I Heart Cool Stuff

I am so excited! Can’t you tell from my constant use of the exclamation points? Anyway, tomorrow September 27th, 2007 is the release of the Series 4 Dunnys. Yay!!! I loves them already, why? Though I have yet to hold one and hug it ToysREvil blogger [check his blog for an interview with Michael Boczon, the creator of the video] posted a video today, which is totally awesome! Who’s it made by? The same people that brought us Mad’s Bentworld Vinyls video have brought us the behind the scenes video of the production of Dunnys– in a stop-motion video. I love it, peep the video.

If you’d like to check out the high res video click the following link: [Welcome to the Lab]

Is it wrong to be in love with a USB drive? Ok, maybe its a bit weird, but I have to say that mimobot USB Flash Drives steal my heart. Check out their new Halo mimobot; they’re not out for sale yet, but soon! October 18th to be exact. They are super adorable, don’t you agree?

The prices vary on the memory space

• 1GB- $49.95
• 2GB- $69.95
• 4GB- $109.95

You can check out more pics and information over at: [mimobots]

First On Line, originally uploaded by Grim Santo.

Last night, as in this morning at 12:01am was the release of Halo 3!! yay!! I should first clarify that I did not go stand on line for a copy of the game, My Mr. pre-ordered the copy a while ago. Anyway, we (Grim and I) had to- once more- go to the Apple store located on 5th Avenue in order to pick up the 4th iTouch [Apple Touch] because we keep getting defective ones, which by the way this one also came with a couple of dead pixels. Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, so after we got out of Apple’s store we decided we’d stop by the tremendous Halo line we’ve been hearing about over at the 5th Avenue Best Buy location.

We were about 2 blocks away when we got wiff of hardcore gamer. [LOL] The line was not that long, people love to exaggerate. It was about a block long. I did however love taking pictures with Master Chief, which I shall upload later and running into people. The Mr. was being a social butterfly as he knew Unndunn [pictured above] and Jynx, both members were at the front of the line. I also recognized one of the VF crew peeps, but I forget his name. Anyway, where do I want to go with this post?

My Mr. was mentioning something like, a game has never been hyped up as much as Halo 3. And at first I thought he was just part of the masses of people who love to stretch the truth just a bit, but then I got to thinking. Unndunn was the very first person on line. Next to him was another guy, you can see him too in the pic. He was holding a very neatly written sign that read: I waited in line 2 days to get my Halo 3. I was like, damn! He’s been waiting that long, so I asked Unndunn how long he was waiting on line, as he noticed I was reading the sign… he sort of did this brush off move and said, “he’s a liar, I’ve been here since yesterday at 6pm!” Clearly, he had just made 24 hours of hanging outside Best Buy, but hardly 2 days.

The first thought that crossed my mind was, exaggerating a bit? But then I got offended all over again. Why didn’t Unndunn, who was waiting the longest online get the sign made my Bungie? [I am assuming Bungie made the sign, I have no evidence to back this statement] Why did the 2nd/3rd person on line get the sign? It felt awkward to me and to tell you the truth it makes me slightly uncomfortable to even enter the conversation, but during my visit to the line I felt as though Unndunn got the least attention. I could definitely be wrong, but it was what I observed. Not cool Bungie/Microsoft, not cool!

Flowers on a Cab, originally uploaded by Grim Santo.

I wanted to post these a lot sooner. I do believe, if you live in the NYC area, that you have spotted these cool looking cabs with flowers painted on them. They’ve been around for about 2 weeks now, but do people know why these were created?

The reason why a couple thousand cabs in the city are decorated with these kick ass flowers is because Sept. 10th, marked the 100th year since the very first cab existed in NYC. It is a celebration, which I think is a wonderful way of celebrating a century of existence.

Why does this matter? Personally, I wanted to share because I, along with my students, worked on these cabs. The whole project was completed by volunteers. The people who coordinated the painting sessions, the people who painted, the people who helped prepare the cabs and tarps, it was all through the wonderful work of VOLUNTEERS. I am glad to be in that pool. I also thought this was a great way to begin promoting the “GREEN NYC” campaign that Mayor Bloomberg has in mind. I’m not sure how well that will work out, but it definitely brightens up my day to see these cabs around.

Rating:

I shall start by first noting that, I dreaded writing this review. I knew I needed to warn the world of the horror that was the movie, but simply couldn’t bring myself to write about it. Resident Evil: Extinction, the 3rd, and rumored to be final movie of the RE trilogy, was a nightmare.

Since there was a lot more wrong than good, I shall start with the negative:

1. Alice is the “savior” of what is left of the world. Why did I chose savior, she has this very annoying glow to her face. I’m not trying to say she looked great or bad, I mean the directors literally put this glow on her face that made her look immaculate. This look was annoying throughout the movie.
2. Zombie dogs were once again attacking the woman, but once we’ve seen it done once- we’ve seen it done a million times.
3. Alice’s blood, again the key to our saving grace, has created angrier zombies. I was almost reminded of Bub from Day of the Dead, except he was cute and friendly. These zombies just carried a new strain of the T-Virus and…
4. …turned freaking Dr. Isaacs into some mutant with a GOD complex.
5. Claire is an interesting character. She’s a great shoot and at the same time sucks arse.
6. There were some cheesy dialogue
7. There were useless scenes, e.g., When Alice stops at the gas station and fights the zombie dogs after being attacked by some losers. How did push the story line forward? What was it’s purpose?
8. Also, ASHANTI? She’s mad ass! I am sorry for the hate. I am so tired of actresses, Ashanti and Megan Good,tend to fall into this category– they’re these head rolling, lip puckering, getting by on their “ass” type of actresses and it drives me nuts that people are casted for these movies. She was not a good choice for Nurse Betty, and what makes it worse is that she didn’t even do that much nursing in the first place. The only guy she took care of, Mike Epps, was the man she’s been fucking. Not just that, she was too busy flirting with him to notice the big ass bite he had on his chest.
9. Finally, *SPOILER ALERT* since I have to go to bed and there are way too many things that made me unhappy about the film to continue, CLONES?!! WTH? Not only is Alice now going after Wesker (who sort of sucked too), how? By using the hundreds of clones created by the Umbrella Corp. BLAH I tell you, blah!

Now on to the positive:

1. There was a scene where Alice uses her “powers” to kill all the zombie infested crows. That scene, which lit up the sky of death, was AMAZING. I do believe it was the only scene I liked. Thank you.

My BioShock pen, originally uploaded by Major Nelson.

I love running into lots of geeky, tech, video game related items. I think people come up with some of the coolest shit, and I must admit that video game companies actually come up with some great promotional items. Here is an example of the coolness that is Take-Two’s team. They apparently sent this pen to Major Nelson during launch, but I would love to get my hands on one of these. Wouldn’t you agree?

P.S. I remember being in elementary school when syringe-like pens were all the rave, and being threatened with expulsion if we brought one of these on school grounds, oh yeah! In your face NYCBOE!!!

Thinkgeek is just the site for me. Most of their gadgets are things that I’ve been longing for. hahaha… they simply understand me, along with other sites like; Nerdapproved, Swissmiss, NOTCOT, etc. Alright, so thinkgeek isn’t unique in the pleasure it brings me, but it sure made me feel warm inside when they posted this:

Granted, this calculator isn’t as advanced as the “robot” that embodies it… but it’s so DOPE!! You can get yourself one of these over at ThinkGeek.com for $14.99

While I was over at the Zombie Reporting Center, they brought news of Max Brook’s new release– a daily calendar!! Oh snaps! The book is currently available through Amazon, check it out:

Author Max Brooks warns us that anyone-a policeman, a nurse, a friend, or coworker-can turn into a zombie. That is why this daily calendar is so important. Each page contains information that is vital to survival against an attack by the living dead. You will learn the most effective defense tactics and weaponry, ways to outfit your home, and how to adapt in any territory or terrain. A Zombie Outbreak Journal is included for recording suspicious events. Please, keep alert; zombies may be stalking us right now without us even knowing it. Watch out.

OOh, the excitement of ripping off a page to see the following day’s tip on surviving the zombie war. Currently, Amazon has it listed for $11.19, but hurry up and get your copy, something tells me these are going to sell quick! We all need to survive, don’t we?

via| Zombie Reporting Center

So, I have watched the episode. I should tell you all that I am writing from a highly biased point of view; like I mentioned in the previous post– I love both Blake Lively and Kristin Bell, so I think this affects my feelings towards the show. Plus!! Knowing people in the “business” gets me loads of treats, so I bring you a picture of their goody bag.

Anyway, on to my highly biased opinion. I live in NYC and granted I am not part of the “socialite” life, but the show almost made NY seem like it was the LA scene. I like the way the show starts, with the narration of the Gossip Girl. She’s narrating the arrival of Serena (Lively) and someone (or everyone) has either tuned in to her site or received a text because the crowd new immediately– oh how technology helps spread the news. The relationship between the characters is established right away, and I suppose the progression of time is okay. It is only the first episode though, so who knows how well it will keep up. I did have a couple of troubles and they are the following:

• Since when are minors allowed to drink in NYC? I understand you can sneak into bars or use a fake ID, but clearly there are a couple bar scenes and dozens of minors drinking. What? Do socialites not get carded?
• Since when is it okay to pimp your son? I am referring to the scene where Nate’s father asks him to stay with his girlfriend (Blair) until he can secure a contract with her mother’s new clothing line.
• Whoever this gossip girl is, why is everyone tuning in to her blog? And what the hell– I don’t think I know of a single school that is completely hooked up to ONE site for their source of information. Serena walks into the party and people are checking their phones immediately.

I believe for now, that is all I want to write about the show. Whether I’ll continue watching or not, who knows. I shall let you know, but I doubt I’d post my opinion every week.

P.S. If you want to check out pics of their premier party, check the site: [PHOTOS]

Today is the series premier of Gossip Girl:

Gossip Girl revolves around the lives of socialite young adults growing up on New York’s Upper East Side who attend elite academic institutions whilst dealing with sex, drugs, and other teenage issues. Featuring an ensemble cast, the series mainly centers around the lives of former best friends, Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively) and Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester), and their shared romantic interest, Nate Archibald (Chace Crawford). As outsiders looking in, Dan (Penn Badgley) and Jenny Humphrey (Taylor Momsen) do not run in the same social or financial circles as their peers but are drawn into their lives nonetheless. The series is narrated by a seemingly omniscient character, “Gossip Girl” (voiced by Kristen Bell), who runs a blog about her fellow Upper East Siders — consequently stirring the pot and creating potential rivalries in this exclusive and vicious circle of friends. [via: Wikipedia]

Does anyone know why I’m going to watch the season premier? There are two reasons. One, I have a huge crush on Blake Lively [most recognized by her role as sexiest soccer player in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants], who by the way is going to be in next year’s Cloverfield; a complete mystery movie to the world about people in NYC trying to survive a monster attack.

The other reason? Kristen Bell, currently number one blonde actress in my heart, is going to be the voice of the Gossip Girl.How I love her so. I shall update the world on my thoughts of the first episode. I’m checking for both these two ladies.