Morning -- short post today since I gotta register my car!

Here's that 'Star Wars' list I promised you -- just in case you all were still laughing from the 'Granite State of Mind' video from last time. Not that I would blame you -- I totally watched it again this morning. Never gets old... Sigh.

'--Are you a ‘Star Wars’ geek? Do you have a Millennium Falcon sitting on a shelf high above the grasping, sticky hands of kids? Do you secretly want someone to buy you a Taun Taun Sleeping Bag form ThinkGeek.com? (Side note: Who *doesn’t*?) Then I’ve got a fun top 10 list for you.'

Also, something new: Here is a 'Star Wars' parody of Jay-Z's 'Empire State of Mind' ... not quite as funny as the NH one, but more reaching a broader audience, I suppose :) ... Speaking of broads, I still give the edge to the NH chick over the Leia one. Sorry, dudes. Enjoy!



Oh, and I found 'Vampire State of Mind' about the Twilight series while I was looking ... Dude. Lame.

Anyway, see you all Monday!

Labels: Galactic Empire State of Mind, Star Wars

I woke up this morning, and it was snowing. For real. And temps are predicted to rise into the 80s this weekend. Only in New England can the weather be so drastically different in 3 days.

I need coffee, a long wooly cardigan and some entertainment, stat.

Here are some of my current top picks:

--I live in New Hampshire – and I’m proud of it. This viral video, ‘Granite State of Mind,’ which has more than 1M hits on YouTube and growing, is a hysterical parody of Jay-Z’s ‘Empire State of Mind.’ Maybe you have to live here to get it, but it’s still well worth the 4 minutes. The guy is great – so serious and stoic while also being comedic – and the Alicia Keys’ counterpart is … well, I know quite a few men who say they’d leave their wives for her. Great voice, too.



--In Stephen Hawking’s most recent interview, he discloses that aliens are indeed real – but we should stay the eff away from them. Why is it that everything Hawking says is taken as the ultimate truth? Oh yeah. Because he’s the *man*.

--Got 45 minutes during lunch to spare since LOST decided to get all DB on us last night with a Richard Alpert repeat? I humbly suggest this … well, I’m not really sure what to call it. It’s like a music video and a scrolling graphic novel and a ‘Yellow Submarine’-ish trip into someone’s wacky, beautiful mind. There is a story there, if you have the patience to look for it.

MARCH 3 from Jake Lodwick on Vimeo.

Check it out, even if you only have a few minutes. It’s mesmerizing and colorfully surreal – but BE SURE to watch it on full screen mode and, if you have headphones, use them.

--Are you a ‘Star Wars’ geek? Do you have a Millennium Falcon sitting on a shelf high above the grasping, sticky hands of kids? Do you secretly want someone to buy you a Taun Taun Sleeping Bag form ThinkGeek.com? (Side note: Who *doesn’t*?) Then I’ve got a fun top 10 list for you.

--Speaking of Star Wars … Straight out of ‘Star Wars: Attack of the Clones’: Japan is launching a spaceship equipped with a solar sail – yes, just like the one Obi Wan used to get to Kamino. It’s thinner than a human hair and cost more than $16M. Psh, ‘Clones’ did more than that in the first minute of ticket sales.*
*This is not true. I’m joking.

--OK, I know I was going for an ‘entertainment’ theme today, but this story needs to be told: Have you tried to return a broken iPhone only to be told it’s not covered under warranty anymore because the internal sensor indicated it got wet? According to this pending lawsuit, that sensor can be triggered in the cold, in humid conditions and simply by sweating near the headphone jack while working out. That doesn’t sound exactly like ‘submersion’ to me, either.

That’s all for me today. The snow is all melted, and I’m ready to emerge from the very last (hopefully) snowstorm of Spring 2010.

Watch those two videos – I promise you’ll love them. You might even see a moose.

-- am

Labels: apple's iphone lawsuit, Granite State of Mind, space sailing, Star Wars

Let's take a peek around the web for this week's top stories, shall we?

I joked about it a few times, but joke no more: Google's gPhone is real. The phone, called Dream from vendor HTS, will debut in Oct., according to reports, and will feature Google's mobile OS Android. Set to cost around $200, much less than the iPhone iterations, this one definitely has Steve Jobs shaking in his arrogant boots.

Oh Bill Gates, how you disappoint me. Jerry Seinfeld? Really? He hit his peak in the early 90s, recently made a bad kids-only-like-it cartoon, and you hire him to help give Microsoft a new image? I'm not surprised the public berated it and you've been forced to drop the not-funny Seinfeld ad campaign after only 2 commercials. Sheesh. Way to get my back after all those compliments. Alas, there is a light -- perhaps the second phase of the $300 M ad campaign, poking fun at Apple and embracing the 'I'm a PC' image, will be better received.

Yikes -- scientists have been forced to shut down the Large Hadron Collider after only a day of use after a massive cooling mechanism failed. Whoever designed that part is SO fired. Thankfully, engineers have got the 17-ton component fixed and the LHC is back online.

Google made some big headlines this week -- in addition to the gPhone thing -- with a controversial UK decision to allow ads from religious groups opposing abortions, a new deal Google signed with GE to develop and promote sustainable energy solutions, and an announcement the company is moving ahead with an advertising deal with Yahoo despite worries form the government.

New games in stores this week include Stars Wars: The Force Unleashed. Finally, Lucas comes out with something awesome that totally lives up to expectations. This will be the hot one, so I hope you have your copy reserved. I will be chilling on the couch 'navigating' it this weekend -- or rocking out to Rock Band 2, which looks very cool and lets you use downloaded songs in tour playlists. It also allows you to form a band online and battle against other online bands. Very cool.

Have a great weekend, everyone -- catch you on the flip side!

Labels: Apple, CERN, Force Unleashed, gates, geek lingo, Google, hts dream, i'm a PC, Large Hadron Collider, microsoft ad campaign, online, Rock Band 2, seinfeld, Star Wars, sustainable energy, Yahoo

Gamer's paradise E3 is underway right now -- why then can't I get myself excited about it?

Perhaps it's the lack of interesting E3 stories coming out of the conference, or maybe I'm just on video-game burnout. There's only so much Lego Star Wars and Lego Indy action I can take before my eyes glaze over, and my house has been kiddo central for the past week.

Hopefully ComicCon, set to open later this month, will have a few more fun tidbits I can share.

Instead, I offer up a fun Internet quiz on Doshas that I came across on Lime.com. According to the site...

'Ayurveda, from the ancient Indian language Sanskrit, literally means 'Knowledge of Life.' Ayurveda is the practice of maintaining health and healing sickness with lifestyle modifications and natural remedies. The Ayurvedic approach names three basic energies or doshas that exist in all of us: Vata, Pitta, and Kapha. Each person is said to be a unique combination of these three doshas, and each dosha has a specific function in the body. According to Ayurveda, we are most healthy when our doshas are balanced.'

I'm a Pitta/Kapha, mix, BTW.

Anyways, just a morsel of knowledge to fill your mind up while waiting for Microsoft to announce a Netflix deal or news that would be similarly exciting. I'll keep you posted.

Labels: Ayurveda, Dosha, E3 conference, Indiana Jones, Star Wars, video games