In a last-minute decision, I threw my World of Warcraft discs into my suitcase, and off to SC it was. The day of arrival, I realized that I had not packed the Dreamcast A/V cables. This meant my suitcase of fun was just a heavy suitcase now. Oh, the agony. Now what was I to do? I scoured the place and found my cousin's old Super Nintendo with Super Mario All-stars plugged into its cartridge hole. All the cables and controllers were connected to the system, all it needed was an outlet and a TV. I hooked that up and got in a good 15 minutes of vintage Mario.

Such things can only keep me entertained for so long. I'm not sure when it happened, but when I regained consciousness, I was on the last disc of the World of Warcraft installation. I could taste the fun. When I finally managed to circumvent the firewall and log into the server, my hands shook with joy, and I slipped into a lethargic state of gaming. It was not long before my attention was diverted elsewhere, but I frequently returned to the lands of Azeroth over the next few days.

When I returned home, having made no plans for the weekend (and rightfully so on Saturday, the day of return), I devoted much of my time to the game. I also devoted a large block of my time to sleep, as the trip back really messed me up. It was good to be home, even if I did have a headache and didn't miss my gameplay while I was down in the SC.

The best part of the SC trip was not the gaming, though. It was my first time playing guitar with another person of skill. I was laying down the basework, and he was doing a guitar solo on top of it. We also exchanged some knowledge. It was fun. I can really see myself getting into this guitar thing.

World of Warcraft was released today. I have not yet picked up my copy, but I will in about an hour. I will take it home today, install it, get my character setup... and then pack my bags. I am leaving for South Carolina at 6:00am tomorrow, to return Saturday. That means that, on top of being away from home and computer for half the week, I'll know that I just got a game that I can't play. I cann't take my computer with me, it's too fragile. It's like sitting next to a tasty sammich you can't eat. It's there, calling to you, beckoning with its flavorful smell, staring at you, and you just can't pick it up to devour it.

Of course, since I played in the beta for a while, and will have to rebuild my character up, I don't think the withdrawal will be as strong. Also, there's the whole "I don't have to go to work." Of course, I wouldn't have to go to work even if I wasn't going to SC, which would mean I'd be able to play the whole time, but that's irrelevant.

If you wish to acquire a copy of this game, I recommend doing it now. As in, today. Because Black Friday is this Friday, and I'm sure people are going to be picking this up before then to avoid the rush. After Friday, I wouldn't be surprised if there were still copies in stores. The problem is, which stores? You might get lucky and the first one you hit has it, but you also might have to go to another store. That would suck.

On another note, if you hate crowds, get your shopping done before Friday, and then stay home on Friday. Black Friday is not a pretty day in the shopping market.

I haven't eaten in a public school cafeteria in a long time. In fact, not since I was in high school. So I wonder if they're still using the same generic meat for all their meat foods.

You may recall what I am talking about. It was various shades of gray, and tasted kinda bland, but salty at the same time, and you could never seem to avoid biting into a nice-sized chunk of cartilage. Oh, and on the "menu", there was the ever-present disclaimer of "May contain some pork." They had this on everything but the turkey, which was probably the only non-generic-meat meat food they had. Even the "pork chops" carried the label.

I know that school lunches need to be cheap so the poor kids can afford them, but let's not kid ourselves. They are not sold at a discount to students. Those foods are too low-quality for me to believe that they could raise the price 5 cents every year and not make a profit. I mean, the generic gray meat is basically whatever was left over and could fit into the grinder. I wasn't exaggerating about the cartilage, either. Why do the chicken nuggets, Salisbury steak, and pork chops all taste exactly the same? Because it's all the same generic meat. Who knows what animals had the poor misfortune of falling in the grinder. I hate to think what other things might have fallen in.

I'll be honest with you. I didn't eat those lunches in high school. My mother gave me $10 a week for food, and I wasn't about to waste it on that crap. No sirree. I starved myself instead and kept the money. It was probably healthier.

If McDonald's can change over to using real chicken in their Chicken McNuggets, I don't see why the schools can't. They charge enough for those crappy meals. But, like I said, I haven't eaten there in many years, so things may have changed by now. At least in more civilized parts of the country.

I normally won't make two posts in the same day, but this is related to mylast post.

I rented Sixteen Candles on DVD. Now, first, when I put it in my DVD drive, it wouldn't play. I had to play it from my DVD burner. I'm not sure if this is because the DVD was left out in the sun by its previous renter, or if the DVD was just crap to begin with, but considering what happened next, I'm going to assume the latter.

So I get the DVD running. As soon as the FBI warning comes up, I go to the menu. Not available yet. Well, that's pretty normal. It goes through some other disclaimer, and then it comes to something abominal. It starts into previews. Now, that's not unheard of, but I couldn't skip the previews. It forced me to watch them. What really pissed me off is that one of the previews was for the movie I was about to watch! I fucking HATE it when the DVD shows parts of the movies, important fucking parts, either before the movie, or in the menu. What are these fuckers doing? Are they trying to ruin the movie for me?

It's not just Sixteen Candles, although that's so far the worst of them. I watched Bad Santa earlier this week at the recommendation of someone, and while the movie wasn't that great, it still pissed me off that they play clips of the movie in the menu. You go through a full clip before you can even tell it to play the frickin thing (sometimes "frickin" just works better). I've seen this with a lot of other movies as well. And it's not just movies. TV shows will do this. I've been renting Sex & the City, and you have to become a fucking master of navigating the menus and blocking out sound to avoid spoilers, because the instant you get into the menu, they barrage you with spoilers. It's like they've opened the floodgates to spoiler Hell and unleashed its mighty army upon you, with your own personal demon to anally rape you while you watch the show.

Yeah, it's pretty bad.

I watched the movie Sixteen Candles last night for the first time in my run of movie classics. This is a movie I never really had a desire to see, as I always thought it was a chick flick. I'm not sure how I got that impression, but apparently it was false. The movie is basically a mix of American Graffitti and Animal House. Yeah, my image of it was completely off.

I had rented the movie just because it was listed as a classic, and I'm trying to watch all the classics so I get all the references made to them. However, I found the movie rather enjoyable. Sure, at the beginning it was a movie about a girl's problems with love and life, but that theme, while still underlying throughout the movie, quickly fell out of the spotlight, and the movie turned into something National Lampoon would've come up with. It was classic 80's.

Basically, you'd probably like it if you liked these movies: Ferris Buehler's Day Off, Animal House, Breakfast Club, American Graffitti (70's 50's, I know). Also, if you thought that "My So-Called Life" was a comedy, then you'd also like Sixteen Candles. Honestly, I was confused when I heard that "My So-Called Life" was a drama. That was a pretty funny show. It helped that I had a thing for Claire Danes (the red hair had a lot to do with it). She looked a lot better than Molly Ringwald in this movie.

Is it too much to ask of people to not be stupid? How hard can it be? Just don't be stupid. You're lazy, right? It's easier to not do something than to do something, right? Well, I'm just asking you to not be something, and that something is stupid. Don't be stupid.

I agree with Mike Muir. We should set aside one day, just one day, every year, and call it "Don't Be Stupid Day". And everyone should have this day off work, so they don't have to drive anywhere, because once you get the average person on the road, their IQ drops 100 points, often bringing it into the negatives.

If you've been reading my site for any length of time, you know that any time I do a review of a major video game, it always gets a follow-up. That's what I'm doing today for World of Warcraft.

I've been playing as a Night Elf Druid. I've gotten her up to level 13. I like the druid class, because it is, in my humble opinion, the most interesting class. The druid is your utility class, your all-in-one. She casts spells in her Night Elf form, and becomes a warrior in her bear form. It has a cat form, which is reminiscient of a rogue, but I'm not really sure what that means, as a rogue is basically a warrior with less equipment and different abilities. Then there's travel form, which is like having a mount, only 10 levels earlier and without the 100 gold cost. And, of course, she's a Night Elf, and that's very important, becuase those Night Elf women can dance.

I always play a female character in these games. I think I've mentioned this before, how if I'm going to be looking at someone so much, it's better if it's a female. In World of Warcraft, it's even more important, because of the command /dance. Every character has a dance, and Night Elf women have the best one. They swivel, they grind, and they ride. Seriously, some of their dance moves look like they're mock-fucking. Now, the human females look better, but they do the macarena, and that's just unforgivable. Tauren women are basically bipedal cows, which is frightening enough by itself, but the dance they do looks like something from Riverdance, so witnessing this is borderline traumatic. Troll women are surprisingly hot... you know, for troll women. Orc women look punk, so their dancing style just doesn't match up. They should be moshing or something. The best male dance belongs to the undead, who headbang and throw up the horns. The other male dances are not worth mentioning.

/dance is one of the best features in the game, and I seriously hope they expand on it in the future. Even the spirit wolf and succubus have a dance. The most fun I had in the game involved dancing. I put my female rogue in the town square, stripped her of clothing, and made her dance. Then, another woman came over and did the same. We attracted spectators. Then everyone started dancing. Then a big disco ball dropped out of the sky.

As for the quests, they're all still "Go kill some of these" or "Go collect five billion of these", or even the insulting no-reward "Go talk to this person". They're still not very interesting. I'm only level 13, but it takes a while to get this far, so I was kinda hoping it would get more interesting. I keep hoping for Baldur's Gate-like quests. Those were interesting. Most of them had multiple outcomes based on how you handled it. Many of them involved detective-like work. They were never "Go kill this guy." They were more like "Kill the leader of the slave rebellion," and when you went to kill him, you could do that and gain favor with the owner, or you could help the slaves escape and take over the bar that was the front for the slave operation. Most quests presented you with such dillemmas, and were thus interesting. Also, many of the quests had the possibility of failure. That's what's lacking in the World of Warcraft quests: dillemma and failure. Success is such a bland dish without the possiblity of failure.

Another thing that was interesting, although not a real part of the game, was that I jumped off the top of the giant tree the Night Elf city is on. If you don't hit anything on your way down, you land safely in the ocean. I hit three branches, and died each time, having to go more than halfway across the zone back to where my body was each time.

The gryphon ride across the entire continent was also interesting, if a bit long.

You ever notice how so many things say they're free, like a free camera or free phone, but they're not actually free? It's this system called "free with purchase". In other words, you pay more for this product or service, and you get this item that isn't offerred with the overpriced item or service at its regular price. Now, sometimes there is no regular price, just the jacked up one with the "free" whatever. Sometimes, albeit rare, they don't jack up the price, but in those cases, usually what you get is the equivalent of a free pack of gum, or getting a "free" couch (used) with the purchase of a house.

Often times it's not even advertised as "with purchase", just "free". I think that any business that offers anything as just flat out "free", and then requires a purchase for it, should be shut down by the government. It's not a matter of oppression, it's a matter of misleading the public, tricking them into spending money. The public buys it, too, being the suckers that they are. If they didn't, we'd have lower prices, and with the money we'd be saving, we could buy those "free" things if we wanted them. Hey, the video game industry finally changed over to that, reducing the cost of the systems and just not including a game with it anymore. Just goes to show you how the video game industry yet again leads the world in innovation.

Alright, fashion world. I'll make you a deal. You make jeans that don't crush my genitals when I sit down and don't make getting an erection painful, and I'll start wearing jeans again.

How do you argue against gay marriages and still say you're not anti-gay? A lot of people are doing it. The fact of the matter is, these people are in denial. They can't explain why they are against gay marriage, so they start grasping at straws, and their arguments either don't make sense or are hypocritical.

Now, if you ask me if we should allow gay marriages, I'll say "no" and I'll hold that I'm not anti-gay. How can I say that after what I've just said. Well, I'm not specifically against gays getting married. I'm opposed to the entire institution of marriage. I don't think anyone should get married. This is the exception to the rule.

People will say that marriage should only be between a man and a woman. That is not an agrument, that is merely an opinion, and a very anti-gay opinion at that. Don't try to say it's not. There's no way around it. Saying that marriage should only be between a man and a woman is saying that marriage should not be between a man and another man, or a woman and another woman. If you follow this up with "I'm not anti-gay," then you have to question exactly what the institution of marriage means to you. Obviously you think it has nothing to do with love. That being the case, why should any two people get married? I've always thought that two people got married because they shared a romantic love, and wanted to be together for the rest of their lives, but I guess that's not why.

So, based on the whole "I'm not anti-gay, I'm just against gay marriages" ideal, we've ruled out marriage being based on love. Obviously, wanting to spend the rest of your life with someone by itself is no reason to get married. That desire can be completely independant of romantic love. We've got this great thing called platonic love, also known as brotherly love, which bears no romance at all (but, because I am lazy, I will from here on always be referring to romantic love as just "love", but only because I'm lazy). So, yeah, that alone is certainly no reason to get married. I always thought that love was enough, but it's apparently unrelated to marriage entirely.

That in mind, what is the point of marriage? Is it to have kids? To start a family with someone? Gay couples can do that. Lesbians have the artificial insemination option, and both sides of the fence have the option of adoption. Both of these options are often used by straight, married couples, thus declaring them legitimate methods of having children. So, obviously, according to the "I'm not anti-gay, I'm just against gay marriages" ideal, marriage has nothing to do with having kids, either.

So, marriage doesn't need love or family potential, and lots of people live together that aren't married, nor want to be (I'm sure many of you out there have roommates you would never even consider marrying).

What's left? Sex? Most big religions say you can't have sex outside of wedlock. Sure, lots of people do it anyway, but many people won't. I've had girlfriends who have absolutely refused to have sex because "it is a sin". Well, this may shock you, but many gays are religious, and their view on sex is exactly the same. So, therefore, they cannot have sex outside of wedlock. Maybe love doesn't have anything to do with marriage, but it usually has a lot to do with sex. When people love each other, they often express their emotions physically, and sex is the strongest method of doing this. So, if you're still following this "I'm not anti-gay, I'm just against gay marriages" ideal, then we can rule out sex, as well.

Now, at my anime club, I've been watching this show Rose of Versailles. It takes place in France, about 20 years before the French Revolution. Toward the beginning of the series, Marie Antoinette has an arranged marriage to the prince of France. She doesn't love him, she doesn't even like him, it's just an arranged marriage for political purposes. Hey, when the king dies, she becomes the queen of France. Still, she didn't want it. She had many affairs, and rarely received affection from her husband. Hey, this is all staying true to the "I'm not anti-gay, I'm just against gay marriages" ideal so far. Sure, it goes against all the standard wedding vows, but we've discounted most of them at this point, anyway.

Arranged political marriages. That's what we're left with. Since they're arranged, made only for political reasons, and have nothing to do with love or sexuality, I don't see why there can't be same-sex arranged political marriages. I mean, sure, you take two straight boys and tell them they're getting married to each other, they'll be opposed to it, but so were most of the straight arranged couples, so there's nothing different there. So, while we haven't ruled it out as a reason to get married, we have ruled out the validity of the "I'm not anti-gay, I'm just against gay marriages" aspect of it. Hmmm, I don't think that's really what we wanted. We're trying to prove that ideal right, aren't we?

There is an argument for the "I'm not anti-gay, I'm just against gay marriages" ideal, and that is that marriage is defined as a union between a man and a woman. Well, I looked up the word marriage, and indeed that does seem to be correct. Of course, lots of words have multiple definitions, and marriage happens to be one of them. So, it is also true to say that marriage is defined as the union of two people of the same sex. I guess that argument isn't really an argument, is it?

Well, I'm out of ideas. All we've proved here is that marriage is only an arrangement made for two people to gain political prowess. Of course, if that's true, why are so many people getting married of their own volition? Maybe... and this may just be a crazy idea here... but, maybe marriages are for love, the desire to start a family, sex, and whatever else. Maybe the whole "I'm not anti-gay, I'm just against gay marriages" ideal just doesn't work?

Nah, couldn't be that. That's ridiculous. I think this is all just proof that marriage is just a bad idea. So, I guess all you people who say "I'm not anti-gay, I'm just against gay marriages" are just like me, and against marriage in all its forms. It's nice to know that we agree.

Now, if you're against gay marriages because you are anti-gay, well, congratulations, you've at least got your ideals straight. I'm far from anti-gay myself, but I won't bash you for your beliefs, so long as you've got them straight, and don't bash other people for theirs. It's the hypocrasy I'm bashing.

The World of Warcraft beta has gone open beta, which means anyone can join it now. I started playing Tuesday night. I must say, for a cookie-cutter MMORPG, it is quite impressive. I am, of course, disappointed at the lack of innovation that Blizzard usually has in their games, but of all the MMORPGs I've played that are styled in this way, this one is the best so far.

The reason it is the best is because of the details. For one, it has a really nice graphics engine. I've got all the options except terrain distance cranked all the way up, with my resolution at 1024x768, and it still runs smoothly, as well as has good graphics, especially for a MMORPG. Another reason is the interface. This is where a lot of games fail, and it has always been one of Blizzard's strong points. For this style of game, the interface is very important. The interface is easy to navigate and use, and very customizable for control freaks like me. Also, the fact that I can turn using keyboard buttons is a massive positive. What I don't like is that I can't re-assign the right-mouse button. I typically like to use that for sidestepping to the right. However, with the areas being as wide-open as they are, strafing doesn't come in handy much, anyway.

Another good thing about it is the pure amount of quests available. I'm not too fond of the static quests, especially of the variety "Kill 10 of these", however there is such a large number of quests, and with good enough rewards, that you don't feel the need to powergame. You complete one quest, you move on to the next one. At least, that's how it is at the lower levels. I hear that the quests get more interesting as you go, and so far I have seen a little evidence of that, so I'll hold out hope that they do get more interesting. Questing is one area that Ultima Online is still lacking in (they've got, what 6?). I also hear there are class-based quests, although I haven't had any, yet, unless that assisination quest was one (I'm playing a Rogue at my brother's advice).

That brings me to another complaint. I'm playing a rogue, and rogues have a stealth ability. You need to use stealth to sneak up and get a backstab on creatures. The problem is, you can backstab out of stealth. You have to break stealth, and then you have to wait to use the backstab, and by the time you get to it, your target has already turned around and hit you. That's pretty gay. I'm hoping there's a higher level of stealth that corrects this.

Getting back to positives, my rogue character is very cute. Normally in these games, if there's a dark elven race, they've got the hottest females (Lineage 2 is an example of this). However, in World of Warcraft, humans have the hottest females. Now, the dark elven females in Lineage 2 are hotter than the human females in World of Warcraft (partly because they have more polygons), but they're designed that way. When I played Lineage 2 with my hot dark elf female character, the first item I got randomly off a kill was black pantyhose. Yeah. My character in World of Warcraft is more cute than hot. Of course, I kinda designed her that way.

This brings me to character creation. Pretty much, you pick a race, a class, and then you pick how your character looks. That's it. There's no more options to your starting character. That's not very role-playing. However, I've come to terms with this, and I've finally just admitted what World of Warcraft really is.

World of Warcraft is basically just Diablo 2 expanded, and using the Warcraft world instead of the Diablo one. It's styled a little differently, but it's ultimately the same game on a grander scale. Oh, and with crafting, although the crafting in World of Warcraft is certainly not a focal point.

Now if I can just figure out how to get a friggin mount. Walking places isn't anywhere near as bad as it is in Lineage 2, but it still takes a while.

On an unrelated note, today is Veteran's Day.

Which idea sounds crazier to you?

A) The universe has always existed, and is constantly changing. It always has been. The world we live on, and life itself, are parts of those changes, and it all just happened coincidentally.

B) The universe was created from nothing by an invisible super-being in six days. None of it was a coincidence.

I'm agnostic, but when you compare a reasonable idea to a religious one... well, it's a bit difficult to believe in religion.

The guy sitting in the cubicle across from me is a deist. He thinks these religious ideas are kind of kooky as well, but he still believes in God (or Allah, as the situation seems to be). I'm willing to believe in God, I just don't at the moment. I see no reason to. Creationism is the hardest part to swallow, whereas there's plenty of evidence of evolution. I guess I'm just a man of reason.

Last night, for the first time, and right before I went to bed, I watched "Night of the Living Dead". Considering when I watched it, I don't think I need to tell you, but I will anyway. I didn't hold out much hope for it being scary. I mean, it was made in 1968, and it's a B&W film. Oh, if that doesn't just scream quality.

As the movie went on, it became less and less a horror film, and more a drama about the internal conflict of the people trapped within the house. The zombies stopped being a scary device, and became more of an obstacle. I mean, they were slow-moving, easy to kill, and could be easily kept at bay with a torch. And so, it was a lot like watching MTV's "The Real World".

***SPOILER WARNING***

One thing I do like about the movie, something that's kinda different, was that, even though the zombies were easy enough to kill and get around, all the main characters died. The last one died to his own damn stupidity by not telling the hunters that he wasn't a zombie. In fact, only three of the people trapped in the house died from the zombies. The one girl died because she didn't stay in the house, and then got herself stuck in the truck when it was on fire. Her boyfriend died becuase he tried to help her, and because he set the truck on fire. The bald guy died because the black guy shot him. His wife died to her zombie child, but it was really her own stupidity for just lying there and letting it happen. The blonde girl had the most satisfying of demises, when the horde of zombies pulled her into their grasp and began eating her alive.

Ultimately, it was a bad movie. However, it was very close to being a good movie. Basically, all they needed to make it a good movie was better zombies, better film, better dialogue, and better actors. The whole setup, and the plot, were actually quite well laid-out, and were enough to make it a classic. Of course, Plan 9 From Outer Space is also a classic, but only because it's considered to be the worst movie ever made. If it has garnered that much attention, though, it's obviously not the worst movie ever made.

So, for Night of the Living Dead, you should definitely see it, but have low expectations when you do. It's just one of those movies.

I have hinted at this before, but perhaps I should fully explain.

A couple weeks ago, a construction crew showed up to dig a hole in my parking lot so they could perform "routine maintenance" on a gas pipe. I received a letter the night before they showed up saying they would show up next week. Instead, they put up concrete barriers and loaded large machines into the area the following morning. I had to get up a bit early and move my car. That was a Friday, and the weekend that followed was serene. Keep in mind, this was the very same week that the guy came to do the siding on my house.

Of course, the following Monday, work started at 8:30am, and was rather noisy. It wasn't anywhere near as bad as the guy putting siding on my house, but it was enough to wake me up over and over again. This went on every day of the week. They told me they would be finished Friday, and on Friday they filled in the hole they dug.

The Monday after that, they dug a new hole, right where they old one was. I thought maybe someone had left their keys in there, as the old Pakistani joke goes. This new hole was expanded, both larger and deeper (which is kind of a redundant thing to say). They also spent less time in it, as they filled it on Wednesday. Last night, I even parked in the same place I normally do.

This morning, a new construction crew came to repair the road. They were very noisy. They also put cones where I needed to drive my car out of the parking lot. All morning, I had dreams that they demolished my car, and I kept trying to get revenge. When I woke up for the last time, I looked out the window, and found that, not only was my car okay, but that they hadn't even blocked me off. That was a relief. Backing my car out right next to a hole was a bit stessful, though.

I've just gotta wonder, though. What's it going to be next week? Is this crew going to finish paving the road, then dig it back up again because someone left something in there? Will I never sleep through most of the mornings ever again? If that's the case, I may as well go back to the day shift.

Ugh, I don't like the blog-like direction my site has been taking lately. I need to fabricate a day's events for my next post.

There's a pizza box in my cubicle next to me, perched on top of my closed laptop. There are two slices beneath its closed lid, and as I tap away at the keyboard in front of me, I can hear it, calling to me, laughing at me from its dark sanctum. It's aura wafts to my nose, and although moving past, it is like a chain pulling me over.

"Another slice never hurt anyone," it says, its voice reverberating within the box. "Just put me in the toaster oven in the break room for a minute or two, and I'll be as hot and toasty as if I were fresh."

It is, of course, against my nature to eat anything that talks to me, and it makes me suspicious that it is trying to convince me to do so. Perhaps... perhaps the pizza is trying to kill me. It is trying to exact vengeance for it's six companions that fell before the iron stomachs of my co-worker and I. Well, pizza, this is one man who will not fall for your ruse of temptation. I see through your lies. I see through the conspiracy.

We're through the looking glass, here.

Anime USA is over. It ended on Sunday. I am writing a convention report. This time I mean it. I have decided that I will finish this one, regardless of whether or not it is complete or chronological. I didn't get laid at this one either, but a good time was had nonetheless.

If something orients itself, does that make it oriental?