Michael Charboneau

Hooowdy ho, boys and girls! Gosh, it's so nice of you all to read my review! This DVD smells just like flowers!

All of the South Park Christmas episodes are here from "Mr. Hanky the Christmas Poo" all the way to a "Woodland Critter Christmas". Some of the episodes are better than others, but all of them take conventional notions of Christmas specials and knock them on their ass in some way.

If you are offended by gross, sacrilegious, or just outright obscene humor, you'll want to skip this (and South Park in general). And we probably won't get to be close friends, either. But if you're looking for talking poo, Jesus and Santa shooting people, and animals having blood orgies, this is the DVD for you!

Erfworld is a web comic by the amazingly brilliant Rob Balder. You can follow it online for free at www.erfworld.com . The Erfworld app makes the comic available chapter by chapter. The first taste is free... heh, heh, heh...

The comic appeals to gamers, but has a lot of good characters and plot in it. At the beginning it's a story of someone who lives for simulation games who gets sucked into a world that plays by simulation gaming rules. In the end (though the ride isn't nearly over yet), it explores questions of fate, free will, honor, and winning at all costs. Add in lots of internet and pop culture references and you have a great story stew.

The app does a very good job of fitting individual frames of the comic on the iPhone screen, and making the book portable.

Awright. Enough chit-chat. Let's review this thing. Leeeeerrooooy Jennnnkins!

Blippy ate my first review...WTF, Blippy?? Anyway...

This is a good headset, lightweight, and can be worn for at least a couple hours without discomfort. The microphone is sensitive, but not overly so. The in-line volume control is great for quick adjustments (though if you forget about it, you can end up twiddling with your computer wondering why the volume is so low).

I paid $20 for this on Woot! and given the price of gaming headsets, it's probably worth the $40 MSRP. However, if you do a search on the brand and model, you can find it for $20 or less.

Now, get out there and kill some fellow guild mates! ...Well, at least I have chicken.

When I got this, it was a first generation player when second gens were just coming out. It was a good deal, and I don't regret it. However, by today's standards it doesn't have enough features (and doesn't connect to the internet for BD-Live functions) and takes forever to boot up.

If you are given one for free and don't have a BD player, it's worth it. But it's probably not worth more than $25-$50 with the prices down on the second generation players available now.

You know those little toys some people have at their desk? It used to be executive bowling or wind up toys, little foam airplanes or things you turn upside down and colored liquid would fall down steps or make something spin. Nowadays there's USB plasma balls and fiber optic trees you can plug into the computer. You wander to someone's desk and see them staring at it, putting off their work, or you start playing with it while you talk to them about some kind of work crap.

Pocket God is like that for your iPhone. Each release they come up with a new toy that lets little pygmy people interact with the environment on the screen. It may be as mundane as letting them build a fire, or fish. Or it may be sadistic, like making a bird poop on their head or trying to spear them in an underwater setting after you've caused a tidal wave to wash over their village.

Either way, eventually you get bored, and realize you need to do something productive, like writing Blippy reviews at work.

If you haven't heard of Angry Birds, you have some catching up to do. First, computers were invented. Shortly thereafter, porn was invented. Then came the video games. Then computers got smaller and smaller until the input and output were almost unmanageable. Soon, we'll be playing games on a 1cm screen screaming in frustration because we hit the L key instead of the A key on the 2mm keyboard.

In the meantime, we have Angry Birds with it's easy drag and release and tapping technology, some of the simplest controls ever in a video game. The game itself is horrendously addictive. It's fun and simple to play, let's you knock down buildings, and has hidden egg levels. You should probably just stay away from it. It may consume your life.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go play with my phone for a bit.

*If* you have a Joomla site, this app plus a Joomla add-in will give you the ability to administer your site from your iPhone. It's got a nice interface and does what it says.

If you don't know what Joomla is... then you don't need the app.

This app is good if you like music, especially classic rock and indie stuff. It links the iPhone to the Wolfgang's Vault website and allows to you browse and stream music from the site.

It's not for everyone, but I'd suggest going to the site (http://www.wolfgangsvault.com/), looking around, and seeing if you like anything. Do a search on some bands that you like, even if it doesn't seem to fit in the category they have. There's a bunch of 80s bands and even a concert by "Weird Al" Yankovic available.

I like Simon Pegg, but I'm used to seeing him under the direction of Edgar Wright. So it was an interesting experience to see him plugged into a decent, if fairly typical, romantic comedy. The character is very Simon, but not the one I'm used to from Shawn of the Dead or Hot Fuzz.

Hank Azaria is fun as the new boyfriend, but the girlfriend didn't strike me as having much personality, and could have been played by almost anyone. Well... any actress. Hmmm... Maybe a good crossdresser, even. Where was I? Oh, yes. The point is, her role didn't make much of an impact on me.

At any rate, rent this one if you want to see Simon Pegg stretching his legs (in both senses), then go back to watching SotD and HF.

A friend's first impression from the preview was "No way could they get that close to the sun! It's BS!" to which I pointed out that science fiction writer David Brin had written a scientifically plausible story in which they send a ship into the sun. So I didn't have a problem with the central premise.

The movie itself was pretty good. The contrasts between light and dark, both on the screen and in the characters was pretty well done. The story is fairly dark, and the trope of someone trying to sabotage the mission is there in full force. Nonetheless, it's worth seeing.

Favorite Quote about Rashomon:
Homer: I don't want to go to Tokyo!
Marge: Come on, Homer. Japan will be fun! You liked Rashomon.
Homer: That's not how *I* remember it.

Rashomon is a movie by Akira Kurosawa about how people see reality and the elusive nature of truth. Four different people give conflicting accounts of what happened during a murder / rape. This has been used many times since, but never to the same effect as in this original movie.

I also recommend reading a translation of some of the original stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa.

Even seeing Crispin Glover playing a very eccentric artist wasn't enough to save this film. There are ways to deal with dysfunctional families in humorous or entertaining or even educational ways. This was not it.

I actually started watching this and got about 30-40 minutes in before I realized I was bored with the movie *while I was working on my computer at the same time*. It stayed in my queue and I decided I should go ahead and finish it. My mistake. But I pass the benefit of my experience on to you.

I've tried a few different BART apps, and this is the best I've seen of the lot. I just wish that they'd make a BART app this good for the Android. (Yes, I've switched to the other side.)

The Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes collections are the best adaptions of Doyle's stories that I've seen on a screen of any size. I have no doubt that someone who knows about Victorian/Edwardian England would pick small details to pieces, but the series does an excellent job evoking the feeling of the time period.

I first saw these on PBS back in the 90s and am delighted they are available for streaming on Netflix.

If you like Jack Black in his adult, unrestrained persona, you'll really appreciate this movie. That being said, if you're iffy on JB, you may want to skip this one. Lots of drugs and rock'n'roll, and funny bits.

Based on "I Am Legend", this is actually a bit more faithful to the story than the more recent Will Smith version. It still has its flaws, though.

An indispensable app. It listens to a music clip of any commercially available song and gives you the name, artist, and where you can find it on YouTube and/or for sale.

A very 80s comedy, but easy to see why it was considered a classic at the time.

A decent app if you're already on OK Cupid.

Stray Dog is not just a thriller, it's also a look at Japan during its post-war period. Toshiro Mifune plays a rookie cop who has his gun stolen. Working with an older member of the force, he tracks his gun through the underworld, worrying that his weapon is being used to commit more crimes.