Monday, August 3, 2009

Flash Game Mania #2: Electricman2H2


I was never a huge fan of this game, even when it came out. I'm not really a fan of fighting games in general. The controls always seem too clunky there's hardly ever any originality. Electricman puts you in the position of a man who seems to be energized by electricity, then is thrown into a fighting tournament. The controls are simple and the presence of Matrix-style slow-mo moves make the game pretty entertaining. I just wish you could somehow use the power of electricity, but oh well. It's not a bad game - but I'm not crazy about it.

Link to game

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Flash Game Mania #1: IndestructoTank


What a better way to start of this hellish nightmare of a challenge than with a good classic? I've played this game in the past and it's still just as fun and addicting as ever. You basically play as an indestructible tank under attack by dozens of military helicopters. The missiles they launch at you are harmless, but launch the tank high up in the air to take out as many baddies as you can. The goal is to build up combos before hitting the ground and gets enough points before you run out of fuel. You can spend your points on different upgrades that actually give you more enemies, but better your chance of getting enough points. Very addicting game that I recommend to any fan of flash video games.

Link to Game

Note: These games aren't put in any particular order, but just an assortment of great games. They are categorized by genre. This is action.

Flash Game Mania!

I apologize (once again) for the lack of activity in my blog and on the Comment Exchange Boards. I should have nothing to do tomorrow, so I'll catch up on the boards most likely tomorrow. As for the inactivity in the blog, I think I have a solution.

Flash Game Mania is an idea I had after coming across an article naming 150 of the greatest flash games ever created. The plan is to play all 150 games and blog my progress and thoughts on the games. That's right. All 150 games. I have no clue when I'll finish but it may starts as early as tomorrow morning - maybe even tonight.

It's going to be a long 150 games.

My orientation went surprisingly well. Given my choices between this private school and the much larger public school, I think the choice is clear. I plan on going to the private school for a few reasons. The biggest being that most of my friends already go/are going to that school. I don't think I could handle the huge public school with a ton of people I don't even know.

Yeah, the private school is going to be harder, but I think I'm ready. These are the years it really counts. I just hope I can make the best of it.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Harry Potter 6 Review (Semi-Spoilers)

Before I start this off, I want to apologize for not being as active in my blog as I said I would be. Between computer problems and other things, I never got around to putting anything half decent up. My bad.

This isn't going to be a very in-depth review. Just a little overview of what I thought.

I'd read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince about 6 months before the movie came out and I'll have to say that the book was one of my favorites in the series. So, I had high hopes for the movie. For starters, a lot was changed from in the book. I understand that for movie purposes, this has to happen, but I'd have liked them to delve a little deeper into Tom Riddle's childhood. The only flashbacks were to a shortened orphanage scene and to when Tom asks about Horcruxes. The mystery of the Half-Blood Prince is almost entirely absent. Apparation is scrapped. However, I'm not going to judge the movie on similarities to the books, but the director/writers seem to have taken a bit of creative liberty. This really shines in a completely original scene where a group of Dark Wizards plop to the ground in an honest-to-God fireball and attack the Burrow.

I feel like there was a lot of opportunity to make this film pretty scary, but I was sourly disappointed in that aspect. One thing a friend of mine pointed out was that Michael Gambon (the man who plays Dumbledore now) has always played the character a little over-aggressively, but that really seems to work in this story where he is such a central character - he seems to pop like never before. To wrap it all up, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a solid movie that falls just short of what I expected.

Overall rating: 4/5

I'm sure I could write more, but I'm tired and going to a school orientation tomorrow morning. I'll let you know how it goes.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Cake and Updates

Just wanted to get a few things out before I hit the hay.

1. I saw Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince the other night, so expect a review of that in the near future.

2. I intended to put up a new Ultimate Warrior post tonight, but I never got around to it and I'm too tired to make one up tonight. I'll hopefully have it written up by tomorrow. Sorry.

3. I'm pretty sure I'm going to drop the whole video game forum thing. Instead, I'll probably make a new blog with my views on the video game industry and such. Let me know what you think about that.

4. Incoming blog about new TV series "The Colony". It's good.

And now for something completely different.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

A Message to All My Comment Exchange Pals

Just a quick little message. I haven't forgot you guys! I've been busy and haven't had a chance to catch up on posting, but I will soon. Don't forget me!!!

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Oh, Good to be Home

The trip was great. I got back late Wednesday night and boy was I tired. Car rides aren't very fun for me. I tend to get butt cramps, but that's another story. Washington was fun, as always. I've seen just about all the sights before (including the Holocaust museum where I swear I talked to the man who was killed not to long ago), but I stayed with my aunt and my 2 year-old cousin Kyle. He's a funny kid who has a liking for green beans and Nirvana and bears a striking resemblance to Joe Pesci. I saw the little guy once not long after he was born and he's grown quite a bit. Washington itself was a blast. It rained a little, but I can't complain. I had a conversation with a homeless Vietnam War vet underneath a bus waiting booth during a rainstorm. Good to know we're treating our vets well, especially in our nation's capital. Through it all, there's no denying the best of going on vacation is that first step you take into your house when you get back home - at least for me. I'm more of a homeboy who's probably going to live the rest of his life in some little town in Pennsylvania.

I was sure to overwork myself the first day I was home. I've begun construction of a video game discussion forum. It's something I've thought about doing for a long time and finally took those first steps to doing it. It's not quite finished yet, but I'll announce when it's ready to be open to the public.

After using my uncle's laptop for a bit, I made the choice to download Firefox 3.5 on my own computer. Great choice. Pages load noticeably faster than on Internet Explorer, it's easier to navigate, and spell check is a lifesaver. I'd recommend it. If you have a slower connection or a generally crappier computer, use Firefox 3.1

New Deadliest Warrior Poll every Tuesday!

Saturday, July 4, 2009

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!


I probably won't be able to get those desired posts in before I leave. Sorry. I just want to wish everybody a fun and safe holiday. Happy Fourth!

Thursday, July 2, 2009

A Glitch?

For whatever reason, my latest post wasn't showing up until I logged in. Maybe it's just my computer, but is anyway else having this problem?

Vacation

Just thought I'd let everybody know, my family and I will be leaving Sunday night (July 5th) for vacation in Washington D.C. We should be back by Thursday if everything goes according to plan - which it never does. I'm going to avoid the computer so I won't be active on any website in the period. I'll let everybody know how it goes when I get back, but I'm hoping to get a few more posts in before I leave.

My hate for vista increases every minute. Grr....

Congratulations to James Bond in his victory over Soap Mactavish! I might do more of these later.

Monday, June 29, 2009

I'm Way Too Busy

Transformers was sold out last night, so I just went to the mall yesterday instead. Still fun, but not the same. :(

Recently, I've noticed that I'm spending way too much time on the internet and I'm wasting my summer away. That made me realize how many sites I'm actually on that waste up my time dramatically. Maybe you'll recognize a few of these names or you're a part of a few of these sites. Just listing them off....

Rebels: Sirak Sazen (my main haven)

TheDarkSithLords: Lucius Black (Star Wars RP)

GalacticLegacy: Sirak (Star Wars RP, part of the Census)

Harsh-Reality: Carbon (writing forum)

StarWarsFanon: Vandus (just became re-active for the third time)

Jacob's Blog of Goodness (yeah)

Comment Exchange (just joined)

Jedi or Sith: Sirak (inactive, but I still check in)

2121 (Star Wars RP, same deal as Jedi or Sith)

Not to mention my friends' Myspaces and other personal sites. It's a lot for a 14 year old kid to manage and summer is wasting away. Thankfully, I'll be going on vaction soon and get a much-needed break. I may need to cut down on a lot of these things and I have no clue how I'll manage this when high-school starts (*cringe*). I need to try and maintain my personal/family life as well. Sports are starting again. Too much stuff, gah.

P.S. Vista sucks. There's no excuse for the Google home page taking literally 10 minutes to load.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Plans

I'm off to watch the new Transformers movie tonight, so expect a review either sometime late tonight or tomorrow. Should be fun. I'll be going with friends. If have the things I've heard are true, this will be a great movie. I loved the first one and I know I won't be disappointed.

Also, I posted by blog to a comment exchange site to hopefully get more traffic. The poll is tied 1-1, so I think I'll extend the voting time by a few days.

On another note, Billy Mays was found dead in his home today. He was 50 - born in 1958. I'm starting to see a pattern here. RIP Billy Mays

Thursday, June 25, 2009

I Find Your Lack of Votes Disturbing

Come on guys! Thursday and still no votes in my poll? I shouldn't be surprised. Nobody reads this thing anyway. xD

RIP Michael Jackson

We were all rocked today by the tragic death of Michael Jackson. I got the bad news about 2 hours ago from a friend and I couldn't believe it. I'd just like to take this time to offer my sympathy to MJ's family and friends. Despite what happened or what you think about his later years, there's no denying the contributions he's made to music and society. Michael Jackson: a true artist.

Michael Jackson
1958-2009

Monday, June 22, 2009

21st Century Breakdown

Just relistened to this CD and I forgot how epic it actually is. The songs don't really tell a straight story, but you can tell how they link. I can relate to a lot of the songs on this one. Awesome album. Go buy it.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

"The Strangers" Review (Spoilers)

I'm going to start reviewing movies and such. This one will be quick, but maybe I can expand on others in the future.

The Strangers tells the terrifying tale of a home invasion by psychopathic killers. The movie succeeds in mostly giving us long, suspenseful scares rather than the cheap screamers most modern horrow films pump out. It's unfortunately blocked out by how ridiculously stupid the two victims are. I understand that this a a scary movie cliche, but these people are pure idiots. The man is pretty trigger-happy. He shoots his best friend when he comes to investigate. The idiot then just leaves Liv Tyler's character in the house alone as he runs through the pitch-black woods searching for baddies.

Another beef I have with the movie is the crappy acting. Liv Tyler seems dead throughout the whole movie - partially due to relationship problems in the movie, but you'd think she would forget that when three murderers break into their house. Neither of them seem to react the way a normal person would in their situation. They never seem to panic and are way too calm throughout the whole thing.

I don't want to sound like a complainer, but the ending wasn't so great either. The two are finally captured by the strangers, duck-taped to chairs, and stabbed to death. I would have liked to see the bad guys (really a guy and two girls) picked off by the victims one by one, making way for a dramatic fight with the last killer. Oh well.

All in all, it's a scary movie with terrible acting and stupid characters that take away from the overall feel of the movie.

Final Verdict: 3/5

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Tuesday Night Boredom

Tuesday nights just won't be the same now that Deadliest Warrior is done for the season. The show that pits warriors from different times and places against each other was something that I intended to blog about. I was so depressed that the episodes stopped, until I had an idea. Why not run my own little version of Deadliest Warrior with warriors that I want to see? Time to put my plan into effect. Week one shall be.....







James Bond vs. 'Soap' MacTavish







James Bond, a veteran agent of her Magesty's Secret Service, boasts critical thinking and high-tech gadgetry as his main attributes. An excellent marksman with his signature P90 pistol and a charming operative, Bond is often sent around the world to investigate and take down threats to global security.







Sgt. Soap Mactavish also investigates and destroys global threats, particularly against the violent Russian Ultranationalists. A quite but deadly warrior, Soap was the sole survivor of a fateful mission to Russia. Combining brilliant firepower with deadly SAS tactics, Mactavish is a force rivaling that of a tank.







James Bond







Close Range: Walther PPK



Medium Range: Cigarette Gun



Long Range: Briefcase Sniper Rifle



Special Weapons: High-powered watch laser







'Soap Mactavish


Close Range: USP 45

Medium Range: MP5

Long Range: M21 Sniper Rifle

Special Weapons: Claymore mine

Well, ladies and gents, the fight is on. Cast your votes. Voting ends next Sunday.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Blink 182 on Kimmel

I'll make this one quick. So glad to have Blink 182 back and I'm pumped for their tour. They were on Jimmy Kimmel Live about 20 minutes ago and played two songs. The Gods of Punk opened up with "What's My Age Again?" It's not my favorite Blink song and Mark sounded pretty bored when he was singing it. They redeemed themselves with "Dammit" - maybe my favorite Blink 182 song. It was so much fun to listen to it and watch them on TV. I can't picture what id would be like to be there at the show. Plenty of crowd-surfers. I saw one moshpit. I think I'm drooling.

P.S. Screw gravity. You can't kill Travis Barker.

The Truth About Jianna Merrowmere

Before I make this post, I want to give everybody a little backround. Jianna was a member on a a site of which I'm a member, Rebels (see the Rebels post for more info). Some unfortunate events led up to her.... well, you'll see. If you don't know anything about the situation, I suggest you move on. This post is directed at her so called "friends" who have gone all around the internet slandering Rebels and to anybody who have read the blogs and have been misinformed about what happened. This post was originally blogged by me on one of the sites where she was bashing us on March 24, 2009. The only reason I'm reposting this is because a new member recently came to Rebels. He claimed that he wanted to check out the site after reading a hateful blog post by one of Jianna's puppets.

**************************************************************************************

In this blog, I will explain to the community the truth about Jianna Merrowmere and her activities at Rebels. I will do my best to present it without bias. Any quotes (marked in italics) are unaltered in any way, shape, or form.

I am Sirak Sazen, a member at Rebels and the perp of the infamous "Hitler Joke". My first encounter with Jianna was posting a positive comment on her work of fanfiction. She claimed to be a middle-aged woman caring for her disabled daughter. For what it was worth, I believed her. She wasn't terribly active. This changed when she became part of Rebels' debates. That's where it all started to fall apart.

The Truth About: The Debates

The first of her debates I can recall responding to was one posted in a thread debating the morality of abortion. This is her original post.

Jianna Merrowmere: The United States has just been through a long period of time where extremists were in control of our government. That is now ended and moderation and reason prevail as should be. Extremists of every ilk should be rejected, and extremism in all of its forms soundly dismissed. Soon policies regarding abortion that were put in place during the Bush Presidency will be changed as they broadly made it possible for sentiment to overcome the rule of law. If I go to a pharmacy with a prescription for birth control which is the responsible thing to do rather than become pregnant with a child I will abort, the pharmacy should not be allowed to refuse to fill that prescription. That is possible under rules put in place under the Bush Administration which are about to be rescinded. As they should be.

My reponse, unaltered.

Sirak Sazen: Hold the phone. Are you seriously referring to the Republicans (Bush) as extremists? He may have been a crappy leader, but not an extremist. Barring abortion does not make him an extremist. It makes him a moralist. I honestly have no clue what the hell you are talking about with the prescription idea. By this post, I no longer accept your opinions as intelligent. Good day to you.

My response was indeed immature. I was trying to convey the fact that an Obama-supporter referring to the Bush administration as "extremists" was totally and completely uneducated. I most likely offended her (something which I regret) and would like to go back and reword this. Great first impression.

She continued to strongly defend her position as a liberal pro-choice woman. I defended my position, but not as strongly as others. This is where Lord Invictus comes into the picture. He is a strong-willed, conservative Catholic who holds his views sacred. Two people fiercly defending their opinions in an already unstable debated - something has to go boom. She claimed, and I quote....

Jianna Merrowmere: Not one of you has any idea of what you are talking about.

This lights the fuse to one of the bigger problems. Many members gradually began to get irritated at the fact that Jianna seemed to be (As Rive Caedo, our admin, put it) talking down to everybody. Another post seemed flawed to me.

Jianna Merrowmere: We are a nation of laws. Belief is a personal concern.

One thing led to another, and I split the topic. One thread was for the morality of abortion. Another for legality. It wasn't long before another issue popped up however. Sexism. I felt that she was defending abortion only because of fathers often bailing out or leaving the mother (an experience that happened to her). I called her out on it and another series of debates occurred over the issue - driving the wedge between her and I (along with other members) deeper. It escalated when she claimed that everybody in the debate thought that women were idiots, as seen here.

Jianna Merrowmere: Both parties are responsible for practicing birth control. This entire thread has focused on women being the 'idiots', etc. Needing an Obama to come save them.

You can start to see where she is putting words in members' mouths. This post is untrue.

The other biggy was the topic of "pro-death". The event happened before she was really active again, but a member of the site name Yodafueva proposed that pro-choice be renamed pro-death because of their support for abortion. This understandably insulted her and a heated debate followed.

The debate continued and the anger was rising on both sides. Insults were rampant, tensions were flaring, and neither side shifted an inch. This is where Jianna suggested new debate rules to be instituted, as seen here.

Jianna Merrowmere: I would like to suggest that all debate threads should be approved by an administrator. Then the administrator should set the debate rules for the subject matter. Then decide also based on subject matter what age can post as a debator and what age perhaps can read and ask questions.

This was met with near-universal negativity. Approval of threads by admins wasn't popular. The admins themselves even disagreed with it. Censoring the debates to age was something that...
a) wasn't wanted on Rebels and
b) wasn't possible.

My response.

Sirak Sazen: Age limitations are a big no-no and I think that anybody on this site will agree with me. Supressing the voice of teens will not help you. Also, I'm pretty sure anybody can lie about their age. I'm not too keen on having the admin have to approve a debate. I can see it if the topic was flat-out idiotic, but that's a mod's durty anyway.

She later commented on the non-existent political bias of Rebels.

Jianna Merrowmere: It wouldn't be fair of me to say who, but I do know quite a few young people on this site. I know of two both pro-choice who will no longer participate after being insulted and called names. One of them came to me just today. Is that right? A site in my opinion shouldn't take on a primary viewpoint. There are debate sites specifically for that. Some that lean right, some left. Some are really wild. That is what they are specificlly for and are populated primarily by adults. I belong to several.

I don't know who she could be referring to in this post. I personally don't believe the former member she talked to even exists. Another member claims to know this person, however. There is no primary viewpoint on Rebels, only majorit viewpoint which she seems to have mistaken. I also feel that this post encourages taking away freedom of speech. I'll let you decide how you feel about it.

The Truth About: The Hitler Joke

The infamous "Hitler Joke" is something that she has cited numerous times in her attacks on Rebels. I'd like to share the story of how this joke (that really wasn't even a joke) came to be.

A new member and debater Redriker was strongly against Jianna's viewpoints. He called her out on a number of points, particularly her apparent desire that viewpoints should be backed by legtimate sources.

Jianna Merrowmere: I am afraid 'Common Sense as Invictus' primary source' is not legitimate to me.

I am inclined to agree with him. He joked that nobody was allowed to have their own opinion when they were debating Jianna. This is where the Hitler joke comes in. The original post has since been deleted, but I can remember it.

Sirak Sazen: Jianna has the mindset that you need an "official" opinion or none at all. Hitler had that idea....

Looking back, it was distasteful. It was unnessecary. It was rude. And to an extent, it was true. I made an attempt to compare Jianna to a dictator or a fascist. When you think about dictators, the first name that comes to mind is Hitler. Thus, I compared her to Hitler. I shouldn't have done it. If Jianna is reading this, I'm sorry I hurt your feelings. It was unintended. I should have known she would take such offense to it, especially after seeing what happened next.

The Truth About: The Meltdown

The discipline system at Rebels calls for a warning to a member before any action is taken. Rive Caedo (a fair, well-respected member and admin) gave her a subtle warning

Rive Caedo: Jianna, could you please stop being so aggressive? Statements like "Oh, that's a gem" and "You're wrong. You're so wrong" make me not even want to be anywhere near your side of the debate.

He asked her to cool things down. When she didn't, I assume he sent her a formal warning - along with Lord Invictus, Redriker and I. This triggered the meltdown. She went to the MyFreeForum (Rebels host) forum and complained about our treatment of her.

Jianna Merrowmere: I belong to a role playing site where I am an admin. It is a my free forum site. I belong to a second one where I am just a user. I have a complaint about an administrator who has acted in an extremely biased manner towards me yet has refused to reprimand other posters who were involved and acted at least as badly and worse than me. That also is a My Free Forum site. It is http://rebels.myfreeforum.org

Is there a mechanism available for complaint? A good example is the following. I am Jianna Merrowmere. Rive Caedo is the administrator. As can clearly be seen he reprimands me for "This little group is giving me a good laugh ROFL." But he says not one word to Sirak Sazen who clearly compares me to Hitler.

When MyFreeForum claimed that admin bias was not in violation of their terms, she reported Rebels and MyFreeForum to ecommerce.gov with the intent to have both sites investigated by government officials. She obviously wanted nothing good for Rebels, and was rightfully banned from the site.

The Truth About: Trent

Jianna wasn't done with Rebels. She returned under a new name, Trent, and posted in the Introductions forum meant for new members. This is her post.

Trent: I think it is now obvious what this forum is about. It is about bias and unfairness and a small group of people who want to harass and ridicule and engage in name calling towards other people. Then when the person retaliates or complains they are one who is banned. What an interesting study in what's wrong with extremists and extremism.

Yes the whole little group of you are extremists. Rive talked about me setting an example but yet the one he sets is far from one of integrity.

He deleted a great many of the offensive posts by his little extremist followers. (Which is what some of you are) Yet left those that incriminated me. That is dishonest, dishonorable and lacking in moral character in the extreme. Wondrous example to set for the young people here as an adult member and an admin.

Then when two people hurl insults (I was far from the only one) he only criticizes the person who doesn't agree with the viewpoint. A case for certain of very small mindedness.

I know of at least one other person who said they will never return here, because of the disparity in the way members are treated.

Unfortunately for the site, I downloaded the posts last night and have already taken them to the Consumer Protection Agency and filed a discrimination complaint against My Free Forums and Rebels.

I had to laugh at Embeion's message to me, that people have freedom of speech. Only one side here does however. Freedom of Speech includes the right to complain about your treatment and take it to a higher authority if you so desire. I know you all hate the 'legal arguments' but rights are balances which means your freedom of speech can't infringe on my freedoms. (Such as to not be discriminated against because of my pro-choice belief) That belief is exactly what all of this is about and denials I am afraid would not ring true. Because otherwise I would not have been banned, or all of us involved would have been banned.

This is supposed to be a roleplaying site where young people come to role play star wars. Not a political site where young people humiliate other young people for their own gratuitous fulfillment. And and administrator (Rive Caedo) helps them to do so. What a shame. What a sad thing as well. I will see my complaint through to the end. The young people here however will continue to be taught and to exercise the wrong message.

I am expecting the ban of Trent to occur immediately and this post to be deleted. Why wouldn't it be? But there is always another way on and a new identity.

This post only shows how misguided her views were. She also threatened to spam the site. When I mentioned that we could ban her IP address, she replied with this.

Trent: They would have to ban all proxy servers and names beyond count as well as approve all new members by tracing the IP which....will lead to somewhere new every time.

Rive responded to the situation.

Rive Caedo: Invictus was out of line. Rediker was out of line. Sirak was out of line. Jianna was out of line.

Invictus' reaction when I told him to keep a more level head: Cooled off.

Rediker's reaction when I told him to keep a more level head: Cooled off and then some.

Sirak's reaction when I told him to keep a more level head: Apologized and even offered to stay out of the debate threads entirely for awhile.

Jianna's reaction when I told her to keep a more level head: To call me biased. Then to complain to MyFreeForum. Then, when MyFreeForum said "This isn't a valid complaint", to complain to a governmental entity (which will toss it out as frivolous along with the rest of the similar complaints from the vast wide internet). To dismiss a SECOND administrator's request.

I think that this clears up the events that occured. I hope that this cleared up the situation a bit for everybody. She continues to post out of her SWS account about the evils of Rebels. Please don't buy into it. Rebels is a great place with an active community that is ready to welcome any member from any corner of the world. She can say what she wants. You can believe what you want. Rebels will endure.

*************************************************************************************

I understand that there are some of you that feel Jianna is a wise woman. Unfortunately, I'm unable to get a hold on the links at the moment, but there are some examples that question her common sense. Just to name a couple.

1. She called a blogger names "Justice League" and imposter. She claimed that he was actually Lord Invictus. Her reasoning: both users had a one point used the word "whilst".

2. She accused Invictus of lying about his age (13) because he had a complex understanding of the Catholic Church. Since when is being educated a crime?

3. She gloated that she had finally defeated Rebels when all the posts where missing and a new user claimed that it had been taken down by the FBI. They posted that they had also apprehended Rive Caedo - actually a 13 year old girl named Sarah..... on April Fool's Day. Even after another blogger mentioned the date to her, she still believed the FBI had taken over Rebels.

You can be expecting Jianna or her puppets to eventually reply to this blog with some slanderous, ridiculus tale of cyberbulling and bigotry. I'll be ready. Bring it on.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

American Idol: Rock Night

Believe it or not, I actually watch American Idol. I'm not a crazy psycho fan like a lot of people, but I follow it. Tonight was rock night and I was interested to see what the 4 contestants would do with Slash as their mentor. Note: I won't be reviewing the duets because I think they're a terrible idea.



Adam opened up the show. Adam is undeniably gay. If you don't think so, you must have brain damage. He sang his version of "Whole Lotta Love" by Led Zeppelin - complete with goofy outfit and Adam's signature screeching high notes. Don't get me wrong. He did well, I just really don't like how everybody obsesses over him when he's not really that good.



I missed Allison. Sorry :(



Kris sang and played guitar to "Come Together" by The Beatles. I love this song and I personally think he did a great job. He didn't go over very well with my family. I really hope he stays.



To wrap it up, Danny belted out his rendition of "Dream On" by Aerosmith. I knew right from the start that he wouldn't sing this song well. His voice and range don't suit it at all, but I give him credit. His tone was off-key and the signature "Dream On" scream sounded eerily like a cat.... seriously. I think Danny will be going home.



I would like to take this time to point out how much I hate the new judge (Cara, Kara?). 9 out of 10 times, she'll only agree with the person before her. When there's nobody before her, she just rambles about how Adam is better than everyone else. She's also quite stupid. She suggested that Danny sing one of Aerosmith's "older" songs rather than "Dream On" - Aerosmith's first single.

There's my thought.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Randomness 4/29/09

I figured I'd answer some Plinky prompts, so here we go.



Things that offend me include...
-People making fun of my religion. You don't like religion? Good for you. I do.
-People who attack my friends physically/verbally.
-Racists. I get the "Americans are stupid" one all the time. I hate stereotypes. It only show stupidity. I may do a rant about this in the future.

There are plenty more. I'm just too lazy to think over them all.

If I had the oppurtunity to talk some sense into any celebrity, it'd be Madonna. How many frakking times can you reinvent yourself? Number two is a tie between Britney and Jamie Lynn Spears for being stupid and glamorizing teen pregnancy, respectively.

I think I'll rant about the Wii soon.

Pandemic II

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/448950



This might be the most frustrating flash game I've ever played. There's a simple goal - infect the world with your own disease. Countries can react to the spread by closing airports, shutting off seaport, locking down borders, and a variety of different things. This game takes patience and luck; two things I don't have. I did finally manage to beat it, though. I can never manage to infect Madagascar. The paranoid morons shut down their ports (the only way of entry into that island) every single time! I only beat it when, by some fluke, my virus actually started inside Madagascar. Check it out. It's a good game and it brings me to my next topic.

Ironically, the swine flu outbreak started just after I began playing Pandemic. I really blew it off at first. They made a big deal out of bird flu but nothing significant ever happened with that. I figured that this would be just the same. A week later, thousands are dead (including an American) and nearly half of the states are contaminated - that includes my state of Pennsylvania. A dozen countries already contain infected people. It's scary. The disease is in Pittsburgh and my cousin will be coming home from there soon. If I suddenly stop posting on Rebels, you'll know what happened. xD

The results are in! 4 people voted in my poll and it's an even draw. Please comment.... I love comments.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Happy Late 4/20!

Good new, everyone. I broke my arm at around 3:00 P.M. yesterday. I was riding my bike with a friend when he crashed into me with a scooter. I fell down and cracked my left arm off of the curb. It hurt like crazy so I went to the hospital. They did an x-ray and figured that I had a clean break in my outer-arm bone (forget the name, too lazy to Google). I'm working with a brace now and I'll be getting a cast tomorrow after school. Docs say I should be good in about a month. It still hurts, but at least I can type.

Yesterday was April 20, or 4/20: national marijuana day. A few of my friends celebrated, but I'm clean. I have to be. They make me take drug tests at school - seriously. I thought now would be a good time to share my thoughts on marijuana legalization. I used to be against it, but my opinion has been swayed after a few debates on Rebels. I feel that it should be legalized for a few reasons. Firstly, a lot of drug lords and dealers would go out of buisness. Secondly, the government could tax the plant. Farmers could do the same thing as well and make a profit from it. The only problems that I see are the trickle-down effect (not the economic trickle-down effect). Pot is a gateway drug for a lot of people. If that's legalized, there may be something else -- something more dangerous.

I'll be posting a poll to see what you guys think about the legalization of weed. Speaking of polls, the results are in. Vampires beat zombies with a close score of 2-1. Somebody voted for the "What?" option. What a noob.

Happy 4/20, everyone!

Friday, April 17, 2009

Thank You Plinky #1

Wow have I been busy. Our annual nightmare tests at school are finally over so I'll hopefully have more time to blog. Anyway, I've been getting some serious blogger's block lately and I turned to one of Plinky's prompts. "If all the world's a stage, and we're merely players, how does your next scene begin?" I don't know how something that simple can make me think about my life as a whole, but it has. I don't know where my next scene begins. I barely know where my current scene is. It made me ask myself, "what the hell are you doing, boy?" If you died tomorrow, would you be happy with where you are and what you've done? I can't really say that I would be. Maybe it's time to start putting some pieces together. We'll see.

Sorry for the sheer randomness of this post, but I'm just thinking out loud.

Friday, April 10, 2009

Randomness 4/10/09

I've got a few things I'd like to blog about. Firstly, I mentioned before that I'm building a website. I might need some help. I plan on building a gaming website hosted by MyFreeForum. The MFF seems to be lacking a decent forum for a committed to video games. I want to make a place where gamers and non-gamers alike can come together and I'm asking for help. I'll be needing a few people to help me start up the site. If you're interested, please leave a comment and I'll get back to you. In the meantime, I'm accepting suggestions about what you want from the forum.

Moving on. I discovered a new program called "Plinky" that writes daily prompts to help bloggers with writer's block. Today's prompt asked you to write a haiku about the last movie you watched. It's worth a try since I have nothing better to do.

"After just one bite
a man becomes a spider
and deals out justice."

I'll give you three guesses at which movie I was watching. In utter news, I've decided to start a new series called "Jacob Reviews" where I'll be reviewing and blogging about old video games and movies all for your reading pleasure. Let me know what I should take a stab at first. That's about it for now.

Tomorrow's Blog: China and the "Ghostnet" Threat

Thursday, April 9, 2009

I hate Phpbb3

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've been busy with things in my personal life, writer's block, and building my own gaming forum. I tried experimenting with the message board system Phpbb3. It sucks. Way too many glitches, sucky styles, and a crappy design. It's unattractive and a nightmare for a forum admin. Back to ol' Phpbb2.

I'm on break for Easter. Expect a full blog post soon.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Site Repossession

At 900 Hours on 4/1/09, former owner of this blog "Jacob" was taken into federal custody on charges of conspiracy. A scan of the user's email from our Alias systems revealed and ongoing conversation between the suspect and known enemies of the nation. Our JOHN unit (Juggernaut Optimized for High-profile Nullification) was dispatched at 835 Hours after Alias reported the messages. These messages have been intercepted. Specifics on the name of the reciever nor the nature of the messages will not be revealed for national security purposes, but rest assured that the nation is safe. Alias has already begun a nationwide sweep of email, internet files, and other information to assure that the problem has been taken care of. How can we do this, you may ask. Simple. We are not from the government. We are of a society that moniters the internet to insure that the future of world society is a bright and red one. We feel it is time to go public. All will be revealed with patience and understanding. Your safety will continue to be our top priority. This blog will now be under our possession and used for monitoring purposes.

Workers of the world, unite!

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Why Is the Economy Failing?

I want to start off by saying that I'm sorry I haven't posted in a few days. Been busy. I'll try to keep it at least one post a day.

Does anybody know exactly why the economy is falling apart at the seams? The long answer is that everybody has a different theory. Every news station will tell you something different. Every politician will spread the blame around. Obama blames the car companies, car companies blame consumers, consumers don't know who to blame. The short answer is no. Nobody knows what the hell is actually happening. Theories will fly, blame will spread, and our leader will continue to be on late-night television.

I have a theory. It all has to do with the snowball effect - a snowball rolling down a snowy hill will continue to gain size and speed as it goes. The problem started with the insanely high price of oil (and in turn, gasoline) a few years back. People simply couldn't afford to drive and the auto-makers suffered. The auto industry is a critical part of the American economy. When it suffers, everything suffers. You now see that the snowball is growing larger. Millions of hard-working people lost their jobs in the failing economy and millions of others struggled just to keep their wallets afloat and their families fed. The snowball keeps rolling and picks up all aspects of American consumerism in the process. Alas, we have a recession.

People now are asking what can be done to bring our wounded economy back to its former glory. First, we end the costly war in the Middle-East that's slowly draining our cash and our lives. Secondly, bailouts that my children will end up paying for must stop. If AIG gets one and Chrysler gets one, why can't the closed-down corner store up my street (a victim of the recession) get one? Our president can't pick and choose. It's all or nothing. Thirdly, the American people need to stop buying things that they can't afford. It only hurts everybody else to buy a $300,000 house when you only have $50,000 to spend.

Then again, what do I know.... or anyone for that matter?

So there you have it. Our economy is taking a nose-dive because of war, wasteful spending, and a killer snowball.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Zombies

Where can I possibly start with zombies? They have such a storied history in folklore, film, literature, video games, comics, and even music. Most people credit George Romero with popularizing zombies with his ground-breaking vision of the "Living Dead". He is without a doubt the man responsible for starting the trend that has become a multi-billion (trillion?) dollar concept: surviving the zombie apocalypse. A group of people banding together to fight impossible-odds in an impossible situation. I've been flamed for this in the past, but I truly feel that Zack Snyder's 2004 remake of "Dawn of the Dead" best conveys the situation of fighting the undead. It all comes down to personal preference.

Again, we see the word diversity come into play. Zombies - like vampires - have such a storied history throughout the generations that they've been portrayed. The original concept of a zombie was that a Voodoo priest could bring a man back to life with no soul or will of his own (just like Ann Coulter). George Romero took this story and gave it a firm kick to the guts. In the original "Night of the Living Dead", radiation from a destroyed space probe brought the dead back to life and gave them a hunger for brains and the ability to pass on the zombification through their bites.

The zombie was truly given a facelift in the 2002 masterpiece "28 Days Later". The film take the zombie horde to a new locale: London. What could be better than seeing a grand city like London empty of anything but the mobs of infected? The undead were truly revisioned in this film. These killers weren't the living dead. They technically weren't even zombies at all (but close enough to earn the film a paragraph), rather diseased citizens infected with the "rage". To put it clearly, rage is like rabies.... on steroids. The movie was followed up with an equally impressive sequel, "28 Weeks Later". It can be said that this film inspired the cinematic return to zombies. The "Dawn of the Dead" remake followed in 2004 and George Romero made a return to his films with "Land of the Dead" and "Diary of the Dead". Zombies were only further popularized by the recent video game hit "Left 4 Dead"; a game which I encourage gamers who haven't already played (why wouldn't they have) to play.

In closing, zombies own. I've been working on my own plans for a zombie mini-series, but that's a whole other blog post. Be sure to vote in my poll: Zombies or Vampires?

Vampires

I have two favorite things. Vampires and Zombies. Why? I'll explain.

Vampires are just plain cool. There is no denying that. Whether it's the classic vampires like Count Dracula or the more modern versions like the ones in 30 Days of Night, a vampire is the textbook definition of a scary thing that you can't stop watching; the perfect horror movie character. Another thing that astounds me are how diverse they are. You have classy vampires (Dracula), savage vampires (30 Days of Night), teenage vampires (The Lost Boys), sexy vampires (Bloodrayne - the game, not the craptastic movie), the list goes on.

Edward Cullen is not a vampire. I'm prepared to defend that on any point. Edward Cullen was created by an author who admits that she has no real knowledge of vampires in any degree. Vampires don't go all "sparkly-glowy" when they step out into the light. They can't read minds either, but that's enough of my mini-rant.

Vampires = awesome
Edward Cullen = not-so-awesome

Next Blog: Zombies

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Guitar Hero: Metallica

Neversoft (always hard) has done it again. Guitar Hero: Metallica is their latest in games that feature notes timed to colored circles. I didn't buy it - and don't plan on buying it - for two reasons. A. I'm saving up my money. B. I'm not a huge fan of Metallica. Sure, their old stuff is great. The sad thing is that their new stuff is utter poop. In all fairness, I haven't listened to Death Magnetic so I can't judge that just yet. I have heard from fairly reliable sources that it sucks though.

I've been watching a few Youtube videos and the setlist that I've seen looks pretty solid. Tuesdays Gone by Lynyrd Skynyrd, Turn the Page from Bob Seger. It seems workable. I'm just not looking forward to some 8-year-old who seemingly gets 100% on every single song post videos or morons edit some clips to make it seem like they nailed Master of Puppets. It all comes down to your appreciation of Metallica.

I'd much rather buy this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPYnqWqZtNw

Yeah, it's a fake.

Rebels

I don't know how I forgot to mention this. I'm part of a great forum called Rebels. It's an RP forum built around Star Wars with a great, active community. Even if you're not into that, there are plenty of other things that you can do there. There is a ton of non-Star Wars stuff on there that you can do. My name there is Sirak Sazen. At least check it out if you have the time. It's worth the time.

http://rebels.myfreeforum.org/

New Blog

Firstly, I'd like to say thank you for actually checking out this blog.



Secondly, I'd like to ask how you actually found it.

I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Jacob. Many others in the shadows of the internet will know me as Sirak. I enjoy writing. It's just unfortunate how darn slow I am at doing it. I work primarily in fanfiction, working in somebody else's universe. I've attempted a few times to create my own. I just don't have the power in me to create my own Middle-Earth or Galaxy. Maybe someday.

The purpose of this Blogspot account (they call it Blogger now?) is more or less to present to you some of my views on different things or just kinda vent. I'd also like to present some of my work and keep you up to date on what I'm doing (like you actually care).

That's it for now. More to come.