the-inbetween.com

It's so bad

Last week was a hell of a week.

Now that it's over, this week I chill. Sitting around watching Cowboy Bebop; waiting for the October horror film fest on Scream and MPix and IFC and all those other weird uncensored-movie-showing channels. Relaxing for the week, until the need to seek out the next pay-check strikes again. I feel like I'm living the nomadic life, except for that whole moving deal.

Having the free time, I started looking through various old savings of mine. That's when I came across an old Player's Buyers Guide to Nintendo Games from the fall of 1989. The ads they had back then reek of cheese. Big time.

That was an occasion that called for the scanner's resurfacing. Here's a bunch of my favourite ads: who remembers the U-Force?; a wireless showdown; Tecmo, before the T in "Tecmo" stood for T&A; radical action from Capcom, featuring their god awful Mega Man 2 box art; experience bionic power; a rough Bad Dudes ad; 8 Eyes, now with dual attack mode!; Child's Play??... Power Play!!... Future Play. Ah yes, the Powerglove. It's so bad!

Murphy's Law

I've seen it done on TV and in the movies for years, but until today I never tried it on my own. There never was a need. Not until today, when a bedroom door was inadvertently locked from the inside. MacGyver-like, I grabbed an expired credit card and used it to pry the door open. It was surprisingly easy.

Note to self: "if paranoid, get deadbolt locks."

Check this one out. ABA Games, which I've mentioned here on many occasions, has a new game: A7Xpg. It's simple by design, using just the arrow keys for movement and a single key for propulsion, but it's exceptional in execution. It's hard to describe the mechanics of it, but the most succinct way that comes to mind is: a cross between Snake, Robotron, and Pac-Man with Rez-like, abstract graphics. My current top score is a decent: 32,980.

A couple things to take note of: nowords.org, photos of the Earth from really high up, and a nice article about the never-ending music download debate, MP3s are not the Devil.

Lastly, when I pictured the origins of "Murphy's Law", I always imagined some drunkard in a tavern during the days of the Black Death. The assumption was that it has been around for centuries. Never would I have guessed that it originated at Edwards Air Force Base during The Right Stuff era of Chuck Yeager. This is far more interesting.

Election Time

Hah. The Liberal party of Ontario is claiming endorsement from the Canadian Idol winner (I'm sold!) However, more importantly, Dalton has a blog. Now we can hear the leader of the provincial Liberals talk about his love for Buffy: The Vampire Slayer and we can finally get an answer to the all important question: "boxers or briefs?" I bet you never imagined boxers! ... Seriously. This important message brought to you by a posting on Freddie.ca

Interested by this, I decided to check the sites for the other two parties.

Considering the amount of money the PCs have, you'd think that they'd have a better site. Pretty poor showing. Even the mediocre Liberal Party site is better than this.

Strangely, the one party that no one cares about is the one with the best designed site: the NDP. Nice, clean, crisp, though, based on the site, fuck if I know what they're campaigning for.

So, if the election were to be decided by their web presence, the NDP would win a majority, though nobody would know why.

MORE...

Working Hard for the Money

In need of some quick cash, I got a very temporary job through an agency. However, this isn't the point of this post.

There, I laboured heavily with another guy as we unloaded 360 55kg tubs of chlorine. Let me tell you, I was feeling it the next morning. My lower back and my arm muscles felt like they were pumping acid. In a way, they were. So I'm thankful that it was a very temporary position, but I digress.

The guy I worked with, nice fellow, was a newcomer to Canada. He came from South Africa after a stint in Tennessee where he got his Masters degree in Sports Medicine or Physiotherapy (or something along those lines). By all accounts, this guy shouldn't have trouble finding solid work; but here he was, along with me, loading barrels of chlorine.

In all fairness, he hasn't been here too long. Proper jobs will surely come; but, so far, he's heard on many occasions that he can't get hired because he doesn't have any "local" experience. Of course, he can't get that experience until someone hires him -- so, until then, his Masters degree is, by all accounts, a useless piece of paper.

This leaves me thinking two things. Firstly, degrees are overrated. Secondly, and this one is more relevant to my current situation, the job market here is retarded.

Infidels of the Virtual Landscape

Dungeons & Dreamers: The Rise of Computer Game Culture From Geek to Chic -- book site with weblog.

Browsing Gamasutra, I noticed this banner ad. The only words that come to mind are the acronymic "what the fuck!?"

After posting this, I went back to Gamasutra and hit the ole F5 key a bunch of times. There is a whole damned series of these ads. The last one is my favourite.

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Big Blue

Everyone's second favourite NES cover band, the NESkimos, has a bunch of new tunes. An interesting take on Castlevania; the first guitarish version of Zelda III's "Hyrule Castle" that I've heard; and, best of all, a solid version of F-Zero's Big Blue.

Strangely, the NESkimo version of "Big Blue" is better than all three(!) versions found in F-Zero GX. Better than the electronic/techno version heard during Chapter 4. Better than the remixed, guitar version that you can unlock. And definitely better than the new music that they play during the Big Blue levels.

On its own, the new theme is alright; but this is Big Blue we're talking about, and the real Big Blue theme should be played. That's just something you don't fuck with. Change the Port Town music -- fine, no one cares. Remove all original references to the Mute City theme, except for a small riff -- tolerable, at least there's a bit of a homage there. Replace Big Blue with some generic futuristic racing game music -- no fucking way, man.

That is equivalent to releasing the enhanced version of Star Wars with a soundtrack created by the Bee Gees. Do what you want to the movie, but don't fuck with the music and the memorable themes.

Aside from this major fuck-uppery, the F-Zero GX soundtrack is surprisingly large (like, more than 80 full or mid length tracks!) and surprisingly varied (with the odd sprinklings of SEGAish cheese. If you were to hear some of the lyrical tracks, you'd know what I mean.) Pretty darn good, it is.

Twenty One

Ack! Mein eyes.

Flash game time: flysui. Kill flies with your chopsticks. Sounds easier than it is. Try to beat 42!

Petulant

There's some fucker out there sending spam with my domain as the FROM: address, so in the last twelve hours I've received about a hundred "Returned Mail: User Unknown" messages. And I'm still getting them. Spamming fucks. Shit like this makes me hate the internet. It's not even the first time this happened.

Anyway, hi. To quote: I'm sorry, but I'm just thinking of the right words to say.

Of Ad Annoyances

A lot of sites are going the Google Ads route. In some cases, they've been doing it for months. Some are newer. As more sites pick up on this, I get more annoyed. The ads are fairly conspicuous, despite claims to the contrary, and they are often poorly targeted, mostly showing the same dozen ads over and over again. I often don't take such drastic measures, as I can't be arsed, but I made an exception in this case.

Open your HOSTS file, and add the following:

127.0.0.1 pagead2.googlesyndication.com
127.0.0.1 pagead1.googlesyndication.com

I'm not sure how to remove *.googlesyndication.com altogether, but if they add new servers -- like pagead3, pagead4 -- then add those to the HOSTS file too. It should be clear enough.