Lego Happy Potter is AWESOME.

I should revise the title and state that ALL Lego video games are awesome. I started with Lego Batman, and moved onto Lego Harry Potter as soon as that came out. I renewed my love for it over the weekend whilst recovering from the flu.

It's seemingly a very simple game. You play through, do puzzles, defeat bad guys, blah blah blah... But then, after you've completed the game, you go back through and unlock a TON of extra characters and spells and whatnot. It's a great game because "Free Play Mode" is completely different from "Story Mode", and you won't even qualify to unlock all of the achievements until you've played though on Free Play.



My only complaint about the Lego games is that Free Play mode can be kind of complicated. You definitely need a walk through up on your computer while you're "treasure hunting", or there's really no way you'll find everything you need to find.

Either way, the Lego games are fun for everyone. Your kid sister or your grandfather are both bound to enjoy it. In addition to Lego Batman and Lego Harry Potter there is also Lego Star Wars, Lego Indiana Jones and Lego Rock Band.

Slacker Sunday!

Hello everyone! Apologies for not posting last night, The Editor and I are both super sick and restricted to the confines of the bedroom. I hope y'all understand. Anyhoo, for your entertainment and enjoyment, here are some "I'm a Marvel, I'm a DC" videos for you to enjoy! Hope you have a great week!

Friday. Just Friday.

Thanks to all this snow I am completely unmotivated, and exhausted. So tonight is going to be an oldie but a goodie. Let's all make our way to Candy Mountain!




P.S. Sorry Cara M. I literally had nothing ;-)

Sacchariferous Thrusday: Angry Birds Edition

I will be the first to admit it. I have no f'n idea what this "Angry Birds" is. I understand it's some sort of game you can buy for your phone where you launch birds into objects. I don't get it, but whatever, I don't understand why The Editor spends 4 hours every Friday night playing "Plants vs. Zombies" either... But I digress... The Editor found this super cool video of a WORKING Angry Birds birthday cake for his son's 6th birthday. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did!

Wacky Wednesday: Batman: The Brave and the Bold Edition

Today's weird wacky thing comes from a recent re-airing of an episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold. In this episode the lovely Birds of Prey end up having to sing their way out of a night club. Obviously, the song they chose to sing is about wangs. Yup. The girls are singing about the ol' gentlemen sausage, and ranking everyone from Batman to Aquaman. I found this fabulous video of the song in question, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Hot Nerd of the Week: Emma Stone!

This super cool, rock and roll chick doesn't seem like the typical nerd on the surface, but she certainly has nerdy tendencies and takes some nerdy roles. By request of Russ H. I give you Emma Stone.

Emma was born in Scotsdale AZ on November 6th, 1988. She was heavily involved in theater as a child, and starred in her first play at age 11. Her love of theater pretty quickly transferred into a love of acting, and in 2003, she created a Power Point presentation to try and sell her parents on the idea of her becoming a famous actress. In January 2004, she and her mother set out for a new life in LA.

Her big break came in 2007 when she got the role as "Jules" in Superbad. This red-headed, husky voiced hottie gave all guys out there a new badass girl to drool over. After Superbad Emma was in a string of funny, but forgettable films like The House Bunny, and The Rocker. Her next big role (and my favorite role) was that of Wichita, in the post-zombie apocalypse movie Zombieland, which launched her career even higher. Since then, she has lent her voice talents to the movie Marmaduke, and played the role of lovable Olive in the Mean Girls-esque Easy A. However, her biggest nerd cred movie will be coming out next year. She has accepted the role of Gwen Stacey, opposite Andrew Garfield, in the new Spiderman reboot.Oh, and boys, she's going back to blonde for this one. :-)

With a self proclaimed love of HTML and web design, this stunning, husky voiced hottie's star can only rise.

Nerding 101: Translating British Slang (T-Z)

Hello everyone! Today we're going to wrap up the last session of translating British slang! Away we go!

ta - thank you

tailback - traffic jam

take away - carry out

taking the piss - making fun

the beeb - the BBC

till - cash register

top banana - first rate

trainers - sneakers

tram - train

trolley - shopping cart

trollop - slut

tube - subway

up the duff - pregnant

up the spout - not working
veras - cigarette papers

waistcoat - vest

wank - masturbate

wanker - jerk off

wardrobe - Closet

washing-up liquid - dish soap

wellies - boots

wonky - not quite right

yank - american

yankee - American

yardie - mobster

zebra crossing - pedestrian crossing

zed - "z"

zimmer - walker

zip-fastener - zipper

Slacker Sunday: President's Day Edition

Good day all! I hope you are having a great weekend! Since it's President's Day tomorrow, I figured I'd celebrate by sharing an educational video about one of our founding fathers, GEORGE WASHINGTON! Have a great evening, and a wonderful tomorrow!

Comic Recommendation of the Week: Superman: Earth One

 Superman: Earth One is yet another retelling of the origins of Superman. However, instead of discussing the "early years" of Clark Kent the story begins when Clark is 20. The story begins with Clark moving to Metropolis and trying to find a job. He applies at numerous places where his skills can be utilized (solving complex equations for laboratories, trying out for professional sporting teams, etc.), but all he really wants is to be a journalist for The Daily Plant.

After Perry White tells him that they're not looking for anyone, Clark becomes depressed. He calls his mother and begins talking about his "identity crisis" with her. Like any good mother, Martha tells Clark that he should do whatever makes him happiest, she'll be proud of him no matter what. We find out through this conversation that Clark is not only struggling with his work life, but he is also having a hard time figuring out where he fits in everyday human life. Martha explains that she and his father had always discussed the day when the world would need him, but exposing himself for what he is had to be a decision that he made himself. During this discussion we also find out that John and Martha found Clark while hiking in the woods one day. During their hike they came across a crash site, and found the baby. They passed the baby off as Martha's nephew, so there was no need to explain here he came from.

The next day on a military base, Major Sandra Lee is inspecting debris found from Clarks crash site from years ago, which has been regenerating and repairing itself over the last 20 years. As this is happening, Clark learns that his apartment is on fire, and he goes to grab his "costume" his mother made him out of the blanket he was found wrapped in. When Clark exits the apartment, he is knocked unconscious, and suddenly memories of Krypton, fill his head, including the memory of when his birth parents said goodbye, and Krypton was destroyed.

Cue the evil attacking aliens lead by Tyrell. Tyrell was from a planet (Dehron) that had always been in competition with Krypton, until the day came when Dehron "assassinated" Krypton. When the planet of Dehron was informed of Clark's escape, Tyrell was sent out to destroy the last son of Krypton.

Flash forward, Clark kicks some serious alien butt, the world is saved (for now), and Clark Kent manages to get the interview of a lifetime with Superman, which lands him the job at The Daily Planet.

I thought this was an amazing retelling of the story. The story itself, combined with the artwork made for one completely unboring, very exciting version of a story that we've heard a million times.

This was the first issue of DC's now ongoing series "DC: Earth One", which is basically an updated retelling of your favorite superheroes origins made for a new generation of readers. I, for one, will be purchasing all of them as they come out. But don't take my word for it! (Sorry, couldn't resist, since Lavaar Burton was on Community this week)

Odds and Ends With Evan T.!

Things I wanted to write about...
By Evan T.

S.D.C.C. Exclusive Cobra Commander w/ Starscream Jet

So when I was a kid...wait, I still am a kid. O.k., So when I was YOUNGER if you had said to me, "Hey you! Do you want a new G.I. Joe toy which is also a new Transformers toy?" I would have replied "Hell yeah!" at which point I would have gotten into any number of windowless vans just to get a peek. That wish is now coming true this year with this S.D.C.C. exclusive. Cobra Commander, in a proper flight suit and caring Megatron as a gun (!!!!), comes packaged with an airplane in the paint scheme of Starscream. I'm sure Chris Latta (the voice of both the Commander and Starscream) is loving it wherever he is. It is the culmination of two great love, this toy. Now I'm either going to have to make a trek out to San Diego (German for a Whale's Vagina), know someone who is going or allow the scalpers have there way with me. It is a perfect combination of worlds colliding. Almost like if The Rock and Vin Diesel got together and made a flick....oh wait....

Top Gear

O.k., so I know that Carly JUST wrote about it but I cannot bump the Top Gear enough. While America has recently started their own version I am going to speak about the U.K. edition. If you have never, ever seen an episode you are living in the freakin stone age as far as I am concerned. Even if you don't like cars you will be entertained more than Charlie Sheen at the A.V.N. Awards. Just looking at the most recent season the presenters at Top Gear have bought cheap convertibles and driven through the Middle East, come to America with some European super cars and gone through Virginia, raced a Porsche against a Volkswagon beetle dropped from a helicopter, landed a helicopter on a car, faced off against their Australian counterparts, offended the entire country of Mexico and figured out which car you should buy if you are a European gangster. That's five episodes, so far. Get on Netflix and catch up with seasons 9 - 12 or maybe you know people, People who know people who rob the internets of television shows. Ask them for some seasons. You will be glad you did.

Captain America and The Avengers

O.k. So if you read the blog, which I assume you do because you are reading it right now, you know that Captain America is coming to theaters this year. There is going to be a video game tie in. It might be good but more than likely it will not be any good for anything but a coaster. That's why I went back in time and picked up, on ebay, a copy of this game. It started life as a coin op four player arcade game which was translated to Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo, Game Boy and Game Gear. You got to choose to control Iron Man, Hawkeye, Vision and the good Captain himself as you battled through classic villains like Mandarin, Whirlwind, Red Skull, Ultron and Crossbones (among others) in side scrolling glory reminiscent to the X-Men arcade game.The game also has some great, and by great I mean horribly great, voice acting. A lot like Resident Evil. If this game sounds like something you would like to check out I suggest you pick up a copy now before the movie comes out and the prices spike.

Avengers Assemble!

So while I was checking out the things that are not booty shaking videos on Youtube I came across this hilarious little web show (Youtube Channel: avengersweb). It's episode run from three to four minutes and involve various members of the Avengers team. Each member is a spoof version of themselves. Iron Man is always drinking, Hawkeye is a horn dog, Captain America uses racial terms your grandfather would use and Ms. Marvel is constantly ignored or belittled. The episodes are quick and fun and the run the range from the B.P. oil spill to health care to carpooling. Like these good people on Facebook and check out their stuff. Hopefully we can get some more of these episodes.

Watson Day 3: The Conclusion....

Good day everyone! What an a amazing thing we watched happen last night, am I right?! Watson was victorious over the humans for both games of Jeopardy! This surprised some, and didn't surprise others. I, for one, was quite impressed that the computer was able to "understand" the question and respond faster (on most questions) than Ken and Brad. Just to put things into perspective, last night we were told that when the Watson project was just being put together, it would take the early Watson 2 hours to answer a single question, the product you saw last night was capable of answering a question within three seconds.

It's pretty amazing all of the work that went into the project. I'm just going to briefly touch on some of the questions asked last night.

Why did Watson answer "Toronto" in Final Jeopardy! on day 2, when the category was "U.S. Cities", and the question was "This city's largest airport is named for a famous World War II hero, its second largest for a famous World War II battle."?

This question was a challenge for Watson because during the rest of the game play Watson was "told" the category so he was more able to have an idea of what it was he was looking for before answering. However, when it came to Final Jeopardy! Watson was not given the category clue (U.S. cities). It was a multi-faceted question, which made it hard for Watson to understand. I was actually very impressed when Watson was able to come up with the correct answer to last nights Final Jeopardy! question as well. It seemed like the questions were purposely written in a way that would trip up a computer.

When Watson wagered, why were his wagers such a weird number?

This one was simple to answer. To the computer, a number is a number. The computer doesn't see any benefit to betting a round number like a person would, so generally Watson would just bet a number that would ensure that he stayed ahead of the other contestants without falling behind. There was no "strategy" about it. It was simply doing what it needed to to stay ahead.

This technology is going to do absolutely amazing things in the future. the applications in the medical field alone will help diagnose problems and save lives. IBM assured us that the computers would not be taking over the world, but rather helping make our world a better place.

In closing, I would like to share with you my favorite moment in Jeopardy! history. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Ken Jennings final answer.

Watson Day 2: More of the Same...

So last night, the Watson lecture was more of the same from the first night. The crowd was split 50/50 as to whom attended the first night lecture, and who didn't, so the panel felt it necessary to reiterate a lot of what they had said on Monday. Since I decided to blow my nerd load and write the longest post in Carly on Comics history yesterday, I'll take it easy on you today. Today, like when I went to NYCC, we will be discussing lecture etiquette. I will be posting some of The Editors notes near the end, just in case he felt there was anything significant that was spoken about last night that I missed. There will be another long post tomorrow, wrapping up the lecture series. On with the politeness!

Let's just face it. Everyone likes you better when you're nice, right? When you have learned and utilize basic social skills, you don't look like a total a-hole when you go out in public. At the age of 27, I have now come to realize that a lot of people are missing this filter, and just say and do whatever they want, even if it's being a complete jerk to the people around you. For those of you who can actually CONTROL yourselves in public, kudos, keep it up! Below are a few tips for those of you who go the other way.


1) If you're sick, stay at home. - Last night I was sitting to one of the most irritating families on the planet. Mom, who sat next to me, was hack-coughing like she was going to choke and die any moment. Did she excuse herself and go get some water and take care of the situation? Nope. She proceeded to hack and cough her mucous and germs all over me. I hate being sick. I mean, I REALLY hate it. I had mono for 7 weeks last summer, and it sucked. The weather is just starting to get nice, and I really, REALLY don't want to be laid up because some stupid soccer mom in her stupid Uggs thinks she's a good mom by infecting a room full of people with her grossness. People like her are the reason the zombie apocalypse would spread like wildfire.

Only you can prevent an undead outbreak.

2) Treat the lecture as if you were at a movie. - Nay, on second though, treat it more as if you're going to a Broadway show. The panelists are people too, and they are giving up three evenings of their lives, three evenings of being away from their spouses and kids, to talk to a bunch of people who DIDN'T HAVE TO PAY TO BE THERE about something they've been talking about for months. The least you could do is put your cell phone away. And god help you if you pick up a phone call in the middle of the lecture. You will get a death stare from me that says "This is your warning. Do it again, and that phone is going where the sun don't shine". Of course, I understand if the house if on fire, if your kid forgot to take hid Ritalin and now he's holding the babysitter hostage, etc., there are exceptions to every rule. However, do NOT pick up your phone to tell someone you can't talk because you're at a lecture. That should be automatic execution.

Put it on airplane mode, jerk-ass

3) If the floor is open for questions, don't ask stupid questions.- Ah yes, the ol' comic con wonder... For some reason, whenever a large group of nerds is in a room together, listening to a panel discussion, as soon as the panel is open for questions, there are at LEAST 8 nerds who want to ask questions. Most of them are dumb questions which have already been answered once or twice. The best way to avoid this is to ask your friends if they know the answer to your dumb question first. Chances are, they do. Also, if your friends tell you your question is stupid, don't play the hero and go ask it anyway. It just makes you look like an idiot.

4) Don't bring a child under 15 to a lecture at a college. - The past two nights there were an amazing amount of parents who thought it appropriate to bring their kid(s) to the lecture. Bad idea. As previously stated, I am a 27 year old nerd, and I don't quite understand everything that is being said. I'm 27 and there are points when I get antsy in my seat. That being said, unless your kid has taken a bunch of Ritalin or Benedryl, he or she WILL become restless. Restless = irritated, irritated = whiny. Please do not bring your child to a lecture to whine. Also, do not ignore your kid when they become whiny, because the rest of us cannot ignore your kid as well as you can, and it doesn't make us irritated, it makes us pissed. Either remove the whining child, or take them to a more kid-friendly environment to begin with, like Chuck E' Cheese.

When your kid looks like this, it's already too late.

5) Respect the arm rest- Arm rests do not exist in a chair solely for comfort. Arm rests serve as a barrier. Please keep this in mind at all times. One of the most uncomfortable things in the world to me is being touched (or coughed on) by someone I don't know. Please PLEASE respect that, and when you take off your coat, at least TRY not to smack me in the face with it. If hitting me in the face with your jacket is unavoidable, please, for the love of god, apologize. Also, in addition to you not spilling over into my seat with your personal belongings, respect the fact I don't like strangers touching me, and try to keep yourself from spilling over into my seat.

Keep yourself to yourself.

It's really all about respect and common courtesy. Not just for the presenters who are graciously giving their time to educate you, but also to the people who are your audience-mates. Together, we can make the nerd community a nicer place.

Watson Day 1: It's Not Elementary, My Dear Watson...

 Hello hello! The Editor and I are pretty fresh off our trip to the EMPAC center at RPI, and the super awesome lecture about the Watson super computer from IBM. It was pretty much the most awesome lecture I've ever sat in on. We showed up about 6:15 or so, grabbed some free food and drinks (most awesome part about a lecture on a college campus), and were in our seats for the lecture at 6:45. The lecture consisted of three panel members; Dr. Chris Welty (who is completely and totally smart, well spoken, and funny), Dr. Jim Hendler and Dr. James Meyers. The Editor referred to these guys as "the Mystery Science 3,000 of Computers".

Chris Welty is an RPI grad, and fun fact! It took him 14 years to graduate from RPI. He still has the longest standing record for most semesters attended. Dr. Welty did the bulk of the talking, and had an amazing PowerPoint presentation the he showed, that explained Watson in a way that a non-genius (like myself) could understand. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the presentation anywhere online. :-(

Below is a short video giving a very basic overview of what Watson is and how it works. I'll have The Editor write up a longer, more detailed explanation later in the week about the lectures and Watson, as he has a MUCH better grasp on the whole thing than I do. I will be giving you the dumbed down explanation.




Watson is basically a server system storing tons and tons of information. Watson is given a question and because of all the servers, can come up with an answer pretty quickly. If you watched last night, the screen showed three possible answers that Watson came up with, and whichever one had the highest percentage correct, he rang in for the answer. One thing we learned last night is that Watson will NOT buzz in unless there is a greater that 80% probability that the answer is correct.

As you witnessed last night, Watson is not perfect. Sometimes the computer does not understand the question the way a human brain would, and gives a wrong answer. Also, since Watson is incapable of hearing, or seeing, he buzzed in with the same answer that Ken Jennings incorrectly answered right before he did.

Watson's "avatar" was pretty cool too. The blue and green "wires" become more active when Watson is "thinking", and they settle to the bottom and turn red if he gets an incorrect answer. It's pretty amazing.

With the technology that IBM has created with Watson, there are a ton of other projects that they are working on, to make lives easier. Most notable is the writing of a medical program which doctors can use to better diagnose patients. Basically, the doctor would input the symptoms, and match them up against other documents and studies from other doctors, colleges, medical journals, etc. around the world to get an answer SPECIFIC to the question they asked.

"Why couldn't they just use Google?" you may ask. Google is a great search engine if you want a broad answer on a simple question. However, the more complex the question becomes, the less information Google can give you. Generally speaking, it will only give you the most popular answers, and that may not be EXACTLY what you're looking for.

Unlike traditional search engines, Watson is capable of "thinking" more logically, so it can better understand what it is specifically that you are looking for. However, as previously stated, Watson is not yet perfect, and you wouldn't want an imperfect computer diagnosing you with a life threatening illness, if you don't have one.

I'm not even a huge tech dork, and I find Watson absolutely fascinating. The Editor (who is a computer engineer) referred to the Watson project as "inspiring". The AI that Watson uses can truly help to make the world a better place, once it is fine-tuned, and ready for everyday applications. Let's just hope it doesn't become self-aware. ;-)

I'll be back with more info tomorrow! I expect that you are all watching Watson this week, and if you're not, you should absolutely look up the episodes and give them a look!

For more information on Dr Chris Welty click HERE
For more information about the Watson project click HERE


BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!!

Here are The Editor's notes on Watson day one:

Watson Day 1 Notes

    Watson does not hear or see
        As such, there are no video or audio answers. Jeopardy! eliminates these when
        there is a blind or deaf contestant, so no problem here
    Watson is actually "fed" a text file with the clue once Alex begins reading
        (This miffs me a bit, they couldn't add a camera with OCR to read the clue?)
    Watson is not connected to the internet
        Since game shows are federally regulated now (and have been since that big scandal in the 50's)
        there were two auditors at the taping, ensuring all the rules were followed.
        The team couldn't have laptops, internet connections, etc.
        (I did note that Alex specifically says that the game is an 'exhibition' a few times though)

One of the best reasons to attend the screening at EMPAC are the commercial breaks (though free chicken tenders is a close second). During the breaks the commercials get muted and the panelists make comments and observations, like a less-funny more-geeky MST3000!
  
You'll notice during day one that for a "Decade" category question, Ken buzzed in and incorrectly answersed "the 20's". Watson then buzzed in and answered "The 1920's", which prompted Jennings to turn and stare in disbelief. At the next commercial break, Chris explained that they had pondered the scenario where a contestant answers incorrectly, Watson should remove that from its possible answers. They didn't implement this since their statistical analysis showed it was very very unlikely to occur, Oops! ;-)
Stay tuned for more coverage and notes from Day 2!
   

Happy Valentines Day!

Hello everyone! Happy Valentines Day! Although, to me, it's more like "Happy going-to-listen-to-a-lecture-about-Watson-on-Jeopardy! Day. I'll be bringing my little steno notepad to the EMPAC center this evening and listening to a couple of panels on "Watson" by IBM. After the panel, I'll be watching Jeopardy! on a big assed screen. *Swoon* I love Alex Trebek in 1080p... Watson is an artificial intelligence computer engineered to understand logic. Watson takes on Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter starting tonight at 7:30 for the next three days. I will sooooo be watching that.

In the spirit of Valentines day, I thought I'd share something with you. Yesterday, as The Editor and I were watching The Soup, they showed a clip of the William Shatner talk show called Shatner's Raw Nerve. Basically, the Shat is his normal crazy self, just interviewing other celebrities. However, as I was watching, his couch reminded me of something.... Let's see if you can pick up on it.

If you said "LOVE TOILET FROM SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE!!!", congratulations. You win! In the spirit of Valentines day, I would just like to remind you all to share everything with the one you love. xoxo

Slacker Sunday

Hello everyone! So, generally speaking I try and have one day a week where I can kinda be lazy and slack (that is, if I don't have anything in the queue for Evan T.) and I have decided that I earned that day this week. I've played approximately 1,000,000 hours of Borderlands this weekend, therefore, my brain has become goo.

One of my fellow nerd-nighters introduced me to this short film. I hope you enjoy Lazy Teenage Superheroes!

Comic Recommendation of the Week: Hack/Slash

Happy Saturday everyone! So, last night as The Editor and Evan T. remotely played Red Dead (romantic Friday night, I know) I took The Editor's advice and started reading Hack/Slash. Hack/Slash is a story about Cassie Hack and how she survived a slasher attack. Since she survived the attack, she is now on a mission to kill all of the slashers out there to protect the innocent from being killed themselves.

 
The daughter of a slasher herself, Cassie wonders if that is part of the reason she kills. She worries if it is something so ingrained in her that she'll ever be able to quit. All of the slashers in the comic are done movie style, so most of them are able to return from the dead, including Cassie's mother (there is an explanation for that in the series, don't want to spoiler it for you).

There is a supernatural element to the series as well, as people make deals with the devil to gain success. Whenever a deal is made, the devil demands a "quota" of souls, meaning lives must be taken to maintain success. One of the most lovable characters in the series is actually a hell hound names Pooch who has been sent to earth to hunt Cassie, but finds his living accommodations with her friends too nice to do so.

Cassie is aided by Vlad, her protector, and gentle giant. Other people in Cassie's posse include Georgia, Cassie's best friend/sometimes girlfriend/stripper, and Lisa and Chris, whom Cassie saved from a slasher, and they now run Hack/Slash Inc., the website where people can go to report slashers and have Cassie look into the case.

It's super violent and kind of racy, but the story is truly entertaining. I devoured nearly two omnibuses last night, so you know it's good.

Things You Should be... Friday!

Things You Should be Listening to...


Puck Nuts- This is yet another podcast in the SModcast podcast universe. It's Brian John, Brian Quinn (sometimes) and Walt Flannagan from Tell Em' Steve Dave, as well as computer nerd Ming Chen and The Stash's illustrious Sunday Jeff. Originally, the podcast was made so that the boys would have a place to talk all things New Jersey Devils, but the show quickly morphed into a sports-talk show of sorts (thanks to the Devil's having a sub-par season). I'm not even the biggest sports fan there is, but if you ever wanted to become a little bit more knowledgeable about hockey and football, and you want to laugh while doing it, I suggest this podcast. It won't let you down!

Things You Should be Watching...

Top Gear UK- Okay, so I guess that today's post contains a lot of "guy stuff", however, as a girl, I very much enjoy these things too! Top Gear is a fantastic talk-show type car show that airs weekly on the BBC, and BBC America. The shows hosts, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May take you a a series of weekly adventures in this one hour show. They travel all around Europe, and hold friendly competitions, whether it be whose car will die first, or which luxury car is the fastest. They also have regular weekly segments like, the news and "Celebrities Driving the Reasonably Priced Car". If you're even a teensy bit of a car enthusiast I suggest you watch. These blokes will keep you rolling with laughter!

Things You Should be Reading...


Fables- I don't have any idea why I've waited this long to post about Fables. It's easily my favorite comic out there. When I explain the premises of the comic, it sounds ridiculous, but it's filled with more heart than any other book I've read. Okay, close your eyes and imagine every character from every fairy tale you can. Now take those characters, move the human ones to NYC, and move the animals to a farm. That's Fables. The Fables are forced from their homelands by a violent adversary, and the story revolves around defeating the adversary. It is a fantastic tale that now has well over 100 issues. The series has even spawned a number of spin-offs such as "Jack of Fables" and "Cinderella: To Fabletown, with Love". The writing, paired with some of the most amazing artwork I've ever seen will leave you wanting more.

Video Game Vixen!

Good day everyone! I'm feeling a bit under the weather today, so there is only on thing that means... Video games until my eyeballs fall out! I'm not quite sure what it is, but any time I don't feel well, I pop a game into the 360, grab a glass of Sprite, cuddle up under a blanket and shoot things all day long. I think it might just be the cure to the common cold. The post today is going to be me talking about some of my most favorite games ever. What you need to know about me is that I rarely get a new game. Generally speaking, I find a few games that I really REALLY like, and just allow myself to be consumed by them forever. The following is a list of some of my favorites, in no particular order.

Borderlands- This game is the most addicting game I have ever played in my life. When The Editor and I first got it last winter, we played this game from 6 PM til 3 AM on the weekends, and pretty late into the evening on work days. This game is a FPS, which allows you to gain levels as you gain experience. With the gains in levels, you also get better weapons, and fight harder enemies. you get to pick one of four characters, and each character comes with it's own special abilities that you get to "beef up" as you level up. The game takes place on Pandora, an alien planet, and you're basically just doing favors for different people to try and get to the "final boss". The first time you play through, you'll be like "Wow, that boss sucked. I mean, seriously?!", but then when you access all of the downloadable content, you realize that you have like, 7,000 more hours of game play left! Certainly the most bang for your buck.

Civilization Revolution- This game is a turn-based strategy game which requires you to start as one of 10 different civilizations, and try to make your civilizations beat the others in one of four categories. This game is addicting in the way Sim City was to me when I was a kid. It's really really fun to build an empire, and be attacking enemies, and have enemies attacking you. It's also a great learning tool for kids, because as you play, you unlock "great people", "World Wonders" and you learn about different cultures. It's fun because you're learning, and you don't know it. :-)

Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2- These two are probably my favorite games on the planet. These games are all about trying to survive a zombie apocalypse. There are "regular" zombies, and there are "special" zombies. The regular zombies just munch on you a little, while the specials just try and kill you right away. Each campaign has between 3 and 5 levels in it, so you can generally get a whole game in within an hour or so (comes in handy if you're trying to blow off some steam before a wedding or something). This is by FAR the best game to play if you've had a stressful day at work. You can just name each zombie after a co-worker or boss who upset you off, and just shoot away!

Dead Space- Yes, yes, I'm aware that there is a new Dead Space, however, I JUST got it in the mail yesterday, so I haven't had a chance to play yet. I just started Dead Space about a month ago, and I friggen love it. You're part of a mechanic crew sent into space to check out a space station that has had radio silence for about a week. When you get there, the ship is a mess, and no one is to be found. As you explore the ship, all sorts of nasty alien-monsters jump out at you, and make you scream. When I play this game, at times, I am literally white knuckled grabbing the controller because the game is so suspenseful. Just. Flipping. Awesome.

NBA Jam- This updated version of the classic game is the best co-op game to play. It's 2 on 2 basketball, old school style. As you advance in your division, you gain achievement points and get to unlock classic players like Larry Bird and John Stockton. Super fun game, and one game can be played in less than an hour which makes it another great game to play if you're short on time.

Kinect Adventures- This one gets the award for "Best Substitute for the Gym". The Kinect does motion capture on you, and translates your movements to your avatar. There are a whole bunch of challenges that you have to try and beat. Some of the challenges are things like, whitewater rafting, obstacle courses and kick ball. I live in the Northeast, and when it's below 20 out, I don't really feel like dragging my freezing buns to the gym, and this is a GREAT substitution for the gym. My abs, arms and legs feel AWESOME, and the best part is, it's FUN, so you don't even really care that you're working out. Also, the Kinect takes pictures of you at random while you're completing your quests, the aftermath of which is AMAZING.

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I know there are a whole lot of games that I've left out (Red Dead, Final Fantasy, Call of Duty), and I'm hoping to get to all of those someday when I play them, lol. In the meantime, I'm going to take the next few Thursdays and commission Evan T. and The Editor to share some of their favorites. Til tomorrow, happy gaming!

Wacky Wednesday: The Guardian Project pt. 3!

Hello hello! Here is the last part of our three part look at how old and washed up Stan Lee is! Much respect because he is my elder and helped create some fantastic characters, I'm just saying that at this point, it's time to give it a rest. You can see by looking at The Guardians that his "creative skills" are not what they used to be... Also, the blatant sexism is also pouring out of the minds at Marvel once again, because God forbid you ciould have a chick Guardian. It's not like girls like sports, right? I mean, we're more into painting our toenails and brushing each others hair. Ugh. Anyway, have fun guessing!

Is that Bobby Drake AGAIN?

The Coyote: He's the best there is

I thought this was a DC character...

Half man, half God you say? I hear he has a movie coming out this Summer

WTF is he riding?

Ummmmm.... Why does a duck need a wetsuit? I'm just sayin'...

Dark teleporter you say? I wonder if he has a tail too

Isn't this like, the 8th time we've seen Tony Stark?

Hot Nerd of the Week: Will Arnett!

Okay, okay, I admit, this one is a bit of a reach, however, he has greatly contributed to nerd culture (in addition to being one of my favorite people ever), so he gets a shout out.

Will Arnett was born in Toronto in 1970. He attended a variety of different schools where he learned French, and engaged in theater programs. After high school, his mother encouraged him to take up a career in acting, so at 20, Will moved to NYC to attend the Lea Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute.

After a few career setbacks with unsuccessful shows, Arnett's breakthrough came in 2003 when he was cast to play Gob on the cult TV show "Arrested Development". His comedic timing mixed with narcissism made Gob one of the most lovable (and most quoted) characters on the show.

After "Arrested Development" ended, Arnett recurring roles, as well as a few bit roles in other popular television shows. "The Sopranos", "30 Rock", "King of the Hill" and "Parks and Recreation" to name a few. He also stars in the IGN television show "The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret" on IFC with his "Arrested" co-star David Cross.

Will has taken roles in quite a few nerdy movies as well. Movies like "Ratatouille" with Patton Oswald, "Monsters vs. Aliens", and "Jonah Hex". There are a whole bunch of other movies that I LOVE that he's been in as well, but I don't think anyone loves the movie "Lets Go to Prison" quite the way I do.



In 2005, Will married funnywoman Amy Poehler (whom he starred in "Blades of Glory" with), and the couple just welcomed their second child into the world. I can imagine that these two have quite the awesome household.

Good looks, great comedic timing, and a huge roll in one of the biggest cult TV shows of all time makes Will Arnett this week's Hot Nerd.

Can't We All Just Get Along?!

Hello again! Today should be "Nerding 101", however, I'm going to take a week off to discuss something that is really bothering me: pretentious nerds. Now, I know that nerds, geeks and dweebs come in all shapes colors and sizes, and I just assume that everyone knows that. Some nerds are hot, some nerds are not, but in the end, as a whole, are all nerds about something. Whether that thing be "Star Trek", or comic books, or video games, or sports, people always have SOMETHING that they are passionate about. What I find completely uncool is when a nerd makes fun of someone else for something they like.

This comes completely from the Super Bowl last night. I was very sad to see so many of my fellow nerds have statuses like "Ugh, can't wait for stupid football to be over so I can watch Glee" and, "Do I have all of "The Maxx" comic books? Then of course I won't be watching the Super Bowl.". It bothers me so much because it's like saying "Hey, I'm a cool nerd, and I don't like football, so it's lame". When you do that it doesn't make you any better than the people who pick on you for what you like. You may not be a sports nerd (because most likely it was "the jocks" who picked on you 10+ years ago in high school), but there are people who feel the way you feel about the Super Bowl the same way they feel about "Star Wars". It doesn't make anyone wrong or right, it just makes you sound like a jerk who likes to pick on people who aren't like you.

I'm a nerd of all trades. I really like to try and consume myself with something before I decide if I like it or not. I used to not like football, because I didn't understand it, so I joined a fantasy football team. I thought D&D was totally dorky, until I tried it, now I hold the weekly "Nerd Night" at my house. My point is, at the end of the day, we should all try to be a little bit nicer to one and other. By shutting yourself out of something, and making fun of people for liking the things you don't understand all you're doing is limiting yourself. I have made some of the best friends in the world just by expanding my horizons. I challenge you all to do the same.

*Hugs and kisses*

Super Bowl Sunday!!

Well, it's the big day!!! Super Bowl Sunday! Woot! Woot! Who doesn't like a good football game? Today's match up is the Pittsburgh Steelers vs. the Green Bay Packers. I will be cheering for the Packers (since they are the team closest to my mitten-shaped home state), but if I were a betting woman (which I totally am) I would put my money on the Steelers. I mean, hey, Big Ben did wonderful things for me in fantasy this year.

The half time show will be the *yawn* Black eyed Peas. So. Totally. Over. Them. And you just KNOW they're going to play that STUPID song you've heard 3,000 times. Anyway, on that note, The Editor and I have decided to hold a little competition to see who is more attractive; Fergie or Mayor McCheese.

They both have hamburgery middle sections and heads shaped like hamburgers:

Fergie has been known to pee her pants while on stage:

 While Mayor McCheese likes to maintain a squeaky clean image:

Both have been known to hang out with some unsavory characters:

The Black Eyed Peas

McDonaldland gang.

But at the end of the day one is the mayor of one of the most popular towns ever, and the other is a former meth head.

NOT a mayor of anything.

I think there is a clear winner here. Not only does this guy look GREAT in a suit, but you know that he smells and tastes good too.

McCheese for the win!