Entry 65: "Countdown to E-Day"

Yo!

Please excuse my pride with this, but...

10,000 TOTAL XBOX360 GAMERSCORE ACCOMPLISHED SUNDAY NIGHT!!!!!!!

Before I begin this post, I'd just like to send a special shout-out to all the A.I. computer opponents and of course all those back in ranked Halo 3 Matchmaking who I kinda stepped on to get where I am today. Couldn't have done it without you. ...And your being in the wrong bullet/shell/chainsaw/grenade/laser/hammer-of-dawn radius at EXACTLY the right time. Also, thanks to developer Infinity Ward; those Call of Duty 4 Veteran achievements really do add up...

Still working on that darn "Seriously" achievement in Gears....

Moving on...

As I'm sure you're aware, this month marks exactly one year until the big election to determine who will succeed George W. Bush as the 44th President of the United States. Some of you readers know, as a rule, I try to avoid political topics in this blog, except when there's a really, really big thing happening at the time (a homosexual senator here, a congressional page scandal there... it varies...), but thanks to the timing, I wanted to try to run down the stakes for this election, as best as I, a 20-year-old who barely watches any news that doesn't come from Jon Stewart or Bill Maher, can. I'll just lay down the facts here, cite my sources as usual, and make this as abstract and insulting-joke-free as possible. Remember, unlike the usual stuff, this week's post isn't really meant to be as humorous as it is about information-gathering.

The Republicans

(conservatum-fearmongrum)

Lately, for the "Crimson Crusaders," a.k.a. the Republicans, you can't be taken seriously unless you make Keifer Sutherland look like Fred Rogers in comparison, especially at the debates ("Jack Bauer Justice" ring any bells?). Yet I doubt our good friend J.B. would ever be tapping his foot in an airport bathroom, which he never seems to use in the first place anyway (a bathroom, not his foot), or instant-messaging his way into some congressional page's pants, or almost blowing a friend's face off with an Elmer Fudd-style elephant gun, or something. Karl Rove's long gone, Alberto Gonzales is really gone, and the battle lines have been drawn. Rudy Giuliani, I believe, is still the majority frontrunner in the polls. One could argue it's because he's deliberately trying to appeal to the religious right, and not doing too bad of a job at that. Two weeks ago, he was officially endorsed by Pat "700 Club" Robertson, who claimed 9/11 happened because "God lifted his veil of protection from the United States in response to a progressive secular agenda."

Mike Huckabee's got a laundry list of feather-ruffling issues he's against: gun control, stem cells, abortion, evolution, gay marriage, gay adoption, and amnesty. Duncan Hunter appears to be the poster-candidate for Right-to-Life, what with his introducing and supporting House Resolution 552, which would "implement equal protection . . . for the right to life of each born and preborn human person." Oh, by the way, Hunter's a vocal supporter of the Patriot Act and the Bush Administration's methods of preventing more terrorist attacks. John McCain is extremely against the Bush tax-cuts and socialized medicine, but in favor of getting us off of foreign oil... By getting our power from C. Montgomery Burns. Yes, he's a nuclear candidate. Ron Paul could not possibly be more of a dark-horse underdog candidate on the Red side, simply for being the guy nobody agrees with.

Pretty much, you name it, Ron Paul is against it: The Iraq War Resolution, the proposed Iran War, organizations that undermine U.S. sovereignty (International Criminal Court, the U.N., World Trade Organization,etc.), House Resolution 180, NAFTA & CAFTA, even that clause in the 14th Amendment that triggers automatic citizenship to children born to illegal immigrants because of being born on American soil. He said yes, however, on the Secure Fence Act of 2006 which would turn lower California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas into the ultimate gated community, and as we all know (SARCASM ALERT!), nobody's ever managed to climb over a wall before, so that plan can't possibly fail. Mitt Romney has the child advocate votes, Tom Tancredo has the paleoconservative votes and Fred Thompson has all his Law & Order fans and that red pickup truck so you just know he's in. Dr. Alan Keyes, a late addition to the race (announced in September), was a former U.N. Ambassador during the Reagan years, and former presidential hopeful, twice-over, during '96 and 2000. This guy does, however have a serious battle ahead of him with his opinions on topics like homosexuality and how to do away with income tax, thanks to a certain 2004 interview, in which he called Dick Cheney's daughter Mary a "selfish hedonist." I think he might still be in the race somehow as of this typing....

The Democrats

(liberallus-cutandrunnus)

So last November, these guys managed to take over the crucial two-thirds majority to override the perpetual vetoes from George W.'s desk to do what they were basically voted into office, and given the majority, to do: Get our troops the %#$& out of Iraq. One year after Congress gets rebooted, there's still no end in sight. Barack Obama & Hillary Clinton can't seem to stop bickering and counter-attacking each other lately, most notably on healthcare and economy status; also how Hill's plan to literally force everyone to buy healthcare affects those of us middle-classers who aren't exactly Monty Brewsters, and thus don't have room in the budget. Obama, however, isn't exactly the least hypocritical Health-Guy on the ballot himself, once you see he's going to be using similar tactics in his healthplan that exclude some 10-15 million Americans (which, by the way, is according to a Clinton-camp-researched-statistic, so whose numbers do you believe?) by forcing families to pay for the kids' health insurance down the lines of how right now kids' parents have to provide proof of immunization to enroll in school. Full story on that HERE.

Also not helping Obama is the fact that during a campaign run in South Carolina last month, Gospel singer and apparently campaign trail sidekick Donnie McClurkin garnered some religious-leftist sympathy by reminding us all he once had gay "desires and thoughts," (DEAR GOD!) but was finally cured by Jesus (THANK GOD!). Turns out even the Blue candidates aren't above keeping faith out of the campaign. Bill Maher runs it down HERE (you gotta move the clip to the 5:40 mark). There is a surprise candidate in the ranks here in the form of Gov. Ted Strickland of Ohio who, while not America's most popular governor statistically, appears to be using the most of his 69% approval rating, ordained Methodist minister background... A-rating from the NRA... and endorsement of Hillary... to slip into the vice-presidential nomination slot. A big-picture politician, Strickland denies that assumption and continues to have his eyes on the frontrunner slot: "regardless of what I say, no one believes me... I think I can move the needle a point or two... Not by being on the ticket, but by continuing to do the best we can for Ohio."

Then there's John Edwards, who despite his constant refusal to put on the boxing gloves and attack his opponents in ads or debates, has pulled significant numbers in seven primaries, including North Carolina (naturally), Virginia (my home-turf), Tennessee and, what's considered the mother-of-all-primary/caucus states, Iowa. He has also decided to keep that $400 haircut. Joe Biden says no to partial-birth abortion and the death penalty, and yes to renewable energy (ethanol, etc.) and the Patriot Act, but not the part about wiretapping. So President Biden will know about all those Chicken Soup for the Soul books you used to read at the library, but does not want to overhear your actual, personal chicken soup recipe over the phone to your cousin who you're coaching to eat healthier. Christopher "That OTHER Kool-Aid Man" Dodd says no to war with Iran, yes to free trade, and HELL NO to drivers licenses for illegal immigrants. Mike Gravel is running for what's called "direct democracy", which when combined with representative democracy can be considered the people's electoral college, except these representatives' votes don't get to override the public's votes.... As Borat I-Can't-Spell-His-Last-Name would say, NICE! Finally... Okay Daily Show and Colbert, we get it! Mrs. Kuchinich is very attractive! A lot of news organizations agree! We get it! Rep. Kucinich, on the other hand, when he's not campaigning for House Resolution 808 and trying to make Jimmy Carter head the Department of Peace, is very much in favor of simply stopping the Iraq war funding, cold-turkey, and peaceful diplomatic relations with Iran.

I'm gonna need a scoreboard. The Republicans are primarily a Bush-plan favoring, offense-minded bunch of faith-based candidates, and the Democrats are a healthcare-minded, bickering, living soap-opera.

Bottom Line: Place your bets.

Hope you all had a good Thanksgiving... Back again soon.

-D.

Entry 64: "Writer Wrong?"

Yo!

Geez, this really is a monthly blog... Gonna have to do something about that after the hiatus. Oh darn, sorry. Getting ahead of myself. First thing's first. A few posts ago, I mentioned revealing details about the big top-secret media project. Rest assured, this is still real, you're not being punk'd. It turns out I may have jumped the gun a tad on the big public address, since my managers are advising me to hold back on that "rope-cutting" reveal stuff until things are more set in stone, meaning contracts have to be signed. I know, I hate that legal paranoia too, almost as much as I hate having to give the "I take it back, and here's why" speech. I just needed to tell you all I never forgot, and I'm still working on it.

A couple weeks back saw the start of the almost total shutdown of the entertainment industry. Why? Because the WGA...

...the Writers' Guild of America...

...went out on strike because of an outdated and unfair payment agreement...

...against the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers...

...and subsequently took all our good TV and movies with them.

Lost got cut in half, 24 is getting INDEFINITELY postponed... The late-night talk shows are in heavy reruns now... and Saturday Night Live staff is getting cut in half. The effects of the strike are painfully obvious, but the cause is another story. The short story is, the writers want a fair cut from profits made from sales of (*their) ideas over what's considered "new media." Meaning, DVDs, On-Demand services, and ad revenue from online streaming sites like Adult Swim Fix and Motherload. Here's what the strike's Wiki-page has to say:

"Every three years, the Writers Guilds negotiate a new basic contract with the AMPTP by which its members are employed. This contract is called the Minimum Basic Agreement (MBA). In the 2007 negotiations over the MBA, an impasse was reached, and the WGA membership voted to give its board authorization to call a strike, which it did on Friday, November 2 with the strike beginning the subsequent Monday, November 5, 2007. Among the many proposals from both sides regarding the new contract, there are several key issues of contention including DVD residuals, union jurisdiction over animation and reality programs, and perhaps most importantly, 'new media' such as the Internet."

........We already knew most of this, but here's the good part:

"Currently, the WGA has no arrangement with the companies regarding the use of content online, and two models of Internet distribution are currently being negotiated. The first is 'digital sell-through' (also known as 'Internet sales'). In digital sell-through, the consumer purchases a copy of the program and downloads it to a local storage device for subsequent viewing at their convenience. Examples include movies and television shows purchased through the iTunes Store and Amazon Unbox. In the second model, 'streaming video', the consumer watches a program in real time as it is transmitted to their computer but is usually not saved. Current examples of this model include advertising-supported television programs streamed free to the audience, such as those available at NBC.com, ABC.com, FOX.com, CBS.com and thedailyshow.com.

"In either case, the program may be viewed directly on a computer or it may be viewed on a traditional television via media distribution devices (e.g. Tivo). The convenience of both these technologies lowers the barriers to entry into the digital distribution marketplace making it more accessible to mainstream consumers.

"It is widely expected that new media will eventually supplant both DVD in the home video market and television in the broadcasting market as the primary means for distribution. As in the mid-1980s, the companies have argued that new media represents an unproven and untested market and have asked for additional time for study. However, feeling resentment from the 20-year-old home video deal and unwilling to make similar concessions in a so-called "new market" yet again, WGA members have been adamant that whatever deal they make for new media, it cannot resemble the DVD formula."

Meaning yet again, it all comes down to money. Also yet again, it's become a massive tug-of-war between how much both parties will tussle before either side blinks first. How long the 12,000 writers can survive unemployed versus how long the directors, producers and studios can go without (respectively) scripts to film, projects to... well, produce, and products to promote the crap out of and sell to you and me. Oh, and also versus how long us "commonfolk" not as directly affected by the strike can survive psychologically without knowing how Scrubs ends, because Mr. Lawrence and his friends aren't being paid right!

But wait! Speaking of NBC, the networks aren't completely dead yet! News broke out today that they'll be first to pull off the ultimate contingency plan to keep their viewers despite the looming lack in their tried-and-true scripted programs: Give the "Chocolate Rain" guy a reality talent show. No, seriously. Well, almost. Quarterlife, a web-exclusive series that recently premiered on MySpace, is about to hit NBC's airwaves in January, to fill what would undoubtedly be Journeyman's current timeslot (seriously, does anyone watch that show?). Full rundown on that HERE.

Bottom Line: Money. Can't live with it (very long)... can't live without it (at all). We're in week three of the 2007 Writers' Strike, and still no end in sight. Every day I read obout a different movie or TV show that's about to get cancelled, and I'm still waiting to wake up to the news that this little gem gets canned:

And if you're not aware of that show by now, you've been more on-vacation than me the last several months, which is saying a lot!

One last clarification though, don't get me wrong; for the record, I am on the side of the writers here, as I'm sure most of you out there are, but I read today one post by a message board member on TV.com who posed a frightening theory: That once the lack of a resolution and continued financial losses reach a tipping point, the networks and bigshots will have to move those projects along by (*dramatic reverb music) OUTSOURCING the writing for the very projects most of those WGA guys basically created themselves! Meaning, as that board poster said, [this union will be] the latest in a line of good-intentions-bad-outcomes unions to do to the media industry what they did to the steel, clothing and auto industries: leave a lot of good people looking for work. Not to say that unions generally are bad, obviously. I'm just saying if things continue like this, all the studios seem to care about is that the money's gotta come in from somewhere, and I'm sure it won't be hard for them to find some non-WGA writers who are willing to cross the picket line and finish the job. I've heard about things being "under new management," but that's crazy. Yet *this* close to reality.

...But that's just me.

Oh, by the way, I wanted to mention, out of the ordinary, just for the heck of it... the Pokemon cartoon show, still on the air, had their 500th episode last month. Okay, can you guys [show staff] find a way to end this show already? You've beaten The Simpsons by a hundred shows, just make a good ninety-minute AT MOST finale and let that be it, please?

Happy Thanksgiving, and I've already finished next week's post, so no lateness next Monday. Just don't forget to share the pumpkin pie.

Later.

-D.

Entry 63: "Forging the Future"

Yo!

Another unplanned hiatus, another late blog entry. Big news this time around... As most of you readers are aware, the most anticipated video game of the decade (Halo 3) was released recently and, as expected, millions of copies of Gears of War are feeling neglected and collecting dust. Just like this blog, sadly. Anyway, all the hype about this game has been proven to be true.

Yes, the game records video of everything you do in the multiplayer and single-player campaign story...

Yes, you can make your own multiplayer maps and rules...

Yes, the Forge editor works almost flawlessly...

Yes, you can make your own video clips and screenshots from the aforementioned video footage and promptly share them with anyone...

...and No, you don't really have full control over the videos you film; at least I haven't noticed where in the manual you can easily rewind the clips, or skip ahead quicker.

However, I will give hats off to Bungie, the game's developers, for pulling out all the stops with this game. The sheer amount of information recorded in a single saved film for example, depending on length, usually never exceeds 20 megabytes... for upwards of an hour of extremely high-quality video, viewable from literally every possible angle.

The main thing I gotta say though, is about one of the biggest features of Halo 3, besides of course, being able to finish the fight that was started back in 2001. The Forge is a custom multiplayer map editor, which lets you create your own environments from scratch.

...Once you delete all the vehicles, weapons and spawn points Bungie set up as default on the ground in that map...

You see, being a map editor, Forge lets you rearrange items in the map, and not the map itself. Meaning no terraforming (you can't make your own hills, caves or walls). Don't get me wrong, it's a cool feature to work with, once you get used to everything. For example, I have on my Halo 3 file share a Forge-created map I call Alpha's Dune Kart, a racetrack made specifically for the Sandtrap map. Which is basically a playable version of the sandworm dimension from Beetlejuice, but with big sand-colored building structures, massive vehicles called Elephants that you can look out from the side and see the wind blowing individual sand particles faster than that thing can run, and ship wreckage in the distance. Shout-out to JerseySniper06 for helping with the track borders and original test runs, by the way.

Sure, it's cool to manipulate items, but let's face it. The gameplay dynamic can only change so much by replacing a sniper rifle with a pistol. If Bungie really wanted to be out of the ordinary, they'd let people truly go to town by giving them completely blank slates, and letting them make literally whatever they want. If Bungie truly wants to impress with this Forge editor, they need to make a patch that acknowledges they understand the difference between making your own map, and designing your own map. At least they could've done that with the Limited Edition (my version), or at the absolute least the Legendary version, making that bundle actually worth the money a little bit more. 120 bucks for a $60 game??? That paperweight of a helmet replica is NOT worth $60 unless the helmet actually has the real voice of Steve Downes saying a different Master Chief phrase every single time I press a button on it, and no cliche, predictable crap like having it only say the last line he said in Halo 2 back in '04:

"Sir... Finishing this fight."

Anyway...

Bottom Line: I'll give the Halo 3 Forge editor 4.2 out of 5 "Alphas". Again, excellent execution on delivering what they promised, full control over items. But they failed to deliver full customizablity. Sometimes, it's not enough to have a couple crates set up certain places or a certain way. Especially if you're a fan of sniping. Sure, making your own weapon and item points is cool, but imagine the possibilities of being able to design your own grounds as well...... Chris Carney, if you're somehow reading this, just think about it.... The multiplayer patch to end all multiplayer patches.

Sorry, Gears Annex mode... your days are numbered.

...But that's just me.

Now if you'll excuse me, 24 is still on hiatus, which leaves one excellent show I luckily just got done with this entry in time to catch: The first Boondocks episode since March of '06. Way to drag your feet on season two, [adult swim], but I suppose it's better late than never. Those who missed it live can see it at this link until this Friday night 10/12 at

http://www.adultswim.com/video/?episodeID=8a25c39215651f67011566c8cc950028

See ya later. I'll try to get Kali to take over next Monday...

-D.

Entry 62: "Popped Diva"

Yo!

Announcement time.... Starting tonight, I won't be the only person posting to this blog. I've brought in a close friend of mine to help keep this going consistently. We'll be alternating weeks, sometimes going a couple weeks at a time, to keep things random and unexpected. We'll start off at every other week, and move from there. The first entry follows right after mine, at the end. Also, the big top-secret project I've been hinting at off-and-on, pretty much since this blog began, has started to take off, and I'll be officially announcing what it is, and how you can get involved in this rather significant media revolution next week. A big change is coming..........

Back to current topics, though, a lot of interesting things have happened in the last month:

Alberto Gonzales resigned from the office of, as Bill Maher puts it, "Attorney Generalissimo..."

Opera legend Luciano Pavarotti passed away...

Senator Larry Craig tapped his foot in the WRONG bathroom stall.
...and later rethinks his guilty plea.

South Carolina is now officially known for producing the most intelligent, thoughtful and not at all rambling beauty pageant contestants...

and ladies and gentlemen, it's official! Britney Spears' career is dead. That's right. I said it.

That last revelation was made official just last night, at the 23rd annual MTV Video Music Awards as Britney struggled to keep up with her own song lyrically and dance-wise. Rather fitting, though, to have a subpar performance to go with subpar lip-synching to a subpar song this girl didn't even write herself. Oops, sorry. Not "girl." Brit hasn't been one of those since around late-2001. I meant "woman." The song said so. Anyway, so audience members hung their heads in shame... Columnists and fellow bloggers are rightfully apalled at that performance... and if you've been following this so-called singer's exploits especially since the Federline divorce, you know it's past time for those kids to be finally rescued from this.

Now, believe it or not I was one of those people who was willing to forget all about all the missteps Britney's made throughout her career: Crossroads... In The Zone... This gem of a soundbyte (check around the 00:08 mark)... Reproducing with Kevin Federline TWICE... Chaotic... etcetera, etcetera... All of that was water under the bridge, because I optimistically hoped there was a small trace of that sweet little eleven year old some of you may remember from weekday afternoons on the Disney Channel, before they got overloaded with... Miley Cyrus.

(*shudder....)

By the way, apparently, the ATVAS have reduced themselves to handing out Emmys like miniature Butterfingers at Halloween, but that's another news topic.

So come to find out, as you no doubt already saw if you checked out that YouTube linking from earlier, and here, all that blind faith was for naught. Sorry, unrealistically loyal Britney fans. We pretty much all knew that she built most of her post-MMC career by lip-synching, but at least I will give her credit for not doing a ridiculous half-dance off stage when the lip-synching started to fall apart, like SOME wannabe singers. Next step: being made into a self-parodying caricature, which gets its own show on Comedy Central. Twice.

Bottom Line: Maybe Karl Rove had the right idea. Sometimes, it's just time to call it quits.

...But that's just me.

See ya.

-D.

The VMA's.Yes,I know you're sick of them.

What is up with the VMA's?It's a bad sign when your host is the highlight of the night,and your supposed highlight turns out to be your ho-light.But alas that is what happened last night,Sarah rocked and Brit ...well Brit was lucky to be upright.Add in Tommy Lee and Kid Rock throwing down in the audience over their mutual ex Pam Anderson And I'm wondering if The VMA's should be moved to Spike TV.Honestly,can anyone explain the logic behind serving drinks?The event planners have clearly never seen the Vibe awards.I think next year a little more common sense should be exercised.But hey,that's just me

Entry 61: "(John) Woo-ing the Crowd"

Yo!

I meant to post something on this sooner, right on the heels of the thirteenth annual X-Games which was in Los Angeles a few weeks back. The reason for my missing it all live, I will get to later... I just have to show you guys a clip that was brought to my attention a couple weeks back on NBC's Today Show: Skateboarder Jake Brown follows-up to one of the most gorgeous 720-degree midair rotations ever caught on film, with probably the most devastating fifty-foot vertical drop ever caught on film... Skateboard and shoes noticeably absent in the end. Which is interesting considering that 720 was apparently just enough of an awesome spectacle to knock his shoes off, but not enough to ditch the socks. Major, major props to Jake for being strong enough to literally walk away from a two story free-fall though, as you're about to see. In any case, for those who missed it, observe:

Stay strong, Jake... We'll be hopefully seeing you again next year... Moving on...

Recently, a playable demo was released on Xbox 360 Marketplace for a new game called Stranglehold, which can probably be described as a video-game version of Andy and Larry Wachowski's ultimate wet dream, by which I mean it's got a regular laundry list of action movie-style visual stereotypes: insanely acrobatic stunt work, destructible environments and Bullet-- sorry, Tequila Time being the most overused effect in the game, next to sliding down banisters and guard rails with your feet, like Sonic the Hedgehog. The game isn't without its interesting points, though. It's designed to be a sequel to the iconic 1992 film Hard Boiled, directed and co-written by Mr. Almost-Killed-the-Mission-Impossible-Franchise himself, John Woo. Also, being the John Woo machine that it is, slow-motion gunplay, unrealistically acrobatic stuntwork and the inexplicable flying dove (or five) in the background aren't without screen time. But the thing that's a little unnerving about this, and this is something I'm talking with people a lot about now, is the fact that visually, mechanically... This is coming up on pretty much as far as video games can go.

Think about it. We live in an age where some (rare) movie-based games actually turn out better than the actual movie it was based on. Visuals are getting more and more realistic... Definition is becoming higher than the Hubble Space Telescope... Games in general, at least on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, are crossing the line between believable cinematically and total fiction now more than ever. If memory serves, I have briefly touched on this topic in a previous post, but this week just begs pointing out that between Stranglehold, due out next week, BioShock, which comes out tomorrow (that demo was also fantastically done, by the way), and of course the mammoth in the room, Halo 3 (can't wait to find out how much they'll charge for that full campaign demo, since Money-soft smiles upon frivolously charging their customers), massively epic gaming experiences are now the way to go to get attention in the industry.

......Well, unless you're for all that family-friendly platformers and party game nonsense that some consoles cater to, which most of their games don't even have blood! Such a disgrace.

Sarcasm aside, the last major advancement in the field of games was what, 1996? Super Mario 64? The big move to three-dimensional games, providing people with an interactive experience that came with actual, realistic DEPTH to the environment. We're never going to have another industry-shifting advancement like that. Sure some games tried including the fourth dimension (time), but after this franchise and this franchise, it eventually degenerated into a sub-genre. Those game developers never intended for the element of time to be treated as icing on the cake, an extra "oh, that's almost interesting" addition to gameplay, they wanted it to advance the field. John Woo and Midway Games putting together a disturbingly realistic-looking, ultra-showy, slow motion, shoot-the-basket-of-bananas-just-because-it's-there attempt at a movie sequel, is an interesting attempt at advancing the field admittedly, but is it really as genre-defining as most game/movie reviewers would lead you to believe?

The Bottom Line: Not everyone can be a revolutionary.

....But that's just me.

'Til next week...

-D.

Entry 60: "Un-Convention-al"

Yo!

....Crap. Late yet again.

....I wonder what this "team blogging" thing is all about...........

I forgot to mention in my brief tribute to video editors last entry that the guys who put together TV commercials and movie trailers. Those guys are really uncredited because their work doesn't have any credits giving them their moment in the sun, or an awards... Um... Thing, I guess, during awards season. Big props to those guys.

Moving on... July seems to be big media conventions month....

E3 was this month! Comic-Con was this weekend!

The Electronic Entertainment Exposition is a video game trade show held yearly in Los Angeles. At least until last week when, after years of just anybody managing to sneak their way into the show with a friend who works for one of the game publishers or magazines, or just REALLY knew their way around Photoshop to make their own press pass (a method I myself successfully used back in 2004), the ESA decided to make the entire show happen behind closed doors, preventing anyone from entering the area unless you were specifically there to cover or do business with the big three (Nintendo, Microsoft & Sony). Also, the show was moved from the Los Angeles Convention Center to an intricate system of hotel conference rooms... In different hotels. Microsoft alone reserved an entire hotel, using the whole place as their biggest E3 booth ever, and also arguably the largest one in E3 history.

...Or unless you were willing to pull an Ethan Hunt and do some sort of elaborate wire-drop from the ceiling ventilator system to gain access to the floor.

...Or something.

Anyway, this year's E3 saw several interesting things happen, including:

-The revelation that a PlayStation 3 price drop is iminent, and unfortunately, temporary....

-The big reveal of the long-overdue Simpsons Movie being spun off into a longer-overdue 745th Simpsons Game. ....Heaven help us.

-That nutty plumber Mario's big return to platform gaming... Is surprisingly lacking in gravity (literally)... And it doesn't look as bad as we all feared.....

-The list of former Sony PlayStation exclusives slowly shifting over to PS3/Xbox360 shared release dates... Grand Theft Auto 4.... Devil May Cry 4.... and this just in, the Metal Gear Solid 4 rumors JUST WON'T STOP....

Comic-Con, on the other hand occured in San Diego, California over the weekend, a convention known less for, well, comics news, and more for Fall TV previews and the big movie studios' big chance to unveil upcoming movie info... Especially comic-book-movies... Especially Jon Favreau, who seized the moment to premiere what we're assuming is the first trailer for his big, shiny, live-action, red-and-gold-plated Iron Man movie. Paramount pulled down that footage from YouTube literally as I'm writing this, but footage from the Iron Man movie game due out around the same time as the movie, I guess (May 8), is still viewable here.

Other Comic-Con 2007 highlights include:

-Warner Bros. Animation continuing to demonstrate total unoriginality (do we really need two Superman[s] in the same show at once?!?)

-Fox's 24 will be back for season seven in January, this time with a continuity-breaking TWELVE-HOUR TIME GAP during the season!!

-Leonard Nimoy will have screen time in J.J. Abrams' Star Trek XI movie next Christmas (that's it? Figures. Captain Kirk is understandably busy lately, what with negotiating Priceline travel rates and all. Busy work.)

-Some comic-book movie ideas just can't seem to die off, after all... Better not mess it up, studios (Shazam! and Green Hornet, anyone?)


Bottom Line: Well... you gotta see this stuff for yourself. A bottom line for this would just spoil the surprise(s). Here's this year's E3 coverage from IGN, GameSpot, and the official straight-from-the-horse's-mouth e3expo.com version. Comic-Con's taken care of by ComingSoon.net, TV.com, and... well, itself.

See you next week, I hope...

-D.

P.S. One final note: I don't know how many of you readers are into game console hacking (specifically regarding PlayStation Portable), but I found one site in particular I feel I must promote, and not just because the checks cleared:

http://homebrewheaven.freeforums.org/

Those forums have all the info you need to get started with the wonderful world of homebrew! If you're into that stuff, check 'em out; it's worth it.

Entry 59: "More Than Meets the iPhone"

Yo....

Yes, I'm still around.

I bring news.... This past month... I've just completed a pilot, if you will, of the top-secret media project I first mentioned last summer... I now better understand the chaos and stress of putting together a television program. I'll confess, this is nothing compared to the every single week stuff the big guys do, well, every single week, but directing, producing, and especially WRITING and EDITING carry job duties that unjustly go unnoticed by the masses who are too wowed by what they're seeing on-screen to think about how much work went into making it happen... All the Red Bull and Aspercreme used to keep awake and working just a few hours longer to meet the deadline... Converting and compressing the final product after countless hours of work, only to discover glitches and inconsistencies you have to pray don't require re-filming with time you don't have. I want to use this first new opening paragraph in over a month to say to the folks basically living in front of their computers, sometimes painstakingly putting things together frame by frame, only a handful of whom get their moment in the sun once or twice a year during awards season, if they win... Thank you so much for making things worth watching. Too few people put in Disc 2 of your movies, so too few even know what it is to be a producer. You are all too important to the media world today to be granted honorable mention in an applause line by the people who only have their awards because of how good you made them look, if they remember you up at the podium.

Moving on...

Piracy in the film industry is... let's face it, not really going away anytime soon. Yes, I agree with those ads they show in the theaters discouraging downloading movies, music and video games... I, like many of you, have rightfully and legally purchased many a media item, even falling victim to the purchase that proved to be not-so-worthy of the money (*cough, X360 Spider-Man 3). But everyone knows there is a convenience factor with piracy that even Ben Affleck can't hold back. People, consumers, do tend to enjoy not so much the money itself, but the saving of money, and what could be a bigger, better saving than 100% off? Also, what part of the industry seems to get hit harder than music? Films, of course. Well, maybe not harder, since it's kinda easier to mass-distribute, for free, Linkin Park's Minutes to Midnight album than, say, At World's End. Less filesize. This past two weeks alone gave rise to two massive movie leaks, the Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie that came out in April, and of course Michael Moore's latest film, Sicko. After the downloading of course comes the fun part, figuring out the answer to this question:

"What format do I copy this movie to first?

....MP4 for the cellPod I just stood in line at the Apple Store two weeks for?

....AVC MP4 for my PSP?

....MPEG2, and then burn it to DVD?

----WMV so I can stream it to my television with my Xbox 360?

....WXYZ, now I know my ABCs, next time won't you sing with me?

..............Ahhhh, decisions, decisions....."

I'm also noticing, according to certain message boards people like this post on, the higher-profile the content is, the less likely you'll get the real deal movie when you start up those file search programs. Most of the time, apparently, stuff gets taken down (big powerful lawyers, of course) and you get what looks like the real deal, but is actually either an extremely graphic porn clip or the wrong film entirely (who downloads Blankman on purpose???? Anyone????????) Proof of the lawyers lies solely in Sicko's leaking because the recent reviews appear to be five-star across the board-- liberal AND conservative, for a change-- and the file stays up for days, while the bigger, showier movies that are basically the slam-bang moviegoer's wet dream... Spidey 3... Transformers... Die Hard 4... Those movies have some industrial-strength saran wrap over them, 'cause they never leak. A sure testament to what films have the most money and power behind them, if the TV advertising time (or lack thereof) isn't enough of a flashing, neon Vegas-style interstate highway sign. Sure, there are legal download methods out there that try to do their part to fight piracy by charging money for LEGAL, temporary downloadable versions that expire eventually... MovieLink... CinemaNow... apparently NetFlix is offering downloads now... and of course iTunes made movie downloads an art form, didn't they? But again, no matter how competitive these guys and the industry try to be, the best they can do is pull a LendingTree.com and compete amongst each other. Let's be real about this. The way the internet community is now, eliminating unlicensed, copywritten content sharing is the ultimate uphill battle, I don't care how much money they've got.

...Mainly because the consumers they try to lock out just don't have it to risk on something they might regret.

"Rent Ghost Rider or buy an extra gallon of unleaded gas...?

.....Decisions, decisions......"

Bottom Line: Buying DVDs is, like, SO 2006.

As Sonny & Cher once sang, the beat, like war on piracy, goes on........

See you next week. For real, this time.

-D.

Entry 58: "Bratz Moviez"

Yo!

I can't believe this is a reality.

Paris Hilton is actually behind bars.

No, seriously, a trailer was released on Apple.com's QuickTime Trailers page last week that I found sort of alarming. American Psycho, Fahrenheit 9/11, and EVERY Saw film (remind me again why they wouldn't stop at three?), and now Lionsgate is about to unleash a full movie based on the infamous line of Bratz dolls, infamous for their notorious "never too young to start dressing like a prostitute" attitude towards fashion. I mean, if you're dealing with a bunch of dolls that impressionable young girls get attached to, that have enough makeup on them to knock a couple centuries off of Sharon Stone, that kinda sends up a red flag to me.

For those who don't know, not only are there versions of these..... things (sorry, my thesaurus isn't nearby to recommend an appropriate adjective that's also rated PG).... in their mid-teens, but also a "Kidz" line with the girls as pre-teens, a "Boyz" line that frankly looks sort of homosexually suspect, if you know what I mean, a "Petz" line (just how much grass were those MGA execs smoking by this point anyway?), and worst of all, a "Babyz" line which had the four original Bratz in their same style of general attire from the "adult...-er...-ish" versions yet actually in diapers!

MGA Entertainment, the company responsible for these monstrosities, have been under fire about these dolls in recent years simply because of the various controversies from the mini-champagne bottles and blind date advocating of the "Secret Date" playsets and the larger, "Big Babyz" dolls wearing thongs, to the "May Lin" doll not actually being of Japanese descent and the Chinese doll manufacturers' wages not even equaling the worth of the dolls they make. Naturally, the next logical step after the dolls, the DVD movies, and everything Bratz in general so far, would of course have to be a movie. But not just any movie. A LIVE-ACTION movie.

Incoming trailer!!!!


Bottom Line: What is wrong with Hollywood?

Do we really need what's basically Legally Blonde 3 that badly? It's getting to the point where Mike Judge was right in Idiocracy... As time goes on, the general American culture is getting steadily dumbed down worse and worse to where anything is a good idea. I would think Lionsgate would have better sense than this to gauge what would and wouldn't be a good investment, but maybe I need to start giving these bigshots a little less credit when they're decreasingly deserving of it.

Also, maybe it's time for parents to start cracking down on what gets this stuff into the home in the first place: The young girls whose allowances and birthday money sneak the goods into the home in the first place. It seems to me that going after MGA is sort of like after the girl signs her soul to the devil, to use a metaphor, chastising the devil instead of preventing the signature from being written in the first place. These products don't buy themselves, you know. Crack down on the kids getting suckered into this corporate chessboard, and maybe that'll be a step in the right direction in ending this product once and for all. You gotta hit 'em in the Achilles' Wallet, parents......

...But that's just me.

-D.

Entry 57: "Back in Green"

Yo!

This entry title goes out to AC/DC.

Don't want to go through changing the template to match the real lyric, but you get the joke.

Well, I'm getting back into the flow of things these past few days... Those two weeks I was overseas were a real eye opening experience. I did not know the currency exchange rate was that bad for American money. It's almost exactly two U.S. dollars for a single British pound. That means a $0.79 pack of M&Ms costs about one-and-a-half dollars (give or take) over there! They're also five hours ahead of America's east coast, and STILL searching for Madeleine McCann! It's been almost a month now, and the only major lead I at least heard about was that she may/may not have been spotted wandering around in some gas station mini-mart in Morocco or Portugal, I forgot where. Excuse me for being slightly pessimistic, but this four-year-old girl has been, as I just said, missing for almost an entire month! I admittedly haven't been paying much attention to this story since I stopped watching British television the night before I boarded the flight back to the U.S., mainly since good old American newsmedia is focused on the important topics, like Rosie O'Donnell holding a grudge and Lindsay Lohan getting a DUI, and the dreaded "super-flu."

God bless America. Oh, how I missed thee.

....or is it "...thou?" I'm not sure about that grammar.

Sarcasm aside, it's good to be home. The big Memorial Day holiday has come and gone, and summer 2007 is finally officially here. Break out the sunscreen and fire up the barbecue! The movies just keep on coming for arguably the biggest film season in the history of time, and--- Oh, right I promised you guys another toteboard!



Buckle up, people... It's gonna be one heckuva summer...

...But that's just me.

-D.

Entry 56: "The World! The World! The World is on Fire!!!"

Yo!

It's that time yet again... Time for thing one and thing two. Thing One: This entry's a little special, since I'm posting this from London, England. That's right, I'm on-location in the Queen's territory this week and next, visiting some long-lost relatives of mine I only found out about after my dad passed away in late 2005, but enough soap opera plotlines. Of course, I'm doing the full tourism thing while I'm here, giving my Kodak a run for its money. I'll be posting some of my favorite shots here at the end of the month, around entry 58 or 59. Thing Two: The area I'm in right now is a tad unforgiving with unsecured wireless networks being in-range, hence my giving up yesterday and going farther outside today to send this thing out (I was actually done on-time for once, around 7:45pm EST)! So this time, my tardiness was REALLY out of my hands, but I apologize anyway.

Moving on, things are a little climatologically chaotic back in the states, apparently. Catalina Island, an area off the coast of California which has only 22 miles of landmass has, as of Sunday night, about 5,000 acres dead as the dodo. That's four thousand (*American) football fields' worth of very serious tanning right now.... and counting. Plus, according to the L.A. Times, despite the area's condition, tourists are getting allowed in even as the local firefighters are still trying to keep things under 450° Celsius. The Weather Channel has some On-Demand video on the blaze in Georgia/Florida's Okefenokee Swamp that's also causing some sweating foreheads for more than one reason, since some high winds are about to push the fire over the containment areas and toast even more land if that hasn't happened already as of this typing, as if the quarter-million acres thus far wasn't enough. On top of that coverage, Bloomberg.com is simultaneously talking about yet another wildfire, this time in a wilderness area in Minnesota.

Oh, if only we could've seen all this coming somehow.

Holy crap, global warming has finally exploded onto the forefront of national discussions lately! Forget Al Gore's visual-aid-filled movie, it's another thing entirely when the frightening climate shifts and effects on everyday life are happening for real, isn't it? Suddenly, Roland Emmerich's Atlanti--- Sorry, Manhattan underwater sequence isn't that unrealistic visually anymore or all that unpleasant to have happen locally, right Florida? It looks like we're getting cooked first before we drown, and the igniter seems to be just about anything warm that's near certain flammable--- Lucas, for the love of God, put down the magnifying glass and leave those ants alone! Phew... Sorry, readers. Lately, you can't be too careful about being fire-safe. On a serious note, America's understandably on-edge with pyrophobia, and I really can't sum this week's topic up any better than by saying my thoughts and prayers are with the firefighters out there who certainly have their work cut out for them this week. I mean, when I left America after boarding my flight Thursday afternoon, I knew it was a little humid, but I didn't think things would get this bad nationwide! God, I leave you Americans alone for four days, and... I know, some of it's Mother Nature, but let's not forget who forced her hand. If there was any doubt before this week, U.S. Congress, rest assured, global warming is real. Period.

The Bottom Line: Only YOU can prevent forest fires. Oh, wait. That's been done. Never mind, just remember the usual stuff... Dress lightly before going outdoors for long periods of time, wear sunscreen, drink plenty of water, I can't believe I'm going all PSA here with heat safety and it's still technically spring! Here's hoping when I get back home, America won't be more burned out than a stick of Nag Champa during a really grooooovy outdoor concert, maaaaaaaannnn.....

Hey, is it warm in here.... or is that just me?

Stay safe.

-D.

P.S. London is mostly overcast and freezing right now, in case you're wondering. Just thought I'd add that bit of info.

P.P.S. Apparently, it's not "just me" at all.

Entry 55: "Roll with the Punches"

We interrupt your regularly scheduled Blog for the following Summer movie trilogy gro$$-so-far scoreboard (Click to enlarge):



Thank you. We now return you to your regularly scheduled Blog, already in progress.

Yo!

So, Floyd Mayweather, Jr. took down the Golden Boy on Saturday night. And then retired. Split decision. Not well liked by the audience, apparently. Here's the site. Given that I don't have a cable box that supports Pay-Per-View, or one at all, and a video of the crucial 12th round of the fight is harder to find than a post-Griswold "National Lampoon" movie worth renting, so I apologize for the lack of... um, clippage.

...Darn you, HBO lawyers....

Personally, I've never really been into boxing very much... In fact, the last boxing match I happened to catch a glimpse of was that one where Mike Tyson put a little more protein in his diet, in mid-fight. Yes, it's been almost ten years already. But anyway, the New York Times' web-article puts it bluntly: Retirement promises by boxers in their prime are about as useful as Confederate currency. They almost always come back. Heck, even Rocky got back in the game and----- Oh, holy crap. Eric Balfour just got killed off of 24 just now as I'm typing. They brought him back from season one just to get rid of him just a couple weeks before the finale of his first appearance in five years. Last trace of the original cast besides Kiefer and they just blow him away. Oh, sorry. Got slightly distracted. So now that the dust has settled from what's now known as Cinco de Mayweather, how long until the comeback, or more likely, the rematch? Oscar vs. Floyd, Part 2?

Bottom Line.... This fight apparently lived up to the hype and apparently about 50% of all expectations. I was working all Saturday night too, by the way, so even if I did have the right hardware, my malfunctioning DVD recorder timer would've lived up to its expectations and crapped out on me, so HBO would've enjoyed some free money anyway. You readers who saw that fight are so lucky. I really wish there was a free video of this thing somewhere that I didn't have to fork over $54.95 to see, just for what's now old news!!!!!

....But that's just me.

See ya next week, with a more in-depth, personally relevant topic I can go into a bit more about, I hope.

-D.

Entry 54: "Keeping It Real-D"

Yo!

.......Well, things are still kinda chaotic in the educational field, I'm noticing.... Something like at least a dozen colleges have received anonymous threats in the past week or so....

Sigh... A life is a terrible thing to waste. Geez, I gotta move the crap on. This is about to turn into a one-topic blog, like this month was about to be with video games before the Virginia Tech fiasco took over all the news airwaves. Changing topic....

IGN broke this bit of news Friday, declaring a new three-dimensional cinema technology currently known as Real-D, "as ubiquitous as colour or sound." Apparently, 3-D is the new HD. Theaters across the country are steadily adapting to this new Real-D film experience, which I hear is done surprisingly good, and with nary a pair of red-and-blue glasses or subsequent headaches in sight. The whole deal with this thing involves TWO cameras, a super-expensive projector, polarized light, and what looks like some specially made Buddy Holly glasses.

The way it works is, the aforementioned super-projector sends out the left and right eye images simultaneously onto a silver screen (some things never change) which bounce back through the glasses which decode the polarized images and sends it out the other side of the lens, through your eyeballs and into your brain which is where the depolarized images are merged into one super-image your brain recognizes as possessing depth, and then somehow exposure to this makes you forget your phone number or it does something brain-related eventually. Oops, sorry, I've been getting earfuls and eyefuls lately of how everything electronic, large or small, puts out harmful radiation which can cause major medical complications. Not that I'm saying this projector technology, which I'm sure is totally devoid of anything harmful at all, is dangerous. Because I can't. Don't need lawsuits. Part of me had to express that concern.

This does, however, strike me as interesting since this is seriously being adopted not just by certain theaters, but major studios. Dreamworks has said they're going 3-D by 2009, which means we'll be seeing more of Shrek than most children under 12 probably should, what with the fourth film coming out around that time. Also, Mr. Disprove-Ascension-of-Christ himself, James Cameron, is helming the first ever live-action Real-D film, to be released in '09 as well. So the next question is, since 3-D is starting to emerge as a respected film type, thanks in no small part to the sky falling back in '05, when is this stuff, or can this stuff come to consumers' homes to replace the now-almost-obsolete $3,000 HDTV you just bought during that new year's sale at Best Buy because you HAD to see Super Bowl XLI look that realistic?

Well anyway, the Bottom Line is, 2009 is going to be one insane year for movie-going. And hopefully not for forgetting phone numbers. That's it. What, I can't just say a brief bottom line and let that be that? That's all i got right now. I just hope this Real-D stuff isn't this expensive once it finds its way into our living rooms somehow.

...But that's just me.

Later.

-D.

P.S. Found this CNBC clip on YouTube. It's relevant, so it's gonna get embedded:

Entry 53: "Aftermath."

Yo...

Holy crap, I'm late this week. Complicatedly long story, but the Cliff's Notes version is, this time had nothing to do with forgetting to set an alarm (for this, anyway). I need a way to publish posts remotely through a mobile browser or something, since my PSP browser doesn't support this posting very well..... But then, I wouldn't want to get carpal tunnel in my thumbs or something typing out a long-as-crap entry like this every week on my cell phone by hitting 9-9-9, 6-6-6, 1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1, Down-Down... Etcetera...

Moving on, one correction. Harris and Klebold! Those were the guys I meant to mention when I said last week that "[Cho Seung-Hui, the Virginia Tech gunman] out-Timothy McVeigh'ed Timothy McVeigh." A certain friend of mine from my workplace kindly reminded me of this confusion with Eric and Dylan, the Columbine incident shooters, the anniversary of which was also last week, so now there's no need for you all to post any reader comments questioning my topic accuracy by asking what, exactly, did the Bloodbath in Blacksburg have to do with Oklahoma City? I will point out, though, that Cho seriously did outdo those guys, at least in the eyes of USA Today, which ran a front page story on the guy last Thursday, bestowing the title "America's Deadliest Gunman." Traditionally, congratulations would be in order for being the best at something, if it weren't for the fact that this is usually the least-desired thing to be the best at EVER, next to getting a lot of attention on America's Most Wanted and winning a lot of Razzie awards. So instead, I'll copy-and-paste this...

Students

• Ross Abdallah Alameddine
  Hometown: Saugus, Massachusetts
  Sophomore, University Studies
  Student since fall 2005
• Brian Roy Bluhm
  Hometown: Cedar Rapids, Iowa
  Master's student, Civil Engineering
  Student since spring 2005
• Ryan Christopher Clark
  Hometown: Martinez, Georgia
  Senior, Psychology
  Student since fall 2002
• Austin Michelle Cloyd
  Hometown: Blacksburg, Virginia
  Sophomore, Honors Program, International Studies
  Student since fall 2006
• Matthew Gregory Gwaltney
  Hometown: Chesterfield, Virginia
  Master’s student, Environmental Engineering
  Student since fall 2001
• Caitlin Millar Hammaren
  Hometown: Westtown, New York
  Sophomore, International Studies
  Student since fall 2005
• Jeremy Michael Herbstritt
  Hometown: Blacksburg, Virginia
  Master's student, Civil Engineering
  Student since fall 2006
• Rachael Elizabeth Hill
• Emily Jane Hilscher
  Hometown: Woodville, Virginia
  Freshman, Animal and Poultry Sciences
  Student since fall 2006
• Jarrett Lee Lane
  Hometown: Narrows, Virginia
  Senior, Civil Engineering
  Student since fall 2003
• Matthew Joseph La Porte
  Hometown: Dumont, New Jersey
  Sophomore, University Studies
  Student since fall 2005
• Henry J. Lee
  Hometown: Roanoke, Virginia
  Sophomore, Computer Engineering
  Student since fall 2006
• Partahi Mamora Halomoan Lumbantoruan
  Hometown: Blacksburg, Virginia (originally from Indonesia)
  Ph.D. student, Civil Engineering
  Student since fall 2003
• Lauren Ashley McCain
  Hometown: Hampton, Virginia
  Freshman, International Studies
  Student since fall 2006
• Daniel Patrick O'Neil
  Hometown: Lincoln, Rhode Island
  Master's student, Environmental Engineering
  Student since fall 2006
• Juan Ramon Ortiz-Ortiz
  Hometown: Blacksburg, Virginia
  Master’s student, Civil Engineering
  Student since fall 2006
• Minal Hiralal Panchal
  Hometown: Mumbai, India
  Master’s student, Architecture
  Student since fall 2006
• Daniel Alejandro Perez-Cueva
  Hometown: Woodbridge, Virginia
  Sophomore, International Studies
  Student since summer 2006
• Erin Nicole Peterson
  Hometown: Centreville, Virginia
  Freshman, International Studies
  Student since fall 2006
• Michael Steven Pohle, Jr.
  Hometown: Flemington, New Jersey
  Senior, Biological Sciences
  Student since fall 2002
• Julia Kathleen Pryde
  Hometown: Blacksburg, Virginia
  Master's student, Biological Systems Engineering
  Student since fall 2001
• Mary Karen Read
  Hometown: Annandale, Virginia
  Freshman, Interdisciplinary Studies
  Student since fall 2006
• Reema Joseph Samaha
  Hometown: Centreville, Virginia
  Freshman, University Studies
  Student since fall 2006
• Waleed Mohamed Shaalan
  Hometown: Blacksburg, Virginia (originally from Egypt)
  Ph.D. student, Civil Engineering
  Student since fall 2006
• Leslie Geraldine Sherman
  Hometown: Springfield, Virginia
  Junior, Honors Program, History
  Student since fall 2005
• Maxine Shelly Turner
  Hometown: Vienna, Virginia
  Senior, Honors Program, Chemical Engineering
  Student since fall 2003
• Nicole White
  Hometown: Smithfield, Virginia
  Sophomore, International Studies
  Student since fall 2004

Faculty

• Christopher James Bishop
  Instructor, Foreign Languages
  Residence in Blacksburg
  Joined Virginia Tech on August 10, 2005
• Jocelyne Couture-Nowak
  Adjunct Professor, Foreign Languages
  Residence in Blacksburg
  Joined Virginia Tech on August 10, 2001
• Kevin P. Granata
  Professor, Engineering Science and Mechanics
  Residence in Blacksburg
  Joined Virginia Tech on January 10, 2003
• Liviu Librescu
  Professor, Engineering Science and Mechanics
  Residence in Blacksburg
  Joined Virginia Tech on September 1, 1985
• G.V. Loganathan
  Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering
  Residence in Blacksburg
  Joined Virginia Tech on December 16, 1981

...and if I had the chance, I'd say this:

Ahem...

Cho, I didn't watch your videos when they were shown on the news because I didn't want to acknowledge your little pre-planned 15 minutes of fame, which the news-media was all too gracious to supply, or watch the analysts make their spins on just why and how out-to-lunch your mind was that day to want to wipe out as many innocent people as you did. Even now, as I write this, nobody really knows your motive, but there's nothing I can say to convey the complete, apparently indescribable disgust I have for what you did. Honestly, I frankly do not care about the reason, because to say 'no justification' is as understatement as it gets. Sure, the pain you've caused may make some flags go half-mast for a few weeks, but unlike Betsy Ross' famous sewing project, the suffering of the friends and families of the departed 27 students and five teachers will never be lifted. Quick, cowardly suicide was far too easy a demise for you, and whatever your mental instability may have been in this life, I hope you fail to move on from your actions in the next. You have shamed your family beyond belief, annihilated lives forever, and tarnished a 130-year-old college with blood. May you never rest in peace.


..............(*deep breath) I'm sorry, readers, I kinda had to get a little emotional with that. Again, my sincerest condolences to those Hokie families, and okay, even Cho's family, since they did lose someone in this too. A despicable murderer, but a relative nonetheless. It's humbling, the impact this tragedy has had suddenly. Since Tuesday, I have yet to drive somewhere without noticing a restaurant building poster/marquee, roadside sign, bumper sticker, or pedestrian wearing almost unseasonable amounts of maroon and orange, what with dark colors and summer heat being oil-and-water. Hokies, continue to stay strong, and may we always remember 4-16-07.

.....But that's just me.

Oh! Before I go, I found this gem of a news piece on QuickJump.net:

"Now that evidence shows that Cho Seung Hui didn't own a single video game at the time of the Tragic shooting, a new article over at MSNBC questions Jack Thompson's fervent accusations. This is in light of his recent interview wherein he responded to IGDA criticism."

Well, at least a tiny bit of good can come from so much horror. A step in the direction of no more debates on how virtual violence contributes to real-world eruptions..... Not much, but it's something.....

See ya Monday.

-D.

Entry 52: "Virginia Tech."

..........I can't parody-title this entry.

About 7A.M. this morning, the worst shooting rampage in U.S. history occurred. Somebody, whose name has yet to be released to be the public as of this typing, actually managed to out-Timothy-McVeigh Timothy McVeigh, by mercilessly slaughtering THIRTY-TWO innocent people. Thirty were killed at Norris Hall, two more at West Ambler Johnston Hall. Fifteen are currently being treated at local hospitals. Including the gunman's suicide (figures, right? No monstrous event like this ever seems to end with the perpetrator facing Earthly justice), the death toll is currently 34, and hopefully will stay that way so long as the fifteen survivors' injuries aren't mortal.

Okay, I know this is far from the first time we've heard about violence in school settings, which apparently can begin at any age, but this sets a new low. I mean, we get bombarded with news stories every day about violence in the streets, violence overseas, and I don't need to mention the over-dramatized insanity that enters our DVD players on movie-night. I suppose just having said that adds ammo to the parents and politicians who say wholeheartedly that violence on TV and in the movies and video games contributes to thinking it's okay to go postal like this. Whatever the unjustified reason, this one has to take the cake. Last I heard of this thing, motive-wise, was that the guy was romantically scorned and so he figures the best way to cope with the breakup was to try to pump as much of the student body full of lead as possible. Excuse the directness of that statement, but that was the gist of it. Normally, I'd hyperlink you readers to another website citing the specific source of that statement, but since I do not remember what news network that mentioned that theory earlier, I'm kinda at a loss there unfortunately.

Bottom Line, though, is that this is just the latest, darkest and bloodiest in a line of school-related gun violence. My thoughts and prayers are with the friends and families of the victims, and of course mainly the survivors who must now face the worst challenge one can face after something like this: Moving on.

...But that's just me.

Stay strong, Hokies.

-D.