May The Force Be With You.

 By Geeky Gem

You may think from the title of this blog that this might be about Star Wars. However this is not about Star Wars but about 4 Geeks that came together to start a blog.

 

 

15 months ago Hmsbeefnuts and myself came together and decided it was time we hit the internet with of own brand of fun and geekness. Along the way bloggers have joined us, Kirkie Chick with her fabulous take on gaming for girls and her weekly top 10. Caelrona joined us and she brought a mix of anime and manga all the way from America. We even had guest blogs from Ammzzy who told about Wolf Grit by Anne Rice and few choice other things.

We’ve had a lot of fun, from KirkieChick, Ammzzy and Myself spending the weekend at the SFX Weekender to my trip to Hogwarts. You’ve enjoyed Hmsbeefnuts own brand of blogging and had some great stuff from across the sea with Caelrona. I am guessing by now that you may know where I am going with this. So I guess I better get to it.

With the increasing lack of time that myself and Hmsbeefnuts seem to have lately we can now longer give All Geek To Me the time it should have. So it is with a heavy heart that we have decided to close All Geek To Me down. It’s a very sad time as after 15 months and 90,000 views we have to go. Which is a shame we have worked very hard on the blogs you have all come to read and we thank you all very much if you have ever read, commented or liked anything we have done.

I hope you have enjoyed all we have had for you to view here at All Geek To Me.

But for the last time this is good-bye from us and thank you.

Hmsbeefunts, Geeky Gem, Kirkie Chick and Caelrona.

 

Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary – Dead Poets Society

 

Star Trek : Deep Space 9

By Geeky Gem

As you may or my not know I am a fan of Star Trek and one my more favourite versions of the show was Deep Space 9 or DS:9 for short. I loved this show and never missed an episode.

The show is set in the Milky Way galaxy, approximately during the 2370s. It was the first and only Star Trek production to take place on a space station rather than a starship. However it did eventually have a ship added into it by season 3 we came to know and love the Defiant. To be honest this made the show better as they could explore better story arcs.

DS9 first aired in 1993 and ran for seven seasons, ending in 1999. Rooted in Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek universe, it was the first Trek spin-off created without direct involvement from Roddenberry, although he did give his blessing to the concept shortly before his death in 1991. The series was created by Rick Berman and Michael Piller, not having Roddenberry on board didn’t take anything way from the work these guys did. If Roddenberry had lived longer I think he would have been very proud.

I think the main reason I liked this show was the fact that it was on a space station and not on a ship. this had led to many a debate with my boyfriend over whether its a real Star Trek or not s it doesn’t move. I say it is as it does have the Defiant, he says nope it doesn’t count and will not watch it. Oh well his loss as I love it.

See it counts right? There is a ship. I love the crew onboard the station as well, especially Avery Brookes who plays Captain Benjamin Sisko. Along with additon of many other great characters and story lines it really is  good show to watch. Don’t believe me then watch it. It has amazing special effects and brilliant story. Put this together with some fantastic characters and you have a show that will have you gripped before you can say light speed. Here are the opening credits for season 1.

Wednesday Whimsy

By: Caelrona

 

Hiya all! Caelrona here, and I’ve got another Wednesday full of whimsy for you all. I’ve written a bit about video games before, but nothing too big. I did a post about one of my biggest guilty gaming pleasures; Harvest Moon, and I’ve also written a bit about my pretty serious addiction to Minecraft. So today I thought I’d write about my second biggest guilty gaming pleasure; Conker’s Bad Fur Day. This video game is so incredibly vulgar and disgusting, and I love it so much. The first time I played it, I was borrowing it from a friend’s brother who, for some reason unknown, had decided I should play it. I gotta say, I’m pretty dang grateful for that disturbing insight on his part, because I absolutely love this game. Something about a vulgar red squirrel, paired with the horribly designed N64 controller just gets me. While I no longer have the N64 cartridge (because it was borrowed, and they now cost upwards of $60 USD) I still play Conker on emulator on my computer, and I still enjoy it.

Conker’s Bad Fur Day is an action platform game developed by Rare for the N64. It is Rare’s last game for that console, and one of the few N64 games requiring a 64MB cartridge. It is also one of the very few Nintendo games to carry an ESRB rating of ‘M’ for Mature. Conker’s development started like a lot of other Rare titles, however due to critical mockery for making yet another ‘Cutesy platformer’; Conker was retooled into a controversial game with pretty vulgar humor. It features a lot of technical effects that were uncommon at the time, especially for an N64 game, such as dynamic shadowing, lip syncing, colored lighting, no distance fog, large areas with a long draw distance, detailed facial animations, and individually rendered fingers on some characters. Unlike other N64 games, Conker relies heavily on cut scenes, and features a rich soundtrack. Rare also went in a new direction by getting rid of item collecting, which was a prominent feature in other Rare games like Banjo-Kazooie and Donkey Kong 64; instead utilizing context sensitive buttons to simplify things.

The story follows Conker, an alcoholic red squirrel, who is attempting to return home to his girlfriend Berri after a night of binge drinking at the local tavern with his friends. Meanwhile, the Panther King finds that his throne’s side table is missing a leg and keeps spilling his milk. Unfortunately for Conker, the solution offered by the slightly unstable Professor Von Kriplespac is the use of a red squirrel as the fourth leg. Thus as Conker searches for his way home he finds himself embroiled in a series of increasingly absurd, gross and often dangerous situations, including (but not limited to) fighting a giant opera-singing pile of poo, knocking some big brass balls off a boiler, and helping a King Bee ‘pollinate’ a female sunflower large ‘stamens’; all while avoiding the King’s henchmen. Your life bar consists of 6 squares of anti-gravity chocolate, which can be found all over the world; and if you happen to die then don’t despair. Gregg, the Grim Reaper, will explain how squirrels, like cats, are one of those ‘special cases’ and Conker will get another chance.

After the release of Conker’s Bad Fur Day, Rare began development on another Conker game, referred to as Conker’s Other Bad Day. Sadly, this game was ultimately cancelled; although designer Chris Seavor said that it was to be a direct sequel, dealing with “Conker’s somewhat unsuccessful tenure as King. He spends all the treasury money on beer, parties and hookers. Thrown into prison, Conker is faced with the prospect of execution and the game starts with his escape, ball and chain attached, from the Castle’s highest tower.” When Rare was purchased by Microsoft in 2002, Rare instead developed Conker: Live & Reloaded, a pathetic excuse of a remake of Bad Fur Day, which was released on the Xbox console in 2005. Including updated graphics, updated camera control, an auto-targeting system and a brand new multiplayer mode, Conker:L&R also cut a lot of the fun from the game by replacing almost all of the obscene language with bleeps, changing several scenes and small bits of gameplay (such as the Key scene near the beginning) and in some cases replacing whole voice scripts that sound just terrible. I also read somewhere that a few chapters were cut out of the game, but I can’t find where I read that, or any evidence to back that up. All in all, considering that the game went from family friendly Nintendo to the killing field of Xbox, I was shocked at the censorship applied to Conker, especially since initial reports stated that they were going to be decreasing the censorship and adding content.

So, that brings us to the conclusion of my second biggest guilty gaming pleasure; Conker’s Bad Fur Day. It is vulgar? Hell yes! It is disgusting? Even Conker vomits on occasion, so yeah. Is it fun? Most definitely. If Conker sounds like something you think you would enjoy, then I seriously recommend giving it a try. It is a lot of fun to play, and it will definitely take care of any cravings for nostalgic platformer action. Anyway, I’ve left Conker paused, and I would hate to keep my foul-mouthed squirrely friend waiting any longer!

Until next time,

Caelrona – signing off! ❤

12 Movies of Chirstmas: The Muppet Christmas Carol

By Geeky Gem

I guess I should start this blog off by saying Merry Christmas from all of us here at All Geek To Me, I hope you all have wonderful day. By this I mean eat too much, drink too much watch crappy TV and generally enjoy yourself.

My movie of choice today is a bit more Chrismassy than the last three, I have gone for The Muppet Christmas Carol, I love this movie. The story of the Christmas Carol has always fascinated me, as I once played Scrooge in a school play. However this is not the reason I like it this is a take on a classic story told in only a way the Muppet’s can.

If you hae neer heard of the Christmas Carol then it is the tale of Mr Scrooge (Michael Cain) a man who doesn’t hold Christmas in his heart at all, on Christmas eve he is visited by his dead business partner and told if he doesn’t change his ways then the same fate with befall him.

They also tell him that through the night he will have visit’s from three ghosts in order to try to help him change his life. The Ghost’s of Christmas Past, Present and Future. As each ghost comes to visit Scrooge they show him images of his past, present and future. Each with a lesson for Scrooge to learn, he she a past love, a present with the Cratchit family and a his future should he not change.

As with the Nightmare Before Christmas I love the songs in this move and will post one of my favourite’s below its called It Feels Like Christmas. At the helm of this movie was Brian Henson, with the orignal novel by Charles Dickens and the screenplay by Jerry Juhl. If you like the Muppets and the story of the Christmas Carol then this is the movie for you.

Enjoy and have a very Merry Christmas.

12 Movies of Christmas: The Nightmare Before Christmas

By Geeky Gem

Well I hope you are enjoying the 12 movies of Christmas, I know I am. Both Hmsbeefnuts and Caelrona have picked movies I like and some I have never seen. So I will try to watch them too. However we are moving on to movie 3 of m choices and it should come as no surprise to many of friends that it is The Nightmare Before Christmas.

I can remember the first time I saw the trailer for this movie, I had been taken to see The Lion King by my parents and this trailer came on I turned to my Dad and said “I have to see that, it looks great” my parents being my parents were forced to watch it in the cinema with me. I loved it and I still do, the story is funny and the songs are fantastic.  I even went to see a few years ago when it was released in 3D Kirkie Chick and I loved it.

The story is set around this gut above Mr Jack Skellington, who lives in Halloween Town. Naturally they make the holiday of Halloween come to life, however Jack is getting bored with Halloween and yearns for something more. It is then that discovers the holiday town of Christmas and to the surprise of the good people of Halloween town decides they can have Christmas too.

This leads Jack on a path to bring Christmas to the world however his friend Sally has her doubts and is hiding her love for Jack from him and she finds it hard to tell him its a bad idea to attempt Christmas.

Now this movie did come from the mind of Tim Burton however he did not direct it, he left it in the very capable hands of Henry Selick. Tim Burton came up with story and the story was then adopted for screen by Michael McDowell and Caroline Thompson. Danny Elfman was the voice of Jack in this movie and I think he does a brilliant job, he also did some of the songs and that what makes this movie below is the video of my favourite song – Jack’s Lement.

If you haven’t seen this movie and want to watch something light and funny then this is the movie for you.

12 Movies of Christmas: Look to the Sky

By Geeky Gem

I know today marks the release of what I am hopping to be an awesome movie, yes folks today is Hobbit Day. No I was going to write about the Hobbit today but seen as I wrote about it back on movie of the month I think I have said all I need to say. So today I shall be taking you through a list of other creatures I think could pull Santa’s slay.

Pegasus – Clash of the Titans

I think Pegasus is awesome and would look great helping Santa on his busiest day of the year. How cool would this look, alright it may not be able to land on your roof but it would look amazing.

Toothless – How To Train Your Dragon

Did you really think I would miss a dragon off this list. Of course I went for one of the nicer ones, Toothless can be trained but Santa would need Hiccup in order to help him fly. However who cares it’s a freaking dragon.

Flying Monkeys – The Wizard of  Oz

Now I am unsure how useful a flying monkey would actually be but I thought Santa could always give it a go. I mean he could get them to pull the slay at least, he would just have to keep them out of sight as they look a bit scary.

Buckbeak the Hippogriff – Harry Potter

Now Beaky is one the most beautiful creatures on this list, but he is also really cool. Buckbeak could totally help Santa and would get all his delivery done in record time I bet. Only problem is you would hae to leave a dead ferret out for him instead of a carrot.

Thestrals – Harry Potter

I know Thestrals are not the most good-looking of creatures and yes it is another Harry Potter animal but I think they would do an awesome job of helping Santa. Plus you wouldn’t be able to see them.

Well there we have just some of the creatures I think could hep Santa come the 24th of December.

12 Movies of Christmas: How The Grinch Stole Christmas

By: Caelrona

 

Hiya all! Another week gone by, and here I am again. Today I thought I would pick up with Number 2 of my 4 Favorite Christmas Movies. You may have noticed that HMS, Gems and I are sort of doing a running thing with this. What can I say, we all love this time of year (Ba Humbug to you Scrooges out there =P ) and especially the awesome movies that feature it, and what better way to share our Christmas spirit that with movies? Anyway, my second pick is Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas – the Jim Carrey version, not the cartoon one; although it is fairly entertaining as well. =)

 

Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas, promotionally (and more commonly) known simply as The Grinch, was produced in 2000 by Imagine Entertainment, and released by Universal Pictures. It is a holiday fantasy-comedy film based on the 1953 book of the same name and the 1966 television cartoon special of the same name, written by the famous Dr. Seuss. It was the first Dr. Seuss book the be adapted into a full-length feature film (to be followed by The Cat In The Hat from 2003, Horton Hears a Who from 2008 and The Lorax from 2012) Since the movie is based on a children’s picture book, many additions were made to the storyline to bring it up the feature length, including quite a bit of the back story about the Grinch. Most of the rhymes from the book were used in the film, though some were changed a tad bit, plus some new rhymes penned especially for the movie. This movie has a runtime of a mere 104 minutes.

This movie manages to be both hilarious and heartwarming all at once. Jim Carrey is a comedic genius, and that amazing skill translates well even through a giant green furred creature. Certainly it seems as though the role of the Grinch was hand tailored to suit him by the amazing Dr. Seuss himself. This movie is hilarious. It has me in stitches every single time I watch it. The rhymes are just fantastic, and the pace of the movie flows really well. I’m not usually a comedy sort of girl, but this movie definitely makes the list.

The Grinch follows a cantankerous, grumpy green creature known as the Grinch. The Grinch lives atop a perilous mountain near the festive city of Whoville, where it happens to be Christmastime. All the Whos of Whoville love Christmas, while the Grinch despises it. Down in Whoville an 8 year old girl named Cindy Lou Who has begun to think that people have lost sight of what is important on Christmas. After learning about the existence of the Grinch, she begins to take an interest in his lonely state of affairs and learns his sad history. Determined to show the Grinch the true meaning of Christmas, she invites him to participate in the city celebration known as the Whobilation. When it goes awry, the Grinch goes on a rampage. While satisfied with his path of destruction at first, he quickly realizes he has not crushed the spirit of the holiday and goes back to his mountain in a pique. In a mad attempt to cease the celebration of the detested holiday he hatches a sinister plan: to steal Christmas from all of Whoville!

There we go; my second favorite Christmas movie. While it might not be everyone’s cup of tea I certainly love this movie. It has entertained me since I was a child, and continues to entertain me to this day. I hope you enjoyed reading about it. Now I am going to be off to enjoy watching it.

Until next time, Happy Holidays;

Caelrona – signing off! ❤

 

12 Movies of Christmas: Gremlins

By Geeky Gem

Well here we are again as we move onto to my second movie of Christmas, and as you can see from the title I have picked another movie set at Christmas but not about the festive day at all. Gremlins was always one of favourite movies as a kid. This first time I saw this with my little brother he made me check under his bed for a month just in case.

Gremlins came out in 1984 agin I wasnt old enough to this movie first time round and yes I own it on DVD, the thing I love about this movie is the Gremlins and just how funny they are. I know everyone loves Gizmo and so do I but I always liked Stripe he was cool, and nasty to boot. This movie was the thing of nightmares for some people but not for me.

The story is about a young man called Billy Peltzer (Zach Galligan) whose father brings him home a new pet called a Mogwai that he got from a gentleman in China Town. Upon receiving the Mogwai Billy’s father tells him there a certain rules to looking after him. The rules are simple enough – never expose it to bright light (especially sunlight, which will kill it); never get it wet (which will make it multiply); and, most importantly: never, ever feed it after midnight. I bet your thinking well that’s easy how can he mess this up. Well he does and whole bunch of Mogwai’s are born but they are not like Gizmo at all.

They are mean and nasty and live to make Gizmo’s life a hell, they become too much for Billy and eat after midnight meaning they evolve and start running amuck all over town. They get into every thing in an attempt to take over the town of  Kingston Falls, as Billy and his friends Pete Fountaine (Corey Feldman), Kate Beringer (Phoebe Cates) and neighbour Murray Futterman (Dick Miller) take up the fight with Gizmo in order to stop them.

This movie was directed by Joe Dante and the screen play written by Chris Columbus and they do a brilliant job in bringing this movie to life and forever embedding it in my memory if you havent seen it then you really have too, its a great movie.

12 Movies of Christmas: Christmas Cartoons

By Geeky Gem

We all love a good cartoon and there is nothing better than wrapping up in a blanket with a warm drink and watching some cartoons. It’s one of my favourite pass times, I know this can be done at any time of the year but on this list (yay a list) I have looked at some of my all time favourites that I enjoy watching.

He-Man and She-Ra Christmas Special – 1985

I loved He-Man and She-Ra and when they got together in Christmas episode I was over the moon. I know its sad but I own it on DVD, it is really good. It is a really good cartoon if you love He-Man And She-Ra and can be found below it isn’t a very long cartoon but it really fun to watch.

The Snowman – 1982

I watch this cartoons every year, as it is always shown here on television at this time of year. I still watch it on TV even if i do own the DVD, It’s a story of a by and the snowman he builds that comes to life and shows him a fun time at christmas. There are now words in this 26 minute long cartoon but an unforgettable song.

Shrek the Halls – 2007

Another short cartoon set at Christmas with some your best-loved characters, Shrek the Halls is a funny 30 minute cartoon that we can all enjoy. All of the characters are there Shrek, Fiona and Donkey. What more could you want.

A Charlie Brown Christmas – 1965

Oh Charlie Brown, I love this cartoon and if you have never seen it then you really have missed out. Maybe now is the time to watch it and enjoy it with friends or family. Even if only for this song –

How The Grinch Stole Christmas – 1966

It may not come as much of a surprise that I also own this on DVD, its one of my all time favourite Cartoons and I love the voice of th Grinch as play by Boris Karloff. Fantastic animation and a brilliant story.

If you watch any of these this year i hope you enjoy them.

12 Movies of Christmas: Rare Exports

By @hmsbeefnuts

Hello friends, and welcome to a rare blog, by yours truly. As a special event type thing over this most festive of months, we here at All Geek To Me have decided to look at some of our favourite festive films, 12 in all, in tribute to Santa, Little Baby Jesus and presents. I love Christmas, and this year is turning out to be a good one so far. It’s amazing how the introduction of a four year old child can liven up Christmas time for someone who has had a Scrooge like existence for the last 2 years. One of the best things about spending time with said child is the wealth of Christmas films that we can watch with him. However, my first choice for AGTM’s 12 Movies of Christmas will not be on the agenda for our festive film fests. This choice is a great little Finnish film that is both full of Christmas spirit, and horror, Rare Exports…

Rare Exports is a great little film. The basic premise is thus; On Christmas Eve in Finland, Santa Claus is unearthed in an archaeological dig. Soon after, children start disappearing, leading a boy and his father to capture Santa and, with the help of fellow hunters, they look to sell him back to the corporation that sponsored the dig. And then there’s Santa’s elves, who are determined to free their leader… (Thanks IMDB!!). Sounds pretty cool right?

Well the Santa in this film isn’t giving anyone a Miracle on any street, let alone 34th, and his nice list seems to have gone missing, this St. Nick is very much all about punishing the naughty, so be good, for goodness sake. I really liked this take on the Santa Claus Mythos, it might not be for everyone, but I would recommend giving it a try, as long as you are cool with subtitles, and naked old men.

Anyway, that’s it for this installment, I’ll be back soon to write about another Christmas Movie, maybe Elf or something, well worth looking forward too though I’m sure. Merry Christmas!!