Launch of my new show on Ustream/Youtube

I'm starting a brand new show on Ustream.tv and Youtube.com which will be all about gaming and technology. Right now I'm just focusing on the gaming part. I am going to try doing some video game playthroughs starting with the Grand Theft Auto series because it is my personal favorite. I am currently planning to officially kick things off this Friday, Christmas day.

I consider myself to be a master of the GTA series, I know every detail about those games. If you're a fan of the series like I am you'll definitely want to check it out! I will be starting off with a playthrough of Grand Theft Auto III, I want to see how long it takes me to get through it and how well everything works then I'll go from there.

If you have any suggestions for the new show I would very much like to hear them, you can e-mail me at ShaneD3488@gmail.com

Motorola Droid Review

I purchased my Motorola Droid a couple weeks ago and it has not left my side since. I declare it to be one of the single greatest purchases I have ever made. I now have access to the world wide web right in my pocket all the time. It’s such a great feeling to know that I am always connected everywhere I go.


Let me start off by talking about the Droid’s web browser. This phone is great for people who don't like to wait! Websites are rendered extremely fast and I have never had to wait more than a few seconds for something to load. The internet really blazes along. The only fault is that Flash is not yet available on the Droid but it will be at the start of next year. The browser works either vertically or horizontally depending on how you are holding the phone. To zoom in on a page you just simply tap twice on the screen where you want to zoom.

A very important asset to the Droid is the voice-search technology powered by Google along with Google maps. Personally I hate having to type everything one key at a time on that tiny keyboard. The Droid eliminates this problem. You can easily tell the droid what you’re looking for and it will do a search for you. I have found the voice recognition to be extremely accurate and extremely easy to use. You can also use the voice functionality within Google Maps. Say you're driving somewhere, you glance down at the gas gauge and, oh no! Your're on empty!  Simply say “Map of gas stations”. It will then automatically show you all the closest gas stations for that area. What if you suddenly get a hankerin' for a big mac on the go? You could say “navigate to McDonald’s” then it would find the nearest location for you and can give you turn by turn voice directions all the way there. You can even see a satellite view of your route or a street view in case the plain old maps aren't enough for ya.

The 5.0 megapixel camera on the Droid is another asset that does not dissapoint. The images are high quality with very little, if any, blurring. You can also use the camera for various apps such as Google Goggles which allows you to take a photo of an item then it will do a Google search based on the item in the photo rather than based on text. This also works by taking a picture of businesses. Another app allows the camera to be used as a barcode scanner enabling you to find instant information on any product.

As far as apps go there are plenty of neat ones already available and the app library is growing at a rapid pace (there is already over 10,000). One of my favorites is the Ustream broadcaster which once again uses the camera to allow you to broadcast from any location that you desire. There is really an app for just about anything you can imagine. It certainly already has all the essential apps that you desire. The Droid is also great at multi-tasking, allowing you to run many apps at the same time without slowing down the phone’s performance.

As for the keyboard on the phone it comes with both an onscreen keyboard that can be used vertically or horizontally and a pull out keyboard. Personally I prefer the onscreen keyboard. With the pull out keyboard, I find myself making many more typos and hitting the wrong keys. The onscreen keyboard has bigger keys and is just easier to type with in my opinion. If I had to pick a flaw on the Droid I would say it would be the pull out keyboard. I think it could’ve been designed a little bit better. Especially for people who have large man fingers like myself.

The Android operating system as whole performs nearly flawlessly, everything is extremely smooth and so easy to use. I can’t stress enough how user-friendly Android is. I have yet to experience anything complicated about using this phone. Basically you just tell it what you want and your every wish is the Droid’s command. For this reason I believe the Droid to be the best PDA/smart phone on the market today. I don’t believe any other can really even begin to compete. I highly suggest you go out and get yourself one!

Avatar Review

Avatar was one of those rare movies where I went in with expectations high as could be. I had been hearing a lot of talk about how Avatar is the next Star Wars or possibly could even be better than Star Wars. Let me say first off that you shouldn’t try to compare one single movie to a 6 movie saga because there is no way you can match that in the given time. However in the 2 hours and 45 minutes it lasted, the movie was astonishing on many levels.

The story follows Jake Sully an ex-marine who had been paralyzed from the waist down in combat. His twin brother who had been trained to participate in the Avatar program was killed in combat. Since they were twins Jake was then selected for the program even though he had no prior training. The Avatars are artificially grown bodies of the Na’vi, a humanoid alien race living on the planet Pandora. The humans get into tubes and let their minds be transferred to their Avatar. When their Avatar sleeps, the human re-awakes. Jake’s mission is to infiltrate the tribe of Na’vi and gain their trust in an attempt to make them re-locate, as their home is sitting on top of a valuable metal that the humans want to harvest for money.

I don’t believe I have ever before seen such life-like CGI in a movie as there is in Avatar. Everything in the movie seems incredibly real, at times I found myself forgetting I was watching a computer animated world. Everything has so much detail and all of the people and native creatures are so unique.

One of my very favorite characters in the movie was Colonel Miles Quaritch played by Stephen Lang. He is always confident in everything that he does and never thinks twice about a decision. He is a super tough marine who won’t stop until things are going his way no matter what the odds are. He is just one of the most badass characters I’ve seen in a really long time.

As peaceful negotiations don’t work in the allotted time the Colonel issues the order to launch his “shock and awe” campaign. The movie really turns into a classic war between primitives and advanced technology. It was very reminiscent of Star Wars Episode VI when the Ewoks of Endor took on the mighty Sith Empire. However Avatar brings the war to a whole new scale as the entire planet fights back against the invaders as it tries to save itself from destruction.

Avatar mixes live action and CGI like never before, it makes the transition from one to the other seem nearly seamless. All of the Na’vi’s emotions are incredibly realistic and believable. Everything in the world reacts to the things around it. Night time on Pandora is one of the most spectacular things I have ever seen, as everything in the forest has a unique color and glow.

It’s really hard for me to describe just how amazing the animation in this movie is. You really have to see it for yourself. I do also highly recommend seeing it in IMAX 3D for the fullest experience. It really makes you feel like you’re right there on Pandora living the action as it unfolds.

Back to the question of if it’s better than Star Wars. I would have to say the animation is better in some respects than the Star Wars films yes. However on a story level it can’t really match up. And although Pandora has a good number of species shown in the movie, it’s still only one planet and can’t begin to match the Star Wars universe, although I definitely expect the Avatar universe to grow over time.

To wrap this up I have to say everyone really needs to see this movie. Do yourself a favor and don’t miss a spectacle in movie making.

2012 Review

As many of you may already know the ancient Mayan civilazation's calender comes to an end on the date 12/21/2012. Why did the Mayans choose this date to end their calendar? Did they get tired one day and just stop and go home? Did they run out of stuff to write on? Or did they actually foresee something happening at this time? I have looked into potential catastrophes that could occur on this date myself, the most likely being a solar flare event. In this case that's exactly the primary focus of the movie.

The beginning of the movie is used to setup the whole idea of what's going on, the idea of a peaking solar storm turning our planet into one big microwave, cooking it from the inside out. Now personally I couldn't see something on that large of a scale actually occuring. But then we wouldn't have much of a movie if there wasn't a major catastrophe now would we?

For the most part the plot focuses around one man named Jackson Curtis (John Cusack) who is trying to find a way to save his family from the ensuing chaos occuring all around him. That is one thing this movie has no shortage of, it's absolutely loaded with action and destruction to the highest degree. You've never seen destruction on this kind of a scale before. Many scenes in this movie are nearly completely computer generated, but nearly all of them look very realistic and believable. That being said, there are a few wacky moments in the movie as well, such as when an aircraft carrier gets taken in on a tidal wave and takes out the white house. It's cool to watch, but not very high on the believable scale.

The movie focuses around several major events occuring on the planet at the same time, however the west coast of the U.S. is where the shit hits the fan first. It starts off with a few earthquakes and things rapidly go downhill from there until eventually entire tectonic plates below the surface of the Earth begin shifting positions causing California to sink right into the ocean, that's not where I'd want to be when this all started to go down that's for sure. Makes me glad I live in the midwest.

The acting in this film was very good, it had plenty of stars in the cast including Danny Glover as the president of the United States and Woody Harrelson as a zany, pickle loving, conspiracist who did a radio broadcast about all kinds of conspiracy theories. There are a few jokes tossed around here and there, but overall the movie keeps a fairly serious tone. I also couldn't help but think some of the emotional scenes were a little overdone. I understand they wanted to get the reaction from the audience but to me it just seemed liked they should've been more focused on the action than on teary phone calls.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie though because 2012 is a subject that I have long been interested in since I first heard about the prophecy when I was around 12 years old. I do recommend seeing it for the breathtaking CGI scenes as well as an action-packed story that will keep you gripping your arm rests for the duration of the ride. Whether or not anything in this movie will actually come to pass is yet to be seen. Will 2012 actually be the end of the world? I doubt it. Will anything happen at all? Possibly. But afterall it's Hollywood's job to spice up what they have to work with and they certainly did a good job doing so with this movie.

I recently went to see the Michael Jackson movie This Is It. It gives us a glimpse into the rehearsals and production of M.J.'s latest planned 50 show London tour which had already been sold out. The footage shown in this movie was never originally planned to be shown to the public. It was only due to Michael's untimely death that it was released. It really would have been a shame not to show all the work that was involved in the making of this massive show.

The movie almost felt like you were getting your own personal concert from Michael. It shows him performing all of his most famous and legendary songs on stage, only you're seeing the rehearsal versions of the songs. Between the songs you really get to see how devoted Michael was to his music and how he really wanted every single detail of his show to be flawless. I was continuously impressed throughout the movie at his amazing dance skills, he seemed just as talented as he ever was when he was younger.

The thing you really see in this movie is just how much work was being put into the production of this show. They even recorded several new videos for his songs. The new Thriller video inparticular was very cool, it was even filmed in 3D which is actually how Michael wanted the original music video to be filmed. The new Smooth Criminal video was also rather unique being in black & white and using classic movie clips.

I think in the end Michael made some mistakes in his life, but he really was an extremely smart and talented person. The messages he was trying to get across were peace, love, an end to racism, and saving our planet. These are all the right messages that I believe in myself. This is part of the reason why I have always been such a big fan of his music.

But truly, there has never been anyone quite like Michael Jackson in the past and I really don't think there will be anyone like him in the future, he was one of the greatest talents of our time, sadly he left us early. But if you have any interest in pop music at all then this is definitely a great movie to see, if nothing else just for the amazing music. After all Michael Jackson is the one and only king of pop!

Evansville Fall Festival 2009

One thing is for sure about the West Side Nut Club Fall Festival and that is...it's impossible to leave hunrgy! It's the 2nd largest street festival in this great nation of ours, second only to the Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans. The Fall Festival contains food and fun for the entire family, there is something for everyone. From the extremely odd (chocolate crickets & scorpion pops) to the ordinary (hamburgers, hot dogs, pizza etc.).

There were lots of rides this year at the Fall Festival including TWO Freak Outs and a new ride called the Yo-Yo (pictured right). There is also a huge midway featuring lots of interactive games. I used to love that stuff when I was younger, now I more or less just go for the food.

There is plenty of food to choose from at Fall Fest with 126 food booths, nearly all of them offering something different. My personal favorite out of everything is the brain sandwich! It's a legendary Evansville food item and as you saw in my Hilltop Inn post, I love them.

Pictured below we have the original brain sandwich booth, brains are all that they serve here. They don't even have anything else on the menu. They're just that good! I only waited in line for about 10 minutes to get mine but as the evening went on the brain line steadily grew.

One of my other favorites that I tried other than the brain sandwich was the brat burger from booth 11. I love bratwurst, so why not a brat burger?

For dessert I went over to booth 126 which offers both deep fried oreos & deep fried twinkies, both very unique and good but I went with the deep fried oreos this time, it comes served with honey to dip them in.

If you want to try something a little more unusual you can head over to booth 72 which serves up chocolate covered crickets, icky lickies (suckers with a bug in the middle), scorpion pops, alligator jerky, and "quackwurst".

These are just a select few of the many many food choices you have at Fall Fest. There are also nightly concerts and an amateur talent show. I didn't stick around for those myself because of the huge crowds. I had a lot of fun there though, I go every year without exception, I may even go again this week before it's over! If you are ever in the Evansville area in the beginning of October or if you live anywhere near Evansville, attending the Fall Festival is an absolute must. It does not dissapoint!

Star Trek Review

I went into this movie completely as a Star Trek noob. I had never seen anything related to Star Trek before in my life. Going in with high expectations I found the movie to be pretty good in its entirety, the only problem I had with it was that the information was being thrown at me so fast there wasn't much time to absorb everything. Since I was completely new to Star Trek I had no idea who anyone was or how they related to the rest of the series.

As far as story goes I thought they did a good job providing a compelling plot with a couple twists along the way. To put it simply there is an evil bad guy wanting to destroy planets and the good guys have to stop him. But then that's a pretty common plot for all movies of this type. Take Star Wars, same thing except with a Death Star and different reasons for planetary destruction, but you get the idea.

The movie contains plenty of action scenes and space battles so if that's the kind of thing you're into then you'll probably really like this movie. I felt that it focused more on action than anything else, while there were some dramatic scenes in the movie, none of them were overly lengthy. The action shots were also very fast paced and close up, which to me made it difficult to know what was always going on in a fight. There was occasional comedic relief however especially with the character Scotty played by Simon Pegg, I found him to be quite amusing.

Overall I'm just going to say if you're a Star Trek fan I'm sure you've already seen this movie, but if you're like me and going in with no experience I would say it's still worth seeing but it doesn't contain the same kind of thrill it would to a fan of the series. The movie seems devoted to the trekkies out there. So, to the trekkies I say live long and prosper...and may the force be with you!

I couldn't resist throwing that last part in there!

Remembering 9/11/01

Eight years ago today one of the worst tragedies in our nations history occured. I remember everything that happened that day, being at school watching the news coverage in every class, not knowing what might happen next. It seems to me there is not much in terms of 9/11/01 remembrance, it's important that we never forget what happened on that day. If we forget then a similair tragedy could happen again. I wanted to make a post on the subject to show that I for one have not forgotten.

2 years at Buy Low

As of tomorrow I will have worked at Buy Low for exactly two years. When I originally applied for that job I had no intention of working there more than a few months, but a few things changed along the way and I'm still there now. I have seen so many people come and go at that job, not many people have been there as long as I have. Probably because the pay isn't very good at all. At this point I feel as though I could do my job in my sleep, I know it so well.

The main thing I've been waiting for all this time is for my house to sell, it's been on the market for a couple years now. As soon as my house sells my life will be taking a completely new direction. I will be starting in school as soon as I possibly can and I will at last have extra money once again. Until that days comes, I will probably be maintaining my current job. It could be worse, I could be working at McDonald's! Ha!

Hilltop Inn

I ate at the Hilltop Inn restaurant today located on Evansville's west side, it was recently voted as "The Manliest Restaurant in America". I rarely ever eat on the west side but that place really is worth the travel time. I got the jumbo brain sandwich, which is basically what they're famous for. It was really good I have to say. A lot of people seem to get grossed out just from the thought of eating a brain, but as I always say, don't diss it till you try it! If you've never tried a brain sandwich before get to the Hilltop Inn A.S.A.P.! It also is making me greatly anticipate the West Side Nut Club Fall Festival, only 25 days to go!

What this blog is about.

Hey ya'll, I'm brand spankin' new to this blogging business. Some of my friends wanted me to start my own so here we go. I'm not sure how frequently I will make posts but I would estimate once a week at the minimum. I also have Twitter, which you can follow me at here.

For the first post I'll give a lil info about myself, I'm 21 years old, I live in Evansville, Indiana and I'm currently employed at Buehler's Buy Low owned by Houchen's Industries. That's just a temporary thing however, my ultimate goal is to really get involved with my passion for science. One of my current hobbies is storm chasing, you may be familiar with the show Storm Chasers on the Discovery Channel. I do basically the same thing they do minus the T.I.V. and the expensive equipment. My goal is filming severe weather, analyzing it, and eventually posting anything interesting online.

I will of course make weather related posts here, but I want this blog to be more than just that. I want to be able to post anything of interest here. Whether it be news related, technology related, science related, whatever it is, this blog will be the melting pot of everything in my life.