first of all, this is a game called loops of zen. i’m linking you to the full window version because it’s way better that way. the game is a great little brain teaser that doesn’t require that much commitment… not that i’m afraid of commitment… well maybe i am when it comes to video games.

in the way of games, i’ve added two more neat ones to my arcade repertoire. the first is age of booty. it’s a fun pirate themed real time strategy game that strikes me to be in the theme of settlers of catan… but in real time, not turn based. at any rate, it’s probably just the hex tiles that remind me of it. you move your ship around the ocean board attacking merchant ships, other players and harbors around the map. i’ve been extremely addicted to it as of late, and i highly recommend it.

the second xbla title i recently downloaded is castle crashers. i’m not sure on the history of this game, but i do know it has quite a cult following so i’m guessing this game was originally launched as an artsy flash game. at any rate, sarah saw the demo of this one and we were hooked. it’s a well designed 2d side scrolling rpg reminisce of the old days of gauntlet.

finally, my good friend phil introduced me to portal for the first time last night. from the guys that did half-life and a group of college kids, this game presents an interesting and worthwhile twist in fps to bring you the fps puzzle game like never before. basically, you shoot portals out and warp everywhere. it sounds underwhelmingly simple, but it actually makes for a great new puzzle idea that i’m now itching for more of.

next up is a shiny new site that i’m dying to tell everyone about. it’s lala.com, and it’s part itunes, part itunes music store, and part last.fm all blended together into one, pretty easy, pretty familiar interface. i signed up yesterday, uploaded my entire library over the course of the evening, and voila! i can listen to almost all of my music over the internet through lala.com. if you go there, sign up, and like it, be sure to friend me.

oh yeah! and last up, before i forget is hobnox.com. the site has a bunch of interesting stuff, but i haven’t really taken the time to explore. the big thing that’s really caught my eye in the past is their audiotool. it’s a reason-like synthesizer that’s web-based. they finally added a record feature, so besides just doodling around on it, you can now save what you’ve done.

over and out!

Party Sites

• Libertarian - http://www.lp.org
• Green - http://www.gp.org
• Constitutional - http://www.constitutionparty.com
• New American Independant - http://www.newamericanindependent.com/
• Ralph Nader - http://www.votenader.org
• PSL - http://www.pslweb.org/site/PageServer
• Socialist - http://www.sp-usa.org/
• Alan Keyes - http://www.alankeyes.com/

Previously I had lived in the 6th district, and only recently moved into your district. I’m still adjusting myself to the new local and federal political landscape of Malvern, so please forgive if you feel this is misinformed or inaccurate.

I recently heard you speak your opinion and reasoning for voting for the recent “bailout” bill on the 1210AM radio talk show hosted by Michael Smirconish. I felt very disappointed in hearing that you, after hearing from a majority of your constituents, decided to vote for a massive bailout of major banking institutions, against their expressed opinions on the matter.  To understand your perspective on the issue, I also read your press release in regards to your vote on this bill. (http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/pa07_sestak/pr_080930.shtml) And while I feel you are well meaning on your “Yea” vote, in the end, the bill as a package must require a vote of “Nay”.

I understand that it is your privilege and right, given to you by your constituents, to choose in a way that you think best for the nation even if they desire you to vote differently. However in this case I feel you more exemplify the out of touch social elite ruling economic class, than of wisdom, sense, or care for the needs your voting bloc.

As I understand it, now that the Senate has passed some form of this bill, you will again be voting on this bill. I ask that you would reconsider your original choice and vote against a bill that may seem to rebound a part of the economy, but will in actuality only delay the correction to the market that must eventually happen. The longer you delay this correction, the worse it will be, and you, along with your colleagues will be to blame for the mistake you made in medling with what is supposed to be a market free from socialist or communist leaning entanglements from the government.

I would also ask that you consider voting against the new version of this bill returning from the Senate because of these “bribes” placed in this bill. These bribes distort the true nature of what is trying to be done here and no good can ever come of a bad bill being bribed into law in this way. Some of these sections are:

• Sec. 105. Energy credit for geothermal heat pump systems.
• Sec. 111. Expansion and modification of advanced coal project investment credit.
• Sec. 113. Temporary increase in coal excise tax; funding of Black Lung Disability Trust Fund.
• Sec. 115. Tax credit for carbon dioxide sequestration.
• Sec. 205. Credit for new qualified plug-in electric drive motor vehicles.
• Sec. 405. Increase and extension of Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund tax.
• Sec. 309. Extension of economic development credit for American Samoa.
• Sec. 317. Seven-year cost recovery period for motorsports racing track facility.
• Sec. 501. $8,500 income threshold used to calculate refundable portion of child tax credit.
• Sec. 503 Exemption from excise tax for certain wooden arrows designed for use by children.

(From Mr. Andrew Leonard, http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/2008/10/01/senate_bailout_extravaganza/index.html, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2008 13:36 PDT)

In addition, from the “earmark sections” and from footage of the Senate on CSPAN, the passage of this bill and the debate thereof is more akin to a three ring circus or mafia crime sydicate, and not the dignified debate of lawmaking that the citizens of this country deserve. Please abstain from adding or voting in favor of these earmarks which are really bribes for votes.

Finally, I have been enraged by what I feel is your outright ignorance of the people you were sworn to represent that I cannot, in good conscience vote for you when you run for your next term in Congress.

Mr. R. Lee Creasy

MSIT Bloomsburg University

BA Drexel University

I’m not going to vote for Obama, here’s a couple vague reasons why. 1) He’s only been in the Senate for a short time. This makes me think someone is propping him up to run as a figure head. Call me rascist, but I think who ever is propping him up may think it has something to do with the color of his skin and the national pasttime of looking at the cover and not reading the pages. 2) His voting record really isn’t as great as what he talks about in his speaches. He voted for FISA and Iraq. 3) Democrats = socialism in the name of victim hood.

I’m definitely not going to vote for McCain, here’s a couple reasons why. 1) He’s a soldier. In my cursory remembrance of US history, most of our worst presidents were war heros. I’m specifically thinking of the Grant administration. 2) His voting record is probably worse than Obama. He misses more votes than he casts and when he does cast, he actually tries to think about the repurcussions, which brings me to 3) He’s an idiot. He graduated near last in his class, thinks important issues that he isn’t up-to-speed on are funny and still thinks that Czechoslovakia exists.

In fact, with all the grumbling I do, I’d make a good case that the government should be overthrown for being criminals and not being subject to the laws they create and generally ignoring the will of the people. But I digress. I feel like my first two paragraphs were pretty good and I’m neither judge nor jury, just a humble subject, so I won’t go on.

I love the conversation when you meet up with a friend: “so what do you want to do?”, and the reply: “ehh, nothing, you”, “yeah, I don’t know”. With my group of friends this conversation invariably ends in one of several ways: TV, Videogames, or Jam Session. It was after one of these conversations with a larger assembly of my friends we began to play beats from a keyboard and battle rap each other. This may seem like a totally legitimate course of action for some people, but a closer look at the social make up and musical taste of our group would reveal, without a doubt, that rapping is not on the top of our “fun things to do” list.

However, we ended up rapping against each other, with each other, and around each other. It was hilarious. We rapped about school subjects like geography and science as much as we rapped about the funny growth on my nose or each other’s sexual preferences.

So, to that unexpected fun burst of creativity i have found some fun links for improving the battle rap skills of those around me. Read these and take heed. Though it may not happen often, battle rapping may soon become a regular member of our “bored-time” repertoire.

1. How to SURVIVE a Battle Rap
2. Learn your flocabulary
3. Wiki on freestyle wrapping

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.

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.

First is hobnox. Most of you who know me, know I’m always rattling on about music I make with ableton live and reason. Here is a audio generation tool that is based off of a similar usability theory as reason: graphically recreate the instruments and their interaction (i.e. cables etc.). The plus side for all of you and myself is that you don’t have to install anything (until they come out with an adobe air version). Which means that you don’t have to know a whole ton about music software, just music hardware in general. If you can hook up some guitar pedals and fiddle with a beat machine, you’re there. It’s a lot of fun. My cube-mate wasted a couple hours because I introduced him to the site (sorry). So have fun. If you figure out a way to record what you’ve done (you can’t save yet) put it on muxtape and let me know about it.

Second, is just a little article for all my friends looking to get their money into the money making business. High yield savings is the first step, and this article shows you how you can figure out just how much interest your savings account is bringing in. Very helpful. Also, you’ll want a calculator. I recommend and use instacalc on a daily basis.