It's Arrested Development

There's been a lot of hoopla over Arrested Development the last few weeks due to Netflix picking it up for a 4th season close to ten years after its original cancellation.

 

Hoopla

I started watching it along with How I Met Your Mother soon after I signed up for Netflix on the recommendation of a friend.  I'm part-way through the second season and I can easily say that it is probably the funniest and best show to ever have been released on television.  I don't want to spend too much time on it right now because I actually want to go watch it but let me just say that if you have Netflix and haven't seen it, drop what you're doing and start immediately.  If the show doesn't have you sucked in by the Fire Sale of episode 2 you aren't human.

All you need to know about the premise is in the opening.  "And now the story of a wealthy family who lost everything, and the one son who had no choice but to keep them all together... It's Arrested Development."

It has several actors you probably know that have gone on to do bigger things such as Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Michael Cera, and I just don't want to go on any more because do yourself a favor and just watch it.

From the last episode I watched:

Okay seriously I'm going to go watch an episode right now, as should you.

On the next Arrested Development...

Videos Too Long to Post to Facebook But Still are at Least Partially Worth Your Time

Sorry to keep you waiting, friends.  I've been very busy lately and haven't had the time to post.  For right now I just wanted to share a few videos that I've discovered on YouTube in my spare time over the last couple weeks.  I tend to post videos I find on Facebook, but I feel like these are too long and uninteresting for the Facebook crowd.  You, my dear readers, are a different story, for better or worse.

The first video is entitled The Death and Return of Superman and looks at DC comic's decision to kill off Superman in the 1990's and the aftermath of said decision.  While the visuals appear cheap, the short film was produced professionally and includes several big name talents including Elijah Wood, Simon Pegg, and Ron Howard.  The cheap quality of most of the footage only adds to the humor and overall it's a very interesting look at the creative process behind comic books while remaining thoroughly entertaining during its 15 minute run time.  If you have 15 minutes to kill I highly recommend it.

The second video, on the other hand, is not worth sitting through its entire run time.  This isn't to say that it's bad , but due to the fact that it's the length of an entire feature film.  That would be because the video is Toy Story lovingly recreated shot for shot with real toys.  I couldn't sit through the whole thing and only jumped around watching a few clips, but what I did see was very impressively done.  I should also mention that Toy Story was a very big part of my early childhood.  How serious?  I'm pretty sure when I was in preschool I alternating watching it every night with A Charlie Brown Christmas for some reason.  This strange combo likely helped develop me into the twisted shell of a man I am today.  Anyways, the point is that this video had me nostalgia tripping hard, which made the short time I spent with it worthwhile.  Because nostalgia is a powerful tool against the uninitiated.  But, we are initiated... aren't we, Bruce?

Random Musings About a Bathroom Door

Since I was in the first grade and was first exposed to Pokémon, I have always felt that a portion of the wood pattern on the my bathroom door has looked like the Pokémon Grimer.  I've never shared this random tidbit with anyone.  At the same time, it does seem like something that would be difficult to work into a conversation, even when someone would be over my house, without being awkward and forced.

Anyways I saw it today and thought "Why not post it to the blog?"  So that's what I'm doing.

What do you think?  Yes?  No?  Am I just grasping at topics for posts because I enjoy seeing the post count go up?  Is anyone actually reading this?

And you know what else just occurred to me?  In none of the eleven posts since the comeback have I posted any music.  I've been on yet another Radiohead kick lately, and this song has been popping up on my iPod a lot the last few days.

I'm done now.  I swear.

The Xbox One Reveal in a Nutshell

The other day I shared my thoughts on the Xbox One.  Search any gaming website or forum and you can see that my concerns are shared by many.  In reality people are freaking out.  The press conference Microsoft held the other day has led to nothing but negative press and word of mouth.  Maybe they can stop the bleeding at E3, but the common perception of the announcement is summed up nicely in this GIF.

UPDATE:  Since this topic is too fun to stop talking about, Cracked just posted an article that, in their unique style, explains the problems with the Xbox One.  The article also includes a video that I've seen floating around the 'net today summarizing the conference in under two minutes that I've included below.  If the point hasn't been driven home yet, this video is sure to do it.

Bane's Speech as Performed by The Joker

This is great.  Some guy on YouTube does a perfect imitation of Mark Hamill's interpretation of the Joker and uses it to recite Bane's speech about Commissioner Gordon and Harvey Dent from The Dark Knight Rises.

For those of you who don't know, Mark Hamill is most famous for playing the little known role of Luke Skywalker in Star Wars.  In recent years he's become well known for providing voice work for The Joker over a variety of mediums, most notably the animated Batman series from the '90's and the excellent Batman: Arkham video games (not including the upcoming Batman: Arkham Origins).

All the same dude.

Anyway this is just a fun re-imagining of  what could have been if Hamill's Joker "liberated" Gotham in the place of Tom Hardy's Bane.  And it needs to be said again, the guy who did this really did an outstanding job of imitating Mark Hamill's voice.

And to compare, here's a behind the scenes video of Hamill providing voice work for Batman: Arkham City.

Daddy's Home

It is done.  I am finally prepared to reveal my revamped blog to the public.  Welcome my children to Blizzard of Kozz.  If you are reading this for the first time, welcome.  Content on this blog varies wildly.  My main areas of interest, if the header wasn't descriptive enough, are the NHL, gaming, tech, music, film, and history.  For the most part, posts will consist of material related to these topics, be it simply passing along articles or videos I feel are worth sharing, or adding my snide commentary to news about said topics.  My life will also be mentioned from time to time, but who reads a blog to learn about the boring life of the author?  A lot of people?  Whatevs.

Actually I've been pretty committed to making some significant changes in my life as of late.  I've taken it upon myself to break my habit of being lazy and unmotivated.  I aimed to accomplish this by beginning to work out over the summer to give myself a goal and motivational tool.  So far it's worked splendidly.  I don't know if I should eventually expect physical results, but mentally each workout does a lot for me.  I will make a post detailing this more at some point in the future, but I'm not quite sure yet.  I'm not promising any more articles like I did last year because 90% of them never came to fruition.  If I can actually get some people to read the reborn blog I might actually keep up with it this time and write some articles from time to time whenever I'm bored (hence the revamp), but that remains to be seen.

To be continued after the break

Senators' Captain Jumps Ship

The Penguins dominated the Senators tonight 7-3 on the way to taking a 3-1 lead in their Eastern Conference Semifinals matchup.  After the game, 40 year old Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson's reaction to the media was less than inspiring to his team.  When asked if the Senators were capable of making a comeback in the series, Alfredsson responded with "probably not," and then quipped that the Pens "have too much depth."

I'm sorry, but no matter what the state of the series is, a captain has to be more positive than that.  The captain is, obviously, the leader and representative of the team  and its players on and off the ice.  Can you imagine what Alfredsson's teammates thought when they heard that he said that?  It had to be absolutely deflating.  The dude was nominated for the Mark Messier Leadership award  a few days ago, which is presented to the player who "exemplifies great leadership qualities to his team, on and off the ice during the regular season."  He has to have something better to say than that in the face of adversity.  Come on.

Just my $0.02.

The Third Xbox is Xbox One, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Always Online and the End of Lending Games to Friends

The Xbox One console, the revamped Kinect sensor, and the console's new controller

As I mentioned earlier, the next generation Xbox was announced today, and is officially called the Xbox One.  Before I say anything else, I want to comment on the name.  My initial thought was that it was confusing and stupid.  Why would Microsoft name their third console Xbox One?  But after a while I understood their reasoning.  The Xbox One is supposed to be the 'one' item you need for your entertainment center.  The choice is still going to lead to confusion for the uninformed, I'm sure.  PlayStation 4 is going to sound a lot more appealing than Xbox One just due to the bigger number.  Some might think that the Xbox One is synonymous with the original Xbox and think that it is inferior to the Xbox 360 while that console is still on sale.  If anything, at least the name is better than Wii U.

I won't waste time talking about all of the features of the Xbox One.  If you are interested in the console, I'm sure you've already seen everything.  If not, this article from Kotaku covers everything nicely.

What I will discuss is that every nightmare scenario that has been rumored for months has come to fruition.  Every.  Last.  One.  Said scenarios after the jump.

The Curious Case of Jarome Iginla

One fateful night in late March, after everyone thought he was a Boston Bruin, an event occurred at approximately 1 AM that I will never forget.  Jarome Iginla became a Pittsburgh Penguin.  I spent months convinced that the trade was going to happen, and when it finally did I couldn't contain myself.  Let's just say that I'm glad that no one saw the embarrassing dance I performed upon opening my laptop the next morning.

The Pensblog expertly and hilariously covered the event here, here, here, here, and here.

However, since his arrival, coach Dan Bylsma has insisted on playing him almost exclusively on the left wing of Evgeni Malkin.  Iginla already is a surefire first ballot hall of famer for his 17 seasons played at wait for it..... the right wing.

While this might not seem like that big of a deal, it is extremely noticeable on the ice.  The few games he played on the right wing being centered by either Sidney Crosby or Jussi Jokinen have shown, despite what Iginla may say to the contrary, him playing a much more comfortable game.

This all leads to the main point of this post.  Dejan Kovacevic over at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review wrote an excellent article asking the question many, including myself, are thinking at this point - If the Penguins aren't going to play Iginla at his natural position, why did they even bother trading for him at all?

It's a very well written article and definitely worth checking out at the Trib's website.


UPDATE:  After scoring two goals in last night's game, Jarome Iginla can play wherever he wants.  Just keep scoring.

Next Generation Xbox to be Revealed at 1 PM Today

The next Xbox is going to be revealed at 1 PM today.  The conference can be streamed directly from an Xbox 360 or from Xbox.com.  I'm really skeptical about the whole thing right now due to a number of rumors that paint a really poor picture of the machine, supposedly named "Xbox Infinity," but I'll reserve judgement for after the reveal.  I may post my thoughts later tonight, so stay tuned.

And if anything at least they'll show off the next-gen Call of Duty, but since Infinity Ward is developing it I'm skeptical about that as well.

UPDATE, 1 PM

Brave New World

As of two days ago I am on my second month of Netflix, making me a paying member.  I don't know how I lived my life before I joined.  It's like (almost) everything you want to watch is at your fingertips.  I hijacked some girl's account during the previous school year and used it to watch 7 seasons of The Office, but eventually she must have found out because one fateful day, I could no longer log on.  I was faced with a dilemma, and quickly realized I had no choice but to sign up for my own account.  And I've never looked back.

Now if you'll excuse me, I've done a lot of work on here today (i.e. did nothing all day) and need to kick back and watch a few episodes of How I Met Your Mother (i.e. continue to do nothing).

The Iceman Cometh

After several hours of messing around, K-SQUARED has been reborn.  Think of it as a transformation, complete with Transformer sound effects.

Kinda like that.

Where does the new name come from, you ask?  You didn't ask?  No one is actually reading this?  You're getting the answer anyways.  After the jump...

Don't Call It a Comeback

Rockin' his peers and puttin'  suckas in fear.

        

In the immortal words of LL Cool J, don't do it.  Because I don't how long this will last.  I'm just really bored because I don't start back up at Target for another week.

A lot has changed since my last post.  I mean, it's been a year.  Big changes will be coming.... but probably not.  We'll see.