| | Tags: | 4th of july, fireworks, great britain, humour, independence, independence day, liberty lake, satire, sparklers, spokane, spokane valley, united kingdom, washington state | | Current Music: | KMFDM - Superpower | | Current Location: | Spokane Valley, UK | | Security: | | | Subject: | What would've been independance day | | Time: | 05:26 am |
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| It's the morning of the fourth day of July, and while America is celebrating it's independence from the United Kingdom, I'm wondering why the British chose to hold onto one little area in the middle of an American state. I'm referring of course to my current residence at Spokane Valley, Washington, here in not-so-colonial-anymore New England.
Surely I jest, you say, for Spokane is part of the United States. I had thought this myself growing up, living in other parts of America, other parts of Washington. I never once thought: I wonder if Spokane is part of the United Kingdom? Because that, I thought, would be a silly thing to think to myself.
But now that I live here, and I turn on the news on what should be Independence Day here in Spokane, I am as I type being told that, here, in Spokane, Spokane Valley, Liberty Lake and this whole surrounding area...here, in what I thought was Washington state, a state of the union, of the United States of America...here, in what should be America, fireworks are banned.
I'll say it again.
Fireworks are banned.
Yes, even sparklers.
One simply can not celebrate something as important as independence from the United Kingdom without fireworks. And one cannot be independent without such a celebration. So, to anyone reading who's in Spokane, cheerio. Raise the union jack, and lots not be confused about what country this is any longer: this is Great Britain. You want America, go to Couer d'Alene -- just don't forget your passport.
Personally, It's kind of a shock to wake up one morning and find out you're British, when you thought you were American.
On the bright side, though...at least now I've got health care.
| comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment   |
| Getting a lot of new games, Gamestop surprised me with all the releases it's put on it's shelves while I was busy playing Oblivion and Kingdom Hearts 2 and then working on deviantart and sheezyart. First is Titan Quest, which I'm getting rid of as we speak. It's nothing more and nothing less than a Diablo II clone without the good multiplayer that Diablo II had.
If you hate Diablo like I do, best to avoid it.
In the next few days, however, I'll talk a bit about:
Ultimate Spiderman
Rush for Berlin
Rise and Fall: Civilizations at War
Glory of the Roman Empire
and
Hitman: Blood Money
Mya~ | | comments: Leave a comment |
| droit d'auteur et droits voisins (DADSVI or "iTunes Law") passes! This is truly a a great day for anyone who believes a culture of music and free expression is more important than a culture of greed and monetary worship! But of course it's not over yet.
Speaking on what IS over, eon8.com finally counted down to 0:0:0:0 about an hour ago, and the webmaster finally revealed to all that it was a social experiment to find out how the internet community would react to a general lack of information coupled with unwelcoming security messages and a countdown timer. Well, it was fun while it lasted. ^^
Finally~ I close by repeating: happy Canada day. =D | | comments: Leave a comment |
| So, at first glance, Sheezyart looks just like DA, but now I've uploaded stuff there and got my account mostly set up, and I actually like it more. I dunno why people have left for DA, I guess because it's more popular or at least has more user accounts.. but I got comments on sheezy the first day before I even told anyone I knew I made the account.. I had the DA account for two years and barely got comments from the people I told about it. Plus sheezy is alot easier to use, for groups and comments and all that good stuff.. Iuno. I like it.
Oh:
safire.sheezyart.com
by the way.
Caio~ | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Hmm.. I don't write here much, but that's not unusual. Well, I'll make this post useful..
I updated my deviantart today with new stuff. Now I actually have a gallery to speak of, though it's tiny itty bitty small. safaia.deviantart.com
Aside from that personal note, I recommend the movie, Loose Changes 2nd Edition. You can find it on Youtube or Google Video, which.. if you haven't started using those wonderful services yet, I recommend them. And if you tried but are on dialup and thus can't, then I recommend Qwest for broadband.. as far as I know, they're the only ones who stood up to the NSA's illegal bullshit spying demands. I could be wrong, lemme know. All I know is I'm stuck with Verizon (not my choice) and I'm pissed after finding out how quickly they capitulated..
Ah, also recommend the even-lesser-known movie, Der Untergang.. it's a German film, I got it with subtitles. It's hard to explain without making it sound worse than it is, since saying it's about the end of World War II and Hitler seem to sort of.. diminish it's value. Maybe I'm just weird, thinking that. Anyway, it's a masterful film, brilliant.. really.
Also, ytmnd.com
See? Useful. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Star Wars: Empire at War.
Coming from former elements of the RTS genre-perfecters at Westwood and pulling funding from the well-lined coffers of giant Lucasarts, brand-new game studio Petroglyph developed their first game, Star Wars: Empire at War.
Unfortunately, the equation, which should go:
People from former best RTS studio + money from huge, giant conglomerate + beautiful next-gen pixel-shader graphics =
Well balanced, well scripted, innovative new large scale and visibly pleasant RTS.
Goes more like:
Worst people from Westwood + money from Lucasarts + beautiful next-gen pixel-shader graphics =
Some mish-mash of a poor excuse for a bad board game mixed with just enough RTS elements - poorly executed ones on top of it - that these people should feel really bad about calling it an RTS.
I'll be more specific. There are two modes: the aforementioned poor excuse for a bad board game, which is an ugly screen with all the planets in the Star Wars galaxy laid out in board-game style, with ugly little pieces floating on top of or just above planets that are supposed to represent units or groups of units. On this screen, the absolutely shitty game rules allow you to play a bad version of Risk or somesuch, until your cardboard pieces run into enemy units in space, or until you do whatever you have to do to invade a planet. I'm sure if I had played longer there might have been the ability to use the Death Star or something, but it wouldn't really be the Death Star, just an ugly, static image of the Death Star. Anyway, this is becoming more of a rant. The horrendous board game side of this not-RTS is basically Risk, but sometimes more complex where it shouldn't be, and other times just boring, or stupid.
Next comes the part that is disguised as RTS. The reason I say it's not an RTS is because you can't do RTS things, and the RTS things you're supposed to be able to do are so poorly scripted / written / coded that they might as well not be there. You cannot build a base. You cannot build... anything. No structures, no vehicles, no infantry. If invading a planet, you can deploy... nothing. You start with nothing. Instead, you go down to the planet, with nothing to control, and usually control indiginous peoples until you can call down reinforcements. You must have put these reinforcements in place yourself using the crappy board game interface earlier. Your units have exactly one option: throw themselves at the enemy base. With shitty, SHITTY pathfinding, your units will not make it to the enemy base without your help. They'll go the opposite direction or go find one of those big holes with the teeth ( sorry, fans, I just can't think of the name right now ) to jump in, but they won't go to the base. Once you carefully guide them ( and lose a few units to the shitty pathfinding EVEN WHILE carefully guiding them ) to the base, you have a battle. Not like an RTS battle where some things are meant to be used against other things, and you have a general sense of being able to at least make sure you don't get owned, but more like a chaotic mess of units you simply can't control that usually comes out on top if you have superior numbers.
For fans of actual, real RTS games, I can say it more simply. The micro is ... NOT ... even ... possible. In this game, it's not a matter of being good or bad, because you can't control the battles, the units, et cetera. The GUI will trick you into thinking you can, but you can't. So, micro isn't possible. Only macro. And how can you macro without a base? Plus, build order doesn't matter: NO BASE. Enemy has a full base, and you don't. Every battle in the ENTIRE GAME is ALWAYS a single player map. Enemy has a turtle base, and you have a handful of units and no buildings at all. It's not about strategy, it's about building a gigantic army on a non-RTS screen to macro RTS style.
This game is a disgrace to the RTS genre, and should simply not be allowed to call itself an RTS.
Please, I urge the gamer in need of games, SAVE your money for Battle for Middle Earth II.
Thank you. | | comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | Immortal Technique - Razorblade Death Spic | | Security: | | | Subject: | Tagged. | | Time: | 05:45 am | | Current Mood: |  nostalgic |
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| I got tagged for a thingeh. So I'll do it. I'm not nearly as eloquent as ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1) urbanelf, the one who tagged meh (see her post here), or maybe it's just that I'm lazy, but at least I'm doin it. So here it is, the criterion:
List 10 things that bring you a moment of joy. Tag 5 friends to do the same.
I probably won't tag five peoples. Maybe like 2. Iuno. But we'll see. First my dealy stuffs.
( Happy stuffs list~ )
( Tag~~! ) | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | John Lennon - Imagine | | Security: | | | Time: | 02:54 am | | Current Mood: |  tired |
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| Imagine there's no heaven,
It's easy if you try.
No hell below us,
Above us only sky.
Imagine all the people,
Living for today.
Imagine there's no countries,
It isn't hard to do.
No greed or hunger,
And no religion too.
Imagine all the people,
Living life in peace.
You may say I'm a dreamer,
But I'm not the only one.
I hope someday you'll join us,
And the world will live as one.
Imagine no possessions,
I wonder if you can.
Nothing to kill or die for,
A brotherhood of man.
Imagine all the people,
Sharing all the world.
You may say I'm a dreamer,
But I'm not the only one.
I hope someday you'll join us,
And the world will live as one. | | comments: 4 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | Chipz - 1001 Arabian Nights | | Security: | | | Subject: | Philly | | Time: | 10:08 am | | Current Mood: |  hopeful |
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| Well I made it to Philadelphia. I think everyone knows by now how much I absolutely abhor riding the bus, but in I never made it clear before or you're new to the Tao te Toni, I hate Greyhound, I fuckin hate them with every fibre of my being, and I think they should have paid me to ride their shitmobiles.
However, despite all that, I am the happiest I've been for a couples months now. The people I'm staying with here and I are all under the impression that this could possibly be a dream we're all sharing and that we will wake up soon. If that's the case, this is my first livejournal entering dream sequence.
Anyway, back to happy existance now. I'll type in the box more later. | | comments: 4 comments or Leave a comment |
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disappointed
accomplished