Phoque! Phoque! Phoque!
Isn't French grand? The title, loosely translated mean "Seal! Seal! Seal!" (as in "arf arf", doing trick, water mammal seal, not "stamp" seal) But I digress.

First on the menu is that I should probably make an apology for my mocking of Edmonton before. This is an entirely genuine apology too, not done just because the weather got shitty today and I want it to get better for tomorrow. Really. Second up is the sheer happiness due to the fact that Red Vs. Blue season 2 is coming out!!! Turns out the medic requested when Church was shot in the first run arrives in the Galaxy's most strategic box canyon and attempts to help. Anyways, go download! It's funny!

Why lots of music is good
Having a large music collection is like having a minor form of Christmas every day, all day! The reason for this is that you can just flip idly through the pages of your CD binder (or scroll your list of pirated albums) and find music that you've totally forgotten about for the longest time. For example, the other day I was feeling like hearing something new, but for whatever reason my newsgroup server sucks goat and I can't find any complete files and I was stuck with what I had. So I scroll down the list and I find this album by a group called Unwritten Law. "Guh?" I think, completely wondering why I have this music. Turns out it's some not too bad punk music that Berry gave me some time ago, and I had just not listened to it. All of a sudden, I'm all "yay! I have new music to listen to!" even though I don't, really. Essentially, I'm just saying that since the volume is so high, the rotation is low enough that you don't hear stuff for long enough for it to be new again. Or something... I suppose the same can be true about movies and TV as well, but people tend not to stockpile that to the same extent as music.

Interestingly enough, the January issue of Wired published this interesting article about piracy and Hollywood and how Hollywood still has time (but not much) to not go the way RIAA went. Which is to say, not well liked and perceived as a tyrannous, paranoid, greedy organization. Interesting read to say the least.

Warning: Excessive ranting ahead
Now those of you that know me probably know what this next bit is all about, and are probably scrolling down frantically past this. Go right ahead. If you keep reading, please bear with me. Now first of all, know that I really don't like stupid people, and I happen to lump "people that refuse to listen" and "people that make gross assumptions with little to no thought" in with the stupid people category. Perfect example that really gets me riled is the assumption made when people see certain products. Based on whatever reason, they can and will immediately take a stab at who the product is marketed to without actually thinking about it. What I'm getting at is the "video games and comics are for kids" idea. Maybe I'm just sensitive, but that pisses me off to no end. When I hear about comic book stores having to close down for selling adult comics to adults, or people blaming games for just about anything, it gets very irritating. Anyways, you can probably guess what I thought when I read about the "award" given to Rockstar and Take Two for selling the GTA and Manhunt games. Now I don't disagree that these are bad games, because they are indeed made to simulate crime and all that nasty stuff. My beef is that Common Sense Media gave this award partially (I don't know what all the criteria are) due to a statistic that said that 71% of boys aged 13-17 have played these games. First of all, you might as well say that Universal or Paramount are to blame because those same kids have probably watched a couple of movies not rated for them, and second, none of this is marketed at kids! GTA3, GTA: Vice City and Manhunt are all rated "M for Mature", meaning they're not supposed to be played by people under 17! Since said young'uns did play them, it must have been because their parents bought the game for them after carefully checking it out and knowing what the game was about and giving their consent, right?

Ha. I'm not even going to bother outlining what the reality of the situation was, since it's probably obvious to most. To make matters worse, they claim in the press release that,

Even though some of this entertainment was theoretically aimed at adults, all of the losers marketed and distributed their products either at a time or in a manner that reached millions of kids.

I'm confused, and maybe you can help. Does putting an ad on TV mean that you're marketing in a manner that reaches millions of kids? What about putting an ad in a magazine? Or word of mouth? What I'm saying is that the above statement is pretty vague and blankety for my tastes, and that you could condemn just about anything you (and a lot of concerned parents) don't like under that cause.

*takes breath*

I guess I don't really know where I'm going with this, but really, it doesn't matter. This is my little soapbox for venting steam, and that's exactly what I'm doing. I don't claim to know why kids seem to have a very tenuous grasp on reality and will snap and do stupid things, but apparantly nobody else does and it's very easy to blame things that seem to cause such things by glorifying it in a visual and interactive manner. Doesn't mean I have to like it. I know that CSM has the best of intentions and they're trying to represent the interests of parents and children, but I can't help but get a little angry when I see something I happen to like get slammed for not being something it isn't.

Don't even get me started on the whole "comics are for kids" thing. That's for another day.

You can start reading again...
Don't really have any decent links today, so I'll try to scrounge something real quick. You just wait right there.

...

Tree pulp, all 007 style!
Missed the holidays, but I'm sure you can pray to the Elder Gods in January too...
Need a hug?

There. Links on demand. I can cook too!  ¶ 3:22 p.m.