So having had a LOT of time off since the last update I honestly haven’t been doing all that much productively. Having picked up the new laptops I haven’t had a lot of free money to go out with to enjoy my days off

What I did do though was spend one afternoon at the grandparents with the family helping decorate their tree and having a HUGE lunch that had me full for the day. Ever since I moved to the city I seem to spend less time with my family than ever before. I guess that’s life though.

Also my work’s Christmas party came and went. Leah ended up being my date for the night. Of course that led to too many people thinking she was more than just my date. Wonderful *shakes head.* She stayed for part of the after party (which of course didn’t pickup until I dropped her off and came back.) Came back to a round of asshole being played to Never Have I Ever which it ended up with Neil and I having to drink the most. Shocking.

With all of the time off and no money to play? Lots of video games, reading, relaxing, and working on projects. Slowly passing all of my friends scores on Call of Duty: WaW. It does help that Neil’s been hooked on Fallout 3 and Josh is back to playing CoD4 or I’m sure I wouldn’t be nearly where I am on the scoreboard.

Also I ended up launching an actual homepage styled blog to show what I am doing on a daily basis. I was able to automate the main section using Lifesteam which has to be one of the best WordPress plugins that I have come across so far. It has the ability to input custom RSS feeds as well as take them directly from many current online popular services to show what someone is going online. Pretty much exactly what I wanted to do with the site.

Words to live by!

The AfterDark Horror Fest which was created a few years back is dedicated to bringing independent horror movies to a larger audience that would have otherwise not heard of the films. Dark Ride is one of these films and honestly if it had the right backing probably would have done well at the box office as it was able to pull off just enough campy fun to make for an all around horror movie. While I am a horror film fan I do have to admit I stumbled across this quite by accident. I’ve been trying to watch all of the movies featured by AfterDark though actually came across this due to the main actress being Jamie-Lynn Sigler. Not a household name? If your a Sopranos all you have to think of Tony’s daughter Megan and you know who I’m talking about.

The concept laid out before is that there is a scary amusement park ride, a ‘dark ride’, that kids go on for cheap thrills. Apparently though this one was actually used by a very twisted serial killer to go on a spree (as shown by the intro of the movie is not an urban legend!) The killer captured and the park has been closed for years and now finally is being reopened. Having flash forwarded to present day we see 5 college students heading out for vacation who decide to first stop at this ride as a dare followed by breaking and entering to be a place to stay. Conveniently we are shown that the killer from the intro of the movie has chosen this night to make his escape.

While a lot of what follows is traditional horror movie fare it’s put together well and there are very few overly cheesy lines which has been a problem plaguing horror movies of recent years. If your looking for a good late 80′s early 90′s styled horror movie that you probably haven’t seen yet this one is for you!

Amazon

So I used to enjoy doing minor mods to my 325CI and since I’ve gotten the 330 I really haven’t been doing much to it. Nothing for performance even just an IPod kit really and a few visual changes. Today though it took me an hour and a half to get home from work due to the snow and this was after waiting for rush hour to go through. I decided I knew what had to happen. I needed to make a change. I had Matt do a mock up of what my car should look like after the mod was installed and I have to say it’s exactly what the doctor ordered! Yes. A plow for my 330 to clear away the snow in winter. It’s perfect! Exactly what the doctor ordered for these snowy Chicago winters.

So The Shield is over. Michael Chiklis will no longer grace the television screen as Detective Vic Mackey and honestly it’s been a hell of a ride. It’s rare that any television show will come to a close tying everything together and making sure every character (not dead or in jail) that was important is somehow addressed throughout the entire show and into the finale.

I can’t go into too much detail without giving away the true ending though I will say this: Ronnie, while deserving of what happened, I feel was screwed in the end results. Shane’s choice was shocking and did not seem fitting for his actions towards others to truly match his character though helped to tie in the most important closure. Vic got exactly what he had coming to him. In the most twisted and devious way the writers could ruin Vic and have karma kick in they did it. I honestly did not see how they played it out coming. Well played. Well played indeed.

Amazon:
Season 1
Season 2
Season 3
Season 4
Season 5
Season 6

Hey there,

First off introductions are in order. My name is Stuart Conover, and often can be found online as Civin, and I am an Internet Junkie (wait… this isn’t Internet Anonymous…) I am a Chicago based web developer and fanatic with a borderline obsession with the web 2.0 concept and the Internet in general.

This is, for the time being, mainly meant to be a combination of both a journal of what I’m doing on a daily basis on my projects as well as what I’m up to online and with writing. While I was originally planning on using this as a blog for reviews I didn’t believe that selling myself was the right way to brand the idea (that and that felt far too close to being a prostitute!)

Eventually I plan on expanding this past keeping track of projects, project announcements, etc. However for the time being that is exactly what this will be. If your not interested? Well this is currently being mainly created for myself so that’s OK!

Ron Perlman revised his role as Hellboy in Hellboy 2: The Golden Army and did it to perfection. This is a comic franchise that I was not overly familiar with the source material before I started to watch it and was still able to get so lost in the plot that I didn’t really care if they strayed from the original story that much!

In this sequal we start off shortly after the first movie ends. Hellboy is trying to adjust to life without his ‘father’ being there to guide him, his want for being able to not have to live in secret crushing his thoughts, and problems arising from fighting all too often with Liz who has moved in with him. We are quickly shown that the ‘villains’ of this story are an ancient race of elves who we had made peace with thousands upon thousands of years ago which mankind has since not only forgotten our pact to prevent from being destroyed but forgotten the very race itself. A self banished prince of this kingdom has decided that the time has come to fulfill his races birthright as the true rulers of our Earth and is prepared to awaken an invincible army to wipe us out. All of that, no true spoilers included, was given to us within the first 15 minutes of the movie.

Acting, special effects, plot development, character development. For a comic adaptation this one is able to keep all of the bases covered and most importantly keep you entertained on an action packed ride at the same time. I want to stress you paying attention to one scene as it’s hard to understand the beginning dialogue of a character in it. You will find Liz having to talk to a demon, or angel, or death (I honestly can’t tell) and be given a choice concerning Hellboy. Listen to the consequences and what is foretold. It SCREAMS a third movie has to be made and the character itself is amazingly well done (if a ‘bit’ similar to a certain character from Pan’s Labyrinth. I know I know, same director he can get away with it!)

The film ends on a note that (again I’m not familiar with the source material) could leave us with an ending of the series. Honestly I hope this is a franchise that is given one more film as it deserves a trilogy, more so after the scene with “Death” (I know it was also brought up in the first movie but I need to see where they go with it and really dug how they brought it up in this one!) I can’t stress enough how fun of a series it is and if you’ve had any doubts on seeing the sequel to put them to bed and get a copy of it today!

Amazon

I’m not sure why I’ve reggae on the mind as of late. I’ve been primarily listening to Stereophonics, The Black Crowes, and the new Buckcherry album as of late. I guess it just fits the mood.

Well, another couple weeks without updates and another couple weeks of a LOT going on. Honestly being the beginning of winter I would think that I would be staying in more often but apparently that is not fully the case.

To start with were a couple birthdays. First was Rob’s birthday which started out great, had a lot of people over: Rob(of course), his sister, Neil(again duh), Rex, Matt R., Danno, Brad, Adam, Mia.. and I’m pretty sure I’m forgetting someone. Pregaming was a good time and right as we were heading out the door I got a call that my dad was in the hospital. Yay. Obviously he ended up ok or this would have been a much less uplifting beginning to a post but I did end up skipping out on Rob’s party to talk to my mother for a ‘bit.’ I apparently missed a couple entertaining things as Rob cracked his head open and Matt and Brad got into it.

As I said there were a couple birthday’s so the second up was Rose’s birthday. Her ideal plan for birthday and another night over? A movie, the last episode of Season 1 of True Blood, and of course what took up the vast majority of our time:



Gears of War 2 being completely beaten in coop mode! Sure it was only regular difficulty but as you can see 1-2 achievements came from playing through the game’s story mode and 1 from going through 10 levels of Horde. I can’t even imagine how hard the next Horde achievement is, 50 rounds? GAH! (Rose also got an achievement I missed from CoD 4 while over and I was doing stuff online.) Next run through will probably be Call of Duty 5 or Gears 2 on hard.

Now for the unexpected part of the week. As we’ve been talking again, Leah and I decided to get together for dinner and drinks at the Dubliner at the Promenade. That quickly turned into a very entertaining four hours of catching up in our usual way which was heavy on content in a ‘slightly’ flirtatious style *grin*. Life just keeps getting more and more interesting. Had both a fun and relaxing night night; I honestly hope this works out better than the last time we were starting to hang out again. I’m a glutton for punishment I know.

Free time past that? Well I’ve been playing a LOT of Call of Duty 5 online, working on my web projects, and reading as of late.

Now for my big personal geek news I decided my laptop was getting old, slow, and beaten up so I talked myself into buying a new one.. or two. Wait.. two?

Now keep in mind while I have them next to each other they look the same size, however the first of the two is a 15″ while the second is a 9″ (see the pencil in the picture for a size idea of the second one.) Basically the second one ended up free with how the pricing worked out. So. Specs for those interested:
It’s a Dell Studio 15: Hi Resolution, glossy widescreen 15.4 inch display (1920×1200)
Intel Core 2 Duo P8400, 2.2GHz, 1066Mhz, 3M L2 Cache
4GB, DDR2, 800MHz 2 Dimm
256MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3450
250G 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive Free Fall Sensor
Integrated Finger Print Reader
Back-lit Keyboard

On the Dell Mini 9: 8.9 inch Wide Screen WSVGA TLLCD
Inspiron 910 Intel Atom processor N270, 1.6GHz, 533Mhz512K L2 Cache
1GB,DDR2,533MHZ,1 DIMM
16GB Solid State Drive (mini-card Module/PATA)

Yes I actually do have a use for the Mini 9 as well. Amazingly enough!