Wednesday, December 31, 2008

And Now The Rest of The Story

Now that I have a few more minutes, there's a little bit more to the tale of the XBox.  I rolled in to Target, cash burning a hole in my pocket. I was determined to take the plunge on the 360.

Map image

I bought it, went to visit with my family, then head home later in the evening to fire it up.  Opening the apparently factory fresh package, I immediately noticed something was awry with the bottom of the console.  It looked like the case had been opened then closed improperly; the side didn't fit flush with the end of the unit. 

Taking it out of its bag, I found surprise number two.  There was a gaping hole where the 60 GB hard drive was supposed to be.

Surprise three was that the bezel cover on the CD tray was missing.  Not only that, the original sticker that belongs on the bezel cover was carefully placed over the exposed DVD tray.

Of course, by the time I'd realized all this, I was 30 miles from the store I bought it from, and it was an hour to closing.

Mercifully, I was able to exchange it uneventfully with one from my local store that actually came with all the parts it was supposed to have, and the rest is history.

Joining the 21st Century

After nearly five years without seriously gaming, I gave in.  I finally caught up with the rest of the human race and got an XBox 360.  So far, I'm kicking myself in the ass for not getting one sooner.  I figured I'd be all conservative and just start out with one game (not including the groan inducing Kung Fu Panda and Lego Indiana Jones crap they bundled), so I picked up Call of Duty World at War.  

Keep in mind, I've been living under a rock and this was my first hands on experience with a 360.  I fired it up...jumped into the game, and my jaw hit the floor.  I simply didn't realize how good it was going to look.  Not to mention the little giggling like a schoolgirl moment I had when I first took down a bad guy and watched the blood literally spray from the back of his head. 

For someone whose last game was Call of Duty: United Offensive on the PC, I'm so glad to be back in action there aren't words to express it.  XBox Live, here I come.

Disclaimer: Yes I know I'm late to the party.  Let me have my fun.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Communism, Ahoy

Congressional Democrats are pushing legislation to send $25 billion in emergency loans to the beleaguered auto industry in exchange for a government ownership stake in the Big Three car companies.

And Chairman Obama hasn't even left an ass-print in the "big chair" yet. 

Friday, September 12, 2008

Deviant Diatribes

Sometimes you just have to sit back and wonder what the hell 'Muslim clerics' are on. Case in point:

Saudi Arabia's top judiciary official has issued a religious decree saying it is permissible to kill the owners of satellite TV networks that broadcast immoral content. The 79-year-old Sheik Saleh al-Lihedan said Thursday that satellite channels cause the "deviance of thousands of people."

Wouldn't murder be classified as deviant?

"I want to advise the owners of these channels, who broadcast calls for such indecency and impudence ... and I warn them of the consequences," he said. "What does the owner of these networks think, when he provides seduction, obscenity and vulgarity...those calling for corrupt beliefs, certainly it's permissible to kill them"

Oh, ok, that makes it all better.

Basically he says it's ok to kill people for inciting deviance. Now I could be foggy on this, but as far as I know, murder is considered deviant; I'm pretty sure he just signed his own death warrant.

People who live in glass mosques...

Friday, September 5, 2008

Wait For It.

Just wait for it.


Thursday, September 4, 2008

Uh Huh Huh Huh

I may be on to an actual political scandal here. Detailed photographic analysis indicates Joe Biden may be the latest politician to fall victim to a raging libido. Could this be his illegitimate son? Compare the images for yourself. The implications are staggering.

BIDEN.jpg6a00d834515c8c69e200e54f59d97d8833-800wi.jpg












Technorati
: , , , ,

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Signs of Geekitude

You know you're a geek when you're sitting at work with a live-blog of the new Google browser launch in the background. (Ok, that's not the geeky part.) Upon seeing that the download is now live, jumping up and doing a full on wind-sprint back to your office to install it because you're convinced it will be so popular that the links will go FUBAR and you'll lose your 0-day cred - that's pure Geek.




Technorati : , , ,

Monday, September 1, 2008

Letting The Truth Be Known

There are some people on Earth whose entire existance hinges singularly on their ability to be a raging asshole of epic proportion. I know this will come as a great shock to most, and should this information get out to the general public there could well be mass panic, riots in the streets...looting, or even the collapse of major religions. Ok, well not really, but still.


asshole.jpg


I'm going to open the floodgate and let the torrent flow. My boss is an asshole.


I don't just say this because he's my boss. No, I've had bosses I actually got along famously with in the past. It's just this guy...my God where to begin? The way I usually explain him to people is this. Imagine a hyperactive Jack Russel Terrier with a really bad attitude who is being forced to intake huge quantities of meth.


You only see him at most once or twice a week, and then it's only because he's found you've been party to some excessively minor infraction of a rule that nobody knew existed before he shat it out in a fit of panic at the need to have a rule with which to charge you. I don't know if it's just because he's a diminutive little prick or maybe he just has a diminutive little prick and has to overcompensate for it by running off at the mouth.


There's definitely some Freudian principle at work with him. Of that I'm sure. He's incapable of actually uttering anything polite or inspiring without shortly following it up with a sniping, backstabbing, mean-spirited, verbal dagger of sheer douchebaggery.


It's like...no child left behind, only it's 'no assholish thing left unsaid.' Just as sharks will die if they stop swimming, I think he's convinced his penis will shrink even further if he stops taking shots at people. Apparently he's unable or unwilling to realize that there is a time for being an asshole at work, but that time does not extend from open to close every single day of the week.


I am sick of sucking it up and just letting him rant. From bringing up issues which should have been


resolved privately at staff meetings to calling me at 5 pm on my day off and giving me a blast of shit for not being there and then lying through his crooked teeth and telling me he told me I had to be and too many other instances to get into. (The keyboard would actually break from overuse if I detailed the reasons I can't stand him into a compact, War and Peace style 'tract.')


If you're reading this, ***, I would just like to tell you politely: Piss off, asshole.




Technorati : , , ,

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Tales from the Deep

Hoax, dinosaur or just (too much of ) something in the water; a group of Swedish film makers claim to have caught the equivalent of the Loch Ness Monster on film.


13980.jpg


I'm sure in the end it'll be CGI or some other such gimmick, but it's still humbling to think that something like this might really be out there somewhere even if the odds are remote.




Technorati : , ,

Mac Daddy Gunsmith gets Life

Just so you know the US doesn't have the corner on guns and gang problems, a man in Britain has just been sentenced to life in prison for converting replica weapons into fireable versions.

Grant Wilkinson drove a Porsche and entertained his girlfriend in five-star hotels with the profits he made from converting replica machine pistols to fire live ammuntion...ballistic tests linked a spate of shootings to the same batch of guns. Officers visited Sabre Defence, in Northolt, West London, where Wilkinson had bought the replica weapons...claiming that they were for use in a new James Bond film.

It is believed that he sold his weapons, for between £1,500 and £2,500 each, to a network that could trade with gangland leaders.


Amazingly enough, this wasn't a small bedroom style operation.

Tenants of The Briars, a property owned by Wilkinson in Three Mile Cross, near Reading, became curious about the ramshackle sheds at the end of the garden and opened the doors. Inside they found computer-operated lathes, workbenches, firearms and weapon components in one building and what appeared to be a test-firing range in another.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Siriusly Insane

185 days have gone by since last I labored to sit myself down before the keyboard and spew my thoughts out here. Of all things to prompt me to actually put finger to plastic once more, I'm sitting here listening to Sirius at w**k, and am stunned with how repetitive this station is.

Though I don't know the actual name of this station (access to the receiver is more precious than gold here,) I can say that apparently it's called 'Top 5 80s Rock Songs.'

The entire catalog seems to consist of Quiet Riot, Guns N' Roses and occasionally, some Crue for a change of pace. Don't get me wrong, I like some of the songs. It's just that there's really only so many times in a day you can hear Welcome to the Jungle before you want to scream and or tear someone's head off in a fit of maniacal rage and then paint my own simulated Pleistocene cave art on the walls with their blood. Or maybe that's just me. I don't know, I guess I could be over-reacting a bit. Either way, for the six or seven people out there who regularly stumble across this site, here's lookin' at you. I'm back.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Just Ouch

I guess I'm a bit of a square when it comes to things like body modification and extreme piercings and things of that sort.  I don't have any markings or holes that didn't come from the factory, but that doesn't mean anything other than I don't like putting holes or marks on myself.

I do find it fascinating when people go beyond what is considered normal in terms of piercings and body art; some of the extremes people go to are stunning.  I have to confess that I don't really understand the motivations behind it all, but I don't think I really could unless I was a part of that culture.

Maybe that's why I found this guy so fascinating.

 

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Enter the Strandbeest Part II

Today is turning into TED day apparently. Two  seconds after my last post, I came across this, bringing a little more depth and detail to my most popular post ever.


Life Is Amazing

Have a look at this astonishing undersea life.  Who says something needs to be alien to be so bizarre?  Well worth the few minutes it takes to watch.

Share this post :

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

US Gov't Recovers Aliens in Arizona Crash

These aliens didn't come from outer space though.

A mini-van full of illegals rear-ended a Homeland Security SUV this morning on I-10...The 11 illegal immigrants inside the van were taken into custody by ICE.

Oops.

 

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Texas UFO: Air Force Changes Tune

As if they themselves can't figure it out.  Let's look at the details.

Faster than a speeding bullet — and bigger than a Wal-Mart.

That's how residents near the west Texas town of Stephenville described an object they spotted in the sky one night last week.

Dozens of people — including a pilot and a police officer — said a UFO hovered over the farming community for about five minutes last Tuesday before streaking away

...the UFO sped away at more than 3,000 mph, followed by two fighter jets that were hopelessly outmaneuvered. Allen said it took the aircraft just a few seconds to cross a section of sky that it takes him 20 minutes to fly in his Cessna.

On the surface, that's a pretty standard UFO report. And also in standard fashion, the Air Force does their best to make a pilot, a cop, and dozens of witnesses look stupid by coming up with an explanation like:

[Military officials] said the residents are letting their imaginations run wild and passed it off as an optical illusion. They said it was likely nothing more than a reflection of sunlight on two airliners.

Officials at a nearby air force base also said their fighter pilots didn't chase down anything that night.

Because cops and pilots are prone to mistakes like that right? Well, apparently the military is prone to little mistakes too.

Initially:

Maj. Karl Lewis, a spokesman for the 301st Fighter Wing at the Joint Reserve Base Naval Air Station in Fort Worth, said no F-16s or other aircraft from his base were in the area the night of Jan. 8

Officials at the region's two Air Force bases — Dyess in Abilene and Sheppard in Wichita Falls — also said none of their aircraft were in the area last week.

Under the headline "Military now says planes flying in area of UFO reports" the story has changed to:

10 F-16 fighter jets were training in the Stephenville area the night dozens of residents reported seeing a UFO.

Although Air Force Reserve officials at the Joint Reserve Base Naval Air Station in Fort Worth initially said none of their planes were in the area Jan. 8, they said today that they had made a mistake and wanted to set the record straight "in the interest of public awareness."

Who are you going to believe? A pilot, police officer and large numbers of independent witnesses who actually saw the 'mile-wide object' or multiple 'officials' from at least THREE military bases who all 'made a mistake' about having TEN fighter jets in a particular area  on a particular night?

Sources: NPR / Houston Chronicle / AP /Defensetech

 

Technorati tags: , , ,

Share this post! :

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Synchronicity

Apparently, this is what happens when you have a video camera with an FPS rate equal to the rotor speed of a helicopter.  Pretty damned cool if you ask me.


http://view.break.com/295948 - Watch more free videos

Technorati tags: , , ,

 

Share this post :

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Thermal Discord

One one hand, this is an interesting possibility, but I still think it's an encroachment on personal rights.

Next year in California, state regulators are likely to have the emergency power to control individual thermostats, sending temperatures up or down through a radio-controlled device that will be required in new or substantially modified houses and buildings to manage electricity shortages.

The changes would allow utilities to adjust customers' preset temperatures when the price of electricity is soaring. Customers could override the utilities' suggested temperatures. But in emergencies, the utilities could override customers' wishes.

I'm not a Californian, so I'm not going to speak definitively on this one.  I can certainly see the benefits, but there's just something about it being potentially 'mandated' that doesn't sit well with me.

"This is an outrage," one Californian said ..."We need to build new facilities to handle the growth in this state, not become Big Brother to the citizens of California."

Any Californians out there care to comment?

Problem Number One

It is a machine.  Machines break. It was bound to happen eventually, and today it did.  Turning on my laptop this morning I was stunned to discover that my wireless adapter was no longer functional.  Flicking the switch on and off did nothing.  Updating the driver did nothing. In fact, nothing did anything except raise my blood pressure and get me a wee bit riled up, as I do love my wireless.

After calming down a bit, I realized I've still got some warranty remaining and there's even a recall out on this exact laptop for that specific issue, so no harm no foul.  I just went out and plunked down some coin for a Linksys USB adapter to tide me over. 

The real test however, is how I handle my precious lappie being gone for several weeks as it revisits the land of its birth.  The mysterious and magical wonderland known as HP.

I will miss you, Compaq old friend.  Fare thee well, and come home soon.

Technorati tags: , , , , , ,

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Want to see the future?

I don't know what shenanigans this site is up to, but the

premise is cool.

 

Technorati tags: , , ,

Monday, January 7, 2008

Linkdrop #1

Presented here in no particular order for your enjoyment: a taste of some of the random crap I found interesting in the past 24 hours.

 

BSG: The Last Frakkin' Supper

Yes, I'm obsessed with it too.

What I'm reading plowing through.

Sunday, January 6, 2008

STFU

So this little whiny prick Adam Gadahn shows up in the MSM again today after starring in another Al Qaeda direct-to-video masterpiece.  That's all well and good since I hadn't yet had my daily fill of douchebaggery.  Thanks, Adam.

That's not particularly newsworthy really, nor is his asinine ravings about the evils of Bush while ignoring the tendency of Al Qaeda affiliates to blow shit up in the name of a fairy tale. 

Especially un-newsworthy is the fact that in his latest video production, the precocious little cockmaster makes a scene out of tearing up his U.S. passport and renouncing his citizenship, claiming:

"...I don't need it to travel anyway."

Um, k.  Good for him. Yipee even.  Way to stick it to the man you flaming pansy fucktard.

Oh wait, he did issue some vague threats toward President Bush.  Haven't heard that before.

I'm so tired of these blowhard asspirates going on and on about fucking Allah and imperialist zionist crusader occupiers.  Shut the fuck up already. Really.  You're not scaring anybody, and you look fucking retarded with a bedsheet wrapped around your head talking about killing and maiming nonbelievers because we're so barbaric. 

What kind of convoluted opium-enhanced logic is that?  Did you idiots ever think that if you'd just stop killing people and blowing shit up we'd let you alone?

You're like the schoolyard bully who acts tough, gives a wedgie or two then keeps running his mouth off until someone knocks your fucking lights out.

I'd pay cash to see if he's got balls enough to keep talking that shit the day our boys kick down his door and shove an M16 in his face.

Keep talking, Gadahn, we're reloading.

 

Saturday, January 5, 2008

Dance Sensation

My daughter Aeryn woke me up this morning by dancing on my bed.  I groggily came to and smiled, and cautioned her to be careful as she was dancing on the very edge of the mattress.

She glared at me and said 'Daddy, I'm doing the 'Crunchy-Munchy.'

It doesn't get a whole lot cuter than that.

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Here We Go Again

Happy New Year everyone. Let's make it a good one.