There are millions of cosplay images on the internet and the vast majority of them tend to be girls dressed as a sexy version of something, I’m not complaining but once you get past that you get into the realms of people who take this kind of thing VERY seriously, I watched an awesome movie a couple of weeks ago called Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fans Hope, it was great to watch and it featured Holly Conrad who built mind blowing Mass Effect costumes (Including a full sized robotic Krogan outfit)

Cosplay can be awesome when real effort is put into it so here’s a video I came across this morning showing how high the bar has been set!

Check out the movie, it’s available through iTunes and thoroughly enjoyable!

Use this handy store locator to find your local participating store.

I’m now in possession of the whole of season 1 and I’m hooked, there’s also a pretty cool website as a companion piece to the show! Check it out and KILL HITLER!

It’s described by the host as “A weekly rehashing of ‘sues – gay rights, women’s issues, pop culture & politics” my interpretation is that it’s 2 friends exchanging banter, frequently going off topic and using dark, explicit humor to get through the episode. It’s really funny and thoroughly enjoyable stuff!

It got better!

The UP wristband I bought in December finally died a death, I already had my refund in the shape of a jambox but I contacted them anyway and guess what? For no money at all they sent me a brand new replacement wrist band. Even better, it works perfectly and doesn’t seem to suffer the same issues as lots of other people have had.

Thanks Jawbone, despite the teething problems I think you rule and I will buy Jawbone products again!

I bought it on launch day after months of reading previews and watching podcasts about its development, I couldn’t wait to immerse myself…and then the cold sting of anticlimax smacked me between the eyes.
The navigation was a little clunky and the combat didn’t do it for me, it all looked and sounded gorgeous but I just wasn’t feeling it, I kept going on the strength of the decision making and dialogue but the main hurdle I couldn’t get over were the impossible vehicle missions, really buggy and horrible to control I found myself sadly putting the game back in the box and giving up, I just couldn’t go any further.

After a small break I bought the soundtrack, watched playthrough videos on youtube and even tried to start again. I conceded defeat once more (although the soundtrack is awesome). I wanted to love this game so much and I just couldn’t.

Mass Effect 2 was announced and the main thing that struck me was the fact that the developers had taken all of the criticism of the flawed first game, and fixed, killed or replaced all of the negative aspects. Again, screenshots started to appear, hype started to grow and before I knew it I’d pre-ordered the damn thing, I was desperate to see if Bioware could get over the teething troubles of the 1st game and deliver a sci-fi epic.

Within the first 20 minutes it was clear that this game was going to be a winner, the opening scenes were epic, the music had gotten even better and finally the gameplay was enjoyable for me, even levelling up your character was less clunky.
I completed the game…5 times (fastest time is 23 hours), I bought all the DLC, I scanned every planet (and enjoyed it), I got the soundtrack, bought the comics, read the books (still not finished all of em). The relationships and politics of the game were all thoroughly engrossing and I’ll go as far as saying that so far, it’s my favourite game of all time. It was clear after this game there would be a final instalment of the story and I couldn’t wait!

Cut to last friday when my N7 Collectors edition arrived, I took the day off work, avoided all spoilers/reviews/articles/blogs and piled in head first.
So far the game has improved on my beloved ME2, I’ve already seen a character I love, die (There’s a memorial wall on the ship and it’s painful every time a name gets added to the list), met old acquaintances, made some really tough decisions and developed relationships with new, interesting characters and species. It’s an epic war story and it doesn’t hurt that Clint Mansell has been a part of the already amazing soundtrack team.

This game looks, sounds and plays better than the previous instalments, I just hope it keeps this pace up because it’s well on its way to topping my all time game list. I’ve been gushing about it over Twitter and the companion apps for iOS are proving very interesting

I’ll report back when I’ve finished but I am completely in awe of how this franchise has developed.

If you fancy some further reading that explains the franchise in more depth, read this amazing article by Kyle Munkittrick

I’m off to kill some reapers.

I think everyone puts weight on as they get older but it doesn’t help if you’re not actively exercising and you eat and drink crap.

I’ve tried a few diets in the past, none of which I’ve stuck to and I always ended up back at square one until…

My girlfriend got me to read a book by Tim Ferris called “The Four Hour Body” . In short, I’ve now lost almost 2 stone (28lbs). My body fat percentage has been dropping by about 4% a week and I feel and look better than I have done in years. THe key to all this is that I’ve cut out carbs, I’m eating a ton of protein and really nive vegetables, I never feel hungry and once a week I get to spend 24 hours eating and drinking like a total pig. It’s gotten to the stage where Saturday is hard work and I miss the diet food again.

The real test was over the Christmas break, I didn’t stick to the diet and found that I STILL lost weight.

I can’t recommend this enough and after my positive results I’ve got friends and family on the diet now.

It’s really really easy and it’s probably one of the best things I’ve done!

Cut to January when I found out Neflix had made its way to the UK, kind of dubious at first because I’d been burned by LoveFilm but with a month free trial I had nothing to lose.
The first thing that struck me is the choice, there’s quite a lot of stuff on there to keep you going for a while. Not as much choice as the American service but it seems there’s new stuff being added every week!

So far I’ve been watching “Box sets” of TV shows, lots of indie and foreign movies and a decent selection of Anime.

The quality is awesome as most of the content is HD and dolby 5.1 surround with no lag or break in stream, I was really impressed by this, it looks and sounds gorgeous through my home cinema and to top it all off there’s stuff on there like Twin Peaks in full HD. AWESOME!!!

At £6 a month, it’s a total steal and it works perfectly on my xbox, PS3, Apple TV, iPhone and iPad (not to mention my laptop and desktop) and with a month free trial I think you should try it out.