Among the sea of Stormtroopers and die-hard comic fans, celebrities also come out to celebrate Comic-Con in San Diego (and perhaps promote their movie, TV show, etc., of course!)

Comic-Con 2010 is under way in San Diego, and runs through the weekend.  For more about the event, click here.

Some of the celebrities spotted so far have included Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone, Helen Mirren, Tina Fey, Will Ferrell, Jeff Bridges, Olivia Wilde, Seth Rogen, Jerry O’Connell, and Seth Green, according to reports and photos.

Stars of some popular TV shows, mostly those of a science fiction nature, will be on-hand.  The cast of CBS’s “The Big Bang Theory,” which highlights the lives of four comic-loving, nerdy, but loveable guys (at least in my opinion) will be back (Johnny Galecki, Jim Parsons, Simon Helberg, Kunal Nayyar, and Kaley Cuoco).  The cast of HBO’s “True Blood” will also appear, as well as the the creators of the children’s pop-culture show, “Yo Gabba Gabba.”

Members of the cast of the upcoming movie Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (opens August 13) will help kick off the 22nd annual Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards on Friday night at Comic-Con.  Cast members scheduled to appear include Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Satya Bhabha, Alison Pill, Anna Kendrick, Aubrey Plaza, Brandon Routh, Jason Schwartzman, Johnny Simmons, Mark Webber, Mae Whitman, and Ellen Wong.

For more about San Diego’s Comic-Con 2010 events, autographs, schedules, and more, click here.

On his Monday show, David Letterman let loose on Olympics officials, calling them as hypocrites for their statements and actions in the wake of the death of luge competitor Nodar Kumaritashvili last week.

During the pre-Olympics training run when Nodar’s luge took the final turn high and as it was descending back to into the straight portion of the track, it slammed into the wall, bounced into the opposite wall where Nodar’s body was thrown over it leading to his death. Officials claimed that there was nothing wrong with the track and that the reason for his death was “athlete error.”

The track was redesigned before the start of the first officials Olympics luge contest. The course should have been designed in such a way as to have the luge come into a curved straight portion of the course. No right angles should have been part of the design. It was poor engineering. If the track was designed in that manner, the luge times would have been higher than what they currently have, but with a built-in safety behavior. If the luger was to crash, it would at least keep the racer on track and not throw him off the course.

David Letterman is right – It was not Nodar’s fault for his death; it is the faulty design of the track of the course.

NBA Basketball star, Michael Jordan, and the ever famous American socialite, heiress, media personality and fashion designer, Paris Hilton, share their birthday today – February 17. On his birthday, Jordan turns 47, whereas Hilton turns 29.

Michael Jordan is enjoying his retired life afforded by his sportsman stardom. On the other hand, Hilton is enjoying a resurgence of various things, after her much celebrated DUI arrest a few years ago. Aside this, Hilton is a perfect model for anyone who’s thinking of developing their personal brand. Paris is known for being famous, knowing the best parties, wearing the latest fashions, and having only the best of everything.

Michael Jordan is known for excellence on and now off the basketball court. There is a great contrast in both of these personalities, amidst such a big common factor that they were born on the same day except, of course, the year of birth!!!

Happy Birthday to both

Are you a gamer? Do you love your Xbox? So you hate it when it crashes?

Well you’re not alone if you’ve been experiencing problems with the servers as of  a few hours ago. Most users have had to bang their heads against the following error message for quite a while now:

“Users may experience difficulties connecting to Xbox LIVE. We are aware of the problem and are working to resolve the issue. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your patience.”

Now history and many social research projects have shown us that the one thing gamers absolutely do NOT have is patience when they’re trying to get their game on. And if you’re one of those sorry souls that are trying to figure out what just happened to their modern warfare game: well more or less the same thing, your servers have crashed little ones. Gamers can be seen losing it all over social networking sites and tweeting about how they were about to ‘kill it’ before the servers killed their game. The worst hit party to come out of this sorry affair are the hardcore players who were tackling their enemies on Modern Warfare 2.

On a more serious note if you need to figure out what went wrong with your server you might want to check out the Xbox official support sites. It’s been acknoledged by the good folks at Xbox that there is indeed a problem with the servers and they are trying their very best to get it fixed asap (before more gamers go ape).

Unfortunately, so far there’s no new on when the servers will be back up. This is a great opportunity for you all to kick your joysticks to the side and do all those things you had been ignoring for oh so long like mowing your lawn, spending time with your wife and kids, trying to find a job…

Shoppers who have been busy searching the Internet for early reports on Black Friday deals will be happy to learn that Walmart has confirmed some of their sales for Friday, November 27, 2009, as well as weekly savings starting this Saturday on popular toys and video games.

Walmart’s Black Friday specials include 50-inch Sanyo plasma HDTVs for $598, Magnavox Blu-Ray disc players for $78, TomTom GPS systems for $59, $7 reversible fleece jackets, and $3 children’s sleepwear, according to Walmart representative Melissa O’Brien.

Some of the toys at Walmart stores that will be discounted (up to 60 percent) starting this Saturday through November 27, 2009, are EZ Bake Oven, Disney Princess Scooter, and Nerf N-Strike Vulcan, The Associated Press reported. Also starting this Saturday, customers purchasing certain gaming packages such as “Band Hero” and “DJ Hero” will receive a $40 Walmart gift card while supplies last.

Black Friday Guide

Black Friday, which is the day after Thanksgiving, traditionally marks the beginning of Christmas shopping in the United States. Many retailers offer doorbuster sales as an incentive for shoppers.

Check the following stories for more Black Friday deals:

Best Buy 2009 Black Friday Ads Revealed

Check Out Early Walmart Black Friday Deals

Target Black Friday Ads Leaked Online

Sears ‘Black Friday’ Sales Revealed

The following Web sites are dedicated to locating Black Friday deals for major stores such as Sears, Walmart, Toys ‘R’ Us, Target, Kmart, and more:

• BlackFriday.fm
• Black-Friday.net
• BFads.net
• BlackFriday.info
• BlackFriday.com
• BlackFriday.GottaDeal.com

Know of some good Black Friday deals? Leave them in the comments below.

Best Buy is the latest store to have its Black Friday advertisement leaked online.

Black Friday, which is the day after Thanksgiving, traditionally marks the beginning of Christmas shopping in the United States. Many retailers offer doorbuster sales as an incentive for shoppers.

Special deals and doorbusters for holiday shoppers at Best Buy on Black Friday include newly released CDs for $6.99, digital cameras for as low as $49.99, a digital camcorder for $69.99, a PlayStation 3 package for $299.99, a Web cam for $19.99, and much more.   For more on Best Buy’s Black Friday deals, click here.

View/download ad here: Best Buy Black Friday 2009 Ad (PDF).

The following Web sites are dedicated to locating Black Friday deals for major stores such as Sears, Walmart, Toys ‘R’ Us, Target, Kmart, and more:

• BlackFriday.fm
• Black-Friday.net
• BFads.net
• BlackFriday.info
• BlackFriday.com
• BlackFriday.GottaDeal.com

Know of some good Black Friday deals? Leave them in the comments below.

The music tracks for the DJ Hero Renegade Edition game include a new song by Eminem.

Activision has revealed the track lists for rappers Eminem and Jay-Z’s pack-in albums for the DJ Hero Renegade Edition. The Eminem CD contains album cuts, rarities, and an all-new, unreleased track called, “Taking My Ball,” which will debut only on the DJ Hero Renegade album.

“The tracks we put on this disc are mostly overlooked or rarer favorites of mine from all different parts of my career,” said Eminem. “I also put a brand new, unheard song on there so even the biggest fan has something new.”

Jay-Z’s CD features one hit song from each of his 11 studio albums, plus his contribution to the Notorious film soundtrack.

The DJ Hero Renegade Edition also includes the game, a premium turntable controller, and a hard-shell carrying case that converts to a “performance-ready” DJ stand.

For more about the game, music tracks, and pre-sale details, click here.

The McDonalds Monopoly game begins today and the grand prize is $1 million dollars.  Game pieces are available on all large fries, medium to large fountain drinks, Angus Burgers, and 10 to 20 pieces Chicken McNuggets, and large hot McCafe drinks or with your breakfast hash browns.

Ten critical pieces will be rare and hard to find, and those pieces happen to be the last property, when listed alphabetically, for each color group (except Boardwalk). If you get one of these rare pieces, and if there is only one then you’ve won that prize.  Finding that key piece is more difficult than it seems. On a website like the Fatwallet Forums you might find people willing to sell or trade rare pieces to complete a set.

For 2009, the rare pieces (and the prize you can win with that color group) are:

• Mediterranean Avenue ($50 prize, 2000 prizes)
• Short Line Railroad ($500 prize, 750 prizes)
• Vermont Avenue ($1,000 prize, 125 prizes)
• Virginia Avenue ($2,000 prize, 75 prizes)
• Tennessee Avenue ($5,000 prize, 10 prizes)
• Kentucky Avenue ($10,000 prize, 6 prizes)
• Ventnor Avenue ($25,000 prize, 8 prizes)
• Pennsylvania Avenue ($50,000 prize, 4 prizes)
• Golden Avenue ($100K prize)*
• Boardwalk ($1 million dollar prize, 1 prizes)

 Good luck!

Australia (Aus) plays against New Zealand (NZ) in the ICC Champions trophy today. Millions are expected to watch the Aus vs NZ match from around the world.  The cricket match will take place at SuperSport Park in Centurion at 6 PM. Australia was the favorite and they were expected to make it to the finals, but New Zealand was a surprise and they have created some major upsets and turnarounds since the beginning of the tournament. 

Here are a few live streaming sites where you can watch the match, but they are slow…and frustrating.  Sopcast requires the download of software before you can watch it.  It may be easier to wait until it is over and watch the video of it online.  Or you can view live commentary and scores, see link below.

UStream

Sopcast

Justin TV

Cricket (also has live scorecard)

On Sunday, Arsenal will take on Blackburn Rovers live on Sky Sports 1 & HD1. Manager Arsene Wenger is eager to mark his 14th year of management at the Gunners with a win. Arsenal fans want to see if injury victim Theo Walcott is involved. Attacking might be the best form of defence for Rovers, and Arsenal’s backline is still unproven.

Here are a few other live streaming sites where you can watch the match, but they are slow…and frustrating.  Sopcast requires the download of software before you can watch it.  It may be easier to wait until it is over and watch the video of it online. 

HD1 Live

UStream

Sopcast

Justin TV