Cogs can think.

I finished Fallout 3 last night. I spent a lot of time doing lots of side quests and exploring the Wasteland, so it took me a little longer than most. I have to say that I’m disappointed in the game’s ending sequence. I won’t reveal anything, but it was too short and too little a reward for well over 120 hours of gaming.

Luckily, when I went level up to level 20, I chose the Explorer perk, revealing all locations in the Wasteland, and I saved right before the final quest began - I opened my save game, and I’m now back exploring the Wasteland, hopefully completing more side quests as I go.

My character, Fiona, deserves more. She’s bad ass, JUST LIKE THE REAL FIONA.

Thar she blows! Thar she blows! Thar she blows! The new A Camp single! The new A Camp single! Oh my god! I waited god knows how long for this!

Lyrically, “Stronger Than Jesus” is really typical Nina - it’s about love, but from an odd perspective. Musically, it seems like a departure from the dark and lonesome atmosphere of the “band’s” (it’s more or less regarded as Nina Persson’s solo work) title-less debut album, which was an odd mix of country music and abundant orchestras. The country doesn’t bear the overtone - it’s more the baseline, the bare metal skeleton of the sound that guides everything else, but never overpowers it. Combined with Nina’s seductive bedroom voice, it was an oddball album that won’t capture you in one go - you’ll need to give it some time. The debut album was met with very positive reviews, but gained little commercial success. Especially “Song For The Leftovers” and “The Bluest Eyes In Texas” are mind blowing pieces of art.

It does seem like this new album - as far as you can judge an album by just one song - will be another hard pill to swallow: you’ll be a bit turned off at first, but once you put the pill in your mouth and drink the water, there’s no way it’s going to get out.

Gosh, I wish Fiona, Nina, Alanis, and Shirley would come together one day and form the modern, female equivalent of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. They’d kick so much ass.

Fiona, Nina, Alanis & Shirley. Really has a nice ring to it.

As has probably not gone unnoticed, I’m a bit of a Fiona Apple fan. In fact, I’m one of those Fiona Apple idiots, one of those people that belong to her core fan group, a group of people so obsessed with her work, her character, her being, that it sometimes scares me a little.

Listening to her art is still one of the most pleasurable past times for me. Listening to and watching interviews with her is one of the most entertaining things there is, because she isn’t media trained, and as such, comes across natural, unedited. Watching her perform is simply mindblowing - she’s not singing her songs, she’s engulfing herself in them, she’s reliving the tales told in the words, right there on stage, and you can taste it.

One of the controversial discussions among Fiona fans is which version of Extraordinary Machine is better - the leaked, unfinished Jon Brion version, or the actually released, finalised Elizondo record. Most of the people in the scary obsessed group of fans swear by the leaked Brion version.

I don’t.

A confession: I’ve never even heard it. Badum-tish.

The reason is simple. Fiona has made it clear that she wasn’t happy with the Brion version. It was too much Brion, and too little Fiona. Brion is an amazing producer, an amazing musician, and he did a great and outstanding job on Fiona’s When The Pawn, but for some reason, Fiona didn’t like the results when it came to Extraordinary Machine. She cancelled the project, and later on decided to start over, this time with producer Mike Elizondo.

This became the released version of Extraordinary Machine, the version that I proudly have in the prime position in my record collection as the limited-edition dual-disc version, which contains a DVD side with emotional and very cosy live material recorded at Club Largo.

Anyway, I have 100% confidence in Fiona. She knows what’s best for me, as one of her most devout fans and admirers. She said she didn’t like the Brion version, and recorded a new and apparently very different version of the album that she did like. And that’s enough reason for me to ignore the illegal bootleg release. I’ve never heard it, and I’m not going to either.

And I think it’s this blind faith in Fiona that makes the biggest and most devout Fiona fan in the world.

Dear Beyonce,

If you were a boy, you’d be flipping burgers at Wendy’s because you wouldn’t have a hot body to sell.

Take care honey,

Thom

Thirteen years down the road, and this is still the best intro to a song ever made.

I’ve been a bad, bad girl
I’ve been careless with a delicate man
And it’s a sad, sad world
when a girl will break a boy just because she can

So, the trailer (the 2nd one) to the new Star Trek film is out.

And it seems like they finally got the message. It’s Star Trek Jim, but not as we know it (please shoot me now).

The trailer shows an atmosphere that seems to do away completely with the past, and this is a very, very good thing. From what this small preview tells us, they’ve been looking closely at the best science fiction show ever: Battlestar Galactica (the new one). BSG runs circles around all Star Trek series and films combined. The new Star Trek film seems darker, less sterile - more like BSG.

I hope this can usher in a new beginning for the franchise. Forget those so-called die-hard Trek fans, they’re idiots who have no idea whatsoever about what makes good television and what doesn’t. People don’t buy the idealistic we’re-all-gonna-be-okay-and-lovey-dovey crap from the earlier series anymore - why do you think Deep Space Nine is held in such high regard by non-Trekkies? Exactly - because it made the first baby steps away from this ridiculously perfect Federation nonsense, and showed us a future more fitting with human nature, something we can more relate to: war, genocide, slavery, oppression.

Let’s hope that the new Star Trek film will be hated as much as possible by die-hard Trek fans. The more they hate it, the better it will be.

I bought an XBox 360 today, hooked it up to my 32″ HDTV via HDMI, and I’ve been playing Fallout 3 ever since. There is no way to explain in words just how beautiful this game is in high definition on such a TV. You really have to see it to believe it.

I sold my PowerBook to get the money, seeing after I bought my Aspire One, added a normal hard disk to it, and installed Vista on it, I never really looked back to the PowerBook - it was collecting dust. I have a PowerMac G4 for my Mac OS X needs now, so the PowerBook was just a useless piece of 15″ metal to me.

I’m really happy with the 360. Just to be safe, I bought 3 years of full insurance for the device, for just EUR 44.95. I can pee on it and they still have to replace it. HA HA.

My series on good comedy is almost done. I want to revisit all the series we’ve seen so far, and make a Top 7. It’s a personal list, I don’t have to justify it.

1. ????
2. Coupling
3. That ’70s Show
4. Scrubs
5. Frasier
6. Fawlty Towers
7. Married… With Children

I’m saving number one on the list for later, but there’s a small hint under the link. Stay tuned.

Let’s do another entry on good comedy. This one more or less speaks for itself.

Scrubs is one of those shows that’s easy not to like because it’s so weird. Is it a serious show? Is it strictly comedy? Is it real? Surreal? Is it it about music? Love? The hospital? Medicine?

The truth is, it’s about all those things, and more. It’s one of only a very few shows that have the ability to be funny, absurd, and serious all at the same time, with a perfect music selection playing in the background. Definitely up there with not just the best comedy TV shows of all time, but up there with the best TV shows in general.

One of a kind.

Yeah baby, we have an official release date.