If you haven't seen this video...

You haven't lived.

PS.
It is freaking COLD out!

Debt

There is some theory that the National Debt is a good thing. I have never heard a good explanation for that theory. The only version I've even understood was the idea that "If the rich people are owed money by the government, then they won't lead a revolution, because they really want that money back."

That theory seems absurd to me.

Anyway, when you think of a good economy, do you think of:

a) Spain
b) Japan

The reason I bring those two nations up is because they are on opposite ends of this chart of national debts. Despite the theoretical benefits of debt, most of the crappy countries have a debt, and most of the successful countries have surpluses.

Washington

George Washington was a great man. I bet you didn't know how great.

Check out this video to find out.

This is a great example of how technology has allowed extremely small press media to exist. The video was probably created by two or three people, for little money.

Merry Thanksgiving

People called it thanksgiving, but yesterday was my Video Game Day. We played a bunch of Wii, (lots of Trauma Center, which is totally awesome), and I bought a 360 on the internet for 340$. Assuming Dell.com is not a fraudulent company, (not the safest assumption???) I should have it in less than two weeks. Cool.

A Retraction

A cowardly friend of mine has pointed out that the character in Heroes with multiple personalities actually does have a super power when she is in her alternate personality.

The fact that they didn't have the time to show this is further proof that the show doesn't have enough budget and is trying to do too many things at once.

Heroes is one of the many shows trying to capture the market share of Lost by replicating the entire feel of the show. Unfortunately, they've only mastered the part of Lost that I hate: the endless wasting of time. It's not against the rules to have non-trivial events.

No Wii for Mii

After no small amount of shopping, both local and internet, I have determined that there is no Wii to be found in my locale. Too bad. I guess I'll have to wait.

I did stop by my friend's house again to celebrate his Wii. While I was there, I snapped a picture of my Mii:

Just awesome.

Wii Jokes

The Wii is out. I was with a friend as he got it at midnight. We went to his place to play it, and I announce that it is good. Wii Sports is cool, and this Trauma Center game seems cool too.

I proudly point out that I have never composed a joke or a pun based on the Wii's name. I think there are few people who have an interest in the game community who can say that.

Heroes Sins

The (relatively) new show Heroes has three major sins:

1. Not enough budget. If you can't do convincing special effects, then there's not much point in doing a supers show, unless everyone has lame powers.

2. Too many lame powers. This also is connected to another problem: too many characters. The best unnecessary character/lame power is a woman whose super-power is having an alternate personality take over her body. The alternate personality has no powers. If I end up in a comic, I hope my power doesn't turn out to be a mental illness.

3. Soap-opera story that moves nowhere. With all of these characters, the show has to spend a bunch of time reminding you who's who in each episode. With only 44 minutes, there is very little time to deal with three or more stories. Also, the stories they tell are kinda lame. Shows about supers are supposed to be about Supers, not lamers.

PS.
There is one other sin: they used the "silent child ominously being silent and revealing something important". How lazy.

No Hope

The last third of the latest episode of South Park, Stanley's Cup, is one of the funniest things I have ever seen. I had difficulty breathing. You win, South Park.

Marketing

Microsoft/Bungie has a good marketing campaign right now. They are handing out a small amount of information every other day about Halo 3. They have a semi-exclusive deal with EGM at the moment, where EGM is the only (American) magazine to get Halo 3 details.

I have realized that this is probably not coincidentally timed to cover the entire release of the PS3 and Wii. With two new consoles coming out, EGM's cover story shows a Halo Spartan.

It's as though Microsoft is jingling its keys in your vision, saying "Hey! Don't look over there! Look at the 360! Shiny!" Sure, Halo 3 won't be out for at least half a year, but that's the best thing the 360 has.

Consoles

When I found out that Call of Duty 3 wouldn't be released for the PC, I was dismayed. I get all of my German-hunting release from playing CoD at friends' houses. Now, it seems that I will have to buy a console to kill some Nazis.

Despite reassurances, I don't feel comfortable with playing an FPS on the Wii. (Which I do intend to buy upon its release). Also, it looks pretty ugly on the latest Nintendo console.

This left me with the 360, which I had previously decided not to buy until a price drop, or the release of Halo 3, whichever came first. For about a week, I had a wicked urge to pick one up. Fortunately it passed, and I have re-committed to waiting it out.

Note that the PS3 never once entered my mind as an option. The entire thing just seems absurd now.

Terrifying

I don't want to scare you, so I'm going to phrase this carefully.

The latest American Dad wasn't 100% worthless. There were two, possibly three jokes that were actually funny.

Breathe. It was probably just a mistake.

Wii Woe

I am looking forward to the Wii. I expect that Wii sports will be good. I do wonder why in the world they are not starting off with a ping-pong game. If there was ever a game that could be played with the Wii, it's ping-pong. You would need to have a LAN hookup to do it justice, but that's true of most games.

Post-Election

The election's over, and I think we got a pretty good result. It's best when there's more than one party in power. That means that there has to be some level of debate over most issues. The congress will still probably be willing to give itself a raise without too much debate, but that's almost unavoidable.

Locally, the Transportation Amendment passed, and I am not pleased. The law is poorly written, and using the constitution to change the funding of transportation seems like a bad idea to me. I do approve of funding public transportation, but this is just the wrong way to do it.

Wii

The Wii is coming out soon, and there's a little detail that gets under my skin.

From the 'Pedia:

According to the Nintendo Style Guide: A Guide to the Proper Usage of Some of Nintendo's Products:

It is simply Wii, not Nintendo Wii. It is pronounced "we", indicating its all-inclusive nature. The name works best at the beginning of declarative statements. For clarity, it is best to avoid passive verbs and prepositions.

So, it's not the "Nintendo Wii". South Park's usage hasn't improved matters.

Tales From The BattleField (2)

The game I've been playing the most lately (other than Meteos) is Battlefield 2. It has the vast bot armies of the Star Wars shooters Battlefront, but the AI is much better, and there are guns that don't totally suck. (When it comes to shooting people, Star Wars has to be the worst setting of all time.)

One of my favorite things to do is fly aircraft. This does not include Landing aircraft. That part is rather hard. I've never even tried to land a jet.

I don't shoot people with aircraft either, so you may wonder what the point is. It's quite simple. The point is to jump out of a moving aircraft that costs millions of dollars, deploy your 'chute, and watch that sucker careen into the side of a mountain. Makes me laugh every time. It also gets you to the fight faster.

My favorite aircraft story is when a friend bailed out of a helicopter, every thing was normal. He started marching toward the nearest flag. He suddenly noticed that the helicopter was awfully close to him. Somehow, it ended up turning around and landing on his head as it crashed.

Good times.

Voting

A bunch of you out there may wonder whether it is worth your time to vote. There is actually a simple process to determine just that.

First, calculate the value of your candidate winning.

Then, multiply that value by the chance that your vote will decide the election in favor of your candidate. (0%).

Then, deduct the value of the inconvenience of the voting system.

If the resultant number is positive, then it is worth your effort to vote. If it is zero, then it is still technically worth it. If it's negative, then you're better off staying at home.

PS.
Despite all that, I do intend to vote. I was reviewing the candidates for governor at a website when I stumbled onto a candidate for the "stop raising our taxes" party. I didn't understand it at first, but when I did, I was truly impressed.

The Republicans (probably) have placed an attack ad in the ballot.

It's brilliant. One final reminder that the Democrat raised taxes, a crime so hideous that nothing else matters. I wonder why there's no candidate for the "The Bush Administration, which Republicans support, is being torn apart under the weight of its scandal and corruption" party.

There's probably a word limit.

Two Things

1. Saddam Hussein has been sentenced to death. Personally, I think that's a mistake. A person rotting in jail is less romantic than a martyr.

2. This Video (Based on a segment of 8-Bit Theater) is awesome.

Dropkick Murphys

Have you ever noticed that the Dropkick Murphys suck? Hard?

They're like a untalented ripoff of Flogging Molly. Now, a friend of mine pointed out that they started before Flogging Molly. Well, they still suck.

Tripli-Pope

One of my favorite events in history is the Papal Schism.

In 1378, the Pope died. The College of Cardinals elected another one. They quickly decided that they didn't like this new Pope, so they announced that he wasn't a real Pope, electing another one to stand in his place.

The first Pope didn't care for this, and had no intention of giving up his position. Two Popes each held spiritual dominion over half of Europe, both excommunicating the other half of the continent. The College of Cardinals decided that both Popes should resign, and another one should be elected.

Unfortunately for the Catholic church, neither Pope backed down, and the College of Cardinals elected their new Pope anyway. The world had three Popes at once.

Really, what could be better than that? How totally crazy. The most amazing part is that despite all the ridiculous stuff in its history, the Catholic church is till one of the most powerful institutions in the world.