The internet has become a fun place around Christmas time. Thanks to flash and other neat programs some truly creative sites are popping up challenging you to make your holidays a bit brighter. Here are few sites around to warm your heart and get creative.

First up, in order to enjoy the outdoor fun you should always dress warmly. Having a cool sweater helps. Here are two site that let make your own sweaters, sticking or stitching just about any design on them.These two sites are really impressive and for those who are creative it's hog city.

We hate Sheep


Kansas City Art Institute- Stitch a Sweater


The second site is from Coca Cola, which lets you download their holiday song, wallpapers and decorate your city block with lights etc.
COCA COLA CHRISTMAS SITE


Lastly you can't have Christmas without yummy treats and the best is of course chocolates! Now you can make your chocolates dance. The site lets pick a chocolate and then put together a series of dance moves. After your done you can preview the dance and send it to a friend or family member.

DANCING CHOCOLATES

Christmas, Coca Cola, Chocolates, Holidays,

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This is a real treat, as the Muppets do the famous Queen song Bohemian Rhapsody. It's hilarious as Animal can't sing more than one word at a time, why many other older and less famous muppets make appearances. Enjoy!

The Muppets, Music, Queen,

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Amanda Seyfried must be getting tired of the name Sofie because once again her character has that moniker on her. Still this little romantic dramedy looks good and lite although who ever put the trailer together really screwed up since it basically gave the ending away and told the whole story.Enjoy

Box Office,

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Some news days are slow while others are just ripe for the picking. It seems that back in 1970, in Portland,OR the news guys were just bored. Not to mention the wildlife authorities. You see a big whale beached itself and died leaving residents and officials bewildered on what they should do with it. Apparently they couldn't move it or chop it up and sell the meat etc sooooo they decided to blow it up. The anchor guy gets a little crazy with the alliteration and the whole thing is hokey but it did happen. Watch the video of the whale being blown to bits, some of which actually wreaked a car!

Whales, Dynamite,

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There have been about a million tv/movie versions of this old classic by Charles Dickens. It's timeless story of helping your fellow man and being kind to one another rings as true today as it did in Dickens time. Many people have their favorite version, the Alistar Sims version being possibly the most popular one of all. He just looks like a Scrooge doesn't he?  Disney has come out with their own version, in fact a third version, all updated for the kiddies and in 3D no less. Is it worth hauling your kids out? Maybe.

With so many retelling's of the same story, how it is presented and told become much more important each time. This version fails to keep anyone interested though. It comes off as bland, a walkthrough. It's short which will leave you wondering what happened.It just doesn't keep you intrested even with the fancy images.Perhaps that's because Jim Carry does almost all the main characters? From Scrooge who is actually rendered well to the three ghosts no one comes off as worth your time. Even Tim isn't even cute or sad and elicited no sympathy from me. He was given very short time along with Crachet and his whole family. You never got a sense they were suffering very badly.The whole story just falls flat.When Scrooge rails against his nephew as being a poor man I expected to see him in a little house with barely any room. Instead he's got a great house with riches galore.

Now the animation was good in some places. The snow effects were incredible, with the 3D effect it was as if the snow was falling right on top of you in front of your eyes even.And the swooping around London and the past was also a treat. I will say that with the animation the three ghosts visits were done much better than most live movies can do, though now with special F/X even that is not great as it once was.Still I think some of the ghosts and images may be too intense for little kids and may scare them. I sat behind a family of at least three kids and the youngest boy was a little scared at times.The ghost of the future was a little too ghoulish.The ghost of Christmas present was just a little to sexy for a kids movie with the chest showing and all, looking like a sexy Santa even. Way to confuse the kids.One of my complaints has to do with the fact that everyone other than the villain all had what I call chipmunk cheeks. It seems to be the effect they go for in realism cartooning but it comes off as silly looking.

Jim Carry of course carries this whole movie. From Scrooge to the three ghosts he shoulders most of the dialogue. I really think this is a mistake. Robert Zemenkis did the same thing in the Polar Express with Tom Hanks and once again the idea fails. By having the same person provide the voices and for these new animation styles their mannerisms and body language you fail to have originality. Having different actors would have been better, would have given us different voices which could have injected some more life into the movie.As previously mentioned the movie felt flat and having a limited number of voice actors I think hurt it's approach. Carry is great at facial expressions but as a voice actor he doesn't quite get it. A great voice actor can alter their voices so well you would be hard pressed to know if it was the same person. Carry is not able to do so. The other actors are given very short scenes so as they just don't even factor into the story.

I'm giving it two ticket stubs out of five. Very good animation does not make up for lackluster voice acting and a bland retelling.

A Christmas Carol, Movie Review, Ticket Stub Review,

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Foxit's eSlick ereader now supports EPUB, puts Kindle to shame



Rejoice as on of the numerous ereaders has decided to support EPUB, the most usable format for reading digital ink.

No but this funny video from College Humor, wonders what would happen if Luxo Jr actually killed the I in Pixar the opening image of every Pixar movie. It's hilarious to see how the letter gang up on the little lamp and what actually happens to the guy. Take a look below.

PIXAR, CARTOONS, HUMOR,

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The man just won the Nobel Peace Prize. Even though he hasn't done anything to deserve it or the nomination which took place only about two weeks after he was sworn in, the committee liked his jive talking and gave it to him. Hey I've talked about peace as well,lots of times can I get a prize as well? What's scary is that he's leading his country downhill this whole year, slowly taking their rights away and has the gall to smile about it the whole time. Hitler, Lenin, Nero, and other monsters did the same thing all while looking good for the public and cameras.

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Politics, Death, War, Peace,

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LOS ANGELES -- In the old Hollywood, it was all about the quote: what an actress could demand as an upfront paycheck. Nowadays, strapped studios are just as interested in what kind of return on investment they can get for their money when hiring a leading lady. Sure, Angelina Jolie brings instant press attention to a project, but is she worth upward of $10 million?
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Looks as if Amanda Seyfried has some dubious help. I hope she doesn't let this affect her:

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After a 2 year battle with Pancreatic cancer, Patrick Swayze passed away today.He was 57 years old. Star of Dirty Dancing which catapulted him to big time fame after starring in a string of supporting roles, he went on to film the movie GHOST, which was another hit.

Patrick Swayze, Celeb Deaths, RIP,

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Wow some of these are fascinating and some are just gross and scary. Wired.com has a neat article on some of the animal kingdoms more bizarre creatures. Some are simply more prolific due to natural preditors being scarce, while others are truly weird and terrifying.Here is one creature that could be ALIENS cousin,lol.



That according to the site is a Isopod parasite that eats a fishes tongue then just burrows in and eats whatever the fish eat!Be thankful people actually cut the head of fish from now on!

Animals, Science, Weird,

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For some reason a city most people ignore for most of the year, but gets major movie and TV production now hosts one of the biggest movie festivals in the world, and the biggest in North America. Not even festivals in Vancouver or California can match this one, though some Cali fests are rising up. I'm thinking if Vancouver would get it's act together it too could be major. And the Tribeca Film Fest is fast becoming a star mecca as well. Still for now Toronto is the place to be for movies, quality ones and not so good ones. I think it's allure is that it's in North America and doesn't have that snooty European vibe that Cannes gives off. This is your everyday smuck who wants to see a great movie festival. Yes the parties are for the A-listers and the glamor is there, but it's just more accessible in Toronto than Cannes, where even the D-listers come just for nothing and the goodies bag. Toronto hasn't suffered that part yet, but if they don't watch it, they could become the next trash heap for stars looking to get into the gossip mags, not for a movie but for themselves.

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tiff, movies, festivals,

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Aww poor little pup, I kept hoping it would be able to get over by the end. Seems mamma there couldn't care less, lol.

Cute, Animals, Puppies,

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Disney has bought out Marvel for a whopping 4 billion. The news just hit this morning surpising many in the business. Given the economic climate it comes as a shock that any studio would be out buying property, given all the whining they have been doing about no money left for productions etc. Still this will help Disney to crack into the young male 18-49 market, which they are woefully under represented in. Marvel's exsiting deals with many of the other studios will still go ahead,which means FOX, WB,Universal,Paramount and Sony still get to prodouce the Spiderman, Hulk, Iron Man , X Men, and Fantastic Four properties for now, but once those contracts and rights expire expect Disney grab hold and make anew. This means that eventually all the Marvel characters etc will be under one roof, instead of being spread out all over the place. Granted Disney could partner up with another studio, but now no more messy contract disputes such as the Spider man disputes.


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DISNEY, MARVEL,

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So what will you be seeing this weekend? Does District 9 have the legs to compete with the big boys? Will word of mouth give it the top spot again. Or will Nazi hunting Jews take over the top spot? Inglorious Basterds actually has very good word of mouth, 88% tomato rating by the critics which have been harsh this summer. Shorts by Robert Rodizgues is trying for the kiddie market but I think will bomb anyway. It's silly mindless stuff and most kids will stay away. Post Grad will be a test Alexis Bledel as a leading lady. Can she open a movie to a decent result, or will people dismiss it and go to the other romance Time Traveler's Wife.

   
Inglourious Basterds    3,165
Post Grad    1,958
Shorts    3,105
X Games 3D The Movie    1,399

Inglorious Basterds, Movies, Box Office,

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Well despite reviews, or maybe because of them, the Joe's ruled the box office this weekend, not to mention it made almost 100 million worldwide. G.I.Joe made and estimated 56 milion this weekend. With worldwide results this means it should make back it's reported 170 million production, which means a sequel to this joke. Considering they tamed the big bad ass Baroness and seemingly killed of Storm Shadow, one wonders how they are going to come back for more. My only hope is that they replace Channing Tatum, who is the worst wooden actor for the role of Duke.A cartoon Duke would be better.

Julia and Julie came in with a modest 20 million, but word of mouth is being counted on to keep their legs up. Next week we get District 9, Time Travelers Wife and The Goods. Should be a pretty good spread.

1. GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra: $56.2m
*    2. Julie & Julia: $20.1m
*    3. G-Force: $9.8m
*    4. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: $8.8m
*    5. Funny People: $7.9m
*    6. The Ugly Truth: $7m
*    7. A Perfect Getaway: $5.8m
*    8. Aliens in the Attic: $4m
*    9. 500 Days of Summer: $3.73m
*    10. Orphan: $3.73m

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Box Office, Movies,

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Do you remember Gunsmoke? It was until this year the longest running show on TV at one time, spanning 20 years. As a live action show it still holds the title though Law and Order is quickly coming upon it.Now CBS, it's longtime home is considering remaking it into a feature film with a modern action twist, yet still set in the American West. Not sure how they plan on spinning that, but still sounds terrible. If they decide to bring some young hunk of nothing to play Matt, it will fail big time. They need a mature actor, and a big one since Matt was a at least 6'6 in the series. And I hope they don't make Miss Kitty a slut with boobs hanging out.

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Hurray, the voice actors of Futurama are back on the job. You may remember about a few weeks ago that Fox had refused to hire back the actors due to salaries increase they were demanding. They came out and said they were looking for new actors. Looks like the threat worked. Each side got what they wanted. And of course fans get the real deal.

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25 yrs ago PG-13 came into existence thanks to the great director Steven Spielberg. It seems he release two films back to back -Gremlins and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and the audiences at the time made a huge fuss. Before PG-13 came about, it was either PG or R. Since neither movie rated a R but were clearly too much for a mild PG, Spielberg proposed to the MPAA a new rating system. He wanted a PG14, but they settled on the now familiar PG 13 stance.

So has it worked? And should there be yet another ratings overhaul. While R is still with us, we now have NC 17 and then the X rating which is reserved for porn movies now. Is PG 13 getting too wild and loose with the rules? Teen movies especially are pushing the envelope these days, and are clearly not for 13  and 14 yrs olds yet they make up a huge part of the profits for movies these days. Most of the successful movies now are rated PG 13 in order to bring in the most crowds. Adults and tweens to teens have the cash and if the story is good both enjoy a movie together.

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