Ludo, ergo sum

My annual post on how little I’ve been posting

2011-11-04T14:09:00.001-04:00

Now with more self-resentment over it!

Or not, its been a… well I’d say weird year but it usually is for everyone else too so I can’t use that as an excuse. Truth is I suppose I’ve been in a depressive funk for the better part of a year, as a result of which I end up sitting around rather than doing the stuff I’d prefer to, which naturally enhances the funk, so yeah… that.

In other news I had been pushing myself to get back into VG design, and I think I need to hit a Stencyl project hard and stick with it. I’m trying to get a simple run and jump thing going just to make sure I understand collision mechanics, maybe end up learning Actionscript through this, but then I keep telling myself things like that so time will tell.

I have been getting into DM-ing Dungeons and Dragons of all things though, and I think I’m taking to it pretty well. In fairness I think it’s been obsessing over that for the last month we’ve been doing this, got plotlines and encounters set up for a month or more I think. I imagine we’ve been consuming as much time as we have been because I’ve been doing battles with hordes of minions which take more time to plan around/with. It’s helping me work with world-building, which I think it’s the part of game creation I take to most, so that’s fulfilling.

Even with that, however, I need to keep myself on about learning Photoshop (and by extension most of CS3), Stencyl, and get into writing more.

Myspace

2010-12-09T03:20:00.001-05:00

Logging onto MySpace now affords the opportunity to see the way things were only a few years ago, a moment frozen in time from way back when people used to use it. It’s oddly melancholic at that, because even though you recognize everyone, faces, relationships, etc., (it has, after all, only been three years, hasn’t it?) there’s a sort of… I suppose melancholy at the realization that “That used to be me… huh…” and how, even with how little has changed, you still miss such oddly meaningless things from waaayyy back in the long-long-ago of 2007. People who have moved, friends who are gone, and you look back and say in your head to the you from not three years ago “You have no idea what’s going to happen in the next three years, do you…”

I’m sorry, I’m being depressed at the moment. This is the first time I’m posting on this blog in too damn long and I don’t have good news. At this moment I’m unemployed again, waiting to receive a UI payment, likely to start again very soon, but not in a way that I have all that much long-term security or stability. No idea how I’m going to keep bills paid until something comes through, and no idea how we’re doing Christmas. I haven’t made anything like the progress I promised myself I’d make on putting out a proper self-made game within the year, don’t have the free time or focus to do it within the year, should probably just hammer through it I guess. Most of all, haven’t updated the blog in forever except to be all damned emo about everything.

Bleh, its 3AM Thursday morning and I’m feeling depressed for no goddam reason. Go about your day.

Hey, I’m making a post

2010-10-01T01:21:00.001-04:00

And it’s only been… well yeah, dang, months since the last one. Wish I had that much to talk about… no real progress on the major game I’m trying to work on, want to get a prototype of it done by the end of the year, given how much I’ve let myself delay this thing… Oh, I’m employed now, so that’s cool. Beyond that, not much. So… there ya go.

Latest Hourgame: Poops and old people

2010-07-26T14:14:00.002-04:00

The theme this past Saturday was "I'm Too Old for this Shit." I'd like to say it was completely intentional that I had spent more than 40 minutes on graphics, leaving way less time for coding, and ultimately being late again, but I can't. I'm not more ashamed than usual about how I draw, but I sort of preoccupied myself during the process with something called Life in a Day, which is some sort of documentary of everyone's life on that particular Saturday. That, coupled with the ever-present concept of recording the process of making an hourgame that's mentioned in every thread (though was only ever done twice) gave me the idea to film myself doing it. Naturally, me being me, I took way more than an hour, ran out of tape, couldn't record the music I was trying to, had no end of weird and stupid bugs interrupt what I was doing, and to top it off, CamStudio didn't manage to actually record what I was doing on the screen. Left me with 90 minutes of me staring at the screen which I wasn't going to bother with, plus a marginal complex about putting the video up there and trying to make things look nicer than they needed to be.

Well anyways, the game can be Downloaded Here, and Here's The Forum Thread about it this week.

Football and Squirrels

2010-07-22T11:10:00.000-04:00

Alright, heres the latest two Hourgames I've done. Here's one based on the World Cup, which was still ongoing at the time, called A Tale of Feets and Balls. I used this to get some grounding in dialogue trees, as well as basic scripting for characters. This one I'm happy to say I won the trophy for as well, for, evidently, animation more than anything (which I found odd since thats sort of the thing I spent the least time on). Download Here

So the next week I picked the theme of Squirrels, and used the opportunity to play with Dialogue options more. I'm fairly happy with how (and damn but it wasn't easy to) I learned to play with the Dialogue trees, manipulating variables within the dialogue, inventory, etc. The game is One Fine Day Amid a Verdant Field. Download Here

The Winner of the above trophy was SteveMcCrea, who's game, as well as Wyz's, can be found in this Forum Thread.

Towels and Mike Tyson

2010-07-10T19:03:00.002-04:00

So here's the next hourgame in sequence that I did: One Fine Day at the Shop. Here I was more sort of experimenting with what I could do with character objects, particularly invisible ones. I'm proud to say that I did win this hourgame as well, and as such won the lovely Towel Trophy, which was designed by Scarab.

Download the Game Here

Following that victory, the next hourgame was held on what turned out to be the five-year anniversary of Mike Tyson's retirement from professional boxing, and the theme became "What has he been doing in the mean time?" I used the opportunity to play around with the graphics editors a bit, use music and such, as well as learning how to put together splash-screens.

Download the Game Here

As for the contest itself, Here you can find the thread, and the compilation file of all the entrants, including that of the winner, Wyz, you can Download Here

Warcraft Adventures

2010-07-05T12:50:00.000-04:00

So about 15 years ago I get a copy of PCGamer magazine plugging a WarCraft themed Adventure game. This was, it goes without saying, big stuff. Then, over about four years of development hell, wherein, if the comment section of reddit is to be trusted, the Russian animation studio was constantly late and behind on their production, causing absurd delays, Blizzard eventually said screw it and cancelled the project. My understanding is that it eventually was nearly finished, waiting on animation still, when they axed it. It was a 1995 adventure trying to make waves in a 1999 FPS market, their decision was sensible.

It turns out now, though, that alphas of the game were completed and apparently somebody got a hold of one. Some ten years after the project was cancelled someone got a hold of it and posted a few videos. Words alone cannot express how much I want more of this. More specifically, a copy of the alpha itself to dinker around with. If someone managed to successfully locate and distribute the abandoned Duckman adventure game, I have to believe this is doable.

Next two hourgames wot I done did

2010-07-01T23:56:00.002-04:00

The next Hourgame's theme was "Underwater, to wit I made this thing, just carrying on the theme from previous games of the shoe and the smiley, and some joke in IRC at the time about dogs and half-blood princes, and about here I just started getting stupid exhausted with the whole thing. Download Here, though I don't really recommend it.

The next time I didn't even participate, I think I was busy or something, or probably just lazy.

Anyhows the next competition I put more effort into things, and am actually a little proud of what I got done. The theme is "2 cups 1..." anything basically. Perhaps unsurprisingly most of the entries were "2 cups 1 cup," as was mine, I freely confess, though it did involve the shoe as well. I think it was my most involved puzzle string to date, requiring talking to the girl twice for two different responses, using items on the scenery, combining inventory, etc. I'm really quite pleased with how it came out, and only somewhat frustrated that I lost to Scarab's superior game, which was also his first ever, and was on time, which mine, as per usual, wasn't. Fun fact, he created the trophy for that weeks winner as well, before he was declared to have won. His can be found here, and as for mine, you can Download Here.

Headline that pertains to Political Disaffectation

2010-06-30T16:37:00.000-04:00

A lot of people would begin a post such as this pretending they get numerous questions about why they've stopped following politics on their blog, but I have chosen instead to begin this post with an absurdly meta-reference to it because I think that makes me smart and oh what a fool I am.

So anyway, yeah I'm basically not going to follow politics much on this blog anymore. Not because I'm done with politics personally but because there are already people doing that well enough as it is elsewhere on the web, and I'm not going to pretend you, my audience, whoever you are and presuming you even exist, much give a tinker's cuss what my opinion is on things at the moment. Also I've come to the realization that the only reason I ever went to single-person political blogs was to howl in the comments section, and I need to find better ways to spend my days.

However, since people tend to gravitate to where they can howl the loudest here in the blogosphere, I realize that this will significantly limit the size of my audience. Nevertheless, as easy as I recognize it would be to build bogus drama by throwing out another Lieberman Sucks post, I can't be bothered. That is all.

My Next Three Hourgames, and one I sorta inspired.

2010-06-30T02:04:00.001-04:00

The following Hourgame Theme was "The Future," And to wit I wrote Future Ho. At this point I started trying to use the Hourgame events as an excuse to learn something specific about the AGS Engine, and in this game it was the elusive, and yet so plot-essential, cut scene. Also about this point I was trying to incorporate some weird time-space spanning super-meta-plot for all my eventual and terrible future hourgames, something about the Sour Smiley and the Shoe being in some level of eternal conflict, something, I dunno... At any rate, Download Here.

Next was the followup game, in which I tried to further complicate the plot in spite of the theme, which was "Paint," which spanned paint itself to MS-Paint or, in my case, Paint.Net and its various graphical filters. As a result most of the graphics in this game are blurry beyond necessity because I was planning on using them to be... I'm actually not sure. I think the plot was supposed to be that there was this painter who was somehow the cause behind the whole Shoe v Smiley mess because of a painting of his, and you had to destroy the painting, but it turns out you didnt and dun-dun-duuuunnnn... Yeah it didn't work out, so I was mainly screwing with the graphics filters. Oh, also I recorded a really lame song for the game, me on guitar as well as making a silly kazoo sound with my mouth. I recommend playing the game with Mute on. Download Here.

Final game in this post is Adventures in Time and Safes, where the theme was "Safes." With this one I was just trying to be more clever than not with the puzzle, where the combination is written on the vertical blinds. Not alot else about this one in particular, with the notable exception that it was the first time I actually won one of these Hourgames, and I'm not to ashamed about the puzzle, though I feel the graphics are a fairly low point for me. Nevertheless, a winner. Download Here.

As I won this one, I got to run the next hourgame, and made a damn pathetic mess of it, since I didn't even show up on time (confound you, daylight savings, my old nemesis) the theme became where the hell I went. SteveMcrea was the only one to complete one, so I'm linking to his game here, as well as the trophy he won for it. Download Steve's Game Here.

My Helium Articles

2010-06-28T18:06:00.000-04:00

I'm posting this link right here to everything I have written, and may ever write, for Helium.com. At the moment it is almost entirely the reviews I wrote while I worked for The Inventory, a now long defunct PDF-zine about Adventure Games. Figured this would be easier than linking to each article individually, odds aren't all that good you came here to read an ages-old review of Tony Tough and the Night of the Roasted Moths. I still have The Inventory PDFs I wrote for, not the entire run of the magazine. Figured the site would have been kept up longer than it was I suppose.

Baby's First AGS Hourgames

2010-06-28T15:17:00.000-04:00

So here are my first two attempts at HourGaming from earlier this year.

First game's theme was the Letter S, so naturally, creative mind that I am, I dubbed it "The Letter S." Note: The game doesn't end properly, but once you reach the Big S, it's over. Hadn't yet learned about the QuitGame command. Download Here

The next one, happening in February, had a theme of Hearts, and thus did I create "Heart Attack," as well as my absurd running theme of including the Sour Smiley character, and the Nuclear Shoe. Download Here

Baby steps with learning the AGS Engine and all, but I don't think they're that bad... compared to invasive surgery or something. Anyhoozle I'm going to try and put more of these up here, I seem to actually be missing a few though so we'll see how that goes.

Two Reviews: Mean Girls High School Showdown and 3 Stars of Destiny

2010-06-27T00:21:00.000-04:00

I'm basically posting these so I can have something to put in the Writing Tab I just put up there. Anyhow, these were both done for Helium in the marketplace but never purchased, so nobody else would ever read them. Here now, after a year of internet-limbo, are these two very brief reviews.

Downloadable game review: Mean Girls High School Showdown

While Mean Girls: High School Showdown is based loosely on the 2004 Lindsey Lohan Comedy, it is more directly based on the popular 2007 game Puzzle Quest. The games play fundamentaly identically, the combination of RPG statistics with a BeJeweled-style "Battle" system surviving intact, and is made somewhat novel by the re-framing of the concept for the high school crowd. The games are not identical, and in truth, in spite of how overdone the High School gimmick is presented, I actually appreciated some of the more significant changes.

After creating your character (who, as per the movie, has just transferred in from studying in Africa) you are led through the tutorial missions which explain the story of the game, which, mirroring the movie, has you joining and eventually combatting the exclusive school clique, "The Plastics." Players take on a series of missions as they move toward eventualy completing the game, lining tiles up in groups of three or more to clear them and bring new tiles in from the top. Clearing different tiles will build points in four different categories to allow you to use skills that can affect the game, and other tiles will help you do "damage" to your opponent in order to win the match.

Where Mean Girls differs from Puzzle Quest is in having two different "Health" bars to deal damage to, one for Stamina, which slowly drains, and the other for Loyalty, which slowly fills, depending on whether you match Whip or Heart tiles, respectively. Depending on which of these two ways you use to defeat the opponent affects the story of the game and how later sections are played, though not drastically. Adding this element, as well as removing the Tile-based Experience and Gold collection aspects of Puzzle quest, makes the game that much more interesting, as well as accessable.

Overall, I ended up enjoying the game in spite of myself. Legacy Interactive has done well targeting a new, potentially untapped audience for this type of game, and adding the new twist opens up replayability that its predecessor might have lacked. However, while it will satisfy its intended audience, certainly, it is hard to recommend this game over the original to anyone else, considering how little else it comparitively offers for the same price. Still, it's not a bad game for the price.

Score: 3/5

Downloadable game review: 3 Stars of Destiny

"3 Stars of Destiny" strikes me at first as the sort of RPG you would create if you set out to parody the over-used conventions of Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and too many others. Stop me if you've heard this before: Young male hero on just this side of adulthood on an everyday errand for his family meets a mysterious female who he then pursues, enduring the mischeif she initially causes before banding with him, as well as his loyal pet and, for team balance, a healing magic user in order to save all of everything that ever there was from a vaguely defined super-powered evil, a quest that will take our heroes across the globe to attain the magical whatevers they require to face, then vanquish, said evil. Unlike a parody, however, the game makes the tragic mistake of ultimately failing to realize how very similar it is to so much else, and in failing to be self-aware, it also fails to hold the slightest bit of interest.

Combat is basically early Dragon Quest, Attack, Skill, Item, and Run Away being the only options. On the one hand it's uncomplicated, and on the other there's really no point on playing on any difficulty besides Easy, as the harder difficulty levels are only challenging in the sense of how many more healing items you need to stockpile before going out anywhere and how many save points there are. The remainder of the game is spend running around an overhead view of your standard heavily-forested fantasy world, finding apples and nuts in the forest, searching treasure chests in people's homes without them mentioning, fighting creatures that are invisible until you stumble on them, etc. Saying things like this are cliche because they work is all well and good, but it doesn't make it any easier a task to justify paying for more of the same.

Given that the game was created entirely in RPG Maker XP, I can't help but feel there are limits to how much I can criticise the game versus the tool they made it with, and true enough what the Indinera Falls team has contributed is fairly well done; artwork crisp, music well-composed, scripting and storyline thorough (if a little too familiar at times), however, given how easy it is to find other, better games made with the same engine, and free ones at that, it's difficult to recommend purchasing this game.

Score: 2/5

A thing that just happened

2010-06-25T19:50:00.003-04:00

In the process of deciding to put my blog back together and force myself to start writing again, reformatting this and adding that, I found my brother's old blog, and informed him of a single typographical error.

'Tis a full and rich one, this life of mine.

On that note, yeah I'm going to try and start blogging again. Life-update, lost my job in March 2009, been trying to find work that my degree is good for now, namely Editing, Proofreading or Writing, but have been unable to find it. Well that's not fair, I worked as an editor for about three months on a manuscript by a holocaust survivor, and as a content proofreader part time as well, but nothing consistent, what little there ever was has since dried up.

About January I realized I should have, a long damn time ago, actually gotten as into game programming as I had meant to about ten years ago. I've since been working off and on (mainly off) on a project involving the Adventure Game Studio, which I've been enjoying learning, and hating that I haven't been doing more with. I have, however, been participating in the HourGames on the forums, even made a few, and will be putting them up here as soon as I get things sorted out. The bigger project, which I'll describe elsewhere (I'm not trying to keep state secrets here, honestly its just that I want to finish this post and make dinner) still remains, however, and I hope to have even a ugly proof of concept by the end of the year, so long as I can kick my own ass into doing something.

Also I'm trying to put together a concept for a sprite-animated Let's Play type thing, but that keeps falling out of my mind too. Being unemployed and filled with broke-ass dread will do that I suppose.

Um... oh, also since last I posted here milady Heather has moved in, my brother got married and I performed the ceremony, and I've purchased a Playstation 3.

Oh hell but this is hilarious...

2008-05-01T15:34:00.005-04:00

Yesterday there was this list that hit the Interwebmotubality 2.0 that was another of those "Look how many people think like we do, and not at how many many more oppose us," lists that contained, purportedly, 500 names of scientists who were severely skeptical of Global Warming, published by the Heartland Institute.

I say "purportedly" because it turns out, as DeSmogBlog has discovered, at least 45 of the names on that list are not only not Global Warming Skeptics at all, but also had no idea they were even on the list. Many of those 45 have come forward in the first 24 hours since the publication of the list, and their numbers keep growing. Some quotes:

"I am horrified to find my name on such a list. I have spent the last 20 years arguing the opposite.” - Dr. David Sugden, Professor of Geography, University of Edinburgh

"Please remove my name. What you have done is totally unethical!!" - Dr. Svante Bjorck, Geo Biosphere Science Centre, Lund University

"I have NO doubts ..the recent changes in global climate ARE man-induced. I insist that you immediately remove my name from this list since I did not give you permission to put it there." - Dr. Gregory Cutter, Professor, Department of Ocean, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Old Dominion University

This is not the first embarassment such lists have suffered, Sen. James Inhofe had previously listed 400 "skeptic scientists" including predominantly Economists, Social Scientists, Mathemeticians and Conservative Radio Host Michael Savage. Among those with some actual expertise in the sciences, a large percentage were chemists, geologists and physicists with little if any experience in climate science, and among those who actually did work in meteorology, weren't retired, and weren't on various payrolls of oil companies, 44 names, more than a tenth of the list, were simply TV weathermen.

The truly ridiculous thing though is how, even in the face of the obviously bogus nature of these painful attempts to publically legitimize GW "skepticism," they remain entirely unfazed. The comment threads for the linked posts include the same tiresomely old chestnuts we've come to expect, "Newsweek predicted Global Cooling in the 70s," "Parts of Mars are sort of warming too," "It's all a Liberal Communist Scam to protect their grant money," and my personal favorite: "Skeptics are subject to a witch-hunt by the terrifying powers of 'Big Conservation' and Darth Goracle."

Review: Harvey Birdman (Wii)

2008-04-28T11:08:00.007-04:00

I really, really wanted to like this game. Made by the same people who gave us the Phoenix Wright series and using an IP from a hilarious cartoon? What the hell can go wrong? In a word: Timing. Announced last April and released early this January, the game feels all too rushed, and for too many silly reasons.

The character animation within the game looks like a cheap Flash derivitave, which is acceptable in the one sense given that, to my understanding, the show itself is done in Flash, but while the show maximises opportunity from its limits, the game is happy enough just having slight head-cel rotations for nods, bodies bobbing up and down to imply walking, one zoom shot scales the background such that the individual pixels of a shrub are as large as Harvey's head, really childish stuff that doesn't approach the early days of the show, much less the later episodes when they came to grips with the format.

The humor's off too, mostly due to the timing, and oddly its because they take their time with set-ups and reactions. The show's 10-minute format forces an economy of style that allows for maximum funny in minimum time, and the game, in allowing more time for the jokes, sort of negates the humorous impact of any of them. It feels like the writers, who would have at the time also been writing the final season of the show, were somehow incapable of devoting the same attention to the game. There's still a few good gags though, and the graphics are at least passable, neither of these alone would be all that bad.

The main problem is the cases themselves. All five are altogether too short by far, and I managed to go through them, not even pushing myself, in about three hours. The episodes dont tend to make much sense either, and not simply in the sense of the show's absurdist humor. Some episodes don't start with a crime, some don't end by solving one, one has you trying a case that gets you in jail, where you have to try a completely different case to get out, another has you prosecuting arbitrarily, and you end up abruptly winning one by physically destroying the opposing counsel with a laser beam.

Given the gameplay is a direct copy of Phoenix Wright, comparison to that series is unavoidable, and unfortunately uniformly negative. Where you could otherwise press a witness on every line of testimony and get clarification on the circumstances of the crime, here Harvey will usually just state "hm, nothing seems too odd about that." Presenting evidence seems particularly arbitrary, since you aren't looking for contradictions anymore but just prompts for either the most or least obvious item to present at any given moment. The investigation segments are less about gathering evidence anymore too, one being the standard Point-N-Click adventure gimmick of "do three things for three people to proceed." There are also numerous red herrings (one in particular is a repeating gag in the form of a Lobster) that don't affect the trial or the plot of the episode, and yet you have to go through with them to the end just to proceed to the next plot point. Its all very tedious stuff that even most amateur adventure game creators could have done a better job of.

Thats actually the main problem for me, that it seems sub-par by even amateurish standards. There's really nothing about the game that says to me it couldn't have just been five short online Flash games, and I can think of at least three others and a dozen freeware adventure games I'd prefer to play over Birdman again. Not because its outright bad, its just so utterly without any reason to actually want to play it, wasting every drop of potential it had to the apparent disinterest of everyone involved. It released at $40 and I bought it yesterday for $20, figuring it was worth roughly that much given the mixed reviews three months ago (and what does it say that the retail price drops that quickly?) and still I feel like my time and money could have been so much better spent.

Expelled was the worst movie I've seen in a damn while

2008-04-25T15:30:00.008-04:00

...and I've actually seen the films of Uwe Boll, but we tackle one horror at a time.

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed opened last Friday in more than 1000 theaters nationwide, and if that fact alone sounds like a positive then it is the only one the film has going for it. The film aims to tackle the conflict between Science and Superstit-... I'm sorry, between Evolution and Creationism being taught in our schools, and in spite of the fertile ground for investigation and provocative nature of the subject matter, the film only managed a dismal 10% on RottenTomatoes.com, with "positive" reviews from decidedly Christian outlets, themselves acknowledging the film's lack of evidence provided for either side of the "debate."

Honestly, that 10% score is only as high as it is because so few outlets have actually reviewed it so far. Despite the relatively wide release for a documentary film, the producers had decided that they would allow no critic to screen the movie in advance for review purposes. Oh, there were screenings of the film for church audiences and others who elected to attend, provided they signed a lengthy Non-Disclosure Agreement and weren't affiliated with the press at all. One such screening attended "covertly" by Richard Dawkins became rather notorious for the producers, who had first claimed Dr. Dawkins was invited and then that he had "crashed" the screening, but so much has been made of this already I won't dwell on it too long.

The main theme of the movie is in three parts: Firstly, that the "fresh, new ideas" of Creationism/I.D. are being actively suppressed in the hallf of academia; Second, that this is because Evolution will not permit challenges to the theory, which is extremely flawed; and Finally, that Evolution leads to every evil that Christian Conservatives have been bred to fight since infancy. The movie however, as the Christianity Today review has pointed out, is extremely light on facts to back these claims up, relying mostly on testimony with a vested interest in promoting those ideas. ExpelledExposed.com provides a thorough catalog of the various untruths the film tells, and it turns out to tell alot. Fundamentally every claim in the film is a distortion of the truth through the lens of the Christian Conservative's pathological need to feign their own persecution at the hands of "Big Science" and "Big Atheism" and "Big Empirical Evidence and Rational Thought."

The conspiracy theorists' dream that permeates the film comes to a frothy head in the final act where not only is Darwinism to blame for the Nazi holocaust, but also Communism, Assisted Suicide, Planned Parenthood, Metrosexuality, and UFO conspiracy nuts, and no, I'm not exaggerating in the slightest, that's all actually in the damn film. The connections drawn are by necessity very loose ones, Darwinism leads to Social Darwinism exclusively due to the name (Social Darwinism is about selective breeding, or artificial selection, not the natural selection of Darwin's theory) which says some people are "less evolved" and can be killed without a thought, Planned Parenthood providing birth control and abortions to the poor is exactly like wiping out the destitute of German Schtetls with death squads, etc. Again, ExpelledExposed.com goes into more and better detail than I ever could, and is well worth a read in and of itself without having to see the garbage film that it successfully argues against.

But as nonsensical as the film's thesis is, its composition manages to be worse still. While the producers have blogged proudly about how much better they are than Michael Moore by not stooping to his tactics, one one "quest for answers" near the end of the film, a camera crew barges unannounced into the Smithsonian, only to be removed for what I have to assume are security reasons. (Gee, buncha guys with electronic equipment bumrushing a major tourist center in the middle of D.C., unannounced? Why would that be cause for alarm?) The film features segments spliced in from countless other films as well, and not simply newsreels of the construction of the Berlin Wall (as in the opening of the film) but also as overused underscoring, for instance a clip of the late Charlton Heston screaming "Damn Dirty Apes!" and another of the Wizard of Oz's "Pay No Attention..." line, used in the most predictable ways possible (these clips, incidentally, are shown as black and white in the film, in spite of being in color originally, and one week after seeing this film I'm still not certain why).

The Cinematography is some of the worst possible in a film too: Richard Dawkins is interviewed twice in the film (and thats another thing, for a movie ostensibly about Evolution not willing to debate Creationism, there are an awful lot of evolutionists conceding to debate it. Funny that) and in the first interview theres a shot, on screen, where basically all we see for a full two seconds is his nose in close-up. An interview with I.D.-advocate David Berlinksy has him reclined in a chair as he speaks, parallel with the ground, and the camera at knee-height, zoomed in on his face, allowing us to look directly up the man's nostrils. I understand shots like this can happen accidentally in the hands of even a skilled cameraman, of course, but any editor worth a damn should easily have been able to remove such shots, unless the producers actually thought highly of this shoddy camera-work. Their presence in the film, then, speaks unintentional volumes about the standard these people apply to their own work.

There is no criteria by which this can be judged a "good" film, unless you are among the deeply converted whom this film preaches to directly, in which case everything in the world proves the film to be an unqualified success! I've been trolling on Ray "Behold, the Atheist's Nightmare!" Comfort's blog for some time, and its been tragically hilarious how deluded one man can be, boasting exclusively about the 1000+ theaters the film opened in, not mentioning the average 10-person per showing ticket sales, and directly ignoring the near-universal panning in order to show weeks-old "reviews" from Focus on the Family and random people's blogs about how wonderful the film is. This a film born of self-delusion that works to propagate greater self-delusional behavior, and I cannot recommend enough that you utterly avoid paying to see it. If you absolutely must see it, it'll have another week in theaters, go buy a ticket to Forbidden Kingdom or Harold and Kumar or something, and first step into Expelled and see how long you can withstand the masochistic, moral pugnacity of the endeavor before stepping out for air.

OMG Sekrit Scientology Spy-Training Video!

2008-04-19T18:59:00.001-04:00

Leaked Scientology Video - How to Spy on Protestors by Magma42 -- Revver Online Video Sharing Network

4-12-08 DC Scientology Protest

2008-04-19T18:46:00.003-04:00

I'm a week late getting this up on the interweblogospheriscape, but here's my video summary of the April protest:

Anonymous Protests Scientology, DC 4/12/2008 by Magma42 -- Revver Online Video Sharing Network

Also, if you're interested, here's the March 15 protest:

Anonymous Protests Scientology, DC 3/15/2008 by Magma42 -- Revver Online Video Sharing Network

2-10-2008 DC Scientology Protest

2008-04-11T20:43:00.004-04:00

I'm late in blogging about this, but here's the video for all those interested. Share and Enjoy.

Anonymous Protests Scientology, DC 2/10/2008 by Magma42 -- Revver Online Video Sharing Network

Jerry Falwell is dead

2007-05-16T10:35:00.000-04:00

The hatred and animosity for the man in his lifetime is wholly understandable. By helping to breed and legitimize homophobia, racism, sexism, and religious intolerance in America he has certainly made enemies of almost all Americans at one point or another, and being the pivotal and controversial figure he is, I can certainly see why many in Inter-tube land would take positive delight in the fact that Americans won't have to put up with him for a second longer. However, I am not here to speak to his anti-homosexual views, many already have and not being a homosexual I would have nothing useful to contribute. Likewise his racism, likewise his sexism, and since I'm not religious I wouldn't even think it too proper to talk on his intolerance of jews and muslims (to say nothing about those 9/11-causing pagans). Here though, is why I do hate him:

"Christians, like slaves and soldiers, ask no questions"

Gives you an interesting view of his understanding of Christianity. Jesus spoke against a corrupt establishment that claimed to be holy and righteous. And because he did, it is now a sin to speak against a corrupt establishment that claims to be holy and righteous. You are to do exactly what you're told, and to act as you are instructed by the preist-class, and to question this makes you a lesser creature. Jerry Falwell prided himself on being able to tell people how to behave, how to act, on being able to control and manipulate otherwise potentially sane people who had the misfortune of coming to his church for answers to their questions. This is the core problem with all major religion, what makes almost every rigorously structured belief reprehensible: the contempt is has for its own.

I look forward to the world soon becoming a better place for having finally sent Falwell to burn in the deepest pits of the darkest depths of the hottest precincts of hell, for all eternity.

The Occasional Sanity of Rush Limbaugh

2007-04-23T11:11:00.000-04:00

We all know what happened one week ago, and we all know it was a tragic event. I personally know the tragedy was the ability of a man found by the courts as mentally ill to legally purchase a firearm (come to find, as I'm writing, that this is being resolved as we speak). John Derbyshire himself knows the real tragedy is that the unarmed victims didnt get up and bum-rush a man with two firearms. Over at the downright silly Conservapedia, they know the shame is that if only the he had accepted Christ's love then this never would have happened (on account of nobody ever dying in Christ's name, I am left to infer). Jack Thompson knows as well as Dr. Phil that its a shame that video games forced an innocent child to go out and murder people against his will (games which, evidently, he never actually played). And it is on this note that I'm almost happy to quote Rush Limbaugh speaking what seems to be sense:

Not every video gamer goes out and murders 33 people on the college campus though. There’s more to this than that… it may desensitize people, but it doesn’t turn everybody into mass murderers…
People have a tough time accepting a relatively simple explanation for something of this scale. But how many people are playing video games out there? How many millions of people play video games, and how many millions of people have guns?
If you start blaming the video games, you may as well demand video game control because it’s the same thing when you start trying to blame guns for this. You have here a sick individual, an evil individual who committed a random act. But if you want to start blaming the video games, this guy was this or that, weeeeell, then you’ve gotta maybe talk about banning them because that’s the same tack that’s taken with guns.

I hate to admit that I agree with Limbaugh on Game/Gun Control to an extent (still think a sort of mandatory licensing process should be necessary for everyone) but his point is valid. You may as well blame T-shirts and Fruit Loops, since at some point most of recent history's killers must have worn/eaten at least one. Why not blame the country itself for letting something like this happen, if thats the sort of regressive self-destructive self-hatred we're indulging in (as though the killing itself had nothing a tall to do with Cho's own self-destructive self-hatred).

Still, the point remains that its remarkable to find myself agreeing with Limbaugh here... frightening actually... damn, will I now have to consider him capable of making a clear, nuanced argument? Um... quickly, Rush, can you please say something that makes you seem like a fear-mongering reactionary?

If this Virginia Tech shooter had an ideology, what do you think it was? This guy had to be a liberal. You start railing against the rich and all this other -- this guy's a liberal. He was turned into a liberal somewhere along the line. So it's a liberal that committed this act. Now, the drive-bys will read on a website that I'm attacking liberalism by comparing this guy to them. That's exactly what they do every day, ladies and gentlemen. I'm just pointing out a fact.

Ahh... the soothing sense of realization that Rush is full of his own excretia... its a good thing.

We interrupt this radio silence to bring you far too much awesome

2007-04-17T14:01:00.000-04:00

Capcom will be making a Phoenix Wright-style game in the Harvey Birdman Attorney at Law universe.

That sound you hear is a globe's worth of fanboys going "Squeeeeee!!" all at once. Forgive them their annoyance, they know not how to behave properly in public.

Why I Despise Joe Lieberman, Overgrown ManChild Edition

2007-02-06T12:06:00.000-05:00

The New Yorker did an article on him recently. In the middle of to-be-expected horseshit like "Leaving Iraq emboldens the enemy, which is now Iran apparently," and "Democrats today make me ashamed to have ever pretended I was one," and right after claiming, I shit thee not, that he's "the Lorax", we get this chestnut:

Lieberman likes expressions of American power. A few years ago, I was in a movie theatre in Washington when I noticed Lieberman and his wife, Hadassah, a few seats down. The film was “Behind Enemy Lines,” in which Owen Wilson plays a U.S. pilot shot down in Bosnia. Whenever the American military scored an onscreen hit, Lieberman pumped his fist and said, “Yeah!” and “All right!”

That's Joe Lieberman(CT4L-CT), a 60-year old politician, Yale Law graduate, 3-term "Democratic" senator, hetero-kisser of the President, and let us not forget, Vocal critic of violence in videogames, TV and movies, pumping his fist and cheering on violence in movies. Jesus Herman Christ do I hate this assbag...

Everyone, Bow your Heads and Pretend to be Serious

2007-01-31T18:21:00.000-05:00

Image from August J Pollack

This, quite possibly, is one of the funniest damn things I've read in a while. Apparently as part of an effort to promote Aqua Teen Hunger Force on the Cartoon Network, people have put up little glowing signs of Ignignokt the Mooninite giving the middle finger. One is found in Boston, and in spite of its size shape and cartoonish appearance, was taken to be a bomb. The city of Boston shut down the subway when it was discovered, and upon discoverind a series of the very same devices, basically shut down traffic for a large part of the city so that they could, essentially, blow up a bunch of lite-brites. Maybe a jackass ad campaign, but major law and political officials are trying to play this up still to keep from having to admit that they kind of look stupid putting everyone through this crap.

An angry Mayor Thomas Menino said a stiff penalty will be pursued against whoever was responsible for the devices.
"It's about keeping a city on edge. It's about public safety," he said.

So a stupid show (one I actually like quite a bit, but lets face it, the last thing ATHF is is smart) has a stupid ad campaign that causes stupid people to act stupidly in dealing with what they really didnt need to at all. Pretty stupid so far right? it gets better.

John Aravosis takes the opportunity to attack Turner Broadcasting as a whole by connecting it with his problems with Glenn Beck, a host (and yet, funny enough, also a parasite) on CNN against whom there are legitimate complaints, as detailed here. Beck basically seems like an ignorant semi-bigot who landed on TV and needs to be scraped off, but Aravosis seems to be trying to conflate one asshole on CNN with a marketing campaign for a show on the Cartoon network to launch a micro-jihad against Ted Turner evidently.

Oh, you wanted more of teh stooped?

Mayor Menino has had the two people responsible for the "hoax" (which suggests they were only pretending to put up the lite brite mooninite signs I guess, its just getting stupid now), insulting the show as "failing" (the movie is coming out soon) and threatening to sue Turner in order to cover himself for the fact that anti-terror resources were diverted because of governmental incompetance, not the malicious will of the two men responsible for the signs.

Peter Berdovsky and Sean Stevens have not actually broken any law (unless theres some sort of flyering rule they could theoretically be charged with) and clearly had no intent to cause city-wide panic and disturbence. The devices on even the most rudimentary examination are clearly not threatening. Honestly, if I left a flashlight sitting on the sidewalk (which would, basically, contain the exact same electrical components as these signs did) and called in a bomb threat on it, and the police then went and hunted down every similar looking flashlight, detonated them, wasting dozens of hours and thousands of dollars following up on something that any kind of sense would tell you isnt a threat, they shouldnt have the right to prosecute MagLite for their own stupidity. Jesus damn Christ.

Good on the two of them though for having sense enough not to take the prosecution of their not-crime seriously. They just held a press conference and refused to answer questions not relation to hairstyles from the 1970s.

In moderate fame, my existence is finally validated...

2007-01-31T15:37:00.000-05:00

I've mentioned Perplex City before, and a few months ago they launched this YouTube contest. I made a submission with a few friends, and got honorable mention. Yay for me and my wonderful ego!

PSA

2007-01-24T14:41:00.000-05:00

Just a breif little public service announcement for now going out to all you crazy cats and kittens.

Also, a very special message to a dear friend of mine.

Why I despise Joe Lieberman, Hurricane Katrina Edition

2007-01-12T15:06:00.000-05:00

Pre Election Joe Lieberman:

The massive Governmental failure that was the Hurricaine Katrina fiasco must be investigated thoroughly and people at all levels, President Bush included, must be held accountable

Post Election Joe Lieberman:

Letting the evidence show that the Bush Administration may be slightly inept would be dangerously partisan, and anyone who disagrees is in love with Osama.

Jesus Horatio Christ do I hate this assbag.

I really dont want to be vulgar about this...

2007-01-07T01:30:00.000-05:00

I really, really, REALLY don't want to just let forth with the torrent of insane screaming non-FCC-approved terminology that this movie trailer brings to mind, and I'm hoping that you'll understand why, watching it.

Watch it again. They're seriously making a documentary about video game violence, a topic I'll concede worthy of examination, and doing it in the most inflammatory way possible. One shot, right after someone talking about people willing to accept more violence in video games, is from the first Oddworld game, and in the shot we see the player character Abe apparently being shocked by multiple lightning streams, writhing in pain. In fact, at that point in the game, he is recieving godlike powers, enabling him to save his fellow mudokon bretheren. The "violent" clip shown is in fact of the hero becoming the savior of his people. Classy.

The clip imediately following that is (I may be wrong but seriously doubt it) from Myst 4: Revelation, a point and click adventure game that contains absolutely no blood or violence whatsoever (none committed by the player at any rate, theres a bit of inter-NPC fighting, but certainly no killing). If they presented this to counterbalance the violent game imagery they depict then that would be good, but no, its only for a second, in which they have to falsely superimpose bullet holes onto it to pretend that it too is footage from another mindlessly violent video game. Its making stuff up to make nonviolent games seem violent. I wonder if the conclusion of the film will be weighted one way or another. No, seriously, I totally wonder about that. Losing all kinds of sleep over here.

Damn this is going to be a horrible film, isnt it... unless theyre trying to be so over the top just to set these idiots up for a fall (hope against hope) so they look like idiots for saying, for instance, that a Flight simulator is a video game and is to blame for 9/11.

Asses.

Favorite expert quotes:
"We dont want to force you to adopt a rating system, but if you don't, we will." - Sen. Joe Lieberman (CT4L-CT)
Hey Joe, I don't want to shove a live hand grenade down your throat, but if you don't do it for me, I'll just have to.
"We cannot fathom what this medium will be in 40 years, and I'd bet my life on it." - Jack Thompson, professional advocate of failed anti-gaming, anti-first-amendment legislation.
You know what Jack, I agree. I too would bet my life that you, with your myopic worldview and predisposition to hate electronic entertainment, that yes, you cannot fathom what gaming will become 40 minutes from now, let alone 40 years.
"We are what we pretend to be." - Unknown
I'm Superman, nimrod. Now kneel before me.

Fact for the day - 1/1

2006-12-29T11:47:00.000-05:00

From Kotaku:
Average Ebay auction price of a Sony Playstation 3 on Nov 17 (US Launch Date) : $2,250
Average Ebay auction price of a Sony Playstation 3 two days later : $1,250
Average Ebay auction price of a Sony Playstation 3 today : $750

This has been your Fact for the Day.

Fact for the day

2006-12-29T11:31:00.000-05:00

The Wikipedia entry on the Automobile is 12 pages long.
The Wikipedia entry on the supporting character Vegeta from the anime series Dragonball Z is 13 pages long.

This has been your Fact for the Day.

In a flame war, sense is always the first casualty.

2006-12-28T13:17:00.000-05:00

Turnerchan.Blogspot.Com

Now this is a story all about how some internet kids were just sittin' around when they decided to make some crank calls, and whaddya know, they made them all to the racist asshole Hal Turner Show.

Now, racist scumbags aren't worth anyone's time, but one that has charisma among other racist scumbags is worthy of scorn, and so it was delivered to Turner on his show in the form of crank calling. Turner then got a list of phone records who called him and told his rabid, frothing, ignorant, racist, violent fanbase to basically beat the living excretia out of these people, many of whom are children. Thats the kind of wonderful person we're dealing with, "Beat up these kids for making me look silly."

After which calls were apparently made to his home, harassing his wife and mother, or so Turner claims, and lets be a little frank about how far we're going to trust the words of this kind of steaming animal, considering such a claim couldnt be easily proven but gives him an out to carry out his masturbatory violence fantasies. Also his crank-called mother apparently died in 2004, so... yeah he might not be constantly truthful all the time about everything.

Anyhoozle the internet retaliated, as the internet is known to do, by DDoS-ing his site into nothingness for the time being, making it a bit of a challenge for racists in the New Jersey area to effectively be told who they're supposed to hate this week. While I dont exactly endorse vigilante intertube-justice, it was more than warranted here, and hopefully an organization in a position to investigate Turner for criminal charges will be in a position to now. Heres hoping for good riddance to racist garbage.

(PS, if the opening paragraph is lost on you, you would do well to remember that this cab is rare so I said "Ah, forget it. Yo Holmes! To Bel Air!")

Another one of those "Oh but I haven't posted in a while" posts...

2006-12-11T21:54:00.000-05:00

...but this time with a twist. Turns out, somebody has actually read my silly little blog, and not only that, has posted a comment. Cooler still, he's an active duty military officer. Hell this is a red letter day here in the Rex-cave.
In other news, um, lets see whats happened in the past few months... lesse... Democrats take Congress, jackass Santorum (R-PA) is out but jackass Lieberman (CT4L-CT) stays... Florida video game ban ruled unconstitutional, Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii released (and the Wii is just... God. There is no God but Wii and Zelda is his prophet) and in personal dork-news Ive nearly got an entire set of Perplex City cards now (minus silvers, which seem to exist only in theory) and recently finished playind Zelda on the Wii (50 hours. 50 damn hours). So um, there you go. I'll try posting more stuff later on as time permits. For now, enjoy "The Mii Lebowski" presented by Wii Sports.

Forehead smacking time.

2006-10-19T21:11:00.000-04:00

I was going to make a post about this, but fortunately a qualified pundit with an actual audience managed to point out how stupid it is before I got the chance.

Honestly, the hell does he think he's doing? Going after the nerd vote?

Michael Steele Update

2006-10-18T09:28:00.000-04:00

Turns out that Senate candidate Michael Steele isnt just a friend of known rapist Mike Tyson as I indicated below, he's also very close to Don King who, and I'm surprisided I didnt know this before, has killed two people.

From Oliver Willis:

So you have to wonder - why is Steele doing this? He thinks the black voters in Maryland are stupid. The Bush/Cheney campaign enlisted the help of King in 2004 in some sort of perverted outreach to black voters, and while the electoral results made clear that the strategy just didn't work, the Steele campaign - and its boss, Michael Steele, don't know any better. They think the way to appeal to black Americans is to just grab a famous black face - any famous black face, no matter if its a convicted murderer or a rapist. Proving once again that black conservatives are way out of touch with the black mainstream, Steele and his merry band have put on what amounts to a sad show - parading out black people they feel are "known" and will motivate "them" to come out and vote for "one of us".
They should be ashamed, but they aren't. They actually think this is the way to woo black voters to their side. They figure if they talk down to us and distract us with the shiny people, we're so dumb we'll just have to go vote for them.
How pathetic.
P.S.: I wonder - was OJ busy?

But he sure loves himself some fscking puppies, let me tell you.

Three Brief Game Reviews

2006-10-17T14:59:00.000-04:00

Well as I mentioned a few days ago I'm currently semi-addicted to two games. Yes, I realise that the title says three, I'm going to get to that. Now shut up and let me talk.

About a month ago the GameStop near my apartment (which I moved into at around the same time coincidentally) started selling Perplex City cards. Perplex City is two games at once I suppose, the first game being the collectable cards, as each of the 256 cards in series 1 has a different puzzle on it, ranging from the simple (As I was going to St. Ives...) to the mind-bludgeningly brutal (Card 256 is just a picture of a guy that, apparently, you have to find somewhere on Earth. Yeah.) You solve the riddles and get points, and as you get more and more points, you recieve little badges called Leitmarks. (Ive got my red one already, have earned the orange, but it takes a little while for them to ship from England) Its a fun enough diversion in and of itself, and the cards arent simply entertainingly puzzling, but also pretty high quality artwork.
The second game of Perplex City is an Alternate Reality Game where, apparently, Perplex City, which exists in a parallel universe, has lost something called the Receda Cube, a valuable artifact of unknown origin and power. It is known to be, at this point, buried somewhere underneath the surface of the planet Earth, which does not do a great deal of rounding down. Perplex City Academy has in fact released the puzzle cards to get people interested in the hunt, and unbeknownst to the academy itself (we are expected to believe) the cards each seem to contain some minute little clue or other to finding the whereabouts of the cube. Various websites and blogs are up for numerous Perplex City businesses adding to the realism, and through thorough research apparently the solution lies somewhere therein. Its fun, its obsessive, and its collectible, and it has me hooked. I'm up to four packs a week now just to beat back the craving.

A little while after that though I found something else to obsess over. South park did their season opener recently on World of Warcraft. I had never played World of Warcraft until a week ago, MMORPGs just never did it for me, and I think I realise why now, every one but WoW just sucks. Its seriously that damn simple, Warcraft just adds so freaking much that the others were lacking, and is adding more all the time to meet their consumer's needs. Different classes have different ways to play, different jobs, different... look I could just shmooze on the whole freaking game for about an hour and you wouldnt learn anything you couldnt find out on any fanpage. All I'm going to say is this: I paid $1.99 for the game disc at the GameStop, and I have definately gotten my money's worth. I intend to buy the full game and subscribe, but I realise the game may not be for everyone. If you can find one of those discs though, it is at least worth the try I say. They wont even ask for your credit card.

The third review here is not of a specific game, which allows for the first sentence to be constructed as it has been without the grammar police giving me another ticket. GameTap is a sort of HBO for video games, and I say is because its only sort of happened just today. GameTap is one year old now, and has in that year offered numerous classic and newer video games available for the one monthly rate of $9.95. Fine as far as it goes, but in this year its basically offered games that, by and large, if you wanted them before, you probably got them. Since then though, its gotten better, including two things, acclaimed but hard to find games like The Last Express, which recieved a large following and great praise, but never actually sold very well, and now Exclusive Episodic content in the form of the long-delayed and often-cancelled Sam and Max Sequel(s). Also they'll be incorporating Uru Live, which is sort of World of Warcraft meets the Myst universe in whatever way that makes sense. I initially signed up for just those reasons, and look forward to playing S&M later today since the release of episode one is tonight, but I browsed around on it earlier for no more than ten minutes and was frankly awed by the sheer tonnage of games they offer. Neo Geo stuff, TurboGrafX stuff, even has the old Sierra OnLine adventure games (which have, incidentally, recently been repackaged for retail and, I, as a fan, hate to say, are not worth the $20). I'm looking forward to poking around more in the next few days, seeing what all else I can find, if theres that much time between Sam and Max, Warcraft, Uru, and Puzzle Cards.

Oh, and incidentally, if you happen to know the guy at the Billion2One.org link, let them know.

Michael Steele - Friend of the Brutal Criminal Rapist

2006-10-17T10:25:00.000-04:00

I could not even pretend I could make this up.

At the press conference, Tyson posed for photos with fans, signed autographs and campaigned for Maryland U.S. Senate candidate Michael Steele.
Tyson, wearing a white and blue Steele for U.S. Senate T-shirt, said he used to believe black Republicans were "sellouts." But Tyson said he changed his mind after researching the Maryland lieutenant governor.
"We have to open our eyes more," Tyson said, as he pointed to his T-shirt.

Main screen turn on

2006-10-14T11:50:00.000-04:00

Seeing if I can restart the Blog at this point, not yet sure why I would want to. I dont want to make this a livejournal kind of thing, on account of I think its edgy to think Emo is stupid. Anyway not alot to talk about, Newly addicted to two games, Perplex City and World of Warcraft, I invite you to research if you dont know much about either game, only Perplex is consuming my money at the moment though. Will talk more later, am actually running late for something at the moment, but enjoy the new look, brought to you through the inter-tube.
For your viewing pleasure, have a look at decades-old games journalism, lead in by known imbecile Bill O'Reiley

He had trouble with Lincoln Logs? Well I guess it fits...

Ann Coulter just generally sucks.

2006-07-08T22:22:00.000-04:00

This is informative:
The Rude Pundit - All Coulter Plagarism Allegations in One Post
This is great:
Crooks and Liars » Adam Carolla hangs up on Coulter
And This is funny:
Current TV - SuperNews - Eva Coulter

OH GOD THE SKY IS EXPLODING!!!111!!!oneeleven!

2006-07-04T22:02:00.000-04:00

Happy 4th of July everyone, hope youre having fun getting drunk, laying back on some random lawn watching bombs bursting in the air. To celebrate this glorious day, heres a video clip from Evangelion where Shinji asks the same questions I had by the end of the series:

THANK you... God honestly why dont they just make cliffs notes for that damn show already?

Senator Ted Stevens explains the internet to you!

2006-07-04T21:57:00.000-04:00

Voting against Net Neutrality, Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), who was also opposed to cutting funds for a Bridge to Nowhere in order to help fund Hurricane Katrina Relief efforts, has decided in his undoubtedly ineffible wisdom explains the Internets to the ignorant masses

I just the other day got, an internet was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday and I just got it yesterday.

Why? Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the internet commercially...

The regulatory approach is wrong. Your approach is regulatory in the sense that it says "No one can charge anyone for massively invading this world of the internet". No, I'm not finished. I want people to understand my position, I'm not going to take a lot of time.
They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the internet. And again, the internet is not something you just dump something on. It's not a truck.

It's a series of tubes.

And if you don't understand those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and its going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material...

Now I think these people are arguing whether they should be able to dump all that stuff on the internet ought to consider if they should develop a system themselves.

Maybe there is a place for a commercial net but it's not using what consumers use every day.

It's not using the messaging service that is essential to small businesses, to our operation of families.

The whole concept is that we should not go into this until someone shows that there is something that has been done that really is a viloation of net neutraility that hits you and me.

The internet is a series of tubes where porn pysically blocks the department of defense from fighting al Qaeda and keeps us from using the messaging services necessary to the operation of our families. That clears up so much sir, thank you.

27B Stroke 6

Dammit Schmammit

2006-06-29T21:21:00.000-04:00

A whole week passing between posts.I'm beginning to wonder if I'm intentionally making myself lax in this to justify some inborn need to yell at myself.

Well this weekend I got a DS Lite... and while I do feel it is a marvelous system that I do not regret purchasing... um...

Well here's the thing, I cant actually find anything I want to play on it. I managed by sheer luck to get a preorder of a rerelease of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, in which you play a Lawyer. If youve never heard of it before that last sentence will fail to impress you as much as the game itself should. Its fun and funny, a combination too tragically rare in video games these days. I also got Brain Age, which I'm having some trouble with, in one day my BA score went from 53 to 24, and I think it had more to do with which tests I got than with the homework assignments the "game" has been giving me.

These are the only two games I own so far. I'm tring to find some others people have recommended loud and proudly, but I cannot for the life of me locate Trauma Center, Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow, Advance Wars DS or Kirby Canvas Curse. I'll definatelyly break down and get New Super Mario Bros eventually, and Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time too, and Mario Kart and Tetris DS when my brother gets a system, but you know right now I want some stuff that really uses that touch screen, that makes use of the systems identifying feature without just putting some map or something on it. I dunno... is Animal Crossing actually any fun? Ive never played but it sounds like, I dunno... work...

Well anyway theres my personal musings for today. Nothing much else to talk about except I'm still sick with something, some virus taking its time getting through my system.

Anyway, here's a thing...

Thoughts on Ads

2006-06-21T21:12:00.000-04:00

There are two reasons I havent implemented BlogAds into this site, and nither really has to do with me not wanting to Sell Out to the Man exactly. Well okay the second one does, but we'll get to that in a minute. The first reason is I dont know if its worth the effrot. I mean really, does anyone actually read this damn thing I write so infrequently? If so please feel free to leave a comment or something so I can have some gauge of m readership if such exists.
The second is that, if I do, I'm reasonably sure I'll have to take on one of those ads that are on every other blog with that crappy cartoon about "The Future of the Internet", and I say crappy not just because of its intentionally-bad-because-oh-ha-ha-thats-damn-hilarious-isn't-it-itude, but also because its argument is basically nonsense. The telecoms want to control how you use the internet. Thats basically it. They say because they want to build a "smart network", which is nonsense, since the network is a tool, and no such thing as a "smart hammer" exists. Ah hell, I'm still and cant be bothered to explain it better. Just go Ask a Ninja.

Then visit SaveTheInternet.com and get involved if you like. They debunk the various deceptions the ISPs are tring to slide down our throat, so screw them and their stupid ad.
And speaking of stupid ads, here is Joe Lieberman's lates stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid campaign ad against Ned Lamont in CT. I'd provide context for the ad if I though id would make sense if I did, but nothing can sane-ify something this stupid.

...wow. And can I say incidentally thank god for YouTube?
Well I'm done I guess, feeling ill, need rest, body tired, ability to form cogent entences gone bye bye, sleep now.

Sick day

2006-06-21T01:09:00.000-04:00

Feel like hell. Mom says I have meningitis except I think its going away by now really, but either way I cant put together the post I want to about Louisiana's governor Kathleen Blanco being stupid stupid stupid stupid so very very stupid. So screw it, enjoy this video fom E3 this past may hat shows the Wii in action. Kicks a little ass i think.

AMV as a means of apology for lapse in service

2006-06-19T01:23:00.000-04:00

I really wish to hell I had some good reason or other to explain why I havent posted in so long, some personal family thing maybe, I dunno, but I really just sort of kept meaning to for a while. I guess maybe I'll catch on to this eventually and get more serious about it, but until I do, I'm going to try to make at least one post ever-other-daily, even if it only contains one or two silly things I think are cool.

Todays thing is an AMV by ISTIV Studio called The Race.

It are my berfday today!

2006-06-03T18:34:00.000-04:00

*does little dance* Yay me!

Wish I had stuff to talk about, but dont really. Got gifts, went to a movie, enjoyed self all around. Not much else to say as far as the two primary topics I intended to write about on the blog, gaming and politics. which is to say that altough a great deal indeed is forever going on in these two arenas, theres nothing I really feel partifularly inclined to comment on.

Oh, except the PS3 will probably not suck as bad as I had previously thought. Mostly because of its recently announced Homebrew software capabilitles. I was planning to make my old PC a sort of media center hub for videos, emulators and such, but hell it really looks like the PS3 will do all that crap anyway, cause you know people will be making NES, Genesis, hell probably even Xbox emulators for it eventually, someone'll make a Tivo for it, somebody will port Itunes to it, hell, I'm looking forward to getting one when they get cheap.

Oh what? I may be a fanboy but I have some limits here people.

E3 - Day 1 post

2006-05-09T15:32:00.000-04:00

Go to Joystiq or Kotaku for the news, I'd link to the specific articles for references but its too damn fresh right now to be thinking straight, and besides there are already better game news sites out there. This is what has so far been announced.

- Sony has decided to forgo developing a game console, and has instead put a laptop computer inside of a George Foreman grill. The "good" PS3 (more on that in a sec) will have a 60GB Hard drive, SD Ram support, Hi-Def, built-in 802.11g Wi-Fi, and 256MB of video ram. The "cheaper" version loses the card support, the hi-def, the wi-fi, 40 gigs, and will make dogs hate you. Theyre apparently doing this to make their console like the Xbox 360 which released two versions, one people wanted, and the "core" system that people only bought on launch day because they underproduced the good one and could upgrade later.

- The "Good" and "Cheap" PS3s will cost $599 and $499 respectively. Sony has done this because apparently they are insane in ways unknown to science, or are actually trying to go bankrupt. The larger-than-sensible pricee is more than anything due to the inclusion of Blu-Ray DVD tech inside the system, which is still such prototypical technology that nobody seems to even want to figure out how to use it just yet except for PS3 games specifically, so instead of absorbing the loss to gain market dominance, theyre basically trying to discourage people form buying their product by making it prohibitavely expensive. The 360 will have a Year lead-in on the PS3, and will most likely come down in price at the time. Theyve stopped producing the crappy "core" system, which means that a 360 which is in every rational sense entirely comparable with the PS3 will likely cost around $350 if not less at the time the PS3 comes out, putting it at around half the price, so really, which one are parents gonna buy for their kids?

- The PS3 controller has been redesigned to mimic the DualShock 2 in every way but the Shock (No Rumble, apparently they were sued for a copyright on putting small motors inside things) and is wireless (which is, okay, a good thing that theyre not doing a core thing and depriving the cheap of that). Theyve also put this tilt-sensor thing in it because they really believe that makes sense somehow, even though a few have tried it already and failed. Hell, they probably did it because it failed even, who knows with these idiots. Well thats it, I'm done with them now.

- Nintendo's Wii (god it feels as stupid to type as it does to say) will have a sort of SNES looking game pad attachement to play the library of legacy games with which looks okay from the graphic, but apparently there hasnt been a hands on yet so its hard to say.

- Also there is no set price for the... look I'm calling it the Revolution and screw you if you have a problem with that. Rumors though put the price for what is essentially a slightly upgraded Gamecube at something like $250, which I would be willing to bet is actually erring on the high side of it. Even the 360 wont come out lower than that, which puts Nintendo in a position to reclaim dominance of the market if they play their cards correctly, and knowing how well theyve operated before this would be no surprise

- Its 4pm EST now, which is when Microsoft has ended their press conference, and theyre basically doing the right thing by just announcing games that people are going to be looking for. Apparently the Halo 3 Trailer has just hit, and they announced Grand Theft Auto 4 a little while ago. I dont own an Xbox of either species, and probably never will. Just dont really care for it. But I'll say that they at least are running their business correctly.

So to summarize, Nintendo's being vague, Microsoft's sticking to their guns, and Sony has gone bat-excrement goat-fornicating insane.

Music Video : "When I Wake Up" Dir: Keith Schofield

2006-04-28T15:31:00.000-04:00

YouTube - Wintergreen "When I Wake Up" Dir: Keith Schofield

Wii? But Wy?

2006-04-28T15:09:00.000-04:00

Nintendo has just changed the name of their Revolutionary console, you know, the one with the Revolutionary remote control input? Plus the frankly Revolutionary decision to make the entire Nintendo back-catalog available on, bringing back the moments we remember that Revolutionized video games as we knew them, Revolutionizing the concept further by integrating online play with games new and old? You know, the one they were calling the Revolution because, dammit, thats the most appropriate name for a device like this? Well they've changed the name of the console, from Revolution to frankly Revolting.Now, instead of having kids across the country going into their rooms and playing with their Gaming Revolution, you'll have boys running upstairs, locking the door to their room, whipping it out and playing with their Wii.
Nintendo "Revolution" now called "Wii" - Joystiq

Day of the Numbers

2006-04-20T15:21:00.000-04:00

Today is 4/20, which is a particularly interesting number to a certain kind of person. They tend to get all funny in the head, celebrating in secret with their closest friends, doing the sort of things they like to do and which I will not specifically mention in this post for fear of condoning such actions (though I do not explicitly decry their right to such celebrating) but I will take the opportunity of this numerically significant day to discuss a few interesting numbers, in the hopes that it may provide informative succor to those of you not joining those particular people in celebrating Hitler's 117th birthday.
Oh, wait, you didnt think I was talking about weed, did you?

10,000,000,000 - Amount of US dollars to be spent on current American military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Per month.

2,500,000 - Number of Unique visitors per month to the website of Rolling Stone Magazine.

33 - Current Approval Rating of President Bush, as tabulated by, of all places, Fox News.

I am out of numbers now, should have found more before posting, but really they were ust an excuse to make a bad joke at the expense of potheads and Hitler. Sorry about that.

A blog post

2006-04-13T19:40:00.000-04:00

Ive been too lax in updating this blog, linking to articles in drafts I never ended up posting, making the news of them too old to be important. This is just a little housecleaning right now.

Firstly, from a link found on Oliver Willis, I give you the latest from ball-busting action superstar, Dr. Tran.

Secondly, a week or so ago GamePolitics reported that the Michigan Video Games R Teh 5uck law was ruled unconstitutional.

The video game industry registered another big court victory today as a federal judge ruled Michigan's video game law unconstitutional and reaffirmed that "video games are a form of creative expression that are constitutionally protected under the First Amendment. They contain original artwork, graphics, music, storylines, and characters similar to movies and television shows, both of which are considered protected free speech."

Wonderful news that, essentially, the courts have officially recognized that games are a form of expression, (and further than that are therefore capable of evolution and eventual recognition as an art form) and are not subject to state bans on them. Its been run into the ground, but govt. has to stop trying to regulate every gotterdamerungen thing these days, rock music, rap music, comic books, violent movies, and now theyre hoping (and failing) that video games make an easier target. They have to stop. In particular, democratic senators (who typically forward such bills) have to realize how pointless their attempt to "out-moral" the right is doomed to failure. Not because the right is more moral, just that they can play that game better.

Anyway I had another thing to say about the evil of Joe Lieberman, basically having to do with him being a sissy about his challenger Ned Lamont in Connecticut, him running as an independant if he fails to win the democratic primary (Joe Lieberman? trying to appeal to republicans? Oh perish the anally bleeding thought) but I'm not really in the mood right now, breaks over in a few minutes anyway. Will post again eventually, probably, hopefully, dont hold your breath.

Snakes on a Plane!

2006-03-17T17:46:00.000-05:00

Snakes on a Plane: Snakes on a Plane

With Snakes!

Mary Carey Redux- In which I engage in Journamaliserim

2006-03-16T23:56:00.000-05:00

Dont ask me why I even thought to bother, but I decided to see if porn "star" Mary Carey's website had any mention of her meeting the president at the NRCC meeting I spoke about in this post. Sure enough her online "diary" does contain two mentions of it. You can read the whole thing here (warning, this is a porn "star's" webpage, which makes it not work-safe) but here are the two relevant passages. (All grammatical, syntactical, spelling errors and other instances of bad writing are Ms. Carey's and have been reproduced verbatim here)

Mar-13-2006: Hey everyone, Just got back from new zealand, my flight was horrible. I had to sit in coach and my butt hurts, my back hurts, and my knees hurt. Anyway, now I'm back in la, getting ready to go to washington dc for dinner with President Bush. I love dc. Time for bed. Good night everyone.

Mar-14-2006: I'm at the La airport getting ready to go to washington DC. I can't wait. I'm a little dissapointed that the NRCC is n't giving me the award weds or letting me go to the Karl Rove luncheon, but I still get to go to the bush dinner Thursday and am scheduling some tv shows with fox news and MSNBC. I hope its just as much fun this time as in June. Also, my 1st legend movie "mary carey on the rise" is available now. Buy it everyone. Its the best movie I've done yet. Its by Legend Video

So she's upset she couldnt get to be enchanted my Karl Rove's impressive masculinity, and in truth what woman wouldn't be, and she's also promoting her latest porn video, but something else caught my eye. "I'm a little dissapointed that the NRCC is n't giving me the award weds..." piqued my curiosity, and made me ask myself aloud "...award? Was she going to be given an award? What reward would the National Republican Congressional Committee give to Mary Carey?!" So I checked the NRCC webpage for clarification and found info on the dinner here, and found the item in question. Wednesday, 11:30am - 2:00pm, Businessman of the Year and Award Ceremony, hosted my guest of honor, Karl Rove. This is the only event where any kind of award is mentioned.

So, here's what it looks like: Mary Carey is at least under the impression she was going to win Businessman of the Year from the RNCC, meaning she was probably nominated, and as far as we know, may have even won, but was unable to recieve the award for reasons unknown. Now, I cant back any of this up, I cant find a list of the nominees or even the winner for this year, so dont take my word.

Still though, just let that thought sit in your mind... gestating... evolving... The National Republican Congressional Committee nominated/awarded a porn star as Businessman of the Year...

Joe Lieberman should Die in front of his Children

2006-03-14T00:54:00.000-05:00

Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman may well be one of the worst human beings in the world.

He is certainly the nation's worst Democrat. He has endorsed and voted in favor of every one of W. Bush's policies and programs, even going as far as to criticise members of his own party who dare point out objective fact that demonstrates, for instance, that the Iraq War is based on false information and faught poorly.

Compounding my distaste for him is his vocal opposition to violence in video games, leading the charge in the past against such threats to our way of life as the best selling PC game Doom. I'd go further into his jackassery vis a vis gaming, but its all slightly old news. Rest assured he'll do something stupid on that front soon enough and I'll be appropriately indignant. Besides, it would distract from his latest crime against common sense and decency.

In Connecticut, apparently if you're raped, and theres a risk you could get pregnant, you had better hope the paramedics dont take you to a Catholic hospital, because it seems they reserve the right to deny you emergency contraception. Okay, first wrap your mind around that, this isn't even an abortion issue, this is about preventing the rapist's sperm from fusing permanently with the victim's egg. Terminating a life doesnt even enter into it, but the Conn. Catholics, never ones to let facts or sense interfere with their actions, are opposed to it nonetheless, meaning about %20 of Conn hospitals are basically saying that a victim should be forced to give birth to the rapist's child, an opinion they no doubt derive from their wonderful Christian love.

Anyway, a bill was proposed recently to counteract this madness. Guess what Lieberman's opinion is on the matter.

From the New Haven Register (reguires registration)

U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, who often takes a conservative line on social issues, is facing a liberal Democratic primary challenge from wealthy Greenwich businessman Ned Lamont. But that hasn't stopped Lieberman from supporting the approach of the Catholic hospitals when it comes to contraceptives for rape victims.

Lieberman said he believes hospitals that refuse to give contraceptives to rape victims for "principled reasons" shouldn't be forced to do so. "In Connecticut, it shouldn't take more than a short ride to get to another hospital," he said.

I tried to pick a single sentence from that quite to boldface, but its honestly all so damned absurd that I couldnt pick just one. His kowtowing to religious interests put him in favor of letting hospitals deny emergency medical assistence if they just plain dont feel like it? And this guy is a three-term senator? Good lord why is there so much Stupid in the world?!

firedoglake: Lieberman Supports Rapist Rights in Connecticut

News story that speaks for itself

2006-03-12T23:57:00.000-05:00

Porn star to meet George W.

PRWire, a very reliable source of mainstream and sometimes alternative news is reporting that adult starlet Mary Carey is scheduled to attend the United to Victory dinner with President George W. Bush in Washington D.C on March 15th - 16th.

Carey, who was also a Republican candidate for governor of California, is going to Washington at the invitation of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC).

On returning to Washington, Ms. Carey said, “I'm really excited to be going back to Washington D.C. to see the president again. Everyone thinks that politicians are stuffy, but we all had a great time last year.”

Carey made national headlines in June of 2005, when she attended a similar dinner with President George W. Bush, also at the invitation of the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Is it even necessary to make a comment on this?

One of a select few yet still important reasons I should own a PSP

2006-03-11T23:23:00.000-05:00

Mega Man Powered Up
Sweetened fanciful Moses this game looks too good to be true. The entire first Mega Man game done in 3D, which is reason enough to buy the thing, but also includes two new levels/bosses, the ability to play as the Mega one, his sister Roll, and Boss Robots like Gutsman and Cutman, a level editor, and other online features. Glory be unto Mega Man in the highest, and on Earth, peace, and good will to all men.
Only worries I have are that the graphics are a little too childish to say the game wont be like kid's-level difficulty. Also while they kept the origional music, they sort of converted all the minor chords into major ones, so it sounds, I dunno, wrong-ish. More of that kid-ish-ness I suppose. Anyways, check the trailer.

GameTrailers.com: Mega Man Powered Up

One of many reasons I do not own a PSP

2006-03-11T22:35:00.000-05:00

Load times.
Some poor schmoe was unfortunate enough to try and play WWE: Smackdown VS Raw 2006 on the PSP, after reading rather favorable reviews online. Unfortunately, the game, it seems, did not want to be played. Forthwith he decided to document his experience so that none other may suffer for THQ's mistake. What follows is a full 6+ minutes of loading screens that follow the path from starting the system to the first second of actual gameplay. And that's skipping through the cruddy movies too. If it werent for the Benny Hill theme playing constantly it'd be unbearable. It's... it's just... just damn, man.

Joystiq: Load time from HELL! PSP game takes its sweet time

Sierra Adventure Games being Re-released this March

2006-02-23T21:02:00.000-05:00

Vivendi Universal, which owns the rights to all the old Sierra adventure games, is finally giving the old proprietary rights an airing and releasing, them as compilation collections on March 30. Amazon.com has the sites up for preordering the King's Quest, Space Quest, Police Quest and Leisure Suit Larry compilations already, but no other news, such as what comes with the discs, as in bonus material, or is it just the games? Also no word on Gabriel Knight, Quest for Glory, Laura Bow, Gobliiins, and other classics.

Horrifying dork that I am, I already own all the games boxed, so unless they have any bonus features, I aint bothering with it.

Joystiq: Classic Sierra adventure games re-released

Exercise in Argument #002 - Bush says he's not concerned about US Security

2006-02-23T18:38:00.000-05:00

Not in so many words, but by inference. He's a wily one, but if you listen, its there.

First he sets up the conditional statement

Bush: No need to worry about port security (CNN.com)

President Bush on Thursday defended his administration's decision to allow a company from an Arab country to operate six major U.S. ports... "This deal wouldn't go forward if we were concerned about the security for the United States of America," Bush told reporters during a Cabinet meeting.

From this we extrapolate the logical statement: IF [concern about US security] THEN [deal wouldnt go through]. If we reverse it to its equally true opposite we have: IF -[deal wouldnt go through] THEN -[concern about US security]. (modus tollens) Which is to say that if the deal goes through then he is not concerned about security

Bush says Dubai port deal should go forward(Reuters)

President George W. Bush said on Tuesday that a deal for a state-owned Dubai company to manage major U.S. ports should go forward and will not jeopardize U.S. security.
Bush told reporters traveling back to Washington with him from Colorado that he would veto legislation to stop the deal from going through.

If deal goes through, then Bush isnt concerned about security. Bush plans to make the deal go through, even using his first veto while in office to make this the case. Therefore, Bush isnt concerned about security, while signing a deal to have six US ports maintained by a company, Dubai Ports World, a state-owned company in the United Arab Emirates, which has known and demonstrable ties to terrorist organizations.

Exercise in Argument #001 - George W Bush prefers untruths to fact.

2006-02-21T00:24:00.001-05:00

Before beginning, a breif word about what I intend to accomplish here. Too many bloggers, pundits, politicians, etc. rely not on the facts of the matter to make their point, but rather rhetoric intended to emotionally drive their supporters behind them, or their opponents insane. I do not intend to follow in this way, however I do feel some cases do need to be made. So, to make them, I will not say a word, and merely use direct quotes assembled quite cunningly if I do say so myself in order to make these points, emphasizing relevant parts. So... on we go then.

Polar bears drown as ice shelf melts - Will Iredale - The Times Online - Dec 18, 2005

Scientists have for the first time found evidence that polar bears are drowning because climate change is melting the Arctic ice shelf...
Polar bears live on ice all year round and use it as a platform from which to hunt food and rear their young. They hunt near the edge, where the ice is thinnest, catching seals when they make holes in the ice to breath. They typically eat one seal every four or five days and a single bear can consume 100lb of blubber at one sitting.
As the ice pack retreats north in the summer between June and October, the bears must travel between ice floes to continue hunting in areas such as the shallow water of the continental shelf off the Alaskan coast — one of the most food-rich areas in the Arctic. However, last summer the ice cap receded about 200 miles further north than the average of two decades ago, forcing the bears to undertake far longer voyages between floes.
"We know short swims up to 15 miles are no problem, and we know that one or two may have swum up to 100 miles. But that is the extent of their ability, and if they are trying to make such a long swim and they encounter rough seas they could get into trouble," said Steven Amstrup, a research wildlife biologist with the USGS.
New evidence from field researchers working for the World Wildlife Fund in Yakutia, on the northeast coast of Russia, has also shown the region’s first evidence of cannibalism among bears competing for food supplies.

Bush's Chat with Novelist Alarms Environmentalists - Michael Janofsky - New York Times - Feb. 16 2006

In his new book about Mr. Bush, "Rebel in Chief: Inside the Bold and Controversial Presidency of George W. Bush," Fred Barnes recalls a visit to the White House last year by Michael Crichton, whose 2004 best-selling novel, "State of Fear," suggests that global warming is an unproven theory and an overstated threat.
Mr. Barnes, who describes Mr. Bush as "a dissenter on the theory of global warming," writes that the president "avidly read" the novel and met the author after Karl Rove, his chief political adviser, arranged it. He says Mr. Bush and his guest "talked for an hour and were in near-total agreement."
"The visit was not made public for fear of outraging environmentalists all the more," he adds.

"It is fiction, but it has the absolute ring of truth." - American Association of Petroleum Geologists spokesman Larry Nation on Crichton's book, on the occasion of awarding the fictional novel with the AAPG's annual Journalism award.

Bush Aide Softened Greenhouse Gas Links to Global Warming - Andrew C Revkin - New York Times - June 8, 2005

A White House official who once led the oil industry's fight against limits on greenhouse gases has repeatedly edited government climate reports in ways that play down links between such emissions and global warming, according to internal documents.
In handwritten notes on drafts of several reports issued in 2002 and 2003, the official, Philip A. Cooney, removed or adjusted descriptions of climate research that government scientists and their supervisors, including some senior Bush administration officials, had already approved.

"This shows the president is more interested in science fiction than science," - Frank O'Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch, on meeting between President Bush and author Crichton.

Dammit but I thought this was hilarious.

2006-02-19T20:44:00.000-05:00

First Post

2006-02-17T17:34:00.000-05:00

Hello, this is my first blog post, and like most first blog posts, the topic of this particular post is the fact of its first posting. I have nothing else at the moment to talk about though, yet need to have a first post, logically, in order to have later ones. Such as is the case with most new blogs, I started with the idea that recent events/news would be immediately worth commenting on, the only problem being that those things that I would have commented upon are now relatively old news that I find myself unable to comment on, since to do so would merely be redundant at this point. Ah well, something will probably materialize soon enough. For all future inquiries, please feel free to ignore this post, as it likely has nothing of merit to contribute to, frankly, anything. Thank you for your time.