Hasbro Red Two X-Wing Fighter

Nerd alert. If this post doesn't elevate me to true geekdom, nothing will.

As I kid, I grew up with Star Wars. I saw the movies, read the books, bought the toys, even ate the breakfast cereal. It wasn't just a hobby. It went beyond obsession. It was a fact of life. There was food, air, Star Wars.

My childhood influenced my adulthood. I still worship at the altar of Lucas, even when I'm forced to admit that some of his more recent works haven't matched the quality of his seminal masterpiece. But I still watch the movies, read the books, and -when I can convince myself nobody is looking- buy the toys (I've given up on the breakfast cereal on my doctor's recommendation).

The toy every Star Wars fan wanted, of course, was the Millennium Falcon. I never got it, but my best friend did so it was almost as good. But what I lusted after almost as much was the X-Wing fighter. Now there was some sleek military hardware!

I'm all grown up now and can buy my own toys these days (again, when nobody is watching me). When I saw Hasbro's new Red Two X-Wing Fighter, it didn't take me long to pull out my wallet.

This toy puts the original to shame. Kenner's model was short and stubby, completely out of scale. This new model is leaner and longer. It also has much more detail, not only in the molding but in the painted details. The only thing the original Kenner toy were the electronics; the original had sound and a light-up "laser" on the nose. But Hasbro's model boasts an R2 Astromech droid and a well-articulated action figure of Wedge "Red Two" Antilles (not to mention two ladders, which excites the Star Wars toy community to no end for some reason). Even the box was well-designed, with the interior packaging laid out in an appealing mini diorama.


Yeah, in the end it's just a toy that which ultimately will end up sitting in a corner collecting dust. But it's well put together kit and even mumble-mumble years later, the kid in me still appreciates a good toy.

Mama's Dirty Little Secret

Music time! It can't be games and software all the time. You want to listen to a hard rocking band? Four words: Mama's Dirty Little Secret. They're an independent band with an intense pulse-pounding beat (gotta love that drummer!). Check out some of their tracks at their website and, if you're in the Brooklyn area, catch one of their shows (check the website for the schedules and locations).

The Crowd That Entertains

 Okay, so here's something completely different. If you like sort of bluesy folk rock, check out "The Crowd That Entertains". They're a duo of British emigres singing about their experiences in the cities of London and New York with dry humor. They perform in New York live and even offer their second album entirely free. Their music may not be for everyone, but it's worth taking the time to listen to a few songs.

Why every boy should learn to cook

Over the holidays, I followed tradition and visited family. It's the easiest and best way, after all, to ensure that I get all the gifts that I have coming to me. But a not inconsequential side-effect of this is that I get to see many of my relatives that I otherwise ignore for the rest of the year. Amongst these are my various cousins and -pertinent to this post- their own younger brood.

I mention all this because this is one of the few chances I have to interact with the younger generation; by and large, I rarely have much to do with the under-twenty set. The holidays are that one occassion I get to learn from kids what it's like to grow up in the 21st century. And the question I asked this time was, "Do you cook?"

See, when I was growing up, boys didn't cook. That was "girlie" stuff; Mom cooked; Grandma cooked, the Aunts cooked... but the boys tended to avoid that stuff. This attitude was starting to change during my youth, but slowly. So I was naturally curious whether -given how much family life has shift in other areas- there had been a radical shift regarding food preparation since my younger days.

Well, one piece of data aren't any sort of proof regarding a larger trend, but if my younger cousins are any indication, then the answer is a definitive "no". Cooking is still, for all intents and purposes, for girls.

Wrong answer, boys! Here's why every boy should learn to cook

Eat what you like: Forget that it's a useful life-skill. Forget that it promotes independence. Reason number one that you should learn to cook? Because otherwise Mom is going to make liver and onions and then expect you to eat it. But if you can cook, you get to chose what the meal is. And trust me; if you're doing all the work getting the dish onto the table, Mom isn't going to quibble too much about the content.

Knives and fire: Two things you usually aren't allowed to play with -knives and fire- suddenly become acceptable tools for you to work with when applied to the culinary arts. Chopping meat with tempered steel is every bit as much fun as you might imagine.

Make a mess Who doesn't like to make a mess? Normally, though, the fun of gratuitous spillage is tempered by the work it takes to clean up. But share whatever you are cooking and people tend to reciprocate by offering to clean up your dirty pans and dishes (note: unless they're your friends or siblings; never depend on them to clean up after you. Parents or other adults are fair game, though). It usually doesn't take much more effort to cook for two than it does for one, so make yourself some food, share the extra and get the unlucky recipient to clean up after you.

Junior chemistry Cooking is nothing more than applied chemistry, and learning to cook is a useful step towards learning the "real thing". And why should you care about chemistry? Because you can do all sorts of interesting things with chemistry that will appeal to boys -from Gluep to stink bombs to (once you get older, and if you have a decent AP Chemistry teacher) gunpowder.

Girls dig it Okay, when you're just a young boy this probably doesn't count for much, but as you get older this benefit starts to become more and more important. Girls love a guy that can cook anything more complicated than a grilled cheese sandwich. Women jest about how the quickest way to a man's heart is through his stomach, but I'm not convinced the opposite sex is any different; make them a meal and you're a "keeper".

So, there you have it boys; sex, food, and the option to play with weapons of mass destruction. Sure a few Neanderthal throwbacks might claim otherwise, but as far as I'm concerned, there's no reason not to learn to cook. Open those cookbooks, fire up those burners, and start cooking!

Terminator Salvation - The Whole Story

Terminator Salvation, a.k.a., Terminator 4, was released on DVD today in the USA. Given its poor showing in theatres, that may not be all that exciting to you, but I really like the Terminator franchise so let there be no doubt in your minds that I rushed out to buy the director's cut as soon as it came out.

Terminator Salvation was not that popular with the fans though, and I can understand why. For one thing, it was a significant depature from the series; no time-travel, no Schwarzenegger (except for a brief CGI cameo in the final battle) and the heroes hunted the machines rather than the other way around. The stakes also felt dramatically lower in Salvation; the previous movies were all about the war to keep John Connor alive in order to prevent The Destruction Of The Entire Human Race; Salvation felt like a minor skirmish in comparison.

Still, I liked Salvation simply because it finally showed us the War Against The Machines in all its glory instead of just the snippets we had previously seen in the earlier movies. This was something I had been waiting for since the first movie came out in 1984. Plus, I felt the whole time-traveling aspect of the series was the weakest part of the shows and I was glad that had been finally dropped. So while the acting and the characters (not to mention the action and special effects) may not  have been up to the standards set by the first three movies, the setting almost made up for it.

Still, the story of Salvation felt weak and unfulfilling; the movie felt more like an episode of some action TV show rather than what we'd come to expect from a Hollywood blockbuster and I wasn't too surprised when the movie quickly fell under the radar. The directors meant well, but they just didn't give the audience enough of what they wanted.

Now, oddly enough, this was pretty much my opinion of other Terminator Salvation spin-off products: Terminator Salvation, the video game and Terminator Salvation The Machinima Series. The former suffered from a lack of content; it had too few maps, too few monsters, too few weapons and, in fact,  you could finish the game in an hour or two. The latter probably suffered most from the fact that most people never heard of it, but its story and acting were never going to win it any awards anyway. Still, they were both interesting takes on the Terminator franchise but individually were not very strong products any of them.

However, taken together the story is different; they support and each one makes up for the flaws of the other. The movie didn't have enough gunplay and explosions for you? The game made up for that. The game was too short? Combined with the movie and machinima series and there's a good amount of content. Want that old "hunted by the machines" intensity? Watch the machinma. The three also complement the franchise with added material and characters.

I won't try to argue that, even combined, the trio matches the balls-to-the-wall action of Terminator 2. Still, if you are a fan of the franchise but found Salvation dry and unsatisfying , then see if the additional material from the video game and machinima make you change your mind.  Sometimes the whole taken together is greater than its component parts.

Twitter, too

In my never-ending quest to modernize myself, I now have a Twitter account as well. Go to Twitter and search for SpallsHurgenson and you'll find me.

Of course, so far the only announcements I've made so far are that I have a Twitter account and that I have a blog, so it's all quite self-referential and circular and, ultimately, quite pointless. But that pretty much describes all of Twitter...

Introduction

After lurking in the dim dark recesses of Usenet for the past twenty years, I've decided to move forward with the times and get a blog. I'm not so self-centered as to believe that anyone will actually read this, but I am ego-centric enough that I want another outlet for my verbal ramblings. I love Usenet (and no, not because its easy access to adult or illegal material) but the audience there is extremely limited.

So, if you've stumbled across this blog, this is a welcome of sorts. How often I'll actually post to this thing I can't say - the current odds are that it'll go the way of my never-used Twitter account in less than a month- but I'll try to post a few things to it before giving up on the whole escapade. Topics will range from the geeky (video-games, computer hardware) to the ultra nerdy (D&D, Star Wars vs Star Trek) so reader beware.