Shonen Jump, Jan 06

Got this months SJ in. For some reason, I got two copies. One to me, and one to Amazing Shafeman of Shafecorp. Did someone gift me with a second subcription? Anyone?

On to the review.

We start this month with a 55 page sneak peek at "Gin Tama," a futuristic "samurai vs. aliens" manga. It's the usual boy meets boy that ruins his life but then helps save his sister from prositution story, with the ruined boy falling in love with the saviour boy in the end. Good stuff, but I'm expecting some latent homosexuality in it somewhere. That's pretty standard for samurai, though, and it means Wendy'll read it. :)

We follow that up with 3 chapters of Naruto. Good times. Naruto finishes off his match against Kiba with a couple of surprises and leaves everyone in awe of the ending. Then Hinata and Neji start their battle with Neji verbally abusing Hinata, until Naruto ruins his rant and ends the final chapter with his big mouth. As usual. Good times, and I'm really digging this series of battles. This arc is why Naruto box sets are on my Christmas list. Good stuff.

From that hard on we sail straight into One Piece. We see the conclusion of Zolo's battle with Hachi, the conclusion of Kuroobi's battle with Sanji, a little innovation in attempting to save Luffy from the ocean floor, and Usopp's battle with kiss boy is the cliff hanger at the end. I'm not sure if Usopp's battle will change him permanently, but at least right now he's growing some balls and fighting. With some serious ingenuity to boot. It'd be nice to see Usopp as the brains player in the group while everyone else just goes balls on straight forward. Rockin three chapters as usual.

Only two chapters of Shaman King, bummer. The group fights Ren's dad. He pisses and moans a lot and acts like a bad ass, but really, that just makes it a little boring during the fight. *shrug* I'm sure next issue will wrap up the fight in a big way.

Hikaru no Go is also just two chapters. The first is more friend building what have you. The second is actually and ancient Go history lesson, played out by the HnG characters. Not bad stuff.

YuYu Hakusho is build up. A little fighting at the end, but nothing major.

I skipped Yu-Gi-Oh, but the issue comes with a free Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon Card. I think I'll put both of mine on eBay. mebbe make a buck.

Oh yeah, one of my issues had TWO copies of the Hikaru no Go game sample in it, so I have three of those. Anyone want a copy?

cluster fuck

How long do you think it'll be before the circus that is Saddam's trial gets moved from Iraq to a more stable international legal system?

Gibblets Day

Well, it's Thanksgiving. So, Happy Thanksgiving to all.

What am I thankful for? Let's see. First the mushy stuff. Wendy and the cats. There are three individuals that make coming home worth my time. Without Wendy, obviously I'd still be in Illinois, but doing what, who knows. Probably NOT pursuing a hobby level freelance game writing career. Most definitely not trying to keep my finger on the 3d animation industry for future use. Most likely not nearly as satisfied with the domesticated state my life is at right now.

Then there's the friends. I'll not list em, at the risk of leaving someone out. Good times.

As for the narcissistic action, I'm most thankful I actually have a chance of doing something in an industry I love. Namely, RPGs. The first published action is out already, and I'm a little over a 1/4th done with the second project. I just found a third project I think I'm gonna shoot for, and the great news is that if I don't score that gig, I have a plethora of proposal ideas for both Dungeon magazine and/or Lichhaven Games. All of that means I can hold off on starting up Organ Grinder for a little while at least.

I think I'll cut this short, because the bars are about to close, which generally means an ER rush, which generally counteracts my feelings of thankfulness, and I wouldn't want to ruin such a fluffy post.

Christmas List

Anime
Chobits Boxed Set (or any Chobits DVD except the 1st 4 episodes)
Any One Piece Anime
Record of Lodoss War OVA Boxed Set
Record of Lodoss War TV Series Boxed Set
Any Samurai Champloo Boxed Set
Any Naruto Action
Any Shaman King Action

Movies
Seven Samurai
Aeon Flux Boxed Set
Star Wars Episode III
Lost:First Season
Any Smallville
Firefly
A-Team
Dukes of Hazzard TV Series

Music
Any Aquabats Album
Jarhead Soundtrack
I'm sure there's more to come

RPGs
Urban Arcana
D20 Modern
Monte Cook Presents the Year's Best D20
Draconomicon
Freeport Trilogy
World's Largest Dungeon (it's usually cheaper on eBay)
Shackled City Adventure Path (probably cheaper on eBay)
Dragon Compendium
Dragon Subscription
Order of the Stick books
Roll the Dice Tee
Clerics Tee
Dick Tee (The Most important of the t-shirts)
A Magical Society: Ecology and Culture
A Magical Society: Western Europe

Video Games
Star Wars Battlefront II

oh yeah

Last night, there was an A&E show on about Goblet of Fire. It was on last Thursday, but we forgot to watch it. While I'm still down on the scene after the graveyard, I have to give Mr. Radcliffe props for spending hours underwater filming the lake footage. Kind of a puff, puff, act style of shooting while holding his breath for 30 seconds at a time, then tokin on an air tank. Tough job, great section of the movie, and great acting under pressure (sorry, bad pun). Mega props there.

Go Buy It

I actually have two links for the product. One at RPG Now Edge and the other at ENWorld. The EN World link is 85 cents cheaper.

I have an 8th level vampire adventure in there, with a shocking twist if ran by a good DM. I always worry that my twist/mystery adventures suck, so I can't review it. I have two excuses on this. I asked about cartography and physical descriptions for the NPCs. At 20,000+ words they said not to worry about it, the art would be great on both. So, I sent a very basic map as a guide for the cartographer to lay down some nice color and style on. Nothing. As I whined to Joe not 5 minutes ago, an email to me woulda taken care of the whole thing. I can't complain much, though, because two weeks before the original product deadline, Hurrican Rita wiped out the company. I'm honestly surprised the thing made it out at all....

As for the rest of the product, there're two other adventures, two recipes, a buttload of NPCs, feats, monsters, and magic variants, some short fiction, decent art, several posters, a map that prints out at 71" x 85", and more, for a total of 200 pages worth of stuff. I wish it was print on demand, but I don't think the printer can do the posters credit, so they opted out. Too bad, cause it's hard to read 200 pages worth of stuff no a screen. Oh well. Regardless, I think there's plenty in there for non-gamers, too, so check out the product even if you don't play D&D.

With that, I'm done hyping the thing. Except for to my friends, whom I will harrass until they all buy it AND make their other friends buy it. Charity is good like that.

Wow. That's so big.

Lotta stuff to go over today. First of all, there's a new webcomic up over at TorC Press. I posted it last week and forgot to link to it, OR I forgot I already linked to it and am too lazy to look. Regradless, check it out.

Second, my first published D&D adventure is out. That's right, Suck Da Head, Squeeze Da Tail, a MASSIVE compilation of charity work for Habitat for Humanity is out over at RPG EDGE. I haven't had a chance to look at it yet, but as I wrote it, the beast was 20 pages plus a map. If they added art, that's a lot of action, but still just over 1/10 of the full product, so check that baby out. $10 of the $15.75 goes to the charity. Most of the rest goes to the website. Kind of a bummer, but the guys that run it our good folks, as is the publisher that puts it out. *shrug*

And finally, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I'll be disagreeing with a few people here, so get ready.

First, good flick, but severly lacking by comparison to the book. So far, I think the third has been the most enjoyable. This one cut way to much stuff out, but still catered to the people that were there to see the book on the big screen. This is NOT the flick that a non-Potter fan can pick up and know what's going on. That's disappointing. If you're a fan of the movies, but haven't read the books up to this point, you miss out on a lot with the fourth movie.

From the beginning, the Quidditch World Cup was nonexistant, and even 5 minutes of that would have been worthwhile. No Dursleys only adds to the shortened intro. Many parts of the flick just felt like a made for TV event with perfect spots for commercial breaks. Too much of the movie focues on the Tri Wizard Tournament. When were the kids in school? Where were the house elves? Wasn't there a Christmas scene? The flick was too short, or perhaps should have been two movies, possibly released 6 months apart. *shrug*

Acting wise, here's where I disagree with everyone. I thought the Dead Diggory scene was WAY overplayed by Radcliffe. It just seemed like fake hysterics to me. I really think he's the weakest of the three main actors in this flick, with Rupert nailing Ron spot on. In fact, I think Rupert acts Ron better than Rowlings WRITES Ron. I do agree with everyone that Hermione was a bit sidelined in this one.

I think overall, I might put HPatGF on the bottom rung of the four flicks thus far, but I haven't watched 1 or 2 in quite sometime, and I could probably stand to watch 4 again. None of this is to say that I didn't like the movie. I loved it. It's kind of like saying A New Hope is the weakest of the original Star Wars or Return of the King is my least favorite of the three LotR. If you have to rank something, there's gonna be a bottom rung. That doesn't mean the ladder sucks....

On another note, be warned. I've just been inspired by a blogger that's doing "101 days of D&D" on his blog as a goal to learn D&D inside and out. I MIGHT start something similar here. It would go a long way to move the blog away from the diary that it's been lately, which isn't what i envisioned it orginally. Actually, the original vision was a test front for various blog agents for Joe's website, but I stuck with it, cause it's fun, and gives me something to do on hold.

That's it from the rainbow pipe dream of sensibility. Until next time....

And All The Rectums In The House Said Heyoooooo

Just one thumb one out to the fans before the weekend, what with my latest propensity of NOT BLOGGING on the weekends.

Tonight we all hop on the latest Nimbus model and fly over to Harry Potter. Should be a good time, as we rounded up a bit of a posse. I forgot to call A LOT of people, for which I apologize. So, look for a review on this one later. Might catch Walk the Line this weekend, too, cause I love me some Johnny Cash. Now there's a man I'd share a prison cell with. I keed, I keed.

Tomorrow I need to get some serious writing action in. I thought I had a pair of monsters finished, but realized today that I have some more info to add since they're constructs. Mainly the construction part. That's all statted up on various post-its while I'm on hold (rock, finally did something constructive with that time), so it's just a matter of figuring out the cost of the more expensive variant. Still, that's 2 of 8 done, plus I need to brainstorm about 6 more, and hopefully the publisher is healthy so we can hash out an outline and true responsibilities. Such is the life of the whizbang game publisher. Again, I keed. One free adventure and a cheap book that's not official yet, that's not success.

Sunday? Well, Sunday I can hopefully spend a little time with a certain lady friend I have. Her name rhymes with Trendy. We didn't get to hang much this week at all. There should be more writing in here, too.

And somewhere in here I plan to hop online and kill many people, hopefully at least 10 in one round while playing a support trooper, allowing me to get my damn BASIC SUPPORT COMBAT BADGE out of the way. 7 is the closest I've got. Twice. Once solo, and once with a solid squad flying around in a Blackhawk Helo going paratrooper style on the enemy bases. There is nothing more fun than parachuting out of a helicopter and unloading a clip from an M249 SAW or PLA Type 95 light machine gun onto somebodies head. Well, taking them out with the rotating cannon mounted to the side of the chopper BEFORE you jump it pretty fun. :)

And that's it from the peanut gallery, with Fett's Vette by MC Chris still stuck in my head pretty solidly.

On my knees

Now, I know that it might have seemed like I was really pissed off last night after Munchkin, but I wasn't. That's just good roleplaying. ;) When anyone at level 9 flips a Drooling Slime, what's the point?

So, here's my proposal for a little house rule. Sure, it's geared at you, Nick, but that's only because of your uncanny ability to win by fighting a Drooling Slime, Pit Bull, Potted Plant, or Crabs. How could such a glorious champion go from killing a Squidzilla to squashing such ants?

Which is why I have two house rules proposals. I'm post em here so that anyone else searching for Munchkin House Rules can take up the cause. I'll rank them Simple and Not-So-Simple.

Simple - You can not win by defeating a monster with less than half your levels. Keep the treasure. Rape the corpse (is it really rape if they don't say no?). Do what you will, but gain no level from such a heinous squashing of the meek and poor.

Not-So-Simple - Not only can you not win by defeating a monster with less than half your levels, but if you're at level 9, you must walk away (really really fast) from any beast that is less than half your levels UNLESS you trick it into fighting by giving it a treasure, ie "That thief lame goblin stole my Boots of Butt Kicking! I kill it!" Sure, you lose that treasure (broke in the battle), but you get any treasure the villianous knave had. Bit of a gamble, sure, but what game isn't?

And finally, a Munchkin Variant (that's a search term, too)!

Munchkin Variant - Iron Munchkin (can't rememver if this is in the rules or not)

When you die, you return to level 1 and Lose All Your Stuff, unless you have a Henchman to carry it for you. Although, if you die with a henchman in tow, an opponent can Kill The Henchman to take all of your stuff. In addition, the above Not-So-Simple rule applies (so if you fail to walk away really, really fast, you might die, which sucks, but such is the price of arrogance).

Could be fun. And I hope I managed to catch the flavor of the orginial rules in this post. If not....eat me. I go well with Rat on a Stick.

Truly Perfect Balls

Dig.
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/16nov_gpb.htm?list786792

Be sure to click on the "techonology" link in the text. It's all pretty damn cool and quite ingenius in my book.

See, told you the next post would have something worthwhile in it.

Big Change

We got our first snow last night. When I got off at 6 it hadn't been dumping for long. Between then and when I got home at a little after 7 (stopped and got new shoes), it was more like snow in New Mexico than Minnesota, both in the sky and on the ground. Basically, the shit was pretty much melting before it hit the ground, but that didn't mean that everybody on the road wasn't going 10-15 mph below the speed limit and bottlenecking around on and off ramps. Oy. I want to video tape this phenomenon one year and whip it out whenever someone from "the North" comments on the idiots to the south not knowing how to drive in snow. Seems like everyone up here forgets over the summer.

On the other side of the change coin, my little attempt to get writing by blogging failed yesterday. I did pump some shit out at lunch in the break room, but that was it. Here's what I'm noticing. Almost from the minute I clock in, my creative brain goes on standby and I become some standard worker. I do what needs to be done here at work, and entertain myself with common internet means while on hold. Occasionally, I won't hang up from an insurance if I'm reading a good article or something, but for the most part, it's wage slave all the way. Break time hits, and I usually drill on the creative front again, unless I just sit at my desk and veg out.

Now, with this info, you'd think that I'd get home and be rearin to go. Nope. There's this little thing called a commute that gets in my way. And dinner. I can usually get something done on Friday night, cause dinner can be whatever, but if Wendy or I has to consider left overs for lunch the next day, kiss everything goodbye. Kind of weird, but that's what I've noticed lately. I get a shitload of stuff done in the morning, though. Just wish I could make myself get up earlier.

Anyway, maybe tomorrow I'll have something worth reading.

A Rambling Rally

I had a wonderful goal of actually getting some writing done during one of the myriad times I'm on hold today at work. My intent was to work on the first pair of monsters in the monster book I'm working (still no contract solution for those of you in the know, but I don't want to fall behind). I figured in the roughly 2 hours I spend on hold in a day, I should be able to throw that bad boy out quickly.

In fact, I'm hoping that with this post I'll actually get in the mood to write. Lately, it's not a matter of time keeping me from rocking, it's a matter of not feeling like rocking. Joe over at TorC Press calls it his November Dulldrums. As I'm sure I've blogged about before, I generally get pretty bummed this time of year. Major bummer there, because Wendy loves this time of year.

Regardless, I'm not here to grumble about that. I'm exercising my word skills in hopes of getting psyched up to write. That's what I've done today to make me feel proud, Healthpartners Hold Line.

One quick grumble, summbitch caffeine hasn't been doing jack for me lately. Scares me a little bit. But suddenly, I realized I forgot my allergy meds this morning, which goes a long way to explain today's lethargy. That realization goes a long way towards incentive to overcome that lethargy, seeing as I hate to be dependant on any chemicals whatsoever.

Ironically, I just exhausted my last opportunity to be on hold for awhile. Circle of life, I guess. Anwyay, thanks for the motivation blog readers. Back to work.

Review:BF 2 online

Last night I played Battlefield 2 online on an unranked server. Boy do I suck. I think my kill to death ratio was something like 5:9. Admittedly, that's better than about 5 people on my team at any given time and 10-12 on that server, but it still feels like the majority of the opposing army is gunning for you at that point. Especially when some damn sniper in a tower pops you so much you literally fear him (AmzngShfmn [fears] assholeintower). Then there's the bastards in the helicopters that can somehow pick a camoed sniper out of a bush while whipping nuts overhead. How do they do that from just a muzzle flash?

Regardless, even an unranked server is damn addicting, and I didn't quit til some jackwad managed to jump out of the tank I was shooting (with an antitank rocket) and shoot me in the face with his own antitank rocket in one smooth, uber cool looking motion. I can't imagine what the ranked servers are like, where you can score points toward promotions, awards and badges. My first goal? The basic sniper badge. I need 15 sniper kills in one round for that. My best so far? 3. Gonna be awhile.

Next test is squad play. Last night I ran lone wolf the whole time, so I'm gonna try some squad based action. That, or I'm gonna work on finding good defensive positions to pick people off from as a sniper. *shrug*

And just in case anybody is worried that my new found addiction for a game that I can't really explain why I like it will interfere with the D&D writing project, fear not! Mornings and breaks at work are taking up that time, and I'm still ahead of schedule. Right now, I'm supposed to have an outline done for a conference call this weekend. I actually have the outline done, some of the research done for the first chapter I'm proposing and FOUR of the monsters statted up to the point I can submit them to the editor and artist. Of course, that's the easy stuff, so I'm sure to slow down once I start writing.

Now if I can just get something to work putting the Argren characters on the user group I made for that campaign. Arrgh. Must. Refrain. From. Buying. a. New. Scanner!

Well, I'm still on hold, so I'd love to continue this rambling journey through my mind, but I've exhausted the current subject matter.

Cheers.

Review: Battlefield 2

Scored Battlefield 2, by EA Games last night. It's a first person shooter, meant for online group play with squad and team tactics. I played offline, by myself last night. Now, reviewing a primarily online team game after only playing it solo is kind of like reviewing a sports car after driving around in first gear.

Manual
Regardless, we'll start with the manual, cause that's what I always see first (as of late, I ignore the box, since I'm to the point of only buying video games on recommendation from friends). The manual sucks. There's a brief keyboard chart, then a lot of minimal entries about things that are pretty self explanatory. The important bits, though, get the same minimal coverage. For instance, Commo Rose, which is a hotkey set-up to issue pre-programmed messages to your squad tells you how to bring up the Rose, then gives an example of showing enemies on radar to your squad with the "spotted" command. I missed that option entirely, because the entry was so damn minimal it LOOKED unimportant. Normally, I don't have that problem, reading the manual cover to cover, but MOST people skim for the important bits. A manual should make the important bits look important.

In Game Tutorial
In game tutorial? While I was running around, a voice would come to me saying things like "The radar installment next to you belongs to your enemy. By destroying it, you will hamper his ability to target your team with artillery strikes." Ok. How do I destroy it. I didn't try anti-tank missiles, but I know the M-16 grenade launcher and hand grenades are ineffective at this. Better try C-4 next time. Really, though, what limited in game tips there are come across as unobtrusive and probably handy for anyone that read even less of the manual than I did.

Graphics
Graphics are solid. A-. Vehicles look great, as does most of the setting. Even modern video capabilities, though, still limit the amount of detail you can get into a low poly human if you're not going for a cartoon or artificial look. But, I'm a freakin animator about 3 weeks out of the year, so I'm notoriously critical of this aspect of any game or movie. Take the trailer for King Kong. I spent twenty minutes at work picking apart the lighting in the T-Rex vs Kong scene to a lady that had no clue what I was talking about. And that scene's great! But I digress. A- is a great fucking score for a first person shooter that plays this fast, because you don't have time to consider the inherent beauty of the nice water render. By the way, the water does look pretty damn good. Too clear in my book. However, it's out of place. Almost realistic water (cept too clear) in the middle of an obviously computer generated, low poly, almost stock looking shader ground...

Game Play
Here's where the validity of my opinion weakens, as noted above. First, if you don't like first person shooters, fear not, there are alternate camera angles. Hard as fuck to shoot with them, but I only tried the alternate angles while driving. Might be easier to shoot if you're not sitting in the back of a Humvee whipping nuts across a beachhead into an airport occupied by desert forces. I've also only tried the assault troops (infantry), anti-tank trooper, and sniper. I LOVE the sniper, but I've got to rethink the tactics on him.

My biggest problem adjusting to the game has been the fragility of the troops. Much more realistic than Star Wars Battlefront. In that game, a twitchy gamer can take a storm trooper and hold a base all by his lonesome, mostly because of the radar. You don't get radar in BF2, unless a team member uses the "spotted" command above. So, while I can easily get to a command point and whack all of the defenders, I only successfully captured one command point by myself. All other times, a truck of enemies would drive up the front door, and while I was gleefully blasting away with my M-16, an enemy would take me out from a side door, window, or alternate access point, usually with a well placed grenade.

Obviously, if I just learned of the Commo Rose this morning, I might have to take a look at being Squad Leader. Last night, I just joined a squad. That's the way to go. I died 500% less as a squad member. Why? Again, one man is not an army in BF2. Being in a squad meant I got communication in my head set. While it was never as clear as "Sniper to your Right, Red2!" it did help me find people to kill, and more importantly, it gave me squad objectives. Without those, I tend to just run around randomly stirring up nests of enemies. lol.

Bottom line, the game plays fast and hard.

Options
One thing I don't like is the battle set up. There doesn't seem to be any variants, so you're always just playing capture the flag. I didn't see a way to set up a series of maps, so the same map just kept repeating. It's about 3-5 clicks and 1 or 2 minutes to load a new map. I love random map selectors. After you pick a map, you pick a side. Can't change that either. The game stats lead me to believe that each map was the best of three, then a new map, but that didn't happen. These may be options online, but offline play should be as user friendly as online play. You'll get a bigger audience that way.

Another option I'd like to have is a walkthrough level. Maybe a walkthrough level that starts a series of progressive missions with some underlying goal, ie capture this airfield from terrorists, then raid a series of weapons depots, eventually culminating in finding their HQ and capturing/killing their leader. The maps are there. The enemies are there. It doesn't seem like much extra programming to put together a little offline story that just plays the maps in a certain order....

But overall, great game. I doubt I'll do an online review, but I am looking forward to grabbing a game or two with some friends that play the game. My only beefs are the manual (which I usually have a beef with) and the emphasis on online gaming. Seriously, Star Wars Battlefronts and probably Battlefronts II are both targeted toward online gaming, but I love me some SWBF and have NEVER played it online or with more than two people. I need to get a modem for my PS2.... Or just wait and get a PS3. Actually, I'll prolly get the new Nintendo, because than I can DL all my favorite old games for cheap. But that's a review for another day.

Lunar rezoning

Read this article real quick.

Now, this is all well and good, pretty exciting in fact, except for two things.

Number 1, people. Are the people of Earth, specially the hippies like Wendy (and me to some extent) gonna sit by and watch as the face of the nighttime sky is rezoned into highways? Not likely. That's gonna take some serious PR, and I just don't see the people of America getting behind it. Specially if nighttime moon starts to look like nighttime Earth with all of the lights and what not.

Number 2. Lunar dust is made because of all of the space particles, even tiny ones, smashing into the face of the moon. That's not going to stop. So that huge radio dish they propose making is gonna last how long before we have to do it again? Are the resources it takes to make this glass highway going to be worth it if you have rebuild it every so often? That of course depends on how often you have to rebuild it, but with the cyclical nature of this, really the most likely thing I can see occuring is the process being used for creating building material for lunar settlements themselves. With the weakness in lunar gravity, you're probably better off using flight as the primary means of transportation between moon bases. It's probably a lot more energy efficient than building and maintaining moon glass highways for lunar buggies. Not to mention the cost of building rovers capable of shielding large amounts of people, materials and (at least initially) experiments from space debris and radiation. I mean, you already have the flight craft at that point, and you'll have to take any ground craft up with you anyway.... The guy in the article might be thinking outside the space transportation box, but it's still to Earth based I think. *shrug* Of course, I'm not a scientist that sticks soap in the microwave, but bet your ass I'm doing it with the old one when we buy a new one!

boinkety boink

The other night on the news there was a brief blurb about some Panthers cheerleaders being arrested for inciting a bar brawl in Tampa. They mentioned something about one of them having sex in the bathroom, which is what started the brawl.

What they didn't mention was that the cheerleaders are reported to have been have sex in a stall With Each Other, then punching out someone that interrupted them! Now that's news!

That's all heresy, though, which is why they didn't report the lesbian part, probably, but I don't know why they reported the sex at all, since the whole sex thing is heresy. Regardless, why else would two cheerleaders starta brawl in a bathroom if sex wasn't involved somewhere?

Anyway, the full report according to Yahoo is here. They both lost their jobs, and one is facing felony charges for giving a false ID, get this, from a cheerleading team member that wasn't in Tampa that day! Now, having a friend that did a similar thing when we were young and stupid, she's in BIG trouble. Oofta. Bottom line, if you get busted, fess up to who you are, unless you've got a squeak proof identity. It only makes things worse. Much worse.

what I learned at work today

Dig it. Here's some epilepsy treatment info. Turns out the vagus nerve has nothing to do with the nether regions. Take away all my fun, medical world. Take it away.

There's a reason I want to live here.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051107/ts_nm/security_australia_dc

Read this. Apparently, in Australia, it's illegal to "intentionally" be a member of a terrorist organization or to intentionally direct terrorist activities. Good thing no one's figured out how to unintentionally strap a bomb to their chest, yet.

Review:Jarhead

Fun weekend. Caught Jarhead Saturday, spent Sunday sick on the couch from drinking too much. Way too much. Stupide me. Scored Danger Doom, and it's so good I got it twice. Actually, I bought it, and it turns out John got it for my birthday, too. I'll review it, probably tonight, but certainly later. For now, Jarhead.

The flick's based on the book by the same name, which is written by the Marine that's the main character (I think). Haven't read the book, so no review there. Regardless, I dug the movie. Only about the last 1/3 or so actually deals with the military's time in Saudi Arabia and charge into Iraq. There isn't a single shot fired until the end of the movie in celebration. Not your typical war movie. Much more psychological than action.

The acting is solid. The cinematography is solid (I could prolly do a whole post on the very subtle symbolism in the flick, specially during the oil scenes). For the dude's, genital humor abounds. For the chics, military dude butt abounds. Having a brief, failed stint in basic training, I can vouch for the authenticity of the humor and the training shenanigans.

However, if the average viewer is looking for something more than entertainment, Jarhead's probably not the way to go. There isn't much in the way of obvious message, which means that anything a person takes from the flick is an interpretation of the designs of the writer and director. That's the way I like it. I could see a statement to the righteousness of America saving Kuwait in the way the footprints of the soldiers turn the sand, the oil clinging to their boots and leaving the white sand exposed. I didn't see that, but I could. In junior high, I thought that, but then war was cool then.

This review is brought to you in all of its disjointed glory by "suddenly not being on hold", the public service shocker at work. I'll leave you with this glorious image from the wondrous run of our leadership. That's right. They're goin straight.

culligan man

Our water cooler says something along the lines of "This water only intended for drinking purposes," or "Do not use for anything but drinking." I can't remember and I'm too lazy to go look. Actually, I'm on hold with an insurance company I've been trying to contact since Monday, so I won't go look.

My question is twofold. First, what happens if the water is used for something else? Will it corrode my radiator if I use it as coolant in a desperate situation? Will it not properly clean my body if I'm stuck with no running water and nothing but Culligan bottles?

That brings about the second question. What is the chemical difference in Culligan bottled water that makes it safe for us to consume, but not safe for us to use for any of the other uses one can utilize water for? Certainly one wouldn't want to waste bottled water on any use that isn't hindered by contaminants and chemicals from regular water, but short of saving money, why shouldn't you use Culligan water for anything besides drinking?

Which begs a third question. Can you cook with it? Am I in danger by heating it in the microwave for tea? Is some radioactive mini-monster consuming the caffeine in my belly, bent on destroying the world through my intestinal disfunction?

Attack From The Skies

It's time to review Shonen Jump again. Yay!

Naruto: Naruto wraps up the fight between Sasuke and Ino. Another quick round blazes through, and finally, Naruto enters the action. We only get one chapter of that battle, but it's enough for Naruto to surprise everyone. The middle fight is between Shikamaru (shadow warrior) and Tsuchi (sound ninja). Short, but sweet, and I loved the tactics employed by Shikamaru. Oh yeah, I forgot there was another round of fighting in here with one of the sand team, but it happened off screen and VERY quickly.

One Piece: OP jumps into the fight with Arlong's crew. As expected, Luffy jumps straight in, wallops most of the weaker crew, and then Zolo, Usopp, and Sanji go to work. That's right, Usopp gets some action. Zolo's wounds start to bother him, Sanji gets distracted, and we leave on a cliff hanger with the villagers REALLY wanting to help out. Utter distruction and chaos are the norm this month. So far, I'm thinking the Arlong arc has been the best I've read.

Yu Yu Hasuke: The team gets a little time off. Hanging with the girls. The egg hatches. A little humor ensues. And somehow, there's time for more Reiki training.

Hikaru no Go: Akira finishes up his match. Sai thinks Akira's an angel. I can't figure out why I like this one so much, but I do. *shrug*

Shaman King: Ryu gets his pompadour split in twain. As Horohoro and Ryu fend off the dreaded five-curse squad, Yoh goes to rescue Ren. Ren is still set on destroying his father, and Yoh insists on helping. First, they have to make it through the torture brothers.

As usual, I skipped Yu-gi-oh and Rurouni Kenshin. Overall, it was a solid issue. Good times.