Political News: Obama Christianity Statement Taken Out of Context.

I’m not an Obama fan.  I did not vote for the man and think the nation chose poorly.   However, the ruckus over today’s Christianity sound bite is unfounded.  One of our founding principles is religious freedom.  The freedom to talk to, pray to, or demonstrate fealty to God in any manner you see fit (minus criminal acts).  We are a nation of citizens that practice the rituals of many faiths. 

Please watch the video below and decide for yourself.

PS3: Terminator Salvation

I just rented this Terminator Salvation for the PS3 from Blockbuster thinking it would be cool.  It’s not.  There’s hardly any game play to it at all.  It seems to be a collection of small game activities surrounded by lots of animation and dialog.  If you have or had any thoughts about purchasing, don’t.  This is definitely a game you should rent and keep out of your collection.

 

JB

Cruel commercial or not?

Have you seen this TV add?  The first thing you will think is — “Wow!”  Those kids did a wonderful thing.  Now, allow reality to sink in and remember your days in high school.  How many of us would have done the same thing?  Not many.  That’s why I have started to view the commercial as cruel and insulting.  Homecoming Queen and King are typically the popular kids in school.  They get that way by participating in sports or being known for “certain” qualities (party goer, promiscuous, vain, athlete, cheerleader, etc).  You know this is true.  The add alludes to this because we see a pretty girl making the announcement.

Now, I’m sitting here trying to figure out exactly what I find “cruel and insulting” and having a hard time putting it into words.  Part of me views the commercial as putting an individual suffering from Down Syndrome on “display”.  Another part of me views the commercial as playing a mean joke on someone.   What was your first reaction when you saw the girl brought out as Homecoming Queen?  Did you momentarily go, ” Yeah, right.” with disbelief?  If so, you know somewhat where I am coming from.

You decide for yourself.

Movies: Star Trek (2009)

If this is your first Star Trek film, you will be amazed and love it. If you are a long time fan, the film may fall short of your expectations.  You have to get over the idea of a whole new group of actors portraying some of your favorite characters.  You have to be willing to turn the reigns over to a younger generation and let yourself be surprised.  This can be hard.  Especially when William Shatner is our favorite starship captain of them all.  Every young boy wanted to be Captain Kirk.  He got the girls.  He was revered, courageous, fearless, and respected.  The bar set by Mr. Shatner is what alll of the “follow-ons” strove to achieve — with Patrick Stewart being the star pupil.  Sadly, Sisko, Janeway, and Archer were less than compelling.   Without Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine, there was no reason to watch ST: Voyager.  The same thing can be said for Jolene Blalock as T’Pol on ST: Enterprise.

My sincerest hope is the movie surprises us all and becomes the top grossing film for the summer.  Why?  I want another Star Trek series.  This movie could be the catalyst.  But, what is there left to do in the Federation?  Even in this film, much of what you see has been done before.  What do you think?  Is there material to explore for a new series?

General: Use of GMAIL to obtain personal information.

There are hundreds of new scams floating around on the internet.  Every last one of them offer a job of some type if you’ll just send your information to an email address with a GMAIL domain account.  Please delete these emails or block any and all messages sent from a GMAIL account.   Keep in mind that employers will use a legtimate domain account. 

 It’s really sad that GMAIL is going to gain such a bad reputation for being a source of scammers.   Oh well.  Just thought I would throw this out there.

Movies: Quarantine (2008)

If you haven’t seen this movie, don’t.  You won’t be missing much.  It is a knock-off of The Blair Witch Project.  The story may be different, but the filming style is identical.  There is a reason these films don’t do well and hit the rental shelf quickly — they suck.  If you saw it at the theater, I’m sorry.  You wasted your money.

Is there anyone out there that has an original idea?  Anyone?  We’re waiting.

-JB

Games: The Sims 2

Today, I have uninstalled the Sims 2 base game and every expansion pack for it — minus Apartment life.  There are several reasons for this action. 

01.)  The game leaves a lot to be desired in the sense of longevity.  Once you see an interaction / reaction for a particular event — that’s it.  It will never change.  It will always be the same.

02.)  Expansion packs do not honestly add much to the base game — not enough to warrant the original cost or desired $20 USD today.  By definition, an expansion pack merely expounds on the base game and usually adds enough content to renew interest.  With Sims 2, the expansion packs feel like portions of the base game that were merely left out.  It never truly takes you in a new direction.

03.)  If you actually sim the game, your sims are pretty stupid and have poor artificial intelligence.  Let’s not forget the awful pathfinding.   A door can lead to the garage only three tiles away and the sim will still go outside and around to enter garage.  It’s mind boggling.

There are so many problems and failures in The Sims 2 that I can’t imagine Sims 3 being any better.

Choices: Cable, Satellite, DVD or Internet Broadcast?

This will be brief and to the point. 

In 1996, I took a radio-television course at the University of Houston.  One lecture covered the topic of “on-demand” viewing.  The technology had not been thoroughly tested and was used minimally.  Today, you have multiple options to watch the most popular aired programs — cable, satellite, DVD, or the internet. 

This begs the question — how much longer will cable and satellite, as a viewing medium, last?  More and more the viewing public is gaining control of when and how to view programs.  You set your DVR to record your favorite show.  If for some reason the program guide wasn’t updated, you might be able to watch your show on the internet for free (access to the internet costs).  That’s significant.  Not only that, the content viewed over the internet is already “digital”.  It’s just a thought.

Games: Sims 3

The Sims 3 will be out sometime in 2009. For those die hard fans, they can feel the anticipation in the air. It is thick with high hopes for improved graphics, interactions, building tools, objects, and more. Are you one? I’m not.

Unfortunately, I have spent many hours of my adult life behind a keyboard playing one game or another. The Sims, SimCity 4, and The Sims 2 (including the expansion packs Nightlife, Open for Business, and Pets) are among them. It is my conclusion these games are a complete waste of time and money. Each suffers from one unescapable flaw — a rapid onset of boredom.

For example, the base Sims 2 game allows you to create a sim, educate the sim, acquire skills, make friends, find love, find a job, get married, have kids, and die. It doesn’t get any simpler than that. Once you have gone through the cycle once, it doesn’t change. It stays the same and becomes boring very fast. Search the internet and you’ll find people asking how to get more satisfaction out of the game. The most common answers are to purchase the expansion packs and stuff packs or download other people’s creations and try them out. Somewhere along the way they will discover the cheat system purposely left in by the developers.

Why do I say that? This is just an educated guess. They knew people would get tired of the never ending process of having their sims learn skills and constantly keeping them happy. They also knew many of the “special” interactions (i.e. getting abducted by aliens or joining a secret society) seldom occur and wanted players to have a way to trigger these events. It’s the only thing that makes sense. Otherwise, why include it?

So, why should anyone bother spending hard earned money on Sims 3? Most game sequals, in my experience, have very few changes. They generally go through a facelift and add only minor improvements. Sometimes the changes are for the worse. Madden Football is such a game. Every few years they make major changes — sometimes good / sometimes bad. It depends on what you like. For the most part, it’s just a roster update.

I leave with my main question. Why purchase Sims 3 if you know all it is, most likely, is a face lift with few game play changes?

Update: Maybe you should check out the website. It looks like they made a major overhaul of the game. Hardcore simmers are gonna love it. Hope it lives up to the hype.

Easy Adds for MySpace Mobsters

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-JB