Freaky -- Just Freaky

Check this out.

Excerpt:

As the film continued, the girl then walked up to her mother, standing directly behind her and then looping a length of cord around her neck.

At first, the mother says to her daughter "What are you doing? That is not very funny." The teenager replied "It's not meant to be funny." As the film continues, the girl is seen pulling the cord tight.

Only, the film was a personal camcorder; not some studio released flick. Reading the article, it sounds like she's a schizo or is dealing with some possession.

If you believe that sorta thing. Do you?

The Internet hath no fury like a gamer scorned

First, watch this:


Then read the reviews of Cooper Lawrence's book on Amazon:

The Cult of Perfection: Making Peace with Your Inner Overachiever

Lastly, read this Article from the New York Times of her apologizing:

The Internet hath no fury like a gamer scorned.

That’s the lesson Fox News and a self-help author learned this week after a program on that channel featured a discussion of the sexual content of the hit video game Mass Effect.

Bound by global message boards, blogs, chat rooms and of course the games themselves, gamers are perhaps the single most intense subculture on the Internet — fiercely protective of their pastime and at ease with the byways of cyberspace.

So the game world has been ablaze with indignation since the Fox News program “The Live Desk With Martha MacCallum” said on Monday that Mass Effect, one of the most critically praised games of 2007, contains frontal nudity and explicit depictions of sexual activity. The assertions of virtual lasciviousness first appeared earlier this month among conservative bloggers incensed by brief YouTube clips excerpted from the 30- to 40-hour game.

Mass Effect, a science fiction game, includes a complicated romantic subplot that is no more risqué in its plot or graphic in its depiction than evening network television.

To exact their revenge, gamers have turned their vitriol on Cooper Lawrence, an author who appeared to mischaracterize the game when she said: “Here’s how they’re seeing women: They’re seeing them as these objects of desire, as these, you know, hot bodies. They don’t show women as being valued for anything other than their sexuality. And it’s a man in this game deciding how many women he wants to be with.”

In fact Mass Effect allows users to play as either a man or a woman, and the few suggestions of intimate contact occur in the context of a detailed interpersonal story line. Asked on the air by Geoff Keighley of Spike TV whether she had ever played the game, Ms. Lawrence laughed and said, “No.”

Irate gamers have flooded the page on Amazon.com selling Ms. Lawrence’s most recent book, “The Cult of Perfection: Making Peace With Your Inner Overachiever,” sending its user-generated rating into oblivion.

By Friday afternoon 412 of the book’s 472 user reviews were the lowest possible rating, one star. Another 48 ratings were for two stars. Only 12 of the ratings were for three stars or higher. In addition, 929 Amazon users had tagged the book with the keyword “ignorant.” Tied for second place with 744 tags were “garbage” and “hypocrisy,” while “hack” and “hypocrite” tied for fourth place with 710 votes. Gamers have also attacked the book on the Barnes & Noble Web site.

Many of the reviewers admit that they have not read Ms. Lawrence’s book.

As one Amazon user put it: “I know all about this book but have never fully read it. Why? Due to the overwhelming backlash, I have no choice but to agree with the 1 star ratings. The rumors are rampant that this book was poorly written and poorly researched. So without verifying the contents myself — I give it a 1 star. Good thing video games aren’t judged in this manner — whew!!!”

On Friday “The Cult of Perfection” was ranked the 346,106th best-selling book on Amazon. Mass Effect, by contrast, has been a hit, selling more than 1.6 million copies since November. An Amazon spokeswoman said the site would soon begin to remove reviews written by users who had clearly not read the book.

In an interview on Friday, Ms. Lawrence said that since the controversy over her remarks erupted she had watched someone play the game for about two and a half hours. “I recognize that I misspoke,” she said. “I really regret saying that, and now that I’ve seen the game and seen the sex scenes it’s kind of a joke.

“Before the show I had asked somebody about what they had heard, and they had said it’s like pornography,” she added. “But it’s not like pornography. I’ve seen episodes of ‘Lost’ that are more sexually explicit.”

Electronic Arts, the giant publisher that owns Mass Effect, has asked Fox News for a correction. A Fox News spokesman would say only that Electronic Arts had been offered a chance to appear on the channel. An Electronic Arts spokesman said the company had not yet decided whether to accept the offer.

By telephone from Edmonton, Alberta, Ray Muzyka, the medical doctor who is chief executive of BioWare, the Electronic Arts studio that made Mass Effect, said: “We’re hurt. We believe in video games as an art form, and on behalf of the 120 people who poured their blood and tears into this game over three years, we’re just really hurt that someone would misrepresent the game without even playing it. All we can hope for is that people who actually play our games will see the truth."
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Let's blast her into space. Who's with me?

Like a Charger!

I would like some cheese with my whine

I've noticed the past few days have been hell trying to get up from bed. I blame the rain and the cold. Most mornings I feel so unmotivated. And the past few nights we have watched American Idol at LATE O'CLOCK. Damn you, DVR. Why must you work around my schedule?

I saw snow today while I was driving to work. I was like "where am I? Oh yeah, this is not San Diego." My co-workers says you can drive a half an hour to get to snow. I might want to take Kailee to the snow. She's never been. And now that we are closer to Lake Tahoe, we should really take advantage of that. For some reason we don't because "lazy" is scheduled for the entire month. It would be fun to snow board again since it's too cold to surf or to do anything for that matter. I think we just need to go through one bad year of hell-like weather, so come next winter season we know what to expect. It doesn't seem to phase anyone I know who live up here. So I need to quit being such a big baby because that seems to be the only topic on my blog nowadays.

Here are some photos from last night:


Kailee's Domo Kun @ In-&-Out.


Rawr!

Photos via iPhone

iPhone Update

Can I tell you how much Apple kicks ass right now? I just updated my iPhone on iTunes with the new features and totally loving it. Now if only they can come up with a feature to do my dry cleaning and make my coffee, I am seriously going to make love to the genius who comes up with that. Seriously, though. Apple's headquarters (Cupertino, CA) is 15 minutes away from my house.


My iPhone with the updates.


My Domo Kun wallpaper.

San Diego Chargers lose in the Championship Playoffs

My heart aches.

Monthly self portrait: In the car after the park

Today was a good day. We went to Central Park this morning to kill some time before Kailee's dental appointment. Kailee played in the playground while Leo taught me some football moves. Afterwards we went to Golf Land where I kicked Leo's butt. Then he answered back with some serious NBA arcade basketball.

via iPhone

A moment to reflect

I know. I'm a procrastinator. This post is over due. Suck it.

So...what can I say about 2007? Well, 2 major milestones happened. Getting through one year of being married and moving to a new city. That pretty much sums up the excitement of that year. The End.

Haha. All right. 2007 was not a bad year or a good year for me. You know, I lied. It was such a sad year for me. One, I missed my friends and family. Two, I was unemployed for almost a quarter of the year. Three, I've cried myself to sleep a lot. But on the same token, I am happy to be alive and healthy. My family is good. Friends are great. So lots to be thankful for.

(This is the part where I get really serious and semi-sappy)

Last year was the biggest wake up call that I am indeed a full fledged adult. Such a trip. The whole moving thing and trying to get our house rented out. Finding a job in a new city. It was scary and liberating at the same time. Scary because it was all so new. Liberating because I can finally live my life without any distractions and really focus on my own family. Lots of good descisions were made that year. But we won't really know how it pans out till a year from August.

Last month marked our one year wedding anniversary. There were a few bumps in the road. No major bumps. But enough to say that this marriage is definitely NORMAL. Moving was the ultimate test of patience for the both of us. Leo and I would fight about the stupidest things. For example, while we were trying to rent our condo out, we got in a huge fight about the paint on the walls. We've tried several types of white paint and made several trips to Home Depot. Leo was frustrated because he refused to paint over the new paint after I told him that "it didn't fucking look right." So instead, we hired some migrant workers. We were so tired and overwhelmed with all the changes that we were both going to go through. I had recently quit my job and so our finances were strapped. It was so bad that we both fell to our knees and cried. Embraced each other and said we were sorry. I remember sitting on the ground of our empty house just reaking of paint and my shirt all soaked in tears. At the time, this was not something I wanted to share on my blog. Although I did blog a lot during July, I remained coy about my feelings. It was a rather difficult moment. Lots of yelling and crying involved. Lots of curse words being thrown back and forth. It wasn't the best of times. But by god, am I glad it's over.

So now we are in 2008. We celebrated new years at home. And for the first time we celebrated it quietly. We watched the ball drop from the comfort of our living room. Although the excitement wasn't there, I was secretly celebrating that 2008 was here to stay for awhile. And that this would be a time to start over, move forward, and leave all that shit behind.

Photos from the move (via crappy camera phone, pre iPhone days):


My dog, Cookie, and the paint cans we cried over.


One of the two migrant workers we hired.


I cancelled my flight and decided to drive Leo's car up to the Bay. So I packed it with the left over crap and some over night clothes. The rest of the stuff in our house was in a seperate trailer heading for the Bay the following week.


My car being trailered for the long journey. This will be the last time it will see San Diego ever.


There is NOTHING IN MIDDLE CALIFORNIA. It was quiet a depressing drive after LA. The coastal scenic routh (I heard) is beautiful. This was the fastest way.


House warming package from dad - so we don't forget who we are when we look at ourselves in the mirror.


Cookie looking out from the window of our new house. This was his first day home.

Feeling a little better

I've been sick for a few weeks now. I came down with a really bad cough and cold. So bad that I've lost my voice more than once. Off and on. I have thyroid problems and most days I am so fucking fatigued out it drives me nuts. Going to see a doctor next week. This is the longest I've ever been sick and I can't stand it anymore. I can't even type up a decent post without sounding like I want to shoot my fucking leg off. Finally, after weeks of being ill, I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Since we are newbies to the area, we are now experiencing the rainy season in Nor. Cal. All I can say is wow wow wow wow. It doesn't stop. In the course of 5 months we have lived here, we've already experienced bad storms and two earthquakes. One of the earthquakes we actually slept through. Haha.

About the (fairly) new job, it's great. Best place I've ever worked for thus far.

Everyone back at home (San Diego) seem to be doing great. I heard my older bro finally got a job. A decent one. Yay! There were people in San Diego that I really really miss that wasn't able to see during Christmas weekend. I was bummed. I didn't realize how bummed I was until I got over being pissed off about the holidays. Which was seriously, um, today. Haha. I told you I was in really weird funk.

Here's a random photo of a really cute puppy taken awhile ago by Leo at Petco. It was some stranger's dog but I couldn't refuse the cuteness. I was like, "excuse me sir, but can I pet your dog?" Haha.



Finally, I just want to say that I am back to posting mode. I feel so out of touch with my internet friends. Feel free to hit me up whenever.

Ingrid Michaelson

...has some really good songs. Perfect rainy day music for us folks here in the bay.



Sorry if I've been so emo. I started my year off ill and I've been in this funk for about as long as I stopped posting regularly. As much as I like the holidays and people, I am so happy to see it go away for now. Please holidays, don't come back soon. And please let the door hit you on the way out. Because you are a bitch and you make me ill.

a chance to start over

It's a new year. No more excuses. Time to move forward and have a better year.

Happy New Year, everybody.