My Top News

LOST Finale

Last night was probably the most significant TV night I've really ever had - there has been a lot of shows that I liked that came to an end, some short and others that were on longer - but LOST is different. I got hooked when I believe the 2nd (or possibly 3rd) season premiered and outside of a few Season 1 episodes, I didn't miss an episode. It's also one of the few shows I watch where I watched it live unless something very important came up.

It was a show that I eagerly waited for and stayed glued watching every time. Although I don't think I really thought about the fact I would miss LOST and the fact outside of things like books/graphic novels, the LOST universe was ending forever on Sunday. But by the time 11:30 hit, reality had set in.

I'm not going to really get into what happened in the episode, except to say that the ending credits with the plane were not a clue that they were dead the whole time. (proven false on the jimmy kimmel LOST special) What happened on the island happened in reality, also proven by Christian's statement to jack that some of the people at the church died soon after Jack, others long after.

I guess I can understand the frustration, though I wasn't expecting much from the finale, but anyone fan knew that not all the questions would be answered. It was even confirmed that would be the case and it is understandable.

But for me it wasn't the perfect ending, but close to it and also the most emotional moment for me TV or movie related, partially because all these characters you had learned to like (or hate) for the past 6 years you were seeing at the end - all dead - and at the same time, the realization that this was really it, the end, no more LOST ever and then of course what will be an iconic image - Jack with Vincent running up, falling to the same spot he started but now closing his eyes to finish the story.

It's easy to be picky, but sometimes you just have to ignore some holes and flaws and appreciate a show, especially one like LOST - some of the best acting, best characters (Flocke and Ben for me), great mystery and storytelling. Goodbye LOST.

Expanding my music collection

I consider myself similar to others in my age group - from tech to sports, but one thing I've always been very different in is Music. For one, I've never bought a music CD and never even listened to music (other than the odd end like in a video game, tv, etc.) until I was a teenager - by that time online music was gaining activity.

Not only that but my music selection is very unusual. Until my recent expansion of collection, my collection of newer musicians was only a few (songs I had heard in video games mostly) and mostly older, bands like The Who, Hendrix and Led Zeppelin. But recently I kind of got into a music binge - I had a lot of points saved up and decided to try a bunch of new music out.

Now I am trying out older artists (Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, The Monkees) as well as some newer ones that I've either heard good things about or have heard a few songs of their's I like. (Radiohead, Airbourne, White Stripes, Franz Ferdinand, a few others) With my previously limited selection I heard just about the same songs all the time - some that I can always listen to, but still good to try something new.

I'm hoping I can find especially a few newer ones that I like, considering the old artists don't have new material. (other than the rare unrealesed songs or crappy new albums) But for the type of music I like best, I'm just not seeing me finding artists I will like as much as some of my favorites - there talent just seems so much higher than today's music. (The Who, Hendrix, The Beatles)

The First War of the Decade: Late Night TV

What started as a seemingly silly sounding news article at TMZ claiming that the "Jay Leno Show" had been cancelled, has turned in to be one of the ugliest, most public blowups in recent television history. Since watching TV I certainly have never seen hosts on networks attack a network or host (Leno) as much as with this fiasco.

It all started with that TMZ article, then more sources and finally the public revealing that the Leno show was no more and then the ugliness and one of the most surprising decisions in recent TV history occurred - NBC came up with Leno at 11:35-12:05 and Conan as the Tonight Show on from 12:05-1:05. While it may seem decent as it keeps both popular hosts on and avoids any breach of contracts (just a simple re-negotiation with Jay), that's the only positive.

It cuts Jay's TV time in half and he stays as the Jay Leno Show, Conan gets screwed with the Tonight Show being pushed back for the first time in it's 60 year history and is once again behind Leno despite having the most prized Late Night Show. Needless to say Conan wasn't happy and publicly said "NO". As it is right now, all indications (and some sources) say that Leno has been offered and agreed to come back to the Tonight Show with Conan, as soon as next week, gone.

Even though it's just a squabble with Last Night talk show hosts, it's quite amazing because of the TV impact it has. It is also one of the biggest PR hits I've seen a network take, every late night host (including NBC's own) attack it nightly - Ferguson called the network "lying rat bastards".

Anyways nothing is finalized yet but the long term effects for Conan and NBC seem enormous. The short-term effect on NBC is hugely bad, likely also bad on Leno for PR reasons as well, NBC has Leno at the helm for a few years - very unlikely more than 5 years with the heir as Fallon? No, instead an outsider would be hired and would struggle for decent ratings for a while. Oh, the irony.

Stargate Atlantis canned, Universe coming

Okay so along with the many types of TV shows I watched, I am a big sci-fi fan. I loved Next Generation, DS9 and have been a Stargate fan. Only going back maybe a year ago or two, but I've watched nearly every Stargate SG-1 episode (just a few left to see) and every episode of the next show in the series, Stargate Atlantis.

Unfortunately I was surprised to hear that Stargate Atlantis has been cancelled. The show has enjoyed very good ratings, the best since Season 2 and it seemed likely the show would be picked up for at least a Season 6. However the top guys at Sci-Fi obviously had other plans in mind.

The good news is that Atlantis will now go the way of SG-1, movies. Even better, Stargate Universe will premiere also in 2009. The show was announced a few years ago with very little details, but now it will become again the only Stargate show on Television.

One other bit, although I will reserve judgement, there are some troubling tidbits in the announcement of Stargate Universe. I'll show some of the details, the good and the bad:

"will involve more space-based action than its predecessors"

Keep in mind all these quotes are about Stargate Universe and yes, I am passing judgement on statements. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE space battles, but I've thought along with many others that Atlantis does too MUCH space-based action. The fact that the Stargate is hardly even used in Atlantis, this is quite worrying for Universe.

"cast a known actor for one of the leading roles, and fresh faces to round out the cast"

This is probably the best news, besides the show premiering in 2009 without a gap between Atlantis and Universe. Without a doubt a problem with Atlantis has been that they don't have a big name actor like SG-1 did. Definitely a bonus for Universe.

"aimed at a slightly younger audience"

Maybe the most worrying and most quoted on the internet about this news. By no means has Atlantis or SG-1 been intended for young kids, but it hasn't exactly been targeted for 40 years old. While both SG-1 and Atlantis does have a darker side at times, I would of rather had Universe have MORE of that, rather than loosening it up. But this could also be more talk to get younger people interested.

"a little more character-based, a little less rooted in a sci-fi mythology"

Actually the most worrying to me. I like character-based, but less sci-fi mythology is VERY worrying to me. One of the things that really got me so interested in Stargate SG-1 was the mythology, was very intereting and one of the advantages the show had over Atlantis.

Of course all this talk is based on a few statements, but it's almost the only thing we'll get for a while. Hopefully Stargate Universe can take advantage of SG-1 and Atlantis' strengths and weaknesses, while also trying some new things. Will be looking forward to the premiere.

Television is good again

As I've previously said, I'm kind of, well I'm a TV nut. I'm somewhat picky, or maybe I'm right in thinking that a lot of crap is on TV. If your favorite shows getting cancelled isn't bad enough, once Summer hits it's the worst time for Television.

Luckily with Fall so far away, Television fans get a reprieve. Two shows are coming back, one about an hour form now and the other tomorrow (Friday) night at 10 PM EST. The first show was my 2nd favorite new show of 2007, "Burn Notice". Great show, great action, great acting and everything else - very much a high quality show with a mix of action (a lot of it), humour and very good story lines.

Show #2 is successor (well, kinda) to the longest-running Science Fiction show in the US, Stargate Atlantis. I admit it isn't as good as SG-1 Season 1-8, but it's still a very good show. I know this kind of sounds like an advertisement, but it isn't. The lack of good TV shows in the summer has always been disappointing, but it's good to see some good television!

Also a bit of a tidbit, I'll be doing kind of mini-movie reviews here. A little while ago I thought of doing an entertainment website, with movie reviews among other things. So nothing big, but sometimes I get to see a movie or two earlier so lookout. Will be doing Ark of Truth and Continuum shorty.

Firefox 3

For anyone that knows me (or has read any blog of mine), they know I'm a big tech guy. I know computers very well (internally...not so much), I code in PHP and love programming and websites. I also just like technology in general, from AJAX on the web to the United States missile shield, technology fascinates me.

In a much smaller form, the web, I am a HUGE firefox fan. After the horrible experience of using IE for year, a friend told me about Firefox and I haven't turned back. When the Firefox 2.0 beta came out I tried it out and well...wasn't impressed. It was basically the same thing as before, except a few small changes. But Firefox v2 was recently giving me trouble, so I figured I would do a re-install. But then I thought, might as well give the Firefox 3 Beta try and I'm glad I did.

Whereas the jump from 1.5 or whatever to 2.0 seemed to not be substantial, 3.0 is. There are so many changes, from a very nice new skin to a new bookmark system. Being a beta, of course, some extensions are not compatible, but most of mine are.

There is also a sleuw of small changes, from an option to always have the tab bar on (no need for a bookmark "blank"), extension reccommendations based on what you have

Talking further about bookmarks, not only can you use tags, but to the right of the URL in the Navigation Bar there's a star. Click on the star and you added it to your bookmarks! Also, in Firefox 2.0 if you start to type an address and you've been to it, you saw it list the URL's? Now it shows 4 things in FF 3.0. Favicon to the left, top line the title of the page and beneath, the URL. (as you type, it dynamically bolds any matches for either) To the far right there is a star to bookmark if you wish.

There is just so much new in Firefox 3 that I haven't even mentioned. When logging in, rather than a prompt, it asks near the top of the page, I could go on and on. Just do yourself a favor and give it a try! Firefox 3.0 releases in just two days, June 17th, but if you want to wait until then to download that may be a good idea - you can help set a world record!

Revisiting TV Shows

I've had TIVO now for a while and love it, but especially during recent times, the selection of TV Shows has been pretty bad. A few shows have come back from the strike that I like, but it's been very few.

Las Vegas? Canned. 24? No idea when it's returning. NCIS/The Unit/Cane? Have no idea. You get the picture.

So I figured I should checkout shows that were around when I was younger. I'm a big Sci-Fi fan and when I have nothing to do on late Saturday nights, I will sometimes checkout Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis, they're pretty good shows. It is one of those shows where there are enemies, people, friends, events that you don't "have" to know, but certain episodes could have you confused.

So I got Season 1 and on, I've been watching every now and then since! It's a great watch by the way, if you are a Sci-Fi fan. I think of it as almost a more realistic, current-day version of Star Trek. I'm now on season 4. :)

Continued...

Please trade Chad Johnson

I'm going to quote an article I wrote over @ Bengals Chatter about Chad Johnson. Check it out:

Last year a lot of people thought Chad Johnson was a big reason for the Bengals losing season, he wasn't. There was an incident with the Bengals playoff game in 2005, but I do believe Chad that he didn't throw a punch. However Chad Johnson's basically has been asking for a trade (without saying it) all off-season and I am tired of it.

Full Story

Call of Duty 4 = Amazing

A lot of games have been released on XBOX 360, but most aren't what I would consider truly "next-gen" games. Quite a few feel like last-gen games and even though COD3 was a very good game, it still didn't have many aspects of the game that felt like "next-gen", however Call of Duty 4 is completely next-gen. The single player campaign will be the most intense of probably any game you've played and compared to previous COD games, much harder, I think.

Graphics are of course absolutely stunning and just jaw-dropping, especially the RPG's. It does seem to miss a few things, but nothing that's that big. It's just so much more polished and I've yet to play online! I'll have a review up at realmofgaming.com soon.

Bengals 23 - Chiefs 10 (Week 1)

I watch every Bengals game so I figured I would re-post my analysis on here as well.