Juno was one of my favorite movie that I've seen this year on DVD and it had a great yet eclectic soundtrack to match.  The soundtrack has some of my favorite bands like the Kinks and Velvet Underground and artists like Cat Power and Belle & Sebastian. 

1. All I Want Is You-Barry Louis Polisar
2. My Rollercoaster -Kimya Dawson
3. A Well Respected Man-The Kinks
4. Dearest-Buddy Holly
5. Up The Spout-Mateo Messina
6. Tire Swing-Kimya Dawson
7. Piazza, New York Catcher-Belle & Sebastian
8. Loose Lips- Kimya Dawson
9. Superstar-Sonic Youth
10. Sleep-Kimya Dawson
11. Expectations-Belle & Sebastian
12. All the Young Dudes-Mott the Hopple
13. So Nice So Smart-Kimya Dawson
14. Sea of Love-Cat Power
15. Tree Hugger-Kimya Dawson
16. I'm Sticking With You-The Velvet Underground
17. Anyone Else But You-The Moldy Peaches
18. Vampire-Antsy Pants
19. Anyone Else But You-Michael Cera

Kotaku is probably the website to go to for the latest news in the video game industry.  Led by managing editor and king of floral print shirts Brian Crecente, the Kotaku writing staff has some of the most talented and funny group of guys ever to write for video games.

Over the past few years, I've noticed the subtle and not so subtle changes to Kotaku.  For one the UI and overall look of the website isn't so cluttered anymore.  It might not seem like they changed the amount of ads on their site but now they are tastefully placed in such a way where you don't feel overwhelmed and wanting to leave.  And instead of the old pink and stale yellow background, Kotaku's blog is now on a simple and pleasant white background. 

So throw Kotaku in your RSS feed and enjoy.  You won't be disappointed even if the occasional rumor gets blown out of proportion.

I just have to say I was skeptical about doing this but according to Zuneboards.com, putting games on your Zune is totally legit and fairly easy to do-so I did.

There had been rumors for a while that games would soon come to the Zune and no sooner than when Microsoft released XNA Game Studio 3.0 did the community begin to make games for the iPod competitor.  So I began to peruse the Zuneboards and read very carefully how people had created games and transferred them to their Zunes with ease and I found a thread that had all the steps necessary to take.  The first things to do were to download Microsoft Visual C# Express Edition and XNA Game Studio 3.0 both of which are free which blew my mind.  I was expecting to only be able to download trial versions.  I guess I should preface this by saying I have no idea how to program let alone use both of these programs, I just wanted games on my Zune.  I had a little trouble installing XNA Game Studio 3.0 but I was able to avoid the install error I was getting by uninstalling the current Games for Windows Redistributable that was currently on my laptop.  Once that was done I was ready to find some games.

So back to the Zuneboards it was in search of some games, most of them being in a Beta stage or even an Alpha stage.  Downloading the .zip files were a cinch.  All you have to do is unzip them where you wish, preferably into an organized game folder and you're done.  The final steps were equally a breeze.  All you have to do is open the game file and then open the game project file and Visual C# will open itself.  Next simply click he build option and as long as your Zune is connected without the software on, you can deploy to your device and wait a few seconds.  After the game has finished deploying, you'll find a new menu option on you Zune menu called appropriately games and the rest is history.

The set up sound like a lot to swallow but once you get both necessary programs installed it really is a breeze.  Right now there aren't any huge or graphically mind blowing games out there but for only being released for a month, I would say they aren't that bad at all.  Still I would recommend the Zune to be a music player first and everything else second and third and so on because that what it was originally engineered to do.  Putting games on your Zune just adds another social aspect to your music device that others just can't compete with.

*Just want to say thanks to all the helpful people at Zuneboards for all the instructions I used.

Finally this past week I was able to hop back into playing the Xbox 360.  I downloaded and played the demos I wanted to play.  I got a chance to try out Penny Arcades' new game and had a blast playing Gears of War with people from the Gamercast Network Community.  Hopefully this coming week I'll keep leveling up in World of Warcraft although times are becoming increasingly harder and I'm having to rely more and more on the help of friends and sometimes strangers to help me through it.  But here's to another great week!

Game of the Week: Xbox 360 Reborn

Website of the Week: 800Notes

Music of the Week: Adam Sandler's What the Hell Happened To Me

Gadget of the Week: Nike+ SportBand

Movie of the Week: Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels

It's taken me ten years but I finally watched Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels over the weekend.  And as a fan of movies like Snatch, I instantly loved this movie.  Coincidence right?  Well if you like Snatch, it shouldn't come to you as a surprise that you would like this movie because they're both directed by Guy Ritchie and star some of the same people.  Both movies have Jason Statham and Vinnie Jones in them and both, in my opinion, are equally good.

Lock Stock, however, came first in 1998 and it's a comedy about four brothers who get themselves into a half a million dollar debt as a result of one of the main characters'-Eddie, played by Nick Moran, gambling habit.  So Eddie and his three companions are set to figure out how they're going to come up with the money by their deadline and then is where the movie really begins to cook.  Like Snatch, Lock Stock starts off with multiple stories going on at one time and tends to get a bit confusing.  But just when you are about to think about turning the movie off, the multiple plots begin to mold together and they begin to make sense leaving you with one of those "a-ha" moments.  And in typical Ritchie fashion, lock Stock ends with one of the most funniest endings I have ever seen in a movie.

If you have been living under a rock like myself, or are a big fan of Snatch and haven't seen Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, then go to your local big box store and pick this movie up for less than $10.00. 

One of my favorite things to do is to work out.  I usually go to the gym and kickbox for a solid 45min. to an hour but lately I wanted to add running back into the equation. 

In September of 2007 I ran in the Blueridge Parkway Relay marathon which is a team relay race of 208 miles non stop.  Each teammate runs around 16 miles total until you run a grand total of 208 miles through the mountains and eventually back to civilization.  But when I trained for it, I didn't have a way to track my progress and I think that really gave me the wrong idea of where I was as a runner.  So this year I decided to start my training a lot earlier and began with the purchase of the Nike+ SportBand.  A lot of people are familiar with Nikes campaign with the Apple iPod where you sync your iPod with a device in your shoe and it then tracks your mileage, calorie burn, distance, etc... but what about people who have other audio playback device like my favorite, the Zune?  With the SportBand, you don't need anything but a USB port on your PC.  Basically the SportBand is a watch band with a tiny clock-like device that, when pulled out of the band, plugs into your PC via USB thus activating the plug-in downloaded on your computer and then brings up the Nike Plus website.  It sounds like a lot of work but it's not.  Set up time for the device is less than 10 minutes and only a few seconds to sync it with your shoe.

So does the device actually work?  Yes.  I turned on the device and it prompted me to start walking-a good idea before you run any distance.  Then as soon as it hit triple zero, you just press the start button, you're off and running.  While you're running you can track how many miles you have run, how many calories you have burned, and even what pace you are at.  After the very short distance I ran of a couple miles due to an earlier burrito I ate, I plugged the SportBand into my laptop and it immediately brought up my data.  I had ran around 10-11 minutes at a pace of 7 minutes or so-not bad for eating a very large burrito then running.  But this is just the beginning.

Once you are online with your customizable profile, you are greeted with a graphical chart of your run.  The green line shows your speed fluctuation and distance and all other information.  Along with that you can set goals for yourself and actually compete with the online community.  People regularly post challenges and if you meet them, you get a trophy to go in your trophy room.  Can anyone say Achievements?

Right now I'm extremely pleased with the Nike+Sportband.  It does exactly what it advertises, it's easy to set up and is a great tool to really track your progress as a runner.  I recommend ordering it direct from Nike.com and opting for the $25.00 overnight delivery charge because it actually works.  I ordered it Thursday afternoon and got it the next morning.  Get out there and run and look me up on Nikeplus.com under the profile name "JPollock".

Okay so Adam Sandler's What The Hell Happened To Me came out several years ago and isn't really a music album but it is funny and is worth listening too.  Although most of the album are made up of skits anywhere from the High School teachers to the talking goat, but my favorite song is Ode To My Car.  And trust me, if you've had a crappy car at some point in your life, you'll understand this song. 

• 1. Joining the Cult
• 2. Respect
• 3. Ode to my Car
• 4. The Excited Southerner orders a meal
• 5. The Goat
• 6. The Chanukah Song
• 7. The Excited Southerner gets pulled over
• 8. The Hypnotist
• 9. Steve Polychronopolous
• 10. The Excited Southerner at a job interview
• 11. Do It For Your Mama
• 12. Crazy Love
• 13. The Excited Southerner meets Mel Gibson
• 14. The Adventures of the Cow
• 15. Dip Doodle
• 16. The Excited Southerner proposes to a woman
• 17. Memory Lane
• 18. Mr. Bake-O
• 19. Sex or Weightlifting
• 20. What The Hell Happened to Me

Have you ever received a phone call from a number you don't recognize and when you pick it up it ends up being a telemarketer or someone you really don't want to talk to?  I can honestly say yes to both.  For a while I was getting calls from an odd number, which I won't list, so I Googled it to find out where the area code came from.  One of the first hits that popped up was from 800Notes.com.  When I clicked on the link I was met with a list of people and their comments about who was behind the number.  Several people had wrote warnings about not signing up with the numbers service and how it was a trap to get your information.  Jackpot!  This has got to be one of the most ingenious sites I've ever come across.  800Notes is totally free and fun to mess around with.  Try entering your own number and see if anyone has any complaints about you.  And if you don't find any feedback on the number you're looking for, then start a new thread about it.  Just remember: be nice and don't use the service to slander someone.  Have fun with it and use it to help get rid of the pesky automated calls.

You heard right!  I finally got my power cord back from Xbox support and everything fired up like it should have.  I did have to reset all the former options I had before like starting at the Dashboard instead of the current disc in the machine.  Another feature that needed to be rest was my all time favorite feature: Background Downloading. 

So with everything finally back to normal, the only thing I've been playing is of course Rock Band.  I downloaded a bunch of new tracks and I have to say my two favorites are Blondie's "Call Me" and Fall Out Boys "This Ain't A Scene".  You may not like the songs but when you drum them on Expert you have a whole new respect for the songs.  And that seems to be synonymous with a lot of the Rock Band tracks.  Some of the tracks I purchased aren't necessarily my favorite songs but they began to grow on me because I was able to understand them from more of a musicians perspective.

Sometime this week I hope to finally break into Grand Theft Auto IV but with my recent WoW binge, it might have to wait until I hit level 30.

There wasn't a movie of the Week this past week because frankly, I didn't find the time for a good reason: it was my birthday!  I turned 27 over the weekend and celebrated with my family with a ton of Rock Band and a lot of cake and food and beer.  But this coming week I want to finally watch Beowulf for the first time.  I downloaded the HD version on my Xbox 360 and should get to watching it later this week.  In the mean time enjoy the rest of the show.

Game of the Week: More Agony-No Power Cord

Website of the Week: Engadget

Music of the Week: Grand Theft Auto IV Soundtrack

Gadget of the Week: LG Voyager

I've been a Verizon customer for several years now, off and on, but I wouldn't switch services or anything-even the Apple iPhone.  But the phone I had was a Motorola Razr and it was great for a while until it started to crap out on me.  The music player wouldn't play certain mp3's even though they weren't DRM'ed and the phone was literally falling apart so  my quest for a new phone began.  I wanted something that had a tactile keyboard and a touch screen.  Luckily those two necessities limited my choices to one-the LG Voyager.

The LG Voyager sports a 2.8" or so touchscreen on the exterior and a regular widescreen inside.  That's right, just flip it open and inside is a full keyboard spotted with symbols and easy to read game controls.  To get the phone going all you have to do is press the touchscreen in a marked spot on the left hand side and the phone lights up.  To access the main menu just touch anywhere in the middle of the screen and your met with everything from a calendar, to music, to Verizon's VCast service, to options to where you can customize your phone.  Also built in to the phone is a 2MP camera that takes pretty good pictures albeit in well lit conditions. 

The LG Voyager is a well built, sturdy phone that is growing on me very quickly.  It is a little thicker than the Razr than I'm used to but it's a minor inconvenience to put up with.  Unfortunately, although i am a subscriber, I don't get very good EVDO service where I live so I can't access all of what VCast has to offer.  However, I get a full EVDO signal when i go to work which is where I spend most of my weekdays.  In light of this i am able to text message friends and family several times faster than I was able to on my old Razr so that makes up for the loss of EVDO at home.

I haven't played the game yet due to a missing power cord on my 360 (now fixed) but I have listened to the full soundtrack included in the special edition of GTA IV.  It's got a good mix of rap, funk, and rock which makes it easier to listen too the album from beginning to end.  If you didn't get your hands on the special edition, try searching sites like Amazon.com for availability.

• Michael Hunter/Soviet Connection (Theme from Grand Theft Auto)
• Mobb Deep Featuring Havoc & Prodigy from H.N.I.C. Part 2 Sessions/Dirty New Yorker
• The Rapture/No Sex For Ben
• Munga/No Fraid A
• Busta Rhymes/Where's My Money
• C.J./I Want You
• Joe Walsh/Rocky Mountain Way
• Bob Marley and the Wailers and Damien Marley/Stand Up Jamrock
• Seryoga/Liberty City:The Invasion
• Greenskeeprs/Vagabond
• Electrik Funk/On A Journey
• Qadir/Nickname
• David Axelrod/Holy Thursday
• NAS/War is Necessary
• Fela Kuti/Zombie
• Global Communication/5:23

It's no secret that I love gadgets and everything about them.  I love hearing on what kind of new tech is coming out and what new tech I could never afford.  The main site I go to is Engadget.  Engadget, run by Ryan Block and a host of excellent writers, is probably the leading website for gadget news that spans anywhere from innovative kids toys to video games to the latest in Televisions and phones. 

What makes the site so easy to use is it's simplicity.  The background is white and the pictures are clear and there isn't a lot of clutter besides sponsor ads.  Sometimes it can be difficult to locate the link to the full story, but it's just a minor gripe that can easily be over looked.  So definitely put Engadget in your RSS feed and be prepared for a 24/7 blitz of gadget news.

So it's another week of no games for the 360.  I finally received the long awaited power supply but they forgot to ship the part that plugs into the wall-the power cord.  You could say I was pretty upset when support told me it would be another 2-3 business weeks to get a power cord.  Although 2-3 business weeks is a standard thing support says to cover themselves, I did receive my power supply brick in about a week. 

With my 360 out of commission at least until the end of the week, I've been playing a lot of  World of Warcraft.  My Undead Warrior is at level 26 now and still trucking along.  I'm kind of at the point where I need to level grind a bit so I can continue quests without having to sweat being attacked by multiple enemies, but I've had some help along the way.  Hoofus, or Phil in the Unwanted Ones Guild made me a killer chestplate of armor and just last night some random player stopped me and gave me a couple medium armor kits to boost my armor by 16!  Everyday it seems like there is always someone that's extremely helpful in WoW.  So to return the favor last night after killing off a bunch of Harpies, I went back to Brill to learn some new first aid techniques and saw a couple of new characters roaming around.  They were battling a couple enemies so I helped by shooting a couple sharp arrows in their direction.  As much as I've enjoyed WoW, I really do miss playing Rock Band and Call of Duty 4 with friends.  Keep your fingers crossed: mine have been for almost a month.

That's right, my first sun burn in my whole 26 years of existence.  This past weekend my family and I vacationed for a few days in North Myrtle Beach.  It was a beautiful Friday and Saturday so we all went to the beach and my brother and law hopped on some boogie boards and surfed all afternoon.  But I forgot one important thing: sunblock.  I hadn't put sunblock on for the most part of my life because I had never burned.  I don't know if it was because my skin was dark or what but this time I was wrong.  I hadn't felt any pain until that Sunday morning when I woke up feeling very uncomfortable and it was when I looked into the mirror and saw a tomato standing in what should have been my reflection is when I realized I made a big mistake.  But the real reason why I didn't post the Movie and Gadget of the week is because the Condo where I stayed had a password protected WI-FI and the owner forgot to write down the password for us.  However, last week was another good week with Iron Man, cool sport headphones, and good music.  This week on the other hand, starts off like the previous two unfortunately.

Game of the Week: The Almost There But Not Quite Edition

Website of the Week: Marvel Create Your Own Superhero

Music of the Week: Nine Inch Nails-The Slip

Movie of the Week: Iron Man

Gadget of the Week: Nike Vapor Headphones

 

*Sorry, I don't have pictures of my sun burns.

I like to run a lot.  And when I run, like most people, I like to listen to my own music.  I usually use my Zen Pebble because it's extremely light but the headphone always fall out of my ear causing me to sop and shove them as far down my ear canal as possible without killing me.  Then of course they fall out again.  So you could say I was in the market for a good set of headphones that didn't have to be the best sounding but had to stay on my frickin' ears.  Enter the Nike Vapors.

The Nike Vapor headphones are a pretty standard ear bud with a little above average sound with a huge difference: they have a rubber coated "hook" that is length adjustable that swings over the back of you ear securing it firmly and preventing the ear buds from falling out.  So for $30 USD I bought them and tested them out and right away I knew they were going to work.  Although my testing consisted of running in place while shaking my head back and forth, (I have a bad sunburn from vacationing at the beach and it hurts to move) the Nike Vapor headphones never budged.  Although there are plenty of headphones out at retail chains that might be a little bit cheaper than the Nike branded Vapor set, you won't be disappointed with spending $30 for a little better build quality and better sound.

At this point, who hasn't seen Iron Man?  The hype for this movie was like none other and it certainly lived up to it.  I actually saw the movie the day before it came out thanks to an early screening at the Grand theater near my place of work.  It was 11:15 and it was a packed house.  And when I got out of the theater at around 1 am I couldn't be happier. 

Iron Man is the best comic book movie I have ever seen.  From beginning to end it was exciting and had me on the edge of my seat.  But besides the incredible special effects, the acting is what stood out.  Iron Man/Tony Stark is played by Robert Downey Jr., an actor who most critics thought would be a wash at playing both Iron Man but mainly the billionaire alcoholic genius Tony Stark, turned out to be the perfect choice after all.  After watching Robert Downey Jr. make Tony Stark look like a real life jack ass and a womanizer, you just can't think anyone else who could have pulled that off.  Gweneth Paltrow plays Tony Stark's personal assistant Pepper Potts expertly as well.  She doesn't have a huge part in the movie but she does add the sexual tension between the two characters as seen in the comics and is pretty easy on the eyes.  Terrance Howard is also fantastic in the movie as Rhodes, Tony's Liaison to the military.  If you look really close, there is a hint in the movie that suggests Iron Man 2 might have Howard playing War Machine. 

Overall Iron Man, even the second and third time I saw it opening weekend, did not disappoint at all.  It was not the greatest movie in the world but it damn sure was the greatest comic book movie I have ever seen.  It blows the Spiderman series way out of the water and gives the new Batman series a run for it's money.  And being that Iron Man has already topped $100 million in it's opening weekend, it certainly sets the bar pretty high for the upcoming movie The Dark Knight.

NIN comes through again with another free album.  Just go to NIN.com and click on the button that says download The Slip.  You can download the whole album for free in a variety of formats including a high quality mp3, FLAC or Apple lossless for CD quality audio, and for the real audiophiles, a gorgeous, if you have the equipment, studio quality 24bit-96khz version that sounds absolutely incredible. 

• 1. 999,999
• 2. 1,000,000
• 3. Letting You
• 4. Discipline
• 5. Echoplex
• 6. Head Down
• 7. Lights in the Sky
• 8. Corona Radiata
• 9. The Four of Us are Dying
• 10. Demon Seed

Thanks goes to just about everyone on my Flickr contacts list for this site.  On Marvel Kids, you can create your own superhero by selecting different general pieces like head shapes and accessories and colors.  Sites like this are blowing up right around the time Iron Man came out with people still feeling the high of being a superhero watching said movie.  I started to create my character called 454 and the funny thing is is that right away he started to look like Iron Man.  I changed a few colors around but that would be the only gripe I have with the character creator.  You have to color a whole section and you can't add effects or blending.  But then again this site is made for kids and there are plenty of advanced character creation tools out there.  I prefer a pad of paper and a pen.

What exactly does that title mean?  It means that I got my Xbox 360 back but I was missing one thing: the power supply.  When I opened the box it cam in I was confused and angry then frustrated and still am.  After going through support and a couple other options, it's come to the conclusion that I won't receive my power supply for 2-3 weeks at the most.  I know that support has to say that to cover their backs, but I was unable to get a straight answer from Xbox Support.  The last guy I spoke to assured me that they would get me the power supply as soon as possible but at this point I'm not going to get my hopes up.  So for now it's back to more World of Warcraft until my 360 is fixed.  (Insert huge sigh of frustration here)