verbosity

Bankruptcy

Too many good games coming out soon. Time to take out a second mortgage.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (October 26) - Yes, like GTA3 and GTA:VC, I'll buy the PS2 version, then probably also buy the PC version when it comes out. Instant gratification, then mega-graphics. I'm the industry's bitch. When they ask me to say their name, I say it.

Halo 2 (November 9) - Halo was alright. I saw Halo 2 when I was at PAX, and it looked quite good. I'll be buying it mostly for the multiplayer, as I expect the single-player to disappoint like the first Halo's did. I never wasted my money on the XBox version as I only recently acquired an Xbox when Fable came out, Halo's multiplayer was shallow compared to games like Natural Selection, and I'd already played through the single-player campaign cooperatively with a good friend. Halo 2 better have co-op. I might have bought Halo on PC if they hadn't made the moronic decision to drop the co-op in that version. Idiots.

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (November 15) - Metriod Prime was an amazing game, probably in my top 10 of all time if I came up with one. Even if all that was done with the sequel was new levels and a new storyline, it'd be worth fifty bones, but I know they've changed more than that. Psyched, I am.

Half-Life 2 (November 16) - Yup. Uh-huh. Damn skippy. You all know.

World of Warcraft (??) - Open beta starts soon. Yeah, I know I won't have to shell out hard cash for that (unless I have to buy a beta account from someone to get in), but if I count potential lost productivity due to a game, WoW will be the most expensive of the lot.

I still have titles that I've bought over the past many months that I haven't loaded up even once. I'm so far behind in my gaming...I need to take a 2 month vacation from work to catch up. Perhaps I need to come down with Ebola or something...

Personal Co-Lo

New server, same great taste. You, the viewer, shouldn't see anything different. I, however, have the freedom to play with more toys, and toys are good. If you notice anything that's busted, scream real loud. MT comments are currently down, so don't bother mentioning that, and that means you'll have to scream via some other communication channel.

EDIT: Comments are working now.

Exhibitionism

One of our security guards at work was reviewing Sunday's camera recordings (not normally done unless an incident is reported) when something caught his eye:

Busted!

The one time I goof off in front of the camera...

I be findin nuthin

(Goods and Services [andyrut.com])

I wonder why retail stores bother asking if you found everything without difficulty. What are they going to do? Pull a midget from behind they counter and send him running off to immediately locate your hidden item while the rest of the line waits oh-so-patiently? Offer sincere condolences? If I can't find something, I'll either seek help long before I hit the checkout stand, or get fed up and plan to buy it somewhere else. I think I'll try out some new responses for fun though:

1) No. Your organizational scheme is utter crap.

2) No. Your selection sucks.

3) No. You're sold out of what I want, again. And your guy told me that you don't know when you're expecting a new shipment, but that it might (just might!) be sometime this week/month/century. Your ordering department blows. (and this is the complete truth about Best Buy...)

4) No. And nobody offered to help me either. Do you discriminate against bald guys?

5) No. Send your monkey after a copy of World of Warcraft for me right now. Send him! Oh, nevermind, I just remembered that it hasn't been released yet.

Comically dominated

Not that I intend for every post to be based off a humor publication, but FoxTrot, a wonderfully geeky yet highly syndicated strip, has a four-panel go at hacking the Diebold voting machines.

Nationalist thingamajig

If you have at least three brain cells left after all your drunken endeavors, and you leave your house at least once a week for something other than take-out sushi (for I know how hard it is to find a joint that delivers), or you watch cable, satellite, or cancer-wave television, or you receive a newspaper or a magazine delivery other than Electronic Gaming Monthly (Playboy counts; it has articles), you probably know about the so-called Patriot Act. Ironic that something so named takes away several of the liberties that our government was founded to protect. The Onion takes a stab at the latest development. Before I pulled up the body of that piece, I thought it was just another classic Onion one-liner (like "Nation's Elderly Hit Hard By Closing Automatic Doors"). "Secret searches ruled illegal"...it's only a crime if you get caught, right?