Top 45 Oxymorons

November 10th, 2008

oxymoron45. Act naturally
44. Found missing
43. Resident alien
42. Advanced BASIC
41. Genuine imitation
40. Airline Food

39. Good grief

38. Same difference
37. Almost exactly
36. Government organization
35. Sanitary landfill
34. Alone together
33. Legally drunk
32. Silent scream
31. Living dead
30. Small crowd
29. Business ethics
28. Soft rock
27. Butt Head
26. Military Intelligence
25. Software documentation
24. New classic
23. Sweet sorrow
22. Childproof
21. “Now, then …”
20. Synthetic natural gas
19. Passive aggression
18. Taped live
17. Clearly misunderstood
16. Peace force
15. Extinct Life
14. Temporary tax increase
13. Computer jock
12. Plastic glasses
11. Terribly pleased
10. Computer security
9. Political science
8. Tight slacks
7. Definite maybe
6. Pretty ugly
5. Twelve-ounce pound cake
4. Diet ice cream
3. Working vacation
2. Exact estimate
1. Microsoft Works

Need for Speed™ Undercover

November 6th, 2008

Need for Speed - UndercoverAfter a long silence from EA on the Need for Speed™ franchise, they have finally announced the next game of the series. Need for Speed™ Undercover

After the last Need for Speed™ game - Pro Street - came out, it left me disappointed and bored. I missed the high speed police chases and live action story. The menu’s seemed confusing and the game took forever to load. I found myself shelving the game early on.

Need for Speed™ Undercover takes the brand back to its brilliance with, as they call it, “intense action racing.” You will be sent undercover, racing through speedways, dodging cops and chasing rivals.

“Need for Speed Undercover puts you at the centre of a big-budget Hollywood movie with all of the drama, action and dazzling chase scenes, right on your gaming console. The unique Heroic Driving Engine will give you ultimate control over the hottest cars and push you to use every ounce of skill to outrun the law and take down criminal adversaries,” said Executive Producer Bill Harrison.

I think the twist is brilliant. EA was said to have moved towards Pro Street because it didn’t want to promote illegal driving. Now you are essentially the good guy, undercover as a street racer.

The new ‘Heroic Driving Engine’ is being shown off as, “a unique technology that generates incredible high-performance moves at 180 miles per hour during breathtaking highway battles.” We will see about that, but if it’s true I can’t wait.

The game is set for a November launch which means we should all be racing away on Christmas day around the Tri-City Bay Area. It seems Burnout: Paradise has set some new standards that Need for Speed™ will be following. The city’s open-world environment is said to feature over 80 miles of road, including an enormous highway system. Damage has also been brought back, along with our favourite cars including the Audi R8, BMW M6 and Lexus IS-F.

The game is being launched on almost every platform: Xbox 360®, PLAYSTATION®3, Wii™, PlayStation®2, Nintendo DS™, PSP®, PC and mobile.

How to maintain a healthy level of insanity

October 30th, 2008

InsanityAt lunch time, sit in your parked car with sunglasses on and point a hair dryer at passing cars. See if they slow down.

Page yourself over the intercom. Don’t disguise your voice.

Every time someone asks you to do something, ask if they want fries with that.

Put your rubbish bin on your desk and label it, “in.”

Put decaf in the coffee maker for 3 weeks. Once everyone is over their caffeine addictions, switch to espresso.

In the memo field of all your cheques, write “for smuggling diamonds.”

Finish all your sentences with, “in accordance with the prophecy.”

Don’t use any punctuation.

As often as possible, skip rather than walk.

Order diet water whenever you go out to eat, with a serious face.

Specify that your drive-through order is, “to go.”

Sing along at the opera.

Go to a poetry recital and ask why the poems don’t rhyme?

Put mosquito netting around your work area and play tropical sounds all day.

Have your colleagues address you by your wrestling name, Rock Bottom.

When the money comes out the ATM, scream’ “I Won, I Won!”

When leaving the zoo, start running towards the car park, yelling, “Run for your lives, they’re loose!”

Tell your children over dinner that, due to the economy downturn, you will have to let one of them go.

The spoiled under 30 crowd

October 30th, 2008

Space InvadersThose old people are always complaining, here they go again:

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes (look it up) about how hard things were when they were growing up. What with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning, uphill, both ways.

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way I was going to lay nonsense like that on kids about how hard I had it and how easy they’ve got it!

But now that I’m over the ripe old age of thirty, I can’t help but look around and notice the youth of today. You’ve got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a Utopia! And I hate to say it but you kids today, you don’t know how good you’ve got it!

I mean, when I was a kid we didn’t have the internet. If we wanted to know
something, we had to go to the stupid library and look it up ourselves, in the
card catalogue! There was no email! We had to actually write somebody a letter, with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox and it would take like a week to get there!

There were no MP3′s or Napsters! If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself! Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and mess it all up!

We didn’t have fancy assistance like call waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal, that’s it! And we didn’t have fancy caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your mom, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, a collections agent, you
just didn’t know. You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

We didn’t have any fancy Sony Playstation video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600, with games like ‘Space Invaders’ and ‘asteroids’. Your guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination. And there were no multiple levels or screens it was just one screen forever! You could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!

Sure, we had cable television, but back then that was only M-Net and there was no on screen menu and no remote control! You had to use a little book called a TV guide to find out what was on! You had no chance when it came to channel surfing, you had to get off your behind and walk over to the TV to change the Channel and there was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday morning. Do you hear what I’m saying!?! We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little
brats!
And we didn’t have microwaves, if we wanted to heat something up we had to use the stove, imagine that! If we wanted popcorn, we had to use that stupid jiffy pop thing and shake it over the stove forever like an idiot.

That’s exactly what I’m talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You’re spoiled. You guys wouldn’t have lasted five minutes back in 1980!

Parachute Band

October 27th, 2008

Parachute BandWith a mission to use music to connect people with Jesus, and a mandate to raise the standard of Christian music in NZ, Parachute Music came into being. The year was 1989 and the time was right.

Founder Mark de Jong, who had his roots in Youth For Christ big concert events, launched into the deep and began a ministry that has seen 19 years of rapid growth. Passionate about working with musicians who are not afraid to sing about what they believe in, Mark is all about the potential in a song that can change the heart.

“There’s power in a song to touch the human spirit when words are simply not enough.”
Parachute Music grew into a national organisation very quickly, filling the gap between artists and record companies and hosting the largest four day festival outside the US to showcase both local and international musicians. The event has not only become a “must” on the kiwi summer calendar but evangelical, in that a large percentage of unchurched people attend the annual event.
Operating with a Board of Trustees, a staff of 20, interns, a Festival Executive and thousands of volunteers, Parachute Music is a charitable trust with a long haul mentality.

It’s 3 phase approach is this:
1. to develop music written and performed by Christians in NZ
2. to take this music into the international Christian market
3. to take this music into the mainstream industry

TECHNICOLOR, the Parachute Band’s latest release sees a band that has found their voice. With eleven tracks of sonically colourful worship songs, TECHNICOLOR is based around the concept that God’s living water equals life in all its colour… full blazing colour.

The album’s opener ‘Come to the River’ sets the scene, showcasing a new found synergy within the band and plays on the Message’s version of Psalm 51 “Soak me in your laundry…I’ll come out clean…bring me from grey exile, put fresh wind in my sails”.

From the impassioned electro rock of ‘No Eye Has Seen’ to the U2-esque ‘Shout it Out’ it’s clear that TECHNICOLOR’S songs of salvation deliver with punch and sincerity, while the soulful intimacy of tracks like ‘Grace’ and ‘In Liberty’ present a band who aren’t afraid to wear their devotion on their sleeves.