The Strip: News and notes for guys

POP QUIZ

Are you spending excessive amounts of money on smart phones, net books, e-readers and anything else that is sold at the neighborhood electronics store? Do you pine for the iPad? Do you drag your laptop to the bathroom? If you answered yes to any of the above, you may be a tech-obsessed candidate ready to take the Gizmodo.com quiz: Are you addicted to technology? Here is a sampling of questions:

_ Do you eat most of your meals while at the computer or in front of the television?

_ Does the word "tweet" come up regularly in your real-life conversations?

_ Do you check your feeds more than once an hour?

_ Have you left an event or date early so you could get online?

_ Do you sometimes bring your laptop when you sit on the toilet?

Take the full 50-question Gizmodo quiz (http://gizmodo.com/5453262/quiz-are-you-addicted-to-technology) and find out whether you're "Clean as a Whistle (translation: not addicted at all) or a "Pothead" (you're addicted but have no plans to quit) or a full-blown khead" (willing to sell a kidney for more megabytes).

SCREEN SCENE

NOW SHOWING: "GREEN ZONE"

Paul Greengrass' action drama about the Iraq War has the misfortune of following the Oscar-winning "The Hurt Locker" into theaters, which means it may not get a fair shake from critics and audiences. Matt Damon stars as a soldier whose unit is tasked with finding the WMDs the American government swore were in Iraq. Naturally, he soon learns that intel isn't exactly reliable. Greg Kinnear co-stars as a slimy government official and Amy Ryan plays a journalist also hunting for the missing weapons.

DRIVING YOU NUTS

Don't you just hate it when you can almost remember something, but then it slips away? And then it nags at you until you get it settled? Well, we're here to create that experience for you. Here's a quote from a movie that was popular sometime in the past 100 years. See the answer at the bottom.

"Hey! Careful, man, there's a beverage here!"

-- McClatchy Newspapers

LISTEN: "El Turista," Josh Rouse

"El Turista" takes as its themes home, the exotic, and the past, folding the three into each other for a 10-track set of hazy summer pop. Most of the songs look to home and away as places and times of reassurance and comfort. Despite the late night weariness of album closer "Don't Act Tough," Rouse's music ventures far from the blue glow of melancholy, aiming for glorious golden moments instead. -- Richard Elliott

PLAY: "Shiren the Wanderer" (Wii)

In terms of its genre, "Shiren" is pretty close to perfect. Sure, experienced players are bound to feel like they're slogging through trivial tosh for the first 35 hours, but they'll be buoyed by the promise of more. Newbies will find a kinder, gentler Roguelike, that will challenge whether they're tough enough for this sort of experience. There are gobs of difficult, punishing, and just plain mean dungeons and tasks to tackle. -- Mike Schiller

PopMatters.com

TECH TALK

Launching iPad: And the winner for Best Surprise Academy Awards commethe Apple iPad. If you watched the Oscars, you probably saw the first television spot for the Apple iPad Tablet PC. It already had been announced that advance orders for the device would begin on March 12 and that it would be in Apple stores on April 3. Let the tablet games begin, and look for a large and varied set of these devices to come. -- Donnie Jenkins