Grevinnen og Hovmesteren A.K.A. Dinner For One
It's one of THE things I have to Watch every year before christmas eve, and it get better and better as I get older. It has been running for as long as I can remember and I've seen it every year since I was a child (well I've missed it two times in my life). Sitting now waiting for it to come on tv so I can watch it on the tv.
So for those who are missing it or have never seen it here is it!
Hope you enjoy it!
I'm holding out for the tv version.
Today I finished the shopping, wrapping and sending of the Jule (x-mas) presents and got a few treats for this time. The box of Ginger cookies, the rib-roll cuts and the bag of mixed nuts.
I personally don't celebrate the birth of Jesus as I'm not christian. I do however celebrate the old viking mid-winter feast. A gathering of the "clan"(family) for eating, giving gifts(or offerings). While my mother might be more on the Jesus thing I never truly subscribed to it.
But this year we're gathering at the house mom grew up in, my granma's house. It's going to be abit wierd as my granma is no longer with us but I'm sure we'll have a good jule-time anyway. Personally I'm so looking forward to the food and stuff and of course seeing the reactions to the gifts I give and what I get.
Other than that I've sorted the entertainment for the holiday as I've bought Batman The Dark Knight on Blu-Ray and Gears of War 2 plus my multiple reading materials.
I started to play a little Guitar Hero 3 tonight after having a discussion about games, Nintendo and guitars with my friend Jesse. I Then got in the mood for some old school metal. So I fired up the old cult classic Trick Or Treat, a 1986 Metal Horror, on DVD.
I have watched that one like a least 10-15 times when I was a like 13, and I have had a soft spot for it ever since. Sure it's cheesy and very 80's and the plot ain't the greatest either but I still think it's awesome. And I don't really care what people think of me thinking that. I am after all a child of the 80's -early 90's. And the appearance of Gene Simmons and Ozzy Osbourne is cool too.
The movie is about a boy at a high school that's the target of bullies that love metal and is kinda worshipping the metal icon Sammi Curr and the rest as they say is history. I don't want to spoil it for those of you that haven't seen it. Because I think that you should watch it. it should be super cheap to get a hold of now. I payed like 3-4$ for it on DVD. And for if you like some good old 80's metal you'll enjoy this. I guess most people growing up during the late 80's have seen this at one halloween or other. It actually ran on tv here last year come to think of it on halloween. (Yeah halloween is somewhat celebrated here too)
Why haven't I posted anything for a while?
Well, I've started to work again, Parttime at the airport, and have been working quite abit lately. Only had time to get up in the mornings and watch the Countdown with Keith Olbermann podcasts before heading to work and in the evenings watch The Rachel Maddow Show podcasts and check the sites I frequent. During the days I've been having off I've caught up on my TV shows and house chores and shopped for food. But it's great to be working again after being on the dole for about 8 months.
Games I've played since the last blog. Well I haven't really had the energy to play much but I've played Doom on the 360, Pinball FX, Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix, the Portal Still Alive demo, The Sonic Unleashed demo and messed about with PlayStation Home. Home I kinda found "meh" so far, I don't see myself using that alot.
And reading... Well if reading blogs and news sites and such count.. I've read some. Same reason as all the other things.
But tonight I plan on playing something and maybe even read.
Hi there.
So this week I've seen two movies, not great movies but good movies. I watched Prison Block a.k.a.Animal and Cloverfield . I liked both movies but I cannot recommend buying them at full retail price, Bargain bin sure or rental. I wont say anything about what's in the movies as you can go rent them and see for yourself.
And I've played some Penny Arcade Episode 1 and some Pinball FX this week and tried some random demos off XBLA. Fun and entertaining and the PA game game me some good laughs.
In the reading department I'm going through the The Amazing Spider-Man Essential vol. 7. And random news and blogs online.
So tonight I've watched the lastest Hulk movie (on Blu-Ray) and as such I'll impart my thoughts about it.
A little qualifier: I used to read Hulk from time to time when I was a kid and I did watch some of the animated movies (you know those made for tv ones). I've seen the 1978 movie(way back when I was like 8 or 9) and I loved it all.
The movie does a great job of paying it's dues to the comics I read as a child and it captures the essence of Hulk. While I didn't have the same "Oh My God! This is epicly awesome!" as I had watching Iron Man it's great. The animation of Hulk are real well done and does bring forth the emotions inside Hulk. I can recommend watching it. And Edward Norton does a good job as Bruce Banner.
I am so glad Marvel has taken their movie development and production inhouse, it shows in the movies so far. I know that there are many more movies in production right now.
The Extras is quite good too and all in HD.
Minor spoilers below:
The cameos of Stan Lee and Lou Ferrigno was a real nice touch. And the end does hint at a larger picture within the Marvel universe.
This is a fantastic Special Comment and I agree with it all. In fact it put into words how I feel about the general gay rights issue. And the heartfelt way he delivered it was so amazing.
I was brought to tears by it due to it's profound delivery and the sincerity.
Thank you for giving love a voice Keith!
In the spirit of the fact it's the weekend and all that jazz.
I stumbled over this funny clip over at Facebook.
McCain getting BarackRoll'd
I laughed! :-D
I've been following the US president election actively for about 7-8 months and have been a Obama supporter from the start. I've been discussing it mainly with my friend Jesse in Chicago for about 3-4 months and also with my mother and some other buddies. And towards the end been watching/reading the news about it, plus watching Keith Olbermann.
Last night/ this morning, I was watching the election online on MSNBC.com. Very good election coverage in my opinion, and also funny at times. I had also caught Obama voting in Chicago live on tv earlier on NRK(Norway's BBC)at about 2:45-3pm. I watched the live stream from about 9pm to 6am(the latter half I just lay in bed watching on my laptop). I was really happy when he won and with that landslide.
I celebrated with a 4 hour nap and buying Obama's books; "The Audacity of Hope" and "Dreams From My Father". Going to read them this weekend I think. Now I feel my brain is about to short circuit. Probably either an early night or I'm going to fall asleep right here in front of the PC.
Barack Obama: Congratulations!
So this week I've read this:
Civil War is totally awesome! It had me totally enthralled while reading. And the artwork is fucking amazing! The craft that went into the comic book is astounding. I'm just waiting for the comic book shop to get Frontlines 1(I already have Frontlines 2) in so I can continue the read before heading into the individual hero stories. I recommend this series with all my nerdy heart. It's up there with Transmetropolitan and Watchmen.
Get Fuzzy is just a funny easy read that basically is about a man(Rob Wilco) and his dog(Satchel) and cat(Bucky) and the hilarity that can be. It's also a warm kinda sideways view into our society. You should at least check it out.
Star Wars.. Does it need introduction? Not really. Well what you're seing there is the first book in The Thrawn Trilogy, Heir To The Empire. And it deals with the aftermath of the movies. And possibly the coolest cat in the Empire, Grand Admiral Thrawn. I recommend this as read for anyone into Star Wars. Also to others but people familiar with Star Wars lore will get the most out of it.
So that's what I've read this week.
I downloaded the Mirror's Edge demo off the PSN last night and played it today. And here are my impressions on it.
The visuals are great albeit the sterile kind. Very clean. And one clean and tidy city, with the exceptions of the springboards, planks and such.
The gameplay actually works real well on the console. I was worried it would be awkward seing as first person point of view on a parkour/freerunning game is a brave move. I found it easy to play yet abit hard to master. Only thing that was abit hard to judge was that one place where you have to jump across to another building and land on the wall pipes. Hard to judge when to jump and the angle to jump.
While these things are positives I still don't see me throwing myself ass first to the game shop to buy it right away. I wasn't that blown away. Though it does seem like a good Zen game, the kind of game you can plug in to meditate to.
Did my hype for the game increase, decrease or end up at status quo? I'd say I feel like it made me move the game off the "got to have right away" list to the "get later" list. Having said that I still want the music which I really like.
Disclaimer: I have recently gotten into reading Marvel and have not read the Iron Man comics, With the exception of having started on the Civil War series. And as such do not know if the movie treats the comics right.
Watched on Blu-Ray. Contain spoilers though no more than a regular trailer has.
Rated PG13 in the USA and in Norway rated for viewers 11 years or above.
Having said that I think this has to be the best superhero movie I've ever watched!
I sat down yesterday with the movie and a ton of popcorn and settled down to a evening/night of movie indulgance. Right off the bat I get the feeling of quality, with a great menu screen with a fully animated Iron Man doing various things and various pictures and such going over the screen on a cool fashion. Right.. Where was I? Ah! The movie!
The movie starts and the opening scene starts in a desert enviroment(the middle eastern kind) and you see a convoi of military vehicles is driving and the music kicks in. And I know I'm in for a treat for my musical taste, AC DC! And here the mayhem also begins. Tony Stark gets caught in a enemy attack and in the process gets injured and get capured. And this triggers the birth of Iron Man as it were.
Now moving away from telling the story, and move on to my thoughts. I was expecting a great deal out of this movie as I'd heard a lot of praise for it. And as such I was very excited to watch this.
And oh my fucking god! I was totally blown away!
I was having a blast watching this and thought it was done amazingly. The scenes were true to a comic book aestetic while being quite fresh. That being said comic books of this type, Marvel and DC (with their various branches), are quite a lot better in terms of laying out scenes than most movie directors tend to do. And the whole movie was a full on experience for start to finish. I was cheering, clapping, smiling and laughing. And to recap the music bit, this movie has a great score and great music.
I have to say Robert Downey Jr. did a fantastic job! Well so did the rest but he stood out above the rest.
One thing me and the girl at "my" comic book shop agreed on; We both love Tony Stark! And we both want one of them Iron Man suits for real. :-D
This is in short a total must-see!
And the extras on this is just awesome! everything in HD, non of that cheap "oh let's just pile the regular DVD stuff one there" crap. Everything done with a lot of care and respect much like the movie is.
So this is just a small resumé of what I've indulged in this last week.
I was at the comic book shop and picked up Get Fuzzy: The Dog Is Not A Toy (House Rule#4).
It's a real funny comic and I recommend it for everyone.
While I haven't played much since my last post I've been out and picked up some proper triggers for my PS3 controllers.
I got fed up with my fingers slipping off so I figured I'd fix that, and these things did! No more slipping off the controller and they are easy to move between controllers.
And for my 360 controller I bought the Messenger Kit cus I got fed up with having to use the controller to type/reply to my MSN contacts, or to get up to the pc everytime. Sure my PC is the next chair over from where I play my consoles but it's annoying to move in the middle of a game. And now I have two headsets for my 360 as well, one black that came with the 360 and one white that came with the kit.
And on the subject of games I've played this week. I've played a session of WoW, messed around a bit with Earthworm Jim 1, GH3 and tested some demoes.
And I propably saw the movie that lead to Heath Ledgers death last night. Candy. It's a really good movie and I recommend you all watch it. I say this probably lead to since from what i know Heath was a method actor.
Played with expantion.
So I heard of this on the 2nd of september Annoyed Gamer, via the E3 Interview about Puzzle Quest Galatrix. I decided to give it a try, and tried the PC demo, which I like but I ended up getting it on the Xbox 360. I played it the last couple of weeks on and off during the days.
I have quite enjoyed the game and it's a cool little title. It's a good casual type game that's a Bejeweled/Tetris and Fantasy RPG type mix. AI can be a bit tricky, but it's good. And the puzzles can be quite a bitch to get through and survive. There's a modern day language used in the game for the most part. And Lord Bane took some tactics to beat.
I got all the achivements I set out to get(12 out of 14) and is now done with the game.
I can recommend it for anyone looking for a good casual title but if you don't like puzzle games stay away from it.
Now anticipating PQ:G
Also published at:
8BitRebels.comI've started to read the Civil War comics from Marvel after I'd heard about it on Annoyed Gamer
I started with "The Road To Civil War" and will shortly read the "Civil War" comic. My version is the issue 1-7 collected into one paperback. It's totally awesome! Thank you Marcus for pointing me in that dircetion. :-) ...I love comics.. I really do.
So this week I've been playing my 360 alot, been kinda hooked on Puzzle Quest. I've got 8 out of 12 achivements on that and I've gained a few other ones. Played a little Gears Of War, the Penny Arcade Epi. 1 and some other stuff too. I did play my Wii a little with Zack&Wiki and some Wii Sports (which I haven't touched for months) and a little PS3 in the form of Star Wars The Force Unleashed and Guitar Hero 3. Not been like super hardcore but I've played more this week that before. But I love to play. Going to play alot in the coming days/weeks/months.
Other than that I've been working out twice in 4 days, doing 2 sessions (1H/45min) of strength and cardio. To get fitter, tone up and loose some weight/inches. I work with manuals (that I can adjust the weight on) and doing other stuff. Who knows, maybe I'll do a hints&tips video at a later time. (no garantee!)
And I've been following my fave podcasts, tv shows and such too. Listened to net radio, Some from Shout-cast.com and Bandit.se. And bought new shoes (about bloody time as I haven't bought new shoes since 05).
So that's a little update from me.
So I finally got it!
I ordered it from Here, based in New York
It took excactly 10 days for it to arrive in my mailbox and I saved 17,40$/12€ getting it from halfway across the planet. Wicked!
So how is it? For me as a fan I had goosebumps. And it delivered. Could just like The Ark of Truth have been longer but what the fuck, right? It's great to see it. And the extras are good too. And I can assure you europeans out there, even if the spec on the box says Region A, it plays on Region B BR players. My player is my PlayStation 3.
Now I need to get to work on completeing my Stargate Collection as I'm missing 3 seasons of Stargate SG-1 and all of Stargate Atlantis on DVD.
(and then it's Farscape and Heroes I need)
Today I got a message on my phone saying my XBOX 360 Elite had arrived. So I got dressed to withstand the gray and rainy day and hopped on the first bus into town. Got off to check if the sneakers I want had come in my size (since the shoe shop had like a good price these days), but no. Which was abit disappointing since I need new sneakers (my old ones are like 3 years old). Anyway..
I wandered further into town and to the game shop and picked up my 360 with Gears Of War. And it's crazy, I payed exactly the same for my 360 that I did my Wii.
Then I strolled to one of the shopping centers and picked up a mini espresso maker and some coffee, to keep my braincells happy this weekend with some good tasting coffee.
And then I as quickly as possible got to the bus back home, just picking up some light food before heading home. I wanted to get home quick before the rain got crazy. Upon arrival I had to think out a good place. I decided one of the DVD shelves was good, so I rearranged that and figured out the signal paths to the tv and speakers. some more remote fiddleing now but that's just fun.
And the Tri-Force?
PlayStation 3 - XBOX 360 - Wii
Annoyed Gamer has a new air time! 12PM PST / 21:00CET. Still on tuesdays. I hope you all drop in and check it out today.
Link that way --->
Heroes Season 3 has begun! YES!!
I am on the verge of getting one. Hopefully I'll get a phonecall abit later today that they've gotten my Elite in (I need the HDD space plus it's sexy black). I did find the game Kameo for 10$/6€ last week, which is a total bargain. I was in town yesterday and picked up the WiFi adaptor for it.
So last night I was watching Annoyed Gamer. Now shareing Teh Awesome.
To all PC gamers out there let's fight DRM! Seriously! Why the fuck do they put it on games that we PAY for?! I have no problem with a game requireing an online verification before you can play it but DRM has got to go. I'm not going to share my games. Buy your own damn games! I did so can you!
What is DRM you ask? Well it is a limitation on how many times you can install a game. usually 3 times.Which is all kinds of fucked up. What if your maching has a major crash, or you decide to reformat and change OS? or for whatever other reason you need to reinstall it. Or if you buy a new computer and wants to continue playing there?
I have begun asking if a game has it before buying a game.
And to those that pirate games: FUCK OFF! And that applies to both those that uploads them and those that downloads them. YOU are the reason all this crap is dumped on us that buy it.
So the last two days I've been at my late grandmom's house, that has now been taken over by my mom(and my stepdad). And now they are renovating it top to bottom. And in that regard I've been there to help them out abit.
My mom came and picked me up at about 12:30pm, then we went to the shop near here and picked up the needed food for the "project". Then we we took on the two hour drive there. Upon arrival we had a quick lunch and some coffee.
Then me and my mom went upstairs and sorted and tossed a shit load of stuff. Three bedrooms worth of furniture and old crap. Which mostly got tossed out the window. The end result looking abit like this:
Then we had another coffee break, With cake and simply had a breather. After the break was over me and my mom took the bags and put them ready to be put in the barn. Then we dragged&carried the rest down to the beach(not the white and sandy kind). Which was many walks up and down a steep kinda slippery hill. When we were done with that we sat down and had a breather, before we took all the bags up to the barn. Plus some other crap we took up there.
The we had dinner while waiting for the tide to go out. We had porkchops with potatoes and veggies and bernaise sauce. Yummy! Then we had almond pudding with raspberrysauce for dessert. Then chilled for a bit.
We(me, my mom and stepdad) went down to the beach and burned the old furniture. And looked out to the dark sea and and got some fresh air. The fire was kinda awesome.
Then we went back up at about 10:30pm and called it the night.
I slept alone in the house that night while they slept up in their caravan. Lay in bed playing Sudoku on the DS until I fell a sleep. Woke up at about 9:30am, went downstairs and made coffee and made a fire in the oven to heat the house back up. Had breakfast and such. Then we packed down the stuff, they didn't want and that my aunts and uncles might want from the living room and tossed away everything broken. I grabbed some of stuff that I brough home. Plus we moved the bed I slept in to a different room. to make space for future renovation plans.
Then we had dinner and rested for a bit. Then we went through the kitchen in the same manner as the living room. Plus we washed abit. Then at about 5pm me and my mom headed back into town.
I got back home at about 7pm and sat down at the pc right away. and put on the heat. And discovered the lighttube in the bath had gone, couldn't be arsed to go down to the shop and buy a new one. Too fucking tired to do anything. So my bath is lit with a tea candle, cosy but very dark.
Now just sitting on my arse and being online. My hand hurt abit, probably a minor stretch. Not going to do a damn thing now.
From Gamer.no.
If we are to believe the salesfigures for the first half of the year, we are heading towards another record year for the norwegian games market.
Norsk Spill- og Mulitmediaforening (Norwegian Games&Multimedia assosiation) has delivered the turnover numbers from the games industry for the first half of 2008, and can brag about that as a whole the industry has had a increase of 16,6% compared to the same time period of last year.
Which makes the norwegian game market head to another record year. The industry has sold for 231 million NOK (about 41 million USD) during the first half of the year.
As per usual NSM has also published statistics over the various formats on the market, and the number show that the PlayStation 3 has taken the torch from the Playstation 2, which is the console that has sold the most games in this country.
Totally the PlayStation 3 has taken a 31% marketshare, while the X-Box 360 has 17,7% and the Wii has 14,2%. It is worth noticing that MicroSoft don't release their salesnumbers so the 360's real share is probably somewhat higher.
PC sales has had a marked downfall since last year, something that might be due to a lack of big titles (World of Warcraft Burning Crusade demolished all other competitors last year)
PC made up 15,2% of the norwegian market in sales. NSM only register sales over the counter and not the ever increasing digital download sales (Steam, Direct2Drive etc.)
Of the handheld systems the DS is leading the pack with a 9,5% of the total market. PSP is struggling hard with only 1,5%, while the old PS2 is still doing good with 11,2%.
Notes:
The Pie chart in article is showing marketshare.
This is a direct translation of the article which I did to share these numbers as they might be of interest. Especially in looking at the differences between nations and regions.
I take only credit for translation all other credits go to Joachim Froholt the writer of the original article.
I got it off the PSN as I own a Playstation 3.
I have played it abit and I'm really pleased with how it feels to play and the visuals are great. The game feels like the old Star Wars movies (Ep. 4-6) and the controls are tight. Having tried it I can say that my interest has gone from "this looks like a great game", to getting my Star Wars fangirl heart pumping. I have become truly stoked about it and I now want the game!
I'm going to play this demo some more though the weekend but I'll just arrive at the same point:
I WANT IT!
Tonight I got my first trophy.
Game: Super Stardust HD
Trophy: Close Encounters (Survival: Survive 45 seconds without fireing any weapon)
I saw the trailer for the movie about three weeks ago and I just had to read the comic before the movie hit. Yes I know I'm late for the party so to speak. And on that note I have to share my thoughts on it.
I am thoroughly surprised by the depth in this comic and how the story, that's set in a alternative reality 1985 U.S.A. (for the most part), resonate with the world today.It is a great commetary on the state of the world. Sure it's set in a sort of bizzaro reality it could well be happening here. I feel this is the best comic I've read since I read Transmetropolitan! And both address the "What the fuck is going on in the world?" question.
I spent many hours getting though it, mostly because I stopped many a time to admire the art style and work. And the articles, anecdotes and essay style writings between the chapters made this a really different read than any other comic I've read in my life. And it's been a long time since I've been this enthralled by a story. I've litterally spent this weekend getting through it and put away everything else.
This is a masterpiece! A must-read for anyone into reading. Actually this might turn you on to reading in general.
My one worry for the movie is that it will fall sort of capuring the essence and depth of both the characters and the story. But having read the comic I'm really looking forward to watching it. Plus it's co written by David Hayter, the man who wrote X-Men and has the voice of Solid Snake in the Metal Gear Solid games. So we'll see if he and his writing partner Alex Tse has the skills to bring this story to a movie form. And it's directed by Zach Snyder the man who did 300. I'll take a wait and see approach to the movie.
Now the comic has been polished up and put back in it's plastic protector and back into it's righfull place in my shelf. This is a comic I will take good care of.
The end of another week. Pretty uneventful week in my life. Nothing major happened.
Bought a new webcam which has some fun and useful features. Logitech Sphere MP. Will be using it to make videos (both silly and serious ones) and to keep in touch with friends out of town.
I've trained abit, working off those unwanted kilos/pounds and inches.
And played abit, Portal, and shooters for the most part.
Going to my cousin's kid's babtism this sunday. Going to be one of those meet the relatives and other people whom I don't know things. Free cake ;-)
Link that way ----->
This show is a must for all you serious gamers out there.
Airs/Streams at 3PM PST(California) / 24:00 CET(Europe) LIVE
See list of people I support for link.
This guy will tell it like it is and you can participate during the live cast. And be informed about stuff you may not know. And maybe become part of the show. I plan on doing that if I get something to rant about that I need more than mere text to articulate.
Join the site and subscribe.
I tell you this is great and you'll love it!
Here's a preview:
So why am I here and why did I create this blogsite?
Well I wanted a place to write out what's on my mind and get stuff off my chest. And do it somewhere I can be my own moderator. To have full freedom in my ramblings as it were. And to improve on my writing skills.
Here I will over time publish my reviews, rants, thoughts, opinions and other stuff.
I rated it R to show that the content may not be suited for kids. So don't come moaning about being offended or any such thing.
I will be back.
