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Ok, ok, I know that WAPCE is not a terribly common acronym, but since when did DTB become common!? Christ.

I am absolutely amazed by this review of Dawn of the Dead. Not because it is a bad review, not because it is a funny review, not because the review is dramatically wrong but because this is a review for parents. This is one of the most gore-filled movies I have ever seen, lots of swearing, some nudity and sexual situations and all of the other great things that give movies an R rating. There is even a handy table listing issues such as “Profanity”, “Nudity/Sex” and even “Diversity Issues.” You would figure that the review would be horribly opposed to anyone young seeing this and especially not making this family affair. Au contrair, the review is suprisingly positive without a lick of conservative America “hide your children from this filth” opinion. The review even gives discussion topics if this movie is seen as a family! “Families who watch this movie might wish to discuss the different approaches taken by the survivors and the range of choices that they make. Are there times when the moral answer is at odds with the instinct to survive? How would you handle this variance?” I am amazed, and quite proud, of this site.

I knew the addiction wasn’t going to get any better when I would think back to those lovely days when I owned a video game console. All those levels beat, all those new trophies acquired, all those end-bosses defeated… I needed a console, and fast! I ended up using my $101 store credit at GameStop to buy a refurbished PS2 with network adapter and another copy of Gran Turismo 3. I still had my saved game from when Joe and I co-owned a PS2, so I fired that up.



Last night, I ended up beating all of the rally levels. I used the same car for all of the levels: a heavily modified Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VII GSR, putting out about 542 HP. There are 10 tracks on the rally circuit, 3 races per track and 2, 3 and 5 laps per race. That means 300 rally laps to complete the entire circuit. My car couldn’t handle as well as most of the rally cars on gravel, but the sheer power got it through those tracks without fault. On tarmac, the car could handle at least as well as the rally cars and I still had a huge power advantage. The prize for getting all first places on the 30 different races is the Suzuki Escudo Pikes Peak Version. You’d think a Suzuki would be a horrible prize car, but mine is currently modified to put down 1881 HP! Top speed is currently 278.9 MPH, nice.

So my radio crapped out awhile ago, probably at least a month ago, and I just today brought it in to be fixed. When I dropped it off, the technician sait it would be ready this afternoon. Around 2 PM, he called to tell me that he couldn’t fix it, couldn’t find a replacement and had to send it out to be fixed. He had no ETA as to when it would be back, so he said to come pick up the car. Well, I have the car, but no radio or CD player!

Sonics Dance Team: Click on Tricia; Last night, Mark Jen tried picking her up at Tap House in Bellevue. They talked for a little while, then Tricia and her friend left.

So, by now you have probably heard that Nintendo’s next handheld will have two screens and be called the DS (D = Dual/Double S = Screen). Take a look at this mockup posted to Gizmodo. The angled design immediately screams to me “This is better because it is different!”, but just think about the ergnomics. Hold your hands in front of you as if you were trying to hold something a bit smaller than a paperback book, lengthways. You don’t curl your wrists outward and your fingers upward, as you would have to with this design. I can see a large number of young gamers developing carpal tunnel if this design got the green light. (I’m going to refrain from jokes about other causes of carpal tunnel in young male gamers.)



A common question about the Pocket PC Phone that I carry around is “Can it play games?” Well, the answer is yes, but why bother? The overall form factor is wrong, requiring you to interlace your fingers to hold the device with two hands. Additionally, there is a directional pad and four buttons, but the pad only supports the four cardinal directions (not diagonals) and two of the buttons are toward the top of the screen. Basically, I wouldn’t even try playing pong on this thing. Hell, I have nethack install on it and even that is impossible to play.

“2 + 2 = 5 for large values of 2.”, why do I find that so humorous?

Penny Arcade!: By far, the best description of those self-cleaning litter boxes. Quotes of Note: “the tiny pot roasts my cat leaves behind”, “sometimes it is flung out, as through by catapult, toward imaginary foes”, and “It is the sort of thing you would design if you had only a vague description of a cat and you didn’t really give a fuck if it worked or not.”

In response to my away message: “Why do all girls have the crazy?”:



Lee (11:35:43 PM): i think girls impact male productivity more than disease


Jenn (8:34:51 AM): you sure know how to pick ’em


Meg (6:36:39 AM): I’ll admit to having the crazy 🙂


Krista’s away message: I like Mike’s away message “why do all girls have the crazy”

Woohoo, go Markko! He only one a single stage of the entire rally, but “slow and steady wins the race”. Ok, in all actuality, having your strongest competitor get slapped with a 5 minute penalty wins the race. If you don’t want to read the link, basically Petter Solberg had some electrical issues before the start of a stage. He and his codriver tried to push the car uphill to make it to the starting line in time. There were already 4 minutes late, giving them a 40 second penalty when the officials realized they received help from the spectators to reach the starting line. That tacked on an additional 5 minute penalty eventhough neither the driver nor codriver asked for the help. With a final time difference of 3 minutes and 14.7 seconds from Markko Martin, Solberg would have won. As Russ said, he probably wouldn’t have pushed so hard if it wasn’t for that 5 minute and 40 second penalty.