| RANDOM QUOTE | The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed and thus clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
-H.L. Mencken | |
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| MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE IN 8 EASY STEPS |  | Category: Humor
Friday, July 23rd, 2004 @ 10:33 am
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 - 1) Unnecessarily remove entire foot peg/gearshift assembly to get to the oil plug.
- 2) Realize that if you had put the extension on your socket wrench, you wouldn't have needed to do that, so replace assembly.
- 3) Empty oil and remove spark plug covers.
- 4) Realize that you lost your plug socket months ago and now you need to drag your retarded ass to the hardware store to get a new one.
- 5) Return from store $4.50 poorer and replace spark plugs.
- 6) Remove entire headlight casing from motorcycle while only replacing the light bulb because you lost one grommet.
- 7) Shear the heads off of two of the three substantial bolts holding the headlight casing to your bike.
- 8) Refill engine with oil and ride off into the sunset.
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| DOOM III |  | Category: Games
Wednesday, July 14th, 2004 @ 03:48 pm
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 Well, Doom III has just gone gold, which for the lay people around here means that the software itself has been finalized and/or has been sent off to be mass produced on CD's or what have you. I have to say, I'm left sort of nonplussed here.
There's been no demo, much less a "test" release which has traditionally been the norm for id Software's games. There's no mention of platforms, although you can pretty much guarantee its initial release will be for Windows/PC. The only thing I've seen that one could possibly glean hints of Linux and Mac releases was a post I saw by John Carmack saying that the map editor for Doom III would be a windows only release, from which one could construe that he's specifying the map editor because the game itself will be cross platform.
As far as your X-Boxes and PS2's are concerned, I'm sure it'll come out for those if technical and licensing bases can be covered. It's been a given that platforms (at this point) pull in a shitload more sales than PC-only releases. I just don't want to lose the one company that happens to be at the very top of its game, and releases cross platform simultaneously. Of course Epic does that too with the Unreal Tournament series, but one has to pick sides when discussing Epic and id Software.
But I digress, what I'm trying to get at here is there has been an unparrelelled dearth of information about this game throughout its development. I've been seeing pretty much the same screenshots and movie clips from it for the past year and a half. No mention of the usually limited public betas, free single-level demos, platform dependence, or anything. I don't even think I've seen an interview with the guys at id for years.
Oh well, seeming as the book has pretty much been closed at this point, and the gaming is being stamped onto CD's and slapped in boxes, I guess all I can do is cross my fingers and hope for the best.
PS: If you're interested, I found a rundown of the Doom III single player experience here.
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| THE RUSSIAN STATE |  | Category: Politics
Saturday, July 10th, 2004 @ 04:28 pm
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John has heard this schpiel by me before, so to everyone else, this is new...
I am sometimes disappointed in myself when I realize how little I know about the world outside of my country. I debate friends on their ignorance of the world around them, then suffer these same flaws myself. In particular, I was watching a PBS documentary the other day on the state of the press in Russia. I had always, as I guess many of us have, assumed that since the fall of communism, that Russia's political and social environment was much like our own here in America. Boy was I wrong.
In America we have the First Amendment. It's the fucking first, as in more important than the others. We are protected, by law, to have the ability to say whatever we want, in whatever forum will allow us, to speak our mind as we see it.
In free, democratic Russia, they have what's called Glasnost. Literally translated this means, "In a state of being public." After decades of soviet/communist rule, Gorbachev created an initiative to let information about the state public and let the world at large hear what was going on internally. The first and largest example of this doctrine was when the country publicly stated what happened at Chernobyl.
Glasnost is a major step forward for Russia and a wonderful change, but what people don't realize is that it is not a law, it is a doctrine. Our right to say what we want is protected by a court, the judicial branch of the government which is disconnected from the actual executive branch, that allows us and maintains this right for us. Glasnost is a doctrine that is not written in law, and is not protected by the Russian courts, which is lawfully and inexorably tied to the Russian government.
So, the situation as it is now, you can say what you want in the press, but it's probably better that you didn't. The courts won't protect you from the government, and organized crime, which has be prevalent in the government, and which is the target of many journalists, are not investigated for the crimes and murders they commit against journalists investigating their actions.
The strange thing is, as I write this and bounce from my computer to fridge to tv, I see on the news that the editor for Forbes magazine in Russia has just been assassinated by organized crime for his stance against the organization's ties to government. It is grave situation indeed.
I write this "article" for two reasons: 1) I don't like people arguing world politics in any forum without actual knowledge of what is going on in the world and 2), I think, even if you don't vote, being informed and educated actually skews public opinion due to conversations you get it and people around you that you influence with your lack of ignorance.
Thank you, and have an informed day.
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| I WANT A GOOD, CLEAN FIGHT | | Category: Politics
Thursday, July 1st, 2004 @ 03:10 pm
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I wanted to keep the political topic floating for a bit longer and write up an actual objective rundown of what I know about Bush and Kerry. I hit one problem when I wrote the first point I was going to see-saw them on: I've never heard Kerry give an answer to a question that wasn't along the lines of "George Bush fucked everything up and I'm not going to do that." So let me give what apparently will be a very biased look at the two front-runners:
- The Supposed War on Terror:
- Bush: Kill all terrorists and turn their countries into Democracies.
- Kerry: Terrorists are bad but I don't like George Bush and his war.
I agree with: Bush
- Iraq:
- Bush: We will stay there until they have their own secure, sovereign government.
- Kerry: We shouldn't be there, but I'm not saying I would pull the troops out. I mean this is blood for oil but, like freedom is cool too. George Bush fucked this all up. I would do something about it, but I can't tell you what that is.
I agree with: Bush
- Health Care:
- Bush: The reason we have the technology to rip a motherfucker's heart out a put a robot heart in there is because we pay top dollar for our top dollar health care, and I plan to keep it that way.
- Kerry: Privatized health care is the reason 15% of American have no health coverage. I'm not going to say I'm going to socialize health care, because just saying the word socialized would get my ass kicked out of the election in a heartbeat. I'll just say what we have sucks the big one and not tell you what I would do about it.
I agree with: Bush
- The Economy:
- Bush: The economy sucks. We were on a downward trend since March of '99 (before I was president) that turned into a recession when a bunch of shit sticks flew airplanes into two of the most economically important buildings on the face of the earth. It's has been getting better in the past few months though.
- Kerry: Clinton created a good economy by doing stuff I don't know so I'll just pretend it's common knowledge and not explain it. Clinton was a democrat. I am a democrat. Of course, logic states I will create a good economy too.
I agree with: Bush
- Civil Rights:
- Bush: I respect your civil rights. Now bend over while I let John Ashcroft roll up the Patriot Act and sodomize you with it.
- Kerry: I don't really know, but I couldn't possibly fuck it up more than George Bush did.
I agree with: Kerry
And there's how I see it. I'm not saying that I'm 100% accurate, but after watching a lot of news and reading quite a fair bit on the internet, this is how I perceive the candidate's paraphrased opinions are stated. Like I said, I wanted to make an objective view of it all, but Kerry's position on things is so nebulous that I just ended up making fun of it instead of stating it. Oh well, my site, I can do that.
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