Merkavah - Drive the Lord's SUV!

There's a few more things I want to say about the increasing polarization of political discourse, but I'll save that for a day when I have time.

I just wanted to link a few things:

We're selling LRAD's to China? What the hell?

Texas gets invaded by unstoppable ant infestation... surprisingly no one has yet pointed out that it reads like it came right out of the bible.

Modern Japanese art can be so twisted. And expensive. What the hell.

The Catholic Church gets aliens in its list of "things you're now allowed to believe in". No comment.

Evangelists steal away another porn star. Is anyone surprised?

This 13 year old is my hero. Way to steal your neglectful father's money and put it to good use.

My preferred candidate at the beginning of the race, John Edwards, has finally endorsed Obama. Whew.

That's all I've got for the time being.

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Didn't sleep. Rereading Count of Monte Cristo. Is good.

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I ran a traceroute on someone today and am pleased to find that whoever visited me from MIT left an interesting fact... one of their servers (presumably the one for the W3C) is named Trantor, after the galactic centre of Asimov's Foundation.

The fact that I recognized that name and I actually ran a traceroute on this address might just mean I'm that much of a geek. Oh well.

Posted by Johann Kwan at 04:18 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I finally got around to making a new layout for the site. Check it out.

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Back in Ottawa tomorrow.

Caught most of Black Book today... it's a Paul Verhoeven film. Yeah, it's a pretty standard "girl who goes undercover for the resistance during WWII and then gets screwed over after the war" sort of flick... but it's well executed.

And that's what scares me.

Whoever heard of a Paul Verhoeven film that didn't suck? I mean, sure, Robocop, Total Recall, and Starship Troopers are all great cult Sci-Fi movies, but they're not great movies by any measure. This movie isn't even just "it's good, for Verhoeven"... it's just good, full stop.

I'm not going to say it's excellent or anything, it's extremely formulaic... but it's enjoyable, and as I said... somehow it's carried off rather well. That may be due to the acting and the fact that I can't understand a bit of the dialogue without subtitles... but hey.

My mind is blown right now. If Verhoeven can make a decent film, even if he has to return to his Dutch roots and go back to doing something he's actually good at doing... does that mean that Uwe Boll might eventually do the same? *le gasp*

Hmm. That might be hoping for a little too much.

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I don't do game reviews oftn... but since the interwebs is a-buzz with it... and everyone's been giving the game 10/10 scores, I figured I'd give you my own review of GTA IV now that I've beaten it.

I'd like to start off by saying that the game deserves all the great reviews it gets. It's absolutely brilliant. They took everything that worked out of the last generation of GTA games and pretty much perfected them, and took out everything that sucked (all the fantasy bits, like the jetpack and such). Everything feels tighter, more cohesive, and once you get used to the somewhat non-standard control scheme, everything flows fantastically.

The protagonist this time around is someone you actually care about... someone who's not out to build an empire from the ground up, but to make a new life and to exact revenge on a certain somebody. Being that I'm always seduced by the revenge ethos (mmmm Count of Monte Cristo) I love it. And the game really feels like you're tooling about in Manhattan... or Brooklyn, or Jersey City (eww).

There's a lot more I could say about how good the game is... but you could read about it, or better yet, go out and get the game. I do, however, have a few complaints... the graphics, being such a huge world, occasionally let me down, usually when characters are talking (the talking animation isn't exactly the best... though character models are otherwise brilliant, and the variety in citizens in Liberty City is unprecedented), or when there's way too much to load. The cover system is a little unwieldy at times, sometimes latching onto the wrong object, or latching onto something when I'm meant to be getting off another object. Even by the end of the game I was having a little difficulty with it. The radio stations are great... but given the length of the game, they got rather repetitive.

But every game has its faults. It's pretty fucking brilliant. If you've got a console and you've got $60 to spend, this is the game you should be making a beeline for at the store. Buying anything else would just be silly.

Posted by Johann Kwan at 11:42 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Being back in Toronto has been good times. A few quick thoughts:

A big thanks to Steve for getting me a Yelle ticket. That was a killer fun show.

Some time spent in the car today made me remember what I missed most about having one... spending most of my time in one. Sleeping, eating, driving, listening to music, chatting, having coffee... etc.

Driving around at midnight on the release date of a major game (GTA IV) is dangerous. For the wallet, that is.

The DVP is fun at night. Light traffic, curvy highway, nice scenery. Relaxing.

Shows don't need alcohol to be good. Oh my.

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