Best of 2016

Hi All,

As the year 2016 comes to a close many, many, many websites generate 'best of' lists...forthwith a whole bunch of them on a wide variety of topics!  Enjoy 'em...

Time Magazine - Top 10 of Everything of 2016 

AllMusic.com - Best of 2016 

National Geographic - Best Photos of 2016

Android Central - Best Tech of 2016

NPR Music - Best Music of 2016 

Rolling Stone - 20 Best Lists of 2016

Life Hacker - 25 Best Movies of 2016 and Where to Watch Them 

Gamespot - Best TV Shows of 2016 

School Library Journal - Best Books of 2016 

Washington Post - 10 Best Books of 2016

Publisher's Weekly - 20 Best Books of 2016

New York Times Critics - Top Books of 2016

Techradar -  Best Phone 2016 - The Top 10 Smartphones We've Tested

Car and Driver -  Best Cars, Trucks, SUVs, and More For 2016 - Editors' Choice Awards

Beer and Brewing Magazine -  Best in Beer 2016: Readers' Choice & Editors' Picks

Winemag.com - Top 100 Best Buys 2016 

...and the list could go on and on and on....

So, you might ask how I found all these lists?  Great question.  Just type in the phrase 'best of 2016' in Google.  Make sure to put a topic after the 2016 - for example, 'best of 2016 movie' or 'best of 2016 newspaper writing' or 'best of 2016 scientific discovery'...you'll get dozens of results of which you'll have hours and hours of reading/viewing ahead of you.

Enjoy the sites and the links.  And, of course, Happy New Year!  Here's to a great 2017.

Regards,
Stu 

Best of 2015

Hi All,

With the year 2015 drawing to a close, now is the time to check all the various 'best of 'lists that are coming out from various news sources, magazines, website, blogs and more.

Enjoy the links and the lists! Happy New Year.

Best 9 Instagram Pictures of 2015 

Best TV shows of 2015 

Best Movies of 2015

Best of the Best of 2015 List From Around the Web

Year in Search 2015

Top 10 Business Stories of 2015 - CBS News

Top 10 Business Stories of 2015 - MSN

Best 11 minutes in sports from 2015

Best weather bloopers of 2015

Best Books of 2015 - Amazon 

Best Books of 2015 - Publisher's Weekly 

Best Photos of 2015 - New York Times 

25 Best Albums of 2015 - Billboard 


Regards,
Stu

Can I Stream It? (CISI)

Hi All,

CanIStream.It is a free service created by Urban Pixels that allows you to search across the most popular streaming, rental, and purchase services to find where a movie is available.

If the movie you're looking for is not available users can sign-up and then set a reminder.  An email is sent to you when your chosen service makes the movie available. It's simple and fast.

Services on CanIStream.It are broken down into five services: Instant Streaming, Streaming Rental, Digital Purchase, DVD/Bluray and XFinity Subscribers.

Note that in some cases users will have to pay for the streaming or the digital purchase or the digital rental.

Note also that the library has a vast number of DVD's and Bluray for free!  In addition, in some cases we can inter-library loan material from other Nassau County public library.

Readers can click here for the library card catalog so you can search for DVD's in the Farmingdale Public Library. 

Regards,
Stu

Easter Eggs

Hi All,

Easter 2015 might have come and gone, but if you are a gamer there is always an easter egg to be found.  Let me explain.

In computer game parlance - and, for that matter, media -an easter egg is an intentional inside joke, hidden message, or feature in a computer game, video game, movie, book or crossword puzzle.  Click here for a quick summary and description from Wikipedia.

So...for some gamers who view this blog...here is a list of some popular Easter Egg sites. But...before you go on to the various sites, you might want to visit Gizmodo's article titled, 'A Brief History of Easter Eggs in Tech'. 

Now... on to the Easter Eggs!
The Easter Egg Archive

100 Best Easter Eggs of All Time - from GamesRadar.com

8 Video Game Easter Eggs That Were Hidden For Years - from Dorkly.com

15 Greatest Video Game Easter Eggs Ever - a video from YouTube

50 Greatest Video Game Easter Eggs of All Time - Mashable.com's version

Best Video Game Easter Eggs Ever - Business Insider's version

Easter Eggs - Primary Games - mostly kids games

Microsoft Excel Easter Eggs - SpreadsheetPage.com

Easter Games For Kids - Squiglysplayhouse.com

Enjoy the Easter Eggs.

Regards,
Stu

Magnificent Old Theatres

Hi All,

I was doing a search at the library for movies for a patron earlier today.  I found the movie that I was looking for, but this was a perfect case of 'it is the journey that matters - not so much the end result'.

While finding the information that I needed about the movie, I came across a website called Cinema Treasures.org.   Click prior link to visit the site.

Cinema Treasures proclaims itself as 'your guide to movie theaters'.  Pretty interesting and sounds somewhat boring until you look under the hood of the site and realize how much valuable and interesting information is at your disposal.

So, what does Cinema Treasures do? Simple, you can search for movie theaters by city or zipcode.   Users can also use a menu of sorts to find Movie Theaters by country (!), state and by city to narrow down their search.

Open theaters, theaters showing movies, closed theaters, demolished theaters, theaters being restored and theaters being renovation are options that can be searched as well.

Pictures, commentary and narrative information (date(s)when the theater was demolished or torn down) are available to readers on certain theaters.  In addition, readers have the option to make comments about the theater being discussed. 

For example, a search for 'Farmingdale New York' yields 2 open theaters and 1 closed theater.  The first open theater listed is the Farmingdale Multiplex Cinemas.  Location and number of screens is listed.  Clicking on the name of the theater yields a current picture, map (user can scroll in and out to get a better sense of the the theater location), and a 2 paragraph blurb about the theater.  A whole bunch of reader comments are available for visitors to read and peruse.  Unfortunately, only users who are signed in are allowed to post comments.


Related websites and additional information is posted on the right side of the page. And....nearby theaters are also listed - which are linkable as well.  At the top of the page are links to Theaters, Photos (lots of movie theater photos - cool stuff).   From the photos link readers also can view Recent Photos, Popular Photos and Photos of Famous Movie Theaters.

Continuing with the links from the top of the page are Video (video about theatres - fairly current), Blog (latest movie theater news and updates) and About Cinema Treasures.

Cinema Treasures is quite a find - I never expected to find such a site! I guess that's what makes the internet such a treasure - you never know what you'll find!

Enjoy the site and the memories and the directions.  Now all we need are some good movies to view!!!

Regards,
Stu

Scary, Real?, Popular and Gruesome!

Hi All,

Do you like that title? I though you would! It is definitely attention getting and that was my whole darn point.

So, what am I talking about?

Zombies and the Zombie Apocalypse of course.

Evidently it has made the mainstream media now. Click on this link for more about the zombification of America. Watch out - its pretty interesting/scary.

Sort of.

Click on this link for a blog entry from CNN's website for more about the zombie apocalypse. 

This is scary stuff!

Oh, and for all you zombie lovers out there, click on this link to the card catalog subject for 'zombie's.  You'll find all sorts of books and videos about zombies and things of that ilk. (I had to make the entry somewhat library related and 'educational'...)

And I won't eat my heart out for not thinking of this entry sooner... :)

Enjoy,
Stu

The Academy Awards

Hi All,

Unless you live under a rock - or if you are completely uninterested in the movies and the Academy Awards - you might have missed the Academy Awards last night.

Yes - I am delivering a blog entry about the Academy Awards. Don't worry, if you follow through to the end of the entry, you'll see why I'm writing this entry. (How's that for a hook - I bet that'll get a lot of folks to work their way through the entry!)

Okay, okay...onto the red carpet we go.

So...if you did miss the AA (Academy Awards from here on out will be denoted by AA), click on this link for all the winners for 2012.

You know you want it - click here for lots of AA photos. Note that the pictures came from the AA website at this link. Look at all the pretty stars and actors and actresses!

This next link has interviews and commentary of actors and actresses interviewed on the 'Red Carpet' before the AA's. Can you imagine how many reporters and news hounds were 'on the story' of the AA's? Well, just to give you an idea, click on this link from the AA blog site. Amazing how much is written about the AA's.

This next link - called Oscar Buzz - is basically a real-time feed of readers comments about the AA's. Note that these are really short comments - basically in Twitter format. Funstuff.

Now, for all the back stories, interviews, comments and more, you can click on this link from EW - Entertainment Weekly. More funstuff. Especially with all the pictures and articles the site has.

You might also want to click on this link from EW that is dedicated to just the 2012 AA's. Wow - so much information. On the page there are sections on 'Oscars 2012: Behind the Scenes', and 'Oscards 2012: Myth Busters', and 'Oscars 2012: Nominated For...Nothing'.

Finally, if you click on this link, you'll find all the books in the Farmingdale Public Library that deal with the Academy Awards.

Enjoy the recap and the sites of the 2012 Academy Awards!

Regards,
Stu

It's Friday Night...What Are You Watching on DVD?

Hi All,

I'd like to help solve a long-time problem that folks have: What to watch on DVD after a long, hard tiring week of work?

Well, back in the day when we had Blockbuster or Hollywood Video, customers could just go to the store and peruse...and peruse...and ask their friend or spouse (or whomever they went to the video store with) and then you would ask each other 'have you seen this movie?' or 'have you seen that movie?' (fill in the title with your movie of choice...)

Let me tell you, that gets old fast and there is definitely some sort of 'video law' that states the more people from the group you want to see the movie with, the more difficult it is to choose a movie that everybody likes - let alone find a movie that no one has seen...

Alas, I've come to your rescue with a fantastic website. I've mentioned it before - probably back in August or September in another movie or entertainment related blog entry.

IMDB

Yes, the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) can come to your rescue. Click here to visit the site
What can the site do for you? Well, you can search for movies (and television series by the way), actors, subjects of movies, get television or movie news and much more.

But (I imagine you are asking yourself, 'how can this help me pick out what movie to watch on a Friday/Saturday/Sunday night?)

Indeed, users who click on this link will go to a part of the IMDB (which, if you haven't already guessed is a great way to get movie reviews, summaries and actor/actress information) that has the Top 250 movies by genre - as voted by viewers.

So, for action movies click here, comedies click here, crime click here, history click here...you get the idea.

By the way, the link to all the subjects is on the left side of the page and you can click on any of these subjects and you'll go to the specific page. Pretty darn cool because then you'll see a list of the top 250 movies as voted by viewers. Click on any of the titles and you'll link to that particular movies' site. Info on the site includes cast information, plot summaries, box office receipt information and much, much more.

If you are a movie buff or if you are just looking for a movie that you've never seen on a particular topic you'll definitely want to use the Internet Movie Database!

Regards and happy movie watching!

Stu

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