Far be it for me to doubt the direction Moore and Eick have set our castaways on, but I don’t think I like Anders being a cylon. I mean, here’s this badass freedom fighter, rescued from the armageddon of Caprica, and it turns out he was fighting his own kind the whole time. As have many others who where revealed to be cylons, but it’s a bit like Guevara turning out to be a capitalist. Okay, false analogy, but you catch my drift I’m sure.
Who knows how the whole Starbuck subplot will turn out, but if she ends up being a cylon I think they may have missed an opportunity with the whole Anders/Starbuck coupling. We already know that Starbuck, if she ends up still being human, will lose her shit and cap Anders in the skull when she finds out he’s a toaster, but that Anders, were he still human, might not do the same. Of course, this is all conjecture and Moore and Eick & Co. might have that storyline progress just the same, only in reverse. Face it, Kara’s a crazy bitch and can go either way. Maybe.
And Baltar is really rocking the whole reluctant messiah thing. Can’t blame him though, room full of young chicks wanting his cock…I’d play that shit like Mozart given the chance. Did the kid’s immune system pull through, or was it some intervention at the hand of a cylon agent? Like the old man, I’m not one for miracles, but this is fiction so anything is possible. However, I doubt they’d actually go that route. Baltar has been a false prophet the whole time, to change that might not sit well.
19 to go? Man, I’m in for the duration. They just better not end up on Earth in 1980. I’ll be a one-man riot if that comes to pass.
Not that I’m one for making “resolutions” at the dawn of a new year, but I’ve been itching to pick up my guitar more and more lately. One of the reasons I set it down was because of the difficulty of learning new songs, and not being able to play some chords quite right. For example, I love the song “Off He Goes” by Pearl Jam, but man I have problems with the F chord, just can’t play it without sounding like some retard with cake on his hands. And Jack Johnson songs, that fucker is all kinds of good, and it’s just disheartening trying to play his stuff.
Recently I’ve been listening to a lot of Dropkick Murphys, and while I don’t have an electric guitar to bust out the punk riffs, they do have several acoustic tracks that are quite good, anthemic even, and they’re all rather simple in chord structure. More than simple though, is that they’re all chords I cut my teeth on, so I’m able to switch between quick enough, and these are usually fast songs (they are a punk band after all). On top of all that the songs fit my vocal stylings (not that I have unique stylings per se, but rather I’m able to mimic certain singers fairly well, especially the ones with rough voices), so I’ll be able to take up the whole singing and playing thing again, something I was never able to get a real handle on (probably because I was trying to sing Neil Young songs, and I sure as fuck don’t have a high voice like him).
‘07 was full of gaming, what with all the AAA titles that were released. ‘08 looks to be quite a bit slower on that front, so back to the guitar.
I watched the MS E3 press conference live via intertubes stream tonight, and came away thinking one thing: September through christmas is going to be hell on my wallet.
I also came away a little pissed at Epic for rewarding those with badass gaming PCs with five extra chapters in Gears. but that’s only because I don’t have a badass gaming PC, if I did, I’d be happy with all the extra content and map editor.
Of all the 360 game vids and live demos I was most impressed with Assassin’s Creed and COD4: Modern Warfare. Those two had live demos with developers playing though, so it’s not surprising they impress more than a vid. Mass Effect vid looked sweetness, as did the Halo 3 vid that ended the conference.
Assassin’s Creed, while being an action/adventure heavy on story, looks like it will have some good sandbox features. the playthrough focused on tracking down a slaver in ancient Jerusalem, and started with the main character perched high atop a building, looking over the city. one of the devs said that all the buildings you could see in the distance were reachable and interactive, which is great because one of the gameplay features is the free-running and climbing. seeing as how one of the best things I found in Crackdown was simply climbing and exploring the city, jumping from roof to roof, I’m hoping this element in AC will extend gametime and provide interesting deviations from the main story.
COD4 looked gorgeous, and the level the devs demoed had you playing a sniper in full ghillie suit that perfectly blended in with the field when you dropped to the ground. gotta love that shit. apparently the story has to do with breakaway rebels in the Ukraine, and while it’s nice to slaughter Nazis wholesale, there’s no shortage of WWII shooters so it’s nice to see them moving away from that.
anyways, if I’m not forgetting anything, here are the featured games I want, all coming out this year:
Aug: Bioshock
Sep: Halo 3
Oct: GTA IV
Nov: Assassin’s Creed, Splinter Cell: Conviction, Mass Effect
TBA: COD4, PGR4 (bikes!)
that’s $480 in games. christ. granted, I probably won’t be getting all those at full retail because the length of some (Mass Effect, GTA, Halo 3 multiplayer) will keep me busy for awhile, so I probably won’t make it to all of them until early 08.
but still.
To add yet another blog entry to the overcrowded internets complaining about the heat in the northern hemisphere would be an excellent exercise in redundancy and superfluousness. (Welcome home verbosity, you’ve been missed.)
Taking vacation days in the middle of summer and planning on doing nothing but gaming in the hottest room in the house is, in a word, idiotic. Saturday afternoon found me itching to play some Rainbow Six: Vegas on the 360, but fearing for the the health of the already nuclear console, I decided it would be better to game at night. It makes for a decent heater in the winter, sadly it doesn’t have any role-reversal magic when summer rolls around. So nights it is, and here I am approaching 3am and I’m not the least bit tired. I always fall back on old habits when I have extended time off, no matter that I have to get back up at the crack dawn on Thursday and trudge on in to the office.
Could I afford an AC unit? Why yes I could, but not the extended jump on the Edison bill. Even though we’re both amassing a good chunk of change in our accounts, pops still shits a brick over utilities each month.
Seems no one reads this-here, and I think I like that. As much as I like leaving off obvious nouns. Bit more freedom I suppose. Though I’d like to think I’m beyond any gifting of shit at this point, I still wouldn’t like to deal with drama from the usual suspects. One of the first rules of blogging is not to let anyone you know know you blog. Someone should have told me that from the start. I guess back then we were trying to entertain more than blog, so it wasn’t an issue.
Had a good start over on the Nefarious Muse revamp, but the well seems to have run dry for the time being. I should do more promoting, link exchanges, etc. In fact, I don’t think I have one outgoing link on that site. It’ll come around though, eventually, be it through my own efforts or a slowly built stable of contributors. Think long-haul here though, as I don’t intend to ever let the domain expire and I’m on a stable free host.
I recently did a bit of work on my short Last Chance and sent it off to thuglit.com, as I felt it to be an appropriate pairing. They didn’t agree. Too short, I’m guessing. Maybe not enough punch to it. Maybe not enough slangified text, judging from the numerous missing G’s in stories they do publish. No sweat off my nuts though, I wrote it for myself anyways, sent it off on a whim.
Speaking of writing, the next few months have some anticipated releases: Spook Country by Gibson in August, and Baer’s Godspeed in November. Palahniuk’s Rant from a couple months ago was good too. I’m forgetting a couple here, but overall it’s shaping up to be a good year for fiction.
Happy Fourth. Drink a beer, blow some shit up, and get all sentimental over how we so splendidly told old King George to fuck off way back when.
I received the following email from my father when he forwarded the message to his address book. It should be noted that my father is a lifelong registered Republican, but hasn’t voted Republican in presidential elections since 1988. And in the full interest of disclosure, I am a registered Democrat, but do not always vote along party lines, and am only registered as such because I didn’t receive sample ballots or voter information booklets when I was an Independent. I voted McCain in the 2000 primary when I was still registered as Independent, and voted Nader in the general because I knew California would go to Gore. In 2004 I voted Kerry, hating that he had the nomination.
Who is Barrack Obama?
Probable U. S. presidential candidate, Barrack Hussein Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Barrack Hussein Obama, Sr., a black Muslim from Nyangoma-Kogel, Kenya and Ann Dunham, a white atheist from Wichita,Kansas. Obama’s parents met at the University of Hawaii.
When Obama was two years old, his parents divorced. His father
returned to Kenya. His mother then married Lolo Soetoro, a radical Muslim From Indonesia.
When Obama was 6 years old, the family relocated to
Indonesia. Obama attended a Muslim school in Jakart a.
He also spent two years in a Catholic school.
Obama takes great care to conceal the fact that he is a Muslim. He Is
quick to point out that, ‘He was once a Muslim, but that he also
attendedCatholic school.’
Obama’s political handlers are attempting to make it appear that
Obama’s introduction to Islam came via his father, and that this influence Was temporary at best.
In reality, the senior Obama returned to Kenya
Soon after the divorce, and never again had any direct influence over His son’s education. Lolo Soetoro, the second husband of Obama’s
mother, Ann Dunham, introduced his stepson to Islam.
Obama was enrolled in a Wahabi school in Jakarta. Wahabism is the radical teaching that is followed by the Muslim terrorists who are now waging Jihad against the western world.
Since it is politically expedient to be a Christian when seeking Major
public office in the United States, Barack Hussein Obama has joined the United Church of Christ in an attempt to downplay his Muslim
background.
Let us all remain alert concerning Obama’sexpected presidential
candidacy.
Please forward to everyone you know.
The Muslims have said they plan on destroying the US from the inside
out, what better way to start than at the highest level.
Here is my response, which I asked my father to forward to his address book:
We need less fear-mongering in this already heavily divided country,
and the assertion that Obama is a “radical Muslim” is as absurd as it is
false. I would point you to this article on snopes.com, a site which,
much to the chagrin of fear-mongering radical Christian fundamentalist
activists, actually checks the facts behind the lies of said groups:http://snopes.com/politics/obama/muslim.asp
I would also direct your attention to the Wikipedia article on Senator
Obama, which includes over 150 cited references to its information
regarding the Senator, unlike the information in the email which is little
more than hearsay, and closer to outright lies, and only an attempt to
gather support for radical fundamentalist Christian candidates such as
Senator “I haven’t the mind to understand, much less believe in
science” Brownback.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama
vote Republican if you must, if you feel it in your heart that it is
better for the country to do so, that is your right as an American
citizen. but to spread lies against distinguished members of congress does
no one any good, and in fact serves to further the disconnect between
citizens, neighbors, and family members of differing political ideals.I would urge that in the future you check the information you
disseminate.
I am truly saddened when I receive stuff like this from my fellow Americans. Truth will not be found in a soundbite, or spammed propaganda. I wish more people would realize this, and be more conscious of what they spread.
“Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt.”
Let us talk for a moment about spam. I’ve been noticing a lack of quality in the detritus flooding my inbox as of late. For example, I just got something in my yahoo box promising “Britney Spears pussy shots plus Paris Hilton”. Now who in their right mind would click on that? Everyone and I mean fucking everyone who wanted to see Britney’s love sleeve saw that shit months ago, and Paris, that queen of starfuckers, that goddess of media whoredom? Man, everyone’s seen her fuck on camera. These particular spammers must be living in a goddamn time warp. You’ve gotta be on top of things guys, stay topical, keep current; show me Elizabeth Edwards mammogram or some shit, you know, be relevant.
Then there’s this gem from a person claiming to be one Ddrayden Than: The nevis whom almira. Yeah, really? What is this shit? There is a theory out there amongst the leet haxors (I read slashdot sometimes) that these nonsensical subject lines are an attempt to thwart email client spam filters. For some it seems to be working. For example, my Excite.com (the forgotten web portal) account is absolute shit when it comes to filtering out spam. Subject lines like “by converter” and “no geology” get through to my proper inbox just fine, along with the ones offering me 2.6% on a loan (which, sweet jesus, would be a hell of a deal if it were true) and ones by Akimbe Akawande of the Nigerian Finance Ministry who wants to give me 5 mill (and I’ll be honest, I love those damn things; they’re such a treat over the other stuff. It’s kind of reassuring to know someone out there is still really trying).
What I really don’t get though is this new one for HGH (human growth hormone). Is there really such a demand for this shit? I mean, besides that cheating fuck Barry Bonds and his ilk in sports, does anyone want this crap?
The whole idea, at least as I see it, is to get people to click on your fraudulent emails. The loan ones are good, there’s a lot of people looking to refinance now, but I doubt there’s many expecting offers to come out of the blue yonder with downright beautiful interest rates. We need some more creative spammers, offering things people really want. A ticket on a Virgin Galactic flight would be a good one, for example. Or some kind of way to add 3 inches to my penis via a pill.
Fellow intertubians, I would like to posit on a little known problem in corporate America. Essentially it boils down to this: marketers do not know how to communicate with anyone outside their own trade. I know, it’s a goddamned shock, I’m only now coming to grips with this myself.
I believe this phenomenon begins in the classrooms of universities and trade schools across the country that claim to teach “marketing”, and near as I can tell, are run by sadists who wish to see the English language beaten down into a cesspool of ten-dollar words that don’t have the ability to convey an idea beyond the most vague of notions.
Corporate executives are also known to be able to wallow in this bastardized form of our beloved language, but they are able to make it work for them and come out the other side many dollars richer. Granted, they lose a good deal of brain cells in the process, but they’re left in a tranquil, almost Zen-like state of being that deludes them into thinking that everyone will be the better, and the richer, for it. They try to communicate this to their lowly employees, but sadly we aren’t able to appreciate it for we still speak the language of mere mortals confined to punching a clock.
Beware, my friends, that you do not fall victim to a trap of never ending doublespeak in your workplace. It has been known to leave people as broken versions of their former selves, writhing in pain at the mere mention of a “solution”, or god forbid, the “managing” of said “solutions”. Do what you can to avoid instances where you may run into such a trap; call in sick, feign a bout of explosive diarrhea and retreat to the nearest restroom for the duration. You will be a better, more grounded individual for it.
I’ve been out sick from work since Tuesday, so I’ve had ample time to delve into the sandbox that is Oblivion (360). I know I missed the hype train on this one by about a year, so bear with me. I got Oblivion for Christmas, while I was still enthralled by Gears and as such I didn’t play it right away, but my brother (who was down for the week of) did when I went to bed. I’d watch him play for a few minutes before hitting the sack and after getting up and my initial impressions of the game left me completely underwhelmed. I did not like the art direction for this game at all, I found the load screens and the menu system to be drab, and since I know that in any RPG you’re going to be spending a lot of time looking at these things it was a serious strike against it. I also didn’t like the ‘uncanny valley’ (new buzz phrase) of the character design. I felt that Bethesda was trying way too hard to make the people look real, while at the same time using cat people and lizard people. I couldn’t understand why they didn’t go with a more stylized look for your character and NPCs, especailly when a good quarter of the characters in the world didn’t look remotely human. say what you will about Fable, but the art direction for that game was spot on, and that was my bar.
now, I don’t like sword and sorcery anything, usually. Tolkien did it first, and did it best. believe me, I spent my high school years reading all kinds of fantasy shite and no one has ever stacked up (haven’t gotten around to the Martin stuff yet, so I’ll beat any of you to the punch there). so, another strike. to be honest with you, after watching my brother play for about a combined hour, I was regretting asking for this game.
then Tuesday morning rolled around and I was sick as a dog. I called out popped in Gears, and was looking forward to having that take my mind off being sick. Tuesday was the patch day for Gears, which meant everyone’s mic was now working…and half of every room I entered was filled with prepubescent boys who weren’t in school for some reason. So after about half an hour of that shite I decided I’d give Oblivion its fair share and loaded it up.
4 days and around 45 hours game time later and wow. I mean, Oblivion sucked my ass right in. after that initial dungeon crawl I got out into the world and wandered around for a while, not really doing anything. exploring the world, seeing how NPCs reacted to things. I did a few minor quests, joined the Fighters Guild, did a couple of those, then decided that I liked to steal shiny shit so I became a thief (after creating a warrior-class character). the Thieves Guild storyline took me about 30 hours to fully complete, and that’s one storyline. I’m 45 hours in and I haven’t even begun the main quest/storyline. I find this to be grand, because too often we pay half a bill for 12 hours of gameplay, which is fine if there’s a strong multiplayer aspect, but most of the time there’s not. last Tomb Raider game: gorgeous, but over in 10 hours. that was a rental. if Gears didn’t have such strong multiplayer I would have been pissed after dropping $50 on that (got it on sale). this is why I’m gravitating towards sandbox games more and more now, and really, that’s the one thing that made me want to play Oblivion; I heard you spend 200 hours in that game, and christ on a crutch it’s true. and you can do any goddamn thing you want to. there’s no rails on the Oblivion train, it just goes, and it’s refreshing.
game of the decade (so far).
Heroic.
editor