Portal Bookends Review

I bought these bookends from ThinkGeek sometime before Christmas along with the talking/motion sensing Portal plush. The bookends are awesome to look at and it gets points for style and general design; however, it loses points because of its poor construction. Each bookend is made up of two main pieces, the bottom part which has foam underneath to keep it from sliding around, and the top part with the portal on it. The two parts are only held together by four tiny metal pegs which are attached to the top part and stick to the bottom part with the sticky foam. A couple of the pegs detached and it wouldn't hold up books anymore. I just ended up super gluing the two metal pieces together and it's been holding up well so far.

Overall I think the bookends look great, but for the price ($29.99 USD) they could have been constructed a bit better. However, if you really love Portal, have some extra cash, and don't mind gluing the thing back together eventually, then it is a nice addition to any geek's home.

Podcast Update

I just wanted to give an update on the podcast since it has been a while since the last one was released. I've had a lot of things going on recently, some personal things, the holidays, and now I'm in the process of moving to a new apartment. It's been hard to find time to devote to planning, recording, and editing for the podcast so it is on hold until I can get everything settled. I can't give an estimate when the next one will be up but I can only say soon and sometime this month. Sorry for the delay, but I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! :)

Goozchix Ep 2 - Skyrimming

This is the second episode of the Goozchix featuring hosts Zenverse and Ghostworld as recorded on November 27, 2011

In this episode we talk about our current addiction to Skyrim, which takes up a large portion of the episode. Zen reviews The Binding of Isaac and obsesses over the Legend of Zelda 3DS, and Ghost reviews the A-Team movie for the A-Z challenge.

Edit 12/5: Forgot to add in the pictures of the 3DS :)
Bundle - http://a.yfrog.com/img739/9423/sc0ge.jpg
Front - http://a.yfrog.com/img739/7103/nnamih.jpg
Back - http://a.yfrog.com/img864/9412/c2vik.jpg
Inside - http://a.yfrog.com/img619/5971/ssauku.jpg

Goozchix Ep 2 - Skyrimming, Run time: 01:10:46 -  MP3 64.9 mb, OGG 19.2 mb



Opening and Ending Music Clips:
"Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim 'Dovahkiin' OC ReMix"
Remixer: Brandon Strader
Composer: Jeremy Soule
Song: 'Sons of Skyrim'
OC ReMix Link: http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02323/

Goozchix Ep 1 - From the Shadows Like a Ninja

This is the official first episode of the Goozchix featuring hosts Zenverse and Ghostworld as recorded on November 6, 2011
 
It's been more than a year since we last recorded a podcast, but now we're back! As it has been a while, it seems we have forgotten how to start and end the podcast, and I had to relearn how to edit in Audacity and upload the podcast again, but it will come back to us in time!

In this episode we discuss what we've been up to lately, games we are currently playing like DCUO and Uncharted, other games we're looking forward to, and share exciting Portal related news! We also go into the A-Z movie challenge that we're currently doing and discuss upcoming PS + deals.

Goozchix Ep 1 - From the Shadows Like a Ninja, Run time: 53:05 -  MP3 48.6 mb, OGG 14.7 mb



Opening and Ending Music:
"The Mario and Zelda Ragtime"
Author: shermannetti
Newgrounds Link: http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/57507

A - Across the Universe Review

Across the Universe is a musical told through Beatles songs in a similar way that Mamma Mia is told through ABBA songs. First of all, I love the Beatles because it brings back fond memories of my childhood. My dad worked weekdays and my mom worked weekends back then, so my dad would always bring us to garage sales, flea markets, baseball games, and atari clubs and he would always play his favorite songs including the Beatles, Four Seasons, Eagles, Blood Sweat & Tears, The Righteous Brothers, Simon & Garfunkel, etc...So you could say I grew up more with this music than music of the 80's 90's.

So, you may ask, how do the Beatles covers in this movie stand up to the original? I would say that they are pretty damn good. I found myself singing along to the songs while I watched the movie and I even purchased the 31 song soundtrack on iTunes (there are three different versions but this actually has all the songs). The only song I didn't really like was Eddie Izzard singing "For the Benefit of Mr. Kite," although it was more fun to watch, lol.

As for the actual movie, it's a love story set in the 1960's surrounding the anti-war protests of the Vietnam War, and it is chock full of Beatles references. However, I'm not so sure that it is pieced well enough together with the songs. At some points it was rather slow, and sometimes I was left wondering what exactly was going on. The musical numbers were excellent and artistic, ranging from heart warming and exciting, to just plain weird, but everything else in between was kinda...meh. Honestly, I think the movie is best taken as a good collection of musical numbers rather than a poorly strung together story.

I still recommend it to Beatles fans for the excellent musical numbers. You could always just fast forward through the boring talky parts. :P

Hello there,
So Zen and I have decided to bring the podcast back!  In celebration of this we thought it would be fun to start a fun challenge.  We call it the A-Z movie challenge.

How the challenge works:

• You must choose 1 movie to watch for each letter of the alphabet.  
• Each movie must be one you have not seen.
• We will make a post for each movie we've seen, so feel free to add to the comments on movies you are watching.

Also, look for a new podcast coming extremely soon!

Site Under Construction

I finally got the podcast up on blogspot, but it is still a work in progress. Please feel free to listen to the podcasts we have up and comment. However, expect the design to change constantly!