How to sync iTunes with a Nokia N97 in Windows, perfectly

Following on from my previous post about how to make decent quality MP4 video files for the Nokia N97, Apple iPhone, iPod and so on, here now is my recommendation for the best and most reliable way to get your Windows-based iTunes music library to sync with a Nokia N97 (or any other Nokia S60 phone for that matter):

Use MediaSync for Windows, from Salling Software, which is free to try (and works fine in trial mode), and which only costs US$22 for the full version.

It is truly excellent. After running it with my N97 plugged into my Windows XP PC, I ended up with an exact clone of my iTunes music library on the N97. This includes all 3192 of my music collection's MP3 files having been automatically copied to my N97, using 16.4 GB total of the phone's internal mass storage.

Wonderfully, this also includes around 99% of the MP3 files' album artwork having been automatically converted to display correctly on the N97, which is a seriously tough thing to get to work right using any other sync method - including directly copying your MP3 files to the N97 yourself - just in case you weren't aware.

Additionally, all 104 of my iTunes playlists were automatically converted into .M3U format and copied onto the N97. The volume of each MP3 track appears to have been set to the optimum level for the N97 too, and certainly all the volume levels have been more-or-less equalised. Utterly, utterly brilliant!!

I hope that helps you as much as it helped me! :-)

How to make decent quality portable MP4 video files

I wanted to convert my DVD collection into MP4 video files on my Windows XP PC, for use on my Nokia N97 phone and my Apple iPod. It turned out to be quite a tricky job, because finding the right software tool to do the conversion work was not easy - there are so many different conversion products to choose from, and there is only so much time available to do this sort of thing. However, doing it right is, of course, of the utmost importance.

So, to save any of you out there having to go through the same trials and tribulations and time-consuming effort as I went through..... if you want to convert your DVDs into decent quality and decent sized portable files, here's what I found out:

After a great many false starts, I finally settled on Xilisoft DVD Ripper Platinum, because out of the seemingly hundreds of different DVD ripping products that are available, Xilisoft turned out to be the best for me. It is extremely good at what it does, and it is easy to use, reliable and reasonably priced.

It can convert any part of a DVD (the main feature, the special features, etc.) into any kind of video and/or audio format you like, such as MP4, MPEG, AVI, 3GP, 3G2 and so on. And it will convert and optimize for almost every type of portable video viewing device, such as the N97, iPod, iPhone, Sony PSP, HP iPAQ, Pocket PC, iRiver, Creative ZEN and most others. Genius!

So far I have converted 10 of my favourite DVDs into standard MP4 format, and it really is a great set of results - around 1 GB per full movie, with decent video and sound quality. In fact, it is a very good all-round balance of file size vs. quality, which is the eternal BIG issue for all of us digital media nuts, LOL! Job done!! :-)

Problems with www.Dan-Dare.org

My sincere apologies to everyone who likes to visit my www.Dan-Dare.org site for the fact that it has been rather unreliable over the past 3 days or so.

The outages were a result of my hosting company (Fasthosts.co.uk) suffering a major server failure in the second half of last week, which has only just now been fully resolved. Not good! Sorry.

Everything should be fine now, at last - hoorah! Thanks for your patience, you can fully enjoy the site once more.....

Disney's A Christmas Carol movie is released today

A new Disney movie version of Charles Dickens's classic 1843 story, "A Christmas Carol", is released worldwide today, following its premier in London three days ago.

The film is directed by Robert Zemeckis and stars Jim Carrey in a multitude of roles, including Ebenezer Scrooge as a young, middle-aged and old man, and the three Christmas Ghosts who haunt Scrooge. It is a 3D computer-animated movie produced using the process of "performance capture" (digitally recording the actions of human actors, and using that information to animate 3D character models), similar in style to two of Zemeckis's previous films, "The Polar Express" (2004) and "Beowulf" (2007).

Having watched a few of the trailers for it, I have to say it looks marvellous - a very different style of computer-animated movie compared to the others released this year.

Here are some great free Disney's "A Christmas Carol" online games for you to play (which also include some Disney's "A Christmas Carol" wallpaper backgrounds too):

  A Christmas Carol: Scrooge's Star Ride

  A Christmas Carol: Ghostly Adventure

  A Christmas Carol: Rooftop Surfer

  A Christmas Carol: Penny Pincher


As a bonus, here is a game based on Robert Zemeckis's 2004 3D computer-animated Christmas movie, "The Polar Express":

  The Polar Express Ticket Chase


And just in case you want to play even more movie-related online games, here are links to some collections of games based on other top family movies of the past 12 months:

Astro Boy online games

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince online games

Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs online games

Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen online games

Disney/Pixar's UP online games

Star Trek online games

Monsters vs. Aliens online games

Disney's Bolt online games

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa online games

You can find all these games, plus hundreds more, in the
Free Movie, Cartoon and TV Online Games Website. Enjoy! :-)

I'm back in Thailand now

After one month away from home staying in England and Portugal with my parents, and after a total of 6 different flights to and from the three countries, I am now back in beautiful Thailand where it is still raining during parts of every day even though the rainy season ought to have been long finished by now.

It's been a bad year for our rice farming here, with not enough rain earlier in the year, then far too much recently, and now there are too many pests presumably due to the crazy weather. Oh dear. Climate change is all too real it seems.

All these problems have caused us to have very much lower rice crop yields than usual this year, and that has now also been compounded by a very low cash price for rice (currently 6,000 Thai Baht per tonne), which makes it almost a loss-making enterprise to grow the rice when taking into account the costs and effort invloved (such as ploughing, fertilising, sowing, irrigating, pest control, harvesting, etc). Not good. We're going to review our farming policy to see if it might be better for us to switch to growing a different crop in future. Many farmers here in Thailand are switching from rice to other crops for the same reasons.....

Consequently, I predict a world shortage of rice next year, which ironically will probably make it worthwhile us growing the crop again at that point given that the price should then rise. I can see a rather large flaw in the world's rice production system on this basis - Asian farmers won't grow rice unless they can make a profit from it, and they can only (it seems to me) make a profit from it when there isn't enough rice available to eat. Oops.

Going back to England tomorrow, again

This time I'm going back there from Portugal where I've been enjoying a lovely holiday in the Algarve for the past two weeks (see my previous post about that here). Once back in England I'm only there for three and a half days and then I'm going home to Thailand. That will have been one month that I've been away from home by then, and I can't believe how incredibly quickly the time seems to have passed.

Astro Boy goes 3D after more than 50 years in 2D

The classic Japanese manga and anime character Astro Boy gets a 21st century 3D makeover in an eagerly awaited new CGI cartoon movie due to be released worldwide later this month.

Given the long history and popularity of the character - he first appeared in manga form in 1951 and then, in 1963, in what is considered to be the first ever Japanese anime series - it will be very interesting to see how this new version turns out. It certainly has a lot to live up to.

Judging by the trailers for it I think it will be a great film, and I'm looking forward to watching it and then being able to make a proper comparison with the original version. You can watch all the movie trailers for it here in YouTube, in full HD, if you're interested: Astro Boy HD trailer 1, trailer 2, trailer 3

To tie-in with this historic movie event, here are some great free Astro Boy online games for you to play (which also include some Astro Boy background wallpaper pictures too):

  Astro Boy: Blast-A-Bot

  Astro Boy: Rescue

  Astro Boy vs. One Bad Storm


And if that isn't enough movie fun for you, you can play lots more fun free online games based on the best family movies from the past 12 months by clicking on these links:

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince online games

Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs online games

Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen online games

Disney/Pixar's UP online games

Star Trek online games

Monsters vs. Aliens online games

Disney's Bolt online games

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa online games

You can find all these games, plus hundreds more, in the
Free Movie, Cartoon and TV Online Games Website. I hope you enjoy them all! :-)

Disney/Pixar's UP is finally being released in England on the 9th!

So once again England (and the rest of the UK) has been made to wait longer than anywhere else in the world to see the newest Pixar movie!

"UP" is being released across the UK in two days time, but it was released everywhere else in May, apart from Australia where it was released last month. See this post about the same thing happening with "Ratatouille" two years ago. I cannot understand Disney's reasoning behind this, it is very strange.

Still, "better late than never" is certainly very true in this case! I was lucky enough to see UP in Thailand back in early June, and please believe me when I say (or shout in this case, sorry) that YOU MUST GO AND SEE IT - it's utterly brilliant!! It is Pixar's best movie yet in my opinion!

To celebrate this happy (but belated) occasion, here are some superb free UP online games and other goodies for you to enjoy:

Pixar's UP online games, trailers, film clips and wallpapers

Updated list of wallpaper backgrounds in my websites

It's time for my more-or-less annual update of the list of wallpaper backgrounds that are available for free download from my group of entertainment websites. There are lots of new high quality, non-watermarked Sci-Fi Wallpapers, Movie Wallpapers, Cartoon Wallpapers and Video Game Wallpapers for you to choose from, available in all sorts of different screen sizes.

Links to pages with 1024 x 768 sized wallpapers are listed below, and within those pages you will find links to lots of other sizes for each of the wallpapers. All the wallpapers also have at least one related Flash online game for you to play too:

Star Wars
Star Wars - R2-D2
Star Wars - The Clone Wars
Harry Potter
Sonic the Hedgehog (x 5 alternate versions)
Sonic Heroes
Shadow the Hedgehog
Super Mario Bros. (x 5)
Mario Memories
Super Mario Galaxy
Super Smash Bros. Melee
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
PoKeMoN (x 4)
Puyo Pop Fever
Super Monkey Ball
Crash Bandicoot
Donkey Kong
The Legend of Zelda
Kirby
Mega Man
Metroid
Street Fighter
Tekken
Prince of Persia (x 3)
The Banana Splits
The Flintstones
Scooby-Doo
Scooby-Doo Movie
Scooby-Doo 2 - Monsters Unleashed
Wacky Races
Hong Kong Phooey
Tom and Jerry
Looney Tunes (x 2)
The Simpsons (x 3)
More Simpsons
The Simpsons Movie (x 2)
Futurama
Red Dwarf
Thunderbirds Movie
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
TMNT Movie
Power Rangers Dino Thunder (x 2)
Power Rangers S.P.D.
Power Rangers Mystic Force
Power Rangers Jungle Fury (x 2)
Power Rangers Super Legends
Transformers
Transformers Movie
Transformers 2 - Revenge of the Fallen (x 4)
The Matrix (x 2)
Hellboy II - The Golden Army (x 2)
Batman Begins
Batman - The Dark Knight (x 2)
Superman Returns
Spider-Man 2
Spider-Man 3
Hulk
The Incredible Hulk
James Cameron's Avatar (x 4)
Star Trek (x 3)
Star Trek Ships of the Line
Star Trek USS Enterprise Collection (x 5)
Star Trek Movie
The Fast and the Furious
2 Fast 2 Furious
The Fast and the Furious - Tokyo Drift
Fast and Furious
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
National Treasure - Book of Secrets
Pirates of the Caribbean - The Curse of the Black Pearl
Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Man's Chest
Pirates of the Caribbean - At World's End
The Chronicles of Narnia - The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
The Chronicles of Narnia - Prince Caspian
Beverly Hills Chihuahua
High School Musical 3
Toy Story 2 (x 2)
Toy Story 2 Little Green Men
A Bug's Life
For the Birds
Monsters, Inc. (x 2)
Finding Nemo (x 2)
The Incredibles (x 2)
Cars
Cars and Cars 2
"Real" Cars
Ratatouille (x 3)
WALL-E (x 3)
UP (x 2)
Walt Disney / Mickey Mouse (x 2)
Winnie the Pooh (x 2)
The Lion King
Lilo & Stitch (x 2)
Chicken Little
Meet the Robinsons
Bolt (x 2)
The Princess and the Frog (x 2)
Disney Princess
Ice Age 2
Ice Age 3
Robots
Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who
Shrek
Shrek the Third
Shark Tale
Madagascar (x 2)
Flushed Away
Bee Movie
Kung Fu Panda
Monsters vs. Aliens
Open Season
Happy Feet
The Ant Bully
SpongeBob SquarePants (x 2)
More SpongeBob SquarePants
Catscratch
Danny Phantom
Avatar: The Last Airbender (x 2)
Naruto
Ben 10 (x 3)
Ben 10: Alien Force
Ben 10: Ultimate Alien
American Dragon (x 2)
Camp Lazlo
Dexter's Laboratory
Astro Boy
Astro Boy Movie
The Smurfs
Mr. Men and Little Miss
Garfield
Garfield Movie
The Muppet Show
The Muppets
A Christmas Carol
The Polar Express
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Casper the Friendly Ghost
Felix the Cat
Betty Boop (x 2)
Dan Dare (x 4)
South Park
Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas
GTA IV (x 2)

(See this wallpaper site for visual links to some of the above.)

I hope you find something you like amongst them all! :-)

European Commission list of "Unsafe Airlines"

Well this is very, very, very interesting indeed, especially to me given that I have recently flown from Thailand to Bahrain, Bahrain to England, England to Portugal and am (during the course of the next 3 weeks) due to return to each of those destinations in reverse sequence! Today the European Commission published a "blacklist" of what it considers to be "unsafe airlines", each and every one of which it has consequently barred from flying through the majority of European airspace!

See this article in Yahoo! for full details: Which airlines can you trust?

And here is the regularly updated list of "blacklisted" airlines: European Commission Airlines Blacklist

(Disclaimer: I am not personally stating that any of the airlines listed in the links above are actually "unsafe", and I have no opinion myself concerning which airlines are, or are not, deemed to be "safe" by anyone anywhere. I am simply quoting and linking to the freely available public information provided by the European Commission as of today. If you have any issue with anything I have quoted or linked to above, please pursue the matter with the European Commission directly. I cannot accept any responsibility for the accuracy, or any potential lack thereof, of any of the relevant information provided by the EC.)

I'm in the Algarve in Portugal now

I've come here with my parents for a two week autumn holiday - the first time I've gone on holiday anywhere with them, as just the 3 of us, for almost 25 years. We're staying near the beach in a lovely quiet small town called Altura, which is located between the regional capital Faro and the Spanish border. It's a beautiful relaxing place.

I would recommend anyone who likes to relax with sun, sea and sand to come to the Algarve on holiday, especially at this time of year if you like to be "far from the madding crowd" - there aren't many tourists now. It's not hot now either, but neither is it cold. It's just right in fact, mid 20's on the Celsius scale with plenty of sunshine.

Useful map links: Algarve Interactive Map and Altura Google Map

Hanna-Barbera online fun and games

My previous-but-one post in this blog was about Tom and Jerry, which is one of my all-time favourite cartoons. Now, how many of you out there know that every single one of the all-time classic 1940s and 50s "MGM" Tom and Jerry cartoons (114 cartoons in total) were written and directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, and that the same two men then went on to create some more of the world's best-loved cartoons in the 1960s and 70s for their own production company - "Hanna-Barbera"?

Among the great many wonderful cartoons they created during that period were classics such as Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, Pixie and Dixie, The Flintstones, Top Cat, Touche Turtle, The Jetsons, Jonny Quest, The Banana Splits, Wacky Races, Dastardly and Muttley, Penelope Pitstop, Scooby-Doo and Hong Kong Phooey. Without a doubt, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera were animation geniuses who deserve to be ranked right up there with Walt Disney.

I grew up with all the Hanna-Barbera classics during my childhood in the 1970s and early 80s, and because those cartoons are still amongst my favourites, here is a collection of tribute pages from me, plus official online games and desktop wallpaper backgrounds, based on the most famous of them:

Hanna-Barbera Cartoons Images, Music and Games
(includes MP3s of some of the classic theme tunes)

The Flintstones and Scooby-Doo Movie Posters

Complete List of Wacky Races Cars and Drivers
(includes giant animated GIFs of every car)

The Banana Splits Images and MP3 Music
(includes an MP3 of the classic "Tra La La Song")


  The Flintstones: Bobsleddin' Blowout

  The Flintstones: Runaround Fred

  The Flintstones: Bedrock Bowling

  The Flintstones: Bedrock Bust-A-Boulder

  Scooby-Doo and the Creepy Castle

  Scooby-Doo: Big Air

  Scooby-Doo: Big Air 2

  Scooby-Doo: 1000 Graveyard Dash

  Scooby-Doo: Escape from the Coolsonian

  Scooby-Doo: Monster Food Fight

  Scooby-Doo: Snack Machine

  Scooby-Doo: Shaggy's Midnight Snack

  Scooby-Doo: Kickin' It

  Scooby-Doo: Monster Sandwich

  Wacky Races: Wacky Racing

  Hong Kong Phooey's Karate Challenge

  Hong Kong Phooey Mahjong

  The Banana Splits: Banana Bop

  The Banana Splits: Pie-Toss


The Flintstones Wallpaper

Scooby-Doo Wallpaper

Scooby-Doo Movie Wallpaper and Scooby-Doo 2 Movie Wallpaper

Wacky Races Wallpaper

Hong Kong Phooey Wallpaper

The Banana Splits Wallpaper


You can find all the Hanna-Barbera games and wallpapers listed above, together with hundreds more classic cartoon related fun and games, here: Cartoon, Movie and TV Online Games

The Virgin Comics "Dan Dare Omnibus", plus other Dan Dare books

Way back in January of this year I posted an entry in this blog about an at-the-time forthcoming omnibus edition of the 2008 Virgin Comics "Dan Dare" series by Garth Ennis and Gary Erskine that would contain every episode of the story.

Well, I only just now managed to get hold of a copy of the book (Dan Dare Omnibus, hardcover, published by Dynamite Entertainment, ISBN 1606900277) because I had great trouble tracking it down, but I have to say it was well worth the effort in the end. The book is beautiful, consisting of very high quality paper and colour printing, and the story is really very good when read as a complete graphic novel, which it becomes by virtue of it being "all in one place" in the book.

I thoroughly recommend you to get a copy of it for yourself if you're a Dan Dare, sci-fi or comic-book fan. Buy it from Amazon.com here

Also for sale in Amazon.com is the ongoing Titan Books series that reprints Frank Hampson's classic original 1950s "Dan Dare" stories - find them here

And while I'm on the subject of Dan Dare reading material, why not visit this site to subscribe to a fantastic periodical Dan Dare magazine: Spaceship Away

Find out more about Dan Dare online by visiting these great free sites: DanDare.org.uk, Dan-Dare.org and Dan-Dare.net.

Tom and Jerry online fun and games

I was just now reminded of one of my all-time favourite cartoons, Tom and Jerry, when I switched on the TV and flicked through the multitude of Sky channels. Two separate channels were running Tom and Jerry cartoons - one channel was showing the 1940s and 50s MGM originals, while the other was showing some more modern ones - which was very nice to see. I've loved Tom and Jerry since I was a little boy, so I can honestly say I've been a fan for at least 35 years now! :-)

Click on this link to view my Tom and Jerry tribute page, which includes a complete list of every T & J cartoon ever made, together with a selection of related multimedia (including MP3s of all the different versions of the Tom and Jerry theme tune, plus lots of cartoon clips) and a desktop wallpaper background picture.

For some more Tom and Jerry fun, here are some great free T & J online games for you to play:

  Tom and Jerry: Refiger-Raiders

  Tom and Jerry: Tom's Trap-o-Matic

  Tom and Jerry: What's the Catch?

  Tom and Jerry: Run, Jerry, Run!

  Tom and Jerry: Bowling

  Tom and Jerry: Mouse About the House

  Tom and Jerry: Midnight Snack

You can find all these Tom and Jerry games, plus hundreds more classic cartoon related fun and games, here: Cartoon, Movie and TV Online Games

Joke of the year

If you like Gordon Brown you perhaps won't like this joke about him, so if that's you then please don't read any further (though hopefully you do possess a sense of humour and will actually find the joke to be funny).....

Gordon Brown was visiting a Scottish primary school and while there he visited one of the classes. They were in the middle of a discussion related to words and their meanings. The teacher asked Mr. Brown if he would like to lead the discussion on the word 'tragedy'.

So the illustrious leader asked the class for an example of a tragedy.

A little boy stood up and offered: "If ma best freen, wha lives on a fairm, is playin' in the field an' a tractor rins ower him and kills him, that wid be a tragedy".

"No", said Gordon, "that would be an accident".

A little girl raised her hand: "If a bus kerryin' fufty children drove ower a cliff, killing a'b'dy inside, that wid be a tragedy".

"I'm afraid not", explained Gordon, "that's what we would call a 'great
loss'".

The room went silent. No other children volunteered. Gordon searched the room.

"Isn't there someone here who can give me an example of a tragedy?"

Finally, at the back of the room, wee Johnny raised his hand. In a quiet voice he said:

"If a plane kerryin' you and Mr. Darlin' wis struck by a 'freendly fire'
missile an' blawn tae smithereens, that wid be a tragedy".

"Fantastic!", exclaimed Gordon. "That's right. And can you tell me why that would be a tragedy?"

"Weel", says wee Johnny, "it has tae be a tragedy, because it certainly
widnae be a great loss..... and it probably widnae be an accident either!!"

Am back in England now

Although I haven't been back here for 2 years, not much has changed!

Going back to England tomorrow

I have been in Thailand for 2 years now without seeing my parents and friends back in England, so tomorrow I'm going back there to put that right!

I'm travelling with Gulf Air with a flight transfer in Bahrain, which means that although the journey involves two flights and is longer than flying direct, it is also about 50% cheaper. It's costing me 28,000 Thai Baht, or around 520 GB Pounds, for the Bangkok to London return trip with a 1 month stay in England. Seems like pretty good value to me.

i-mobile TV 630 mobile phone - don't buy one!

This is my review of the i-mobile TV 630 mobile phone:

My wife Su recently bought a brand new i-mobile TV 630 mobile phone because it looked very good in the adverts, and when she tried it out in the shop it seemed to be excellent. Its very impressive specification includes dual SIM cards (so it's two phones in one), an 8 megapixel camera with full flash and video recording, micro SD memory card up to 8 GB, MP3 and MP4 player, TV tuner and FM radio. The price was 5,800 Thai Baht, or about 110 GB Pounds.

However, after using it for around a week, it has turned out to be nowhere near as good as it first appeared to be. In fact it is completely rubbish, and here's why:

Even though it can use an 8 GB micro SD memory card, you can't do much useful stuff with all that memory, like for example the MP3 music player in the phone cannot cope with a music library of more than around 400 MP3s (as opposed to the around 1200 that can fit on an 8GB memory card) - the phone hangs then crashes with more than around 400 songs. AWFUL!!

Also, the phone is supposed to be able to play MP4 files, but it has never worked for any of around 20 different MP4s that we tried. RUBBISH!!

Also, the phone does not display file names properly, with its operating system seemingly being based on something like ancient DOS with very basic short file names being displayed, including such useful characters as ~1 in place of extended file names. OH DEAR!!

And the few long file names that the phone does manage to display that are too long for the width of the display screen get scrolled across the screen at such a slow speed it takes ages to read them. DOH!!

Also, when using the web browser and waiting for a page to load, there is nothing displayed to show any kind of progress with the page loading, so you have no idea whether it is loading or has hung up. And it likes to hang up most of the time without notifying you that it has done so. STUPID!!

Also, the plastic flip cover over the phone's memory card slot snapped off after only about 8 uses, due to its ridiculously thin plastic attachment. And the main i-mobile shop in Bangkok doesn't have a replacement part for it, and even if they did they said would want paying to fix it, even though the phone is less than 2 weeks old! PATHETIC!!

And worst of all, the phone likes to randomly switch itself off for no obvious reason at all, sometimes when navigating around between menus, and sometimes even when in the middle of a call! TERRIBLE!!

The list of faults and problems actually goes on and on, but I can more easily sum it all up like this: DO NOT BUY AN I-MOBILE TV 630 PHONE, AND DO NOT EVEN ACCEPT ONE AS A FREE GIFT!! IT IS THE WORST PHONE I HAVE EVER SEEN AND EVER WILL SEE!!

We're going to get rid of this travesty of a phone and treat ourselves to a Nokia N97 instead - a lot more money, sure, but a lot less hassle too!

Must-see films still to come this year

Following on from my post yesterday about must-see films so far this summer, here is my list of movies still to come this year which I also think will be "must-sees":

September:
9 - click here and here to watch trailers for it via my main YouTube channel, and click here to watch the orginal short film version of it via my other YouTube channel

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs - trailer 1, trailer 2

Pandorum - trailer 1, trailer 2

Surrogates - trailer

October:
Astro Boy - trailer 1, trailer 2, trailer 3, online game 1, online game 2, online game 3

November:
A Christmas Carol

2012 - trailer 1, trailer 2

Planet 51 - trailer 1, trailer 2

December:
Avatar - trailer

Must-see films so far this summer

Here are my current recommendations based on the films I have seen so far this summer - and what a summer it's been, with some of the best movies ever in my opinion! I've listed them in their Thailand release date order, which is pretty much the same as the US release date order:

Star Trek - the best Star Trek ever, and for me that's saying something because I love all the different old Star Trek TV series and movies!

Terminator Salvation (a.k.a. Terminator 4) - the best Terminator since the original 1984 movie. And the 1991 first sequel. Basically, watch this one and those two, and forget about the third one.

Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian - more fun, and funnier, than the first one.

UP - Pixar are complete geniuses and they set the standard by which all other CG cartoon movies are rightly judged. Enough said.

Land of the Lost - don't believe any of the bad reviews, it's actually very funny and is obviously a parody, a fact that seems to have been missed by the so-called professional critics. Doh!

The Hangover - comedy as it should be, i.e. really funny.

Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen - a fantastic non-stop mega mecha action movie, and now one of my favourite movies of all time! No brains required, just enjoy it for what it is. Jetfire's my name!

Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs - a slightly daft concept but a really good family movie.

Moon - sci-fi as it should be, i.e. clever, thought-provoking and totally believable.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - essential viewing, if only because it's part 6 of the utterly compelling saga.

Ponyo - a traditional cartoon fairy tale, Japanese style.

Inglourious Basterds - Tarantino. Pitt. Job done.

It's quite an eclectic list, I know, but I really enjoyed seeing each one of them, chiefly because they did what I require all movies to do for me - make me forget about real life and thoroughly entertain me. You can watch trailers for most of the above movies here: www.youtube.com/user/Picktzar, and you can play free online games based on many of them here: www.dan-dare.org/FreeFun

Sorry I haven't posted much here lately.....

.....life got a little "challenging" recently, but things are improving rapidly now and the normal fun service will be resumed soon!

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince online games

To celebrate the recent release of the fantastic new Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince movie (which was delayed from November last year - see my post here about that), here are some fun free Harry Potter online games for you to play (which also include some Harry Potter desktop background wallpaper too):

  Harry Potter: Fight the Death Eaters

  Harry Potter: Knight Bus Driving

  Harry Potter: Staircase Game

  Harry Potter: Quidditch Keeper Practice

  Harry Potter: Quidditch Pong


You can play loads more free movie related online games by following these links:

Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs online games

Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen online games

Disney/Pixar's UP online games

Star Trek online games

Monsters vs. Aliens online games

Disney's Bolt online games

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa online games

Free Movie, Cartoon and TV Online Games Website

Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs online games for you to play

I recently saw Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, and I have to say I think it is the best movie so far in the Ice Age series. Although the stories get more far-fetched with each successive movie (Dinosaurs in the Ice Age living in a hidden valley under the ice? Hmmmm...), they do also get much funnier and generally more entertaining. I saw it in 3D, which added to the fun, but it isn't essential to see it like that - I am sure it will be just as enjoyable in normal 2D.

I have, as usual with a big movie release like this, collected together some great free Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs Flash online games and Ice Age 3 desktop background wallpapers for you to enjoy:

  Ice Age: Ice Track Derby

  Ice Age: Whack-A-Scrat

  Ice Age 2: Glacial Break

  Ice Age 3: Bubble Trouble

  Ice Age 3: Video Game Demo

  Ice Age: Frozen Recall

All these Ice Age games, plus over 250 more fantastic movie related games (and wallpapers), can be found in my Free Movie, Cartoon and TV Online Games site.

The best online games and wallpapers in the world

I've been a little bit obssessed (!) with collecting cartoon, movie and TV online games and computer background wallpapers over the past few years, and consequently I now have a very large and very high-quality collection of these fun "freebies".

If you'd like to enjoy them all for yourself, here are some links to a few of the highlights of my collection, and within those links you will find further links to more and more of the games and wallpapers too. There are hundreds and hundreds of free games, and each game has free related wallpaper. I reckon it's the best collection of its kind anywhere on the web:

Disney and Pixar online games

Shrek, Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda, Ice Age and other CG movie online games

Naruto and Ben 10 online games

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa online games

Disney's Bolt online games

Pokemon online games

SpongeBob SquarePants online games

Mario, Sonic, Nintendo and Sega online games

Monsters vs. Aliens online games

Star Trek online games

Power Rangers online games

Pixar's UP online games

Transformers 2 online games

Tom & Jerry, Flintstones, Scooby-Doo, Wacky Races, Hong Kong Phooey and Looney Tunes online games

My favourite relaxing bars in Bangkok - Part 1

I like quiet relaxed bars (or pubs as us Brits usually call them) when I want to go out and unwind after spending the day working too hard. But in Bangkok it's not so easy to find a bar like that, much the same as in any major capital city I suppose.

However, if you walk about 400 meters down Sukhumvit Soi 4 in Nana (the small road in which the entrance to the world famous Nana Plaza can be found) in the direction away from the main Sukhumvit Road and BTS Sky Train, you'll find a left-turn junction which is Soi 6. There are a few small bars on the right-hand side of Soi 6, and one of those is amongst my favourite relaxing bars in Bangkok. It's called "The Bangkockney" (which I've sometimes seen misspelled elsewhere on the web as "The Bangkokney").

It is one of the nicest bars in the city in my opinion - quiet, friendly, fun, cheap, and always honest when it comes to totalling up your "check bill" at the end of your visit, no matter how much you've drunk and how drunk you consequently are.

It's small, but it has an excellent choice of beers and spirits, and has inside and outside seating, really powerful air-con if you need it, a pool table, and satellite TV with full sports coverage. Perfect! So if you're in Bangkok any time and get tired of all the noise, hustle and bustle, head over to there and chill out. Say hello to the owner, Kob (as I spell his Thai name), for me if he's there - which is often! :-)

Play Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen games online

Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen is the movie I have been looking forward to seeing the most this year, even more than the recent new Star Trek movie. Now that it has finally been released I'm trying really hard to make enough spare time to go and see it in IMAX format in Bangkok as soon as possible.

As I often do when favourite movies of mine are newly released (see my recent post about Pixar's UP, for example), I have collected together some great free Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen Flash online games and desktop background wallpapers, including 2 spectacular wallpapers of the lovely Megan Fox: Transformers 2 Megan Fox wallpaper & Transformers 2 Megan Fox wallpaper #2


  Transformers 2: Starscream Showdown

  Transformers: Roll Out

  Transformers Quest

  Transformers: The Energon Within

  Transformers Character Creator

  Transformers Prestige

You can find these games, together with over 250 more movie related games (plus wallpapers), at my Free Movie, Cartoon and TV Online Games site.

Enjoy! :->