Palin Punk'd

>
>

> Punk'd down to the bone.
>
> "I love that documentary of you. Nailin' Palin...that was so edgy."
>
>
> http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/arkansasblog/2008/11/those_zany_canadians.aspx
>
>
> Sent from my iPhone

iPhone

So I finally got one. Watch this space for apps reviews. Shazam works
like magic (that one was free) (and short)!

Sent from my iPhone

The Best Four Bucks I've Ever Spent: Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog

Um. I'm not supposed to like musicals. But that episode of Buffy was pretty good. And, hey, that was Joss Wheedon, and he's responsible for Serenity, which was pretty cool. So. I missed the live event over the weekend, but the damn thing is on iTunes, so I bought it and I'll be damned if I didn't laugh til I cried multiple times and I'm saying watch it and its going straight on my iPhone permanently. Trailer follows.


Teaser from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog on Vimeo.

iPhone Launch: Epic Fail

Appleinsider reports that all iTunes update servers are down and warns that old iPhone users who upgraded to iPhone 2.0 have temporarily bricked their phones, allowing only emergency calls.  Sour grapes, but I'm glad I didn't get one today. No I'm not. Yes I am.

 

Link

Amazon Gold Box Update

If you can't be bothered to refresh your browser today, according to Kotaku, these are the expected deals for the rest of the day.  Gotta catch 'em all! (Too bad I own nearly all of these - look out Mario Party DS!)

 

Current - Super Smash Brothers: Brawl (Wii)
6:00 AM PDT - Yoshi's Island DS
8:00 AM PDT - The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (Nintendo DS)
10:00 AM PDT - Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
12:00 PM PDT - The New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo DS)
2:00 PM PDT - Mario Kart Wii
4:00 PM PDT - The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii, presumably, though possibly Gamecube)
6:00 PM PDT - Mario Party DS
8:00 PM PDT - Pokemon Diamond and/or Pearl (Nintendo DS)

Thanks Kotaku! Link

From P4K's Review of Girl Talk's "Feed the Animals"

"Which brings us to the Three Stages of Girl Talk: knee-jerk recognition, easy-to-swallow consumption, and, finally, cemented recontextualization.....no one has managed to match his unique mix of diversity, pace, and open-mindedness-- not to mention his exquisite ear for snagging the best 15 seconds of every three-minute track blaring from your clock radio."

8.0 Review of Girl Talk: "Feed The Animals" Link

Girl Talk update

Avril's "Girlfriend" x Aphex Twin's "Boy/Girl"

Also spotted: "Born Slippy" from the Trainspotting Soundtrack.

Amazon Gold Box Deals: Nintendo Deals

Today on Amazon's Gold Box Deal: 9 Nintendo Deals, released sequentially throughout the day.

First up: Super Smash Bros. for Wii $25.99 with free shipping. This is a great price point for an awesome pick up and play party game. If you don't have it yet, get it now here: Link

More to come.

Obtained: New Version of Risk 2008 (Retail Version of Risk: Black Ops Ruleset)

Image courtesy Buffalo GameBuffs Blog

Earlier this year Hasbro released into the wild Risk: Black Ops, a limited-edition, droolworthy, ultra-sexy version of the new standard ruleset for the classic board game Risk. Hasbro sent out 1000 promotional copies to board game reviewers and press with the intention of drumming up support for the new release this summer. The game, as you can see from the pics at Boardgamegeek at the link above, is totally bad-ass. The box features dogtags and barbed wire, reminiscent of Cold War era Gulags. The board itself is black and white and very modern, reminiscent of Call of Duty 4. The tokens themselves are minimalist geometric shapes. Although I love the design sense, I can't see myself paying what these are fetching on Ebay ($117.50! Really?) At any rate, the goal of the Black Ops set was to get folks talking about the revamp of the standard ruleset. Unfortunately the revamp would not include the bleak Cold War component redesign.

All I've seen for the release date so far has been the ambiguous "Q2/Q3" or "late summer." Well, I went into Toys-R-Us today and I'll be damned if I didn't see one of the new sets in the wild. Naturally I picked it up (the last standard version I bought was the 40th Anniversary Edition with the die-cast figures). I haven't played it yet, but here's the scoop on the major changes:

1) Rule book is a folder filled with tabbed dossier components. Each tab references one of the rule headings: A) How to set up basic training (the beginner version of the rules), B) How to draft, C) How to attack, D) Objectives and rewards (more on this later), and E) ending your turn. The overall design here is militaristic and clearly explained.

2) The troops have been replaced with small arrows for 1 troop and larger arrows representing 3 troops. Clean and easy to read, I think these are an improvement from the Napoleonic Troop, Horse, and Cannon.

3) Instead of trading in a set of the aforementioned Troop, Horse, and Cannon, the cards in this game each have a star. Trade in at least 2 stars worth of cards for new troops, but the more stars the better. 2 stars nets 2 free armies, but 10 will score you 30.

4) Cities are randomly placed on the board at the start of the game. Controlling a city gives you the same troop resupply as a territory; in other words, troops plus cities divided by 3 is your base troop number.

5) Each player has a capital. You must control your capital to end the game. Controlling your capital nets you one additional army.

6) The goal of the game is not world domination (unless you optionally decide to play that way). At the beginning of the game, the team randomly places four major objectives and four minor objectives and the appropriate rewards for each. Win the game by taking into your possession 3 of the community objectives. They range from "Take over 10 territories in 1 turn" for a major objective to "Control North America" as a minor objective.

7) Troop maneuvers at the end of each turn occur along supply lines.

The idea behind the standard rule tweaks is to open this game up to the masses. A game should finish in about an hour. Unlike the sweaty 10-hour domination matches we used to play at Arkansas Governor's School.

Anywho. I haven't played yet and I don't have pics, but if you're interested in playing hit me up.

Watch this space for a gameplay review later this week.

Interview with Rob Daviau, one of the designers of the revamp on Gameshark. Link

Girl Talk update

M.I.A. "Boyz" x Cranberries "Dreams" = genius

 

Girl Talk - "Feed The Animals" Impression

Ol' Dirty Bastard + "Autumn Sweater" by Yo La Tengo = my mind is blown. 

 

Some people may be bored by Gregg Gillis's shtick, but momemnts like this keep me coming back.  More later.

 

Wikipedia article with all samples identified Link

Girl Talk at Myspace Link

Things to do: Foam Fest - June 27th

Its that time of year again.  The Little Rock Chapter of the Arthritis Foundation has moved back it's 11th Annual Foam Fest to this Friday June 27th (last year was around Easter).  Enjoy samples of 65 varieties of craft beer and wine from around the world.  I have to say last year was a lot of fun.  Tickets are 25 bucks if you get them now, 30 at the door.  Good beer, good cause.  See ya'll there.

 

Foam Fest site Link