the_rukh

The news is pissing me off today. The top two stories are:

Three soldiers who executed two Iraqi men. They're playing the pity angle for the soldiers, interviewing their wives, etc. "Was it murder or battlefield justice?" They had them in custody, marched them to a remote area and shot them in the head. It was fucking murder you assholes.

The second is about this woman who was a complete bitch in a Walmart. She took the person's items in front of her and pushed them back and set her stuff in front of him, insulted and harassed everyone around her, kicked and harassed police officers, and even pled guilty, but OMG the police officers were white and she was black, so the news is going with the racism angle, even though the police officers never did a thing wrong and there's even videotape of this. "But what don't the videotapes show???" Well the videotapes don't show the pink unicorn that materializes out of a teapot on the street and farts out a carebear, why don't you cover that? Why insinuate racism with absolutely no proof, no accusation during the case of such? It is fucking stupid. Wow a black person is accused of something by white people. RACISM!!!

So it appears when I went to the store yesterday, I accidentally got 'mentholated' Pert. Now, this isn't that tea tree shampoo stuff you get for like 25 bucks an ounce of whatever, this is some hardcore minty shit.

Lets just say, don't get it in your eyes. i didn't find out until after I used it that it was mentholated either. Woe, what's going on here?! This is some hardcore minty stuff. Even now I still feel strangely cold and minty on my scalp and certain other areas the water went. I have mentholated cheeks, I can feel it on my chest, oh and my penis. Surprisingly, minty dick isn't nearly as pleasurable as it sounds. Its actually quite uncomfortable.

I might go get different shampoo today.

So I've been waiting for this game to come out basically since it was first announced around half a year or more ago. First, it was 'oh I'll probably get it sometime when it comes out' then as details were released it was with mounting enthusiasm until a point where I figured no way it could live up to this hype and was somewhat reserved about it. Well I got it anyways.

Lets just say it makes Forza 2 feel like a tech demo. The amount of actual game added to Forza 3 is just crazy. No more simple list of races that you progress through, but an actual game calendar that changes with what sort of events you choose to more resemble what you like. Instead of feeling like a sandbox driving game with some events tacked on, this feels like a real videogame.

What's crazy and hard to imagine though is its gone both ways, and done it well. There's a bunch of options added for those who just want to race. There's auto upgrade which basically presents you with performance upgrade packages, from street to sport to racing, but for those who really like the simulation tinkering you can still buy individual parts. That's really my thing. And woah have they fleshed that out. There's a whole section for conversions too. Engine swaps, drivetrain swaps, induction swaps, etc. The menu has been fleshed out to be a little more coherent too. A separate section for drivetrain upgrades instead of having it lumped in with things like weight reduction and suspension. And woe man the wheel choices is overwhelming. There's a ton of companies to choose from each with a few wheel choices. Also, engine upgrades now affect weight balance, nice!

The painting system has been improved a little even. Not a huge amount, but there's a separate section for making vinyl groups. You don't have to make them on the side of the flattest car you can find anymore, you have a workspace for it. Expect to see some amazing paint jobs come out of this one, even moreso than Forza 2.

For difficulty of the career the game starts out simply by asking you which of three difficulty settings you want, I chose medium. Then it does a race in a Audi R8 to see how you do. From those it predicts what driving assist setup would be best for you. Unfortunately I managed to smash the R8 pretty bad, but even then I still got 1st by a long ways. It gave me opponent difficulty medium, but it turned on things like 'auto brake'.

I turned off all the assists besides anti-lock brakes (and corner brake warning)and that was about the right difficulty. Anyone who's into driving games I'd suggest mucking with the assists for a better experience. I like my games difficult enough that I shout "damnit!" at least once in a while or else there's not really any triumph in overcoming. That difficulty was pretty decent in the first couple races, but after I got a little cash and an Alfa Ramero Brera, I basically blew the other cars away. I may turn the opponent difficulty up to hard.

Really for me though, the racing is fun, but the real game is in tinkering with the cars, making cool paint jobs, test driving, etc. The designers knew that was a large part of their community and put a lot of work into that to make it a tinker's dream, but this game will also appeal to people who just want an arcade style racing game. Just the amount of upgrades to this game as far as content over Forza 2 is breathtaking. More cars, more upgrades, an actual comprehensive videogame, etc.

As for graphics, you can tell they've been upgraded, but it's not really that much over Forza 2. They really focused on game experience instead, which is great. One thing they did though was make some really awesome scenery. The graphics quality itself isn't better, but the environments they chose are. Mountain vistas and cliffs and all that. I found myself a few times already off the road after being distracted by beautiful scenery.

I might say more after I've got a ways into the game, but so far, I give it a score of 'teh awesome'.

You don't mess with the Zohan is a terrible movie. One time, I saw it on On Demand and thought I might as well watch it, I mean it looked bad but it might be good for a few laughs. I made it through 20 minutes before I had to turn off this terrible thing.

Well last night, I was hanging over at my friend Voula's with David and Dan. David decided he absolutely had to put it on. I made it maybe 40 minutes this time before I had to excuse myself to go home. Usually I have a pretty high tolerance for bad movies. I can find something worthwhile to appreciate about thim, but this movie is an insulting piece of shit.

I had a lovely morning. A while back a new friend entered our circle. her name is Voula. She's greek and very nice. She's an accountant running her own business and doing pretty well at it. My friend David has been hanging out with her a whole lot, but I'm not sure if there's anything between them.

She had people over for brunch. Her and her frined Heidi made eggs benadict, which came out rather well. It was fun getting together with a bunch of friendly people having breakfast. My new friend Dan was there. Dan's another really cool guy. Kind of quiet, but smart and friendly. He's very in to rock climbing.

With breakfast we had mimosas, which was fun. Now I'm home. I really need to take a nap to prepare for my friend Michael's house warming party tonight, it should be pretty crazy!

Keee!

Michelle came over tonight to our party. We had a rather good house party with lots of people. We actually ended up running out of alcohol and having to move everyone to the bar across the street.

Anyways. Michelle came over. Apparently she lives just a few blocks away now! What a small world. After coming back from the bar, she decided she was going home, so I walked her to her car, which was way the fuck out, because our parking situation at our appt is horrible. She drove me back to my place to drop me off and I kissed her. I think she was ok with it. She said I'll see you soon. I hope so. Keeeee.

Well i found out why I wasn't getting reply notification for messages. Apparently my mail service has randomly decided that all comments from LJ are junkmail.


Also I watched Terminator: Salvation, and I don't know what people's deal is, I thought it was really good! It payed a lot of homage to the other movies.

Oh wait, wrong icon, oops! :P

"Just because people want to eat the burger doesn't mean they want to meet the cow"

How to ruin a good science fiction script: give it to Michael Bay. Action movies he can do, but he tries to turn everything into an action movie and uses cheesy pop culture music, filming cliche and focuses on boring chases instead of how to support an interesting story or reveal intelligent information. Take away this man's special effects budget and maybe he'll be forced to make a decent film.
( turned out sort of long )
I give it a meh out of 10.

So my roommate never locks her car. She just never leaves anything in it that she cares about. Well last night, she accidentally left her mp3 player in her car. Guess what she no longer has?

At least she didn't get a broken window this way I guess. When my car got broken into a few years ago they broke two windows, and made off with a $20 CD player. The windows were slightly more expensive.

I have at least two people on my friend's list doing reviews now, so hey why not?

I decided to write this up because I have heard such wide responses about this movie from my friends. I've had some who really liked it, and I had some who literally walked out of the theater they thought it was so bad.

So here we go! Review number one! Its a movie trying to be two things at once. Its a psychological and moral journey that really wants to be an action movie, and suffers for it.

Will smith isn't who I would have cast as the main character. Need someone more gaunt, more obsessive, more mad scientist. Less charismatic. Even with Smith, should have played up his obsessiveness with repetition and order and his extremely rigid viewpoint, and why he was so upset meeting other humans, because it put him into an unknown place, and took him out of his rigid obsessive comfort. Also, it says he was supposed to be 52 when he died? Will Smith is not and does not look 52.

Its not that Will Smith does bad, he actually does pretty decently at what he is asked to do. It's just not his area of expertise. He's type cast as an action hero, and I know he's trying to break out of that a bit, but with the film already pretending to be an action film, he doesn't do it any favors. There's plenty of actors that would be more appropriate for an obsessed doctor in their 50's that can't let go of their rigid mindset and morally questionable actions.

Would have been better to use real people instead of CGI and less action. People looking for a horror or action movie are going to be disappointed at the feeble attempt anyways. Don't attempt to pander to them and fail at it. Just be one thing, and be that well.

As a psychological journey and metaphor for perseverance in trying to save people who don't want to be saved, it comes off decently, but you have to look for it somewhat, it doesn't attempt to pull it off as well as it should because of the pandering to the action crowd.

The attempt to fuse the story with Bob Marley's struggle was not a bad idea, but it comes across a little contrived with the movie trying to be an action movie. I do like the idea though and wish it had come off better. The problem is though, if that was their point, he sure was ruthless towards them. They should have found a more altruistic ending than killing their leader with a grenade.

---
I have to say though, after watching the movie, then reading about the book, the book sounds awesome. The book takes an entirely different approach, with Neville realising the infect actually are rebuilding their own society and they view him as a predator they must destroy to save themselves. The infected are also against the vampires, which are the dead that have been revived and are completely mindless. Also, in the book, Ruth is actually one of the infected, sent to try to reason with him. In the end, they execute him, very 'humanely' (infectedly?) by pills, and he realizes that in the past, vampires were legend, but now he is the genetic deviant of society, and he is the legend, and the monster.

The book was also used as the basis for the movies The Last Man on Earth (1964, starring Vincent Price) and The Omega Man (1971, Starring Charlton Heston)

Reading up on them, it doesn't sound like either of those did the book justice though, one capitalizing on the pure man vs monster concept with little attention to any sort of moral questioning, and the second an action VS film as well. In that sense maybe the 2007 movie does attempt a better approach.

Someone still needs to make a movie about the original book.
----

p.p.s. It turns out the alternate ending to the film is much more along the lines of the book. Instead of killing the leader, he realizes that the leader wants the girl back, and complies. The infected leave with the girl, leaving him alive and he looks at all the photos of the infected he killed and realizes to them, he is the monster.

Apparently the film directors felt that this was too deep for mainstream audiences and they would only understand killing the big mean leader instead of moral ambiguity. Sad.

I give the movie with the original ending 7/10, I give the one shown in theaters 5/10.

This space reserved for later; because I actually did have a lot of fun tonight.

However! I do want to say that when you say you are going to be the designated driver, that usually means you are going to have some place for people to arse out at; not some place for people to chill for a while and then drive home.

I managed Burger King breakfast meal today. I didn't know they had a breakfast meal. the Indian guy was very kind!

I need new music.

I'm realizing that most of the music I listen to is still from the '90's or only early 2000s. I can find plenty of pop that's alright, but what happened to industrial? What happened to good electronica? Where are the good new bands? I'm sure they're out there, but I haven't heard of any. It seems like all the popular harder stuff went down the 'nu metal' track and turned to wanna be angsty shit.

So gimme some recommendations if you have any. No Linkin Park or anything like it or I shall smite thee.

Last night we went to the Red Brick to listen to music. Man, Soju is deadly.

Vanessa bought a truck not too long ago for her dad. This huge Toyota tundra limited edition. He would have bought it himself but apparently Guam only gets a limited supply and they were sold out for 7 months. So she did the deal here. She's not supposed to be driving it so it's still new when he gets here in a month to get it shipped back and whatnot.

Well she decided to drive it last night. She picked Candace and I and Manuel up. Unfortunately, she got rather trashed. So me, being the most sober looking (though I had quite a bit actually) volunteered to drive. That was stupid, but it turns out ok.

On the way home, I got pulled over! I was sure I was dead. Apparently I did not have the lights on. I'm used to my car that has automatic lights. The truck does too actually, they were just not set to 'on'. Apparently that is also a major sign of drunk driving. Its just that it was bright enough out with all the other cars and streetlights I didn't notice.

Well we told the cop that Vanessa was supposed to drive but she had got drunk so I was, and I told her that I only had 2 beers in 3 hours. Luckily soju doesn't make your breath smell, and she didn't make be take a breathlizer, and she let us go! She was cute, I should have got her number.

If I had got arrested for drunk driving in Vanessa's dad's new truck, I think I would literally be a dead man. Did I mention he's a Judo instructor?

1) I won $5 playing pool against a stripper's boyfriend last night. (We were not at a strip club, I gained this information through conversation). Then she offered me a free lapdance but I politely declined because I like being alive.

2) My friend went home with a girl I will lovingly call 'beergoggles'. I hope he didn't have to chew off his arm.

3) I have been numbering posts and replies often lately. I wonder if I am developing autism.

namaste

tonight I found about my neighbors extensive paintball armory, their pedophile friend, and added a 21 year old female to my myspace friends. yep.


That's the crazy woman. Naughty things may happen.

nerd post inc


So my friend gave me his extra desktop computer for free because I had mentioned I might buy one. He wasn't using it so hey what the heck right?

The computer is a 4ghz AMD dual core, has a 256MB ATi card, 1512MB ram (approx).

And its an absolute nightmare. It seems to have every problem in the book. My friend said it worked fine for him, but I wonder if he used it much recently.

I have problems from total freezes, random software crashes, blue screens, instant resets, the computer actually going into shut down and closing everything without asking and shutting down, etc.

The first thing I thought was maybe overheating, so I got a program to monitor core heat, and it's not a problem. I checked the video card constantly, and it's within normal levels.

Next I thought drivers, so I read up and apparently the on-board ATi sound does sometimes have problems with dual core machines, not knowing where to send the data that can BSOD computers. So I disable the on-board sound and put in my old Audigy2 card I had laying around. That *mostly* stopped the BSODs. I also updated the ATi video driver (HD 2600XT)

I'm still getting plenty of other problems though. The next thing was RAM. My friend said he did have a bad stick, but he had switched it out, maybe he switched the wrong one out. So he gave me the one he thought was bad and I tried it in, it made things much worse, the computer would reset when trying just about anything, so I was pretty sure that one was bad. I tested the other ones by taking them out one at a time and doing stuff. One I took out seemed to make it much better, but I put that one in my roommates computer and one of hers in mine and hers had no problems but mine still did, so I'm starting to wonder if it's not the memory channel on the board itself.

The thing with the random shut down is it doesn't write any error log, it acts just like you had gone to shut down and closes everything. So I removed all user privilege to shut down the machine in the msc, lets see if that allows it to crash instead and give me some info.

If it's some motherboard issue, I'm not sure how to find it! I'm seriously about to part this thing out.

Man, it's Cranberries day on the radio or something today. I'm ok with that too!

This weekend is shaping up to be... wild.

Basically, friday we're going to Eugene and going to stay over the weekend at the Country Fair. The Country Fair is hippie fest central. It's through a figure-eight section of about a mile in the forest, and is filled with little shop areas that people sell hand-crafts, food and such. There's random parades that wander through, drum circles, and lots of naked people, and lots of bodypaint, though those categories don't completely overlap.

I've never camped at it before, but supposedly it's a wild party. Like woah wild.

We're going down with at least 6 people at last count. Vanessa is going too, which might be... odd. I'm trying to get my friend Michael to go too, because I'm sure my roommate will be off like a social schizophrenic and it'll be nice to have someone to hang around with.

My roommate is busy getting all sorts of illicit substances. I probably won't be partaking of those.

It's going to be a rough weekend.


Ok, so party last night, downstairs neighbor had a birthday party for a guy. Party tonight, Vanessa is having a BBQ then we're all going to the Dublin Pub (awesome pub), then saturday is the 4th. Not sure what I'm doing for the 4th yes, Candace wants to go downtown to the Blues festival and watch the fireworks, but I think I might go to my friend Erik's block party instead.

So anyways, crazy party last night. It was a fun party, there was a keg, people got drunk. One of the downstairs neighbors decided to do a keg stand naked. Then the donation pot got stolen. This made people a bit aggro. I had put $5 in so I was annoyed too, but not enough to ruin the party for me. The birthday guy left, and the neighbors immediately decide it must have been him. I guess at one point he had put the money in a safe place, so he's really the only one who had touched it. At one point the previously naked neighbor was walking around the house in his underwear and gun holster. Oh that's a great idea. I went home not too long after that.

There were some strippers there too. My friend was totally trying to get with one of them. I was not. They are skilled at making guys interested in them, that's sort of the point. However, there was this really cute girl there. Like woah cute. She had glasses too ^.^ I totally got her number.