I saw two interesting things on the internet today.

The first was a blog post on the LA Times website, that mentioned Scarlett Johansson.  In the comments area, someone left the following:

I’d like inform you that Scarlett Johansson (actress)actually is a clone from original person,who has nothing with acting career.Clone was created illegally using stolen biomaterial.Original Scarlett Galabekian last name is nice, CHRISTIAN young lady.I’ll tell more,those clones(it’s not only 1)made in GERMANY-world leader manufacturer of humans clones,it’s in Ludwigshafen am Rhein,Rhineland-Palatinate,Mr.Helmut Kohl home town.You can’t even imaging the scale of the cloning activity.But warning,H.Kohl staff strictly controlling their clones spreading around the world,they’re NAZI type disciplined and mind controlled,be careful get close with clones you will be controlled too.Original family didn’t authorize any activity with stolen biomaterials,no matter what form it was created in,it’s all need to be back to original family control in Cedars-Sinai MedicalCenter in LA.Controlling clones is US military operation.Original Scarlett never was engaged,by the way

Matt pointed out that in an alternate future where we had lost WWII, the world could be over run by Scarlett clones.  That by itself might not seem so bad, but he also pointed out that this future would likely be devoid of Natalie Portman.   So, maybe it is a good thing that we won – I wouldn’t want to be part of an alternate future where pictures like the following cannot exist:

Another article I read, on the BBC website, had this to say:

The UK’s Royal Society is to investigate whether ambitious engineering schemes could reduce the impact of global warming…Schemes include putting mirrors in space to reflect sunlight away from the Earth

This is scary stuff!  If we were able to make gigantic mirrors to reflect light away from earth, certainly we could make them stationary above certain areas of the world, shrouding them in darkness.  Psychological warfare at it’s best.  Perhaps if we had this technology several years ago, Mr. Burns would have never been shot.

And yes, this post was a thinly veiled excuse to post a picture of Natalie and Scarlett nearly locking lips.

I bought Fable 2 yesterday. I had some very high expectations despite the fact that I avoided all of the marketing hype. I have only played it for a couple hours so far, and I’d just like to post some of my initial thoughts.

I absolutely loved the first game. I thought that it was one of the most unique RPGs I had played. My only complaints were that it was too short and a little too linear. That didn’t stop me from playing it several times. I thought the character development systems that they used were great. Your character’s appearance would change depending on the decisions you made and NPCs would react to you differently based on how you looked or what deeds you were most famous for. You could buy up property and use it to make money from rent or to stash your collections of wives. There was a lot to do and I enjoyed it.

Fable 2 seems very close to being the same game, but in a bigger world. I don’t mind that at all. There are now more factors that determine your character’s appearance. In addition to good/evil we now have thin/fat, corrupt/pure, and young/old. I really want to make a character that just sits in the starting town and does nothing but eat pies. And then maybe occassionally breaks into people’s houses to steal money and then buy more pies.

The collection of melee weapons at your disposal remain unchanged, though now the choice of weapon seems to have more of an impact on your character’s fighting style. Ranged weapons now include guns. The magic system is pretty different. There is no more mana bar; instead, you charge your spells to make them more powerful. Each spell also has a surround mode and a targetted mode. Right now the only spell I have is Time Control. I can use it in surround mode and slow down time, or I can target a specific enemy and use it to sort of teleport to them (similar to the Assassin’s Rush spell in the first game.) So while I’m in combat, I can just tap the B button anytime I want and I’ll cast my Time Control spell at level 1 and slow down time. If I spend my experience points on another level of that spell, then I can still tap the button at any time to cast it at level 1. If I want to cast it at level 2, I need to hold down the button to charge the spell up. The new system makes using magic simpler than the previous game, so I might actually buy more than one spell this time.

In Fable 2 you get a dog. The dog is awesome. Mine doesn’t seem interested in helping me when I’m in a fight. I’m guessing I need to train him to attack my enemies. What he is really good at, though, is finding treasure. Not only will he sniff out chests, but he can also find items that are buried and show me where to dig.

He has found some pretty epic treasure for me so far. I was really excited the first time I heard him bark and saw him pawing at the ground. “Buried treasure!” I exclaimed as I ran to my faithful canine companion with shovel in hand. I dug up the soil in the spot he indicated and I found… (more…)

McCain went on Letterman the day after the debate and had a friendly conversation with Dave.  It does more damage to his image than Obama could ever do because it shows you McCain as he is – he tells you what he thinks and yes, a lot of it is crazy.  It defies logic that someone could says these things and expect you to believe that they are qualified to be the Potus.

http://lateshow.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow/video_player/index/php/967604.phtml?rss

He doesn’t think Joe the Plumber should have to pay higher taxes JUST because he will be owning a successful company that makes profits of over a quarter million bucks a year.  I subbed in the details there, but McCain actually said it wasn’t fair that JtP should have to pay more taxes just because he makes more money.  Well, if you don’t feel that way then why are you still supporting tax brackets at all? 

No, McCain, Americans are not “victims of a drive-by shooting by Washington and Wall Street”.  That is, IMO, promoting the victim culture in America.  Many of these “innocent” Americans helped cause it.  The banks tricked them, but some people I know avoided getting tricked.  It’s possible to not get tricked.  So they had a hand in it.  To blame it on the rich exclusively is to avoid any progress towards not fucking up again.  

Chiding Obama for running such a dirty campaign.  ”He didn’t repudiate” the remarks about Lewis. WTF? Letterman said he was satisfied with it but because he didn’t use the word repudiate it doesn’t count.  Well that’s just dandy.  I wonder if Palin ever said some lies you should repudiate…

Try not to get too offended: is having a baby with Downs Syndrome something that McCain should be PROUD of Palin for?  I mean, is that a great achievement that she had to work hard on?  He keeps saying how great she is for having a “very special” child and I don’t understand it.  Would you say “She has a baby with two left feet and we’re very proud of her for having such a very special child.”?

Obama FORCED McCain to run a filthy dirty campaign because… he wouldn’t do town halls.  They did a town hall style debate and McCain got his ass handed in.

Palin is qualified BECAUSE: Bill Clinton was a good president (McCain, you really think so?) and because Ronald Reagan had no experience so she’ll be fine if she’s the Potus during 9/11 part 2?

“There’s millions of words said in a campaign… come onnnnnnnnn!” -McCain on not wanting to take responsibility for Sarah Palin saying Obama pals around with terroristS – plural.  So  Obama should be held accountable for every word that he says or hears from any person you don’t like, but you’re fine with your VP running her mouth making (and I mean this ->) false accusations about involvement with domestic terrorism?  Repudiate that.

Please, for the love of everything American – do NOT vote for McCain/Palin.  Listen to what he says (and she says) and use the brain you have to process the bullshit and the truth.  You will not vote for McCain if you use your fucking LOGIC.

This November, Ohioans will vote to amend the state constitution to allow a casino to be operated within the state.  Ohio has consistently voted against legalized casinos, as recently as two years ago, and based on the wording of this latest attempt, we should continue the trend. (more…)

The Tiny Gods WoW guild is coming to an end.  We’ve had a good run, with Pickman, Brucie and Masvida all making it into Outlands, but things have tailed off recently.  Masvida is transferring servers, Pickman isn’t sure if he will continue playing in the expansion, and Brucie has mostly been neglected in favor of my other character, Kjëldor, who is not in the guild anymore.

For all of you who were still thinking about picking up the game, the Tiny Gods won’t be there to guide you.  Sorry!  At least now Bear has something to cry about.

World of Goo by 2D Boy is a game.  Specifically it’s an independent game that evolved from physics simulations.  In this game you manipulate Goo, which are little blobules of… goo.  You can’t define a word using that same word, but man, what am I supposed to say?  You’ve got these little squeaky, squishy balls of semi-sentient ooze that, somehow, make for a great construction material.  Ostensibly this game is about making your brain explode.  It accomplishes this by employing a creepy art style, adorable and chilling sounds and music, and an ambitious assortment of perplexing puzzles.  Watch the teaser at Amazon‘s page (it’s old timey Tim Burtonesque).

Your guide for the game is the Sign Painter.  Hints for the levels are provided on painted signs throughout the levels, but you’ll want to read them for the humor and wit as much as the puzzle clues.  The goo doesn’t talk, but the Sign Painter doesn’t shut up.  It’s great writing in tiny tidbits.

It’ll take probably 4-8 hours to beat it, depending on how often you fail and how much time you spend screwing around with the physics engine.  Of course you could spend more time in WoG than you did in Liberty City – assuming you want to complete all of the OCD requirements.  OCD = Obsessive Completion Distinction goals.  Whereas you might need to collect 6 goo balls to complete a level, you may need 24 to earn the OCD flag.  Some OCDs are time based, but most require you to perflectly plan and execute a cunning strategy with no mistakes.  Most are fun, almost all are fiendishly difficult.

As you complete levels and collect goo balls you can use them to build a massive tower – competing with players across the globe to see who can make the tallest tower.  Flags, names and heights pepper the sky and you build your tower upward (a la Tower of Goo) so you’ve got some extra stuff to enjoy once the story is done.

I’m being vague about the storyline gameplay because discovering how it works is part of the fun.  They (2D boy) designed it so that you have no idea what’s coming up, which makes it all the more exciting when it arrives.  I may be an anonymous person on the internet, but you can take my word for it: it’ll be thoroughly enjoyable.

I could make a lot of parallels between WoG and Braid, e.g. beautiful and unique visuals, wildly varying gameplay as the levels progress, and a low, low price point!  World of Goo clocks in for $20 at retail and that’s a fair price given the length of the game ($/hr is one way to evaluate).  It’s got all the shine and polish of a mainstream studio game, but with a… stranger story and a lot  more inventiveness. A lot.  The whole thing’s an experiment, which I declare to have been a success.

Official 2D Boy World of Goo site

PreOrder & Buy the game at Amazon (see videos of the goo in action!)

Update: I totally forgot to gift the world with my knowledge of Goo!  2Dboy has already been informed, but I can attest that the ideal input method is the Tablet PC touch screen.  Mice are OK, but you can’t beat the speed of touching the screen itself.  Moving goo is as easy as pointing at it.  Touchpads are horrible.  I have not tested trackballs, sorry.

In the midst of all this economic turbulence, good news is always welcome. Today I was listening to the news on my way to work and I heard that the Columbus Symphony Orchestra’s management and union musicians have reached an agreement that will keep them going.

For most of this year, the CSO has been disbanded due to a lack of funds. There was talk of pay cuts for the musicians, they went on strike, a bunch of the management dudes were laid off because they had no actual work to do, the summer concert series was canceled, yadda yadda yadda.

There was later another proposal put out on the table that would cut out several of the musicians and so they rejected it. Now they have reached an agreement which preserves all of the positions of the full-time musicians, though they are receiving a pay cut of about $90 per week and their pay will be further reduced next year. Their season has also been reduced by at least 12 concerts, if memory serves (and it usually doesn’t.)

This is pleasant news. Hooray for the arts, right? That’s not why I’m writing this post. I’m writing this post because I heard a quote from one of the musicians that made me a little mad.

He said: “Symphony musicians operate at stress levels that air-traffic controllers deal with.”

The musicians that were guests of this particular program clarified this statement, saying that they are under immense pressure while performing in public because they only get one shot at a musical piece and if they make a mistake, they can’t take it back. That makes sense. I can see that being stressful… but I think it takes some pretty hardcore self-importance to draw a comparison between a musical performance and the direction of flight traffic.

In fact, I’d have trouble rating that stress above almost anything. Making a mistake while playing music only hurts the pride and perhaps the reputation of that particular musician. If an air-traffic controller makes a mistake, people will probably die. If I make a mistake at my job, it can potentially damage school records. If Pasty makes a mistake at his job, every mobile device on the planet would be eaten alive by evil viruses. If Sullivan made a mistake at his job we’d have a radioactive zombie epidemic to deal with.

Some of those may have been exaggerations. I don’t mean to say that professional musicians have the least important job in the world, just that this dude (Stephen Secan) needs to chill. Screwing up your oboe solo isn’t going to send anybody to their fiery death. And if you’re really getting yourself that worked up about every performance, then maybe you should think about making a career change.