Long Story Short... ish

While I do have a few things of my own to post about, right now I feel that a larger issue is more worthy of even this meager space on the mighty Inter-tron. The issue I am making vague, mysterious references to is the current nerd-media storm whorling about Jack Thompson.
For the uninitiated, Jack Thompson is a Flordia attorney who, as of this minute, is one of the most staunch opponents of violence in the video game industry the world has ever known. He has brought multiple suits to court about violence in the interactive entertainment industry and the effects these games (murder simulators being his favorite term for them) have upon the minds of the children who play them, and stands as one of the most controversial litigation lawyers in the United States today. For a full rundown check out the link above... Wikipedia (as per usual) rules on this one.
Seems in the wake of the ESRB's monumental ratings reversal in GTA: San Andreas recently things have heated up for ol' Jackie boy. He recently issued a challenge to the video game industry (entitled A modest Proposal). Basically what this challenge revolves around is Jack Thompson encouraging the industry to make a video game where the employees, developers, financeers, and purveyurs of violent video games are the targets of the game's extreme violence. If a video game company did this, Jack would donate $10,000 to a charity designated by Paul Eibeler (the Chairman of Take-Two Interactive).
In response to this, the National Institute on Media and the Family, one of the most respected institutes in the coutry devoted to the scientific study of the effects of media on families (specifically children), has issued an open letter to Mr. Thompson asking him to cease using their name in any publiction directly related to him.
No one acually thought that Jack's tired and rhetorical proposal would ever see the light of day.
Enter teh haxxors...
A mod for GTA: San Andreas on the PC has in fact been developed and put up for public consumption on the web. So poor Jack has been proven wrong! Obviously he will promptly donate the money he promised, right? He did promise, after all! Apparently not.
Well as fate would have it, that dumb bastard was apparently hoping that the plebian masses would all see the humor in him naming his bullshit after Jonathan Swift's Modest Proposal... Good call Jack-ass. And in such good taste too...
Enter Penny Arcade...
Mike and Jerry had been goin round and round with Jack for a while, and so when Jack reniged, they lept at the opportunity to crush their hated enemy. Long story short, they are going to donate the money to the charity in Jack's name. God bless you Penny Acrade.
Guess we'll have to wait and see where this mess goes from here.

Falcon out

P.S. Here's a long radio interview with the man himself so you can hear (and more than likely hate) the words coming straight from the horse's ass. I mean mouth. Right... mouth. My bad.

Three Fun Pics: Part 3

Tiiiiiny bubbles...

I know what you're saying right now: If this is part 3, where's part 2? Part 2 wasn't all that fun or interesting so I've decided to skip it. Besides, it was just going to be a vehicle for me to laugh at corporate bullshit, and I think I adequately expressed that in the first part. So without further ado, part 3.
This is another shot taken on Mass Street. This particular shop owner had decided that day that they needed to place a bubble machine on the threshold of their store so that the bubbles blew out onto the sidewalk.
It had also just so happened that it had recently misted just enough to get the concrete wet. So not only were these big, fat bubbles floating around in the air, they were also collecting on the sidewalk, turning that particular section of the sidewalk into a kind of wonderland of soapy fun.
Now I remember being a kid and loving to run around and blow bubbles simply so you could pop them in midair before they burst on the ground. I also remember the joy and happiness inherent in running straight towards a puddle, jumping as high as you could, and making as large a splash as humanly possible. Here was an opportunity to do both at once, and I certainly wasn't going to let a little thing like maturity stand in my way. There wasn't screaming or running or jumping very high, but there was rampant giggling and one very large smile on my face.
Just goes to show that no matter how old you are it's still OK to pop some bubbles once in a while. Until next time, noble reader(s):

Falcon out

Three Fun Pics: Part 1

That Darn Cat!

So in the course of running around Lawrence with my friend Natalie this weekend, I saw some pretty amazing things. Camera-phone to the rescue! My next few posts will simply be of a few of the things that made me smile and the stories behind them.
This particular pic is of a cat that was tending shop at a small store on Mass Street. The reason I took the pic was because the cat was sitting so austerely in the doorway (at least until his doting public tried to photograph him) that it honestly made me laugh out loud. Even more hilariously, the cat was wearing a sweater.
Now this wouldn't mean much if this was one of those foul breeds of cat that "naturally" have no hair, but this was not the case. The cat had, at one point in its life, come equipped with a perfectly good coat of fur, but for some reason the owner had decided to shave it off. I suppose that as soon as it got cold the owner realized her folly, but rather than simply let the cat grow its hair back she bought it a sweater.
After rolling this over in my mind for a while I simply stopped thinking about it and started laughing. Some dumb bastard had actually gone so far as to circumvent nature in order to make herself a target for corporate American greed. That is just fantastically hilarious to me.
So to all you hippies out there bitching about how corporate America's greed and all-encompassing veil of advertising and sensory onslaught are forcing America into the undeath of consumerism, make sure your cat isn't sitting right behind you wearing his fucking sweater.

Falcon out