As a Netflix subscriber, with the current $9.99 DVD-streaming combo option that will cease to exist come Sept. 1 to current subscribers, I thought I’ll weigh in on what’s going on.

As most people are aware, Netflix made a streaming only option for 7.99, while increasing to 9.99 for having unlimited streaming and DVDs (1 at a time), last November. Going from 8.99 to 9.99 wasn’t a big deal, I think most people understood as it costs money to send out DVDs (you know, postage). Now, with Netflix set to separate their two services, having the already existing 7.99 streaming only, and adding a 7.99 DVD-only, meaning to have both, you add those together to get the $15.98/mo, which is what current $9.99 subscribers will be paying, starting Sept 1, unless they decide one way or another, or as some people (stupidly) are threatening to do, canceling altogether.

I find canceling to be stupid, as Netflix is by far the best paid streaming option out there. Right now, even the paid Hulu Plus has ads, while Netflix doesn’t. The streaming limits of Netflix is why people liked the DVD option. All the other streaming sites have limitations to what they offer, because it’s all a matter of what licensing rights they can get. It’s not Netflix’s fault that Warner Bros. doesn’t want Netflix to even had the DVDs available until 30 days after release date (I believe same goes with Redbox). It’s not Netflix’s fault that HBO and Showtime don’t want their shows available to stream, even after a season has been released to DVD/Blu-Ray and is available to rent in that form. Though, in our eyes, being able to rent the DVD or Blu-Ray out should be seen as the same as streaming, when it comes to studios, they don’t see it that way.

From their fear that streaming is easier to rip (though, DVDs are easy to rip, but whatever), or they think people won’t subscribe to their premium network if they can just stream it, about eight months after the season ended (I’m using True Blood‘s releases as a guide for that number). Well, same can be said if they can rent it as well, but, whatever.

None of these are Netflix’s fault. And, now, their partnership with Starz could be lessened when the contract is up (I believe in January). Right now, current shows from Starz as a 90-day wait period, as Starz is hoping some people would subscribe for the course of a season to what a show now, versus waiting. If this experience shows that people were okay to wait, it wouldn’t surprise me that Starz doesn’t renew any deal with Netflix.

But, if Netflix can phase the option for DVDs out completely (as it is their goal), then funds could potentially go towards purchasing more (or even better) rights to streaming shows and movies. Of course, don’t expect HBO, as they have their HBO Go service, which is only available to subscribers (and not even all, as I know Time Warner customers don’t get it). Would it be nice to allow people who don’t want to pay an arm and a leg for digital cable (which, I think is at least required to even get premiums, so set-top box fees on top of minimum digital cable, it’s just ridiculous).

Worse yet, ISPs aren’t happy with Netflix, which accounts for a good chunk of web traffic in peak hours now. That’s why ISPs experimented and implemented bandwidth caps. This is one reason why we need government regulations to prevent ISPs from jacking up prices while speeds see no improvement. If we can get some good investments into fiber optics in more places, then cable companies will have more competitors, and thus, will have to have lower prices just to compete.

But I’m getting into something else, so back to Netflix. I myself like the DVD option, but like others, I only rent out a DVD about once a week (I work full time, I hardly have time to stream with Netflix). Though I get why Netflix is doing this (phase out DVDs by pushing people to go streaming), I think they could go about it better. If someone makes use of the unlimited DVDs on top of the streaming, then they should essentially pay for the two options (If they squeeze 2 DVDs in a week, that $7.99 a month plan is cheaper than buying from Pay-Per-View (which is about $4 a movie), cheaper than renting from iTunes (again, $4), renting from any Blockbuster or video store that has somehow managed to stay in business (and those require going out and using gas, plus risk of late-fees which apparently plagued people who rented a movie without considering if they had time to watch it that night or couldn’t get it returned in time), and is about that same as the $1 rentals of Redbox ($1 a day, that is, so if you have the movie in your possession for two days before you get to return it, it could add up.

But, if you’re like me, you don’t rent but no more than 4 DVDs a month from Netflix, so, I think it’ll be fair to keep a 9.99 plan with a DVD limit of, say, 2 a month. I think that would be fair.

So, come September 1st, would I drop my DVD side and go streaming only? I don’t know. There is a large streaming library, but, new releases are DVD only and come with wait times as everyone wants to see a new movie. Right now, my DVD Queue has some TV shows not available to stream and aren’t syndicated on any network (I’m watching Night Court now (which I’ve had since Thursday), actually, so I can send it off tomorrow and get a new one Friday (I Am Number Four is next on my list).

I have until September to ponder over it, but for the extra 8 bucks, I would need to squeeze in two a week to justify the increase, which could be possible when hours are cut in the fall (I got Netflix when I was unemployed, and used a lot of it when I got a part time job, but full time, I can afford it better but not using it as much, interesting huh?).

I am the owner of a Playstation 3. I do have an account with the Playstation Network, which recently has been in the news due to an attack on the network that prompted Sony to shut the PSN network down. The last few weeks has been a multitude of news, as everyone’s eyes were on the Royal Wedding (which that overshadowed the serious storm that hit Alabama), and now, with the death of Osama bin Laden, this huge security breach may have yet to reach everyone (though Sony has sent a mass email to customers, but whether all 77 million customers of the PSN, who knows?).

I want to be quick to point out, the last few times I used the Playstation store, it was with funds from a gift card. Plus, I check my account regularly, as everyone should do anyway. When I shop online, or anything in which I may provide a billing/shipping address, phone, and, well, credit card data, I understand risks even if they should have encrypted connections (SSL). My memory of the last time I used a credit card to fund my Playstation Network wallet for use to purchase games and add-ons or TV shows/movies is a bit fuzzy. I want to say that there was a checkbox to allow Sony to store credit card data, if so, I unchecked it. There’s no need for online service to store that sensitive data, unless it’s for regular transactions and is a very trusted company. Even still, one should always be cautious.

Why am I going on like this? Because I don’t have hate towards Sony. Network security can never be 100% secured. There’s no such thing. So while others are saying they are gonna switch to XBOX or whatever, fine. When PSN comes back up, I’ll get my password changed ASAP and continue to use it. People HAVE to remember that nothing is 100%. 99.9%, sure, but never 100%. So, there’s also the chance for the same thing, or something similar to happen within the XBOX network. Not too long ago, there were some “congestion” issues with Amazon servers used for cloud-base computing, causing an outage. Big companies, small companies, it doesn’t matter. If you use a service, at some point, there is gonna be some form of failure. And for the record, I find cloud-computing useful to some degree, but I still prefer things I may need to be stored locally.

April 20 was when PSN was shut down, and almost a week later is when Sony said something. That’s what I’m pissed about. As I tried to log-in, so I can watch Netflix, I just couldn’t sign it. I got some “Maintenance” message. They claimed they waited ’til they had more information, but that was their mistake. They should’ve alerted the public that there was an intrusion as soon as they knew. They could’ve put out that they were still investigating, and to check back on their blog for more info as its known, whatever. Even mentioning that, to go with the “Better Safe, Than Sorry” phrase, warn consumers that credit info could’ve been stolen, so they could’ve immediately taken extra precautions with their credit cards.

A lot of “Should’ve, Would’ve, Could’ve,” another thing a lot of companies seem to go through. Also, with PSN down, it wasn’t until yesterday they shut down Sony Online Entertainment, which operates “EverQuest.” Though it’s a separate service, for safety of the public, it probably would’ve been better to take it down. You know, just to be “safe than sorry.”

So, even if you don’t use any Sony service, especially their gaming networks, you still should always be proactive when it comes to YOUR credit account. The real villains here are the hackers, not Sony (except, their delay with news, they really should’ve mentioned it sooner).

If you have a PSN account, you should check your credit card statements (or check online for recent transactions). For more info, visit Playstation Blog for latest news concerning PSN/Qriocity services, Q&A for other questions you may have (they may have been answered), and/or the Knowledge Center with information of what you can do to protect yourself against possibly ID Theft and other info to how you can check your credit.

I would say programming lineup announced, but they neglected actual dates, or even go more into the returning series in July (which I’m assuming, Eureka will be the last half of season four, you know, a year after the first half premiered, like what happened with season three (shame on you Syfy), so basically we’ll be watching the rest of season four when we should actually be watching season 5, which starts filming soon). The press release (you can find here on Blastr), basically mentions a ton of shows set to premiere this summer, as well as a few into fall, plus the Saturday movies, dated into 2012.

Now, the title of this post should hint to how I feel about the new stuff Syfy is going for.

Returning series in the summer include (as mentioned above) Eureka, plus Warehouse 13, and Haven. New scripted series added will be Alphas (ordinary people with abilities again, though it has Ryan Cartwright, who played my favorite intern (Nigel-Murray) on Bones, so I’ll probably still check it out). Where there is one scripted premiere, there are THREE reality premieres coming: Haunted Collector (haunted objects, *yay* -that’s sarcasm BTW) in June, Legend Quest (which I guess is like Destination Truth, but it’s finding relics around the world, which might be interesting, but more appropriate for History Channel, IMO) in July, and Paranormal Witness (team behind Locked Up and Gold Rush Alaska bring a dramatic-documentary series of people who survived paranormal encounters…or something like that) in September.

As you can tell, I myself am a bit furious with 3-1, Reality over Scripted on Syfy. I miss Sci-Fi Channel, even that also had the likes of Wrestling, it’s first dive into unscripted were relevant to the network. I’m not gonna be the person to dismiss series of supernatural and paranormal stuff, saying that’s not sci-fi, since I see it as sci-fi/fantasy, but Syfy now has gone WAY too far. Looking at what’s in development, there are 4 total scripted series versus 10 (yes TEN) unscripted/reality/whatever. One scripted series in development that I hope goes further is Three Inches, since I know that has James Marsters (SPIKE, need I say more). Do we need a docu-series on photography? No. Do we want something with Tommy Lee? Hell no. Do we want a series where people eat with Deepak Chopra? (excuse my French) A big fuckin’ NO. Now, I do watch Ghost Hunters, Destination Truth and Fact or Faked, so I’m not overly closed to them existing, just not in this magnitude, and absolute stupidity. Come on Syfy, you may have taken the “ci” and “i” out and replaced this with “y”s, but this is just ridiculous. They needed to keep Stargate Universe, the one series everyone agreed being sci-fi, thought Eureka I think also fits the bill (a fictional show with scientific stuff), so in a strict sense, Syfy has ONE series once SGU officially ends (note, I do watch all the current scripted shows on the network, but I see why most wouldn’t appeal to the hard-core sci-fi geeks). Now, they have another Battlestar prequel in development, but they’ve seemed to extremely limit themselves with space-action-adventure series.

Anyway, for the shows actually premiering, either I skipped over and missed it, but I didn’t see anything even say what day they would be on. I can assume based on past experiences, that Haven will stay on Friday and premiere shortly after Sanctuary ends its run (it comes back April 15th, which I predicted after the midseason finale as a likely scenario), so with ten episodes of Sanctuary, if we take in account one possible rerun and may at least a week in between, Haven could premiere July 8. So, logically, Alphas could be following footsteps of Being Human and premiere the Monday before that (so July 4, but I’m skeptical now on that, but you never know) and having Eureka and Warehouse 13 pair up, since there Christmas outing did fine, say July 5. I’m doing this for an estimate since Syfy didn’t actually really announce a schedule. The reality crap would fill Wednesday and Thursday, essentially.

Also in the press release, the Saturday B-Movie goodies, but the main part seems to be the fact that the next re-imagining event Neverland where Keira Knightley will be the voice of Tinker Bell. Also cast is Anna Friel (Pushing Daisies as Captain Elizabeth Bonny, Charlie Rowe as Peter Pan, and interestingly have Smee played by Bob Hoskins (who played the character in the 90s movie Hook). It calls it a movie event, I hope it’s a mini-series, so it’s in line with the like of Tin Man and Alice from previous years (which are the only events where Syfy even sees Emmy nominations, and for good reason, they are very good, especially Tin Man).

And Syfy Ventures will have games on Facebook under Syfy Games.

Again, whole article of actually three press releases can be read at Blastr.

[update 3/23/2011: I want to link to this TV.Com article, which highlights each of the series coming out or in development, and rates the sci-fi-ness of the reality slate. Seems a little lenient on some, but for the most part, I agree and had to share the link.]

Haven’t posted anything in a while, so here’s something on my mind:
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I get it. Kids make messes. You have the special crayons and markers that only appear on special paper, and now you see more of these special gyro-bowls that prevent spilling, no matter how the kid handles it.

The reason I find it stupid. Simply put, kids need to make these messes, they need to make these mistakes in order to learn when they do bad things. Products like these are simply for the benefit of the parent, which I find to be extremely selfish. I know, I don’t have any kids, so it’s probably not my place to say anything, but having been a kid, I needed to make messes in order to know what not to do. This is how I learned things. If I were a kid now with one of these bowls, I would grow up thinking I can handle anything anyway I wanted with no consequence (of course I would hope later in child development it actually wouldn’t be a problem, but a kid should start learning things as early as when they start walking and talking). Like I said before, this is to make things easier for the parents. And parenting shouldn’t be easy. It should be hard.

Plus, these gyro bowls, they look ridiculous too. They also have similar concepts for other children products, such as a “Bubble Bowl” which I guess is so kids don’t spill all the soapy water for their bubbles. And, I imagine the special paper for those special markers and such just make things more expensive. And that’s just crazy.

Quick note, I do get sippy cups, that seems more for the safety of the kid, so they don’t accidentally try drinking more than they could handle. At least that’s how I see it, plus they are much younger at that point, that I understand those more.

But I will stress this, again, I have no kids (don’t plan to), am also not any type of child behaviorist, or behaviorist in general, nor work in child development industries. I’m just a regular person with an opinion, and this has been on my mind since the store I work at got those dumb Bubble Bowl thingys.

Now I watch quite a bit of TV so this was a VERY hard list to come up with. I found myself putting in some shows that may not actually be more favorable over others but I have to give props if they had an impressive year. I’ll try to keep summaries to a minimum but there are gonna be spoilers to give a little on why one such show was awesome last year.

12- Cougar Town – Title withstanding, the ABC show has really came into its own and improved significantly, and we’ve seen less of Barb, so that alone is a major improvement. 2nd season airs Wed. 9:30PM, ’til February, then returns again in April.

11- The Vampire Diaries – Yeah, it’s a bit on the soapy teen side, but it still has more sex and violence (at least what can be on broadcast, so no nudity, but that’s okay) than a certain (non)-vampire movie franchise (note, I’m basing that on the 1st movie). Plus, the introduction of werewolves, bringing in more witches, and the arrival of Katherine, the vampire who turned Damon and Stefan and who Elena looks like. The writing is much stronger and the storylines now are really making it a bit of a surprising drama series that I find very much worth watching. The 2nd half of its 2nd season returns January 27th at 8PM on the CW.

10- Modern Family – What’s not to love about this one of a kind comedy where you have a father who married a younger Colombian woman with a son, and a daughter with a man-child of a husband and three kids, and a gay son who adopted a Vietnamese baby with his partner. Add in a doc-style therapy narration and you have a unique comedy that not only does extremely well in demo, but it actually won an Emmy too for a comedy and get this, it’s actually funny. This ABC series 2nd season airs Wed. at 9PM.

9- Eureka – The Syfy series saw some real creative genius last year when Carter, Allison, Henry, Jo, and Fargo had traveled back to the past and arrived back to the present with a man named Trevor Grant joining, to find a very different Eureka (Jo and Zane never dated, Tess never left, Henry is married, Allison’s autistic son was surprisingly no longer autistic, and, Fargo is in charge of GD). Playing with time can be a tricky thing, but this show excelled (although I’m still not sure how a kid would no longer be autistic), but it was still a fun show to watch, and I look forward to more. Return TBD.

8- Sanctuary – This little Syfy gem may not get the press that the now canceled SGU and Caprica got, but it certainly tops my list from the net. And last year it got even better, picking up after the the Big Bertha storyline, Magnus and her team look for Hollow Earth, and the last ep of the year was a big “WTF” moment that still has me in shock. I look forward to its return this spring to finish out its 3rd season, and hope for renewal of such an underrated series.

7- Fringe – This FOX series, now in its 3rd season, is moving to Fridays, so spread the word ’cause this series must continue. The 3rd season opened us up more to the alternate universe with the first half switching between the ‘Fringe’-world we know and the alternate one, having our Olivia “over there” and Fauxlivia (the “over there” Olivia) “over here.” The once X-Files-esque show is going more in mythology and the deepness of it is a hard sell to average viewers, which is a shame, because this has been a truly great year. 3rd Season returns January 21 at 9PM on FOX (with an episode titled, get this, “Firefly”)

6- Bones – Oh last year saw the 100th episode with Booth telling Brennan he loved her and she rejecting him and then the last ep of the year in which Brennan saw herself in a victim and realized she made a mistake and her putting her heart out there, but because of, eh, Hanna, Booth then rejected her. I say, give the Emmy to Emily Deschanel, please. Oh, and Hodgins and Angela got married in jail and are now expecting. Really looking forward to the aftermath of Brennan’s tearjerking moment, plus, there are spoilers out there that a supporting character (possibly one of the squinterns) is gonna say hello to a bullet. 6th season returns January 20 at 9PM on FOX (yes, 9PM now, not 8PM, 9PM, don’t forget it).

5- How I Met Your Mother – The closest thing to a Friends replacement, this CBS comedy is now in its 6th season and isn’t slowing down. Any show that can take what should be a simple story to kids on how their parents met and make it into a non-stop force of comedy for 6 years running is a masterpiece. Now if only Neil Patrick Harris can get that Emmy for this series he so DESERVES, and maybe little more love for Jason Segel and Alyson Hannigan this year? Oh, and let’s not forget that almost a year ago was the 100th episode, with the wonderful musical number “Girls Vs. Suits.” This CBS series 6th season airs Mondays 8PM.

4- Smallville – Hey, it’s in its 10th and final season and they are giving us one hell of a season. The 10th season is now getting more into the Superman mythology, even that scene with the ‘Superman Returns’ costume in the Fortress of Solitude gave me goosebumps (got them again just thinking about that scene). And let’s not forget the wonderful 200th episode where James Marsters returned as Brainiac and Clark and Lois’s floaty dance at the end, it’s just, well, super. 10th season returns, with only 11 episodes left, of this epic series, on January 28 at 8PM on the CW.

3- Chuck – This spy-action comedy series is very much adored by its close-knit of fans, and that dedication has helped bring this series into its now 4th season. But, hope for a 5th dwindles unless ratings can spike, and last year saw a massive amount of what they call stunt casting, but, though it didn’t hurt, Linda Hamilton, Lou Ferrigno, Summer Glau, Robert Englund, and Timothy Dalton didn’t help ratings either. 4th season returns January 17 at 8PM on NBC.

2- True Blood – Well, duh, my #2 show in general is the HBO hit with vampires, werewolves, and now fairies. Going into a 4th season this year, we should see more witches and, from what I hear, more vampire politics. The sex and gore didn’t stop in the 3rd season (the disturbing head twist sex scene between Bill and Lorena and Russell ripping the spinal column of a news anchor on live TV, great stuff.) 4th season airs this summer on HBO.

1- Supernatural – Not a surprise, it’s always been my most favorite show since it premiered. With a great mix of drama, action, and comedy, strong characters, excellent writing, we haven’t had a show this strong since Buffy. Last year we got the 100th episode, a showdown with Lucifer, and more crazy “WTF” moments (“fairies”?), a great Bobby episode, and you also had Castiel watching porn, I never laughed so hard in my life. Kidding aside, it’s still a strong serious show, and now that Sam has his soul back, with the unreliable “patch” from Death, what’s next for our favorite demon hunters? 6th season returns January 28th at 9PM on the CW.

BEST NEW SERIES from LAST YEAR:
Haven (Syfy) – The series will return for a 2nd season this summer (yay!) and is actually a quite intriguing show, much better than the highest rated scripted show on Syfy, Warehouse 13, which is good too, but I like Haven more. Taking place in a small town in Maine, it follows an FBI agent who found herself trying to unlock the mystery of the Troubles and a mysterious picture in an old newspaper of a woman that she believed to be her mother. It’s got a great cast, and when we last saw it, Audrey got more clues to her mother, that it might not have been her mother, but her! Plus Duke’s hunt to find out who is supposed to kill him, bringing in the mystery of the maze tattoo. Oh, and this is loosely based on the Stephen King novella ‘The Colorado Kid.’

Shows I Wish Weren’t Canceled:
My Boys – The highly underrated TBS comedy was a pleasant surprise to me. I started watching it when it was halfway through its 1st season since someone recommended it, and I’m glad I did. It was a smart and funny show, with a great ensemble.

Party Down – The Starz comedy by Rob Thomas (not the singer, the guy who gave us the wonderful Veronica Mars) was about actors, writers, comedians who work at a catering company called Party Down in order to pay the bills as their dream jobs aren’t going well.

Heroes – Yeah, ratings were low, blah, blah, but all I really wanted was some shorter season to tie up loose ends, as the last episode ended with a HUGE cliffhanger, Claire showing her regeneration ability on camera for everyone to see.

Stargate Universe – after a rocky start, the show really improved. It was canceled last year, but the remaining 10 eps of its 2nd season will air this year, and I believe I heard there’s a cliffhanger (of course).

Dollhouse – Of course I’m gonna have this on here. Those few eps last year were among the strongest. Guess it’s a good thing Joss Whedon pretty much knew the chances of renewal were slim, and the last episode at least had an ending, while Heroes did not.

NEW SHOWS this year:
The Cape (special premiere on January 9th at 9PM on NBC, regular time slot begins January 17 at 9PM) – Summer Glau returns to TV! NBC is promoting this more heavily than their other new shows, and it does seem interesting, but is it too soon after the fall of Heroes?

Mr. Sunshine (premieres February 9 at 9:30PM on ABC) – Chandler Bing! Yes, Matthew Perry is back on TV, 2nd time after the end of Friends and with a sweet timeslot after the super hit Modern Family. Though, that means Chandler is being mean to Monica, being it’s bumping Cougar Town for a little bit.

Camelot – Starz isn’t slowing down in an effort to go up against HBO and Showtime, and this further proves it. A retelling (yes, another) of the Arthurian legend, this version will primarily be using Thomas Mallory’s 15th century work, “Le Morte d’Arthur”, along with other Arthurian legends as its source. Premieres April 1.

RETURNING Shows looking forward to:
Primeval – It came back on New Year’s, after over a year since the 3rd season and news of a cancellation, the show was brought back with a deal of 13 episodes spread between two seasons. BBC America is currently showing this wonderful British series on Saturday nights for us in America.

Torchwood – The 4th season of this British show, which was missing last year, returns this year, now on Starz (for us). The series will take a slightly different direction as Captain Jack and Gwen Cooper will travel across the pond, as the series will now have US financing (thanks to Starz) along with continuing BBC love. The 4th series adds Americans Bill Pullman and Mekhi Phifer to the cast, as well as some big guns in writing, with former Buffy writer Jane Espenson, X-Files & Supernatural writer John Shiban, and House writer Doris Egan adding their magic touches to the season along with creator Russell T. Davies and John Fay returning. This will be one series not to miss.

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I don’t have much to say in terms of music and movies (I didn’t purchase that many CDs last year, getting only CDs from bands I like enough to get the day they come out (which is VERY few) and I don’t go to the movies, it’s been 2 years almost since I’ve last been.

But, going by albums released last year, I actually purchased 5 total CDs, and only 3 of them were new releases (Godsmack ‘The Oracle’, Disturbed ‘Asylum’, and Apocalyptica ’7th Symphony.’) So I guess there’s my top 3, but Apocalyptica would be my favorite of the three.

And, I saw newer movies in other ways (Netflix). So, movies that came out at the end of 2010, of course I haven’t seen yet, but for those available to rent and buy (I believe I only bought 2 movies – ‘Legion’ and ‘Kick-Ass’) but I’ve also eventually saw ‘Daybreakers,’ ‘Death at a Funeral’, ‘Alice in Wonderland’, ‘The Grown-Ups’, ‘Sorcerer’s Apprentice,’ ‘Hot Tub Time Machine,’ ‘The Losers,’ and ‘When in Rome.’ And when they are available to rent or when popularity dies down, I look forward to check out ‘Skyline,’ ‘Toy Story 3,’ ‘Inception,’ and hopefully in about 4-5 months, ‘Little Fockers,’ ‘Yogi Bear,’ ‘Tangled,’ and I kind of want to see ‘Gulliver’s Travels.’ Unfortunately, I haven’t seen them, so I can’t say anything about them other than that they look good from previews.

Anyway, of the ones I saw, I think people were too negative about ‘Sorcerer’s Apprentice’ ’cause I thought it was entertaining (even though there were some amounts of lameness, I mean seriously, Prime Merlinean?) ‘Hot Tub Time Machine’ wasn’t as funny as I thought it would be, but it was still funny, but ‘Death at a Funeral’ was HILARIOUS. ‘Legion’ wasn’t as good as I would have hoped, but ‘Daybreakers’ was actually pretty good (not the best vampire film, but is a better movie than the shit a certain studio is selling as vampire films (you know what I’m talking about). ‘Alice in Wonderland’ was, eh, okay, but eh, was a waste of my time, ‘The Losers’ was pretty awesome, and ‘The Grown-Ups’ was pretty funny (not the funniest Adam Sandler movie, but good). And ‘Kick-Ass,’ well, it KICKED-ASS.

As for what to look forward to in 2011 as far as music and movies:

MOVIES:
‘Cabin in the Woods‘ – Joss Whedon, need I say more

‘Super’ – limited April 1 – Rainn Wilson stars as a man who decides to become a superhero, even having a crazy sidekick played by Ellen Page. Nathan Fillion, Liv Tyler, and Kevin Bacon also star.

‘Super 8′ – June 10- not much is really known, but it’s Steven Spielberg and JJ Abrams working together on this, super secret movie.

‘Thor’ – May 6 – the kickoff of the summer blockbusters starts with a Marvel superhero. The movie looks good, and as much as I tend to prefer DC over Marvel, I’d be more inclined to check this out over ‘the Green Lantern,’ though I kind of want to see that too.

‘Your Highness’ – April 8 – It’s a spoofy movie on the whole like medieval prince/princess/dragons stuff which stars Danny McBride, James Franco, Zooey Deschanel, and Natalie Portman.

MUSIC:
One confirmed album I’m looking forward to: Within Temptation‘s 5th album ‘The Unforgiving.’ A concept album based on a comic book series by Steven O’Connell. Set for release in March.

Anything else is up in the air as the year just started, but Lacuna Coil are writing (stated on their Facebook page) and Tantric is also working on a new album (also mentioned on their Facebook page, but vaguely).

AND, let’s not forget VIDEO GAMES:::
First, ‘Mass Effect 2′ comes to the PS3, which is the console I have, so that means, if/when I get it, I can finally play it.

And on 11/1/11 we get the third ‘Uncharted’ game, ‘Drake’s Deception,’ which is available only for the PS3. HAHA, take that Xbox owners!

As a kid, you hear a Christmas song, you may start to sing along with it.  As you get older, you don’t think much of it.  Then, when you find yourself in retail, where they got Holiday music (which, unfortunately in the US it’s just Christmas music) playing non-stop, you want to shoot yourself.  From a thousand different versions of “Jingle Bells,” to just plain hearing the same ones constantly everyday (and really annoying versions of “12 Days of Christmas”).

Most issues with it are also because you got pop stars re-covering the same damn songs over and over, and in 95% of the cases, it sounds the same. Very few artists write an original tune.  Probably the only songs I like would be the South Park ones, including the Hanukkah related ones as well and, of course, “Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo”.

But another reason I personally don’t like it, I don’t care too much for Christmas itself.  The commercialized holiday is nothing more than a business boom to retailers.  It brings in this idea that people are gonna be more giving, and even if they are, shouldn’t people just be nice all the time?

But, back to the songs. They are just annoying, and I know I’m not the only one who thinks so.