Biggs' Zone

A Geek's Cogitations, Conjectures and other Cortical Experiences

Habemus Papam!

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On March 13, 2013

In General Cogitation

Vatican PopeWhiteSmoke313

Image from Fox News

“We Have A Pope!” As a Catholic I will remember March 13, 2013 as the day I witnessed a very blessed and time-honored tradition of the election of a new Pope. As I sat and watched the live feed of St. Peter’s Square the energy of the crowd gathered outside the balcony was palpable! I think what was most incredible, and perhaps indicated a sense of divinity, was that I felt connected with all those people in the square and all the Catholics around the world as we watched an important event in our history.

Pope Francis I was elected by Divine Will on the second day of conclave after the historical resignation of Pope Benedict. Pope Francis was the first pope to be elected from outside of Europe in 1300 years. He was a Cardinal from Argentina.

Another aspect about this election that I think is quite miraculous is how such an event brings so many people together including those that are not even Catholic. The live feed that I was watching also had a live twitter feed and several tweets were from people, who were not Catholic, expressing a sense of connection. It isn’t coincidence that I wasn’t the only who felt the connection.

I like our new pope. I’m excited to see what he will do for the church. I’m sure all the folks who like to target the Catholic Church will be finding anything to mock and criticize Pope Francis. I will pray for a successful and blessed papacy as he leads the Catholic Church into the future.

Biggs’ Cinema Scoop: First!

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On March 6, 2013

In Cinema Scoop, Movies

at_the_movies(New category of Biggs cortical cogitations – in these posts I am going to talk about some of the latest noteworthy minutiae in cinema. Movies are my second favorite pastime. I love the movie making process from acting to lighting, special effects, soundtrack and cinematography. If you like movies, I hope you find these tidbits interesting as well.)

First!

This is going to be the most difficult post I think because there is so much movie news I’ve been reading that I don’t know what I want to talk about. I know that if I try to cram it all into a post I will bore you all to tears! I don’t want to do that, I want you to be interested enough to read everything and to come back and read future posts. I will try to limit it to only the most recent movie news I’ve heard.

Angelina Jolie Probably Not Lara Croft in Reboot – The rumor mill has churned out another tidbit; there is going to be a Tomb Raider reboot and it doesn’t look like Lara Croft will be reprized by Angelina Jolie. The producers want a younger Lara Croft and while I thought Jolie fit the profile, I think if they pick the right person I don’t see a problem. Many didn’t like the original movies so perhaps a reboot will be better, it worked a little bit for the Hulk movie (the one starring Eric Bana).

Christian Bale reprising Batman – No, this isn’t going to be another movie in the Dark Knight series. I believe its been confirmed that he will be playing Batman in the upcoming Justice League movie opposite Henry Cavill as Superman. Of all the actor’s that portrayed Batman (excluding Adam West because he’s in a class all his own) I’d say Christian Bale is probably my favorite if not tied with Michael Keaton. As long as the Justice League movie is done right, this will be awesome.

Hamill, Ford & Fisher Confirmed for Next Star Wars Film – Don’t get your Star Wars dungarees in a bunch, they won’t be the main characters of the next film. While nobody has officially confirmed anything, my belief is that they will play secondary roles. In fact the story of Episode VII will probably be focused on Han and Leia’s kids and, in my opinion, it makes sense that Fisher and Ford return to portray the parents, and Hamill as the Obi-Wan-like uncle to provide continuity with the previous films.

Harrison Ford Is Kind of a Big Deal! – Speaking of Harrison Ford, it looks like he has been cast to appear in the Anchorman sequel. I. Think. That’s. Awesome! I wonder if he is going to play the rival anchorman, which I heard was the plot of the sequel. I may be risking my man-card here, but I really liked him in the movie Morning Glory as the gruff, hard-nosed and washed-up news anchor forced to pander to a more lighthearted audience. “A hot pan makes the eggs fluffy.”

All right, folks, I’m going to stop there. Again I don’t want to overwhelm you with too much movie gossip. I hope to be able to keep doing this post so I would really appreciate some feedback.

The MMO Times: The Thunder King Cometh

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On March 4, 2013

In Gaming, MMO Times, MMORPG

mmotimesheaderIssue 66: Greetings Gamers! If you’re playing WoW then you know that Tuesday is/was patch day and you may need something to read while waiting for the servers to come back online. There is also the chance that nothing will be working once they do, though Blizzard has been better lately about keeping the realms stable on patch days.

So if you’re looking for something to read you can check out this issue which contains the patch notes for the WoW patch but also a Star Trek Online teaser, Blizzard PAX news, and some more information on Age of Wushu and the Guild Wars 2 February patch. Read on and game on, friends.

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Biggs On: The Oscars

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On February 26, 2013

In Biggs On, Movies

film_reelI didn’t watch the Oscars this year, honestly it’s been several years since I have actually sat down and watched them like I use to. I wanted to watch some of my favorite movies potentially win the most prestigious award in the movie industry; I don’t want to hear George Clooney or some documentary troglodyte use their acceptance speech to soapbox some political agenda. When it became about politics, it stopped being interesting. We all know the primadonnas in Hollywood have their skewed and obscene opinions about certain political issues. Oscar night is not the forum for that because I. Don’t. Care.

Be that as it may, I am considering watching them again. This year was perhaps the first year where all the nominees for Best Picture were all movies I had seen or heard of and were actually good movies. I do wish I had watched them this year because of the brouhaha and alleged calamity of having Seth MacFarlane as the host. As I’ve been saying the past couple of days, if you have the creator of Family Guy host your show then you shouldn’t be shocked by lewd and crass commentary. Everything that I have heard about his comments and antics I thought sounded pretty damn funny.

The movies have always fascinated me. How they’re made from sound to cinematography; blending reality with computer animation; watching new actors and actresses come out of their comfort zone and blow us all away. I’m honestly still holding out hope that the Academy will pick Mila Kunis for a nomination. Her performance in Black Swan alone should have been worth a nod.

If the Oscars start to become more about glamour and goofs; honor and tributes; a night to be remembered not only for who won but also about who was honored (ex: 50 years of Bond) and having the humility to laugh at ourselves (ex: Side Boob!), then I will start watching again. I use to participate in the prediction contests every year, and a couple years I came pretty close to winning. I’d like to be able to do that again and its all because of Seth MacFarlane 🙂

/cheers

The MMO Times: Sha of Happiness Edition

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On February 22, 2013

In Gaming, MMO Times, MMORPG

mmotimesheaderIssue 65: Hello again, Gamers! The past couple of weeks it seemed horribly difficult to find interesting news to provide but it has all changed the past couple of days. Between Sony’s unveiling of the Playstation 4 and PAX just around the corner, there was no shortage of announcements, new features and trailers.

We have some more news on SWTOR and Marvel Heroes to check out, exciting news if you are a PS3 and Diablo III fan, and the return of BlizzCon! Now that Bungie has separated from Micro$oft, they are entering the MMO arena … no, its not another Halo MMO. Check it out!

(If you are interested in receiving the e-mail version please click here to subscribe.)

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Biggs On: Death of MSN Messenger

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On February 21, 2013

In Biggs On, Microsoft, Technology

windows-crackMicrosoft, in their infinite wisdom, announced recently that by the end of tax season their legacy instant messenger system, MSN Messenger (now called Windows Live), will be shutdown permanently. Anyone with a Windows Live/MSN Messenger account will be automatically converted to a Skype account (and anyone with both, the accounts will be merged). The impending doom date is April 15th (originally set for early March).

In part, I’m not terribly surprised. Microsoft loves to force their products down everyone’s throats. I don’t have a Skype account, I’ve never been a big fan of it even before M$ bought it. I always found FaceTime to be a better product. The problem is, I don’t use the MSN client, I use a third party client that allows me to connect to multiple messenger clients. So far there are no indications that M$ will make Skype compatible with third party client apps. If this is the case then I will have to give up using that account. I have no need to use more than one client and instead of being forced to use their “crap-tastic” bastardization of an already inferior product, I’d rather just stop using it.

We are still a little more then six weeks away from the change so hopefully someone in their marketing department grows a brain and realizes they could be ostracizing a potentially large portion of their user base.

/cheers

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