Cyberclogs

Well after much deliberating and cogitating (OK enough of the Lloyd Grossman sayings) I finally managed to get my hands on an Xbox 360 HD DVD drive (huzzaaaa!) and I'm glad to say was it worth the wait? Oh yes. I got a copy of King Kong packaged with it and the quality of the transfer was par excellence (or brilliance more like) every scene was sharp and really detailed, HD-mongous. It was great to finally put my LCD TV to good HD use with some HD DVD sources as its been too long in the waiting. All I need to do now is get more titles although I won't go crazy on them for now as the format wars will be brewing so no point replacing my entire DVD collection (well there's only 150 or so titles available at the mo for HD DVD anyway).

In the end I had to resort to getting the drive off of ebay after all, and yeah ok you may pay a bit more for it but at least you get it quick (or at all). Obviously im a bit of a novice on ebay as I barely use it that often and every time I bid on an item I kept getting outbid. Again I wasn't really aware of all these bidders out there with their bidding bots (using ezsnipe) to pip me and others to the post. The best option is usually just to go to the "Buy it now" option that way you pay the fixed price and get what you're looking for (methinks anyway) althougn you might pay more.

Anyway back to King Kong ... :))

Well the title says it all really lol. Where indeed are they?

I've been scourging the Internet all over to try and find an Xbox 360 HD DVD drive , but it appears no matter what sites you try, Currys, Comet, Amazon, Tescos, Overclockers, Dabs, etc they are all out of stock with these drives. Its almost like they don't exist. I guess the steal of having to pay a meagre 130 quid for a HD DVD drive as opposed to 400 quid is too much of a good thing for UK shoppers, so everyone has been snatching them asap, either that or Microsoft haven't been able to manufacture enough of them to keep up with the demands.

I've even looked on ebay and there are plenty of bidders (who outbid me of course lol!) looking to buy the drive. It certainly is a good thing to get, although with this format war between HD DVD and Blu-Ray does it mean if Blu-Ray wins, will we be all stuck with another dud format (or Betamax, which actually was superior to VHS, but it never caught on). Ah well we'll soon see.

I seen Rocky Balboa last night at the pics and have to say I quite enjoyed it, although I don't think it lived up to some of the hype I had heard about it. But yes it is a better film than Rocky V, which to be honest wouldn't be too hard (since it was pretty rank next to the others). Sly Stallone got himself into pretty good condition for the Rocky swansong (this has to be be last one, because credibility has been stretched beyond bursting point as it is) and he carried it off nicely.

The only thing that kind of let the film down a bit was Rocky's obligatory mourning for his wife Adrian, who is now dead and he wanders around Philly thinking about her, moping round his restaurant telling anecdotes of his days as a boxer. But after that things start to get moving when he sees the computer generated bout of himself and the current heavyweight champion Mason the line Dixon (who is played by a real life light heavyweight champion, and at last an opponent that dares weigh less than Rocky, well in the film he doesn't lol! But who are they kidding!). Then he decides to get back in the ring for a final exhibition bout with the current champ.

And I'm glad to say the end of the movie isn't too incredible or ridiculous, I won't give it away but suffice to say Rocky leaves the ring with his dignity still in tact. As a final Rocky film it ends on a nice feel of everything coming full circle and Rock leaves as a man who has done his work. Next up don't know I will see next.

Must admit I haven't really been following this year's Celebrity Big Brother and the contestants this year seem largely unremarkable again (although I quite like the inclusion of Dirk Bennedict, Face from A-Team fame, although apparently most of the housemates didnt even know what he's famous for!). But the one thing I find that has actually writing about it this year is all the surprising controversy surrounding the Indian housemate, Shilpa Shetty, who has become the target of some supposed racial harrassment from some of her fellow housemates, most notably Jade Goody.

Now Jade as most people know isn't the sharpest tool in the box and apparently she is also a member of an anti-bullying charity, so for her to go on to a TV show and act racist seems to go against all her supposed morals. To be honest I haven't really seen much of this year's show so I can't really comment so far if I think Jade and chums have been racist or not. But its media response has been somewhat exagerrated to say the least with everyone going bananas over these comments, and what must rank as the highest amount of complaints a single show has ever had (32000 so far). Could it be a bit of jealously between the 3 other girls in the house who feel a bit insecure next to Shilpa (who is a honey, Jade isn't, no offence). Who knows? The BB producers have said that it appears to be more of a cultural clash than a racial issue. Jade being a London chav culturally probably doesn't really get the customs or behaviour of the girl, or maybe its just Jade being Jade. Whatever it is, it really has caused a huge impact in the news, this is the first time Big Brother has shaken the institution so much that it affects even Parliament, where an Indian MP has commented on it.

Whatever the outcome of this is Jade certainly might not be too welcome in India after this is over, but again she is inside the house, she has no idea what is going on outside. Well not yet at least.

Well we're only a week into January, and I'm already not a fan of it, January is never been a great month of mine, it feels like my body clock is always reset to zero at the beginning of the year. To paraphrase Tom Baker when he was the Doctor "A new year is like a new house, it takes time to settle in". February is usually a little bit better, but I often feel like the year doesn't really kick into gear until March and that's when things seem to be going somewhere. Until then I shall try and re-energise myself as well as I can, probably something (just maybe) to do with the crappy weather we get this time of year. Ah well roll on spring!

Well that had to rank as one of the quitest new year celebrations I've ever had so far, no thanks to the weather, torrential rain and gales. I was going to go out on Hogmanay but sadly the attrocious weather forced me to stay in, and today its a lovely shiny day lol. Ah well, come what may for 2007 everybody have a good one this year.