MacManX.com » Nostalgia

Battlestar Galactica Recap

James — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 00:16:57 +0000

The final season of Battlestar Galactica will begin on April 4th. In case you haven’t been watching one of the greatest re-imagined science fiction series to ever grace your television set, the following eight-minute recap of the past three seasons should bring you up to speed.

Why I Stopped Reading Spider-Man

James — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 01:36:25 +0000

I stopped reading Spider-Man titles because of events that transpired in One More Day and Brand New Day. I know, you have probably read the same opinions every where else, but I’ve reached that point where I have to express my frustration.

One could say that Spider-Man was Marvel Comics’ flagship superhero, or that he was at least a close second to Captain America. We watched him fight crime as a teenager and we watched him grow into adulthood, and through all of this, his character was expanded through his ever growing responsibilities and his love for Mary Jane Watson. In fact, he even married her. Their relationship was very real, like Louis Lane and Clark Kent, but without the ridiculous “I only love Clark Kent because he’s really Superman” crap. Mary Jane really loved Peter, and though at times she was worried for his safety, she knew that he had to be Spider-Man because she knew that there were people out there who always needed his help.

For twenty years, Peter Parker (Spider-Man) and Mary Jane Watson Parker had been the number-one married couple under the Marvel Comics label. Well, not any more! In fact, they were never married! They had a long-term relationship, but it ended abruptly just before the marriage, and now their relationship is “frosty at best.” Confused? Yeah, you, me and the rest of the world!

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Read the rest of Why I Stopped Reading Spider-Man (627 words)

Blog Less, Live More

James — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 01:22:15 +0000

I would like to think of this post as a New Year’s Resolution, a very important resolution which will eventually contradict itself. In 2008, I’ll be focusing less on my blog and decreasing my overall online activities in order to effectively “live more.” How will this contradict itself? Well, by living more, I will have far more experiences and opinions to share on this blog. Isn’t that funny? A resolution to decrease blog activity may actually result in increased blog activity.

2007 has been a great year. Sarah and I began planning our wedding this year and we’ll have the final plans next month, I have a new full-time job that pays very well and is only five minutes from my house, I got an iPhone, and I just received a gift card specifically intended for the purchase of a Wii (no, I haven’t been able to find one yet). But, enough about me!

So, how did 2007 fare for MacManX.com? Thanks to Joen’s outstanding work on Fauna, I was finally able to release Frost 1.0, “a cool and refreshing style” for Fauna. I also launched Program Notes (fka Music Program Notes), an exciting new resource for ensemble directors, educators, students, and anyone else with a general interest in music and stage history.

2007 also saw some cut-backs and major changes to MacManX.com. The Favored Freeware list has been scaled back to about a quarter of its size. The previous list included all of the freeware applications that I have ever used, which produced quite a few duplicates (applications which served the same purpose) and dead links, and therefore caused a lot of confusion. This new list only features freeware applications which I have used in the last few months. Along the same lines, the Blogroll Dive has been discontinued to make way for more individual postings, which will be more frequent and far less confusing than the link dump that the Blogroll Dive became. Speaking of cut-backs, Program Notes was accepted by (and moved to) Wikia just three months ago, which has dramatically decreased my bandwidth usage and average server load, and brought my operating costs of Program Notes down to zero.

As for the major changes, I am proud to say that most noticeable change at MacManX.com would be the removal of AdSense and Text Link Ads. Despite the slight drop in income, I am happy to see them go.

If I had to pick my favorite post of 2007, it would definitely be Save the Environment for Free. “For just minutes a day, you can improve the quality of the environment for yourself and everyone around you who is, or whoever will be, living on our green Earth.” That’s right I said “minutes,” not dollars or cents, “just minutes a day.”

Unfortunately, 2007 also saw a dramatic decrease in comments. In fact, you’ll noticed that all but one of the MacManX.com posts linked to today have absolutely no comments. I hope that by putting a more personal spin on MacManX.com, more people will be willing to share their comments and opinions. Only time will tell.

So, with all of that said, I bid farewell to 2007 and greet 2008 with open arms. I’m looking forward to blogging less and living more in order to blog more. Still confused? I have to admit, starting the New Year off with a contradictory resolution may not be the best of plans, but at least I’ll be enjoying more of life outside the internet. As for the predicted increase in blog activity, we’ll just have to see how 2008 plays out.

The New Batman Trailer

James — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 07:21:26 +0000

The new trailer for Batman: The Dark Knight is now online, featuring plenty of footage and dialogue from the upcoming film. I would give a brief review of the trailer, but it would just be a repeat of what Joen has already said, so I’ll repeat it with emphasis instead. ”Great take on the Joker, but [very] annoying that Batman’s love interest was re-cast instead of re-placed.”

Photos from the Hawaii Cruise

James — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 04:39:26 +0000

My family and I have returned from a week-long cruise around the islands of Hawaii. After our vacation to the “Big Island” last year, I was eager to see the rest of the islands. Sure enough, I was impressed by the beauty and clean atmosphere of all the islands, and have decided to share some of my favorite photos from the cruise. Enjoy!

Review: Spider-Man: Reign

James — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 16:07:44 +0000

Spider-Man: Reign, from writer and artist Kaare Andrews, is a powerful and emotional journey through the tortured mind of Peter Parker as he enters the last years of his life and begins to confront everything that he has ever cared for and lost.

Transformers Nostalgia

James — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 07:37:46 +0000

Last Sunday, Sarah and I were lucky enough to see Transformers in our local theater. It was great film. I would have appreciated more character development concerning the Transformers, but it would have been difficult to fit any more into the film without it being considered “too long” by younger audiences. Hopefully, there will be more character development in the sequel. Besides the lack of character development, the film carried a decent plot and featured the most realistic Transformers to date! Best of all, it brought back memories from the long-running and well-established Transformers universe.

Here are four of my favorite moments from the Transformers universe.

SPOILER WARNING: The following clips obviously contain spoilers.

The Autobots meet G.I. Joe in 1939. (review)
Starscream sacrifices himself to save millions of lives by convincing Galvatron and Optimus Prime to join forces against Unicron. (clip)
The “mysterious planet” that the Beast Wars take place on is revealed to be prehistoric Earth, complete with the crashed Ark and dormant G1 Transformers. (clip)
Just about every moment from Beast Machines, especially the last episode. (clip)

It’s hard to choose which video clip to embed at the end of this post, so I’m going to choose the last few minutes from Beast Machines, which just so happens to be the only clip from this list without a cliffhanger ending.

Library Update: June 2007

James — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 18:47:12 +0000

It’s time for yet another Library update. This catalogue of my library is technically complete, but I’m always purchasing new books, movies, and music. The library is now less than half of its original size and should load much quicker thanks to the new compression routines introduced in the current beta release of DeliciWeb. Those of you who frequent the library will notice that the “Games” section is gone. I chose to remove because it only listed ten commercial games and I haven’t purchased any new games in the last two years.

Almost everything in my library can be purchased from Barnes & Noble.com. If you can’t find what you’re looking for there, please contact me. Current library stats:

Books: 385
Movies: 189
Music: 117

Note: The fore-mentioned library was getting far too large, so it is no longer available, but it was fun while it lasted.

The Force Unleashed

James — Sun, 27 May 2007 07:06:26 +0000

After the 30th Anniversary of Star Wars on Friday, word has been spreading quickly among various social circles about The Force Unleashed, a new game which takes place between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope and seeks to redefine our perception of The Force when used in combat. I heard about this game several months ago, but never saw any production footage until now. I must say that I am very impressed. If Darth Vader were to unleash his full potential on a few helpless Stormtroopers, this is exactly what it would look like. If that caught your attention, take a look at this six-minute behind-the-scenes clip.

Library Update: January 2007

James — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 08:16:26 +0000

It’s the first month of the new year, which means that it’s time for yet another Library update. This catalogue of my library is technically complete, but I’m always purchasing new books, movies, music, and games. If you would like to trade or purchase, please contact me, and we’ll work something out. Current library stats:

Books: 375
Movies: 179
Music: 104
Games: 10

Note: The fore-mentioned library was getting far too large, so it is no longer available, but it was fun while it lasted.