Hubba Montana

I hate living in a puritanical society. The latest uprising against Miley Cyrus is re-goddamned-diculous. When I finally saw the photos that everyone was so upset about I laughed out loud. For those that haven't seen them, there are two that are stirring up trouble for the young Disney star. Here they are:

While I'll admit the photo on the left could be considered risque, especially considering that she's 15, how is it different if she was shot in a bathing suit? That would show as much skin as she is here. Would people be in such an uproar then?

The complaining about the photo on the right is what really bugs me. She's wearing clothing that's popular now with every other girl her age. What over protective parent is going to have a fit over that photo? You can see more skin walking downtown. Obviously her dad didn't think anything of her outfit.

Miley released a statement saying she thought the photos were artsy, not racy and that she's embarrassed at the end result. Good for her, way to add some damage control. Personally though, I think that the big hoo-ha is a bunch of gorram crap.

I will admit that my feelings on this sort of thing may change if I ever have a daughter. Then again my daughter will be locked in the closet until she's 30...

Q is for Questionable

After two humiliating losses to the much hated Red Wings, I have a few things to say.

1) Theodore is the biggest waste of $6 million in the history of the NHL. If it wasn't for his lackluster performance this series we'd have an even series right now. I firmly believe that the first game would have been an Avalanche victory if Ole' Three-or-more hadn't let in the rolling puck from Cleary (which I could have stopped), and Franzen's shot from the frakking blue line. His excuse was that he had the flu. So an average goaltender has been slowed down by sickness, and you decide to start him anyway?

2) Game two was simply an embarrassment. I will admit that the rest of the team didn't fare so well either, since we were out shot 40 to 20. However, Jose letting in 4 goals in 20 shots in 30 minutes of play has to be pretty discouraging.

3) I hope that the decisions to keep starting Jose are not Coach Q's. I thought we had signed a good coach a few years back. However, if these are his calls, he's this side of retarded. I have to believe that the decision to keep starting Jose is coming from higher up in a vain attempt to justify a bad trade.

4) Thank the gods that we no longer have to hear what a genius Lacroix was. This same "genius" that sent Aebischer away for our gorram starting goalie. Mind you, A goalie that's been consistently out-played by our backup goaltender, especially the last two games. Budaj has played more ice time during this series and has 7 fewer allowed goals, that's not hard math Coach Q.

5) Theodore is the biggest waste of $6 million in the history of the NHL.

To put the icing on the cake, they've announced that they've decided to start Three-or-more AGAIN. Apparently we need to get swept this series with Jose letting in another 8+ goals before the coaching staff realizes that Theodore sucks.

At least Enemy #1, Bertuzzi's team is out.

Castle DWiifense

I'm pretty excited about the upcoming Wiiware title, Defend your Castle. Basically it's a simple game where you stop stick men invaders from attacking your castle. Here's the trailer. What really intrigued me is the multiplayer stuff at the end of the trailer. Holy crap!



Chances are it's not going to be too expensive (it is Wiiware after all), so how bad could it be right? This kind of stuff is why I'm excited to be a Wii owner...

I be edumacated soon!

Thanks to Morgan for this tip. Encyclopedia Britanica Online is offering free subscriptions to anyone who blogs regularly. Now any link from a registered blog will not require visitors to register first to see the linked article. It seems like a smart move on their part, more traffic to their site is always a good thing.

Pretty cool, if you ask me. Apparently it doesn't matter how much traffic you get, which is good news for me, since I think all of about 4 people read this. In any case, I've given it a shot. Now I will wait with bated breath to see if I'm accepted.

Cross your fingers...

Pharm aid

OK, so fair warning. This post is more ranting about Big Pharm. Feel free to change the channel. Ranting will begin in 3....2......1.

Last month the Nursing Online Education Database published the "25 shocking facts about the Pharamaceutical Industry". Among these are such interesting facts as:

• The price of drugs is increasing faster than any other form of "health care". Some drugs have a mark up of over 1000 percent over the cost of ingredients.
• Big Pharm spends twice as much on marketing than research. This isn't that shocking to anyone that sits through commercials every night.
• Most drug reps have no science or medical education - just sales training.
• The combined wealth of the top 5 Big Pharm out weighs the Gross National Product of all sub-Saharan African countries. While I'll grant you that this area is arguably the poorest in the world, the fact that 5 companies are bigger than some 32 countries is staggering!
  
• Robert Jarvik isn't a doctor! Lipitor's number one spokesman (also the inventor of the artificial heart) leads people to believe he's a doctor in the ad which means he knows what he's talking about. Nice...
• New drugs are just recycled or modified drugs of the past. Two thirds of all drugs approved by the FDA are identical or simple modifications of drugs released earlier.
  
• Merck & Co has no problem destroying people who dare to speak against them. Dr. Eric Topol showed that the painkiller Vioxx actually increased herat disease in patients, and was kicked off the Board of Governors of his clinic in Cleveland.

Anyway, I know I'm beating a dead horse. But I really hate Big Pharm. My most recent favorite ad? It's for some nasal decongestant with side effects "bleeding from the nose and nasal cavities, sinus infections and possible eye damage. Make sure to have you eyes checked out regularly."

Sure I'd much rather have bleeding sinuses and blindness than a frakking stuffy nose.

W....T....F....

Old news

Tonight I met a few friends to play Rock band at a local bar. While it was fun, what makes me post about the evening has nothing to do with the game. The NTN trivia game that was played was either very old, or created by people that live in Uganda. The ticker along the bottom of the questions was giving "tonights NHL scores".

According to the ticker, Anaheim beat the Rangers 4 to 1. The Avalanche beat the Sharks 3 to 1!! The problem here is these scores were over 2 months old.

I wonder if I can call the NTN folks and place bets about "upcoming" games. Maybe even wager big money against the Anaheim Ducks or Minnesota Wild...

Suck it Todd

I know it's been a while since I posted about hockey, especially since the playoffs are on right now. I've been afraid to jinx anything with the Avalanche, but tonight I couldn't resist.

Tonight Dallas just beat the Anaheim Mighty Thugs Ducks, knocking them out of the playoffs. All I have to say is "WOOT". Any team that signs Todd Bertuzzi shows their intention to play thug hockey. So far every team that has signed Bertuzzi, has either not made it to the playoffs, or lost somewhere along the road to the cup. I sincerely hope that this trend continues. Hopefully somebody somewhere will start to see that Bertuzzi is an old has-been that can only be effective when he blindsides players. We saw his play style yet again in this series (I believe Game 1), when he blindsided a Dallas player already involved in another fight. Yet again, Todd sucked ass and went a whole playoff series without a goal. Again I say "WOOT".

In other rants, I could go on about the crap that the Red Wings got away with or how I felt the Avs did during the playoffs, but I will refrain until after it's all over for the Avs (hopefully with a Cup back in Denver)...

7 ate 9

From Barenaked Ladies' new kids album:



And yes it's been pre-ordered.

Go away giant scary demon horse...you scare me.

Relatively recently, Denver has decided to add some "flair" to the drive to and from the airport terminal. This piece of "art" is easily one of the creepiest things I've seen lately. I'm really not sure how this is supposed to make people feel welcome. With the vampire-like veins over it's body and the "I will eat your soul" look, it made me want to turn the car around. Maybe it's to make people feel better about leaving Denver.

Oh, and did I mention the damned thing's eyes glow red at night? Yep, nothing says "Welcome to Denver" like a demon ridden, fiery eyed, rampaging horse that will follow you home and devour your children.

What makes this worse is I'm sure the city of Denver spent a ton of taxpayer's money for this...thing. Fortunately, I don't live in Denver, but the concept irks me. It's not bad enough that the brilliant designers of DIA used a roofing material that they new would need to be replaced regularly, but now they're spending money on crap like this?

Though I do have to give the artist kudos for conning some city council member into approving this...

Grandmother Your Mother Is Meeting When

While I was wasting some time waiting for laundry, I found this How I Met Your Mother clip from CBS's site



It's the Romanian Cultural Divisions of People subtitled scene where the gang makes fun of Marshall's nude painting. The translations are hilarious.

This is why HIMYM is my favorite sitcom...

Strongbad's Wiimail

After watching Battlestar Galactica last night (which I loved as always) I found the single most exciting gaming news I've heard in a long while.

Strongbad is coming to the Wii! Strongbad's Cool Game for Attractive People will be available on Wiiware in June. Here's the link for the preview, which is worth watching even if you don't have a Wii, any preview that includes Baba Jaga is a winner for me!

I'm hoping this doesn't totally suck. I have high hopes though since it's made by the same people that make Sam & Max, which I really enjoy. Here's another preview from Homestarrunner.com

No really, Microsoft pays YOU!

Well, the old "Microsoft and AOL will write you a check if you forward this email" email is making it's round again. My question is this, who actually believes this?

Apparently a ton of people. I just received one that had been forwarded to a total of over 40 people. This was after someone tried to tell everyone it was a scam meant to overload servers, phish for info or simply just waste time (I say as I waste time at work typing this).

The part that really got me in this day and age is that a surprising number of people put their contact info in the gorram email as the forwarded it.

I guess there's no accounting for the gullibility for people I suppose...

Ash Tuesday

This was brought to our attention last Tuesday. With apologies to my good friend Ash:

While it's true you never see them together, I will say that Ash is more entertaining than Tom Green by a long shot.

At least Ash can take solace in that all the waitresses at least thought he looked like a "cute" Tom Green.

Army of Two

I recently finished Army of Two with a friend. We "bought" it thinking it was a short game, all the reviews out there claims it's length was on par with the crap on ice that is Halo 3. Well, either all those reviews were based on the retarded difficulty, or Ash and I suck royally. The game took us twice as long as we thought it would.

Anyway, the game isn't bad. It's got some decent multiplayer aspects. a lot of the game play requires players to work together. Certain enemies must be facing one player in order for the other to get a killing shot. These are the "bum shooting" enemies Yahtzee talks about. Most of the time it works well. My only question is why two characters that are able to rip an aircraft carrier bulkhead door off its hinges are slowed down to a crawl when carrying a women that may weigh 100 pounds soaking wet? The Hell?

Physical discrepancies aside, the game is fun to play with another, but not so much alone. My biggest ocmplaint come from the final boss. Just like Timeshift, the game builds up to a final boss battle with the big bad. Only to have the "final battle" resolved in a cut scene that the players have nothing to do with. Complete laziness on the part of the game designers. This game showed the big bad jumping into a helicopter behind a massive chain gun. I was expecting to have to hide, shoot and hide again to defeat the boss, but no - the game saved me the trouble and killed the boss without so much as a "By your leave" from me.

Lame...

Asthmatic irony

A few nights ago watching TV, I chuckled at yet another pharmaceutical ad. It was for some asthma medicine, I have no idea which one. I suppose even if I did, I would say I didn't remember for fear of the Pharma Cartel sending a "representative" to either sue me or break my fingers.

Anyway, this ad's "small print" was that it contained a drug that has been known to cause "asthmatic death".

The hell? Talk about the cure being worse than the disease...

Sessler sez

Adam Sessler is one of my favorite video game reviewers. I have come to trust his (and Morgan Webb's of course) opinions of games. Rarely have I been let down by their reviews, Halo3 being the exception that proved the rule.

Apparently Adam reviewed the latest Final Fantasy game and panned it. He received numerous posts and emails about how much he sucked. Here's his response:





Love that Sess, plus he tips his hat to Yahtzee here...

Subtitled

Tonight we were watching a Discovery Channel show about the ten greatest discoveries in Egypt. It was pretty fascinating, but what makes me post about it is the shows use of subtitles.

Subtitles were used with about half of the experts that were interviewed. The thing that killed me was that these experts were speaking English. While some had heavier accents, none of them were hard to understand - if you paid attention. This isn't the first time I've seen this. More and more shows are subtitling English speaking people.

What the hell? Have we come to such a point of laziness/ignorance that we can't tolerate people speaking accented English? Maybe the problem is today's audience can't be bothered to pay attention.

Maybe what irritates me the most is that I found myself reading the damned subtitles even though I can understand the person fine. I don't know, maybe I'm just irritable tonight...

Horton Hears a Stomache Ache

I saw this ad the tonight. It's for IHOP's "Horton" breakfast menu. The "Who Cakes" scare the frak out of me. Who would eat this, or even let their children eat this?



Eww...

Galactica Believeth

Tonight's Battlestar Galactica was a shining example of why I love this show.

Not only did it further explore the effect of the four new Cylons, it also did a great job of dealing with Cara coming back and Baltar's new freedom. I love that Baltar's moments in this episode are making him more and more real. With his flaws, desires and imperfect reactions to impossible situations, he's always been the most human on the show . The ironic part is that he's the one that truly wishes he were a Cylon.

The new Cylon's reactions were interesting to me. Last season I found it odd that they all simply accepted that they were Cylons. I do find it refreshing that they have decided as a group to say "frak you" to being Cylons and be the best Colonials they can be. We'll see were that leads.

Starbuck coming back at the end of last season was, while not a surprise, welcome. She's always been my favorite character and I'm glad we get more time with her. I'm really curious to see where they go with her, and to see if she really is what she says she is. I really don't think she's the last Cylon, it's way too obvious and I'm afraid I'll be a tad upset if she is. However, I do like the mistrust she's receiving from the crew. It seems right and understandable.

All in all I loved it, I just wish the producers had more than one season to wrap everything up with, but c'est la vie.

As a side note, here's an interesting bit from Scifi.com, with a few good comments from Joss Whedon...

Customer Quote of the Month - April

This month's quote starts like a bad joke, but so be it.

Three customers walk in, a man, woman and a teenager (presumably a family).

My Fellow Coworker walks up to the nearest one (the woman) and says"Hi, what can I do for you?"

"She's with me." says the man.

MFC, blinks, then turns to the man, "Let me rephrase the question. Hi, what can I do for you?"

Male customer blinks, then tells MFC "We're looking for a mask for her."

I never did find out if she was ever allowed to talk....