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| Ye Lions Den = A+ |
| 12.30.04 (4:48 pm) [edit] |
As a change of pace, I'm going to review a local food joint.
Ye Lions Den is a small restaraunt on Harrison Blvd in Ogden Utah. It has dang good food and quite a bit of it. Couple that with a medievil decor and you got Ye Lions Den.
the food is really good, and there's quite a bit of it. The full meal plates include warm-up vegitables and dip, scones, salad or soup, the main course, and dessert.
I would have given it a YES, but the budget for eating there is actually out of my livable price range. ($10 for the low end plates and topping out at $40 for a rack of New Zeland lamb.)
So yeah, go there if you want to splurge for dinner, and you live on the wasatch front.
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| Katamari Darmacy = VERY YES. |
| 12.29.04 (3:26 pm) [edit] |
BEHOLD! An official full review. That means I actually beat one of the 3 dozen or so games that I own and haven't beaten yet. Woo!
(btw, my rating scale is F through A, then YES for must buy items, and VERY YES for item of the year awards)
anyhoo ... Katamari Darmacy is a spectacular game that everyone should play, if not buy.
In case you don't know, the basic premise is that the king of all cosmos accidnetly destroys all the stars and the moon one night, so he asks his 5 cm tall prince to roll up balls of stuff on the earth to replace the missing objects of the night sky.
It's a sublimely simple game. All the control is done with the two analog sticks to roll the ball. And you just roll around and try to pick up anything smaller than your ball in order to get more mass on your ball. Trust me, it's fun in a very refreshing way.
The other nice thing I'd like to mention is that this game has music. Why I bring that up? Because there's WAAAAAAAAAY too many games out there that go for ambient sound instead of music. Either that, or they go for sucky music that's only about as good as ambient sound. This has memorable music, I find myself humming the main theme on occassion.
anyhoo ... yeah, go buy this game. It's great fun.
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| Happy Holidays |
| 12.26.04 (12:05 pm) [edit] |
Just wishin' all y'all a Merry Christmas, Hannukah, Kuwanza, Winter Soltice, whatever else you may celebrate this season.
(actually, I'm just using that as an excuse to not write anything today. But hey, It's the holidays, and slackin' off is what the holidays are all about.)
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| Paper Mario 2 = A |
| 12.23.04 (11:26 pm) [edit] |
I rented Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door for the Game Cube over the weekend and was able to put about 6 hours or so into it. On the whole i'd give it a solid A. Basically, if you're a fan of Mario or of RPGs in general, you should at the very least rent this game, if not buy it immediately.
The story has the usual mario charm, so you should know what to expect in that regard.
Now, on to the gameplay area ...
Basically, it's an RPG with all the pompus power-level mathematics taken out of it. When you start the game, you attacks are worth 1 point of damage, 2 points if you hit an additional button at the right time. You level up in experience with every 100 points. And the bosses have had about 20 points of health from what I've seen so far. In addition, you can only carry 10 items into battle, although you can earn more in the battles.
so yeah, if you're impressed with swords that do 229,573,023 points of damage (but about the same relative damage to a boss character), you'll be let down.
The other thing worth mentioning in the game mechanics is the setting for the fights: a stage. Poking fun at the pre-rendered backgrounds rpgs have used since the beginning, all the battles take place on a stage with cardboard backdrops. In addition, there's a great audience. The better you do in combat, the more audience members you get, and the more applause you recieve which in turn fills your power bar. On top of that, audience memberes will sometimes interfere with the battle by throwing items on-stage (like power-ups or mallets to your face).
so, all in all, it's a good solid game. go get it.
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| comments |
| 12.21.04 (11:06 pm) [edit] |
honestly, I don't worry too much about them.
I've noticed other blog users mentioning their comments or lack thereof, and I've also recieved comments about my comments in this blog.
so, I'll just restate this again, just to be extra clear:
I get close to 200 hits a day. I know that means that people are reading my blog. That knowledge alone validates my upkeep of this blog. Therefore, I do not worry about not having comments on my blog entries.
Let's put it this way: I am more than willing to forgoe any comments to my blog, granted I get hits, than have to put up with idiotic bitchy comments that have no support or reasoning for their existence.
sorry this is all the blog you get today. Next time I'll write a mini-review of Paper Mario for the Cube.
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| A Series of Unfortunate Events = YES. |
| 12.21.04 (9:17 am) [edit] |
Unfortunately I haven't read the books. But the movie is an extremely good movie.
It's dark, scary, funny, and actually has a really good uplifting message. I guess you could call it a true-to-life fairy tale.
For any movie to have me really like it at the end when I'm not in a movie seeing mood, it has to be a really good movie. Seeing as how this movie did it, huzzah.
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| Halo 2 Co-op Campaign = A- |
| 12.18.04 (9:09 am) [edit] |
Yeah, I rented Halo 2 with a freind, sat down, and beat the co-op campaign mode on normal difficulty.
This aspect of the game is very good, even if it doesn't have any sort of ending.
The graphics are a huge improvement, higher detailed textures, cooler looking stuff, and generally better looking characters.
Come to think of it, I don't really want to talk a whole lot about it, seeing as how that would entail spoilers.
There was one change that I REALLY didn't like that they decided to leave out from the first Halo, and that's the on screen notifiers of your current objectives. The default has it so that you only recieve that info via telecommunications with the other characters in the story. However, between the radio crackle and the at-times constant flow of baddies it's impossible to understand what they're saying. This left me and my freind a bit clueless at a couple of stages until we realized "oh yeah, we're supposed to protect them, not kill them!"
The other thing is that in a couple of spots it became really hard to tell the different from your freindlies and your baddies. I know it's not as realistic, but some sort of marker over each freindly would have been very handy.
BUT ...
As long as you know that there is no ending, it's excellent. I just hope that they're able to get more workers on the next Halo project so that we can get the next chapter.
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| Zap! (webcomic) B- |
| 12.17.04 (4:09 pm) [edit] |
http://www.zapinspace.com/
It's a webcomic, called "Zap!"
It's a decent comic. Despite having a main character that on times borders on being just plain unlikable, it has potential.
dang, ran out of time.
well, it's definately one of those "it gets better as it goes along" comics, with the 3rd chapter being really good (and the main character actually balancing back into a likable mode). That's referring to both visuals and story.
So, read this if you've already read everything else.
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| RotK EE (YIPEE!!!!) |
| 12.14.04 (4:38 am) [edit] |
Well, I finished the bloody thing. 4 hours and 20 minutes of pure joy. Glee beyond glee.
Go buy it.
Now, I'd talk about it, but that'd lead me into spoilers, which I'm not keen on. So I'll wait 'till next week to talk about it. (I'll probably seen it again by then)
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| shoot down |
| 12.13.04 (9:38 pm) [edit] |
Ok, I have to brag on this one.
We went to pick up Return of the King Extended Edition tonight at Walmart (which, might I add, the only time I shop at Conglomomart is at their midnight opening deals). Anyways, I review that tomorrow. Whilst there, I ran accross a jack ass that I hate.
This jack ass is a local student film maker who has carried his psuedo prestige from High School as the popular guy in the drama department. In other words, a ton of people suck up to him. Well, his movies are horribly boring and fizzle out at the end, and he's a complete idiot. Here's a min-comparison:
His movies have actors from the university department, special effects, and hours spent in the editing department and writing. He is very meticulus and is a perfectionist. And for some sick reason he's so cocky in his acting skills that he casts himself as principle lead protagonist in every film. And they're still lame.
My brother wrote the script for a movie in 24 hours, shot the film in 3 hours, and spent 36 hours in editing. He was a side lead simply because my brother and I know no actors. Our movie kicked the crap out of all his combined. Honestly, most everyone agrees.
K, so now you know the idiot.
Anyways ...
He goes up to me and says "Hey! how's it going?" And he holds out his hand. (side note, who the hell holds out their hand to someone they already know). I look at him, look down at his hand, look up at him (he has a confused look on my face), look at my brother (who is surprised/impressed), look at him again (who is offended), then shake his hand when he takes it away.
He stopped talking to us.
I am happy. I even got kudos from my bro for being a punk. glee.
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| Battle for Middle Earth (mini-review) |
| 12.13.04 (12:58 pm) [edit] |
Holy crap is this ever a good game.
Basically it's a LOTR RTS (I love video game acronyms), set in the realm of *gasp* middle earth. Now, I know it'd normally be cool even if it were standard fare innovationless movie cash-in game, but it has innovations and it's cool.
Well, on the surface aesthitics goes ... commanding a pack of Uruks to take out Tree Beard (or commanding a pack of Wargs to trample peasants) is unbelievable. But, for those of you who know me, I'm generally not pleased with these things for long if there's no game underneath it.
Like I said, though, there is.
One of the major improvements is that when you produce a unit, you produce a squad. As in, 7 infantry with one purchase. This also applie for selecting units on the feild. Which of course makes a lot more sense in a military game and makes it a lot easier to control.
It has WarCraft 3 style heros. And these are pretty darn cool (Saruman, Nazgul, Eomer, Faramir, Gandalf, etc.). It also has the Command and Conquer: Generals style general abilities (Palantir spy-vision, Saruman's Industry that will lay waste instantly to an area, calling on allies like the Oathbreakers, Balrog, Ents, and whatnot).
Anyways, it's a good game, and so far I haven't really found any uber exploitations.
I haven't played multi-player yet. But it seems like it'll be good.
So, go get it. (also get it on DVD if you can, the extra polish in the menues makes it worth it).
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| Willie Wonka, Willie Wonka ... |
| 12.10.04 (4:13 pm) [edit] |
http://playlist.yahoo.com/makeplaylist.dll?id=1313539&sdm=web&qt w=480&qth=300
TRAILER!
it's a trailer to Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
Burton's NOT doing a remake of the psuedo classic movie, but rather his own adaptation of the book. I'm excited because it captures the same intimidating psychotic childish glee that Dahl put into the books.
Yippie.
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| blah |
| 12.09.04 (10:22 pm) [edit] |
I watched a couple episodes of Space Ghost Coast to Coast again. My brain hurts from the sheer awesome stupidty of it.
that, and I'm trying to figure out where the whole
"He's whack.
Whiggity what?
Nah, just normal type."
came from, oh well.
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| Etc. |
| 12.09.04 (7:12 pm) [edit] |
Just an assortment of tibits of info, bio-blog, and crap today.
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http://www.comingsoon.net/news/topnews.php?id=7539" title="http://www.comingsoon.net/news/topnews.php?id=7539" target="_blank"http://www.comingsoon.net/new...
There's an article about the Aeon Flux movie coming out. Admittedly I was intrigued by the old animated series, but I wasn't ever able to actually sit through an entire episode due to the odd sense of motion the lead animator had. (it just warped in a very weird way) At least the lead looks the part.
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http://www.waroftheworlds.com" title="http://www.waroftheworlds.com" target="_blank"http://www.waroftheworlds.com...
movie, trailer will be out by tomorrow (well, today judging by the fact that most of you read my blog the day after).
Good source material. Darn shame Cruise is in it though. Oh well.
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Moment of Silence for Dimebag Darrell.
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1494653 /20041209/damageplan.jhtml?headlines=true" title="http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1494653 /20041209/damageplan.jhtml?headlines=true" target="_blank"http://www.mtv.com/news/artic...
The guitarist from Pantera was killed, along with 4 others, in a concert when a freak stepped on stage and started firing pistol rounds first at Darrell, then at others.
At the very least, the police officer who gunned down the freak (according to one account) used a shotgun at point blank. So the freak got what was coming.
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For those of you going into the vid game business, avoid EA like the plague.
Here's a testimate from the wife of an EA employee: http://www.livejournal.com/us...
Commentary on said article: http://enginesofmischief.com/...
My comments are as follows:
Grow up EA. You're acting like gilded era industrialists. I feel no shame in publicizing this kind of bull shit. It's idiocy of the higher-ups at EA to think that this kind of continual-burnout machine actualy works in such a talent dependant environment like vid games.
Also, I'm against the idea of their being a "Video Game Union". George Lucas is a good example of what can happen in a union. (I obtained the following story from my bro who's a Star Wars fanatic to an unhealthy measure. So my guess is it's pretty reliable.) He made Star Wars just fine, then he made Empire Strikes Back while still in the director's union. THEN the union got all pissed at Lucas because he didn't put the credits at the start of the movie on Empire. (wtf?) They tried fining him some stupid ammount of money. Well, Lucas said screw you to Hollywood and left to Montana to go even more independant than before. Unfortunately, Steven Speilburg, whom was slated to direct Return of the Jedi, was unable to because of the Directors' Guild restrictions.
Now, imagine the same kind of horse shit happening in the vid game industry.
On top of that, you have the unique set-up that happens with our console distribution network. Say, for example, a Game Developers' Union forms and gets it good with Microsoft. Soon, the next-gen X-Box will only accept games approved by the GDU because the GDU is looking out for the best interests of the game developers. That puts indy guys completely out of the loop.
The reason this would be so bad is because video games are still a developing art form. Tech. advances are constantly pushing our limits, and if we stifle creativity with the bueracracy of a Union it'll really hurt the progress of the industry as a whole.
I'd rather have my independance to work with whomever I want (union or not), than have the pretend benefits offered by a bunch of self-interested group-thinkers. Of course, I'm the type of guy who prefers uncertanty and independence to stability and comformity.
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Oh, and I'm not too terribly frightened by my lack of comments on these blog entries. My little collumn is getting about 150 hits daily, so I figure that must mean that people are reading it on a regular basis. Which is surprising given the lack of a common theme in this.
Of course, if I wanted comments, I'd post more political and philosophical stuffs without the hard evidence news articles. Seems I get a good number of comments whenever I do that (even if they are rediculously stupid and agravating). But I don't like comments like that, so I post what I want.
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Well, that's a good number of points for today.
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| Angel Moxie (web comic) |
| 12.08.04 (8:05 pm) [edit] |
I originally wasn't gonna post a blog today, but i finished reading the archives of this webcomic so I'm going to recommend it to y'all.
The comic's called "Angel Moxie" http://www.venisproductions.c...
For one thing it has a fairly unique art style, hinting with influinces from Watterson and anime. Although simplistic, it's obvious it's a talented artist at work since the camera angles change acurately and some of the shots are very dynamic.
Anyways, something that sets this webcomic apart is that it actually achieved a "page-turner" status with me. There's only been a couple other web comics that were able to pull that off. (Megatokyo when it was written by both artists durint the Great Teacher Largo sequence and Junpei was one of them).
It has a good start, so it won't loose you in the opening chapter. And the plot's pretty interesting and the jokes are humorous enough to keep you interested. However, at about page 120 or so, the plot thickens and starts to get pretty interesting and creative. Then about page 200 it switches into the page turner status where you end up spending way more time reading it than your should (i.e. reading it when you really should be sleeping).
That and it has all the other elements like demon teachers, exploding heads, evil boy bands, talking animals, and plot twists deluxe. Oh, and very believable characters.
So yeah, it's a good comic. Read it.
EDIT: Forgot to mention. Angel Moxie has one of the coolest villians around. Shugari will spell fear and doom into the hearts of all. (you'd run accross her in the second chapter.)
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| Wave Electronic Generator |
| 12.07.04 (5:52 pm) [edit] |
Did a college paper on a current environmental issue. Found this to be interesting. References listed after the article, my own commentary after the references.
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According the MSN news Aaron Goldin , a senior at San Dieguito High School Academy in Encinitas Cal., has invented a machine capable of converting kinetic energy from ocean waves into electricity. The small version of the device has been tested in the ocean, as well as an advanced mathematical simulation verifying that the project will be able to function in the real world. It is proposed that larger scale machines of this nature will be placed in deep ocean to generate power for the main land.
The invention was created for a competition held by the Siemens Foundation. Aaron Goldin took the grand prize for this year’s competition awarding him a $100,000 scholarship. This foundation is aimed at enabling gifted students to obtain higher education.
Goldin’s invention is based on gyroscopic principles. The machine is able to convert the periodic torque from the incoming waves into a continuous torque that drives a rotary electric generator. The small trial version produced .0817 W to an auxiliary load. From the photograph supplied from MSN news, it appeared that the gyro was about 1 foot cube in size. The machine is autonomous, greatly reducing the risk of environmental problems. It doesn’t use transfer systems that are currently found in wave energy generators, avoids corrosion, and is resistant to rough sea damage. According to the mathematical simulation, it is capable to being scaled to much greater energy outputs.
In addition, the machine could be used to assist in the creation of Hydrogen. The Bush administration and auto makers have been promoting a hydrogen based economy using non-polluting fuel cells. This electrical generator can be used to autonomously power deep sea hydrogen farms to accelerate the production thereof.
MSN news article: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/66660...
Aaron Goldin’s abstract: http://www.siemens-foundation...%20Berkeley/docs/Goldin%2 0abstract.pdf
Siemens Foundation review on Goldin and his invention: http://www.siemens-foundation...%20Berkeley/Aaron%20Goldi n.htm
Siemens Foundation list of finalists for this year: http://www.siemens-foundation...
========================= =======
I just wanted to throw in a quick little gloat at the end of this. It's just that my teacher is one of the irritating environmentalists. ( Mind you, I said irritating environmentalist, not environmentalist in general. I certainly hope that those with the technology and know-how will be able to clean the environment. And when I go into business, I'll be doing what I can to help. But, some people are just stupid and go about this the wrong way. )
Just an example: he gives us lectures loaded to the teeth showing the problems with our society and how it damages the enviroment, but he never cites his references (gives me the impression that he gets half his stuff from chain e-mails). A direct quote from his lectures went something like: "The problem with these particular types of wastes is that they are very hard to track. 95% of them come from the industrial sector." Wait a sec, if they're so hard to track how did he know that 95% of that type of waste came from the industrial sector? He presents these vague types of guesstimations as if it were the pure doctrine from heaven. And he does this type of crap ALL THE TIME.
Anyways, part of his lecture series is based on how Bush is an evil man, that he led the war on Iraq purely for oil purposes (which arguement I've yet to understand, seeing as how oil prices have only gone up in price since Iraq has been liberated), and also that Bush has been responsible for shooting down projects aimed at developing alternative fuel sources due to his ties to the oil industry. Yeah, right.
Anyways, my little gloat comes from the fact that MSN cites the Bush administration, coupled with the auto industry, as promoting a hydrogen based economy. The hydrogen power coming from stable fuel cels.
I'm sure he'll dock me for some ambiguous reason like "poor structure" or "lack of details" (he's done it to me on every other paper I've written that's contradicted his views). But at least I have a bit of satisfaction in proving him wrong.
(edited to place spacings in the article main)
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| Watchowsky Buggers |
| 12.07.04 (10:54 am) [edit] |
Just a quick post, with a nod to www.Penny-arcade.com for the heads up.
http://www.slccglobelink.com/news/2004/10/28/Enter tainment/mother.Of.The.Matrix.Victorious-785067.shtml" title="http://www.slccglobelink.com/news/2004/10/28/Enter tainment/mother.Of.The.Matrix.Victorious-785067.shtml" target="_blank"http://www.slccglobelink.com/...
You might have to register, but it's free.
Anyhoo ... the main jist of it is that Time Warner is going to pay a Utah man for damages from copyright infringement. Seems back in 82 or so the Watchowskys placed an ad in the paper requesting scripts for sci-fi movies. Well, Stewart (the Utahn man) submitted the work "The third Eye" to the brothers. The ad fell through. Then, about 18 years later or so, Matrix came out which was eerily similar.
FBI looked into it and found the brothers had cut over 30 minutes from the original in order to dodge infringment rights. There were several witnesses from inside the organization that admitted to having seen the original script of The Third Eye during the filming of The Matrix. The report also mentions that Stewart was responsible for the Terminator series, but it doesn't go into details on that account.
As such, Time Warner is going to be forking over something in the neighborhood of 2+ BILLION dollars.
I don't care what you say, that's a hell of a lot of money.
hmmmm ... go figure.
On a side note, my guess is that when Stewart unwittingly submitted the script for the first Matrix movie, he only gave an outline of what was to happen in the subsequent 2. (you know, hook and bait). Anyways, that would explain why the Watchowsky's produced the excellent Matrix (they didn't actually write it), and turned to create the utter bilge of the other 2 matrix films (that was their own talents at work for the most part).
For those sceptics thinking "if it's that much money, why haven't I heard about this?" Here's a quote from Stewart taken from the article:
"The reason you have not seen any of this in the media is because Warner Brothers parent company is AOL-Time Warner... this GIANT owns 95 percent of the media... let me give you a clue as to what they own in the media business... New York Times papers/magazines, LA Times papers/magazines, People Magazine, CNN news, Extra, Celebrity Justice, Entertainment Tonight, HBO, New Line Cinema, Dreamworks, Newsweek, Village Roadshow... many, many more!... They are not going to report on themselves. They have been surpressing my case for years..."
Wow, did you read that? All of those major sources of news information are coming from one source! Hmm ... makes you wonder about the accuracy of the news, doesn't it?
Anyhoo ... Read the article, it's worthwhile. I'm goin' back to work.
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| HP3 = good |
| 12.06.04 (7:30 pm) [edit] |
IMO, it does the books justice.
Harry Potter 3 is an actually enjoyable and clever romp. My guess being that the difference is about 97% attributable to a new director, and 3% to the new Dumbledor. (just a recap on my opinions of the other 2 HPs: 1 was a watchable if over constrained and overly toddler freindly adaptation, 2 just plain sucked as bad as the worst of the lethally dull Disney straight to television live action movies)
Anyhoo, the main thing that I liked is that this one actually captured the fun but creepy feel of the books.
So, go see it. anyways, I'm gonna go into spoilers for the rest of the blog, so be warned.
========================= ===
First off, the scene in the shreiking shack was awesome. Seems that this director has a real knack for making the arguement scenes really intense and interesting. I can't really put my finger on it, but there's a good something there that makes that seem just click (as opposed to voldimort's pitiful stand and talk sequence in the basilisk's den).
The omnibus sequence in hp3 is another instance of where it captured the fun creepy humor world of the books.
I thought the were-wolf was actually the most believable I've seen. As far as actual 1/2 man 1/2 wolf goes, this one takes the cake. (that and the ancient pics and pottery featuring werewolves were hilarious). Van Helsing has the coolest looking werwolf, but this one's the most realistic design.
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| Which Ploitical party should you run with? |
| 12.05.04 (6:01 am) [edit] |
This is an important question. If you go into politics, who should you run with?
Well, setting aside all things like policies, beliefs, practices, etc.; let's look at how they treat the losers. Because, if you run in politics, you're probably going to loose sooner or later.
Republicans seem to treat their losers somewhat fairly. Bob Dole certainly wasn't the most interesting person around. However, when he lost, the party still pretty much supported him and said "he's still a nice guy, just not interesting enough for a candidate's position."
The DNC doesn't seem to have as good of a track record. When Kerry lost, the most common refrain I heard from the party was "MAN! WHAT A LOSER! Gee, we sure screwed up that time."
That being said, I think the republican party would be a better party to campaign for. Simply because if you loose, the media and the DNC won't redicule you and cripple your self esteem.
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| Alien Hominid = YES. |
| 12.03.04 (2:22 pm) [edit] |
http://www.alienhominid.com
If you're an old school gamer (grew up on the NES or before) you will absolutely love this game.
Alien Hominid is a completely independent side-scrolling shooter for the Game Cube and the PS2. It made it's debut on Newgrounds.com, and after a time it became the #1 downloaded game on the internet (at least according to gamespot). The developers wisened up, created their company called The Behometh, and remade it for the consoles.
And it kicks ass.
Basically, it's a throw back to games like Contra (but most notably Metal Slug). However, unlike the unsuccesful knock-offs, this one retains the same balance of difficulty without having frustration. (although you'll probably have to turn it on the easiest difficulty setting in order to get past the first set of levels, it's tough).
The art style's a hoot, it's very one of a kind. And the animation has it's own groove goin'.
The graphic engine's pretty good. It uses flash, so there's a number of the advantages naturally present (endless rotations, zooms, and morphs). The music's good, but they didn't loop it correctly for whatever reason. Still good though.
Anyhoo, go buy it. You'll be supporting the underdogs and getting one hell of a game while you're at it.
(I didn't even mention the multiplayer, wooo)
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| Iraq Letter |
| 12.02.04 (3:26 pm) [edit] |
One of the nice things about knowing someone afiliated with the military is that you end up getting letters like these passed along. Take it for what it's worth.
A couple of errors occured in the version I recieved. I'm tired today, so you get little boxes instead of corrections.
========================= ====
November 21, 2004The Real News
New from Lt. Col. Bellon. The real news of Fallujah.
Dear Dad -
Just came out of the city and I honestly do not know where to start. I am afraid that whatever I send you will not do sufficient honor to the men who fought and took Fallujah.
There is an image burned into my brain that I hope I never forget. We came up behind 3/5 one day as the lead squads were working down the Byzantine streets of the Jolan area. An assault team of two Marines ran out from behind cover and put a rocket into a wall of an enemy strongpoint. Before the smoke cleared the squad behind them was up and moving through the hole and clearing the house. Just down the block another squad was doing the same thing. The house was cleared quickly and the Marines were running down the street to the next contact. Even in the midst of that mayhem, it was an awesome site.
The fighting has been incredibly close inside the city. The enemy is willing to die and is literally waiting until they see the whites of the eyes of the Marines before they open up. Just two days ago, as a firefight raged in close quarters, one of the interpreters yelled for the enemy in the house to surrender. The enemy yelled back that it was better to die and go to heaven than to surrender to infidels. This exchange is a graphic window into the world that the Marines and Soldiers have been fighting in these last 10 days.
I could go on and on about how the city was taken but one of the most amazing aspects to the fighting was that we saw virtually no civilians during the battle. Only after the fighting had passed did a few come out of their homes.
They were provided food and water and most were evacuated out of the city. At least 90-95% of the people were gone from the city when we attacked.
I will end with a couple of stories of individual heroism that you may not have heard yet. I was told about both of these incidents shortly after they occurred. No doubt some of the facts will change slightly but I am confident that the meat is correct.
The first is a Marine from 3/5. His name is Corporal Yeager (Chuck Yeagers grandson). As the Marines cleared and apartment building, they got to the top floor and the point man kicked in the door. As he did so, an enemy grenade and a burst of gunfire came out. The explosion and enemy fire took off the point mans leg. He was then immediately shot in the arm as he lay in the doorway. Corporal Yeager tossed a grenade in the room and ran into the doorway and into the enemy fire in order to pull his buddy back to cover. As he was dragging the wounded Marine to cover, his own grenade came back through the doorway.
Without pausing, he reached down and threw the grenade back through the door while he heaved his buddy to safety. The grenade went off inside the room and Cpl Yeager threw another in. He immediately entered the room following the second explosion. He gunned down three enemy all within three feet of where he stood and then let fly a third grenade as he backed out of the room to complete the evacuation of the wounded Marine. You have to understand that a grenade goes off within 5 seconds of having the pin pulled. Marines usually let them cook off for a second or two before tossing them in. Therefore, this entire episode took place in less than 30 seconds.
The second example comes from 3/1. Cpl Mitchell is a squad leader. He was wounded as his squad was clearing a house when some enemy threw pineapple grenades down on top of them. As he was getting triaged, the doctor told him that he had been shot through the arm. Cpl Mitchell told the doctor that he had actually been shot a couple of days ago and had given himself self aide on the wound. When the doctor got on him about not coming off the line, he firmly told the doctor that he was a squad leader and did not have time to get treated as his men were still fighting. There are a number of Marines who have been wounded multiple times but refuse to leave their fellow Marines.
It is incredibly humbling to walk among such men. They fought as hard as any Marines in history and deserve to be remembered as such. The enemy they fought burrowed into houses and fired through mouse holes cut in walls, lured them into houses rigged with explosives and detonated the houses on pursuing Marines, and actually hid behind surrender flags only to engage the Marines with small arms fire once they perceived that the Marines had let their guard down. I know of several instances where near dead enemy rolled grenades out on Marines who were preparing to render them aid. It was a fight to the finish in every sense and the Marines delivered.
I have called the enemy cowards many times in the past because they have never really held their ground and fought but these guys in the city did. We can call them many things but they were not cowards.
My whole life I have read about the greatest generation and sat in wonder at their accomplishments. For the first time, as I watch these Marines and Soldiers, I am eager for the future as this is just the beginning for them. Perhaps the most amazing characteristic of all is that the morale of the men is sky high. They hurt for the wounded and the dead but they are eager to continue to attack. Further, not one of them would be comfortable with being called a hero even though they clearly are.
By now the Marines and Soldiers have killed well over a thousand enemy.
These were not peasants or rabble. They were reasonably well trained and entirely fanatical. Most of the enemy we have seen have chest rigs full of ammunition and are well armed are willing to fight to the death. The Marines and Soldiers are eager to close with them and the fighting at the end is inevitably close.
I will write you more the next time I come in about what we have found inside the city. All I can say is that even with everything that I knew and expected from the last nine months, the brutality and fanaticism of the enemy surprised me. The beheadings were even more common place than we thought but so were torture and summary executions. Even though it is an exaggeration, it seems as though every block in the northern part of the city has a torture chamber or execution site. There are hundreds of tons of munitions and tens of thousands of weapons that our Regiment alone has recovered. The Marines and Soldiers of the Regiment have also found over 400 IEDs already wired and ready to detonate.
No doubt these numbers will grow in the days ahead.
In closing, I want to share with you a vignette about when the Marines secured the Old Bridge (the one where the Americans were mutilated and hung on March 31) this week. After the Marines had done all the work and secured the bridge, we walked across to meet up with 3rd LAR on the other side. On the Fallujah side of the bridge where the Americans were hung there is some Arabic writing on the bridge. An interpreter translated it for me as we walked through.
It read: Long Live the Mujahadeen. Fallujah is the Graveyard for Americans and the end of the Marine Corps.
As I came back across the bridge there was a squad sitting in their Amtrac smoking and watching the show. The Marines had written their own message below the enemys. It is not something that Mom would appreciate but it fit the moment to a T. Not far from the vehicle were two dead enemy laying where they died.
The Marines were sick of watching the Dog and Pony show and wanted to get back to work.
Dave
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