School 1967 vs. School 2007

Scenario: Jack goes quail hunting before school, pulls into school parking lot with shotgun in gun rack.
1967 - Vice principal comes over, looks at Jack's shotgun, goes to his car and gets his own shotgun to show Jack.
2007 - School goes into lockdown, the FBI is called, and Jack is hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors are called in to assist traumatized students and teachers.

Scenario: Johnny and Mark get into a fistfight after school.
1967 - Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up buddies.
2007 - Police are called; SWAT team arrives and arrests Johnny and Mark. They are charged with assault and both are expelled even though Johnny started it.

Scenario: Jeffrey won't sit still in class, disrupts other students.
1967 - Jeffrey is sent to the principal's office and given a good paddling. Returns to class, sits still and does not disrupt class again.
2007 - Jeffrey is given huge doses of Ritalin. Becomes a zombie. Tested for ADD. School gets extra state funding because Jeffrey has a disability.

Scenario: Billy breaks a window in his neighbor's car and his Dad gives him a whipping with his belt.
1967 - Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college, and becomes a successful businessman.
2007 - Billy's dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy is removed to foster care and joins a gang. State psychologist tells Billy's sister that she remembers being abused herself and their dad goes to prison. Billy's mom has an affair with the psychologist.

Scenario: Mark gets a headache and takes some Aspirin to school.
1967 - Mark shares Aspirin with the school principal out on the smoking dock.
2007 - Police are called and Mark is expelled from School for drug violations. His car is searched for drugs and weapons.

Scenario: Pedro fails high-school English.
1967 - Pedro goes to summer school, passes English, and goes to college.
2007 - Pedro's cause is taken up by local human rights group. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that making English a requirement for graduation is racist. US Civil Liberties Association files class action lawsuit against state school system and Pedro's English teacher. English is banned from core curriculum. Pedro is given his diploma anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he cannot speak English.

Scenario: Johnny takes apart leftover Independence Day firecrackers, puts them in a model airplane paint bottle and blows up an anthill.
1967 - Ants die.
2007 - Homeland Security and the FBI are called and Johnny is charged with domestic terrorism. Teams investigate parents, siblings are removed from the home, computers are confiscated, and Johnny's dad goes on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again.

Scenario: Johnny falls during recess and scrapes his knee. His teacher, Mary, finds him crying, and gives him a hug to comfort him.
1967 - Johnny soon feels better and goes back to playing.
2007 - Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces three years in a federal prison. Johnny undergoes five years of therapy.

Just a few quick points about Super Mario Galaxy...

• The graphics are the best I've seen in a Mario game to date.  Everything is fluid and smooth and pretty.


• Rosalina is hotter than Peach.


• They brought back airships.


• I'm having an easier time with this game than I did with Super Mario Sunshine.


• Ray surfing is hard.


• Extra lives are plentiful.


• I need someone to play coop mode with me.


• My Mii's head isn't that big... is it?


• Go out and buy this game now.

Remember that time when you thought we were going to murder you, and I said "goodbye", and you were all like NO WAY.

...

That was great.

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(If you don't get the reference, go out and buy Orange Box.  Now.)

My heart goes out to the people in California who've been affected by the wildfires.  Those wildfires are not to be trifled with, especially when they form those fire tornados.  But in a way, they are using the knowledge they gained from Katrina to get people out and handle the situation.  Granted, handling the situation is slow going and difficult, but at least they know what they are doing now, and they're doing it right this time.  I just hope that everyone cooperates with the authorities to keep casualties to a minimum.  I've heard people are looting out there and there aren't enough police to go around to stop them.  But in the face of a natural disaster like this, your most important thing is your life.  FEMA's on the right track when they tell you that you should have on hand a disaster kit which should contain your most important documents, some non-persishable food, a radio, extra batteries, a flashlight, and extra changes of clothes.  Because if you're facing a natural disaster, all you need to do is grab that kit and go.  Yes, it sucks to have all your personal belongings stolen from you by looters, but if you've got all the important stuff with you, you will survive in the end.

Personally, my family and I were very lucky.  Katrina and Rita did not affect us as badly as it did others.  We got minimal damage.  The apartment I was staying in had a few leaks and a tree leaning on it, but nothing other than that.  It was still livable when I got back.  As for my parents house, they lost a few shingles and some branches came loose from the trees but did not hit the house.  We were very lucky, and that's all it was.  Luck.  The apartments across the street where I lived got totalled, but mine didn't so much as get flooded.  And just down the street, that's where the serious flooding started.

My point is, there are going to be people in California who are going to get lucky, but a lot of people who won't be so lucky.  But, everyone needs to work together to get through this, just like we did.  Soon enough, either the fire fighters will stop the blaze, or it will stop on it's own.  And then, just like we did, the people will clean up, and rebuild.

With that said, I'll move onto other things.

For the past few weeks, my car has been giving me a lot of trouble.  I discovered last week that I could no longer turn the steering wheel.  My dad and I looked at it and found that the power steering hose had a leak in it.  We patched it up and it worked fine for a few days... and then the leak got worse.  So the other day I took it to a mechanic to replace the hose.  Luckily, it was only the pressure hose, and the mechanic had a hose on site.  The bill?  $200 parts and labor.  But hey, at least I can drive my car again.

My mom's birthday is coming up.  In fact, it's next wednesday.  That's right.  Halloween.  Unfortunately, she's been spending every week across the lake, taking care of my nephew, and my dad picks her up on weekends.  So this year, we'll be celebrating her birthday this weekend.  We got her some nice gifts.  Keep in mind that my mom loves the Beatles.  My dad got her a commerative plaque from A Hard Day's Night with a negative from the film.  I got her a copy of A Hard Day's Night on DVD and the Beatles Anthology on DVD.  I know she'll love what we got her.  Last year, I got her one of the old wooden signs from Jim's Fried Chicken, the place her father used to own.  Though I think she'll like the DVD's better.

I grabbed a copy of Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney.  I've seen so many of those Phoenix Wrong flashes that I figured that I should see what the hype is all about.  This is actually a pretty fun game.  Although, it appears to be just a one shot game.  There's five episodes of this courtroom drama, which actually takes place in the year 2016.  Apparantly the court system has been completely streamlined in that every single case must be decided within a 3 day time period (although extensions can be made).  So they've pretty much done away with court filings and conferences and such things.  And there's no jury.  Everything is decided by evidence and testimony, and the judge makes the final decision.  Also, you do the detective work and collect evidence.  It's not a bad game, for a courtroom drama.  I need to get the sequel now.

Clive Barker's Jericho was released on GameTap yesterday.  I downloaded it and played it.  First and foremost, anyone who has a problem with the Catholic church should not play this game.  It revolves around some of the mysteries of the divine creation.  Even one of the characters, that you can control, is a Catholic priest.  That being said, if you are a devout Catholic who buys everything the church says without question, you probably don't want to play this game either.  Every character that you can control has magical and psychic powers.  Also, the sniper is a lesbian.  But if you've got an open mind and no problem with Catholic dogma, then this game is freakin' awesome!  The graphics are simply out of this world.  The level of detail is just jaw dropping.  The character models all look... well... organic.  Even your own movements appear natural.  This isn't any average horror-survival FPS.  This is taking FPS to a new level.  Basically, you start with a team of 7 people, including you.  There's the priest, there's the sniper who has telekinetic powers, there's a soldier who can astral project, there's a tech who's also a demolitionist, a heavy weapons guy who made a pact with a fire demon, there's a blood witch who carries a katana and a badass pistol (her powers can stop enemies in their tracks) and then there's you, the captain of the squad.  Unfortunately, something happens to the good captain and you end up sharing the bodies of your comrades and take control of them.  The story is solid, the graphics are incredible, and the game play... ohhh I love a good firefight, and there are a helluva lot of them.  Unfortunately, you die... a lot.  Luckily any of the team members can revive you with a simple touch, and you can do the same with them.  After a few moments, you're back in the game.  It's like freeze tag, only with live rounds.  There are also action sequences, like in God of War, where you have to hit certain keys at specific times... or you die.  But you get to retry if you fail.  There was one particular part where what was supposed to be a dead body grabbed the person I was in and I had to hit the buttons in a way to punch and kill the dead body until it died again.  It took me no less than 10 tries to get it right.  All in all, this game delivers on all points.  It's freakin' awesome!

And that's all I have to say for now.  Later.

Alright, so I've finished Phantom Hourglass.  Let me go over some of the finer points of the game.

The world is much smaller, even smaller than in Minish Cap.  Even so, there is a lot of extras to find.  Unfortunately, some of those extras only come through if you play it online, which I haven't bothered to do.  But you can finish the game without finding everything, as is the case with most Zelda games.  And the final boss is a tough nut to crack.

There are no Pieces of Heart in this game.  There are extra Heart Containers to find, aside from the ones you get in the dungeons.  But thankfully, you don't have to go hunting for 50 Pieces of Heart just to fill out your hearts.

There is fishing in this game, and it kinda sorta plays like the fishing system in Twilight Princess, and the fish are so much easier to spot.  I mean, you can see them right on the map.

I love the bombchus.  For once I can actually put bombchus to good use outside of a minigame.  In some dungeons you'll see little holes in the walls.  Those are for bombchus to go through to hit switches and stuff.  And what makes them even better is that you can draw out their path, instead of just dropping it and letting it go off in one direction.

They did some nifty things to the grappling hook too.  Now you can set up tightropes you can walk across.  And also you can make a makeshift slingshot to shoot yourself across certain areas and up onto ledges.  That's neat.

The ship system is unique in that there are several different types of equipment you can use to customize the ship.  The more parts you use from one type, the more stamina the ship gets.  I got it up to a stamina of 6.

And that's about it.  It was a fairly decent game.

Now I just gotta finish out my preorders for Super Mario Galaxy and Super Smash Bros. Brawl.  I should be able to do that later in the week.

So I been reading about this person who worked at Nintendo who got fired over a few blog entries.  Now, most companies don't have a written policy about blogging.  But, and I can't stress this enough, IF YOU'RE GOING TO BITCH ABOUT WORK OR SAY REALLY BAD THINGS ABOUT YOUR COWORKERS, DO NOT, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, PUT PICTURES OF YOURSELF ON YOUR BLOG NOR SHOULD YOU BLOG FROM WORK!  Even if you're writing under a pseudonym, oh say, your fursona (such as myself), if you've got pictures of yourself up on your site, then they will find you, they will know it was you, and they will bust you.  They pay people to do this kind of thing.  Blog smart people.  I know I'm not innocent, but I've never said the things that was said in that ex-Nintendo employee's blog.  The stuff said there was just plain dumb.  If you're gonna blog from work, bitch gently, or write about how much you love your job.

And for the record, I do love my job.

So anyway, on to other things.

I grabbed a hold of Legend of Zelda Phantom Hourglass the other day.  I have to say, I'm slightly disappointed, but impressed at the same time.  My disappointment stems from three things.  One, it's directly following Windwaker, and not a lot of people liked Windwaker.  I played it once all the way through, and now it's collecting dust on my shelf.  And two, the graphics aren't as sharp as I've come to expect with the DS.  I expected something smoother, and I got pixelated 3D renderings.  And lastly, there's a learning curve for those of us who are used to the more traditional style of play.  Learning to use the Wii Remote to play Twilight Princess was easier than learning to use the stylus on this thing.  And they're really pushing the stylus now.  You use the stylus to do every-friggin-thing.  Moving, fighting, interacting with objects, etcetera, it's all done with the stylus.  And it can get annoying, when you've got two big ass monsters coming at you at the same time.  I could do it if I could use my D-pad, but noooo.  Gotta use the stylus.

Aside from my disappointment, the game doesn't lack the feel of adventure that you get from Zelda games.  And like Windwaker, you're set out on the open seas and you get to discover islands and find lost treasure, and stuff like that. 

One of the "innovations" of this game is the ability to draw on your maps and sea charts.  There are even a few islands where no one has ever charted them and you have to draw up the maps of the islands yourself.  You can make marks on most town maps, dungeon maps, and sea charts.  In fact, you have to make these notes to get through some puzzles, unless you just have that good of a memory (I don't).  It's a handy little feature.

They've simplified sailing this time around.  Now instead of depending on a sail and the winds, you have a steam boat which you get to pilot by drawing out a route on your sea chart.  The ship then follows your exact route, as you've drawn it.  And shooting enemies with the ship's cannon is as easy as a tap on the screen, and you have unlimited ammo this time around.  Very nice.  But your ship also has it's own HP, and if it takes too much damage in battle, it'll sink.  They did, however, complicate the method of pulling up treasures from the sea.  In Windwaker, you'd just go to the spot, and lower your crane and then it'd come up with your chest, nothing to it.  This time, there's a minigame where you have to move the crane's claw around as it sinks to the bottom and avoid some mines that are apparantly all around you under the surface of the water, and then again as you pull it up.  I guess there had to be a trade off, but at least you feel like you've actually worked for getting those treasures.  Also, the cyclones are back.  Only this time, you have to get a slate to draw on and shoot at these golden frogs who will give you a symbol to draw on the slate.  So far, I've only gotten one of them.

Once you're in a dungeon, there's no map or compass to find anymore.  In fact, your map is completely laid out for you right at the get-go.  And there are those little boing-y statues (from Ocarina of Time) that will tell you, and show you, where treasure chests are on the floor that you are on.  But you have to make your own markers for them on your map because the ones they make don't stay.  So basically, when you're in the dungeon, all you're concerned about finding is the keys, the special item, and the boss key.  Simple.

I like the boomerang though.  When you use the boomerang, you can draw out it's path.  So you can throw it and make it go into several loops before it comes back to you.  Nifty.

All in all, it's a fairly decent game.  Aside from the learning curve, the graphics, and the fact that it's basically Windwaker 2, it's a must have for Zelda fans.  So go and get it already.

Laterz.

I am now ITIL Foundation certified!  I took the exam and passed it with 90% (I needed 65%).

ITIL is a process-oriented management system for IT organizations.  And it's the most boring crap ever to learn.

Management.  (Shudder)  Give me field work any day.

Laterz.

Saturday morning my grandmother (on my dad's side) had a stroke.  Luckily, my grandfather acted quickly and got her to the hospital in time for her to be treated.  As of right now, she's doing good and will start doing some therapy.  It was caused by a heart palpitation that went on too long.  She'll be alright though.

My mom has decided that she needs a facelift.  Apparantly she saw an ad on tv about this clinic in Houston that does only facelifts and it costs $4000.  And guess what, our insurance don't cover it.  I certainly don't have $4000, and between the mortgage and all the house bills, my dad ain't got it either.

I have to be ITIL Foundation Certified by the end of the month (which is this week).  Luckily, the company that I'm contracted from is providing the training and the exam voucher for it.  I have one more module of the training to go, and there's a Prometric testing center right here in my building.  I should be ITIL Foundation Certified by the end of this week.

I've rediscovered Megaman Legends, after seeing some flash tributes to it on Newgrounds.  I backed it up to a BIN image and started playing it again on my PC with ePSXe, instead of going through the motions to start my PS2.  I'm just that lazy.  It works relatively well with my joystick, which is a close mimic of the Playstation controller.  I forgot how tedius this game is... and yet I played it for well over two hours in one sitting.  Anyway, Clive Barker's Jericho is coming to GameTap next month.  Also next month is the release of Legend of Zelda Phantom Hourglass for the DS.  And whenever they get around to releasing Half-Life 2 Episode 2 and Team Fortress 2 by themselves instead of bundled together in Orange Box (which also includes Half-Life 2), I'll be grabbing those on Steam.  In the meantime, I'll be doing some digging.

I noticed my footprints have increased today.  You guys rock.

Laterz.

Okay there's a game called Monkey Kick Off.  Here's my best score: 4733.  Now you guys play it and post your best scores for me.