Media Recap: December 2012

Posted on Sun 30 December 2012 • Tagged with Media Recap

Summary: 2 games, 9 podcasts, 1 movie, 4 videos, 3 novels, 2 different manga

Games

Developer Halfbrick was generous and offered their whole iOS catalog for free for one day during Christmas 2012. I downloaded all of their games but since I neither like zombies nor shooting things for the sake of shooting I found bliss in Fruit Ninja. Especially the Puss In Boots episode of Fruit Ninja is adorable.

Podcasts

  • Irish and Celtic Music Podcast 124 (1/2)
  • Irish and Celtic Music Podcast 132
    I had the sudden urge to listen to something different during December and Irish music just happened to be the first thing that came across my mind. Most of the songs in the podcasts were pretty nice, but A Man’s a Man performed by The Duplets stood out in particular. It’s calming and very relaxing to listen to.
  • Build & Analyze 105 - Service Plans for Cables
  • Build & Analyze 106 - Outlasted The Daily
  • Build & Analyze 107 - The Eldest Programmer (1/2)
  • IRQ Conflict 46 - NSEror
  • Secret Archives of the Vatican Podcast 101 - Cultural Wisdom
  • Mac Power Users 112 - Self Publishing and iBooks Author
  • Coffee With an Author - Feb 1, 2012, Jennifer Estop
    Well, about that interview… It was bad. Really, really bad. The interviewer was not prepared at all, kept stating incorrect facts about the author and moreover showed amazing disinterest in American geography. One should at least know if a state is in the north or the south of the country. Moreover the interviewer repeatedly used phrases like “tell me now” and “let’s go back to” which made her sound even less prepared.
    Nevertheless it was interesting to hear about the habits and writing process of a real, published author. Even though Jennifer Estep is not that popular (yet?)

Movies

  • The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - wiki / imdb
    After having read the novel a while ago I decided to watch the movie too. Since I wanted to try out iTunes’ movie service anyway and had time after having finished my university assignments in the 11th hour I did just that. Surprisingly I was not disappointed of the movie even though that seems to be the normal reaction if you’ve read the book and seen the movie on the same content. There were deviations from the book but nothing controversial. I’d say that it was done for the same reason Lord Of The Rings had its alterations done: To fit the full movie into one piece instead of pulling a Harry Potter. I can recommend watching this without doubt.
    I watched the Hollywood edition, not the Swedish one.

Videos

  • Wir sind alle Teil der Netzgemeinde
    I was really late watching this video since it has been lingering in iTunes’ podcast section for quite some time. It’s a funeral for online privacy which died when Austria introduced the “Vorratsdatenspeicherung” (eng. Telecommunications data retention). The concept is quite interesting and the short movie is well done.
  • RSA - The Power of Outrospection
  • Standard.at - Warum die Wehrpflicht abgeschafft gehört
  • Windows 8 - The Animated Evaluation
    This video is done in a style resembling Zero Punctuation and tries to inform about Windows 8’s shortcomings in UI design and usability. I agree with a lot of its points even though I didn’t think it was this bad. On the other hand I really like experimenting with new technology and software and therefor don’t mind searching for things. If, however, one has to jump in and immediately be working productively I probably wouldn’t recommend Windows 8 without at least one mandatory course for beginners before first usage.

Novels

  • The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson
    After having watched the first part of the Millenium trilogy I immediately rediscovered my interest in the series and bought the Kindle version of the second one to read on the train. Which I did. I like Larsson’s writing style. The slow pacing, the tiny spikes of action between slower passages make the style interesting and somewhat difficult to write in my opinion. I find it rather amazing that he manages to keep the reader from losing interest.
  • The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets’ Nest by Stieg Larsson
    Some time after starting the third book I wondered why I was reading at a pace this slow. I had read for an entire evening and only managed to get to a third of the book. Then I realized that the third part of the trilogy was considerably longer than the first two.
    It is a worthy, lengthy conclusion to a modern, serious and entertaining trilogy.
  • Crimson Frost by Jennifer Estep
    Great improvement on the already good series, taking into account my previous criticism about not showing other types of warriors. Neither were there many repetitions or sequences that reminded me of the previous books writing too much. Overall a great work of urban fiction.

Mangas

  • Hunter X Hunter (1-8, 9-13, 14-20, 21-24, 25-26, 27, 28-32) (fin)
    This series is either canceled or on hiatus. I’ve read as far as possible.
  • Naruto (611, 612, 613, 614)