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I feel like I’m getting old. Well, at least out of touch with older gamers and younger gamers. I just read an article here in ars pointing out how freaking awesome nintendo wii is doing in sales against other platforms. Now I know it’s a stretch to take an article about game and system sales and relate it to age. I’m a little too lazy to go into all the facts and figures, but essentially I see the Wii as the system for kids and adults who missed the original gaming “thing”. So when I see all these people buying rehash games like Smash Bros and Mario Kart, I think dang, I’ve really been there done that. My experience with those games was “screw it, I’m sticking with the game cube controller” (well, Mario Kart might be the exception to that, but seriously, EVERY GAME THAT DOESN’T USE THE WII MOTE IN A SIMULATIVE WAY HAS BORED ME TO DEATH AND I’VE RETURNED DIRECTLY TO THE GAME CUBE CONTROLLER). Not to mention games like Mario Party that I’m positive will cause rampant wrist problems due to meaningless repetitive motion. And then I think about my dear, sweet XBOX 360 that I’ve had for little over a year. Let me just point out what I love about it. (in no particular order, enumerated for counting purposes only.)

1. XBOX Live and the multi-player frag fests that ensue
2. XBOX Arcade (I’m a sucker for N right now)
3. XBOX media downloads, for you know, when I’m REALLY REALLY FREAKIN LAZY.
4. The possibility that that thing is the only box I need under my TV
5. Gears of War
6. Katamari Damashi
7. GTA (I have all of the old ones for XBOX as well as IV)
8. Midnight Club

Though I have to admit some of these are not unique to XBOX (but some of them are not on the Wii at all, though Damashi SHOULD BE)

So in a much needed conclusion, the Wii has yet to offer a series of games that would make me give up my 20 button controllers, and I feel like I’m in a strange Generational loop caught between the young and the old.

Well, Kucinich has brought 35 articles of impeachment against President G.W. Bush. It happened last night and could be seen on c-span. But while it was happening I was listening to news radio and there were no “special announcements” to interrupt the really awesome headlines of the moment. Nor was there any mention of the event this morning on my commute to work. Finally I was able to find Kucinich’s site (I had been typing it in incorrectly) to see the articles he introduced for myself. All should read and weap, or rejoice as it were. However I fear that with the total lack (so far) of mainstream coverage, this move may be too little too late.

I want you all to know, I almost didn’t post this. But then I thought, “self, this is not your life.” And I thusly decided to reveal to you the secret innermost workings of the internet. It is, manbabies.com. Yes, you heard me correctly. Now when you visit this site try to image yourself in one of those pictures. And from now on, consider how you compose your facial features in a picture. Because you never know when someone may swap your head with a baby’s head. Just sayin’.

In an article at the daily galaxy, there’s an interesting idea postulated that perhaps the next space war is between software companies. I would agree. HAL 9K anyone? I mean we meandered through the days of WIN 2K, I just figure it’s the next logical step. But I digress. I think previously, I linked to google sky. It’s a fun program right up to the point where you sit down and try to figure out exactly where you are in the sky. That’s the trick. You’re behind you. Oh nevermind. It’s an interesting article. Go read it.

The New York Times must always be patting itself on the back for naming their “BITS” section. I mean come on, who comes up with all those clever little acronyms. However, they do have an interesting, not so assumptive article about a media giant mfer who is now without express permission, as a part of their “service”, going to log EVERY WEBSITE THEIR USERS GO TO and sell that information to an advertiser. In Karl Marx language, they are flexing untapped capitol created by their users to create more profit. Now, I’m a business likin’ kind of guy, so I don’t mind profit too much. But I do particularly care about personal information. Who is to stop them from selling to the highest bidder? What if that bidder was the US Government? Would you like it then? What if the ad company was simply a shell company created by the government to legitimately purchase private information without the oversight and overbearing (dis-)approval of the public? This is dangerous folks, and it should not be allowed.

Finally, my google dear hearts (also cutthroat advertisers) have integrated their photo service and wikipedia directly into google maps. I recommend you all check it out. It’s a lot of fun.

Ok, I was laughing so hard at this I had to post it. In Mexico music aficionados are duking it out “Warriors” style. And with a headline that includes the words anti-emo, and riots, you know I’m into it. Also, here’s the money quote:

“They’re organizing to defend their right to be emo,”

So basically a bunch of kids who listen to Metallica and The Sex Pistols are beating up kids who listen to Taking Back Sunday and Dashboard Confessional. I’ll be totally honest. I’d rather listen to The Sex Pistols and beat up some meat head Metallica fan than be all metaled out and beat on some kid who’s whimpering in the corner because he just kissed his girlfriend.

But I’m glad they are defending they’re right to be emo. Listening to one specific genre and having it shape the course of your life is really deep and thoughtful. More power to the whole Mexican Music Genre-as-life system. If I were to pick my life through the genre of music that I listen to I’d probably follow Sun-Ra. That way I could declare that I actually came from Uranus. Sorry… that didn’t come out right I mean I’m a dignitary from France… Crap that’s not a planet… I really have some stuff to figure out if I’m going to do this thing 100%. I’ll have to get back to you on that.

Welcome to the Friday Clampdown edition.

Verizon is being implicated in a totally free surveillance service they have been providing for the FBI. Last I checked the government and politicians were the criminals, not the people. That’s just one of the many reasons why we have the constitution, folks.  My girlfriend recently dropped verizon. Thank goodness. Heaven knows what criminal activity the two of us are up to that warrants them wiretapping us without a… warrant (pun not intended).

California, sometimes known as being the most progressive state in terms of freedoms and liberties (though I frequently can’t see how socialism is an equivalent to freedom), is being cited for a court ruling that essentially makes homeschooling illegal. Now I’m no big lawyer or politician, but can that possibly be an infringement on personal rights and freedoms? I just don’t know.

a little mixed bag of loving for everyone.

England is now going to include a clause in their athlete contract that prohibit any political speech or negative discussion of conditions or “situations” while in Beijing. Failure to comply will get them on a plane home, pronto. Just look at the ridiculous picture of the Football team “Heil Hitler-ing” and you get the idea of how ridiculous it is to put those kind of restrictions on people.

Also my personal friend Hugo Chavez is threatening to stop exporting oil. I would normally see this as a good thing since it would continue to put pressure on the automotive industry to become oil independent. I say normally because I then read an article in wired about how there are several new studies showing that the biofuels movement may not be so green after all. Add that to the really environmentally bad chemicals in batteries and you’re left with… oil!

Which then brings me to a recently formed, unvented gripe: Compact Fluorescent Bulbs. Now it seems like the fashionable thing to these days is to FORCE your subjects to use these environmental wonders. But I would like to ask, “at what expense?” They contain mercury which among other things is POISONOUS. So while you on the one hand save a lot of money on energy and also a lot of carbon output by power plants, you really aren’t doing anyone a favor by having mercury hang out with your children, just like you go totally insane when there’s lead in childrens’ toys (no pun intended). On the other hand there was a comparison graph of mercury output by CFL’s compared to regular bulbs powered by a coal plant. The CFL’S won. So all I can say is: if you want to save some coin, be a little easier on the environment, don’t mind some poison in your house, and don’t mind the nagging buzz sound from cheaper cfl’s, by all means, fill your house with the buggers. But mostly I don’t want some socialist enviro-fascist bureaucratic junky telling me that these are so awesome that they are the only light bulb I’m allowed to buy or sell.

Speaking about lead paint in kids toys, this netflix for kids toys startup does test their toys for lead. Making life easier for you Type A’s (what in the world does that mean anyways?).

a: check, b: check, c: check. houston, we’re ready for take off. good article on choosing a spouse. very concise and to the point, but still a very good read.

We never made a real kilt, just an improvised skirt pattern that I wear (and it looks really awesome). But this was a neat (albeit hard-to-read) article on how to fold a kilt. Now if I could just find a pattern for a real kilt.

And finally to wrap things up, some software to download! Now I know most of my loyal readers don’t do this, but anyways, if you’re playing warcraft and you need to launch firefox, but it hogs memory, you could switch to a less memory intensive browser like ie or opera. But i’m hardcore firefox so I found a little preloader program that keeps some of the settings and things loaded in memory so it talks a lot less time to boot up when i’m hardpressed for good info from thottbot. W00t.

Well, I just published something I had written a month ago in defense of Ron Paul. It ended up being really long and boring so I quit writing it and saved it. Today I was inspired to write some drivel about some wikipedia events going on and just include my largely unoriginal thoughts.

As it turns out Islamic culture (largely it seems, uneducated extremists) is having another spat with the rest of the world. This time it’s over images of Mohammed in WikiPedia. I won’t go into it anymore than this: there seems to be a fundamental misuderstanding of freedom within the culture of Islam. Because you are free to censor images of your key prophet doesn’t mean you should. Claiming that people who, in the name of scholarship, insult you by including these images is laughable. Claiming that these same people should be more sensitive of your culture is rediculous. On a world stage Islam needs to learn something that Christians have know since Piss Christ and before even that: NOTHING IS SACRED, GET OVER IT.

And for some more wikidrama, check the register noted a cult oriented conflict of interest. If you read through the COI complaint it was resolved that he was not at fault because there weren’t any edit wars over it. I read it more as, the article is a whitewash, but no one really cares enough to make a section of criticisms. Sigh.

Finally on a lighter and much less controversial note, I leave you with a new read I’ve found this year. It’s the art of manliness and it’s not too great for manly tips as it seems geared to a much younger crowd (and I’m not that old… yet). But it is very light and easy to read with some good laughs and sometimes an insight or two.

I would first like to say that the article on Ann Coulter is the funniest wikipedia article I believe I have ever read. Now that’s not that you couldn’t show me another article that I might think is funnier still.

And second, as I read this brief article, I found myself somewhat wishing to be this kid.

Even if he gets deported, at least he picked a good country to get deported to.

Entirely a rant… on multiple Subjects. Read at your own risk.

Recently there was a tragedy in which a seemingly mentally health man went into a mall and killed a bunch of people. That’s a tragedy. People, while born, live to die. However our propensity for terminal lives does not excuse us from wishing otherwise. In fact man kind consistently seems in denial of this fact. More over we are social beings. Not only desiring things such as love and attention, but we are in physical need of these things. The effects of deficiencies in love and attention and social nurturing have very serious, scientifically observed consequences to a human psyche. And while the human psyche has also been proven to be quite tensile, malleable, flexible and resilient, there will always be a point at which all sense is lost and all a man is left with is a decision. And when his faculties fail him he will have no other choice but to do evil and inflict harm on those around him as an outcry against the social fabric that has failed to meet his emotional needs.

When the social fabric is so dramatically ruptured, it’s parts seek answers within itself. Asking questions such as, “could I have done more.” The culture will be deeply examined. The daily routine of the killer is examined. His mental health, his relationships, his success relative to the cultural status quo is held under great scrutiny. Because in all the tragedy there must be a single answer. But there is not. There will not be a single answer.

Laws do not help people be better people. They help to define what is evil and provide the government a tool with which to judge those who do evil. In any case of a workman with a tool, it is not the tool that determines it’s use but the hand that wields it. And so the government must make responsible, just laws that help to define, judge, and punish those who would impede the inalienable rights of others.

I had more to say, but I got bored writing this. Yawn.

Mostly I just wanted to point out this douchebag that’s masquerading opinion as news/fact. And actually, this can’t even be considered fact. Totalitarian statements like NONE or ALL, are simply deceptive exaggerations. I cannot think at how this actually can be considered news. Oh wait, it’s sensational news. Douchebag.

Once again there has been a mass shooting in the United States, this time in a Nebraska shopping mall. Once again there is no national outcry for gun control.

This guy’s an idiot. It’s just so banal and ignorant of the larger picture that I don’t even want to discuss. I feel sorry for you if you don’t get my frustration.

And while I’m really TO’d I’ll include this cute but useless little invention. Hint: YOU STILL HAVE TO USE THE F’ING TONGS.