I purchased a refurb PS2 a while back for the purpose of playing Taiko Drum master and Katamari Damacy. I've found another game that I like while picking up costume supplies at the Walmart, Guitar Hero. It comes with a Guitar Controller with 5 fret buttons, a whammy bar, and a paddle that you move to simulate strings.
Here is a dual controller pack and a dual controller bag.
http://www.redoctane.com/gh-multibundle.html
http://www.redoctane.com/gh2-bag.html
I've moved my blog over to the new beta version of blogger. There are some "new" features, and adds some visual template editing. I'm not sure if this is new, or just a way to catch up with what other blog sites have been doing for a year or two now.
Pure Nerd 73 % Nerd, 34% Geek, 26% Dork |
For The Record: A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia. A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one. A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions. You scored better than half in Nerd, earning you the title of: Pure Nerd. Congratulations! THE NERD? GEEK? OR DORK? TEST |
| You scored higher than 99% on nerdiness | ||
| You scored higher than 99% on geekosity | ||
| You scored higher than 99% on dork points |
After reading about Democracy Player on boingboing I thought I'd check it out. It plays video, but it does even more than that. It promises to take internet video to the masses, but integrating RSS feeds of video, distributed through bittorrent. It means fast, TV resolution videos over the internet, with DVR functionality that can automatically download new videos, and watches your hard drive to keep it from becoming filled up.
I've found a couple of good channels to watch:
Channel Frederator, a podcast done by the guys that do Fairly Odd Parents and My Life as a Teenage Robot.
TeleMusicVision, Indie music videos.
Texas Country Reporter Which was broadcast locally in Houston, and in other Texas towns. I remember this guy from the Dairy Queen TV commercials.
There are still some bugs to be worked out with the player, but it definitly has promise, and provides another great example of the use of P2P technologies for something other than piracy.
I found out around 6pm tonight that I will be deploying to the Sunny shores of Panama City, Florida for four months beginning in early January 2007. I was disappointed when I found out because I had really wanted to go overseas. I am tired of being stopped in public when I am in uniform and thanked. I work on computers, I've checked ID cards at the gate. I don't feel like I have done anything that has had that great of an impact on this country to be deserving of thanks. Regardless of the fact that this country is on the verge of turning into something that is not worth protecting, I don't feel like I have really contributed. I was looking forward to going to the Middle East in January, to experience the war as a warrior, even if it is from an Air Conditioned Comm tent. Not to mention the Tax Free status and the hazardous duty pay I would receive.
I will still feel unworthy of thanks, but at least I will be within 3 hours of home.
Just about ever since I took Latin in 9th grade, I've held the opinion that the Roman emipre is the closest analog to the United States. This article in the NY Times gives another look at an event that lead to the destruction of the Roman Republic, and the creation of the Roman Empire. This is relevant now because of the passage of the Military Commisions Act of 2006, commonly referred to as the Torture Bill. This bill allows any American to be declared an enemy combatant suspending his civil rights, based soley on the determination of the President, not a judge. Even without me worrying about this as an American citizen, I worry about this as a service member. I have a good chance of going to the Middle East in January, and the way this bill pisses all over the rights the Geneva Convention affords, makes it more justifiable for our own Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and Airmen to be denied Geneva Convention protections by other signatories.
The article compares kneejerk legislation passed after a "Terrorist" attack which burned the Roman port to the USA PATRIOT act. Both legislative acts restricted rights, gave tremendous amounts of money to fight the threat, and metaphorically took dumps on their Constitutions.
