel now with my role in the company that it probably isn't healthy to do that anymore. So actually much to my dismay I decided to go home. I only had 3hrs left on my shift anyway and the morning rush came and went with ease. Plus I felt I leaving my staff in a good position for the day so I didn't feel all that bad for leaving. Then I went home and have slept most of the day but the pain is still lingering as of this moment. I couldn't continue just lying in my bed which I normally would enjoy, so I though I would do some blogging and get caught on the events in the world. After reading some of the news I probably should have just stayed in bed. Did anyone hear about the Walmart employee who was trampled to death in Long Island? People as a whole disgust me. “Come on people now, smile on your brother. Everybody get together try to love one another right now.“

Hancock

Sony what the hell are you doing? Someone really needs to get canned at Sony's home video marketing. Next week Will Smith's summer blockbuster Hancock gets released. I really enjoyed this film and gave it 4 G's out of 5. I said it was really sweet in a kind hearted way. Now onto my issue. First off whenever Sony releases a film on DVD they always have a habit of changing the poster image for the video release. Usually it's a real horrible change and they should've just stuck with whatever sweet poster campaign they had for the theatrical release. However in this case I could see a need for a change from the close-up of Smith's face. So this time around they include Charlize Theron as well. So far so good. However here in lies the issue...

minor spoiler alert if you have seen the film or don't care about a minor spoiler alert keep on reading.....


When you first watch the film Will Smith is the only one of his kind. Part of the surprise that builds the third act of the film is the fact that Charlize Theron's character; the wife of the public relations professional who's trying to repair Hancock's image, is in fact a superhero herself. So for the DVD release they plaster that image on the front putting her in black spandex and a cape. From that image however you could get the impression that she may even be the villain. If your not too observant you may not think too much of that image and be none the wiser. However as I was watching Captain America on teletoon last night they were constantly promoting the release with TV spots. In these TV spots all they do is clearly point out the fact that she is indeed a superhero. Why kill this surprise? It would have been better to stick with the original ads promoting a superhero who does more damage than good. A bunch of idiots they are.

"Top ten reasons that prove Hollywood is only playing in the downloads world while focusing its real efforts on Blu-ray."

From the guys over at thedigitalbits.com

10 - Movie commercials say "now available on Blu-ray and DVD" never mentions downloads.
9 - You can't rent TV shows from any download service, but you can buy them on disc.
8 - 24 hour rental window.
7 - 30 day rental limit.
6 - Extras only available on discs
5 - Can't rent HD movies on the PC (only on boxes like the 360, Vudu etc).
4 - Pulls previously available movies from the selection.
3 - About a 30 day window between when a title is released on disc and on download services.
2 - Digital copies are now included with many discs.
1 - Can't buy HD movies from any service."

"The REAL reason why Blu-ray is going to be around a long time, and downloading isn't going to take over for a very long time? It's not just bandwidth, folks, though that's a problem too and will be for a while. No, the real roadblock is profit. Hollywood studios will NEVER be able to sell you a downloaded movie for $29.99 or $39.99. It'll NEVER happen. That would be like telling hardcore gamers that they can't buy games on physical discs anymore, but they still have to pay $60 for the latest, greatest titles."

What I'm Currently Listening To

Maybe this at another attempt at getting back into blogging...then again maybe not. Although technically I've never actually stopped I just quit putting any effort into it. Why then with a possible a resurgence? My friend who is on maternity leave (Hi Julie...cause I know you'll be reading this sometime)was bored so I suggested looking at my blog. Of course I wasn't thinking at the time and remembered that some of the things I wrote were quite candid. Not that I minded people reading them; hell if didn't want people reading them I wouldn't have put them out there in the first place. However only strangers were reading them back then. After 3 years how the hell am I suppose to remember all the stupid stuff I've said, so knowing she was getting caught up on my life, I had to give myself a refresher course, which I actually got quizzed on. It was actually quite fun for myself to go back and read some of the stuff I wrote. It really did make for some good entertainment. For those who are bored I suggest you do the same and get a laugh at my expensive...haha. Plus Julie catered to my ego and said I was a talented writer, and really that's all it takes to dive right back in ;)

One of the things I used to post about was mix CD's. I love making mix CD's and have a certain formula to then. See if you can guess as to what the formula is...Or go look it up on an older post. It does include a funny story.

1 Chris Cornell-Ground Zero
2.Chris Cornell-Scream
3.Chris Cornell-Watch Out

So Chris Cornell's new album is produced by Timbaland. When I first heard that I was like what the fuck? You don't mix those two together.... Well.... these tracks have sort of grown on me. They're actually pretty freakin good, but only time will tell if the whole album is good. It has been delayed month after month and we're not likely to see it now until Feb next year. If you were to sample one I'd suggest 'Scream', it's my favorite out of the three.

4. Jack White & Alicia Keys-Another Way to Die (from Quantum of Solace)

The first ever duet for a James Bond movie. If your not a fan of the song itself try hearing it to the opening of the film it's makes it bad ass. And thankfully they didn't go with a song from Amy Winehouse. Have you seen that girl recently?....Trainwreck!

5. Mobile-The Killer.

Sweet rock song! Mmmmmmmmm!

6. The Subways-Rock & Roll Queen (Used in the trailer for RocknRolla)
7. The Subways-Oh Yeah! (Used in the trailer for Severance)

Use a sweet song for a cool trailer and you get a film that you have to see.

8. Muse-Take a Bow (Used in the 2nd trailer for Watchmen)

refer to previous comment

9. Paramore-Decode
10. Perry Farrell-Going all the Way (Into the Twilight)

Both from the Twilight soundtrack. I love film soundtracks...duh right. It'll be interesting to see how they are used in the film.

11. Snow Patrol-Take Back the City (has cool pop rift)
12. Deftones-Passenger (Maynard from Tool does guest vocals need I say more)
13. Rolling Stones- Rain Fall Down (sweet rock rift and beat)
14. Lifehouse-Broken
15. Rose Royce- I Wanna Get next to you (classic R&B song from the 70's, also used in the film Car Wash)
16.Gavin Rossdale-Love Remains (used in Nights in Rodanthe trailer)
17. Jonas Brother-Lovebug ( I know what your thinking WTF?...well on every disc there is one guilty pleasure song and for me this is that one. And you can just go to hell b/c it's a catchy song :P)
18 Extreme-Stop the World (a song I used to like when I was really young)

The Top 13 Kills in Horror Movie History!

Seen all but 2 myself and for those who are dying to see then the video's are posted as well.

Chris Cornell

As an early birthday gift my brother and sister in law got me front row tickets to Chris Cornell. I've been to a lot of concerts and this has to rate up there as one of my favorites. And not b/c I was front row; although that was part of it. I've been front row many a times for concerts. It's was one of my favorites just from the stories from the night.

Mobile was the opener. I saw then a few years ago with Theory of a Deadman and Three Days Grace. They have some really good songs. After their show they said they were going to be doing a meet and greet at the merch stand. So I was like hells yeah I'm meeting the band. So I bought me a Mobile hoodie and their new CD to get them to sign it. I thought afterward I could have just got them to sign my ticket, but I wanted there CD anyways and it was cheaper than what I could get it for at work. I also smuggled my camera in so I got to get a picture with the lead singer and one of the guitarist.

They always say on the ticket no cameras but I thought to hell with it I'll risk it. Who really cares now a days with all the cell phone cameras. My camera is basically a piece of shit now a days any way, so I really didn't care if it was lost, stolen or confiscated. However I wasn't patted down plus I knew the girl doing security checks anyways.

Now on to Chris Cornell. This was the second time I've got to see him live. The last time was 05 when he was fronting Audioslave. Once again another bitchin concert. Since his new album has been delayed till next year he only played about 3 of his new songs. His new album is produced by Timbaland. It's taken a little bit but I have warmed up to his new tunes and think they are pretty good. The rest of his set was composed of a perfect mix of Audioslave, Soundgarden, and his solo work (stuff before and after Audioslave). He even threw in a Temple of The Dog song (Hunger Strike) and a Led Zepplin song (Immigrant Song). The funny thing about the latter was he had the words taped to the stage for reference. He also did three songs in acoustic. So being front row I got some sweet pics, got to grab his hand, and scored two guitar picks with his insignia on them. My brother and sis scored like 5 between them. They were throwing out tons of picks. They were even having pick wars between the members of his band. It was pretty freaking cool. During one of his last songs two people from the crowd actually jumped on stage and danced around. Chris was pretty cool about. ROCK ON!

World's first blue roses after 20 years of research.

Blue roses have been available in florists in recent years but until now, they have been created by using various dying techniques to stain the petals of naturally white roses. Now researchers have created a genetically-modified blue rose which have been implanted with a gene that simulates the synthesis of blue pigment in pansies. Cool, but sort of a waste of 20 years just create a blue rose that grows itself.

I now also have new meanings for my tattoo. I know what it means to me but after I got it done I tried looking up to see what a general meaning of it meant. I never truly came up with anything. Now according to this article a blue rose has long been synonymous with the unattainable, from signifying unrequited love in Chinese folklore to its Victorian era connotations of symbolising a quest for the impossible. It's weird that in a way that this is actually part of the true meaning to myself. Freaky