It’s not in my nature to plug a product on the ‘Warthog, but the Superbad soundtrack is the funkiest thing I’ve heard since James Brown’s Black Caeser OST. Get it now, I garantee you’ll be dancing like a loon within seconds.

Get down with your bad self

Technorati Tags: Superbad, OST, funk

Okay, not really, but “Ireland’s Greenest Tree” defintinely has a Mad Max feel to it (two tinkers enter, one tinker leaves). Okay, so it’s great for the environment and all (the tree itself is made from recycled metal, and is powered by a wind turbine that sits in the fairy’s usual place), but sweet feck it’s ugly. So when you’re gazing up at your city’s lovely big green Christmassy tree while doing your shopping, spare a thought for us poor Limerickians, at least until the inevitable happens and some bunch of drunken hoodlums get their hands on it. And by the way, how good for the environment was a three-hour traffic gridlock on Friday evening past, due to O’Connell St closing, while the tree was getting unveiled? As well as the giant crane and two cherry pickers it took to install it?

Conor’s choice - ‘Stop the Cavalry’ by Jona Lewie

Special mention to ‘Little Drummer Boy’ by David Bowie and Bing Crosby, possibly the most surreal duet in history!

I recently purchasled an Xbox 360, and have been experiencing the grandiose eye-fecking wonderment of Halo 3. Okay, so I’ve a bit of catching up to do (not long ago, I was still hammering away on Golden Axe), but it seems with the birth of next-gen consoles, comes a new era in gameplay for guys that were raised on the likes Street Fighter 2, Hammerin’ Harry and Rygar. Games like Microsoft/Bungie’s aforementioned juggernaut, as well as Gears of War, Mass Effect and the too-expensive-for-my-liking PS3’s Heavenly Sword are about complete immersion, feeling that you’re part of some grander battle going on in tandem with your own personal adventure. Absolute entertainment. We’ve never had it better.

Which is why Nintendo’s quest to drain their hand-held product, the DS, of all enjoyment, annoys the hell out of me. With the likes of Brain Training, Even More Brain Training and now, Sight Training, they seem hellbent in turning the hand-held gaming experience into what feels like extra homework. It’s like some jaded old schoolteacher has called ’round to Nintendo HQ and let fly with a stern lecture while wagging his finger; “Damn kids with their pockey mon and playshuttles! In my day it was cup-and-hoop and an algebra lesson if you were lucky!”
And what annoys me even more is the completely ridiculous statements they issue about how using (note the word ‘using’, not ‘playing’) their educational products will actually make you smarter. What a load of balls. The only thing they’ll make you is look like a complete arsehole when you whip out your DS on the train and start doing sums. Call me stupid, but don’t you make yourself smarter by expanding your knowledge? By taking in new information, learning new techniques, languages, cultures? According to Ninetendo, it’s all about circling which one is the fifty pee.

I don’t pick up my Xbox controller often, usually when I’ve a few hours to spare on a Sunday night, but I don’t pick it up with the intention to learn. The same way I don’t pick up a book with the intention of running up the front of an alien grunt’s hoverbike, wrenching the slimey fecker from the cockpit, jumping in and running him down as he flees for the hills (Halo 3. Seriously, check it out). It’s simple, really. Play games when you want to let off some steam, blast the shit out of a few things or just to give your brain a rest. Read a book, pick up an instrument, or watch something informative (no, not How to Look Good Naked) when you want to learn. And never the two should, nay, shall meet.

The Steven Fry talking clock

Ease yourself awake with the dulcet tones of the voice of the Hitchhiker’s Guide himself. With alarm calls like “I’m so sorry to disturb you sir, but it appears to be morning. Very incovnenient, I agree sir. I believe it is the rotation of the earth that is to blame”, and “It is impossible to say why your shoes have not been polished in the night. I can have the boot boy flogged? For indolence? If you wish, Sir.”, how could you possibly stay in bed?

Check it here

The Monster Squad 20th Anniversary Edition

I’ve ordered this, but I haven’t watched it since I was a kid, over 15 years ago. I don’t know it will stand the test of time (I recently re-watched ‘The Last Unicorn’ and was very disappointed), but I can’t see it not still being awesome. It was pretty ballsy for a kid’s movie back then, what with pervy Frankensteins, Wolfman nards and, (sorry Chunk) the coolest fat kid in movie history. His name…is Horace!

Check it here

8-bit Tie

Mario would be proud of this little beauty. Just don’t wear it on a date.

Check it here

Abduction Lamp

Fecking hilarious. A light bulb inside the metal UFO lights up the beam and the windows; the glass of the beam is frosted to distribute light in all directions. This is only in the concept stages, but hopefully it’ll be shipping before Christmas. The optional cow add-on cracks me up!

Check it here

Planet Hulk

For the comic-book lover in your life. I was never a Hulk fan, but this is an epic, epic tale that’ll take you a good few hours to get through. Possibly the greatest Marvel story ever told (it beats the shit out of Civil War for one), with a great cliffhanging shocker of an ending, it’d make a great movie but it’d cost about a squillion quid to make.

Check it here

Sloth Action Figure

The whole Goonie gang is available, but this is definitely the icing on the cake. Relive your childhood, just remember the Baby Ruths or he’s apt to go apeshit.

Check it here

Talking Kratos Action Figure

AAARRRRGGGGGG! What could be cooler than a Sloth figure? How about the grumpiest gaming character himself? Come on, he says stuff like “You defy the god of war?! You will suffer for this!”. How could you not get it for the office?

Check it here

Remote Control KITT

Jump in my car! Or should that be K.A.R.R (K.I.T.T’s evil twin, pop pickers)? All you need now is a mullet, a neat leather jacket and some floor burgers and you’ll be the Hoffa incarnate!

Check it here

Time Bandits Map

“You see, to be quite frank Kevin, the fabric of the universe is far from perfect. It was a bit of a botch job you see. We only had seven days to make it. And that’s where this comes in. This is the only map of all the holes. Well why repair them? Why not use ‘em to get stinking rich?”

A bit of a personal choice; it’s not cheap, but you never know when you’d be called on for a trans-dimensional adventure.

Check it here

Well, that’s about it. I might update this list is I see anything else that I think you’d like. Oh yeah, nearly forgot, the ultimate, ultimate Christmas present for yours truly. So, if any of you have a couple of grand to spare, I wouldn’t say no to this monstrosity…

Lifesize American Werewolf in London

Sweet fucking crap. The greatest movie collectible ever. If only I could muster up the courage to have this in my house, I’d start saving. I’d love it just to scare the shit out of my brother with. “Hey Sean, what’s that outside?” *click* “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH”. Ah, I can dream…

If you can afford it, check it here

She came 3rd….. wants to be a special effects designer. Bet you she majors in “School Spirit”

I love you Miss South Carolina.

From the all knowing Wiki! We are but insects compared to you.

“Saint Bricius of Tours, also Brice, Britius, Criccius, Bricio, (born around 370; died 444 in Tours) was the fourth Bishop of Tours, succeeding Martin of Tours in 397.

According to legend, Bricius was an orphan rescued by Martin and raised in a monastery. He later became Martin’s pupil, although the ambitious and volatile Bricius was rather the opposite of his master.

As Bishop of Tours, Bricius performed his duties, but was also said to succumb to worldly pleasures. After a nun in his household gave birth to a child that was rumored to be his, he performed a ritual by carrying hot coal in his coat to the grave of Martin, showing his unburned coat as proof of his innocence. The people of Tours, however, did not believe him and forced him to leave Tours; he only could return after he travelled to Rome and was released of his all his sins by the Pope. His memorial day is November 13.”

“The St. Brice’s Day massacre was the killing of many Danes in England, as ordered by the English king Ethelred, on November 13, 1002. This eventually led to the invasion of England by the Danes under Sweyn I in 1003, as his sister Gunhilde was amongst those murdered. The massacre is described in the chronicle of John of Wallingford.

At the time, England suffered from repeated attacks by the Danes, and constant fear of invasion. England paid tribute to the Danes to prevent invasion. Frustration and, possibly, promises of support from Normandy, led Ethelred to decree the mass murder.”