iBrianEarley {dot} com
Reviews of Movies, Games, Books, and Things I Enjoy

There haven’t been too many movies that have been released at midnight that have sparked my interest enough to trudge through the following day at work half asleep. However, when a movie like Robert Rodriguez’s Predators comes out, I look forward to nodding off at work and being jolted awake after my head bounces off the keyboard. It didn’t happen, but I came close several times!

Predators takes place on an alien world that is a giant hunting preserve where prey is airdropped in by parachute. The prey in this movie is composed of the most fearsome killers on Earth, including Adrien Brody, Danny Trejo, Laurence Fishburne, and the frail doctor played by Topher Grace. The movie opens very abruptly with the humans falling from the sky wearing parachutes that look oddly futuristic. I would have liked to see a brief abduction scene take place first, but being dropped right in the middle of the movie like a polar plunge worked just as well.

Then the hunt begins. The predators employ several different tactics for hunting and killing their prey. They try flushing the humans out like pheasants and even set traps that rely on our humanity and sense of compassion for our fellow man. There is even a cool back story about feuding factions of predators with neat new predator costumes and technology not scene previously.

There were a few moments in the movie that pay tribute to the original Predator movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger, but unfortunately no “get to the choppa!” This one includes some very dry lines from every character, a dull inspirational speech, and characters being killed off one at a time. I was disappointed about the trailer, and I think you might be too if you’ve seen it, is there was no scene with multiple laser sites on Adrien Brody. In the film, there is only one laser site on him. Bummer! I may have seen the tail and head from an Alien in there too. Maybe Rodriguez is thinking of taking on Aliens too!

After mildly disappointing Alien versus Predator movies and even the lackluster Alien: Resurrection, this movie shines. It’s a must-see for any sci-fi fan, especially if you’re a Predator fan!

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It was a rough month for my stock portfolio. All five of my holdings saw a drop in share price, although the only one to take a drastic hit were my shares of BP. I foolishly added a position in BP a week or so after the spill when the share price had dropped to around $42, and when it dropped steeply to $35, I decided to purchase some more shares. The stock dropped farther than that, and to Jim Cramer’s suggestion, I got out finally around $32. It has since gone back up, but the spill is going to continue longer into the summer, killing BP’s profitability. I am now seeking a new place to invest what was left of that position.

My new job is going very well. The branch I work at is very grateful to have me back, as operations are running a lot more smoothly now that they have another body in the building. The only part about the job that I’m not liking is the company started me out at my old hourly rate, and consider me a “new hire.” That means I didn’t receive any holiday pay for Memorial Day, and I won’t receive any for the Fourth of July either. Kind of a bummer, but I’d still rather work here than my other job.

As you can see from my numbers below, I didn’t increase my net worth as much as I usually do. That’s primarily due to the drop in the stock market, but my debts are still being paid off as much as I normally pay. I’m also looking at taking more money out of my Prosper account as it becomes available so I can start “playing with the house’s money” there and seeing a realized gain out of it.

$1,692.92 Total Income

$1,600.00 Monthly Pay Checks
$1.79 Checking Account Interest
$0.61 Savings Account Interest
$28.67 Dividends ($86.01 / qtr.)
$61.84 Prosper Loans

$1,043.86 Total Expenses

$200.00 School Loans
$192.00 Car Payment
$300.00 Food & Utilities
$100.00 Gas
$72.00 Cell Phone
$50.00 Entertainment
$129.86 Insurance

$649.06 Net Monthly Cash Flow
$92.92 Passive Income
8.90% Passive Income % of Expenses

$9,164.80 Total Assets

$716.90 Checking Account
$609.11 Savings
$521.63 Scottrade Account
$17.97 Prosper Account
$19.96 ChaCha Account
$9.05 Paypal Account
$880.78 IRA
$1,821.30 401k
$5,089.73 in Stock
$1,160.49 Loans on Prosper

$19,036.03 Total Liabilities

$11,718.09 School Loans
$6,524.60 Car Loan
$793.34 Credit Card

-$9,871.23 Net Worth

The winner for the Amazon gift card for May is @joannej1982! Send me a DM on Twitter with your E-mail address to claim your prize!

I will have another prize drawing starting around the 15th of this month for a DVD, so stay tuned for that!

From the moment I first watched The Little Mermaid, I never stopped singing.  And when I saw my very first Karaoke Revolution game, I was hooked.

Instead of going out to a bar and waiting for it to finally be your turn, you can sing your heart out in the comfort of your own living room – as many times as you want!

KARAOKE REVOLUTION VS. LIPS:

I’ve enjoyed both of the most recent Karaoke Revolution games and prefer them to the latest version of “Lips”.  Though the music video background of “Lips” likened the game to real-life karaoke, I disliked that my karaoke character was my Xbox360 avatar, particularly because I don’t actually HAVE an avatar.  So, instead of ME singing, it appeared that my logged-in boyfriend was singing, for example, “Wannabe” by the Spice Girls, whenever my character chose to pop up.   And this was not very often, since one sings to a music video background.  Clearly then, there was no stage venue, no audience, etc, which I had come to view as an integral part of any karaoke game.  A much greater turnoff was the emphasis on the on-line aspect of the game.  Lips taunted you any time you played by displaying a complete list of both the free songs AND all of the 200-something downloadable songs that you could sing — if you only paid the $2 or so each.  (Bad song.  “Eh” song.  Ooo!  I love that song! Oh damn.  Don’t have it.)   Almost as annoying was finishing a song and being informed of your ranking, in comparison to anyone else who had ever played the game (which, let me tell you, is a pretty low ranking at first, compared with the other thousands of karaoke singers who have had the chance to play and perfect the game the two months before you got it on GameFly).  But, hey, there’s an easy way to get a top ranking!  Buy the newest karaoke downloads for the game so that you can be the first to sing it!


CAVEAT FOR KARAOKE REVOLUTION:

There was a brief period of time when I hated both of the latest Karaoke Revolution games with a fiery red passion and retreated to the basement to break out the regular Xbox version.  We had bought a brand new LCD TV, and this caused the sound to go all out-of-whack (audio didn’t match with visual).  No matter how much I messed with calibration, it never came out right, and I’d throw a tantrum every time I finished a song and was basically informed that I sucked.  (This was especially maddening in the American Idol version when it’s actual judges who literally tell you that you suck.)  Thankfully, my boyfriend, the tech handy-man that he is, rigged up a different sound system and made my karaoke life happy again.  (But I’m sure this is not a strictly Karaoke Revolution issue.  It would happen with any karaoke game.  If it happens to you, seek help immediately!)

KARAOKE REVOLUTION: AMERICAN IDOL ENCORE 2:

PROS:  The whole fun in this game is singing for the American Idol judges and completing the American Idol tournament.  It’s nice to get a little feedback after a song (and almost feel like you’re a real contestant!)   Yes, some of the responses are fairly predictable: Paula always loves you, Simon always hates you, and Randy thinks “you da man, dawg!”  But, it’s all in good fun.  And it makes it all the more special when Simon actually calls your performance “ok,” for once!  I like the variety of songs and variety of difficult levels.  It’s also nice that both versions allow you to buy downloadable songs, which I’ve done a few times.  (I LIKE most of the songs that are already included.)  And, as mentioned before, I like the possibility in this game of various avatars and venues.  I also like the variety of levels to this game, from “easy” to “expert,” allowing any singer from “in the car and shower only,” and up, to enjoy this game.  And, if you find the judges nerve-wracking, you can sing a quick song without them, or even sing a song in good old-fashioned “karaoke” mode.

CONS: Many of the achievements are based on on-line tournaments, which you will find, are very hard to come by (if you are even interested in such a thing.)  The venues, being all “American Idol” venues, are rather boring, compared to the other Karaoke Revolution games.  The Avatars are also a little mechanical and boring.  Perhaps I didn’t look into it enough, but it seems that you mostly pick from pre-determined characters with uninteresting names and crazy, spastic dancing (for example, boogying on down in “Twist and Shout” movements, while singing ballads.)   As you can imagine, it was difficult to become very attached to your character.

KARAOKE REVOLUTION (2009):

PROS: Unlike its American Idol counterpart, this latest version of Karaoke Revolution has fantastic venues and amazing character creation.  You can build venues from the ground up. (Be sure to check out the “Area 51”, “Zombie”, and “Space” achievements!)   Besides clothing, hair color and style, eye color, and skin tone changes, character creation has brought detail up a couple notches.  It allows you to adjust age, body size, and all aspects of face structure.  Could I get mine to look like me?  Not exactly.  But it was fun to play with and get close!  (Or create my rockin’ evil twin!)  The character movements in this game were a bit more fluid and the audience was more fun and believable.

My favorite part of the game was the “career” mode, consisting of completing 3 puzzle discs of increasing difficulty level.  Not only did I get a lovely “high” from advancing level titles (“local celebrity”, “legend”, etc), but I enjoyed the challenge each puzzle piece presented.  Some pieces required you to sing a particular song, while others required various genres and amount of points completions in a variety of formats (single song, 3-or 5-song medley, and 3-or 5-song sets).  I enjoyed being pushed beyond my comfort zone, and I loved that the career mode led me through many of the achievements.  Instead of having to search for achievements, I picked them up throughout the course of my career.

CONS: None.  Great game!  My karaoke favorite!

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