Month: September 2010

Wake Me Up When September Ends

So here we are, at the end of September and my game/movie pass at Blockbuster finally ended. Along with that comes the end of ‘movie month’, but since we were able to focus on movies this month, I’ve got a few game reviews coming up for you next month, so that will be nice to change things up  again. Our library of movie reviews is looking much healthier these days compared to the beginning of the month. This month alone we reviewed 12 movies:

12 movies in one month, I don’t see that number being eclipsed any time soon. I hope you’ve appreciated my reviews, as always, you can reach me on twitter if you’d like to get my take on a movie or just to talk. I’m always looking for some good tips on movies to watch, many of these were recommended to me in the first place. Have a happy October.

The MMA Minute – WEC 51: Aldo vs. Gamburyan

Wait, what? An MMA fight on a Thursday night? A card that includes a title fight and a total of 4 current or former title holders? What? Well, we’ll take it!

This is really a pretty unbelievable card. Jose Aldo is the current Featherweight champ, probably a top 5 pound for pound fighter, and has completely torn through the division. Manny Gamburyan lives up to his nickname of ‘Anvil’ quite well, once he gets into the cage he’s just like a pitbull, and I think if anyone is going to give Aldo a run for his money, it’s Manny.

To add to this fight, we’ve got Mike Brown (in a preliminary fight! that’s crazy!) and Miguel Torres, both fighters that have been in a slump recently, but were both considered unbeatable, once upon a time. Jamie Varner has held the Lightweight title, and Donald Cerrone has 3 Fight of the Night honors, including the 2009 fight of the year against Ben Henderson. This is really the cream of the WEC, a premier event indeed.

Main card

I really hate picking against Manny, but I just can’t pick against Jose Aldo, I think he’ll hold onto the belt. I like Varner to win a barn burner over Cerrone. I figure Torres has to get on the right track again eventually, this seems as good a time as any so I’ll go with him. I’m gonna go with Roop over Jung and Garcia to beat Hominick. I also expect Mike Brown to put a win together in his preliminary match.

Hijinks Movie Reviews: Killers

Tom Selleck is great in just about everything, and the man actually looks good with a mustache. Catherine O’Hara is always funny, she can steal a scene at the drop of a hat and always plays crazy and plays it well. Whoever thought it would be a good idea to pair these two as a couple was brilliant. They are one of those screen couples that are totally believable and just make sense, they’re that cool old couple that everyone loves to hang around.

Ashton Kutcher is a good looking man and does pretty well with the funny stuff. The more physical the humor, typically the better he can carry it. Katherine Heigl is one of those really regular looking hot people (that’s how I described her to my wife). She can be funny sometimes but she isn’t really a lead. They make a semi-believable couple, good enough for a movie like this anyway.

Ashton Kutcher can not pull off being an assassin. No way, no how, no in a million years. That’s just the beginning of what was wrong with Killers, notice how I spent the opening paragraph talking about the supporting actors. Join me after the break if you want all the nasty details. Continue reading Hijinks Movie Reviews: Killers

Top 5 Android Apps – Part 1

Thanks to a post on a forum I frequent, I’ve decided to put together a five-part series discussing my favorite applications.  For part 1, I’m going to list my top 5 “everyday” applications, i.e. applications that I use every day and are the reason my wife says I’m “married to my phone.”

  1. Touiteur Premium (Free/~$2.70 Premium) –  Touiteur is my favorite Twitter application.  Since it came out, it’s had the best user interface, and the developers have gone on to make it a full-feature application.  The free version provides many options, but purchasing the Premium version unlocks all the options, and in my opinion it’s well worth the upgrade.
  2. Locale ($9.99 + $0 – $0.99 for plugins) – Locale is my favorite automation application.  It ensures that my phone doesn’t ring at work, but always does at home.  It launches Touiteur when I dock it at work.  It also launches Slacker Radio when I plug in headphones.  I have about a dozen scenarios plugged into Locale, and I can always count on them to work.  Yes this app is expensive, and yes many of the plugins aren’t free, but it’s been well worth it to me.  I did try out Tasker, but I didn’t find it nearly as easy to use as Locale.  I also find the priorty setup of Locale more to my liking. 
  3. Folder Organizer (~$1.35) – Folder Organizer is really much more than the app name suggests.  It does allow you to group your applications into folders for your home screens, but it also allows you to add Bookmarks, Contacts, or other app shortcuts into folders.  Folder Organizer also lets you change the icon and the name of the application, making it easy to theme your icons to match your phone theme. There is a free version that only works with Applications called Apps Organizer as well.
  4. NewsRob Pro (Free/~$6.75 Pro) – NewsRob is a mobile source for Google Reader feeds.  It syncs with Google Reader, maintaining your read/unread status both ways.  While the mobile Google Reader is very good, NewsRob has ways of handling sites that don’t provide the full article in the feed.  NewsRob can auto display the full website, a stripped down version of the website, or an Instapaper version of the webpage if you desire.  This makes it much easier (and faster) to read through my feed as I don’t have to wait for the web page to load.  Background sync means I always have new items to read, and I can even read in areas with no service.  The free version is now ad supported, but the full version is worth it if you’re an RSS junkie.
  5. Slacker Radio – After going back and forth between Pandora and Slacker, I’ve settled on Slacker.  This has more to do with the music service than the application itself, but the app does work well on my Droid.  I found that with Pandora, my stations began to all play the same songs after awhile.  Slacker’s song logic doesn’t run all my songs together, and I can actually keep separate playlists.

These are just five of the apps that I use every day on my phone.  In the coming weeks I’ll list my favorite “stock replacement” apps, “relatively unknown” apps, apps for rooted users, and games.  If you have some apps that you love and use every day, leave the details in the comments.  I’m always on the lookout for great apps.

Hijinks Movie Reviews: The Brothers Bloom

The Brothers Bloom was recommended to be by Bob Sacamano, he said it was an alright movie, kinda fun, good story. While that’s essentially the same take I came away from the movie with… it’s not much of a movie review with just one sentence now is it?

Getting it’s wide release in theaters on May 29, 2009, and found it’s way to the rental shelves on September 29, 2009 on Blu-Ray and DVD, The Brothers Bloom is your classic con job caper. The brothers (Adrian Brody and Mark Ruffalo) are the worlds greatest con men who’s life motto is this: “The perfect con is one where everyone involved gets just the thing they wanted.” They decide to embark on one last big con before hanging it up for good, the problem is, they choose an isolated eccentric socialite (Rachel Weisz), who proves to be a bit bigger undertaking than they’d originally planned for. We’ll get into it a bit more after the break, plot point courtesy of Wikipedia. Continue reading Hijinks Movie Reviews: The Brothers Bloom