Biggs' Zone

A Geek's Cogitations, Conjectures and other Cortical Experiences

Biggs On: The Oscars

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

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.)

Biggs On: Death of MSN Messenger

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

The MMO Times: Snoo Snoo!!

mmotimesheaderIssue 64: Greetings Gamers!! Are you among the WoW gamers working toward your first tier raiding goals as 5.2 draws closer? Or are you a SWTOR player indulging in the latest 1.7 content? Both, perhaps? Or maybe you are some lucky punk in an alpha test of an upcoming new Cryptic title 😉

Regardless, here is some of the latest MMO news for our favorite titles such as SWTOR and WoW. The latest MMO HoF inductees and a potential new title for 2014. Unfortunately its another slow week in regards to MMO news but enjoy nonetheless! (i.e. the lack of interesting posts should explain the completely random title for this issue.)

(I also provide The MMO Times in an e-mail. If you are interested in receiving the e-mail version please click here to subscribe.)

Book Review: A Clash of Kings

A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire, #2)A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin

My [rating: 4]
(Click here to read my review on Goodreads.)

This is the second book in the Song of Fire and Ice series. I think the second was just as good as the first and I’d say it had a completely different tone. Yes, death is still the theme; you never know who will be the next to die. This book also gets a little darker in many facets. Darker will come in the form of “creepy” and in the form of destruction.

When I told friends and co-workers that I was going to start reading these books they all told me the same thing – “Don’t get too attached to characters in the book” because Martin has no qualms about killing off a character if it suits the story and the situation. I think, because of that advice, I read these books with a different approach. I’m always thinking, is this the last chapter I will read of this character.

View all my reviews

Biggs On: Catholicism

DG-Roasry-BeadsIt is a pretty historic day today for Catholics around the world; for the first time in nearly 600 years the Pope has announced he will resign from the papal office. I’m not what you call a “Cradle Catholic” nor was I raised a Catholic. In fact this Easter I will have been officially Catholic for only 7 years though I feel like I have tried to practice the faith while I was growing up and even while in college.

I think that’s why I decided to complete the RCIA program and officially become Catholic. I know that I probably didn’t practice the faith as rigidly as I do now but my morals and values, as well as my belief in God and Jesus Christ, most aligned with Catholicism. Despite all the negative criticism and press the Catholic church often receives, I enjoy, immensely, being apart of such a rich and historical religion. Granted, prior to RCIA, I didn’t realize the amount of discipline that is required for a practicing Catholic but I feel that only enriches my faith.

This post isn’t to evangelize Catholicism nor am I attempting to say my religion is better than yours. I do wish people would refrain from making blanket statements about Catholics and Catholic priests. Just because a handful of priests were creeps, doesn’t mean all of them are. I try to remain pretty open minded when it comes to some of the more controversial issues but in the end its about my personal relationship with God and my religion. What other people decide to do isn’t for me to judge or criticize. Judge not less ye be judged; if I refrain from judging the choices of others, perhaps others will refrain from judging me because I’m a Catholic.

We all want to change the world and the Catholic Church is no different. I think where we all struggle, Catholics included, is that we can’t force people to change who they are and what they believe. But we can change how we behave in situations with those that do believe or live differently. It will be patience and acceptance that will change the world, or to put it more biblical, Faith, Hope and Love.

/cheers

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