Teaching actually counts as experience.

These are all stand-alone movies with no chance for a sequel, right?

Well, as fast as you can say Ariel’s Big Adventure (no offense, Tom), Hollywood will want to cash in. Check out these actual script treatments for some of our favorite movies. Roger Rabbit versus the Nazis?

Has anyone seen the five floppy disks playing a cover of daft Punk’s “Derezzed” from Tron Legacy?

Also, check out some of the most moving images from the news in 2011.

Here’s how we do it in our neighborhood. Years ago, we had a neighbor who, legend has it, allowed Halloween to throw up in her yard – inflatable pumpkins reaching towards the heavens. She would always sit out in her driveway and hang out with friends. We joined her in this tradition and continue it, even though she has since moved. (She did come back and visit tonight, which was really cool.)

Some strange guests did appear, like a Plant who looked more “in love with” a Zombie and not so much the “versus” aspect.

Yes, they have a pet cow. Because, frankly, why not?

Also filed under Why Not: a ghost on stilts.


Naturally, a sword fight ensued (not the first time at my house, by any stretch of the imagination) and we lost track of who was the ghost.


He’s actually a lot more dexterous than the photo gives him credit for, but it still makes me laugh.

We also maintained the tradition of having teens sing. One group said that they didn’t speak English, so naturally my wife called ‘em out in Spanish. How did it end? With them singing in Spanish, of course.

Side note: we have a garage mariachi band that practices each night in our neighborhood. You know how grunge bands whine and shred incomprehensibly when they first start out? Now picture that with a sad trumpet and an oom-pah tuba.

In yesterday’s post, I showed off our Phineas and Ferb pumpkin. What you didn’t see is the Extreme Effort (I took a Feat in it the last time I leveled up) it took to carve it since I hate getting my hands dirty:

Thanks to all who showed up and shared pizza with us. We should do it again.

[Simon Pegg is] a children’s author turned crime novelist, whose research into the lives of Victorian serial killers has turned him into a paranoid wreck and perpetually in fear of being murdered. When a Hollywood exec shows interest in his script, his big break rapidly turns into a big breakdown.

Yes, I have now seen it.

Hulk? Wow, that’s actually pretty cool. I hadn’t been following the movie. I had totally spaced that Lou Ferrigno is going to voice the green monster and that the boyfriend from 13 Going on 30 is Bruce Banner.

Loki as the first villain, though? I trust Joss Whedon. Here’s hoping for some Skrull. I also can already tell Whedon’s positive influence on the dialogue. I also know that he will make sure that Black Widow is a strong enough character to compete with the other heroes.

Also, a correction from an earlier comment. My wife never watched Jem, even though the intro is awesome:

(Well, Jem will never forget her name, that’s for darn sure.)

I had spaced that her absolute favorite show was Square One, which also ranks high on my list.

I never noticed the similarity to the Saturday Night Live opening.

But, faithful readers, the big question is WHY DID MATHMAN ALWAYS LOSE?

Mike, even though this is non-Robotech, you can still weigh in.

I have a faint memory of Mathman not dying and Mathman being very confused.

October 4 we should see the first downloadable content for Portal 2 available on the 360, PS3, and PC…for free! There’s a new challenge mode and new co-op missions. The inclusion of snarky robots is a given.

I hear that neutrinos can sometimes go FTL.

Maybe it’s their sweet ride.

At :25 of this clip, you’ll see chainmail combatants fight using lightning.

It was when Mike’s actors paused briefly in a pose similar to this:

that I clapped enthusiastically. Thanks, Mike.

Having played the role of Rick in my library, The Cafe Americain, from 9am to noon yesterday, I jetted home to watch The King’s Speech with my wife and then Megamind with my daughters. Neither one need my endorsement. The history buff/teacher part of me loved watching Lionel Logue use elocution for good and not evil. The worn out nerd in me loved watching Megamind use “presentation” for evil and not eviler.

This week I had a conversation with a teacher who has read my book. She asked where I got my ideas for the amped fight scenes. I explained that that’s how I survived all my English courses in school. I can distinctly remember reading Watership Down and picturing the rabbits smoking cigars and having eyepatches while solving their problems with rapiers and not whatever they did in the book. It always led to an interesting class discussion in Mrs. S’s freshmen English class.

On the topic of books, the first book that I’ve read in a long time that really grabbed my attention was Okay for Now. Any fan of YA novels needs to read this now. Okay?

Jeremy is off trying to punch Antoine Leroux in the face. You can track him here or on the map below:

But do you comprehend this culinary equivalent to the Star Child’s monolith?

He’s just a librarian.

Hey! Has anyone seen the librarian?

Today is Superhero Day at school.

This concept art for the new version of the ride has me excited. June 6 is the scheduled re-opening.

Pac-Man was initially created to attract girls to video games. Creator Toru Iwatani said that he wanted girls to play the game, but arcades were notoriously “dirty, smelly boy hangouts” (they’ve changed so much, right?). He said that the only way to combat that was to include the one thing every girl loved more than anything else: eating sugary desserts.

It was the early 80s. You gotta…nope. Sorry, Toru. Any way you spin it, it’s still chauvinistic.

The original file for Pac-Man was 24K in total size. Do a Google search. Most images of Pac-Man are larger than that.

Bejeweled used to be called Diamond Mine until Microsoft bought rights from Pop Cap to put it on MSN. (I remember that.) The name got changed to Bejeweled to parody a Brendan Fraser movie called Bedazzled that had just come out. Pop Cap originally was named Sexy Action Cool as a company name to parody an Antonio Banderas movie poster.

If you look at how much collective time has been spent playing different iterations of Bejeweled, an estimated 798,000 years have been spent lining up colored jewels. I’m pretty sure cancer could be cured if almost 800 millennia was pooled towards medical research.

My favorite, though, is Pitfall! (That’s the name of the game…Pitfall! It includes the exclamation point. No matter what, every time you mention the game, you’re excited.)

David Crane designed the whole thing in ten minutes on a bunch of graph paper. It took him over 1,000 hours to code it all. The bouncing on the crocodiles is an old Heckle and Jeckle cartoon move.

The game spent 64 weeks at the top of the video game charts. Not bad for a game that just rotated their hero’s graphic to substitute for tree art.

Today a student needed to borrow a yard stick twice, once to retrieve a pencil that had fallen behind a desk and another to retrieve a paper.

In the same class a kid borrowed a ruler, apparently to scratch his head. No offense when I Lysol the ruler afterward. I would do it for anyone.

That got me thinking: how many people use a yard stick for its intended purpose?

Pop Quiz time (Facebook, click here)!

And, to satisfy the grandparents…photos!

While I was cleaning up, I noticed things were a little too quiet with my kids. When I checked on them, I found my oldest cleaning her room and my youngest ice skating on Clorox wipes in the bathtub.

Me: What are you doing?
Youngest: Cleaning.
Me: Oh. Carry on.

Saturday night we watched Despicable Me (great movie). Sunday we played basketball.

NBA Jam Guy: The toddler from long range!

My children’s Sunday School teachers rock. I should tell the director of Children’s Ministries. Yes, there is the occasional felt board, but on Sunday I walked in to find them at the end of an inductive Bible study:

There’s an intersection in Seattle that colloquially is known as my intersection (no Sasquatch jokes, please). I always appreciate easily accessible devices:

My wife also appreciated this guy who looks like George Carlin playing piano:

Anyone who is currently employed as an educator has probably heard of the FISH! Philosophy during a staff development training. My wife went to the fish market where that originated (although she didn’t have anyone sign the professional development triplicate, so I don’t know if it will count as recertification hours).

In December, ABC/Disney made a deal with Netflix for more content. I don’t know if you noticed the influx of made-for-Disney channel content, but that’s why. Side note: is it just me, or is every single show that’s made for ABC Family not something that I want my family watching?

This weekend I had another chance to drive a forklift. Let me just say that if you ever have the opportunity to drive one, go for it.

It’s like the best game controller ever. One side has a crank wheel like I’m driving a bus (not like I have any experience with that) and the other has a throttle like a motorcycle.

That throttle also moves the fork part of the lift up and down by moving the stick back and forth.

I think this guy is way too trusting of my driving ability:

You have to be careful with these things, or else this will happen:

You’ll be forced to wear your wife’s KitchenAid attachment as a prosthetic.

Every time I step into the cabin of a forklift, I picture myself using this loader from the Weyland-Yutani Corporation:

Proud of you, Clayton.

We do now. This Saturday at noon a portal will open up here:

View Larger Map

You can then go to the Enchantment Under the Sea dance and make sure that your parents meet, fall in love, and you’re born.

If you have time before the dance, you should check out Devin’s vintage baseball team at noon.

There promises to be plenty of ‘stache and swagger.

I do have some catching up to do, although there are still things like Tangled that we haven’t seen. Did you know that you can pre-order it for its March 29 release?

In video game nerdery, have you seen the UForce Master? Back in 1989, Broderbund (the people that brought you Carmen Sandiego, Mavis Beacon, the Prince of Persia, Myst, Lode Runner, Karateka, Choplifter, the computer version of THE Star Wars game, AND Print Shop) created a controller for the original NES that was motion-based. Here’s a quote from an ad for the controller (note the similar wording to the Kinect ads):

Introducing U-Force, the revolutionary controller for your Nintendo Entertainment System. So hot, no one can touch it. Now you can feel the power without touching a thing. It’s U-FORCE from Broderbund – the first and only video game controller that, without touching anything, electronically senses your every move, and reacts. There’s nothing to hold, nothing to jump on, nothing to wear, U-Force creates a power field that responds to your every command–making you the controller. It’s the most amazing accessory in video game history – and it will change the way you play video games forever. It’s the challenge of the future. U-Force. Now nothing comes between you and the game.

Most people just flailed in front of it (Wii Boxing, anyone?) and didn’t know how to work it. YouTube user mcjoekenna dedicated his life to mastering it.

I chose to show his Ninja Gaiden prowess since I could barely play that game using the traditional controller. (Slade – you remember Ninja Gaiden II and being on the wrong side of a locked door?)

Also of note, a great shirt found by Devin.

Almost got it…no 3X. I guess no Wookiees shop at TeeFury.

That makes me…T-furious.

I also caught up on some Narnia reading with my girls. Here’s an amazing quote from Lion, Witch, considering C.S. Lewis’ loss when his wife, Joy Gresham, died (you can read about it in A Grief Observed):

I hope no one who reads this book has been quite as miserable as Susan and Lucy were that night; but if you have been – if you’ve been up all night and cried till you have no more tears left in you – you will know that there comes in the end a sort of quietness.

I’m considering a CoverIt Live post that day. Any takers?

Madden’s done a decent job (the software, not the yelling guy) for the last 6 out of 7 Super Bowl predictions it has made. It’s like how Watson beat Ken Jennings. The guy running the project said that Watson was more like the computer from Star Trek than HAL-9000.

I submit for the jury V’ger, Nomad, and M5. The crew of the IKS Amar doesn’t share your optimism. Why’s that? They’re dead, you pointy-eared monster!

Let us not forget our own entanglements with the BlogghBot 3000.

What’s funny is IBM (makers of Watson) was the inspiration for the name HAL. (Shift the letters down a value.)

The Japanese palantir/satellite Hinode caught this great photo of the Eye of Sauron during a partial Sauron eclipse. Rumor has it, some otaku office worker is now able to stop time by grunting a lot.

“Your mom’s gonna hate it” is the tagline. Somehow that sounds more like angsty pre-teen and less like an intelligent gaming experience.

I guess both my kid and I are at a different stage. We’ve spent the day watching Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century and playing ilomilo.

ilomilo’s whole focus is to reunite two friends so they can have tea. (Not being sarcastic.)

Sherlock Holmes takes place, as you guessed, in the 22nd century and is what happened after Holmes fell into Reichenbach Falls. All of the stories are based on the short stories of Doyle, but with a sci-fi spin (sound familiar?) The East India Trading Company is now a lunar colony and Lestrade’s great-great-granddaughter is New London’s best inspector. (Watson? He’s some kinda cyborg. He wears a trenchcoat to not draw attention to his mechanical soul.)

Only four episodes are on Netflix. Here’s a sample, though:

The one I’m most excited about is Christian Bale returning alongside Chris Nolan. Without Nolan, it would be like X-Men without Bryan Singer. (The Movies That Shall Not Be Named.)

Tom Hardy, the Russian-ish guy in Inception, will be playing Bane:

Hopefully they won’t use too much CG on him or at least blend it well. It’s funny – I know Inception used a ton of computerized graphics (unless they took a real city that was scheduled to be folded upon itself and then filmed it), but the focus was on character interactions and not on explosions. (An overwhelming emphasis on explosions the French call “Le Michaelbay Effet”.)

Their analysis:

We’re hanging out with two excellent world travelers today from Brazil and I am digging Portuguese. It shares similarities with Spanish, but has some cool slide things going on. Last night we had a deep conversation (not sarcastic) and it was boa to be able to dust off some of the linguistics parts of my brain.

The translation app on my friend’s iPad definitely helped. I felt like a stenographer at the United Nations.

Something that we found, still connected to the brain, is a great parody of this analysis of the Inception soundtrack:

Here’s the parody:

MIND-BLOWING!

Also, the LEGO Clone Wars game is coming together nicely. It was supposed to be done in November, but LucasArts laid off a lot of people and that messed with distribution. It’s now slated for February 15.

What makes it stand out from The Complete Saga (which is a great game) is that they’ve taken the great stuff from recent LEGO games and added some awesome Star Wars style.

Variable split-screen co-op is awesome. Playing Complete Saga with my oldest, I have to wait for her because she’s always smelling the flowers. You don’t kill Sith by smelling the flowers, unless the Sith are Revwien.

In Clone Wars, when your partner walks away, it switches to split-screen.

Star Wars is known for multiple plotlines converging at the end. You had Luke confronting Vader while Han stormed the bunker and Lando watched Wedge be awesome. An experimental style they’re going with for big battles is having a picture in a picture display where the big battle is happening and individual characters are saving the day.

The big battles are going to be a Real-Time Strategy where you command squads to attack and then in a window you’ll see the heroes arrive at a certain place and you switch control while the big battle is executing your commands.

Sounds crazy but I definitely want to see it.

No reports yet if your Dead Parrot has wandered into a neighboring farm, though I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw “Booyor needs four more shrubbery to complete a Trojan Rabbit” notices.

Until I read this chunk:

Our writer is a Lord of the Rings expert and a huge J.R.R. Tolkien fan, and he makes sure that everything we do works within the framework of the books. We also work closely with the license holders to make sure we’re accurate to the lore.

They have a writer. That’s a good start.

May 2011 we shall see if the fanboys are happy.

This is before transistor radio, but is it some kind of Marconi device? Or is she just clutching a candy bar to her head intently?

“You know what this means?”

I gifted the channel to some people that I thought might like it. It’s free to anyone; I just gifted it because it’s really easy to download then (like sending you a link, but with an Italian plumber hitting his head against bricks).

On one end of the scale is a collection of musical atrocities committed by flautists in secondary marching bands across the country. On the other side, there is Greg Patillo, who I think should be an honorary member of Jethro Tull.

And the balance is even.

(Yes, Jethro Tull is the band name. They’re covered under the Monty Python/Lynyrd Skynyrd/Britney Spears Clause.)

Peter and the Wolf:

Super Mario:

A Hard Knock Life:

Sesame Street:

Not only did they get me my barcode shirt (yes, Janet, I do wear that shirt a lot) and the “I’m blogging this shirt.”, friends also got me the Shakespeare shirt. One that I hadn’t seen until tonight was the drill one. You can expect to see me wearing that in the Golden Corral in El Paso in January.

Hypothetically speaking.

I’m contemplating a bubble pipe.

Also, did you see that Yahoo finally is catching up to the bloggh in charting presidential gray hairs?

1. He does concerts for charities.
2. He does those concerts dressed as the main character from Final Fantasy VIII.
3. He does his own arrangements.
4. He puts the sheet music for those arrangements online for free.

Go check out his site here.

How do we know? The #votekishi site tells us, that’s how.

So, click on the link or the picture and find out what this candidate has to offer. These are campaign promises I can endorse. Also, make sure to use the hashtag #votekishi on Twitter. Doesn’t matter if it makes sense. Just do it – that’s how politics works.

If you haven’t caught any World Cup action yet, you might appreciate John Cleese’s help explaining the difference between football and soccer. Soccer doesn’t have as many commercials. I know that much.

I think if there was scoring for each player contact in the game, then it would catch on. We’re bummed when an NBA final score is in the 60′s. But football and baseball games score low…Maybe it’s because there are so many opportunities to score in those sports, even though the scores are generally lower. In soccer they miss once and a lot of times the ball is booted to the other end of the field.

Unrelated (as if things here have a set coherence):
If you run a WordPress site and have seen an increase in Spam comments the past two weeks (I have on both of mine), Akismet comes free with WordPress. It requires an API key, but the Aksimet site gives you a free API code if you’re just a hobbyist. Check out the plugins section of your settings panel.

Check out this one from the Church of Diamonds. In order for Pastor Godfrey O’ Dette (the rebels use names that sound like Bart Simpson calling Moe’s Tavern) to donate to the scammer, the recipient of the money had to prove that he had been initiated into the Church of Diamonds. Not only did he waste the scammer’s time (and draw focus away from people who might actually fall for the scam) but he made the guy send an awesome photo:

The new initiate

There’s more to the story, so check it out. The 419eaters usually get out of trouble by Photoshopping their own death:

Coverit Live was used very effectively by IGN during the E3 press conferences and by ESPN during game seven of the finals.

I may actually try this out at a conference I’m going to next week. Could prove interesting.

But what do you do when you upgrade/renew a contract and you have an extra cell?

This is for Gary and Jason:

Sites that I would check out are CellForCash, FlipSwap (with free shipping), Gazelle, NextWorth, and YouRenew.

To see if you have the plan that best fits your use, check out BillShrink.

If you have an iPhone, you’re kinda stuck with Expensive or More Expensive.

Things the new iPhone won’t do:

1. Take pictures unaided underwater.
2. Stop the BP leak. [oooh! how timely! I'm like Dennis Miller over here.]
3. Shoot phasers.
4. Get me to stop watching literal versions of music videos.
5. Cheer up Keanu Reeves.
6. Get me to stop laughing at this.
7. Make driving a minivan give me more swagger.
8. Help this Scottish guy love Iceland.
9. It will do anything for love, but it won’t do that.

For these reasons I’ll have to wait.

Check out his album here. Here’s a preview:

If you’re going to be in the Valley, check out Freedom at FCOV at 7pm. (I’m playing bass.)

Either choice will garner my approval.

But where’s my hoverboard? Are we any closer?

While I wait I’ll have to be content with a robot moon station and the crazy balancing scooter chair.

I’m always a fan of information (you may say that I make a living out of it), so flightaware.com intrigues me. You can track specific flights or, if you lean more to the stalker side of the spectrum, all flights connected to a specific airport.

For some reason I find Anchorage’s airport code hilarious (versus this airport’s benevolent nature).

Mix FlightAware with this site and you’ve now put Chloe from CTU out of a job and you didn’t even have to try and hide a baby under a desk.

Well, the implied news. But it’s still exciting!
(It’s like a movie teaser site. “April 2011 – you know the rest”)

What’s really intriguing is the thought of Google TV streaming to an Android phone…

Google I/O would sure be an interesting conference to attend. Check the 1pm slot for tomorrow. TBA?

It does a decent job with more words than just “shuriken” and “boot to the head”.

We watched the first 26 minutes of the Gospel of John movie on Netflix streaming. It’s actually really good and I wish it would gain in popularity. I get nervous when a movie claims to be word-for-word from a gospel, but it does it well. If you have a Netflix account, I think it’s worth your time. (I would have watched more but my daughters needed breakfast.)

Henry Ian Cusick plays Desmond on LOST and plays Jesus in this movie. Much like the Sylar/Spock anomaly, I wondered if I could separate those two characters. It helps that Desmond exists in two timelines at once and has a different perspective on life. I’m just waiting for Jesus to call to his disciples, “Come to me, brutha, if you want to live.”

Can I spend a moment of your time as an advertisement for Netflix?

We don’t have cable and we were very annoyed when Saturday morning cartoons got replaced by Horseland (it’s a show about a land…full of horses) and Skechers advertisements (the Really Tall ads do have more pathos than Horseland, though…)

Boo to you, horses, and your lame attempt at an E/I certification.

Now we can cue up some decent shows. I just found Fraggle Rock yesterday in instant streaming. I had only seen parts at a babysitter’s house growing up. This should be an intriguing foray.

Yesterday was my wife’s talent show for school. I watched my daughters while my wife taught. My youngest wanted to run around, so the two of us left my oldest in a row on her own.

From the back of the audience I pulled out my phone to text my oldest and then realized that she’s a lot more mature than I give her credit for. For some reason I thought she had a cell phone.

I was conflicted with how to manage my youngest during the talent show. Some young mega-violinist was on stage performing a great solo but my daughter wanted to make some noise. I heard the familiar sound of one lightsaber hitting another and looked down to see that she had attached the markers end-to-end to create an elegant weapon from a more civilized age.

How can I shush that?

Netflix is still trying to figure me out. It says I’m over 18 in my account profile but my viewing habits say otherwise.

It’s a word with a definition if you use the Urban Dictionary.

If you’re a fan of Merriam and/or Webster, it is not.

You can be Smartical Dude’s friend, though. Whether that is a smartical decision or not is as yet to be determined.

You can take a quiz to see how smartical you are.

I, on the other hand, took the quiz to see which crazy writer I am most like.

I am most like George Orwell. Some are more equal than others…

I also need to mention zennioptical.com. $8 prescription glasses. I’m intrigued. I need to run it by my wife, though. I always pick out female frames.

Instead of much more from me, check out what else is out there.

• Reflections from sidewalkdriver, wookieburger, and even a Fun Night alum.
• Wookieburger also created a great conversation between Grand Moff Tarkin and Luke.
• If you haven’t listened to April’s podcast at freedom.fcov.org (no trackback necessary), you must do so now. And yes, Mom, I made a category so you can find it easier.
• If you remember the new Rickroll I pointed out to you, I think you’ll be excited to see Captain Kirk’s judicious response to planet Trolololo. Pretty impressive stuff, especially compared to his fight versus the Plastic Lizard Man.

But did you see the new class for Star Wars: The Old Republic?

It’s a shame that these geek April Fool’s jokes are always so much better than reality. Although, if you remember the tauntaun sleeping bag…

Patient, Calculating, & Elusive

The galaxy is filled with every sort of riffraff, refuse and space trash imaginable. For thousands of years the brave souls who answer to the name Sarlacc have made sure it doesn’t pile up. As deadly as they are misunderstood, these determined individuals are the ultimate authorities on final judgment in the galaxy. A new definition of pain is waiting for anyone who would dare cross one.

Contrary to popular belief, a Sarlacc is much more than an extreme omnivore – a misconception the cunning Sarlacc have been exploiting for thousands of years. Frequently, a Sarlacc will act as a mercenary-for-hire, contracting their services – and their tentacles – to underground groups needing extra muscle. Occasionally, one will pose as a trophy pet of an egotistical Hutt gangster, capitalizing on the perfect disguise as they zero in on their targets.

But the Sarlacc aren’t just opportunistic scavengers waiting for a free lunch; they are paragons of patience and planning, always waiting for the right moment to pounce on their quarry – even if it takes one thousand years. A Sarlacc has no trouble keeping their sights on a target that has long since forgotten them. Revenge is a dish best served cold, and no one serves this dish better than a Sarlacc.
Professional Courtesies

Most Sarlacc have learned more about the galaxy than most other professionals could hope to learn in ten human lifetimes. Not only has an average Sarlacc done everything under the double suns, many techniques that are synonymous with other professionals were innovated and perfected by a cunning, resourceful Sarlacc.

Every Smuggler knows that one dropped shipment could lose him respect – and a year’s worth of credits, but only the insane would search for contraband cleverly stashed in the belly of a Sarlacc. Imperial Agents breaking the will of interrogated prisoners rely heavily on techniques handed down to them by the Sarlacc – who are known to telepathically torture information out of their most reticent victims. Jedi Knights train for years to master The Way of the Sarlacc, Shii-Cho Lightsaber form as the foundation of their amazing combat prowess. Consulars of the Jedi Order spend long hours meditating on Sarlacc to develop the dissonant serenity that keeps them calm in the midst of chaos. Bounty Hunters – a Sarlacc delicacy – have perhaps benefitted most from developing contacts in the Sarlacc Underground; it is here that hunting and trapping are brought to new heights and Bounty Hunters learn to become great, or die. No team would have the skills it needs to survive its mission without the practice and invention of a dedicated Sarlacc.

If you feel the need to Rickroll, please consider the following:

For convenience, the Interwebs now has the easy-to-remember URL of http://trololololololololololo.com/

Nintendo has announced the 3DS, a handheld system that will project 3D images but not require a pair of glasses.

Iwata is checking out, however, if playing games in 3D for an extended period of time causes health problems (Slade, imagine us in our Borderlands feast, now with Skags jumping out of the screen).

It will also have a camera (perhaps two for depth perception) and a motion sensor. Nintendo gave the vague “it will come out before summer 2011” release date.

It seems cool, although Nintendo’s philosophy of less expensive products sometimes translates into not having the most recent tech advances hardware wise (design wise they are cutting edge). It’s great creativity, but I wish there could be a happy merge of the Wii and the PS3.

On the topic of Wolverine, did you see this jellyfish? It can revert to its youth stage and regrow into adulthood. Imagine if you could constantly loop back to when you were 8, regenerating every time.

Hugo Weaving will play the Red Skull in the new Captain America movie. And the character’s total lack of lips is not a hindrance since Weaving talks like a ventriloquist in all of his roles.

And thanks, Sara, for the celebrity lullaby:

Congratulations, you have been chosen to participate in the Closed-Beta test of LEGO Universe!

The Maelstrom is trying to destroy imagination, so hurry up and create a LEGO Universe account with your LEGO ID. You’ll be a heroic minifig before you know it.

What I find funny is that there are limited times when I can play. It must be server maintenance or something.

So, if you want to find me, here are the times:
* Thursdays: 17.00 – 03.00 EU (CET) / 11 am – 9 pm US (EST)
* Saturdays: 20.00 – 02.00 EU (CET) / 2 pm – 8 pm US (EST)
* Sundays: 14.00 – 17.00 EU (CET) / 8 am – 11 am US (EST)

Here it is.

The craziest part is that it’s searchable.

Like in traditional bloggh format, we’ll celebrate today’s posting achievement with a song:

Seriously. Who knew politicians were so entertaining? And applause for rhyming “preterite” with “Connecticut”.

This came across my e-mail today:

Choreographing all of those middle schoolers is actually pretty impressive. I also would love the compliment of some kid holding up my book and screaming while pointing at it.

The related videos on the “district appropriate video service” (YouTube being completely blocked) made me laugh:

In video game news:

Did you see the kid who created a strategy guide for Zelda – for people who can’t see?

The impossible is only the untried.

Also – the Playstation Smartphone should debut sometime this year. This year will also see Mario Galaxy 2 and Metroid: Other M.
What is Nintendo going to release for Christmas? Probably Zelda.

Finally – You’ve gotta love Yahoo tech blogs.

Regardless of it’s sales, it’s still fun to play.

Which it’s is it, people?

March 8 – Free Monster Hunter demo disc at GameStop
May 23 – Super Mario Galaxy 2
June 27 – Metroid: Other M

On June 14 the DS will have a “game” called 100 Classic Books that will let you read public domain classic books. The $19 price tag is cheap when compared to other DS games but expensive when compared to Kindle-ish apps for phones. A plus, though, is the ability to download new content via the Nintendo WFC. I’m intrigued to see how this plays out. I know that people bought a PSP just to watch movies. Will people prefer this over an iPod Touch?

Another fun mash-up from today: Buzz Lightyear as a River/Dollhouse character from Joss Whedon. He has memory loss; his altered perceptions cause him to blank out and shoot lasers at people. I believe that he is the prototype for a Firefly character.

Do you remember these clips from Sesame Street? Did that cake guy always trip? Is the cake guy Jim Henson?

Watching Sesame Street today on non-Hulu it was the habitat/40th anniversary episode. That was playing the last time I stayed home sick.

Saturday, to de-compress from our coordinating/catering, we watched the G.I. Joe movie (not the cartoon movie with Nemesis Enforcer…that would have been more realistic). Yes, I understand that the Bloggh should have certain standards and now I have learned my lesson.

Here’s the set-up: Cobra creates genetically-engineered fearless soldiers. So, if they’re so fearless, why do they scream in panic when they fall down a conveniently-placed shaft and/or have a grenade shoved under their collars? Next time, can I get hired to read over the script? $10 for a quick run-through. Was it supposed to be gritty or cheesy? The language says gritty. The impalements say gritty.

Seriously: next time you watch the film, keep a tally of how many people get impaled in the movie. Double the score for each time the spike is revealed stabbing through another device, like a datapad/pillar/Hummer.

I don’t care what anyone tells you, take it from me: Marlon Wayans is cheesy in the film. Plain and simple.

I was okay with one thing they changed about the franchise, though. I like that Zartan can switch faces. The action figure just turned a sickly blue in the sun. But replacing the president as a shapeshifter? X2 did that well with Senator Kelly. Heroes copied that. G.I. Joe copied that. Through the Xerox effect, the initial luster has dulled and the copy has become muddled and inky.

I also broke down and got Tomena Sennar for my brother’s bachelor party. Yes, it is as psycho as advertised. It was a great way to keep the guys’ attention while we waited for Mike to bail us out with Rock Band 2. With the left-over WiiPoints, I sent Mega Man 3 to myself. I hadn’t played that game for 15-20+ years. I beat Tomena Sennar before I went to bed on Friday night.

Let’s just say video games have been dumbed down over the years. My wife laughs at me losing horribly to a game I could beat as an elementary school kid.

And yes, Chaarli, today’s wootshirt is very librarian-esque:

My money is on Richard Branson as the Supreme Overlord of the COBRA terrorist organization. Be watching him in the coming years – first he launched his own spacecraft, then he created a plane that could go underwater.

Within the next three years expect to see a HISS tank and/or Tomax/Xamot being announced as co-VPs of Virgin Megalomaniacal.

Lightning Thief

and

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Diary Of A Wimpy Kid

Also, book three to the Hunger Games has a release date. August 24, 2010 (see? I told you it would be one a year).