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February 21st, 2008
01:59 am
Things are well in general.
On politics, the New York Times has an interesting story on McCain. It looks like it's all things from eight years ago. It discusses a female lobbyist who he spent a lot of time with during that campaign. Some of his advisers think that he may have had a relationship with her, but there's no evidence beyond that and that's acknowledged in the article.
It mentions that a nonprofit group he ran had close ties with lobbyists and points out that he's using corporate lobbyists in his campaign with the suggestion that he's violating his own rules. There's no evidence of it and that, too, is acknowledged.
I'm not sure the article was fit for print -- it doesn't say much of anything -- but they at least did a good job of making certain their references were corroborated and airtight.
On the other side of things, Obama picked up some more wins and there's the usual talk of "momentum" from pro-Obama people. For my part, I prefer Obama to Clinton, but this particular assertion is ignoring that Clinton purposely hasn't put up much of a fight since Super Tuesday. She hasn't gotten as much funding and has been picking her battles. Ohio and Texas are where she's been concentrating. If she wins Ohio and Texas, I think this race will be neck and neck all the way to the DNC. If Obama wins it, *then* you can start talking about momentum.
I also succeeded in making the world a slightly better place.  meerkat had played some of FF7, but hadn't finished it before her ex walked off with her PS2. With a bit of luck and the use of my script, I was able to find her a PS2 for $30. In addition, on hearing the reason I was trying to find a PS2 for her, the guy threw in a memory card for free.
I was driving her home from game night anyway, so I offered to set it up for her when it sounded like that might be a problem. After about 20m, I had figured out her setup and worked the PS2 into it satisfactorily. It wasn't until about 2-3 hours or so after that when I finally got around to leaving. We share an unexpected amount of common ground and spent a long while talking about hockey, unconventional pets, Southern California, and alcohol over hot tea.
I exercised my freedom in my employment to not bother going into the office or doing much of anything before 1pm which was tremendous. philled2thebrim came out and we hung out for a while. We got in lots of Rock Band. He showed me the Futurama movie (finally! I saw it! It's awesome!) and I showed him two episodes of The Prisoner (Arrival and The Chimes of Big Ben). Now he has an appreciation for it when I say "Be seeing you!".
Got sushi at the local sushi place -- I haven't been there in a while. They had fresh hamachi which was quite nice, but it was really the four pieces of unagi which made me a disgustingly happy camper.
The kittens have been in good form. I hooked up the card reader, so I expect I'll start taking pictures of them again. They're enjoying the more open layout of the place. Tera's taken to laying out in her peculiar upside-down, but curled manner by the drum kit for Rock Band. Meg now occupies the top of the box that's next to the couch.
stonesundial's gift -- Burnout Paradise -- has been receiving a lot of attention from me. I've finally decided that the thing that makes it fun is the GTA-ish nature of the game. You're invited to do insanely dangerous and antisocial things. Additionally, if you foul something up and you manage to get into a wreck, you're rewarded with a slow-mo, black and white real-time shot of the smashup.
The game physics are OK. It's hard to compare when the cars aren't real cars and you aren't sure about much of the characteristics. That said, the cars do seem to drive a lot like each other and they don't always handle the way I try to make them handle. It's no GT4 for driving, for certain.
Rock Band with philled2thebrim was interesting. He did drums and vocals and remarked that while he didn't care much for Guitar Hero, he found the drums to be much more satisfying. We switched about halfway through between vocals and drums -- I was finding vocals to be a bit of a strain on my voice.
Anyway, I've resolved to play Rock Band more. And do all the Portal commentary. And...
Well -- on that note, I'm going to read one of the books I just acquired ("How to Make Money like a Porn Star") and get to sleep. I'm going to have an early start on things tomorrow and theotherchicago invited me to a poetry slam in Santa Cruz this evening.
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I feel like sushi. It's been a while. You'll have to show me that place some time.
I'm going to a poetry reading tomorrow. I wonder if it's the same one. Joshua Clover? (I love him.) ![[User Picture]](https://l-userpic.livejournal.com/61853520/556981) | | From: | darnn |
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| Date: | February 21st, 2008 01:34 pm (UTC) |
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The Portal commentary is really just dreadful. I mean, I had already listened to the Episode One and Two commentary, which I didn't like at all. It was very scripted, and, frankly, boring. You could learn interesting things, but in a really boring, roundabout way.
But Portal: Here, I thought, was the guy who used to write for Old Man Murray, which I only found out about recently but which was still great, and he also gave this hilarious interview, the one I linked in the previous comment about this. I mean, I still quote that interview to people. And, really, I found the humor in the game to be a bit bland. Once you get past the initial concept of this computer that's going to kill you and is putting you down, there's not a lot there. I don't remember lines from it, or... anything, really. Something about orphans from the end. Still Alive, but that's not the writers. (Now that I think about it, the trailer's still pretty funny. If at first you don't succeed, YOU FAIL.)
Anyway, I could forgive that, because it did work well overall, the atmosphere was good, the voice acting was great, so what if the jokes are a little stale. But the commentary, I thought, here's where the game would really shine. Judging by that interview, this Wolpaw guy is going to have tons of hilarious things to say! Alas, no. It's just like the EP1/2 commentary. I'm only willing to forgive this because I believe none of the people involved had complete creative control over it.
In short, which this has been nothing but and I'm not even sure you care, go through the commentary if you want your full twenty bucks' worth (and I did, because I was really expecting it to be longer at the time), or if you want to hear the woman playing GLaDOS, of which there was sadly very little.
Also, as someone whose main Japanese RPG experience is Earthbound (and more recently The Minish Cap, though that's mostly eye candy), what's so great about FF7? Everything I've heard of it indicates you need to have, like, insanely detailed lists of everything in the game, etc. I do like Guitar Hero, but Rock Band kicks it's ass, no doubt. Even if I do suck at drums!
Did you ever get that picture of you, btw? I did, but it didn't really fit with what I had intended. The thing I think is really important about Obama is that he's young and really appeals to young people. Also McCain is really old; hopefully that's one thing that won't work in his favor. I'm not sure I understand you -- what does the age difference have to do with it? Sorry, I'm thinking too far ahead. Assuming Obama gets the nomination, it will depend on how the media spins the race. A lot of moderate dems and independents like McCain, so we need something that will act against that. If McCain gets elected, then he will be the oldest president to get inaugurated.
IMO, it's not about getting people to vote for a candidate based on their policies. Most of America is simply too stupid to do that. It's really about how things are spun. If we can spin McCain as being an old, doddering man, vs. Obama, a fresh-faced bringer of hope, then we might just be able to win. SO missing Southern California right now! Today class was cancelled and I didn't find out until after David and I had a rather fun (and by that I mean un-fun) time spinning the car's wheels in the snowed-in driveway and skidding along wet snowy roads.
So, how DO you make money like a porn star? |
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