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My personal avatar

The internet has certainly made it a lot easier for individuals to interact with people all over the world, through things such as instant messaging, VOIP, forums, etc. It allows people to better understand the world around them and also make new friends online when they discover like-minded individuals. For people looking for a great way to meet new friends online, GaiaOnline.com is definitely a site worth checking out.

For those who still don't know what it is, Gaia Online is a forum-based website where everyone's avatars are anime-styled characters which are able to don different pieces of clothing and accessories which can be purchased either using virtual gold or paying for it with real cash. The reason why it's called a "forum-based" site is because back in 2003, when the site was first opened to the public under the name Go-Gaia, it was initially just made up of a forum and an avatar customization feature. However, since then, Go-Gaia has evolved into Gaia Online and added a ton of new features. So many in fact that I wouldn't even know where to start.

When I personally joined the site in 2004, they had lesser features than they do now. Back then, the only game which you could play was Fishing, which got boring quickly. Which is why most people still mainly stuck to the forums and marketplace where you could sell or buy items to customize your avatar with. However, they've added games like slots, blackjack, jigsaw and a few others to entertain users.

It doesn't stop there, they've also added things such as the Gaia Towns feature which basically brings your avatar into a Flash application and you can then move around and talk to people in real time, kind of like in Habbo Hotel for those who know that site. It's really great to be able to see your avatars come to life and actually move about instead of having them merely standing beside your messages in forum posts. They've also recently added a virtual theater where you can actually watch movies with other users in a virtual cinema. Of course, they don't have any of the latest Hollywood blockbusters, but they do have great movies like Space Jam and even The Matrix.

However, despite the radical changes that have been implemented, Gaia Online still holds true to its original goal: to allow people meet and interact with one another in a virtual environment. That's why even with the addition of Gaia Towns, there are still a ton of people in the forums since it's basically what Gaia Online first started off with and what everyone has grown accustomed to. The great thing about Gaia Online is also the way in which you earn gold. That's done by doing simple things, such as exploring the site by clicking around, posting in the forums or even polling in any poll. It's that simple, and with that gold you can buy items to outfit your avatar with. While this sounds extremely shallow, it can get extremely addictive. The problem is that Gaia Online keeps on adding new items all the time and by now it's really impossible to keep track of how many items they've added to the site. So much so that www.tektek.org has been set up to aid users with Gaia Online. There are so many items that no two avatars will ever look the same because there are an infinite number of possible combinations of items. That's also another great thing about Gaia Online, you are able to have a unique avatar which can truly represent yourself in a virtual world.

Gaia Online is obviously a great place to meet like-minded individuals, especially by joining Guilds. Users are able to set up Guilds based on a specific topic so that all users are able to congregate in that specific forum to discuss about that particular topic. For example there are quite a few Star Wars Guilds out there and even Guilds based on Final Fantasy where users even role play characters in forums. It really becomes a very immersive experience after awhile since there are definitely a ton of people with whom you can role play with. Also, you can rest assured that no matter what topic you're interested in there'll be a guild set up for it. Of course, even if there isn't one, you could easily start one yourself. The great thing about having these guilds is that you are able to hang out with people who have similar interests to your own.

Gaia Online is a really great site, though some might be turned off by the anime theme. However, there are tons of features that will keep users coming back for more. For example they're planning on introducing a whole MMORPG game to Gaia Online so that users can play using their very own avatars. Still, it's not like there aren't already enough features to keep you occupied. With forums, games, movies and a great community, there's no reason for me to not give this site the best 5/5 rating.

P.S: If you're thinking about signing up, I suggest you do so soon. Gaia Online is giving away a unique special item everyday from the 12th to 24th of December as a Christmas special. These special items can really increase in value over time. Also, when you're signing up, please include "spvn" as the referrer.

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When Meet the Parents hit theaters worldwide back in 2000, it met with critical acclaim and practically every movie-goer enjoyed this hilarious comedy directed by Jay Roach. Thus, it was no surprise that he would direct a sequel to the movie, entitled "Meet the Fockers" which eventually came 4 years later after the first film. Unfortunately, Roach failed to win over the critics with this sequel as it got mostly mediocre reviews across the board. However, that doesn't necessarily make this a bad film in my opinion.

In the original film, Greg Focker (Ben Stiller) was about to propose to his girlfriend, Pamela Byrnes (Teri Polo), when he had to stay over at Pam's house over the weekend and endure her parents and family, most importantly of all is her father, Jack Byrnes (Robert De Niro) who is a former CIA operative and bent on testing Greg to his limit to find out if he's good enough for Pam. As Greg continues to try and impress Jack, the whole movie becomes a hilarious comedy. In the 2004 sequel, it's Jack's turn to go "meet the Fockers" (ie. Greg's parents). Before he meets them, he's pretty confident that there won't be any problems with them, stating "A doctor and a lawyer, what's there to worry about?"

Unfortunately for Jack, it turns out that the Fockers are anything but conventional. Greg's mother, Rozalin (Barbra Streisand), is in fact a sex therapist while his father, Bernard (Dustin Hoffman), actually quit being a lawyer after Greg was born and is now a wild old man who always likes to crack somewhat inappropriate jokes in front of Jack. Initially, there is friction between Jack and Greg's parents since Jack is simply unable to accept their behaviour. However, by the end of the film both parties finally sort out their differences and Greg has finally proven himself worthy of being Pam's husband.

The film remains funny throughout with all actors and actresses delivering perfectly, though that's to be expected with such great talent. While Greg's parents find absolutely nothing wrong with their behaviour, Jack obviously takes offense and Greg keeps trying to smoothen things out by getting his parents to act "normal". All these problems result in absolutely hilarious situations especially with Ben Stiller delivering his role as the main character. For example Greg tries to get his mother to hide the fact that she's a sex therapist and thus has to clean up his mother's office and hide the more "inappropriate" books and statues in it.

However, this film clearly isn't as good as the original "Meet the Parents" was and will unfortunately have to be deemed as one of those usual bad sequels. What went wrong with this film? In my opinion, it's the script. The problem is that all the funny portions of the films seem to stem from only one thing: the difference in characters of the two in-laws. That's it, it seems like all the writers could think of is every single character difference they could squeeze into the script. After awhile, instead of being funny, some might even want to cringe at the jokes because it just gets monotonous.

All in all though, this is far from a bad movie, and still certainly a funny comedy. However it could have been better if the talented cast wasn't wasted on having to act out such a bland script. Still, if you're out there looking for a comedy to watch, Meet the Fockers might be worth the rent.

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When anyone mentions the American band OneRepublic, the first song which would spring to most minds would be their hit single Apologize, produced in collaboration with producer Timbaland, which broke the records as one of the most successful singles ever released. One would have to agree that this band has came a long way from a lowly beginning within MySpace back in 2004. Dreaming Out Loud is OneRepublic's debut album, containing "Apologize" and it's remix version with Timbaland, as well as 11 other pop-rock songs, with another 3, "Hearing Voices", "Dreaming out loud" and "Something's not right here" available at certain locations only.

To get the ball rolling, I'm sure many have heard their single "Apologize" before. With that song in mind, I have to say that the rest of the songs within the album bear the same genre and some resemblance to it. I'm no music guru, but they have a heavy emphasis on acoustics and drums as well as the occassional piano. Most of their songs combines this and Ryan Tedder's(Their lead Vocal) unique voice to craft brlliant songs. For example, the much acclaimed "Apologize" uses the piano as well as the guitars to produce a melodic and addictive beat, providing the platform for this song to be the success it is today.

Despite OneRepublic claiming themselves as a rock band, I personally find "Dreaming out loud" somewhat contradicting it. Most of the album's songs are more of pop and non-metal, being what I myself would consider "soft" in nature. Their songs all follow one main theme, that would be emotional struggles, relationships and such problems. Another example, "Stop and Stare" is a catchy song relating to the act of trying to move on from something of the past, only realising later that although you try to get away, you would end up being unable to move away from that incident.

Furthermore, I find some of their music extremely repetitive. Perhaps one of the problems with this album is the lack of variety, some of the tracks sound alike, all bearing identical themes, and to put it bluntly, I would get sick of hearing the similar melodies or beats over and over again in several the songs. In addition, one nitpick I noticed is that they like to reuse the chorus repeatedly, for example, in "All fall down", as well as repetitive lines in "Prodigal". Sure, in the end, it may produce a great sound, but after sometime, it gets monotonous.

All in all, despite just falling short to the hype and high expectations one would expect after "Apologize" came out some time before the album, I still find the album still containing some solid music, a recommended buy for pop-rock lovers.

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A bald, hired assassin who is a professional at taking out his targets one by one, that is the premise on which the series of Hitman games is based on. With Codename 47 being the first game in the Hitman series released back in 2000, Hitman has certainly become a very significant icon in pop culture. Thus, it's not surprising that there's finally a film adaptation so that everyone can finally watch their favourite bald assassin doing his job on the silver screen instead of having to control him in a game. The problem is, this intriguing plot of Agent 47 (Timothy Olyphant) being a professional assassin is probably the only interesting portion of this movie - Hitman (2007).

Let's start off with the plot, which was basically nonsensical. Near the beginning of the show, Agent 47 is sent to kill a Russian presidential candidate, Mikhail Belicoff, which he does. Turns out there was a witness to the assassination, so he has to kill her. But when he confronts her and realises that she's never seen him before, another agent from "The Organisation" tries to kill him. Why? Don't ask me. It only gets worse from here onwards.

That same presidential candidate later gives a speech and the media reports that the wound only grazed his forehead when Agent 47 is sure he killed the man. Turns out the man that Agent 47 killed was a double, and it turns out that Belicoff was the one who ordered the assassination. Why? Once again I got no clue.

Also, it turns out that Agent 47 was supposedly set-up to get him killed. Who did it and why? Still no clue.

Then in one of the scenes where 3 agents come to kill Agent 47 on a train, everyone points their guns at each other. Why didn't all three of them point their guns at Agent 47? Then suddenly, Agent 47 suggests that they die with dignity and everyone drops their guns and takes out swords to start fighting, and of course Agent 47 (being the "good" guy) easily won. Why didn't the other agents just shoot him already?

Then as the story unfolds, one of the Russian FSB guys is working with Belicoff in secret, to do what? The plot never reveals that as well. There are still plenty of parts which make absolutely no sense (at the end another agent tries to kill the female witness again, though there's really no point for him to kill her anymore) and it'll take me forever to recall them and list them all here. Bottom line is, for anyone looking for a movie with a remotely sensible plot, stay away from this show.

There isn't really much for me to comment when it comes to the acting itself. None of it really stood out in a positive or negative way, the acting throughout the entire movie was just... standard.

Well the only saving grace of this movie is probably the very fact that it's based on the Hitman franchise itself. Following a professional assassin around killing targets while evading capture at the same time is definitely an exhilarating experience for movie-goers. The film is obviously chock-full of action sequences, everything from run and gun scenes to hand-to-hand combat. All of these scenes are definitely top notch, if only they had a more solid storyline to back them up.

On the whole, fans of the Hitman games will undoubtedly want to watch this movie no matter what, but for others, I'd suggest you stay away from this film unless you're craving for some action film. But even then, watching an older film would probably be more worth your time due to the absolutely nonsensical plot present in Hitman (2007).

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Most of us would probably remember Lord Jeffrey Archer as a criminal, having spent time in jail for perjury. However, if one were to look behind such an ignominious history, you would have to agree that he has a knack for spinning a long tale, as seen by his earlier successes, specifically, Kane & Abel.

Having read most of his other books, I can easily describe to you the style of which he writes. He takes two characters which seem to have next to zero relationships with each other, and follows their trials and tribulations from birth to adulthood seperately. Then, in this period of time, the lives of these two characters who were thought were seperate would somehow be deeply entwined with each other, causing drama and tension for both characters who we have been following. It is no different in Kane & Abel.

William Lowell Kane is the son of a rich Boston millionaire, whilst on the other hand, Abel Rosnovski is a poor Polish immigrant. Both only have one thing in common, their birth dates. In the span of the book, which covers a life to death story spanning nearly sixty years, we see both of these men grow up in their respective homes and countries, before their goals bring them together as partners and eventually, enemies. We will learn about both their families, their loves and even their children, all brought up in juxtaposition to each other.

The story begins in World War I, where Abel is trapped in invaded Poland, while William Kane sits comfortably at home in Boston. Both their lives and difficulties are different from each other, one trying to survive in a dangerous situation that he is in, the other trying to survive in a different environment, his school, his business relationships. Only when Abel finally immigrates to the States, his goals change that of a monetary one, where now both of them now sharing the same goal, conflict each other.

Despite the interesting and long drawn out story given here, some might be simply disgusted at the sheer length of the story. Some readers would prefer to jump straight into the action, rather than go to through a long drawn out life story of both characters, no matter how interesting it is. Furthermore, Jeffrey Archer writing style of using Chekhov's Gun where certain characters or events early in the story may seem unmeaningful and unnecessary, only to be brought up later in the story, causing the reader to flip back to investigate it's meaning, having not paid proper attention to it just now. In addition to that, the story also lacks a major climax. Indeed, it has a number of tense moments at different parts of their lives, a childhood crisis, a teenage nemesis each character might face. This results in a fluctuating tension which does not climax well. In fact, come to think of it, I personally feel that some earlier events might have put me on the edge more so than the final ending of the story.

Kane & Abel, however, is still a decent read to avid readers who are looking for a good, moderate length work of fiction. If you do not mind a fully fleshed out story, perhaps Kane & Abel would be a good choice for you. Even if you are done with this book, the stories of these families actually continue in two seperate "sequels", "The Prodigal Daughter", as well as "Shall We Tell The President?", further following into the lives of these two families in the near future.

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