BOOKS. pop up books

last night i went to borders bookstore with a friend of mine. i had read a review about this new crazy pop up book that was super detailed. i remembered it while we were there, so we went on a quest throughout the store looking for pop up books. (we had to search because, oddly enough, they arent the most popular type of book) when we finally found them we pulled them out and were amazed! these things were mind-bogglingly intricate and totally incredible. the best ones were by a guy named robert sabuda. he had alot of them. each page of his books had a huge pop up picture and also a few extra little ones on the sides to help tell the story. his best were the retellings of 'the wizard of oz,' and 'alice in wonderland'. if you get the chance, check them out, they are totally cool.

GAMES. the revolution continues

i happened across another interesting article about the nintendo revolution. this is a first hand account of someone who has actually played with the controller. the more i read, the more excited i get... read it here.

GAMES. the revolution

as a nintendo fanboy i have been keeping my eye on the news of nintendos next generation console, which is called the 'revolution.' if you havent heard about the crazy new controller or anything else about it, then you need to go here. on this site i read a very interesting editorial about the alternate path nintendo is deciding to take. if you have any interest in video gaming, this is a very informative article about the future of the industry. to read the editorial, go here.

TV. '05: reruns

as i look back at the year that was i find that my television watching habits have changed quite alot. partly, this may be due to the fact that this year i got a tivo... there are alot of shows i love that i never used to, and there are some shows that i am totally burned out on that i used to be really into. the great thing about tivo is that if you like a show in syndication you can have it record the show whenever its on any channel. i did this alot this year. here are some older shows i got into (or out of) this year:

friends- at the beginning of the year i was really into this show. it is on almost eight times a day around here! after a little while though, the show kind of loses something, i dont know what it is, but i slowly lost interest and now i dont watch it at all.

yes, dear- i know its not the greatest show ever, but there is a sort of charm to it. for a while i would watch most of the episodes recorded, but my interest has wained. ill still watch an episode here or there occasionally.

just shoot me- my interest in this show lasted about a day.

dharma and greg- i saw an episode and kind of liked it. then i got over it- quickly.

cosby show- they started showing reruns on tv land. i totally loved this show growing up, its nice to revisit some of the old episodes now and then.

becker- i never discovered this show until they started reruning it on wgn. it is so good! i discovered it over the summer, which is when i dotn have a job. so i ended up watching every single episode i could find. fortunately for me, they were rerunning it on three different channels around here! so i would actually watch three episodes of this show a day! the show wasnt on for that many years, so i think i have actually seen every episode. i havent grown sick of it, i have just seen everything. too bad.

TV. shows that are stupid

i feel the need to make a list of shows that are stupid. i know, these are only my opinions, but im right. so, here goes:

csi- i dont like crime dramas, and i especially dont like procedural dramas.

csi miami or new york- see above.

law and order- see above.

law and order svu- see above.

law and order whatever else- see above.

shield- see above.

boston legal- see above. (but i will give it props for keeping shatner on the air)

e ring- see above.

close to home- see above.

numbers- ok, i give. this is actually the only cop-ish drama i enjoy. and mostly thats because i really loved the movie 'pi' and it totally reminds me of some of the cool stuff in there.

TV. the colbert report

ive been a fan of the daily show for quite a while now. jon stewart had cracked me up since before he had a late night show on fox. i remember when the daily show was hosted by craig kilborn and it wasnt really that fun. but jon stepped in and over the years has become great. i watch it everyday and really enjoy his humor and observations even though i have very different political views than him.
i remember a particular sketch they had from time to time called stephen vs steven where stephen colbert would argue with steven correl. each time they would devolve into childish name calling and yelling. it was so funny.
as much as i like the daily show, i think i actually like the colbert report better! the humor is amped up to 11. colbert totally makes fun of his opinions and makes himself into a parody of all the stupid talking heads on the other news shows. its really great stuff. i love his "the word" each day. one of the funniest things is when he goes over to the table to talk with his guest, he does like a victory cheer with fists pumped in the air. sort of a 'im awesome and the guest is no where near as cool as me!' dance. priceless. another great part is the "get to know your representative" feature where he highlights one representative a week (there are 435 in all). i think the best episode so far was the one with jeff daniels. stephen kept asking him questions about his hometown, even asking him which local paper he read, and what he felt of the local resolution to raise funds for a local group. it was really funny.
the daily show and the colbert report are two really great shows, and a perfect hour of televison for those who want to pretend to be current with the days events.

BOOKS. state of fear

i just picked up this new one from michael crichton. ive always loved his stuff. i first got into his writing through jurassic park. actually, i was ahead of the game and read the book a few months before the movie first came out. i really loved the book (the movie too, even though they were so different.) i got hooked on his style of writing- he has an amazing way of writing a page-turning adventure, and including tons of interesting research and science. it never feels tacked on, he is able to blend the story and science perfectly. after jurassic park i checked out some of his other books. i really loved most of them (disclosure really sucked) and still look to his book sphere as one of my favorite books ive ever read. granted, his older books are a lot better than is more recent efforts, but almost anything he writes is fun to read.
i picked up the new one earlier this week (i wait till paperback, as most smart people do- its like 20 bucks cheaper) and was checking out the list of books he has written, an di realized ive actually read all of this other fiction books! shoot! anyway, i look forward to starting this new one. i dont really know anything about it, and i think i prefer that. a new adventure begins...

WORDS. tetris head

tetris head (tet' ris hed): noun, a medical condition brought on by playing a puzzle game for too long. manifested in altered thinking. after you turn off the game, your mind still sees everything through the rules of the puzzle. eg: after playing tetris too long you start to look around and see how you could better stack cars on the road so as to get a four line tetris. for the most part harmess, unless affected late in the evening because it will destroy any chance of a normal restful dream.

GAMES. bomberman

ive come to a bit of a conclusion. ive decided that old video games are the best. now, i know this reaks of nastalgia, but i think its true. as stated before, im a nintendo fan boy, so that should give you an indication of the kind of games i like. im not a fan of the first person shooters, in not a fan of role playing games, war games, or most sports games. i like it fairly simple. to me a video game is alot of fun... for a half hour. i usually get sick of it after much more than that. i prefer games that i can pick up, play for a little while, then go about the rest of my day. based on this, you can probably understand why i prefer nintendo.
anyway, ive recently bought a new game which cemented this conclusion of mine. i recently bought super bomberman for the nintendo ds. its a really old game, nice and simple. its been updated in the graphics department and modified so as to take advantage of the touch screen, but other than that, its about a fifteen year old game. and i cant get enough of it! i actually have to set limits on myself. i cant play it within two hours of bedtime, or else i get tetris head and my sleep is ruined!
ill put this new conclusion to the test in a couple weeks when the ds mario kart game comes out.

BOOKS. narnia

i decided to read through those narnia books again. i know, im falling into the media hype surrounding the new movie. guilty. anyway, i remember having one or two of the series read to me as a child, but i never actually read them myself, which is a bit surprising considering that c s lewis is one of my favorite authors. i finished the magicians nephew and am now on lw&w. obviously great stories, but aside from that, im actually rather surprised by his lack of detail. in his other books, like mere christianity, he focuses on all the little aspects and digs deep into details and stuff. but in these books he just zips past any sort of visual descriptions. granted, i know these books were written for children and so he makes sure the stories are accessable to that age group, but this level of brievity was unexpected. i guess i should just chalk it up to his skill as a writer that he can convey so much with so little, or perhaps it is lewis' intent to leave most of it up to the imagination. either way, its excellent stuff and i eagerly await the film.

GAMES. lets not pretend

i figure i should just be open about myself from the get go. my reviews of any games or game systems will be incredibly bias. i make no apologies for this. the reason for my bias: i am a nintendo fanboy. there really is no way around this simple fact. i will not give any game the time of day if it is a playstation or xbox exclusive. i dont own them and i dont care about them. hopefully you will be ok with this. ive made my peace with it long ago.