Here's a pic of my roomate and I's game bounty for the month.


One is a game that will be under printed, under appreciated, and will likely double or triple in value on ebay three years from now. The other will be the best selling game of 2008 and is said to be capable of destroying Hollywood.

The best thing is, I like 'em both! Still, this is about as polar opposite as you can get in the gaming spectrum (barring those icky "casual games").

To elaborate, both games surprise me. I am still shocked that P3 FES is out in the States. An expansion pack/director's cut from Japan for an Atlus game that could only sell moderately well? Perhaps the support of the Atlus faithful succeeded. I am also amazed to see that while Best Buy put the game on shelves a week late, they seem to have it in healthy quantities. The PS2 rack in any store is getting shabbier by the month, and yet BB has been amazingly on the ball with rare games on all platforms.

As for GTA, I haven't played it yet, but I am watching my roomie go through some of it. I am impressed with how reserved Rockstar is with the game, at least "reserved in a certain sense". The back of the box, the interface, the mission titles are all presented in simple, clena fonts with no fanfare. I like this approach with lots of things, and it seems appropriate for this reboot of the series.

Also, while the game comes with the usual fold out map of the city, the actual manual is amazingly thin. While I understand that the big publishers want to keep costs low (and thus cut manuals to the minimum), it is a sad state of affairs when we are surprised to see GTA's instructions in color. Contrast this with the game right next to it. True, the FES manual seems to be slightly cheaper paper and somewhat blurrier than P3's, but it is still in color and contains all the major information, despite its budget price. Not to mention that P3 itself came with a chunky manual, a soundtrack CD, a hardcover art book and a large cardboard sleeve to put it all in, all for $50. Take Two, your cheapness is unnecessary. GTA deserves better.

Stringy

I had a whole long post thought out about this one, because I knew that some people reading may snicker and make comments to themselves. Also, stupid things about "feeling the music". Then I stopped caring and all was good.

Here is how I scratched a long standing itch.


Have fun snickering

Ch-changes

My alma mater is attempting to change its name, and you wouldn't believe how much controversy it is causing.

Some explanation is in order. Loyola College has, technically, been a university for a long time in terms of what it offers students. It has several different schools, as well as a graduate program. Despite this, the "college" moniker has stuck, and previous efforts to change the name to "university" have been shot down. As a result, the school has been in a unique position. It is the only Loyola College in the US - all other schools with the name are "Universities". We have the loyola.edu domain name. Compared to the others, we stand out quite well. With a good reputation and some improvements, the school could easily develop the same Cult of Personality that surrounds Boston College.

So what caused this vote to pan out differently? There are a few reasons, and it just goes to show how depressing our academic systems are becoming.

For one, the college is playing the same games that many other institutions are in order to improve their reputation. They strive to increase the numbers and stats that are important to attracting attention from other schools and prospective students, and they wish to grow in size at an "accepted" rate, regardless of how fast they can actually grow based on geography. It is a constant game of one-upsmanship, and it has not gone unnoticed. When Newsweek or others print their yearly handbooks for getting into college, there are often articles discussing this issue and others. Quite frankly, it is not hard to make the comparison here. This kind of competition is what you see from corporations.

This analogy to corporate culture goes further. This time around, Loyola is making its changes under the guidance of a marketing firm. This does not sit well with me. For one, I hate marketing folks because so many of them seem bad at their jobs, completely missing what their target audience wants and making a laughingstock out of their client. Two, the ones that are good have no room in their minds for truth and morality. The College insists they will not forget its history and goals in this push forward, but that is exactly what will happen. The marketers will tell them to push all the issues that Loyola makes half hearted attempts at fixing, such as their sad approach to diversity issues. I also doubt that the sciences and other smaller fields of study will be given much thought.

Sadly, since I saved this post as a draft, the vote has passed and the name change will carry on through. The only ones I know who agree with it are current students, and the reasons I have heard from them are so shallow as to be rendered moot. All we alum know is that we are going to have a diploma for a school that no longer exists, and in the future we will have to explain where we attended rather than it being (somewhat) plain as day.

I look forward to seeing how much further away from its white - upper middle class values it will go.

Forgotten items

A good article here on ESPN about how Barry Bonds has left the minds of pretty much everyone in the sporting world. Aside from a few quick "will barry be back?" roundtables on TV analyst shows, he really has been gone. I think the coverage of him got to critical mass, to the point where even the people cramming it down our throats got tired of it.

Or maybe it is something else. Maybe everyone is so ashamed of how they let Bonds and others run rampant and tarnish the baseball world, that they wish to pretend it did not happen. If that is the case, then it seems rather dangerous to me. We cannot simply forget history simply because we do not like it, and the fact that no one wants to admit the media circus that they created around Bonds means that they will do it again. It also shows just how little care the media has for the stories they cover. I still find myself horrified of the coal mining incident where every news outlet reported that there were survivors, only to find out they ran with an early and innaccurate report, and that they were all dead. No apologies, no egg on their face. I was disgusted and I didnt' even lose a loved one. All because they're so bored not covering real news that they had to fill in all their airtime with every juicy morsel.

In lighter news, I finally pushed far enough into Persona 3 (meaning I just got through the game's first month - five hours in!) that I "get it" and its system. All of my fears of failure are washed away, and now I'm pretty sure I can kick some ass. I can't wait to see how I fare on the final boss. My brother has been having constant trouble with it, and I would laugh at least a little if I could beat it in one sitting.

I need to write a new article on something. This is difficult when you haven't beaten a game in some time. Give me ideas people!

I should probably talk Mets somewhere in this post, as seems to be new tradition. All I can say is that I wish I had the power to evenly distribute their runs scored. If they keep up this pattern of "score pitifully and lose 3-1, or light up the bats and win 8-2", we're going to have last season's slide through all of this season. We can't have streaky hitters, and we can't dish Johan a loss when he gave up one run. They need to fucking wake up and fight harder at each at bat.

oy

Reason number 302 why digg blows my mind
As of now the digg difference between these two 778-231.

Here's a link to the comic, which is essentially some stoner who can't draw blaming everything on the president, as if he controls everything right down to designing the Ad Council's anti drug ads.

Remember kids - the shit floats to the top

Slate.com has an article about how Countrywide is still up to its tricks after helping melt the housing market. I don't understand it all, and there is lots of debate in the comments section, so I won't pretend to know what I'm talking about.

So I will look at something a whole lot simpler. Take a look at this picture from the Slate article. Look at that Countrywide sign. Am I the only person who finds that a little disturbing?

Hear me out. Look at its primary colors, its simple shapes. It reminds me of building blocks and preschool. It is simple and welcoming, like a pat on the head to a six year old. These are the messages associated with a massive company that deals with insane amounts of money. I don't know about you, but when I am dealing with a bank I appreciate some semblance of seriousness about them. Instead, Countrywide wants to paint itself in childish simpicity; seriously, the portrait place in Walmart has a more professional sign. It creeps the hell out of me. I feel like this is how little they regard its customers. Hey there stupid, you want a home right? The American Dream? We'll get you there. Just trust us. Meanwhile behind the scenes they screw everything up and get off scott free. It is incredibly insulting that this is how they try to disarm and distract us, and that it actually worked on so many folks. I hate the blanket statement of "I wish everyone else wasn't dumb", as it really is disingenuous, especially with the housing market. A lot of what happened was due to lender's duping people, as much as we claim it was due to families trying to live beyond their means. I just wish people weren't so obsessed with being coddled and praised and leisured, otherwise this kind of marketing would fail miserably.

The Orioles have a better record than the Mets. I hope this isn't a trend.

Rain

The highway I take to work is generally quiet. Not that there isn't anyone on the road at all, but there is not enough traffic to cause slowdown. Every one goes into Baltimore, and we the few go out. As such accidents are rare.

This morning I saw two, one which caused all but one lane to close, the other blocking off the on ramp to a major exit. Now it could be sheer coincidence, but maybe not. You see, yesterday it rained in Maryland. And if you drive here for even a few months, you will know that somehow, locals treat driving in rain like they would an ice storm. In most normal areas of traffic, steady (not heavy) rain means people go 65 if they're confident, 60 to be sure, maybe 55 if your'e really afraid of hydroplaning. In Maryland 55 is the top speed, and no one drives without braking constantly and for no reason. It took me twice as long to get home yesterday, which is exactly how long it took me to get home during the "worst" snow of the winter.

All of this for rain.

So if these two major accidents were caused by some strange post-rain conditions, where the drivers forgot that it the ground was still moist, it would not surprise me.

It seems the spell checker in the beta version of Firefox 5 does not like contractions. Now I know geeks like to be grammar Nazis, but this is getting ridiculous.

A Daily Post

Last night's win is the way it should be - tons of runs against weak pitching. I'm doubly pissed now at the game 2 loss. Pedro had the worst outing so far even before he left the game hurt, which makes me worry about him when he returns, and the fact that the team scored nothing against the Florida bullpen is absurd after they put up another five or so runs late last night.

If we can sweep Atlanta and give them an 0-5 start all will be forgiven.

Played Brawl online last night for the first time. The lag is inexcusable. Fuck you Nintendo, because somehow I doubt you will try to improve it in any way. I'm getting a bit tired of their current philosophy that as long as the Wii and DS keep selling, they don't have to worry so much about customer satisfaction and product improvement. Guess I'll have to drag people to my house the old fashioned way :)

I just learned that California is at least one state that does not want public schooling to be a legal option for children. Here is an excerpt as to why:

A primary purpose of the educational system is to train school children in good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation as a means of protecting the public welfare

I still can't get over how scary that sounds.

Baseball failure

If the Mets' first game was what we were all hoping for, the second game was what we dreaded. Pedro is out and likely on the DL in his first start, and the team lost in extra innings against an inexperienced Marlins' bullpen because all of our bats decided to go cold at once. We need consistent run production and healthy pitchers. I'm going to be biting the nails I no longer have over game 3 tonight. Let's see some offense people!

I just read an article over at slate.com about cutting sugar out of one's diet. Its an interesting idea that I have been wanting to try; I love sweets more than anything, but diabetes is a big deal in my family. Eliminating might be impossible, but cutting down sure isn't.

It won't happen though; I told myself that I felt better when not drinking coffee during the day, and that habit ended after two weeks. I can't go long without soda, and while I can go months without tobacco, it doesn't go away for good. I want to live a good and healthy life, but at the same time I can't see it being a life worth living if one doesn't give into some of their vices. I always use this as an excuse for why I hate being single; when I have someone around that consistently cares about me, giving up other things is a snap. Until then, down the hole I go.

The other reason a no-sugar experiment would fail is that I am afraid of becoming like the author of the article. A quote for you:

For snacks, I had raw cashews and tamari almonds and guacamole and bricks of Gruyere in various combinations.

Is it possible for authors of these kinds of articles to be normal human beings? Who the fuck eats tamari almonds? I didn't even know what Gruyere was until now, and now that I do know, I have another question; is it really true that cutting out processed foods makes the grocery bill go down? With all this gourmet shit plus expensive/organic produce, they still must be spending a fortune on food. The first person to write about how they ate Planters nuts and Polly-O string cheese in their diet/food experiment will be the one to get me interested.

A Slate commenter described food talk as "porn for white women". They couldn't be more right, and damn does it take the steam out of many a good idea.

Taxes and stuff

My taxes are done. So far one federal and one state have approved of my returns. I now wait on Maryland. Of course, this figures; Maryland has given me shit with one thing or another ever since I moved. Troubles getting a license, trouble using my current PA license. If they come back saying something is wrong with their wonderfully simple tax return form I might take it as a hint. But where else do I have to go?

I decided on a few things to spend my tax return money on. Paying off a huge chunk of my smallest student loan will help. I'm also going to look into buying a new instrument to play. What that is is a surprise.

Any cash I have left over is going to, believe it or not, some new threads. I have a tendency to keep clothing forever, beating the hell out of it until it is embarrassing to wear, and even then I often let it go for too long. I have stuff I wore in high school still, and I think my coat is circa 8th grade.

My wardrobe is ridiculous. I hardly have any pairs of shorts because it has been many years since I have been able to wear shorts more than two days a week. But when I need them I often have nothing. I have shirts with a small tear in them that I keep because hey, its fairly new. It sits right next to a tearless, stainless shirt that has colors beyond faded.

Its just time for a reboot. The old stuff doesn't really look childish, but I've gotten more than my money's worth from all of it. I need to ditch the pants that I wore when I thought I was a 32x32 and now the cuffs are frayed.

I'm not going to go over the deep end. The fact is that most of my coworkers wear jeans a checkered shirt every day, so I feel like I can keep some of the old junk around for daily wear. But summer is coming, and that means going out more. Dressing sharp isn't a guarantee of anything, but hey, it can't hurt.

As an addendum, its interesting to see our priorities as consumers. Even with a job I try to keep my purchases of new games to a minimum, but if there is something I really like, I have no qualms laying down $50 or $60 for it. Yet paying that much for one article of clothing seems like blasphemy, even though you could pay much much more for something swanky. Most women on the other hand will scoff at that much for something they really like, but they can't understand my gaming habit. To me, buying a game that won't break and delivers consistent entertainment is worth the price, while my clothing is going to deteriorate no matter what I do. But the ladies out there teach a valuable lesson; no matter how many people will tell you "I don't care how I look and you shouldn't judge me based on that", appearances always matter to some extent, and wearing something crisp and up to date can be damn nice.