I took "The Ultimate Star Wars Personality Test"...

I'm Boba Fett.... Who are you?

One of the coolest things I've ever seen...

This IS one of the coolest things I've ever seen! Governor Matt Blunt signed the Katrina Bill into law right in front of us at the Opening Ceremony of the NRA Convention in St. Louis!!! And I mean RIGHT in front of us... as you can see by this pic, Nick and I were VERY close!!

Click to enlarge image...


I only wish we could get this guy to win the Governorship of Illinois!

Da Arch...

Click to see larger view...

Just a couple minutes from our hotel room, the Gateway Arch is the "icon" of St. Louis.

Next Resident Evil Movie Trailer Online...

A couple of weeks late but what the hell...

http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/residentevilextinction/

...not sure I like the direction they're going with this franchise, but hell... there are some elements of this trailer that are kick ass and even my brother Darren will enjoy!

HP 7 Cover Art Released!

Click for high-res...

Thank god for Jim Dale....

I've had something in the back of my mind that's been bothering me ever since a date was released for HP 7. WHAT ABOUT THE AUDIOBOOK? They announced the UK audiobook but not the US version.

My fear was that we'd get stuck with the Stephen Fry edition (no offense Stephen!) and there would be no Jim Dale version.

Earlier this week I even e-mailed the Random House Audio Publicity and Marketing Dept. for answers. Very surprisingly, they replied.. in less than an hour!

Hi Craig--

An announcement for the Harry Potter 7 audio book has not yet gone out.
Please stay tuned for more information to come soon.

Thanks,

Nicole Adamidis
Random House Audio
Publicity and Marketing

Didn't answer a single question I asked... but I was surprised I got the reply.

Those that know me, know I'm a huge, Huge, HUGE fan of the HP Audiobooks performed by one of the gods of audiobook narration... Jim Dale.

http://www.randomhouse.com/audio/features/harrypotter/

Press Release here.

Harry Potter audiobook coming out

By HILLEL ITALIE, AP National WriterMon Mar 26, 3:34 PM ET

The U.S. audiobook of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" will be released July 21, the same time as the bound text, with the Grammy-winning Jim Dale again handling all the voices.

The British editions have been narrated by actor Stephen Fry.

The Listening Library, the children's imprint of the Random House Audio Publishing Group, announced Monday that the audio for the 784-page book will run 21 hours, and retail for $79.95.

No first printing was announced, but Amanda D'Acierno, director of marketing and publicity for Random House Audio, told The Associated Press that the number would "definitely" be higher than the 635,000 announced for Potter 6, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince."

J.K. Rowling's fantasy series has sold more than 4 million audio copies in North America, and Dale has become a celebrity, winning a Grammy Award in 2000 for best spoken word album for children. The audio for "Half-Blood Prince" sold more than 165,000 copies the first weekend, more than most audiobooks sell all year.

Random House confirmed that the audio for "Deathly Hallows" will be available in cassette and CD, but did not announce a downloadable version. Only in 2005 did Rowling, known for her resistance to digital technology, allow the audiobooks to be downloaded, releasing them exclusively through Apple Inc.'s iTunes.

"We have digital rights for the new book, but there are so many scenarios in the digital world that we're not ready to discuss the downloadable version at this point," D'Acierno said.

None of the Potter stories are available as e-books, a status not expected to change with "Deathly Hallows."

"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" is the seventh and final Harry Potter book.

As Jim Dale is completely responsible for pulling me into the world of Harry Potter, you have no idea how happy I am at this news.

Should Mark Wahlberg be arrested?

Interesting article by Tom Gresham...

http://www.guntalk.com/site.php?pageID=15&newsID=15

I didn't know Mark Wahlberg was a felon.... It looks like it's true... according to wikipedia (amongst many others)...

Wahlberg developed cocaine and freebase habits at around the ages of 13 or 14. As a teenager, Wahlberg participated in several acts of violence for which he was arrested, later claiming to have been arrested 20-25 times by the Boston Police Department as a youth. At 15 he harassed a group of African American school children on a field trip by throwing rocks (causing injuries) and shouting racist epithets. While under the influence of angel dust when he was 16 (and again using racist language) he knocked a middle aged Vietnamese man unconscious with a wooden stick and left another Vietnamese man permanently blind in one eye. For these crimes Wahlberg was arrested for attempted murder, pled guilty to assault, and spent 45 days in jail at Boston's Deer Island House of Correction. In yet another incident when he was 21 Wahlberg fractured the jaw of a neighbour in an unprovoked attack.

I wonder why the producers of the new movie "Shooter" would even cast an anti-gun asshole in such a role?

Harry Potter 7 Clocks in at 784 Pages!

Earlier today Scholastic announced that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will have 784 pages in the U.S.

For those keeping score...

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone had 309 pages and the audiobook was 8h 18m long
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets had 341 pages and the audiobook was 9h 2m long
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban had 435 pages and the audiobook was 11h 48m long
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire had 734 pages and the audiobook was 20h 36m long
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix had 870 pages and the audiobook was 26h 30m long
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince had 652 pages and the audiobook was 18h 33m long
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will have 784 pages and the audiobook should be around 21h 30m long

That will bring the seven book series to a total of 4,125 pages and approx 116 hours and 36 minutes of Jim Dale audiobook fun!

The Barbershop: Dennis Byrne, proprietor: Handgun bans' logic got shot full of holes

The Barbershop: Dennis Byrne, proprietor: Handgun bans' logic got shot full of holes

This guy is my new hero!

This...

I'd add this to what the court said: Arguing that you have only a "collective" right to bear arms as part of a militia is as ludicrous as saying that the Bill of Rights protects your free speech rights only as a part of a larger group, such as the American Civil Liberties Union.

... in the Chicago Tribune... wonderful! Speak the truth brother!

Cool Software Alert

Years ago I began searching for a good jigsaw program... One that would let me create my own custom puzzles. After checking out dozens of possibilities, I ended up with Jigs@w Puzzle by Tibo Software. It was a fine piece of software but it got hard to deal with if you had a couple hundred puzzles.

Anyway...

I visited their site a couple of days ago because I wanted to create some .exe versions of some puzzles for a website I'm working on and noticed that they released a second version. It's got some great new features and has the ability to store puzzles in Albums which eliminates the sole problem I had with the version 1.

Jigs@w Puzzle 2 is available for the incredibly low price of $9.95 and they also offer a free trial! If you like jigsaw puzzles (especially on the computer... no missing pieces, no clean up) be sure to give this software a test drive!

Unfortunately, it's for Windows only but even so, it's WELL worth the money.