Food is smarter than you

As our faithful readers may have noticed by now there has been a lull in our updates. As such I am writing this quickly to mention the glory that is Bulk Barn. Until bulk barn Costco was my main bulk shopping experience, and that is great and all because yes I would like a 75lbs bucket of Swedish berries. But there was something missing (or at least something I was not aware of), and that something is a giant bin of fortune cookies.



Truly this store was sent to us from the great Flying Spaghetti Monster, they let me buy 2lbs of fortune cookies! So tasty and wise.

Nerd Valhalla

I am not the kind of person who generally feels the need to hide the fact that I am a geek or nerd; basically the only thing holding those particular traits in check and preventing them from becoming the equivalent of some sort of perpetual motion machine is the constantly discouraging balance of my bank account. Too often it seems like the lack of tens of thousands of dollars has prevented me from making many an uber impulse buy.

Basically what I am getting at here is that if I were to ever acquire the needed disposable cash it would be very disappointing if I were never to attempt a project like this home theatre.


Impressive... Most impressive

This is old, but it seems relevant in the sense that Episode III is just around the corner, and that I'm tired of having a small TV and wish to have my own theatre for movie watching needs... and a chair with a cup holder... hmmm, perhaps there is a cheap do-it-yourself idea for later.

I dare not fathom how much that cost. It would most likely involve the implosion of the hippocampus in my brain, but then again I've never taken biology so I could be mistaken on exactly which section of the brain would implode, feel free to offer any educated or BS corrections to my claim.

Speaking of things that are awaiting around the corner, this year's E3 should be a great event, bring on the fanboys and new system wars. Most importantly bring on some videos of the technology and graphics of the next-gen games. I'm sure some impressions will be posted here once information starts rolling in from the actual event.

Papal Bulla-Crappa

So it turns out my pick for new Pope lost out. It figures as much, the Catholic Church has never really supported fictional giant alien transforming robots marooned on earth. I was also rooting for Prime to win the US Presidential election, Super bowl MVP, and any number of hotdog eating contests. If we ever want to progress towards the future we will need to give Optimus Prime more responsibility and power.

My 20 top video games... ever! Or close to it.

Jeff took his crack at this so here is my take. Making a list like this is a lot harder then you might think, I had to make some really tough cuts here. Once again this is not a list of "Teh B3sT GAmeZ EvAR 1!!!11!11!!", more just ones that I fondly remember. The list really needs to be longer, and giving them a numerical order was rough. I cheated on a couple by including multiple games in a series, but dammit there was no other choice!



20) Escape Velocity (Mac)


As a Mac user there were few games that I could rub in the collective faces of my PC using friends knowing that they didnt have it, this was one of the best and most addictive. It, or one of its sequels, eventually mad it to the PC market, but that just makes this great game available to more people. This game let me attack a planet, face its defensive forces in space combat, and use a heat seeking forklift as a weapon of mass destruction to defeat them. The Star Wars conversion was also key.

19) Super Dodge Ball (NES)


When you really crush someone they die and their spirit floats away. The special power throws are pretty amusing, but most of all there is no way to not have fun with this game. The characters are pretty much ripped out of River City Ransom.

18) Desert, Urban, and Jungle Strike (SNES)


I couldn’t decide which was best, but few things are more entertaining then being a one helicopter destruction machine.

17) Flashback (Mac/SNES)


This game and Out of this World were similar, at least in my mind. I just remember thinking WOW the first time I saw each.

16) Ninja Gaiden (NES)


Back in the good ol' NES days there was a rule of thumb: ninjas are badass so games with ninjas are badass.

15) Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (Xbox)


I did not play any of the other games in this series, but as soon as I saw the previews for xbox I started to salivate. This was a lot of game. Finally a game that let me become the ultimate thief of spoons, no village would be left with the proper soup eating utensil. I didnt actually finish the story, but what I did was good enough. I liked that you could literally just get lost in the world.

14) Spider-Man (PS1)


Spider-Man is my preferred comic super hero and Ive played every game made in his likeness that I could get my grubby hands on. Most were terrible but I didnt care. This one actually captured the spirit of the comic. Neversoft did a great job, hopefully one of the new games will get the character right again.

13) F/A 18 Hornet Korea (Mac)


Flight sims = good, combat flight sims = amazatron. I was a bit obsessed with military aviation when I was younger and next to the Spitfire I would have to say the F/A 18 Hornet was one of my favourites.I played the hell out of the first game in the series and Korea just did everything better, looks, sound, multiplayer, control. Then there were the times Id ignore the mission objectives and wreak havoc on local airlines and cities...

Fun game.

12) WWF No Mercy (N64)


This could have been any AKI wrestling game. No developer since has been able to recapture or top the perfection of these games. You actually felt in control of what was going on, the matches were half hour epics, and its one of the best party games ever created.

11) TMNT IV: Turtles in Time (SNES)


This had to be done. Some of the best multiplayer available onthe SNES. Everyone Loved the Ninja Turtles back then. Throwing foot soldiers at the TV screen never got old.

10) Donkey Kong Country (SNES)


Great graphics, fun gameplay, and funky music. Did I mention that you can make a gorilla ride an ostrich?

9) Super Mario RPG (SNES)


So this is what nerd dreams look like. RPG and Mario, count me in...and Bowser joins your party...bonus! New things with Mario but it worked perfectly.

8) Tony Hawks Pro Skater 2 (PS1)


This game is digital crack. It reminds me of old school gaming because the only drive you really needed was to beat your highest score, pull off the biggest combo, etc. Bonus points for Spider-Man being an unlockable character.

7) Halo 1 and 2 (Xbox)


Good god I love these games, die hard fan of Bungie since their early Mac days. From the moment they showed the first fotage at MacWorld '99 I was hooked. A series of events after that led me to thinking the xbox could actually be good and buying it on day one. There are so many great things about Halo, personally I'm partial to the sticky granade. I remember many a LAN party with the origional, and then at University the ability to basically destroy any combination of challangers at my dorm. Good times. Really need to play online more this summer.


6) Zelda: The Ocarina of Time (N64)


This game stayed faithful to the spirit of the franchise in its move to 3D. So good it makes your brain explode!

5) Super Mario World (SNES)


I had to pick at least one of the Mario games and this happens to be the one I was best at. The cape was badass. Another classic Nintendo game.

4) Dragon's Lair (Sega CD/DVD)


This game was a pioneer in many respects as an interactive movie using high quality studio animation and the branching technology enabled by the Laserdisc format. The game looked amazing thanks to the animation of Don Bluth and company. It may be simple but its pretty damn addictive.

3) Myth: The Fallen Lords and Myth II: Soulblighter (Mac)


Taking the RTS to great new places Bungie created two masterpieces. The strategy was emphasized instead of resource management and building as many troops as fast as possible. This felt like real battle, the 3D landscape and camera really added to the gameplay. The plugin support and online community was as good as it gets. Using dwarfs to blow up a swarm of the undead into a bloody mess of limbs is one of the most satisfying things in gaming.

2) Zelda: A Link to The Past (SNES)


A very close second place, before all the fancy 3D and cell shading this was Zelda in its purest form. The game is genius. TOoT may have been an exceptional game, but Link to the Past is still the definitive Zelda game.


1) Chrono Trigger (SNES)


This game is simply beautiful. The characters are great, the gameplay fantastic, the music can compete for best ever in a video game. If you have never played this game you are missing out on something truly special. Gaming bliss.

Scott Bakula……AWAY!

Sometimes TV gives you a valid reason to wade through the near limitless plateaus of excrement that make up the bulk of programming. One such Knight-errant of television that shines vibrantly with majesty from this abysmal abyss is Quantum Leap. My words will likely fail to depict the true awe-inspiring greatness of this show, but these words are all I can give without actually coming to your house and forcing you to watch the first two seasons on DVD in a non-stop Leap marathon that could only end with fatal aneurisms caused by the attempt to absorb so much awesomeness in such a condensed amount of time.

With that out of the way let’s take a look at the DVD release of Quantum Leap Season One. The first season started the series off well, though shorter than subsequent seasons it gave viewers a glimpse of the great potential of Quantum Leap. Serious and controversial social issues could be tackled, and you always knew that no matter how big or small the issue faced in any particular episode you had the strength of the two lead characters Sam and Al to fall back on. Without the chemistry between Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell this show would have lost a major part of its edge. In a show where they were the only constants and the setting as well as the rest of the cast were new each week their versatility was paramount.


My favorite feature of this DVD set is that Scott Bakula does a short video introduction before each episode, something that is missed from the second season, but is an understandable cut as there are also many more episodes to fit on the discs. These introductions are really interesting for seeing little bits of the history behind the episodes and show in general. You can see that Quantum Leap was a true labor of love.


Best jackets ever…

Ok, so maybe you are getting tired of hearing me gush about this show so it’s time to do a quick breakdown. The packaging gets bonus points for being very shiny and functional; it also features Backula being a badass on the cover with a very dramatic walk. There are three discs that pretty much all look like the same cool blue anomaly except with different numbers. There are nine episodes total, episode insights and a documentary about the history of the show all of which are great if you are a fan. The menus are pretty good, not overly fancy but each episode has a brief text synopsis that can be useful.



The video quality is pretty good for a 1989 TV series, sound is only stereo but good. Last but not least Quantum Leap has one of the greatest theme songs in television history.

I suggest we raise shields

Dozens of voices the world round rose up all at once screaming “KHAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnn!” and then there was silence.

So we know that UPN finally got around to canceling Enterprise, and in usual TV fashion it happened just as the show was hitting stride and turning out quality product. Ok, there is no question that the theme song was an abomination that should not have ever made it’s way to our aural receptors, but there are things to miss as well.

First of all this cancellation means that television will be sorely lacking Bakula. I waited good and long for that man amongst men to get another TV show after the brilliance that was Quantum Leap bid farewell to the airwaves so this is a bit of an annoyance. I can only hope that in some way Bakula will return to something Quantum Leap be it on the big screen or small, which would be right up there with the Leafs winning the cup on my wish list.

A fairly sizeable protest effort has been started in an attempt by fans to get one more season of their beloved show. The folks over at SaveEnterprise.com have been raising money to throw at UPN to try to get them to deliver a fifth season. They have collected around $ 3,109,134.62, in large part thanks to a massive three million dollar pledge by members of the commercial space flight industry.

Trek Fans may still have something to look forward to, the eleventh Star Trek movie is in being written by Erik Jendresen who has also written episodes of “Band of Brothers.” The movie would feature an all new cast and take place 100 years before the time of Kirk. The movie would also be grittier than what fans are used to. It could work, but then again it could very well blow massive chunks……..needs more Bakula, Shatner, and Stewart.

What could be...

Recent rumors have New Line going after none other than Quentin Tarantino to write and direct what is being referred to as the Ultimate Friday the 13th movie.



I will give you a second to scoop up your brains which have no doubt exploded out of the back of your head onto the nearest wall.

I can only hope that this pans out and becomes a reality, we really need to start putting more quality into the current lackluster horror genre.


Source: IGN FilmForce