Author: David

Categories
Movies and TV Music

The Sing-Off

The Sing-Off

Over the last week, Australia missed out on a great short-run reality show run on NBC: The Sing-Off. Given our addiction to the Idol and Dance franchises, one would have thought that this show would have done relatively well, if given a half-decent slot. It had enough celebrity pull (Ben Folds, Shawn Stockman, Nicole Scherzinger, and Nick Lachey), and we love our music.

In any event, the show held special resonance for me because I’ve been a fan of contemporary a cappella music since high school. It was great to see eight talented groups representing a variety of backgrounds and genres.

And the stakes were high enough to ensure that each group gave their best every night: $100,000 and a Sony recording contract.

While that’s a lot of money, a contract with a big label is huge step forward, not just for the group, but also for the mainstream legitimacy of a cappella. The winner’s albums have the potential to get wide distribution, and encourage people to seek out other groups.

As for the winner, heed this SPOILER WARNING then click the link.

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Categories
Reviews Tabletop Games

MacquarieCon 2009

MacquarieCon went really well this year. With over 100 pre-registered players, I think it was the most attended MacCon of the decade (including any of the ones that I had a direct hand in the organisation of). Everybody had a good time, and most (if not all) of the games were booked out.

Joshua (the chief conorg) did a fantastic job of organising games and promoting the con early and often, and that made a huge difference to the turnout and quality of the convention.

I helped P write and run a game of Cthulhu Invictus called “The Mean Streets of Rome”, in the style of Raymond Chandler’s noir detective novels, much like Lindsey Davis’ Falco novels.

As usual, there were some brilliant performances, as well as people signing up for an investigation module, even though they seemed to have no interest in following any of the clues laid out to them. Maybe next time, we should put in a disclaimer:

You know nothing of the supernatural, so don’t try to chase any of it down. Trust me. There is nothing there.

Anyway, we had a great time overall, and I wanted to extend a congratulations to Joshua for running a great con.

Categories
Video Games

Moving on from Dragon Age

With MacquarieCon out of the way (more on that soon, I promise), I knuckled down and finished Dragon Age. I know there are a number of different endings, and there’s a particularly interesting one that I would like to take, but now that I’m done with my first play-through, I’m not sure that I can be assed doing it again straight away. I deliberately avoided a bunch of sidequests so there would be some surprises, but I know it won’t be enough to keep me interested.

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Categories
Tech Video Games

Taking games seriously is better for us all

A recent article in the Daily Telegraph shows us that in Australia (and presumably the rest of the world), most parents don’t understand how to control the video games their children play.

This really is not a good thing; as we have seen over the last twenty years, video games are depicting increasingly realistic violence and sexuality. I personally do not have an issue with this trend. As an open-minded adult, I have no problems with blood or boobs, but I do understand that parents want to control how much access their children have to this sort of thing… and to be honest, I think that I wouldn’t want my kids accessing some of that stuff until they reached a particular age.

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Categories
Tech

Facebook gets creepier by the day

XKCD 672
XKCD 672

I really wish that I was as quick as Randall Munroe. I love his brand of satire (as well as his nerd-oriented humour). The Facebook feature he mocks in the above cartoon really does bother me, and he’s captured the creepiness well.