Musings of a Virgin

Another year and another poor showing for Halloween. This is the 4th year that I've actively switched on my front door lights and opened the doors to the kiddies. But as usual I only had a handful of trick or treaters.

The first year I went wild and bought 4 huge bags of candy from Sam's Club (a wholesaler). Let's just say that I was so depressed that I ate more candy than I gave out. And true to tradition this year I bought 2 medium sized bags of candy hoping to give everything away and I got 4 groups of trick or treaters. That's right 4. I left work a little early, came home, donned my wizard's robes and ... got 4 trick or treaters. This year might be my last. Its just not worth the effort for 4 trick or treaters. Heck, last year I got about 8.

I will say that the children are very well mannered. Each year I always say take as much as you want and everyone's so polite! The most they take is 2 handfuls, I practically force them to take 3-4 each. Ah well, enjoy the pics.

Starting Candy	Ending Candy
Group 1	Group 2
Group 3	Group 4

Posted by emyln at 7:04 PM | Permalink | Comments

I posted about this movie a few weeks ago and just had to watch it when it premiered on Friday.
I loved this movie. This is very much a date movie, if your significant other is sappy and likes romance shows, go watch this one.

Its not traditional or main stream "funny". I think where it excels at is the acting strength of the acting and the very excellent script. Definately worth a watch for those who like romantic movies.

PS. Ryan Greenburg is a newcomer and on the lean side, but he really does grow on you.

Posted by emyln at 5:40 AM | Permalink | Comments

Jason Lewis. He first came under my radar in Sex in the City with that fabulous Absolute Vodka Ad and more recently in Charmed. Here's his bio from IMDB:

A top fashion model turned actor, Jason Lewis is from Southern California. As a teenager, he was determined to get out and see the world. He had to work hard in order to do so, working for a plumbing contractor, and 55 hours a week as a waiter in a restaurant. In June of 1993, when finally he had enough money collected, he went to Paris at the suggestion of a model scout who thought he would do great in the modeling industry. Jason did a little modeling and was soon on his way to Milan, where he was adored by the fashion industry there.

Towards the end of 1993, he landed a GUESS? campaign and his career boosted increasingly. He began landing campaigns with Tommy Hilfiger, Boss (photographed by Richard Avedon), Byblos, and Ray Ban. He also continued working many major fashion shows in Milan, New York, and Paris. In 1996, Jason was nominated for Male Model of the Year at the VH1 Fashion Music Awards. Besides all the runway shows, he has been featured alone in an 11-page editorial in the February 1996 issue of GQ. He was also one of the stars of NBC TV's "High Sierra Search and Rescue" (1995), a visually stunning seven part series about mountain rescue set in the High Sierras.

Following this early success, he has studied with three private acting coaches for what he hopes will be a future in film. He had done a guest stint on "Beverly Hills, 90210" (1990), and was a recent addition to the cast of "Sex and the City" (1998).

Once living in New York as a high profile model, Jason followed an incredible modeling schedule. However, his interest in acting limits his modeling assignments to just fashion editorials and ad campaigns (no longer runways). His loyal fans still remember him in the pages of GQ and Esquire in 2002, and the winter 2002 Gap campaign. He is signed to Wilhelmina Models, Inc. Some of his best friends are also major male models, such as Alex Lundqvist (who was also Jason's roommate), and Mark Vanderloo.

Posted by emyln at 11:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

Want to see what Ordering Pizza will be like in 2010? Click on the image to find out.

Some people find the thought of this happening scary but at the same time I think it could be a huge convenience. What do you thinnk?

Posted by emyln at 11:07 PM | Permalink | Comments

Ok, I highly recommend this. When Gmail (google mail) come out, I was not very impressed because there were other mail systems just as good. When Google Talk came out, I was not very impressed because there were other IM (Instant Messenging) systems just as good. But now, there's GMail Drive.

Think of GMail Drive as a virtual drive. As long as you have internet connection, it acts like an actual drive on your PC. Exactly like a Flash Drive. And its a 2.5GB drive. This is the best thing I've seen since... the flash drive.

There are some bugs with it though. I've had some filenames which it considers too long and it is a little slow but that's because its actually FTPing files over the internet, Still, get it try it and try it out, its the wave of the future.

Click here to download the gmail program.
(PS. You do need to open a GoogleMail account for this)

Posted by emyln at 11:06 PM | Permalink | Comments

Despite the fact that I've yet to complete Black&White2 and Fable. This weekend I restarted my World of Warcraft account. The main draw was the new update they added for the month of October. Its Holloween sesason so all the towns are decorated with pumpkin heads and the innkeepers are giving out trick or treat candy once every hour. Tons of fun.
I also had time to do 3 raids and walk off with my very first purple (epic) item. For the uninitiated, World of Warcraft came out in Nov 2004 in the US, and now is in UK, China, Korea. Worldwide it has over 4 million subscribers who pay monthly fees of about $13.99 to play the game. So its a BIGGGG deal, a real cash cow. And the reason everyone wants to create an online game.

I started WOW in Nov 2004, reached lvl 60 with my first character in Feb 2005 and quit in June 2005. Now I'm back again.
PS. Yes my main character is a Girl for 2 very good reasons. (1)People treat you nicer when you look female in the game. (2)The human male graphics makes you look like a total dork.

Posted by emyln at 9:46 PM | Permalink | Comments

Remember the book 1984? The one with Big Brother looking over your shoulder? Well... we're closer than you think. It seems that every color laser printer (yes every brand of color laser printer) actually prints a very tiny mark that is less than 1mm wide on every single page printed from the printer.

The mark is put there by the manufacturer to help identify the exact machine used to prevent counterfeiting. But still its a little disconcerting to know that every color page printed on a laser can be traced to an exact machine. Be warned all you pranksters, Big Brother is watching.

Click here for the whole article.

Posted by emyln at 9:22 PM | Permalink | Comments

Click here to read the article.

Times they are a changing. A gay King and Queen of the Prom were elected at this high school. They are both popular and obviously out and the student body were just fine with that. Oh and the jock was the Queen and the cheerleader was the King.

Good to know that this generation's youth are open minded.

Posted by emyln at 4:42 PM | Permalink | Comments

October is quickly coming to a close, and the games just keep on flowing. The highlights this week in no particular order: BF2: Modern Combat, GTA: Liberty City Stories, Resident Evil 4, Call of Duty 2, Civilization 4, and City of Villains. Not to mention 35 other titles. Not much on DVD, but a full week in the theater with a movie for just about anyone.

What will you be spending your money on this week?

Monday
Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (PSP)
Gunstar Super Heroes (GBA)
Battlefield 1942: The Complete Collection (PC)
Battlefield 2: Modern Combat (PS2, XBOX)
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth (XBOX)
Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix (GCN)
Metroid Prime Pinball (DS)
Midway Arcade Treasures Deluxe Edition (PC)
Midway Arcade Treasures Volume 3 (GCN)
Bible Game, The (PS2, XBOX)
Namco Museum 50th Anniversary Arcade Collection (PC)
RollerCoaster Tycoon 3: Wild! (PC)
Sims 2, The (XBOX, GCN, PS2, GBA, DS)
Sniper Elite (PC)
Vietcong 2 (PC)
X3: Reunion (PC)
Zathura (XBOX, PS2)

Tuesday
80 Days (PC)
Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None (PC)
Atomic Betty (GBA)
Bible Game, The (GBA)
Call of Duty 2 (PC)
Civilization IV (PC)
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (PSP)
Heroes of the Pacific (PC)
Hustle: Detroit Streets, The (PSP)
Lego Star Wars (GCN)
Ratchet: Deadlocked (PS2)
Resident Evil 4 (PS2)
Shrek SuperSlam (XBOX, GCN, PS2, GBA, DS)
Soul Calibur III (PS2)
Spartan: Total Warrior (XBOX, GCN, PS2)
Taito Legends (XBOX, PS2)
World Championship Poker 2: Featuring Howard Lederer (XBOX, PS2)

Wednesday
Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood (PS2)
Ford vs. Chevy (XBOX, PS2)
Nicktoons Unite! (GCN, PS2, GBA)

Thursday
City of Villains (PC)
Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life Special Edition (PS2)

DVD
Alias: Season 4
Herbie: Fully Loaded
House of Wax
The Wizzard of Oz

Theater
The Weatherman
SAW2
The Legend of Zorro
Prime

Source: Evilavatar

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I'll probably pick up Namco Museum 50th Anniversary Arcade Collection and
RollerCoaster Tycoon 3: Wild! sometime. DVD wise i'm gonna rent House of Wax cos I have to see just how bad it is and in theaters Prime get's my money. Reviews for The Legend of Zorro were pretty bad so I think I'll pass.

Posted by emyln at 7:14 AM | Permalink | Comments

Yep. Its Christian Bale again in honor of the release of Batman Begins DVD. He's so intense and focused, the body helps too.

Posted by emyln at 6:13 PM | Permalink | Comments

Have you ever seen bookshelves like these?

When I first saw the first picture of the shelves I thought it was broken. But it actually looks kinda neat with the books on it. So tempted to get a few. Check it out here.

Posted by emyln at 7:57 PM | Permalink | Comments

Boing Boing posted a very interesting article on the 100 oldest Registered .COM domains. Below are the oldest 10, click here for all 100.

1.	15-Mar-1985	SYMBOLICS.COM
2.	24-Apr-1985	BBN.COM
3.	24-May-1985	THINK.COM
4.	11-Jul-1985	MCC.COM
5.	30-Sep-1985	DEC.COM
6.	07-Nov-1985	NORTHROP.COM
7.	09-Jan-1986	XEROX.COM
8.	17-Jan-1986	SRI.COM
9.	03-Mar-1986	HP.COM
10.	05-Mar-1986	BELLCORE.COM

Posted by emyln at 9:23 PM | Permalink | Comments

Its finally happened! Maxtor is releasing the first 1 Terabyte external harddrive, good for use at home or in small offices. I'm exceited cos this is using RAID not the normal Hard drive technology and there's no setup, it uses USB 2.0. Which basically means its faster to backup data and more reliable. Up till now RAID was mostly available only for servers.

The first one is available in December 2005 but there's no mention of price. Ah well at least now I won't have to worry about all the stuff I keep downloading. I've even started downloading movie trailers jsut cos I can :)

Posted by emyln at 5:49 PM | Permalink | Comments

Kids do the funniest things.
Queen Bee or just a funny old granny.
No words necessary, but that looks painful and/or cold
Crazy Japanese
See what happens when people with too much time bake bread?

Posted by emyln at 8:08 PM | Permalink | Comments

As in the music group not the drag kind. The group that wrote the songs "We are the Champions", "We will Rock You", and "Bohemian Rhapsody" to name a few.

Well in 2002 they made a musical called "WE WILL ROCK YOU" basically telling a story using QUEEN's music. Well I recently picked up the CD for "WE WILL ROCK YOU" and let me tell you, BUY THIS CD!!!They put a slightly new twist on QUEEN's songs but its a very well done. And its nice to hear a different rendition on the songs. I'm so hyped about the CD that I'm now planning to vising Las Vegas in the near future to watch the musical.

If you like QUEEN get the CD, you won't regret it.

Posted by emyln at 7:29 PM | Permalink | Comments

Bah, save this one for a rental. Its not bad, but its not really great either. The plot moves slow, and the ending really blows.

Essentially, its about a tale of revenge. Way back when, the 4 founders of this small fishing/tourist town on Antonio island commited a terrible crime. They stole everything from a leper ship and then burned the ship with the lepers in it. They used their ill gains to found the town. About 200+ years later the town is very prosperous but guess who's back for revenge. And so when the mysterious fog roles in so do the ghosts of the lepers.

The special effects for the movie are excellent though and it has the best representation of ghosts that I've ever seen. Tom Welling and Selma Blair both look excellent in the movie but are so under used that its not worth bothering. I give the show a 6/10.

Posted by emyln at 8:22 PM | Permalink | Comments

Remember the horror that was The Dungeons & Dragons Movie? Well, the Sci-Fi channel just created a made for TV special called Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath of the Dragon God.

Its good. I mean like worlds better than the movie. This one actually had a decent plot and used theory and terms from DnD lore. If you're not into D&D its probably a 6/10 but if you like D&D and Sci-Fi then this is about 8/10 all things considered. Hmm... also perhaps the British are better at doing period/fantasy films. After all Lord of the RIngs and Harry Potter, 2 of the most successful fantasy films are predominantly British.Inconsistent with D&D:

• White Dragons can be killed by a Lighting Bolt, a vial of purple worm acid and a sword thru its tail
• Minor fire elementals can be defeated with a spout of water
• Casting spells can be done 1 handed (technically this is possible with feats)

Cute things :

• My personal Fave: Elect a leader and say lead the way, we trust you.
• When you see a lich... RUN!!! (This one I happen to agree with)
• Evey thief should have a Gem of True Seeing
• The female mage and barbarian held off the horde of bandits while the males deciphered the puzzle. Talk about woman's lib
• A universal law - Captain of the Guard are idolts.
• Never send your familiar into a corridor to check for traps
• Its ok to physically handle an orb that contains the essense of an evil dragon god (All the DM's I've had must be wrong)
• If you have a Council of mages - make sure they actually attack when a Dragon invades
• Divine Magic is more powerful than Arcane magic

D&D Specific Lore they threw into the Film:

• The Fiend Jubelex is mentioned
• Ring of the Ram
• Gem of True Seeing
• Purple Worm Acid
• Teleport only works if you've been to a location
• Always go single file in dungeons
• Spells need components

Posted by emyln at 7:46 PM | Permalink | Comments

Age: 26 (December 21, 1978)
Height: 6'0"
Weight: 205 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Black

• Charles Dera.com
  
• Guy Guide

Posted by emyln at 6:59 PM | Permalink | Comments

Well I was interested enough to pay $3.95 to watch Dante's Cove. Its only available via Movies-on-Demand in my area. So what do I think?
Soft-core porn with a plot. The best thing is that there is a plot. Its not just mindless sex. But then again, don't expect award winning dialogue for the show. In fact the dialogue in many parts of the show is pretty cheezy. The Actors are a 50/50 thing. Some of them I can easily imagine watching on prime time (ie. they have talent), some of them should never be allowed to speak in front of the camera. The plot is pretty simple but its just enough to reel you in. Oh and its not just for gay's, there are lesbians in the show as well and yes they have nude scenes.

And don't judge the show based on the first 15mins which is set in 1840. Trust me, some of these actors have issues acting in a contemporary setting. Putting them in a historical setting was... just mean. And I spotted 1 possible blooper. In the 1840's segment, the witch trailed her fingers over a piano that had a huge print that said "Made in USA". Does that strike anyone else as wierd?

Acting	6/10
Plot	6/10	(No worse then some B grade horror shows - [eg. House of Wax])
Dialogue	3/10	(The dialogue is pretty bad)
Production	7/10	(Production quality is quite good. Almost on par with some current prime time shows)
Soundtrack	6/10	(This area needs some work, I dont think I'd recommend the CD)

Would I pay $3.95 to watch this every week? Probably not. But I'll definately pre-order the DVD when it comes out. PS. If you're interested in seeing some detailed pics of the show click here.

Posted by emyln at 6:34 PM | Permalink | Comments

SIS/MI6 - Wanna be a Spy? Well... you gotta be British. See their new recruitment website.

Posted by emyln at 6:17 PM | Permalink | Comments

Click here to read the whole story but basically there's gonna be a new iPod that can play music, watch music videos and play TV programs!!! Its the last thing that really got my juices flowing. FINALY!!! Someone had the balls to do this and despite the beef I have with Apple always creating a propriarity format that can only be used on their machines/programmes, if they implement this correctly, I might just bite the bullet and get the new iPod. Making TV programmes available when and where you want them and without commercials is the only logical next step for multimedia. Heck we're already doing it with bittorrent and DVR's.

My only concern is $$$. $1.99 is a little steep. If the price dropped to $1 then I'd seriously get one on launch day. I figure that if all the shows I want to watch are available for download for $1 a piece, that makes my current weekly TV bill - about $20 a week. Hmmm... might have to cancel my cable to afford this :)

Posted by emyln at 6:14 PM | Permalink | Comments

On this day down under, 37 years ago, a baby was born who would sing, dance and shoot admantine claws from his knuckles. Happy B'day Hugh Jackman!

Posted by emyln at 6:10 AM | Permalink | Comments

In case you've not seen promos for this show, click on the picture to see a trailer. As I understand it, this is a WB type production about vampires.. except the vampire is gay.

I was not really interested in Dante's Cove but this trailer convinced me to give it a try. It might not be as cheesy or B grade as I originally thought.

Posted by emyln at 6:47 PM | Permalink | Comments

Hmmm... Not super crazy about Josh Hartnettbut I won't say no :)

You are going to Marry Josh Hartnett. He is really
shy, but don't let that fool you. He is really
outgoing and sweet with those he loves and will
be loyal to them for the rest of his life.
Congrats!!


Which male celebrity are you going to marry? (14 choices now!!)
brought to you by Quizilla

Posted by emyln at 5:59 PM | Permalink | Comments

Premiered September 17, 1964 - Ran for 8 seasons.

I'm sure we've all at least caught some glimpses of this much beloved TV series staring Elizabeth Montgomery as the beloved witchy wife. Sadly the movie version that was released earlier this year didn't quite meet up with my (and many other fan's) expectations, but that's another story.

I've only watch the first DVD so far but I must say that it was nice to finally see the first few episodes of this series when everyone was still trying to adjust to their characters. Agnes Moorehead as Endora is perhaps one of the best casting choices and I'm glad to see she was around from the begining.

The one thing that struck me was how... un-PC the themes of the episodes of season 1 seemed. This show aired in 1964 so it reflected the social norms of that period. Still it was very strange to hear the husband (Dick York) say things like a woman's place is in the home and that the natural order of things was for the man to go out and work and the woman to stay home to cook and clean. Phrases like the little woman and such were also thrown in and how women enjoyed staying home to cook, clean and care for her man. Elizabeth Montgomery's role as Samantha actually challenged such concepts but it was okay for her because she was a witch not a human. Worst of all was that each episode was intent on teaching us a lesson in morality! What's that about?!

Heck, I'd say that over 1/2 the things in that first DVD would be so heavily censored by woman lib today that I'm almost surprised that have not tried to prevent the DVD from being released. I've never been very political and usually ignore things like woman's lib because it doesn't really affect me, but it's rather shocking to realise how much things have changed in just 40 years.
I'll admit that seeing such un-PC themes and dialogue did detract from my overall enjoyment of the shows but I also know that things do improve, thanks to countless reruns, so I'll forge onwards as any fan of the series would.

From Bewitched to Charmed. Me thinks that progress is a good thing. My 2 cents :)

Posted by emyln at 5:29 PM | Permalink | Comments

Solar Flare came up with this list of 10 more Influential Fantasy Authors:

1. J.R.R. Tolkien
2. J.K. Rowling
3. Robert Jordan
4. Terry Pratchett
5. Terry Brooks
6. Stephen R. Donaldson
7. Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman
8. Raymond Feist
9. George R. R. Martin
10. David Eddings

I've read all the authors on this list except for George R. R. Martin and order of the authors aside I tend agree with the list. Although I think that one author should have been included, RA Salvatore. He started off with the DnD books but now almost every book he publishes is a best seller both to scifi fans and the general public, he's also one of the few scifi authors that also writes screen plays for a number of moves/TV shows.

PS. I'll probably be burned in effigy for this but I think Tolkien based purely on his writings is overrated. Let me qualify this to say that yes I know he is the father of all fantasy generes, without him we would not have the concepts of elves and dwarfs and high fantasy. But as a 2nd generation fantasy reader (ie. I read E.Fiest and Enddings and many more before I did Tolkien) his books based solely on their own merit were rather dry. No flash, no pizzaz, more like a piece of literature (which I know it technically was since Tolkien was an English Lit Professor).

The ONLY spell that was actually cast in the entire trilogy was 'Light' and while the battles were pretty well written, I don't think they quite compare with the battles as written by authors like RA Savatore, not to mention I always thought Frodo whined A LOT in the books.

So I credit the success of the Lord of the Rings movies to Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh's amazing vision and imagination. I'm probably one of those lazy readers who has to be spoon feed because never in my wildest imagination did I envision the awesoemness of the movies with the books that Tolkien wrote.

Posted by emyln at 5:26 PM | Permalink | Comments

I had to share this. Just saw the trailer on TV and I thought it was one of the freshest ideas I've seen in quite a while as well as funny.

The plot is ... Girl meets younger guy, Girl raves to her shrink about younger guy, girl finds out younger guy is her shrink's son.

Check out the trailer yourself. Its got a great cast but you probably won't recognize the guy unless you watch One Tree Hill.

Posted by emyln at 9:48 PM | Permalink | Comments

I'm been waiting to watch this movie mostly cos its the first gay horror movie ever made. 2 genres which I happen to enjoy. Here's the Rant, I found out it showed in Minneapolis on Oct 6th and only for 1 day. 1 DAY! and worse yet it was a Thursday! Almost all indie shows in Minneapolis are aired at the Lagoon theater which is in uptown which is not very "accessable" and a bitch to find parking. After a day at the office I was not in the mood to fight traffic and watch what might be a bad show.

"Latter Days" also came to Minneapolis for 1 day but at least that was on a Friday. I know indie shows and especially gay indie shows don't have a large following, hence the 1 day viewings, but wouldn't putting the movie out on DVD now vs 8 months down the road be better? sigh... rant off.

Posted by emyln at 3:55 PM | Permalink | Comments