Some of my long time readers may remember that I launched a site about cats many months ago. The site started well but then it stopped. I was unable to get good content for it so I just sort of let it hang.
A few days ago I decided to go in the lolcat direction and let me tell you right now that people love lolcats! The site is becoming insanely popular and I will be updating it far more often than I have in the past.
Feel free to check it out when you get a chance. Catfo.com.
I know the writer's strike is going on but what is the deal with Heroes last night? Was the script written on the eve of the strike? The previous episode was so good so why did it suck so bad last night?
For example, we heard Adam tell Peter that losing your head is the one thing you can not come back from. I'm going to take that to mean decapitation because we clearly saw Claire's blood bring Noah back from the dead after getting shot in the head. No to mention Adam's death back in Feudal Japan when the gun powder tent exploded.
Oh wait; did I also forget how Peter came back from his fatal "glass in the head" wound brought on by Sylar? What about Claire waking up in the morgue after having a wooden spike removed from her brain? I think it may be that the blood is the secret sauce that keeps those Heroes regenerating and that if one of them were to lose their head they would regenerate as soon as the head was stuck back on their neck. Unless their body was allowed to decompose to the point where there was no more blood that is.
Speaking of Sylar, I'm taking the "tick-tock" noise we hear to be an indicator that he has his powers back. He was likely being fed the same pills Peter was on and the drugs have now worn off.
Why has he not killed Maya yet? Well, he does not need to. I think Sylar may have learned that he can gain more by having other Heroes on his side rather than by just stealing their powers.
What about Micah's cousin? Didn't she watch that wrestling show (among other combat arts)? Why didn't she go all "superfly girl" on those guys when they caught her in the house? Not only that but why did she not leave the house the same way she got in, out the WINDOW!!!
All I can say is "meh, why did I stay up to watch this?"
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption has ruined me
My first foray into the world of FPS (first person shooter) video games was Wolfenstein. A friend of mine had this on his 286 back when I was stationed in Germany while serving in the US Army. The game was fun but it wasn't real 3-D.
Next I moved on to Doom and its sequels on my 486. I used a Gravis GamePad when playing that game because it made the game play feel like what I was used to on the Super Nintendo. Even though Doom was not 3-D it was close enough for us. We made sure to invest in a null modem cable at the time so we could do some co-op and death-match battles.
I took a break from FPS games for a while and moved on to RTS (real time strategy) video games such as Warcraft. The one problem I had with these early RTS games is that some had a bug in them where the player on the faster computer would always be faster than the players on slower computers. Yeah, not much fun there. This bug was fixed but I never enjoyed the ever growing administration duties you had to deal with as the game went on.
After Warcraft I moved on to the mother of all time killers; Sid Meir's Civilization. I started out with the DOS version of the game and moved up to the Windows version. Ah, the days of the Chariot Rush brings back memories...
I think my favorite in the series has to be Civilization II: Gold Edition. I did enjoy Civ-Net but by the time it came out Civ II was already in stores. I wanted to play Civ multi-player but not the old style. I still break out Civ II when I have time to kill.
A few years ago I tried to get back into FPS gaming but I just couldn't do it. I never had a good enough mouse to play them on the PC and I always felt that dual analog stick on consoles just left a lot to be desired. They were good, but I always felt that the button placements were wrong or limiting.
Then I found Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. I had played the first Metroid Prime on my Game Cube and I liked it. As for the second one, Metroid Prime 3 on the Wii, partly because I had developed a bit of the FPS-nausea sickness. I did not know if I would be able to play the game at all without getting sick. (I had to play Metroid Prime in short stints to avoid getting too sick.)
After playing for a few hours I built up my tolerance and had a blast!
Sadly, now that I have completed the game (22:34 with 100% of items found) I am feeling empty inside. I visited a friend and tried out his Halo 3 game but I found the dual-analog stick control scheme lacking. The Wii has spoiled me.
On a dual-analog stick controller you have to keep one thumb on the stick that controls your movement and the other on the stick that controls your facing/aiming. The fire buttons are in easy reach for your index fingers but what about jumping? You have to take your thumb off of the aiming stick to hit the jump button. With the Wii-mote all you have to do is point it to turn, you are free to hit all of the important buttons while turning.
Think about that, with the Wii the second analog stick is controlled by your wrist rather than your thumb. It is so close to keyboard and mouse controls that it is downright scary!
I was thinking about buying an Xbox360 or a PS3 for the FPS games but now, I can't. I've been spoiled and there is no going back.
What is going on over at Yahoo? They refer to their members as Users? Is Yahoo dealing drugs or something? Are they publishing film reviews from known drug addicts?
As for the movie, I am looking forward to seeing this. Because it is a family movie I may be able to convince my daughter to go and see it with us. The last movie I saw in the theatre was Bee Movie, which I loved.
This subject came up in a discussion with some of my friends; why do woman always ask for things indirectly?
A bunch of married guys (and a few with starter wives) were talking about how the woman in their lives never ask for things directly but instead phrase requests indirectly. The most prominent example is the "I sure would like..." phrase used by many a woman.
"I sure would like a cup of tea."
"I sure would like a box."
"If I had a diamond ring on my finger I would be so happy."
And so on...
In contrast the guys would simply say:
"Hey honey, as long as you are up can you get me a cup of tea too?"
"See that box over there? Could you hand it to me 'cause I have a use for it."
"Diamonds? Are you serious? Those things are a racket and they wouldn't even be worth anything if not for the high profile marketing campaigns put on my big diamond miners..."
Yes, I know all about that wacky serious of books that suggests men and woman are from different planets but being from different planets should not force me to buy a universal translator to talk to them!
I think part of this language difference comes from the idea of wants vs. needs. As a man I prefer to be wanted and not needed. I feel that if someone wants you (rather than needs you) it implies a conscious choice. I need food and water to live but I want a roasted chicken and some bubbly water for dinner.
I have met too many woman in my life who desire to be needed. They feel that if a man does not need them he may grow tired of them and leave. This worries me because being a need implies you have no choice. I would not want someone to consider me a need because that means that if something were to happen to me they would be helpless.
As to my earlier topic of discussion I think woman prefer to use the indirect approach to ask for things because they feel that when they get what they are asking for it implies that the man had to do some thinking to figure out what she wanted. It also gives her a bit of deniable plausibility if something goes wrong.
"No, I didn't want that box, I was just thinking out loud."
Image boxes for the reception 3 used under Creative Commons License from flickr user cyancey.
Nail Art of Leonardo da Vinci [image]
Take a famous drawing of Leonardo da Vinci and reproduce it by banging nails into a piece of wood. AMAZING!
You need to take a look at this. What we have is a guy who copied a famous sketch of Leonardo da Vinci by banging nails (varying heights) into a large piece of wood. You have to see it to believe it!
My Interview on Forum Business Blog
I was recently interviewed on the Forum Business Blog in regards to the forums over on PokeFarm. It is a short piece but the rest of the content on the site is worth reading if you are thinking of starting your own forum.
I heard about Forum Business Blog after my friend Nomar was interviewed about his Webmaster Forum.
Check it out!
Yes, I know I have not posted much on here as of late. I could give the usual excuse of "I've been busy" but I don't think that would be fair. Instead I'll just tell you what I've been playing lately.
Nintendo DS
Yes, I still spend far too much time playing the Pokemon games on the Nintendo DS (I have both Diamond and Pearl now) but this week a new game crept in and took control of my DS. I'm talking about Konami's new Contra 4 for DS.
All the real hard core gamers from the 80's remember the original Contra game on the NES. It was a game so hard that most kids just gave up on it and never completed the game. I was there one day to watch some of my friends beat the game (we did party gaming long before Mario Party existed).
All I can say is that the original Contra game was a ball buster. Eventually the secret of the Konami Code found its way to us and everyone was able to beat that sadistic game.
The new Contra 4 game is all Contra all the way with one exception, no Konami code! There may be some cheat codes for the game but I have not found them yet. (I take it back, you can use the konami code on the pause screen but it only maxes out your weapons, use it again and you die!)
The game is your basic side-scrolling platformer and it kicks ass, namely yours! There is a two-player mode but each player has to have their own copy of the game.
Just like in the old game you can switch out weapons and toss a weapon to your partner. Also, as in the old game, one hit and you are dead. This is not some crazy plumber with a machine gun so you can't jump on enemies to kill them. Touch an enemy or get hit by enemy fire and you die.
The first stage of the game takes place in a jungle and I can beat it easily on the Easy setting, not so much on the Normal setting and not at all on the Hard setting!
The second stage takes place in a lab with mutant dogs and exploding zombies. When those zombies explode their bits can also kill you. Yeah, I die a lot that way.
In fact, I just die a lot in this game. some might say that is a bad thing but too many games these days coddle the player. This game does not coddle at all. It does have a continue system but the harder the level you play on the less continues you get. Don't think you can just play it through on Easy either because the last three levels are not available on the Easy setting.
If you like old school Contra action from the NES and SNES you will enjoy Contra 4. If you can't take this much difficulty in your games than stick with something simple, like one of those Disney games for the DS.
Nintendo Wii
I can't play FPS games for long stretches of time without getting nauseous but I have been pushing hard to complete one such game; Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.
The controls took a little bit of time to get used to but this game is all Metroid. By all Metroid I mean it focuses on solving puzzles more than on combat. Boss battles are difficult but not impossible to figure out.
A nice feature of the game is that if you see something that is out of reach the game will tell you that you do not have the equipment to deal with the problem right now so you will not sit around getting frustrated. Once you get the proper equipment you can then head back there and complete the area.
There is one problem with the game that is very glaring and it has to do with the map. On the previous versions you could move the map left, right, up and down. In this game you can pivot the map and zoom but you can't move it sideways. This sucks because the only way to see distant area of the map is by zooming way out and squinting.
I try to log a few hours a week into this game and I think I am just about at the half-way point. I have destroyed the first two seeds and right now I'm bouncing between the Pirate Homeworld, derelict spaceship and grabbing missed items on the first three planets.
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is a good closer to the Metroid Prime series of games.
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