Play Monsters vs. Aliens online games

Monsters vs. Aliens, the latest computer generated cartoon movie from DreamWorks Animation, is released in the US tomorrow. (It's due to be released in Europe and Australia early next month.)

It is the latest DreamWorks Animation offering following on from last year's Kung Fu Panda and Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, and continues the studio's ongoing "battle" with close rivals Pixar Animation Studios (Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Cars, WALL-E) and Blue Sky Studios (Ice Age, Robots, Horton).

The trailer for the film suggests that it will potentially be really funny, with it being something of a send up of 1950s sci-fi/horror B-movie classics such as Attack of the 50ft. Woman, The Blob, The Fly, The Creature From the Black Lagoon and Godzilla amongst others.

Here are a few Monsters vs. Aliens online freebies for you to enjoy:

  Monsters vs. Aliens: Gallaxhar Invades!

  Monsters vs. Aliens: Panic in the Streets

  Monsters vs. Aliens: Video Game Demo

  Monsters vs. Aliens Online Jigsaws

  Monsters vs. Aliens Movie Trailer

Additionally, here is some Monsters vs. Aliens desktop wallpaper which you can use as your computer background. Everything is in my Free Shrek and Other CG Movie Online Games site, together with more than 100 more great cartoon and movie games.

YouTube - it's good, but it doesn't always work

In case you didn't know, I spend most of my life living in Thailand, and I am living there right now. And I like to use YouTube quite a lot while I'm here.

However, I find that every single day the YouTube system becomes unstable, and often completely unusable (as it is now, at the time of writing this blog post) between the hours of approximately 2.00pm and 6.00pm Thailand local time (GMT +7).

I have no problems accessing any other websites at these times, so it is clearly just a YouTube issue.

I suspect this might be because YouTube undertakes daily housekeeping of some sort each day between these times, which are late night/early morning times across the US where YouTube is based, and so for US users this daily "outage" does not present any real inconvenience.

Regardless of the actual reason, it's not very impressive, coming as it does from one of the web's and world's biggest companies - Google - the owners of YouTube (and also the owners of Blogger in which this blog is written). So.....

Sort it out please Google! Or are you not really bothered about providing a quality service in Thailand?

Cheap but good hotels in Bangkok and Pattaya, Thailand

If you want to stay in Thailand really cheaply (and who doesn't, because it's fine here now, there's no serious political trouble any more), in a room with hot water shower, fridge, satellite TV and air-conditioning, here are a few decent little hotels for you, with room rates between 500 and 650 Baht per room per night at the time of writing - so really, really cheap! :-)

They're very basic, but are fine as long as you don't expect 5 star luxury:

Bangkok

Sukhumvit Soi 4 (200m down the road that Nana Plaza resides in):

Happy Inn, tel: +66 (0)22 526 508

Swan Inn 1, tel: +66 (0)22 529 923

Swan Inn 4, tel: +66 (0)22 510 931


Pattaya

Soi Buakow (500m from the Pattaya Tai Road end):

Utid Court, tel: +66 (0)38 428 221


2nd Road (opposite Tipp Plaza, near Mike Shopping Mall):

Ice Inn, tel: +66 (0)38 720 671


I have stayed in all these hotels, and they are especially good if you want to enjoy the fantastic night-life of both cities!! ;-)

Play Mario, Sonic, Nintendo and Sega games online

Over at the all-new MarioSonicGames.com site there are now literally hundreds of free Mario, Sonic, Nintendo and Sega online games, making it one of the biggest and best sites of its kind that there is! Current highlights include:

  New Super Mario Flash

  Ultimate Flash Sonic

  Super Smash Bros. Brawl Flash

The companion MarioSonicGames.com Blog carries news of what's going on in the official and unofficial Mario and Sonic gaming worlds. Here are a few recent highlights:

Play new Super Mario Bros. Flash games online

Play new Sonic the Hedgehog Flash games online

Play Nintendo and Sega Flash games online

Play SpongeBob SquarePants games online

Here are some brilliant free SpongeBob SquarePants online games for you to play:

  SpongeBob: Sea Monster Smoosh

  SpongeBob's Pizza Toss

  SpongeBob: Bikini Bottom or Bust

  SpongeBob: Anchovy Assault

  SpongeBob: Ship o' Ghouls

  SpongeBob: WhoBob WhatPants

  SpongeBob: Dutchman's Dash

  SpongeBob: Delivery Dilemma

  SpongeBob: Pyramid Peril

  SpongeBob: Patty Panic

As an extra bonus, you will find SpongeBob SquarePants desktop wallpaper pictures in the game pages which you can use as your computer background if you like. You can find all of them, plus loads more cartoon related games and wallpapers, at the Cartoons, Movies and TV Fun and Games site.

Play Pokemon games online

Here are some excellent free PoKeMoN online games for you to enjoy:

  Pokemon: Breakdown Blast

  Pokemon: Towering Legends

  Pokemon Match

  Pokemon: Trading Card Match-Up

  Pokemon: Chikorita's Adventure

  Pokemon Trainer Dress Up

  Pokemon Shooting Gallery

  Pokemon Shoot 2

  Pokemon: The Revolution

The game pages also include some awesome Pokemon desktop wallpaper pictures for you to use on your computer if you wish, plus some cute Pokemon animated GIFs, so it all adds up to being a fantastic Pokemon mini-website full of loads of lovely free fun stuff! You can find all the games, together with loads more Nintendo games such as Zelda, Kirby and Megaman, on page 2 of the MarioSonicGames.com site.

Play 10-Pin Bowling games online

Here are some great free "10-pin bowling" themed boredom-relievers for you:

  SNK League Bowling

  Toy Story Bowl-o-Rama

  Lilo & Stitch Bowling

  Tom and Jerry Bowling

  The Flintstones Bowling

  Sonic the Hedgehog Bowling

  Puyo Pop Fever Mini-Games

  Super Monkey Ball 2 Mini-Games

You can find them and hundreds more free online games at my fun and games websites here and here. Enjoy! :-)

Off with their heads!

Please read the following article from Sky News today, paying particular attention to the two emboldened paragraphs - I assume you will be as furiously angry as I am about the bankers continuing to take the mickey out of us British taxpayers. It's a real shame that Britain "doesn't have guillotines".....

(Quote)
Controversial bank bonuses paid to staff despite an industry bail-out will be probed, the Chancellor of the Exchequer has said.

The link between bonuses and excessive risk-taking with be examined during a review of management at the financial institutions, Alistair Darling said.

The Government has twice launched bank rescue packages, a £37bn recapitalisation scheme in October and a second last month, reported to be around £200bn.

The bail-outs have seen the state take big stakes in high street names like Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).

But the prospect of banks which have been propped up by the state handing hefty bonuses to executives has provoked fury.

Vince Cable, finance spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, said the City bankers "know no shame and take no blame, they are lucky the British have no guillotines in stock".

Early editions of The Sunday Telegraph reported that RBS, 68% of which is owned by the taxpayer, wanted to pay its staff nearly £1bn in bonuses this year.

Mr Darling is expected to announce full details of the inquiry Monday.

But he told The Sunday Telegraph: "Success should be rewarded. Failure should not.

"I expect the review to make recommendations about the effectiveness of risk-management by banks' boards, including how pay affects risk-taking."
(End quote)

Jeremy Clarkson and Gordon Brown

I like Jeremy "Top Gear" Clarkson, he says what he thinks about things, which is a lot more than most British people dare to do in these dire politically-correct thought-policed times - God forbid anyone offends anyone else, it might be a breach of their Human Rights! How pathetic!

I tend to agree with most of what Mr. Clarkson dares to speak out about too, with the following article from Yahoo! today standing as a prime example:

(Quote)
Top Gear star Jeremy Clarkson was under fire after reportedly branding Gordon Brown a "one-eyed Scottish idiot".

The BBC presenter also accused the Prime Minster of lying, in the comments reportedly made in Australia where he is hosting Top Gear Live, a stage version of the hit TV show.

Mr Brown lost his sight in one eye during after an accident playing rugby as a teenager.

Clarkson, speaking at a press conference in Sydney, compared Mr Brown to Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd, after Mr Rudd had just addressed the country on the global financial crisis.

According to The Australian newspaper, he said: "It`s the first time I`ve ever seen a world leader admit we really are in deep s***. He genuinely looked terrified. The poor man, he`s actually seen the books.

"(In the UK) we`ve got this one-eyed Scottish idiot, he keeps telling us everything's fine and he`s saved the world and we know he`s lying, but he`s smooth at telling us."

Scots politicians reacted angrily to the remark. Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray said: "Such a comment is really a reflection on Jeremy Clarkson and speaks for itself.

"Most people here are proud that the Prime Minister is a Scot and believe him to be the right person to get the UK through this global economic crisis."

Gordon Banks, Labour MP for Ochil and South Perthshire, branded the comments "unforgivable".

The BBC and Downing Street declined to comment.
(End quote)

So Clarkson called Brown exactly what he is, and now he's in trouble for it? Brown does only have one good eye, he is Scottish, and most importantly he is an idiot and a liar. These are true facts. Okay, so it's rather impolite to mention the single eye problem, but how can the rest of what was said by Clarkson be taken as offensive or wrong?

Brown is one of the chief architects of the financial crisis in Britain, because he was Chancellor of the Exchequer (i.e. the boss of all the money in the land) during the years that all the unchecked borrowing was allowed to take place that eventually caused the "credit crunch". But Brown, not surprisingly for a professional politician and boss, denies that he helped create the mess. So he is both an idiot and a liar. And it's fair game to label him Scottish, because he is.

Good grief, no wonder Britain is in the mess it is - the only people who have got a real clue about things are not in power. I reckon Britain has a long way to fall yet before it can ever begin to recover from this epic financial crisis, because basically the people in charge (the professional politicians, God help us!) still haven't learned the important lessons of the past. Oh dear. Emigration seems like a good option to me..... Thailand's nice this time of year!

Dan Dare Virgin Comics Omnibus Book

Next month sees the launch of a lovely new hardcover book from Dynamite Entertainment that collects together all seven issues of the 2007/2008 Virgin Comics "Dan Dare" series that was written by Garth Ennis and illustrated by Gary Erskine. It is available for a discounted pre-order here:

http://westfieldcomics.com/product/08120514

Join the queue after me, I already ordered one! :)

Merry Christmas.....

.....and a Happy New Year!! I'll be back to blogging here in a week or so. In the meantime, why not take a look at my other posts in this blog - there's bound to be lots more stuff of interest to you. And don't forget to check out my group of free fun and games sites, such as the Mario and Sonic games site, the Disney and Pixar games site and the Shrek and DreamWorks games site. All the sites also feature large collections of wallpaper pictures and other great freebies in addition to all the free games. Have fun!

Possible future Dan Dare comics

Following the completion of the 7-part Dan Dare series that was produced by Virgin Comics from November 2007 to July this year, and the subsequent demise of Virgin Comics in September, it seemed unlikely that there would be any further new Dan Dare adventures for the forseeable future.

However, as reported by Newsarama.com yesterday, it seems that there will be more to come from the veteran spaceman in the near future:

(Quote)
Dan Dare will fly again.

Virgin Comics acquired the rights to produce a new Dan Dare comic last year, written by Garth Ennis. When the company dissolved earlier this year, the possibility of new Dan Dare in comics seemed remote at best. Dynamite Entertainment announced that it will collect the issues of the Virgin Comics series in February, and until now has remained mum on the possibility of future projects. The publisher has confirmed for Newsarama that they have landed the rights to publish future comics projects starring Dan Dare.

"I am delighted to be working with Nicky [Barrucci, Dynamite President] and his team, on the collection of one of my favorite series in years, and very happy indeed that Dan Dare has found a great home in Dynamite,” Ennis said.

Barrucci said that Ennis championed Dynamite to Colin Frewin, the CWO of the Dan Dare Company, which allowed the publisher to get its foot in the door with the company, and ultimately come to terms on the agreement.

Frewin: “It is exciting news that Dan Dare is joining Dynamite Entertainment alongside fellow classis strips like Battlestar Galactica and Lone Ranger. Dynamite is exactly what Dan Dare needs for global distribution.”

Dynamite Associate Editor Joe Rybandt commented: “Each and every month, I’d hit my local comics shop and pick up the new issue of Dan Dare -- this is Garth firing passionately on all cylinders and to be a part of “rescuing” this work and presenting it in a new form is a great thing for me and all the fans like me...”

The upcoming collection of the Dan Dare series that was originally published by Virgin will contain all seven issues of that series (corrected for the new publication), and a cover gallery. No publication date for new Dan Dare was given.
(End quote)

Watch free Pixar mini-cartoons and movie trailers

Just click on the links below, and off you go..... enjoy!

Watch a collection of Pixar's "WALL-E" mini-cartoons
(also sometimes known as "WALL-E meets..." cartoons, as in "WALL-E meets a camera", "WALL-E meets a vacuum cleaner", etc.)

Watch a collection of Pixar and other CG movie trailers

Thailand Travel Advice for December 2nd, 2008

My advice to you if you are planning a trip to Thailand any time soon is plain and simple: Don't come here at the moment, wait until the current political crisis is over. If you do come here now you might not be able to get back home again on the date you planned.

If you are already here and are stuck because of the anti-government protesters' despicable blockading of Bangkok's two airports, then you have my deepest sympathies. Unbelievably in this day and age, there aren't many alternative ways out of Thailand that are anything like convenient from Bangkok. Not surprisingly, the current main escape route, Pattaya's U-Tapao "airport" (about 150km south-east of Bangkok), is now completely overrun and will be a nightmare to get to and use.

Another way to escape from Thailand, at least for December 2nd anyway, might be to get a taxi to Hua Hin (about 200km south-west of Bangkok, around 2,000 Baht taxi fare), then fly from there to Koh Samui, and from Samui to either Singapore or Hong Kong - you should be able to get to your home country easily enough from either of them.

See the Bangkok Airways website HERE for more information about the Hua Hin to Samui flights available on December 2nd. I hope that helps!

England's financial self-destruct, Thailand's political self-destruct

Oh dear, it's all going horribly wrong. England is now apparently technically bankrupt due to it's monstrous and seemingly unmanageable national debt brought on by years of unchecked over-borrowing. I say technically bankrupt, because if any of us normal people ran our finances in the same way, we would surely be declared personally bankrupt. My thanks to Gordon Brown, the current UK Prime Minister and former Chancellor of the Exchequer, for that!

And now Thailand seems to be on the brink of another military coup d'etat, following (and largely the result of) the last one in 2006 when the then Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, was ousted. If there is a coup, I don't think it will be anything like the previous one, which was almost entirely peaceful. It seems very likely that this time there will be serious fighting if tanks come onto the streets of Bangkok.

Things really are quite bad here in Thailand now, I'm very sorry to say - in addition to both of Bangkok's airports being completely shut down by anti-government protesters such that Bangkok is now cut off from the rest of the world by air (imagine the same thing happening to London or New York, and you'll get a feel of the chaos that is causing), earlier today an anti-government protester in Chiang Mai was dragged from his car by pro-government supporters and killed. That normally very placid Thai people can become so violently angry is both shocking and disquieting. Suddenly Thailand doesn't seem quite such a lovely place to live. How depressing.

Play Disney's Bolt online games

Today sees the release of Disney's new computer animated movie "Bolt". It is Disney's 48th animated feature, and because it has been co-produced by Pixar founding member John Lasseter (who is now the boss of all Disney/Pixar animation) it could also be considered as being, at least in part, a Pixar movie. I'll certainly be making the effort to go and see it because it looks really good judging by the official Bolt movie trailer.

For the sheer fun of it I've collected together some great free Bolt Flash online games for you to play:

  Bolt: Pinball

  Run Bolt Run

  Bolt: Mittens' Hot Dog Hideaway

  Bolt: Rhino's Rollerball

  Bolt: Rescue Mission

  Bolt: Rhino's Breakout

  Bolt to the Rescue

The games also include some Bolt desktop wallpaper pictures for you to use on your computer if you wish. You can find all the games and wallpapers, plus over 100 more great Disney and Pixar games (and wallpapers), at my Free Disney and Pixar Online Games site.

Enjoy! :-)

My YouTube Pixar video channel

I spent most of yesterday and today sorting out my YouTube Pixar and sci-fi video channel, uploading new cartoons and movie trailers, re-organising it, linking things together, and so on. You can view the finished results here:

The Pixar and Sci-Fi Channel

Additionally, you can play loads of free games related to all my YouTube videos at my group of websites which you can access through my WebRing here:

The Computer-Generated Cartoons WebRing

Going a bit too far with online entertainment

I thought this was a joke when I first read it, but it's actually true. This is from a report published last week by Sky News:

(Quote)
A woman is divorcing her husband after she caught him cheating on her in a 3D virtual world.

Amy Taylor, 28, cited unreasonable behaviour in the court papers, describing how their three-year marriage came to an end when she twice walked in on her husband pretending to have sex in an online game.

Her estranged husband is now engaged to one of the women he had an 'affair' with on Second Life - even though they have never actually met in real life.

Amy told Sky News Online how she thought she had found the love of her life when she met David Pollard in an internet chatroom in May 2003.

They swapped photos online, and after six months of emails and phone calls, she moved from London into his seaside flat in Cornwall.

The couple spent hours having fun together in Second Life - her avatar, or alter ego, in the 3D virtual world was Laura Skye, and his Dave Barmy.

But her dreams were shattered three months later when she went for an afternoon nap and woke to find the jobless 40-year-old having sex with an escort girl in the game.

"I went mad - I was so hurt. I just couldn't believe what he'd done," Amy said.

"I looked at the computer screen and could see his character having sex with a female character. It's cheating as far as I'm concerned.

"But he didn't see it as a problem, and couldn't see why I was so upset. He said I was just making a big fuss, and tried to make out it was my fault for not giving him enough attention."

She added: "We then made it up and he promised he would never do anything to hurt me again, and would never cheat on me again."

The couple got hitched at a registry office in St. Austell in July 2005 - and even marked the occasion by holding a virtual wedding in Second Life.

They moved to a flat in Newquay, and carried on their virtual lives in the online world, but Amy knew something was wrong.

"I still had my suspicions, but couldn't put my finger on it," she said. "He never did anything in real life, but I had my suspicions about what he was doing in Second Life."

And then the bombshell came in April this year, when she found him in a compromising position with his avatar.

"I caught him cuddling a woman on a sofa in the game. It looked really affectionate," she said. "He turned off the computer monitor, and I turned it back on and demanded to look at his chat history.

"But he turned off the computer so the history was all deleted - and I ended up going off to his Mum and Dad's in floods of tears."

She added: "He confessed he'd been talking to this woman player in America for one or two weeks, and said our marriage was over and he didn't love me anymore, and we should never have got married."

The next day Amy went to a solicitor to file for a divorce, which is due to be finalised next week.

"The solicitor wasn't at all surprised - she said it was her second divorce case involving Second Life that week," she added.

Amy says she was down in the dumps for a while - but now has a new man in her life, who she met while playing the internet fantasy role-playing game World Of Warcraft.
(End quote)

Good grief, how very very sad. You couldn't make it up and be taken seriously, could you? Whatever next - young men standing trial for car theft and gun crime because they play Grand Theft Auto? And why on earth does anyone "play" this Second Life rubbish anyway? Wouldn't it be better for everyone concerned if they put all that time and effort into their First Lives? Oh dear.

Play Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa online games

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, the sequel to the 2005 computer generated cartoon movie Madagascar from DreamWorks Animation, was released yesterday. It follows hot on the heels of the studio's previous CG movie this year, Kung Fu Panda. DreamWorks Animation are perhaps best know for their hugely popular and successful Shrek CG movie series.

I really enjoyed the first Madagascar film and I will definitely go and see this sequel, because it looks great going by the trailer for it. It is rumoured that there will also be a third Madagascar film at some point in the future, to complete what will then be a trilogy of stories.

Here are some free Madagascar 2 online games for you to play:

  Madagascar: Feeding Time

  Madagascar: Melman's Pain in the Neck

  Madagascar: Penguin Pop

  Madagascar: Marty's Coconut Shootout

  Madagascar Soundboard

  Madagascar 2: Video Game Demo

The games also include Madagascar 2 wallpaper pictures for you to use as your computer background if you wish. All these goodies are in my Free Shrek and Other CG Movie Online Games site, along with over 100 more great cartoon and movie games.

Enjoy! :-)