tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51152782009-07-14T00:42:09.200-04:00Christopher Knight, personal blog, news, politics, history, entertainment, movies, television, Christianity, religion, Internet, technology, computers, video games, education, books, science fiction, Star Wars, Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, other stuffChris Knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07772661137673181295theknightshift@gmail.comBlogger3077125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5115278.post-19777875003970475832009-07-13T17:00:00.005-04:002009-07-13T22:32:44.373-04:00

Not even the sub-Atlantic metropolis of Rapture is safe from the global financial meltdown. In a move that would certainly have Andrew Ryan spinning in his grave had he been given a proper burial, Take-Two Interactive is delaying the release of its much-anticipated BioShock 2, the sequel to the critically-acclaimed 2007 first-person shooter that challenged players' morality as much as it did

Chris Knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07772661137673181295theknightshift@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5115278.post-60230100593969147132009-07-13T13:38:00.006-04:002009-07-13T14:43:36.510-04:00

Last week this blog received a nice e-mail about Play! A Video Game Symphony. It's exactly what it sounds like: a full symphony orchestra playing a selection of music from a variety of video games. The accompanying press release had details about the concert's performance later on that weekend in Cary, North Carolina.So on Saturday afternoon fellow blogger and gaming junky Matt Federico (who

Chris Knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07772661137673181295theknightshift@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5115278.post-22369656584463370672009-07-13T13:05:00.004-04:002009-07-13T13:26:52.225-04:00

Last month I wrote here about this new commercial for Sheetz that has been playing like crazy around here...I'd gotten gas plenty of times from a Sheetz station whenever I've been driving here and yonder. But until this past weekend I had never bought anything more than a bottled soft drink from the place so far as dietary consumables are concerned.And then came the way wee hours of yesterday

Chris Knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07772661137673181295theknightshift@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5115278.post-47948267800366100562009-07-13T12:57:00.003-04:002009-07-13T13:02:53.611-04:00

The long-classic MechWarrior video game franchise (which is based on the venerable BattleTech universe) is finally getting some new love, courtesy of a full-blown relaunch of the series courtesy of Smith & Tinker and Piranha Games. Simply called MechWarrior, the new game will be on PCs and Xbox 360. IGN has the initial details and check out this first bit of footage to be released from the game

Chris Knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07772661137673181295theknightshift@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5115278.post-41914305262450946272009-07-13T12:52:00.004-04:002009-07-13T12:55:48.820-04:00

So this blog's look has been with us for more than 2 years now. Which is the longest that it's held to any single design.But now, I've decided to give this place a bit of a turnaround.If y'all see things way screwy sometime soon, it's likely just me playing around with the template. Hopefully a better look will soon emerge :-)

Chris Knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07772661137673181295theknightshift@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5115278.post-33837721131429705972009-07-11T13:53:00.003-04:002009-07-11T14:10:53.578-04:00

Earlier this week LucasArts unloaded the very awesome news that it has commenced to re-releasing many of its classic games via Steam!I had never used Steam before, but the prospect of once again playing Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (right) was too good to pass up, so I went to the Steam site and purchased the game. For $4.99 you get the CD-ROM "talkie" version from 1992, guaranteed to

Chris Knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07772661137673181295theknightshift@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5115278.post-9854212360286258902009-07-11T05:05:00.003-04:002009-07-11T05:11:24.607-04:00

In his never-ending bid to become just like C. Montgomery Burns, Microsoft founder and world's richest geek Bill Gates has hatched a diabolical plot to destroy hurricanes.Ummmmmm... Gates and his gang haven't exactly thought this out very well, have they?For all the damage and death that hurricanes cause, they do accomplish some good. They are a mechanism that keep the oceans from over-heating.

Chris Knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07772661137673181295theknightshift@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5115278.post-36423826462255524692009-07-10T16:26:00.005-04:002009-07-10T16:36:11.178-04:00

Remember Murrill McLean, the Danville Police Department officer who a month ago shot and killed a tiny miniature dachshund that was only barking at him?Here is "big bad" Murrill McLean...And here is a photo of the late mini dachshund "Killer" that McLean terminated...Well, guess what folks?Murrill McLean has been FIRED from the Danville Police Department by Chief Phillip Broadfoot!Incidentally,

Chris Knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07772661137673181295theknightshift@gmail.com40tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5115278.post-1245699320407800502009-07-10T15:30:00.003-04:002009-07-10T15:33:10.735-04:00

I love it when Google does a "doodle" for a special occasion. Check out this one that they've cooked up for today's observance of the birthday of Nikola Tesla!

Chris Knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07772661137673181295theknightshift@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5115278.post-49287530623263400952009-07-10T09:13:00.003-04:002009-07-10T09:22:57.163-04:00

Well, Bennie, Eric, Gaetan and Fleur just left a short while ago. For most of the past week I have been host to four friends from Belgium: one that I have known since 1992 and her wonderful lil' family that we have had the pleasure of meeting for the first time.And already, I'm missing 'em.It's been a long time since I've known such a fun and action-packed last few days. Eric's incredibly bold

Chris Knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07772661137673181295theknightshift@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5115278.post-89463890361093197552009-07-09T20:02:00.004-04:002009-07-09T20:11:21.318-04:00

So Bennie, Eric and the kids insisted on making a Belgian dish tonight for dinner, so we went out this morning and got groceries from the local Wal-Mart (I also made sure that Bennie and crew leave town with a bottle of Short Sugar's barbecue sauce). Dinner was stuffed peppers, some kind of neatly cooked stuffed tomato which defies easy description, and potatoes and it was all awesomely

Chris Knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07772661137673181295theknightshift@gmail.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5115278.post-40895791742082875592009-07-08T22:19:00.004-04:002009-07-08T22:38:27.631-04:00

What? An orchestra playing a concert of music from a wide variety of video games? That's exactly what PLAY! A Video Game Symphony is.And it's coming to the Raleigh/Durham/Cary area this Saturday, July 11th, courtesy of the North Carolina Symphony and the Concert Singers of Cary. The performance will be at the Koka Booth Amphitheater.Here's the e-mail that I received this afternoon from Lauren

Chris Knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07772661137673181295theknightshift@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5115278.post-644145996114372362009-07-08T22:12:00.003-04:002009-07-08T22:15:48.617-04:00

We went all over Raleigh, then came back and enjoyed a good dinner at Cafe 99 in Reidsville (and treated our guests to a karaoke rendition of "Hey Jude"... with terrific accompaniment by Justin and Haley :-).That's just what comes to mind most right now. The whole day was well documented with still and video cameras.Lord only knows what we'll do tomorrow but having four guests from Belgium in

Chris Knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07772661137673181295theknightshift@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5115278.post-49440848365265380162009-07-07T23:35:00.002-04:002009-07-07T23:37:54.479-04:00

Four of the coolest people you can imagine, led by a girl who is very much like a dear sister, have come from the far land of Belgium and will be staying with me for the next several days.Expect photos of whatever shenanigans we can come up with to appear on this blog soon!

Chris Knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07772661137673181295theknightshift@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5115278.post-40399704060401090212009-07-07T17:21:00.004-04:002009-07-07T17:27:18.169-04:00

Check out this gnarly promotional art for Joe Schreiber's upcoming Star Wars horror novel Death Troopers:Hey, if we can have Pride and Prejudice and Zombies on the bookstore shelves, why not everyone's favorite space smuggling duo against the undead? I've heard a lot of fans are jazzed about this novel: the first serious foray that the saga has taken into the horror genre.Death Troopers arrives

Chris Knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07772661137673181295theknightshift@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5115278.post-2206759517025221882009-07-07T13:20:00.010-04:002009-07-07T18:42:22.934-04:00

Many people have told me that on Sunday night's television broadcast of What Does The Bible Say? on WGSR - or as I call it "The Martinsville Taliban Show" - local cult leader Johnny Robertson of the "Martinsville Church of Christ" claimed that there are now four robust congregations of the "Church of Christ" (which is nothing like the mainstream Churches of Christ) meeting in this area. Those

Chris Knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07772661137673181295theknightshift@gmail.com172tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5115278.post-65209490524371446632009-07-06T13:36:00.006-04:002009-07-07T01:38:04.377-04:00

So for the past several days I've been engulfed in Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects and whatnot. Hard at work for some good friends: HyperMind in Burlington (click here for the first write-up I did about 'em). Well, among the very popular games that HyperMind carries is Monsterpocalypse, and this summer its publisher Privateer Press is having a mondo ginormous event called

Chris Knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07772661137673181295theknightshift@gmail.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5115278.post-54639543837465666392009-07-05T14:57:00.006-04:002009-07-05T15:06:31.023-04:00

The Mail Online has published a series of photos taken by the Santa Barbara Sheriff's Department during its 2003 raid on Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch.This might be the creepiest photo I've ever seen associated with the "King of Pop"...Jackson slept in this bed and on the wall over it hangs a rendition of The Last Supper. Except this version of the famous painting has Michael Jackson sitting

Chris Knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07772661137673181295theknightshift@gmail.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5115278.post-4408049649645135522009-07-05T14:23:00.005-04:002009-07-05T14:41:48.896-04:00

It was twenty-five years ago this week, on July 1st 1984, that William Gibson's now-classic science-fiction novel Neuromancer was first published. The book presented a world overwhelmed by too much technology, a people with a gluttony for body enhancement and personal media, and transnational corporations with the power of major governments. In other words: a time not very unlike our own.

Chris Knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07772661137673181295theknightshift@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5115278.post-4068696250252921952009-07-05T14:09:00.003-04:002009-07-05T14:15:09.224-04:00

In one of the more impressive examples of video game-inspired costuming, some folks in Seattle have put together a full set of Brotherhood of Steel power armor from Fallout 3. Looks hella sweet, especially the helmet and that laser Gatling gun!Now we just need an entire regiment of these guys to walk into Washington D.C. and free the land from the tyranny of the Enclave :-P

Chris Knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07772661137673181295theknightshift@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5115278.post-86470821728895232472009-07-03T23:03:00.004-04:002009-07-03T23:14:34.186-04:00

Made rather bittersweet in the knowledge that this is the last time they do this as the Sci-Fi Channel. But anyhoo...They just ran the classic episode "A Game of Pool", which originally aired on October 13, 1961. It's one of my all-time favorite episodes of The Twilight Zone, for a lot of reasons but especially 'cuz I thought the interaction between Jack Klugman and Jonathan Winters was

Chris Knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07772661137673181295theknightshift@gmail.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5115278.post-52957879639582676142009-07-03T19:44:00.006-04:002009-07-03T20:02:06.617-04:00

In the past month or so WGSR general manager Charles Roark has broadcast footage of no less than three murder victims (before knowing if the next of kin had been notified), and at this moment is defending his "right" to trespass on property and film video of a person's house burning down without regard of what the guy's family was going through. In addition to every other amount of callous

Chris Knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07772661137673181295theknightshift@gmail.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5115278.post-84627139292526294292009-07-03T16:25:00.003-04:002009-07-03T16:29:47.129-04:00

Sarah Palin announced this afternoon that she's resigning as governor of Alaska effective July 26th. Some are speculating that it's to pursue the Republican nomination for President in 2012.But I could not possibly consider voting for her now.If Palin cannot commit to fulfilling her term of office as governor, why should I have faith that she's capable of committing to that of a much higher

Chris Knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07772661137673181295theknightshift@gmail.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5115278.post-53191605452718906232009-07-02T20:55:00.003-04:002009-07-02T21:00:35.745-04:00

ABC's smash hit series Lost - said by some to be perhaps the greatest television dramatic series ever and not without plenty of reason - will get one more hour for its sixth and last season, scheduled to begin in January 2010. That makes for 18 hours to wrap up everything still dangling unaddressed in the crazy rich mythology that is Lost.Hope that'll be enough... but then again, there can never

Chris Knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07772661137673181295theknightshift@gmail.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5115278.post-79907101586933306802009-07-02T01:20:00.001-04:002009-07-02T01:22:20.065-04:00

This was filmed, people! This was soooooo filmed!What. The. Hell. Were. They. Thinking. ?!?GeekTyrant posted this yesterday. It's a scene from Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines that was edited out of the final film. And had this been included in the movie, I could almost see how Terminator Salvation would have been better for it, because it proves that the Terminator saga's timeline

Chris Knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07772661137673181295theknightshift@gmail.com5