Race the Knight: Mario Kart DS with Wi-Fi is kewl!

Previously I mentioned here that Lisa got me a Nintendo DS for Christmas and that I've been really impressed with Nintendogs. We got a few other games here too: Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (which has one of the hardest beginnings I've ever played in a videogame), Super Mario 64 for the DS (still getting used to the crazy camera controls), Pac'nRoll (Lisa's a nut for anything having to do with Pac-Man), and on New Years Eve I ran out and got another game that I'd heard nothing but good about: Mario Kart DS.

First of all, this is a great game in and of itself, even in single-player mode. Longtime fans of the Mario Kart series (going all the way back to the Super Nintendo) will find that this has all the action and humor you'd come to expect from the line. But as any of us who've played a Mario Kart game knows, the real fun is when you play with friends and compete in the race while throwing Koopa shells and Bob-ombs at each other (the one I really hate getting hit with is the lightning bolt that momentarily shrinks you): No telling how many times Lisa and I have thrashed each other playing Mario Kart Double-Dash on the Gamecube. Ideally you and your friends will each have a Nintendo DS and at least one Mario Kart DS cartridge (the game uses the DS's wireless capability to let multiple systems run off one cartridge). But what if you don't know of anyone else with a DS, or what if you do and that friend is located on the other side of the state... or even in another country?

Enter Nintendo's new Wi-Fi Connection: an online service offering free Internet gameplay on DS (and the Nintendo Revolution when it comes out) games that support it. The service just started up in November and there's not many games out at the moment implementing this feature, but there's an awful lot of promise in this, if how Mario Kart DS uses it is any indicator.

Basically, the Nintendo DS has IEEE 802.11 wireless capability built-in. If you take it (and a Wi-Fi enabled game) to most any public "hot-spot" with wireless Internet - or if you have an 802.11b or 802.11g wireless router on your home network - you can access the Wi-Fi Connection with a minimum of configuration on the DS end. It may take a little playing around with the manual settings though: it was two hours from the time I first plugged Mario Kart DS in before I established a hook-up with Wi-Fi. The very first time I tried picking up our wireless network in the apartment, the DS didn't detect it... but it did find two other wireless networks broadcasting the "linksys" factory default ID (here's a tip: CHANGE YOUR SSID when you set up your wireless network!!). I had to type in - via the DS's touch-screen - the SSID of our network before it found it, and then the DS needed our router's WEP encryption key (another tip boys and girls: turn on your WEP or WPA encryption). Still didn't get connected until I told it to auto-obtain both the IP address and the DNS info. Immediately after I did that the DS was able to log in to the Wi-Fi service.

What's Mario Kart DS gameplay like over Wi-Fi? There can be up to four players racing each other, and you would swear that the other three are right in the room with you: it's that good. Now, I haven't won a single matchup yet (I've won a few races but not enough to be #1 overall) but it's still a heckuva lotta fun to race against opponents who are apparently playing in France and Japan. You can customize your cart to reflect your unique identity, via your own racing emblem and nickname: my emblem is a red field with "Ride Hard Die Free" written in black, and my handle is "knghtshft".

And if you happen to know someone who does have a Nintendo DS and Mario Kart DSD, you can give him your friend code to race directly against that player, instead of Wi-Fi simply pitting you against random players. I haven't tried this out yet but if anyone wants to play me, shoot me an e-mail and register my friend code: 111731-598707. I'll take on all comers! And if my track record is any indication, you'll probably beat me hands-down... but I'm still up for a good challenge :-) Oh yeah, and if you want some help in finding good folks to race against, WiTendoFi.com, DS Meet and DS-Play will get you hooked up with nice people that you can send a friendly note to... before you try to run them off the track.

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Media blew it in West Virginia

I don't really feel like posting much on the subject but...

This was just about the most unprofessional behavior I've ever heard come out of the American news media.

I didn't know anything about it until this morning, when the dominating story was the anger at "the miscommunication" regarding the West Virginia coal mine accident. And I heard some pretty outrageous things about how the major news networks handled the announcement that twelve men had survived, before news came three hours later that in fact only one made it and a dozen had died.

They should have waited for official confirmation - either from company honchos or leaders of the rescue effort - before making so bold a pronouncement. And then they should have kept their cool and acted with solemn dignity... even if it had turned out that the twelve had made it through okay. Instead it sounds more like the media made a story of how the media was covering a story that later turned out to be false.

I'm not casting complete blame on the news media about this thing. Bad things happen, mistakes are made, there is some confusion... and that has to be expected from any disaster. But the press certainly did no one any favors by disregarding journalistic integrity for sake of a triumphant headline and higher ratings.

Let's hope next time that reporters from the major news outlets will remember to thoroughly source and verify their information before passing it along to others.

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Null and Void: Thoughts on the domestic spying situation

Five years ago when the Bush administration was sworn in, I remember hearing so much about how "the adults had taken over" after the disastrous Clinton term. There was supposed to be a lot more responsibility and accountability. These were the people who were going to bring integrity back to the White House, we were told.

What we got instead has been the worst destruction of the concept of the rule of law that has ever happened in the entire history of the republic.

It's like this: there is either a government that comes by consent of the will of the people, or there is government existing for its own sake. Under one we still have a contract in effect that was sealed with the blood of patriots. Under the other, that contract is null and void, and there no longer exists any reason why any conscientious American should be beholden to this government at all.

The Bush cabal is exactly like the Clintons before them, if not to a far worse degree. The whole purpose of their being in office is the seizure of power and consolidating the hold on what power they have already. At the core of their being THEY REALLY DO NOT BELIEVE that the American people have the ability to govern themselves. To the Bush camp, the American people instead are a citizenry that must constantly "be fooled" and lied to. They honestly believe that they are anointed to be our masters, and whatever sycophants have attached themselves to the Bush junta are in it only because they like to feel a sense of that same power, however far removed they are from their idol. If the object of their adoration is attacked, they see it as an attack on themselves and lash out accordingly... doesn't that same something about how hollow and petty they really are? They don't even bring real ideas to the table, just their hatred and fear and loathing of those who have the strength of will to think on their own.

"Oh Chris you're being ridiculous! Every President since Jimmy Carter has had the power to spy without warrants!" Maybe so... but did they have authority from the Constitution to use that power? Did any of these Presidents stop to ask themselves if what they were doing was the right thing to do? And if it is not, then wouldn't the real mark of leadership and integrity be to put a stop to this kind of spying without being provoked to do so?

Bush can't be President forever. But his abuses of power will remain far longer afterward. Sooner or later, someone else is going to hold the office of President... and they are going to point right back at the precedent Bush is setting when they do begin using unwarranted domestic spying for political and vindictive purpose. I would give it no more than two or three more presidential election cycles, before we start to see this blatant kind of misuse.

The George W. Bush years will go down in history, I believe, as being the point at which it will be realized in the future that it could longer be said that we were a nation of law, but instead became a nation of men. If President Bush insists that he does not have to abide by the Constitution of the United States, then there is no longer any compelling moral reason why any of us should abide by it either.

So it is that George W. Bush has proven to be a far greater threat to the constitutional rule of law than Bill Clinton ever was.

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A third helping of King Kong

After Lisa got back around 8 a.m. on New Years Day (she took a train down to Georgia to visit her family, I couldn't make it 'cuz of other obligations) that afternoon we went to the movies. She'd been wanting to see Pride and Prejudice for awhile so she saw that, while I was wanting something other than a "chick flick" so I watched King Kong for the third time. And I swear this movie just keeps getting better and better. It's funny: the first time when Darth Larry and I caught it opening night, the theater was probably less than 1/4th full. A few days later when I saw it with Lisa, there were quite a few more people seeing it. And this past Sunday there were even more people still! What do I make of it? I think that King Kong is definitely having long-term draw at the box office, and the only reasons that The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is edging it out for the current #1 spot is (A) the Narnia flick is much shorter i.e. able to be shown more times per day and (B) it has the "wanna see" factor for the kiddies. Otherwise King Kong is holding its own pretty darned well. It's definitely getting good word-of-mouth, and that's going to sustain it for awhile yet.

Anyway, I don't know why but I enjoyed this third showing more than the previous ones. The more I see it the easier it's becoming to overlook the flaws that are in it (which I'd already admitted to in my review the other week). Plus as a "third-timer" now it's just a heckuva lotta fun to go in knowing when to watch my fellow audience members' reactions, like the "bug pit" sequence: the lady to my right got really squeamish when that one happened onscreen! A lot more people cried at the end of this showing too. Heck, I felt like crying even moreso this time.

Don't know if I'll see this movie any more times while it's running in the theaters, but if you haven't already, give yourself a treat and check out King Kong. It's definitely worth five bucks and three hours of your time. Oh yeah, Lisa says that Pride and Prejudice was a pretty good movie too, so I'm gonna look into that one when it hits DVD.

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Good day today. One of the best even.

This has been about the most perfect holiday season I've known in many years, and I'm really hating to see it come to an end. Tomorrow Lisa and I head back to our teaching jobs. We'll keep the tree up for the rest of the week, and then it'll come down until next December. A lot of songs from Trans-Siberian Orchestra's The Christmas Attic CD keep playing in my head, especially "Christmas Canon", "The Music Box" and "The Three Kings And I (What Really Happened)". Those three, along with a few from the new Enya CD that Lisa got, really express the whole range of feeling I had this season.

So today we made the most of it, and got out for awhile. We wound up driving to Burlington for some reason or another, then headed back to Greensboro, stopping at Four Seasons Mall where Lisa got a new purse and I racked up some Star Wars Christmas ornaments (and two Galactic Heroes keychains that Lisa thought were too cute :-) then got a big box of cinnamon rolls from Cinnabon. We got home and while flicking through channels I saw that Time Bandits was playing on one channel... Lord only knows how many people are still in therapy since that first came out a quarter-century ago. As I tried to explain this weirdfest to Lisa she made chicken alfredo for dinner. And then about 7:30 I headed out to pick up a few things from a nearby store before going to my parents' house to watch Monday Night Live. Had a good evening with them and I even wound up calling the show to offer my moral support (long story but if you go to the show's blog that'll fill you in on the raging controversy that has blown this area wide open).

It was on the drive back home, which takes about 16 minutes or so, that for some reason I dialed up Wagner's "Prelude to Parsifal" on my MP3 player through the car's stereo. And it brought out a lot of the emotions I've been feeling the past few days or so. Between some other things going on in my life and the past week especially, this really has been the most wonderful period of life that I've known for some time. I don't want this to end. I don't want things to change from where they are now. But they are going to change and I can't stop that. There will be some bad, I know this. But there will be some good too. And the bad is going to work with the good, I must have faith at least, to yield an even greater good than I can realize right now. Eternal blossoming, becoming something new from that which we have been, unfolding according to God's design... if you've never listened to "Prelude to Parsifal" before, that's what this piece of music is all about. Not fighting the change but instead letting it happen. To hold onto things that will eventually be lost, that's not the way to live the full life. You can't even really hold onto yourself. You have to be willing to die a little each moment so that you can experience continual rebirth and re-creation... until we fully become that which we were meant to be.

I'm not the same person tonight that I was a year ago, or even probably six months ago. That Chris Knight is gone forever. I'm someone who has a lot of his characteristics, but I've also grown a lot too. And the Chris who types on this keyboard a year from now will be a different person then, hopefully for the better.

But however long this time lasts, today was a beautiful day (even if it's been raining and foggy all day). It was just about perfect. The past two weeks have been perfect. And that's something that nothing will ever be able to take away from me.

It's nearing midnight now, and a line of thunderstorms is coming through. Yes, real thunder (and pretty loud too) along with lightning in early January. For most of my life I've heard that if it thunders in winter it'll snow ten days later. The first time I heard that it was 1993 when we had a thunderstorm... exactly ten days before the Storm of the Century. And it's happened four or five times since then that I can recall. I'll make a note of it here if we get snow a week and a half from now.

I wanna make a note of something: I'm quite proud of the "home improvement project" that my friend Johnny conned... I mean, asked me to help him with this past Thursday night. We coulda gone to see King Kong (which I did see for the third time yesterday afternoon) instead we put up shelves in his walk-in closet. So years from now instead of remembering seeing a movie about a big ape, he and his wife can look on those shelves and remember Chris coming over to help. Well, it's a neat deal to me to make a note of that anyway :-)

So here it is, the perfect day drawing to a close. But it had to if it's going to remain forever special, right?

Signing off for now. I pray tomorrow is just as good as today was.

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Happy New Year 2006

So how am I celebrating the new year? I've had the Sci-Fi Channel's The Twilight Zone marathon going on all evening. And earlier today I picked up Mario Kart DS and after finagling with it for a couple of hours I finally got it working on the Nintendo Wi-Fi network. That's what I was playing as the clock hit midnight (and so far my butt's been consistently handed to me by some guys who are apparently somewhere in Asia).

Awful lotta fireworks going off around the neighborhood tonight. I had the TV switched briefly to ABC and Dick Clark's show: Clark did a pretty good job doing his New Year's Eve show, in spite of the stroke he suffered awhile back.

All things considered, 2006 is off to as good a start as any :-)

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Looking back on 2005

Well, the past twelve months went all over the map, and sometimes drove straight off of it. There were a lot of things that happened that I didn't share on this blog, including at least one real tragedy that we're still waiting to see how this is going to get resolved. This blog isn't really an online journal or diary of everything that goes on in my life: it's just a synopsis of my persona that comes out of writing about the things that interest me, or thoughts I have on various subjects, or sometimes when I need to set the record straight on something. But there was much more going on "behind the scenes" that didn't get put in the spotlight.

What to make of it all? For me, 2005 was a year with a number of disappointments and harsh realizations... some of which I've already written enough about. But toward the end this year started turning into something with a lot more optimism and hopefulness. On one front in particular, I couldn't imagine being more happy.

I can't say that this was a year without some action. 2005 saw friends and I doing some pretty crazy things especially regarding the hooplah surrounding the last Star Wars movie. Speaking of which, one of the highlights was the 1200-mile round trip that Lisa and I made to Star Wars Celebration III... which I still haven't gotten the pics online from it, but only because there were so many. This blog was the first place where it was announced anywhere that one of my best friends is getting married. Not long after that I got to finish and premiere my first movie, and Lord willing there will be more in the future. And speaking of that, there was my excursion deep into the bowels of a nuclear power plant to help with some filmmaking this past summer.

Admittedly, there were some upsets this past year. But now that it's winding down, and looking back on it all and what I went through and now that I'm still standing and able to smile about it all, and with all the positive that did happen... I don't know if I would have changed anything about my personal life this past year. In a weird sort of way, it all worked together to bring me to the point that I'm at now, and I'm really thankful to be here.

So... where do I go from here?

I've no idea what to say to expect. I do plan on "reinventing" this blog though, and sometime soon. The way it looks doesn't reflect who I am anymore all that well. I'm probably going to make it more serious somewhat. However, sometime in 2006 is when I will finally use my funniest graphic ever, I think. So there's one or two surprises that I plan on unloading sometime in the next several months.

So here it is, my final blog post for 2005 after several hundred I've written since last January 1st. I'm glad that I got to chronicle most of the madness and mayhem and merriment that took place during the past 365 days, for the amusement of anyone who might happen to find this blog in years to come.

Here's hoping and praying that all of us will have a great new year in 2006 :-)

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Christmas 2005 update #3: Winding down with some crazy Christmas loot

As I said before, Christmas is something that gets stretched out a bit around our place. That's why I waited a bit to report on the goodies that Santa brought us this year...This was taken Christmas morning before we went anywhere. The night before my sister gave me a giant Darth Vader PEZ dispenser: you tilt back the head and it plays the Star Wars theme music. That might have been the best Christmas present I ever got, until 8 hours later when Anita was upstaged by what Lisa gave me: sitting by the tree on Christmas morning was an (almost) life-sized Artoo-Detoo cooler! You can take his domed head off and put ice and drinks inside his body. He also wheels around on his two legs. Inside Artoo Lisa had put some of the Star Wars M&M figurines, the Darth Vader/Obi-Wan Galactic Heroes set, and a complete set of Star Wars mini-busts. Suffice it to say the Artoo cooler has been probably the most offbeat/neatest thing that I got this year for Christmas, 'cuz it's so cute and I had no idea that such a thing even existed until now. I'm trying to figure out what to do with it after the holidays: maybe keep it in our living room as an exotic conversation piece?

Lisa also got me the Nintendo DS, along with Nintendogs and Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (and a nice carry case for it all). She also got me the DVDs of Batman Begins, National Treasure and Apollo 13, and had a pack of Kit-Kats in my stocking. I got her some Xbox and Gamecube games (Dance Dance Revolution Ultramix 3 with the dance mat, Donkey Konga 2, Pac-Man World 3 and Karaoke Revolution Party) and a Gameboy Advance SP, the kind with the brighter screen. Later that morning we also got The Polar Express DVD, the boxed sets of Lost Season 1 and The Simpsons Season 6, some CDs and a complete set of regular-sized Revenge of the Sith PEZ dispensers. Think our entire family got some wild and wacky stuff. A good haul to be sure... but more than that it was all the good times and laughter we got to have together at Christmas this year that made it so terrific.

Anyway, I just couldn't let this holiday season pass by without making note of that which I can show you in a picture. Some things ya can't do that with, but that's okay. Just know that we all had a great time this year, and I'm hoping and praying that this next year will see us able to do it all over again for Christmas 2006 :-)

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The News & Record printed my letter yesterday

You can read it here, and even leave a comment about it if you feel so led. It more or less reiterates what I wrote here last week about how some people's defending of President Bush spying on Americans parallels the arguments made by a prominent German legalist that Hitler was justified in acting above the law.

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Grandmother videogame guru proves you're never too old to have fun

CNN has a great article about a 69-year old grandmother in Ohio who is making quite a name for herself as a videogame player.

Grandma, let me play that video game!

Wednesday, December 28, 2005; Posted: 10:21 p.m. EST (03:21 GMT)

SHALERSVILLE, Ohio (AP) -- A 69-year-old grandmother has become the heroine of young video-game fans and the star of a Web log created by her grandson.

Barbara St. Hilaire plays video games 10 hours a day and spends a good part of her Social Security check on games.

St. Hilaire thinks the blog and media attention she's gotten is funny but doesn't quite understand it. However, she appreciates the free games showered on her by video game makers who want to share in the reflected glare of publicity.

And there are the bloggers she has met online. "I guess this is my form of traveling the world," she told the Akron Beacon Journal.

MTV profiled St. Hilaire, hired her as a video game correspondent and offered to screen her interview requests. It's all been, as her 22-year-old grandson Timothy St. Hilaire put it, a bit head-spinning.

"Well, last weekend was hell, but it's over," the grandson told his grandmother's fans on his blog http://oghc.blogspot.com/. The blog is named for her moniker, Old Grandma Hardcore -- as in hardcore video game player...

This is nothing new in Japan, where for years videogame systems (especially Nintendo) have been seen as entertainment for the entire family, including "seasoned citizens". Now the trend is catching on over here. I think it's a good thing: I can't wait to play games with my grandkids someday! Well I can wait but you know what I mean. I found this story after hearing about it on Gamermom, a just-discovered blog that also proves you don't have to relinquish the joystick just because you're getting a little older :-)

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Meet Otto the Nintendog

Christmas morning I got a present from Lisa that had been on my list since I first wrote about it back in August: a Nintendo DS and the Nintendogs game. The DS is quite a videogame system: I also got Super Mario 64 and Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow and have been really entertained by them, but the DS game that's hooked me most has gotta be Nintendogs. Lisa got me the Dachshund & Friends edition, which looks like this...
You tell me: could you resist a videogame box that looks this cute?

I charged up the DS's battery while we were off celebrating with my family on Christmas morning, and plugged in the Nintendogs cartridge later that afternoon. The Nintendo DS also plays Gameboy Advance games by the way, and has a VERY nicely lit screen... but maybe not as bright as the one on the Gameboy Advance SP that I got Lisa. I started the game and played around in the kennel for awhile, then I picked out a male miniature dachshund puppy.

But what to name him? Nintendogs uses the DS's built-in microphone to speak your dog's name and tell it to do tricks: after the pup learns its name it responds to your voice commands. For awhile I played around with "resurrecting" two real-life miniature dachshies I used to have as digital simulacra, but that didn't seem like the right thing to do by Penny and Buster's memory. And I didn't want to name him "Colonel Klink" either: that name is getting saved for the real brown male mini dachshund I plan on getting someday. In the end, I wound up giving him a good German name for a good German dog.

So here is Otto. He's not doing much in the picture because I took his photo while he was asleep. So far I've taught him his name and trained him to sit, speak, and shake hands, and I'm working on having him wiggle his butt in the air on command. Otto likes to play ball but for some reason he's scared of the stick when I throw it for him to fetch. He's pretty friendly to other dogs that he meets when I take him out for a walk (usually about twice a day) but sometimes he's too curious for his own good (like yesterday when he ate a bag of popcorn that was laying in the street). He's a pretty clean dog: he "relieves" himself just about every time we go for a walk, and I've only had to give him a bath once since we've been together. He seems to get hungry an awful lot though, but I guess that's 'cuz he's still a puppy, although one of the nice things about Nintendogs is that the pups never get any older.

Other than that though, Otto seems to display something that's fascinated me ever since I first heard about this game: he's growing and learning, with some apparent personality. I know, it's like that movie A.I.: "his love is real, but he is not". But so help me, other than having a silicon soul, this pup really does come across as having a real heart from the way he acts and responds to stimuli (Otto loves having his belly rubbed, which you can do with the stylus on the DS's touch-sensitive screen). Put the memory of the Tamagotchi "virtual pets" or the Pokémon from a few years back out of mind: Nintendogs is something vastly more sophisticated... and empathetic. I've seen many examples of "virtual life" over the years, but Nintendogs strikes me as the one that's most hit the mark. If there was a Turing test for pooches, Nintendogs would pass with flying colors.

Suffice it all to say, I'm really enjoying Nintendogs... and a lot more than I thought I would, even. If you don't mind the fact that you can't physically rub your dog's fur, this is a pretty good thing to have in place of a real pet if circumstance doesn't allow for that for the time being. Plus it's GREAT to be able to watch your doggy run around the Nintendo DS screen while it's sitting on the desk as you work on other things.

Okay, time to go to the park with Otto. Let's see how he likes playing frisbee :-)

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Two unforgettable faces have passed on

Some sad news to report: a few days ago Vincent Schiavelli passed away, and it's now being reported that Michael Vale has also died. Who were they? I bet you'd know 'em instantly if you saw them...

Vincent Schiavelli was one of the most well-known character actors of the past thirty years. He first came to prominence as Frederickson in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Later on he appeared in Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Amadeus. Fifteen years ago he had a memorable role in Ghost: he played the ghost in the subway who taught Patrick Swayze's Sam Wheat character how to move physical objects. Not long after that he played the Organ Grinder in Batman Begins, which I always thought was a role that he should have been given a lot more to do with: I mean c'mon, a guy with a Gatling machine gun built into his grind organ is a pretty cool thing. Maybe no one else will remember this but I gotta mention that he was pretty good in Tim Conway's "Dorf" videos too. Schiavelli wasn't just a great actor, he was also an accomplished gourmet chef who wrote three cookbooks and articles for various cooking magazines. He died of lung cancer at his home in Sicily (where he'd been busy directing some plays) at the age of 57... way too young for a guy with his talents, if you ask me.

Then not long after hearing that Schiavelli had left us, it came down the wire that Michael Vale died on Christmas Eve at the age of 83. Vale will forever be remembered by those of us who lived in the 80s and 90s as Fred the Baker, for whom it was always "Time to make the donuts!" at Dunkin' Donuts. So many hilarious commercials that Vale did for Dunkin' that come to mind. My favorite was the one where Fred dresses up as a woman in the aisles of some supermarket before confronting the store's bakery about how fresh their donuts were. Another one had him constantly going out his front door saying "Time to make the donuts!" before literally meeting himself at the end of the commercial saying "I made the donuts!" Vale retired from the Dunkin' Donuts commercials eight years ago, but to this day his is the face that always comes to mind whenever I drive past a Dunkin' Donuts store. In a far more serious vein, Vale also played a jewelry salesman in Marathon Man.

And its sad to see both of these guys depart from us. But they made a lot of people smile in the time that they were with us, and that's worth making a note of.

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Those lucky Brits got a new Doctor Who episode on Christmas Day

So being a fan on this side of the pond who happens to have broadband Internet, I did the obvious thing: went looking to download the episode the following morning. Sure enough some good folks in the UK had made it available as a file torrent, so I nabbed it with BitComet. "The Christmas Invasion" is just plain fun with a big dose of yuletide cheer. It's sort of like Doctor Who meets Independence Day meets Gremlins. Stuff like evil Santas with flamethrowers, wicked-looking aliens with nasty swords, homicidal Christmas trees... this is the sometimes silly but always exciting stuff of vintage Doctor Who. "The Christmas Invasion" is the first full episode featuring David Tennant (who also plays Barty Crouch Jr. in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) previously seen regenerating from Christopher Eccleston's incarnation in last season's finale back in June. And if this episode is any indication, Tennant is going to rule this role: he's the perfect combo of witty, dapper, and dark. I think his might be as memorable shot at playing the Doctor as Tom Baker had back in the Seventies... and that's saying a lot. Those who liked last season's "Aliens of London"/"World War III" arc will especially be interested in this story. So will fans of The Lion King and The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. My favorite scene is at the end of the episode, where the Doctor is putting together his new costume (his new threads look "geek chic"), then joins Rose, her mom and Mickey for Christmas dinner, while this really good Christmas song (that I heard was written for this episode) is playing. At the end of the episode there's a "teaser" for what's to come in the new season starting this spring, which includes quick clips of the Doctor reuniting with Sarah Jane Smith (the same actress who last played the role in 1983), a tantalizing look at the redesigned Cybermen, and something that is sure to bring smiles to a lot of old-school Doctor Who fans: the return of K-9! Well worth checking out if you have a fast enough 'net connection but bear in mind that I've downloaded two versions of "The Christmas Invasion" and the new season's trailer is only on the 500 MB-sized one. Trust me: if you're a fan of the Doctor, this is good watchin' :-)

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Trans-Siberian Orchestra ISN'T Russian?!?

Their The Christmas Attic CD was a gift to Lisa from my parents and I've been listening to it all day: this might be my all-time favorite Christmas album now. I couldn't help but think that they didn't sound all that Russian though. So I went to their website and got a lot more enlightened about who they are. A really unique mixture of musical style, these guys. After all the other Christmas music I've listened to this season, Trans-Siberian Orchestra was mighty refreshing. Highly recommended.

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Christmas 2005 update #2, plus review of Diary of a Mad Black Woman

Yah it was two days ago but Christmas always "lingers" around on this side of the screen for a week or so. Which I like: it takes away from the hustle-bustle of what is otherwise too hectic a holiday. It doesn't wind down for our family until a day or so after New Years... guess you could say we have a Christmahannukah thing going on or something.

I'm probably gonna do a post on some of the goodies that arrived this year, but since there's a few things on the Christmas agenda that we haven't gotten to yet I'm gonna hold off on doing that for now. But that ain't what Christmas is about, not really, is it? This was by far the best Christmas I've had in a very long time. Maybe the best ever. This was a year that saw a lot of stuff going on in my life - most of it I never talked about here - and that it looks to be ending 2005 on a really positive note, I'm really thankful for that. I don't see why I can't keep this good vibe going on long after Christmas, and share it with others. Long story short: despite so many things that went wrong this past year, I feel like the happiest guy in the world right now... and I intend on staying that happy for a long time to come still.

Anyway, it was a good Christmas day and yesterday (which our Brittish brethren love to celebrate as Boxing Day) I went out for a little bit in the morning to make an exchange at Best Buy: I had the Kong: The Eighth Wonder of the World game for my Gameboy, but I returned that in exchange for store credit that I used to buy the Peter Jackson's King Kong game for Xbox. Also got The Simpsons Season 7 DVD set, in the normal box not that hideous Marge-shaped container (my parents got me Season 6 in the Homer head and the whole family agrees: that is the ugliest DVD box ever). Then Lisa and I went out and did a little visiting to homes of family and friends, 'specially those from our church. After we got back from my parents' house we decided to have dinner at Pie Works here in Greensboro: definitely one of the best pizza places known to man (any joint that can give you rattlesnake meat on your pizza is gonna get props in my book). And after returning from that, we watched the newest movie to come in from Netflix: Diary of a Mad Black Woman.

I'd never seen anything by Tyler Perry until last night, but I'm definitely going to check out his other stuff now. This was one of the better movies I've seen in awhile. It was not what I was expecting from the title. Diary of a Mad Black Woman sounds like it could be a comedy - it's a very funny movie, don't get me wrong - but this was far and away the most profoundly Christian film I've seen in ever so long. Something I noticed early on: there's no profanity in this movie, apart from the occassional "hell", otherwise there's not even a "damn" that I could remember hearing. Nobody "gets laid", and in the end this is a beautiful story about forgiving not just others, but forgiving yourself. I'm glad I watched the extras on this disc: like I said, I'm going to have to check out Tyler Perry's other work after having seen this. He's an incredibly Christian man who is trying to use his gifts for writing and acting in a way that not only entertains others, but glorifies God. I've a lot of respect for someone who can do all that. He plays three characters in this movie including Madea: imagine a 68-year old woman waving a pistol around everywhere she goes. It was by far one of the most outrageously funny characters I've seen in awhile.

Anyway, we spent last night watching Diary of a Mad Black Woman, and considered it time well spent, and you might want to check it out too. Will chronicle more of what's been going on this holiday season later, including pics of what Lisa got me, which I haven't stopped thinking about once since Christmas morning :-)

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Christmas 2005 update #1

Just felt led to make a quick note here for future reference, that Christmas 2005 will go down in history as one of the wackiest to ever hit the Knight household and its extended family. Lot of good stuff happening this year: everyone is here, everyone is doing really well, and there've been some neat gifts for everybody. Can't wait to post the pic of what Lisa got me: without a doubt the most offbeat Christmas gift I ever received.

It's been a pretty messy Christmas despite the good cheer though: rain most of the morning and foggy throughout the day. How Santa navigated across all those chimneys around here last night in the denseness of it all I've no idea.

Okay, just wanted to file something to report that all is well. Now quit reading this and have a Merry Christmas or a Happy Hannukah :-)

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