Unintentional hilarity

protestwarrior.com
As much as I hate giving these people more page views, I can't resist. Follow the link and go to PW in the bit at the top and then signs. Scroll through and laugh at how they publish propaganda in an attempt to "throw the truth back at the Left."
Some examples of their 'truths:'
"Every libertarian is a racist! Just look at some imagined side effects of their goals!"
"The libertarians want to kill all the white males in an attempt to end sexism and racism!"
"Here's some goofy pictures of former Democratic presidents! This somehow proves a point!"
The first time I saw that last one, I laughed out loud because it was so utterly ridiculous and mockable. And mock it I did.
Here's a picture that I made in just ten minutes that makes a point backed up with just as much evidence as theirs, only made to say the opposite. It was really that easy.

Christmas, Christmas Time of Year...

God I hate those chipmunks.
Anyways, merry Christmas everybody! About a day too late.
How was your Christmas?
I got Guitar Hero III! Woo! It's like Tetris, except the gameplay is entirely different and the music is better. Which means it's virtually not like Tetris at all. But it is addictive like Tetris, so take that.
I also got a webcam (By the way, I've got a new video up taken from said webcam) complete with a mic thing, so be prepared for VoIP-quality audio and more regular updates as I no longer have to go through all the hassle with my MP3 player. I also got I Am America (And So Can You!) by Stephen Colbert, a George Bush Out of Office Countdown calender, the Simpsons Movie and Game, Back In Black, and then some other stuff I don't care about so much and probably one or two other things eventually, but that's not important.
[Insert pointless, sappy rant about how Christmas is about caring, blah blah blah yak yak yak so on and so forth here.]

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Now playing: R.E.M. - E-Bow the Letter
via FoxyTunes

5 Reasons the TV in My Room Sucks

I have a television in my room. My Wii is currently hooked up to it, and I'd like to take this time to talk about how terrible a television it is.
1. It's way too small
This thing is as large as my computer monitor, which isn't exactly what you'd call big. Normal sized, I'd say. This isn't necessarily a big deal, but it is a strike against the TV, especially when compounded with
2. It's several feet away on a shelf
Computer monitors are designed with the fact that you're going to be rather close to it in mind, and are sized accordingly. You're beginning to see the problem here, yes? Yeah, bit of a big one. But there's another thing, too. It's ON A SHELF. This means that I have to tilt my neck up (Not a whole lot, but enough) to look at it. This can lead to painful extended play sessions.
3. Mono sound output
Normally, this kind of thing doesn't bug me. It does bug me here, though, because it also only has mono input. This leaves me with a red cable just sitting there unused. Kind of annoying.
4. There's no remote
This is kind of annoying. It's not like a big deal or anything, it's just that it's a pain in the butt to have to turn on the TV when I want to use it. It sounds like whining, but think to yourself how often you have to get up and physically operate the television. I thought so.
5. I can't think of another one
I have no more complaints about it, but 5 is a nice, round list-like number.

I actually had the Wii hooked up to our TV in the living room, which is a decent size, actually has all three connectors, built in DVD player, not bad at all, really. I'm actually glad that the Wii's back here, though. Now that it's in my room, I can actually use it. I was barely able to play it last week because my little brother refused to give up the TV ("It's been your turn for the last three hours!"), and I haven't been able to play it this weekend because my dad is monopolizing the television (Some nonsense about a Wii-free Sunday).
Quite frankly, the whole thing isn't fair to me. It was only downstairs to begin with so that my little brother and his friend could play it without having to be in my room. I kept it down there, partly because I enjoyed playing games on an adequate TV (you have no idea how rare this is for me), but mostly because my little brother threw a fit whenever I tried to take it up. I have to deal with that now, though, because my dad insisted that if I was going to play it I'd have to take it upstairs.
In short, I'm beginning to feel like I'm just changing how and when I do things to keep my family happy. I don't believe in changing myself to suit other people, but it's hard not to when dealing with family. You really can't justify that, because with family not fitting into the mold that's easiest for them isn't refusing to let other people control you, it's being a jerk.

Adventure games

I just felt like writing about adventure games, so hear me out.
Adventure games are one of my favorite genres, right up there with platformers. I love them, and there are a couple reasons I can think of why, but first, a little background.
My first adventure game was probably the Spongebob Squarepants Movie game (I have a little brother). I know it sounds stupid, and it is, and I honestly thought it was overtly meh. Wouldn't replay it, that's for sure. The first adventure game that I played and really enjoyed was Hotel Dusk for the DS. After reading a bit about it, I decided to give it a try, because it was largely described as a film-noir style detective novel, and I love a good plot-heavy game so I gave it a try. Excellent game, the writing was great and the plot was interesting. In fact, my biggest complaint about it is just that there were several occasions when you had to do these completely non-intuitive things to advance the plot. I'm talking about the moments when the game left you without direction, and a sense of "What the hell do I do next?" That was kind of a let down.
Then came Pheonix Wright: Ace Attorney- Justice For All. I loved that game, and I still do. The plot was sometimes serious, sometimes light-hearted, always interesting. The characters were well-developed, too. The real clincher for me, though, was something completely different. It was the mystery. The overall "I don't know what's going on." But it wasn't not knowing, it was the moment when it all comes together and you feel "Yes! I know what's going on! I see what I have to do, and dammit, I will!" That breakthrough moment when you finally understand it is what keeps me coming back to the Ace Attorney games.
The real final straw that broke the camel's back, the one that cemented me as a huge fan of point- and- click adventures, was Telltale Games' Sam & Max Season 1. The comedy, the plot, the puzzle-solving, it's all there. I absolutely love them, and the Sam & Max series in general (comics, Saturday morning cartoon, the original LucasArts adventure). Absolutely amazing.
I am a sucker for a good plot. Character development, interesting twists and turns, the whole works. This is what leads me to enjoy games like Pheonix Wright and 5 Days a Stranger (Warning: This game is a definitely belongs in the horror genre. If you're going to be traumatized by large amounts of pixelated blood, give this one a miss(The plot, however, is excellent, if a tad cliche, and I now understand what the whole point to the horror genre is), although I do recommend the rest of Yahtzee's stuff that's not in this series, because just about everything else is either fun or funny.). Another thing that I love that many adventure games have is comedy. The aforementioned Sam & Max is a stellar example of this, as are most of the old LucasArts adventures that they seem, for some reason, to be trying to distance themselves from. Come on, I know it's easy to slap the Star Wars name on something and sell a billion and two copies, but you used to be an awesome company. Of course, there's no point now, seeing as most of the people that made them great (Like Schafer, a number of people on the Telltale team, and Steve Purcell (Well, fine, he was only an artist, but he did create the Sam & Max series. And that awesome Escape from Monkey Island box art.)). Then there's the puzzles. I don't always want to just jump over things or fight things. I want to use my brain. I want to figure out how to progress, and I want puzzles that aren't the action-adventure or RPG style "Use power on obstacle." I want puzzles that are logical and solvable enough to not make me want to resort to a walkthrough, but hard enough to make me feel good about solving them.
Well, that's my... well, it's not a rant. It's more like an essay. Yeah, that's it. It's an essay on why I love adventure games, and it's over now.

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Now playing: The Smashing Pumpkins - Today
via FoxyTunes

Guitar Hero

I've noticed that people get very opinionated about music, and about Guitar Hero in particular. Go to just about any YouTube video for Guitar Hero, and you're guaranteed to find a post that says "GH is teh sux, play a real guitar faggot."
I play a real guitar, but I also happen to enjoy Guitar Hero. You know why? It's because I have an understanding that it's a video game. Not a simulation, not a guitar training tool, a game. A rather fun arcade-style game with a plastic midget guitar. I think that the majority of people understand that. I certainly wouldn't convince myself that I don't need to practice playing just because I've been playing Guitar Hero a lot, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

Find the meaning

Them this door are ten n in the bringing up for discussion key of idea. Past is not the different dimension. Dimension of sound arresting. Dimension of confrontation. Dimension of opinion. Them move the inside his country wind with the material of the thing and idea. Them inside dusk were accurate again in inside and it passed and it intersected.

Can anybody figure out what this means in non-engrish?
(For the record, I took a fairly recognizable piece of text and fed it through about ten different languages with Babel Fish, and then back to English.)

Spider-Man 3

Well, I just saw Spider-Man 3 this weekend (I know, I know, I didn't get the chance before, all right?)
It was overall an okay movie, but there's one bit that I just can't resist commenting on. Since you've seen that image over there, you probably know what it is. I know it's been done to death, so I'm going to make it short and sweet. In fact, it's simply a caption for the picture.

"Shortly thereafter, Peter Parker changed his name, didn't take vocal lessons, found some guys that couldn't play instruments, and formed a band. They called themselves Fall Out Boy."