I, as Gordon Freeman, defeated the combine menace!

.........Eh.

Overall, I was unimpressed with this game. The only real time I actually had fun was during the battle through the citadel. The super grav fun was a joy to behold. The story left alot to be desired, though. You know that feeling you had right after Matrix: Reloaded?

"Is that it?"

That's how I felt about HL2. This was not a strong sequel to HL.

I will have to play it again to wrap my head around why I didn't think it worked for me. Sure it looked great, blah blah blah. I envision the virtual actor Gordon Freeman looking at the director after reading the script and saying: "So, what's my motivation?" The story here didn't seem to dictate how the game would play out. I will have to think about this some more.
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Sketches: An hour and a half or so. Sometimes it's a struggle to get images out of my head.

Reliving the past, the good and not so.

www.abandonia.com - Great site for downloading old dos games. Some of my faves are there including the "Crusader" series. In fact I still have almost every videogame that I ever bought and played. Weird, I know. It's an obsessive collectivitis that I have had since I was young. First comics, than toys, and always games. But I'm not so bad that I would keep my atari or sega genesis. The playstation which I bought the first year it came out - and still own! - ruined those systems for me. What can I say? I'm a visual guy. It's the same reason I can't watch Star Trek: TOS. The later series - with their quantum leap in special effects ruined it for me.

I do miss playing Earthworm Jim. By far my favorite game on the genesis. But if I really missed it, I could probably search for some emulator online that would allow me to play it on my computer.

People who know me know I'm a neat freak. It's something I've been all my life. My room was never a mess when I was a kid. Anyway, I'm salivating for one of these: Cable-safe. Cables under my computer station and the messiness of it all is one of my pet peeves.

Damn, where'd the time go?

I have had this link for awhile - well since the election - but never bothered to post it. It looks like it's still going strong. I wonder how long it will take for it to peeter out? Despite what detractors may say or even what I believe, I think it takes guts to post to a website like this. http://www.sorryeverybody.com/.

And of course it didn't take long for some to glom off the "sorry everybody" vibe with something tasteless and negative. While I respect the desire for Bush supporters to "show" their support and to be heard, the "were not sorry" website seemed to be just a virtual kick in the teeth to the sorry everybody crowd. A vindictive response to people who only wished to communicate their pain at losing an election despite their best efforts. And surprise, surprise http://www.werenotsorry.com/ no longer works. I guess their desire to be heard was trumped by the costs incurred with keeping the website up and running. No passion for it, I guess.

This was a little TOO passionate for my tastes, but it did make me chuckle - http://www.fuckthesouth.com/.

Here's a little positive passion in which all liberals should invest - http://homepage.mac.com/njenson/movies/timryanlow.html. Ohio congressman Tim Ryan, folks.
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Sketch: 95 minutes. It's the walking dead with a surprisingly healthy chest area. That's what I call PUSHing UP daisy's. Get it? Har har.......heh.......eh.

Not the best business decision.

Movie Studios do it all the time. If the competition is releasing a blockbuster in, oh let's say, November, they- the competing studio- will postpone their much anticipated product until a reasonable time has passed. You never want your thunder stolen right out from under you. It's one of those common sense policies.

Witness the Halo 2 and Half Life 2 release dates. H2 was on every billboard Microsoft could buy with their marketing dollars. Hell, they even released a trailer for the damn thing in movie theaters! I was anticipating this game like nothing else. What happens not one week later? HL2 releases with little to no fanfare or apparent marketing blitz. This completely boggles my mind. HL2 WAS supposed to be released earlier this year, heck 4Q LAST year. I can't understand why they decided to release right now. They could have waited another month or so considering it's been postponed numerous times already.

If a movie studio will postpone a $10 movie a few months in order to get the best bang for the buck, it stands to reason that a game publisher should risk doing the same for a much more expensive product. I know the game community has been breathlessly waiting for both and will probably pay the money to glom both of them. But what about those who have to make a decision based on what they can afford NOW? Somebody at Valve or Sierra or whoever is publishing HL2 wasn't thinking straight when they made this decision. As if Sierra isn't in dire straits for hits right now, either.

Burp.

Speaking of games, here's one that will frustrate the hell out of you. But it's fun! -Invisibility
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Sketch: 75 minutes.

Absolutely rox0r

The war between LOL and LMAO - Feuer Frei Movie .

Who will win? Who knows. But ROFL will make a killing in military contracts this year

Halo 2 is probably the reason why.

This is one reason why I feel guilty for the state of the world today - HALO 2 Baby! This game has as much hold over me as the 1.5 million others who are ready to storm the doors of EB Games, Toys R Us, and whatever else to grab their digital crack. And how long will the high last? Until the last of the Covenant has been eliminated from the universe! It's sad that something like this takes precedence over the real difficulties we all face in the world. But it is hella fun.

That's why we do it I suppose. Everquest, City of Heroes, Far Cry, Doom 3, and all its ilk. They're just an escape to a place where we control the outcome. Regardless of how many times we have to start over, we still triumph over the dark forces arrayed against us. You can be sure I will be there slogging along with all the other master chiefs in the world.

I just can't shake the fact that our troops are dying in a shithole in a war of choice while I am enjoying a silly game. But who knows? Some units may have an xbox set up in a rec room some where. On their down time they could very well be playing xbox live. Of course any unit that has a rec room is no where near the action of Fallujah and the guys fighting there have more important things to worry about. But if there's a rear area where they rotate to to get rest and relax for a day or two, I'm sure there's a place set up with games and dvds and stuff. Send a copy of halo 2 to a soldier you know. It might bring just the right escape to his VERY difficult reality.
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A real reason why Bush won over Kerry: appearance over substance. I give you exhibits A - Recluse wins seat and B - ghost wins seat

More food for thought on the Euro thing.

yahoo.com/us_forex_dollar

Is the Euro the new Dollar?

You want a higher return on your investment? In the future, you might consider investing in companies and countries that use the euro as the standard. Seems like the dollar is on the wane. What, with the possibility that some OPEC nations might convert to using the euro as standard - www.wilsonsalmanac.com/euro and the fact that we're borrowing heavily to finance our "misadventures" - www.thenation.com, investment of your hard earned, yet increasingly devalued dollars, into europe might be more financially sound for the "average" investor. Hey, it's a global economy right? Why shouldn't everyone benefit from such an open market?

Don't get me wrong. I love my country and I don't want to see it become a third world nation. That's why I voted for John Kerry. Maybe he wouldn't have done much different than Bush, but maybe he would have done some extraordinary things. We will never know because a majority of Americans voted to "stay the course" to utter ruination.

A Kerry presidency may have given the Iranians - the second largest oil exporter - pause in their idea of switching to the euro as their trade standard. Venezuela, as well. Oh you know about Venezuela right? The nation whose democratically elected admin we tried to overthrow? But with a Bush admin - the very admin that referred to Iran as part of an "axis of evil" - the Iranians have no reason to put any more trust in the dollar standard. Now, if this happens we may face the very real possibility that our admin will invade Iran - a possible nuclear nation - on the pretense of fighting terrorism. But it will most assuredly be about keeping them on a dollar standard.

I mean really if it was about fighting terrorism we would have had to invade Saudi Arabia, since most of the 9/11 hijackers were saudi. Oh wait a minute......we already have bases in Saudi and they already are trading on the dollar standard. Never mind.

I'm not saying this is the Republican's fault. It's everybody's fault. Anyone whose attention is diverted away from world matters by the new "must see" television lineup is guilty. Anyone who voted for Bush to "protect them from the terrorists" is guilty. Anyone who didn't take their duly elected representative to task for lacking the backbone to stand up to these fraudulent policies is guilty. I'M FUCKING GUILTY!

The question is: "what can we do about it now?" Well, you can do like I said at the beginning of this post. You can invest in Europe's future, as I am sure many "patriotic" and very rich americans are doing. You know, because they ain't re-investing all those taxes they didn't have to pay the last few years BACK into america. You think George Soros isn't "hedging" his bets? Keep dreaming. Or you can invest your time into making sure you're represented in this government. Make us accountable for our actions in the world. Make our representatives make us solvent again, so we don't face the very real possibility of our government declaring bankruptcy if other nations call us on our debts.

I know what I'm going to do. Hope for the best, but plan for the worst. It's the way I have always lived my life. It hasn't failed me yet.
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Sketch: 95 minutes. No reference.

Little late, but I have an excuse.

So a majority of American voters have decided that Bush should get another four years. On Tuesday night, my emotions ran the gamut. Confused, then sad, then angry. I could not believe what I was seeing. But I have resigned myself to the circumstances. Regardless of all the talk of Diebold, voting machines, and the like, I will hold my tongue until - if ever - the facts are in.

My only hope in all this is that the politicians, mostly Democrats, who are supposed to be representing the UNPRECEDENTED number of voters who turned out to bring real change to our country will finally grow fucking backbones and start questioning our administration and it's dangerous and completely, mind-numbingly abominable policies.

We need to have real transparency in our government, sound foreign policy, more diplomacy and intelligent action. If Bush and company continues to keep secrets and edit official documents, clear thinking individuals on boths sides of the House and Senate need to come forward and demand that it STOPS now! I don't want this to be the future of America. Representatives like Tom Delay need to be more than just censured for their fraudulent misconduct. They need to be brought to justice. They need to know that liberals, Democrats and left leaning people aren't "irrelevant" and will not be marginalized!

I will support real change in the policy toward Iraq. As long as we bring real justice and peace to the Iraqi people, as long as we leave that country in better shape than when we TOOK it, I will support the president. If he continues to lie to us, keep secrets from us, continue to ignore the reasoned dissent of his people, I will call and hound my representatives every mother fucking godamned day untill they do something about it. If my Senator doesn't do her absolute damnedest to make sure OUR voices are heard, I will vote for someone who does, regardless of their "political" affiliation. This I promise to myself.

This is a call to arms. Democrat, Republican, whatever. Take your country back for the good of ALL! Don't accept everything at face value. Question why our government is doing what it's doing. I shudder to think of the consequences if we all stay divided, if we allow the extremists - of all stripes - in our own nation to dictate how the rest of us should live.

LEARN. REFLECT. ACT. REACT.

www.thenation.com/facts - Know the facts
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Sketch: 90 minutes. No reference.