Archive for July, 2006

Where is the new content?

Monday, July 31st, 2006

“I got to your blog and was sure to get all the latest news on everything that’s cool, what’s up?!”

Well if I put everything in perspective I haven’t posted in 10 days, it’s no unusual but I do need to make an effort and start posting again. I’ve given everyone a break on my life by providing, movie and techno news. As I’m writing this post there is three drafts listed awaiting to be published. Let’s say with the work and the conflict of finding time for myself I pretty much lost myself. I will not call it exhaustion but I needed a break from a lot of things and they just won’t let me be. Never mind it’s just a phase I’ll find my voice back ;)

Song of the day: Listen/Watch Fort Minor- Where’d You Go

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Friday, July 21st, 2006

TMNT LogoThis was totally unexpected, a new TMNT movie.This franchise is immortal or something! I remember watching the TV show when I was little, and then the movies, and then an other cartoon remake. Bottom line is this new movie looks really good, they dropped the costumes and are going full 3D with a very nice touch to it. It’s dark, the turtles are slimmer and display some nice martial arts moves. The trailer got very serious at one point but were quickly reminded that humour is part of the series as well and I’m pretty sure it will be a nice movie. We’ll have to wait for a real trailer since this is only a small teaser. You can go see the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles teaser right now.

Widgetize this blog!

Wednesday, July 19th, 2006

Click to enlarge my Widgets selectionAnyone who is familiar the Opera web browser is aware of it’s capability to display content outside the browser windows. These content called Widgets can display time, weather, to-do list, various information and RSS feed readers. A full list of Widgets are available on widgets.opera.com. I’m not a huge fan of those but there are a few I’m keeping on my desktop and with their new feature any blog can create their own widget with a few clicks. If you enlarge the screenshot I’ve taken you’ll see my blogs widget along with the current weather and a simple clock. Since the official release of Opera 9 tons of new widgets started appearing such as one covering the World Cup, other acting as calculator and even some that create mini-games.
By using Opera to view this blog you will see a widget icon appear at the end of the address bar similar the RSS feed one that enables you to automaticaly add the iP3K Blog widget to your browser. I’ve also added the Widgetize button in the list of syndication tools. It’s now seven days before I turn 20 and I have no idea on how to celebrate this. If you got any ideas please tell me lol!

List it all, with Listal!

Saturday, July 15th, 2006

The title is obviously an overstatement, but thanks to Listal I can list my DVDs, Music, Games, Books and seen movies. The website is still in beta but has been growing nicely over time and it’s features are inspired from social bookmarking. At some point I had started keeping track of all the DVDs I bought through an Excel spreadsheet. The technique worked for some time but was obviouly monotonus and was displayed as a grid with a list of price and names. The real need for listing became requiered when some of my friends wanted to borrow one of my DVDs or just look at one while they’re coming over.

Listal

Now thanks to listal interface I can share my collection with everyone, discover other peoples list and keep tracking of my personal ratings. An other nice little feature allows you to put a note on some of your items mentionning that you loaned it to someone since Christmas. So I’ll invite you to have a look at my list and signup yourself.

Stargate is back!

Friday, July 14th, 2006

Today is a very special day for science fiction lovers. Thanks to the Scifi channel we get to see the new seasons of Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis. The TV needs little introduction if you have been living on Earth for the past few years. You might not be a fan but it’s doubtful that you have not heard about it since this year will make it the longest running science-fiction series in US television history.

In the course of their 9th season Stargate SG-1 saw the arrival of sevral new cast members and as usual ended the season with a killer cliff hanger where the life of our favorite characters and the safety of Earth is at serious risk. In the case of Stargate Atlantis who does a great job as a spin-off series faired the same hype and the end of their 2nd season. For sometime now (as long as I can remember) Stargate has been a Scifi channel exclusive meaning that the only legit place where you’ll get to see Stargate is on their channel that is only available in the United States. For international watchers like myself we must wait until the show is “syndicated” and can be shown across the globe on regional channels.

Over the years the show managed to keep a steady fan base and since they’re totaling 13 seasons (including this year and spin-off) that’s because they’re making a lot of money out of it. Hopefully the US market seems large enough for them to keep the show going and allow it to be eventually released in DVD for the pleasure of the fans. It’s nothing unusual to have a TV show on DVD but truly how many of them got to re-edit their DVD box set to bring the cost down? That’s what MGM/Sony did with all previous seasons and are available at an affordable price. So if you’re not yet a fan or never knew Stargate existed you can always start today. Tonight 9PM for SG-1 and 10PM for Atlantis, only on SCIFI!

God of War

Sunday, July 9th, 2006

I heard nothing but praise about this game for months. I even got to the point were I watched the video review on Gamespot about five times. Call it obsession or fascination but I had to get my hands on this game and try it myself. I spent weeks trying to bid on an eBay bargain but ended up buying it at my local Toys “R” Us. So besides their amazing collection that challenges EB Games they got really neat prices.

Kratos in God of War
From this point you need to understand that God of War is very violent and gory. It’s really meant for adult audiences and does not try to hide it’s vocation. You’re playing Kratos, a Spartan warrior who’s only desire is to kill the god of war Ares. At first, the game made me think of the Diablo series were you get to fight all sort of monsters. But the action and realism of this game bring the fun to an all new level. You get to master easy combos paired with some mini-games that allow you to finish the enemies with extra blood. I’m about four hours into the game and can say I’ll be playing a lot more “action” games in the future. God of War II is already planned for February 2007 so I have to survive this one and kill the God of War. The best way to understand the game is to see some of it’s gameplay. Must I remind you that the game is rated M for mature audiences only that are 17 and older.

Superman Returns on the big screen

Sunday, July 9th, 2006

Superman Returns PosterI’ve never been a huge fan of Superman. But my first encounter with him was on “the small screen” on a good old TV show back in the 90’s. It was entertaining and I got me to discover the legend. However seeing Superman Returns is making a fresh start out of an old franchise. It’s on it’s second week and I know it’s grossing were not as high as expected, I know I went on a Sunday afternoon but the theater was empty. We were about 20 in the theater but I had a wonderful time. On the the review, come to think of it I should of opted for an IMAX theater to get the most experience out of this Brian Singer film. The director of the first two X-Men films did a great job bringing the character back to life. When you think of Superman he can easily look goofy in his outfit and his cape. From the start of the movie you get the feeling that Singer stayed true to the original with a great music score that kept an interesting balance between action, romance, suspense and simply funny moments.

Brandon Routh as SupermanThis flick start-up with a beautiful opening screen of credits including the destruction of Krypton, we than glide through space until we reach Earth were Superman had left for five years. Upon his return he finds a shocked Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) and a world that has moved on. Only to figure out that his help is still very welcome when it comes to Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey) and his evil deeds. Our villain has taken upon him to use alien technology to create new continents that he will sell to the first comers. In the process he plans to destroy MOST of the United States of America and pleasantly kill billions of people. You gotta love it when a bad guy wants more power, more money and control over the whole world. Now the actors were all genuine characters and Clark Kent (Brandon Routh) aka Superman was a “perfect fit for the character” aside the small issue about his digitally reduced package. Where the movie fails is a valuable opponent for Superman to fight. There is just no villain out there that could compete with Superman, he’d beat Godzilla with a punch. Hulk might be the only challenge but in the movie that is our main concern Superman has to race against the clock to save lives and must do a lot of multi-tasking in order to minimize the casualties. All things considered the movie has a great set of actors, good story, stunning visual effects and a touch of summer movie for the whole family. It’s not action packed but at least got intelligent dialogs and breathtaking scenes. It’s a definite “Go See it!”, that I give an other positive review of 8/10.

Kyle XY

Saturday, July 8th, 2006

Kyle XYThe summer is meant to stay outside, most TV shows are off until early fall. However summer TV shows can be quite interesting. So besides working full time during the summer I get to watch that new show on ABC called Kyle XY. It reminded me of John Doe because this teenager called Kyle has no memory of who he is and is found naked in the forest. However he seems gifted of a very high IQ and quickly learns a few word. He basically comes in contact with the world for the first time and is a bit like a newborn baby. The show is aimed at the family as he is quickly “adopted” by a woman, her husband and two child. I have fun watching the show and the existence of Kyle is surrounded by mysteries. Like the fact that he uses around 70% of his brain at all time as where Einstein was believed to use around 9% of his at all time. Most surprising fact is that Kyle has no belly button. Your guess is as good as mine to know what or who Kyle is really but the show will run 10 episodes this summer. Monday nights at 8PM on ABC Family.