Tuesday, June 15, 2010

2 E3 Nintendo Pwns: Brand new video game trailers

Below I have embedded several trailers of brand new Nintendo Wii video games from IGN video.

Donkey Kong Country Returns



Goldeneye 007 (Wii Remake!)



Metroid: Other M (Coming out in August)

1 E3 Nintendo Pwns: Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword

So I read a live blog from IGN of the big 3 conferences, Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft. In my opinion, Nintendo owned E3, with Sony in a close second, and Microsoft in a far off third. The first of several reasons why Nintendo did so well was their premiere of the next Legend of Zelda video game. Video premiere below, courtesy of Wii IGN.



IGN's first impressions of the new Zelda game read very impressive. The game uses the Motion Plus peripheral, which allows the player to have the most precise video game swordplay on the market. The programmers took advantage of this, adding several enemies that require strategy to kill them, and not just mashing of the A button. You can also use the Nunchuck as a shield to deflect projectiles and attacks.

Of course with Zelda comes items, and some classics return to join the new. The classic stables of slingshots, bows and arrows, and bombs return. The new game play added with these items take advantage of the Motion Plus, playing very much like Wii Sports Resort. There is also the addition of new items the whip and remote control bug. The whip can be used to lash enemies and to grab enemies from afar, while the remote control bug allows you to fly a bug that can grab and release items.

For now that is the only new news on this game, and I'm sure there will be more to come during this week.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

0 Bacon Wrapped Chicken with Brown Rice


Here's a clean, easy, delicious dish that is a perfect summer dish. This can be prepared in the oven, or on the grill.

Servings: 2-3 peoplePrep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 20-30 minutes
Cost: $10
Ingredients:

2 Chicken breasts, butterflied6-7 slices of bacon (use your favorite flavoring)
1 tsp Salt
1 tbsp Black peppercorns
2 tsp Garlic Salt
2 tsp Onion Powder
1 cup Brown rice
Toothpicks


Preparation
  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. Place a cup of brown rice in a rice cooker and prepare as described by the manufacturer. If you do not have a rice cooker, purchase minute rice and cook as the packaging describes.
  3. Before touching the chicken, pull out 10-15 toothpicks. You'll want to do this before touching the chicken, so as not to spread bacteria to the toothpick packaging.
  4. In a bowl combine all of the seasonings.
  5. Slice the chicken into 1/2 inch thick, 2x2 inch blocks of chicken. Sprinkle the seasonings onto the chicken.
  6. Pull out the bacon, and slice all of the pieces in halves. Wrap each slice of chicken with two of the halves, and use the toothpicks to keep each package together.
  7. Place the chicken inside of the oven for approximately 20 minutes. Check on it occassionally to ensure that the chicken does not overcook.
  8. After about 20 minutes, pull out the chicken and check if the center is not pink. If so, turn the broiler on your oven onto high, and immediately place the chicken back in the oven for 4 minutes. This allows the bacon to brown.
Once your chicken and rice is ready, plate it and enjoy!

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

0 iPhone 4 and iOS4

As many people already know, Steve Jobs announced yesterday Apple's new iPhone and revealed more details on its new operating system. Aside from information that's been public for months, he touched on many different additions. I'd like to touch on the facts and points that I believe should end up being a turning point for anyone looking to purchase a new iPhone or upgrade their existing.

  • Just by looking at the iPhone 4, its easy to see the differences between it and its predecessors. iPhone 4 has a glass front and back, along with metallic framing. The important part here is the frame is designed to improve cell phone reception (and most likely compensate for AT&T coverage) and the glass that covers the rest of the phone is supposed to be engineered such that it minimizes damage from impact. More hard facts on this will have to wait until professionals do reviews of it.
  • iPhone 4 has upgraded their rear camera to 5 mega pixel, and has added a front camera for taking videos and doing video calls with Apple's Facechat. Hopefully other companies will develop video chat apps such as Skype to not pigeonhole this new addition.
  • The screen resolution is high enough to make images and videos crisp, and to improve text visibility.
  • The iPhone 4 is supposed to be significantly faster, more details on how much will come when reviews start coming in the next week or two.
  • iPhone 4 will use the new iPhone OS (aptly named iOS).
  • iOS has many new additions, the most significant being multitasking. However, this is only supported on the 3GS and 4 models, since previous models do not have the hardware to support it. Sorry. Only way around this is to upgrade, jailbreak, or (the easiest and best decision) switch to the Google Droid. Which already has this. On all phones.
  • If you are looking to purchase a new phone, you'll be able to preorder them in a week, and they hit the floor in late June. If you already have an iPhone and want to upgrade, just go online to att.com and check if you are available for an upgrade. The positive side to this is that many more people are eligible for an upgrade than a year ago when iPhone 3GS came out. From what I have read, the pricing for new and upgrades should be the same, for $199 and $299 for differing hard drive capacity.
So this is the general gist of what the new iPhone upgrades mean. I hope this is helpful for any looking to purchase or upgrade. Next week is E3, so expect me to blog on many of the new innovations in gear and video games.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

0 Food: Lemon cupcakes

So spring is here! And not only is it spring, but no longer am I in the month of hell that I was in with work, and the month of quasi-hell that led up to that. So, now I'm back to posting on my blog, and my goal is to really get my blog out there (if possible).

Goals that I really want to achieve are the following for the remainder of this year:

1. Build a good amount of gluten free recipes, and start looking at possibly publishing....
2. Also blog on another development that I'm starting, and that's me delving into the world of artificial intelligence and video game design....

So we're going to start off with a lemon cupcake recipe that is gluten free, light, and very delicious.

Lemon Cupcakes with a sweet lemon glaze

Cupcake ingredients

Dry ingredients:
1 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1/2 tsp xanthum gum
2/3 cup sugar
pinch salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda

Wet ingredients:
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/4 olive oil
1/4 cup melted butter
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp lemon flavor
juice of one lemon
zest of one lemon

Glaze:
1/8 c powdered sugar
lemon juice

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F. Line 12 muffin cups with muffin liners.

Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl. Mix well.

Add the wet ingredients into the dry mix. Stir well (approximately 50 strokes). Best indication that the batter is evenly mixed is that there are no yellow egg streaks in the batter.

Pour the batter into the lined cups, and place in the oven for 16 minutes.

After the cupcakes cool, in a plate place the powered sugar, and make a crater for the lemon juice. Add a small amount of lemon juice, and mix with the sugar. Gradually add more lemon juice until there are no dry clumps of sugar, and the glaze has a fairly thick consistency.

Grab the cupcakes, and rub the tops of the cupcakes into the glaze, covering the tops. Place the cupcakes onto cooling racks, and wait approximately 30 minutes before enjoying, to allow time for the cupcakes to soak the glaze.