Amazon has this set on sale for $34.99. It is the Gold Box deal of the day, apparently part of an HBO week of sales. If you are reading this on January 29, 2009, you are already too late. I’m sure no one will read this in time. It’s funny, I was going to make a post in a couple of days after I completely finished my most recent and most awesome viewing of this incredible series, so I figure I might as well make it now.

This is probably my fourth run through the show — the first in a number of years — and it’s just as great as I remembered, if not better. Some of the CGI is showing its age, not being helped by the higher resolution of Blu-ray, but such a minor quabble is outweighed by each beautiful shot that is magnified by the sharper picture. “Bastogne”, the last episode I watched, was particularly amazing. The snow, the tree bursts, the ruins of the town — everything looked better than I thought it ever could.

But the real star of the Blu-ray set is the interactive field guide. I actually turn off the interactive part while watching, letting the disc run its automated version of pop-up video that includes brief soldier bios, military information, actual training and propaganda videos from the 40s, and other cool tidbits. Basically, if you don’t own this set, you are not an American. What? You don’t own a Blu-ray player? That only adds to the evidence pointing to you not being American. You have not embraced your inner consumerist yet.

The Dark Knight on Blu-ray will be the best-selling piece of software for the PS3 this year.

The next person who tries to say the poker scene in Casino Royale was good gets an angry internet telegram complete with a kick to the balls. The last hand was more improbable than Pierce Brosnan windsurfing up a cliff, or whatever the fuck happened in that scene in Die Another Day.

Every year, I try to convince myself that I’ll get really into the football season, but the passion never materializes. If Brett Favre can’t do it, who can?

The same thing goes for the basketball season. But in my defense, no one wants to be a Knicks fan. Just look what they drove Isiah Thomas to. Oh wait, it’s mostly his fault that they’re a disaster.

More proof that Borders blows ass: I ordered Absolute Watchmen off their website in JULY since it was the only place I could find selling it and also because I had a 30% off coupon. But then once I ordered, it said “backorder”. Next thing I know, it’s October, I haven’t heard a peep from Borders, and I see Absolute Watchmen for sale on Amazon for even cheaper than what I paid at Borders.com (coupon included). Naturally, I order it on Amazon. I just got notice that it shipped from Amazon yesterday. I still haven’t heard anything from Borders. They have to be worse than AIDS. I can’t wait to cancel my order once Watchmen hits my doorstep.

Leave it to the guys behind It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia to make Sinbad and Rob Thomas hilarious. I think the last time Sinbad was funny was in the modern holiday classic Jingle All The Way.

What little gaming I’ve done in the past two months has been limited to cheap downloadable games and demos, and nothing has impressed me more than the demo for Mirror’s Edge. I never thought first-person platforming could be pulled off so ingeniously. When the hell did EA become so creative?

This entire post was just an excuse to post the hottest Little Red Riding Hood ever:

Kate Beckinsale wins Halloween. Flawless victory.

I watched a bit of each of these today. I could quickly see why T2 was so comparatively cheap. It truly doesn’t look that much better than a DVD. But the intro credits sequence is still as badass as ever — even on YouTube. Conversely, both 2001 and Blade Runner look pretty damn impressive. I didn’t watch enough of either to really decide which one looked better, but I found a page that does the work for me.

AVS Forum – PQ Tier Thread for Blu-ray

If you own a Blu-ray player (re: a PS3), or are just thinking of getting one soon, I highly recommend adding that to your bookmarks. They seem to be updating it too. The list agrees with what I saw: T2 is disappointing, and 2001 and Blade Runner both look great. They still aren’t the pinnacle of the format though. Too bad I’m interested in buying basically none of their top-rated Blu-rays. Tier 0 indeed. Hot Fuzz needs to come out on Blu-ray — I hear it looks amazing on HD-DVD.

Anyway, I’m off to lay in bed with my laptop, while watching T2. I wish I had an HDTV and Blu-ray player, but what I am gonna do? I couldn’t help myself after watching The Dark Knight trailer in HD. I should probably watch one of the others, but I haven’t watched T2 in it’s entirety in years. ARNOLD.