darw1n.net

I found a good article about the current state of video games. It reflects some prior remarks made about video games – that the next generation is more concerned with water refraction that enjoyable gameplay, that sequels are drowning out innovation, etc.

This made me ask the question – what games are on xbox 360? Playstation 3? They’re talking a $500 price tag. And for what? Kart? Bond? I haven’t heard of anything approximating either title. I had a hard time sizing up from gamestop.com the scope of games so I don’t have a good link. Mostly the game selection was so overwhelmed with pre-orders for Jan 2007 that I couldn’t figure out what was currently out. My impression is they don’t have halo 3 to carry them. Sony will have Final Fantasy 12 or 13 or whatever is due out next. I acknowledge its pull and heard a rumour they were moving beyond menus. I guess I consider FF part of the stagnation, not the solution.

I recently purchased “Medal of Honor” for $5. Seemed like a good game cause it had cooperative mode. I had a weird sense of deja vu while playing. I felt like I’d already tried it somewhere before. I realized when I got all the way up to the “tommy gun” that this was essentially Wolfenstein 3D. They added a “beach” environment and took away those cool secret passages. Oh, and now you can look around. But all the mechanics had been worked out for Wolf3d and left untouched.

In contrast, I also started the copy of Prince of Persia I’ve had since Christmas. Amazing game. I might get sick of the puzzles after a while, but right now I love it. I remember Losure ranting about it back when it came out. He was right – it’s fun.

Mt. Everest has been in the news lately, as it has been reported that a climber recently died on the slope while some 30-40 other climbers passed him. EverestNews.com rather indignantly assaults the media for blowing up reports, which is OK, except for this article on the same site, which I can only describe as “damn creepy.” The site seems to infer that dead climbers are just sort of… left there. They publish a photo of the place where the climber in question died, “next to the previously dead climber,” whose body has been white-d out. “In real life the dead climber is NOT covered….” the site says, the emphasis making it fairly creepy.

In other news, Josh and Pete should probably climb Everest. Go team darw1n!

Yeah, so remember my post about Lordi in the Eurovision contest? Well, they won. Here’s a video of the winning performance of “Hard Rock Hallelujah”. I’m amazed that they were allowed/able to put up such an elaborate stage show. The article also mentions that the contest is being retooled into an American reality-tv show, where each state presents an artist. That should suck. Oh, and here‘s an article where Russian bitches complain that there is some sort of conspiracy against them because Lordi won.

But, most importantly, here’s the official produced video for the song. Two very important, amazing words: zombie cheerleaders.

Sand Sculpture Championships. I think I’ve seen this sort of thing before, but this bunch seems to be from another (this? probably) year. Crazy.

from sweden, one apartment, six drummers

An amiga writes in with stories from the T in Boston:

“I was waiting for the subway on my way to work this morning. The D line came and departed with everyone except for me and an elderly homeless man, who was trembling to my right.

After standing silently on the platform for about a minute, the man whirled around suddenly, pointed a bony finger at my face and bellowed, “You WISH you could sing like Kenny Rogers!”

Too stunned and groggy to comprehend fully at first, I just blinked. But as I started to stifle a laugh, the man twitched and screamed, “You WISH you had Kenny Rogers’ MONEY!”

Don’t we all…”

&

“I saw a man on the T the other day, wearing nothing but Mardi Gras beads, a jean vest, boots, and tighty whiteys (sp?). He was dancing to music nobody else could hear, scratching vinyl that no one else could see, and directing people to seats on the subway. Then when we got to Park Street, he suddenly shouted “Okay!” and pulled out a pair of pants from his red bag, and put them on.”

Interesting article on mysogyny in G-rated films. Obviously, this is a much calmer mysogyny than in, like, Clockwork Orange, but still there, nonetheless. It consists mostly of statistics, which are predictable but still rather startling to see. So… here.

Upon successfully completing my degree and moving out of my dorm I took off, along with Jeffrey and Becci, to the Red River Gorge in Kentucky.

For four days we occupied ourselves with climbing, camping, not bathing, eating good pizza, relaxing, and a bit of drinking. The trip was awesome and a bit scary at times. I don’t have the energy to upload all of the photos right now, but I have put a few up on flickr.

I have never spent any significant time in the South before, but it sure was interesting. I can’t really claim to have fully experienced the glory of the South, especially considering that we were surrounded by an army of climbers for most of the time, but it was still interesting.

Update: Added more pictures

I have problems with this. It doesn’t really sound like an RPG to me.

I know making this sort of mistake is kind of cliche, but most people hereabouts have gotten a good laugh from this, so I’m posting it.

This is the result of my sister and I trying to order a sweatshirt from the Northeastern U. bookstore for Mother’s Day. They didn’t have it in the size I specified, so someone wrote me back saying so…