I found out a few days ago that Netflix and Microsoft have teamed up to provide downloadable movie to the Xbox 360. Netflix already allows its subscribers to watch some movies instantly through the Internet, but the service is only available through a computer using Internet Explorer. By providing the content through an Xbox 360, users can now watch movies instantly on a big-screen TV on their couch, instead of on a monitor at their desk.

I’m excited – there are movies in my queue that I could watch immediately, but I don’t like the idea of sitting in front of my computer for two more hours just to watch a movie. And since I already subscribe to Netflix and Xbox Live Gold, I will get the full set of new features for free.

I stumbled onto this bit of information on Wikipedia. Apparently, after work is finished on the next season of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”, the creators of the show (the three main male characters) will shoot a new pilot they have written. It’s titled “Boldly Going Nowhere” and it is kind of a spoof of Star Trek type shows, except it will focus on the everyday life aboard a starship. And there are rumors that Kurtwood Smith (Red Foreman from “That ’70s Show”) will play the captain.

Full information from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boldly_Going_Nowhere.

It looks like the creators of Venture Bros. are selling limited-edition t-shirts during the week after each new episode of season 3. They have already posted the design for the first one, plus the design for a bonus t-shirt if you purchase all 13 in advance.

In related news, the first episode of season 3 airs tomorrow night on Adult Swim. Watch it!

At last! Pokemon Puzzle League has been released for the Wii virtual console! You might be wondering why I’m so excited about a game with “Pokemon” in the title. That’s because this game, originally released for the Nintendo-64, is amazingly fun. It is so much fun, in fact, that I still have my N64 hooked up to my TV so I can play with my brother when he comes over. And the only game I own for the N64 is “Pokemon Puzzle League”, because I bought the system originally just so I could play this game.

The game itself is a repackaged version of “Tetris Attack!”, aka “Panel de Pon” in Japan. The goal is to line up three or more similar blocks in a horizontal or vertical row. When you line them up, the blocks clear from the screen, and blocks on top drop down. If you can then “chain” the blocks (so that the falling blocks make a new combination of similar blocks that will clear), you get more points.

The real fun of the game is the “2 Player Vs.” mode. Whenever you clear more than 3 blocks in a row, you drop some small “garbage blocks” on your opponent. If you can get chains, you drop large garbage blocks on your opponent. Playing someone head-to-head is addictively fun.

The Pokemon veneer adds to the game’s charm. I am not a fan of Pokemon; I sat through five minutes of an episode and had to turn it off. But in the game, the characters trash-talk whenever you clear enough blocks (“Stop wasting my time!”), and the Pokemon creatures make different noises whenever you get combos (“Alakazam!”). Even after playing this game for seven years, I still find the sayings funny when playing.

Anyway, I have already bought the game on the Virtual Console, so now I can pack up my Nintendo-64 and reduce some clutter by my TV. And it finally gives me a real reason to buy a couple Classic Controllers, which I might do tomorrow night.

Are you a fan of Jim Gaffigan?  Are you also a fan of Law and Order?  If you answered no to either of those questions, you should be ashamed of  yourself!  If you answered yes to both, however, you need to check out the Pale Force episode that parodies Law and Order:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=6790313066

Enjoy.

It’s official – Portishead (MySpace : Official Site) will be releasing their new album on April 14th! It’s been over ten years since their last studio album. Never heard their music before? Take a listen to the songs on Dummy, which is my favorite album by them (and one of my favorites in general). The songs on their other studio album, Portishead, are also excellent. Now if they will only set some tour dates in the U.S….

I just found this over at YouTube. The original song is “Fett’s Vette” by MC Chris (freely available for download at his website), but the version used in the video is a reprise by Badd Spellah that won the MC Chris remix contest a while back. Anyway, the video is hilarious! I had no idea Fett had such great dance moves.

I posted the photos from our honeymoon in the “Photos” section, but because there are over 700 pictures I modified the section so that the honeymoon photos are on their own page linked from the main page.  You can also go directly to the photos using this link.  Enjoy!

I stumbled on some interesting flash videos produced by Trey Parker and Matt Stone.  Using some of the South Park team, they added animation to speeches by Alan Watts, an expert on comparative religions (especially Eastern religions like Buddhism).

There are six short animations which are entertaining to watch.  Enjoy!

A few days ago, I was discussing Law and Order with my brother (a common topic, since we both love the show) and he started telling me why Ben Stone’s character was written off the show.  He didn’t know all of the details but he knew that the actor, Michael Moriarty, clashed with the creator of the show on the concept of censorship and and this directly lead to his departure.

So, naturally, we turned to Wikipedia for more details. It turns out that Michael Moriarty is nuts!  He did have problems with censorship, but it seems that most of his fears stemmed from a comment made by the Attorney General, Janet Reno, rather than from any actual censorship that took place.  The creators say that he was fired due to erratic behavior (perhaps due to his admitted drinking problem?).  Shortly after leaving the show, he went to Canada as a self-proclaimed “political exile” and eventually received Canadian citizenship.  He regularly writes about political topics and his views are rather eccentric (he equates the idea of abortion with the genocidal motives of Nazism and generalizes Islam as a violent, power hungry religion which may need to be dealt with using nuclear weapons).

To top things off,  he has expressed an interest in running for president in the 2008 elections.  He announced his intentions in 2005, so maybe since then he realized that he has no chance of winning.  Or maybe he is campaigning, but nobody is listening.  Either way, he won’t end up in the oval office.  But it is certainly a funny story!