Here we have Ray on the left and Kurt on the right. Each one has mastered their very own distinct style of sword fighting. They meet in an epic battle at Kurt’s house. Who will win?

Jennifer and I planned on visiting Port Gamble, Washington this weekend. It’s a cute little town on the Kitsap Peninsula. We found out just a day before going that this weekend is also when the Great Peninsula Future Festival is held there. The festival is all about “building a sustainable future”.

At one of the booths, I met author Michael Sterns. He’s writes books for children. He told us a little about himself and gave us a brief summary of his first book called Kokopella and The Butterfly.

Michael put a lot of thought into this book, from the size of the book to alternating the pages that the pictures are on. He told us he chose artwork that is very descriptive to make it easy for young children to “picture read”.

During the summer, Michael gets to travel the country selling his books. How awesome it that!

If you can’t find him at a festival or event near you, his books are also available online at Grasshopper Dreams.

While in New York, we had to stop in at Gaffney’s for Open Mic Night. Jennifer’s brother Pete has been hosting it for as long as I’ve know about it. If your ever in Saratoga Springs on a Tuesday night, definitely check it out! Pete usually opens up with a few songs. The one in the video above is awesome. It’s been stuck in my head all day.

Jennifer got up and played a few songs too. The first couple were with her dad Ray. She did one by herself that I will have to post later.

Ray also played some songs. Pete joined him for a couple of them. The video above is one of my favorites!

All these videos where taken with the Flip Mino HD. I’m so glad I picked one up right before leaving for our trip. I wanted a super portable video camera so I can share videos online. It records in 720p and can store a full 60 minutes. I really like the pop up USB connector. It makes it so easy to transfer movies to my laptop on the go without any annoying wires.

We had a few friends over on New Year’s Eve. Instead of playing Rock Band, Jennifer and I decided to try out an Xbox 360 game called Lips. It’s basically a high tech karaoke game. It can tell when you stop and start a word and what tone your singing in. If your singing right, you’ll get points. It’s much more detailed than Rock Band. Plus, the mics that come with it have a sensor in it to detect motion. So you get extra points by moving around when prompted. It comes with 40 songs and you can download even more from the Xbox Live Marketplace. Each song comes with its video.

I had a lot of fun, but Jayden beat me in the first round! He ended up going to the final round against Jennifer. It was close. The scores went back and forth, but Jennifer barely beat him.

My Xbox 360 died again! I wouldn’t be so upset if I actual did something to it to make it fail, but I didn’t. I don’t hit it, drop it, or even leave it on for excessive amounts of time. I was just using it as it was intended to be used and it still gave me the three red rings which indicate a technical problem with the Xbox 360. These three lights are often referred to as the “Red Ring of Death“.

So I called Xbox Support. The person I spoke with was extremely helpful. I won’t be paying for a thing! I was worried that I might have to pay to get it fixed, because this is the second time I’ve received the “Red Ring of Death”. So just like last time, they are sending a shipping box out to me so I can put the Xbox 360 console into it. Then in a week or two, I should receive another Xbox 360. Last time, the turn around time was very fast.

I’m just a little dissappointed about this whole situation. After having back surgery, I was looking forward to playing a few games. At least I will have it back in time for some of the major releases later this year.

I saw The Dark Knight earlier today. Jennifer and I saw the film at the Cinema 10 Theater in Poulsbo, Washington. I prefer this theater over others in the area because they have stadium seating and you can order tickets online from Fandango. I really like ordering movie tickets this way. I can avoid all the long lines at the ticket counter. This particular theater has a Fandango machine where I just insert the card I used to order the tickets online and it prints them out. It literally takes just a few seconds. So much easier!

In the most recent episode of The Totally Rad Show, Dan Trachtenburg, Alex Albrecht, and Jeff Cannata reviewed The Dark Knight. I agree with pretty much everything they said about the film. Jeff said that “it’s really not a super hero movie“. He’s right. It has such a complex plot. It’s such a great good guy versus the bad guy movie but it just so happens that the main characters are from a comic book. Jeff also describes the film as “the best James Bond movie you’ve ever seen mixed with the tension and craziness of Seven“. I agree with him again. There were so many seriously suspenseful moments. Dan mentioned Alfred Hitchcock’s explanation of the difference between surprise and suspense. Hitchcock describes a scene of men playing cards at a table. Suddenly a bomb under the table goes off, this is surprise. Now, the same scene except this time we know the bomb is under the table, but not when it will go off. This is suspense. Dan said that in this movie “there are so many literal and figurative ticking time bombs“. Yes there were!

Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker is unforgettable. I can’t praise him enough. It’s so sad that Heath passed away. I really would love to see more of this Joker. Heath creates a character with a perfect balance of craziness and genius. Unbelievable. Jeff said that “the Joker in this movie is a criminal mastermind and you really see him out think people“. Alex couldn’t even find the words to describe Heath’s performance.

I think I’m going to go see this movie again.

I’ve been hearing a lot about a new game called Spore. It was created by Will Wright who is best known for the The Sims and the SimCity series of games. What makes Spore interesting to me is that it “allows a player to control the evolution of a species from its beginnings as a unicellular organism, through development as an intelligent and social creature, to interstellar exploration as a spacefaring culture.” Anything that promotes creativity rather than mindless clicking is worth checking out in my book.

The full game is not out yet, but they did release the Spore Creature Creator last Tuesday, June 17th. I picked up a copy for under $10. It’s very easy to use. My niece Adele even helped me make a couple creatures. My first creature was a moose called Magnus. Then I made a lean, mean, flying fighting machine who I named Vincent Vega. You start off with the body where you manipulate the vertebrae to change shape and size. Then you add all the body parts. Each part will add different attributes to the creature such as “charm”, “charge”, “sneak”, “sprint”, “dance” or “sing”, just to name a few. Everything is customizable allowing for an infinite number of possible creatures. Every creature you create can be used in the full game.

You can “test drive” your creature to see its emotions, how it moves, and a variety of other actions. You can take pictures of your creatures and even record movies. Any movies you make, can be uploaded from inside the Spore Creature Creator directly to YouTube.

There is also a Sporepedia site where players can share their creatures online so others can download and use. They are many hundreds of thousands of creatures already. Check out my Spore page.

I picked up Gears of War on the 8th for the Xbox 360. This is the must have game of the year. Today is called “Emergence Day”. Microsoft is hosting 24 hours of special events beginning at 12:01 am and ending at 11:59 pm on Xbox Live. In the Xbox Live Marketplace you will find special free downloadable content for Gears of War that is only available today. There is a “Warzone” tournament where the top player wins big. Also, they are giving away 8 Samsung home theater systems. You are entered into the drawing for these by just being online. Plus, every hour one lucky Xbox Live player will get 1000 Microsoft Points for free. You might even get the chance to play against the developers who made the game including Cliffy B. You can find me online kicking some butt.