Posts Tagged ‘television’

Jin: Guide to girls

Friday, November 26th, 2010

My friend from Korea is constantly going on about girls. He comments on the way they talk, the way they dress, what they do, what they don’t do and how to avoid being beaten up by them. Most of the time, the advice is bad. But every now and then he has something intelligent to say.

When Jin wanted to do a video for Srizzil we decided to put his rambling thoughts on girls into a video. His odd tips mixed with his crazy accent makes for some hysterical moments. You may need to watch this one a few times to get the full extent of what he’s saying.

Without further ado, here is a guide to girls by Jin:

Watch some outtakes from the Making of Jin: Guide to girls

Simon Cowell officially leaving Idol

Wednesday, January 13th, 2010

American Idol has become one of the biggest shows in Television history, launching people from obscurity to international fame in just a few short months. It could easily be argued that many of these people may never have been able to pursue their dreams if it hadn’t been for the show. Stars like Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Daughtry, Kris Allen and Jennifer Hudson may have never seen their dreams become reality. The biggest star of the show, however, has to be Simon Cowell.

The music mogul, who was previously best known for launching Westlife’s career, was first seen as the nasty judge on the British version of the show, “Pop Idol.” When Fox decided to bring the show to America, they knew that Cowell was a key factor in the show’s success. When Idol launched on American television, Cowell become a house hold name, the judge people loved to hate.

This week, Cowell officially announced that he would be leaving American Idol after his ninth season with the show. He will be launching his own talent show, X Factor, in America. The show has already proved popular in Britain, with Leona Lewis being its biggest success story to date.

The big question on everybody’s mind is what will happen to the show now that its star is leaving. The show has yet to see what effect the bubbly Paula Abdul’s loss will have, never mind its leading man. Although Paula was a big loss to the show, her replacement, Ellen Degenerous, is someone many people are looking forward to seeing. But with Simon Cowell gone, can the cash cow hold its already diminished audience?

I tend to think that if the X Factor import is a success, American Idol may be brought to a close. Fox, realising that the two shows can’t compete, has cleverly pushed their dates as far apart as possible. But how many talent shows does America need, or more correctly how many does it want? Only time will tell.

Marc Williams

Things we have learnt from movies

Tuesday, August 18th, 2009

High FiveIt is always possible to park directly outside any building you are visiting.

A detective can only solve a case once he has been suspended from duty.

If you decide to start dancing in the street, everyone you bump into will know all the steps.

Most laptop computers are powerful enough to override the communication systems of any invading alien civilization.

It does not matter if you are heavily outnumbered in a fight involving martial arts – your enemies will wait patiently to attack you one by one by dancing around in a threatening manner until you have knocked out their predecessors.

When a person is knocked unconscious by a blow to the head, they will never suffer a concussion or brain damage.

No one involved in a car chase, hijacking, explosion, volcanic eruption or alien invasion will ever go into shock.

Police Departments give their officers personality tests to make sure they are deliberately assigned a partner who is their total opposite.

When they are alone, all foreigners prefer to speak English to each other.

You can always find a chainsaw when you need one.

Any lock can be picked by a credit card or a paper clip in seconds, unless it’s the door to a burning building with a child trapped inside.

An electric fence, powerful enough to kill a dinosaur will cause no lasting damage to an eight-year-old child.

Television news bulletins usually contain a story that affects you personally at that precise moment you turn the television on.

SingStar Wireless Microphones Review

Friday, May 8th, 2009

singstar Wireless MicsWhen playing SingStar over the years I have endured something really annoying. The microphone’s wires are often too short, meaning you have to stand on top of the television, they always get tangled, and they are very restricting when it comes to movement. In the heat of a song, at the point where you just want to break out in to spectacular dance, you’re stuck to one spot, fearing the PlayStation’s long fall ending in a disastrous smash.

Fear no more, fellow SingStar movers and shakers. The SingStar wireless microphones have arrived, a few years late but they’ve arrived. Dance as if nobodies watching and jump on any piece of furniture that can hold your weight. The freedom is all yours; you just have to figure out how to use it.

The first thing you’ll notice about the new microphones is that they’re much bigger than the old ones. This is a good thing, believe it or not. It allows you to grip the microphone properly and comfortably without any fuss and makes them feel more robust. You’ll probably also notice that, despite their larger size, the microphones are a lot lighter than previous SingStar microphones.

singstarAlthough the PS3 does have a Bluetooth receiver built into it, as far as I know, games like SingStar and Buzz both need separate USB receivers to be plugged in. That’s not to say setup isn’t easy. Just plug in the receiver, put it the included batteries, switch on your microphones by pushing the switch up and they’re ‘automagically’ synced to your PlayStation. You’re ready to play!

The real test, however, is in the ‘wirelessness’ of the microphones. That is the ability to play the game without the signal being lost or delays being noticed. Over the week that we tested the game, across two parties and four homes, the microphones held up extremely well. The battery lasted, even after trying to get one of the microphones to work on a Vista (Ahhh) PC.

Not only did the batteries last well, but the microphones are of superb quality. There was no lagging, no loss of signal. I even tried from another room and I could still hear my voice coming through the TV. One of my friends claimed there was a slight lag when singing right against the microphone, but I think he may have a personal hearing lag. ;)

As for the computer test goes, they work perfectly for computer recording but you may waste a lot of time finding out how to tell the computer to use them.

It should be noted that these microphones work for both the PS2 and the PS3, but I do think that PS2 users are less likely to throw more money at new microphones. That brings about the price tag, which has yet to uncover itself. How much would you be willing to dish out for SingStar freedom?

If you love SingStar or even just have SingStar for occasional parties this is an essential upgrade to your PlayStation accessories.

Experimentation

Saturday, March 14th, 2009

ExperimentationExperimentation. Over the last month I have began to loath that word from the very core of my being. A Google definition search pulled up the following:

experiment: the testing of an idea; “it was an experiment in living”; “not all experimentation is done in laboratories”

An experiment in living? That needs some clarification. What does that mean? When we grow up we are taught the difference between right and wrong, most people essentially think they’re good people and boy do they not have a clue.

“Come on bro, you never drink? We have to get you drunk sometime.”

Please excuse the verbal attacks that will follow. Are you mentally handy capped, retarded, stupid, dropped as a baby, or just blind?

“Ah, you’ll never know what it’s like until you try.”

Buddy, you’ll never know how great it feels to have a truck roll over your head until you try either, that doesn’t mean I’m going to do it. Forget all the normal logical and spiritual reasons for just staying away from alcohol to be safe, why would I ever want to put myself in such a venerable state? I can’t even trust you to look after your own life, let alone mine.

You see, what people just don’t seem to be picking up is that every decision you make today, and every stupid thing you do will affect your entire life in some way. It will shape you as a person, put you into almost unbreakable habits and lead you down paths that would cause your seven year old self to run away screaming if they saw you.

It’s not the kids of today, or the people of today. It’s been happening for centuries. We make the same stupid mistakes our parents made, and one day you’ll sit and tell your kids not to do what you did. When they do it, you’ll probably sit back and say – ah let them experiment.

Hello! That’s not how this deal works bud. It’s not just an experiment; it’s a decision to engage in whatever activity against your better judgement just for… That’s just it, I don’t know why? Why do people take drugs? Why do people smoke? Why do people drink excessively? Why, why, why? I just don’t understand the logic, reasoning, stupidity, whatever you want to call it that’s involved.

Don’t blame it on divorce, television, poverty or anything like that – those aren’t the reasons. I guess it’s just a lack of God in their life. No light means dark.

Today I got told that one of my younger former friends was now experimenting in smoking stuff. The way he’s been going I’m not surprised but it still made me so sad. I can’t even imagine what God must feel. He’s wasting his life on something he knows isn’t right.

I’m a person who really enjoys spending time with young people, but as they get older most change in ways that just make you so sad. They forget God, they ‘experiment,’ they loose who they are in a world that encourages compromise and rejects truth. Maybe that’s why I love young people; they are uncorrupted, open, honest and free. But unless they choose to stay that way, and most don’t, they become the so called good people of today. People that are so caught up in the nothingness of their lives that they don’t even know right from wrong anymore.

I’m not trying to judge other people, because I’m just as susceptible to doing wrong in different ways. In fact if I don’t check myself I easily fall in to the trap of thinking I’m a good person when that’s not what it’s about. God first, life second. That’s how it should always be. If you don’t believe me, try it, you just might find this is the last experiment you’ll ever need.

God means life, love, eternity, happiness, completeness. He makes you want to be a better person all the time. I am a very judgemental person by nature; I look at people and often accurately sum them up at face value. What I’ve learnt to do is see what I don’t like and instead of judging them look at myself and say, do I do that? Am I like that? If I am then it needs to be sorted out, if not then thank God for that and move on.

People often say they just can’t stop sinning in a particular way. My first question is do you really want to stop? The difficulty is not in stopping the action; it’s in the reasoning behind the action. How badly do you not want to do it? That’s what you should be correcting, that’s the root of the problem. If you don’t want to change for the better than nobody can force you, but it’s a shame that your life would have been wasted when there is so much more to find.