December 2008

Like Santa with a sack of toys, I carried my shiny new Doctor Horrible DVD with me wherever I went this past holiday weekend to spread the awesomeness to those who have never seen it.   And since I posted about preordering the DVD back on December 8th, I thought I would update with my impressions now that I have received it.

From the first minute I popped in the DVD, I was in love.  I actually thought when I saw the FBI Warning, “Oh man…even for some internet musical series they have to put up this crap?”  And then it dissolved into a warning from the Evil League of Evil.  And I was happy.

The DVD is great because Doctor Horrible is great.  I loved the story, the music, and the acting.  For those who disagree with the direction of the third act…try “writing” it another way that would have the same power, that would be as memorable.  I can’t come up with something that works as well and I love it the way it is.  I also can’t imagine any other actors doing as great a job as the cast did.  The music is tremendous and only gets better the more you hear it.

I was a little concerned that since this was a low-budget, independent internet series, it might not look good on a big screen.  But I think it looks fantastic on a large TV.  I’ve even noticed brilliant little facial expressions and other details I missed on the smaller screen.  And, like I noted above, the DVD is easy to transport to introduce to people who have never witnessed the Doctor Horrible phenomenon.  So I would be happy paying the ten bucks just for that.  But of course, there is more.

More info (and some easter egg spoilers at the very end) after the jump…

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On Christmas Day,  I took my family to see a movie at the theater; the title we decided on? The Tale of Despereaux.

I am unfamiliar with the book it is based on, but the author, Kate Dicamillo, is well known - at least according to my in-laws.

The story is about a mouse (Despereaux) who does not see himself as a simple mouse; he considers himself as a Gentleman. He lives in a world where the King, and all his Land, love soup. They have a yearly soup festival where all subjects gather around the castle walls waiting for the aroma of the soup to fill the air and signal the beginning of the great soup celebration… only something horrible has gone wrong, and the King has banished all soup-related activities from his Land.

The sole cause for this drastic measure? A Rat!

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Today is Boxing Day here in Canada. What does that mean? We Canadians take part in a yearly gathering where families make a huge bonfire out of all the boxes, ribbon, bows, and wrapping paper from the previous day’s gift unwrapping extravaganza. We stand by the blazing fire to stay warm as we sing songs, have a drink, and eat sugary sweets, like maple fudge! It’s a little weird, but it’s all part of Xmas here in Canada.

Anyways, that’s just a little Canadian trivia I wanted to share with you all… but what you’re really looking for it my weekly list of interesting links, right? Alrighty, here we go - here’s the fun stuff I post on my tumblog this week: 

• Rubik’s Cube Solved One-Handed in 14.56s
• Hoth Diorama
• Headcrab Hat
• R2 Chorus Line

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“Really if you game a bunch do you not deserve to game on a real table that you can actually put all your creativity to use”
     - Sean          

Some of our readers are just so bang on, it’s uncanny - don’t we deserve better? I say Hell Yeah, Sean! We do!

I find that sometimes we adults are overlooked when it comes to what we love; sure there’s plenty of gaming product out there, but there’s so many products that just don’t exist that I am certain a truckload of cash could be made from.

This is a story about one such item that does exist: The Sultan Gaming Table

   OK, I am getting ahead of myself here… let me try to get this post back on track.

Today is Xmas, and although today is a special day for all of us that celebrate it, it is even more special for Sean - today is his birthday!

And what did Sean get? Hmmm… he only got one of the best damned gifts any true gamer could ask for, that’s what! Sean is now the proud and oh-so lucky owner of The Sultan, a gaming table that has descended from the gods over at Geek Chic.

Most of our readers probably missed his comment last week in the original post, so I am including it (after the jump) for you all to read. His post got me all excited, and he even was so gracious to provide us with some excellent pics!

So follow the jump and listen to Sean’s story of getting The Sultan… and if you don’t already have a mug of eggnog or warm apple cider, get one. I think you’ll enjoy the story.

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I figured I would download the demo for Elf Bowling 7 1/7: The Final Insult, just to get into the holiday mood.  But I ended up purchasing it so I thought I would give a brief overview of the game.  I grabbed it on Big Fish because I had some game credits, but you can do a search for the title and find plenty of other options for picking it up. Obviously, there have been previous iterations of this game, but this is the first one I’ve ever tried.  The basic idea is that you are bowling, except the pins are replaced with funny little elves.  Tired of wrapping presents and writing out cards?  Just crush some helpless elves and you’ll be infused with the holiday spirit in no time.

The mechanics are pretty simple.  You set the starting location of the ball and the speed before launching it. There is no arcade-ish element to this (as there is in, say, Hot Shots Golf)…you pretty much have total control.  And, since this is more about fun than a realistic bowling experience, you actually control the ball with the mouse once it is rolling.  That’s really where the skill comes into play.

You can also pick up a number of crazy bonuses.  Want boxing gloves attached to your ball?  How about a giant magnet to pull your opponent’s shot off course?  There are a ton more and there is some strategy involved in knowing when these bonuses are best used.  You can also counter an opponent’s dirty trick with a bonus of your own.  Did they throw down sandpaper?  Just shrink the gutter so you can go around it.  Did your enemy supply the elves with shields?  Take them out one by one on the rebound with a basketball.

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Last week I mentioned a really cool Twitter-related website named Tweet Stats. If you missed it, it’s a slick site that graphically displays your twitter usage in different time-scales to graph out when you spend most of your time posting tweets. Well, today I want to introduce you to three four other websites that enhance the world of Twitter for all my Tweeps out there.

1) search.twitter.com

The first site that I have been using is not really an earth shattering one, but has been very useful to me in finding out what the buzz is on certain topics. It’s not very complicated to use; type in search terms and it digs around to see what tweets out there are a match.

I use this all the time. I often find good leads on funny, cool, and even useful information using Twitter’s search. In all honesty, though… I mostly use it to stalk my Tweeps, but let’s not tell them that.
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