It’s been a while since we’ve had a Book Club posting. I have recently received a swatch of new books over the holidays, so we’ll see if we can keep these posts coming on a regular basis.

The first book for the club this year is Neil Gaiman’s American Gods. This is my 2nd foray into Gaiman’s works, and picked this title because I have heard good things about it. Unfortunately, I don’t know what it is about, so I look forward to finding out.

Post your thoughts, if you decide to keep up with this book.

I had the pleasure of trying a new drink today. My co-worker, Greg, gave me a packet of Royal Milk Tea. He was raving about the stuff and wanted me to try it. Apparently, he had given it a try when he was in Okinawa and got hooked on it. So I gladly obliged and went to make my cup of tea.

What I discovered was a lightly flavored tea, flowery, and easy on the tongue. I’d highly recommend giving this tea a try, that is if you can get yoru hands on it. Apparently, it is difficult to find in the States.

Running a Google searching turns up several hits. Explore!

I was recently looking for a way to enjoy Divx-encoded videos on my Zune — you know for road trips and such. Apparently some work has been done in this field, yet I have had little success in duplicating the effort.

The folks over at Techmixer.com have suggested the following steps:

1. Copy and paste the following lines into a text edit program and save it under .reg extension.

   Windows Registry Editor Version5.00
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Multimedia\Zune\Extensions\.avi]
   “Extension.Handler”=”Microsoft.Zune.1.AVI””MediaType.Description”=”Video Clip”
   “MediaType.Icon”=”C:\\Program Files\\Zune\\ZuneLoc.dll,-736?”Extension.MIME”=”video/avi””AlreadyRegistered”=”no”
   “Runtime”=dword:00000007?PerceivedType”=”video”
   “Permissions”=dword:0000000f
   “UserApprovedOwning”=”no”
   @=””

2. Double-click the newly .reg file and the register information will be added to your registry.
3. Restart Computer
4. After restart, you start dragging your divx movies using Zune software into your zune player. The files will synced with Zune devices and force the zune software to convert the files.

You may have to locate a file called “zuneloc.dll” for this to work too…

It is important to note that your mileage may vary with this and to proceed at your own risk. You will be mucking around in the registry, which can do serious harm to your computer. And, I’ve not tried this out yet, so be warned… I am just passing along what information I have found so far.

I know many people haven’t heard of the group No More Kings and that’s really sad. They have some very clever music. I was first introduced to them through Pandora.com with the song “Zombie Me” — a song chock full of awesome. From there, I learned of a song called “Sweep The Leg”.

I have to admit this song captured fond memories of my childhood. A song with lyrics ripped right out of one of my favorite 80’s movies… “Karate Kid”. That’s right, Cobra Kai strikes back.

Here is the music video, care of http://www.sweeptheleg.com/youtube:

Make you message clear… check out No More Kings.

The Alabama Symphony Orchestra surprised me by inviting Video Games Live to play in Birmingham. The inner nerd in me shed a tear of joy, as I have been looking forward to seeing one of these performances for a long time.

I had no idea really what to expect when arriving at the BJCC. I had read that the pre-show events had costume contests, gaming competitions, meet and greets with game composers and all that. Needless to say, we were somewhat nonplussed by what was offered.

There was a Guitar Hero 3 competition, but you couldn’t hear the music… and it was displayed on two small LCD panels with a large mosh of adolescent boys attempting to achieve plastic guitar glory. However, the winner went on to play on stage with the Symphony as he attempted to break 175,000 points playing Expert level on Aerosmith’s “Sweet Emotion”. I have to admit, that was pretty cool. And the guy won too… handily.

The costume contest had a few entrants. What could you expect from Alabama? We had a Lar Umlaut from Guitar Hero, Ayane from Dead or Alive, Ness, Reno from Final Fantasy, and hand full of other lesser known characters… and we had the winning costume: a three person representation of Pong. I wish I had taken a picture. Simple, clever, effective.

The actual concert… well, it exceeded my expectations. It was an incredible night. The symphony was simply excellent. I will definitely return to see them perform again, whatever it is that may be playing. If it weren’t for some pesky union rules, I’d have shot some video clips to share from last night’s performance. Here is a sampling on what we were treated to last night:

• Mario™
• Zelda®
• Halo®
• Final Fantasy®
• Warcraft®
• StarCraft® II
• Sonic™
• Metal Gear Solid®
• Kingdom Hearts
• Castlevania®
• Metroid®
• Interactive Space Invaders
• Interactive Guitar Hero™
• God of War™
• Civilization IV
• Classic Arcade Medley featuring over 20+ games from Pong® to Donkey Kong® including such classics as Dragon’s Lair, Tetris, Duck Hunt, Ghosts ‘n Goblins, Gauntlet, Punch-Out, OutRun and more…

If I had to pick my favorite sequence, it would be between the Classic Arcade Medley, the Final Fantasy Piano Medley, or the Metal Gear Solid suite.

The only complaint I had about the performance is the grandstanding done by Tommy Tallarico. No doubt the man is talented… but we were there to see the Symphony, not him galavanting around the stage.

If you have the opportunity, I highly recommend attending one fo these events. They are simply spectacular and brought back some very found childhood memories.

Ok, I am not sure that I will continue post random videos I find on the internet, but for the time being — it amuses me. Here are some kitties doing something that Bosco probably should start doing… you know, to keep his feline figure fit and trim.

I think the funniest part is the cat in the back running with only his front paws. What strange creatures…

Treadmill Kittens @ Yahoo! Video

My wife found this on Yahoo Video last night, and I must admit — I found it quite amusing. Mainly, because this is something Lily would probably do. Now, whether or not it looks like this cat wants cake, I can’t help but think that this feline may have mistaken the cake for his litter box… but that’s just me.

Cat Wants Cake @ Yahoo! Video

If you haven’t seen this yet, you owe it to yourself to watch Neil Patrick “Doogie” Harris, Nathan “Captain Mal” Fillion, and Felicia “Felicia” Day sing in Joss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog.

I am not very familiar with Amos Lee and his catalog of music, but what I am hearing from his latest album “Last Days At The Lodge” are fairly mellow, R&B inspired songs that resonate with something personal to Lee. Apparently, he wrote all the songs that appear on this album, which I applaud. You can tell there is a great production quality to each song.

Few of the songs are of such outstanding quality (lyrically, musically, or what have you) that you will want to listen to them for days on end. However, I haven’t heard a song that I immediately wanted to skip right past, which is a good thing for me. One song that stands out to me is “Street Corner Preacher.” The blues-ish feel just takes me to a good place.

If you are in the market for good music to work to in an office environment, this could be a good choice to add to your collection. All in all, it’s worth a listen, and if you are a fan of Amos Lee, then a must buy.

Rating: 7/10

I have entered the MSN Dream Car Challenge, where I have the chance to win… something. I don’t know, I didn’t read the rules. I signed up for some free Microsoft Points I may get some more points too, if you vote for my car. So, get voting already.

Also, you can find it here: Dream Car Challenge

And remember!  Vote for me everyday!

Enjoy!