I'll spare anyone reading this the first blog post awkwardness and just get right down to it.
Summer.
A time full of sunshine, merriment and smiles. Yes, summer has arrived in full force here in Edmonton, Alberta. Despite one crazy day of wintry fun last week (whose arrival was greeted by me by a grunt and a return to bed), it seems as though the season has arrived and is here to stay for the foreseeable future. Which is all fun and good for those who enjoy the aforementioned sunshine, merriment and smiles. For me, however, this season is a sweaty, uncomfortable and downright unpleasant experience. Exhibit A: Walking down any residential street is near impossible due to the infestation of may trees, the mere whiff of which gives my sinus an epic conniption fit. I find myself holding my breath a majority of the time when walking about now, like some superstitious child passing a cemetery.
This is a pity, since Edmonton undergoes a magnificent transformation in the summer time that any normal (read: sane) out-of-town University student may never actually experience first hand. The city is abundantly green at the moment, the University grounds much reduced from their general din and the sound of inane chatter replaced by the babbling of brooks. Yes, that's right. The damn brooks here babble. It's enough to make one actually wish the rest of my body (or sensibilities) accepted summer as much as my eyes and ears do. Unfortunately, my nose generally ruins everything within sniff-range of any white or purple flowers. Did I not mention lilacs? Yeah, they suck too.
Considering I only received internet and television on Tuesday, and the environment is obviously out to kill me (or at least to make me sneeze incessantly and make my eyes water) I spent the first week of my new apartment life sequestered inside going through my collection and seeing how stuff looked on the new tv. The damn thing moves like its in fast forward. Things are so smooth and crazy looking that everything old is new again. Considering most of my rantings here will be related to various entertainment properties, I might as well do a little expose on how things went as I sat agog and, in some cases, disappointed.
Best Looking Blu-Ray: The Dark Night.
Neck and neck with Star Trek but the fact that Star Trek relies a lot on CGI and Batman'n'Friends are almost all real-world pushed this sucker over the edge. Shout out to the full screen IMAX shots. Beauty.
Worst Looking Blu-Ray: Watchmen.
Oh dear me. The Blu-Ray format combined with full 1080p is not kind to films whose special effects budgets are not up to snuff. Granted, some of this stuff looked really great but its clear that some effects were rushed for the Director's Cut and other stuff looked right out of a video game. That ain't good.
Merit Award for Being the first Video Game Played on new TV: Uncharted 2
Even though most games only transmit in 720p anyways, I thought might as well go with the prettiest game just to see how it ran. Turns out, the tv didn't know what to do. At full resolution, the game played jankily and looked pretty bad. One button press away, and it was fine. 720p fine. Game's still awesome, though.
Best Looking DVD: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - Season 2
Flabbergasted doesn't begin to describe this set. So long as the television visual effects don't show up too often, you'd be hard pressed to tell that this was merely an upconverted DVD. From a creative standpoint, though, the season itself felt really, really uneven and all over the place. The ending of the series was really quite excellent, though. Shame it was cancelled.
Line that still makes me laugh, 3 years later: 30 Rock, "Black Tie"
Excellent episode all around, but this just steals the show.
And that about does it. Instead of a sentimental signature or sign-off, I'm going to try to cap these things with a YouTube video which accurately portrays my mood. Or, y'know, one I find funny.
So long.
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