The game is tied at 7 with the second half about to start. You don’t really care about the football though do you? You want commercials, music and breasts (okay maybe not Paul McCartney’s). What a different halftime show! Not that it was bad, but I don’t think you’ll hear about this one in the “2005 year in review” shows and lists, and maybe that’s a good thing. Good music, no lack of lights, it was a good show. I love that he played Hey Jude, such a good song.

Ad-Awards has some new commercials up; my new favorite is the Bud Light airplane one. The FedEx one isn’t bad either, only because it’s so true. Check them out! I thought there was a CRTC ban on the commercials in Canada, but I have seen a couple of the Super Bowl ads on Global so far. Maybe certain commercials can be shown in both countries? Who knows.

Watch for a special Blogosphere News episode after midnight!

Starbucks and alcohol together – heaven on earth? Pretty damn close! Here’s a press release from April of last year talking about the idea.

Looking for Super Bowl commericals? Check them out here. Not all of them are up yet, but they should be soon. My favorite so far is the “banned” Bud Light parody of Nipplegate. Game time soon!

Two interesting pieces of Xbox news have appeared in the last couple days. First off, Microsoft has apparently hired Alex Garland to write a big screen adaptation of Halo 2. I am not sure whether that’s a good idea or a bad idea. It could turn out like Tomb Raider (decent), or it could turn out like Tomb Raider 2 (shitty). I can’t see a Halo movie living up to the game, though I am willing to be proven wrong.

The second bit of news relates to the name of the next Xbox. According to one of Engadget’s “trusted sources”, the name “Xbox 360” has been chosen. Not sure what the heck they are thinking with that name, but it’s not exactly what I had in mind. I suppose they didn’t want to put “Xbox 2” against “PlayStation 3” and decided they needed to change the name.

Read: Joystiq & Engadget

Yesterday afternoon I drove to Calgary to deliver a presentation at the University of Calgary. I spoke to around 60 students about “living the digital lifestyle”, otherwise known as the gadget talk. As it was a Microsoft event, all of the gadgets were MS-related, like my Zen Touch, XBOX, etc. I think the event went really well, and the initial feedback was quite positive!

I left Calgary around 8:00 PM and headed towards Lacombe, where I had plans to meet with Violet for coffee. The roads were clear until I got to Red Deer, where it was very lightly snowing. Not too much farther and I reached Lacombe, where it was snowing pretty good. Violet and I went for Tim Horton’s and chatted for a bit, and I left at 10:30 PM.

Almost immediately after leaving Lacombe, the roads were ugly. Lots of snow, windy, and lots of snow still falling. Visibility was just about zero, and I simply followed the guy in front of me who followed the big truck in front of him. Going only about 50 km/h it was slow going. Eventually the truck decided to pull over, and the guy in front of me and I went around. We must have passed about 20 big semi’s before we had to stop. It looked like there was an accident, both lanes of the highway at a dead stop. We sat there for about 30 minutes before we finally got going again.

As I had done a presentation on gadgets, I brought my video camera to demo. I didn’t realize I had it with me until right when we started moving again, but I managed to get it out and record a quick little video. It’s kind of Blair-Witch like, and doesn’t show the snow as well as I’d have liked, but if you’re bored, check it out here. You’ll need Windows Media Player to watch the video.

Anyway, it was an interesting drive – took way longer than it should have. I’d never seen Highway 2 at a dead stop before, so it seemed kind of surreal. In any case, I had enough gas, and as soon as we got going again it wasn’t too bad. Fortunately I don’t have to go to Calgary again for a while 🙂

Looks like my MSN Messenger Display Pictures have been featured in a UK magazine called PC Basics! They are running an article on MSN Messenger 7, and the freeware installer from mess.be got featured as a tool for customizing Messenger. I think the picture they chose is an odd choice, but after all, it is the UK!

Magazine Scan 1
Magazine Scan 2

(NOTE: You must copy the link location and paste it into your address bar – hyperlinking will not load the images!)

Last night a bunch of us went to Boston Pizza (where else) for Dickson‘s birthday dinner. It was pretty good, and Michelle even brought Jello shooters so that was fun! The problem was that almost everyone at the table was Asian and didn’t have a clue how to do them properly. Megan and I just shook our heads 🙂

In another sign that we are all getting old, almost everyone went home right after the dinner, but Felicia, Kimmi, Dickson and I all went to see Hide and Seek. While not too bad, it wasn’t THAT scary. Certainly not as scary as Felicia’s incessant jumping would make it seem. I really like Dakota Fanning (as an actress you sickos) and I think she gave another excellent performance. Her star continues to rise! It was an interesting role for De Niro, not sure I really enjoyed him that much in this movie. Good twist in the movie too, so worth a watch.

Andrew has a post about Dickson’s birthday here, Kimmi posted here, and Michelle posted here. Check out some pictures from last night in my gallery.

Apparently Liberal Mark Holland and about 20 other MPs from all the political parties are trying to push through legislation that would drop the voting age to 16 from its current 18:

“I don’t think we give them enough credit. We’re asking them to be responsible, yet at the same time we’re sending a contradictory message, saying you’re too young to understand and you shouldn’t have a voice,” the 30-year-old MP for Ajax-Pickering said.

Deputy House Leader Mauril Belanger puts into words exactly what I thought (although perhaps more eloquently) upon reading this:

“No evidence suggests the voting age should be lowered. On the contrary, it may make youth voter turnout worse and only expand the pool of non-voters.”

I really hope this bill dies a quick death. There is absolutely no reason to lower the age of voters. Not only will it increase the pool of non-voters, but it will probably cost money to implement too. I’d rather see that money spent on getting our existing 80% of under 30 non-voters out to the polls. Heck, I’d rather see the money spent on making voting mandatory for anyone over the age of 18.

Read: CNEWS

People, including me, have been saying for a while now that its only a matter of time before computer games and movies become one. With the release of Halo 2, we saw that not only can games be just like movies in terms of content, but the dollar figures games can generate dwarf movies. The latest news helps to blur the lines between games and movies even further:

Marlon Brando may be dead, but his voice will live on, as Electronic Arts said it plans a video game version of the classic 1972 film “The Godfather” using the brooding actor’s voice and likeness.

Also lending their voices to the game are James Caan and Robert Duvall. Sounds like an interesting project!

Read: CNET News.com

Darren Barefoot posted yesterday that he isn’t going to drink any soft drinks for the month of February. According to his post, Darren is “serious[ly] smitten with Coke.” Sound like anyone you know? I don’t think I could do what Darren is doing. I am far too addicted.

It’s time to grow up and accept that drinking a can of Coke a day isn’t particularly healthy.

A single can of Coke a day? Man I’m screwed, let alone addicted! And hey Darren, I hope you finished that last half can, I don’t like Coke abuse!