Star Trek 2009 movie - watch trailers, play games online and get wallpapers

I am sooooo looking forward to the new Star Trek movie that is due for release early next month (in only 10 more days in fact!) - it looks fantastic in the trailers for it. You can watch the trailers yourself in my YouTube channel via these links:

2009 Star Trek Movie Trailer #1

2009 Star Trek Movie Trailer #2

And on the same subject, here are some excellent free Star Trek online games for you to try out:

  Star Trek: Flash Trek V2.0

  Star Trek: Flash Trek Assault

  Star Trek: USS Enterprise 1701-D

  Star Trek: USS Enterprise Two

There are also 4 superb Star Trek wallpapers included with the games for you to use as your desktop background if you wish, and there are 6 more very special ones available here: USS Enterprise Wallpaper Collection (including the 2009 Star Trek movie's USS Enterprise)

Enjoy! :-)

Play Pinball games online

Further to my posts last month about great online games for you to play for free (see here, here, here and here), this is an update of my post last year about online pinball games because there are now 3 fantastic new pinball tables for you to play in addition to the 10 brilliant ones there already were in my fun and games sites:

  Sonic the Hedgehog Pinball

  Bolt Pinball

  High School Musical 3 Pinball

  WALL-E Pinball

  Ratatouille Pinball

  Prince Caspian Pinball

  National Treasure Pinball

  Flushed Away Pinball

  Ben 10: Alien Force Pinball

  Mr. Men and Little Miss Pinball

  Illuminati Pinball

  Pepsi Wild West Pinball

  Old-Skool Flash Pinball

Calm returns to Thailand after the recent troubles

After all the recent political trouble in Thailand, I am very happy to be able to report that things have significantly calmed down here now, and that it is therefore once again safe to travel to Thailand. Hoorah!

So you can now refer to my previous posts about cheap flights to Thailand and cheap hotels in Bangkok and Pattaya, and hopefully come here for a wonderful holiday without "breaking the bank"! :-)

UK Foreign Office warning about travel to Thailand

Before I head off out of the city for the Songkran holiday, and further to all my previous posts about the sudden upsurge in political troubles here in Thailand, I thought I'd share this with you that just appeared in Yahoo!:

(Quote)
Warning to Britons over Thai unrest

The UK Foreign Office has warned against travel to Bangkok and Thailand as the Thai PM Abhisit Vejjajiva declared a state of emergency.

Within hours, 49 people had been hurt as anti-government protesters clashed with soldiers in the pre-dawn darkness of Bangkok.

The confrontation was the first serious clash between the demonstrators and security forces since protests surged last week.

TV footage showed injured people being taken away as soldiers in full combat gear secured the area at the Din Daeng motorway junction to the north of the city.

Earlier, anti-government protesters had gone about the capital unchecked, with angry mobs commandeering buses to barricade major road junctions.

Dozens of men furiously smashed cars which they thought were carrying the prime minister as he fled the interior ministry having made the emergency decree. They used poles, a ladder and even flower pots as nearby police in riot gear stood by doing nothing.

On Friday, the protesters forced the cancellation of a 16-nation Asian summit being hosted in Thailand. In an embarrassment for the government, hundreds of demonstrators stormed the summit venue and the leaders had to be evacuated by helicopter.

The state of emergency is supposed to ban gatherings of more than five people and forbid reporting that is considered threatening to public order. But following its introduction, ousted Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra called for a revolution.

"Now that they have tanks on the streets, it is time for the people to come out in revolution. And when it is necessary, I will come back to the country," he said in a telephoned message to followers who surrounded the prime minister's office.

Demonstrators claim the PM's four-month-old government took power illegitimately. They believe the military, judiciary and other unelected officials are undermining democracy by interfering in politics.
(End quote)

This is all starting to get way out of control now - unreported above is that there has also been trouble in some cities in both northern and north-eastern Thailand - the government needs to try and calm things down by entering into a proper peaceful dialogue with the protest leaders. Surely trying to crack down on them, in what is supposed to be a free democratic country, will only make things worse? I hope that this all ends peacefully with no fatalities.

A further update on the Thai political troubles

Following on from my Easter post earlier today and my post yesterday, it is with great sadness that I have to report that the political troubles here in Thailand have now gone from very bad to even worse, with the government moving decisively against the anti-government protesters by arresting their leader and declaring a state of emergency in Bangkok just over an hour ago. See this article in Yahoo! for more details.

This is extremely serious, and I would therefore advise any foreigners in Thailand to now stay out of Bangkok for safety reasons. Luckily, my wife Su and I live some distance from the capital, but even so things are getting a bit scary all round now. And, as I said in my previous post, it is actually the Thai New Year tomorrow, which clearly won't be a very happy one now, at least not in the short term anyway.

All this trouble seems to have come very quickly from almost nowhere - just a few weeks ago, there was only a relatively small group of peaceful anti-government protesters in Bangkok, and pretty much everyone here thought that life had more or less gone back to normal. How wrong we all were!

Su and I are heading off out of the city to our home in the family farming village tomorrow morning, where I think we'll stay until things return to something like normal.

Happy Easter!

And happy Songkran (which is the traditional Thai New Year) for tomorrow!! :-)

I hope the Thai anti-government protesters take time out from their ongoing demonstrations for the holiday - unfortunately, there is now some very serious trouble in Bangkok following on from yesterday's ructions in Pattaya.

It's very sad to see ordinarily very placid Thai people getting so angry and behaving in this way, but I always say that when so many people get as incredibly agitated about something as this, the powers that be really ought to listen to them and try to find a peaceful solution for the benefit of all sides.

Back in England, I see that the very admirable Dr John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, has spoken out against there being two Premier League football matches today, saying that Easter Sunday should be kept as an equally special day as Christmas Day. I have to say that I totally agree with him, and you can read all about his most excellent outburst in this article in Yahoo!

Anyway, on a much lighter (but still reverential) note, if you get bored over the holiday period you can always play hundreds of great free online games at MarioSonicGames.com, www.Dan-Dare.org/Disney and all the other free game sites linked to from within those two. Plus there's always tons of interesting stuff to read over on my MarioSonicGames.com blog. I feel sure that none of these activities contradicts the spirit of either Easter or Songkran! :-)

More serious political trouble in Thailand today

Further to my previous posts about all things Thailand, including the on-off-on and (now) seemingly endless political troubles over here (see here, here, here and here for example), I am very sad to have to say that there is, as of today, even more serious trouble, this time in the major tourist city of Pattaya.

See this article in Yahoo! for more info on what has been going on, and this article in the Wall Street Journal for full details of what happened and, more importantly perhaps, why.

Basically, this afternoon anti-government protesters stormed the ASEAN summit of Asian leaders (including the leaders of China, South Korea and Japan) being held in Pattaya, despite increased security at the event, and despite actions by the government yesterday to try and ease the recent surge in protests.

This has led to the summit being cancelled amid security fears just as it was getting under way, with some national leaders having to be evacuated from Pattaya by helicopter, all of which is hugely embarrassing to Thailand. Indeed, given that this summit was postponed from late last year due to the political protests taking place back then, it is difficult to imagine anything that could be more embarrassing to the nation.

Given the very serious nature of this latest development, and the potentially dangerous longer-term consequences, clearly it is once again not a good idea to come here on holiday at the moment, despite what I said about it being fine recently - things have changed very quickly here with no real warning, and this unpredictability is making the situation even worse. Oh dear.

Pixar video goodies on YouTube

For all you online video and YouTube lovers out there (and according to recent web statistics there are hundreds of millions of you, me included!), here are two great YouTube channels full of loads of lovely Pixar videos, including complete short films, movie trailers, mini-cartoons and featurettes:

Pixar Passion

The Pixar and Sci-Fi Channel

Cheap flights to Thailand from England

Following on from my post last month about cheap hotels in Thailand, here are some tips on how to get cheap flights to Thailand.....

Normally, the cheapest way to fly to Thailand from England (and many other places in Europe for that matter) is to fly economy class with one of these excellent Arabian airlines: Etihad Airways of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, Gulf Air of Bahrain, or Kuwait Airways.

A flight from England to Thailand with one of these airlines involves a short stopover and flight transfer in either Abu Dhabi, Bahrain or Kuwait (so they are not direct flights - typical total travel time is around 16 hours end to end versus around 12 hours direct), and as a result the airfares tend to be much cheaper than direct flights.

This is almost always the way that I fly between England and Thailand and back again. I have used all three airlines many times before, and they are all really good - they all have amongst the newest and safest aircraft fleets in the world and offer excellent service (but please note that there is no alcohol available on Kuwait flights, although there is on Etihad and Gulf flights).

Alternatively, it is also always worth checking EVA Airways of Taipei, Taiwan who fly direct to Thailand from England on their way to Taiwan - sometimes they have very cheap flights available, but not always.

Sadly though, I have to report that once again there is now some rather serious political unrest here in Thailand, and although it should not be a problem for anyone coming here on holiday, there is always the possibility of flight and other travel disruptions as a result, so please bear that in mind before you plan on coming here. It is always best to check the international news about what is going on anywhere you plan on travelling to before you book flights and so on.

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.