shiryl, officially, she's furniture...

does the man ever not carry a gun?
apparently, in the year 2022, cops wear football helmets and ascots.
in the year 2022, green graham crackers are a foodstuff.
in the year 2022, men die happily in orange rooms.

Chuck Connors likes killing priests before Airplane.

I love you Sol...
cue Peer Gynt Suite No.1, Op.46: I. Morning
Edward G. Robinson's last film

Soylent Green is made out of people!

cheese with a capitol Z

spiderman, spiderman, does whatever a spider can...

go see it. it's great. i got choked up about 3 times in the film and i was drinking the whole time. great effects, amazing story, great hero and villian and as much as i think kirsten dunst looks like a stoned hooker, she was kinda good in this as mary jane. spend the cash, see the flick and enjoy it.

no fat chicks

i was talking to a friend the other day (we'll call her racer x) and she told me that she and her husband were working on getting her knocked up. this wasn't a shock, because she'd mentioned this in the past, but she just recently got married and i wasn't sure why it was so important to pop out a few trophies this early in the marriage. racer x is a great girl; very smart, incredibly attractive, dry sense of humor, got her head on straight and she's got a great set of cans. her hubby (we'll call him speed racer) seems to be a great guy as well. i'm just wondering why they want to rush into having kids so quickly. i think they'll have a happy and long marriage, so why fuck it up so early on? she said she wanted to be a hot mommy now.

And marriage doesn't hold a bad place in my mind. My parents are still married after 37 years, my grandparents were married until my grandfather passed away 12 years ago and i have a sister who's happily married with children, so i consider myself lucky in the marriage department. i don't know if it's something i'll do one day, but i don't guess i'll know until i get there. but this isn't about marriage, it's about childbearing. my old roommate had to void our living/hetero-life-partner contract cause he and his girlfriend got pregnant and they just gave birth a month ago to a baby boy, but i don't think it was intentional (and i'm being liberal with that comment). as of 2002, the world had roughly 6.2 billion people wandering around and i'm wondering if we really need any more. countries are overpopulated, people are dying of malnutrition, wars are occurring and yet, we continue to pump out kids. and how many of those children, in a year's time, are unplanned and unwanted?

to make it more interesting, racer x told me that she had speed racer on a schedule. i didn't know this, but apparently, there are times of the month that women are more susceptible to getting pregnant. i probably knew this at one point in time, like from my sex ed class back in '91, but i've been working on not getting someone pregnant since then, so if poor speed racer doesn't perform to his best abilities, racer x owns his ass until the same time next month. doesn't that take the fun outta having sex? i understand that the ultimate and base purpose of sex is procreation, but what about just having a lot of sex until racer x does get knocked up? why schedule meetings? and i know we all need a job in life. some of you have to be mommies (or hot mommies, in racer x's case), but the interview for that position shouldn't be so stressful. and it's ok if you don't get the job. you're competing with another coupla billion other fat chicks who already have the job.

awwwwwww yeaaaahhhhh

the teaser for blade: trinity is out. looking great. you can also grab yourself a cool little poster over at the official website.

Fantasy Film Fest 2004

The International Festival for Science Fiction, Horror and Thrillers is being held in Germany this year and is showcasing a ton of new films from all over the world. It starts in late July and continues for almost an entire month. This is definitely something I'd love to have been a part of, but seeing as how I won't be anywhere near Germany next month, i've found some titles that interest me and thought i'd give you a look.

haute tension
lesbians, gore and power tools...
i could probably end it with just that, but haute is being discussed as one of the best horror films in years by horror enthusiasts based on it's content and sheer amount of gore.

the last horror movie
this film pushes the boundaries in reality in horror. a serial killer movie that takes direction from Man Bites Dog (another great film about desensitization of media violence) and Henry: Serial of a Portrait Killer.

the machinist
the story of an insomnia ridden machinist involved in the strange death of a coworker. Staring Christian Bale, a fave actor who imortalizes sickness and insantity in greats such as American Psycho, Equilibrium and the upcoming Batman Begins.

madhouse and the park should deliver a well needed, yearly dose of good , clean cheese. The first of the two also stars one of my all time favorite actors, Lance Henrickson.

one po1nt o
the story of a computer programmer working from his home who begins to receive strange packages containing nothing. The film is not only a chiller, but also discusses the loss of privacy in today's world and stars Lance, again.

one missed call
looks to be a great film where people receive calls from themselves three days into the future when something bad is going to happen to them. with scares equalling those from the original version of The Ring and directed by Takashi Miike who brought us some truly fucked up films like Audition and Ichi the Killer, this looks to be one that i'll be checking out.

Of course, there is saw which is one that i've been discussing for the last month and i'm very excited about. a few new pics are available here.

finally, there is the follow up to, again, one of my faves, which came out in 2000, but i only saw last year on dvd and that is the eye 2. the original was about a blind woman who receives a cornea transplant which allows her the ability of site, but also shows the terror as seen through the eye's former owner.

These, of course, were just a few that grabbed my attention, but should you like to look over the others, the full list can be found here.

QotD

Why do QotD suck so bad?

I get up every morning at 6 and hit the treadmill (i'm up to a minute and a half now) and CNN is always on the tv in the workout room. It's a great channel for news and what's happening in the world, but i think they should just stick to news and not try so hard at making news 'fun'. if i want to see something about a panda breaking out of a zoo and impregnating 18 women, i'll go to my local news station. if i want to know about Britney's new pictoral in Jugs magazine, i'll watch MTV, but don't try to throw in something light hearted on a news channel. it doesn't work and the anchors just don't know how to respond.

today's QotD was 'What was the all time best band?' or something along those lines. This isn't a question you ask on CNN. People on CNN don't know what a band is. if i want to know that the greatful dead or the beatles or led zeppelin or michael 'i didn't molest those children, i made love to them' jackson was the best band of all time, i'd go to vh1 every hour on the hour. and when the 'correspondant' asking the question, turns to the anchors to get their input, could some writer have made a worse choice?

"uhhhhh....heheh.....i uh......i think NSync is the best band ever Danny, hehehehe.....heh......."
or
"well, are the beanie babies still on tour?"

yeah, no shit.

so can we think of some real questions that will really quiz the american public instead of making them respond in iambic pentameter to find out that the partridge family is still the best group ever?

here are a few i'm offering:

• What does Diane Sawyer's naked ass look like?
• Why is women's tennis so erotic?
• Would peanut butter be any good if it weren't sticky?
• Who decided to name an all-terrain, amphibious vehicle after a blow job?
• Why hasn't William Hung been shot and killed yet?
• Does George Bush have good taste in suits?
• Why can't commercials be more to the point?
• Does the phrase 'it looks like someone set fire to her face and put it out with a wet chain' accurately descibe Beyonce?
• Why do some people not wash thier hands after using the bathroom?

• Why do all my great ideas come to me in the morning, but i've forgotten all of them by the time i get to work? grrrrrr.....

I really had a great list and now that i've started drinking, they're gone. figures. you get my point though. don't trouble a guy who wants to be a real anchor with these crappy questions that no one cares about at 6 in the morning. and certainly don't ask the bull dyke giving us the news a reason to say anything that's not really news worthy. they have enough trouble just making her look like a girl, much less have her discuss topics where the answers aren't on cue cards.

SotD

Show me how your father plays with himself?

speaks for itself

supersonik

yeah, this is much better. . .

Rubber Ducky, you're the one,
You make bathtime lots of fun,
Rubber Ducky, I'm awfully fond of you;


Woo woo be doo

thanks ASSHOLE.

was i dropped on my head to much as a child?

why do i wake up in the mornings, from a dead sleep, singing a song i haven't heard in 13 years?

i awoke this morning at 6 with the alarm out of a good sleep singing 'wake me up, before you go go'. i mean really, what the fuck? and it hasn't left my head yet. now i've got scenes from the wedding singer rolling thru my mind of sandler's girlfriend singing it. and the bitch broke up van halen.

really, i haven't heard the song in years, i hate bubble gum pop, i'm not gay, i can't stand wham! and i listen to industrial metal. i've listened to 15 songs since then and the one that persists is the one i'm trying to get rid of like a korean whore with the clap. why is it never something good? why is it always music that you'd never admit to singing in a hojillion years? never some ministry or the cult or pantera, but WAKE ME UP...

this is just as bad as gina and coby embedding a song from a 50's tv show in my head for 9 hours.

crimany

random comments

why can't there just be 3?
as i stated in an earlier post, that now that i've got the bike, stories of bedlam and mayhem fly at me like a dodgeball in middle school. my girl, being a rider herself, sent me this list of 128 ways to lay your bike down. good way to learn, but man alive, does there really have to be that many?

scrabble
My brother-in-law sent this to me and it definitly begs to ask - do you people not have enough to do during the day?
• GEORGE BUSH: When you rearrange the letters: HE BUGS GORE
• DORMITORY: When you rearrange the letters: DIRTY ROOM
• EVANGELIST: When you rearrange the letters: EVIL'S AGENT
• PRESBYTERIAN: When you rearrange the letters: BEST IN PRAYER
• DESPERATION: When you rearrange the letters: A ROPE ENDS IT
• THE MORSE CODE: When you rearrange the letters: HERE COME DOTS
• SLOT MACHINES: When you rearrange the letters: CASH LOST IN ME
• ANIMOSITY: When you rearrange the letters: IS NO AMITY
• MOTHER-IN-LAW: When you rearrange the letters: WOMAN HITLER
• SNOOZE ALARMS: When you rearrange the letters: ALAS! NO MORE Z'S
• A DECIMAL POINT: When you rearrange the letters: I'M A DOT IN PLACE
• THE EARTHQUAKES: When you rearrange the letters: THAT QUEER SHAKE
• ELEVEN PLUS TWO: When you rearrange the letters: TWELVE PLUS ONE
• And for the grand finale: PRESIDENT CLINTON OF THE USA: When you rearrange the letters - with no letters left over and using each letter only once: TO COPULATE HE FINDS INTERNS

appleseed
dunno if any of you are anime fans, but if you are, check out this trailer. It looks to be top quality anime. As good as that used in Kill Bill, if not better. i'm hoping it'll be released here in the US.

god bless spam

I occasionally post up the subject line of spam i receive in my inbox, but this was just to good to not put up the whole thing. this is verbatim:

Get Your Diploma

Call Today: 1-831-854-3939 (24 hours a day, 7 days a
week.)
No required tests, No classes, No books
NO OBLIGATION
Move foreward with your career
Earn the respect of others
Call for more information: 1-831-854-3939
Confidentiality is assured.

Do I need to point out the glaring faults in this or shall i just leave it alone?
Geez, run a fucking grammar check or something. obviously, the person who sent me this mail must have taken the class...

BIG brass ones

Any clime and place makes some statements certainly detailing his personal beliefs, but makes some great arguments to his belief. I can't help but link to the article as it'll certainly piss off plenty of people, but he'll thrive on the comments made and the arguments created. Give it a read.

Also, i've changed his link on the sidebar from Semper Fidelis to Any clime and place.

NOTE: i'm in no way, responsible for the comments made on other sites that i link to, so if someone pisses you off with your comments, i can not be held responsible. i really hate to have to add disclaimers to things like this, but c'mon people, what someone else says doesn't necessarily mean i believe or back them, i just find it interesting. don't blow this out of proportion.

geek 3

CoH is still taking an abundant amount of my time. i fluctuate between frustration and utter excitement over this game and it really confuses me. I normally hate MMORPGs, but i love this game. at times i hate it, but i can't quit playing. just a few more kills and i get to lvl up to 18 or get a new power or enhancement. why god, why?

after my evening out with scott, i created a new character, Sabre Cain. She's an AR blaster, which means she carries around an assault rifle and, blasts people. this type of character is supposedly, the quickest and easiest to lvl up with, with minimal work and thus far, it seems to be true. i've played her a total of maybe 3 days and i'm already at a lvl 8 with her. i won't go into details about what she can and will be able to do, but suffice it to say, she gets a lot of attention. go figure.

Houses of the Mole'

As i've said many times before, music plays a big role in my life. Nothing beats driving down the road on a beautiful, cool morning and hearing a song that takes you back to the days of being beaten up in the locker room during gym class. Ah, Mike and the Mechanics, David Bowie and the Cars. there's one group that holds a special memory in my mind, not just because they've consistently put out great music for 20 years, but because i relate it to getting poked for the first time. Yeah, i'm a romantic.

Christine was my first and our first date ever, she took me to a Ministry concert. All emotions aside about Christine, Ministry was one of the best concerts i've ever seen. 3 hours of sampled, ragining, angry industrial metal. this wasn't my first time to ever hear Ministry before, as their first album, 12" singles was one that was played every weekend my freshman year in college. I just never knew that Ministry was who i was listening to. But year after year, Al Jourgenson has redefined Ministry's sound and aside from a few strays, Ministry has been the backbone that groups like Nine Inch Nails, Skinny Puppy and KMFDM model their music after.

Ministry is realeasing a new album today and based on the reviews i've read, Al has not let us down, once again. Houses of the Mole' seems to be, as usual, politically fed showing Al's contempt for a particular individual in the White House. So much so, that every song, with the exception of 1 starts with the letter 'W'. 11 songs (60 tracks) of pure industrial contempt is what makes Ministry's sound worth going back for time and again. I'll pick this up today and hopefully post a review on it soon, but if Houses is half as good as Psalm 69 or Filth Pig, Al's got another hit on his hands.

why does it have to be so fucking hot in texas?

i'm a native texan and proud of it. i've lived here 33+years of my 35 year history and i'll never move away. it's not a "mary jean jo johnson and me is gonna raise lil chirrens here in East Jesus till our ship come in with tha lottery, but i'll continue to cash mah welfare checks from that freak bandsaw accident 13 years ago" reason for never moving away, it's just that i'm proud to be a texan. you mention texas to someone on the other side of the world and they know what it's about.

lbg: i'm from texas, ever heard of it?
gregori: ah, yes, you ride horses to school and someone told me that JR just got shot, no?

ok, so it's not ideal and there is a stereotype attached to being a texan, but it's better than:

lbg: i'm from south dakota, ever heard of it?
gregori: who?

and don't ask me why i'm proud to be a texan, i just am. it's not any different than being from somewhere else or being proud of something else, we're just texans.

but getting to the point (it was bound to happen sooner or later), i'm wondering why texas is so fucking hot? now, i've gotten used to it and i crave it when it hits 75 degrees and we all start breaking out our parkas and building fires in our homes, but in the scale of the world, we're just a coupla yards north of the equator, and isn't everything south supposed to be hot? wouldn't the title 'north america' at least give you a cooler feel? it's mid june and it's getting close to hitting 100 degrees which isn't bad as july and august and even the first half of september will make june weather pale in comparison.

look, charlie just burst into flames again...

and i know i've mentioned this before, but who gives a damn if it's dry or wet heat. i've only known wet heat my whole life, but at 109, who fucking cares? have you ever seen what 109 degree weather does to a bald man's head? i have. every friggin day of the summer. we can hard boil eggs in the local community pools.

and now that i have a bike, and safety being of importance, i need to wear a long sleeved shirt or a jacket and a helmet, so this should just make my days dreamy.

john: uh, kennett, you get caught in a freak rainstorm on the way to work?
me: uh yeah, with my helmet and jacket on, jackass.

i don't really have a point here (it's just reaching that point of the summer where it's time to bitch again about the heat), other than the fact that i'd love a cherry slurpee right about now.

getting a little weepy

eventually, i'll quit talking about bikes, but until the fascination wears off you'll all continue to suffer at my hands. the first bike i ever had was a classic triumph. real beauty. and i'm ashamed that i didn't hold on to it, but triumph has released their newest model and i'm starting to sob. normally, this isn't a problem, but the woman in the cube next to me is probably wondering why i'm curled up like a baby under my desk, sobbing uncontrollably. please join me.

update: this thing makes the valkyrie look like a moped. $16,000 and 2249 cc. Yes, you read that right. 2249. Read the rest here.

I'm still under my desk, call if you need me.

New blog link added

A buddy of mine has decided that after reading the ramblings of a LBG, he to wants to start putting his thoughts to virtual paper and he's made a few posts this weekend that are pretty good reads. So i've added his link to the sidebar under Semper Fidelis. He told me last night that he's quickly becoming addicted to blogging in a way that he'd never discovered you could. To most, i'd imagine, who don't have a blog, the idea of wasting your time putting thoughts down (or nonsense, in my case) is just that, a waste of time. i find it very fulfilling.

One of his more recent posts, describing a murder/suicide pact which was made with me will stand as is. Now, the irony in the pact is that it deals with a cell phone and i work for a wireless company. Personally, i don't see much use in cell phones as i don't really care to talk all that much on any kind of phone. And, my biggest pet peeve is people talking on their phones while driving. I think this act should be outlawed, but this isn't my world, i just live here, so until someone takes my roadrage thoughts seriously, i'll just continue to yell. it makes me feel better. so, the pact stands as is, with no changes.

and just because i don't keep the beretta loaded doesn't mean i don't care. if it'd make you feel better, we can head down to the trap and squeeze off a coupla boxes.

SotD

Sh bvy H'y_d_roc_0_d_0`n_e at Unbelievable Prices

oh, and this one was trying to sell me copies of XP
the super pill! ruddy

statistically impossible

it's 1:54 am and i just stepped in from a local establishment in addison, snookies, and i felt it was necessary to stumble thru a quick discussion about the amount of scattered ass that was in this place tonight. my cohort this evening, scott made a good deduction. he said "i feel like we're sitting in a sorority convention" and he was right on. it ranged from "i'm 19, but i have my fake ID" to "i'm 29 and i have my fake ID". this is odd to me for two reasons.

1. the ratio of guys to girls in a dallas bar is never women over men, and
2. snookies has never catered to "the beautiful". it's a man's, man's, man's bar. no one is ever really that attractive, it's just a bunch of mediocre looking people having a really great time with the best jukebox in town.

scott and i must have been warped right back to greek circle in the ass end of texas (that's lubbock to you and me) cause i felt like i was back in college (or even high school for that matter) with all this chain smoking, vanilla vodka drinking, my bmw has more chrome than yours, scattered ass.

and i don't know if i was unintentionally sending out the vibe tonight, but i must have had that new bike smell on me cause i was attracting some attention, and i mean . . .

ironically, it couldn't have been further from the truth as it was scott and i, a coupla gaming geeks who spent half our conversation arguing over whether the AR scrapper handled the TSOO better than the empathy defender. we plotted out the next five years of the LAN business we'd start and i, in nausiating detail discussed the 50 yards outside the garage i'd ventured on the beast/my hog/my fetal pig/the bike i'd ride some day.

the surrounding women reeking of Virgina Slims and dancer's perfume had no idea what had decended on that bar when scott and i walked in.

the new moped, cont.

so i post up pics of the bike, and within seconds, flipper comments:

Very slick. You need to talk to our friend Jeff about his bike,
he's already wrecked one...

now, why would you say that? why? is there any reason to discuss accidents with a guy who hasn't been on a bike in 12 years? why is that the first thing everyone brings up?

see, i was going 120 down George Bush and came around this corner and this grandma was strolling across in her walker with some groceries, so i locked up and slid, like 200 yards and then did like 9 flips. i caused this 18 car pileup and people were running around the median in flames and cars were blowing up and even though i only had a pair of shorts on, i only lost one of my arms and both of my ears, so i was lucky. Huh? Oh, and then the grandma fell down and broke her hip and now my girlfriend won't call me back because i'm all scarred and disfigured...

why is any of this necessary?

the new moped

i finally had a chance to get some pics of the sabre (as all i've been doing is sitting on it and revving the engine), so here they are.

numero uno
numero two, and
choice C

don't hate me because it's beautiful...
hate me because it's a chick magnet.

SotD

Spam of the Day will be my new posting. I'm going to post the subject line of spam i receive either at work or home just to prove that these companies will do anything to bypass filters and get their ugly little message into your inbox.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

dont let it go abdomen coworker debra

QotD

When do aging music stars need to call it quits?

We all need to survive and live by the lifestyle we've made for ourselves, which is why we should stick with what we do best. if i could get paid to fuck off, bill gates would be blowing me right now, but i understand, do what you do best and make yourself happy. if you're an architect, keep building. if you are a tennis player, keep playing and if you are a singer, keep singing. music plays an important role in my life. it binds me to the good and bad times i've experienced for the last 35 years and without it, life would be incredibly difficult. music makes the world go round. but at what point in time do you call it quits? my comments here are directed at Madonna, but the example can be used for numerous groups. Aerosmith should have given up after Pump (they are a rock group, not a pop group), Metallica should have quit at the black album, Lynard Skynard should have given up after the group died in the plane crash and Britney Spears should have bypassed any singing and gone straight to Hustler.

Getting my point? Do what you do well and when doing well isn't good any longer, give it up and live peacefully and most importantly, quietly til the end. Vince Neal should take this concept to heart. As should Ozzy Osbourne.

Esther, as the once material girl is now calling herself, *cough* prince *cough*, is 'reinventing' herself by chosing a name based on her beliefs in the Kabbalah. Her 5 year long lived belief.

So, how is reinventing yourself with a new name really re-invention if you are playing the same old music and dancing the same old moves and selling the same old $65 t-shirts? Madonna's focus, upon the release of every new album, is to reinvent herself. Whether it's a material girl or a lesbian/dominatrix or now a mystical Jewish woman. *cough* money making advertising campaign *cough* sorry, got something caught in my throat.

she's tried her hand at acting and miserably sucked at that. she married a director, a good one, until he started putting her in his films. the only good thing he's done with her in it was the BMW short film Star. and all she did in the film was mock herself. it's a riot, because she's not taking herself seriously.

so i realize that as long as she continues to sing and put on shows and occasionally "accidentally" release nude photos of herself, she'll continue to sell tickets and keep giving us the same regergitated crap that we've endured since the early 80s, but geez lady, have some self respect and quit before you end up singing at the Holiday Inn lounge like David Lee Roth.

various ramblings

truth in advertising, is it really necessary?
This short movie popped up a few months ago and even though it was directed at a specific industry, i found it really amusing. This morning, i saw a Viagra commercial that was something i didn't really need to see at 6:15 in the morning. What genius decided that it would be good to have middle-aged and older men skipping and jumping thru the streets while playing "We are the Champions"? And ironically, sung by an outwardly gay man.

so that's how it is in that family...
as an addendum to my clin-ton post the other day, the man himself is giving interviews to 60 minutes and has released his book and it's selling like hotcakes. you know what, infidelity isn't that exciting. give me Catherine Zeta Jones cheating with say, Brooke Burke and now we've got a book i'll buy, but really, who gives a fuck? you hated him when he was doing it while in the white house, what's really changed? he's still a cheating bastard. and even more disturbing is showing the clin-ton (anyone getting this subtle reference?) family in news footage constantly walking hand in hand like the "close knit" family they really are. seeing as how Chelsea is looking these days, maybe Bill's keeping it in the family now . . . or maybe they're just trading protein chains (ok, do you get the reference now?)

i joke because i love
it never seems to amaze me that i still piss people off by what i say. it happens, but anyone who even barely knows me, knows that i just like to have fun which is why it bothers me that posts about how my blog sucks upsets me. not so much because it's probably the truth, but that someone has to stoop low enough to act like a child because they got their feelings hurt over something i said. there's an ongoing joke between me and all my friends who are married or have serious relationships that it's necessary for their better halves to dislike me because i represent all that is opposite them. i send porn, i encourage games and push drinking. i represent that single life that everyone thinks is the better life. but it's all jokes people, and i hate that it has to come to this, but i'm not a challenge to you and if i were being serious about my comments, you'd know it. so get over it and quit taking me so seriously. i don't.

thpppppttttt!!!!!!!

night of the living SUCK!
watched the omega man last night. as you can see it got one star. and that was a struggle. you know, he was great as Moses, but c'mon man, this was a blatant rip off of night of the living dead and had lots of similarities to the eiger sanction, both of which were phenomenal movies, but this was just outright crap. i can see why the NRA made this guy their national spokesperson. i can't begin to discuss how much this film blew. and according to my ratings system, cheesy horror movies rank a 3 stars, because even at their worst, they are still pretty good, but yeah, . . . suck. serious suck.

GO TRAVIS!!! IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY!!! GO TRAVIS...

i stumbled across this on a site that i frequent and i had tears streaming down my cheeks by the time it was done.

male cheerleaders make the baby jesus cry...

unsheathes . . . hehehe

i've never been a huge fan of tv. as a child, my parents kept us from this filth that is programming, a virtual babysitter, a corrupter of young minds. for me, the corruption started with a catchphrase at 8 am every morning that some of you may remember - "HEY YOU GUYS!!!!". For some reason, parents believed that just because the programming showed up on PBS, it had to be good for you. No commercials + me giving them money to stay afloat = quality programming. Hell, they even said it was quality programming on the pseudo-commercials where we got to read a 50 page list of companies that gave grants to keep this quality programming alive. it must be good for me.

That was pretty much where my TV watching ended. I remember occasional sunday evenings of Jamie Sommers battling robots with no faces and i remember it just terrifying me. i used to have horrible nightmares about that, which is probably the reason for my sci-fi and horror fascination, here, later in life. Friday nights were always a good time to sit down in front of the TV and hear Waylon sing that catchy song and secretly dream about riding side by side in the General Lee next to Daisy's purdy white jeep. How many of us considered growing up to be a mechanic, cause Cooter was really a pretty cool guy? Then came the badasses from Miami Vice. I got completely caught up in that show. I bought MV stationary, and the soundtrack (cause Glen Frey, Chaka Kahn and Phil Collins never sounded better) and even owned some pastel shirts. God, why was TV so shitty to us? What did we ever do but give our undying attention? This was probably the reason my parents put all of their kids on TV limitations. Summers were horrible, because we had to read an hour for every hour of watching TV. I'm sure some of you had to endure some similar form of torture, but now that i look back, i'm thankful for that.

So, i'm not sure whether TV has gotten better or worse since then. They've run out of plotlines to use (geez, do we really need another Law and Order show?), CG can pretty much create anything these days and we've all become immune to the shit that they pass off for programming. Now don't get me wrong, there are a couple of good shows worth watching and some of them may not really be considered good, so much as guilty pleasures. We all have them even if we won't admit to it. *cough* OC *cough*

what really upsets me is i've been proud of myself for not getting caught up all this crap on the 350 channels that i'm paying $97 a month for. Inevitably, i end up watching something on the Discovery channel or some show about snipers on the History channel that i've seen umpteen million times, but i dig it and it beats Ricky Lake.

so, my rambling here leads to the fact that it's summer again and there ain't shit on tv and even though, FOX is trying to lull us back into another coma with Paris "you can buy my video for $19.95" Hilton, i won't give into it. it's a cold day in texas when the Sopranos finish a season, because we know we'll probably have a few kids before the next season airs. luckily, we've got 6 feet under to appease us until the fall season begins again, but that's just one channel out of the other 98,000.

my point here is that it pisses me off that they subject us to crap like this. i may be a moron, but i'm not a fucking moron.

just give us 'the fall guy' on dvd and leave me the hell alone.

good day

it was a good day today. i turned 35 and the skies didn't come crashing down, the crows weren't at my door and no one really knew that it was my birthday, which suits me JUST fine. had a really great dinner at Patrizios with my folks, got a coupla new polos and a new coffee maker from them and best of all, i got myself a present. i got the bike. i decided on the Sabre and man alive, i couldn't be happier. picked out a helmet, gloves and a jacket, got the lowdown on the bike and passed on my first born for payments. to make it better, because i can't really ride it yet, my girl got to ride it back to my place. i've never seen her happier. she has a Rebel which is a 250, a good starter bike and she's pretty happy with it. the Sabre is an 1100, so the power between her legs got her a bit giddy. and i felt just a tad stupid signing my name off and then handing her the llaves to take it home. i'm trying to get my class switched to this weekend, so i can be official by sunday afternoon and ride it without having to look at it for a week without being able to ride it. we'll see.

on a side note, i found some more information on 'saw', the upcoming horror film i posted the link to below. i found a pretty good description of the film and some great reviews here. check it out, looks awesome, i'll be there with bells on.

need some opinions

I'm seriously considering buying a motorcycle. I haven't committed to it completely yet, but I'm looking at it as a serious possibility in the somewhat, near future. I know everyone has opinions about motorcycles and safety and coolness, etc. I've found two that i really like a lot. The Honda Shadow Sabre and the VTX1300 Retro. I love the look of both, but it's been over 12 years since i had one, so i'm pretty much starting fresh as though i've never ridden one. Price wise, there isn't a huge difference, but the VTX is a lot more machine. And a pretty decent amount of weight to carry as well. Starting fresh, i don't want to over do it, so i'm leaning towards the Sabre. I've checked out a couple of other manufacturers, but haven't found anything as of yet that matches my excitement with the hondas. Any opinions would be greatly appreciated and if you have suggestions, please let me know.

chunks slowly rising...

so the presidential portraits for the clin-tons were unveiled yesterday. i didn't see it until this morning, but did Hillary's portrait make you wanna lose your breakfast? she looks like an automoton. i think i threw up a little bit in my mouth.

on the up side, looks like her daughter has the number of a good plastic surgeon.

movie reviews

obsessive doesn't begin to describe my love for movies. if you can think of something crazier than obsessive, that's what i am. i dig movies. and from time to time - more frequently than never and less frequently than my "personal me time" - i'll try to post a review of a film i've seen. it may amount to 9.5 words to endless gushings about halley berry's breasts. you get the idea. also, as you see to your right, on the sidebar, i've got a list of netflix movies that i've watched this week. i'm part of the '5 at once' recipient's plan. Basically, i can have up to 5 borrowed movies out at a time. and believe me, i get my money's worth on this deal. so, the sidebar will list my most recent films and what kind of rating i'll give it. this list will only include films, but i frequently rent TV eps as well, so at any given time, i'll have a copy of season 5, disk 4 of the x-files or the sopranos or something like that as well. i won't review any of the tv eps, cause i don't want you thinking i'm gay or something for secretly enjoying buffy or gilmore girls.

the rating system is as follows:

***** (5 stars) - Raiders of the Lost Ark
**** (4 stars) - Anything with Kate Bosworth in tight, black leather
*** (3 stars) - really bad horror
** (2 stars) - anything Jean Claud Van Damme did from the 20th century til now (1*)
* (1 star) - anything with Martin Lawrence in it

1* - this could also receive a 'Meh' or :

sometimes, i'll watch a lot of mainstream films, so when i'm going thru my lindsey lohan spurt, it's just because i wanna sleep with her, not because she's a good actress. sometimes, i'll put stuff up there that you've never heard of like 'Pi: Faith in Chaos' or 'Audition' that i'll suggest highly because they are great films (and 'sick' sometimes qualifies as great). and sometimes, i'll recommend films like 'Irreversable' because they litterally reach the core of human filth and you should only watch it if you want to be hunched over the toilet wretching from what you've just seen. it varies, and my tastes are strange, so don't take it personally, just know that it's my opinion. nothing else.

don't let any of those fuckers in my headspace

yesterday, here in dallas, some asshole threw his wife off the overpass of a major highway. from one major highway onto another and subsequently, stopped traffic in all 4 directions. now i know that people get upset and people get angry and people get depressed, but how fucked up do you have to be to throw your wife off the overpass and then dive in after her? WTF is wrong with people today? is life really that bad? fuckin get over it people, and treat others better than that if you can't do it to yourself.

/lbg steps down off her soapbox

on a completely different subject, i love coming up with titles to these posts. it's almost as much fun as the crap i spew inside. this one isn't an original, it's actually a line from a song by velvet revolver which, if you haven't yet, pick up the new cd. it's really good. J was commenting to me the other day that he was just desperate for decent music and i couldn't agree more, but we lucked out that this turned out to be such a good cd. guns and roses mixed with stp. even the ballads are good.

dr. jed hill

Quite possibly one of the greatest quotes from a movie:

I have an M.D. from Harvard, I am board certified in cardio-thoracic medicine and trauma surgery, I have been awarded citations from seven different medical boards in New England, and I am never, ever sick at sea. So I ask you; when someone goes into that chapel and they fall on their knees and they pray to God that their wife doesn't miscarry or that their daughter doesn't bleed to death or that their mother doesn't suffer acute neural trama from postoperative shock, who do you think they're praying to? Now, go ahead and read your Bible, _Dennis_, and you go to your church, and, with any luck, you might win the annual raffle, but if you're looking for God, he was in operating room number two on November 17, and he doesn't like to be second guessed.

You ask me if I have a God complex? Let me tell you something: I am God.

Like to see the rest?

three and a half decades

i'll be 35 next week and it's well beyond my understanding how i managed to make it this long. my childhood and teens was a car wreck waiting to happen, every second of the day. somehow, i managed to produce a greate relationship with my family and some close friends, a degree from an honorable institution, a good job and overall, a pretty decent life. it amazes me because i'm still not sure i understand what 35 means. not in means of accomplishment, but by measure of the greater being. i know in the lifespan of the world, i'm not even a speck of existence, but i am my world, so it means everything. and this may sound selfish, but it's not, at all. everyone has a belief in something whether it be a deity, a cause, a reason to get up in the morning, whatever, but without themselves, none of that means anything. i can't believe in a god, have a purpose or even bother getting up in the morning if i don't exist. it sounds cliche to say that the only one to look out for is ourselves, because there are things in our life that without, wouldn't give us much of a life. But ultimately, the things we do are pretty selfish.

now i know this is no huge discovery and i'll probably get flamed by the two people that read this, but i do believe this to a certain degree. And i'm sure that if my beliefs were stronger in other aspects of my life, i may feel differently, but i am who i am. and occasionally, someone likes me for that. if there's anything i believe in, it's karma. which, to a small degree, negates my arguement, but moreso, it tells me that the existence i have with others should be treated with respect and goodness. do bad things in life, and you'll eventually get yours. do good things in life, and your reward is some great late night Cinemax viewing.

i think what i'm getting at here is that in 35 years, what fascinates me the most about life is human nature. more than anything else, why are people the way they are? i'm not even sure how well i know myself. do we really ever truly know ourselves? but why be here? for ourselves and each other. without me, none of you really matter, in my life. without you, my life ceases to be interesting or worthwhile. and i'm not sure if i'm saying truly what i mean here, so anyone taking this all as bad, it's not. it's all very good. we need eachother and that's what makes me happy.

i'm not sure i understand what 35 means, because i have nothing to model it after, personally. at 35, my dad had two kids. at 35, beethoven was writing operas and well thru half of his life. at 35, my grandfather had fought and lived thru a world war and was well on his way to being a millionaire. i'm none of that, so i wonder where i stand in my 35 years. i don't know what will happen tomorrow, or next week or in 35 more years. i hope i live a long and happy life and learn a lot.

in the end, i just hope i've earned some good Cinemax.

saw

i don't know if i've ever mentioned it, but i'm a huge movie fan. and more precisely, i'm a HUGE horror movie fan. i was on Bloody Disgusting tonight and ran across the preview to this upcoming film. If this is just half as messed up as the trailer, it may just restore my faith in horror film making.

I think i can see my house from here

So, Venus made the news today. The planet, not the shaving kit or greek goddess.

Apparently, Venus made a pass in front of the sun for the first time since 1882, as explained in this article. I saw the report this am while i was walking and the guy explaining the situation must have been just a huge liar. He seemed very knowledgeable about this whole happening, and yet, it looked as if he'd never actually seen the sun in his lifetime. Or a treadmill for that matter, but we aren't discussing that.

What really drew my attention to this was the "special" glasses that viewers used to see Venus' ascent across the face of the sun. It looked as if scientists asked all those that had seen the recent 3D viewing of Shrek to bring their leftover glasses so they could "see science in amazing 3D awe". Even the picture in the msnbc article looks as if it was pulled straight from a picture of a movie crowd from the 1950s.

Now i don't know about you, but i was told looking straight at the sun would make you go blind (amongst other things, but that will be touched on in a future post...), so how could a coupla sheets of colored plastic shield you from the sun's deadly rays? we all know Superman can survive it, but hey man, we're just mere mortals.

But, as luck would have it, i was able to get a photograph of of the occurrence. Again, remember, the bewilderment that this photo may cause and to show you the magnitude of the sun, i've added a few notations on the photograph to explain this to you. It's something you'll never forget.

QotD

Is road rage beneficial to society?

I'm a fairly mild tempered kind of guy. You may not know that from reading some of my posts, but those who do know me, know that i really don't get upset about much of anything. I just don't feel that it's worth the effort to waste any time being angry about something in life. I don't hold grudges, i don't lose my temper and ironically (in the case of a few ex's of mine), that upsets them. Life is entirely to short to stay pissed off about anything. With that being said, there are a few things that push my buttons and the one thing that always seems to be at the top is driving in Dallas. Nothing pisses me off more than when i climb behind the wheel of my car. I know that is probably some classic case of road rage and i should probably take some anger management classes, but i don't act on my anger. I just fume inside my car and yell at people while listening to really loud angry music. I'm a pretty safe driver - i've been in one accident and only gotten about 3 tickets in my lifetime. How is this a benefit, you ask? I'm getting to that.

I'd just like to say that all of you morons that i get stuck behind while going 20 mph should have your license taken away. all of you assholes that pull out in front of me when i'm doing 50 should be made to take the bus. all of you punks that swerve around traffic in a school zone should be sent to the chair.

Now,I think road rage is good for the economy and i'll tell you why. Look at all of the money that's made from rage.

1. angry people drink - money to bars and alcohol companies
2. angry people buy guns - money to weapons manufacturers
3. angry people get tickets - money to the state, lawyers and police
4. angry people pay more in insurance - money to insurance companies
5. angry people wreck cars - money for auto shops and again, insurance companies
6. angry people need angry music to yell at others by - good for the music industry
7. angry people need anger management classes - good for anger management classes

I could go on, but i won't. I think i've made my point.

road rage is a benefit to society.

zero to geek in point oh nine two five seconds

There've been some extensive discussions on the tanker section of the CoH bulletin boards about their validity after a certain lvl has been reached. Are they really needed? Being a tanker, I quickly stood up and made my voice heard that yes, we tankers are needed. A Hershey's kiss isn't really a kiss until you put it in your mouth. Tankers serve one real purpose, and that's to play jackrabbit. We draw enemy aggro (aggression) and take the beating while the others in your party actually kill off the enemy that's beating on you. So as you can imagine, tanks have an ungodly amount of defensive power. As you've seen in previous posts and pictures, my tank also carries a war mace which deals out a great amount of pain and suffering, but compared to say, a scrapper, tanks are just the guys in the background jumping around, waving their hand, yelling "PICK ME, PICK ME!!!!"

Well, Bos hit lvl 18 the other day and i'm starting to discover that some of these comments about the need for tanks may be true. Defenders and controllers will always need tanks as they have absolutely no defensive power, but they can also deal out damage from a distance. So, to keep the game interesting, I created Stormkiller last night. Storm has the same purpose as my original character, LBG, had and that's as a defender. A defender's sole purpose is to keep your team alive. You are the healer. I've always been a defensive player in life and gaming, so i'm drawn to characters like Storm. Her primary power is empathy which allows her to heal others either as a group or to solo someone out who's having a difficult time. My secondary power is electricity which allows me to deal out some pretty good damage via electric storms and lightning from my hands. I also added the ability to hover which may not sound like much, but it's the beginnings of flying. It's a defensive tactic as i can hover 10 or 15 feet above my melee enemies and not get hit while i deal some electric punishment. this is all very cool, but what was amazing was i reached a lvl 8 last night after only 4 hours of play. It took me the better part of the week to do that with Bos. Now i'm not a powergamer as i enjoy to really play a game and not just advance, but even my party members last night were pretty amazed at the frequency of my lvling.

And to make the game last night even more interesting, the three of us that comprised the party were all defenders, which is somewhat unheard of. Defenders are the most sought after player as they are the ones keeping everyone else alive, but we kicked some serious butt last night and hardly took a ding from any of the missions we completed.

So, the plateau i'd begun to reach with Bos has been renewed by Storm and i may continue to happily pay my $15 a month.

boswilligkeit, part 2

Bos is now at lvl 18 and this shows his primary, secondary and power pools. lvl 18 allowed a new power, so i added the leadership - assault power.

it's all about the little things

what is life about?

i can tell you in one word. it's really quite simple. it's a word we use without any consideration for what it's true meaning is about. it's a meaning, a purpose that's so simplistic, that we forget it's true definition because we take it for granted.

i called a friend of mine today. a friend i haven't talked to in 25 years. 25 YEARS. that doesn't mean much to those reading this, but for me, it means everything. it's the little things. he was my best friend in 4th grade and he called me last wednesday. why? because it'll be my birthday in about 12 days and he remembered. He remembered after 25 years. I haven't spoken to Jason in 25 years and he remembered my birthday after 25 years. and you know what. i still know his. July 20. and you know why? because he was born the day that man stepped on the moon. he was supposed to be Apollo, but he turned out Jason, and he turned out my friend. i have it easy, because someone stepped on the moon on his birthday, but on mine, a coupla people were born. and he remembered it.

i have a pretty good life. i have parents that are still married after 25 years. i have two sisters who are my best friends. i have close friends who would be willing to do anything for me, and why? because they care. and it may sound like a line from a movie or something from a commercial, but like i said, it's the small things, and it matters to me.

and it's what makes my world turn.

hapiness

I'd like the quality service with extra pepperoni, please

Justin and i just got back from this new pizza place a coworker told him about. It's called Nick-N-Willy's World Famous Take-N-Bake Pizza. The funny thing we wondered about is how world famous can Richardson, Texas really be? Shouldn't you be known the world over to be world famous? We spoke to the proprietor and she informed us that N-N-W was started somewhere in colorado and according to the website, covers Vancouver, so again, it begs me to ask . . .

this gets back to my previous post about claiming something you really aren't. But no matter, it's friday, i just had some pretty good pizza and who cares if Nick or Willy aren't planning franchises in Bavaria.

What we did notice was something that was interesting that we'd both considered but never spoken of and that was the urge to consume. Until now, we'd been eating pizza at a local buffet that was quite good, until it shut down. Then it quit being good. I have this mindset at a buffet that i have to get my money's worth so i'll continue to eat until until i can't feel my ass. It's this drive, that i believe is genetic, handed down by my father to get my money's worth. Now i don't know that i've ever seen my dad at a buffet and i know the man pretty much detests pizza (WTF?), but i have to act this way when i get close to a buffet. I pay 6 bucks and i have to consume my weight in green peppers. The place we went today wasn't a buffet, but, as the name indicates, a take and bake. Walk in, plop down your five bucks and get a raw pizza to take home and cook yourself. They also have personal pizzas that they cook for you onsite so you can eat in the store. Pretty good pizza. Not the best i've ever had, but that didn't matter, because the propietor (i guess she's Nick...) sat down with us and chatted, genuinely concerned about what we thought and who we were. She also recongized the next couple of people that came in the store to eat. That says something to me about service and running a business. She cared and now, so do i. I will go back, because even though i paid more than i did at Gorge Myself Buffet and Tacos, they took time to care about me, the person paying their bills and that makes me feel all warm inside my belly. Right next to the delicious, meaty pizza i am carrying with me. Pay for quality, get quality. Pay for quantity, get gas. Plain and simple. And i think Justin agrees with me (all except the gas thing).

Justin told me that when he won the lottery, he'd be investing in a chain of strip clubs...

no wait, that's me. He wants a pizza place. So the next time you drive by a Nick-N-Willy's-N-Justin's Richardson Famous Take-N-Bake Pizza shop, stop in and get some good quality service. With extra pepperoni.

boswilligkeit

this is the mean MFer that i'm using in City of Heroes. I finally got some screenshots, so here you go.

This is the logon screen and shows a great full frontal pic of what he looks like
and,
here are his current stats, as of 6/3 at 5 pm (this will soon change)

I'd love to have just posted the pics here instead of linking them, but blogger's buddy site that supposedly posts is fucked up and won't let me do it.

He's no Steve McQueen, but he's definitely bad, and i mean . . .

3 words for ya - fuckin A

this is my initial reaction to the Chronicles of Riddick game. now, i've only played two levels so far, but if future games can only be a fraction this good, then i'm in for a long and painfully expensive road with Alienware. as luck would have it, CoR is only on the xbox, so i don't have to purchase a new video card that would normally cover 4 months worth of mortgage, but let me say it again. fuckin a

the only thing i can equate this game to is Alien 3. yeah, i know, it pretty much blew in the way of movies and especially in that franchise, but do you remember how desolate and barren that film made you feel? living on a planet that most people don't even know existed, desert wasteland, a prison with a bunch of hardened criminals who would rather kill each other instead of get along. that's exactly what this game is about. you play Riddick (the Vin Diesel character from Pitch Black and the forthcoming CoR film) who is captured and put in this prison and your whole goal is to stay alive and escape, because of the reputation you have of being Riddick. the graphics are those of gods. it almost looks as if Starburst (the company that built the game) used the doom 3 engine. amazing lighting, great textures, the voice acting (vin himself as well as other top rate actors including my fav, Xibit) is some of the best i've ever heard in a game. it's a fighting/shooting game, so you don't just start with guns and plow your way thru. you start with fist fighting (your opponents gradually showing facial scars and black eyes where you punch them) and then pick up a shiv and eventually move on to other weapons. it also has stealth abilities so instead of rushing someone head on, you can hide back in the shadows and sneak up on them. the cool thing about this is when you sneak up on them, you have the option of a)a quick neck break (quite loud), or b)a slow neck break (where you actually hear each single crack before you push their lifeless body down like the trash). fuckin a

so much more to mention, but i won't just yet.

toughskins, zingers and mini-tramps

things i associate with childhood. or maybe i should say my childhood. and when i say my childhood, i don't actually mean my own childhood so much as the timeframe my childhood took place during. i asked my sister today, jokingly, if she'd get me a pair of toughskins for my impending birthday and she asked me what toughskins were. i was in utter shock.

luckily, i found this article which technically explained what toughskins are (or were), but the article never focused on the fact that if you were caught wearing a pair, you had the living shit beat outta you. i related this experience with wearing a pair of spiderman underoos to gym class your senior year in highschool. i was lucky enough to only have to wear my underoos to gym class until 6th or 7th grade, so i only got made fun of and not beaten on.

this whole discussion made me realize that my generation, although similar in some aspects with that of my little sis', is a completely different generation than hers. and i can't decide which is better. she's had computers and cell phones and THX and flat panel tvs and boy bands, but she didn't have The Dukes of Hazzard or Farah Fawcett Majors posters or crawlagators or evil knevil or toughskins. it's a toss up as to which is better. Times were simpler back then when a kid got to be a kid. Granted, she's 24 now and drives a desk for a living, but it just amazes me how little she knows about my generation. Although, history is doomed to repeat itself, so i'm sure toughskins will be an upcoming fashion some time soon and those of us who used to come home with black eyes because mom wanted something cheap and durable will just shake their heads and wonder how any of us made it to 30.

so don't be surprised, as i was, when you comment to a younger sibling about your sudden craving for a zinger and their response is...

"what's a zinger?"

i weep for the future

Reviews

Just found this review of the new Riddick game. I'll be picking this up at lunch today and let you know how it turns out. If it's as good as everyone says, i'll be very happy.

Chronicles of Riddick

Also, i picked up the new Thief game last weekend. I was a pretty big fan of the first two games, but unfortunately, the third game was not made by the original developer, but Ion Storm instead. Don't waste your time with it. Blocky graphics, awkward controls and a somewhat dull storyline makes this a waste of $40. Pick up CoH instead and give up showering.

Also, I caught Van Helsing yesterday. For a film that's so blantanly CGI, it's quite enjoyable and manages to keep the action at a frenzy for most of the film and even make you jump a time or two. It doesn't waste a lot of time on romance between the two main characters which keeps the action rolling from start to finish. Jackman is obviously trying to associate himself with a character other than Wolverine and even though it's the same type of movie, he does a pretty good job and Kate Beckinsdale is just so easy to look at, that you can't help but enjoy the film.

QotD

When did the term, GUARANTEE, lose complete meaning?

The dictionary defines the term as: Something that assures a particular outcome or condition

The objective word here being 'assures'. If I am assured that something will happen, then it is no longer my concern, i KNOW that it will happen, 100%, certain. For me, the word 'guarantee' carries a finality, a conclusiveness with no doubt of the outcome. If my jello is guaranteed to jiggle, then there is NO way that it won't. If the movie is guaranteed to kick ass, then I won't be requesting my money back from management 20 minutes into it.

Now that we know how i feel, lets discuss why I'm upset by this. I watch a lot of SciFi channel or TNT or TBS, I'm a cable movie kinda guy. Problem is, these channels tend to run the same commercials day in and day out during their movies. Most of them being drug commercials for erection problems or the inability to grab my OJ in the morning cause my arthritis has invaded every inch of my body. Or the oven baster will make my turkey the juciest i've ever placed in my mouth.

Some of this seems genuine as i fully believe that advertisers have learned from the past and have somehow managed to tap that believability gene in everyone and convince us that what they are selling is genuine. I'm pretty certain that this isn't the case. So, my point here is if i'm going to spend my hard earned money on this prodcuct, and you guarantee it, why is it only for 30 days, or why will you be giving my money back if i'm not satisfied? If it's guaranteed, there's no reason you need to be concerned about giving me my money back. Have you, the purveyor of your product lost complete faith in your product, or are you trying to just make a buck by bullshitting me?

I know the answer to the question, but have you no decency sirs?

super freak, he's super freaky, yeaow

yeah, i'm passionate about a few things in my life, but outside of my pony, i'm a video game freak. mostly PC gaming, but i'm also a pretty big console fan. i got started playing pc games back in the mid 90's with sim city. i'd sit at my 286 for 6 or 8 hours on a saturday afternoon and build these elaborate, super-pixelated cities. then, at a moment's notice, i'd burn it all down. normally, killing something you've just spend 5 hours building would seem very anti-climatic, but there's something very appealing to watch all those little people go screaming from their homes in terror as godzilla rampaged thru the town or the largest earthquake to ever hit Punkville takes it all out in one quick sweeping, burning, devastating 2 minutes. i've since rid myself of the 386 and sim city and moved on to bigger and better things like my 486 and sim city 2, but i've never lost my passion for pc games and i continue to play them almost every day of my life.

I now own a Pentium 4, 2.54 Ghz with Geforce 4 Ti 6400 graphics card, a 6.1 surround sound speaker system that's THX certified and Pong has never sounded or looked better. Pixelation at its finest. I started out the real gaming at what i think most avid gamers begin with - the FPS or first person shooter. Got real good with doom and quake and unreal tournament and just about every one in-between. I was part of the Mad Dogz clan for a Quake 2 CTF league. That was a lot of fun. I then advanced further with a game called Tribes where i not only gave up showering and eating, but i designed maps, created a group that built specailty maps for clans and gaming leagues and ultimately was recognized and awarded for my work by having two of my maps added to the offical add-on pack for the original game. That was the true highlight of my gaming career. I've since played almost every other type of game and am a fan of RTS, RPG and recently, MMORPG.

This last one is a really strange occurrence, because until now, i've played and passionately hated MMORPG. Spending $15 and a month killing defenseless bunnies to build up my character to a level 3 broom handle melee character just doesn't seem like that much fun, but i was coerced into buying a new game called City of Heroes and have given up showering again. Well, not really, but i'm actually considering doing some wash this month. Some time... I won't go into detail about the mechanics of a MMORPG (if you have questions about it or what the hell MMORPG means, google it), but i've created two characters thus far. The first being a Defender named lilblackgirl (imagine that), which i gave up hope on about two weeks ago and my newer and well played character who's a Tanker, Boswilligkeit (meaning malevolence, in german - i needed something that sounded menacing and My Little Pony was already taken). I managed to get Bos up to a lvl 16 yesterday and he's just one mean SOB. 12 feet tall and the size of a mack truck, he melee fights with a 5 foot war mace. He can super jump (you know, leaping tall buildings in a single bound), teleport friends and foes and is an overall badass. I'll try to post his specifics and a screenshot of him here later, but he's not one to be messed with in a dark alley.

This should be a pretty great year for games as Half Life 2 and Doom 3 should be released in the next 3-4 months and there's a slew of other great looking games by Crimmus that i'll need to spend hard earned money on and further ignore my life to play.