2 Interesting Podcast adventures - part 2

As you may recall from one of my previous entries, I found 2 new story-based podcasts:

Children of the Gods(CotG)
&
The Silent Universe

I've now had a chance to listen to all 3 episodes available to CotG, and the 1 episode of Silent Universe. So, as promised, here are my initial thoughts to the both of them.

Children of the Gods:

This series (according to the website) is heavily inspired by the book "Footfall" and the movie that was inspired by that book ,which we all know as "Independance Day". From what I can tell, this series takes the idea that not all of the aliens from Independance Day are destroyed, and what would happen if they come back.

Yes, this one pits Humans vs. Aliens, which means we get lots of space battles, which is good in my books! This series uses a ton of sound effects and sound scapes (think ambience noise) to add to the story. For the most part it is really well done, except for one sound effect they use that I find doesn't sound right. That is the sound of footsteps on the deck plating in the ship. For some reason the pacing sounds totally wrong to me - it just seems too slow to me to be somebody walking. But, other than that it is good.

The acting is pretty good, and rarely sounds like somebody just reading lines. So far there are no annoying characters (unlike the other podcast)....

In the end, I must say I rather enjoyed these 3 episodes and I will be tuning in further.
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The Silent Universe:

Only 1 episode so far. The release schedule is supposed to be 1 episode a month. This may seem like a long time, however I believe there is a reason for that. The makers of this podcast want us listeners to give them feedback after each episode. They want to take our suggestions and perhaps use our ideas in future episodes. I think this is a totally cool idea, and I hope it works out.

Reading the forums on the Silent Universe website, there is a ton of talk about one of the characters, a Gilbert (Gill) Frye. He's the geek of the group, infact, it appears this guy has been frozen from our time and unthawed in the future. (Yes, they willingly made that a Futurama throwback). The problem that me, and a lot of other listeners, have with this character is that he is utterly silly on what he says. He does a lot of impressions (like Yoda, Chewie, etc), but that isn't the worst of it! He speaks in leet speak and internet acronyms. In the first ep, he said things like "teh" master, "arr oh tee eff ell"... it's just way too silly for me. However, the creator of the series I think is taking our complaining to heart, and I think this character will be using less of this crap in future episodes. I believe the creator is looking for ideas on how to phase that out a bit, but make it believable in context to the story.

Oh yeah, there are no aliens in this story, it's all just Humans. So this is looking to be a Sci-Fi, character based drama more than anything else. Supposedly this podcast is supposed to mix elements of "24" and "Battlestar Galactica". If it can do that successfully, then I am sure this is going to be one great series!

I will also be tuning into this one some more. And yes, I have posted on their forums giving my thoughts on that Gill Frye the Geek Guy - ug!
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Shit, I think I suck at reviewing stuff. I think I just did a bunch of unfocused rambling above... lol.
I hope it made sense though, and is useful...
:o)

Tying the knot...

So I took the plunge a few days ago... I proposed to my long time GF Megan. (2 years+ is long right?) She said yes, of course. After all, who wouldn't want to marry a Geek eh?

It hasn't even been a week, and already we've went over a ton of different wedding ideas. Basically we are both in agreement that we do not want to go through the hassles of planning a wedding - even a small one. We looked at everything to just going to the lawcourts and getting married there, to Vegas, Hawaii, Banff, local wedding spots, etc. The thing that I think has finally won out is this:

Beaches Resort & Spa in Negril

This will be like a wedding and a honeymoon all rolled up in one, and it will not break the bank! Plus, it has a ton of kid-oriented activities, and kid camp, as we are planning to bring Megan's 4 year old daughter, McKenna, with us. Oh yeah, the basic wedding comes free of charge, and this place is a highly rated 4-star resort.

Anybody out there have any other ideas for a non-standard wedding? We really just want to show up and have everything all set up for us already for the wedding. Oh, and it can't be super expensive (say 5 to 10 gees).

PS: like my image? I have 1337 photoshop skills eh? lol!
:o)

2 Interesting Podcast adventures

I just heard about the following 2 podcasts this morning:

Children of the Gods (CotG)
The Silent Universe

CotG bills itself as an original sci-fi podcast adventure, and The Silent Universe has a unique twist: us, the listeners, will be able to give our input into the story through the forums, and ultimately decide the direction the story takes.

How cool does all that sound? I am very intrigued!

Now to actually download these podcasts and give them a listen... I'll post my updated thoughts later!
:o)

To Jedi or not to Jedi?

For years now (I'd say over 10 years at least) I've used the handle Jedi_Kez for pretty much everything I signed up for that required a username. Before then I would use just Kez, however, believe it or not, there is more then one of us out there - so I made the change way back when to include the Ultra-Cool Jedi prefix to my usernames. Hey, I'm a Geek who grew up loving the original Star Wars Trilogy. To this day, I have yet to come across another Jedi_Kez. The closest I got was a Jedi Taz (this was on XBox Live - so you can only imagine the confusion on our team trying to call out one of our names...).

Fast-Forward to current day. Star Wars is not really the same anymore. A lot of long-time fans are upset and even disgusted with the prequal episodes that spewed forth from Lucas' brain. Star Wars (as a whole) is no longer as cool as it once was. So here I am, with my long time Jedi_Kez handle, wondering if it is still cool to use 'Jedi' in my name (or anything else relating to Star Wars). Am I no longer as cool as I once was? Should I change to something else? Should I go back to regular ole' Kez?

Hmmm, something to ponder upon some more methinks. For the meantime, I'll remain a Jedi, and yes, the Force is with me.
:o)