July 4, 2008
From Loki to Immortal Throne
I was intrigued by a game called Loki during its development, but the reviews (and the demo) made me think it wasn't worth full price. When I saw it cheap at GoGamer.com, though, I picked up a copy. It's easily worth the $10 or so I paid for it, insofar as it's a Diablo clone set in a more classically mythological world. About the same time I saw the videos for the recent Diablo III announcement and remembered Titan Quest: Immortal Throne.
I spent an hour or so with TQ:IT tonight, and I can't believe I ever left the game. If you enjoyed Diablo and want an action RPG that has even better mechanics, brighter, more interesting artwork, and a story ripped straight out of Homer, give TQ:IT a look. It's only $20 for the complete pack on Steam. Well worth investigating. Makes me wonder why I ever quit playing it.
I know, I know: too many games. And it's not like my alts in Lord of the Rings Online are going to level themselves :/
July 3, 2008
I Have a Better Idea
Columnist Chris Satullo thinks Americans should reject celebrating our Independence Day tomorrow and repent for our "sins" instead--and I put the word 'sins' in quotes because his idea of sins are the typical tripe about which political leftists get outraged. I have a better idea. How about we celebrate our nation's triumphs instead, in particular the triumph over the British monarchy that made this nation free and set it on the path to greatness? If we should repent for any sin, I suggest we repent for so losing touch with the useful concept of shame that a jackass like Satullo can get away with writing such counterproductive drivel and remain employed.
July 1, 2008
Piss Off, Nanny
I despise illegitimate authority, and I lump all the pointless invasions of the modern nanny-state government into that category. Today, a law goes into effect out here in CA that bans talking on a mobile phone while driving without using some hands-free option. The stated purpose is safety, but that's baloney.
Studies regularly show other behaviors to be more pernicious. If the nanny-state morons in our state government really wanted to improve safety while driving, they would ban fiddling with the radio, talking, eating, smoking, and a host of other behaviors long before we get to mobile phones. But of course, reason doesn't matter to fools in government.
June 30, 2008
Are All Democrats Satanists?
That "headline" is something of a joke, insofar as it isn't fair at all. But I can't help but wonder, after reading about the crimes of two democrat Satanists, how the story would be covered were they republicans instead. I suspect the coverage would be as prolific as it was concerned about the recent rise in republican Satanist organizations.
Age of Conan: Overrated
Despite my concerns about no man being able to serve two masters, I took the plunge and bought a copy of Age of Conan (AoC). I did this in part because of the Gamespot video review, wherein the reviewer stated:
Once its technical issues are solved, and upper-level content is a little more fleshed out, Age of Conan will be, hands down, the best online RPG on the market.
That strong endorsement, coupled with the prospects for a couple of neat, in-game items and a soundtrack CD, moved me to buy a copy of the collector's edition. I have to say that the retail package is the neatest collector's edition I've ever seen, but the game itself is overrated.
She's Not Beautiful Any More
This is a pop-culture, trivial tidbit, but I'm always astonished at the pointless waste of beauty and life. A thoroughly fetching model, Ruslana Korshunova, apparently dove to her death from her Manhattan apartment building. Couldn't she have at least found the time to seduce a fat, middle-aged software/gaming geek before she went? I suppose it's the ultimate indignity for a model, but she's not beautiful any more.
That Isn't Evolution
There's been something of a flap of late, with a researcher claiming his results show bacteria evolving and the Conservapedia--silly name, that--refusing to accept it. Ars has a decent write-up, if you can get past the elitist sneering. I don't care to defend Conservapedia, but that isn't the point. The point is that what the researcher has demonstrated isn't evolution.
June 27, 2008
The Great Yelp of 2008
Last night my wife and I sat down on our couch to watch a couple of episodes of Arrested Development. Our black Labrador came and sat within easy rubbing distance of my hand, as is his custom when we watch television. After the third of fourth needy, longing glance, I gave up and started rubbing, at which point he promptly crashed down to the floor on his side. For those who don't have dogs, I offer a translation: "Rub my side!" After a quick sigh of exasperation, I bent to my task, but when he started to roll over (translation: "Rub my belly!"), he let out the most awful yelp we've ever heard.
June 26, 2008
An Important Win
The GOP has failed so many times in so many ways that it's often hard to notice the successes. Today's SCOTUS ruling, that the second amendment is an individual right, has been long overdue and put in doubt by fools willing to serve their own misplaced agenda. The first amendment may help make us free, folks, but without the second it's meaningless. A special congratulations to the NRA is due today, to those who labored so long to make this happen. Score one for the good guys for a change.
June 25, 2008
Lazy Games for Lazy Folk
Big surprise, this: Europe prefers casual video games that take little effort. They like a short work week. They like government handouts for virtually everybody who won't work. They rely on the U.S. and a few other standouts to rush to their defense every time some bad guy gets a hard-on for world domination. In short, Europe doesn't seem to want to work at much at all, so why would games be any different?
June 24, 2008
A Fun Remake
Remakes don't often do well. I shudder to imagine, for example, how terrible any attempt to reboot the Star Trek franchise with younger actors playing the parts of the big three will likely be. But my wife and I saw the newly released Get Smart tonight and had a great time. She had never seen the TV series and thoroughly enjoyed it, whereas I had watched quite a bit of the TV series and also thoroughly enjoyed it. I think they did a great job of bringing the story into the current era while retaining enough of the flavor of the original to pay it proper respect. Recommended.
Breast Power
I'm not sure what's funnier: (1) the fact that a bra just might be made to harness the electrical power of womens' breasts, or that (2) the scientist working on the fabric is named "Wang". This much is confirmed: God has a sense of humor.
Help With "A Truth Spoken"
I'm not exactly a Hellgate: London newbie here, but I can't figure this one out. The quest that ends Act I is called "A Truth Spoken" and occurs in the British Museum. It's the one where you have to breach the hellrift, set off the bomb, run like heck out of the rift, and then face the four big bosses. I've done it as a guardian, a blademaster, an engineer, and a summoner, and I've had no problems. But it's just fracking impossible as an evoker. Can someone advise me? Read on to learn of the specifics.
June 23, 2008
Thompson on Boumedine
The recent Boumedine decision was the most ridiculous garbage I've seen come out of SCOTUS yet. Those who think it's essential in granting options to those poor, innocent folks locked up by the evil Chimpy McBushitler really ought to take a look at Fred Thompson's comments at PJM. Frankly, enemy combatants already had more rights than they have ever possessed in any other society or time of history. SCOTUS didn't need to go fabricating law out of thin air, but then I suppose the urge to emanate into the penumbra is a little strong sometimes.
CYCRAF
That's what BO's flashy, new campaign seal is all about. The Obamessiah's campaign came up with the logo and yanked it within days. So let me be the first to trademark the phrase: that's Change You Can Run Away From (CYCRAF)!
The Blizzard Tease
I've seen a few gaming web sites all a-twitter this morning over a splash/tease page at Blizzard. For example, Blue's News asks:
Are those runes? Is a Diablo III announcement coming? Or is this a Rorschach test? I think I see a bunny, or is that a football helmet? How many question marks are in this story? And what about Naomi?
Given that the background image is named "ice1.jpg", and given that the next World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King (WotLK), is set in the frozen north, I gotta believe this isn't about Diablo--you know, in Hell where it's all fire and demon-ish. I'm putting my money on WotLK. What say you?
June 20, 2008
Poof! You're Guilty!
Apparently, that's how the MPAA wants it to work. They say you're guilty, and poof! You're guilty! Tired... er... Wired magazine has the details if you're interested. I guess that would make it a lot easier for them to collect fines, eh? I'm about as staunchly opposed to intellectual property theft as reasonable folks get--or at least I'd like to think I'm still reasonable where the subject is concerned--but this really takes the cake.
Vista: Defrag vs Prefetch
For anyone out there running Vista, I have made what may be a useful discovery. It seems like defragmenting your hard drives screws up the prefetch system somehow, resulting in much slower system startup times. My findings seem to explain the bizarrely slow startup times I've seen with Vista since first installing it, so anyone interested in the details should check out my article on the subject.
June 18, 2008
The First CURE for Cancer
Wow. I mean, just wow. I don't know who had the idea to clone a patient's own immune system to multiply it for fighting cancer, but give that man a cigar! That strikes me as a prospect for an actual cure; not a treatment regimen, not a slice-saw-and-hope operation, not a race to see whether the patient or the tumors die first from poison/radiation. That seems like a prospect for an actual cure for cancer. Wow. Did I say wow? Nice job, doctors.
Welcome Back, Carter
As if we needed any further proof that Democrat politicians are idiots, now they've decided the government should "nationalize" oil refineries. Yeah, good thinking, you dolts; that will give us all the speed we've come to expect from Amtrak, the reliability of the U.S. Postal Service, and the fiscal reliability of Social Security. Hello, $100/gallon gasoline!
Sheep Nation, Part Two
The first time I did a sheep nation post, it was about some Bush-Derangement-Syndrome (BDS) afflicted moron attacking a little girl in a wheelchair. This time, a father beat and stomped his two-year old son to death, while onlookers did nothing. Frankly, I have to ask them: what the hell is wrong with you people, that you can't bring yourselves to act when a defenseless little toddler is being murdered?!
Bush Never Lied to us About Iraq
How on earth did this appear in the LA Times? I guess the editors missed it. No doubt it will be picked up and parroted everywhere throughout the rest of the mainstream press, yes? Right? Hello?
Winnie the National Security Advisor
I wish I were joking in relating that the man Barack Obama (BO) might tap for National Security Advisor thinks Winnie the Pooh provides a fine example for foreign policy. But I'm not. Somebody please do us all a favor and introduce BO to reality, hmm?
June 17, 2008
Nanny State Goes Corporate
It's bad enough that government continues to expand and play nanny-knows-best, intruding daily on more and more areas of human life. But now it seems companies are trying to force their employees to quit smoking. It's the double standard that's grating. Smoking is a personal choice, as is drinking, as is sex, as is... you get the idea. Can you imagine the furor if a company refused to hire homosexuals and gave them fifteen months to go straight or get fired?
For the record, I am a non-smoker who grew up with two chain-smoking parents. As you might imagine, I'm pretty sensitive to cigarette smoke, to the point where it almost produces an allergic reaction. I despise it. I think it's a filthy, disgusting habit. But I'll defend to the death your right to smoke because it's a question of personal liberty. It's about time governments and corporations got punched in the face for their unwelcome curtailment of human liberty.
A Way Forward?
Andrew McCarthy has suggested a way forward in the aftermath of the Supreme Court's recent preposterous judicial power-grab. The good news is that it, unlike the decision, has a basis in actual American law. The bad news is that it would require Congress to (1) do something, and (2) do it right. I don't know about you, but I simply don't have the kind of willing suspension of disbelief necessary to think that's even possible.
June 15, 2008
Black Conservative Racists
Take a look at this article headlined "Black conservatives conflicted on Obama campaign". I'm a conservative, so I think the only rational, relevant factors for choosing a president are the person's (1) abilities/experience, (2) character, and (3) stances on the issues--not necessarily in that order. It would never occur to me to look at my skin and vote for the white guy who looks like me. So why is it black conservatives, an admittedly rare breed, are apparently tempted to overlook the fact that Obama's policies are an anathema to their views and vote for him merely because his skin is like theirs? That's racism, folks, pure and simple.
June 14, 2008
The Holiest Snack Cracker of All
I have a close friend who is having something of a crisis of faith in his life right now. The short version is that he's fed up with the brain-dead, McChristianity you get in the vast bulk of Protestant churches, so he's attending a Western Rite Orthodox church (Antiochian to be precise). But he's having a hard time getting comfortable with their sacramental theology. Read on if you can take a bit of fun with Orthodoxy.
June 13, 2008
Hellgate Review
I don't know why this has taken so long, but my review of Hellgate: London is online. Queue crickets chirping.
Princess Obama Derangement Syndrome
Oh man is that a funny title. I wish I came up with it. Sadly, I'll have to give the credit where it's due, to Melanie Phillips of The Spectator. Her column of the same name would be entirely funny, were it not for the serious questions it raises about Princess Obama.
Chicken Little Goes Mainstream
The main difference between these enviro-nitwits and the wild-haired goof wearing a sign that says "Repent! The End is Near!", is that the latter may be correct. Global warming is arguably the greatest hoax in the history of man. It would be funny, were it not for the degree that idiots in power lap it up as an excuse to regulate.
June 12, 2008
Exactly, Princess
While still wandering around in judicial-induced shell shock, I happened to read a blog posting by E.M. Zanotti, a.k.a. American Princess. It's just too good not to quote:
In essence, the Court did something that made no sense with any logical understanding of the Constitution as it stands: they pretended that people who have no citizenship rights, and who are granted no protections under the Geneva Conventions (specifically because Geneva exists to deter people from being stateless combatants and hiding themselves inside farmers markets with bombs) should be given the exact same rights as American citizens. Never mind that last time around, they said that military tribunals were fine, never mind that last time around they left it in the hands of Congress to outline how stateless, terrorist detainees would be treated, legally speaking, and never mind that whole, nasty, stinky thing called prior court decisions.
Dead on target, princess. The whole post is well worth reading, if you're so inclined.
Un-Fracking-Believable
Apparently, the U.S. Supreme Court has decided that prisoners in Guantanamo have rights in court. These are not U.S. citizens, folks. These are typically persons captured by the U.S. military in combat zones abroad! These are persons who did not live up to their responsibilities under the Geneva conventions, so they ought not be treated as POWs. If you're going to hide behind civilians, you forfeit any right to be treated like a soldier. Period.
So here's my advice to the Bush administration. If SCOTUS wants to fabricate a whole new class of make-believe rights for detainees, then don't bring them back to U.S. soil. Interrogate them on the spot with as much force as the value of the information they may possess warrants, and leave their fate to the battlefield commanders. It it utterly preposterous that SCOTUS is injecting itself into the military chain of command, which terminates at the top in the executive branch, fabricating rights for non-citizen, enemy combatants captured during war.
This is the most overreaching judicial power grab since Marbury vs. Madison. This is the most blatant separation of powers issue in my lifetime. Somebody please explain to me again how Bush has packed the court with a bunch of conservative hard-liners? Un-fracking-believable.
June 8, 2008
The Best Thing About Obama
Various authority figures have suggested to me that if I don't have anything nice to say, I shouldn't say anything at all. It's an old adage, and one I reject, but it did occur to me today that I can say one nice thing about Barack Obama. To wit, he has defeated Hillary Clinton and, as such, has practically guaranteed that an entire generation of feminist battle-axes will die without ever seeing their hopes of a woman president fulfilled. Thoughts like that keep me all warm inside.
June 6, 2008
Googlewanker
I would like to propose an addition to the lexicon, specifically, Googlewanker. The term refers to those who use suitably cuddly, left-wing ideology as a shield for their unpatriotic/un-American ways. I suggest it today because Google, a company that couldn't exist without the USA, decided that the best way to honor the anniversary of D-Day was with an image on the search page that commemorates an obscure painter, Diego Velázquez. What a bunch of Googlewankers.
The Real Price Tag
It's worth remembering that the war on poverty was going to cost a total of roughly two trillion dollars when it was launched during the Johnson administration. Depending upon whose numbers you believe, the U.S. taxpayer has since picked up a tab five to six times that large without any end in sight. So when it is reported that a mere forty-five trillion dollars is needed for global warming, it's probably safe to say that number will actually turn out to be more like two-hundred twenty-five to two-hundred seventy trillion dollars without any end to global warming in sight. So who's ready to pay that pointless bill, hmmm?