Now there are some awesome G.I. Joe toys on the market for this Christmas, that any devotee of the renowned characters and the big screen picture are bound to love! The live action G.I. Joe picture, The Rise of Cobra, brought these well-known characters to the awareness of a whole fresh fan generation, and therefore the series of G.I. Joe products that is currently on the market is much asked for.

The film was a hit in the Summer and is ready to do even better on Blu-ray and DVD as fans young and old would like to experience again the magic of that large screen movie over again. Both collectors and young fans of the film are thrilled by the official toys that are out there at the moment, and any of the amazing G.I. Joe goods that are in shops and on the web at this time are great ideas for Christmas gifts.

But which G.I. Joegifts are the most wanted? Well some of the very top G.I. Joe merchandise must include the assortment of articulated action figures of all of the main characters that star in the movie, along with vehicles, childrens’ costumes, and even a G.I. Joe edition of the celebrated Monopoly board game. As with any Xmas gifts you considering getting, it is always a great idea to find the various reviews and information on-line then you can be positive about the attributes and important points about each toy.

That way you can be positive that the G.I. Joe merchandise you select on-line are the best possible goods for your young fans of this exciting franchise this Christmas. Action figures and associated play sets are a splendid idea for younger fans, while games or other more collectible film items could be more appropriate for older fans. It doesn’t matter if they are on the side of Duke or Cobra Commander, or if they are fans of the massively popular Snake Eyes character, you can be certain to locate the perfect G.I. Joe Goods on the web this time of year.

Want to find out more on boys toys for Christmas? Check this out The Top Bakugan Battle Brawlers For Christmas!

HALF out of FIVE stars. Where 5 is good and 1 is “managed to get all the textures right”.

Actually this game would deserve a 2.5 star rating except that the developers have conducted themselves in a completely reprehesible way.

What we were promised: Accurate damage models, simulations of vehicles, simulations of weapons, killer AI and realistic warfare.

What we got: A steaming turd. To aggrevate things, developers wanted to charge for the patch.

The game works well enough as a game until you get good at it and can start pushing it’s boundaries. By that I mean you get good enough at maneuvering that you’re not in fear of doing the wrong thing while orders are coming in over the radio, which often tell you to do something completely different. Case in point, there’s a mission which asks you to storm a beach. Mid storming, you’re told to sweep up the side and eliminate anti-tank teams.

Now this would be all fine and dandy, but one of the games problems is missing sound queues. There’s times where, unless you have captioning turned on, you don’t get the audio for the radio calls and you wouldn’t know you were being given instructions. To add insult to injury, if you storm the antitank crew (or the mortar crew later in the mission) because you discover them before you’re supposed to, the AI isn’t initalized and the opfor will blindly stand around until you kill them all. Kill them you will, they won’t even react when you’re knifing the guy next to them. To really make this aggrevating, the game also scripts Things That Kill You. Getting into a vehicle on a map where there’s an enemy chopper results in instant death – even if you already shot down the chopper.

This really comes to a head later when, during the night raid mission, you’re told you must not be discovered and hold out until the marines execute their distraction. Given the amount of freedom you have in maneuvering and the fact if you go low and slow like you do in Ghost Recon you can avoid discovery indefinitely, I waited a half hour for the marines to distract. Only later did I manage to sneak down to the base and found out the walls of all the buildings were simply props – the player was never intended to enter the base and the walls of the builds would let you (and bullets) pass straight through. Sloppy coding, and more on the point I had to go online and pirate the strategy guide to find out you’re supposed to be discovered. Were I playing it on the hardest difficulty which only shows you your final waypoint, I could have easilly infiltrated the base without being discovered and really been bewildered. As it stood on normal difficulty, one of the waypoints did take you through an enemy bunker which I had opted to simply skirt.

The manual is crap. There’s not a whole lot to say about it except it has a picture of the controller in vehicle context, infantry context, and airborn context in three languages. It doesn’t tell you anything about the weapons. I’m a gun nut and I hadn’t even heard of most of the weapons since you’re playing as SAS or another foreign military for some of the missions. Pirate the game guide since it’s clear they intended you would buy the guide and read that in leiu of the manual. That being said, the vehicle controls are for naught. Unless you’re on a paved road, vehicles which should reasonably be able to drive off road (tanks) get stuck on rocks, bushes, low walls, stumps and other crap. Hitting someone with a car at 60mph is an excersize in hit detection – sometimes you kill them and sometimes they pass clean through. It’s not uncommon to have jeeps, APCs, hummers and similar with their noses pointed at the sky over a rock.

I haven’t said a whole lot about the pros, and frankly I’m hard pressed to come up with any. Sniping works realistically, and all weapons have bullet drop. The zeros aren’t published but I’m thinking they used 100 yards since shooting MPBR causes hits too low. Guns jam realistically, if you’re reloading when you’re laying down or have dirt being kicked up – it’ll jam. The AI does a decent job of keeping itself alive even if it doesn’t always follow your orders. And, it’s awe inspiring to call down artillery strikes on towns. The problem with all this is multiplayer. With only 8 players maximum in an area 230sqkm, they opted to chop the theater of operation down. This is OK, but it’s still too large. What it turns into is “Who can get to the chopper” (and use missiles unopposed since the AA vechicle gets stuck on everything) or “who is a sniper”. One of the outstanding bugs is that the cover draw distance is calculated from you. Zoom in on a player on a hill opposite you and he might see himself in a bush, but there’s no bush drawn making for an easy shot. It’s even easier with guided missiles from the aircraft since they have no cover and you don’t have to aim.

Then there’s also the incredibly frustrating problem that using the medic kit causes the medic to get stuck or fall through the map. There’s several places where this happens when you spawn, but it’s really frustrating when you’re the medic and performing your job causes you to die. Enough said.

So when’s the patch come out? Well, the game only ships with three maps for deathmatch, and the only game modes are single deathmatch (each player gets a squad) and single DM (8 players individually). These numbers are both abysmally small. You can get unlock codes for four more maps, brining the total up to 7. Unlike Gears or Ghost Recon where game modes make up for lack of maps, there’s only two, essencially identical game modes. Code Masters opted to release a network patch so you don’t get dropped from games all the time (sometimes that costs you all your points and achievements), but they said the rest of the fixes would come out with the mappack.

You have to pay money for the mappack, thus you have to pay money for the patch.

I don’t really know what codemasters was thinking – anyone who buys the game used won’t get the maps, and there’s plenty of people who are going to be buying this turd used. Maybe they get a kickback from gamestop. I’m trading it in while I can still get $25 for it and buying Modern Warfare 2. Maybe when Battlefield Bad Company 2 comes out (what is with these terrible titles?) we’ll have a half decent total war game.

Kerr & Smith have secured some great discounts on VXR & VXRacing merchandise and should be arriving with us shortly.

These merchandise items will be avaliable for purchase through our Parts department in Cumnock and will also be avaliable at our VXR open day. Remember to quote ‘K&S VXR Club’ to ensure you get the maximum avaliable discount.

Better than that though….

The first 10 people to leave a comment on this post will recieve a VXR gift from us free of charge!

Who’s going to be the first 10 to comment, will one be you?

Get your box before it’s gone!

When I first saw this piece, I thought it was going to have something to do with Ray Comfort’s crap version of Origin. From the Associated Press (November 22, 2009):

Rare Charles Darwin book found on toilet bookshelf

LONDON — An auction house says it is selling a rare first edition of Charles Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species” found in a family’s guest lavatory in southern England.

Christie’s auction house said Sunday the book — one of around 1,250 copies first printed in 1859 — had been on a toilet bookshelf at a family’s home in Oxford.

The book will be auctioned on Tuesday — the 150th anniversary of the publication of the famous work. Christie’s said the book is likely to sell for 60,000 pounds ($99,000).

Darwin’s “The Origin of Species” outlined his theory of natural selection — the foundation for the modern understanding of evolution.

Celebrations around the world this year have marked the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth.

Some people like to get drunk. But when they do, the next day generally is a bad one. That horrible taste of beer and cigarettes in your mouth, the headache and the aching of all your body. But what’s worse of that all is the blackout. How did I get home? What happened after that shot of Tequila? How did I get those bruises all over my body? Who’s that girl in my bed? (Alright, the last one isn’t happening all that much. But you get the idea, so stop laughing now.) So here’s my idea:

THE HANGOVER RECOLLECTION DEVICE

A device, implemented in your cell phone, that keeps track of where you’ve been, what you’ve done, what you ate/drank. You just turn it on at the start of the evening and the next day you get a detailed report of all your movements, your consumptions and hopefully of your romantic achievements during the night. Without even getting out of bed (why did I sleep with my jacket on?) you will know where your bicycle is, how you got that bleeding wound on your forearm, what the hell that road sign is doing in your kitchen.

HP—Apparently, the latest thing in “Debasing The Institutions You Pretend To Hold Dear In Order To Suggest That President Barack Obama Should Be Murdered Without Actually Coming Right Out And Saying So” goes by a shorter name: Psalm 109:8.

And Psalm 109:8 is just straight up memetastic, appearing on bumper stickers and T-shirts, all of which carry the benign sounding message, “Pray For Obama.” But, as Gawker’s John Cook points out, this is just one more in a “long line of cheekily coded Obama death threats.” The verse in question reads: “May his days be few; may another take his place of leadership.” That leads fairly naturally into the Psalm 109:9, “May his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.” You know, in case you miss the point.

Rachel Maddow took up this issue last night, inviting Patience With God author and Huffington Post blogger Frank Schaeffer to explain whether or not the citation of this Biblical text “means something less threatening to people hearing this in a Biblical context.”

***UPDATE I From The Rachel Maddow*** Show

Statement by CafePress to TRMS
Regarding the appropriateness of Psalm 109:8 products

“Cafepress looks at content on a case by case basis, and makes decisions about what content is permissible based on our content usage policy.

We initially pulled the Psalm 109:8 content from our products today because broader media dialog indicated that these designs potentially suggested violence towards the president. Based on current public discourse and further review of the actual content, we have determined that it is fair political commentary and we are in the process of reinstating this merchandise. As with all of our content, these designs will continue to be reviewed and if at any time their meaning is construed as advocating violence we will revisit our decision.“
—Amy Maniatis, CafePress VP of Marketing

If you would like to contact CafePress, see below:

CafePress Email
CafePress Phone # 1-877-809-1659. International customers, please call 1-402-517-4480.

***UPDATE II From Thinkprogress.org***

Yesterday, Cafe Press announced that it was again reversing itself and removing all the merchandise in response to strong public pressure:

The public debate started with questioning if the design was simply intended to be criticism of the President or something much worse. The discourse was surprisingly civil online, given the heated nature of the topic. Given that, and the positions of groups like the ACLU and the Anti-Defamation League, we decided to let the dialogue play out publicly before making a final decision.

Last night we posted a poll on our blog, read through the emails we’ve received and weighed the nature of the calls we’ve received on the topic. In the process we also learned that many of the original designers of the Psalm 109:8 designs had already decided to remove them on their own.

General consensus has proven that the design does point to a broader interpretation of the Psalm and thus has been deemed inappropriate for sale at CafePress.

The results of the Cafe Press poll were 76 percent calling the slogan “overly inflammatory and inappropriate” and 22 percent saying it was fair.

Where are customers buying their clothes?

I recently just had a field trip to Macy’s with my Fashion Careers class. It was actually kind of funny to go there for a field trip… because I used to work at that particular Macy’s. So I had a little reunion with my old bosses and we had a tour of my old digs.

In my Fashion Careers class, we have been talking about the customer/consumer. Wholesalers need to consider how much the customer would be willing to spend, and how fashionable that one customer may be. Next thing to consider is to find out where the customer has bought and will buy this merchandise.

Let’s briefly go over the dominant retail categories that carry fashion merchandise.

1. Department Stores
2. Discount Stores
3. Specialty Chain
4. Designer-owned specialty store
5. Small specialty stores and boutiques
6. Off-price stores
7. Warehouse stores
8. Factory outlets
9. Catalogs
10. Hybrid stores
11. Telemarketers
12. Electronic retailers

Let’s go over a few of these retail categories:

Department Store: Department stores are large emporiums that carry hard and soft goods. Hard goods can include home furnishings; Soft goods can include apparel and accessories. Brand name and designer name merchandise is often available to the customers. Department stores usually have a broader range of prices, usually higher signifying better quality. Customer service is also very important to department stores. Personally, a couple of my favorite department stores are Macy’s and Bloomingdales.

Designer-Owned Specialty Stores: Designer-owned specialty stores carry only the labels of that one designer. They are owned, operated and promoted by that design house. A few prominent examples would be Versace, Chanel and Betsey Johnson.

Off-Price Stores: The general idea is that Off-price stores buy unwanted merchandise, due to various reasons, from wholesalers. Some popular Off-price stores are TJ Maxx, Marshall’s and Ross.

I will forever have a deep passionate love for shopping. Stores will not be seeing less of me any time soon. That’s great if you have a favorite store or brand, but I recommend you mix it up. Try shopping at a place you would usually never step place in. For example, I would prefer buying shoes at Neiman Marcus… but I have to admit, I have found some pretty fabulous shoes at Payless.

A cute and sporty cartoon kangaroo rolling around on wheels. All products are fully customizable.

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Cheerful Madness!! online shop New Zealand

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A cute pair of cartoon kangaroos featured on T-Shirts, mousepads, mugs, greeting cards, accessories and gift items. All products are fully customizable.

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Cheerful Madness!! online shop

Cheerful Madness!! online shop UK

Cheerful Madness!! online shop Canada

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Make a customized tshirt online at zazzle

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Foram lançados os produtos de merchandise da Reworked Tour. São blusas, gorros e cachecóis, bem simples mas achei bem bonitos, também. Você pode comprar online aqui.
Para outros produtos, incluindo de outras turnês, vá aqui.

* eu bem tenho essa blusa. =B *

I decided to finally get around to starting to list the dictionary pins on Etsy.

butterfly dictionary pin

I made the first ones over six years ago but I’ve never done very much in terms of promoting them. They’ve been popular in the store and, considering how specific they can be, selling them on-line makes sense. I guess I’ve just been a bit leery about the idea getting copied. I had more than a few people, who came in the summer, comment “Oh, I’ve never seen those before!” and I’d explain that no, they wouldn’t have, since I designed them! It seemed to be a bit confusing for some people, as if it was strange that we had something that wasn’t in every other small gift store. I got thinking about the whole issue after the show this weekend and realized that it doesn’t really matter. Each one I do is different and nobody can truly duplicate that. I’ve gone ahead and listed a few already and I’m going to try and get some more up over the next few days. (they are really much easier to photograph en masse)

This time it’s not wholly their fault, but it did put a damper on thanksgiving. I got a King Kooker as I had posted about before. The King Kooker is nice and it puts out a stupid amount of heat. Heating four gallons of oil takes only a half hour or so and this is running it conservatively. By my guessdimate I could turn it up to jet-engine epic proportions and heat the oil in half the time but there’s a very real possibility of both boiling and burning the oil. Both of these situaitons are bad.

Anyway, King Kooker also lets you buy their accessories. I wasn’t really interested in the entire lobster steaming kit, but I was interested in a fry-basket. The turkey fryer only comes with the turkey tree and it’s priced about the same. The fry basket lets you do boils and… frying things which don’t fit on the turkey tree. Like potatoes. So it’s pretty important. I got mine from UPS last night and of course it showed up and looked like the truck ran over it. Protip – it’s pretty impressive you can crush a metal drum in shipping and not notice it. Anyway, Amazon’s return policy is that if you return an item before the price changes, you can get an exchange. If the price changes (and if you know about Amazon, this happens daily) then you have to take a refund of whatever amount you paid. The nice part – they do UPS pickups. I don’t have to pay to return it. Sadly I’m out the fry basket this thanksgiving but something tells me with this many people coming it won’t matter.

Zhu Zhu Pets Chunk	Zhu Zhu Pets Mr Squiggles	Zhu Zhu Pets Num Nums	Zhu Zhu Pets PipSqueak
Zhu Zhu Pets Surfboard and Sleep Dome

Buy Zhu Zhu Pets Now

3 PILL MORNING TOP FRIENDS MYSPACE CONTEST
Here’s what you’ve got to do…
1.) Add the band at myspace.com/3pillmorningband
2.) Add the banner below to your page (You can copy/paste the html from 3 Pill Morning’s Myspace)

3.) Add one of their songs to your profile player
4.) Add their album cover to your photos and set it as your default. (Be sure to tag 3 Pill Morning in the photo)
5.) Message the band when you’re set up and you’re good to go! Everyone who participates will be in their top friends.

On December 1st, we’ll pick two winners.

3 PILL MORNING ‘SUGGEST TO FRIENDS’ FACEBOOK CONTEST
1. Become a fan of the band on Facebook (facebook.com/3pillmorning)
2. Suggest the band to all your Facebook friends. (check the image below for info on how to do that.
3. Post a comment on the bands wall letting them know you are participating in the contest.

On December 1st, we will pick two random Facebook winners!

3 PILL MORING TWITTER CONTEST
1. Follow the band on Twitter (twitter.com/3pillmorning)
2. Tweet as much as you can about the band and their upcoming release by December 1st. For example (“I can’t wait for the new @3pillmorning EP to come out on December 1st! #3pillmorning”) or (Have you guys heard @3pillmorning yet? Check their myspace for upcoming shows. #3pillmorning)

Be sure to always include @3pillmorning and end each tweet with #3pillmorning so we can keep track of everything

On December 1st, the 2 Twitter followers that tweet the most about the band from now till then will win!

6 winners (2 from each contest) will win the following swag….
1.) An autographed copy of 3 Pill Morning’s new ep ‘Singles’
2.) Guest list spot on the show of your choice in 2010
3.) 3 Pill Morning shirt
4.) 11 x 17 poster

Charles recently established a partnership with The Pittsburgh Fan who are now featured on his website, www.steelcityartist.com in the section for Pittsburgh Gifts.   The Pittsburgh Fan opened to the public in the city of Pittsburgh in November, 2005.   The company offers an impressive collection of Pittsburgh Steelers, Penguins, Pirates, University of Pittsburgh Panthers and Penn State University Nittany Lions officially licensed apparel and merchandise.   Their quality clothing and products are perfect gift ideas for Pittsburgh fans, whether here in the region or across the country who bleed black & gold.

The company had its humble beginnings when they opened their first retail store across the street from Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois to supply Chicago fans with authentic licensed sports apparel.   The Pittsburgh Fan also offers thousands of high quality items for every professional team of the NFL, MLB, NBA & NHL.   Their assortment of gifts are great for family, friends & co-workers and every occasion.   The Pittsburgh Fan website features vibrant clear images, along with a detailed description in order to help you find what you need.   The website is easy to navigate and displays a nice overall layout.   The shopping cart software makes purchasing easy, safe and secure to ensure your personal security when shopping online.

Make The Pittsburgh Fan your one stop for shopping during the Christmas holiday season beginning with Black Friday.   Check all the website has to offer including discounts and holiday specials.   We all know how passionate Pittsburghers are when it comes to their sports and the pride/family traditions you show for your teams and we hope that you find exactly what you need for your home, office or sports game room.   We would like to wish you & your family a Merry Christmas & Happy holiday season.

The Pittsburgh Fan is located in the city of Pittsburgh across from PNC Park at 206 Federal Street.   The store hours are from 10am-6pm and if you have any questions, feel free to call us at (412) 697-2461 and we will be happy to assist you.

Dam sfoara’n tsara. Stati geana pe Hippiedydoo.

This Knoll Bertoia Diamond Chair measures a foot wider than the regular sized Diamond Chairs. Upholstered in a yellowish green, it does either need to be cleaned well or re-upholstered which they do sell on Knoll’s website. Priced at $625. Please email or call if interested.

Thanks