Inside Darren

Well my friends, it’s been a fun ride on this blog. However, I must now announce that this will be the second-last post here, since I’m currently in the process of moving everything over to www.darrenconley.com. The free hosting offered at this current site only allows me about 5kb more storage space, and that covers maybe one picture. So within the next few days (hopefully) all of the content from this site will be up and running at darrenconley.com, where new posts will appear.

This is my first time paying for hosting from somebody, and putting up my own domain, so it may take me some time to figure everything out. But when I do, let me assure you, it will be worth it! There’ll be a whole new look, entertaining content appearing on a regular basis, and posts that are short enough for people to actually read them! There’s a good chance that my comments from this site won’t make the transition to the new one though, so you’ll all have to comment more on darrenconley.com to make up for it.

So, stay tuned for the big announcement that the new site is up, and if you’re bored, you can always read about time travel.

As some of you may know, my friend John Campea, who runs The Movie Blog, has been hard at work for the past few months filming interviews for his upcoming documentary The Prince of Peace, The God of War. He recently put the finishing touches on the trailer, so I thought I’d link to it here. Feel free to leave any comments as to what you think of it so far.

Some of you may not know this, but back in the days when I had long hair and a goatee, I made a brief run at jumping into the entertainment industry in Toronto as a movie and television extra. The greatest amount of screen time that I ever achieved was in an episode of La Femme Nikita that was being filmed at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Here, for the first time on the internet, I present my appearance on Nikita. The clip is approx. 30 seconds long, but I only appear for about 2 seconds of it. I include the context so that you can see that it is, in fact, a real clip.

When you see the villain enter the scene and walk down the set of stairs, I’m the guy who is directly behind him, and a bit to the left. I’m playing one of his bodyguards, and I’m the only one of the bodyguards who is looking down as we walk down the steps. That’s because all I was thinking at that moment was “Whatever you do, don’t trip down the stairs and mess up the entire scene!”

Although, in retrospect, it would have been a great TV blooper, especially in slow motion, with that dramatic music.

Anyway, here’s the clip. Click on the play button in the lower left corner to watch it.

By now, I’m sure that most of you have heard that there’s a live-action Transformers movie in the works, being directed by Michael Bay. Anticipation for the movie is high, since modern computer animation techniques have advanced to the point where the robots themselves can look realistic enough to make you suspect that your Honda Civic might just be from another planet after all.

As an example of how awesome the robots will look, I offer you two videos from youtube.com. The first one is actually a car commercial for the Citroen C4. The other video is a parody of the first one, featuring the Citroen 2CV. For the full effect, watch the first video before the second. You can watch them right here on this blog by clicking on the play button in the lower left corner of each video.

Video 1:

Video 2:

It seems as though Paramount Studios have decided to go out of their way to metaphorically spit in the faces of their movie fans. John Campea, who runs The Movie Blog, had his site shut down for 8 hours recently because Paramount found a picture from the upcoming Transformers Movie on his blog, and proceeded to go behind his back and contact John’s web host about it.

The site is now back up, and words have been exchanged between the various parties involved. To highlight the major issues in this situation, consider the following:

1) John (as well as Doug and I on the podcast) have been giving TONS of free promotion to the Transformers Movie for months, doing nothing but pumping up this movie in the eyes of potential fans. Paramount could not have paid for that kind of word-of-mouth publicity. Many people have commented on the site that they had little or no interest in this movie until John, Doug and I started talking about it. Why would Paramount want to kill that?

2) Going behind someone’s back is a dirty, underhanded way to deal with a problem. If you have something to work out with someone else, you approach them directly, and get it taken care of. This is something most people learn before they’re done highschool. Perhaps Paramount needs to spend some more time in a grade 9 ethics class.

3) This website is currently John’s only means of income. By having it shut down for almost 8 hours, Paramount effectively robbed John of 8 hours’ worth of pay, and thus far have made no offer to compensate him for that loss. I don’t know about you, but if someone took away 8 hours’ worth of my income when I was going out of my way to help out their company FOR FREE, I would be mighty upset.

4) This story has been picked up by hundreds of other web sources in the last 24 hours, and is currently the number one dug story in the Entertainment category at digg.com. Chances are that this move by Paramount will generate far more bad publicity for them then any good publicity that The Movie Blog had generated already. That’s very bad news for Paramount, but potential good news for The Movie Blog, as the site is drawing huge attention from this turn of events.

5) This story has apparently got Doug Nagy very upset. As far as I know, this is one of the signs of the apocalypse. Better say your prayers, kids.

The full story (thus far) can be found at The Movie Blog.

Well my friends, it’s time to gratify the ol’ “show and tell complex” and share with you some of the music that’s been stuck in my brain lately.

I’m linking to each of these through YouTube. You can watch them on this page by clicking on the play button in the lower left of each video. If they don’t play for you, you either need to get a plug-in for your browser, need to try a different browser (Firefox or Internet Explorer should both work), need to get faster internet service, or need to get a better computer.

This first song is by Tenacious D, and I’m gonna warn you now - It gets stuck in my head like CRAZY! The video is also freakin’ hilarious, so check it out. If you don’t at least crack a smile when Jack Black says “Rock!”, you need to spend some time smacking your own face until your soul wakes up again.

This next video is by Anberlin, a group that I had never heard of until I saw them on Relavent TV. The video is moving, and the song is rockin’.

I had never really paid much attention to The All American Rejects before, but as soon as I heard the chorus for this song, it was stuck in my head for weeks. The song is amazingly catchy, and the video concept ain’t bad either.

Yes, I know that I am quite possibly sacrificing what little manliness I possess by posting a Natasha Bedingfield video on my blog, but I would be remiss if I neglected to share this song with all of you. I love how this video can show Ms. Bedingfield as being beautiful without being skanky, and how it so vibrantly visualizes the joy that this song conveys.

For a long time, I tried to resist jumping onto the Switchfoot bandwagon, but after having so many quality songs being played on mainstream radio, I had to give in and admit that this band is doing something right. This video for We Are One Tonight is reminescent of the video for Move Along up above, but only towards the end. Once again, a freakin’ catchy song, and the scene transitions in the video are clever enough to keep you watching.

This final video comes courtesy of Hardcore Joel, who I can honestly say has never slapped me with a fish. He seems to like this Rosie Thomas girl a lot, and while the stop-motion animation in the video for this song creeps me out a bit, I listened to the song itself six times in a row. Enjoy!

Many of you are probably familiar with the Dilbert comic strip. You know, that one with the nerdy guy whose necktie always has an erection, and the dog who hires himself out as a business consultant in order to inflict canine evil upon the human populace.

Anyway, the writer of the Dilbert comics, Scott Adams, writes a blog that is entertaining, informative, thought-provoking, and fairly-consistantly hilarious. He also gets more reader comments than any other blog I have ever encountered in my (albeit limited) internet blog-reading experience.

One of his most recent posts asked his readers to submit comments relating some of their most amazing personal stories. As of this posting, there are 416 submissions, and after having read through almost all of them, I have to say that these stories are well worth checking out for yourself.

So swing on over to The Dilbert Blog, grab yourself a tasty beverage (fruit-based or caffine-based is always nice), and treat yourself to some amazing true stories of amazingness.

Do you often feel a need for physical affection, but have nowhere to find it? Do you sometimes wish you could have a nice hug, even from a stranger, but are afraid to ask? If this is you, I’ve got some good news, and some better news for you. The good news is that you’re not alone. The better news is that there is a new fad sweeping the nation which can help fulfill your need for affection in a non-threatening way.

Let me introduce you to “Cuddle Parties”.

I heard about this as I was listening to the radio at work today - There are parties being organized in almost every major city, where people can come to snuggle up with friends and/or strangers, and get a healthy dose of physical affection. There is nothing sexual about these gatherings, and there are actually Cuddle Party Lifeguards (who take a 3 day training course) to make sure that everyone in the room feels comfortable (physically and emotionally) all the time.

The idea of these gatherings, such as I understand it, is to fulfill our basic human need for affection without all of the messy stuff associated with bars or perverts. People are required to ask about offering or receiving different types of affection (hugs, cuddles, nuzzles, etc.), and are told to offer polite rejection to anything they aren’t comfortable with. In fact, before the cuddling even begins, people take some time to practice rejecting, and receiving rejection. I guess that’s a skill in and of itself.

I have to admit that I find this whole concept intriguing. I remember reading somewhere that human beings need something like 3 hugs per day just to maintain emotional health. I also remember that there were often times (back in my “single days”) that I genuinely wanted, not sexual pleasure, but simply to be hugged or cuddled by a nice girl. And women in general seem to crave cuddling in ways that men don’t (or don’t like to admit), so much so that it’s not unusual to see female friends cuddling together while watching a movie or standing outside on a cold day.

I’m not sure that I’m ready to jump into the whole Cuddle Party scene just yet, but for those of you who are interested, you can check out www.cuddleparty.com and find out all the snuggly-details for yourself. There’s a list of frequently asked questions, pictures, and even a place where you can check for cuddle parties in your area. And for those of you in Canada, there’s a Toronto contact for upcoming cuddle events.

As for me, I’m happy getting my cuddles from Larissa. Her cuddle skills are second to none.

Cuddle Party Links:
Homepage of the creator of Cuddle Parties
New York Daily News Article
Seattle Times Article
Article from a B.C. news blog
Wikipedia Entry

Many of you who regularly read my blog may already know that, before Larissa and I got together, I spend a very large portion of my free time agonizing over being single, and trying to figure out the proper “formula” to find a good wife in as short a time as possible. While the journey in building my relationship with Larissa was long and complicated, it was well worth the wait.

In the course of reading over my buddy Joel’s blog earlier today, I came across a link to this article about being single. If you’re a Christian and are struggling with the single life, I think it may speak to you in ways which you need to hear. It’s not all fluffy, pat-answer, “God has a plan for you so be happy” stuff. It’s also not short, so if you’re afraid of reading, then you’re going to have to miss out on the wisdom that this article has to offer.

Click here to read “So, Why Aren’t You Married?”

Those who have mastered Super Mario Kart will have encountered that racing skill known as “drifting”. This is when you attempt to turn a corner, but allow your car to slide a bit so that you can really punch the gas as you head into the straightaway. Now, I’m no racing expert, but I believe that in real life, drifting does little to aid you in winning an actual race. Mostly it just looks cool, sounds squeally, and takes a hefty dose of rubber off of your tires.

It’s interesting that Nintendo, who makes Mario Kart, is a Japanese company, because in the latest installment of The Fast and the Furious, the main characters have to go all the way to Japan in order to learn about how to make their cars slide around corners. Maybe if they had done more video game playing and less skirt chasing back in America, they could have got their education in “drifting” without all the hassle of traveling to Japan. But then, they wouldn’t be able to chase any Japanese skirts.

The trailer for The Fast and the Furious 3: Tokyo Drift can be found at Yahoo Movies, and if you’re expecting it to be dumber than a bucket of pork, I believe that your expectations will be fulfilled. I myself have actually been to Tokyo, and I can tell you first-hand that I didn’t see any drifting at all. Well, that’s not entirely accurate - The layer of smog that I saw from the top floor of a large office building was drifting a bit.

And if you think that watching smog drift gets old fast, I can guarantee you that The Fast and the Furious 3: Tokyo Drift will do the same.