Category: Entertainment

Comics, movies, TV, and music.

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My first Video game system

I was watching Attack of the Show on G4TV and saw a reference to the first video game system that I ever owned, the Magnavox Odyssey. The Odyssey, while more primitive than games found on today’s cellphones, was cutting edge at the time. I had to be around 7-8 years old when it came out. I still remember when my father brought it home and my cousin Clarence and I played all night on it. I think was hooked on gaming and computers from that point on.

Now keep in mind that this system pre-dated the Atari 2600, Colecovision, Intellivision, the Commodore Vic 20, and just about all of the old classic gaming systems. In fact I was shocked to see that it was released in 1973. Pops must have paid nearly $100 bucks for the system. So in “1973 dollars”, the Odyssey was probably more expensive than the PS3 is today. So I guess buying my kids PSPs and DS Lites isn’t so strange in comparison now.

I found an old commercial for the system on YouTube. I still can’t get over how silly it looks by today’s standards.

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An Oberlin event: Out on the town with old friends

It is rare that Ski and I get a chance to go out. For better or worse, this is just something that you get used to once you have kids. However, Mike Sorrell, an old friend of mine was in town and invited us to a special dinner concert that Oberlin College was holding at The Birdland Jazz Club. The invitation only event was hosted by the new president of Oberlin, Marvin Krislov, and featured the Oberlin Jazz Septet. Since I hadn’t seen Mike since our graduation from Oberlin almost twenty years ago, I made it a point to ask my moms to watch the kids for a few hours. I wanted to catch up with an old college buddy, and being a cheapskate, I figured that it wouldn’t hurt to take my wife out at the same time. Continue reading “An Oberlin event: Out on the town with old friends”

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Upgrading to High Def: The Canon HV20 or HV30?

The Canon HV30

Last week Canon announced the Vixia HV30, the newest high def camcorder designed to replace older Canon HV20. I have been itching to make the jump to HD video for the past year. I held off largely because my standard definition Canon GL2 was still serving me well. In addition, the HD standards and industry trends were still in flux so I was kinda gun shy about making a major purchase during times of technological uncertainty. You have to understand that for me, nothing is as frustrating as having your new camcorder becoming obsolete the week after you purchase it. Continue reading “Upgrading to High Def: The Canon HV20 or HV30?”

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New Years Day: The Star Trek Experience

I went to Vegas and all I got was this nerdy picture

It is the first day of the New Year so so what could be better than a trip to the Star Trek Experience at the Las Vegas Hilton? Since I don’t gamble at all, and the Bunny Ranch would probably get me shot by my wife, I had to find something to do in Vegas. This was gonna be my third time at the exhibit. However it was my first time with the kids. Believe it or not, Ski and I came here a few years back as we were on a belated Honeymoon. She enjoyed it, which is odd because she usually hates anything having to do with Sci-fi.

Continue reading “New Years Day: The Star Trek Experience”

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British TV ain’t half bad

Christopher Eccleston, the Ninth Doctor Who
I mentioned in one of my earlier posts that I have gotten hooked on British TV over the last few years. I always loved Ab Fab and Benny Hill, but then again who in their right minds doesn’t love Benny and Eddy. It is just that the rest of the TV shows from the UK seemed so….British. I just didn’t get the point. Even Monty Python, with the exception of a few skits, always left me cold. That kind of changed for me about 3 years back when the BBC relaunched the new Doctor Who.

Continue reading “British TV ain’t half bad”

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Family Night Out: Knick Game!!!

Knicks vs. the Sixers
One of the benefits of having a cousin who has Knicks season tickets is that every once and awhile he can’t use them and is generous enough to pass them over to me. That is what happened this week. My cousin C called me up and asked me if I wanted to take the family to the Knicks game against the 76ers. Luckily none of the fam had any previous plans that evening so it was clear sailing. I had taken my son to his first couple of games earlier this year. Needless to say, he loved it. However this was the first time that the whole fam would Continue reading “Family Night Out: Knick Game!!!”

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Halo 3 mania! WTF?

Halo 3 Launch

I was out riding my bike yesterday and rode past a Game Stop store on the night that Halo 3 was set to launch. I was out at about 9pm and was amazed at the number of people that were lined up at this little out of the way store. The line as down the block at 9pm. It was a good 3 hours before the game was set to go on sale and people were damn near around the block. There probably wasn’t a single person on the line under 25. Continue reading “Halo 3 mania! WTF?”

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Star Wars Fan Film: Scripting of Dark Vengeance

The script is shaping up pretty well. The dialog will be pretty sparse because I want this to be a heavily action and visual effects driven production. I want just enough dialog to keep the characters believable and push the story along. Also since many of the people I am probably will be looking at to play the Sith villain won’t be professional actors, it will be best to keep the spoken emotional ranges limited to the basics. The easy thing about the script is that for the most

I will start shooting as soon as I finish the script and nail down the final casting of actors and crew. The script is my main source of concern since all the special effect in the world won’t help a story if the plot really sucks. I have been using an excellent piece of open source software called Celtx to finish the script and coordinate the production. Celtx combines the best features of commercial software packages like Final Draft and Movie Magic Screenwriter into a single interface. The best part about the software is that aside from being incredibly powerful and easy to use, it is totally free. And I mean legally free, not file sharing/bit torrent free.

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His first Knicks game

2 Knicks Tickets = $160

2 Knicks throwback jerseys for father and son = $103

1 program, 2 foam fingers, and 2 Knick hats = $42

Food for 2 (cotton Candy, hotdogs, sodas, french fries) = $50

The look on my son’s face as the Knicks beat the Warriors 106-97 at his first basketball game = Priceless

Jonas' first Knicks game

It was the most fun that I have had in years watching sports.