Jesus Loves Me

Comcast Still Sucks Ass

2006-11-28T00:41:00.000-05:00

As long as I'm living in Mount Dora, we're subscribing to Comcast cable instead of BrightHouse/Road Runner (which I never had problems with), because it's the only cable company available in our area. You may remember (but probably won't) my angry tirade a couple years ago over Comcast's acquisition and subsequent total destruction of my favorite television network, TechTV. Well, with the many quality podcasts that have since been published regularly by former TechTV personalities (most notably This Week in Tech and Diggnation), those wounds have slowly healed, though a subtly-toned scar has remaned.

However, since moving to Lake County and using Comcast's cable TV and internet service, I've seen a whole new side of Comcast's utter craptasticness that I hadn't been privy to before. For your edification (but mostly to quench my urge to rant), I thought I might enlighten you all as well.

It started when I first tried to get my internet connection setup. Comcast has this asinine system where, before you can actually use your internet connection which you've paid for, you need to install some software on your computer and fill in your information to verify and activate your account. Before you do that, any web address you type in will reroute to the Comcast page where you can download said software. First of all, how annoying is that? I don't want your stupid software taking up precious space on my hard drive. I'm paying you for internet access, that doesn't mean you own my computer, what the hell gives you the right to force me to install your crap on my machine before I can use the service I paid you for? But whatever, that's a negligible complaint. Moving on....

The first person to try to use the connection was my dad, who tried to connect with his work laptop. He would plug it in, get to the Comcast download page, and then for whatever reason, the "Download" button did not work. He would click it, and it would simply refresh the page. Over and over again. Being the fairly sophisticated geek I am, I took a look at it when I got home and I couldn't figure it the hell out either. It was bizarre. So due to Comcast's asinine requirement of installing software onto your computer before you can use their internet service, and due to their crappy web design and inability to make a freaking download link work on all computer systems, my dad was unable to use the internet at all until I got home months later and installed the crappy software on MY machine. Awesome.

So I got home and I connected my PC. I downloaded the stupid software. I entered in our account information and clicked the submit button, waited, and... adl;fkhnaeklrhnikanhkdfnh. Now it's giving me a fucking error message and won't let me finish the activation process. Son of a fucking.... Okay, no problem. I call customer support, tell them the issue I'm having, and they "fix" it from their end and tell me to restart my modem and my computer. I do, and no more Comcast download page. Everything works fine. I say thank you and hang up, and a few hours later I'm getting the stupid download page again, with the same error when I try to fill in the required information. I call Comcast again and they fix it again, and this time, for whatever reason, it sticks and I don't get the download page anymore. Okay. At least that's over with. Now we move on to the issues with their television service.

To summarize in a few words: Their DVR is a total piece of flaming shit. And I don't just mean, "It's the free cable company DVR" piece of shit, I mean to say that I might have an easier time trying to get a TV signal out of an actual lump of canine feces, lit aflame, setting on my entertainment center. It started with fairly simply complaints. The navigation is a pain in the ass and I still have no idea how to get to most of the options and settings. There's actually a certain set of options that can only be accessed by pressing the menu button while the box is turned off. Guess how long it took me to figure that one out? It's also missing a lot of the nifty features that I liked a lot with BrightHouse's DVR, like the thing where when you fast-forward and then hit play, it automatically jumps back a few seconds, anticipating that you probably went a little bit farther than you intended to go.

And then there's the more screwy issues I've had with it, like the way it sometimes fails to record certain programs, or sometimes the data will be corrupted in recorded programs so that halfway through watching, the video sputters and blurps random artifacts and the audio goes out of sync, and it continues to do that every few seconds throughout the rest of the recording. One time I had a recording that was corrupted so badly that it crashed the DVR when I tried to watch it. I would hit play, the screen would go blank for a while, and then the cable box would make funny clicking noises and the display would turn to all '8's. Who the hell wrote the software for this thing, Microsoft? No, it couldn't be; from what I've heard, Windows Media Center is actually pretty decent.

But nothing beats the crap I've been putting up with lately. Every show that's been recorded on an analog cable channel the past few weeks has looked like the screen shot above. (And trust me, it doesn't look any better in person. If anything, my camera phone gave it sort of the "squinting effect" and made it look a little better than it actually is.) Not the channels themselves—when I tune into them "live" they look fine—but only when I actually try to record from them. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have still been sort of watchable, merely because most of the enjoyment comes from the dialogue anyway, so you're not missing much with blurred visuals, but basically everything else I usually like to watch—Mythbusters, South Park, Iron Chef America, Law and Order: SVU (hey, it's a guilty pleasure)—have been totally destroyed. I also recorded "Koppel on Discovery: Iran" a while ago and was indescribably pissed off when it came out the same way, because I didn't know when or if it would be rerun and I was really looking forward to watching it. (I ended up finding an XviD encode on a BitTorrent tracker, though, so all is well with that. Thanks for compelling me to internet piracy, Comcast!) Since I haven't watched TV shows at their scheduled time in I-don't-know-how-many years, it's made my TV basically useless except for the four hours a week I'm watching The Daily Show and the Colbert Report.

I became so frustrated with it tonight that I decided to take a picture of the screen with my camera phone, and then decided to post about it in case some poor fellow who's considering switching to Comcast for whatever reason happens to stumble across it during his research or general Blogger browsing. And simply because I need to rant. It's been a while since I've posted a decent rant.

Anyway, the moral of the story: Avoid Comcast at all costs. Their service is not worth the cost of subscription, and the TV service is so shitty it's probably not even worth suffering through it for the 7 megabit internet connection that you probably wouldn't be able to get with DSL. Most casual users don't need a connection that fast, anyway. Choose DirectTV or Dish Network, or BrightHouse if you have the luxury of choosing between two different cable companies. Comcast is simply not worth your time, your money, or the hair you will yank out of your own head in frustration.

Patience

2006-11-14T05:40:00.000-05:00

A groan of tedium escapes me, startling the fearful.
Is this a test?
It has to be.
Otherwise I can't go on.
Draining patience. Drain vitality.
This paranoid, paralyzed vampire act's a little old.

But I'm still right here.
Giving blood, keeping faith.
I'm still right here.

Wait it out...
Gonna wait it out...
Be patient...

If there were no rewards to reap,
No loving embrace to see me through,
This tedious path I've chosen here,
I certainly would have walked away by now.

-Tool, "The Patient"

Fuck Spam

2006-11-11T13:40:00.000-05:00

I've been posting here again for three days, and have already had the pleasure of deleting two spam comments. Because of this, I've decided to enable Word Verification on all new comments. You know, the whole thing where it shows you a GIF image of some mildly disorted letters and numbers and you have to type them into the box to verify that you're a human being? I know, it's annoying, but it's the only thing I thought would be effective without being restrictive on what words you can use or making it so that only Blogger members could post. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Haircut!

2006-11-10T18:00:00.000-05:00

Danielle says it looks like I just walked off the front cover of a romance novel because of the way it's curling at the moment. What do you think? I'm pretty happy with it.

2006-11-10T03:48:00.000-05:00

I told you I'd deuglify it. Yes, I know, I took the easy route and just picked a different template instead of performing my HTML/CSS wizardry to truly customize it. What can I say? I'm lazy. And my CSS is a little rusty; I actually had to Google how to change font face with CSS to make the one modification I did make: To anyone who has the Windows Vista fonts installed, you will be reading this in Candara. For the rest of you (i.e., most or all of you), it shall be Verdana. Undoubtedly the best pre-Vista web font ever invented.

I am not headed for Alaska so fast after all. Danielle wants some time to gain a sense of independence and self-sufficiency before we go back to living with each other again, and while it doesn't make me particularly giddy, I'm respecting her wishes and staying here for a little while longer. I'm going to get a job here and save up enough money to move into my own apartment in Anchorage so that we can still see each other, but we won't be living together again until she decides she's ready to make that leap.

Meanwhile, Florida fucking sucks. I hate this stupid town, I hate this stupid county, and I hate this stupid state. Knowing that I'm now legally free to leave whenever I wish, but am now, by a twist of events, financially stuck here for at least another month just makes living here all the more intolerable. I have plenty of cash in the bottom drawer of my dresser right now to buy a plane ticket out of here tomorrow, but I can't use it yet. I'm going to miss Thanksgiving with Danielle and will instead have to spend it with my shitty family, which saddens me to an extent that I cannot possibly describe to you. I will be up there before Christmas, though, even if it means having to borrow money from my dad to make it happen.

Anyway, that's pretty much all I have to say. Allen finally conceded defeat in Virginia, the Senate officially is in control of the Democrats, woohoo. Fuck I hate Florida.

EDIT: Oh yeah! And I added an email subscription feature, so now you have no excuse for not reading and commenting on every single post I make. Forever.

Enjoy!

A Return to Blogging

2006-11-08T10:28:00.000-05:00

And what better a day than today?

My beloved Democrats have taken decisive control over the House of Representatives.

By all accounts, they will also take control of the Senate by a very slim margin, as soon as the dust settles in Virginia and Montana (which could potentially be a while).

Arizona became the first state to defeat the ever-popular ballot initiative to enact a state-level ban on same-sex marriage. South Dakota rejected a ballot initiative to ban nearly all abortions with little exception, a measure clearly designed to put Roe v. Wade back before the eyes of our (now much more conservative) U.S. Supreme Court. Missouri passed a measure to allow embryonic stem cell research to occur in the state. California and Oregon defeated measures that would require minors to receive parental consent before getting an abortion.

Oh yeah, and the State's Attorney's office called this morning to inform me that the charges against me have been dropped, and I won't need to appear in court.

Now that one needs some explaining, as I'm sure virtually all of you who may read this are out of the loop.

On October 18th, after a heated parental argument that got out of hand, I landed myself in jail and stayed there for fifteen days on a Domestic Violence: Aggravated Assault charge. That's a felony, folks.

It's not as big a deal as it sounds like (though I'm not attempting to excuse my actions; I was wrong); no one was hurt and there was really very little potential for anyone to have been hurt, but, to make a long story short, while my dad and I were arguing over him essentially forcing my girlfriend and I out of the house (and out of the state) over an argument that had occured a week previously and which I had presumed to be resolved, he said something that I interpreted as being a sort of insult to my girlfriend, at which point I stood up, picked up the chair I had been sitting in and threw it at him before leaving the room yelling obsceneties. I didn't intend to hurt him. I don't know what I was thinking, really. I was just more angry with him at that moment than I think I've ever been with anyone in my entire life. Anyway, in fear for his safety and what I might do if and when I came out of my room, he and my mom drove to the local police station, thinking that an officer could simply remove me from the home momentarily and have a talk with me to help me cool down and that be the end of it. Nuh-uh. In Florida (and in most other states, I imagine), any time domestic violence is reported, an arrest of the accused party must be made, and if the victim doesn't press charges, the state will. My dad didn't want me arrested, let alone did he want me charged with a felony, but the moment he took the issue to the police it was out of his hands.

Well, fifteen days later, on November 1st, I was released on bond (I'd had the 10% fee for the bondsman sitting in my account the entire time, but needed someone on the outside to sign for responsibility for the full amount should I fail to appear in court) and immediately began contacting attorneys to see what my options were. In fact, I had a free consultation scheduled for this morning. I was expecting to spend a month and a half sitting here just waiting on court dates (the Lake County court system is obscenely slow), and now it's all over. I can go back to Alaska to continue my life with Danielle. (Oh that's right, I didn't mention: After I was arrested my parents kicked her out of the house whether or not she had a place to go [nice, huh?], and my friends John and Rakel let her stay at their place for a week [I can't express how grateful I am for that] before her mom's boyfriend bought her a ticket back home.) No more waiting. No probation. No court fees. No attorney's fees. I will probably enroll in an anger management program when I get to Alaska, though. But the bottom line is that all this stupid crap is over.

Today is a very happy day for one mister Danny McGee.

P.S. This blog is ugly. If I'm going to be writing in this thing again (and I want to start writing in here again), I'm going to have to deuglify it. There are other, more pressing concerns right now, but that will occur sometime in the near future.

EDIT: And I've just heard that Donald Rumsfeld has also stepped down as Defense Secretary. Unbelievable. We have turned this country around and dramatically changed the direction of our government for at least the next four years, all in the course of less than 48 hours. I'm just a little bit more proud of my country today.

A Crisis of Faith: Vol. IV?

2005-04-29T17:36:00.000-04:00

"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."
-Galileo Galilei

Never before has a quote rung so true for me. If there is a God (which is a subject of much inner debate at this point in my life), first and foremost, I cannot believe that he would endow mankind with the sole ability among all of the animal kingdom to reason outside of emotions and instinct, and then require us to forsake that ability to know him. I've heard plenty of times that God transcends "human logic," and thus, certain aspects of his being (such as the concept of the trinity, the paradoxical three omni's, the idea of a six-day creation that--whoops--rendered the universe to look like it's billions of years old, etc.) must be taken on faith despite the fact that they contradict our understanding and reason. Bullshit. This is the way I see it:

If humans evolved without a personal creator, it's a lot easier to buy that our ability to reason isn't whole, or is untrustworthy. To oversimplify things, our brains are basically made up of two parts. An inner section, which is where our emotions and instincts reside, and the outer, more complex cortexes of the brain, where our ability to reason comes from. The inner section evolved much earlier than the outer sections. Darwin teaches us that each evolutionary development is a mechanism of individual and collective survival. Millions of years ago (and still today, to a large degree), that meant being emotionally (read: morally) opposed to the idea of killing and eating our fellow man. Thousands of years ago (and still today, to a large degree), it meant belief in an afterlife to ease our anxiousness over death. The sect of thought that trusts so strongly in reason and logic (skepticism) is the same sect which believes that objective morality does not exist and the afterlife is a grand myth. Why do we, then, trust so strongly in our ability to reason? After all, it is a product of the same force (evolution by natural selection) which caused us to develop a sense of morality and believe in the supernatural in the first place.

On the other hand, there is the possibility that we are, indeed, the product of a personal creator, who has "endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect." This God is the creator of everything and is sovereign over the universe. And yet, it is this group of thinkers, not the former group, which believes that we must cast aside reason and logic to accept the truth of a God who is so powerful that he transcends logic. So, what, he intentionally made is with fucked up brains that don't reason correctly? Why? For kicks and giggles?

Neither of these ideas satisfy me fully. If there is no God and we evolved over millions of years by means of good ol' natural selection, I see very little reason to trust in my own ability to reason. If God does, indeed, exist, and is the creator of me and my brain, I see very little reason not to trust in my own ability to reason. Ahh, the irony.

If I'm going to continue being an atheist, I'm going to need a reason to trust in my concept of logic. If I'm going to believe in God, I'm going to need a logical reason to do so, and furthermore, a concept of God which does not contradict logic.

Review: Mean Creek/The United States of Leland

2005-03-05T03:48:00.000-05:00

It seems that, once again, I've managed to see two movies back to back with very similar themes, having no idea what either movie was about before watching. The other time was when I received Traffic and Trainspotting from Netflix at the same time, which, unbeknownst to me, both had a central theme of drugs.

This time the two films are Mean Creek and The United States of Leland. The shared central theme, at its root, is human nature. Both films involve people who do horrible, wretched things, and both films attempt to compel the audience to view these people from a different angle than traditionally. They are not painted as common criminals -- as if there is such a thing. They are not painted as bad people -- as if "bad" is an inherent quality. The people in this film are individuals just like the rest of us -- to the extent that anyone can truly be like someone else -- who make mistakes. Who fuck up, who do bad things. Things that, perhaps, we would have done too, had we been in their shoes.

At this point I should provide fair warning that the proceeding will contain "spoilers," especially of Mean Creek. In actuality, what I plan on giving away is extremely predictable, and the knowledge of it won't truly spoil much of anything, but nevertheless, if you're one of those people, like me, who prefers to know as little as possible about a movie before watching it, come back and read this after you've seen the film.

Mean Creek is about six kids who, at first glance at the script, might seem like the stereotypical, one-dimensional characters you've already seen in lots of movies. There's George (Josh Peck), the bully; Sam (Rory Culkin), the victim; Rocky (Trevor Morgan), the victim's protective big brother; Marty (Scott Mechlowicz), the trailer-park, daddy-left-me-and-mommy-drinks-too-much troubled kid; Clyde (Ryan Kelley), the most-likely target for being picked on within the group of friends; and, just for kicks, Millie (Carly Schroeder), Sam's sort-of girlfriend. George is the older fat kid who keeps getting held back in Middle School and picks a smaller cute kid (Sam) to kick the shit out of. Big bro gathers together the group of friends and decides to get revenge on the bully, only to find that -- dun dun dun -- he's just misunderstood, and all he really wants is to belong. Yeah, I know, boo-hoo, maybe that was an original idea 25 years ago, but by now it's a stale cliche.

But it doesn't end there, folks. Oh no. The friends don't get all weepy-eyed and decide to accept the bully as one of their own to live happily ever after. The kids, after some pursuasion, tentatively decide to follow through on their harmless revenge scheme, and end up accidentally killing George. Now they find themselves on the bank of a river, far from the nearest inkling of civilization, with a dead body and a very large decision to make.

Mind you, this plot could still end up a contrived, melodramatic piece of crap, but in the hands of debut writer/director Jacob Aaron Estes and the amazingly talented cast, it proves to be anything but. For me, it proved to be perhaps the most thought-provoking, worldview-rattling film of the decade. Even more potentially cliche aspects of the plot, such as George's bully-who-just-wants-friends character, is so humanly written and so convincingly acted that nothing about him feels like just part of a movie. As a side note, the fact that every member of the cast is actually close in age to the character they portray (or at the very least looks like they are) lends a strong feeling of authenticity to the film, as opposed to the Hollywood status quo of alleged 16-year-olds being played by actors in their early to mid twenties.

Both of the times I watched this film, the closing monologue left tears in my eyes. The other two films which have made me cry (Boys Don't Cry and Million Dollar Baby) were because, respectively, the tragic events depicted actually occured, or the script was deliberately (and effectively) emotionally manipulative. With this film, it was because I felt so strongly for the characters -- all of them, the victim of the crime and each of the offenders. The movie, for at least those final seconds before the credits rolled, actually fooled me into feeling that the characters were more than just images on a screen, acted out by performers and recorded on film, but really existed. Somewhere, going by different names and in slightly different circumstances, I don't doubt that they do. Because of this movie, I'll never be able to look at a "common criminal" the same again.

The United States of Leland, while being not nearly as well-written or thought-provoking, does pose a very similar challenge to the viewer, even to a greater extent. It is about a 16-year-old boy, Leland P. Fitzgerald (Ryan Gosling), who, without any warning or apparent motive, brutally murders his ex-girlfriend's mentally-challenged younger brother.

It soon becomes apparent to us that Leland isn't quite...well, normal. You get the feeling that something is just a little "off" in his head. Certainly not in the sort of way that one would imagine would make a man likely to kill, just in a way that makes him distinct. No effort is made to explain the source of his eccentricity, as that would be unnecessary exposition. Similarly, and much to the chagrin of many critics, very little is done to allow the audience to get to know the victim very well. Personally, I think this is a sensible decision, considering that the film's aim is to help the audience understand and even sympathize with the child's murderer, and, while one could argue that a more talented screenwriter could accomplish both, there are certain limits to any writer's ability.

The United States of Leland, altogether, is much less emotionally involving, much less thought-provoking, and much less impressive than Mean Creek, so all in all, I have much less to say about it. For me, it served as a nice accompaniment to and expounding upon the message I pulled from Mean Creek, and if nothing else, a nice way to spend a couple hours of my copious free time.

If I Had My Own Motion Picture Awards Ceremony....

2005-02-21T05:25:00.000-05:00

Achievements in Acting

Best Actor - Awarded for the best performance by an actor in a leading role

Nominees:

Tom Cruise, in Collateral
Johnny Depp, in Finding Neverland
Leonardo DiCaprio, in The Aviator
Jamie Foxx, in Ray
Paul Giamatti, in Sideways

And the winner is...
Jamie Foxx

Best Actress - Awarded for the best performance by an actress in a leading role

Nominees:

Bryce Dallas Howard, in The Village
Julianne Moore, in The Forgotten
Hilary Swank, in Million Dollar Baby
Uma Thurman, in Kill Bill, vol. 2
Kate Winslet, in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

And the winner is...
Hilary Swank

Best Supporting Actor - Awarded for the best performance by an actor in a supporting role

Nominees:

Adrien Brody, in The Village
Jamie Foxx, in Collateral
Morgan Freeman, in Million Dollar Baby
Tim McGraw, in Friday Night Lights
Peter Sarsgaard, in Garden State

And the winner is...
Morgan Freeman

Best Supporting Actress - Awarded for the best performance by an actress in a supporting role

Nominees:

Cate Blanchett, in The Aviator
Virginia Madsen, in Sideways
Gwyneth Paltrow, in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
Natalie Portman, in Garden State
Amy Smart, in The Butterfly Effect

And the winner is...
Natalie Portman

Achievements in Creative Artistry

Best Screenplay - Awarded for the best original or adapted screenplay for a film

Nominees:

Zach Braff, for Garden State
Paul Haggis, for Million Dollar Baby
Charlie Kaufman, for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
David O. Russell and Jeff Baena for I ♥ Huckabees
Quentin Tarantino, for Kill Bill, vol. 2

And the winner is...
Paul Haggis

Best Director - Awarded for the best direction of a film

Nominees:

Zach Braff, for Garden State
Clint Eastwood, for Million Dollar Baby
Michel Gondry, for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
M. Night Shyamalan, for The Village
Quentin Tarantino, for Kill Bill, vol. 2

And the winner is...
M. Night Shyamalan

Best Cinematography - Awarded for best cinematographic work for a film

Nominees:

Eric Adkins, for Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
Dion Beebe and Paul Cameron, for Collateral
Roger Deakins, for The Village
Lawrence Sher, for Garden State
Tom Stern, for Million Dollar Baby

And the winner is...
Eric Adkins

General Achievements

Best Comedy - Awarded to the best film of a primarily comedic nature

Nominees:

Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle
I ♥ Huckabees
The Incredibles
Shaun of the Dead
Team America: World Police

And the winner is...
Shaun of the Dead

Best Picture - Awarded to the overall best film

Nominees:

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Garden State
Kill Bill, vol. 2
Million Dollar Baby
Shaun of the Dead

And the winner is...
Million Dollar Baby

Big News at KevinRose.com

2005-01-16T04:54:00.000-05:00

All I can say is that I am overjoyed. I wish I had more than $2.96 in my PayPal account so I could donate to the cause. Finally, a new source of real tech information and education post-TechTV. Ah, the memories of watching The Screen Savers every night and actually learning things; and oh, the information drought I have suffered since ~~Satan~~ Comcast bought out the network and turned it into G4 II. I am very much looking forward to this.

Sucks to Be You if You Didn't See These Movies

2005-01-03T06:54:00.000-05:00

Now that 2004 has drawn to a close, I figured it'd be a good idea to make up a list of my picks for the top ten movies of the year. Okay, so I stole the idea from Ebert and Roeper. Sue me.

I went through a list of every movie released in 2004 to make sure I wasn't forgetting any, and chose my top ten mostly from gut instinct, though there was some pondering and consideration involved. Bearing in mind all the great movies from 2004 which I haven't yet gotten the chance to watch (like Hero and Million Dollar Baby), this is a rough and largely incomplete list, but nonetheless, here you are:

Garden State
Kill Bill, Vol. 2
Collateral
Ray
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Shaun of the Dead
Spider-Man 2
The Bourne Supremacy
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
The Village

Yes, that's right. I still think The Village was a damn good movie. A few honorable mentions off the top of my head are Finding Neverland, I ♥ Huckabees and Team America: World Police. (Yep, that's not a typo. I'm talking about the puppet movie. It was good, damn you. Go see it.)

Later on (tomorrow, perhaps?) I will try to clean up this list a little and include a mini-review of each film explaining why it made my top ten. Until then, I must sleep.

A Crisis of Faith: Conclusion

2004-11-30T13:20:00.000-05:00

First of all, I do want to say, once again, thank you to all of my friends who tried to help me through this dilemma. I truly do appreciate all of your prayers, your concerns, blog comments, and private messages. While we still disagree on the matter, I do realize that your efforts proceeded from love and concern for me and not from a prideful desire to be right or what-have-you. I really appreciate that, and won't soon forget it.

With that said, I believe I've reached a conclusion to my soul-searching. I am officially renouncing Christianity. It disagrees with my heart, it disagrees with my conscience, and it disagrees with my intellect. After that, what else is there?

My struggle with the Old Testament which I talked about here in my blog was only the first toppled domino, if you will. I needed an excuse to back away momentarily and ask those questions I'd been afraid to ask most of my life—to objectively scrutinize that which I'd formerly put my trust in unquestioningly—and my squeamishness about the genocides of the Old Testament gave me that excuse.

I suppose, ultimately, I just don't see the point in faith anymore. What reason have I to believe that this book is the infallible truth? Because that's what Mommy and Daddy and Pastor always taught me? Because it says so? Because Christianity is older than most religions, and other intelligent people still believe in it? Because the book itself is relatively consistent? Because we must naturally presume other things without proof, like the laws of logic and reason, so we may as well add the Bible to the list?

None of these answers make any sense to me. That is supposed to be good reason to believe that an elaborate religious text the size of my dictionary is true and infallible? That is supposed to be good reason to hold these principles so strongly that one is willing to live, die, and even kill for them? No. Maybe that works for others, but not for me. With a question so important as this one, I can't simply leave the answer up to blind faith.

To borrow from a response I gave to one of my friends, it seems to me that I, just as everyone else, do not have any real answers to questions about God, the afterlife, the purpose of our existence, or any of these other spiritual matters. The difference between myself and people of religion is that I am willing to simply acknowledge my ignorance, while others seem to be more content to just pick something to believe in, be it Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny. And please, Christians, don't get offended by that analogy—remember that your own Bible instructs you to have faith like a child.

This was a difficult decision for me to make, not only because my parents, sister, nephew, and nearly all of my friends are still staunchly Christian, but because I, myself, had a lot of emotional and personal investment in Christianity. It was how I identified myself. It bled into literally every single aspect of my life. Now that that is gone, it's...well, it's an odd feeling. That said, though, I came to this on my own terms, I examined the situation as objectively as I possibly could, and I'm at peace with my decision.

So, at this point, I'm going to ask that you, my friends, respect my decision and just let it be. I understand that you think I'm going to Hell now, and thus, your natural inclination is to desperately try to talk me out of it, but to be frank, I've made my decision, and it's not likely that I'll go back on it at this point. I'll still answer the remaining, unanswered PMs, and I'd be happy to answer any questions you guys have, but until CGR's Apologetics forum opens back up in December, I'm going to just let this rest. Trying to answer everyone's objections in a manner that satisfies all of them is not only practically impossible, but has been a cause of some stress recently, and if I may be so bold, I honestly don't think I have the need to justify this decision to anyone but myself.

I certainly hope you won't view me differently after all of this. I know how I felt when some of my friends before me went to the dark side, but it took me this past week to realize that my identity doesn't lie in what I believe. Regardless of all of this, I'm still my good ol' self. My core moral values haven't changed a lick and I'll still be striving to live my life by them, my personality certainly hasn't been altered...I'm still the same person, and I hope you all can realize that. I have.

OT/NT Inconsistency: The Progression of a Religion

2004-11-22T20:20:00.000-05:00

These are just some more thoughts, to clarify some of my current objections to Christianity.

Rationalization aside, there seems to be a fundamental difference in the overall mood and tone of the Old Testament as compared to the New Testament. A change of ideals which, logically, seems to mirror the progression of society.

In the Old Testament we have God commanding his people to conquer just about every wicked civilization which comes up for discussion, slaughtering every inhabitant save for the virgin girls, who are taken as spoils of war. There is plenty of brute force used under the command of God, and plenty of cold, hard laws calling for capital punishment for everyone from murderers to gays to rebellious children. Not a whole lot of talk about love (at least not until long after the Law is written, with books like Proverbs and the Song of Solomon).

In the New Testament we have not one single remotely similar command, and all the sudden all of this teaching about love and unity. The specific commands that are given by God concerning particular heathen civilizations in the New Testament are for evangelism, not conquest. Two "new" commandments are introduced by Jesus: Love the Lord, and love each other. The focus of most of the epistles turns to forgiveness and redemption.

In the Old Testament, we are told to treat unbelievers like this: "If your brother... or your son or your daughter or the wife you embrace or your friend who is as your own soul entices you secretly, saying, 'Let us go and serve other gods,' ... you shall not yield to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him, nor shall you conceal him. But you shall kill him. Your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people." (Deuteronomy 13:6-11)

In the New Testament, we are told to treat unbelievers like this: "Conduct yourselves wisely toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person." (Colossions 4:5-6)

So, basically, we have one document which paints God as a wrathful, conquering warmonger, and then we have another document (which just happens to have been written in an era when civilization has become slightly more advanced) which paints God as a weed-smoking flower child who just wants everyone to get along (with the occasional tinges of his former wrath for the sake of consistency).

When looking at it objectively (which is apparently a no-no, according to many apologists), the Bible doesn't exactly strke me as an infallible holy document written by the Creator of the universe. It strikes me as an inconsistent and woefully fallible (a sign of human authorship) book of mythology, with ideals that are as progressive and evolving as the human culture which spawned it.

Such progression can even be seen today.

Nowadays, the bulk of the Christian community is getting more and more liberal with their teachings and interpretations of Scripture, inventing things like Arminian free-will, "Age of accountability," and so forth. Purists (as I was formerly) are vehemently opposed to this movement (and rightly so, being that it doesn't exactly line up with what's in their Bibles), calling it a perversion of a perfect religion. But I no longer see it that way. I see it as the inevitable ideological progression of a religion created and molded by man, just as Christianity originally was to Judaism.

I'll even bet that someday in the future, the Christian majority will be rationalizing away the passages which speak against homosexuality, just as they are today rationalizing away the Old Testament condoning of slavery. History thus far has shown that, while Christians fight as long and hard as they can to cling to the primitive ideals which their Bible proclaims, they eventually cave in and adapt to modern society. They did it with stoning Laws, they did it with slavery, and someday they'll do it with these other lingering issues, like homosexuality. Who knows? Maybe someday they'll even write a Newer Testament.

A Crisis of Faith

2004-11-22T13:23:00.000-05:00

I wish I weren't writing this right now. I'd kept my mouth shut about it up until this point because I figured—or at least, hoped—that maybe if I just swept it under the rug and pretended everything was fine, it would all just go away and I could go on with my life being a good little Christian. But it didn't, and I can't.

I'm not sure of anything anymore. I don't know if I can call myself a Christian. I'm not sure how to even define the word "Christian" anymore. Christ-like? Which Christ? The one who told us to love one another as we love ourselves, and treat others as we would like to be treated? Or the son of the "God" who ordered the mass murder of entire civilizations—women and children explicitly included—on multiple occasions?

If that is the God who created us all and has sovereign reign over all the earth, why did He create nearly all of us with consciences which conflict so sharply with the aforementioned events which he commanded and orchestrated? Even if one wishes to take a slightly liberal interpretation of Scripture and simply write off the Old Testament as being no longer applicable today, it doesn't change the fact that it's still there, and if the Bible is to be believed, horrific events such as those were and are holy, just, and right.

No. I'm sorry, but I refuse to believe that. I refuse to believe that a supposed omnibenevolent God could be the author of such filth, could be responsible for multiple acts of mass genocide—which, by the way, if the Bible is to be believed, would not only have been effective in wiping all of those men, women, children and infants from the face of the planet, but giving them all a one-way ticket to Hell, to be tortured mercilessly for the rest of their eternal existence.

This is love? This is the same God who told us that being angry with our brother without cause was a grave sin? Who told us to forgive one another of personal offenses every time forgiveness is requested? Who instructed us to not even speak too harshly with one another, but to teach and correct error in a patient and loving manner? Who told us to love others to the same extent that Christ loved us, that he was willing to give his life for us?

Matthew 7
¹²"So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. (ESV)

Matthew 22
³⁴But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. ³⁵And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. ³⁶"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" ³⁷And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. ³⁸This is the great and first commandment. ³⁹And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. ⁴⁰On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets." (ESV)

Really, now? The summary of the Law and the prophets is that we love God and love one another? That we treat each other the way we'd like to be treated? Then what of this:

Numbers 31
¹⁴And Moses was angry with the officers of the army, the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds, who had come from service in the war. ¹⁵Moses said to them, "Have you let all the women live? ¹⁶Behold, these, on Balaam's advice, caused the people of Israel to act treacherously against the LORD in the incident of Peor, and so the plague came among the congregation of the LORD. ¹⁷Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man by lying with him. ¹⁸But all the young girls who have not known man by lying with him keep alive for yourselves. (ESV)

That's certainly not how I'd like to be treated. It certainly doesn't seem like love, as defined by the New Testament in places like 1 Corinthians 13 and John 15:13. And this isn't just one isolated incident, either. Such God-ordained acts of conquest are sprinkled throughout the Old Testament.

Taking a look at these and other Old Testament laws in comparison with the New Testament's incessant teachings of love, it's difficult not to come to the conclusion that the two are horribly inconsistent mish-mashes of man-made laws and ideals, one from a primitive, barbaric civilization, and another from a culture slightly more advanced in ideology, but both grounded in the same basic belief in God. To be frank, it's bullshit, and I can't just continue to blindly cling to the notion that this fallible, errant book is the infallible, inerrant word of God just because that's what I've been taught for eighteen years of my life. I wish desparately that I could go on doing so, but I can't.

The past few weeks I've been praying—begging, even—that God would reveal himself to me, whoever and whatever he is. That he would teach me the truth, and solidify it in my heart. So far, this has been the result. Confusion, dispair, uncertainty... agnosticism, really. So what's the answer? Does God not exist? Can he not hear me? Does he not want me? Is he an advocate of free-will and thus leaving me to my own devices? Is he allowing me to go through a temporary period of uncertainty so that when I come out of it I can be more steadfast in my faith, whatever it is or will be? Time will tell, I guess.

Half-Life²: First Impressions

2004-11-16T05:35:00.000-05:00

So, I just played through about an hour and a half of Half-Life², and I thought I'd give you guys (is anyone still reading this?) a bit of a mini-review of what I think of it so far.

First impression: OMFG

That's One Mighty Fun Game, for those of you paying attention.

The experience is absolutely phenomenal. It is absolutely unlike any game I've ever played before, and I mean that. This game places you right in the middle of the action by keeping the camera in first-person perspective through the entirety of your experience. No cutscenes, no pre-rendered videos; just you, the player, experiencing the events as if you were Gordon Freeman, the game's main character.

That isn't to say, however, that the game is light on cinematics and story. It's actually one of the more cinematic games I've played (if not the most cinematic). It simply accomplishes its story-telling in a different manner. One of the strongest story-telling mechanics in the game are the characters you'll meet throughout the game. The game combines revolutionary facial-movement technology, liquid-smooth character animations, and professional voice acting to make for jaw-droppingly life-like secondary characters.

You won't soon forget the first time you meet Alyx, one of the main secondary characters. Valve's developers modeled her to be not-too-hard on the eyes, but that's nothing new in the realm of video games. One need look no farther than Max Payne 2's Mona Sax, or Bloodrayne's main character for examples of "sexy" women in videogames. What those characters lack, however, is the humanity bestowed upon Alyx by the remarkably non-mechanical facial expressions and body language, the intelligent dialogue scripting and A-list voice-acting, and the sure-to-be-revolutionary lip-synching technology, which matches the movements of her mouth to every syllable and consonant she utters flawlessly.

And the gameplay surely isn't lagging behind, any. Once again, absolutely revolutionary. I'll be surprised if the architecture of the gameplay doesn't pioneer entirely new conventions and clichés for nearly every action game that follows it.

Many developers in recent years have used relatively new real-time physics technology to make their games look more realistic. The bodies of just-killed enemies become "rag dolls," left to the forces of gravity to determine how they fall to the ground, as opposed to the pre-scripted death animations which were used before this technology was widely available. Explosions send small "phys-objects" like bricks or pieces of wood flying through the air realistically. No other game to-date, however, of which I am aware, has taken the next step by employing this technology to aid the gameplay, making the experience feel and truly be realistic.

Half-Life² raises the bar, turning nearly everything in the game that's not bolted down (and some things that are) into physically manipulatable objects, and giving the player the ability to pick up these objects, carry them around, and drop or chuck them at will. Unlike in other games, however, this ability isn't just a gimmick. It's an infinitely valuable tool—just as, if not more valuable, than the bullets in your weapon. When you find yourself in a bind that you can't immediately see a way out of, rather than frantically inspecting the walls for any hidden doorways or passages you might have missed, you start looking for cardboard boxes you can stack up to climb over a wall, or flammable barrels you can move to a strategic location and then shoot to blow your way through a barricade. This, combined with incredibly life-like artificial intelligence on the part of your enemies, means that often, the difference between surviving a level and buying the proverbial farm can be more a matter of quick wit and thinking fast on your feet than having surgical precision with your mouse and keyboard—though raw skills like quick reactions and accuracy certainly still come in handy.

I haven't made it horribly deep into the action yet, so that's pretty much all I have to say as of now. I'll be sure to offer a more complete review after I finish the game.

Half-Life² Has Arrived

2004-11-16T01:18:00.000-05:00

Well, not quite yet. Because of time zone differences, I'm actually going to have to wait for a few more hours. But when it's actually unlocked on my system, I'll be too busy playing it to make this post, so I figured I'd get it out of the way.

The reviews:
Gamespot
IGN

Fuck G4

2004-11-15T01:13:00.000-05:00

On the morning of the 11th, two days ago, the head honchos at G4TechTV fired a shitload of amazing people, including Alex Albrecht, Yoshi DeHerrera, Dan Huard, Martin Sargent, Laura Swisher, Joey "The Intern," and lots of other behind-the-scenes crew members, giving them exactly four hours to be moved out. For those of you who aren't familiar with G4TechTV or any of those people, some background information:

When I started watching what was then TechTV a few years ago, The Screen Savers is what initially pulled me in. It was a 90-minute (which was later downgraded to 60-minute), weekly live show which discussed the latest in tech news, gave general computing tips and tutorials, and answered live calls from people experiencing technical difficulties. While I'm sure that sounds boring to most of you, it was actually rather interesting to me, being what really began my journey into geekdom, and behind all the confusing terminology and nerdy discussions was the crew which made the show really fun.

The hosts at the time were Leo Laporte and Patrick Norton, aided by Martin Sargent, Yoshi DeHerrera, Megan Morrone, Jessica Corbin, Morgan Webb, Cat Schwartz, Kevin Rose (who was, at the time, just a lowly phone-answerer, being the youngest member of the on-air crew), and probably some others I'm forgetting.

Over the years, the casted shifted around some, as some members left the network (such as Megan Morrone, who retired shortly before her daughter's birth so she'd have more time to spend with her), and others moved to different shows on the network (like Morgan Webb, who began co-hosting what was then called Extended Play with Adam Sessler, when former co-host Kate Botello retired from the network). One of the biggest changes occured when Chris Pirillo, host of Call For Help (a now-extinct show in the U.S. chapter of the network) left (or was fired—his exit was so silent that, as far as I know, no one but him and the network fully knows what happened), and The Screen Savers co-host Leo LaPorte began hosting both shows, gradually being phased out of The Screen Savers until he was eliminated from the show entirely, to be replaced by Kevin Rose.

The largest change in the network before November 11th occured, however, when TechTV was purcahsed by G4 Media, a subsidiary of Comcast, its entire base of operations being moved from San Fransisco to Los Angelas, and the network itself being merged with G4: TV for Gamers. Now, to make it clear, I never much liked G4. The shows were boring, the entire network had the feel of a budget production, and the hosts, for the most part, were dull. When I first heard rumor of the G4/TechTV merger, I was a little worried, but for the most part, optimistic, because... well, because I'm an optimistic guy. I now see how displaced that optimism was, however.

Initially, the merger just meant that some new shows would be added to the usual TechTV lineup (which were, for the most part, crap, though I occasionally enjoyed Judgement Day and G4TV.com), along with a "revamping" of The Screen Savers. Additionally, Patrick Norton, the last remaining original host of the show, left the network after the merger because he didn't want to move to L.A. Rather than choose Kevin's new co-host out of G4's or TechTV's already existing cast, however, G4 hired a new guy, Alex Albrecht.

I have to admit, after watching the first "revamped" episode, I was a little leery of Alex. His voice was kind of high and obnoxious, and his demeanor was much more goofy and hyper than anyone who'd been on the show before. After a while, though, he grew on me, and eventually I came to love him just as much as I'd loved Leo, Pat and Kevin.

The show itself, taking cues from MTV, took a bit of a turn away from tech and toward trendy crap in attempt to raise viewership. While I was a little disappointed in this, I readily offered my forgiveness, being still quite fond of the cast (who was, as of this time, Kevin Rose, Alex Albrecht, Sarah Lane, Yoshi DeHererra, and Dan Huard) and still interested in what tech content still existed there. Apparently, though, the majority of The Screen Savers' fans were not so ready to forgive, because the show's—and thus, the network's—ratings went down the toilet.

Thus, we come to the events of Nobember 11th. Rather than being smart about things and reverting the show back to its techy roots while keeping the already widely beloved cast, G4, in the most asinine move they've made yet with the network, have chosen to fire Alex Albrecht, Yoshi DeHerrera, Dan Huard, along with all of the show's producers and writing team, and will be "revamping" the show once again, to be brought back on Monday, November 29th. Rumor has it that the show will be spliced with one of G4's original gaming-oriented shows, Pulse (which sucks), when it returns.

Personally, judging by Kevin's re ac tions to the events, I suspect that he and Sarah (who have been a "couple" for some time now) will be leaving the network when their contracts are up to pursue bigger and better things.

One particularly disgruntled fan has started a website, Save TechTV (currently down) (which I will be helping with graphics design), to unite fellow fans in lobbying against G4 in attempt to change things, particularly to get the staff that was fired back on the air, but also to return The Screen Savers to its technical roots. I kind of doubt it'll really be effective, but hey, it's worth a shot, isn't it? I suppose there's a chance G4 might listen to the fan-base and try to come to a compromise if enough of them send in angry emails, letters and phone calls.

At Least The Daily Show Will Still Be Funny

2004-11-03T19:11:00.000-05:00

In trying to think of the positive things—the silver linings, if you will—of the results of yesterday's election, I have come up with three things.

We still have a more-or-less pro-life President, which will be good if some of the Supreme Court justices are indeed replaced over the next four years.
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is sure to be a hoot tonight.
I'll still be able to wear my new A Perfect Circle - eMOTIVe T-Shirt.

Jesting aside, I am obviously quite disappointed with the election results last night. I can only fervently pray that the Lord has mercy on our nation and protects us from a further collapse of our economy or further compromises to our security due to Bush's irresponsible actions.

That said, now that everything is over with and President Bush has been more-or-less secured as our President for the next four years, I will make every effort to set aside my differences of opinion—to a point—and honor the Lord by honoring our leader and being submissive to him. So, Mr. Bush, you have my support, despite my disagreements with your policies.

Today, George W. Bush Becomes Unemployed

2004-11-02T11:46:00.000-05:00

I went to the polls yesterday morning and voted, and I encourage all of you reading to do the same, no matter for whom you vote. Below are the offices and issues on which I voted, and how:

President and Vice President
Candidates:

George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, REP
John F. Kerry and John Edwards, DEM
Michael A. Peroutka and Chuck Baldwin, CPF
Michael Badnarik and Richard V. Campagna, LIB
David Cobb and Patricia LaMarche, GRE
James Harris and Margaret Trowe, SWP
Walter F. Brown and Mary Alice Herbert, SPF
Ralph Nader and Peter Miguel Camejo, REF

My vote: John F. Kerry and John Edwards

United States Senator
Candidates:

Mel Martinez, REP
Betty Castor, DEM
Dennis F. Bradley, VET

My vote: Betty Castor

Amendment 1, Article X Miscellaneous
Summary: Amendment would require by general law for notification to a parent or guardian before the termination of a minor's pregnancy, providing exceptions and creating a process for judicial waiver of the notification.

My vote: YES

Amendment 3, The Medical Liability Claimant's Compensation Amendment
Summary: Provides that an injured claimant who enters into a contingency fee agreement with an attorney in a claim for medical liability is entitled to no less than 70% of the first $250,000.00 in all damages, and 90% of damages in excess.

My vote: YES

Amendment 5, Florida Minimum Wage Amendment
Summary: Creates a Florida minimum wage of $6.15 per hour, to go into effect six months after enactment, and to be thereafter indexed to inflation each year. Provides for enforcement, including double damages for unpaid wages, attorney's fees, and fines by the state. Forbids retaliation against employees for exercising this right.

My vote: YES

Amendment 7, Patients' Right to Know About Adverse Medical Incidents
Summary: Current Florida law restricts information available to patients related to investigations of adverse medical incidents, such as medical malpractice. Amendment would give patients the right to review, upon request, records of health care facilities' or providers' adverse medical incidents, providing that patients' identities not be disclosed.

My vote: YES

Amendment 8, Public Protection from Repeated Medical Malpractice
Summary: Prohibit's medical doctors who have been found to have committed three or more incidents of medical malpractice from being licensed to practice medicine in Florida.

My vote: YES

Half-Life² Release Date Set

2004-10-21T19:43:00.000-04:00

As you could probably tell by the new look of my blog, I'm a little excited about the fact that an official release date has finally been set for Half-Life². Now, a release date has been set for this game before—multiple times, from what I've heard—but this time, if I have my facts straight, the game is actually more-or-less fully completed already, so it's unlikely that we'll see more delays in development, and well, what are the odds that the source code will get stolen again?

Best MPAA Classification Ever

2004-10-13T03:21:00.000-04:00

"Rated R for graphic crude and sexual humor, violent images, and strong language, all involving puppets"

Guess what movie this is in reference to. I so can't wait to see it.

I've been neglecting this thing too much as of late. I will likely be back some time in the near future with some sort of update.

I Fucking Hate Racism

2004-10-05T20:55:00.000-04:00

I'm not exactly proud to say this, and I can only hope they never get ahold of this blog somehow, but my parents have always been a bit racist. I distinctly remember one particular instance when I was in elementary school. I was talking with my friend Austin about where he lived, and he mentioned that one probably wouldn't want to live in his neighborhood. Not knowing any better, and being conditioned that way by my parents, I asked him, "Why? A lot of blacks?" He gave me kind of a funny look and said, "No, the street's just really busy." I'll never forget that day. Fortunately, my parents (and my school as well) also conditioned me to love the Word, so it didn't take long for me to realize the immorality of that mindset; that all men truly are "created equal," so to speak. My parents...not so much. I don't know how they manage to reconcile their racial mindset with their religious beliefs, but then, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. They've always been pretty set in their ways and not often very logical concerning moral matters.

My dad and I were arguing about the war in Iraq not long ago (he firmly believes that we basically need to bomb the whole place to hell, and criticizes Bush for not being hard enough on them and not "really kicking butt"), and he made the statement that when Pearl Harbor happened, President Roosevelt, "Got every one of those slanted-eyed's out of our country," and that we need to do the same thing with "all these rag-heads". It honestly hurts to hear them talk like that, and now my parents are wanting to move back to Clearwater, now that I'm finally starting to actually make friends in this general area, apparently because my mom is sick of all the "Mexicans and Puerto-Ricans" here in the Orlando area.

Ugh.

It's the One that Says Bad Mother Fucker

2004-10-04T18:49:00.000-04:00

I recently applied and was approved for a PayPal debit card, which will be arriving in the mail in a week or two. This will let me make purchases from my PayPal account anywhere MasterCard is accepted. Neat, eh? The problem is, I don't have a wallet to keep it (or my cash, for that matter) in. I solved this problem buy purchasing this wallet a couple minutes ago. I can't wait 'til it arrives. That is one bad mothafuckin' wallet.

I'll be back, probably a little later tonight, with some more political banter.

Now I Know Why Windows XP Sucks So Much Ass

2004-10-01T03:37:00.000-04:00

Apparently, all of Microsoft's talented developers were busy coding Halo. And with Halo 2 slated for release in the relatively near future, Longhorn is bound to suck, too. However, being the gaming nerd that I am, I, for one, am willing to make that trade-off. Besides, there's always SuSE Linux to use when I'm not fragging the hell out of pixelated extra-terrestrials.

As you might have guessed by that intro, I recently finished Halo's single-player campaign. I know, I know, I'm a little late. I actually started the game a good many months ago, set it down, and due to my then lack of sufficient attention span to actually finish a video game, never went back to it. When I installed my new (and working this time!) Sapphire Radeon 9600XT (256MB, biatch!), I decided to reinstall 'er and give it another go. This time, I managed to finish it, and it only took me three days to do so. For your edification (who the hell am I talking to? The whole one or two people who actually read this damned thing have probably already long since beaten the game themselves), I'll weigh the pros against the cons and tell you what I liked and didn't like about the game.

First of all, the pros:

Story. The game was actually a lot more story-driven that I'd imagined, and more than that, the story wasn't just existent, it was pretty good. There were enough plot twists and turns to keep one on their proverbial toes, and the cinematic cutscenes and beautifully detailed environments aided my immersion into the experience. I'll never forget the first time I encountered "The Flood" (I'll not spoil the experience by describing it in any detail.)

Graphics. While it can't really compete with the newest shooters on the market, like Far Cry and Doom 3, the graphics are phenomenal for the time in which the game was released, and they still hold up well today, seeming relatively unaged.

Gameplay. This is a straight-forward, balls-to-the-wall Run 'n' Gun shooter. None of that strategy crap. No leaning around corners, no ability to slow or quicken your pace, no going prone to enhance your sniping accuracy. Just run like hell and pump some lead into those bodies until they stop moving. A lot of people might not like this, but I love it. Mind you, strategy and intellegent gaming is great, but every now and then a guy wants to just turn off his brain and shoot some folk.

And now...the cons.

I should probably start by saying that, unfortunately, I am not exactly the 1337est g4m3r on the face of the planet. I usually have substantial difficulty getting through the average action game on the Normal (or "Medium" or what-have-you) difficulty setting. Because of this, I almost always play games on the Easy setting. I did so with Halo, and when I got far enough into the game that I was unwilling to start over from the beginning, I realized I probably shouldn't have.

This game, for me, was easy. Very easy. Perhaps Microsoft just didn't feel the need to compensate the difficulty level for mouse-aiming when porting the game to the PC, or perhaps the higher difficulty levels are more challenging, but this game was quite practically a walk in the park for me straight through to the end of the game. There were very few sections of the game where I actually lost any health points (you have an auto-regenerating shield to protect you from suffering damage until you're hit with enough firepower to break the shield and leave you vulnerable), let alone where I actually died a few times. I cannot remember being killed once until after my first encounter with the Flood, more than halfway through the game. After that, I didn't get "stuck" a single time. Not once. The worst thing I had to deal with was getting killed in a particular section (where I was overpowered by a ridiculous number of enemies) twice or three times in a row before I buckled down and thought out a basic strategy, at which point I blew through it with little problem. In a way, this was good, because I never once became frustrated or pissed off, as I do with almost every other game I play, but on the same coin, the lack of challenge nearly bored me on occasion. Almost. Even without the lack of challenge, however, the experience was absolutely exhilerating for the most part, and many times while battling the Flood, I felt a bit frantic, as if I could be overwhelmed and killed at any moment.

System performance. This game is tough on one's PC. When I played it months ago, I was playing on a 1.6GHz CPU and a 64MB Radeon 9000 (read: not fully DirectX 9 compliant) video card, and I was forced to play in 640x480 resolution, because anything higher lagged my PC down quite a bit. One would think that upgrading to a 2.16GHz CPU and a 256MB, fully DirectX 9 compliant card would dramatically improve the performance. I thought so, too. I initially tried playing at 1024x768, but the game was pretty much a slideshow, so I broke down and lowered it to 800x600. This played at a very tolerable 30-40 FPS, but whenever I fired my weapon and it made contact with an enemy, the framerate would bog down to 5-10 FPS. I'm writing this off as simply bad programming, as none of my other games exhibit characteristics so odd. Finally, I had to drop my resolution back down to 640x480, which sucked ass. Fortunately, though, the framerate was consistently high enough (70-100 FPS normal gameplay, 40-50 while firing weapons at opponents, and down to 30-40 in certain "high-strain" areas of the game) that it still offered a visually splendid experience.

Aside from those minor quibbles, I can't really think of any complaints I have with the game. A lot of gamers would probably chastise it for its brevity (it took maybe ten hours of actual gameplay to finish it, as far as I can tell, but that's a very rough estimation), but with my measly attention span, it was an asset. Long enough to make me feel sufficiently satisfied upon completing the game, but short enough that the story stayed interesting and kept me on the edge of my seat; it never really seemed to drag.

Overall, I really, really enjoyed the experience, and I'd recommend it to anyone who's into video games. Additionally, this is a great place to start for someone new to and interested in shooters, who might not fare so well to jump into a more difficult game. If I were to reduce it down to a simple numbered rating, I'd give it 4½ out of 5.

And now, due to the wonder of FRAPS (which bogged my performance down dramatically, which is why you'll notice it's a bit jumpy at times in this clip), here is a brief clip of me playing the game, toward the middle of the last level. (Note that the clip contains a spoiler of sorts, so if you plan on playing it and haven't already, you might not want to watch it.)

Right-click, Save As... (19.4 MB) (DivX)

Nuggets of Wisdom from Televangelists, Vol. 1

2004-09-27T18:23:00.000-04:00

I'm thinking of starting a new little activity in my blog. Every time I hear a fine piece of bullshit from a televangelist, I'll post it here for your edification. Here is one that my sister passed along to me and my parents yesterday:

In Old Testament times, when a man wanted to marry a woman, he'd pay her father a brideprice, which bought him the right to marry her. After this, he would propose marriage to the woman, at which point she was free to accept or reject the engagement at her will. This is just like how Jesus payed the price for our sins on the cross, but we still have the choice to accept or reject Him!

I find this one particularly ironic, considering the title of my blog.

My Current Feelings, As Paraphrased by Ben Gibbard

2004-09-26T03:40:00.000-04:00

The glove compartment isn't accurately named
And everybody knows it
So I'm proposing a swift, orderly change

'Cause behind its door
There's nothing to keep my fingers warm
And all I find
Are souvenirs from better times
Before the gleam
Of your taillights fading east
To find yourself a better life

I was searching for some legal documents
As the rain beat down on the hood
When I stumbled upon pictures I'd tried to forget
And that's how this idea was drilled into my head

...Now here I rest, where disappointment and regret collide
Lying awake at night...

Er...make that very paraphrased. And a lot less literal.

Team America: World Police

2004-09-25T02:55:00.000-04:00

No, this is not a post about the movie that's coming out in the near future. I just thought it would be an appropriate title for this entry.

And now, friends and countrymen, if the wise and learned philosophers of the elder world, the first observers of nutation and aberration, the discoverers of maddening ether and invisible planets, the inventors of Congreve rockets and Shrapnel shells, should find their hearts disposed to enquire what has America done for the benefit of mankind?

Let our answer be this: America, with the same voice which spoke herself into existence as a nation, proclaimed to mankind the inextinguishable rights of human nature, and the only lawful foundations of government. America, in the assembly of nations, since her admission among them, has invariably, though often fruitlessly, held forth to them the hand of honest friendship, of equal freedom, of generous reciprocity.

She has uniformly spoken among them, though often to heedless and often to disdainful ears, the language of equal liberty, of equal justice, and of equal rights.

She has, in the lapse of nearly half a century, without a single exception, respected the independence of other nations while asserting and maintaining her own.

She has abstained from interference in the concerns of others, even when conflict has been for principles to which she clings, as to the last vital drop that visits the heart. She has seen that probably for centuries to come, all the contests of that Aceldama the European world, will be contests of inveterate power, and emerging right. Wherever the standard of freedom and Independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions and her prayers be. But she goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy.

She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all.

She is the champion and vindicator only of her own.

She will commend the general cause by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her example.

She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom. The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force....

She might become the dictatress of the world. She would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit....

[America's] glory is not dominion, but liberty. Her march is the march of the mind. She has a spear and a shield: but the motto upon her shield is, Freedom, Independence, Peace. This has been her Declaration: this has been, as far as her necessary intercourse with the rest of mankind would permit, her practice.

—John Quincy Adams, 1821

Folks, it honest-to-God breaks my heart to read that speech in light of current events. Bush has not only pissed and spat all over the Constitution and the Bible with his vaguely defined "War on Terror" and "liberation" of Iraq, but he's completely trumped explicitly-defined visions our forefathers had for this nation with his fuck-up. I'm beginning to agree with all these liberals when they say that our invasion of Iraq is one of the worst blunders in United States history.

Mind you, I do disagree with Michael Peroutka's plan to simply pull out of Iraq immediately. We are the ones who went over there and completely destroyed their nation. I do think we have the obligation to "clean up the mess," so to speak, before withdrawing. For this reason, and because I'm just so desperate to see Bush removed from office, I'm seriously considering once again voting for Kerry in November. I still have to put a lot of thought and prayer into it, though. I don't want to make any jump decisions.

I have heard Christians say that if they voted for Peroutka and Bush lost their state and thus lost the election because of that one vote, they'd never be able to forgive themselves. If I voted for Peroutka, and Kerry lost Florida because of it (which is a good possibility—Florida is most certainly a "swing state") and thus lost the election to Bush, I would not be able to forgive myself.

Do I agree with Kerry's political stance on abortion? No, of course not. Is that one political issue a big enough deal to keep me from voting democrat this November? I honestly do not know at this point. It's not as if the Bush administration is actually doing anything significant about abortion, and it's not as if making it illegal is going to make it cease to exist. Besides that, Kerry has recently stated that he personally "doesn't like" abortion, but believes it is a Constitutional right nevertheless, so it's not as if he's some cold-hearted baby killer. Blah. I don't know.

Somebody Call the Waaaaaambulance

2004-09-21T17:08:00.000-04:00

Everyone needs to whine every once in a while, right? Well, today, it's my turn. I'm feeling kind of down. I can't really pinpoint it to one particular thing that's getting me down. I just, am. So, this really isn't a, "I'm depressed because..." post. It's more of a, "I'm depressed, likely due to some chemical imbalance I don't understand, and these are my scapegoats." Enjoy.

My life is going nowhere really fucking fast. I lack the motivation to get my shit together and actually do something with it. I'm going to be eighteen in less than a month, and I won't have a license, and will still be a high school dropout without a GED. Even the "fun" projects I'm engaged in are moving far too slowly due to my staunch laziness. There are no less than six Theology books laying atop my dresser, unfinished or unopened entirely, because I'd rather watch X-Play or shoot Nazis in Call of Duty than actually sit my ass down and learn something. My spiritual life is likewise suffering, because I lack the motivation to ever read my Bible (save for targeted studying for debate purposes), or even pray for the needs of all my friends whom I regularly tell, "I'll be praying for you," assuming that this time I might actually get around to it.

I am alone. Single, and still desperately craving some sort of female companionship. I only have one or two folks whom I consider to be close friends of mine. The last relationship I was in fucked me up badly. I foolishly rushed into it because I was in a similar desperate state. When she dumped me after an even month, I managed to fall for my best friend who wasn't exactly single (while vehemently trying to convince myself and her that I hadn't) because she was the only one there to comfort me. Got way too close to her as a result, which made both her and her boyfriend uncomfortable with me. At the end of the day, I'd successfully lost both my girlfriend and my best friend. That shit takes talent. That whole experience so scarred me that I've since intentionally hindered myself from making new girl friends, and distanced myself from the ones I had. Hell, I've even done the same with my guy friends. Which explains why I don't have any close friends.

Art is one of those few close friends. He lives in California. Between working, spending time with his new girlfriend, and avoiding his old one, he never gets online anymore. That sucks ass. I miss staying up until 8 in the morning chatting with him about girls and movies and video games and computers and whatever the hell else there was to chat about. I miss kicking his ass in Call of Duty. I feel like I've lost my best friend yet again. And he was the one I assumed I never would lose. God damnit.

Yes, I just used the Lord's name in vain. I'm certainly not proud of it, but on the same coin, I'm apathetic. Because of the aforementioned laziness and lack of motivation, my walk with Christ has really been suffering, and using His name in vain is certainly not the only or the worst sin that's part of my daily routine nowadays. Prayers concerning this would be very, very appreciated.

So, there you go. My whining for the day. Those of you who talk to me on messengers; before you ask: No, I don't want to talk about it. I just wanted to get all this shit off my chest, and I've done so. The end. Now I want to get on with my life and not dwell on it. Maybe I'll just stay off of my messengers entirely today. In any event...yes, prayers are appreciated. I need all of them I can get.

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow kicks ass

2004-09-21T02:23:00.000-04:00

Yep, it's just that simple. What the hell are you doing staring at your computer screen? Go see this movie. Now.

This Type of Album (Gets Old Fast)

2004-09-19T03:57:00.000-04:00

Earlier tonight, I got to listen to Chevelle's brand new album, This Type of Thinking (Could Do Us In). I regret to report, however, that it pretty much sucks.

Well, no. Sucks is too strong a word. It wasn't bad as in, "This is so mind-numbingly awful I can't bear to listen to it" (in fact, I did quite a bit of head bobbing). Rather, it was bad as in, "This is nothing but Wonder What's Next thrown into a blender with cleaner production values (so much for that 'raw' sound Pete was rambling about a few months ago), more Nu-Metal clichés, and even lower-tuned guitars."

Wonder What's Next, while being fairly straight-forward and radio-friendly, still managed to be pretty original and refreshing for "Nu-Metal," and was certainly an above-par album in the general scheme of things. This Type of Thinking... is just...generic. Boring. Forgettable. It's such a disappointment for me that I can't really think of anything good to say about it at all, except maybe that the last song on the album was fairly nice sounding. The problem is that the quality of even that track only compares with the worst tracks on other albums that I really love.

I fear that Chevelle is yet another of those bands that started with a bang (Point #1 is an excellent album), and continues to get progressively worse as they go along. Kind of like Incubus. Except that comparing this album to A Crow Left of the Murder is a major slap in the face to that album (which is a damn good album, mind you, just not quite as good as S.C.I.E.N.C.E. or Make Yourself).

I probably went a bit too hard on it. These are just my first impressions. Who knows? Perhaps it will grow on me and I'll learn to like it like I did The Beautiful Letdown. As of now, however, I'm too overwhelmed with disappointment in my Chevelle to be truly objective about the quality of this release. So, as of now, it gets a preliminary rating of 1½ out of 5 stars.

Never Buy Refurbished Merchandise

2004-09-13T21:31:00.000-04:00

The video card I ordered Friday arrived in the mail today. The refurbished video card I ordered Friday arrived in the mail today. Folks, I have learned my lesson. I am never getting a refurbished computer component again.

It arrived, I tore the box open gleefully, turned off my computer, whipped the old card out, carefully placed in the new card, booted 'er up.... Ahh, crap. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Blank monitor, no booting into Windows, nothing on the screen, just...nothing. I tried reseating the card a few times, tried making sure the monitor plug was securely plugged in, tried hitting the reset button a few times, examined the card for any obvious physical defects...nothin'. But alas! The fun doesn't end there!

I conclude that the card is DOA and resign myself to returning it to NewEgg for a replacement. So I plug in my old video card, reinstall the drivers for it, and reboot. I open Firefox to find out how to return the card to NewEgg. However, I get an error message saying the URL can't be found. Uh...that's weird. I try to sign into AIM. "The AIM service can't be reached." I look down at my system tray to make sure my firewall has finished loading...yep, everything should be fine. Yet...it's not. I glance at my cable modem...yep, all the correct lights are flashing. I definitely have a connection. I reboot. Same thing. Okay, now this is getting frustrating. I run a system restore back to before I tried installing the dead video card. Successful restoration. Still no connection. I close out my firewall. Still nothing. I manually end the firewall's process. Nothing. Scan for spyware. Nothing. Reboot again. Nothing. Then my firewall comes up with a little message telling me there's an update available. I click to download and install the update...and it works. And now I have full use of my internet connection. Wow that was a waste of time.

I went to NewEgg.com and obtained an RMA number. Printed out the packing slip and and got the address to which to send it. I head over to FedEx.com since the box they sent it in was a FedEx box, and I figured I'd just reuse it. I sign up for an account, start to print out a label...and I get a page that redirects me to the home page, saying that the page could not be found. Oh, for the love of....

Calm. No problem. I have plenty of USPS Express and Priority Mail boxes in my closet. I head over to usps.com, click to print out a label, enter the address information in.... What the...oh, what the fuck is this?!? As part of their "Standardization process," they change the recipient address from:

132 South 6th Ave.
La Puente, CA 91746-3026

To:

132 S 6TH AVE
CITY INDUSTRY, CA 91746-2913

Wow. Just, wow. I have eMailed NewEgg.com's tech support concerning what to do; whether I should send it to USPS's "corrected" address, or manually write out the address on the box, or what. I guess we'll find out what happens from here.

Folks, never buy refurbished merchandise. Learn from my mistakes.

UPDATE: NewEgg emailed me back.

Dear Daniel,

I have been advised that the City of Industry address IS acceptable. Please follow through with RMA. We certainly understand your concern and thank you for taking the initiative to confirm.

Thank you,
Adam

This came after I looked up the corrected address on Mapquest to find out that it was 0.6 miles from La Punte's center (which, coincidentally, South 6th Ave runs right through). I took the chance and printed out the shipping label, and now I have confirmation that I made the right decision. Good stuff.

Wow. That was the most boring update ever. I will try harder in the future. I promise.

Frances was a Pussy

2004-09-09T18:10:00.000-04:00

After looming out in the Atlantic so ominously, spinning at cat 5 speeds and being larger than our entire state, Frances hit us, and she didn't do jack shit. Well, not to us, anyway. There were plenty of people left without power, just as with Charley, but the worst we saw of it was shitloads of rain and an occasional gust (and we were not at all far from the eye). My projected path proved to be a pretty accurate (err...sort of).

2 Down, 1 to Go

That's right, folks. There is another hurricane coming for us. Its name is Ivan. It's heading right fucking for us. By now, this is old news. I don't even have anything to say about it anymore. Just figured I'd update you.

A Far Cry from the Average First-Person Shooer

Ha ha. I'm so clever.

As you could probably tell by the sub-title, I'm talking about Far Cry, Ubisoft's groundbreaking first-person shooter.

What's that? You like graphics? How about graphics so life-like you'll be wiping the tropical humidity from your brow while swatting mosquitos off your arm?

Graphics don't impress you? You want deep gameplay? You're in luck. Forget the typical FPS formula where the path to your objective is so linear and clearly-marked that the game might as well be telling you through the speakers, "Okay, now shoot this guy, and walk through that door...." This game defines open-ended gameplay. You're dropped into the middle of a massive tropical island, sprinkled with baddies in strategic locations, and given your objective. What you do with them is up to you. Snipe from afar, run in Rambo-style, nail that oil drum and blow the fuckers up, do a drive-by with that patrol boat out in the water there, swim around the other side of the island and flank your enemies, sneak by them entirely...it's all up to you. This world is your playground, and you're free to do whatever the hell you want with it. Well, so long as the plan you come up with is good enough to outwit your ultra-intelligent enemies (good luck with that, by the way; you'll need it).

And don't even get me started on the sound. If you own a decent speaker system with a subwoofer, it will personally walk over and kick you in the ass every time you fire one of your weapons. No longer does your pistol sound like squeezed bubble wrap when you pull the trigger.

To put it simply, this game is abso-fucking-lutely incredible. If you don't have it, get it. Beware the system requirements, though; if you have less than the recommended specs, it's not going to look as good on your machine, and you'll need a fully DirectX 9-compliant video card to render the better-looking water effects.

Speaking of Which...

It is time for a computer upgrade. So tomorrow, I will be looking for an AMD AthlonXP 3000+ (2.16GHz processor) and an ATI Radeon 9600 XT (256MB) as cheap as I can find them (eBay, here I come!) so I can play Far Cry with better visuals, and also so I can check out Doom 3 (I wouldn't be able to call myself a gamer if I didn't play it—plus, it just looks badass) and Half-Life 2 when it comes out.

Ode to Frances

2004-09-02T00:39:00.000-04:00

Bring it the fuck on.

Hurricanes Suck Ass

2004-09-01T16:22:00.000-04:00

<image of really badass looking hurricane>

That, my dear blog readers, is Hurricane Frances.

<image of projected path of said hurricane going straight through Florida>

And that is Hurricane Frances' projected path. This is a bad thing. Why? A few reasons.

It's a fucking hurricane. They're rarely good.
From more precise projected paths running on the news now, it looks like it's going to pretty much be another direct hit on Orlando.
It's a lot stronger than Hurricane Charley was, which just hit a matter of weeks ago. It may be a category 5 when it hits us.
Because it's so soon after Hurricane Charley hit, there's still a lot of stray debris lying around all over the place. That debris could very well become lethal projectiles.
This one's fairly selfish, but I'm not looking forward to losing power for an extended period of time like a lot of people did due to Charley.

I really wish I had the money and means to just leave state for a week or so. I'd love to go up to Kentucky and hang out with my friend Josh, or Texas to meet the various acquaintances there I've met from CGR; maybe stay with Heather or Jeff and Sean. Or hell, even go up to Jersey and check out Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash. Anywhere but here would be preferable.

UPDATE: I posted my images straight from weather.com, which were automatically updated, so the image URLs no longer display the relevent pictures. Use your imaginations.

Check This Shit Out

2004-08-30T20:46:00.000-04:00

Hurray for Good Bands with Quirky Names

Today, I decided to check out the Garden State soundtrack because I really liked the music from the trailer, and I'm generally a fan of Indie music. At first, however, I was a tad disappointed. It was decent, but not nearly as good as the mystery song from the trailer, and certainly not as good as a lot of people had been hyping it to be. Then Iron and Wine's cover of The Postal Service's "Such Great Heights" came on, which was pretty cool. Then, out of nowhere, the trailer song comes on. Whoa! It's even better than I'd remembered. So good, in fact, that I took note of the artist's name (Frou Frou...WTF?) and went a-searching. Sure enough, I came across their album, Details, and decided to get it. I am very, very glad that I did. I never thought I'd enjoy techno/dance music so much. Even more than The Postal Service or Radiohead. The lead vocalist has this delightful way of quickly transitioning to and from falsetto that makes her voice sound like some manner of heavenly yodelling. (Trust me, it's a lot cooler than it sounds.) If you get the chance, be sure to check them out: www.FrouFrou.net

Kevin Smith Announces Clerks Sequel

From NewsAskew.com:

Well, there are always scoops that we hate holding on to, and this was certainly one of them. Finally, the news has been given the go-ahead to announce here, and we couldn't be happier. Here's the piece that AP is running today, announcing that yes, the SECRET PROJECT for 2005 is indeed a live action CLERKS sequel, tentatively titled "THE PASSION OF THE CLERKS":
Director Kevin Smith Plans 'Clerks' Sequel
By ANTHONY BREZNICAN, AP Entertainment Writer
LOS ANGELES - Kevin Smith is making another convenience store run.
The writer-director of "Dogma," "Chasing Amy" and "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" told the Associated Press on Friday that he has begun work on a sequel to "Clerks," his homemade indie classic from 1994.
That $27,000 movie, shot at night in a store where Smith worked, chronicled the adventures of Dante and Randal, two guys who talk about life, death, sex and movies while working at neighboring stores.
The sequel picks up 10 years later.
"It's about what happens when that lazy, 20-something malaise lasts into your 30s. Those dudes are kind of still mired, not in that same exact situation, but in a place where it's time to actually grow up and do something more than just sit around and dissect pop culture and talk about sex," Smith said during an interview at his Hollywood office. "It's: What happened to these dudes?"
A new 10th anniversary DVD of "Clerks" debuts Sept. 7, and Smith said working on that three-disc set inspired him to write about what became of those characters.
The sequel — titled "The Passion of the Clerks" — is set to begin shooting in January. Miramax Films, which turned the original into a cult-hit after buying it at the Sundance Film Festival (news - web sites), plans to distribute the follow-up.
"It's funny, it's very raw, insanely foul-mouthed. In many ways it's the antithesis of 'Jersey Girl,'" Smith said, referring to his recent PG-13 comedy with Ben Affleck (news) as the widowed father of a little girl.
Smith is also writing the screenplay for a movie version of "The Green Hornet," but no longer thinks he will direct it. The "Clerks" movie has moved to the top of his to-do list.
He said he called Jeff Anderson, who played the combative video-store worker Randal, and Brian O'Halloran, who was the besieged-by-strangeness convenience store employee Dante, to run the idea by them first.
"Jeff was actually very protective of 'Clerks,'" Smith said. "Jeff was like, 'Are you sure you want to do this? That movie means a lot to people and do you want to go back?' I thought about it honestly, and it would seem chicken to not give it a shot just because I'm afraid of (messing) with the first film."
So far, he said he has gotten only positive responses from the people who have read the script, so he decided to move forward with it. Both O'Halloran and Anderson are signed on, and Jason Mewes, will return as stoner Jay, the "hetero life-mate" of Smith's stoic Silent Bob.
"I'm sure there will be naysayers who say, 'Oh my God, it's an opportunistic grab at a buck,' but it's not. We're doing it for nothing," Smith said. "We're going to do it insanely inexpensively. The budget will be somewhere between 250 grand and $5 million."
The original was shot pre-dawn, and most of the actors worked for free and then went straight to their day-jobs with little or no sleep.
"This time around we'll afford ourselves the luxury of nice 12-hour days," Smith said. "And people can get paid."

We told you that you'd like it!!! More news, now that the cat's officially out of the bag, coming soon. Stay tuned.

Well, so much for Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back being the last Jay and Silent Bob movie. Not that I'm disappointed, mind you. Jay and Silent Bob kick ass. I am, however, a tad skeptical about the film. I'm not going to be a cynical bastard and assume that it's just some sort of commercial sellout, as some are assuming, but I am a little worried that it won't be on par with the quality of the original Clerks. Smith's writing as of late, as displayed in the aforementioned Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and his more recent Jersey Girl, hasn't quite been as good as it has in past years. That said, I certainly didn't hate his most recent two movies (in fact, I liked both of them quite a bit), so I'm pissing myself in anticipation nonetheless.

Concerts, Music, and Other Crap

2004-08-29T20:55:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was a long and eventful day. It started with a simple enough objective: Get to a Battle of the Bands competition down in Satellite Beach to see A Denver Mile in concert, and to check out the other twenty or so bands that were going to be there. Along the way was an entertaining two-plus-hour car ride filled with music from Further Seems Forever to Boston, conversation, jesting, and Boo-Koo Energy drinks.

One would think that such a large Battle of the Bands competition would certainly draw quite a few talented local bands, right? Certainly the band we went to see would not be the only halfway decent band performing, right?

Remember when I said that the local music scene around here was pretty sweet? Yeah. Forget I said that.

A Denver Mile performed admirably (though not as well as they did at The Last Wave not long ago), but throughout their set they were met with an apparently prepubescent fellow near the back of the crowd screaming, "Fuck you!" incessantly, and at least one airborn projectile. (Not to mention there was some idiot in the crowd immediately in front of us who kept standing and watching the band for about six seconds, interrupting us by crossing in front of us to go do something else for a few seconds, then crossing back in front of us to return momentarily to his watching-the-band-for-another-six-seconds position. By about the third or fourth time he did so, I was ready to bitch-slap the kid. I didn't, however, because I am a pussy.)

Immediately after A Denver Mile, a decidedly "hardcore" band (with an apparently female vocalist who, admittedly, performed admirably) began their set. It was soon apparent that this performance was pretty much going to suck. It was filled with all the tired metalcore clichés we've all heard in every other metalcore band that's ever existed. To top it all off, the crowd seemed more interested in engaging in the inexplicable activity of forming a loose circle and running into each other like blind rats trapped in a burning building known as "moshing" than actually watching and listening to the performance. As one of the few who wasn't intentionally injuring myself, however, I can assure you all that they weren't missing anything. After a rousing chorus of "I'm Fucking Suffocating," I noticed that a goth-looking individual had retreated from the mosh pit to the opposite corner of the building with an apparent head injury. I didn't think much of it—just figured he needed some time to relax and allow the pain to wear off—until the next band's set was cut short by a paramedic team who'd just arrived to haul the young man off on a stretcher. Ouch. The real pity is that the band that was interrupted, Influence, was one of the better bands of the evening (which, to be blunt, isn't saying much).

After Influence's half-set was another psuedo-hardcore band composed of kids who looked about twelve or thirteen who were even worse than the aforementioned hardcore band. It was around this time when John gave a hand signal implying that he wanted to leave, answering my fervent prayers of the past forty-five minutes or so. We were invited by one of A Denver Mile's guitarists, Jimmy, to come over to his mom's house after the show to hang out, so we did so. There wasn't a whole lot of conversation or socializing going on, but there was a regulation-size (and obviously expensive and well-maintained) pool table, and it was fun watching Tim and JohnMark get their strategizing asses handed to them by a pregnant woman who had no idea how to play pool.

After that was another conversation-filled two-hour drive back to John's house in Sanford, where John, Zach and I said our goodbyes to Tim, JohnMark and Ted, hung out at John's house for a bit, and then found a 24-hour McDonald's to eat at before the long drive back home.

P.S. I also spent ten bucks on a CD from a band that was at the BoB that we didn't even get to see, because one of the band members no less than begged us to buy his album, and I felt sorry for the guy. It's not that I didn't want to buy the CD, mind you, it's just that ten bucks is a little steep for a local band—especially one I hadn't heard—and I'd carefully partitioned the money my dad gave me among the concert money, food money, and gas money for John (in hindsight, I probably should have set aside gas money for JohnMark too, since it was his SUV which we took to Satellite Beach and back). On top of this, I ended up leaving the CD in JohnMark's SUV. Haha. Oh well; I'll just get it back from him next time we hang out.

Music You Should Listen To

I've already carefully composed and re-composed a top-ten list of my favorite films, so I figure it's probably time I did the same with my favorite albums.

This is, in somewhat-loose order, a list of my top-ten favorite albums. Realize that there are a few albums that I excluded from this list (Ænima, OK Computer, and Transatlanticisim among them) out of desire to include only one album from each band. Also realize that this is in no way an attempt to objectively state the top ten best albums of all time—these are just the ones I enjoy the most, though there is a tinge of objectivity over subjectivity in my choosing methods. With that in mind, here we go:

10. AC/DC - Back in Black

There were quite a few albums in contention for this spot. Unfortunately, I had to choose only one, and it pains me to have left some of the others out. Ultimately, I chose this album because, first and foremost, it is a truly classic rock album. It's one of those albums that really doesn't have a low point. Every track on this bitch will surely rock your ass off.

Best tracks: "Hell's Bells," "Back in Black," You Shook Me All Night Long"

9. Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV

Man, what can I even say about this album that will begin to do it justice? In reality, objectively speaking, it should probably be much higher on this list. However, being that there are lots of other albums that simply tickle my ears more, number nine is a fine spot for it. Nearly every modern rock band has been influenced in some way by Led Zeppelin, whether directly or indirectly. Led Zeppelin IV is arguably the prime album from a simply amazing band that pioneered rock music as we know it today.

Best Tracks: "Black Dog," "Stairway to Heaven"

8. Sigur Rós - ( )

Sigur Rós is a band that truly defies all definitions of genre and convention. Having blank pages in place of liner notes, no lyrics aside from garbled Icelandic-sounding gibberish, no song titles at all, and an album title comprised of two empty parentheses, this album encourages personal interpretation in absolutely every sense of the term. The music itself is orgasmically delightful, with beautiful melodies and harmonies coming from bowed guitars and various other stringed instruments, angelic vocals, and soothingly slow tempos.

Best Tracks: Track 3, Track 7

7. Radiohead - Kid A

This is an album that can basically be summed up with the words, "Really strange." However, that is strange in a good way. The music here is primarily synthesised, but it's absolutely no worse off for it. If you can imagine hauntingly beautiful, unconventional dance music with mostly unintelligble vocals, you've probably got a pretty good idea of what this album sounds like. You absolutely must experience it yourself to truly understand its beauty, however.

Best Tracks: "Everything In Its Right Place," "Idioteque"

6. Outkast - Speakerboxxx/The Love Below

This is the album that convinced me that rap can be more than a guilty pleasure; more than cheap ear candy. Rap, when done correctly, can be truly artful, and Speakerboxxx/The Love Below is about as correctly as it can possibly be done. Defying all rap/hip hop clichés and breaking all conventions of the genre, Big Boi and Andre explore many topics in a thought-provoking manner, while playing quite a few of their own instruments (oh yeah, did I tell you there are actual instruments on this album?) and dishing out some unique melodies and infectious hooks. This isn't just my favorite rap album; it's one of my favorite albums of all time, in any genre—and I'm not even a huge fan of rap.

Best Tracks: "GhettoMusick," "War," "Church," "Reset" / "Love Hater," "Behold a Lady," "Vibrate"

5. The Who - Tommy

When I made the decision to delve into the roots of my favorite music genre not long ago, I listened to quite a few classic rock albums; some of which I really enjoyed, and some of which I didn't care for much. This album was the one that really jumped out and left an impression on me. Perhaps it's the concept-style theme, perhaps it's the artful melodies, or perhaps it's something else entirely that so draws me to this album, but any which way, it's a fun listen and an incredible album.

Best Tracks: "Sparks," "Christmas," "Underture," "Pinball Wizard"

4. Death Cab for Cutie - We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes

Death Cab for Cutie singer Ben Gibbard is, simply put, the most talented writer I have ever witnessed. His inventive lyrics are the highlight of this album, and pretty much every other Gibbard project I've had the pleasure of hearing. With lush, inventive imagery and a level of intimacy that makes it feel as though the listener is being allowed an exclusive peek into Gibbard's very soul, reinforced by beautiful guitar melodies, Death Cab for Cutie (and this, their best album,) is the exemplification of everything "Emo" music should be, but all too often isn't.

Best Tracks: "Title Track," "405," "Company Calls Epilogue"

3. Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness

Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness was my introduction to Billy Corgan and the Pumpkins; and what an introduction it was! I don't even know how to describe this album except to say that it's one of the most delightful experiences I've ever had. Corgan's introspective lyrics and unique voice are thoroughly enjoyable, but the music is the main focus here. With a gorgeous piano introduction, and quite a few more "Disarm"-style songs, the overall feel of this album is a significant progression from Smashing Pumpkins' previous and somewhat repetetive continuous-wall-of-guitar sound.

Best Tracks: "Tonight, Tonight," "Zero," "Here is No Why," "Porcelina of the Vast Oceans," "1979"

2. Tool - Lateralus

This album single-handedly and permanently changed the way I listen to music. Because of this, I'll readily admit that my personal attachment to it leaves me a bit biased. However, no matter what your biases, it's hard not not to admit that this is an amazing and ground-breaking album through and through. Maynard Keenan's deep philosophical musings can be explored nearly endlessly, while still leaving the listener with not much more than mere speculation as to the intended message (which is just as well, as Maynard is a staunch advocate of sentiment and personal interpretation), while Adam Jones' chunky guitar riffs interweave with Justin Chancellor's unconventional bass lines, and both integrate seemlessly with Danny Carey's tribal, ever-time-shifting rhythms, leaving the listener with a visceral experience that will play games with the heads of educated music theorists and philosophy majors alike.

Best Tracks: The whole freaking album

1. A Perfect Circle - Thirteenth Step

This album very narrowly beat out Lateralus for my number one spot; while both albums are absolutely amazing in their own right, I have to give prevalence to Thirteenth Step on the simple basis that I enjoy it more. It's somewhat inescapable to compare A Perfect Circle to Tool—being that they share the same lead singer, there are undeniably many similarities—so I won't make much attempt not to do so. It would be accurate to state that this album is the emotionally-driven counterpart to Lateralus' decidedly intellectual appeal. The music here is more accessible, with catchy guitar hooks in place of bizarre time signatures, and Maynard's lyrics and vocals follow suit by being, respectively, much less philosophically inclined (though certainly no less deep), and far more melodic than rhythmic. With music that enraptures the listener and lyrics that are thought-provoking but not overly weighty or pretentious, this album rightfully earns its number one spot on my list.

Best Tracks: "The Noose," "Blue," "The Outsider," "Pet"

Honorable Mentions

These are albums that didn't quite make my list, but you'd still do well to give them a listen. In no particular order:

Nirvana - Nevermind
Pearl Jam - Ten
The Mars Volta - De-Loused in the Comatorium
Godspeed You Black Emperor! - F# A# ∞
Zwan - Mary Star of the Sea
AFI - Sing the Sorrow
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication
Underoath - They're Only Chasing Safety
Incubus - Make Yourself

Introductions

2004-08-27T21:41:00.000-04:00

This post has been pretty much ripped straight from my Xanga, because Xanga sucks ass and I felt like starting a Blogger, but I don't have anything horribly interesting to write about at this time. Enjoy.

Hello. I am Danny. This will be my obligatory introductory post.

I suppose the fitting thing to do would be to expound on my interests.

Theology
Above any other label I could assign myself, first and foremost, I am a Christian. More specifically, I am a Presbyterian. This means, in a nutshell, that I take a ridiculously conservative approach to Biblical interpretation (I am a Calvinist Theonomist Paedobaptist Cessationist—say that five times fast), and yet am quite morally liberal, advocating such heathen activities as listening to secular music, watching R-rated movies, drinking alcoholic beverages, smoking tobacco products, and even using naughty words. Unfathomable!

Politics
First of all, Bush sucks. The fact that I am a devout conservative Christian doesn't make me a Bush fanboy. In fact, the Republican party as a whole pretty much sucks. For that matter, so does the Democratic party. I am a strong advocate of the Constitution Party, and will be voting Michael Peroutka for President this November. And now, I will provide a quote to assert Peroutka's utter superiority:

“I, like President Bush, hope that the Iraqi people, and all people, will be free from tyranny. But, unlike President Bush, I realize that, Constitutionally, as President, it would not be my job to use our military to spread ‘freedom’ everywhere in the world. Unlike President Bush, I, as President, would realize that I had been elected President of the United States, not President of the World.” —Michael Peroutka

Owned.

God
Since most of the Theology explanation was a joke, I suppose I'll be more serious with this one. From something I wrote earlier on the subject:

I believe in an omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent and omnipresent triune God, having, Himself, no creator, eternally existent in three distinct yet equally glorious Persons; the Father, Yahweh, the Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. I affirm the Athanasian Creed.

I believe that Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God, incarnated by the Holy Spirit through the virgin conception of Mary (Joh 1:14). He lived a life completely without sin, and was delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God to die for the atonement of the sins of anyone who would put their faith in Him (Heb 5:9; 7:28; Acts 2:23; Joh 3:16). He was resurrected from the grave three days after His death, and now sits at the right-hand side of the Father in Heaven.

I believe that the Holy Spirit regenerates the heart of all of God's elect, enabling them to believe, baptising them once, at the moment they are regenerated, and forever sealing their salvation (Ez 36:26; Eph 2:5; Eph 1:13-14). He then sanctifies the believer, working in and through him to conform him to the image of Christ (Rom 8:29). The evidence of the Holy Spirit's work in the heart of the true believer is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, in accordance with Galatians 5:22-24.

On a more personal level, I love the Lord with all my heart, and am infinitely grateful for Christ's sacrifice for the atonement of my sins.

Movies
If Quentin Tarantino and Kevin Smith were the only people making movies, I'd probably be pretty satisfied. Top ten favorite films:

Magnolia
Chasing Amy
Kill Bill: Volume 1
Pulp Fiction
Almost Famous
Kill Bill: Volume 2
Eyes Wide Shut
Clerks
Jerry Maguire
Mallrats

Music
My music tastes are ridiculously varied. I don't have much bias toward any particular genre. I can listen to and enjoy select bands from just about any musical genre. Well...besides country. I'm afraid I have an irreconcilable disdain for country. Pretty much anything else is fair game, though. Favorite artists from various genres, in no particular order (and allowing for some substantial liberties in genre definition):

Alternative Rock
A Perfect Circle
Incubus
Chevelle
Smashing Pumpkins
The Accident Experiment
Disturbed
Foo Fighters
Nirvana
Switchfoot
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Franz Ferdinand
The Mars Volta

Progressive
Tool
Radiohead
Liquid Tension Experiment
Sigur Rós
Godspeed You Black Emperor!

Metal
(early) Metallica
System of a Down
Mudvayne
AC/DC

Classic Rock
Led Zeppelin
The Who
Black Sabbath

Punk
Green Day
The Offspring

Emo (?)
Death Cab for Cutie
Underoath
AFI

Rap
Eminem
OutKast
The Roots

Industrial
The Postal Service
Nine Inch Nails

Pop
Michelle Branch
Ashlee Simpson

Okay, so obviously, I'm a tad more inclined toward rock music. But the general principle still applies. I'll listen to pretty much anything so long as it's quality.

And that is pretty much it. Stay tuned for updates.

CGR Links

1999-09-09T19:25:00.000-04:00