Catching Up

Greetings. It's been a while, hasn't it? Things have been fairly busy at the compound, what with the game reviewing and general summertime laziness. Work has picked up as well, making it harder to post during normal business hours. I'm also experiencing a bit of writer's block when it comes to the funnier (well, attempts at funny anyways) posts, and to be honest, if I can't bring Teh Funny, I usually don't feel like writing.

Today, however, I'm going to make an exception and instead just bring folks up to date. Wheee.

- So, the review. It was pretty cool to see my name in "print" after all these years toiling away in obscurity. Linda is convinced that this is just the first step in my ascension to the ranks of the media darlings, thereby allowing us to retire early. I certainly don't see that happening, but those controlling the purse strings and the assignments at GameShark, seemed pretty happy with it so the first hurdle has been jumped. Hopefully the readers also found it helpful. When a game is as bad as that game was, it's pretty easy to write a review. The hardest part is to give an honest assessment without looking like you're just beating the thing up. After all, real, actual humans did work on the thing, and anyone who has ever worked in software development can tell you that you don't always have the time or the money to make your product as well as you'd like to. There's a fine line between outlining a game's faults and outright bashing it. There was more I could have said, and in retrospect I probably would have done the review differently, but I think for a first try, it came out OK. This week brings a deluge of games to get cracking on, so there will be plenty of opportunities to flex my critical muscles.

- I just finished "How Would a Patriot Act" by Glenn Greenwald and it was fairly interesting. It outlines the various ways that the Bush administration has gone above the law, and their justification for doing so. The book is a tad repetitive, but it outlines things very well, in simple English, so it's easy to understand exactly what's gone on. It's interesting, and scary, to me that there haven't been more questions asked during the various candidate debates of late, focusing on whether or not the President has the ability to break the law simply because (s)he is the President. In my mind, this isn't a liberal vs. conservative issue or a Democrat vs. Republican issue. You either think that the President, by being granted the ability to use military force in Afghanistan and Iraq, has the power to do whatever he wants to, in opposition to whatever laws may be on the books, and what the Constitution actually says, or you don't. I clearly fall in the latter camp, and I would imagine that most Americans do too, however the issues at hand haven't been presented in such clear cut terms thus far, something we can thank our spineless, crony infested Washington press for. Thanks guys! Personally, I think it's pretty scary that, at any moment, US citizens can be arrested, on US soil, and thrown in prison with no access to a lawyer and no indication of the charges being brought against them, to be kept there indefinitely. The book also helps put the threat of a terrorist attack in the proper perspective, which is to say, it'd be tragic, but hardly the country destroying event that those in power would have you believe.

- My advance ticket for the Transformers movie has been purchased and I am anxiously awaiting the screening. I know that I promised more Transformer reviews, but alas I am lazy and unmotivated to do so. I have a lot of them, and the task seems daunting to review them all in a timely manner. Plus, I want to combine the reviews with other things, so that those that don't care about the toys (most of you) have other things to read as well. We'll see. I haven't gone to a movie on opening night in I don't know how long, so this should be interesting. The geek culture will be well represented, no doubt. My MC Frontalot shirt will probably be in order. I'll resist the urge to purchase an Optimus Prime voice changing helmet and wear it to the screening. I'll put my estimate as to the number of people who do not resist said urge at 6.

- On Tuesday, the Gods of Rock are blessing us with a 7 cd set of Pearl Jam's concerts at the Gorge from the 05 - 06 tour. Verily, we are not worthy of such a blistering offering of rock, but we should accept it and be happy nonetheless.

- I finished Super Paper Mario last night. In the end, it was a love story, which was very nice. The game was fun too, and very well written. I highly recommend it to Wii owners. It's not like you have anything else to do with the console anyways.

- I also finished Puzzle Quest, thereby reclaiming my evenings. I was tempted to replay the campaign as a different character class, but figured I'd save that for the XBLA offering. I should warn you, that if you come up across me online, I am going to use Beserk Rage and Flaming Skulls as a one-two punch that not only leaves you reeling, but sounds your death knell. I would prefer to use them in that order, however given their spectacularly board changing properties, I am prepared to use them in a suboptimal configuration and still hand your ass to you, charbroiled and steaming, displayed in a pleasing manner, adorned with the proper garnishes. Presentation is everything.

- My children are driving me crazy, as kids of their age are supposed to do. My daughter has now taken to collapsing in a heap on the floor when she hears anything she finds to be unacceptable. In a store, it's pretty damn annoying, and is met with a swift trip to the car, where she is forced to endure a spate of loneliness. On occasion, we'll crack a window. At home it is met with amusement on our part, and a fair amount of mocking. I know you're not supposed to mock your children, but whoever wrote that, obviously never had kids. We've tried explaining to her, that if she asks for something, doesn't get it and instead collapses in a heap, that she still doesn't get what she wanted, only now she's got dust and pet hair on her person. She seems immune to reason. I think that if you could start a boarding school that accepted 2 year olds, you'd make millions. You could even give them back at age 5 and still make a ton. Those that would rebut this with the question, "Why would you have kids if you didn't want to spend time with them?" would be answered thusly: "I didn't know they'd be so damn annoying."

- It's really goddamn hot here, and we're in a drought, which should make for an interesting 4th of July. I'm convinced that my neighbor's annual fireworks extravaganza is going to result in my woods burning down. If that happens, I'm going to get it zoned for a mini subdivision that you access via my backyard. Convenient? No. Highly profitable? Yes.

As you can see, there's been a lot going on, so I hope you'll forgive the lack of updates. If not, well, just remember that you get what you pay for.