I just found a cool kill time game.

Think about a celebrity and let him/her be guessed:n:

Akinator

Works like a charm.

Categories: Fun, Misc
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Deutsche Version | Season 1 | Season 3: Disc 1

Disc 1

When She Was Bad

Synopsis: Summer break is nearly over and Buffy has returned from L.A.. But she seems to to have changed. She is closed up and snubs virtually everyone. And it gets worse: The Anointed One wants to get the Master back from the really dead. And for this he needs the people who were close to him when he died.

My Opinion: This behaviour will develop into a habit. Everytime Buffy goes through a shocking or traumatizing event she will try to shut everyone out and keep the world at bay. She will do it again at the beginning of the third season and during the sixth season. It may not be a good character trait but it’s definitively a defining one for the character. Just as the one that she will do what’s right when it matters.
The episode was also a portent for the season. When she claims that Angel has thought about fighting her and that he should try it. When Snyder states that he would love to expel her. When she was lured away from the library and that’s the place she was needed most.
I think it was a good start of the season.

Some Assembly Required

Synopsis: During her patrol in one of Sunnydale’s graveyards she discovers that a grave is empty that shouldn’t be empty. But it’s not another Vampire who has risen. The body is simply gone. So it’s either the work of flesh-eating demons or a group that wants to build an army of Zombies. But when Cordelia finds a lot of body parts in the dumpster they can safely dismiss both theories. But who needs only some parts from several young women?

My Opinion: I never liked these frankenstein-y stories, neither here nor in the fourth season. But once again I liked it that good and bad weren’t clear cut, that our Dr. Frankenstein in the form of Chris didn’t go as far as killing someone just to build a bride for his brother. But I haven’t understood what the other guy was hoping for. Why was he helping in the first place and why would he have killed Cordelia? I simply couldn’t see his motive to act the way he did.

School Hard

Synopsis: Buffy and another “rebel” is ordered to organize and host the annual parent-teacher-night. And Buffy has to keep her mother far away from principle Snyder. And some special Vampire holiday is coming up. And the Vampire Spike has come to town to have some fun around here. And he will kill Buffy on Saint Whatshisname’s day. Fortunately those two events don’t fall on the same day…

My Opinion: …Unfortunately Spike isn’t the most patient guy. I loved it how he single-handedly decluttered all the Vampire rituals and my prejudice about them. James Marsters once stated that he played Spike “with a bit more soul than he was supposed to”. I knew him from Smallville and he was one of the reasons to give Buffy a chance and I couldn’t wait to finally see him here. He will develop into one of the most interesting characters on the show even though he just lost his first battle against the Slayer.
But they also made two statements about him that they will “correct” later: Giles states that he’s barely two hundred. I would assume “barely 200″ means something like 190 or 180. Later they will make him just 150 years old (born around 1850). Spike also says that Angel was “his Sire, his Yoda”. But as it will turn out, Spike was sired by Drusilla who was sired by Angel. But maybe Spike meant it in some figurative way. After all, Angel is his Grand-Sire and Yoda was Luke’s second Jedi teacher after Obi-Wan.

Inca Mummy Girl

Synopsis: During a visit of the local museum one of the student tries to steal a mummy seal and accidentally breaks it. The young, female Inka mummy re-awakes, kills the student and disappears from the museum. Shortly after she takes the place of an exchange student (whom she also killed) and moves in with Buffy for the next two weeks. And naturally Xander falls for her the minute he sees her. But then there’s a mysterious knife guy who seems to be connected to the mummy and the body count is increasing. The gang has to find out what’s going on.

My Opinion: I have to say, I liked this episode. As most creatures do this young woman tried to ensure her own survival. But in the end she couldn’t kill the person she fell in love with. I also liked the comparison between her and Buffy’s fate: The be the Chosen One and not being able to have a say in it. And in opposition to Teacher’s Pet Xander could be Xander without being influenced from the outside.
In this episode we’ve also seen Oz and Jonathan for the first time but I think one notices Jonathan only if one knows him already – ironically that is exactly what this character will be about.
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Categories: Buffy Marathon, DVD / Blu-ray, DVD Marathon
Tags: Angel · Buffy the Vampire Slayer · Harry Potter · Scooby Doo · Smallville · Star Trek TNG · Underworld · Xena: Warrior Princess
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So I just watched 8×22 Doomsday. (Heavy spoilers follow!)

Man, what a waste. Clark had better fights than that against a random Freak-of-the-Week in the first seasons! That was all? The ultimate weapon? The only one who could ever kill Superman in the comics?  I am so disappointed.

And the other parts were terrible as well. Were’s Lois gone? The past? The future? She can’t go anywhere where she might fight out Clark’s true nature or they would destroy that part of the mythology, too.

And Jimmy’s dead?!? 1st WTF! And then “Henry James Olson” has a younger brother who conveniently wears a bow tie at the funeral and gets Jimmy’s camera?!? 2nd WTF!!

And finally Clark wants to get rid of his human side (again) because he blames himself for what happened to everyone? 2nd season finale déjà vu anyone?

This was so lame…

This only strengthens my opinion:
Smallville is getting nowhere.

Categories: Short Review
Tags: Smallville · Superman
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I have just come back from the theatre (I watched it together with 12 friends) and I can only put it that way: I had an incredible fun time.

I went into that movie with exactly the expectations that I believe were necessary: To see a new interpretation of Star Trek TOS. The time travel was a bridge to the old Star Trek world but it was a metaphorical bridge, not a canonical.

Thus I didn’t see it as constructed that the crew came together they way they came together. The fact that it were the same people as in the original TOS was fate – the same fate that always brought the same characters together in the mirror universe – in TOS, DS9 and ENT. If we had never seen a TOS series or a TOS movie nobody would have found it curious that these people took the seats they had taken.

I also couldn’t find large logic holes – I didn’t look for them but there also wasn’t one that jumped me right into the face.

What they have overdone at some points was the silliness of the characters. There were some scenes which weren’t necessary, where they slid into a absurdity. Since much of this goofiness was expressed by voice, I will re-watch the movie in its original language and check how much of it is due to the dubbing. The original series had also a “funny” dubbing because the dubbers thought it would be “better” that way. Of the crew it was only Chekov who was overplayed, he seemed like a bad imitation of Michael Mittermeier’s (a german comedian) Chekov imitation.

In regards to audio and video I was once again disappointed of the theatre. There were vertical lines in the picture at all times that were either black or green as well as some bad transitions from one film reel to the next, including audio breaks. The general audio was also flat when there should have been some serious basses. One could as well watch a bad internet copy.

Summa summarum: This movie is definitively different from all other Trek movies and he wanted it to be. He combines the easiness of The Voyage Home with the action of First Contact and the characters are    likeable. I also liked the visual appearance, including the “brewery engine room”.

Original audio track, here I come!

Categories: Cinema
Tags: Star Trek · Star Trek TOS
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Synopsis: Stardate 64333.4 (2384). Federation ambassador Spock has been living on Romulus for 40 years now when he discovers a terrible threat to the planet and the entire galaxy: A star is about to become an uncontrollable supernova that will eat itself through the universe. But the romulan senate cannot be convinced and so Spock and the young mining captain Nero travel to Vulcan. They want to get the technology to stop the catastrophe from happening. But Spock isn’t welcome on Vulcan anymore but he has friends in high places: Federation ambassador Picard and Captain Data from the Enterprise. Can they prevent the catastrophe?

My Opinion: The comic is an easy read and is generally satisfactory. The characters are believable and that Data’s data was transferred into B-4’s body is acceptable. Nero’s hate towards everyone who signed the death sentence of his family is plausible. he was portrayed as a very emotional character from the start and he shows no mercy with the romulan Pretor, too.
Only the price of €14.80 is a bit steep if you consider that one can read the 100 pages in less than an hour.

Tomorrow I will go watch the movie in the theatre…

Categories: Book, Comic
Tags: Star Trek
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Or “How to make nine out of one”.

I had my cactus for many years – at least 15 as far as I remember and no matter how badly I treated it, it grew and grew and grew.

In the end, it looked like this (sorry, I forgot to close the blinds this time):

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Categories: Misc
Tags: Cactus
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Categories: Fun, Misc
Tags: Star Trek
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I was getting in the mood and have started watching MacGyver again, starting with the first season from 1985/86.

And I love to see so many known guest actors in it:

Robin Curtis (Star Trek 3 & 4), Peter Jurassik (Babylon 5, Sliders), Nana Visitor (Star Trek DS9), Robert Englund (Nightmare on Elm Street, V), Stephen Williams (The Blues Brothers, 21 Jump Street), Teri Hatcher (Lois & Clark, Desperate Housewives), John de Lancie (Star Trek TNG, DS9, VOY, Stargate SG-1), …

Categories: DVD / Blu-ray
Tags: Babylon 5 · Desperate Housewives · MacGyver · Sliders · Star Trek DS9 · Star Trek TNG · Star Trek VOY · Stargate SG-1 · The Blues Brothers
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Those of you who have ever read comments underBlogs or Youtube videos will recognize ths video as the truth and nothing but the truth.

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Categories: Fun, Misc, Web
Tags: College Humor
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Deutsche Version

Synopsis: Rambo is a young man who wanders aimlessly over the land. He is a “drifter”. Rambo was in Vietnam, he enlisted to get to a better unit than he would have if he had been drafted. For his services over there he got the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Teasle is an older man who lives a quite life in his jerkwater town Madison, Kentucky. He is the Sheriff there. Teasle was in Korea. For his services over there he got the Distinguished Service Medal.
The Problem is: When these two clash into each other, neither will back down and a war starts in the heart of America.

My Opinion: The general story is known from the movie First Blood but the book (on which the movie is based – not vice versa) contains some important differences. For example: The story in the books takes place relatively shortly after John’s return from Nam. And in opposition to the movie Teasle isn’t the redneck, but both are very stubborn people who are embossed by their life’s experiences. The book always switches the perspective from Rambo to Teasle and again to Rambo und one isn’t as biased towards Rambo as one is in the movie. That also due to the fact that Rambo wreaks havoc in the book – none of the people who follow John to the ravine will return home alive.
The book is easy to read and it’s always clear what is happening and where it is happening. I liked it.
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Categories: Book
Tags: Rambo
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