Betwixt Laziness and Workin’…

…I am still slacking on the blogging. Maybe one day they’ll make a cure for blog-sloth like Klavan did for D.E.:

An Operation Debriefing

For those of you that remembered from last year, my birthday was last week. As such, I suppose I need to finalize that Operation of mine.

My final tally is at 7 goals. The only one I completed that I have not noted is that I have successfully got back in the habit of showing up to a church “homegroup” dealie. I chalk up my failures/incompletes to 3 things: poor finances, lack of confidence, and general laziness. In retrospect, the whole linchpin of most of those goals was #4 (Get career started). The job I have that I will not talk about here would qualify if it was full-time, but, as of now, it is not. If that goal was accomplished properly, I would of had the spare income (needed for goals 2, 3, 13, 14, and 21-23) and let’s say motivation (needed for goals 7-10, 16) to work on the other goals more effectively. As it is, all of that is still up in the air.

The Dallas Desperados disbanded when the AFL collapsed, but the resulting minor league AFL becoming the new AFL also has a Dallas team, so I do not know what to think of that.

Anyhoo, Happy Memorial Day. Take the time to pray for our troops (past and present); I know I did.

YouCut!

I knee-jerked voted for killing mohair subsidies because that seemed silly. I mean, what exactly is the point of mohair subsidies? People seem to buy itchy sweaters regardless.

Tip of the Hat: IMAO

A Couple of Other Pop Culture Notes

I know this is old news by now, but I’m a little mad at South Park. The whole episode “200”/”201″ thing is really annoying. I still cannot watch episode 201 on-line (like I have to, seeing as I have no cable). And they should have known better.

When they did the “Cartoon Wars” two-parter, the Mohammadeans made the same stink they made for the most recent two-parter. If they just told the story as a one-parter (or, possibly better yet, killed off Mohammad in part-one), I could have seen the whole thing. But noooooooooo, they had to make it a two-parter despite knowing that Comedy Central would wuss out at the first wiff of Mohammadean ire.

My other Pop Culture note concerns Siege, Marvel’s latest crossover do-dad. Specifically, some comments made by one of the Deadpool cos-play video makers I favorited from the Youtube (Nota Bene: crudeness ahoy!):

1) Yes, Sentry was lame and I’m glad he is dead. As I am glad Ares, Loki, and Asgard are dead too.

2) Loki was trying to use Osborn to send Asgard back to wherever Asgard was supposed to be, not trying to smash Asgard into dust.

3) The throw Sentry in the sun thing was more for a burial than a “let’s make sure” thang.

4) As to why Siege was so rushed: I don’t think Marvel was expecting Obama to win the election. The “Bendis Bummer Age” (as I am now calling Secret War [Latveria] to Siege #4) was a reflection of Marvel’s abhorrence of conservativism. Secret War [Latveria] and Civil War were stabs against interventionist foreign policy and anti-terrorist domestic policies, respectively. The Dark Reign storyline, while interesting, did not fit the new Hopey/Changey vibe (aka Heroic Age) they wanted once Obama won. They got out of Dark Reign as quickly as they possibly could without making people think they did not develop the arc.

Wait a Second…

…is not the movie about kicking posteriors a Marvel property?

]

Ich Bein Eine Braineater

Usual Interwebs time-wasting found this gem of a trailer for a game I have little interest in playing.

Let’s hope zombies do not have special natural 6’s rolling powers or we are all DOOMED!!!!!!

Following an old post trail…

…just to find out that there is a 1 in 3 chance that I have befriended a cannibal.

Apples ‘n’ Oranges: Another TwoFer

Man, I am so behind on my blogging. Since I have last posted a video game review, I completed 3 games, two of which are in the second round of Apples ‘n’ Oranges. I’ll briefly review them now.

DiRT 2

Gamerscore after 1 playthrough: 855/1000

Game it is most like from Round 1: GRiD

My feelings toward the sequel to DiRT are closer to my feeling on GRiD than DiRT 1. Codemasters took the original DiRT rally/off-road formula, mixed it with equal parts Monster and X-Treme!!!!1!!1!, and served it with a side of GRiD’s flashback features. The original formula was great, but the X-Games veneer dumbed down the gameplay quite a bit. Rally is emphasized much less in favor of rallycross (aka standard circuit race) and rally (aka standard off-road point-to-point). Of the 41 tracks, only 15 were rally tracks. These 15 tracks consist of 5 long rallies legs and then each half of that leg. Granted, some of the short legs start the opposite end from where you enter in the long track, but it is rather sad compared to the 4-6 different legs per location in DiRT. This kills the replay value of the game.

They did make some substantial improvements, though. They kinda added 2 levels of performance mods for every purchasable car to the mix. Liveries are unlocks, as are new visual doodads like bobbleheads, hula girl dashboard toys, and fuzzy dice. By far, my favorite part of the X-Treme additions were the custom car horns! That’s right; you can obnoxiously emit fire truck noises from your car. The other drivers talk to you mid-race; you bump into them and they snap at you. They congratulate you when you win. It adds a sense of online-esque camaraderie to the single-player campaign. The one-on-one throwdowns are a change of pace. And finally, no stupid champagne references.

Totals Time:

Gameplay: 4.5/5

Presentation: 4/5

Interface: 4/5

Replay: 3/5

Morality: 5.5/5

Total: 4.2/5

Need for Speed: Shift

Gamerscore after 1 playthrough: 910/1000

Game it is most like from Round 1: Need for Speed: Carbon

If I had to sum up Shift in one sentence, it would be: They crammed the Carbon driving engine into a Forza level technical racer. Even after some hefty control adjustments and tuning, the racing still did not feel right. I played the game with the same settings I played Forza 3, but I seriously considered turning on the turn-assist function.

The game is structured better than Carbon. They offered enough off-line badges (the new reward cards) to actually earn the full 1 K if you can get past the driving engine. Money is easy to get. The aggression/precision leveling system is a really cool idea. I just wish it was in a better game. And the whole illegality thing is done for.

Totals Time:

Gameplay: 2/5

Presentation: 4/5

Interface: 3/5

Replay: 3/5

Morality: 5/5

Average: 3.4/5

So, a slight dip in DiRT and a slight bump in Need for Speed. Let’s see how Split/Second goes…

Anti-Facebook Statement o’ the Day: Tron

As much as I like the occasional game of video Yahtzee, I really do not want to battle a digital version of myself in a sudden death round of it. I am just not that lucky at dice rolling.

Another April Fool’s Joke Post…

…and then off to bed.

Though sending money to individual candidates instead of the national committees would be preferable. That national committee might just use that money to get the next Arlen Specter elected.

Tip of the Hat: Ace