Video Game Review: Fly a Helicopter

One of the disadvantages of the whole blogging industry is that blog entries must be compiled on a computer, and moreover, a computer with internet access. This tends to create opportunities for distraction, and can be a downfall to bloggers. For instance, there is an online game called "Fly a Helicopter". There is only one control in the game, and that is to depress the left mouse button. As long as the left mouse button is held, the helicopter will rise. Upon release of the mouse button, following a short lag, the helicopter will drop. The screen scrolls from right to left, and the helicopter must be flown up and down to avoid crashing into the ground, the ceiling, and treacherous floating green things. As long as you don't crash, you accumulate points.

There have been no posts on this here blog in the last month, but I defy anyone to come up with a score higher than my 3,581 points.

This Week in Movies

Here's the yahoo! movies synopsis for "In the Name of the King", opening this weekend:

"An unspeakably evil army rampages across what was an idyllic, peaceful world, destroying everything in its path, looking to conquer the mighty Castle Ebb and vanquish the King himself! Amidst this backdrop of war in the Kingdom of Ehb, between the evil Gallian and the ruling King Konreid, a once simple family man named Farmer sets out to find his kidnapped wife, Solana, and avenge the death of his son, who was killed by animal warriors called Krugs."

This is going to be like a combination of "Lord of the Rings" and "Braveheart", ground up, mixed with various curing ingredients, flavorants and colorants, and processed into a savory hot dog of cinematic perfection. If nothing else, it's got a rampaging, unspeakably evil army in its favor (as evil as the armies were in the Lord of the Rings movies, they were still speakable, so this is going to be a first). You should also be pretty fired up about the mighty Castle Ebb, located in the Kingdom of Ehb. Personally, I can't wait to see all the Krugs. The most important thing about this movie though, and for some reason the marketers aren't touting this, is that Burt Reynolds plays the King himself! At least I think so; he's listed as "King Konreid" and there are no other Kings in the credits, so one must assume this is the case. "In the Name of Burt Reynolds, the King". That's better.

Facebook

Facebook, in its great wisdom, requires that members first establish actual personal communication with other members before being awarded privileged access to member profiles. Until the step of requesting or confirming friendship is taken, facebook members will have only four options for interaction with those whom are not officially befriended. The options are as follows:

1) Send message.
2) Poke him/her!
3) View friends.
4) Add to friends

If there are to be only four options, then three of these options make good sense. By sending messages and viewing friends (options 1 and 2) one may learn more about the party being considered for facebook-friendship before before proceeding to option 4 and adding them as friends with access to your full profile.

It is unclear what "Poke" is supposed to mean, though. Images of the Pillsbury Doughboy come to mind. At the very best, it is a poor choice of word. Why then, is poking given such a place of honor by the administration of facebook? They emphasize the poke option with an exclamation point. "Poke (your friend's fiance)!". Facebook seems to be arguing that given your four available choices, the poke is the most recommendable.

Considering that the poke's mere existence is puzzling, why is it one of the only actions allowed to be made between facebook non-friends? If someone is uncomfortable having another view such information as their relationship status and birth date, would it not follow that a poke! would come as unwelcome? "I met this unsavory person yesterday, and now they want to be facebook friends with me. I don't think I'll let them... Oh wait! I just got poked! That really changes things".

To these, and all questions about poking, facebook's official explanation must suffice: "A poke is a way to interact with your friends on Facebook. When we created the poke, we thought it would be cool to have a feature without any specific purpose. People interpret the poke in many different ways, and we encourage you to come up with your own meanings".

Christmas Shopping

I'll take three.

I wanna Transformer for Christmas!

Fact: Robots sell. Pictured to the right is the "Transformers" merchandise section of an otherwise well-stocked Target toy department. A lot of empty racks to be seen. There are plenty of "Pirates of the Caribbean" figurines if you need any, but the problem with those is that they have nothing to do with robots, and are therefore not nearly as cool.

Movie Review of the Week: "I Am Legend"

One of the nice things about Christmas is that we get to spend time with loved ones we don't often see. The hours with them always seem to fly by like minutes as stories are shared and lost time together is made up for. After a while though, the conversation does eventually slow, and loved ones start dropping off; some disappear to the bathroom, while others begin to snoop around the host loved one's kitchen for snacks. The TV inevitably goes on and people enter into the early stages of napping.

Precious holiday moments intended to be savored with loved ones are suddenly threatening to diminish into boredom, naps and TV. This is when the host should suggest that everyone go out to see a movie.

The question now becomes, "Which movie to see?". To which, the answer is, "Huh?". And the question is now rephrased more properly, "What movie should we go see?". To help answer this question, I have screened a movie for review.

The movie is "I Am Legend". It has been quite a winner at the box office and when you think about it, this should be no surprise because "I Am Legend" combines two crucial ingredients for quality cinema:

A: Will Smith

B: A professional acting German Shepherd

The premise of the movie is that a virus swept the earth and turned 90% of the population into what I will call rabid zombies. The zombies' favorite pastime is attacking the remaining 10%. Will Smith is immune to the virus, and suspects that he is the only one left on earth after years of zombie attacks. He fills his days searching for survivors and also attempting to develop a cure to zombie rabies. Disappointingly, at no point does he consider organizing a 5k Fun Run for zombie rabies awareness.

This is a violent, suspenseful movie, so do not attend if you are expecting a heart-warming holiday classic for the whole family. I myself was reeled in by the promising trailer for "I Am Legend" in which viewers are flashed an image of a German Shepherd running alongside Will Smith on a treadmill. Intriguing behavior from a German Shepherd; if the dog can run on a treadmill, they could certainly train it to accompany Will Smith rapping during the closing credits, and so it is safe to say that the preview left me wanting more.

"I Am Legend" doesn't disappoint, with regards to canine content. The German Shepherd "Sam", played by "Abbey", has a key role in this one, and is magnificent. She has earned herself a "Best Actress" nomination this year, or at least some Beggin' Strips or Pupperoni.

This may seem premature, but my review is drawing near an end. Most of my notes from the movie pertain to Sam, I'm afraid. Seems I was a little preoccupied with the fact that there was a doggy onscreen, and a lot of the finer points of the film may have escaped me. As best as I can recall, "I Am Legend" was a pretty good movie though, dog or no dog. I give it two stars.

"The cow and the bear shall be neighbors"

(Isaiah 11:7)