I actually wrote this for a friend of mine, kind of in response to something she wrote about herself, and originally had no intention of sharing it with anyone else. However, I think it turned out well enough that it would be a shame not to post it. That and I haven't really thought of anything to post, and I certainly don't want to leave the second part of my Doom 3 review at the top of my post list. So, also available in the info section, here it is. Please keep in mind that this is not a true expression of self, as that would make me rather abominable.

I don't know why people are attaching "Reloaded" to everything, but I figured I'd join in the pointless trend.

So I finished the Doom 3 single player mode. It is very long. The style of every level is the same, so you get used to it after a while. I got to the point where, I'd open a door, and I'd know if something was going to jump at me or not. I'd walk into a room, and I'd know how many monsters, and often what they were, were going to spawn. I'd be walking down a hallway and I'd know which direction the monsters were going to come from, and approximately which wall panel was going to fall off to reveal a pointlessly concealed room with an Imp in it. It all became so predictable, it wasn't even spooky anymore. I even knew when the lights were going to shut off.

What did surprise me was how long the game was after I beat the Hell level. Yeah, so you go to Hell, you come back, and you're only a little more than halfway through the game. Of course, having the soul cube makes it go a lot faster. It heals you completely when you use it, so instead of being incredibly cautious all the time, you can just charge into every room you go into. It does help that by that time you already know what's going to happen every time you enter a new room by this point, so you can react to it properly.

Anyway, the ultimate purpose behind me posting a follow-up was something else that made the game a lot easier. So, we all know the game is really dark. Well, I tried to correct for this by increasing the Gamma correction. Big mistake. That just makes the brights brighter. What you have to do instead is turn the Gamma correction way down, then turn up the brightness on your monitor. Granted, this dulls the graphics quite a bit, and turns that which is truly black into gray, but at least you can see things now. It also might help to adjust the contrast. So far I haven't found a patch to the game that just fixes the software directly, but this workaround works pretty well. At least it cuts down on the amount you need to use the flashlight significantly.

The game itself is ultimately not worth the purchase. It really builds up to the ending a lot, and then the ending is a big let-down. The actual gameplay is consistant throughout the entire game, which is really not a good thing for an FPS. I guess I ought to try out the multi-player, even though I've only heard bad of it. Maybe some mod will make it worth it.

A week in business days is the same total length of time as a regular week unless it starts on Monday. Another reason why Monday is a bad day.

Superman and Spiderman have a lot of similarities, it's true. Some people would claim that Spiderman is just a weak rip-off of Superman, and even so, Superman could still kick Spiderman's ass. Well, let's compare the two:

Superman: Reporter for The Daily Planet, a newspaper.
Spiderman: Freelance photographer for The Daily Bugle, a newspaper.

Superman: Is very strong.
Spiderman: Is almost as strong.

Superman: Can fly.
Spiderman: Can swing through the city on his web.

Superman: Only vulnerable to kryptonite and annoying women.
Spiderman: Vulnerable to everything, but he always bounces back.

Superman: Can hear very well and see through walls.
Spiderman: Spider sense alerts him of danger, but is generally pretty vague.

Superman: Shoots laserbeams out his eyes.
Spiderman: Shoots spider silk from his wrists (movie - bio; comic - device).

Superman: Disguises himself by putting on glasses and a suit to become Clark Kent.
Spiderman: Disguises himself by covering his entire body with a costume to become Spiderman.

Superman: Fights crime because it seemed like the right thing to do.
Spiderman: Fights crime because he learned the hard way about what happens if you don't.

Superman: Wears his red underwear on the outside of pants.
Spiderman: Wears regular underwear appropriately under his clothes.

Superman: Was born with his powers, as he's an alien.
Spiderman: Got his powers by getting bitten by a radioactive spider.

So, you see, they have a good number of similarities. They both work for a newspaper, and they both wear underwear. Ultimately, I think Spiderman is a lot less ridiculous than Superman, except in that how-he-got-his-powers respect. I prefer the comic version of Spiderman, primarily because of how his web ability works. In the movie, it comes right out of his wrists. In the comic, Peter Parker created a device that makes and shoots webbing. I prefer man-made abilities to randomly being superior. That's probably why I think Batman is better than both of them.

I've posted before about Pink Floyd putting their "Echoes" album up online. I'm not sure I mentioned all the videos and notes that are also there, but there are videos and notes and lyrics and other stuff. Now, it's not just Echoes that's up online, but there's a few segments and clips of David Gilmour's relatively recent concert, and the videos for the album "The Final Cut". Also, there's a very interesting page setup for what I consider to be the greatest album ever made, Dark Side of the Moon. The "Historical Info" is particularly worth reading, especially #11.

Whether you're bored at work, or you're at home where you can turn the volume way up, it's worth checking out.

I guess it's not a subject I can really keep away from, even though it's been almost two weeks since the event I speak of. I was never really planning to write a report for Otakon, as there's never really anything to write about, and also since my last report never made it further than brainstorming. However, I suppose I should write something of it, seeing as it may very well be the largest anime convention in the united states (yes, lower case).

So I arrived in Baltimore around 11:00am, after leaving at 10:00am. Fastest I've ever gotten there. It was truly amazing how I didn't find myself in a parking lot on 495 for once. Last year I went around the other way, so I figured that's why I made it in under 2 hours, but after my trip up this year, I wonder if that's really the case. It may help that I left two hours earlier than I usually do.

I walked the circumference of the convention center after I got there, trying to figure out where the pre-registration line was. The at-door line was easy to find, as most of it was outside. However, the pre-registration, when I eventually found it, was completely inside, and up a long flight of stairs, where it was completely invisible to the outside world. Also, the lack of signs was a great help [/sarcasm]. Of course, I didn't get in line right away. I had a demon in the lower regions I had to expel before I could spend an hour standing in line. Once that was taken care of, I ventured off to the waiting, which is, as they say, the hardest part.

I walked around and walked around and walked around some more. I visited the dealer's room, brought in the flyers, distributed them around, and dumped the box in the Anime USA booth. Then I walked around some more. I met up with a variety of friends, most of which I had seen very recently, some I hadn't seen in many months. Later that day, my legs fell off. I had to duct tape them back on and pretend to walk by clawing at the walls to keep myself vertical. Sometimes I'd pretend I was drunk and hit on women, and fall all over them, clinging to their shoulders, and they'd take me places, like a free taxi service.

Saturday, my left leg had healed, but my right leg was still broken into tiny fragments. I scooped up the shards of my right leg and taped them together, then managed to limp around the convention center. Mostly I sat down, for fear of the tape breaking, which would unleash a massive torrent of flesh and bone upon the floor, losing me my leg forever. Fortunately, I was using duct tape, which can fix anything, and it held together like a rock. Peeling it off a couple days later was a bitch, though.

Short of the destruction of most of my lower half, the convention was rather uneventful. I mean, there were a good number of events going on, but I didn't attend any of them. I missed out on lots of hugs and glomps from bunny girls due to my legs' inability to hold me up at the slightest notion of pressure. That was truly depressing. Two of those bunny girls were really hot, and they weren't wearing much. That's not to say I didn't receive any hugs, just not anywhere near as many as I normally would have.

And that's pretty much all there is to tell. Otakon is always the least-exciting of my annual conventions. I only go because it's an anime convention that's not very far away, and the massive amount of attendees adds some level of excitement to it. Next year, however, I'm going to cosplay as a character in a wheelchair. Then I will ferry around cute girls on my lap, and not run the risk of killing my legs. This is, of course, only if I make enough money to afford a wheelchair. Maybe I can find one on eBay. [off to look]

I got Doom 3 the other day. I've been playing the single-player mode because I'd heard from a somewhat reliable source that it was like System Shock 2, which I loved and adored. Of course, he was just referring to the email and logs you acquire, and not so much the game itself. The game itself is more like "guess where the monster is now".

I can appreciate iD trying to make the game scary. I really liked the System Shock games, and I really like Castlevania (which isn't scary, but it's got that whole horror element going for it). However, this isn't either of those. iD's idea of scary is "you can't see shit." Seriously. I'll be walking along, and all of a sudden what few lights there are go out, and you can hear the monsters, you just can't see them. You've got two options at this point: 1) Switch to the flashlight, find the monster, and hope they don't move or kill you in the eternity it takes to switch weapons. 2) Spray bullets randomly and hope you kill them first. Now, the flashlight is something neat, at first, but the problem is you have to use it constantly.

There's never really a time when you can walk along and see where you're going without using the flashlight. Very often, you won't be able to see the monsters without it, either. Then, when you see a monster, you have to switch to your gun, and hope they don't move as you spray bullets where you think they are. What's best is, if you get hit, your vision gets messed up for a second, and all of a sudden you don't even know which way you're facing anymore. Then you're just fucked. What's best is, if you get slashed by something, no matter where you got hit, you get three slash marks on the screen. You can't see shit behind them, and they're up there for about a second, which is enough time to get slashed again, giving you virtual blindness for a time.

Through all of this, the only fear you feel in the game is from wondering when you're going to have to shoot blindly again, because, quite frankly, that's not fun. I'm not sure where iD got the idea that "if you can't see anything, that's pretty scary." System Shock 2 was scary at times because you could see stuff. Doom 3 is the epitome of scary impaired. It's a pity that they tried, because they in turn fucked up the gameplay.

I haven't tried multiplayer, but from what I hear at that same reliable source today, it's nothing to look forward to. Best to wait for Half Life 2, I suppose.

I went and saw "The Village" the other day. It was... well... interesting. The thing I don't like about the movie isn't the movie itself, but rather the ad campaign. They advertise the movie as a horror movie, but much like The Sixth Sense, it wasn't a horror movie, it just had a horror element and was spooky at times. It didn't try to be scary, which is what the commercials, and even the website, would have you believe.

It's hard to talk about this movie without giving away the ending. I can say this, though, without spoiling anything: For things they call "Those we do not speak of", they certainly spoke of them a lot. In fact, that was the bulk of what they spoke of. Well, obviously they're going to talk about them a lot in the movie considering that's what the focal point of the movie is, but considering the way everyone acts about them right from the beginning, it seems like that kind of thing is quite the norm around the village.

I'll say this as well, which also doesn't spoil anything: You may think it odd the way they talked, but if you really think about it after watching the whole thing, it actually does make sense. In fact, so that I don't spoil anything, I'm going to explain it here, where you don't have to read it until you've seen the movie. Now, the linked document contains massive spoilers, so if you haven't seen the movie, don't read it.

At any rate, if you're going to see it, don't walk into the theater expecting a movie that will scare you. It certainly won't do that. The blind girl is hot, though.

I have now been to my second Rush concert. It was better than the first. Last time, the first set wasn't anything spectacular, but this time it was amazing, and then the second set was amazing. I'd almost say the first set was better this time, but I like lasers. Half the songs they did were the same as last time. They did parts 1, 2, and 7 of 2112 (sadly no 3-6), but that was more than what they usually do, so I was happy enough. Also, they did some cover songs. They did The Who's "Seeker", they did Cream's version of the Robert Johnson song "The Crossroads", they did "Summertime Blues" which I've only heard done by Brian Setzer, although I'm not sure who actually wrote it. They did a song I've never heard before, but many in the audience apparently knew it, because they did a sing-in part.

At the beginning of the concert, they did an instrumental meddley of a bunch of the more classic songs. It was kind of like a preview of what songs they weren't going to be performing the rest of the night. Naturally, this made me nervous when they went into Spirit of Radio, but then they just performed that song in its entirity, and all was good. There were also more videos than previously, some of which included Jerry Stiller, who is an avid Rush fan. There was even a parody of part of the show of last time, which would've been funnier if they hadn't already done One Little Victory, because by doing that in the first set you already knew that it wasn't about to come on, and that something else had to happen. Of course, the guys sitting next to me, who had never been to a Rush concert before, wouldn't have caught the joke either way.

It's only been two years since my previous Rush concert, and now I've just seen them again, and I already can't wait for them to come back around. I can probably expect a new concert DVD next year, and you can bet that I'm going to be purchasing a copy.

I went back to Olive Garden because I wanted Minestrone. I got pasta while I was there because I like pasta, but mostly I just wanted the Minestrone. While I was waiting for someone to serve me, which has never happened before at Olive Garden, I noticed on the menu that a lot of things are listed as "homemade". This isn't the first time I've been at a restaurant and noticed things listed as such. When did the concept of "homemade" get lost in this world of light and sound? Last time I checked, having a homemade meal meant you were getting a meal made at home. Wouldn't a meal made in a restaurant be the epitome of not homemade?

On a side note, while it has many synonyms, there is no antonym for "epitome". That's fucked up.