this machine is obsolete

well, christmas has come and gone, and overall it was a good holiday. nice seeing all the family, and jess' too. i also got some good presents, including kotor 2 and band of brothers. there were also some very big downsides, such as getting my car stuck for over an hour in a huge snow pile, and having the digital camera i bought jess not work right. oh well, my car is unstuck now and it looks like i'm getting things worked out with returning the camera.

last, but certainly not least, congratulations to tim and elly, who got engaged on christmas eve. now we can all stop harassing tim about it... which is too bad, in a way. oh well, i'm sure we'll find something else to make fun of him for.

i am the voice inside your head

after this little bit of blasphemy, i may never visit gamerfeed again. of course, any half-life 2 vs. halo 2 comparison is bound to stir up controversy. however, picking the crappy game as the winner is just plain stupid. the biggest joke is saying that halo 2 has better enemies. are there even any new bad guys besides the brutes and those annoying green insect guys? did they even play half-life 2? they should be very pleased that they've now endeared themselves to all the cool high school halo fanboys. filthy heathens.

grab a scale and guess the weight of all the pain i've given with my name

here's a cool article on the history of star wars video games. i've always been a pretty big fan of star wars games, even ones that were less than stellar like Rebellion, Force Commander, and Rebel Assault 2. of course, then there have always been the golden gems like Kotor, Jedi Knight, and TIE Fighter. anyways, it's a good article.


also, get ready for The 2004 Davie Awards, coming soon.

the king called up his jet fighters

apparently EA Games' Madden franchise couldn't beat the competition from ESPN NFL games, and the fact that ESPN was just as good as Madden, and cost $20 instead of $50. so instead of defeating their competition by putting out a better quality game, EA decided to turn into THE MAN, by monopolizing NFL-based football games. there's a good lesson for all you business majors: don't turn out a better product, just prevent your rivals from giving you any competition. then you can turn out all the crap you want, and people wanting to play a game of that type will have no choice.

it's funny how everything you swore would never change is different now

it's articles like this that get my hopes up way too high about the bengals. now i'm all pumped about our chances to upset new england. honestly though, i think we can definately do it, i just think it's going to come down to two things: 1. Defense. we've got to stop dillion and stop the passing game. if we're not playing from far behind, it will makes things much less stressful for palmer and the offense. 2. Protect Palmer. the pats are good against the run but missing their top 2 cornerbacks. the bengals showed last week what they can do against even a top rated defense. however, new england is 3rd in the nfl in sacks. as long as we protect palmer and give him time to make the throws, we should pass all over them. this becomes even more important if #1 fails, and we're playing from behind, like last week. i'm so pumped now. WHO DEY!

mother do you think they'll drop the bomb

needless to say, the bengals 27-26 victory over the ravens sunday was a monumental victory. marvin lewis rightfully compared it to exorcising a demon. it was a must win game, and and the offense stepped to the challenge in a big way. as dan hoard of fox 19 sports said, you do not come back from a 17 point deficit in the 4th quarter against baltimore. you do not score 24 4th quarter points against the ravens.

once again this week, i think despite how good the patriots are, this game may come down to yet another last minute drive by the bengals. the question is, will it be marred by mistakes like it was against the jets, titans, and both steelers games, or have we finally learned enough to repeat last week's comeback? as good as the patriots are, the bengals have been repeatedly showing up for the hard teams the past two seasons (kansas city; then denver, most of the second steelers game, and against baltimore last week), so i think they will again. hopefully the defense will get the extra motivation to stop the run by facing corey dillion. i'm sure he'll be motivated to run all over us,

it's going to be tough, and i'm trying not to get my hopes up. the pats defense is probably better than baltimore's (even without ty law), and their offense definately is. it's also no easy feat to win at gillete stadium, especially in december. regardless, there's no reason why the bengals can't at least finish this season by breaking even.

you got a bullet in your head

so in response to criticism of counter-strike: source being the only multiplayer option for half-life 2, valve released an update for the game, the main feature being the inclusion of half-life 2: deathmatch. naturally the main draw for the deathmatch is the combination of hl2's physics simulation and the ability to use the physics and the gravity gun to turn any object into a weapon. so i gave it a try today, and i had a blast. you start with three weapons, the gravity gun, the pistol, and the smg. you don't really have enough ammo for the smg to do too much damage, and although there are other weapons scattered along the map, most people still end up using the gravity gun. in fact, i wish there was an option to make the grav gun the only weapon available. i only saw two maps so far (there may be one more, but i'm sure both valve and the gaming community will crank out more in no time), and they're both littered with debris just waiting to be turned into a weapon. the most fun i had is when there is a mass of people all hurling objects back and forth at each other, trying to avoid being flattened by flying furniture. today i had the groundbreaking experience of fragging someone with a desk, a chair, a toilet, a radiator, a barrel, you name it. literally even the kitchen sink became a lethal missle. it was a multiplayer experience that unlike any i'd ever had before. the possibilities for expanding on a concept with such obvious potential and depth are endless. it's just one more reason to fall obesessively in love with this game.

welcome to the jungle, we got fun and games

i have to say, i've been incredibly lucky in the 2 bengals games i've been to. it's hard to say which game was more fun, last year's upset of undefeated kansas city, or this year's insane 58-48 explosion against cleveland. it was definately tense at times, but you couldn't help but have fun at this game. i'm still pumped when i think about it. it was awesome to see our offense go to work, especially watching rudi run wild over their defense. it's about time we did that to someone instead of them doing it to us. the fans were very drunk and very annoying on both sides, but that's football.

i've gone back to playing through Knight of the Old Republic on the dark side. i have to say, it's even more fun this way. just like in the Jedi Knight series, dark side force powers are way more fun. i'm hoping to get the upcoming sequel for christmas, so i want to have beaten the first game on both sides. still the best star wars game ever.

time, dr. freeman?

wow. today i wrapped one of the finest gaming experiences i have ever had.

having completed half-life 2, i can say that it more than lives up to the hype. in fact, it surpasses the original in nearly every way. if i had to come up with a complaint, it would have to be that the ending it a little too open ended for my taste. your team ai could be a little better as well, but i didn't seem to be bothered with that as much as some reviewers.

the story is one of the best in any game i've played. i couldn't wait to get to the end, and now that i'm there i'm both sad that it's over, and eagerly anticipating the third installment. there are few games where i've ever cared about the characters as much as i have in this game. one of the biggest achievement with valve's realistic facial expressions and voice-acting is that the people really come alive. you can see the emotion in their faces and hear it in their voices. part of the reason i can't wait till HL3 is that i'm already dying to know what happened to my companions. it's possibly the most cinematic game experience i've seen. this is the new benchmark by which all other action games will be judged.

obviously, half-life 2 and halo 2 will be compared a lot, due to both their glowing reviews and huge fan bases. in my mind, it's not even a competition.

halo 2 was definately a let-down in single player. halo 2's gameplay stuck to the same basic formula throughout. you move from room to room, killing everything. sure, you play half the game as an elite, but that change is mainly cosmetic. the actual gameplay itself is the same. the story is more detailed than the original, but i thought some parts were absurd, and others failed to be given adequate explanation. on the other hand, half-life 2 is probably the best single player game ever made. it may be a first-person shoot,er but it transcends every genre in that catergory. it's an action game, obviously. other parts, such as the urban uprising against the combine, have such a wargame feel to theme to them that i kept thinking back to games such as call of duty. the ravenholm level is a downright white-knuckled horror scenario. the two driving levels are packed full of adrenaline, and some of the most fun i've ever had using vehicles in a game. as i said before, the story itself is extremely engrossing, to the point that you want to find out about every little etail and speck of possible background information.

*warning: this may have some spoilers*
as far as endings go, both games decided to go with cliffhangers to leave their fans salivating for the third installment. however, in my mind one was done correctly, and the other was poorly. as the player reaches the end of halo 2, he has no idea he's at the end. as master chief approached earth, i was preparing myself for the big showdown with the covenant. this was going to be the big climax. then BAM, bungie pulls the plug. there was no big showdown. no final battle for victory. bungie didn't put an ending on the game, they just chopped it in half and stuck a "to be continued" on the end. i felt like i'd been robbed.

half-life 2's ending didn't make me feel as if i'd just wasted my time. keep in mind, the ending is still very open ended. in fact, it is a little disappointing that more isn't immediately resolved or explained. however, hl2 had a climax. like, halo 2, near the end i was feeling pumped at the impending showdown with dr. breen. even though the ending may actually open up more questions than it answers, it still left me with a very real sense of accomplishment. there is also a lot of intrigue and theories to speculate on, which keeps the game fresh. i loaded my last save to watch the ending again, and then went back and played through the whole last level to see if i could gain any more insight on what had happened. i already want to go back and play through the whole game again to see if i can catch and clues or details that i missed the first time. but that's all i want to say about the ending without anyone having played it.

it seems valve can do no wrong. let's just pray we don't have to wait another six years.

this is a call to all my past resignations

the united nations staff is preparing to issue a vote of no confidence in chancellor valor- i mean secretary-general kofi annan. meanwhile, senator palpatine prepares to assume power, and qui-gon jinn is killed on naboo.

we don't go to ravenholm

to warn you all, there's a very good chance i'll be doing nothing but raving about the glories of half-life 2 on here for at least the next few days. now that you've been notified...

i failed to mention oin my previous post another aspect of the game that i believe is as revolutionary as it's character presentation, and that is the physics of the game. the game features the greatest physics engine i've ever witnessed in a game, by far. first of all, there are countless interactive items in the game: bottles, cinder blocks, boxes, tires, barrels, furniture, playground equipment, etc. gordon can pick up, move around, and throw all kinds of objects, as aptly represented by penny-arcade. what's even more unique is that every object has it's own specific weight and mass, in accordance to it's real-life properties. the realism this provides to the game's atmosphere is amazing. what's even more incredible is the next step that is taken in this interactivity with the game world when gordon gets his hands on the gravity gun. what the gravity gun does is it allows gordon to push, grab, and throw all kinds of objects, especially ones too heavy for him to lift on his own. more importantly, it allows gordon to utilize the objects around him, turning them into weapons.

the significance of this is the new level of depth and ingenuity it allows when playing the game. running short on ammo? don't worry, just use the gravity gun to begin hurling barrels at your enemies. or how about throwing buzz saws, propane tanks, or propeller blades? this game allows you to turn a chest of drawers from a piece of furniture into a weapon to be launched at your adversaries. it also allows you to pick up objects and shield yourself from enemy fire.

but the depth the physics adds to the gameplay isn't limited to when you have the gravity gun. let's say you're being shot at by enemies standing atop a wooden platform. instead of trying to take them all out, find a way to shoot out or blow up the supports for the platform and watch them tumble. there are all kinds of ways to deal with each and every situation. pure genius.

i could rant on more, like how the sound is superb, and greatly enhances to the atmosphere of the game. like how i'm seriosuly freaked out by the ravenholm level, a dark town filled with all kinds of zombie/alien horrors. the whole atmosphere is great, it just sucks you in. nothing like seeing these haunting corpses hanging everywhere, when eerie howls suddenly pierce the night and the creature appears on a rooftop across the town, silhouetted in the moonlight. might not seem like anything major when you're reading about it, but the effect in the game is extremely unnerving. you really feel like you're gordon, groaning "oh great.." at what you have to deal with next. valve, you guys are the greatest.

yes, i'm obsessed. for good reason. it's amazing. and no, i won't stop raving about it for a long time. sometime i need to give the new counter-strike a try, but there's no way i'll play anything else till this is finished.

rise and shine, mr. freeman. rise and shine.

wake up and smell the ashes.

ahh man, this is the stuff. after much frustration over steam (note: you cannot dock HL2 as a game because of valve's being unprepared for massive traffic on steam), i finally got the game registered and the files unlocked. after such a big headache, can this game live up to the hype?

oh, does it ever.

i could rant for hours and i've only just begun to get into the game. worth every second of the wait. the atmosphere is incredible. as the game fired up, i was literally on the edge of my seat, leaning forward towards the monitor to get as close to the action as possible.

this game looks gorgeous, and plays fairly well on my computer, with decent settings. what stands out the most are the characters: they have the most life-like features that i've ever seen. valve used all kinds of technology to map out the muscles in the face of characters, allowing for all kinds of realistic expressions. and the lips are perfectly synched with the voices, making the game even more realistic. the voice acting itself is superb so far, a very professional job. in fact, it's down right cinematic.

the action is extremely intense, far more varied than halo 2's "go into a room, clear it out, next room, clear it out, repeat" formula. much of the action at the beginning are adrenaline-pumping chases as you flee pursuing combine forces, for awhile without even a weapon to fight back. once you are armed, things get even more action-packed, every bit of it is thrilling.

of course, the overwhelming sense of nostalgia that flowed from the beginning of the game made me love it all the more. the ominous face of the g-man, the voice of my scientist companion, the sound of a headcrab jumping, the return of the terrifying shiver i get every time i see one of those huge, horrible pirhana-like monsters in the water, and most of all, the tingle on the back of my neck when i hopped once again into HEV suit. incredible. i can't even describe it. let's just say it's taking all the self-restraint i have not to load the game back up and play it all not long. there's no way i'm going to pay attention in class tomorrow.

ladies and gentlemen, gordon freeman has returned!

dear valve software,

i know you think you're all slick and cool and revollutionary with your new steam delivery system as a way to activate games. and i know you're all big on security now that you screwed up and let the hl2 source code get stolen a year ago, so now you make it so that we have to use steam to unlock half-life 2, even if we bought it in the store. and then you go and drop the ball by not anticipating the MASSIVE traffic on steam due to the millions of fans that apparently you didn't expect to clog your servers by trying to all activate your games. or maybe you just don't realize that most people want to play their games AS SOON AS THEY BUY THEM. and now they can't, because they can't connect to steam, which means that sit here in anger and think about how badly they want to firebomb your entire office. yes, you may have made the greatest game of all time, but since you're denying me from playing the arguably even greater sequal, i can only think of the wrong you are doing me. this had better be worth both the $55 and major headache i've gotten trying to register on steam. or else.

sincerely,

a very, very bitter old man

i've been around all the pawns you've gagged and bound

i'm sure you will all be as thrilled to learn as i was that michael moore is planning on making a sequel to fahrenheit 9/11. as moore himself says "fifty-one percent of the american people lacked information (in this election), and we want to educate and enlighten them. They weren't told the truth." the very fact that someone like michael moore would throw out the word "truth" takes the idea of irony to a whole new level.


in other news, maybe due to my blasphemous comments about halo 2, my body seems bound determined to kill me. first i start off with the whole congested sinuses, sore throat, and cough. needless to say, i've been up the past three nights trying just to breath, never mind sleep (which explains why i'm on here at 5 am). the pile of used tissues in my garbage can is staggering. then my congestion becomes so severe that my nose starts bleeding because i've been blowing it so much. then the nice white sores appear in my throat. and now my head is so backed up the mucus has decided to start coming out my eyes along with my nose (apparently we shouldn't have joked about my eyes bleeding doug, that's probably next). i don't want it to sound like i'm complaining, but it's only 5 am and i can't sleep, so i've got to talk about something to entertain myself.

ain't found a way to kill me yet

i beat halo 2's single player campaign today. frankly, i feel like bungie owes me. first of all, the ending blows, and while i won't reveal any details for those who haven't beat it, it's basically a cheap tool setting you up for the inevitable halo 3. not only did bungie put the flood back in the game, but there's really no reason for them to be there, or an explanation of why. a lot of the gameplay methods got old. when fighting the flood, you could expect to sit in the same room for at least ten minutes while you killed wave after wave, move on to the next room, repeat. the same thing happened much of the time when you're in a tank; for some reason there's a rediculous number of ghosts on halo, and they'll come at you in groups of 2s and 3s for fifteen straight minutes. so you sit and wait, blow them up, wait, blow up the next group, repeat. very few of the levels stand out like the original did; i can't really think of many levels i'd want to go back and play on co-op over and over like i did with ones from halo. needless to say, the campaign left me feeling let down.

multiplayer hasn't completely blown me away yet, but that's just because i haven't had a good chance to truly experience its greatness. playing at doug's house was alright, but his brother's friends just kept screwing around, and making small games on their own instead of 16 people. don't get me wrong, i can see the hints of greatness hiding under the surface, i just need a better setting to bring out the best in the game next time i play.

i wanna be your superman

velvet revolver concert at us bank arena was awesome. they played all their good songs from contraband, two STP songs, three GnR songs and an Aerosmith cover. slash's playing was amazing, and weiland gave the show a lot of energy. i think he'd die if he didn't have a bullhorn to sing into. i'd have to say the best songs were "sucker train blues", "slither", "sex type thing", "used to love her", "superhuman", "mr. brownstone" and "set me free". the crowd went nuts when slash asked "how bout them bengals?", but they definately missed a huge chance to play "welcome to the jungle" after that. that would have brought the house down.

fall conference was a blast. i managed to avoid getting too sick, which is more than i can say for austin, who thankfully didn't die. i also played a rediculous amount of ultimate frisbee. it was really cool to hang out with everyone and get to no more of the people from uc. however, getting elbowed in the head during naval destroyer and staying up till 4 am finishing my paper last night were not fun.

but that's all done, and tonight i get to pick up Halo 2!! ign.com gives it a 9.8, and i have no doubt it's going to be mind-blowing. picking up my preorder from gamestop at midnight, and then it's no sleep once again tonight. but it's going to be so worth it.

i feel stupid and contagious

the tracklist for the 3 cds and dvd of with the lights out has finally been released. sure enough, looks like its almost all demos and covers. only complaint: still no unplugged.

i'm seeking a friend for the end of the world

i finally decided to go preorder halo 2 at gamestop today. and i paid off the whole thing, so basically all i have to do is walk in and pick up the game at 12:01 am nov 9. less than a week! the guy at the store said he had a friend with the stolen french version. he said it made the original look like it came out on the n64. i can't wait, it's going to be beautiful. all my stress with school should be (temporarily) over by monday afternoon, so i can stay up all night playing halo 2. i'm not going to bed till i beat it. of course, by getting the game now i'm only setting myself up to make an already crappy quarter at school even more abysmal, but hey, that's life.

come together, right now, over me

i'm so glad election day is finally here. i'll be happy for all the campaigning, commericals, and arguing to end. the only good thing that happened out of it is that i got a recorded call from The Governator, and it was hilarious! he was telling me that he wanted "to pump (me) up about the elction." he also said that we need to go out and "flex our muscles" today at the vote. i wish i'd recorded it. my house got tons of calls like that from both sides, including ones from bush himself, kirtsen dunst, and michael w smith. anyway, i need to eat lunch and go vote.

school is agonizing, as usual. a midterm and a test today, they both could have been worse, but they also could have been a lot better. another midterm on friday. the hard part is going to be getting my book review for history done. it's due on this coming monday, and i still have to read most of the book and write it. wouldn't be a problem except that i'm going to be gone all weekend at the navs fall conference, and then when i get back sunday night i'm going to the velvet revolver concert. arg. school's such a waste. i don't even feel like i have a real reason in being here. and seriously, in the grand scheme of things, for the 50 or so more years max i might be around, who cares? it's totally not worth it. how much cooler would it be to take the $7k or so a year i spend on school and using it to buy toys for children in the hospital? or buy some homeless people some warm clothes and food. or help my church pay off their loan. or donate to research to cure aids. or whatever.

throw away your television, take the noose off your ambition

i curse our horribly partisan media coverage of everything. the information they give out plays far too important a role in people's decision makings for them to be so irresponsible in their reporting, first with the faked memos on bush's service record, and now with the horribly incorrect stories of stolen explosives in iraq. the spin the media puts on everything, be it intentional or inadvertant, is just down right appaling in the way it skews stories one way or the other (yes i'm linking fox news in with cbs, abc, nbc and cnn). kerry couldn't ask for a better campaign boost than this phony, lazy journalism.

what did you bring me, my dear friends, to keep me from the gallows pole

nfl.com has some very good reasons why marvin lewis should keep starting carson palmer over kitna this season. as the analysts point out, palmer's stats are right in line with most rookie QBs (which he essentially is), even greats like aikman, manning, and elway. at this point we're 1-4, so chances of getting into the playoffs even with kitna starting are slim to none, so we might as well stick it out with palmer to give him the experience. boomer has the best take on the situation, "The Bengals should stay with Carson Palmer the rest of the season and trade the entire defense for Ray Lewis. A quarterback can't do it all by himself."

now i just hope, like everyone else, that we can at least put up a fight against denver tonight.

have you come here to play Jesus to the lepers in your head

penny-arcade is running their child's play charity again this year. basically last year they started this charity for gamers to donate toys, games, and money to the seattle children's hospital. it turned out to be a huge success, so this year they've got five hospitals throughout the country that they're sponsoring. it's a really awesome idea. check out to the pictures from last year to see what an amazing success this was. you guys should check it out and spread some love.

the mouths of babes scream revolution

it's official now, november will indeed be the greatest month of all time. for three weeks we have nonstop goodness being released every tuesday. halo 2 kicks it off on the 9th. half-life 2 has been confirmed for the 16th, which means if i get halo 2 on time it will only have one week till it gets sidelined for the time-being (unless i can't run hl2). then on the 23rd we've got nirvana's "with the lights out" box set, and the return of the king extended edition. throw in jess' birthday on the 17th and the velvet revolver concert on the 7th, and i will be both very happy and very, very poor.

speaking of the concert, i bought two tickets yesterday. right now jess said she would go with me since no one else gave me a definate "yes". however, she said if i find someone else that wants to go, then they can buy her ticket ($35). so if anyone still wants to go, it's not to late to change your mind.

i walk the line

i think chad johnson is going to need to send ME some pepto bismol if the bengals keep playing this awful. catch the freakin' ball.


oh yeah, and someone needs to tell the ref that just putting your hands on the qb's shoulder doesn't count as unnecessary roughness. some pass interference calls wouldn't hurt either.

fell too fast your wings won't hold

velvet revolver is coming to 5/3 arena on sunday, november 7th at 8pm. tickets are $35, plus whatever charges ticketmaster will probably tack on. any takers? i've got austin and doug as maybes right now. ticket go on sale saturday, so i'll probably get them by monday or tuesday at the latest. so let me know right away if you want in.

if you're free you'll never see the walls

friends, my pc gamer exclusive first review of half-life 2 has arrived. it made me want to cry for joy. my anticipation of this game has soared to new heights. it seems it will be worth every second of the wait.

highs: everything: graphics, gameplay. it's what experts have been predicting for this medium.
lows: squadmates sometimes get in your way; low-res textures in huge outdoor scenes.
bottom line: Surpasses Half-Life in every way. Arguably the greatest game of all time.
Editor's Choice
98%

the world is a joke when out of love

an official setlist of the concert last night by an incubus fansite:

halo theme song
pistola
nice to know you
idiot box
wish you were here
just a phase
stellar (police cover)
beware! criminal
here in my room
drive remix
priceless
hiphop jam
vitamin (drum solo)
everything in ebb
talk shows on mute
made for tv movie
are you in?
sick, sad little world
megalomaniac

ENCORE
pantomime
southern girl
under my umbrella

i forgot to mention the halo theme song before. when they were starting to come on stage they had the music from the halo main menu playing (the music that sounds like monks chanting). it was a sweet start. i also forgot about "vitamin", which is another song from science.

under my umbrella i'm an accomplished exile

incubus concert at uc was last night. pretty sweet. opening band, whoever they were, was alright. your basic retro, post-grunge act. not that great, but they were a little better than my initial impression led me to believe they would be. they played from about 8 till a little after 8:30.

incubus came on around 9. i think they must have played for at least an hour and a half. obviously they played most of their new album, which i only listened to once or twice, so i know some of the songs too well. they played two from science, two from make yourself, and five from morning view. i know they played at least seven from a crow left of the murder that i recognized, but there were plenty others i didn't recognize that were probably also from that album. they opened with "pistola", one of the tracks from crow that i did like, so that was a good start.

they covered most of the hits: "stellar", "nice to know you", "wish you were here", "are you in?" "megalomaniac", "talk shows on mute" (which i can't stand). they played a different version of "drive" which was AWESOME. instead of playing the acoustic guitar the guitarist played the keyboard, and the bass player played a much more prominant part. it's kinda hard to explain, but it was sweet. i almost think i liked it better than the original. "idiot box" from science was good, but the version of "nebula" was just alright. a few other older songs would have been nice, especially something like "the warmth" or "new skin". "just a phase" was good as well, but i was kind of surprised they didn't play "warning". they had a long drum solo which was pretty cool, but nothing too awesome. what i did like a lot was a long, solo-filled version of "sick, sad little world" from crow. it was excellent. i decided i'd have to burn that cd and give it another listen. they closed out the regular set with "megalomaniac" which i wasn't too big on as a single, but it was an awesome closer.

of course they waited around for five minutes while everyone cheered and banged on chairs before they came back out for the expected three song encore. i think we were all expecting "pardon me", seeing as it was their first big hit and they hadn't played in their first set. they started with a song i didn't recognize from their new album which was pretty good. then a slower song from the new album which was alright, but not that great. i thought they should have stuck with the more fast-paced songs for the encore. brandon boyd finally had to blow it right before the last song. i'd been expecting all night to hear stupid anti-bush comments from him, and he made it all the way till the very end without saying anything. right before the end he told everyone to "go out and vote" and "make some change" and then something i couldn't hear, both because people started cheering and the guitar started playing, so it's probably better that i couldn't hear. then the final song, and we're all waiting for "pardon me". but to my surprise they launch in to "under my umbrella", which was both a disappointment because it meant no "pardon me" and a bonus because i completely forgot about the possibility of them playing it, and i LOVE that song. one of my favorite from morning view. the live version was awesome, i thought it was one of the best songs they played.

overall i thought it was a real good show. my only complaints would be a few more old songs, a few less new ones, and "pardon me". oh, and hearing "aqueous transmission" would have been sweet, but i figured that was a little unrealistic to expect.

with the lights out it's less dangerous

amazon now has a listing for the nirvana box set, but unfortuneately there's no tracklisting up yet. it's due out nov. 23, which gives my finances time to build back up after getting halo 2. i suppose i can wait till christmas for return of the king. now the only question is whether or not half-life 2 comes out then, and although there are reviews coming out now for the game, i wouldn't be surprised if it slips into december.

i got books from amazon today, including miller's new one, searching for god knows what. i've only read past the first chapter, but so far i like what he's saying. he also rips on france, so you can't go wrong with that.

i also got billy corgan's poetry book, blinking with fists. i was a little hesitant to get it, but i've always loved his lyrics so i thought i'd go ahead and pick it up. i'm looking forward to hearing his solo album which he just finished recording and should be out early next year.

karma police, i've given all i can

alright, if you need any more evidence of how horrible a leader john kerry would be, or how much he has changed his opinions to fit what many people want to hear (ie, flip-flopped), then here's a nice video for you to watch. at least this way you don't have to read more of my ranting.

i fell into a burning ring of fire

good lord, i can't wait for this to arrive in the mail so i can get my grubby little paws on it. yes, that's the real cover, not a photoshop. at least that's what i'm praying, and i choose to let myself believe it at this point. supposedly the uk version of the magazine is already out, with the review score being a 96%! it's also very likely that the game will come out in november. apparently that month CAN get better. in my opinion half-life 2 coming out then would overshadow else in november. yes even halo 2.

...except for jess' birthday, of course.

here's an interview from halflife2.net interviewing Chuck Osborn from PC Gamer, who got to review half-life 2:

Icarus: What was your reaction when you found out you would be the first to review Half-Life 2?
Chuck Osborn: It was a mixture of excitement and trepidation, because of the responsibility of being the first one to review it.

Icarus: Was it worth the wait?
Chuck Osborn: Absolutely

Icarus: How long is the review?
Chuck Osborn: Nine pages, plus we have a four page story telling you what you need to know about running Half-Life 2 on your system.

Icarus: Did it seem dated?
Chuck Osborn: Not at all.

Icarus: Are there any spoilers in the review?
Chuck Osborn: There are some mild spoilers, because you can’t review it without giving away something. I say very clearly when to stop reading if you don’t want to know anything. If you read the entire review, there are a lot of surprises I don’t talk about, because I want you to be surprised. This is not a spoiler review.

Icarus: Does it have multiplayer, if so what are they?
Chuck Osborn: Counter-Strike Source is the multiplayer.

Icarus: Only CS:S, no Deathmatch?
Chuck Osborn: Only CS:S

Icarus: Has it (CS:S) changed any from Beta?
Chuck Osborn: It’s what they say it’s going to be, but with a few surprises

Icarus: Who did you get to play it with?
Chuck Osborn: Valve as well as playing in within our own offices

Icarus: Did you get to play HL Source?
Chuck Osborn: Yes.

Icarus: Can you tell me anything about HL:Source?
Chuck Osborn: Nope

Icarus: Is it (HL:S) included in the review?
Chuck Osborn: Yes, it's discussed in a sidebar along with a few screenshots.

Icarus: Anything you want to say the users before I go?
Chuck Osborn: I'm just glad I don't have to keep my playing Half-Life 2 a secret anymore! It was killing me. Trust me...you won't be disappointed.

take time with a wounded hand, cause it likes to heal

back in school, it's going all right so far. i like 3 of my classes so far, american history to 1820, intro to american govt., and political theory. i dropped russian after two days, so i'm taking econ102 (macro) to fill that spot. and despite absolutely noo feedback from my wonderful advisor, i fixed my own math problem by dropping college algebra 2 for prob and stats. i looked up major requirements and the polisci recommendations are to take a 3 class sequence of prob and stats. hopefully i won't be too behind after missing a class. spent over $500 on books which is way more than any other quarter. hopefully it'll come down a little after i return all the russian and algebra stuff, especially if austin lets me use his old econ book.

in other news, john kerry backs the renewal of the assault rifle ban... just don't ask him to give up his own chinese assault rifle.

oh goody, iran has the ability to launch strategic missles against it's nieghbors (israel, iraq, u.s. forces in the middle east). that's just what we need to make this region stable and safe.

in the year 2009... the tonight show will become the funniest show on tv.

forever in debt to your priceless advice

holy crap, could november get any better? first of all, we get halo 2 and the return of the king extended edition. that was going to make the month awesome enough. and now there's a good possibility we'll finally be getting a nirvana box set, including dvd?!! the only possible way this month could get any greater is if half-life 2 came out or courtney love went to jail.


oh, and more people need to hurry and join my yahoo survival football group. it really only takes two minutes each week, so get anyone you know to join. the more people the better.

so i made a big mistake, try to see it once my way

for anyone who's interested, i made a yahoo survival football league. basiaclly you just pick one team to win each week, but you can only pick a team once for the whole season. if you pick a team that loses, you're out. it's a lot easier to manage than fantasy football, so everyone should join and invite whoever you like. the league id is #31767 and the pass is bengals.

got a flame in my heart, can't get my fill

here's one senator i'd definately vote to reelect.

the winds of thor are blowing cold

part 2 of the phone card saga. yesterday my mom volunteered to take the card with me over to the cingular store in the western hills plaza to talk to them about my problem. well once there the guy said there was nothing they could do about it (surprise surprise) because they don't make the cards, some company called fastweb or something does. so he told us we should go back to target and talk to a manager. so we go back and talk to todd the manager. at first it seems like he's going to put forth a half-hearted effort into resolving the problem and just tell us "sorry" if things got too difficult. to my shock, the guy spends a good 40 minutes hunting for the phone number to the downtown cingular office, getting the number for the fastweb people, discussing the problem with fastweb, and then getting them to add the $30 to my phone. i have to admit, i was extremely impressed and he won me back as a target customer.

of course, from now on i'll make sure to only add money to my phone online instead.

she'll come back as fire to burn all the liars, leave a blanket of ash on the ground

well it seems i'm no longer a target customer. the idiots sold me a $30 cingular phone card, execpt it was missing the pin number so i could actually redeem the card. so i took it back and all they can say is how it's nonrefundable or exchangable. they said i just have to take it to cingular, that there's nothing they can do about it on the store level, never mind the fact that they're store sold me the defective piece of crap. now that's what i call quality customer service. at least i'll get it back when i screw them out of $30 by returning the defective civ3 that i didn't even buy there. that'll be the last time i set foot in that crappy place.

i successfully completed my attempt at eating ice cream for every day during the month of august. the best part was when i topped it off by eating an entire quart of sherbet on the 31st. i swear, i thought i was going to go into a diabetic coma.

the street heats the urgency of sound

artie's wedding was today; it was a great time. he and lisa are going to be great together. i've never seen him so happy, it was really cool. also got to see dave and brinkman for the first time in forever, the old young life leaders, nick l., ryan mcallister, robert, mark, and a bunch of other cool folks. had to leave the reception a little early so jess could get to work but it was still a good time.

played poker with austin and his brother's friends last night. it was sweet. i came in second and won $10, so i made a $5 profit. i definately got lucky with the cards. one hand i got called all in on and won; after the next hand i was the chip leader, so i had two huge hands there. it finally came down to me and corey, and it went back and forth for awhile. i finally decided to just get it over with and went all in; i ended with a queen high flush, but corey beat me with an ace high flush. still, it was my first time playing for money and i beat four other guys who play a lot, so i'd say i did pretty freakin' well. plus i got to take poor austin's money, so that's always fun.

going to see napoleon dynamite tonight. it better be funny or i'm making austin watch alien over and over till he likes it.

ticking away the moments that make up the dull day

well despite all my ranting, i preordered the star wars trilogy on dvd. i got it through justin's link from amazon; i couldn't pass up a $70 pack for $42. i guess i'll just have to wait to see what kind of damage lucas did.

my japanese history prof still hasn't fixed my incomplete, and in a week in turns into an F. which means i'm ineligible for my scholarships. which means i have to take out more loans. which means angry davie. roar. >=O

let me stand next to your fire

i've always tried to maintain my respect for george lucas. despite a disappointing episode 1 and an average episode 2, i'm still looking forward to revenge of the sith. i didn't mind most of the changes in the special editions, except for greedo shooting first and a few other minor changes. however, this may be the straw that breaks the camel's back. if these rumors are true, i don't know that i'll even buy star wars on dvd. these changes are apalling. i don't know why he sees the need to drag the sparkling memory of the original trilogy through the mud that is the prequels. i do like the prequels, but they're nothing next to the originals. apparently george doesn't like the new movies being considered crappy compared to the old ones, so he's decided to crappify those too. yes, crappify.

walking tall machine gun man

ain't found a way to kill me yet
eyes burn with stinging sweat
seems every path leads me to nowhere
wife and kids household pet
army green was no safe bet
the bullets scream to me from somewhere

they come to snuff the rooster
yeah here come the rooster
you know he ain't gonna die

walkin' tall machine gun man
they spit on me in my home land
gloria sent me pictures of my boy
got my pills 'gainst mosquito death
my buddy's breathin' his dyin' breath
oh god please won't you help me make it through

they come to snuff the rooster
yeah here come the rooster, yeah
you know he ain't gonna die
no, no, no ya know he ain't gonna die


R.I.P. Nathan Scott Phillips ????-2004

i'm alone and i'm an easy target

this first-person shooter controller for the pc looks pretty sweet. too bad the "video games lead to violence" people are going to have a field day with it.

you don't know how you got here, you just know you want out

saw the village last night with a bunch of people down at newport. although most of the reviewers didn't seem to like it, it was a pretty good movie. i enjoyed it despite the eight billion screaming 12 year old girls in the row in front of us. not as good as signs but there's nothing wrong with that. a lot less creepy too, in my opinion. there were some good tense moments, but none that truly stood out as scary. but that didn't hurt the film at all. the whole cinematography of the film was great, m. night shyamalan rocks when it comes to clever camera angles and creating atmosphere. joaquin phoenix was by far the highlight of the movie, but i thought all the major characters were well done, even if many of their characters seemed a little shallow. i'd probably give it a 7/10.

ign.com has a good overview and analysis of www.ilovebees.com that you should check out.

you're a pinko commie

it's clear all my political discussion has been missing an important element... a musical. thankful, that problem has now been resolved. check out "this land", it's bipartisan fun for the whole family.

hey, i ain't never coming home

"'Fahrenheit 9/11' opened Friday in Poland — a U.S. ally in Iraq — with some critics comparing director Michael Moore's style to totalitarian propaganda."

God bless the poles.

here we are now, entertain us

the title for star wars episode 3 has finally been announced. on may 25, 2005,  i will be eagerly preparing to watch Revenge of the Sith. because i'll always get excited about a new star wars movie, no matter what. i have to say i like the name, although it doesn't seem very imaginative. i'm sure plenty of star wars geeks who speculated on the name ahead of time came up with a title similar to RoS, but it fits. man, i can't freakin' wait.

i wish i could get my head out of this sand

bengals tickets went on sale through ticketmaster today. i had i hard time finding a game to get 8 tickets together for.  the first four games were either sold out or limited to two tickets per order. the steelers game was not but i couldn't get eight tickets together in a decent seating area. so i bought 8 tickets in the 300 level on the side of the field for the browns game on nov 28. the total price of the ticket plus ticketmaster's stupid "convenience" fee comes out to about $59 a person, so i would appreciate money from everyone when you can get it to me. the tickets are being mailed to me, so i'll dole them out later. the group is jess, austin, doug, jenny, justin, tim, elly, and myself. should be awesome!

we chase misprinted lies

after downloading half-baked several times by mistake, i finally found a bootleg copy of fahrenheit 9/11. the quality isn't the best, but it's watchable. the movie itself though, is barely watchable. it's so freakin' asinine. i'm definately going to have the same hard time sitting through it without getting too angry that i did with bowling for columbine. maybe we should have a propaganda party sometime soon, and all sit and watch the bs.

and when i start to come undone, stitch me together

i meant to post this earlier but i never got around to it. as you know, the report on the intel on iraq came out, and pretty much blasted the cia. of course what the media wants you to think is that the report is damning to the bush administration, when in reality that is rediculous. people like to forget that bush does not get out there and uncover the intelligence himself. he has no choice but to rely on the information given to him.

that said, the new york post had a great editorial on why going to war in iraq was still the right thing to do. let's face it, saddam clearly harbored terrorists such as this al-zarqawi guy. it shouldn't be crucial as to whether or not he had links to al qaeda, the point is that he still aided terrorists and terrorist groups that are hostile to the united states. in the same way, removing saddam was the right thing to do whether or not he had stores of weapons of mass destruction. remember, this is the war on terrorism, not the war on al qaeda or the war on weapons of mass destruction. which means we fight terrorism at every front, in every form.

wow, so apparently the democrats consider america incapable of conducting our own elections. a group has petitioned kofi annan at the united nations to send an international group to oversee the election process in florida. the whole idea is absoutely absurb, why in the world would we petition for an international group to oversee our own private national elections?! did they even bother to think that chances are a good number of these overseers won't even be from democratic nations? what do they know of democracy? i'm glad they think the united states is too incompetant to handle this.

and finally, here's a good article outlining many of the things the media won't tell you about their darling john edwards. what a fraud.

i never let on that i was on a sinking ship

i hit a squirrel on the way to work today. except i didn't nail it, it just kinda scraped the underside of my car, and when i looked in the rearview mirror it looked like it was just flopping around in pain. and when i came back after work it was gone, so who knows, maybe it lived.

that's the only optimistic thing i have to say in this post.

the kerry/edwards ticket was fairly predictable. too bad people are going to be fooled by his stupid southern accent into voting for them, regardless of the fact that he doesn't care about the little guy, instead he's a multi-millionaire trial lawyer who made his fortune on frivolous lawsuits. there's a real winner. sounds kinda like michael moore: a millionaire exploiting the lower rungs of society.

speaking of moore, i'd love it if for once the media would report to the american populace exactly what he thinks about them. that's right, he says that we americans are "possibly the dumbest people on the planet." that's right, he despises all those individuals going to spend their money on his propaganda. yep, he's a real crusader for the little guy.

in fact, he loves america so much that he's going to give more propaganda ammunition to the people who already hate it by opening the movie in countries like egypt, syria, jordan and lebanon. you know, countries where the people just love americans to death. literally. not only that, but moore's movie is actually getting support from groups related to hezbollah, the terrorist organization that is second only to al qaeda in the number of americans it has murdered. there's a great fan base for you. of course, michael moore is probably ecstatic. after all, we're too stupid for him anyway.

with eyes so dialated i've become your pupil

hey kids, i created a yahoo fantasy football league, so you all need to join. we can have up to ten teams, but i don't think we'll have to worry about not having enough room. the league id is #59987 and the password is gwbush. sign up!

start this off without any words

a good independence day yesterday. a whole bunch of people came over last night to set off fireworks, which was a blast (haha!). we used all our leftover stuff from last year and we had plenty of good stuff, i'm kind of surprised we went through it all. i'm really glad jason could come over since he is leaving today to be deployed with his unit in germany. freedom seems to mean a little more when there's someone defending it around. anyways, i'll be sure to post his address when i get it.

there's a ton of good movies coming out. i saw dodgeball, but i still need to see spiderman 2, then king arthur this wednesday, and anchorman friday. there's a ton of other good movies, like the village, alien v. predator, and more coming out this summer that should be good.

dangit. here i thought it was 9:15 this whole time, and i find out that there was a huge storm last night and it's really 11:30.

open your eyes to the millions of lies that they tell you everyday

i've decided i don't even care how much i beat this dead horse. i plan on beating it well into the ground, then dosing the ground with gasoline and lighting it on fire.

i simply cannot get over michael moore and his lies. it would be one thing if no one was listening. but F9/11 is going to be a huge hit, and people with no other source of information are going to believe everything he tells them. it wouldn't be such a big deal if it didn't have such a crucial role in deciding this year's election. people listen to sources like moore and howard stern who have no idea what they're talking about, but they don't double-check the facts elsewhere, they just take it at face value.

-a christian opinion on farenheit 9/11

-a liberal journalist exposes the lies in F9/11

also, be sure to check out the links rob posted in his blog.

*Edit: the tricks and lies of Bowling for Columbine

of course the problem is that anyone who checks this and reads these articles probably already agrees with me, so i'ts like i'm preaching to the choir here. but it can't hurt to read the articles so that if a conversation comes up with someone else, you're prepared.

all the pictures have all been washed in black, tattooed everything

why john kerry will ruin the economy: so apparently he's jumping on the whole "$7 minimum wage" bandwagon. the problem is that raising the minimum wage to $7 is only going to hurt the economy. employers aren't going to happily agree to pay all their current minimum wage earners $7 an hour. instead, they'll cut jobs to make up for the increased wages that they have to pay out. so really, john kerry is only hurting the lower workers he pretends the democratic party pretends to support. instead of making things better for them, he'll just undermine their jobs.

*Edit: Minimum Wage Myths


in some good news, there is finally news of some conservative documentaries coming out. hopefully someone will finally expose moore for the fraud and hypocrite he is. and our very own conservative film festival. september road trip to dallas anyone?

for those about to rock

as if there was ever any doubt, jess is the coolest person ever. we exchanged presents for out little two year dating anniversary thing, and i got her the usual boring presents that i always get, although i think she liked the daily show t-shirt i bought for her. anyway, she had hinted that she was getting me something expensive, so my first thought was a guitar, and sure enough, she spent way too much money to buy me an electric guitar. i want to be mad at her for spending so much money, but i can't because it's just so freakin' cool. tomorrow or monday we're gonna run out to buddy rogers and get me an amp. then i just need to put in the effort to learn to read music and i'm on my way. i wish i'd paid more attention in grade school music class now, but i'm sure i can handle it.

oh yeah, so yesterday i come home from work at 11, expecting to find my sister still asleep. instead she's downstairs in my room, playing ghost recon. apparently she just got bored and decided she wanted to play a first-person shooter. she played through bootcamp and started a mission, only to have all but one of her team slaughtered in the first couple minutes. it was hilarious. she did a good job with her last man for nearly an hour till he finally bit the bullet. i told her ghost recon was probably a little too tactical for her, so i got her started on quake last night. who knows, there may be hope for her yet. and if i can convert her, maybe i can get jess too...

roll the window down, this cool night air is curious

all right, so here's the deal. it came to my attention last week when doug and horgan yelled at me for not getting the bengals two-game ticket packs for everyone that i've apparently been appointed in charge of organizing a trip to see the bengals. problem is that single game tickets are gonna go fast, so we need to get some things straightened out:

1. who is coming? myself, jess, austin, doug, and horgan. i think my brother. justin again? rob? anyone else? i need to know who expects me to get tickets for them.

2. is there any game or day people can't go to? naturally i'll try for the monday night game first, but that's gonna be hard to get. see schedule.

3. any preference on seats and ticket price? we had seats near the top last year, but they were in the middle, great view, and only $44. so that would probably be what i would go for again.

4. naturally, if i'm ordering all these tickets together, it's gonna be expensive. so i need money in advance. meaning NOW.

tickets are set to go on sale in july, so let's not waste time on this. i'm planning on getting them asap. so if you get left out, i'm sorry. also, if this gets too big, we're gonna have to split into a couple small groups or something. i'm doing this on a first come, first serve basis.

oh yeah, doug and jenny, if you guys want to two-ticket packs still, you're on your own. my plan is to go to an early game, and then try to get tickets to a later one at a later date if i want to go again. but going once is all i really care about.

take you as low as you go

michael moore is a big lying jerk.

the end.

-props to rob for spending way too much time on fark.




bush/cheney: 4 more in 2004

light my candles in a daze cause i've found God

i'm finally finding time to update. i feel like i'm really busy now that i'm working full time at the park. i like it, we don't work too hard and we get plenty of downtime, like how my boss Howie let's us go for lunch around 11:30 till 1, and we cool down in the air-conditioned lodge from around 3 till we leave at 4. but really, we earn that. it's so rediculously hot working out in the sun, we need the time to cool down at the end of the day. i've been so tired, getting up at 6 is killing me.

got my grades from UC. i did well, and i even got a C in the class i failed the exam in, so that was good. BUT, i have an Incomplete in japanese history, so i hope he just didn't finish his grades yet. otherwise he must not have received my final that i emailed to him twice. hopefully i can get this worked out. but now i need to go cut grass before i head in for a half day at work.

keep me runnin' like a deer in the headlights

last exam was yesterday. i'm so glad to be done with school. unfortunately i can't look forward to a relaxing summer since i'm working full time, but i'd rather be earning $8.55 an hour than sitting in class. this year did seem to end fairly fast, which was good. but i can't say i enjoyed my first year of college all that much. i know i don't get that whole "college experience" since i live at home, but i honestly hated going to class most days. maybe it's just because i feel like i'm not even going there for a reason. i have a major, and i'll probably be double majoring with political science this year, but i still couldn't tell you why i'm going to school.

i major in history because i enjoy some of it, but i'd still rather read it in a book or watch movies/tv shows based on it than sit there and listen to some professor's interpretation of what was important from a particular era. i took two classes that both dealt with 20th century europe, particularly 1900-1945, and it's funny what the differences can be in what each professor emphasises. and i'm going to major in poli-sci because it's something i'm passionate about. that's something i keep coming back to when trying to figure out a major or career. clearly, i think God has made me so passionate (or practically militant) about my political views for a reason. does that mean it's something he wants me to focus my life on? i can't ever see myself being a politician; i'd always say exactly what i thought, which would never fly in today's politically correct world. even majoring in it has me apprehensive. all the professor's are going to be rediculously liberal, and i'm not sure i have the inclination or patience to sit there and suffer through their Bush-bashing and impressing their leftist views on me. and of course, if i speak up, i'll quite possibly be screwing myself over by completely disagreeing with them.


burkee and i saw Troy last night. *spoilers follow* it was pretty good. the action was sweet, i've always been a fan of greco-roman style warfare. yes, that is pretty much the main thing i enjoy about history, the warfare. anyway, the slow parts of the movie were fine, it didn't seem to really drag at all to me. the problem i had with the movie was who to root for. they show you good and bad characters on both sides, so who do you want to win? naturally, i had a good idea of who died and i knew who won since i've taken mythology, but i still had trouble with watching some of the best characters in the film die at the hands of other characters i liked.

i got the impression the filmmakers wanted us to root for helen and paris, the two star-crossed lovers, escaping the big ogre of a husband. yeah right, first of all their so selfish that they care only about their own lust, at the costs of hundreds of thousands of lives. i can't believe paris freakin' lived. what a selfish, pretty-boy pansy. of course, i'm not surprised they didn't brutally kill him, they tend not to show the brutal deaths of women, and paris was obviously the biggest girl in the movie. but you've got the good on troy's side: hector (possibly the most likable character) and priam, and the bad: mainly paris. then there's the good on the greek: achilles (the coolest character), odysseus, ajax, and achilles' second in command. and the bad: agamemnon and menalaus. so who do i root for in the achilles-hector fight? i can't really root for anyone, since i know achilles is going to kill hector and drag his battered body around. hector was definately the most noble character in the film, so it's sad to watch him suffer that kind of death. and of course i knew girly-boy paris shooting achiles in the heel would piss me off. but as much as i hated paris, i can't say i wanted to see menalaus kill him. and i didn't want to see agamemnon victorious, but i knew the greeks would win. this was my problem with the movie, too many people to root for on each side. i think they wanted me to like the torjans more, but how can i hate ALL the greeks with people like achilles and odysseus? anyway, it was still a good flick.

try to save myself but my self keeps slipping away

good old liberal media. i'll tell you what, i love how it waffles on things as much as john kerry. if you remember when war broke out in iraq, there was all that "no blood for oil" crap, where they speculated we were going over there to lower gas prices. now, when instead it's obvious that cheap oil had nothing to do with the war, they try and piss people off that our oil is going up while iraqis buy it for 5 cents. i guess we're all supposed to get angry that the government is doing the smart thing by subsidizing their oil. as the article says, it was about this low when saddam was in power, so if we let it go shooting up, that would obviously piss them off. and of course, what else is there to do when they're pissed off than go fire off an rpg or an ak-47 at an american humvee? stupid bush administration, using taxpayer money to save the lives of american troops. the nerve. why in the world would i ever think of anything but my pocketbook? a human life means nothing to me, as long as i'm gaining personally.

arg, so tired. soccer was fun, first time i've played outdoor in a year and a half. it was just good to be playing again, even if we did lose. two exams tomorrow, which sucks. plus i need to finish my english paper on memento. i got a decent amount done, but i'm just too tired. guess i'll just go to bed now and get up early to finish. i cant wait to get done with exams.

i also can't wait to get a couple days off of school and work this week to relax and hang out. jess is in california, so i'm just gonna watch movies and play video games all week. burkee and i are planning on seeing troy this week, so that should be sweet.

i'm on my time with everyone... i have very bad posture

it's a somber day today for a few reasons. as you know, ronald reagan passed away yesterday, which means that american has finally lost one of the greatest leaders it has ever had. probably the greatest of the twentieth century. although i do think it is best this way, he had a sad battle with alzheimers, and he's in a better place now. we'll miss him.

secondly, today marks the 60th anniversary of D-Day. talk about a group of heroes, i can't even imagine what they went through. talk about something to be proud of. what makes it so sad to me is to think of all the veterans we are losing every day. they are an anchor to our society, reminding us of a time when we were united in our fight against evil. peter bronsan's article in the enquierer last week about WWII veterans was right on. i think i'll watch saving private ryan today if i can...

help me find the dawn of the dying day

great news, jason burkee has returned from boot camp! he's back home and says he'll be around for about 24 days. can't wait to hang out with him again.

today i found a site with some hilarious conservative t-shirts. seriously, this shirt had to have been designed with me in mind. it's like my dream shirt. granted, some of the shirts are too far over the top, but most are great. a few other highlights:

the reagan knock-off of the che guevara shirts. here's a shirt i wish i'd had when i was in environmental science. some good bush shirts. a hilarious axis of evil shirt. and of course, shirts mocking the french. and more.

despite all my rage i am still just a rat in a cage

i've freakin' had it. i'm so sick of america being ruled my an oligarchy of supreme court justices. look at the news, all you hear anymore is the supreme court doing this, some liberal judge deciding that. forget democracy, forget what the PEOPLE want. instead, let's just have a small handle of people decide everything for all americans, regardless of what the majority wants. supreme court justices need to have term limits, that way we can remove them when they begin grossly overstepping their bounds.

now some liberal feminazi judge has decided that bush's partial-birth abortion ban is unconstitutional, because it interferes with a woman's right to choose, blah blah blah, bs bs bs. and to quote: "She agreed with abortion rights activists that a woman's right to choose is paramount, and that it is therefore "irrelevant" whether a fetus suffers pain, as abortion foes contend." wow, so the pain and suffering of a defenseless, unborn human being is "irrelevant"?!

i'm sorry, but i can't wait for this lady to rot in hell! i know have no place to judge her, but this is downright sickening. how in the world can you think that you have to right so subject a human being to this: "During the procedure, the living fetus is partially removed from the womb, and its skull is punctured or crushed."?

So women get the right to choose to have that done to their unborn child? wow. maybe we should just let the terrorists have this country, i'm not sure i'd want to defend any land that is this barbaric. where's my right to choose to kill a liberal? at least i'd just shoot them in the head or something, i wouldn't CRUSH THEIR SKULL.

the article also gives me more reasons to love steve chabot and hate bill clinton. chabot is the major force behind the ban, while clinton vetoed the ban twice during his term. what a jerk.

here comes the water... it comes to wash away the sins of you and i

rock on! vh1's website has an online preview of Velvet Revolver's Contraband where you can listen to the whole album. it comes out in a week, and even though i was already planning on buying it, this will be a good way to confirm if i'm going to get it. so go check it out and then buy it next week. we need to support the few good bands out there, like VR and Audioslave.

/shameless plug

woke up, fell out of bed, dragged a comb across my head

work is going alright. it was just me and doug for most of this weekend. another guy was supposed to work with us, but apparently he decided he only needed to show up on saturday, leaving the two of us to do everything ourselves sunday and monday. what really sucked is that he must have kept the weekend to-do lists, so doug and i just had to guess as to what we were supposed to get done. at least it rained most of the weekend, so we didn't have to drag and line the baseball fields after saturday.

i'm so freakin' tired. spent all yesterday working on this stupid japanese history final. i'm on my 9th page now, and i've written all but one of them in less than 24 hours. not bad for me, considering my horrible lack of concentration. i definately waste way more time than i actually spend working. ehich is why it takes me forever. in fact, i had to wake up early this morning to continue working on it, and i'm still finishing it up. but i should be fine, i'm finally wrapping it up, and it doesn't hsve to be in till noon. and since i don't have any classes today, i'm just going to email it to my prof. i'm so glad to have this stupid class over, now if i could just be done with the rest of them already.

dougie and i are gonna watch Wag the Dog after work today. we have to watch it for english, which is fine with me, i've always wanted to see it. i've heard it basically resembles the whole clinton-lewinsky affair/war in kosovo scenario, so i'm always up for something that reveals clinton for the horrible president he was, especially when it comes to foreign policy. and let's not forget that kosovo was a unilateral military campaign. all the bush-bashing clinton lovers tend to forget that little detail.

time to finish this stupid paper up. i've been listening to a bunch of the later beatles stuff lately. it seems to help me while i'm writing. plus it just owns.

sit with elders of the gentle race this world has seldom seen

just a quick post before i go to bed. mercy's graduation was last night, so congratulations to all of them. it was nice, only an hour and fifteen minutes, which was nothing compared to oak hills' last year. that night we all went on a b&b riverboats cruise from 11:30-2:30 (yes, a three hour tour). the we being about 170 people concisting of the mercy seniors and one guest each for those that wanted to bring one. it was a blast, i had a good time hanging out with jess and all her friends. there were also some guys there (ryan r, kurt, martin) that i hadn't seen in awhile, so it was cool catching up with them. i got home at 4 am, which was awesome. then work today at 1. that wasn't bad, but we did work that was pretty much pointless: we smoothed out dirt and gravel on some paths that got washed out by the rain, but it's all just gonna get washed out soon because the stupid government office personnel didn't want to give us more gravel to work with. stupid administrators and their plush air conditioned offices. oh well, we wasted the last hour or so sitting around so that was nice. i'm really liking the job so far, so hopefully that continues. anyway, i can't remember the last time i got to go to bed at 11:30, so goodnight.

i could listen to "achilles last stand" by zeppelin till my ears started bleeding. the song is to my ears what a bag of sour patch kids is to my tongue, pure bliss. mmmm, sour patch kids. bonham's drumming is just so amazing, how does one band manage to get both one of the greatest drummers AND guitarists ever? not to mention robert plant, what a hilariously great frontman. and they broke up five years befoer i was even born. *sniff*

ride a white mare in the footsteps of dawn

this week has been going pretty well so far. cicada bashing was loads of fun, except when i had one attack me and almost fly in my mouth. apparently that rumor is true. pof curse it probably had a lot to do with the fact that i was running around with my badmitten racket, yelling like an idiot. my big open mouth is probably hard to miss. then that night austin, doug and i gnomed horgan's front yard for her birthday, with the 15 lawn gnomes that we got from the dollar store. it was pretty sweet. my idea, don't let doug tell you otherwise. :D

the cappies award show was last night. if you don't know, it's basically like a mini-oscars (or tonies i guess) award show for high school theater, and it has a bunch of area school involved. mercy was nominated for 11 awards, and won six of them. unfortunately Jess was robbed of the best featured (supporting) actress in a play by some girl from another school whose part seemed to consist of a bunch of screaming, which is apparently what good talent means. mercy was also robbed of the overall best play award by a sycamore, who didn't win any other awards the whole night, so i'm not sure how that works. anyway, her graduation is tonight, followed by a party on a boat down on the river, so that should be cool.

wow, it just randomly started pouring out of nowhere down here. i'm sitting in langsam, when all of a sudden i hear this loud pounding noise on the skylight. it seems there's also a leak in the ceiling nearby, because there's this really annoying dripping sound that is driving me crazy.

the girl on this computer before me left her instant messenger screen name logged on. not smart. it's a good thing i'm not a huge jerk, or i could really screw her over. actually... i have no idea whether or not she is actually a she.

i hate to beat a dead horse, but i nearly did a dance of glee when i found THIS about michael moore. the man fancies himself as a big defender of american workers, and then proceeds to outsource the design and hosting of his webpage to Canadian companies. why not an American company if you're really so big on helping the workers of America, mr. moore? oh wait, it's because you're a big hypocritical jerk, who cares nothing about the actual people you claim to help, and simply have an agenda to push to further your own personal ends. but of course, when the media if hyping farenheit 9/11 in it's attempts to help you sway the election against Bush, no one will bother to point out your blatant hypocrisy. after all, the media would never do anything to discredit your propaganda.

dangit, it's still raining. i don't want to walk all the way to blegen from here. :(

with a purple umbrella and a fifty-cent hat

i would have to say that right now, michael moore has probably jumped into the top 5 of my "people in america i loathe and despise" list. heck, maybe even the top 3. this man makes my blood boil. talk about someone with a destructive political agenda. apparently this guy really has an axe to grind with the bush administration (which doesn't make him any different than the rest of the leading liberals). i was taking a look at that Brain Terminal blog rob found, and i found a nice article outlining moore's vendetta against bush and the entire republican party in general.

let's face it, someone who assigns the blame for 9/11 by saying ""I think Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Lott and the Republican Party owe the American people and the families of those 3,000 dead a huge f***ing apology." is a FREAKIN' MORON. @$&#! i seriously get so pissed off when i read something like that. if you've had your head anyway but stuck up your own arse for the past decade, you'd know that if it wasn't for the clinton administration's complete and utter lack of action to capture bin laden, we wouldn't be in this mess right now. blame bush for 9/11? how in the world can you do that, when osama was behind multiple terrorrist attacks against american targets during clinton's presidency. what kind of idiot would blame gingrich and lott. come on they were what, congressmen (senators)? what the heck are they supposed to do? they can't authorize action against something like that. how about blaming clinton, the man who was in charge?! grrr! anger! rage-ahol! mmmm, rage-ahol.


no, i don't actually have a list of "people in america i loathe and despise". but i should.

little stars that burn the holes in my soul

first day of work at delhi park was today. pretty good stuff! i spent most of the time learning to drive the gator and the tractor, which were pretty cool. doug and i spent awhile trimming bushes and cleaning up some gravel, which wasn't too bad. a little hot out, but nothin' compared to how bad it's gonna be in the summer.

i officially have a major! i finally gave in and declared a history major on a whim monday. not because that's what i'm sure i want to go into, but because i wanted some more priority when i registered for fall classes tomorrow.

played UT2004 online for the first time tonight, and it was pretty fun. it's not going to unseat counter-strike as my favorite online game, but it was good nonetheless. invasion was pretty cool with live people, i didn't like it much with bots. onslaught mode with real people was sweet, although usually one-sided. but i did get in one server where both teams consistently won matches. in fact, one round my team was pushed back all the way to our own powercore, and even when it looked hopeless, we pushed back and turned the tables on the other team. pwnage.



so did you hear about michael moore's new liberal propaganda, "farenheit 9/11"? yeah... i hate him.

see my heart i decorate it like a grave

ok, so like justin and rob, i decided to try out one of the new blogger templates. visually it's pretty catchy, but the template code is so confusing that i can't figure out where or how to add links and comments. so comments are down for the moment, and we'll see how this goes...

things have never been so swell, and i have never felt this well

i got the job at delhi, rock on! i start on tuesday, and it's gonna be awesome workin the half-days when doug and i are the only two workers left in the park. that's going to be a recipe for disaster.

i'm feelin' really burnt out on school. i'm tired of writing all these papers and taking all these tests, because i don't feel like i'm accomplishing anything. for one, i don't really learn anything. i've always thought that the education system is pointless the way someone (me) can get through by regurgitating facts back on tests and cranking out bs papers. really, i'm just getting frustrated on the whole lack of major thing. history? i really don't think i want to teach. sounds boring. but what else do you do with history? political science? maybe, but still what do you do with it? besides, i'd be so angry and bitter all the time with all the left-wing professors shoving their opinions at me that i would be miserable. so what else? i don't just want a major, i want an idea of what i want to freakin' do for a career. college is too expensive and time consuming to simply wing it, pick a major, and wait to see where i find myself.

of course, a lot of this frustration probably has a lot to do with my lack of quality time with God. for one, i need something appealing to go through (read) and then the time and motivation to do it. it's not that i'm not talking to him, i'm doin' a whole lot of that. i've been searching for guidance in a number of issues, but i'm just not feeling any leading. i'm sure he's talking, but i must not really be listening, because all i can come up with are my feelings, which flip-flop more than john kerry.

curl like smoke and breathe again

just a few random things. first, i spent the better part of the afternoon working with my brother to get all the spyware crap off of my computer, but i think we finally have the majority of it gone. there was way more than i thought. no more imesh for me. and i'm now going to monitor my computer with four different programs, instead of just adaware.

second, the delhi job is pretty much in the bag. i know i should be thankful for the opportunity to make all this money, but i have mixed feelings about the whole thing. i'm not at all excited about working full time seven days a week this summer. i really think it's gonna to wear me down and seriously put a dent in the whole fun factor of summer break. plus heat and allergies are going to suck big time. hopefuly it'll be worth it.

violence in all hands, embrace it if need be

THIS is for all you Bush haters who love to rip on him for the economy. i love the fact that when bush's unemployment rate is at 5.6% people acted like it was insanely high, and when clinton's was that way they acted like it was an awesome job by him.

in other news, new developments in the war on spyware in dave's computer. it seems when i came back from church today, somehow my screen had been contorted into some strange shape, roughly looking like )_( . so i'm about this close to just chucking the thing out the window. i guess later tonight i'll have to get more programs to kill this crap, because adaware is still failing me.

too much trippin' and my soul's worn thin

so the delhi people told me at my job interview last week that they would get in touch with me this week, which of course they did not. so i called them today, and the lady basically told me that they were impressed with my interview, but they needed to make sure everyone was going to get all the hours they wanted and they were still working things out, blah blah blah, so they were planning on reaching a decision by the middle of next week and they'd get ahold of me then. yeah... right.

i guess we'll see how that goes. i'd be great to get this job, and i'm not gonna be real happy if i don't, but i suppose i need to start looking around for alternatives just in case. i don't really have any idea where else to look for a full-time summer job. nick & tom's is actually worse in the summer; business is super slow compared to the winter, so they need less people for each shift.

i'm so sick of freakin' spyware. i thought i'd got rid of it all, and now it seems to be back in full force. random popups all the time that the google toolbar does not block, and they're not all from imesh, because they show up even when it's not running. oh, and my homepage keeps getting reset to some site, but the site always has an error and never loads. and adaware either doesn't pick this stuff up or doesn't remove it properly because it's still here. i'm so fed up that i decided i'm going to get rid of imesh. rob told me there's an imesh lite version without spyware, so i may give that a try. i also downloaded itunes, but i probably will want an alternative (free) program to use along with that anyway.

shut my mouth and strike the demons

this year has so much incredible entertainment goodness coming out, it's rediculous.

needless to say, if Half-Life 2 and DOOM 3 are released this year (June?) it will be a glorious year just for that. in fact, HL2 would do it for me. besides that, there are a ton of other great FPS games coming out this year. UT 2004 is still rockin my world, and i haven't even bothered to play that online yet. it should keep me rockin' for a very long time. i played the demo for Far Cry, which was sweet, and since it's been called "the best single-player experience since Half-Life" i'm really eager to get my hands on it. as much as i was addicted to Counter-Strike for over three years, i've always been a bigger fan of a good single-player campaign. even so, Battlefield Vietnam looks sweet, and i would love to score a copy of that. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is looking like it could be one of those great games that comes out of nowhere, with sweet looking graphics and a cool sounding storyline. of course, then there's Halo 2, which will lead to many many late weekend box parties. plus two great looking Star Wars games: Republic Commando and Battlefront that will hopefully rock. then there's still more, such as Joint Operations, Soldner, Goldeneye 2 and probably even more.

this year also has a few promising RTS games. first off, Battle For Middle-Earth, which looks incredible. then there's Rome: Total War, a great looking game (which reminds me that i still need to pick up Medieval: Total War as well). The add-on for Rise of Nations, Thrones & Patriots just came out. for some reason i've never played RoN, which is pretty rediculous since i'm a huge fan of the Civ series and RTS games

and there's stilll dozens more. Starcraft: Ghost may finally come out this year, and what could be cooler than Splinter Cell in the Starcraft universe? Madden NFL 2005 will hopefully be even better than 2004. Midway Arcade Treasures 2 looks like it could be a cool bundle of old-skool gaming goodness. Full Spectrum Warrior looks very promising as some good tactical squad combat. Kotor 2 may not be coming out till 2005, but i think i'll have enough to hold me over till then.

then of course, there's the amazing DVD goodness of the Star Wars Trilogy in September!! who's gonna watch all three on the 21st with me? of course, Last Samurai just came out, Return of the King soon with Extended later on. and Velvet Revolver's "Contraband" this June. no wonder my bank account is looking so slim. looks like i need to start prioritizing my purchases.

it feels good to get all that out.

i'm never alone, i'm alone all the time

i'm still waiting to hear back from the delhi people about the job. they told me at the end of my interview last friday that they would call me sometime this week and let me know, so i'm calling tomorrow if i haven't heard from them by then. i really need this job, because it would be really helpful to make a lot of money this summer. if i don't get a job there i have no idea where else i should try and get one.

the reds game wasn't the best, to say the least. the lost 6-2, and they only scored those 2 runs in the 9th, and we left after the 8th inning. up until then, they only had 2 hits the entire game. seeing the brewers guy hit a grand slam was kinda cool, only because i don't ever think i've seen one in person before. the weather was fairly wet and cold, but the rain stopped about the 5th or 6th inning, and could have been a lot worse. the catered food was good as ever, though. besides, sounds like i didn't miss anything since everyone got down to see Bush too late, and got closed out by the fire marshall.

so i've been thinking about getting a guitar. i was talking to my brother about it, since he knows a lot about them, and trying to get an idea on what i should buy. i think i finally would have the discipline to learn how to play; unlike my 2 month phase of trying to learn to play bass in sophmore year (although I still remember how to play Teen Spirit and Brain Stew). one thing that does worry me is that i won't have the patience to learn all the scales, chords, and all that, and instead i'll just wanna be jimmy page from the start... which will never ever happen. besides, buying a guitar mostly depends on whether or not i get this job.

the words you say never seem to live up to the ones inside your head

i'm off to see the Reds take on the brewers tonight with my dad and brother, so hopefully we win and it doesn't rain. although it's gonna take a lot for this game to be better than last year's game i went to, when larkin had his fabulous pinch hit, walk-on homerun in the bottom of the ninth to win the game. beautiful.

i am bummed about missing Bush speak. rob, doug, austin, jess, jen, jenny, and just about everyone else in the world are all going down to see it. it'd be cool to see any president speak in person, but the fact that it's George W. Bush, in my opinion one of the best presidents we've had, makes me want to be there even more. but oh well, hopefully i'll have another 4 years to maybe see him speak.

when you seek me you destroy me

so i heard Velvet Revolver's single 'Slither' for the first time the other day, and i have to say, i really like everything I've heard from them so far. their cover of 'Money' for the italian job, 'Set Me Free', and now 'Slither' have all been quality songs. Slither especially reminds me of STP's album "No. 4", which is definately not a bad thing, but i hope VR sounds like more than just STP 2.0 and adds some GnR flavor to the mix. can't wait for their album, and hopefully they'll tour here soon.

wow, i wish i could write this easily about my dumb english paper. i hate having to worry about school so much. i've drank two red bulls, and i'm still tired as crap... what a waste that stuff is.

news to smile about... i have an interview with the delhi park people tomorrow for the same summer job dougie got, so hopefully everything goes well.

i talked for hours to your wallet photograph

sometimes my lack of common sense and/or willpower real disturbs me. apparently somewhere in my little brain, it has been decided that it would be a good idea to wait till after church, before work at 4:30, the day before it is due, to start my history paper. that's a good plan. oh, and don't even think about reading the three articles you need to write on beforehand; you don't need to do that. and it doesn't matter that you also have to do another english journal, because you've already used up your freebie and missed another one. no, waiting till now is the smart thing, dave. don't worry, you're doing a good job.

and yet, i'm still distracting myself even now: checking NFL draft results, reading about Justin's Adventures With The Mother From Stupidville, etc. at least i was smart enough to give my sister the UT2004 cd to hide from me till after wednesday, so i can work on this paper and my japanese history midterm. there's no way i'd get anything done with that around. looks like i'm gonna have to just turn on the b.s. machine and let it crank out another paper.

Shine On You Crazy Diamond

This past Thrusday, an American soldier by the name of Pat Tillman was killed in Afghanistan. Tillman was a former NFL player who left behind his multi-million dollar contract to enlist with the Army Rangers shortly after 9/11. If you're like me, you probably never even heard about this till now, because the man was so humble that he joined without a bunch of fanfare or any press releases. He simply did what he knew was right. To this man, his duty to his country was infinitely more important than his rich lifestyle. I think it should definately make us all look at ourselves and see if we're actually doing something that matters with our lives. Pat Tillman sure did.

In related news, Warren Sapp may be in Oakland, but there's still plenty of loudmouths to hate in Tampa Bay. Idiot Simeon Rice's brilliant radio eulogy for Tillman was that "He really wasn't that good, not really. He was good enough to play in Arizona, [but] that's just like the XFL." He then made an attempt to complement Tillman by comparing him to someone like Rambo or Rocky. What a moron. Apparently Rice doesn't have a clue what duty or honor is. It's sad that a good man like Tillman had to die to defend people like Rice.

We Are Your Overloards

ok, so dougie and i aree hanging out in the library at uc, looking up movie stuff. so, we decided to come up with our lists of the most overrated movies of all time, because we're just that bored. mine is as follows:


10. Spider-Man - wow, this one is gonna draw some fire. it was a pretty good movie, but i was disappointed, there was just too much cheesiness in it for me to like it as much as everyone else seemed to. a good movie, but not as good as the hype.
9. Independence Day - it was hyped as a huge blockbuster action movie, but it felt way more like a cheesy 50s sci-fi b-movie. likeable, but nowhere near that good.
8. Gone With the Wind - maybe you have to be over 60 to appreciate it, but i don't even see any groundbreaking cinematic elements for it's time that should make it as well known as it is.
7. It's A Wonderful Life - sure, it's cute. but does it need to be played constantly every holiday season?
6. Every Adam Sandler Comedy except Happy Gilmour and Billy Madison - let's face it, every adam sandler movie is essentially the same. even Happy Gilmour and Billy Madison are basically the same as the Waterboy or Mr Deeds, but at least it was funny back then. now it's just old.
5. Apocalypse Now - i was expecting a great movie, considering all the critical hype this movie always gets. while there were a few cool sequences, like the "flight of the valkeries" scene, the rest was so boring i actually fell asleep by the end.
4. The Harry Potter movies - i'll admit, i mocked harry potter before i ever saw any of the movies. but since they were so big and even people my age liked them, i thought i'd check them out. wow, if this is the biggest thing out there for kids now, i am even more afraid of what's going to become of the younger generation.
3. Pearl Harbor - talk about a movie with such great potential, made so terrible because they had to turn it into a crappy love story.
2. Full Metal Jacket - stanley kubrick, what happened? the first half of the movie was just terrible, and then it had nothing to do with the mediocre second half.
1. Titanic - to this day i can't understand how this movie grossed over 600 million dollars. good special effects, and that's about all you can say for this.

i have the feeling that doug's list and my list are going to be basically the same. hopefully i didn't miss anything, cause now we gotta go to english.