Cactus wins the Nuovo!

Hey, game-related post, sooner than I thought. One of my favourite game creators, whose work I’ve even reviewed here at Monitor Duty, is Jonatan “Cactus” Soderstrom. His latest game, Tuning, just took home the Nuovo Award for abstract/experimental games at the Independent Games Festival.

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

A Geek In Need…

Hey gang! Been awhile since I posted in these parts. I’ve got a few comics- and video game-related posts coming soon. I’ve just been crazy-busy as of late with a whole number of things, one of which is the new feature film I’m making with my wife, Olivia Forever!

As a matter of fact, that very same film is in need of some geek assistance. We have found ourselves in need of a Sasquatch. If anyone has a Sasquatch costume, or (more likely) an adult-sized Chewbacca costume that they don’t mind us modifying, please shoot me an e-mail at milos_parker at yahoo dot com. Again, if you have a Chewbacca costume, we’re going to be modifying it beyond recognition– so no collector’s items.

We have $0, but will cover S+H.

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Holy Web Meme Batman!

It’s a website with every exclamation by Robin, the Boy Wonder! From Holy Agility! to Holy Zorro!

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Oops! Podcast #5 now added to feeds

For some reason, podcast #5 was not marked to be included in the feeds. This means that if you subscribe via iTunes, you didn’t see it. I’ve now re-saved that episode and you should see it now.

Podcast #6 is being worked on right now. I’m building the post for it.

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Podcasts a’comin’!

I’m taking some Lynda.com training to become more proficient with my editing software. I’ll have at least one podcast done by the end of this weekend.

Here’s something hilarious for you until then:

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

The Family Guy trailers

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Best horror movie ever

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Why hire Tom Cruise?

It appears Jerry “Sliders” O’Connell can do an uncanny Tom Cruise impression!

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

At Last! The Holy (Or WHO-ly Grail!)

I found a site that claims to have EVERY Doctor Who episode produced!

Click and enjoy!

I’m not sure if this site has the ones that were ‘bulk erased’ by the BBC, but I’m watching some of the Patrick Troughton episodes, including the VERY first appearance of the good Doctor and the Tardis, followed by the VERY first appearance of those mechanical mutants we love to hate, The Daleks!

While watching, It’s interesting to note how little the Tardis interior, and theme music has changed, at least until the Colin Baker years. Otherwise, a good find.

Also, I plan on continuing my review of Champions Online. I want to wait for the next patch (the current one messed some features, plus they are supposedly introducing new zones)

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Wife Crying at end of Return of the Jedi

This is too hilarious!

See more at The Official Wife Crying at Movies Site

Of course, if there’s anything to cry about, it’s that they appear to have watched the Star Wars movies in the order of 1-6, because she keeps sobbing about Anakin and Padme.  It’s disturbing that there’s a whole generation for whom the revelation in “Empire Strikes Back” is not a plot twist.

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Pop Stars

This is an awesome song!

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Well, that’s one metatag shot to heck

NBC’s Conan Farewell: Scrubbed From The Web, Studio Torn Apart | Online | Mediaite.

Jeez, I did a lot of work getting the embed URLs for all of those Twitter Tracker segments and other materials I’ve linked to, and now NBC yanks them all.  Now my Conan O’Brien tags in the tag cloud are needless.

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Jay and Oprah Interview

Dissecting the O-Jay interview, lie by lie | TV Barn

As you all know, I’m in Conan’s camp.  Jay may have gotten some unfair squeezing out by NBC back in 2004, but he did agree to step down from the Tonight Show.

Blaming it all on Conan’s ratings is a bit unfair for two reasons: he was doing well with the key demographic, and he had an awful lead-in that was driving viewers away from NBC completely for the night.

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

No flying cars, neither.

So I’m watching “Can’t Buy Me Love“. It’s a 1987 movie from when Seth Green was a little punk.

In it, Patrick Dempsey plays a 17-year-old geek who arranges for a senior class hottie to date him for a month so that the “In Crowd” will consider him to be one of them. As the month wanes, the cheerleader sees him as a real person and begins to fall for him, especially when he takes them out for their last date. As they look through his telescope at the moon, he tells her that when he is his dad’s age there will be people living and working on the moon.

And then it hit me. 1987? His dad is played by Dennis Dugan of The Unidentified Flying Oddball
, who was 41 in 1987. I was a 17-year-old geek myself in 1987, so that math is pretty easy for me to do: Patrick’s character would be turning 41 in 2011.

Are we living on the moon yet? No. We’re even canceling the next generation of space travel.

Oh well, movies never get the future right. “2010: The Year We Make Contact” thought we’d still be locked in a space race with the U.S.S.R., and there are only five more years to invent hoverboards. On the plus side, I think Back to the Future 2 was a bit conservative in thinking the trend among teenagers would be to wear clothing inside outs. Last week, in 5 degree Fahrenheit and blowy Minnesota, I saw a punk walking down the street with his entire boxer shorts showing above his jeans, which he could only be supporting with his thighs. (Idiot.)

No jet-packs, no flying cars, no living on the moon. The only monumental thing to happen since 1987 is they remade “Can’t Buy Me Love.”

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Red Letter Media reviews “Avatar”

The guy who tore apart The Phantom Menace and the Star Trek movies strikes again!

Part Two:

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

The Late Night Battle…now with gamma radiation!

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Liveblogging the 24 Day 8 premiere – Hour 2

Block 1: “I try to get out, they keep pulling me back in!” — Of course Jack is not going to make his flight.  Just once, I’d like to seem him not bother with the whole “fighting it” bit.

The POTUS’ Chief of Staff is a bit of a prick.

Omar’s brother looks like Ringo Star.

Chloe still rocks.

Poor Gwyneth.  She will, of course, be innocent and someone else is the threat.

Block 2: It’s as if Chloe hasn’t had any character development for the last several years.  She’s right back to where she was in her first season.

Ringo says, “Tell me everything.”  Sicko.  Why do I have the feeling he’s the inside — OH! Didn’t even finish the sentence. He is.  There he is conspiring with the talking potato.

Block 3: Dana Walsh is Jenny?  Hmmm.  Okay, where is this plot going to go?

Awww.  Chloe’s pout is just too cute.

See, now Jack commits to the fact that he needs to be involved, and he’s on the case.  If only it wasn’t a pain to get to this part each and every season.

Block 4: Oooo.  How awesome is that isolation room?

Oh no! Jenny’s secret is that she’s white trash?

Block 5: Potato guy’s a cop?

Jack’s still walking to the armory in the same building?  Cripes, there was an ad break!  That’s enough time for him to drive across Los Angeles!

This is the most light I’ve ever seen in CTU.  It looks more like the Men in Black HQ.

This poor couple is going to be killed as soon as they’re done co-operating.  Just once, I’d like to see someone realize that.

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Liveblogging the 24 Day 8 premiere

I haven’t liveblogged anything since I watched Ghost Rider on DVD, but I have a laptop in my living room so what the heck.

NOTE: I’m DVR-delayed, so it’s not quite “live”, but for all intents and purposes…

First block: It’s awesome to see Jack happy instead of on-the-run, or returning from captivity, as the season begins.

Okay, the beard guy.  Is he supposed to be similar to the head of Iran, or what?

Second block: Beard guy is “Omar Hassan”.  Funny, since he reminds me of Omar Sharif.  I like his brother.

U.N. Building.  Okay, so this one is in New York.  Just once, I’d like to see a season where the incident is somewhere like Oshkosh Wisconsin so that it makes sense that they cross the city during an ad break.

Odd to see Chloe needing computer help.

I saw Mykelti Williamson (Bubba from “Forrest Gump”) listed in the credits.  I think he’s playing the head of CTU, but I haven’t seen him in anything in ages so I can’t be absolutely sure.

Third Block: Okay, so Hassan is the head of “the Islamic Republic”, but obviously he’s a very different person from Imamadinahead.

Why doesn’t Jack disguise the guy as a woman or something while trying to move him?

I’m not following this whole subplot about the people with the wedding.  Who the heck are they?  I guess the problem is I’m typing when they’re talking.

Fourth Block: Hmm.  Are women allowed to be that openly abusive to their husbands in Iranian society?

I don’t remember what the blonde reporter is named.  I’m going to call her “Gwyneth Paltrow”.

Mr. Cole Ortiz must be the engaged guy.  So, all this talk of the wedding is either a season-long subplot or a way to make us extra-sad when he gets killed.

JACK KILL COUNT: Two. One by fire ax. One railing kill.

Helicopter is blown up.  Wow.  Am I really right about Ortiz already?  Oh, no, I’m not.  The dead guy is the informant.

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Learning Na’vi

Nothing worse than a nerd war!

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Champions Online review, part 2

Character creation is basically the same with both Champions Online and City of X, with some exceptions. Most notably, are the number of Characters you can create per server. In COH, I believe you can create 10 heroes or villains on each server (please correct me if I’m wrong) In Champions, for now you are limited to 8.
In the actual character creation, Champions allows for 5 major frameworks (Psionic, Magic, Mechanical, Martial arts, or general powers) divided further into 3 minor frameworks which can be used individually, combined with others within the major, or other minor powers outside the major. For instance, A player may choose to use electrical powers under force. He might then decide to augment his powers further by adding an electrical generated shield (still within the framework). He THEN might decide to use mechanical based shielding for protection, thus, choosing a power outside of force.
After setting up powers and the costume, the last thing is naming. In most MMOs that I’ve played, all the popular names have been taken. For instance, in COH, I wanted to name a character Scattershot, but the name was already taken. In my case, I came up with Scatterstrike, which solved my problem. However, in most cases, I’ve seen characters named ‘Devildood’, ‘Mightyguy123’, etc which to me, spoils the work and imagination that you put into character creation (it reminds me of trying to create an anonymous yet cool sounding user ID on a message board, only to find that 100 other users had the same idea). Champions solved this problem, by connecting the names to the User ID of the character. IE, I have a character named Psyche, which I created from the pen and paper days. I created a character based on her, and successfully named her, despite the fact there were at least 50 other characters named Psyche. Below is my character, then and now.

Next up, gameplay

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...