I love it.
National Geographic, you are my hero. The November 2004 issue has a picture of a lizard with the question "Was Darwin wrong?"

The first page of the article is dominated by a half-page-sized NO, followed by "The evidence for evolution is overwhelming."

Commentary by Spike over at Iron Circus:

Yes, [evolution] can be measured in the laboratory. Shut up.

Yes, there is fossil evidence. Shut up.

No, no one claims we evolved from present-day apes. Shut up.

And yes, it's just a theory. And so is that whole "the Earth orbits the Sun" thing. Time out to look up the scientific definition of the word "theory," okay? Go on. I'll wait here.

Got it? All done?

Good. Shut up.

The article didn't tell me anything I didn't already know, but I don't think it was written for me. It was written for the 44 percent of Americans who, through force of will, misinformation, or simple ignorance, don't actually understand evolution, or refuse to understand it. It's for the special class.

Like I said, we loves it. Go look.

(via Scott McCloud's blog)  ¶ 1:26 a.m. 0 comments

  if (life != suck) continue; else explode();
>> make crowe-blog

Warning: Line 72: Contains complaining and introspection.

This is what I am reduced to - making C jokes in my blog posts. Yes, I am looking forward to partying tomorrow, and yes, I like how my pumpkin turned out. I don't, however, like working on code for an afternoon and then coming home to find that my changes vanished. Everything I did from about 1500 to 1800 today vanished. Don't ask me how; I don't know. It could have been something I did, in which case I call myself a smacktard and move on, or it could have been my university's sys admin messing around with the file server, in which case I restrain myself from attacking him in the hallway screaming bloody murder.

It makes me very glad to know that this weekend is another one of those rough spots I need to weather in this term. There have been a couple so far, and I see more coming up. The next stretch I might be able to relax in happens to start on November 16, and if you have any knowledge of gaming, you probably know what that means. It disappoints me that I won't have time to play GTA: San Andreas until Christmas, but at the same time, if I get that now, I will probably fail my courses, and I don't like that prospect in the slightest.

I need to get back to my code. I am listening to William Shatner's new album, Has Been, and it's pretty good. I wouldn't say it's ideal coding music -- I'll switch back to my old standby Monster Magnet shortly -- but it's definitely not a crap album. At least give it a listen before dismissing it outright. Henry Rollins is on it, so it can't be all bad, right?

Now I gear up and dive back into the C.

UPDATE: My day (night, if you want to be specific) just jumped from a 2 to a 7. The random Japanese album I downloaded on a whim turned out to be the album from the guy who did the Kill Bill Vol. 1 trailer theme. Yeah, that song. I am listening to the rest of the album, and hopefully will remember to post about how it is.  ¶ 11:40 p.m. 0 comments

 

To Mr. Scott Ramsoomair: Your Jack 'o Lantern pattern kicks a helluva lot of ass. Thanks!   ¶ 8:23 p.m. 0 comments

 

Just in time for Halloween. My party on Saturday gets me more excited by the day. If I had less work to do, the effect would just compound. Hoorah!   ¶ 7:59 p.m. 0 comments

 

I know that the fact that I scanned this in will probably cause at least one person to be malcontent.   ¶ 11:16 p.m. 0 comments

  How is this stupid? Let me count the ways.
Ok, check this quote out, courtesy of fellow Canuckistanian Julian Fantino, Toronto's Chief of Police:

Toronto Police Chief Julian Fantino likened decriminalizing marijuana to legalizing murder yesterday as he rejected arguments that legal pot would cut down on organized crime operations now growing it. "I guess we can legalize murder too and then we won't have a murder case. We can't go that way," Fantino said.

Argh. The statement, it hurts us. Yes, I realize that as a Chief of Police, it is not Officer Fantino's place to create or change the laws, but to enforce them. At the same time, he's just plain wrong. By legalizing pot, you immediate turn every underworld grow-op into a taxable business that needs to conform to business and safety laws. I mean, look at alcohol. Once upon a time (the 1920s) in a Land Far Away (our neighbours to the south, good ol' U. S. of A.) anyone making whisky or beer was "organized crime". Now it's big business we can't wait to merge with..  ¶ 11:23 p.m. 0 comments

  Toss the Space Cat!
See the astronauts.

See the space kitty.

See the astronauts throw the space kitty.

See the space kitty completely wig out in zero-G.

Laugh. Repeat.

(Yes, I'm aware that the cat probably detests the lack of gravity with a burning passion, and I do feel bad for the cat, except that I'm laughing too hard to care. Sorry, pussycat...)  ¶ 7:03 p.m. 0 comments

  Foreign substances float in his cranial fluids.
The Canonical List Of Full-Deckisms:

145. As bright as a nightlight / small appliance bulb / tulip bulb.
146. As dumb as an ox.
145. As focused as a fart.
146. As funny as a fire in a children's home.
148. As handy as a whiskbroom and twice as intelligent. -- Peter DeVries
147. As happy as if he had brains / was in his right mind.
148. As happy as the village idiot.
149. Aspopular as a French kiss at a family reunion.
150. As popular as a pork pie at a Jewish wedding / synagogue.
151. As queer/rare as a nine bob note. (Very English.)
152. As quick as a corpse.
153. As sensible as entering an ass-kicking contest with a porcupine.
154. As sharp as a bag of wet mice. -- Foghorn Leghorn

Over a thousand of 'em - get them while they're hot! (The one that caught my eye the most was "Has a mind like wet tennis shoes: makes squishy noises while running.")  ¶ 6:45 p.m. 0 comments

  I want her pumpkins.


Er... By pumpkins, I mean... um... Maybe that came out wrong. No matter, go read Girls With Slingshots. Do it now before you lose interest, and I know how easy that can be.  ¶ 10:21 p.m. 0 comments

  Remember that Tranquility place?
Update: Seems this isn't new news at all -- Boing Boing blogged it almost a year and a half ago. The post below was made in 2001. I don't know if I feel better or worse that awareness was being raised that long ago. On the one hand, it's good that word is getting out sooner rather than later, but on the other hand, I'm not aware of any of this press making a blip with the public. Food for thought.

*****

You know, the Jamaican prison for kids therapy center for unruly adolescents? Seems that there exists a support forum for those that came out of places like this. This particular post concerns Cross Creek Manor:

I was reluctant to post my story about Cross Creek Manor due to the pain it would rehash but I have come to realize that although it may cause some pain to me it will help prevent the pain of others. ... My father was an alcoholic and abusive to my mom so she moved back in with my granny when I was only about 6 months old and my brother was about two and a half. We all lived together until I was about ten or eleven. This is when my mom met my now stepfather. At first they just dated but after awhile they made plans to move in together. Of course my mother asked me to go with her but I would not hear of it. I had lived in the same town for almost all my life and I was shy and not so ready to pick everything up and start all over with a new school, friends etc. I guess you can say this was about the time I started acting out.

Onward to CCM:

I arrived at about 4:00 am in the morning. I walked in the big white doors of the manor. Immediately they were slammed shut behind me and I was asked if I knew where I was. I said no and was told "You are at a long term drug rehabilitation facility." I freaked out and asked her if I could call my mother. To that I got the reply "No you cannot. You are here because your mother doesn't want anything to do with you." I thought It was all a bad dream I actually pinched myself to try and wake up-but to no avail- it was all HORRIBLY REAL!!!! I was stripped searched, my clothes were taken away and I was given some second hand dirty T-shirt and sweat pants to sleep in. I was forced to sleep on a mattress on the floor for days. I was woken up at around 7am and was surrounded by robot looking girls running around to get ready on time. And that was just the beginning.
If I could remember everyday and every bad thing that happened I would tell you but I don’t. Some of the things I do remember are as follows:
-Every doorway I crossed I was made to ask May I cross
-I was watched going to the bathroom, taking showers, sleeping-everything I did I was under constant surveillance
-I was told daily that I was a f**kup, a slut, a homewrecker, that my mom didn't want me and that I would never change.
-When I admitted in therapy that I was raped I was made to feel that it was my fault because of my behavior.

It goes on. My question is: do we as a society* let people get away with running places like this because we don't know they exist, or because we think they work? Even if we simply don't know about them -- and with stories like these hitting the blog scene, this could change -- is ignorance a valid excuse? I think I would be more frightened to learn that North America believes on some level that this sort of thing is necessary.

* I refer to North America in general when I say "society". I am not aware of any facilities such as these in Canada, but somehow, I don't think I would be too surprised to find one in the backwoods of BC or some other place like that.

Scary stuff, kids. Spread the word.  ¶ 7:58 p.m. 0 comments

  Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail 2004
Hunter S. Thompson on the Bush Administration and the upcoming Presidential elections:

Armageddon came early for George Bush this year, and he was not ready for it. His long-awaited showdowns with my man John Kerry turned into a series of horrible embarrassments that cracked his nerve and demoralized his closest campaign advisers. They knew he would never recover, no matter how many votes they could steal for him in Florida, where the presidential debates were closely watched and widely celebrated by millions of Kerry supporters who suddenly had reason to feel like winners.

Kerry came into October as a five-point underdog with almost no chance of winning three out of three rigged confrontations with a treacherous little freak like George Bush. But the debates are over now, and the victor was clearly John Kerry every time. He steamrollered Bush and left him for roadkill.

Did you see Bush on TV, trying to debate? Jesus, he talked like a donkey with no brains at all. The tide turned early, in Coral Gables, when Bush went belly up less than halfway through his first bout with Kerry, who hammered poor George into jelly. It was pitiful. . . . I almost felt sorry for him, until I heard someone call him "Mister President," and then I felt ashamed.

Sweet zombie Jesus this is an amazing read, and solid from beginning to end. A must if you enjoyed any of the Fear and Loathing books, and worth checking out even if you're just another left-wing hippies who love to bash the rich white guys who run America.
(via BoingBoing!)
  ¶ 4:48 p.m. 0 comments

  We wants it!
Seriously, who wouldn't want a "new Claro holographic TV (£14,999 plus £9,999 for matching speakers) that allows you to project video on a transparent display"? Apparantly it also blocks out ambient light, so the picture stays sharp even if the room isn't dark. Very very cool beans, IMNSHO.
  ¶ 4:21 p.m. 0 comments

  I'm watching, but it just doesn't register...
This is just too hard to describe, so I'll let someone else do it:

Dungeon Majesty is a cable-access TV show in which four young women play Dungeons and Dragons -- the show is intercut with Z-grade green-screen masks of them staging D&D fights in front of fakey caves or deep in spooky woods, and illustrated with flip-book animations of D&D monsters drawn in pen on lined paper.

I'm not kidding -- there's a trailer on the site, and it looks absolutely awesome, in its own shy, geeky, almost non-existent production values sort of way. I want to know where the DM got his shirt...  ¶ 11:03 p.m. 0 comments

 

Instead of doing my MATLAB homework, I was going to doodle up a comic about how much it sucked. Two hours in, I realized I didn't really have any reasons why it sucked per se, and that I was mainly just frustrated for a variety of school-related reasons. Rather than ditch it like I would be wont to do normally however, I decided to share anyways. Using Hello! to upload comics probably isn't the best way, but I don't particularily care. The basic bits were done by hand in pencil, and all the image editing was done with the GIMP, which is the open-source Photoshop. Aside from a few crashes that happened for no reason, I think it worked out rather well. For a start, at least. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for anything else like this though - school is far too much at the mo'. Speaking of which, back to the MATLAB. Sigh.   ¶ 10:12 p.m. 0 comments

  This Mom Knows What She's Talkin' 'Bout
Straight from the desk of One Good Thing, one of the better anti-Bush ads I've seen, from a most unlikely source.  ¶ 6:53 p.m. 1 comments

  Once again, glad to be Canadian.
At least when our government hides things from us, it doesn't do so as blatantly:

It is shocking: The Bush administration is suppressing a CIA report on 9/11 until after the election, and this one names names. Although the report by the inspector general's office of the CIA was completed in June, it has not been made available to the congressional intelligence committees that mandated the study almost two years ago.

  ¶ 6:26 p.m. 0 comments

 

From my pen, to you.   ¶ 11:02 p.m. 0 comments

  Unruly Kids?
Send them to Tranquility!

Opened in 1997, Tranquility Bay is not a boot camp or a boarding school but a 'behaviour modification centre' for 11- to 18-year-olds. An American Time magazine journalist visited in 1998, and since then no media have been allowed inside.

Doesn't sound so bad, right?

Jay Kay is 33 years old, and the son of Wwasp's chief director. He opened the facility at the age of 27, after four years as administrator of a Wwasp-run juvenile psychiatric hospital in Utah. Previously he had been a night guard there, and before that a petrol-pump attendant, having dropped out of college. He has no qualifications in child development, but considers this unimportant.

Ok, so we can forgive that... keep reading.

The strategy of coercing children to rewire themselves is the concept Kay is most proud of, for he believes it places troubled teenagers' redemption in their own hands. The choice is theirs.

'For years, we just believed if you make the kids do what you want them to do, then they will make the change. But what we figured out was, why not get them to come to the conclusion that they need to make the change themselves? That's what makes this programme special. It's up to them.'

Students who fail to grasp this formula are forcefully encouraged to get the message. One girl currently has to wear a sign around her neck at all times, which reads: 'I've been in this programme for three years, and I am still pulling crap.'

It goes downhill from there. The closest analogy I can think of would be something along the lines of Clockwork Orange.

Would I send my kid there? Not on your life. The $40,000 price tag simply seals the deal.  ¶ 7:14 p.m. 0 comments

  Convexion sees between your eyes. Herds of gazelle concave at your feet!
Subject courtesy of The Surrealist Compliment Generator

I've been checking out a lot of Bill Hicks lately. He was a stand-up comic whose style reminds me a little of Denis Leary, with lots of rather blackish humor, lots of criticisms of society and modern culture, and lots of comments about drinking, smoking, drugs and all the rest of humanity's vices. I watched one of his shows today and thought the following quote was rather awesome:

"You never see positive drugs stories on the news, do ya. Isn't that weird? 'Cos most of the experiences I've had on drugs, were rrreal fucking positive. Er. Who are these morons they're finding, that's what I wanna know." ... "You know what I mean. Always that same LSD story, you've all seen it. 'Young man on acid, thought he could fly, jumped out of a building. What a tragedy.' What a dick, fuck him! He's an idiot. If he thought he could fly, why didn't he take off from the ground first? Check it out. You don't see ducks lining up to catch elevators to fly South. They fly from the ground, you moron. Quit ruining it for everybody."

I never thought about it that way. Makes a fair bit of sense.

Oh, and DVD The Second, better known as The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly? Kicks ass. I was going to write more, but it sounded like crap so I pared it down to those two words. Concise, ain't I? (Now go watch the movie!)  ¶ 9:07 p.m. 0 comments

  OMGWTFBBQ
I have no idea how to describe this.

Maybe something like broken English + bad techno + horrible late 70s/early 80s computer effects + mustache? I think the "5, 4, 3, 1, Offblast!" quote sums it up nicely. (via StumbleUpon)  ¶ 6:25 p.m. 0 comments

  The Crusade Against Evolution
Article in Wired about evolution vs. "intelligent design":

This is an issue, of course, that was supposed to have been settled long ago. But 140 years after Darwin published On the Origin of Species, 75 years after John Scopes taught natural selection to a biology class in Tennessee, and 15 years after the US Supreme Court ruled against a Louisiana law mandating equal time for creationism, the question of how to teach the theory of evolution was being reopened here in Ohio. The two-hour forum drew chanting protesters and a police escort for the school board members. Two scientists, biologist Ken Miller from Brown University and physicist Lawrence Krauss from Case Western Reserve University two hours north in Cleveland, defended evolution. On the other side of the dais were two representatives from the Discovery Institute in Seattle, the main sponsor and promoter of intelligent design: Stephen Meyer, a professor at Palm Beach Atlantic University's School of Ministry and director of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture, and Jonathan Wells, a biologist, Discovery fellow, and author of Icons of Evolution, a 2000 book castigating textbook treatments of evolution..

(via BoingBoing)

Good lord -- I have no idea how this debate continues. As the article states, Intelligent Design is simply a modernized form of creationism. Changing the name of the theory doesn't add anything of value, and it doesn't make it any less wrong. Creationism has been debunked so many times by so many people, I seriously question anyone who can state that either God or an alien intelligence created life with a straight face.  ¶ 2:41 p.m. 0 comments

  Tales of the Plush Cthulhu
Digital camera + stuffed animals + H.P. Lovecraft.

This is what happens when we let our children read gothic horror -- I love it!  ¶ 10:09 p.m. 0 comments

  The Geek Code
It's older than dirt, yet still strangely applicable:

GE/CS d-- s+: a21 C++(++++) P L+(++) E--- W++ N o-- K++ w+ PS+++ PE Y+ t 5++ X R tv-- b+(+++) DI++ D+ G e>++ h

Code! Decode!  ¶ 1:36 p.m. 0 comments

  DVD The First: Suspiria
Take one cup Hitchcock, a cup of Carpenter, a cup and a half of evil fairytales and 3 tablespoons of Visual Masterpiece Concentrate, and mix thoroughly.

Let sit for an hour, and then add a fresh Eerie Soundtrack. Knead and let sit for another hour.

Bake. Watch. Love. Repeat.

In case that doesn't make sense, Suspiria is a pretty freaking awesome movie. While the first genre that comes to mind is slasher horror, to label this film a mere slasher degrades it horribly.

The movie is directed by Dario Argento, an Italian filmmaker that never really got enough credit in North America, aside from the odd horror geek. What makes his movie tick, however, is color. Nighttime in this movie is a twisted, nightmarish world of red and blue, ever accented by the oh-so-twisted score by Goblin -- the soundtrack happened to come with the DVD and it just plain rules. Add in some supernatural happenings and one of the grisliest, most brutal murders on film, and you probably will end up with a movie not unlike Suspiria.

I can't recommend this movie enough, folks. Go rent it and watch it with a good sound system.  ¶ 8:50 p.m. 0 comments

  StumbleUpon gives me many things.
Predominantly screwed-up visuals sure to give me nightmares are just a few.

  ¶ 4:08 p.m. 0 comments

  I'm sure there are people who would kill for one of these.
The 8500 calorie sandwich. The picture says it all:
  ¶ 3:20 p.m. 0 comments

  At last, an Internet virtuoso.
eugenemirman.com is one of those links that has been around for a while, but I haven't called notice to it. Kind of like Zombo.com.

At any rate, if you dig creepy singing kids brutally mauling classic Americana music, go check it out. It's awesome.  ¶ 3:01 p.m. 0 comments

  Sludge.
I live in Edmonton.

Some people, they live in California where there is one season and one season only: Pleasant. Some live in Europe where the weather patterns have meaning beyond my comprehension. Those that live on the East Coast probably have more empathy with the weather we get here in Edmonton, but their empathy probably won't hit until winter properly starts in December.

No, here in the Great White North, winter doesn't play fair. It jumps the gun and outright cheats. I don't like that, and if I could tackle a season and give it what-for, I would.

I picked up a bunch of movies today; I probably bought far more than I probably should have, but I don't really care. For the record, they are: Suspiria - Stupendously Awesome Edition, The Good, The Bad and the Ugly - Ridiculously Incredible Edition, and Farenheit 911. I'll blog more about those as I get a chance to watch them.

Otherwise, I suppose I will get back to the work I should do today. The operative word is definitely "should", since something tells me any work I get done will be less than substantial. It's the effort that counts though, right?  ¶ 11:03 a.m. 0 comments

 

This is what I got to wake up to this morning.   ¶ 11:03 a.m. 0 comments

  BATTLE ROBOTS!!!

Pop Culture Victim is a Large Robot that is Powered by Angry Bees, is fitted with a Bulldozer Blade, Hops Around on Single Leg, and has Rudimentary Human Emotions. Force: 11 Handling: 3 Weaponry: 0 To see if your Battle Robot can defeat Pop Culture Victim, enter your name and choose an attack: fights Pop Culture Victim using Force Handling Weaponry

  ¶ 9:45 p.m. 0 comments

  Prince of Persia 2
The Prince of Persia: Warrior Within demo was released recently, and yes, I just gave it a go. While I still have my reservations, everything in the demo looks rather solid. I'm not entirely happy with the direction the series has gone, what with the whole darker, gorier tone, but the combat is definitely deeper, and it doesn't look like the puzzle/platformer aspect of it is going to be sub-par either.

Now get going and try it yourself!  ¶ 6:34 p.m. 0 comments

  Pirates and Emperors
Like Schoolhouse Rock, only with 7 new flavours of kickass!

American foreign policy of funding terrorists and taking over countries that don't agree with them, but set to happy music and nifty animation!  ¶ 4:52 p.m. 0 comments

  I wish I knew who this guy was...

Which Historical Lunatic Are You?
From the fecund loins of Rum and Monkey.  ¶ 1:27 p.m. 0 comments

  Like the world at night, but with more lung cancer.
This is pretty cool: a map of pollution around the world.

A global map of nitrogen dioxide in the atmosphere has revealed the most precise view yet of pollution hotspots around the world.

The map, based on 18 months’ worth of satellite data, shows very high levels of NO2 above major European and North American cities and across much of north-east China. South-east Asia and Africa also have raised concentrations of the gas due to their burning of vegetation.

But perhaps more surprising are the oceans. “Ship tracks are visible in some locations,” says Steffen Beirle, one of the research team at the University of Heidelberg, Germany.

  ¶ 10:44 p.m. 0 comments

  Dave Wyndorf: Visionary
I am a big Monster Magnet fan. So when I was checking out their site, I saw this little snippet by Mr. Wyndorf on marketing and advertisements, and just had to pass it on:

Where are the smart folks? Behind their computers of course. Using them as an alternative to mass marketed, hollow entertainment. Only problem IS...They (the smart and the passionate) have gone SO into cyberland that their physical presence is gone and they are being discounted by big business. Look at it this way.

Why would big business spend tons of moola to seduce a smart, sceptical person when they can easily market TONS of garbage to millions of poor shmucks who really don't know the difference between the true VALUE of good art and bad art.

  ¶ 8:11 p.m. 0 comments

  Good gravy!
Forget the whole larvae-in-your-ear fear, this is definitely one to worry about when you're camping!

Seedling in your navel:

Last September I went alone on a canoe trip. On the very first day my canoe turned over in a rapid and I lost some of my equipment in the water. Fortunately, I managed to save my camping gear and my food. But I lost all my spare clothes. So I knew I would have to wear the same outfit for the rest of the trip.

Six days later, I was finally back home. The first thing I wanted to do was to change clothes and take a shower. But when I took off my sweater, to my amazement, I could see something sticking out of my belly button! I couldn’t believe it: something was growing in there!

  ¶ 7:55 p.m. 0 comments

  How to get away with doing anything at all.
Letting your head catch on fire and then rocking out.

Really hard. It's as strange as it sounds, kids. Go watch.  ¶ 10:54 p.m. 0 comments

  I saw this and thought I'd share it...
  ¶ 10:32 p.m. 0 comments

  Dawn of War
I finally gave Dawn of War a try this morning, and I must say, it's really quite good. It's not exactly a ground-breaking game in the same way that Starcraft was, but if you've been waiting for years for something just as fun with the same flavour, you could do a lot worse than Dawn.

Space Marines are cool. Orks are even better, and the Eldar are just the bomb. Definitely worth downloading the demo.  ¶ 4:12 p.m. 0 comments

  Open source, no-plugin, rich GUIs for the Web
Laszlo == pretty nifty sounding.

Yesterday, I caught a demo of Laszlo, a really bad-ass application development environment for the Web. Lazlo does was Java was supposed to do -- let you run desktop-app-like applications within a browser window. But Laszlo doesn't require any plugin on its own, or flaky, slow Java. Instead, the Laszlo compiler turns Lazlo code (which is written in very fast, flexible, human-readable XML) into Flash apps. Pretty much everyone has Flash installed, so users can run your apps without installing new software (but since the Lazlo code is compiled down to Flash, it could also be compiled down to something else -- IOW, if Macromedia gets to rank with you, you could compile your apps to Java, to C++, Mono or whatever).

Sounds like a combination of LaTeX and teh Intarw3b -- easy to write code that turns into some pretty snazzy lookin' stuff. I can't wait to see this in action.  ¶ 7:20 p.m. 0 comments

  Boo. Freaking. YAH.
If there ever were a time for me to say AWESOME POSSUM today, now would be it:the INDUCE Act is, at least for now, dead.

Entertainment groups and consumer organizations were unable Thursday to reach a compromise over a Senate proposal aimed at manufacturers of file-sharing software commonly used to steal electronic copies of music, movies and computer programs.

The Induce Act, strongly supported by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, would make manufacturers of such software liable for inducing people to commit copyright infringement. Consumer groups and some computer companies have complained that the bill's language is too broad and could apply liability to legitimate technology.

....And a collective sigh of relief is heard. If you can't hear it, you're not listening properly.  ¶ 7:17 p.m. 0 comments

  Politics Makes You Stupid? Maybe.
But don't you go and forget Poland on me.

That would be despicable.  ¶ 7:09 p.m. 0 comments

  See? See?
Now do you understand, you silly publishers? Valve knows what the deal is. This is the way to market games.

Tomorrow at 11 am PST, the Half-Life 2 Steam offers will be ready for purchase. Details and pricing for these offers are pasted below. Those who purchase via Steam, will receive the final version of Counter-Strike: Source immediately. Half-Life 2 and other games in the Steam offerings will be made available to purchasers upon their release.

ATI/Half-Life 2 bundle owners may redeem their product key for the Bronze offer or apply their key toward the purchase of either the Silver or Gold offers, receiving a credit equal to the price of the Bronze offer.

Also tomorrow, the Counter-Strike: Source beta will close. Valve would like to thank the thousands of gamers who participated in the beta and helped make it a success.

For more detailed information, please visit www.steampowered.com

Anyone who says you can't sell games online is wrong. Just. Plain. Wrong. If people think they are getting their money's worth, they will buy online. I plan on it, and if you're as excited about this game as I am, I think you should too.  ¶ 5:01 p.m. 0 comments

  Boo-urns.
Rodney Dangerfield has died at 82.

Rodney Dangerfield, the bug-eyed comic best remembered in the sports world for the hilarious 1980 film "Caddyshack," in which he held his own with such comics as Chevy Chase, Ted Knight and Bill Murray, died Tuesday. He was 82.

Dangerfield, who fell into a coma after undergoing heart surgery, died at 1:20 p.m., said publicist Kevin Sasaki. Dangerfield had a heart valve replaced Aug. 25 at the University of California, Los Angeles, Medical Center.

This is turning out to be a bad year for entertainment legends. Even if no one else does, I respect you, Mr. Dangerfield.  ¶ 4:57 p.m. 0 comments

  Hitting the Road.... again.
Sam & Max 2 Not Dead!

In the "thank god someone used some brains" department, the original team that was working on the cancelled Sam & Max sequel at LucasArts has formed their own company, Telltale Games.

One of their first projects? You guessed it: Sam & Max 2!

Do you remember adventure games? I do. Specifically, do you remember the Lucasarts adventure games? No? Lemme fill ya in then.

See, once upon a time, Lucasarts made good games. Yes, there were a bunch of stupid Star Wars titles like Yoda Stories, but for the most part, we had quality comign out of those internal studios. Day of the Tentacle, Sam and Max Hit the Road, Full Throttle, Grim Fandango... I'm really hoping that those kinds of games come back someday.  ¶ 4:48 p.m. 0 comments

  bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Those Japanese, what will they think of next?

[T]he Vicon, short for vibrator condom, the latest development the safe but saucy sex business has unsheathed, has proved to be a real humdinger, though it's currently available only in adult goods stores on a trial basis.

Vicon has two distinctive parts, the rubber prophylactic similar to any other standard condom with the exception that it has a hard plastic ring at the base, which holds the second part -- a tiny, spherical vibrator.

  ¶ 2:28 p.m. 0 comments

  Warren Ellis Wants YOU!
Make something.

It is now Friday October 8 in GMT. My next LJ arts-related stunt will begin on Friday October 15, probably around noon GMT. Set your timezone relationships accordingly.

Here's what we're going to do. For roughly a 24-hour period from noon GMT on Friday the 15th, you arty people are going to show off.

You've got a week. Produce either a 200-word piece of prose, or a photo or photo-manip, or a drawing, or a painting, or a fucking whatever so long as it fits on a LiveJournal entry.

The theme is FUTURITY.

If I can find the time, I think I just might do something about this...  ¶ 2:14 p.m. 0 comments

 

Yeah, I'm a special kind of threatening, aren't I?   ¶ 2:00 p.m. 0 comments

 

WE OBEY.   ¶ 1:58 p.m. 0 comments

 

People are not basketballs. Do remember this, please.   ¶ 1:55 p.m. 0 comments

  I've Been A Bad Blogger
12 hour coding days do that to you sometimes. I have three weeks worth of news feeds to slog through. I have only barely managed to stay up to date with the milliard webcomics I track.

All is not teh SuX, however.* I do have the unbridled joy of Katamari Damacy to get me by. On the one hand, the game is as awesome as a game about rolling a giant ball of things around the world can be. On the other, the soundtrack is so much quality it makes me want to gibber incoherently. In fact, I have done this on several occasions, mostly to the tune of Katamari's opening theme, On The Rock. Na na na na na na naaa na na na na na na naaaaaaaaa....

* That's a TeX/LaTeX joke by the way. A bad one.

Other than all that, things are not bad. Long weekend has arrived, and there has been much rejoicing. I have artfully arranged to have my work for Tuesday done (through the power of LaTeX, no less) and I am therefore unencumbered by necessary work for 3 days. If I do work, it will be because I choose to, and while that might make for better work quality, it is SO not happening.

I also have some pictures to put up of random things I have done in the past month, so stay tuned.  ¶ 1:32 p.m. 0 comments

  Super secure Engineering building.
Wow. I'm at the lab working on an assignment, and in going to another building for fuhd, my partner in crime and I get locked out of the building we were in.

The solution to getting back to work? Open the door that says Emergency Entrance. Seems it's just an ordinary door with a piece of paper saying "Emergency Entrance Only". No alarms, no nothing.

Staying safe via the honor system. I love it.  ¶ 6:41 p.m. 0 comments

 
  ¶ 8:49 p.m. 0 comments