November's Random Post

This is just a post with a bunch of crap that I feel is worthy of being on my blog.  'Random' is more like 'partially random' as opposed to gibberish.

Super Obama World

This is a sort of spoof of the Super Mario World games.  In Super Obama World, you play as our President-elect Barack Obama and get to stomp on enemies such as lipstick-wearing pigs.  Even the first level is filled of political references like the 'bridge to nowhere'.  Play now.

The Matrix Runs on Windows

Another spoof, but this one is a video.  It is based on the first Matrix movie and depicts what would have happened if the Matrix ran on Windows XP.  You just need to see it for yourself.

Something Stupid That I Just Realized

The villains (or, well, the actors who portrayed the villains) from the first two Spiderman movies were both in movies featuring Harrison Ford.

The Green Goblin, a.k.a. Willem Dafoe was in the movie Clear and Present Danger (based on the Tom Clancy novel of the same name). Dafoe portrayed John Clark, some secret agent dude.  He works alongside Ford, who plays the role of Jack Ryan, the main character.

Doctor Octopus, otherwise known as Alfred Molina, was in the very beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark.  He was that guy named Satipo that tried to escape from the temple with the golden monkey he stole from Indy.  Thankfully, the bastard gets mauled by those spikes.

Halotivations

If you haven't heard of it before, head on over there now.  It is a blog where people send in Halo-based motivational posters.

Do me a favor and make some posters.  There's apparently a lack of posters to... er... post.

Well, There You Have It

 The first official 'random' post.   I have more things to post about, more important things deserving posts of their own.  And I promise, no more 'I hate Republicans' rants.  Video games and politics do not mix well for the most part.

My 360 Is Back!

You read that right.  My Xbox 360 Elite is back and better than ever.  I expected a much longer wait.

I decided to send my 360 to Microsoft to get fixed.  I followed the progress on the Xbox website.  Here is a timeline of what happened:

Friday, October 24, 2008- Red Ring of Death is discovered.

Sunday, October 26- I arrange a repair.  The shipping box is sent.

Thursday, October 30- The box comes, I pack my 360, ship the box with my 360 in it the next day.

Friday, November 7- Microsoft receives my console.

Saturday, November 8- My 360 is fixed!  Shipped back to me a few days later.

Friday, November 14- This is the day that I originally would have received my Xbox, but no one was home to sign the UPS guy's paper...

Monday, November 17- The UPS guy tries again.  Success!

Microsoft sent a letter of apology (of course, my name has to be 'Xbox Enthusiast) and a card for a free month of Xbox Live.  That was very generous of them, considering the entire process didn't cost me a dime- the repair and shipping were both free.  They even renewed my regular warranty!

As for how my 360 is performing, the few things that were changed were the most noticeable, in a good way.  Signing into Xbox Live is a lot quicker, and testing the connection doesn't take as long.

But the biggest difference is that the 360 is a lot quieter.  When it starts up, it doesn't sound like a leafblower.  Instead, there's this really quiet, soft noise that sounds like a Gonk droid.  It only does the Gonk noise twice, then if I want to hear it again, I need to restart the console.

The sound of the console is also a bit more pleasant.  It doesn't make that motorcycle... er, racket after 20 minutes.  Even though the fan is the loudest part of the console, the 360's noises aren't nearly as obnoxious and distracting anymore.

All of that said, I recommend sending RRoD-afflicted consoles to Microsoft for repair.  It's worth the wait.

Election Day '08

Forget my political views, forget everyone else's political views, for one day, and vote for who you think will be the best for our country.  

My McCain Rant

I've been putting this on hold out of laziness.  But seeing as Election Day is tomorrow, I decided to throw something together.  I promise that this will be more organized than my Palin rant.

There are several reasons that I do not want McCain to win the election:

McCain is Old (Old People Have Health Problems)

Isn't he 72 or something?  My grandpa died around that age.

And hasn't McCain had cancer before?  That also isn't good...

My point is... McCain can die at any given moment.  Right after the election, if or when he is sworn into office (gets so excited he has a heart attack), any time at all.  Which leads to my next reason...

Palin is Nuts

I know I dedicated an entire post for this point before, but I just felt I needed to remind you of this.  She is pro-war and pro-life, and could be a heartbeat away from the Presidency.  Enough said.

Which leads to my next point...

Some Republicans Are Too Stupid for Their Own Good

Remember that girl (a McCain supporter) that claimed to have been brutalized by supporters of Obama?  She said that her attackers carved a 'B' for 'Barack' into her face.

Police were suspicious as soon as they saw pictures of it because...

The 'B' was backwards.

How stupid can you get?  McCain supporters should ashamed.

McCain is Not Going to Fix the Real Problems of the U.S.

McCain is talking about "change," yet he refuses to recognize the real problems Americans face.

McCain has been saying that he will buy back mortgages.  Yeah, it's good for some people, but it's not good for the rest of us.  We have to pay more taxes for people that are spending more money than they have.  Those people are not being punished for their stupidity.  If I know anything about this, it's that crime without punishment causes bratty children.

McCain has also avoided the problem with leaders of companies like AIG making off with thousands from their companies, spending the money on their own personal wants.  Those leaders are the biggest criminals in society today, because they make thousands of others lose their jobs, but more importantly their 401(k)'s lose value.  These leaders get massages that cost as much as a car while their employees' dreams of retirement go down the shitter.

The worst part about that is that the leaders of those companies also do not get punished.  They screw up the economy and get away with it.  Meanwhile, you can rob a bank and get in jail for life.  McCain, being rich and a Republican, will not deal with the real problems.  People do not understand that yet.

McCain Being President Means Staying In the Wrong Country (Iraq) Until the Job is Done

McCain is for the war in Iraq.  For fuck's sake, Osama is in Afghanistan.  

McCain wants to keep at it until we win.  If this keeps up for a while, expect the draft to come back.  I recommend packing extra supplies for the trip to Canada.  If McCain is really as old as he seems, for all I know he could think that the war in Vietnam didn't end yet.  It's crazy, but somewhat plausible.

The McCampaign is Claiming that Barack Hussein Obama is Associated with Terrorists

This is another one of the worst parts about McCain's campaign.  Basically, they are saying that because Obama's middle name is Hussein and that Obama used to be Muslim, Obama is associated with terrorists.  That's racial stereotyping right there.  More proof that McCain does not really want the best for the country.

*Note: In case you didn't get it yet, the backwards 'B' means that the girl was looking in the mirror when she applied the 'B' to her face.

Well, that's all I really have to say about McCain.  If I don't get to it tomorrow... vote!  Tomorrow!

The Red Ring of Death: A Pain in the Ass

The image you see above is my Xbox 360 Elite, plagued by the Red Ring of Death after a little over one year of use.

See, I'm pissed right now.  No hardware today should break after one year.  Hell, even Super Nintendos still work.  I know two people with working SNESs.  They're fucking ancient and still work.

It all happened like this:

Friday afternoon.  The end of a bad week in school.  I just wanted to relax.  After watching Law & Order for an hour, I decided to play on Xbox Live.

I turned on my 360 and tried playing the Mercenaries 2 demo.  The console did a weird freeze up while loading the game map.  There was some distortion in the picture.

I restarted my console and tried the demo again.  I got a little further this time: I got in the truck and after a few seconds of driving, the console did another weird freeze up.  Again, some picture distortion.

I restarted again, and this time tried the Need for Speed: Most Wanted demo.  It froze up before the main menu could fill up the screen.

I decided to restart again.  This time I tried playing Naruto: Rise of a Ninja.  As soon as the game map finished loading, the console froze up again.

So I decided to restart again.  I got the Red Ring of Death.

I tried one last time.  When I put the 360 on its side, I got a weird green screen.  I gave up after that.

So now I'm in the process of finding an easy solution.  I am trying to avoid sending my console to Microsoft, because I've heard that it takes weeks and that you might not get your hard drive back.  I don't even know if I'll get a 360 Elite back.

The warranty expired on June 14.  Fucking warranty runs out before I get the RRoD.  I sort of expected that to happen.

Any tricks that might help fix the problem are welcome.  "Get a PlayStation 3" is a legitimate answer.

EDIT: I decided to send my 360 to Microsoft for now.  I arranged a repair on Sunday, and got the shipping box on... Thursday or Friday.  I'll need to check.

EDIT 11/7/08: Microsoft has recieved my 360 and are fixing it.

EDIT 11/8/08: 360 is fixed!  Expect a post when I get it back.

Should We Pay For Our Multiplayer?

For those of you that know, online multiplayer is a way to expand your gaming experience.  You are able to play with against real people (including your friends) in the comfort of your home.

But it usually comes at a price- sometimes you need to pay to play online.  This is common in MMOs and console gaming.

Generally, the great multiplayer and expanded set of features like downladable content override the fee.  Such is the deal with Xbox Live and World of Warcraft.  But many people turn to free online gaming like Sony Online because, well, it's free, and there are still a lot of good games to play.  The same amount of fun without paying a penny extra (not including your electric bill).

Chances are, you will probably say that all online gaming should be free.  I was asking a friend about it, and he brought up an interesting point: when it's free, it doesn't give the companies much incentive to make the online better.

His statement is mostly true- just look at how hugely popular and successful Xbox Live is compared to Sony Online.  Overall, XBL has a lot more and better online games- Halo 3 being a really big one.  It also has a lot of downloadable content for gamers to expand their experience even more.  

And those bucks most likely contribute to the Xbox 360 having a lot more exclusives and big hitters.  Final Fantasy XIII on the X360 is undoubtedly possible partly because of Xbox Live not being free.

Despite that, free online is one of the Playstation 3's biggest selling points.  In the long run, someone with an Xbox 360 playing on XBL is going to spend more money than someone who got a PS3 and plays online.  Considering that the PS3 has heavy hitters like Metal Gear Solid 4 and Resistance: Fall of Man, in some ways a PS3 is a better buy than the 360.

PC games also have free online.  As long as your internet connection is fast enough, you can most likely play games online whenever you feel like it.  Some people turn to the PC for online gaming because there are a lot of free online games, and the online doesn't cost money- if you need as much money as you can get, PC gaming can be a great alternative to console gaming.  In most games, it's going to stay free forever- there are too many people against pay-for-online-play for big corporations like Microsoft to make you pay for it because they really don't like you.

In some ways, it just comes down to preference- what do you consider more important? Free online?  Or more DLC, games, and other such things?  That is up to you to decide.

What's the deal with Sarah Palin?

I don't get it. Not at all.

The reason(s) why McCain picked her are still up in the air, considering Palin's only experience is being the governor of the oversized igloo known as Alaska. And word on the street is McCain only met Palin once before for about an hour or so. The only good reasons for McCain's VP choice would be that Palin seems like she would appeal to many Americans because of something about her family... or that Palin's a woman.

Speaking about Palin being female, why does everyone like her so much more than Hillary Clinton? What does Palin have that Clinton doesn't? Even Obama's running mate Joe Biden admitted that he sucks compared to Hillary. As far as I care, Clinton is much more prepared and qualified to be vice president than Palin is. More on that later.

It was a bad choice on Obama's part to not pick Clinton as his VP running mate. Clinton used to be the First Lady, after all. She has experience in the White House. Clinton would have guided Obama and kept him from doing anything too stupid. And now McCain has the support of women because Palin is female.

Poor Hillary got bashed when she decided to not go to that event with Palin. Clinton worked hard to try and be president, and now it's all gone down the drain. I don't know who else would want to be in the same room with the person who got the chance they themselves did not get. For that, Clinton has my sympathy.

Speaking of that, why is anything negative said against Palin deemed "sexist"? You, the reader, possibly already think that I'm sexist for making this post. I can assure you, I am not sexist.

The reason for Palin being so immune to criticism is likely because McCain and his guys have make Palin the main attraction, and built some sort of shield around her to go with it. Palin's the Death Star, McCain is the forest moon of Endor, and the Republican party is the Imperial Fleet. By not picking Clinton, Obama has gotten the Rebel Fleet trapped.

Back to the thing about experience. Palin is nuts. I remember an interview a while back in which she said that if Russia invaded another country, the U.S. would go to war with Russia. To those who think Obama's the Antichrist, you haven't been paying enough attention.

That interview showed how horribly uneducated Palin is about the world.

Russia is a superpower. Russia has nukes. A war with Russia is the beginning of the end.

I guess being able to see Russia from her house isn't too scary.

A war with Russia was exactly what President Kennedy was trying to avoid during the Cuban Missile Crisis in the 70's. You see, back then, people were smart enough to understand the dangers that a war with Russia would bring. We're talking the end of the world, or at least a nuclear holocaust. Everyone would lose no matter what. You can't argue with that.

And to make things worse, Palin is pro-life and pro-war. You can only be one or the other, not both. You can't support things that are the opposite of each other.

Also, Palin has a family she should be taking care of. I don't understand how one can be a good parent if they are too busy to take care of their children. Or if her kids are on her mind, that could affect her decision making for better or worse.

Now let's talk about the VP debate from the other night. Don't listen to the media, the media's usually wrong.

Palin did not "win".

She was vague about how the Republicans would do... well, anything. Biden didn't give many more details, but he was more convincing.

She also used the word "maverick" a lot, even in her excuses.

"Bipartisan" is another popular word with Palin.

I was reading letters to the Daily News about the debate, and they noticed some things that the media completely avoided:

Matthew Landy noticed that Palin blinked a lot when asked questions. Blinking is a sign that you're lying.

Nathan Thompson wrote in that he had to explain to his 9-year-old daughter that "it is not acceptable to announce you don't wish to answer a particular question and then turn and talk about something else of your choosing."

Steve Mavrikis explained that Biden won because he actually answered the questions given.

Janet Marshall wrote in that Palin's "performance" was "hideous" and that she did not understand why Americans would "vote for such a ridiculous person." Then the reader asked "Haven't they learned anything since voting for George W. Bush?"

And Rich Japko said that he "wasn't sure what position Sarah Palin was auditioning for: vice president or Jay Leno's replacement" because of all the one-liners Palin had.

Biden won, the polls don't lie:

http://myrealitytelevision.com/2008/10/who-won-the-vice-presidential-debate-2008/

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/02/vp.debate.reportcard/index.html

http://www.nydailynews.com/nydn/poll.do?pollCmsUniqueId=veep_debate&pollTitle=Veep+Debate&pollQuestion=Who+won+the+vice+presidential+debate%3F&voteExpirationDate=&option_labels=Sarah+Palin;Joe+Biden;Neither&vote=view+results

If people like us speak out more as Election Day comes closer, hopefully the nation will avoid the disaster the Republicans could bring for a third straight term. But before I end this post, allow me to explain what could happen. I'm not saying it actually will happen, but people need to be aware of it:

IF THE REPUBLICANS WIN- WORST CASE SCENARIO:

1. McCain gets elected into office
2. McCain dies soon afterward, Palin becomes the Commander-in-Chief
3. Russia invades another country
4. Palin declares war
5. Both sides attempt the "first strike" plan (cross your fingers and hope you can launch all your nukes before the other country can)
6. The radiation kills everyone
   

Sounds like fun, right?