For you guys going trick or treating, Happy Halloween! For you guys who celebrate Halloween in a different way, Happy Halloween as well to you! And for the nerds and the geeks that don't do anything with Halloween, Happy Un-Halloween!

If you're like me, who's depressed 75% of the time,  then you'll probably spend tonight gaming with friends from the Playstation Network, listening to Snow Patrol's Set Down Your Glass and Crack Open The Shutters...

Have fun either way! I know I will, as I have a Stunt Run tournament if my friend is online... So Have Fun, get a crapload of candy if you're going trick-or-treating and be sure to make an appointment with your dentist to get the blade or the cavities from your teeth!* And don't dress up as a box, or Spongebob. If you are, please send me pictures of you falling down. I'll staple a great big FAIL on it. 

*I'm not saying that everybody puts blades in your candy, probably just about 3% do... Be sure to stay away from those people! It's not gonna be fun popping Skittles like pills because you cut your cheeks open...

A while ago, I officially killed SpideyFan Forums... I never thought of it much as it was a forum with a very small community. 75% of the members were people I told to join and my forum ends up always on the 12th page after searching for Spider-Man on Google. So I took it off my links, shut down the wiki and left the forum to rot. I'd just finished updating my music page and had nothing to do so I looked for my site. It was exactly the same as it was a few months ago, with 3 or so new posts.

It suddenly struck me on the head that SpideyFan Forums was the first site of the ever increasing Argel319 network, and that I couldn't let it die. I just trimmed it, deleted the forums that weren't getting enough or any use (roughly 60%) and kept the rest and made it better. Now I'm in the process of editing my theme and it should be back up and running within the month of November.

It's also back on my links at the left hand page of my blog. If you visit it sometime this week, I may hang your browser, as I'm doing extensive repair and updating almost every 10 minutes.  

So go visit it if you have nothing to do! It's at SpideyFan Forums .

EDIT: The template is currently a very clean Blue and White one. I promise that it'll come closer to the colors of my blog soon... It's just been a while since I used forum config...

Ah... Another album I forgot about... First I forgot about Oasis' new album, then I forgot about Snow Patrol until I read about the album in the newspaper. Well, I just got it, but have only listened to a few tracks. I'm currently repeating Set Down Your Glass for about the millionth time, so I haven't moved on to the other tracks. That song is awesome, by the way.

A Hundred Million Suns. Apparently, it just came out this week. Like the newspapers say, Snow Patrol definitely sounds a bit cheerier, not like the depressed artists of You Could Be Happy. They still sound depressed a little, but it's the message of their songs that have changed, not their terrific styles of singing and rhythm making. And that's a good thing!

As I may have let on, Set Down Your Glass is my acclaimed best of the album. The line, "When your eyes meet mine, I lose simple skills" is one of my favorites among the lot. The sound is ethereal... It just sounds very audiophile-ic when I'm listening to it in Concert Mode DNSe on my P2.

Crack The Shutters is a close second. Again, the tune itself is very ethereal (That's the word i'll use to describe Snow Patrol now... Ethereal!), but I appreciate the slowness of Set Down Your Glass more than the kinda up-tempo Crack The Shutters. It's definitely catchy... I found myself singing it while typing this blog...

Well, that's it for now from me. Go grab their new album, A Hundred Million Suns! I'm gonna try and see if I can make myself take off the repeat of Set Down Your Glass... I love that song. 

I got an offer to join the Philosophy program... I hope I get accepted, as this would be a fun break from afternoon or morning school activities once a week. So... Yeah...

Now that that's outta the way, my Last.fm Profile is live as of this morning! You can go click the link at the right hand page links column of my blog. I update it almost daily, with new artists and I'm currently working on getting all of my favorite tracks organized... It's as of now, only about 30, 35 artists, so not a lot yet. Expect the number of artists to increase this coming November, as I'm gonna be spending mroe time downloading music and testing recommendations.

The Last.FM recommends songs for me via this "tagging" system. If an artist is similar to one of my archived artists, then it'll automatically tell me that it's similar. But, as it is only technology, some of the recommendations are a bit... Dissimilar. 

So what better resource for recommendations to ask than people? If you have any artists similar to the "depression" period of Snow Patrol, gimme a shout. Note: I've already got stuff from Coldplay, Death Cab For Cutie and Oasis, so anything other than those mentioned would be wicked. Thanks!

I have said before in a deleted blog post, I think Halloween is all crap and games. That being the case, I'm clearly not gonna participate in any Halloween activities that involve more than carving a pumpkin, eg; going Trick-or-Treating. I did carve a pumpkin for school, a rather crappy one to say the least and I am DJ'ing for the Halloween dance. It's not really DJ'ing as all we do there is sit there and play the music... Think of me as a human jukebox if you want. With Halloween being eh, 3 or so days away, I figured it was time for another reminder why I dislike Halloween (I didn't use the thrice stronger "hate" this time...), and so I'm here writing this blog post. 

A topic review: I dislike Halloween because it's overrated, and is basically just an event to sell you candy and to let you scare the crap outta little kids. I like the latter...

I haven't scared anybody yet, but I'm planning to send a harmless "virus" to my friends. Don't worry, it's the kind of virus that can be found by Googling, and it doesn't violate any rules or stuff, all it does it makes your computer shut down immediately.  As long as you don't touch it again, you're fine.

Yeah, I'm a rather nerdy guy... I'd  rather send a FAKE* virus than go up in a mask in somebody's face... I'll probably disguise the file as "Math Answers" or something...

*Fake, guys! This is mostly for moderators or maybe law enforcement, if they're reading... I'm not a malicious nerd, It'll just be a scare... Get it? 

I have said before in a deleted blog post, I think Halloween is all crap and games. That being the case, I'm clearly not gonna participate in any Halloween activities that involve more than carving a pumpkin, eg; going Trick-or-Treating. I did carve a pumpkin for school, a rather crappy one to say the least and I am DJ'ing for the Halloween dance. It's not really DJ'ing as all we do there is sit there and play the music... Think of me as a human jukebox if you want. With Halloween being eh, 3 or so days away, I figured it was time for another reminder why I dislike Halloween (I didn't use the thrice stronger "hate" this time...), and so I'm here writing this blog post. 

A topic review: I dislike Halloween because it's overrated, and is basically just an event to sell you candy and to let you scare the crap outta little kids. I like the latter...

I haven't scared anybody yet, but I'm planning to send a harmless "virus" to my friends. Don't worry, it's the kind of virus that can be found by Googling, and it doesn't violate any rules or stuff, all it does it makes your computer shut down immediately.  As long as you don't touch it again, you're fine.

Yeah, I'm a rather nerdy guy... I'd  rather send a FAKE* virus than go up in a mask in somebody's face... I'll probably disguise the file as "Math Answers" or something...

*Fake, guys! This is mostly for moderators or maybe law enforcement, if they're reading... I'm not a malicious nerd, It'll just be a scare... Get it? 

I totally wanted to see this in theaters. I just didn't because of all negative reviews from my friends, now I'm regretting that decision. I rented it on Blu-Ray (Gamma Ray Green!) because I was still thinking about the negative and 3.5 stars reviews out there. Now I'm pretty sure I wanna buy it, as I gotta return the Blu-Ray tonight.

It definitely isn't the best superhero movie this year, I'm sure Punisher 2 will be better and Iron Man and The Dark Knight were undoubtedly the best so far. There's just something incredibly appealing to me when to giants clash in a violent rampage throughout a populated city, smashing taxis and people along the way. I'll get to that later...

The story is a weak point, as it's kinda hard for a new director to superhero movies to nail that anti-cheesy script. [CAUTION! SPOILERS AHEAD!] Abomination (As Dr. Sters refered to him) felt a bit like Venom in Spidey 3. Like he was just smooshed in there to allow an epic fight. The story sure led up to Blonsky becoming Abomination, but it felt... Cheesy. Here is Blonsky, suddenly fascinated by the Hulk. General Ross (whatever the heck his rank is) allows him to have powers similar to the Hulk by giving him the Super Soldier formula. Super Soldier? Doesn't that sound familiar? Og course it does! And as well as it should, as Super Soldier was the program Steve Rogers entered into to become Capt. America. And as everybody knows, Captain America is awesome, Rest His Soul.* At first, Blonsky is the perfect Super Soldier. He's fast, and was able to hold a match against the Hulk, pre-Abomination.** Then addicted to being Hulky and... Super (I'm sure there's something subliminally in the script about steroids), he makes Bruce Banner's doctor friend give him a dose of Banner's blood. That blood, mixed with the Super Soldier Chemicals made him, as the doctor said, an Abomination.

That was pretty much the only weak point in the story  could detect, the rest seemed... Just fine. Not along the lines of The Dark Knight-fine-, just... fine. Not bad, but not awesome as well.  It was definitely funny when Betty and Bruce were about to do it and Bruce's heart rate started rushing and he was like, "I'm sorry, I can't get too excited..." and Betty was "Not even a little excited?".... That made me LOL...

Now onto the fight. It was brutal, to say the least. I just imagined in my head, if Marvel can do this, think what DC could do with Doomsday! Abomination being a bit Doomsday*** like [Protruding bones and all], he was able to stab Hulk's chest with his elbow bone that was sticking out. It made me wince to see the green giant fight desperately to get that Abomination off his chest. They must have killed about 30 soldiers in the whole NYC fight, with Abomination flicking people around and demolishing military vehicles like Megatron in Transformers. [PREPARE FOR HUGE SPOILER] Hulk was halfway to beating Abomination to a pulp, choking his neck thin with a chain [that Abomination first used to hit around Hulk, a pendulum of sorts] and the occasional face smash. It was spectacular, seeing Abomination (Let's call him Bad Hulk for the sake of my fingers) beat around Hulk then Hulk sensing his love's danger, rising to the challenge [By becoming angrier!] and hitting and beating his way to victory. It was also very geek-gasmic, hearing Hulk speak some of his first words from the comics. In the factory (Watch it yourself to get it), he muttered "Leave me alone..." and against Bad Hulk, he screamed "HULK SMASH!" and sent a devestating shcokwave throughtout the earth causing Bad Hulk to trip and the pendulums to smash him all over.

There was another major action scene before that, Hulk against the army at a campus. He demolished them, with the exception of Blonsky**. He was almost defeated, however when the army unleashed what looked like EMP cannons at him, making his muscles ripple, his face contort, and his outrageouesly  heavy form to skid along the grass. Hearing Betty scream, he grabbed his pieces of metal he was using to try and hit Blonsky, and sliced a cannon in half and curshed the other by jumping on it.

The best part of the movie, for me, aside for the fight scenes which are bound to be favorites of almost everybody, was at the end. Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark comes and greets General Ross with comments about the failure of the Super Soldier program and how weapons are more capable in the battlefield... Then tells him about the team. Remember at the end of Iron Man, Samuel Jackson was there, as Nick Fury telling Stark about the Avengers Initiative? Well, that's what Stark is now telling Ross. I'm just not sure if he wants the Hulk or Banner's blood... The comic geek in my says the Hulk, but then why is he asking Ross? 

The Inredible Hulk was incredible, with a notable cameo from Lou Ferrigno as a security guard... Go watch it if you haven't already and it's bound to give a nerd-gasm almost as strong as when you saw Iron Man fight off against Iron Monger and the Escape scene...

*Captain America was assassinated at the end of the Civil War series after agreeing to go peacefully. RIP...

**Blonsky was able to dodge almost all of Hulk's attacks, but at the end of their fight, he got too cocky and tried to insult the Hulk ['That all you got?"] and Hulk, being the high blooded behemoth he is, kicked Blonsky in the chest, sending him spiraling about 250 mph into a tree with a very satisfying *clunk!*

***Doomsday killed Superman in a brutal showdown that ultimately ended in me crying after the last page...

Here's the full story from the EGM website.

ORIGINAL STORY -- Little Big Planet has been delayed worldwide due to the inclusion of quotes from the Quran, reports VideoGaming247. In a forum thread, a Muslim user commented that he noticed two passages from the Quran in a licensed music track for the stage, "Swinging Safari." He respectfully requested that they be removed, explaining that some consider the mixture of a holy book with pop music to be offensive. Sony pulled the game despite it already being on retail shelves in some areas, and has issued this statement:

"During the review process prior to the release of Little Big Planet, it has been brought to our attention that one of the background music tracks licensed from a record label for use in the game contains two expressions that can be found in the Quran. We have taken immediate action to rectify this and we sincerely apologise for any offence that this may have caused.

We'll confirm the new launch date shortly."

While Sony hasn't confirmed a new release date, retailers are claiming it will be pushed back to November 14. The recall will affect retailers globally, and Sony will probably have to press new discs that don't include that licensed song. We'll let you know the new release date once Sony issues a statement about it.

Huh. That's annoying. It's annoying that somebody would bother to post about a small part of a song and get a game delayed, and it's annoying that Sony didn't do the necessary research to avoid this "controversy". Now i'm expecting Little Big Planet around Christmastime?

Wow. I never thought it would happen. My Playstation 3 is showing it's first signs of aging. And it's depressing me.

Lag is something that happens more friequently now, among with my terrorizing malfunctioning controller problem. 

I want the days back, when my Playstation was the unstoppable, seemingly immortal piece of furniture in my home theatre. Now, it's like a washed up star of yesteryear. Once the mightiest Knight Rider, now just an old bag who gets acting jobs in the Spongebob movies... MyPlaystation is not washed up, though. It just needs some medicine or something... Now the problem is to figure out exactly what it needs and how I'm gonna give it to it...

Apparently there is Firmware 5.08 available now, but I haven't seen anything about it. My Emodio is completely the same and it's not bugging me for any software updates. It is, actually bugging me for a software update, but I think that that is for Emodio...
I'll download it and get back to post...

EDIT: After further revision, I found out that 5.08 was indeed available and that my mp3 was already functioning on it.

Oops!

Anybody remember the FAIL fest? I figured that that was too immature for me... I'm a geek, a nerd, whatever you choose to call me, but I'm not proud of being called immature. So here is something that is a little more mature, a weekly music update! I'll try to update it every Friday, but it might be earlier or later. So here is my music for the week.

My blog is linked to my favorite music site, http://last.fm, so you can see a more up to date list there, as I update it nearly every 2 hours. 

First on the docket-Coldplay

I got into Coldplay after hearing Violet Hill and Viva La Vida. After researching their older tracks, I downloaded some of them, The Scientist standing out the most, seeing as it is the only Coldplay track that I became addicted to after hearing the first few piano notes and first few lyrics.

Next on the list-Death Cab For Cutie

Their last album came out a few months ago, and I forgot about it. I just remembered now, after seeing their band on my "Recommended" list. The tracks that deserve mentioning: Photobooth, I Will Follow You Into The Dark, Someday You Will Be Loved, The Sound of Settling and Transatlanticsm. 

Next on the infinitely long post- Keane

Keane appeared also on my "Recommended" list, here are the songs that stood out for me. We Might As Well Be Strangers, and A Bad Dream.

Coming to an end now, Angel and Airwaves

They certainly sound quirky, kinda the same way Death Cab sounded when I first heard them, but I quickly grew to like their odd percussion and rhythms.  The Adventure is pretty much the best they have so far, but I haven't completed all their songs so there might be something that sounds better.

Last for now, Something Corporate

I just heard of them a few hours ago and they quickly made it into my playlist and looks as if they'll stay there for a while. I Kissed A Drunk Girl, She Paints Me Blue, and Bad Days are my top 3. 

I actually had a few more, but I'm out of time and I'm getting tired of typing.

Here are the few that I have no time to write about. Boys Like Girls, Cute Is What We Aim For, Kaiser Chiefs, Nada Surf, and The Shins.

I am not a hyped up music fan. I just listen to whatever sounds good and don't give a crap about whatever's going on with the artist. If he's emo, I don't care. If he's like Chris Matrin from the MadTV parody, I don't care. It just has to sound good, fit in with my mood and that's about it.

That's it from me... Thanks for reading!

To say it abruptly, it was great enough to launch a geek halfway into a geek-gasm... The tiny features definitely helped the update be one of the best so far, like the thing under the names of your friends on the PSN. It says "__Hours since last log in"... And that was awesome. Most of the other features have been covered by my other post, but I'm kinda disappointed. 

The BluRay players convert the movies to full screen, instead of the native wide-screen format. It still hasn't happened with the Ps3. I immediately launched Iron Man (Available now on Blu-Ray!) and was disappointed to find Iron Monger kick Stark's ass in widescreen. 

Note to Sony: Please introduce full screen! With the 2 bars at the bottom and the top combined, it's already roughly half the size of my TV...

Woot! Another Firmware update! This time, it's still a bit small, but after the 2.40 fiasco, Sony is taking things slowly.

This firware update is largely about the Playstation Network, so here is what's happening with the PSN. 

You can now rent videos from the PSN! Code cards have also been introduced, like Xbox live's Marketplace service, you can buy 20 bucks in retail with a code for the PSN so you don't have to enter your credit card in there.

See?  Burnout Paradise is available on the PSN now, by the way.

The Account Management screens have also been changed to fit int with the modern theme of the Playstation Store. 

And.. A few updates have also been included for the video, music and Blu-Ray capabilities.

The volume control has been introduced for videos and music, it can go up to volume 9.

And for Blu-Ray, Chroma Upscaling! According to Sony, Chroma Upscaling is... "During BD (BDAV) and DVD playback, a technique known as “chroma upsampling” is now automatically selected based on the movement of objects within the video content and then applied to enhance images in the content."

Here are the rest, straight from Sony's update site.

Scene Search

(Scene Search) has been added as an option on the control panel.

You can use this feature to view thumbnails (created at certain time intervals) for video content that is saved on the hard disk or storage media. Select a thumbnail to start playing the video from that particular scene.

Reconnecting Bluetooth® devices

The method for reconnecting Bluetooth® audio devices with the PS3™ system has been changed in [Audio Device Settings] under (Settings) > (Accessory Settings).

If a Bluetooth® audio device has been disconnected from the PS3™ system, you can reconnect the device by selecting it from the list in [Audio Device Settings] under (Settings) > (Accessory Settings). Press the button to display the options menu, and then select [Connect].

Power Save Settings

(Power Save Settings) has been added as an option under (Settings).

To save power, the PS3™ system and wireless controllers can be set to turn off automatically after a certain period of inactivity.

System Auto-Off

Sequential Playback

[Sequential Playback] has been added as an option under (Settings) > (Video Settings).

You can now set the PS3™ system to sequentially play multiple video files that are saved on the hard disk or storage media.

Account Management

You can now manage PlayStation®Network accounts directly from the XMB™ screen. The menu items under [Account Management] have been reorganized for improved usability

The Xbox360 has one. The Wii has something or other like it. I'm talking about the Racing Wheels. There's the GT5 Racing Wheel from Logitech from the Ps3, but it's not the same. I want, nay, need, an official racing wheel compatible with all racing games of the Ps3 from Sony.

Who wouldn't like a leather wrapped 900 degree rotatable wheel sitting wirelessly on your table, pressing the wireless pedals and going faster? 

It's something like the Keypad Iwrote about earlier. We don't need it, but at the same time, we need it to complete our gaming experience. Makes sense? 

Oasis' new album, Dig Out Your Soul is out! So go get it! I just got it... the tunes are definitely Oasis-but they feel different than Wonderwall, Maybe, and Let There Be Love. Those were awesome songs still regularly played on my mp3.The only American bands that have stayed in there longer than a month are the oldies, Plain White T's and Death Cab for Cutie. Death Cab for Cutie is awesome as well. Quirky to the ears when you first hear it but you become addicted somewhere around Photobooth. I'm just not sure I like their consistent theme of death... But even with their theme of death [I'll Follow You Into the Dark], their sound is wicked.

I love my music... 

As you may or may not know, I love the British bands. They not only sound unique and completely fill my independent style (Music and likes and that sorta thing..) but their lyrics are usually meaningful, not like the rappers [crappers!!] most of you guys listen to. Give Snow Patrol, and Oasis a chance... You might actually like it!

For you Canadian readers out there, Happy Thanksgiving!

You guys may have celebrated Thanksgiving the familiar way, Turkey, family, blah... I spent the night before Thanksgiving like a nerd. First having my gaming fest starting with MotorStorm for a few minutes then Resistance: Fall of Man, Burnout Paradise for a few hours, then finished off with 3 hours of mixed gaming. Guitar Hero, Lego Indy and BioShock pretty muched filled in the time. After [or about halfway through] my game fest, I started downloading music and filled in about 300-500 mb of space on my mp3...

Tonight I'll spend it with my family, dinner out etc... etc... Game fest has ended because there's school tomorrow. 

So Happy Thanksgiving and if you're from my school, I'll see you tomorrow... I hope we have math tomorrow... 

It looks a lot smoother now, in my opinion. I'll still have to get the precise CSS to fit in with the header image but other than that it looks pretty ok.

What do you guys think about it?

Chatting on the Playstation Network just became a whole lot more fun!

Not only does it look brilliant, it also has many features, including a mode where you can turn the main button into a touch pad similar to the kinds that laptops have. And the best thing of all, it's a QWERTY keyboard! That is pure genius and innovation on Sony's part. Well, not really, but it's really user-friendly from the look of it.

Here's the original post from the people over at http://ps3-hacks.com...

…a new Wireless Keypad for PS3 that will make text communications and Web browsing much easier. The Wireless Keypad snaps onto the top of a SIXAXIS or DUALSHOCK 3 wireless controller and comes with some cool features, including a mode that turns the main key area into a touch pad (similar to a touch pad on a Laptop computer). Once in this mode, you can slide your finger on this area to move the cursor on the screen and tap to enter. There will be two short cut buttons on the Keypad that will enable users to jump directly to the XMB’s “Friends” icon and the “Message Box” during gameplay...

Here are some specs for the technologically gifted... It's voltage is 3.7v, so I might be able to use my 5v USB charger for it. 5 volts is actually the voltage of the Sixaxis but I can't charge it anywhere but the Ps3 and the computer.

 Wireless Keypad Product Overview
Product Name Wireless Keypad
Product Code CECHZK1JP (For Japanese market)
Product Color Black
Hardware Specification Weight : Approx 60g
Voltage: DC 3.7V
Operating Temperature:
5 degrees C ~ 35 degrees C
Built-in Bluetooth(R) Ver.2.0
Keypad Layout: QWERTY layout
Battery Specification Built-in Rechargeable Lithium-Ion
Battery
Battery Capacity: 610mAh

Am I the only one who is extremely excited about this? 

EDIT: After more research, I found that the Keypad is Bluetooth enabled which will mean that you'll have to pair to the Ps3 before use.