Post Mass

I guess I'm the last one on board with this post, so I might as well get going on it. New Years will be here before I know it, and then the year'll be over.

Anyway. This year was particularly humbling for me. Not all the members of my family have been on speaking terms with each other this past year. Lots of it is ideological, and one of my aunts in particular has trouble accepting points of view that, from her generation, would seem whorish and inappropriate. Her and I have butted heads in the past, and for years, I've thought she hated me (or at the very least, preferred to keep a proverbial wall up between us).

Well, this year, I got a Christmas gift from her that put me to the floor and left me there. She gave me a National Geographic historic portraiture book, which contains the absolute best of National Geographic's portraits since their founding in 1888. I don't think a lot of people know just how important books like these are to me. I've got instruction texts and manuals for shooting to a certain photographic standard, but all those are kept in a box and haven't seen the light of day since college. Instead, on my bookcase, I've got a collection of collections. Books full of wild and imaginative photography, each thicker than a phone book.

Each one is essentially both a lesson and a goal. Each one is essentially a great photographer from the past and present giving me something to try. Something to challenge. And at times, something to best. And this book was no different. I've lately been getting into portrait photography, and this book has shown just how far I've come, and yet, just how far I have left to go.

That's not to say that I will ever be of National Geographic material. As far as magazines go, they're the best and most respected, and while my photos might seem like quality to the layman, compared to the real deal, they still don't compare. As well, I'm shooting digital, while most of National Geographic's works are still shot on film.

Anyway. I received some new sweaters and jeans as well. I was also given a copy of Red Alert 3 for Christmas, and, pertaining to my earlier rant, everything I've said about EA still stands. This title wasn't so much a continuation of the Red Alert franchise as it was the final nail drilled steadfastly into its coffin. I understand EA's making an expansion for the game, but I really have to ask that, if the game itself isn't even fun to play, what's there to expand on?

This post was supposed to be a relatively happy one, and there I go again. Anyway, moving along. I also got a new wah pedal for my guitar, courtesy of my parents. I don't think my noisemaking attempts have endeared them to my attempts at learning the guitar, but I appreciate their support of it nonetheless. With all this gear, I'm thinking a trip to get the band together might be in order sometime soon. Possibly in the spring or summer. If memory serves, Ryan's getting married this summer, which might be prime time to get together and relax a bit before getting all gussied up.

What do you guys think?

p.s. - Robot Chicken is the pinnacle of skit humour. Unlike Family Guy which tires itself after about 20 minutes, Robot Chicken can play for hours without getting old. Am I right?

The bigger they are...

...the faster they downsize.

Want to know why EA's suddenly having a tough time of it? They're too big. That, and they think it's alright to penalize people who actually pay for their games.

Maybe if they spent less money on "managing" their "digital rights," and even less money on fucking sports titles, the company wouldn't be having to lay off their actual useful assets (namely their large collection of talented game developers).

What really got me was this little snippet from the article:

'"EA needs to stop investing in things that are speculative and don't have a proven business model," said Michael Pachter, a financial analyst for Wedbush Morgan Securities who tracks the video game industry.'

Financial analyst? Tracks the video game industry? Newsflash: EA's in this boat precisely because they've only been sticking to titles with a proven business model. Dead Space was one of the first and original titles I've seen come out of those doors in the last five years. I don't want Command & Conquer 63. I don't want NHL 2012: Post Apocalypse Now Edition. I don't fucking want regurgitated and rehashed and revomited (revomited, is that even a word?) games.

Take a cue from the publishing industry. Unless you've got a real good thing going, they want new and fresh. Nobody wants to read what comes after the Lord of the Rings. Especially if it's not even written by the same fucking author as the original. -see that's a subtle reference to what happened to CnC after EA ate Westwood.

Also, the key to success in today's market is quite simple. Stop turning established franchises into MMORPG's. It won't work. Unless you're somehow going to create an entirely functional architecture from the ground up that not only competes with Goliath, but even surpasses it, it's not even worth the effort. It's like trying to tempt people away from their crack addiction by offering them sugar cubes.

The only silver lining I can see in the near future will be the sequel to Mass Effect. Not to sink my own ship, but those of you who played Mass Effect know what kind of ambitious shit they pulled to make that game work. Not all of it was appreciated by the media at large, but this is what happens when guys in suits mingle with paranoid schizophrenics. Suddenly there's all madness and everything's owned by two companies and the nuclear apocalypse follows shortly after.

In afterthought, why couldn't it be more like coke and pepsi? I've never, ever gone to enjoy a cold one and had the bottle let me only take five sips, in case I'm sharing with other people. I've never heard of Pepsi buying out smaller sodas and then promptly closing their doors as a tax write-off.

Anyway. For those of you who couldn't give two rats' asses about videogames, or the cretins like me that play them, allow me to fill in the evolutionary gap.
See, when shit in my world spills over into yours, guys like this pick it up and you suffer as a result. You've been warned.

How the hell?

It's been a strange, strange week. Nothing but snow, snow and ice. Ice and snow. And mail. God, if I never ever have to send another mail or package again, it will be too damn soon. Fuck the post office and fuck the union. What're they good for anyway, if only for losing things and overcharging?

Perhaps not overcharging, but it seems anything you put in that slot never sees the light of day again. I'm still waiting on a package, and like the prodigal son, I'm not expecting it to actually arrive, but I'm pretty sure there will be angels and trumpets when it finally gets here.

And as for this city, I'm fully prepared to spend tomorrow doing nothing but sleeping. I've had enough of this winter bullshit and people's inability to handle it. Most of all the city, which I pay taxes to, has decided that it's not worth their time to plow and sand the streets I have to travel to even leave my neighborhood. A menial rant, but an important one nonetheless, because it seems to happen every year.

On to federal politics. I was going to comment on the legitimacy of a coalition government, but it seems that particular vein has been cut off, and we might not face such a tenuous situation after all.

But nonetheless, ladies and gentlemen, there's nothing illegal about a coalition party running the country. A bit of back story on "Confidence." If the party voted in doesn't have it in the House, then the Governor General has options to either prorogue the government, call an election, or leave it to the Opposition to form a coalition to run the country until such time as an election is called, or until the coalition runs afoul of national confidence as well.

That said. Let me be clear. I don't support this coalition, because this coalition couldn't lead itself out of a paper bag, let alone an economic crunch. I don't support Harper either, because he's a conservative and political Conservatives are anathema to me.

Albeit. Come to think of it. Almost any kind of politician has become anathema lately. I can't decide whether that's a result of my newspaper experience, or simply because they're all trying so hard to pander to the degenerate suits that I've grown to abhor.

In any event.

Sleep. Yes.

Diplomacy

Nobody likes a smart-ass. Which explains a lot.

Running 4 our lives

Left 4 Dead.

Just how awesome is this game? Fairly awesome. There's nothing better than teaming up with three of your best buddies and fighting your way through the zombie apocalypse. Or in a twist, being part of the Infected and fighting to claw, strangle, vomit, and trounce the Survivors to death.

I like it as a team game, as it quickly separates the team players from the rambos, and also quickly separates the rambos from their torsos.

I've been reading over the internet, and a lot of what I've read about the game was negative. It's too rushed, some people say. There's not enough guns, whine some others. In all honesty, these are such trivial things that I haven't even noticed. Anyone obsessing over their guns is playing the wrong game, as your best weapon is yourself, and the three other people with you. Honestly, as a team, with nothing but pistols, you could still give a handsome accounting of yourself on Expert difficulty.

Anyway, that's my little nerd-gasm for the moment.

In a completely unrelated topic, I feel the need for a political rant coming on. But I will save that for another entry, just largely because the sheer gravity of what I need to say can't be understated. Nor upstaged by a zombie apocalypse.

Snow Fortress

We got a huge dump of snow today, of the likes I haven't seen in years. Lately, it's been so dry and mild that "snow" is usually just an accumulation of dry, piddly little flakes that are just as easily dispatched with a broom as with a shovel.

Not today. It felt like Old Man Winter had taken his viagra and was proceeding to fuck a city of complacent drivers and idiot pedestrians. It's up to nearly a foot and a half, and even with all-wheel-drive, I was having a tough time negotiating side streets and boulevards, slipping one way and then digging in another.

In short, it was quite fun. If, you know, being in an out of control quarter ton SUV is the kind of thrill you enjoy.

Just looking out right now, it looks like the world's made out of orange sherbet. The streetlights give this whole city an orange glow that just permeates everything after it snows. Trees are transformed into orange clots that occasionally fidget as the heavy snow gets shifted around. Sometimes, an entire tree will divest itself of an entire payload. Often time with an unsuspecting passerby underneath. It's alright to laugh once, but not twice, as it's pretty much guaranteed that laughing to much at someone getting dumped on will ensure that the next tree you pass will take offense and douse your good mood.

Chain link fences have gone from transparent to opaque. Driving by a playground on the way home from work, I wondered if this is how the world would look in a nuclear winter, everything blanketed with thick white ash, and every fence and filter rendered into an end-up roll of congealed non-descript fluff.

Such thoughts are quick in passing though, as you cannot eat ash - or at least, not as easily as one can catch snow on their tongue. Ash, I imagine, would probably taste most horrible, and given the fact that that particular notion was of a nuclear apocalypse, I could only imagine that said ash would be mildly irradiated, and the last thing I'd wish on anyone would be a tongue tumour or throat cancer, or prehensile pseudopods, or whatever other bizarre malfunction the radiation would entice.

Anyway, my original thoughts for writing this have apparently gone for a ride on the tangent rollercoaster, and I'm going to stop now before any other rubbish shows up on this page.

Rage against the man

I'm watching what's going on in Ottawa right now with a mix of delicious irony, languid apathy, and just a little bit of excitement.

For those of you either A) Living under a rock, or B) On the other side of the border, Canada is undergoing a government crisis right now, where the ruling political party is under threat of a confidence vote.

A little bit of background on a confidence vote:
When a party is elected into power with a minority of the seats in the House of Commons, they are effectively held in check by the power of the other political parties, as combined, they hold more votes than the elected party in power.

Normally, this doesn't come into play, as each party typically squabbles like a bunch of idiot chickens at the scratch when it comes to agreeing on any political directive. That said, however, there are certain votes, called confidence votes, where members of each political party are expected forced to vote how their entire party would vote, and if it turns out that enough opposition ballots are cast against the ruling party's motion (in this case, the budget), the ruling party is then forced to step down, due to a lack of confidence.

Typically, this means that the leading party steps down and calls another election. However. It is not unprecedented for two opposition parties to form a coalition to run the country in the stead of the party that won the election. The decision of which path to take typically comes from the Governor General - an unelected person representing the Queen in Canada.
So.

Currently, there is talk of an impending coalition between two of the country's opposition parties, with support of a third, separatist party. There's been a lot of talk about how undemocratic the process is, and how this whole mess is going to ruin our country, and probably send Quebec floating off to the moon, or something like that.

All I can say is, deal with it.
Even the worst possible case scenario isn't going to result in a national crisis, unless we let it.
The way I see it, this whole fiasco is the final precipitation from the massive number of voters who didn't vote in the last election. More than 40% of the country didn't even bother in the last election, and now there's an uproar over our democratic rights being quashed by a "back-door takeover."

I honestly think our democratic rights are already rather butchered at the hands of apathy. Even with the country being run by two unelected parties, headed by a resigned and reviled Prime Minister, and then propped by a separatist party, it would largely be business as usual for the rest of us.

And provided it's not, this might just be the thing to bite the ass of the 40% who didn't vote.
So.

I'm going to watch. And I'm going to wait. Either way, it should be interesting.