SirTwilightKing's blog

I want you all over me like L.A.M.B. I got them A.S.A.P. and now it is a bloody party

My first L.A.M.B. clutch. I did not like it when I first received it as I felt it being so elongated made it look feminine. However, I found that for one, this bag is too chic to wear in PJ's (no less one's with Mario on them. Ha ha) and that two, once stuffed it gives it more of a barrel look thus giving more of a masculine look to the bag. I enjoyed using the bag on Tuesday (23 June 2009) as it really made my yellow cardigan jumper pop with the contrast of the tiger stripes and newsprint. I apologise for the darkness in the below picture, I did not know the area was not photo ready, guess I will have to try somewhere else next time.

Top: Zara

Trousers: Banana Republic
Bag: L.A.M.B. Perca clutch (Mandalay - Spring 2009)

I was able to use my L.A.M.B. Masala Perca clutch on (26 June 2009). I enjoyed using this one right away more so than the Mandalay as I was used to how the bag looked and felt. Whilst, I still do prefer the Mandalay over the Masala, they are both nice bags and are able to carry quite a bit. This picture came out much better than the prior as you can actually see the bag. Forgive the dry cleaning in my hands, I decided to snap a picture as I got in.

Top: Zara
Trousers: Zara
Bag: L.A.M.B. Perca clutch (Masala Spring 2009)

Last, but not least is the L.A.M.B. Carlisle Saddle Bullseye clutch which I carried on 28 June 2009. This bag I liked the most because this one was the largest and I also think it is the most posh looking. I enjoyed carrying it about town, even if all I got was stares and dirty looks, but what else is new?

Shirt: Express
Trousers: Banana Republic
Bag: L.A.M.B. Carlisle clutch (Saddle Bullseye Spring 2008)

I want you all over me like L.A.M.B., so get here A.S.A.P. it's going to be a party.

Recently, I have been on the hunt for a new bag. Marc Jacobs unfortunetly does not seem to have any men's bags of interest nor did any other designer. Somehow, whilst I was browsing a bag and doing a Google search to find out more about it, I came across Kevin's blog My MANY Bags as well as being linked to Carlos' blog My Fabulous Bag and noticed that they both had clutches. I had seen this style once in a boutique that for some reason decided to omit its name from my mind. I had also noticed that Dolce and Gabbana has recently shown man clutches as one of their themes for their Spring/Summer 2010 show. I decided to do research, and see what clutches (even though originally intended for women could work on men and not make a straight guy look gay) were available. I found that through my research and internal fashion knowledge of "what works", that as long as the clutch is long enough (10" and longer) and tall enough (8" and up) it works. I was originally going to buy two Balenciaga SGH Envelope clutches in red (because it is my Osito's favourite colour) and black with gold hardware.

However, I decided after looking further that their are many other choices and I came across L.A.M.B. and Marc Jacobs. My very first clutch purchase was the Marc Jacobs Airliner Magazine clutch in Khaki with gold hardware (USD $328/£200). After that, I saw the L.A.M.B. Signature Perca clutch in Mandalay Black (USD $395/£241) as well as the L.A.M.B. Signature clutch in Masala (USD $395/£241). My mami got me the IMAN Global Chic Classic Couture Envelope clutch in Black (USD $50/£31) which was a steal. Finally, I was browsing The L.A.M.B. Collection site and found another bag I liked from the Spring 2008 collection, the L.A.M.B. Carlisle large clutch in Saddle Bullseye (USD $425/ £260). That was one of the hardest to find as it is no longer made, but I got very lucky on eBay yesterday, found one and bought it as fast as my new Razar Copperhead Tempest Blue mouse could click. All-in-all I would say I did pretty well for myself, in terms of incorporating new pieces into my wardrobe.

I will adding pictures of all these soon one I receive all the parcels. Thus far, I have only received the Marc Jacobs bag and I am very pleased with it. However, you can view the stock photos of the L.A.M.B. bags below.

L.A.M.B. Signature Perca (Mandalay Black)


L.A.M.B. Signature Perca (Masala)


L.A.M.B. Signature Carlisle (Saddle Bullseye)

Empire of the Sun

I have come to really fancy Empire of the Sun and their videos are brilliant. Although "Standing on the Shore" is a bit odd, I still enjoyed it.

Empire Of The Sun - Walking On A Dream

Empire Of The Sun - Walking On A Dream

Empire Of The Sun - We Are The People

Empire Of The Sun - We Are The People

An Interesting Sunday.

      Today begun like many Sunday's do, early and basically empty on the roads. I first needed to make a stop at the post office to post my broken Blackberry Bold, as I received a shiny new one this past Thursday. All I have to do now is check the tracking number online that was provided with the new unit. Which reminds me, I need to send my two month gifts to Osito this week as well as send in my claim forms for the two T-Mobile accounts I closed. I paid $200 USD each to close those accounts and now with a pending lawsuit against T-Mobile, I should receive $150 USD per line equalling $300 total for the two cancelled lines. Anyway, after leaving the post office we headed out to Hillsdale Mall.

      When we (mate of the family and I) got to Nordstrom, we parked in the Nordstrom car park as we usually do. Since the mall was not open yet, we had to walk through the mall as the shops were closed. We both need to use the public toilet, so we decided to take the lift upstairs. As the doors were closing this woman wanted to get on and luckily she was able to grab the door. My mate complemented this woman's necklace and said "Oh we have the same necklace". The woman said "Yeah, great taste." to which my mate said "Juicy Couture?" then woman retorted "Yes. Have a great day." and exited the lift. I told my mate that I thought that woman might work at M•A•C because her make-up looked like a make-up artist at that shop and that she should see her if she did work there because she seemed nice.

      After using the toilet, we both wanted to get out lattes from Starbucks. We had to walk outside and around this corner to find it, but we eventually found it. Once there, it definitely felt like we were in San Francisco even though we were in San Mateo. I told this girl who rung me up (who I have no idea how she got the job because she was so slow) took my order and told her to use the name Grumpy and she goes "Ugghh uuuhhh oohhh Rampuu Gruuuu" and I said "Ignore the name on the card and just use Grumpy". Because honesty, my name will never be understood nor spelled remotely close. One would think Grumpy is easy enough to spell, but when the tart shouted "Tall Vanilla Latte for Grumpy!" the guy making the drinks said "Okay! Brittany!" I got stuck with a Starbucks cup that said Brittany. I despise Starbucks, and wish Coffee Bean was available at more locations.

    
     After Starbucks and drinking from my "Brittany" cup, we headed to Nordstrom as my mate needed something from Bobbi Brown. Afterwards, I told her let us go to M•A•C because she wanted to get her eyes done and wanted a new look. The woman we saw earlier did infact work there and she said as soon as we walk in the M•A•C shop "We meet again!" with a smile on her face. She introduced herself and her name was Arlette. She was very nice throughout and did a brilliant job of doing my mate's make-up as well as giving tips on how to apply the make up properly. After being there for about 15-20 minutes we were finsihed and had more interesting conversations with her. She was very nice and I will definetley reccomend her to any girls that need a good make up artist at M•A•C who is also a very nice person.

     Once having finished doing what we needed to get done at M•A•C, we went to California Pizza Kitchen for lunch. Unfortunately, we got stuck with a really bitchy waitress that reminded me of an ex-mate named Stephanie. We ordered our food (I got the Fettuccine Alfredo with Chicken and Shrimp) which was good, but being the "growing boy" I am, I was still hungry. I got a dessert menu from some other waiter we just waved down and I noticed an interesting item they had which they called "Red Velvet Cake", but looked more like "Blood Cake". I ordered a Tiramisu cake which I split 1/3 for my mate. However, our waitress was just horrible throughout the meal, she came when we obviously did not need her, and when we needed something, she was no where to be found. We had to have two other waiters get something for us, twice. During dessert she said "You want me to handle that now?!" referring to the bill, which we obviously just got our dessert. She was just a miserable cow through and through. Finally, the icing on the cake was when we waited for her to return to give her the signed credit card bill, and her cash tip, she said "Oh just leave it there. The bus boy will take it once he cleans up". If her tip gets stolen, then it is on her, but whatever, at least we waited for her and tried to give it to her.

     Pretty much after that, we left California Pizza Kitchen and I was still hungry. Ha ha. I went to Express and Guess?,  but their clothing was subpar at best, Suffice to say, I did not make any purchases at either shop. Finally, I went to Godiva and ordered my Grandmama, a custom 16-piece box of truffles and got an 8-piece box for Mami and I. Yum Yum. All in all it was a nice day.

Futurama: Into The Wild Green Yonder

Sorry, about the delay for Futurama: Into The Wild Green Yonder. SendIt took forever to post my order to me and I should receive my parcel next week. Expect a review up around the  third week of March. I have just been very busy as of late, but in June I should have it done.

Until then, I shall leave you with this sexy GIF of Britney shaking her bum:

Resident Evil 5 Demo Gameplay

I just found these two videos whilst browsing about YouTube for 720P videos. This is an actual demo, although it is still in beta of course.

Resident Evil 5 Demo Gameplay 1 of 2

Resident Evil Demo Gameplay 2 of 2

 

Here is what I will say having seen actual gameplay footage that shows you what the game is like:

What I like:

-I like the bubbling acid death animation

-I like that for the first time it seems as though you can actually interact with the town. It does not seem as closed off as it did in Resident Evil - Resident Evil CODE: Veronica

-You can still kill an enemy by shooting them in a foot (however in this game it just looks awkward)

-The graphics are nice

-Ughhh.... *gets up to make tea and toast with butter and marmite to think of more pro's*

-...You never know these videos could just not show its best side... Oh forget it...

What I dislike:

-The first thing I noticed is when you shoot the townspeople they look like real people. With the exception of their eyes and sometimes a plaga (whatever it is called in this game) sprouting out, it looks as if you are killing people (last time I checked it was Resident Evil, not another random video game).

-Not to big of a fan of the HUD in this game. It did not work in Outbreak and by the layout does not seem like the best idea.

-What does Sheeva do besides barely help you and open a few doors?

-Although the design team did a great job making the town look realistic, why am I fighting in some random outdoor area instead of a mansion, lab, facility, enclosed area, etc.?

-Why is the chainsaw nutter so hard to kill?

-No, stupid zombies to make fun of...

Whilst, I do have some criticisms against what I have seen, they do seem to have incorporated some new elements into this video game; so, I shall give it a shot when the game comes out.

Britney Spears "Circus" - Custom Covers

I made three custom covers for "Circus" recently as I was dissatisfied with the official cover.

Circus Custom Cover

Circus Alternate Custom Cover

Circus Ringleader Custom Cover

-AND-

I also made a custom cover for "Blackout".

Blackout Custom Cover

Feel free to download the full size pictures on my Flickr page. I would appreciate it if you comment on the pictures on my Flickr page (if you have an account) or here if you do not. I would also appreciate it if you are going to use my pictures on your site, please give me credit in addition to linking to my Flickr page.

Futurama: Bender's Game Review

Year: 2008
Supplier: 20^th Century Fox
Cert: 12
Price: £11.98

The main cast of Futurama: The Professor (Billy West), Hermes (Phil LaMarr), Leela (Katey Sagal), Bender (John DiMaggio), Amy (Lauren Tom), Zoigberg (Billy West), Nibbler (Frank Welker), Fry (Billy West) as well as Mom (Tress MacNeille) and her three bumbling sons return in this 80-minute special. Futurama: Bender’s Game is unlike Futurama: Bender’s Big Score and Futurama: The Beast With A Billion Backs due to this instalment not having a movie feel at all to it. Futurama: Bender’s Game is designed to be aired in four-parts when it premières on television and it feels like a four-part episodic.

In the beginning of the film you are first introduced to a Futurama version on “Yellow Submarine”. I believe this is just symbolic of how crazy the upcoming scenes get. Whilst driving about in the Planet Express Ship, Leela, Fry and Bender run out of fuel and luckily Nibbler had one ball of dark matter, which was enough to get the ship to a petrol station. The same guy Sal (John DiMaggio) that always seems to be at one of these stations makes fun of the crew’s ship. Sal states even though his ship is beat up, he won the Space Destruction Derby five times. Due to Leela’s unrelenting anger issues, she decides to enter the derby and later returns the ship severely damaged.

Later, Dwight Conrad (Hermes Son voiced by Phil LaMarr) and Cubert Farnsworth (the Professor’s son voiced by Kath Soucie) are playing a game of “Dungeons and Dragons”. Bender thinking that it is a form of gambling, wants to join in, only to find out that it is nothing like that. Dwight and Conrad tell Bender that it is the kind of game that you have to use your imagination and anything will be possible. Bender is finally able to use his imagination, but causes him to go mad, believing everything that happens in real life is happening in “Cornwood” (fictitious Dungeons and Dragons land).

The Professor annoyed with Leela’s anger issues, has a shock collar put around Leela’s neck, so anytime she have any thought or act of violence, thoughts of sexual perversion or lies, she will be electrically shocked. Mom appears in an interview with Morbo discussing the “problems” of dark matter and that she hopes to take care of them soon. The Professor perturbed at the interview explains how he created dark matter as a usable energy source. He further explains that Mom has the positive crystal and he has a negative crystal that he cannot find. He says that if the two crystals come together, that it will make dark matter useless. Mom tries to avoid the destruction of dark matter by sending her sons as “Owl Exterminators” to retrieve the crystal.

The Professor sees past the boys ruse and finds out that his anti-matter crystal was being used as a die in the Dungeons and Dragons game. Bender having completely gone mad is submitted to the HAL Institute which cannot help his problem. The crew heads over to Mom’s base to destroy her crystal. While, the professor is able to get the two crystals to come in close contact, which causes the dark matter to glow, it somehow amplifies Bender’s imagination to send everyone to Cornwood.

From this point on the crew are each changed into a Dungeons and Dragon character or a “Lord of the Rings” character. Cornwood is essentially Lord of the Rings with Dungeons and Dragons theme to it. The rest of Futurama: Bender’s Game tries to wrap up the convoluted story as much as possible. Overall Futurama: Bender’s Game is very silly. This is a good thing as they brought back much of the Futurama humour and have many jokes about things you may have forgotten from the 1990’s. I felt that this adventure is a big step in the right direction from Futurama: The Beast with A Billion Backs as this was actually funny. Futurama fans should enjoy this as long as they just relax and enjoy it as it is without preconceived notions and realise it is very silly.
4/5

Picture:

Futurama: Bender’s Game is presented in the 1.78:1 (16:9) format. The picture was crystal clear throughout and I could not find any skipping, frozen frames or blur in the picture.
5/5 

Sound: 

The sound is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. The sound was very well done throughout, but since they decided to make this like the television series, you do not get much in terms of cinematic sound. The voice actors voices were always clearly audible in the centre speaker during the talking scenes, which for some films can sometimes be problematic.
4/5

Special Features:

The special features are rather dull. There are not too many special features and even when you think you find something good such as a deleted scene, it is just a story board with sound. The team that assembled this DVD got rather lazy as far as extra features go.
3/5

Review Round-Up

Movie: 4
Picture: 5
Sound: 4
Special Features: 3

Overall: 4

Final Thoughts:

The first thing I would like to say to Futurama fans is: DO NOT watch this as if it is a film nor should you have ideas floating around in your head about how great/awful it will be. You need to just sit back and watch it as if you are watching the show and enjoy the silliness of this adventure. I found the part when the crew ran into Zoidberg in “The Cave of Hopelessness” and what happens to him reminiscent of Maria in the video game “Silent Hill 2”. If you played the game, it may give you a chuckle, if not, you will enjoy it all the same. Whilst, I wish that Futurama: Bender’s Game was produced as a film rather than a four-part TV series, it made me chuckle several times. I recommend this DVD/Bluray to fans of Futurama as it is a very silly one that makes up for the disaster that was Futurama: The Beast with A Billion Backs and I definitely recommend this to casual Futurama fans.

Google Chrome Browser Review

 

Year: 2008
Supplier: Google UK
OS: Windows Vista
Price: Freeware

After downloading Google Chrome, which only took a few seconds, the install took around three minutes without information on what it was in fact installing. After the install, I had the option to import settings from Firefox 3. The Layout is incredibly ugly and a rip-off of the new Internet Explorer browser. There are only two buttons which act as drop down menus on the top right-hand side on the Chrome browser: a page icon – edit menu and a wrench icon – settings menu. In order to enable bookmarks at all times, you must use the wrench icon and from the drop down menu select “Always show bookmarks bar”. There is no “Home” button available in the Chrome browser. You need to hit CTRL + T (new tab) or enter a new URL in the address bar to navigate away from the current page you are viewing.

The design and layout of the new browser is not user friendly what-so-ever. Fans of Firefox (any version), Safari and Opera will not be amused with this wannabe Internet Explorer programme. One feature that could have been useful was the “most visited” site feature. When you open the browser or open a new tab you are greeted by six blank boxes that will eventually become your “Top Six”. However, what it reminds me of is the Firefox add-on “Speed Dial”. With “Speed Dial” you can programme numbers 1-9 with a specific website for each respective number and hit CTRL + (insert number) to open a website in the same tab or CTRL + Shift + (insert number) to open the other websites in new tabs. Furthermore, it is incredibly easy to open up seven websites in under ten seconds with “Speed Dial”, whereas, the “most visited” feature is rubbish and completely useless in comparison to “Speed Dial”.

The browser never seems to centre properly, especially when you click certain links that take you to a certain part of the page (e.g. middle of the page, lower-bottom, etc.), it just seemed to stay at top. It only seemed that 2/10 it would work properly, but maybe that was due to Chrome’s poor programming and rushing the product out too soon. Spell check is a handy feature, but almost every browser has that and if they do not you can download an add-on or extension, so that it does.

I did not feel safe enough with the Chrome browser’s encryption to buy anything. Even with https encryption, it is only noticeable by looking at the mini lock at the end of the URL browser. I decided to download a file just for the purpose of seeing how their download process works. You must be thinking at this point “Well the Google browser must be efficient with this. They make all those interesting Google Lab programmes, so they must have something interesting planned. Right?” Well I am sorry to tell you that it is worse than the other three previously mentioned browsers. When you download a file, you can only see the download percentage within the same tab. Should you close the tab that you downloaded something from and move on to another tab, then you will have to wait however long it takes for the file to finish without any indication of progress. No, you do not get a slide message or a sound letting you know the download is complete either. The download time was rather slow as well and I found myself waiting to use Firefox 3 or Safari even for such a remedial web browsing task.

When uninstalling Chrome (which never seemed to come soon enough) I saw that the space that Chrome took up was 47 MB and yet Firefox 3 which has several add-ons, plug-ins, and themes is a mere 27 MB. It makes me wonder what exactly did I install on my computer? Once, I double clicked the Google Chrome icon it said “Are you sure you want to uninstall Google Chrome? (Was it something we said?)” and I retort with “No, it was your poor programming, sad imitation of Internet Explorer and sorry excuse for a browser that you just slapped your name on and expected to be great just because you are Google.”

Finally, after the uninstall process, which was only a few seconds, I was brought to the Google Chrome help page via Internet Explorer. I closed the Internet Explorer browser and I realised that I lost 30 minutes of my life, which I will never get back, however, I do get extra credit for this review in my CNIT class.
1/5

Design:
The design was incredibly poor and a blatant rip-off of Internet Explorer. There is no way to add themes the way Firefox does, nor does it give web pages a very smooth layout the way that Safari does.
1/5

User Friendliness:
The simplistic design does not help users at all. If anything, it will make users who are already ill-at-ease with computers feel even more unwelcome.
1/5

Review Round-Up:
Programme: 1
Design: 1
User Friendliness: 1

Overall: 1/5

Final Thoughts:

The Good:

While the browser, did seem to be slightly safer than Internet Explorer due to the fact that it does not have “Active X” which is now exploited to install many viruses, adware and/or malware. Google did try to “spice up” the general look of Internet Explorer with a different tabbed browsing look, but it is only cosmetic. Finally, I applaud their attempt with “Top Visited” sites as it is something other browsers do not have, unfortunately browsers like Firefox have better add-ons that offer the easiest convenience.

The Bad:

I am still sceptical of what was installed during the initial install process. Furthermore, when I was asked if I wanted my Firefox settings transferred over I thought they meant just bookmarks not bookmarks, history, saved searches and saved passwords. Giving them all that information made me ill-at-ease because I am not certain what they may do with that information. Of course, they can always take that information from my Google Mail account, but to take all of that information on me at once was a bit off putting. Flash is very slow, no add-ons and "Incognito Mode" is the same as Safari's "Private Browsing" mode. Honestly, when you get right down to it, the browser is a half-step up from Internet Explorer, which is not saying much. I would advise you to stick with Mozilla Firefox 3, Safari or Opera.

 

Panasonic Lumix LX-2 Review

As soon as I opened the box on this little beauty I was greeted by a sleek design, gorgeous 16:9 screen and a beautiful Leica lens. When I first booted up the device it asked for the time and date as it should by standard procedure, yet unlike the Nikon P5100 it did not ask every time it booted up. There were several new buttons that I had to learn about that were not on other cameras or on other cameras they were in the options menu. There are two slider buttons on the lens of the camera, the first being: a 16:9 shooting mode, 3:2 shooting mode and a 4:3 shooting mode and the second being: AF (Auto-Focus), AF M (Auto Focus Macro) and MF (Manual Focus).

What I like about the camera:

Manual mode - Need I say more? This has become my biggest request in any digital camera I order. It has to have a manual mode. It does a great job too with its manual mode much like a mega zoom would. I also like the added feature of a "scale" which help you balance out the colour if the lighting for the subject you are shooting should change.

Aperture-Priority mode - This is useful as well because if you are too lazy to fiddle with that setting, you can just adjust the F-Stop however you choose and then have the camera automatically get the right setting based on the lighting.

Movie Mode - Shooting in 16:9 (I a have been waiting for a digital camera to fulfil this for quite some time. The sound quality is great as well.

What I disliked:

I felt that the camera relies on the Image Stabilizer in order to take pictures with out being jittery. This is even more true when it come to low light settings. You have to hold the camera extremely steady and have IS 1 or IS 2 on. This of course does not apply when you are using flash, but I still felt the camera could have performed slightly better in this area.

However, all in all, I shall give the Panasonic Lumix LX-2 a 4 out of 5 because it is a wonderful point-and-shoot with manual controls, has a gorgeous 16:9 screen and shooting mode as well as the beautiful Leica lens. I would reccommend this to any casual shooter to professionals.