If Bo is a descendant of Xena, then Jane Rizzoli must be her reincarnation...

I've started watching Rizzoli & Isles and I am loving every moments of this show. I previously came to a conclusion that Bo is a descendant of Xena, because they both have similar themes and people around them. But then after watching Rizzoli & Isles, I'm starting to think, "wait, if Bo is the descendant of Xena... that makes Jane... her reincarnation?" The similarity between Xena, the Warrior Princess and Detective Jane Rizzoli is kinda so similar that I can only conclude that Jane Rizzoli is either her reincarnation or Jane has Xena's spirit trapped in her body (think Xena, Season 2, Episode 10, The Xena Scrolls)

Let's start with the basic...

Both Xena and Jane Rizzoli are tall... as in 5'10" tall and capable of handling weapons.

Both have long dark hair.
vs

Both have a loyal companion (the smarter one)

Gabrielle, Bard of Poteidaia
vs

Dr. Maura Isles, the Medical Examiner
Hey, did you notice that they're blonds?

Both have men in their lives that well, they are just there...
Xena has Joxer and Autolycus...
Ok, if you want to bring up the subject of love interest instead then you get
Marcus
Julius Caesar

And who can forget the God of War himself, Ares?

and Gabrielle had
Perdicus who is... dead...

Now Jane has
Agent Dean, who has been called back to Washington.
Or the army guy, Casey... still stuck on the other side of the world.

and Maura had

Ian who is actually wanted by Interpol

Oh and please don't forget this guy... the creepy, psycho Dennis who, thankfully, is dead.

So, that's pretty convincing evidence that the men aren't meant to be. Girls, you've got each other. It's better that way.

Both of them have 2 brothers...
Xena's got
Toris
and Lyceus

Jane's got
Frankie
and Tommy

Now, let's not forget that they're protective of each other...


Oh yes, when you threaten their friend, you will feel the wrath!

Am I missing anything else?

Dragon Age: Ultimate Edition review

I know I may be late (way late) to review games like Dragon Age but it's a personal decision.

1) Why am I paying $60 for a game when the price eventually will come down?
2) The game they put out nowadays are almost always INCOMPLETE (I'm looking at you DLC!)!!!!!!!!!!
3) If I wait long enough, they'll package everything in a nice cheap price. So, call me el cheapo but you know I'm right

Now that that's out of the way, onto review!

I did read some reviews and people's comment of how Dragon Age was one of those great games. But it was one of those I'm not sure I would enjoy playing. So after finishing God of War 3 and Deus Ex, I needed something new. I had bought Sly Cooper collection but that game is a very easy pick and play whenever game. So, at an EB Games, I saw the Dragon Age: Ultimate Edition for $20. Considering that it is $20 for two games, I thought it was a good price as they actually had Dragon Age and Dragon Age: Awakening for $20 each.

Finally got around to it and finished ALL the contents, including the DLC. I will try my best to do a full review.

Let me start with the big pictures.
1) Graphics - It is beautiful. It is not perfect but it still have beautiful scenery, facial expression and the finer details that are over looked.

When having a conversation with your companion (I enjoy talking to Morrigan and Alistair), you can really see the anger, sadless and love in their facial expression.

2) Music - as a classically trained music student. I really love the music. It had a very Romantic era style with the drive and the sound. I hope that the music will be part of the Video Games Live list, if it's not already.

Sometimes people over look the music in video games but a lot of the times, it is what drives the game play. In Dragon Age, soundtracks for fights make it more exciting. Just loading the disc into my PS3 and just let the track run got me excited. The vocal track is very haunting and yet soothing. It reminds me of Lisa Gerrard's voice in Gladiator soundtrack.

3) Story - and not just the storyline. It's ashamed that we cannot use all 8 of the companion at the same time. I would love to read the script for those small conversation. The interactions between the characters are hilarious. For example? The bickering between Morrigan and Alistair, or Oghren and Leliana. You can tell the writers wanted to give them life and they achieved it. Sometimes I would stop and just listen to the conversation between them.

Now that the big picture is out of the way. What did I think of gameplay?

Call me a loser and not a real gamer but I personally found the controls a bit frustrating. Sometimes I would press the button and it wouldn't react. I think I'm quite used to playing games like God of War where there is a BLOCK button. I started the game on normal difficulty. It may have been my poor decision to visit Denerim first before other places on the map, I ended up turning the difficulty to casual. I am normally in it for the story. Having said that, with just one actual attack button and 6 magic/special moves, I thought it may have been better executed. I did have several frustrating moments.

Speaking of frustrating moment... autosaves. It's nice but sometimes you forget. There were a few instances that I forgot to save frequently and lo and behold, that last 20min of gameplay? Poof. Now, that ain't necessarily a bad thing but just forgetful.

Now back to the storyline, as I mentioned, they are very intertwined. To have your character to love several people and see jealousy is kind of funny. To have Leliana and Alistair make you choose... I did find Alistair a bit annoying at times. Maybe I just like Leliana's accent.

Voice casting was great. Morrigan had such great dark humour and Claudia Black was awesome. I remember seeing her in a few roles on Hercules and Xena. And Kate Mulgrew, Captain Kathryn Janeway on Voyager, I don't know who else you would find to voice Flemeth. Kate is hilarious in person and her voice and humour played it perfectly. Even Alistair's voice had a lovable personality.

I think what made Dragon Age one of the best game on PS3 is the re-playability. I have only finished 1 version of the story. The fact that the game has 6 different origins and different endings depending on your action makes the game great value. Do you keep this companion? Or kill them? What shocked me was playtime. My total game play for JUST Dragon Age: Origin was around 66 hours. SIXTY-SIX HOURS. That's a lot of hours spent looking for things. I tried to do most of the side quests. The side quests are the ones that make the game complete but there were so many (as I was stupid to accept all of them and about 10% was probably incomplete). To top it off, they decided to add 4 extra, standalone story DLC and 4 in-game DLC.

Each of these DLC added an extra hour or so of game play. However, the standalone story DLC gave more of an alternative. Leliana's Song provided more of her background of how she came to be. Witch Hunt actually is more of the aftermath. While Dark Spawn Chronicles offer you a totally different point of view and allows you to be the bad guy. Who doesn't want to be the bad guy?

Dragon Age: Awakening is a story continuation of the end of Dragon Age: Origin and you are able to continue with your created character, even if you decided to sacrifice yourself (I did... hey, it was the greater good!). While the content is not as in depth as Origin, Awakening provides the extra content to satisfy the "I want more." I'm not sure how I feel about Awakening. You rebuilt the entire Vigil's Keep and get new recruit. I decided to put all the recruit I find through the Joining. You need all the help you can get. But the story just didn't have the same oomph as Origin. I just didn't find the ending of Awakening as satisfying as Origin but then again, I did sacrifice myself at the end of Origin. I shouldn't have been able to transfer my character into Awakening. It's just a minor detail.

The main question is, did I enjoy playing it? Yes. Will I be playing it again? Yes but not in the near future. Is it worth the $20 I paid? Yes. Would I have paid more? Probably not (blame those DLC).

Grading the 2011-2012 Toronto Maple Leafs

So another year... and another season out of the playoffs.

Here's Globe and Mail report card. Now, I have read it and agree with a few and disagree with some. Here is my grades:

Forwards:

Phil Kessel: A-
37G 45A 82P
For all the people that says he can't play defense and he's a one dimensional player. You can't fault what he has done this season. He scored 82 points... last person I can remember that had that many point was some guy name Mats Sundin. Sure, his -10 is terrible but he's expected to score and he delivered with 37 goals.

Joffery Lupul: A+
25G 42A 67P
The toss in for the Gardiner deal. I would say it worked out pretty well. Lupul was more then what we expected as a 1st line winger and was the perfect compliment player to Kessel on the other wing. Lupul would have likely scored another 10-15pts in 16 games he missed due to injury.

Mikail Grabovski: B+
23G 28A 51P
The only thing that prevented Grabo from a grade A was his points total. He was great offensively and defensively, always entertaining. The perfect no. 2 guy. Now that he signed a 5 year contract, let's hope he can keep up with the points total and more.

Tyler Bozak: B
18G 29A 47P
Ping-ponged between 1st and 3rd line. He did pretty well as a substituted no. 1 centre but those numbers just won't do it. He is skilled and sound defensively. However, if we stay with Bozak as no. 1 again, he HAS to break into 60 points mark and improve that +/- number.

Clarke MacArthur: B-
20G 23A 43P
He sort of took a step backward but still reliable player. I'm hoping to see he will crack 50 points next season.

Tim Connolly: D+
13G 23A 36P
I contempted between D+ and C-. He was brought in to fill the no. 1 centre role temporary and did it fail miserably. He then fell into no man's name and started playing wing. He was a -14! Good news, we only have him for another year. Bad news, we have him for another year.

Nikolai Kulimen: D
7G 21A 28P
The ONLY thing that keeps me from failing Kulimen is the fact that he plays well defensively. The fact that he couldn't even score 10 goals doesn't mean he didn't tried. The whole season, he tried everything but just couldn't put it into the net. But even if he doesn't score, you will he will back check.

Joey Crabb: B-
11G 15A 26P
Started with Marlies then found a spot with the Leafs. He filled the 3rd and 4th line role perfectly and scored the occasional important goals. No complains here.

Matthew Lombardi: C+
8G 10A 18P
I may be generous but no one knew exactly what to expect from Lombardi this season after missing 80 games last season from concussion. He played mostly on the 3rd line and was a good penalty killer with his speed.

Matt Frattin: C+
8G 7A 15P
For the 56 games the played, the totally can be more. He had a difficult time to start the season and was sent to Marlies. Once he came back up, he looked different. The potential is there and will be interesting.

David Steckel: B
8G 5A 13P
We got him to do what he was suppose to do, win faceoffs. I don't expect goals from this guy but he did his job, win faceoff on penalty kill and on occasional played on the powerplay to win the faceoff.

Mike Brown: B-
2G 2A 4P
Injuries limited him to 50 games but he was effective in the 50 games. He has speed, can put in the occasional goal, will fight, kill penalty.

Colby Armstrong: F
1G 2A 3P
He just can't seem to get a break with the Leafs. Another season filled with injuries... the Leafs missed his leadership though.

Jay Rosehill: D
0G 0A 0P
Well, a less skilled version of Mike Brown or a more skilled version of Colton Orr. Would have been nice if he scored some points but he is what he is - a 4th line tough guy.

Phillipe Dupuis: F
0G 0A 0P
Why did we sign him to begin with? It certainly was NOT for the powerplay. Banished to the Marlies for Darryl Boyce, who was claimed off waiver by Columbus (curse you, Columbus!!!).

Ungraded:
Nazim Kardi
5G 2A 7P
Look, I love the kid. I am rooting for him. He has the skills and I think he sometime have defensive lapse... I want to see Kadri gain a bit more weight and start throwing it around.

Joe Colborne
1G 4A 5P
Still developing. He needs to learn to use his big body at centre. It takes time.

Colton Orr
1G 0A 1P
Only played 5 games and got sent to the Marlies. He is only typical tough guy.

Ryan Hamilton
0G 1A 1P
Feel good story of the year. Played 2 games with the Leafs and got one point. He finally got to play his first NHL game and in one game, he certainly "took care of business."

Carter Ashton
0G 0A 0P
Got from Tampa Bay for Keith Aulie. We will have to see what type of player he'll be.

Defence:

Dion Phaneuf: B
12G 32A 44P
I know I'll get crap for this. Fans and media put too much into Phaneuf as captain. I think he's done a fair job. You can't blame him totally for the February slide. He did get the points and flashed of brilliance. He just needs find consistency and crack the 50 points mark.

Jake Gardiner: A
7G 23A 30P
Where did HE come from? He was not expected to even BE in the Leafs lineup. He really picked it up the 2nd half and show the potential of what he will be. If he doesn't run into the sophomore slump, I expect Gardiner to score 5 more goals and maybe 10 more points. He may definitely be a lock for 40-50 points next season.

John-Michael Liles: B-
7G 20A 27P
Brought in to quarterback the powerplay. He was doing well until the injury and was never the same. He's signed for 3 years and will be an important leadership voice.

Luke Schenn: D+
2G 20A 22P
Too much up and down this season. His inconsistent play is why he's a C-. Some nights he's awesome, and some nights he looks lost. We need him to be the human eraser that he is.

Cody Franson: C-
5G 16A 21P
I liked Cody Franson. He should be on the first powerplay with Phaneuf and they can have all the one-timer they want. He needs to find his confidence again.

Carl Gunnarsson: B+
4G 15A 19P
He's the rock for Phaneuf. He covered for Phaneuf if any mistakes are made. Although, I thought he can score a few more.

Mike Komisarek: F
1G 4A 5P
I dislike Komisarek. I'm not going to hid that. However, watching him play was as bad as watching Aki Berg or Cory Cross play. He can't do anything right. He makes WAY too much money to warm the press box.

Goaltenders:

Jonas Gustavsson: C
17W 7L 4T 4SO 2.92GAA
He was too inconsistent. There were flashes of brilliance but you can't seem to figure out what you will get the next night. He had the opportunity to take the no. 1 job and ride with it. It's almost like he got on and fell off.

James Reimer: C
14W 14L 4T 3SO 3.10GAA
Almost the same story to Gustavsson. He looked really good in the first game but once Gionta (And I'm still wondering why that wasn't a penalty) elbowed Reimer's head, he hasn't been the same. Hopefully a full off season, he will be back into form for next.

Ben Scriven: B-
4W 5L 2T 0SO 3.13
Ben is like the Reimer of 2011-2012 - coming out of nowhere to show that he belongs. It's hard to say with just 12 games but he helped the Leafs weather the storm back in Oct when Reimer went down. There's still some holes in this games, might need another year in AHL.

Jussi Rynnas: N/A
0W 1L 0T
Can't grade a guy who only played 2 games but definitely will be back the Marlies next season.

So, here we are. Those are my grades. Now the Leafs have the 5th pick in this year's draft... obviously, Yakupov will already been chosen. But I'd like to see one of these names: Mikhail Grigorenko (Grabo and Grigo... that'll be fun), Filip Forsberg (no relation to THE Peter Forsberg), Matt Dumba (do all D-man).

Is Bo (Lost Girl) a descendant of Xena: Warrior Princess?

I started watching the show because the darn commercial teaser of Anna Silk as Bo holding a cool weapon caught my eyes...



Now that season 2 has completed... I am more and more convinced that Bo is probably a descendant of Xena.

Shall we begin?

1. Long black hair

vs


CHECKED.

2. Loyal Side-kick/Best Friend


vs


CHECKED.

3. Awesome Fighting Skills - has an arsenal of weapons at her disposal


Her trusty chakram and that's just one of her many skills... don't forget her sword, whip, staff, bow and arrow, and whatever she can grab to use as weapons (including fish and frying pan).
vs

And that's only a SELECTED few... she has a katana hidden in her room somewhere...

CHECKED.

4. One bad boy who just never let go...


The God of War... he'll do whatever it takes to have Xena by his side again.

vs

Ryan Lambert, the Dark Fae... almost got Bo to marry him... also known as Loki, the trickster god.

CHECKED.

5. A Dark Past


The Evil Xena, also known as the Destroyer of Nation. Now she fights for good and tries to atone for her past.

vs

I know she's not evil but she has the potential to turn into Super Succubus (and be evil). But she's fighting the urge to fight for what is right.

Need I say more?

What do you think?

Fantastic Weekend: Part 2

This one is ALL about the Lost Girl.

Showcase, what I liked to consider the Canadian version of HBO/Showtime as they play great shows you don't see on other channels. So, a few week ago I saw the contest. Ironically, I entered my 200 words essay submission (yes... essay) as to why "I'm the Biggest Lost Girl fan." Last day and a few hours before contest closes. Why not? And week later, I had received an email from Showcase that I had won a pair of ticket to attend a pre-show taping for Lost Girl.

Fantastic, I had already plan to go to see the Leafs game and now to cap off the week going to the set of my favourite show!

The taping was delayed an hour but that's ok. I picked up my friend and we were quite excited about this. It's not everyday you get to go to the live taping!

When we got there, we waited in the room with other winners. A guy comes up to me and say, "wait a minute, I know you." I stand there thinking, "really? I am not a famous person because and I don't know you."

"My name is Curt or Faenonymous."
"OH, the twitter guy!"

We actually waited for 45min before we were lead through the set to a room...



It's the DAL RIATA!! Seriously, it looks bigger on TV...



They showed us the episode for that night and at first they played S02E08. I actually cannot believe I knew which episode that was... After 2min of the episode, they realized it was the wrong episode. They had to "borrow" one of the actor's copy and showed up S02E21.

After that they brought out the entire casts for Q&A and there were funny moments. I did meet the cast at the Fan Expo 2011 but they are such nice people to see again. Someone actually grabbed the actor's ass. It's not lie. He turned around with the "who's hand was that on my butt?"

How about just pictures??

Head writer, Steve... a very funny guy.


You command, Anna... we'll obey!


Bonus Anna picture ;)


Kris Holden-Reid


Ksenia Solo


KC Collins and Paul R. Amos... KC has such a great smile. How can you NOT love him? And Paul? That accent is real! It's fantastic!! I think I have a new found liking to Vex...


Zoie Palmer... *sigh* lol


The Triangle...


KC Collins were going to hand out free beer at the Dal... til we realized the tap was empty...


See... it says "The Dal Riata" I WAS THERE!

And... for you Team Dyson people... I did find my way to his apartment...


Dyson must have knew we were coming... he kinda packed up and left town...

I couldn't find Bo's place or Lauren's place... It would have been nice...

And we get to go home with a Lost Girl prize pack!

Sign photo of cast... a water bottle... a nice bag... a notbook... buttons (which is the same pictures as the one I got at Fan Expo)... and a t-shirt...

Now I have a new project...

Get the cast of Lost Girl to sign that t-shirt!

Fantastic Weekend: Part 1

So, with a 3 months hiatus. I'm coming back with 2 part posting! Lucky you!

It actually began more like 2 weeks ago when I received an email and a voicemail that I won a pair of Toronto Maple Leafs tickets from a radio station. That's awesome part 1. Then it was winning 2 free coffees from Tim Hortons. Sure, coffee is only work about $3 but a win's a win! And then I find out that I was a draw to be part of a pre-show for my new favourite show Lost Girl.

So Saturday, March 24th was to be good day but then we (me and Septicor) found out there was a free skate PLUS autograph with Leaf's legend, Darryl Sittler. So, I'd figure why not? It's going to be a full day of event.

And so it began, we went to Mississauga for skating and lined up for autographs. And I am much closer to my goal of getting who ever is still alive on the poster signed.

What you see there is a banner poster of "All-Time Leaf" greats. Completed signatures include: Johnny Bower, Borje Salming, Frank Mahavolich, Doug Gilmoure and now Darryl Sittler. I am missing just 2 that was still alive: Lanny MacDonald and Dave Keon. Anyone know where I can find a "Tim Hortons" signature stamp? He's in the poster!

So we did some skating and Septicor has not skated since he was in elementary school - to put it in simple terms, it's been a LONG, LONG time. But considering it's been that long... this video is him after 20min.



After an hour of skating, we drove down to downtown and went to the Spaghetti Factory for food. We really didn't know what to eat... not really sure WHY we went to Spaghetti Factory. Maybe just one of those days.

I went with the Blue Cheese Farfelle with Chicken. First, blue cheese is an acquired taste because it's strong and second, it's not cheap (but not overly expensive). AND it was with bow-tie pasta. I found the blue cheese a bit stronger then I wanted... oh well, still good and washed it down with Mill St. Organic.

We proceeded to the Air Canada Centre for the game. Leafs lost in shootout but it was an entertaining game. We had these 2 (1 guy and 1 girl) who disappeared after the 1st period. The girl kept complaining about something. Septicor tried to explain the game to her and she asked him if she was annoying him. Then she asked me for a girl's opinion which automatically alerted and "uh oh... what does she want??" And it turns out she wanted to know if she should go use the toilets now or wait for the period to be over to avoid the line up. But they never returned.

On the other side, I had a father-daughter together at the game. I thought that was cute. It's too bad she couldn't get on TV.

The greatness of Mats Sundin honoured beside his hero, Borje Salming.


Anthem time.


Powerplay time!


Now who doesn't like Timbits hockey? This time it was actually girls. There was this one girl who was slightly better then others and everyone cheer for her when she scored.


A little close up shot.


And Leafs scores!!


Mr. Nifty Mitten, Nazem Kadri in the shootout.


Part 2 will be coming soon...