Hopefully the loss of Starz didn’t prompt all of you to drop Netflix. If you stayed, however, all you loyal, information junkie subscribers have something new to gloat about. Earlier today, Netflix and Discovery Communications announced a two-year non-exclusive deal to give Netflix subscribers access to prior-season series content. The deal includes content from Discovery, TLC, Animal Planet, Investigation Discovery, Science and Military Channel.
If you’re one of those types that’s more familiar with titles than actual channels, this means hits like Man vs. Wild, Say Yes to the Dress, and River Monsters are all in tow.
So if you’re tired of fantasy or the overwhelming volume of of unqualified reality television show personalities explaining the world from their tainted perspective, why not put that thinking cap on and actually learn something from the folks that brought you sights like lions chasing wildebeest?
Ahoy mateys! September 19th is International Talk Like a Pirate Day, ye land lubber. We figure instead of just talking like a pirate, we help find other ways to help celebrate!
Dress up like a pirate!
Instead of just talking like one, why not dress up like one! There are plenty of ways to dress up like a pirate, some can even be found from Halloween stores. Other ways is finding your own gear and making do with what you got. Askmen.com has a handy guide to assist those who want to make your own costume! For those near Southern California or Orlando, FL, you can always pick up a sword, eyepatch, and a captain’s hat (ala Captain Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean series) from Disneyland or Downtown Disney (maybe even Disney stores outside of Disneyland). Remember there are other cultural pirates out there, so you don’t have to limit your look to specifically one culture. Who says Halloween is the only time to get dressed.
Teaching a parrot how to talk like a pirate
Okay, so, maybe this idea may actually take a while (depends on how willing your parrot can pick up words), but imagine walking around with a parrot perched on your shoulder talking like a pirate.
Build or convert a boat with a pirate theme
Okay this isn’t easy either, but perhaps you own a small boat or craft or even floatation device (not recommended, but maybe you can hijack your CEO yacht). Add some sorta flag (or even a paper print out) and set sails on the water (or pool side) and claim your treasure! If this is too much, perhaps an origami boat or Lego boat with a small pirate flag on a tooth pick or Lego piece respectively.
Geocaching for pirate booty
Geocaching is an outdoor sporting activity where participants use a GPS receiver or mobile device to hide and seek containers or caches anywhere in the world. What better way to seek hidden treasure then by searching for it! You may want to be careful though, as sometimes you may appear suspicious to others (even more so with a mysterious container). There are plenty of applications for phones, that can serve as a potential GPS receiver. There are also many sites with lists of hidden booty and their GPS coordinates.
Learn pirate songs
I think of The Simpsons, when Troy McLure starred in the musical of Planet of the Apes. When the apes find out he can talk, they all gasp “he can talk… he can talk…” and McLure responds, “I can sing!” You too can learn to sing pirate songs! It may be a little hard to find some songs off the top of your heads, but you can always learn the jingles from Pirates of the Caribbean or Google some songs and impress your fellow pirates!
Singing in pirate style
This one can get a little tricky as knowing the lyrics would help. You can then readjust the current lyrics to the Pirate style and attempt to sing it in a karaoke bar or in front of your computer and upload it to YouTube! Be sure to comment with your video if you do go forward with that!
Dubbing movies
This can take some time, but if you can gather up a couple friends (or go solo with variety of voices), this can turn into an entertaining night as you redub any movie with your own pirate lines. Record it as well and share with others (may be a little tricky with copyrights but we’re still interested in seeing it).
Facebook (pirate mode)
At the bottom of your Facebook page, next to the copyright, you’ll find a language option, from there select English (US), or whichever your respected language is, and select English (Pirate). With you can see a wide arrange of pirate language display for you to enjoy, like “Satarrrday, Septembarrr” and “Captain’s Log.”
Meebo (pirate mode)
For users of Meebo, a browser based IM client, you can turn on a pirate mode by typing in “pirateon” within an IM conversation. Now your conversations should now look like an appropriate corsair would use. This should help any fellow pirates if they can’t find the appropriate word. To re-enable normal text, type “pirateoff” and you’ll be back to landlubber mode.
PirateKey X
Swiftkey has help provide a special edition Pirate-talking keyboard application. It works just like their normal predictive text staple, but it suggests pirate lingo as well. Information courtesy of Droid-Life
Words with Pirates
Last year, Zynga was a bit late on the drop with their version of Words with Friends in pirate style. Unfortunately, this was only available for a limited time last year for iUsers but perhaps this year we will see a release to Android as well.
What are you some of your thoughts and suggestions on what else other people can do for International Talk Like a Pirate Day?
Ron Artest recently became Metta World Peace. The last time I checked, “World” wasn’t a common first name and “Peace” wasn’t a common last name. When it comes to middle names, it seems parents have unlimited options. Seeing how a friend recently gave his son the middle name “Ninja”, I’d say anything goes. Here are some names I’m thinking about starting a new life as.
Aaron Joshua Goldstein
I’ve recently become infatuated with Jewish girls and have this notion that many choose to only date men of the same religious background. There’s even a dating site dedicated to helping singles in the Jewish community find each other, jdate.com. Even though I’m Asian, I think my chances of dating a Jewish girl might be improved by changing my name to something that looks Jewish.
John Lee
Ever since I watched The Replacement Killers, I’ve been using “John Lee” as my forum registration name. It’s generic, which means my identity will be harder to trace. That’s very important if I WERE to live a secret life of a spy.
Sir Nigel Williams IV
I think every American fantasizes about being British. We do things like eat fish and chips, fixate on royal weddings, drink tea, and even wear football soccer jerseys. I would definitely need a Roman numeral suffix to convey a sense of pride in my bloodline. Having this name also entitles me to carry an excalibur in public in all 50 states.
Marc Wallberg
Wouldn’t it be interesting to share a name with someone that’s famous? I’ve always wanted to make a reservation or order a pizza and honestly give a name that makes the restaurant go “Wait… is this THE (celebrity name goes here)?” What if the person just assumed I was that person and gave me priority seating and outstanding service just based on the possibility of a great word of mouth review among my other imposter celebrity friends? I say we all deserve to be treated like kings and queens. Unfortunately, I haven’t figured out a game plan if the restaurant puts two and two together after seeing “Mark Azali” on my credit card and not “Mark Wahlberg” and calls me out.
Kevin Amold
Sometimes the cleverest aliases are obscure references. This name was featured in one episode of The Wonder Years when a jeweler accidentally engraves Kevin’s name incorrectly. If you don’t recall, just check YouTube
Get your free Portal from Steam, from now until September 20th! This has been brought to us all thanks to education! Yeah, that felt weird to say, but Valve has teamed up with educators, to help find ways to incorporate Portal and Portal 2 into their classrooms. One of the biggest challenges in teaching science, technology, engineering, and math is capturing the students’ imaginations long enough for them to see all of the possibilities that lie ahead. Using interactive tools like the Portal series to draw them in makes physics, math, logic, spatial reasoning, probability, and problem-solving interesting, cool, and fun which gets us one step closer to our goal—engaged, thoughtful kids.
This is a first person perspective game so for those who get a little nauseous (like me), be warned! If you can get past it and haven’t played this, here’s your chance!
Portal is a single player game from Valve. Set in the mysterious Aperture Science Laboratories, Portal has been called one of the most innovative new games on the horizon and will offer gamers hours of unique gameplay. The game is designed to change the way players approach, manipulate, and surmise the possibilities in a given environment; similar to how Half-Life® 2′s Gravity Gun innovated new ways to leverage an object in any given situation. Players must solve physical puzzles and challenges by opening portals to maneuvering objects, and themselves, through space.
If you own a smart phone or know someone that does, chances are you’ve played Angry Birds. Developed by Rovio, Angry Birds has become one of the most downloaded titles for both iOS and Android platforms. To help perpetuate it’s appeal, Rovio has even come out with variations of the game including a holiday version and one tied with 20th Century Fox’s Rio. Fans can also buy Angry Birds merchandise. There’s even an unauthorized theme park in China. In fact, the game recently surpassed 350 million downloads. Now that Angry Birds has become a household name, isn’t it time we see the birds make a splash onto the silver screen?
Here are some essential elements Rovio should use in the motion picture.
Bullet time/slow motion
Angry Birds is all about projectile birds. The funny thing is the birds don’t flap their wings, they fly like cannon balls. The challenge of angry birds comes from having to aim with the right angle and strength. The concept is old fashioned like a slingshot but that doesn’t mean the movie has to be. The Angry Birds movie should definitely use bullet time scenes liberally within the movie and certainly in the trailer.
Assuming the movie will be done entirely on a computer, producers will have virtually unlimited liberties in the employment of special effects. Slow motion never gets old and it always works with action. That’s all there is to it.
Great voice actors
The face of Angry Birds is the red bird. As a ferocious bird on a vengeance to retrieve stolen eggs, the red bird MUST be voice acted by an individual that commands anger but still demands intellectual respect. Samuel L. Jackson would make an excellent voice actor for the red bird because everyone loves an angry Samuel L. Jackson. If it still doesn’t click for you, just watch Samuel L. Jackson recite Ezekiel 25:17 in Pulp Fiction.
Likewise, the antagonist should possess a very sinister tone that fully embodies the audacity of stealing some animal’s eggs. My vote is for Jack Nicholson. Chances are there’s also an opportunity for a comic relief role and Russell Brand has the perfect voice for bringing the laughs to a well balanced movie.
A great score
The current theme song is cute and cuddly. That works for mobile devices which are relatively low fidelity. Fans will be paying more for a movie ticket than the cost of a game but limited to a 90 minute experience versus hundreds of lost work productivity hours. It’s only fair that the score be handled by greats like John Williams or Danny Elfman. There would definitely be overlap in viewers of the highly acclaimed The Social Network, but what payday would Trent Reznor be willing to compromise his artistic integrity for?
PG rating
There’s no way Angry Birds can receive a G rating due to its destructive/vengeful theme. Rating Angry Birds anything higher in maturity level than PG would be a mistake because it can only hit massive sales figures by appealing to families. If we were to entertain the idea of an R rated Angry Birds, possible warnings would include hard language (when the birds curse after missing targets or confronts those nasty pigs, who will certainly be vulgar), drug abuse (how else are the birds going to cope with the pain of all that collision with pain killers?), sex (there is strength in numbers aka reproduction).
A cliffhanger ending
We all know the best way to hook fans into an indefinite franchise is by keeping the story open. Just imagine if the birds recover eggs only to find out there aren’t actual birds incubating? Or what if the pigs don’t even exist like Tyler Durden? More importantly, a cliffhanger ending would help seal the deal for a blockbuster trilogy.
There aren’t many video game movies that live up to expectations of loyal fans. Could it be the fundamental change from interactive entertainment to passive entertainment? Let’s hope Rovio does Angry Birds justice.
“Real Steel“ is an action drama about a former boxer (Hugh Jackman) who, with the help of his estranged son (Dakota Goyo), gets one last shot at a comeback by building and training the perfect contender for the new high-tech sport of robot boxing.
Official Trailer:
If you haven’t guessed already from the trailer, the inspiration for this film is Mattel’s old Rock’em Sock’em Robots. Instead of the plastic toy counterparts, we’re treated with really cool shiny metal (“real steel”) robots. The film is set to be shown in regular conventional theatres but also be in IMAX theatres. So, IMAX viewers will be treated to high quality special FX.
Although the robo-boxing is the main draw for the film, it appears there will be a strong focus on the father-son relationship. I hope it all works out and doesn’t just become a fancy eye-FX-candy film, like the Transformers film series.
Hollywood seems to keep pulling their ideas from anything and everything. It’s interesting when they make movies from toys that don’t really have a storyline. Such as the upcoming movie, Battleship, inspired by the board game of the same name, looks to be more of a fancy action FX heavy movie than an action drama.
Nintendo has just released a treasure trove of dates for North America for a lot of their games! The launch dates include Super Mario 3D Land, Mario Kart 7, Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Anniversary Edition, and Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. See below for each respected release date and some videos to boot!
Super Mario 3D Land for the 3DS has been given a launch date of November 13, 2011!
A new trailer has been released for Super Mario 3D Land, highlighting some of the game-play aspect (courtesy of Gametrailers.com).
Mario Kart 7 for the 3DS doesn’t follow too far behind the holiday season, releasing on December 4, 2011!
See the latest trailer for Mario Kart 7, showing off many of the game-play (also courtesy of Gametrailers.com).
In honor of the 25th anniversary of the Legend of Zelda series, Nintendo will also be releasing The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Anniversary Edition (for DSi and 3DS users) for free, starting on September 28, 2011 until Febuary 20, 2012.
Finally, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword launches November 20, 2011 for the Wii.
Start saving up folks, its going to be an interesting holiday season for sure!
Starting in February 2012, Netflix users will no longer have access to the Starz line up of movies/shows. Starz Entertainment has ended contract renewal negotiations.
That means, exclusive Starz shows like Camelot and Spartacus won’t be available. It includes movies from Disney that Starz has exclusive licenses to. Starz CEO, Chris Albrecht, cites the reason for not renewing as a “strategy to protect the premium nature of our brand by preserving the appropriate pricing and packaging of our exclusive and highly valuable content.”
One can only speculate how this will affect Netflix users and their experience. Prices for Netflix streaming service have already risen. Upset Netflix users may have to turn alternatives like On-Demand movies/TV shows from their local cable company, or Redbox rental box at most supermarkets.
See the official press release at Starz site here.
Additional information about the Netflix/Starz negotiations: L.A. Times
Motorola’s Droid Bionic released yesterday after an 11 month delay. Does it live up to expectation? Currently its hard to say, but going into it, it had a lot of hype and I mean a lot.
Initial consensus is that the phone is fast, the 4G LTE (if you have the service) is remarkable. The hardware has awesome specs with a whopping dual core processor and 1 gig of ram, the first of many from Verizon. But likewise consensus is that the UI (Motoblur) isn’t desirable, tons of bloatware, and display is just awful.
Motorola’s decision to go with a PenTile screens, leaves a very bad aftertaste for many people. PenTile screen technology is meant to give you a brighter display at a lower cost with a perceived larger resolution that consumes less power. The results however meant that sometimes colors won’t display correctly, and as many consumers have pointed out, seems to look more pixilated.
Still, if the phone display doesn’t bother you, there are many places to pick up the Droid Bionic. Some places seem more ideal than others.
Currently Amazon is offering the phone for $179 with a new contract or $249 for a renewal.
Costco is offering two docks, extra battery, screen protector case and vehicle charger all for $299.
Letstalk.com is offering the phone for 199.99, for both new and upgrades, and even a 20% coupon from their Facebook page.
(Note: I haven’t had personal experience using Letstalk.com, but many Slickdeal users speak highly of them. But like any new website, you should do research and check its previous history, justin case.)
In the end it comes to a matter of opinions on the PenTile display. Currently, Motorola’s Droid X2 and Droid 3 also use the PenTile screens. We suggest you go into the nearest Verizon kiosk that would have any of these phones and observe for yourself before jumping onto the bandwagon. There is always another phone in the future (such as Samsung Nexus Prime).
Starting today, September 8, 2011, Nike is auctioning off the 2011 Nike Mag. All proceeds will be donated to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. For 10 days, 150 pairs of the 2011 Nike Mag will be auctioned on their eBay website.
View the commercial below that features Michael J. Fox:
The Nike Mag is basically the same “future” shoe as seen in Back to the Future 2 movie. Granted it doesn’t have the cool auto-lacing shoe laces, it does feature an illuminating Nike logo on the front. Regardless, all proceeds are going to Parkinson’s disease research.
Alec Baldwin is one of the finest actors of our times. His range is limitless and he’s managed to sustain a career that seems to only get better with age. In addition to a multitude of awards, Alec Baldwin has also become one of Saturday Night Live’s favorite guests. When fans think of Alec Baldwin, one skit certainly comes to mind: Schweddy Balls. The Schweddy Balls skit is to Alec Baldwin what Jeopardy is to Will Ferrell.
In this skit, Alec Baldwin plays Pete Schweddy, a guest on an NPR show, The Delicious Dish, where he talks about his signature holiday dish, Schweddy Balls. The skit, approximately 6 minutes, is a giant exercise in the use of sexual innuendos that would make Michael Scott wet his pants.
The ice cream is described by Ben & Jerry’s as “Fair Trade vanilla ice cream with a hint of rum and is loaded with fudge covered rum and milk chocolate malt balls”. Be sure to grab a pint while they’re around for a limited time!
The skit continues to hold mind share in fans of the show despite the fact it aired over 10 years ago. If you’re unfamiliar, be prepared to laugh. Do NOT attempt to watch this while drinking coffee or operating heavy machinery:
