Please stop calling babies miracles.

From Wikipedia:

A miracle is a sensibly perceptible interruption of the laws of nature, such that can only be explained by divine intervention, and is sometimes associated with a miracle-worker. Many folktales, religious texts, and people claim various events they refer to as "miraculous". People in different cultures have substantially different definitions of the word "miracle." Even within a specific religion there is often more than one of the term. Sometimes the term "miracle" may refer to the action of a supernatural being that is not a god. Thus, the term "divine intervention," by contrast, would refer specifically to the direct involvement of a deity.

In casual usage, "miracle" may also refer to any statistically unlikely but beneficial event, (such as the survival of a natural disaster) or even which regarded as "wonderful" regardless of its likelihood, such as birth. Other miracles might be: survival of a fatal illness, escaping a life threatening situation or 'beating the odds.'

Compare that with the fact that there are 129 MILLION human births every year. How could something that happens 4 times a second be a miracle? Its biology, and mundane biology at that. So go take your special little snowflake and fuck off, entitled parents.

Food and Fear

I'm sitting here watching Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservations", and he's in Manhattan, dining at all the old, great pillars of fooddom. Old delis with their black crusted pastrami that isn't stringy, dry and fatty, but soft, tender, and moist. Italian eateries with grandmas who cook, serve, and clean, just like they have for 50 odd years. Chinese places with hidden menus that can only be ordered in Cantonese, and the list goes on. In the program, there are many many references to the places like TGI Fridays, Olive Garden, Outback, and the other places that are tangential, sterilized versions of these old standbys.

This made me think: How did these tangential versions come about? And how did they get to where they are today? I think that the original thought to bringing these estsablishments to life was to pay homage to the originals, and to bring the inner city neighborhoods out to the suburbs. But somewhere between that and now, the corporate Disneyheads got hold of it and decided to castrate it. Gone were the huge chops, home made sauce, or the other little touches that were deemed too scary, or too expensive, or not mainstream enough.

The question remains, was it the fault of the proprieters of these establishments, the corporate bean counters, or was it the fault of the dining public, allowing mediocrity to pervade their gastronomical lives? When the most exciting thing on the menu is an overcooked, oversalted chicken fajita, and that's only exciting because it sizzles? When the tiramisu is often served frozen? When the steak is so heavily seasoned, you can barely taste the meat? And people go to these places, by the hundreds. Every night I go by Chilis, Outback, The 99, and a few other restsaurants that are packed each and every night with people eating mediocre food and drinking mediocre beer.(another post entirely)

I think that it comes down to confort. People enjoy comfort. They enjoy getting the same thing every time, knowing that the ny strip steak will be exactly the same as the ny strip steak they had last time, and the time before that, and the time they were in Altoona. And the place in Altoona has the same interior, with the same waitstaff, and the same outfits and smiles and fun birthday songs for that wonderful little cherub at table 4. When you change things, or ask people to change, or even worse, force them to change, they hate it. I understand this, I hate change in certain parts of my life, like my work situation. So I can understand the fear, but I can't understand why people would take this attitude to food. Food is wonderful, and good food is a work of art, an expression of love from someone who wants to pass on a message. That message might be their own invention, or their grandmother's recipe, or simply the traditions of their homeland. Let them share. Let them show you their heart. Take an adventure, and you will be rewarded. Explore, and you wil be brought to wonderful gastronomical places, and you will come away with knowledge and happiness.

Animal Rescue: Rosie's story

Darren, one of the readers of this blog, and an excellent writer, posted the following statement in his blog:

Spoiling your pet is like creating an umbrella of compassion in a harsh and random world.

Better words could not be said. I'm not sure if Darren rescued his pets, but I believe he did. Even if he didn't, spoiling pets is a wonderful thing, made even more wonderful for rescues. I've had 3 beagles in my adult life, and they have all been spoiled rotten. Mostly because they had a hard life, and deserve it. I will be posting their stories one at a time. I was originally going to put them all together but this post came out longer than I had expected.



Rosie: Rosie was my second beagle, and the first of my adult life. My wife and I had been thinking about getting a dog, after I took her to the Beagle Rescue Education and Welfare(BREW) Beaglefest, back in 2003. She had been reticent about getting a beagle, in fear that they would be too much trouble. But after a few months of looking at Rosie's bio up on the BREW site, we decided that we would give her a happy home. Rosie was a very special girl, and had had a terribly hard life. When we got her, she was 9 or 10, and we knew that she wasn't going to be around for another decade, but we wanted to give her a retirement that she could enjoy. She had been on the adoption site for 6 months, and no one was giving her a chance because she had medical conditions that cost upwards of $200/month to treat. My wife is an incredibly compassionate person, and said "This is the dog for us." She was quiet, she was a couch potato, she wanted to be an only dog, and she loved people. Perfect. We went through the adoption process, and became the new forever home for Rosie Buttons. We added the Buttons, because it fit, and because we didn't want to change her given name from the adoption.

Rosie was pretty healthy, overall, when we got her, except she needed to pee every couple of hours, and was thirsty all the time. Later, we discovered this was Cushing's Disease, but at the time, there was some controversy about what it was, and we kept her on the medicine she had been on in foster care. She was an aloof dog, but LOVED her people. She wouldn't sit in your lap, but she would sit by your side, and was distraught whenever we would go out for long periods of time.

The life that Rosie had before getting into the adoption group was a horrible one, by any standards. She was kept in the bathroom most of the day, and her owners didn't understand her need to go out a lot, so when she had accidents, they would beat her. To her dying day, she was afraid of anything like a broom, or a chair, or anything with a stick-like protrusion. It broke my heart whenever I would mop the floor and she'd go running for the bedroom with her tail between her legs. Still does, just thinking about it. But even with the bad life, and illness, and old age, she was a very good dog, who loved exploring on walks, trying to find road snacks and obsessing over a year-old dead squirrel embedded in a chain link fence in our neighborhood. When it snowed, she would run around with her mouth open, and to the ground, gobbling up as much snow as she could before we made her go inside, shivering like a leaf. She was loved by everyone, especially the pug/Jack Russel next door, Zeus.

Rosie got sick in 2005, and we weren't sure why. She got very frail, very quickly, and it wasn't until we had taken her several times to Angell Memorial Hospital before we discovered that she definitely had Cushings Disease, and that it would take quite a bit to even get it into remission. What Cushing's disease does is to make the adrenal gland go haywire, making it produce adrenaline nonstop. This makes the kidneys kick in more, and all the organs in the body work harder. Its like running in terror ALL THE TIME. Rosie panted a lot, was hot in the middle of the winter, and was starting to look run down. Meanwhile, we had a wedding to plan and take part in, and Rosie was getting worse.

We made the decision to take Rosie with us on our honeymoon, to a local B&B, Restful Paws, out in Brookfield, MA. Its more than a dog-friendly B&B, its a dog-welcoming one that caters to dogs and people who love and pamper their dogs. After several weeks of a very hectic, lonely life, when we had very little time for her, Rosie deserved to take it easy with us. She loved it at Restful Paws. She was pampered, she was able to stay with people all day, and she got the best treats and treatment she had had in a long time. It was a good thing we did that too, because shortly after that, she started to go downhill quickly.

In November 2005, Rosie got precipitously worse. We had been treating her Cushings, and things hadn't improved much, but we hadn't expected them to. One morning, however, she couldn't raise her head above horizontal. This concerned us, so we took her in to Angell, and had some tests done. As it turns out, the Cushings was masking another problem, a slipped disc in her neck. The adrenaline was covering up the pain and trauma, and getting her help in one respect ended up adding to her pain. So, we cut back on her medicine for the Cushings for that reason, and because we realized that she did not have long left. We hoped a few months, but it ended up only being a few weeks. After more of a quick decline, and a daily signs of less energy, we took her in again, and found out that she had a tumor not only on her adrenal gland, but on her kidney as well. Neither were operable. We took her home, in shock, knowing that she had very little time left, but after a night of Rosie looking paniced, panting and laying on her side, in obvious pain, we took her back the next morning to be put to sleep. It was one of the hardest things I've ever done. It was December 4th, 2005. It snowed that day, which was one of Rosie's favorite things in the world. We thought it was a fitting sign.

More Film Noir

The picture on the right(I hope, the pics have been acting strange for me lately) is Orson Welles, during his years when he was impersonating a walrus, Charlton Heston, and two schmoes. Its from Touch of Evil, and shows a perfect film noir shot, as very few could do. Orson was one of those people. Take a closer look, and you'lls see a few things. Orson is disheveled, unshaven, and corpulent. Chuck Heston is upright, stoic, clean, and crisp. You realize that Welles is the bad guy, and that Hestson is the good guy, but look even closer now. The light from the "window"(a classic noir shot) hits the 4 people on their upper half, adding focus to their faces.

Heston's face is in the light with a dark background, putting it in sharp contrast. He's looking straight forward, and is in the position of strength, with his fists clenched, ready for action. Welles's face is half in shadow, with the dirty, off white wall behind him matching the sweaty pallor of his big mug. His hands are in his pockets, which tells us that he's hiding something. The other two are instantly seen as having no importance, even though the short mexican man(its okay to call him that, he's really mexican in the movie) is the one talking. The real battle is between Heston and Welles, and the audience instantly knows it.

Now, this is just one shot from the movie, one instant in time, and even though our minds don't out and out tell us what is going on, we recognize things, and are told things by the director with shadow, light, focus, and framing. Thats what makes a director great, and that's what is a staple of good Film Noir.

This scene is a relatively minor one, and not one of the three that pop into my head when I think about Touch of Evil. The first is a 3 1/2 minute long continuous shot that opens the film. It sets the tone and the tension of the movie immediately, as you watch a car go across the US/Mexico border after having watched a man put a bomb in its trunk.

The second is powerful for another reason, and follows another Film Noir tradition of things happening without explicitly being shown. Vivian Leigh(again) is in a hotel room, and a gang of bikers sis in the room next door, making a racket. She gets worried, tries to call the front desk, but he doesn't want to have anything to do with it. The scene crescendos in lockstep with the ever louder music, as the bikers come in to the room, trap Vivian, close in on her, and drug her. They don't tell you or show you what happens, but the next you see Vivian, she's in a different hotel, waking up. Was she raped? Unlike lesser movies, its not the focus, so its never mentioned.

The third scene is one of pure rage, that Heston pulls off well. He beats the ever loving hell out of the biker gang, one by one, in the process picking up a man with one hand, carrying him a few feet, and then driving him down a bar and into the wall. Again, its a hint that something else happened with those bikers.

Thats it for now, I suppose.

Psycho is not a film noir.

Psycho is not film noir. Psycho is a thriller, or a psychological suspense film, but it is not a film noir, for many reasons.

1)Subject - the subject is psychological in nature, and is about a crazy murderer. This is not normal fare for a noir. There's a direct relationship between the killer and the victim, which is also rare in noirs. Noirs usually deal with a shady person, or gang, and deals with crime, usually. Murders may happen, but they're not the sole reason for the "evil" character.

2)Cinematography - This may be where people get the idea that psycho is a noir. Many of the shots in psycho borrow from the film noir genre, using light and dark, intersecting shadows, off-center subjects, odd angles, etc. But that was also just Hitchcock's style, you can find that in many of his films.

3)The Antihero - Usually in noir, but not always, there is an anti-hero, or a reluctant hero. A dirty, possibly corrupt person who will do whatever it takes to do "the right thing". Bogey was excellent at playing these parts, and Sam Spade is the quintessential anti-hero. There's no such person in Psycho, Sam Loomis certainly isn't one, and everyone else is a victim. Also, in most film-noirs, there are no squeaky clean characters, or if they are, they are offed pretty quickly, or are seen as a point of derision and scorn.(Laszlo in Casablanca pops into my head)

4)Focus - the focus in Psycho is on the murderer, and the murdering, and keeping the suspense high. In a noir, there may be suspense, but it is rarely the main focus of the film. When Sam Spade is looking down the barrel of Kasper Gutman's gun, there's tension there, but not the same tension as when Vivian Leigh is about to get stabbed in the shower.

The Hitchcock film that I would have a hard time choosing between film noir and suspense is "Rear Window". There's no hero, the filming is right, the focus is almost right, but the subject is still the murder, and the tension of the final scenes.

Pink Floyd review

This is for Darren, and i guess anyone else who is interested. I'm about as big of a Pink Floyd fan as one can be, I've got all their albums and some bootleg stuff of middling quality. I'll go down the list of their albums and tell you what I think:

Piper at the Gates of Dawn(PatGoD): Piper is a silly, fun album, good for when you're high as a kite, or just feeling goofy and need a light album to make you laugh, sing, and feel happy. If I had to label it, I'd call it stoner pop, and its definitely indicative of a band who did a LOT of drugs. Standout songs are "Astronomy Domine"(instrumental featuring excellent drums) and "See Emily Play". Heavily influenced by Syd Barrett.

Saucerful of Secrets(SoS): Saucer is the transition album between Syd Barrett's Pink Floyd and Roger Waters' Pink Floyd. Still has some silliness from Syd in it, with songs like Corporal Clegg, but has some more heavy songs on it from Roger. Good album, but not great. I only listen to it once in a while.


Songs from the movie More(More): Not one of my favorites. Never saw the movie, and really only has one good song on it, "Cymbaline". I listen to this maybe once a year, say Oh yeah, thats why i don't listen to that", and move on.

Umma Gumma(UG): Another one that is, in my mind, more of an acid trip put on vinyl than an album. Its 2 discs, one studio, one live. the live puts up a version of Astronomy Domine that is good, as is "Careful with that Axe Eugene". The studio album is good, but not great. And they spend 20 minutes acoustically rambling with "SEVERAL SPECIES OF SMALL FURRY ANIMALS GATHERED TOGETHER IN A CAVE AND GROOVING WITH A PICT". Thats an odd song, with an odd title. Just aural chaos, meant to be listened to while stoned/tripping/both.

Atom Heart Mother(AHM): Solid album, albeit a short one. Its bookended by two tracks that are mostly instrumental, and slightly orchestral, "Atom Heart Mother", and "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast". Both are enjoyable, with only small sections that are dischordant and hard to listen to. And it has one of my favorite songs, "If". Darren, I think you'd really like this album, especially for background music.


Relics(Relics): Basically a collection of previous songs. Good, but no better than previous albums, the songs are no better arranged. I have this one for the collection, but almost never listen to it.


Meddle(Meddle): This is a good album, and features a pig's ear on the front! An easygoing album for the most part, with excellent standout songs "Fearless" and "San Tropez". The title track is mostly instrumental, and gets a little noodly and semi-pointless, but all in all, worth a listen to.

Obscured by Clouds(OBC): This is hands down my favorite Pink Floyd album. Absolutely great stuff from start to finish. Well layed out, with great instrumentals, great imagery, and stunning lyrics. My favorite lyric on the album comes from the triumphant "Free Four": "You are the angel of death, and I am the dead man's son". Darren, I think you'd love this album, and I suggest that anyone who is even a passing PF fan do themselves the service of having a listen.


Dark Side of the Moon(DSotM): What else can I say about this album that hasn't been said before? Its my second favorite album, and is just superb. The only reason I wouldn't rate this ahead of OBC is that Waters' depressing outlook is starting to creep in here.


Wish You Were Here(WYWH): Excellent album, even if it does feature a song that is most played by college douchebags with guitars trying to get laid, the title track. Solid from start to finish, but I would put it on a lower tier than OBC and DSotM. Definitely a Roger Waters album.


Animals(Animals): Good album, with very listenable songs. It tries to be a throw back to Atom Heart Mother and Meddle, I think, but still has Roger Waters writing those depressing lyrics. Still, they work, and the music itself is very good. Stand out songs: Pigs on the Wing, and Dogs.


The Wall(Wall): In my opinion, the most overrated Floyd album out there. I loved this album when I was an angsty teenager, and I suppose it still works on that level, but still, there are some songs on there, like One of My Turns and Waiting for the Worms that would be home in any emo band today. That said, there are still excellent songs on this album, like Comfortably Numb and Run Like Hell.


A Collection of Dance Songs(ACODS): Possibly the worst album of all, this takes from various earlier albums, and puts together songs disjointedly, though many say that this album is a tribute to Syd Barrett.


Final Cut(FC): What a bitter album, full of vitriol, depression, anger, and general hate. This is the album that broke up the band. Waters was going off the heavy end, and the rest of the band just couldn't take his lyrics and heavy-handed direction any more. Rick Wright even refused to play on the album. I very rarely listen to this album. Darren, unless you want to end up in a funk, stay away from this one.

A Momentary Lapse of Reason(AMLoR): The new Floyd was lighter, and the songs were good, but there was definitely something missing without Waters, some of the depth and breadth of their songs was gone. Still, has some standout songs, such as Learning to Fly, Dogs of War, and On the Turning Away.

Delicate Sound of Thunder(DSOT): Another "Best of" album, this time live, and all done without Waters. Some of the old songs lose their oomph, like Another Brick In the Wall and Comfortably Numb. Not a bad album, but just a rehash.

The Division Bell(TDB): I would consider this a good album that is more than the sum of its parts. Most of the songs are mediocre, but come together in a pattern that is pleasing to the ears. Most of the songs have to do with communication, and many say that the songs were directed towards Waters, but Gilmour denies this, saying it was more with him and his wife. Some of the songs were written by his wife, and it shows, they tend to be the more shallow songs on the album. Lots of piano work on this one. Standout songs include: Keep Talking, Lost for Words, and Marooned.

Pulse: Another complilation/live album. Okay stuff, though Gilmour shows he's getting old when he can't hit those notes he was once able, nor does he have the singing range or talent that Waters had.

Overall ranking of albums:(in order of my tastes)
Obscured by Clouds
Dark Side of the Moon
Atom Heart Mother
Wish You Were Here
Piper at the Gates of Dawn
Meddle
Animals
The Wall
Saucerfull of Secrets
Momentary Lapse of Reason
Division Bell
Pulse
Delicate Sound of Thunder
Umma Gumma
More
The Final Cut
Relics
A Collection of Dance Songs

DRM

If you haven't heard, there is a LOT of hullabaloo about DRM, or Digital Rights Management out there. Its all about how PC game publishers are trying to stop pirates from stealing their game. The fans are up in arms, boycotting the PC ports of excellent games such as BioShock, Mass Effect, and Penny Arcade: Rain-soaked Precipice of Darkness, some of the most outstanding games of the last 2 years. Their gripes:
-It takes too long to activate
-I want to be able to install it on more than 3 PCs
-I don't want to put in a key more than once
-I don't want the game checking in to the server to see if its legal for me to play
-I want to be able to play the game in 10 years, and any activation/check-in servers will be dead by then.
-None of this stops pirates, really.
-All this DRM stuff breaks the game sometimes

I think they're all a bunch of whiners. Activation definitely stops pirates. It doesn't stop all of them, but it stops some of them. Yes, there will always be cracks and hacks, but a Steam/Stardock/check in with papa type of system is simply the best. The people that complain about this are either a)secret pirates, b)like to play ridiculously old games, or c)whiny knobs. If you're a), shut up, because if you are really a pirate, you'll be able to get the game eventually. If you're c), shut up because no one likes a whiny knob. If you're b), here's my suggestion to you and to the game publishers, I hope you like it, but you probably won't.

Keep the DRM system with server check in in tact, but add a few things. First, add the ability to play the game 5 times without a check-in, or up to a week, or something. This should ease the "What if my internet service is out?" Well, then you wouldn't be able to bitch and moan ceaselessly about everything. But yes, you wouldn't be able to play your game either. The solution above solves this. The next gripe, that you can't play old games, is also easy to solve. Put in a check to the Naval Observatory Time Server. If the date is X years(say 5) after the release date of the game, then don't do a server check. Hooray, the game's now free for whoever wants it, but you, as a publisher, if you're still in existence, probably don't care too much at this point. If you aren't in existence, then the users can still play the game. Surely, users can see the benefit of this, and must realize that game companies have to protect their investment, or PC gaming will truly become extinct.

Personally, I don't care. I'm mostly a console gamer, and I could give a crap about activation on PC games. I'll do whatever it takes to get the game running. Whats a few extra key strokes or a few extra seconds checking in with the server?

Pearl

For some reason, I've been wanting to listen to a lot of Janis Joplin lately. I had cassette tapes of her stuff, but lost them in one of my many moves, and unfortunately never got her CDs. That may have to be rectified soon.

Joplin would never make it in today's music world. Fortunately for her, in the mid to late 60s, there was a turn towards blues music, and the rock that was influenced by it. Jimi Hendrix was singing Red House, Voodoo Child, and Mannish Boy. John Mayall was singing Crawling Up the Hill, a Hard Road, Blues City, and the heart wrenching "Death of JB Lenoir".

Joplin grew up knowing the blues, listening to the blues, and living the blues. So that is what she sang in her distinct voice. The whiskey soaked gravelly tunes poured out of her, and carried her heart and soul out with them. A perfect example of this is "Summertime". She did play with Hendrix, but I haven't heard any of that stuff. I can only imagine the pure energy that was on that stage.

But anyway, back to the original point, that she wouldn't make it in today's music. She wasn't a typical beauty, and her voice, while powerful, strong, and unique, was anything but smooth, which is really sought even with rock and power singing groups today. She'd be limited to small time stuff, and possibly a punk band or something like that. Would the lack of notoriety be worth having her talent live on past the age of 27? I guess we'll never know. If she was alive today, she'd only be 65, but heroin took her away from us in 1970.

Do yourself a favor, go download Summertime, and listen to some real music.

Bruins and BS

Below is an email I sent to Bill Simmons of ESPN. I'm sure many others have written him similar emails, but his new article puts it well:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/080421

And here's my email:

I consider myself a huge Bruins fan, and have been for almost 30 years. I've seen the highs, and the lows. I've watched one of the best players of our time crumble as his knee turned to bone. I've seen an outstanding goalie get rushed out of town because he was the team rep for the union, and had the audacity to suggest that the owner of one of the most popular teams in hockey pay his players more because they and the fans deserved to have a happy team. I've seen a team draft two incredible young players in one round, giving me hope for the future. I've seen a team smartly prepare themselves for the lockout by shedding big contracts, only to pick up losers and old washed up stars. I've seen the death of an arena that was an icon, I've seen one of the highest scoring stars of the game get traded for the equivalent of trading 3 nickels for a quarter. I've seen a team put all their hopes and captaincy on a Czech defenseman that really looks like he doesn't want to be there every single night.

Most of all, though, I've seen a team deteriorate over the years from an exciting, hopeful, popular team, to a team that has become nothing but a holding area for players to try to get better contracts. The Bruins are the airport lobby of the NHL, players hate going there, but go there when they want to get somewhere better. No one is enthused to be there, and the fans are sensing it now. They can't get behind guys like Bergeron, Kessel, and Lucic(my pick for the next Cam Neely) because they know that in a few years, those guys will be gone, and the Bruins will have nothing to show for it.

I understand why the Bruins are dead to you, and I can commiserate with you about how Jacobs just sees the dollar signs and doesn't have an ounce of passion for the team. But I still love them. I'll be a Bruins fan to my grave. The point of this email, however, is to ask you for advice. Like a guy who's in a bad marriage, but believes in his vows, I'm going to see this through, out of sheer stubbornness, no matter how miserable I get. Any suggestions on how to make my life as a fan more tolerable? Should I try to take it not so seriously, like I tried to do after the Thornton trade?(the "taking up fishing" approach) Or should I put my hopes in the young guys I mentioned above, simply enjoying watching them grow as players, even though I know they'll move on?(the "I'm doing this for the kids" approach) Or, should I still claim to be a Bruins fan, but take an interest in another team like the Capitals(the "cheating with the secretary" approach)?

Cuss

I think the word cuss is funny. And I think that anyone who uses it is 93.2% likely to be highly religious, and/or from the midwest or south. This is what the cuss_o_meter has to say about me. As the Dude would say, "The fuck you talkin' about?"

Created by OnePlusYou

That number's way too fucking low. Shit. And yes, I managed to find a shot of the exact moment when he says that line. And yes, I know that picture is from that line from memory.

Cleaning Time

for my sqrt(-1) users, I'm cleaning out some old drafts that I either can't remember what i was going to do with, or just got bored with.

Its either that, or rant about the Bruins again..

edit: Oh, interesting, it puts them on the date that I started them on. I don't think I want that.

Alternative History

Here's an interesting alternative history idea: On the golden anniversary of the golden gate bridge, the span flexed and flattened under the weight of 1,000,000 people, and if there was any weaknewss in the bridge, it would have cracked, crumbled, and thousands would have plunged to thier death. Also, the bay area would have been effected greatly, causing traffic from Marin county to San Fran cut down to a near halt, and so on and so forth. Maybe no tech boom in the area, though, thigns tended to recover pretty well after the San Fran earthquake, when there were some 3,000 deaths. But this would be a good 15% of the area's population. Yipes.

One Movie

This was a blog post title that I honestly have no idea where it came from. I put in blog titles and quick reminders to myself to talk about later, but I have no clue. Maybe it was about "Johnny Get your Gun" which was used for the video "One" by Metallica. Doubt it. Maybe it was about one movie that I liked. Oh wait, I think I remember now. It was "If you could recommend one movie to someone that has never seen a movie before, what would you suggest?" I think I came up with Big Lebowski, maybe Touch of Evil. I don't remember, but it was a difficult choice.

Video Game Nostalgia 1 - Astrosmash

This is the first in hopefully a bunch of blog updates about old(and not so old) video game memories that I have gained over my 28 years of video gaming. They will remember the good times and the bad, the hot and the cold, the 8 bit to the hi def, and beyond.

First up on the list is Astrosmash, an Intellivision(I'll get into Intellivision's superiority over Atari 2600 in another post) game that was originally called Avalanche but was changed to take advantage of the space game surge. It was one of the more popular games for the Intellivision, and for good reason. It was addictive, easy to learn, and had a perfect difficulty curve. You basically moved your cannon back and forth along the ground, getting points for each rock that you destroyed. 10 points for big rocks, 20 points for small rocks. For each rock you missed, you got deducted the same amount. Sound simple? Sure. But as you scored more, the pace would quicken, the background beat would quicken,(a simple thump...thump...thump) and the background would change colors. Every time the background changed colors, a new feature would be introduced, up to 100,000. Some of the additions were UFOs that would shoot down cluster-bullets, those were easy for a bunch of points, and my hated nemesis, heatseeking missiles. The heat seekers would follow you around once they hit the ground, and you'd have to use your hyperspace to get out of the way, and even that was a gamble, as it might put you in the path of a rock, or worse. The ultimate enemy for this game, though, were the spinners. If the spinners hit the ground, you were dead. No ifs, ands, or buts. You were dead. Sometimes there'd be 3 spinners on the screens in the higher levels. The good news was that every 1000 points, you'd get an extra life, and when the multiplier was up on 6x or greater, they came quickly. Unfortunately, they would go quickly, and Astrosmash penalized you points for dieing, too, so you'd have to re-accumulate those points, AND an additional 1000 points to keep getting new guys.

I remember getting somewhere in the upper 190,000s on this game, but my brother, being my older brother, needed to beat that, and I still remember his high score of 380,000 or so. I was amazed, for the screen was whipping by, and he was playing very smoothly, carving out a hole for his little cannon in the middle of the screen, making sure that no spinners got by, or when they were unreachable, he made sure he didn't get killed by a rock trying to race over to get them. That was always my downfall, trying to get the spinners, getting killed by a rock, then getting killed by the spinner that I was trying to get over to. 2 deaths instead of 1.

Apparently, there was a contest for this back in the day, and some kid won $25,000 in early 80s money for getting 825,000 points in an hour. That's impressive.

BUY MY SHIT!

For some reason, I'm very disillusioned about the whole Christmas season now. I know there's the whole spiel about Christmas starting before Halloween, and how the season seems to be getting longer and longer. What I'm sick about is the commercialism and consumerism involved. I saw the Macy's Day Parade, and was revolted by the consumerism involved. There's nothing interesting about this pageant any more. Not sure there ever was, but this year, I was just overwhelmed with the crap that was going on. They had a Pikachu float in front of a Juicy Coture billboard, with an NBC ad in the corner for another show. Then they cut to commercial. When will our society come to the saturation point with advertisement. With the advent of DVRs, commercials have to be spectacular for people to remember them and hell, to even watch them. I know I've stopped fast forwarding if I see a commercial that looks especially interesting. Unfortunately, its also the reason for all those in-show ads at the bottom of the screen.

Anyway, back to the season. It seems that people get more inspired by black Friday(and now Cyber Monday?) than by Christmas itself, and often just go on BF to get something for themselves. Rarely do I hear "I am getting up at 4 AM to get my wife this awesome gift!" I guess its a sign of the selfishness that's occurring these days. I don't know why I needed to post this, its not like there aren't 10,000 other blog posts about the holiday seasons. I guess I was just shocked about how blatantly consumerist the Macy's parade is. That said, I want to see the look of joy on my wife's face when I get her the things she's been wanting this season.

I'll end this post on a light note. The thing I'm most fond of at the holidays: The food. I love to cook and bake, and I get a chance to try out new stuff this time of year.

Who I back in 2008

As a rule, I hate career politicians, and tend to vote for people who want to be representatives of their people, and who will hopefully represent my desires and wishes and stand the same way as I do on certain issues. Now, all of this doesn't matter, really, because politicians are swayed by lobbyists and big corporations, and that's who most politicians care most about, other than themselves. Until GWB came along, I would have said that it doesn't matter what beliefs the president has, it matters what companies back him and can push his buttons. Since Dub, I've seen where the country can go in the hands of a truly paranoid, colossally idiotic, self centered, deranged, maladjusted dingbat.

For 2008, we've got quite the crappy crop of candidates for the big two. Here's what I've got against each of the candidates:

Republican:

• Rudy Giuliani - Way too stuck on 9/11. Way too focused on NYC. I don't think he'd have a national viewpoint. Also very much a "what can get me the most votes" kind of guy, while hiding his true intentions. In short, I just don't trust him. But he's the closest the Republicans get to getting my vote, which is not very close at all.
  
• John McCain - Wants to send more troops to Iraq. Like that's going to help. I used to like him, but he's too much of a warmonger.
  
• Ron Paul - Immigration issues are what sinks him for me. He's big into the US being "independent" from the rest of the world. In a world economy, when you're as big of a consumer as the US, you HAVE to be part of the world economy, or you're sunk. Also anti-abortion big time.
• Mitt Romney - Anti-woman, Anti-gay, Anti-immigrant, and is a bishop in the LDS church. Basically, he'd make being poor illegal. And his wife can't drive worth shit.
  
• Sam Brownbeck - Anti-abortion, anti-gay, and is for a constitutional amendment to ban same sex unions. What's the matter Sam, is Jim the construction worker giving you tightpants syndrome?
  
• Mike Huckabee - Anti-abortion, anti-gay, pro-war.
  
• Duncan Hunter -Pro-war, anti-abortion, to the point of constitutional amemdments. Same goes for gay rights, or lack thereof.
• Tom Tancredo - Pro-war, anti-abortion, anti-immigrant, big time. Actually wants to build that stupid fucking fence.
  
• Fred Thompson - Pro-war, anti-abortion, anti-gay.
  

Democrats:

• Barack Obama - Probably as close as I'll get to liking someone in the big 2. He's not for same-sex marriage, and I'm not behind his immigration 100%, and I don't like the fact that he still thinks Social Security works as it stands today, but overall, he's not too bad.
• Hillary Clinton - Ultimate snake in the grass politician. Will absolutely say whatever gets her the most votes. Could give a crap about people, or their views, and is in it for the fame and money. The type of person that when asked "What do you believe in?", says "Well, what do you believe in?" Slimeball extraordinaire. And that has nothing to do with her being a woman.
  
• Joe Biden - I like his proposal for splitting up Iraq and not forcing three groups to co-exist. Not so sure about his Social Security stances. Seems to be pandering to the babyboomers.
  
• Chris Dodd - I honestly don't know enough about him to say what I don't like about him. He seems to be saying the right things, at least.
• John Edwards - Religious nut.
• Mike Gravel - Still thinks we can do something in Iraq other than getting the F out of there. Is big on "Agressive Diplomacy". Whatever that is, it doesn't sound good to me.
  
• Dennis Kucinich - Thinks Social Security is not in crisis. Um. Right.
  
• Bill Richardson - Again, I like most of what he says, and I don't know what about him I don't like, but I know I heard something at some point.
  

So there you have it. According to Vote Match I most closely match with Hillary, but that's just counting the majors, and is still only 50%. Here's my VoteMatch score:

Your Score You scored the following on the PoliticsMatch questions:
Personal Score	88%
Economic Score	11%

Where You Fit In

Where your Personal score meets your Economic score on the grid below is your political philosophy. Based on the above score, you are a Hard-Core Liberal .

Bruins start/predictions

So I got to see the Bruins for the first time in 2007, eschewing the Red Sox game on TV for watching opening night against the Stars. The first period looked good, they looked a lot more focused and controlled than last year. It wasn't until the second period that discipline broke down, and they really reminded me of last year. Manny Fernandez looked capable as another good goalie, and might be a true #1, but I'd say he's only a step or two better than Tim Thomas. Will the Bruins be better this year? I'd say yes, and I think the announcers would agree with me. They seemed to have the "They'll be better, but not good" vibe, which I could see, and there was some talk about getting to the playoffs, but both they and I were skeptical about that prospect. The biggest change that I liked was the addition of Mike Milbury to the crew of analysts. He was a great player, and coach, and knows what it takes to get the Bs to the playoffs. He's been there, he's seen the great players, and he's not afraid to say what he thinks about this current team.

Anyway, back to the Bs team. They lost that Dallas game 4-1, and then went out to Phoenix, and beat up on the Coyotes 3-1, like they should have. Now, the Stars and the Coyotes are vastly different teams, and Dallas played like a team that had 107 points last year, and the Coyotes played like a team that had 67 points. The Bruins? They played like they had 76 points last year, unfortunately. So, even though the season is young, I think that they're going to be better than last year, but not by much. I'm saying right now its going to be about a 500 season, with 40 wins, 34 losses, and 8 OT losses. That gives them 88 points, and probably out of the playoffs again, but still, an improvement.

Can this team get better? Sure. If they spend the money, invest in a young team, and let them grow together, with the crucial addition of veteran guys that want to teach, and want to take this team to the next level. That's what happened in the late 80s, and that's what should happen again. Most importantly, they need a good D. Zdeno Chara is a good defenseman, but I don't see him being a captain, even though he has that C on his chest, and I don't see him leading this team deep into the playoffs.

Brain dredgings

I hate it when I have dreams that I can't explain, but I hate it more when my brain dredges up something that I not only can't explain, but that I've never even heard of before. Last night, I had the following dream. It doesn't make sense, but then when do dreams ever make sense?

I was in a garage of some sort, or factory or something like that. I distinctly remember a thick industrial oily smell, that iron and petroleum tang that hangs in the back of your nose and throat. The place was cold, but not unbearably so. I was a mechanic, I think, and by the costuming, it was in the late 40s, early 50s, if I had to guess. Not sure where I was, but I know that my co-worker, Frank, was British.
The dream opened as we were sitting down to lunch, which I can't remember what it was, other than I had a hot drink with it, coffee I think. We talked about the daily current events, of which I can not remember any, and ate happily. After we finished eating, Frank went over to a shelf, and got out a board game. It was called Conflict, and played a little like Stratego. We played a game, and then we went back to work, but only for a little while, when we noticed it had started to snow. Frank commented that his wife was going to be cross with him if he was late, and that we better get finished with the work we were doing, so we could both go home a little early. We were working on a truck, Frank was working on the engine, and I was busy rebuilding the transmission. I distinctly remember my hands cramping up because of the cold, and asking Frank to put more coal in the stove.
Well, a few hours went by, and a few inches of snow accumulated on the ground. By the time we were ready to go, it was getting dark, and the snow was coming down fiercely. Frank and I agreed that we were stuck there for the night, and that it would be easier to just stay than to traverse the roads that might not get plowed at all that night.
After calling our wives, we played more Conflict(apparently, we loved this game and had a great rivalry) and we had fun just hanging out for the rest of the evening. There were cots in the closet of the break room, I guess for those times when you have a long job and have to stay overnight, or bad weather like we were experiencing. In the middle of the night, I was awakened by a huge crash, and when we went to look, a tree had fallen in the storm, a maple I believe, and crashed through the corrugated iron roof and on to the truck that we had been repairing that day. Frank and I looked at it with old flashlights, and decided that there wasn't much we could do about it just then, and that we should try to get more sleep until morning.
Morning came, and Frank and I went out to assess the damage. The snow had stopped falling, and it was that blindingly bright, crisp kind of morning that can only come after a snow storm. The roof had absorbed most of the impact of the tree falling, and the truck seemed more or less okay, other than the container part of it being caved in a bit. Still, we thought we could hammer that out a lot easier than we could fix the cab, if the tree had gone through that. The roof was another matter. We didn't own the place, but we were our own bosses, so I guess that means we rented out the facility.
Frank called the owner of the building, Tom, and told him about the damage, and then proceeded to look very troubled. After getting off the phone with Tom, Frank turned to me and told me that Tom said it was our problem, that acts of god weren't covered in our rental agreement, and that we'd have to fix it ourselves. We agreed that not much could be done that day except for getting rid of the tree, and Frank decided he'd go home and get his chainsaw while I tried to pick up as many of the branches as I could. As I started trudging around the snow, the dream faded and I woke up.

Now, that dream seems pretty normal, but that's just it. It's perfectly normal, and congruous, and made sense internally to itself and to me. The oddest part about it was the clarity, and the things that I just can't explain away, like the following:

• I don't drink coffee, but I LOVED it in the dream. This is not a big deal, I know a lot of coffee drinkers, and I like the smell of it, and I had a cup of tea last night.
  
• I have never seen a transmission taken apart, but I clearly saw the transmission, and knew how to take it apart and clean it and put it back together again in the dream. I can't describe it now, other than there being lots of oily gears and pins and what not.
  
• The fact that a snow storm came upon us without us really knowing about it was odd because I normally know what the weather is going to be like, and if it was today, we'd know about a big storm like this for days in advance. However, in the 1950s, there was little weather forecasting, and certainly not the computerized models that we see today. Looking around on the web, the late 1950s is really when weather forecasting started to take off with the help of computers. Still, in a small town, they would know that snow could be coming, but might not know how powerful a storm might be.
  
• The snow plowing in the 50s wasn't that great either, especially in small towns, so my not being surprised by being stranded was notably accurate for the time period.
  
• The biggest thing that struck me this morning was the game of Conflict. It stands out as the most vivid part of the dream, and I distinctly remember the box that I have pictured above, and remembered playing the game on a board that looked almost identical to the one for that game, and I very much remember there being skunks on the dice, which is also accurate. Now the weird part: I've never seen or heard of that game before. It was a game that was produced by Parker Brothers from 1940 to 1972, and again fits the time frame of the dream. When I woke up this morning, I asked my wife if Conflict was the British name for Stratego, because Frank was British and we were playing Conflict. Granted, the game itself doesn't play much like Stratego, but maybe that's the analogy that my brain came up with to explain it.

What does this all mean? Probably nothing. But it was just another in a long line of dreams/deja vu/whatever that seem to haunt me for days afterward.

Halo 3 mis-use

And I'm not talking about cheating, griefing, or team killing, or whatever. I'm talking about the mongoloids out there who waste a great game like Halo 3 and only play slayer, or if they're feeling adventurous and social, team slayer. Okay, you mouth breathing jock monkeys, its not 1994. There are other modes in the multiplayer than "kill everything that moves". Its not even clever "kill everything that moves", like rockets only, or only vehicles and pistols, or only sticky grenades. Its "I memorized this map, know where everyone spawns, and where all the weapons are. I will slaughter you to make myself feel better, with no other point kill everything that moves". Assbaskets. With the Forge, an unlimited number of variants can exist on the framework of several very solid modes, such as the standard Capture the Flag, Oddball, a great game of Tag, where the goal is to be "it" for the longest time possible, infection, where you try to spread a plague, Juggernaut and VIP, which are modes based on trying to kill one person, King of the Hill and Territories, where you control an area by having the most people in it, and even good old Assault, which is capture the flag, but one team is on offense, and the other is defense.

Oh, and don't bitch about a mode being "too confusing". How confusing is it to capture a damn area, and keep others from doing the same? Expand your friggin horizons. And please, please please, how about a little strategy when you do lower yourself to gaming on a team with a specific goal? People who answer "What's the plan?" with "Uh, capture the flag, since we're playing capture the flag." should be slapped.

Bruins 2007-2008 first post

I hate to admit it, but I'm a little bit excited by the Bruins this year. They've got the magic bear back on their jerseys, I think they got rid of the mustard bear head jerseys, they've got a goalie that doesn't look like the Dutch Paint Boy, and I think Phil Kessel and Patrice Bergeron will light things up this year, though I think they should move one of them to a wing, and let them play on the same line to start some chemistry. I know, they're going to suck, and apparently there are VERY few hockey fans in central Mass, and the Celtics and Patriots will relegate them to nearly no coverage, but I'm still a fan. Have you seen the new jerseys for the various teams? I'm liking that the Crapitals changed back to their old unis, and I like the Minnesota home jersey with the ring, but I'm not liking the Thrashers blue uniform, that's gonna give me a headache.

One more note about hockey: "Joe Thornton posted 114 points for the Sharks last season." That hurts. Especially when you calculate that the 3 nickles the Bruins got for their quarter were Marco Sturm, with 44 points and a -24 +/-, Brad Stuart 17 pts, -22 and Wayne Primeau, 15 pts, -15 +/-. That adds up to 76 points, and an average +/- of -21.(Thornton had a +24) Even if you added the guys the B's traded Sturm and Stuart for, Andrew Ference(15 pts) and Chuck Kobasew(19 pts) they STILL only add up to 110 points of production. What gets me is that the GM is claiming to pick up the two guys from Calgary to help out with "production and stability from young guys". Ference is older than Thornton, and like I said, neither of the new guys have produced much. So in the long run, I think that the B's are looking at having traded a quarter for 3 nickels, and then traded 2 of those nickels for 3 pennies each, leaving the "storied franchise" with 11 cents and a bucket of tears.

Wow, I just took a survey over at ESPN that let you rate things about the team like "Has loyalty to the players", "Has inexpensive parking", and "Franchise pays well to keep players". I gave the Bruins 1 out of 10 for most of the questions, especially the "Consistently wins more games than they lose" http://vp-nri.com/take?i=111318&h=0jIb3FiGAM9Mv-7q6JZ-VA