Hijinks Inc.

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  • The MMA Minute – UFC Fight Night: Marquardt vs. Palhares

    Fight Nights are always a chance for the UFC to offer a fighter a chance to rebound and move up in his division. They’re also a great chance to see some of the up and coming fighters, typically paired against foes to display their skills, or given an equal opponent to see if they have the chutzpah they think they do.

    This is a card that offers a little of both. Nate Marquardt was expected to use Chael Sonnen as a jumping off point for a re-match with Anderson Silva. Sonnen instead advanced past Marquardt and nearly took down The Spider on his own. Efrain Escudero and Charles Oliveira are both fighters on their way up in the Lightweight division, and will try to use each other as proof they are ready for bigger names and opponents. Here’s your card with picks after.

    Main card

    I just can’t see Marquardt letting Palhares beat him, so I’m sticking with him. The Escudero and Oliveira match is difficult to pick, but I think I’m leaning slightly toward Efrain to move up the ladder. After that, I’m going with the Millers (no relation) in their respective matches. Don’t forget that the 12th season of The Ultimate Fighter kicks off immediately following the fights.

  • Boxee Box pre-orders are a go

    Boxee Box pre-orders are a go

    It’s common knowledge that I’m a fan of Boxee as a software solution, but running a computer just for my TV is a little excessive, even for me. Enter the Boxee Box.

    Awhile back Boxee teamed up with D-Link to  work on a hardware solution, it was so long ago, I’d almost forgot it was in development. But it’s finally time to pull out your wallets and pre-order at Amazon. The Boxee Box is capable of 1080p playback over a wireless or wired connection,  supports playback from network locations, SD cards, or USB attached storage. And of course various streaming services like Netflix.

    The supported file formats are pretty impressive, even rocking Flash support.

    • Audio Formats: MP3, WAV/PCM/LPCM, WMA, AIF/AIFF, AC3/AAC, OGG, FLAC, DTS, Dolby Digital/Dolby True HD
    • Video Formats: Adobe Flash 10.1, FLV/On2 VP6 (FLV/FV4/M4V), H.264 AVC (TS/AVI/MKV/MOV/M2TS/MP4), VC-1 (TS/AVI/MKV/WMV), MPEG-1 (DAT/MPG/MPEG), MPEG-2 (MPG/MPEG/VOB/TS/TP/ISO/IFO), MPEG-4 (MP4/AVI/MOV), DivX 3/4/5/6 (AVI/MKV), Xvid (AVI/MKV), WMV9 (WMV/ASF/DVR-MS)
    • Image Formats: JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, TIFF
    • Playlist Formats: M3U, PLS, WPL
    • Subtitle Formats: SRT, SUB, SSA, SMI, ASS

    I’m seriously considering one to replace the 4yo MacBook Pro that’s running my media center right now.

    [ Pre-order the Boxee Box ]

  • Hijinks Movie Reviews: The Bounty Hunter

    I’m really not sure why I like Gerard Butler so much, outside of 300 I really haven’t cared for many of his movies (although I guess I enjoyed Law Abiding Citizen too). But I definitely haven’t been a huge fan of his romantic comedies. There’s just something about him that makes me want to keep seeing his movies, maybe he just comes across as a regular guy’s guy? Maybe I like his accent? I just really can’t remember what interested me about The Bounty Hunter, whatever the case, I sat down and watched it recently with my wife… maybe she likes his accent?

    Here’s your specifics for the film, released in theater March 19, 2010 and on DVD & Blu-ray on July 13, 2010. We’ll get into the movie a bit more after the jump. (more…)

  • T.W.I.S.T. for September 5-12

    Let’s face it, all the news I was going to talk about yesterday was football related anyway… so why bother posting a brief line or two about semi-interesting stories, and then turn around on Monday with another post to talk about all the football that was played yesterday. So at least during the football season, T.W.I.S.T. will be moved to Mondays, so that I can recap some of the football that has just been played along with any other worthwhile news from the sports world.

    Before we jump into the football, I should point out that Chicago is trying to put together a deal to get Carmelo Anthony out of Denver. Their trio of Rose, Boozer, and Melo would be a very interesting match to the trio in Miami (Bron-Bron, D-Wade, and Bosh). Oh, and I should also throw in that the new look Team USA is surprisingly close to a title at the World Basketball Championship. Alright, enough about basketball, let’s move on to the important stuff.

    Let’s go way back to September 6, when Boise State met Virginia Tech. My pick for national champion almost went out the door in week 1! But after taking a big lead early and then getting knocked around for awhile, Boise was able to survive and hold onto the chance for a title shot, beating VT 33-30. However, any good vibes they get from that game was probably canceled out the very next week when Virginia Tech turned around and lost to Division 2 opponent James Madison 21-16.

    In other college football news, Michigan QB Denard Robinson is clearly the front runner for Heisman out of the gate. He finished Saturday, against Notre Dame, with 502 yards total offense including 258 yards rushing on 28 carries, one of those carries being an 87-yarder for a TD, the longest run in Notre Dame’s stadium… ever. This guy is sick, you really need to take some time to watch him play if you get a chance.

    In semi-local/national sports news, the Omaha Nighthawks signed a few of the late NFL cuts, most notably former Pro Bowler Cato June. Omaha put together a really solid roster for a first year team (QB Jeff Garcia, RBs Ahman Green and Maurice Clarett among others), it will be interesting to see how it translates to the field.

    Probably the biggest story out of week 1 in NFL action is the screw job Detroit got in Chicago. WR Calvin Johnson clearly caught the ball, even landing on both feet in the endzone and transferring possession from one hand to another before falling to the ground (all in bounds). But because he let the ball go after it hit the ground, he didn’t “finish the series” that is required to display possession, and it was ruled incomplete. Sure, the call was correct by the rule, but the rule needs to have some area to account for situations like this. If a running back can dive for the end zone and fumble the ball as it hits the goal line, and have it count for a TD… that catch should have counted.

    Oh, and for the games tonight, New York Jets vs. Baltimore Ravens and San Diego Chargers vs. Kansas City Chiefs, I pick the Jets and Chargers to win.

  • Quick Tip: Get That Song Out Of Your Head

    I ran across this the other day, and just had to share it. We’ve all had that song stuck in our head… happened to hear one of those terrible pop songs on the radio, perhaps in a store or a movie. Once you hear it, you can never unhear it, right? WRONG!

    I present to you, Unhearit.com. Here’s their quick blurb:

    We created this site for those of you that have a song stuck in your head and you can’t get it out no matter what you do. Using the latest techniques in reverse-auditory-melodic-unstickification technology, we’ve been able to allow our users to “unhear” songs by hearing equally catchy songs. So all we’re doing is making you forget your old song by replacing it with another one… sorry.

    I gave it a whirl and the first 5 songs I got were:

    1. Barbie Girl
    2. Macarena
    3. some sort of strange Single Ladies/Andy Griffith Mix
    4. Never Gonna Give You Up (I got Rick-Rolled!)
    5. I’m Just A Girl

    It worth a play or two, just to laugh at the songs it conjures up if nothing else.