Podcast: The Final Revenge…or something like that

This is the final part of the podcasts posts where I will explain the rest of the podcasts that I listen to.  There are far more that I have listened to over my time with the casts but if I was to list them all here it would never end.

Infendo Radio – http://www.infendo.com

This is a Nintendo related podcast that covers all the latest news, reviews and speculation around Nintendo, the Wii and the DS.  Very good, can be a little fan boyish at times and they don’t seem to want to deal with the fact that hardcore games on the Wii are all but dead but for half an hour a week it is a great way of keeping up with the latest news.

Taverncast – http://www.taverncast.com

This was a WoW podcast when it started for hardcore gamers, however then all the hosts stopped playing.  They have kept the cast going however and it has now turned into a general podcast where they talk about a particular topic that they want to talk about.  They also drink throughout the podcast and they explain what they are drinking at the beginning of the show and although they don’t get drunk they do have a good time.  The only drawback is that their output can be really few and far between.

Major Spoilers – http://www.majorspoilers.com

My second favourite podcast and due to the fact that it is weekly (sometimes twice a week) it is the one I listen to the most.  This is the ultimate show for comic book fans.  They review some of the latest issues, they go into detail on a trade paperback and they have polls of the week.  They are called major spoilers for a reason though, so if you don’t like to hear any of the surprises that might await you in your comic books you should read them first, they don’t spoil everything  but they do spoil enough.

Mark Kermode Film Reviews – http://www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive/entertainment/kermode.shtml

Dr Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo host a film review programme that has won the BBC lots more awards.  Mark Kermode brings his massive knowledge of films (horror in particular), his wit and a small amount of snobbery to review films.  They will review the latest releases, they have listener input and games.  Highly enjoyable.

The Real Deal – http://www.cnet.com/real-deal-podcast/

The second podcast I listen to from CNET the same people who do Buzz Out Loud.  The Real Deal covers one topic that is linked to technology in some way, some of these include Chrome Vs Firefox, Phone Communications, Domain Names and audience questions.  Hosted by Tom Merritt from Buzz Out Loud and Rafe Needleman, these guys know what they are talking about.

Treks in Sci-Fi – http://treksinscifi.com/podcast_notes/

The second geekiest podcast I listen to, yes this is all about Star Trek and Sci-Fi.  The host covers an episode of star trek or a film franchise of some sort, plays clips from the shows, or can play the whole show.  Also goes through latest news, reviews and generally things that are going on in nerd world.  Warning only for people that are truly into Star Trek otherwise this will be far to geeky for you.

Medispective/Video Games News Radio – http://www.videogamenews.com/

The oldest of the podcasts, this show has being going on for ages.  This show is very rough around the edges and it hasn’t improved in technically quality even though it has been going to 5 years now, but that is its charm.  The hosts of which there are 3/4 review games, talk films and reminisce about their childhood (this is the best part).  It needs to be heard to be believed, you need to give it 2 or 3 shows and if you don’t like it by then you probably never will, but I have never laughed so hard at a show.

 X-Plays Daily Video Games Podcast – http://g4tv.com/podcasts/index.html

This podcast takes segments of their show that airs in America and puts them into podcast form.  This includes 2 – 3 minute reviews of the latest games that are coming out.  They also have excellent coverage of E3 and other conferences, great for gamers.

Podcasts Part 2

Following on from my last post in April, here are some more of the podcasts I listen to on a weekly basis.  I am listening to so many now that I cannot keep up with them.  However what it also means is that I am never waiting for a new episode I always have something to listen too.

AppSlappy – http://www.myextralife.com/appslappy/

This a new podcast that is only up to it’s 4th episode, another one put out by Scott Johnson and his podcast broadcasting machine.  This one is all about the iPhone and iPod touch and the applications that you can buy and download for it.  They cover new developments, sales on apps, the top featured apps each week and anything else that is cool and in, in the world of apple apps.  If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch then this one comes highly recommended.

BoardGames with Scott – http://www.boardgameswithscott.com/

This is a different Scott this time and possibly one of the most geeky podcasts I listen to.  I am a great fan of boardgames and I find this video podcast a valuable resource in deciding what the next boardgame that I will be buying is.  This is also a great complement to the great website www.boardgamegeek.comwhere you can find more information.  Scott can be a little eccentric at times but if you give him a chance he will defiantly grow on you.

The Instance – http://www.myextralife.com/wow/

Third on the list from Scott Johnson (and not the last), this time he is teamed up with another wow head called Randy Jordan aka Randy Deluxe.  In case you haven’t guessed this podcast is all about ‘The World of Warcraft’, if you have not heard of this game then I am not sure any of these podcasts with be right for you because you are not nearly geeky enough.  I have played wow for 2 – 3 years now and the instance is not only informative about changes in the game world but also incredibly entertaining, with fairly famous guests and lots of awesome hints and tips, this one is a must if you play wow (or any mmo really).

Extralife Radio – http://www.myextralife.com

The Podcast that started it all.  This is Scott Johnson’s first and primary podcast that comes straight from his webcomic site that surrounds geeky culture.  Once I started listening to this show with it’s high production values (for a podcast, but all his shows have these naturally high production values) I was hooked and couldn’t wait to see what else was out there, and this has led to many other casts that I have found through Extralife Radio.  The topics change from week to week but are always something interesting and current.  If you could only subscribe to one of the shows I have mentioned this is without doubt the one to subscribe to.

A link to the cast – http://www.alinktothecast.co.uk

I don’t generally listen to British podcasts this is only one of three that I have on my list.  It is also quite close to me because a very good friend and best man of mine is one of the hosts.  Now of course that means I am biased to a certain degree and I guess you will just have to listen to it to make your own mind up.  But what I can tell you is that my friend has been playing games all his life, he likes a variety of genres, platforms and types and his opinions are informed, fair and balanced.  This podcast comes out of Key 103 in Manchester and is all about gaming, it usually has the latest news and covers a review from each major current platform.

Happy listening

Chris

My Brute

Just signed up to MyBrute online fighting game, check it out at

http://boulder475.mybrute.com

Happy Bashing

Chris

Podcasts! Part 1

I thought as I was talking about living in the cloud in my last post I would use this post to talk about all the Podcasts I have found and enjoyed over the last three or four years. Obviously this doesn’t really fit in with the theme of this blog, however as you will see many of the Podcasts I listen to do have a lot to do with different things from my childhood such as movies, music and video games. Anyway I thought it might be something that people might like.  Oh and I am going to split this into parts as putting all these down in one post might make it a little overwhelming.

Best of the Chris Moyles Show – http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/chrismoyles/

Anyone from Britain will know instantly what this is, a weekly round up of the best bits from the morning Chris Molyes show on Radio One.  For those of you who don’t listen or know of this, the humour can come across at first as very simple and childlike, but listening to them over any length of time and becoming invested in the personalities from the show make this a very funny and enjoyable thing to listen to.

Buzz Out Loud - http://reviews.cnet.com/buzz-out-loud-podcast/

Buzz out loud is a technology news podcast where they take the top stories of the day in the tech world and comment on them and discuss them.  Again as you will see with many of these podcasts it is the personalities of the hosts that make them so enjoyable to listen to and this is no different and it is a great way of keeping up-to-date with everything techology related on and off the web.

Comics Coast to Coast - http://comicscoasttocoast.com

This podcast is a weekly interview with either a webcartoonist or someone from the comic industry.  They tend to limit themselves to strip comics rather than the big superhero comics which is quite nice as it allows the listener to get far more focussed infromation about webcomics and strip comics in particular.  The hosts are both artists and have a lot invested in the comic world.

Diary of a Cartoonist - http://www.myextralife.com/category/diary-of-a-cartoonist/

This podcast comes from the stable that is Extralife run by Scott Johnson, you will see there are quite a few other podcasts on my list from this same gentleman.  This one is a personal auido blog from Scott that talks about things in his life, his values and thoughts on current events.  Anything and everything is covered and is only for those listeners that are fully invested in Scott’s world and site.

To stop this post from becoming enourmously long, I shall end part 1 there however I will update with part 2 tomorrow and another selection of podcasts I recommend people listen for.  Until then farewell for now

Happy Listening

Chris

And I’m back…

 

A white fluffy cloud

I realise that I haven’t posted anything in over 6 months but I am back and am fully living in the cloud.  I recently bought myself a new netbook and have decided to conduct a little experiment with myself I intend to do as much as I can on the Internet.  This means that I will not be installing any programs on my netbook (not that it has the space anyway) that I can access on line, so below is a list of programs I have been using and next to it as a list of services I am now using on the web.

Microsoft Office – Google Docs - http://docs.google.com

Outlook Calender – Google Calender - http://www.google.com/calendar

Outlook to-do list – Remember the Milk - https://www.rememberthemilk.com/

Adobe Photoshop – Picnik - http://www.picnik.com

Web Browser Bookmarks – Delicious - http://delicious.com/

Twitter App Twirl - http://www.twhirl.org/ (Not really a web app, but it allows me to get my twitter updates without being looged onto the site)

I will be adding more as the need arises. I am also using Google Gears to save the important information I need locally for the odd occasion when I will not be online.

I also have a number of online Profiles with different sites, some are shown on the very site you are looking at, here is a full list detailing what profiles I have below.

http://www.youtube.com/ - Username: iwata33

http://www.flickr.com/ - Username: chris haythornthwaite

http://www.facebook.com - Username: Chris haythornthwaite

http://twitter.com - Username: HellsingChris

http://wordpress.com/ - Username: iwata33

http://delicious.com - Username: Hellsingchris

Feel free to follow or befriend me on any of these sites, if you would like to email me directly then you can get me at haythornthwaite.c@googlemail.com

Now that I am 31, err….

Today marks my 31st birthday on this lovely planet we call Earth, and it struck me that this blog is now nearly a year old, and although there are not quite as many posts as I would like to have liked, I am surprised that I have managed to keep this going as long as I have, and hope it will continue.

However I am starting to feel my age, the fact that I am 31 years old, I am engaged to by married next summer and that I work at a sixth form college (ages 16 – 18 years old) all culminate to mean that no longer do I feel like I have more time ahead of me than behind me.  (Even though statistically I could still be in the first third of my life).  When I started working at the college I was 23 years old and the 5 years between me and the oldest of the students didn’t seem to be that big a gap, especially as there is 5 years between myself and my beautiful fiancee (the two facts have never and continue not to have any connection). But now there is a full 12/13 years gap and the differences are starting to show.  My frame of reference for films I grew up with, toys I played with and places we would go for birthdays are all religated to a completely different decade to that of the students.  A week or two ago I asked the students to put their hands up if they had seen ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’, too many of them sat prone with a slighlty bemused look on their face.  The thought that the new fresh faces that sit before me on this crisp September day were born in 1991/2, is a very sobering thought, 1992 just doesn’t seem that long ago never mind knocking on 20 years ago.

But the real stop dead and groan ‘Oh No’ moment came when I reliezed that I have become my parents.  I now have this powerful urge to run up to all the students I see who are playing with elastic bands, pens, cotton wool etc and say ‘You will have someone’s eye out with that’.  I’m not sure what the e-version of a big sign is but I can assure you I am doing it now.  What is wrong with me, why have I become so safety consious that I now care deeply about a boy who is picking his nose with his shoe.  Some say it happens when you have kids, well if this is the case then someone, somewhere is not telling me something.  Although they also tell me that pets are a replacement for kids and if this is the case then that might explain a few things.  But just walking from one end of the college to the other I thought about all the things that could happen to me and other people mostly through accidents and I thought ‘Yep, you’re 31 now, you’re responsible, even to the point of being quite obsessive’

As I struggle to supress this new mind controlling sense of responsibility from taking control and making sure that I stay green forever I will leave you with this thought, if you saw someone stretching out, to the point of breaking, an elastic band and aiming it at someone else, what would you think? Interesting, I think I now know how old you are now.

Happy Birthday…Me!

Chris

Do you remember the Boglins?

Do you remember the Boglins?  Released in 1987, I remember that they dominated the adverts of all kids T.V. in the late eighties to the point where parents were socially obliged to buy their kids a Boglin just to avoid the pointed fingers that accused them of child abuse, because if you listened to the T.V. “every child should have one”.  Well o.k. they didn’t say that but they might as well have done.  There were many trends and fashionable toys during the eighties in fact the eighties were so intense with this sort of thing, think about it films like Star Wars and cartoons like Transformers that appeared at the end of the seventies and start of the eighties started the toy craze that has not stopped right up until today.  And of all the toys that have come and gone, I never wanted anything more than I wanted a Boglin.

I recently rescued my two Boglins that you see in the picture above from the dusty loft and I really wished I had kept them in the original packaging.  The packaging was really cool, they came when you bought them in a cage, well the big ones did, you see you could buy them in different sizes, even really tiny ones.  Check out an image search on Google and you will see the sort of thing I am talking about.  The Boglin on the left, the blue one, spat water from its mouth, which meant you needed to keep remembering to fill the little plastic tub up when you were playing with it.  The brown one of the right was simply just a hand puppet, and that it the most amazing thing about these toys, they are just hand puppets.

The makers and marketers of these toys were geniuses, they turned a 200 year old idea into the most sought after toy in the late eighties (although I admit my memory on just how popular they were might be a little distorted by my own feelings on these… things).  And even better it was a hand puppet that was aimed at boys, and boys mainly bought them.  Boys asked, no begged their parents to buy them hand puppets, wow I never thought of it like that before, well I guess it is no surprise we (as a society) will buy any old crap so long as enough poeple want to buy it (remember Buzz Lightyear or even Cabbage Patch Dolls).  But never the less it is still one of the most cherished memories of past old crap that I have.

If you have never sampled the delights of Boglins or any of the other cool stuff from the eighties check it out at this cool website I found

http://www.doyouremember.co.uk/index.php

Enjoy the evil Punch and Judy dolls

Chris

Speaking of Buffy…

In the last post I mentioned Buffy the Vampire Slayer, one of my favorite sci-fi type programs.  Well I know it is not brand new, but I have just got around to watching ‘Dr Horribles Sing-a-long blog’.  Written and directed by the legendary Joss Whedon, it is a musical in the same vain as the musical episode of Buffy and chronicles the exploits of Dr Horrible and his nemesis Captain Hammer.  It features Neil Patrick Harris (from Doogie Howser fame and Starship Troopers), Nathan Fillion (Serenity and Slither) and Felicia Day (Buffy and The Guild).  It has all the Whedon trademarks of a good story and very funny and the music is very fitting and enjoyable to listen to.  I really enjoyed this 45 minute of Whedon goodness.

You can watch this for free at www.drhorrible.com, or if you live in America you can buy it from iTunes for about $3 which is also well worth it.

Happy Singing

Chris

When did the X-Files become daytime T.V.?

 

 

Now that I am 30 years old, I am old enough to remember some of those relatively new T.V. programs that are yet old enough to not be remembered by the students I teach at my sixth form college.  I am sat here watching ‘The X-Files’ at 5.00pm on a Monday afternoon.  When did The X-Files become daytime T.V. programming?  The daytime programming I know of starts with ‘Jeremy Kyle’ and ends with ‘The Weakest Link’ in between it includes repeats of ‘Cagney and Lacey’ and ‘Murder She Wrote’.  It should not include sci-fi classics such as X-Files, Buffy or Angel, all that now seemed to have been condemned to endless repeats on cheap cable channels such as ‘Living’ and ‘Virgin 1’.

I remember when I first saw The X-Files, it was 1993 and I was doing my maths homework in the dinning room of my mum and dads house.  I would have been about 14/15 years old.  The episode I saw was the one where a creature comes back from Mars via a probe or astronaut, it was awful. Luckily the next one I saw was the Shape Shifters one with the North American Indian werewolves.  That was it, from then on, I loved that show and I loved Sci-fi and I have enjoyed anything like it since.  In fact I am really enjoying the current X-Files esq. program airing, called ‘Supernatural’.  It all comes from a love of the X-Files.

But as I sit here and watch it thinking what should I have for tea I am also thinking “should I really watch this, daytime T.V. is rubbish, wow isn’t the X-Files looking old”.  I mean I guess it is old, 15 years old give or take a year or two.  But that is besides the point I should not be thinking doesn’t X-Files look old, I might as well be saying “geez I feel really old”.  ‘The X-Files’ and other programs of the same ilk should only ever be aired in the evenings and they will always be remembered as classics.  So that I can say to my kids in years to come, “Oh I love this, this is a classic…oh god”.

 

Happy Investigating

 

Chris 

All those songs…

I recently bought this triple disk album on the strength of some of the adverts I had seen on T.V. and it has brought lots of memories flooding back of being in high school and college in the early to mid nineties.  The album is ‘Connected 90’s 12″ Mixies’ and can be picked up (in the U.K.) on play.com or any supermarket (these are the cheapest places anyway).  It consists of 3 disks with about 12 songs on each disk and has all sorts of classic 90’s song remixed, from Snap – Rhythm is a Dance to Adamski – Killer.  See below for a complete song list.

For someone of my age, I entered Corpus Christi High School in Preston in 1989 and left to go to Cardinal Newman College in 1994, I then left Newman in 1996 (and then again in 1997) to go to UCLAN until 2000.  So the nineties saw me move through my education to become a fully grown man with a wide palette for many different types of music.  Of course a lot of the songs that are featured at the time of original release were classed as ‘Rave’ music and would often appear on compilations called ‘Rave 93′ and such like.  Now they are just great memorable songs, the best of the decade, and if they must be put into a genre, then they are just dance songs.

I also find that music (for me anyway) really is the best reminder of past events and feelings.  Of course scent is generally considered the best at bringing memories forward and I remember many a time when I have smelt a particular perfume and it has made me think of a past girlfriend from those terbulent teenage years.  However if it is the perfume that reminds me of that person it is then the music that will bring the memories flooding back of what we were doing at the time of that song playing, or where I was when I first heard that song.  There are some songs out there that I still cannot listen to, ‘I will always love you’ by Whitney Houston being one of them (I know it is always the embarassing songs that bring the strongest memories as well).  But I am glad to say that all the songs on this album bring back the best of memories from my teenage years and for that I am very thankful.  If you like 90’s songs, or you are a fan of dance music, or you like remixes of old songs that you know and love, then trust me this will be a good purchase for you.

 Disc 1

1. Stereo MCs – Connected (12″ Mix)
2. Leftfield / Lydon – Open Up (Chemical Brothers Remix)
3. The Blue Boy – Remember Me (12″ Mix)
4. The Beloved – Sun Rising (Tom’s Drum & Bass Edit)
5. The Stone Roses – Fools Gold (Bottom Won Mix)
6. England New Order – World In Motion (Carabinieri Mix)
7. The Soup Dragons – I’m Free (12″ Mix)
8. Paul Weller – Wild Wood (Portishead Sheared Wood Remix)
9. Primal Scream – Funky Jam (Club Mix)
10. Kula Shaker – Tattva (Lucky 13 Mix)
11. Moloko – Fun For Me (Doctor Rockit Mix)
12. James – Come Home (Andrew Weatherall Remix)

 Disc 2

1. Snap! – Rhythm Is A Dancer (Extended Mix)
2. Felix – Don’t You Want Me (Hooj Mix)
3. Utah Saints – Something Good (12″ Mix)
4. Electronic – Getting Away With It (Extended Mix)
5. The Grid – Swamp Thing (Southern Comfort Mix)
6. Adamski – Killer (12″ Version)
7. Alison Limerick – Where Love Lives (Knuckles & Morales Classic Mix)
8. Sub Sub Feat. Melanie Williams – Ain’t No Love (Ain’t No Use)
9. M People – How Can I Love You More? (Classic Mix)
10. Incognito – Always There (Morales Classic Mix)
11. Freak Power – Turn On, Tune In, Cop Out (Pizzaman Remix)
12. Beats International – Dub Be Good To Me (Norman Cook’s Excursion In The Version)

 Disc 3

1. Deee-Lite – Groove Is In The Heart (Remix)
2. Diana Brown & Barrie K Sharpe – The Masterplan (12″ Mix)
3. Arrested Development – People Everyday (Metamorphosis Mix)
4. Jamiroquai – When You Gonna Learn? (JK Mix)
5. Young Disciples – Apparently Nothin’ (Soul River)
6. Martine Gerault – Revival (12″ Mix)
7. Driza Bone – Real Love (Original Mix
8. James Taylor Quartet- Starsky & Hutch (Funky People Mix)
9. DJ Krush & Ronny Jordan – So What! (Tuff `N’ Smooth Mix)
10. Marxman – All About Eve (Sax `N’ Flute Mix)
11. Omar – There’s Nothing Like This
12. Tricky – Aftermath (LP Mix)

Happy Listening

Chris

P.S. My finacee bought Ministry of Sound Chill 1991 – 2008 and that is a very good album as well.