Dec 31, 2012

Never Gonna Give You Up, Just Dance 4... Er, on second thought...

One Direction goin on here

Final Countdown... Final should be the operative word here...

Jailhouse Rockin' on JD4!

Need for Speed: Most Wanted - I am still playing

Back in early November, I wrote about NSF:MW and how it was the nail in the coffin for the NFS franchise.  Yet, over a month (almost TWO months, in fact) later, I am still playing the game. Why? Because at its core, driving around in different cars in different races to meet various goals is actually pretty fun.  Of course, the things I didn't like I still don't like: landing perfectly in grass but being told I "crashed" because it was in a "closed" area of the game, multiplayer, etc.

I have been systematically riding in each of the available cars, completing all the races for each car, trying to have gold medals for every car and every race in the game. It's an upgrade thing, I think. It is the challenge and satisfaction of meeting the goals set.  It is crashing into cop cars in order to start an all-out blitz against me. It is racing through traffic at 190+ mph trying not to hit anyone. It is making killer jumps.

I think the reason I keep playing is because I understand the game much better as an arcade racer than as the game I *thought* it was going to be. I do not often participate in DLC add-ons, but for less than the price a lot of iOS apps, I bought the Speed Pack. I am now zipping around the city at 200+ in several vehicles, and it is a fun game.

I still don't play multiplayer. I still hate the sorta-open world. But, I have to admit I do enjoy the game for what it is more than I don't like it for what it isn't.

Original article appears here:

Dec 21, 2012

The world didn't end. And, it's my fault.

Happy Winter Solstice, folks!  Yeap, you heard me: Happy December 21, 2012.  Wait, wasn't the world supposed to end today? Sure, sure, I know, I know. It didn't though, did it? Sorry all you doomsdayers, but the world not ending is all my fault.

You see, for months, I had been promising myself that I would write a "farewell, world" post, explaining different aspects of human life to the next lifeforms to inhabit the Earth (always presuming there would be more to come).  I had planned to talk of love and hate, war and peace (not the book), War and Peace (the book), men and women, deep space and deep seas.  I was going to cover oral communication, the written word, radio and television. Ancient tools and modern day technologies would fill screens and screens of my electronic aria.

Oh yes, it was to be an aria. Music and vocals would have risen and fallen in wondrous ebbs and flows as I bestowed upon the soon-to-have-been destroyed world the grand knowledge of, well, everything.  Don't get wrong, I am not saying that I know everything. Far from it, but I would have cross-referenced my article with the sites and sources that would make any of my past teachers proud.

But, I didn't do any of it. Heck, I didn't even start it. And so, because of that, the world was not allowed to come to the demise that so many eagerly awaited.

I do wish, however, I would have been smart enough to sell doomsday-related tools, books, etc that would have made me as rich as the charlatans that bilked billions from those that bought into the whole mess. That would have been righteous, dude.

Of course, the Mayans never actually predicted the end of the world. Their calendar (and just ONE of their calendars, at that) just ran out. Evidently, there are a LOT of people in this world who do not realize that the modern-day calendar runs out, too: every December 31. Here's the funny thing, though: Every year, it starts over. Ouch. Didn't see that one, doomsdayers, did ya?

Will the world come to some cataclysmic end? Science says so. Religion says so. But, will it really? The real question is this: So what if it does? The true end of the world would be catastrophic beyond any human ability to do anything about it. Live your lives, share your love, make the most of the days you are here on Earth.  And, before you pass on from this planet (in whatever form that takes), do something nice for someone else - at least once.

For all you expecting the world to end, I apologize. Maybe next time I'll get around to writing the "History of Everything."