Getting carried away by the Raptr

Last night when I was browsing my friend's twitter profile, I noticed she was updating her profile with a feed of her gaming activity. Curiosity got the better of me and I followed the link to her profile and discovered Raptr. It's basically a social networking site that "helps you connect with friends who like to play and discover games. Our goal is to make playing games more fun and social.".



I previously wrote an article about last.fm, my current favourite networking site. The concepts are very similar. Raptr detects what games you play by downloading their client and updating your details, it then updates your profile status (e.g. what game you're playing and what achievements you have made in that game). It allows you to add games to your library so people can see what games & consoles you own. Based on your own library and games you like, it'll recommend games to you that might be of interest. You can add fellow gamers and keep up-to-date with their gaming activity and compare your gaming tastes.

I've already recommended it to my oldest brother, an avid PC gamer that uses Steam, and he was very intrigued! It's still a Beta version and has a feedback console on the side of the page, allowing users to give thoughts for room for improvement. I can definitely see this gaining popularity as the gaming industry is vastly growing and gaining more share in the entertainment world.

If you're interested you can find my profile here!

The Silver Fox hits a sore spot...

I was browsing through Dlisted when I came across this video of Anderson Cooper on his show for CNN News. The report is about how pubs and bars in South West London are going to start issues lollipops to keep the punters gob shut long enough to minimise alcohol consumption. The segment leads to Coop going on a bit of a rant about how England and London in particular is "The Most Disgusting Place in the World at 11PM":



To be honest he has a point. It only got worse after the smoking ban as 24 hour drinking law was instated in England to substitute once vice for the withdrawal of another. What is funny is that this was a segment about South West England and he goes on about London, which is in the South East. And 11pm, really? That's when it's getting started Coop, baby! Maybe he's confused because of the time difference because its 3am when things get nasty!

Having said that, is it really a lot different from other European countries? Some other countries just have piss and dog shit everywhere and that's when the people are sober! Americans like to road trip to Cancun, get rat-arsed during spring break and then blame it all on the Mexicans! Hey, maybe Swine flu never orignated in Mexico...it was those drunk, Americano frat boys that probably started it!

If I was given a lollipop in a pub/club, it wouldn't stop me drinking. I'd just use it to stir up my Gin & Tonic! And now Cooper has got me craving Gobstoppers - I haven't had them in ages!

What do you think - Is London really the most disgusting place in the world at 11pm?

"Do you do Pot Noodle?"

After perusing a friend's comment about the Bombay Bad Boy Pot Noodle flavour on Facebook, it reminded me of an old advert for the snack that got banned. This was so funny because the slogan was so true:



By the way, what's your favourite flavour? When I was younger I used to eat Beef and Tomato (but I never mixed the tomato sachet in LOL!) and when I was a young teen I think it was Chow Mein or Sweet & Sour. I've tried many in the past but I haven't had any in bloody years!

"I'm a doctor, not a physicist!" (Star Trek Film Review)

Actually I'm neither. In bizzaro world, ideally I'd be both. In the real world, science is sadly not my forte...

Today I got to see the new Star Trek film. It's the 11th film in the franchise. Now, let me be clear here - I'm a relatively hardcore Star Trek fan! If I was to list the franchise in order of favourite to least favourite series, it would go something like this: The Next Generation, The Original Series, Deep Space Nine and Voyager. Yes, I didn't include Enterprise - that's because it's so pants that I refuse to believe it even existed in the first place, like Pirates of the Caribbean 2 & 3 and Terminator 3.

You get my drift, non? So my review doesn't really go as a cinema goer, or as someone new to the franchise. Nope, this is someone who's pretty familiar with the series...and yes I have seen the rare pilot episode where it's Captain Pike not Captain Kirk and THAT'S the episode that features the green chick!!! So here's my take on it and no, I'm not gonna spoil it for you...

3..2..1...cue deep, broody stares!

This is allegedly the first film in the franchise to be classified as 12A here. When Wrath of Khan came out in the UK, it was given a 15 but it's now classified as a 12A. If you've ever seen WoK, you'd know that, at the time, the 15 rating was reasonable. I found some part quite distressing when I saw it as a young girl. The new film deserves its 12A rating too. This is one action packed film. Seriously, I think J.J Abrams has been taking cue from Michael Bay. If you're a frequent toilet visitor when it come to films, you might want to skip liquid consumption entirely beforehand as this is definitely a "blink and you'll miss it!" type of film. It's definitely one for the IMAX! Not only are there some spaceship fights (you know, phasers and photon torpedos) but there are some damn good old school punch up scenes and even a swordfight...kinda!

This film is not entirely canon with the franchise and to be honest, I didn't expect it to be and I'm glad it's not. To start from scratch all over again was a good idea, especially after First Contact, the films in the series had gotten really stale. Doing this gave the writers/director some leway that they were definetely in need of. Some of the changes I liked, some were a bit weird and some seemed worse in comparison to the orginal series (e.g. the characteristics and behaviour of the Romulans) - but I'm willing to overlook some of the changes over due to its non-canonicity (FYI - no I don't think thats a word but I'm finding today and terrible day to articulate myself).

Plotwise, I think it starts of reltively easy but almost halfway to two-thirds of the way through, it gets a bit tricky. I get what happened, but at some points the dialogue is so quick and the jargon is just, well...jargony that it made some points of the plot line a bit hard to piece together. It's parts that relate to the incident on Romulas and Nero, in particular, the timeline of events. Since I'm probably going to end up seeing it a few times with various trekkies/geeks/film lovers, I'm sure I'll piece it together. I may be alone on the plot trickiness due to the fact that I had a headache from dehydration (kidney bloody stone!), but if you're not to fussed about technicalities then I don't think it's going to be a problem.

The effects are top quality undoubtedly. It's a Star Trek film, it relies a big deal on this. This set design was also pretty damn good, it wasn't too modern so that it alienated the original layout but at the same time it kept to the 60s style without looking kitsch. I have to say that both Zachary Quinto and Karl Urban looked almost identical to the actors who played their previous roles (Leonard Nimoy DeForest Kelley respectively), Quinto especially so! Really, he might as well be Nimoy's long lost son!

All in all, I think it's a damn good film and I definitely recommend it. My only real quip with the film was that I felt that Nero's character need a bit more story to it, I felt that J.J. Abrams kind of dishonoured Bana by making him seem, in my mind, some what of a one dimensional character. However if you love action films, then you'll definitely love this. If you're a geek (but not familiar with Star Trek), I'm sure you'll love this. The real test is with the Star Trek fans. For some it'll sit in the middle, for other's it'll be a complete miss but for other it'll be an absolute hit!

I'm definitely thinking it's the latter :D

Don't get mad, get even...

shit on a...?

The previous post reminded me of a visit to Borders a while back. Whilst The Very Hungry Caterpillar taught children to count, to read the alphabet as well as teaching them about colours and creatures, you might not be surprised then to realise that there are books that teach your children about poo or as my mum always called it: "caca!"

Now a book about pooing is nothing new, of course! However a book about being shat on and then getting revenge on the culprit definitely is! May I introduce...The Story of the Little Mole Who Went in Search of Whodunit:As Grace, Helen and I discovered, this aptly (and somewhat grammatically incorrect) titled book tells the story of a poor little mole who is minding his own business until someone does their "business" on his head. Mole is not impressed and goes on a hunt to find out who did it. He interrogates all the animals, enquiring if the quaintly illustrated turd on his head belongs to them. It's a series of denials however as they reveal (through flaps and pull outs) that their poo looks different to the one on his head.

Fear not though! In the end the mole finds the culprit, and gives him an "eye for an eye, a poo for a poo". I'm not quite sure that it's a book I'd like my child to have if I was a mum (teaching them to get revenge by pooing on the enemy?!), but I really was on the verge of wetting myself as I read through it! Maybe I should get it for my cousin at least...

The Very Hungry Search Engine

Today, as I logged onto my computer, I noticed something bizarrely familiar with the Google logo:Google are celebrating Eric Carle, a children's author who is mostly known for his book The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

This book was one of my all-time favourites as a child (along with Carle's other book, The Very Busy Spider). According to The Independent, the book "has sold more than 29 million copies around the world and has been translated into 47 languages. It still sells on average one copy every 30 seconds.".

I'm glad that this book is still doing so well. To be honest I didn't realise it was such a global phenomenon! In the age of Harry Potter, it's good to know that old school favourites are still going strong. When I was a little girl (and mentally speaking I am still one, somewhat!), I was addicted to books by Dr. Seuss, Roald Dahl and I coveted Where The Wild Things Are. It really makes me feel good to know this books have remained popular so that one day when/if I have kids, I know that these books will still be there for me to read to them as my own mother did with me!