Monthly Archive for January, 2007

Ben & Jack’s Steakhouse

Published on January 31, 2007 in Rantings.

So I’m in NYC for a couple days for work and part of my “work duties” is to take agents out for dinner or a night on the town. Our plans changed multiple times, but we finally wound up at Ben & Jack’s Steakhouse on 44th Street in Manhattan. Ben & Jack’s was founded by two former waiters from Peter Luger’s. If you don’t know what Peter Luger’s is then you’ve never been to a great steakhouse. It’s one of the best in the world, literally. Ok, enough about Luger’s and more about Ben & Jack’s.

If you’re a meat and potatoes person then this is the place for you. They offer a simple menu so you’re choices are somewhat limited but it just makes things that much easier to choose something. I got the Filet Mignon with a baked potato, and yes you pay separately for your side dish (this is Manhattan people). So all in all it was a good $42 for a Filet and baked potato, you might balk at the price but remember where you are. The service was excellent and the food just as good. You get a good sized Filet and it’s cooked to order, not to mention you can cut through it like a hot knife through butter. For desert I got the apple streudel and it was pretty good too.

A number of people told me that if you were to do a blind taste test between Peter Luger’s and Ben & Jack’s you’d never know the difference. Luckily I’ve been fortunate to eat at both places and you really can’t tell the difference between the two. Ben & Jack’s is a great placed to eat and if you’re in Manhattan and looking for a good steakhouse then I’d highly recommend this place to you. If you want to learn more about Ben & Jack’s then click here. (man I should get paid for this, it sounds like I’m shilling for them).

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What’s In My Podcast Library

Published on January 30, 2007 in Podcasts.

I’ve been listening and watching podcasts for a while now, whether it’s on my computer or my iPod there are numerous podcasts that have caught my attention and I have subscribed to. I’ll list a number of them here, with links, and give a brief description of why I’m into them.

Ask A Ninja – Absolutely love this one, a comedic look at a Ninja in todays society.

Rome – From the HBO series comes a series of podcasts, both audio and video, about Roman society and what goes on behind the scenes. It’s extremely informative and makes it much more interesting learning about ancient Rome.

Deadwood – Like its Rome counterpart, the Deadwood podcasts were informative and gave a behind the scenes look to the show. Now that the show is moving to movies we can expect more when production starts up again.

Entourage – Like its other HBO counterparts, it’s both video and audio podcasts of behind the scenes, what’s coming and why they do it.

The Sopranos – Like its other HBO counterparts, it’s both video and audio podcasts of behind the scenes, what’s coming and why they do it.

Effective Edge – A snowboarding video podcast, they have the latest trailers from snowboarding videos, recent news and also self produced videos from the various resorts in Cali and Nevada.

Official Lost Podcast – From the executive producers, they answer your questions regarding the show and also give insight into why they what they did.

Battlestar Galactica – From Ron D. Moore, the executive producer and creator of the new series, you get a behind the scenes account of why they did what they did for each episode from Ron himself. It’s a great podcast to listen to.

French Maid TV – A video podcast, hot girls dress like French Maids and teach you how to do things like podcast, find music online and more.

Weekly Anime Review – I’ll admit that I don’t listen to every episode, but I do listen to a lot of them. Very indepth reviews of the various anime out there which has led to some good finds.

There are a few more I listen to, which I’ll cover at another time. So go ahead and check out any that you might find interesting.

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Iron Maiden’s Trooper By A Bunch of Kids

Published on January 29, 2007 in Music.

This is pretty cool… these kids are better than 90% of the Maiden cover bands out there…

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Idiot of the Week – Pt. 78

Published on January 28, 2007 in Idiot of the Week.

WOONSOCKET, R.I. (AP) — Two mothers and their 13-year-old daughters were arrested after police say one woman drove her already suspended daughter to school to fight a teenage rival.

Ana Rivera, 44, and Maribel Santiago, 34, are scheduled to be arraigned Thursday on a charge of simple assault in connection with Monday’s fight. Their daughters and two other 13-year-old girls were charged with disorderly conduct and their cases were turned over to the Juvenile Detective Division.

Rivera allegedly drove her daughter to Woonsocket Middle School so she could fight Santiago’s daughter.

Police reports say the girls began feuding two weeks ago and began fighting outside the school on Monday. At one point, the melee involved all four girls, both mothers and a teacher, according to police.

Authorities said a teacher tried to break up the fight and was hit by Santiago.

Santiago and Rivera were released on $1,000 bail Monday evening, but Detective Lt. Timothy Paul said the department intends to notify the state Department of Children, Youth and Families about Rivera’s case.

Santiago, reached at home Wednesday, said she went to the school to pick up her daughter because of recent threats. She said she apologized to the school’s principal and was only trying to protect her daughter. Her daughter was suspended from school for 10 days after the fight.

“I just wanted to make sure my daughter stayed out of trouble,” Santiago said.

Rivera could not be reached for comment and it was unclear if she has an attorney.

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Lost Planet

Published on January 27, 2007 in Games.

Lost Planet had been one of the most hyped games for the 360 since Gears of War, with a massive ad campaign and strong push from Capcom. The demo on XBox Live had a huge amount of downloads and the online feature was highly anticipated. I, like many, bought into the hype and had to get my hands on it as soon as possible.

The story behind Lost Planet was a bit puzzling. Humans abandoned their comfortable, heat-filled lives in order to colonize a cold, isolated planet called E.D.N. III. The first team of humans to colonize the planet come across colonies of enemy aliens already present on their new home. The aliens, known as the Akrid, are hostile to humans and have an affinity to eating them. The humans discovered a use for the Akrid; their bodies contain a thermal energy that can be collected and used, although the story claims that their understanding an implementation of the energy is very limited. After fierce battles the humans retreated, but they returned with new technology capable of standing up against the Akrid, the Vital Suit. The survivors banded together to form a group called the “snow pirates� and have begun roaming the planet using their VS’s in search of Akrid colonies to destroy.

Your character in the game is Wayne, a snow pirate that is part of a larger group seeking out Akrid Hives. During a fierce battle Wayne’s father is killed and he’s separated from his squad and left for dead. He’s discovered by some travelling snow pirates who nurse him back to health and he joins the pirates in missions against the Akri.

An interesting concept I found was that your character needs to find thermal energy to stay alive, and most of this energy is harvested from data points or Akrid. The meter is constantly running out, and you must continue to fill Wayne’s energy meter or run the risk of dying. The forces you to engage your enemies, sinces you need to kill them that gives you the thermal energy to stay alive.

With all the hype came screenshots that looked amazing, after playing a bit and watching some of the cut scenes I was a bit disappointed. The graphics are no where near the quality of Gears of War, but they’re not terrible. They look good, but a little too polished for the environment the game takes place in. They were too smooth and had too much of a japanese anime look to the characters. In some ways the looks of the characters reminded me of the Final Fantasy characters, except in the frozen tundra. The sound of the characters and narrator also seemed like he stepped out of some cheesy anime.

Another downside was the real lack of movement for the character. He can jump, crouch, move forwards, backwards, left right and use his grappling hook and that’s about it. He can’t run faster, take cover or do a number of other things you’d expect in a 3rd person shooter. The game seemed a bit repetitive as well, many of your missions had the same objectives; find the hordes of Akrid and kill them.

What a disappointment this game was, it’s not something I would trash but it’s definitely not a game that I would buy either.

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