Merry Christmas youse guys!

I can't believe that the only non-christian had to say it.

Here, just take it.

A quick word.

If this case goes the wrong way, it means that any American (me, a brown guy) can be picked up and held indefinitely as an enemy combatant.

As a side note; I hope everyone on the supreme court retires or dies in the next 4 years.

Hey Blackwater, hey. Fuck. You.

Thanksgiving

Who's going to be in St. Louis over Thanksgiving weekend? I'm probably coming in Tuesday evening and leaving Sunday.

He must really like lobbying

Wow. Just, wow. John [Mr. Wilderness], you ever wrestle a deer?
http://www.wtopnews.com/?sid=1518615&nid=25
Score: Democrats-0, Republican Deer-1

Luckily, Barack Obama will be president soon (ohshitohshitohshit!).

Also, if you haven't seen it yet, I made an uber-fanboy YouTube video of Knights of Cydonia.

Nothing happened today.

There is no news worth reporting.

That is all.

Christ on a Motherfucking CRACKER!

Old News?

Holy mother fucking shit.

Curse words haven't been made that can express the incredulity I am feeling.

Official Halloween Post

Happy Halloween!

Things are worse then they seem.

I don't know if you guys are aware, but there is a decline in the Samurai Bond Market. If people aren't buying stocks in samurai anymore, we are well and truly fucked.

Dear Friends,

I'm glad to see that someone is keeping the faith. As for Ol' Dr. Emad, I've been too busy skipping classes, getting drunk, doing drugs, and yelling at the news to write a post in... christ, has it been that long?

Ah well, ah well, this too shall pass.

How about dem' apples!

Wow!

NY Times Editorial: Barack Obama for President

In other news, I know that most of you grown men don't have as much time left in your schedules for videogames anymore, but here is something really cool:

A fan translation of Mother 3 ( the Japan-only GBA sequel to Earthbound on the SNES) has just been released!  Get it!

I hope you are all having a great Fall!

51st Post

Hey Guys... this is all I've got.  I hope it's enough.

more music charts

Nothing Serious

see Sarah Palin pictures

Meanwhile...

In the stick universe, they're having the exact same problem as the 616 universe, but they explain it much better.

The first debate

I tried watching the first debate just now and had to turn it off. Both candidates were too preoccupied with hating on the other's views to explain their own. It was like an hour of alternating campaign commercials. I had hoped that it would help me learn more about their policies but it just turned out to be a waste of my time.

If the world ran America, Obama would be president.

Proof.

And that ain't no myspace poll. That's the motherfucking Economist.

It's cool, we're living through history.

Living through history.

Mega Man 9!!!

FYI: Mega Man 9 comes out tomorrow on Wiiware for $10.

Get excited!



If you want to play as Proto Man, it's going to cost you.

Have a great week guys!

Again, this just happened.

My mom literally just made a direct comparison between Anton Chekov and the weather channel.

Edit: Two reasons why Chekov is the best.

"There ought to be behind the door of every happy, contented man some one standing with a hammer continually reminding him with a tap that there are unhappy people; that however happy he may be, life will show him her laws sooner or later, trouble will come for him—disease, poverty, losses, and no one will see or hear, just as now he neither sees nor hears others."

"The happy man only feels at ease because the unhappy bear their burdens in silence, and without that silence happiness would be impossible."

More on Tzipi Livni

She's the last best hope for Peace in the middle east.

She is a former mossad spy.

The New Status Quo.

Approximately the saddest commercial I've seen in a while.

Do I be a condescending dick and explain why I think it's sad, or do I be a pretentious dick and say figure it out yourselves, plebeians?

Hmm... the latter?

Finally

A videogame reviewer who hates everything as much as I hate everything. John, look out, he'll make you cry and angry at him (and by extension, me).

Check out his review to your favorite games. (ie halo3, oblivion, mass effect, etc etc.)

Also great accent. (Glacier is pronounced Gla-shear, who knew?)

Did I just write a review of a review site?

So upset.

Finished watching "No End in Sight" again. Now I'm seriously angry. Anyways, the news;

Sarah Palin gets her yahoo account hacked, has sensitive alaskan information on it. The amount of rage I feel towards this woman may yet turn me into a misogynist (err, more so).

Kadima claims leadership of Israeli parliment, does not have majority of seats. The other party's leader, " also described the negotiations with the Palestinians as a waste of time although he says he is committed to making peace with them." whatever that means. So slightly better news in the middle east, in the same way that dying in a plane crash is better news than surviving the crash and slowly starving to death while on the ocean.

US economy still in tatters. Also in tatters, British economy. (Fucking brits, think they're soo awesome.)

Chinese businesses are trying to kill the world's babies, and are succeeding.

This article about receding polar ice might have the scariest graphic ever. Also the world is doomed anyway, so why continue to write about the news?

Let's all get some heroin.

I'm in St. Louis

So I found myself in St. Louis with Brandi.  Who is in town/wants to hang out?

Hey let's apply this snake oil to our problems, I hear it works wonders!

God. Damn. It.

House approves bill to increase offshore drilling, because if the dems don't, the republicans will approve a bill to increase offshore drilling!

Whew, bullet dodged.

Though to be fair, I am a fan of forcing oil companies out of tax incentives. So, silver lining.

SNL - Hillary vs. Palin

Fantastic.

http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/palin-hillary-open/656281/

I love Matt Damon

And you should too.

Edit:

Weekends are for editorial readings;

"I feel for Ms. Palin’s son who has been shipped off to the war in Iraq. But at his deployment ceremony, which was on the same day as the Charlie Gibson interview, Sept. 11, she told the audience of soldiers that they would be fighting 'the enemies who planned and carried out and rejoiced in the death of thousands of Americans.'"


A handy diagram

Sorry I'm so on the Palin topic, it's just infuriating to see this happening and have people saying, "Finally, a woman in the white house," or whatever shitty platitude is in vogue.

Also, I'm really really sexist.

So, I'm about to get rocked by Hurricane Ike.  This should be awesome.

Also, the future of our nation is being threatened by a vast right wing conspiracy to mispronounce nuclear.  Maybe it's not right wing, maybe it's just politicians, but my it is pronounced just exactly the way it looks!  nü-klē-ər never kept anyone from winning a spelling bee!  

ARGH!

How to get a Job.

You too can net your dream job! (Giant Robot Monster Tester, is my dream job. I would ride it around all day laughing and making it blow things up. Or maybe that was just a dream I had.)

An Auspicious Day

Happy birthday JohnAllen!

This is pretty obscure.

US Highway fund is about to run out of money. This means delay of road/bridge construction projects like this one, and more of this shit happening. Why can't we learn what everyone who played videogames in the 90's learned?

I think I'm going to give 5 bonus points to everyone who can name me the reference.

Economic Policies (It's cool, just hit the snooze button till I get to something interesting)

Here's the thing, all signs EVERYWHERE point to the fact that democrats are better at economy than republicans.

On top of this, economy is the highest priority for voters this election season.

So why would anyone ever vote for McCain? I mean yeah racism, yeah moral issues, yeah the war on terror, all that bullshit. But the fact of the matter is, if I can't buy enough gas to go to grandma's on the weekend, or can't buy enough food to feed my family, or (more likely) can't afford both the xbox 360 and the PS3 and have to go from a Tahoe to a damn Spectra, I'm pretty sure I won't give a good goddamn if gays get married or stem cell research makes fucking baby jesus cry. I, as an American, put personal consumption above all other things.

And all of course it's still a complete toss up as to who will win. Is it cool to say I hate Americans? Cause I hate Americans. Not the country per se, but the people who make it up. I hope they all fall into a well and die.

Oh and fucking PS;

As a American National living abroad, I have a vested interest in seeing the american economy tank, cause that means whatever euro's I have in the bank continue to gain in value over the dollar. If the McCain wins and pushes the US toward another Great Depression (which is way to extreme, but I'm all riled up!) then I win cause all my faggy european money is worth like 20 times that of American money.

AND STILL I WANT THE AMERICAN ECONOMY TO DO BETTER!

Why? Cause though it's true that we consume the most in the world (like per capita or whatever, I'd give a link but it's late as fuck) we also give the most charity/ do the most research to the world both federally and personally. Although most of the aid the federal goverment gives goes to fucking Israel. (Don't even get me started on fucking Israel.)

Like fucking china gives a shit about AIDS research, or curing malaria, or giving clean drinking water to Africa (or even it's own people) or whatever.

I picked china cause it's the next biggest economy, as well as being evil

The Daily Show FTW

Yay Obama, boo Palin. And boo McCain. And yay Biden. OK, I'm done now.

Oh, and that link to the Daily show clip from the last post made my day. Everyone watch it.

Gov. Sarah Palin = fail

I just watched Sarah Palin's acceptance speech...

We are better than this.



In related news: Good Times

New Blood

Hey Guys!

Just so you all know, I invited David, Mark, and Richard to join our lovely blog.

Also, my mom got really angry when she found out who McCain's running mate was. She said, "What! Does he think all women are idiots!?" Love it!

Oh, and if you missed Obama's acceptance speech:

1. Hit yourself in the nuts. Twice.
2. Then watch it here.

Hugs!

That dude can TALK!

If Obama can make Biden sound interesting, I don't think he'll have any trouble talking circles around McCain. Now we only have to hope he doesn't so something retarded, or get swiftboated/ gay-marriage'd.

Edit (Friday Aug 29)

THAT DUDE CAN TALK! REDUX!

I'm only mildly cheesed about the onanastic (from onanism, hurr hurr hurr) nature of national news coverage during an election year. Shit, international news coverage as well.

I'm speaking specifically about the fact that NPR spends 7 minutes of its 10 minute news at tops of hours talking about the damn election. When was the last time they talked about the power-sharing talks in Zimbabwe, or the flood in India?

NEVER THATS WHEN!

FUCK YOU NPR! SCREW YOU!

Injustice!

omfg, I hate Metro (Houston Transportation) Police. I just got a ticket for jaywalking that could be anywhere up to $200. And a court date two days before my exams.

Peter, GET THE FUCK OUT OF TEXAS!

JESUS CHRIST!

Everything about this article is wrong.

Also being in New York is Fun.

Love from,

Emad.

Rated E For Everyone

Hey Dudes!

Since I've had disposable income (over 10 years and counting!), I've spent money frivolously on video games. More often than not, I will pay extra for the "Special/Limited/Collector's Edition" of a game because I want the goodies. After all, I spent $130 to own a Halo 3 and a Spartan Cat Helmet! Nerd alert!

However, I had a small victory this spring when I refused to buy the special edition of Grand Theft Auto IV. $90 for a lock-box and a soundtrack?! No thanks!

Sure, I've got a the special editions of Spore, Fable 2, Fallout 3 (omg! Fallout!), and Gears of War 2 pre-ordered for this fall, but I just wanted to show you guys that I still have some self control.

1. I'm not buying a Fallout 3 alarm clock for $130 lol

2. Nor am I purchasing Gears of War 2 replica chainsaw machine gun for $140 roflol

Oh, and I've restarted my campaign in Mass Effect with a character who looks like Barack Obama. Together we are going to save the galaxy.

You guys are awesome!

-John

P.S. Here's a video for Peter:

Meanwhile, on the Sugartop Candy Mountain

Come on Thomas L Friedman, you know that the same energy policy that works in Denmark wouldn't work in the US. We're too spread out in the rural areas for us to ride bikes to work ("why yes, I would love to ride my bike 50 miles a day with a 300 lb hay trailer hitched to the back"), also no one likes radical change save for the Danes (change forestalls the impossibly high inevitability of suicide. Number 27 in the world, WOOooo!)

Yeah, but still, some of their ideas are pretty awesome. Especially their use of waste heat, the only problem is the insane amounts of spending on infrastructure that this would require, and the fact that increasing gas taxes (the only conceivable way to pay for these expenditures) is political suicide in the best of times, and a way to get assassinated in these times.

Olympics

At least the US has presence and grace where it counts: telling France to STFU in the men's 4x100m relay. http://english.aljazeera.net/sport/2008/08/2008811626123505.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/11/sports/olympics/11swim.html?_r=1&ref=olympics&oref=slogin

Watch the video, it is AMAZING.

WAR!

I'll give you one guess as to why Russia is so keen to keep Southern Ossetia out of the hands of Georgia.

I'll give you a hint, it's referred to as Texas Tea.

Maybe the United States isn't completly immoral, irrational, and corrupt. Then again, maybe it is.

Hamdan gets 5 months of prison for driving a car, instead of a life sentence.

Now if he can go back home after those 5 months, and if the 5 years and 1 month previously served under harsh conditions and torture didn't happen, I'd be pretty happy with the military tribunals.

And if all the other torture, extraordinary rendition, unjust wars, private military corporation immunities, political sniping, political hirings to apolitical jobs, pandering to big business and the rich (like doctors), and backhand dealings with governments who have oil (Read "The Goal of the West for Less-Developed Oil-Rich States: Spend All of the Money on Western-Built Infrastructure; the Saudi Arabia Project") would stop, I could say I was proud to be an American.

Sorry I'm such a Debbie Downer.

Hurricane Edouard(sp?)

I have survived the Hurricane. It actually just ended up raining a fair amount, but nothing too astounding. Houston has some sort of hurricane repellent. School was canceled today for it, and it was almost as good as a middle school snow day.

In the recent past, I could have been found doing wedding stuff (cake tasting and music listening are the things within my expertise, and I have been excused from flowers etc.) or preparing for the new school year. I acted as some sort of adviser for incoming first year students, having forgotten a small amount of bitterness while my cold heart warmed in the summer. The first years were charming, I must learn their names.

I have come up with an idea for a video game that I think would be fun. It is very strange, and I don't think that I can do it justice by simply describing it. John, learn to program. Emad and Justin will do graphics, and Chip can write the music (no a capella! Capella only.)

Edit: Where the heck is Slacker "I'm a Slacker" Chen?

Second edit: For those interested in watching good stuff:
Emad's Suggestion: http://www.hulu.com/watch/28343/dr-horribles-sing-along-blog

Warning: Scary! http://www.watchtvsitcoms.com/dexter.php

Ugh busy busy busy.

So much stuff going on i barely read anything at all for 2 days shocking I know;

A couple of Op-Eds to keep peoples happy:
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, that awesome Russian author who Americans loved then kinda disliked for pretty crappy reasons died. Youse guys should totally read “A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.” It's totally awesome.

- The Wall Street Journal's Op-Ed plays devil's advocate (for the WSJ) that if we're gonna tax oil companies on windfall we should tax all sorts of other companies. I never thought I would say this, but I completely agree with the WSJ editor on this one. (uhh I agree about the tons more taxes on everyone, not the last paragraph of the piece.)

- A Times (of England) female editor writes a stirring piece about saving men, of all people.


Um, some newsy things happened today as well, but we'll get to those things tommorow (Like in 20 minutes of this post).

LATER LOSERS WHO I'VE ALWAYS HATED!

Nuclear problems, waffles in energy, dead children in Palestine, and net neutrality.

And I thought weekends were supposed to be news free.

Iran is not going to stop enriching uranium, so the EU can sit on it. (Just saw a Happy Days episode.) They missed an informal deadline in the "freeze-for-freeze" offer.

Obama is going to "consider" offshore drilling to assuage voter fears, but not actually help the problem because it's going to take at least until 2025 for the oil to get onto the market and even if they opened up all the fields available to the US it would only add 800,000 barrels of oil a day (That is around 1% of the world's total oil produced per day, meaning a 1% reduction in prices at the pump [4 cents at $4/gallon]). Meanwhile Iraq during a war produces around 1.2 million barrels a day (It's now producing around 2.8 million barrels a day). And American's are all, this will get us off foreign oil. Why are Americans so dumb? (Seriously youse guys, tell me why.)

(8/7/08 9:56PM: Edited to better reflect current situation. The above numbers are from this episode of the Diane Rehm Show)

Two kids shot dead by the Israeli army in a village in Palestine, report from a dude who was there. Notice the bit about the wall being illegal? That is the International Court of Justice in the Hague giving that ruling in '04.

Remember a couple a days ago I posted about the WTO talks collapsing? Here's why they did.

The FCC says that comcast can't block Bittorrent. In celebration here's a link to a torrent of the full series of Aliens in America.

Nothing going on but the rent.

Like if you went to a girl and was all, "hey baby, wassup?" She'd be all, "The rent motherfucker, the rent."

No, but yeah, not much today, aside from the usual campaign bullshit;

Pakistani intelligence (Har har) is thought to have been responsible for blowing up an Indian Embassy in Kabul according to the CIA (which is, if true, technically an act of war). Course, the NYtimes has been wrong on a few occasions *cough*WMDsinIraq*cough* excuse me, i think i might have swallowed a fly there.

And one of the dudes suspected of releasing anthrax in 2001 killed himself before he could be tried. The trial and the suicide could have been unrelated (no, for serious, it could be he was just depressed, it says so in the article!)

Also the economy is crappy.

Peace out bitches!

All the rake that's fit to news.

As an aside before i really get into it, here's a link to the most complete description of the housing crisis I've heard. It's really entertaining and afterwards you can be as big an asshole about the knowledge as I am.
No, but seriously you should really listen to this program, it's truly excellent.

Now...

The Internet a series of tubes full of money going to his house (This joke doesn't make sense, make funnier later - bridges to nowhere joke? -). Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) is indicted for accepting $250,000 of dirty money from a now defunct oil company.

In a case that will either end up in favor of the Bush administration, or else going to the supreme court and going in favor of the Bush administration (thanks a lot for dying, Rehnquist), White House aides (and that son of a bitch Carl Rove) can't fall back on executive privilege, must answer supeona's from congress. FOR NOW!

NEWS FLASH!
Turns out that oil companies are in it for their own gain and don't give two shits about energy crises! NO WAI!

In Health News:
Wait I think I saw Will Smith in this movie; miracle drug offers free muscle mass with no effort, is in fact zombie virus. Man that movie was boring, and full of Christian symbology.
Also in health news, something about ALS (Lou Gherig's disease) that won't have any affect on patients for at least 15 years. But at least they said embryonic stem cells are still necessary.

Not in the news unless you look for it, Myanmar. The governing military junta stole about 25% of the aid given after the cyclone in May. Hooray!

And finally, world oldest joke; not that funny.

Science! Energy! Science! MENERGY!

Just a little something from the New Scientist:

Wild orangutans treat pain with natural anti-inflammatory

In addition to learning how to apply balms from the great apes, humans should also learn what not to apply. For example, I've never seen a gorilla apply Icy Hot to the wrong area, that's just a bad idea! ZING!

I'm sorry if you don't get the reference! not really!

Oh god, everything happened today.

First off is the resignation of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. My only hope is that he isn't replaced by a dude who will bomb Iran. Oh man would that blow.

Next, some good news, the ruling Turkish party - Justice and Development Party - (it sounds better in Turkish, I'm sure) has not been disbanded by the Supreme Court of Turkey. For an explanation on why this is good news, please call, or email me, because the reasons are long and complicated, and I don't feel like typing them out right now.

Well, this didn't happen today, but it's also really good news; Radovan Karadzic, the most wanted war criminal in Europe arrived at the Hague for trial for crimes against humanity, especially for ordering the deaths of 8000 Bosnian Muslims in July of 1995. The order was carried out. I'm pretty upset about that last bit.

Oh and you won't really find this fun little tidbit out unless you listen to a hour long discussion about world news on NPR last week (The Diane Rehm Show - July 25th 2008), but the reason that Karadzic was arrested, was that the head of the secret police (the same one who was there under Milosevic) was just replaced. This stinks of protection of wanted war criminals by the state, and I'm also more than a little miffed about this fact.

And finally, WTO trade talks collapsed today. Now my economics are a little shaky, but I'm pretty sure it's a bad sign when countries are more interested in protecting their own crop prices than solving a world food crisis.

PS: Does anyone actually read these posts, and/or the articles that are linked? Write your comment below!

(PPS It won't stop me posting if the answer is either positive or negative, blogging is too much fun.)

3 things

A New Yorker article about the new chinese nationalism (I'm more than a little in love with the main guy, he's the dude in the middle of the picture in blue, even though his rhetoric could easily slip into jingoism).


"In fact, the Democrats have not officially “recessed” for more than a year because they do not want to give President Bush the chance to make appointments to vacant jobs that require Senate confirmation."

Christ, do people hate republicans.

And finally, who wants to go to space with me?

For All You Doctors Out There

Emad!

I read the NY Times as well!

I thought that you and Peter (a Baylor College of Medicine Doctor is quoted in the article) would be interested in this.

The Story Behind Kennedy’s Surgery

By LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN, M.D

Published: July 29, 2008

The nation’s top neurosurgeons were divided on whether or not to operate on Senator Kennedy’s brain tumor.

Read the article Here

Diablo II anyone?

I'd take a blow job scandal over political hirings any day.

Things like this are going to be popping up more frequently in the news as the current administration starts to lose power/ accomplices, and as more people start opening up to inquiry.

I'm mostly ashamed.

Censorship in War coverage.

Link

So here's the thing, is it better to see the war in its entirety like coverage in Vietnam, or is it better for us to be kept from the most gruesome of the images?

A pretty awesome article.

Win

Hey Guys!

I'm really excited about this blog!

I'll install both DII and SC when I get home...and be bad at both!



Toodles!

John

Actually important stuff.

I know at least 3 of us are going to be in school soon, so I would recommend checking this article out.

It's a NY times article about how shopping around for student loans could damage your credit score causing student, home and car loans to be lended out at a higher rate.

Seriously youse guys.

Hey Peter, how is Houston?

Oh yeah, also,


A song by NPH about freeze rays, chip will know what i'm talking about.

Boo

So, my house got TPed last night! It seems incredible, because none of us are in high school, and the whole thing was more malicious than normal TPing. Like, someone kicked one of our doors really hard and cracked the door frame. Geez. And the actual TP was kind of half-assed, but at least they used premium toilet paper (according to the police anyway). So did you guys hear anyone prowling around last night?

My mom thinks it was because of the Jane Cunningham sign, but the sign was left intact. Weird. But I'm back in Houston now, trying to clean/organize my place.

So it Begins

Two quick ones so as to ease everyone into news literacy (kinda like hot water baths).

Link
Talking about the "opt-out" phenomenon among working mothers, and why that very label is a lie. It's really sweet cause I haven't even heard about this at all. Also as an added bonus, it gives a direct link to a long and boring congressional report on the subject (optional reading).

Also optional reading;
This

“No regime should ignore the will of its own people and calls from the international community without consequences,” Mr. Bush said in a statement that accompanied an executive order expanding the American sanctions.

NOW THAT IS IRONIC!

Yo

Yeah so I'm pretty excited about this development, what started as a flippant off-the-cuff remark has transmogrified into a flippant off-the-cuff blog/vlog.

Currently playing nothing, thinking about actually beating FFXII sometime this summer, and for the privacy, I vote for whatever the majority votes for (though my own inclination would be only us seeing this, so we can get down to sexy brass tacks vis-a-vis our freewheeling conversation towards the end of the car ride back to STL.)

Anyways, I doubt the summer will hold much exciting and new developments, and I'll prolly use this place to dump links to semi-interesting news articles followed by my own vehement commentary. I plan to single handedly tank this blog within a month.

How is everyone else doing?

Welcome!

My hope is that this blog becomes a space for us to keep up with each other's lives.

Peter

ps: What are people's privacy setting preferences for this? I can set it as: authors only, select list, or open. It's open right now.

pps. What is the game of preference currently? SC, DII?