The moment I’ve been waiting for the last few months finally arrived this weekend. I finally managed to get my hands on Rock Band for the 360! I haven’t gotten to play much due to other things going on, but so far I absolutely love the game. This game allows me to do something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time, which is to play the drums.

Playing drums is a curiosity that I’ve carried with me since my teenage years and I have yet to fulfill that dream. Growing up, my parents wanted nothing to do with bringing in some loud drums into the house. When I moved out, I lived in an apartment for 10 or so years, so having a drumset was out of the picture. Now that I have a house drums may be possible, but not now. So this game allows me to fulfill this dream a little bit.

I’ve also tried the vocal/mic portion of the game and its a real hoot. Trying to vocally hit the right notes can be a little troublesome sometimes, especially if you don’t know the song. Its still lotsa fun. I haven’t tried the guitar/bass yet, as I’ve played plenty of Guitar Hero III and I was busy tasting something new. I’m sure I’ll get around to trying them soon.

I give Rock Star 9 out of 10.

I managed to catch 2 movies at the theater in the last couple of weeks. It had been a while. I think the last movie I saw in theaters was Walk Hard over the Christmas break. Being an avid comic book reader, I was excited to see this movie. Though I’ve never read the Iron Man comic book, I did read some Avengers. Iron Man also has had tons of ‘cameo’ appearances in other comic books, so I was fully aware of his story.

This movie was pure fun! The story is fun and interesting without being over the top. Unlike previous Marvel movies, both the hero and the villain are ‘mere’ humans, not beings with super powers or mutants. Even though this is pure fantasy, it did bring the story to a more down to earth level. The acting in this flick was very very good, especially Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man. As much as his real life has been one disaster after another, this man can really act.

If you haven’t seen it yet, do yourself a favour and catch this flick. Just make sure you stay until the final credits have scrolled by for a little easter egg (and hopefully a sneak peak of what’s to come next!).

I give Iron Man 9 out of 10.

Last night my fiancee and I finally managed to go see the second Harold and Kumar movie, Harold and Kumar: Escape From Guantanamo Bay. This sequel, like most sequels, wasn’t as funny as the original. Like the original, the story revolves around these 2 stoners on a quest, walking into many situations which deter them from that quest. This time around, Harold and Kumar are trying to make their way to Amsterdam so that Harold can meet up with Maria, the girl we saw him confess his attraction to at the end of the first movie.

A funny situation on the plane derails those plans, as the main characters are labeled as terrorists and sent to Guantanamo Bay prison. They manage to escape and make their way back to the U.S., where they embark on another adventure to clear their names (and make their way to Amsterdam). Along the way Kumar hooks up with the love of his life, which in itself brings its own sub-story.

Though this movie has its funny moments, and you get to know more about the 2 stoners, its not as funny as the first movie. That would be a hard feat to accomplish, as the first movie was an instant classic and a breath of fresh air for comedies. This doesn’t mean the sequel is not funny, but its not as funny. The best bits in the movie revolve around Neil Patrick Harris who returns as himself, but drugged out and heterosexual.

Its still worth catching this flick if you can. Its been out for a while and may be out of distribution in some markets. If thats the case, do yourself a favour and rent this baby when it comes out on DVD.

I give Harold and Kumar: Escape From Guantanamo Bay 6 out of 10.

This weekend was pure white crystal hell. 30 centimeters of snow fell on Saturday. The snowfall was pretty steady during the day so we were able to go out twice to shovel this pure white crap. There’s certainly no need to join a gym this winter if you’re in Ottawa, as you just need to break out the snow shovels. We were hit with some pretty high winds late in the evening, so at 11pm I had to go out and clear the snow that was burying my furnace’s intake and exhaust pipes. The last thing we need is to suffer from some carbon monoxide poisoning. So I bundled myself up and trek around my neighbour’s townhouse, as I couldn’t go out my patio door due to the sheer amount of snow on it. It took me 5 minutes to walk some 100 feet or so. At the best spots, I had snow up over my knees. At the worst spot I had snow practically up to my armpits! Luckily I was next to my patio at that point so I could use the wooden railing to help myself out of that spot. If it wasn’t for that, I would probably still be there!

Sunday morning we woke up to even more snow. In fact, another 52 centimeters had fallen! That’s roughly 1 3/4 feet. With snow drifts, the snow was as high as 3 feet in some areas. It took us almost 4 hours to shovel this stuff, 2.5 hours at 2 people, then I did another 1.5 hours solo. I’m so tempted to get a snowblower for next year! My only dilemna is that my garage is so small that I wouldn’t be able to park my Jeep in there with a snowblower present. So shovel by hand, or dust off/scrape/warm up the car each time we need to use it. It truly is a hard choice. You see, when there’s just 1-5 or so centimeters of snow on the ground, I actually enjoy shoveling. I find it quite relaxing. It’s when there’s more than 10 that it goes from being relaxing to being an annoyance. 15 or more and it becomes a curse…. Oh well.

Some interesting facts about this winter, courtesy of the Ottawa Citizen and the Ottawa Sun:

• Number of events with 10 or more centimetres this winter: 10
• Average number of 10-plus-centimetre events: 4
• Average March snowfall: 39.8 centimetres
• Record snowfall for Ottawa: 444.6 cm in 1970-71
• Snowfall in 2007-2008 for Ottawa: 410.7
• 22% of a winter’s snowfall falls in March
• Record snowfall for March: 106.7
• Snowfall for March 1st to 10th 2008: 97.6

There are very good chances that we’ll break the record for total snowfall this year. Lets just hope this kind of weather doesn’t happen for another 40 years!

There was at least some good news on Saturday. The Ottawa Senators decisively won against the Phoenix Coyotes with a score of 4-2. With each passing game the Sens are starting to gain back the winning form they had last year and at the beginning of this season. All we can hope for now is that they’ll keep it up and keep on improving.

Today I had to take a full day First Aid course at work. I hadn’t taken such a course since high school. It was really interesting and I did learn a lot. I’m now a certified first aider for the next 3 years! It also opened my eyes a little bit more on some things… I really need to quit smoking soon.

On the TV front, I’m a little bummed that tonight’s episode of Stargate: Atlantis was the final show of the season. We were left with the usual cliffhanger, and I have to admit it did come as a little surprise. I knew that the whole Teyla rescue thing wouldn’t get resolved until next season, but I didn’t expect to see what happened up until the last minute or so of the episode. Overall, it was a pretty good and interesting episode where Sheppard gets flung 42,000 years into the future due to some freak stargate accident caused by a solar flare. I’m not going to mention more in case some of you haven’t seen the episode yet.

And finally on the game front, I picked up Frontlines: Fuel of War for the 360 this weekend. I played the demo quite a lot and wanted more. Unfortunately due to all the shoveling that needed to be done, I didn’t get to play much, though I did manage to get a few multiplayer games in, as well as get about 45 minutes of the single player game completed. This game does not disappoint. I’m usually not one for FPS games on the console (gimme a mouse and keyboard any day for FPS games), butFrontlines: FoW does play very well on the 360. Hopefully I’ll get to explore the game a bit more this week.

Another week, another few snowfalls. We’ve had like 10 feet of snow fall this winter, with another 1-2 feet being announced for this weekend alone. This is getting ridiculous. Any more snow, and I might have to start piling it up in my garage as I’m running out of room! It’s just crazy!

I’ve been listening to Ghosts I-IV all week and man is it a great album. I’m usually not one for instrumentals (let alone 36 tracks), but this CD set is blowing me away. It really shows how much of a creative genius composer Trent Reznor really is.

I’ve been playing a bit of the Frontlines: Fuel of War demo on the Xbox 360 and I’m hooked. This is how Battlefield 2 should have been made. The online gameplay is fun and exciting, the graphics are pretty good for a 360 game. I can’t comment on the single player aspect as the demo is multiplayer only, but I’m hoping to find out how good it is as I’ll probably be buying the game this weekend.

I’ve also been blown away on how good some TV shows have been these last couple of weeks. Lost just keeps on getting better, and for every question that gets answered, 10 more pop up. So far this season has been far better than the last one. Stargate Atlantis has also been very good lately, with the temporary return from of Dr. Beckett who has risen from the dead, sorta. With only 1 episode left for this season, you can feel the cliffhanger just building. You just know it’s going to include the disappearance of Teyla, and that this storyline won’t be resolved until next season. I was happily surprised to see a new season of Regenesis. Its got to be the best Canadian show around (so much so that Showtime or HBO in the states carries it). As good as the 3rd season was, it wasn’t as good as the first 2. Hopefully they’ll return to the greatness that was seasons 1 and 2. I’ve been watching Survivor again this year. This season,they’re pitting past contestants against fans of the show. Its a pretty good premise and so far this season has been fun to watch. I also want to smash my head into a wall when I see the same mistakes being made over and over again. We all know what happens when you vote off the strongest people in the tribe before the merge; you end up losing many challenges. People will never learn. Finally, Battlestar Galactica starts up again on April 4th. This is one I’m really salivating over.

The Sens so far are 0-3 on their 4 game trip out west. They outright lost 2 games and they lost one in overtime. I’m optimistic though, as they are playing a lot better than they were a couple of weeks ago and Gerber has been really solid in net. It is disappointing that they lost 2-0 (one being an empty netter) against the last team in the league. 40 shots on goal against a rookie goaltender, and not one shot went past the red paint (well one did, but the video replay was ruled inconclusive). All we can hope for is that they’ll keep improving their play and be back to their winning ways before the playoffs start.