grindmonkeh

Operation No Banker Billionaire Left Behind seems to be a great success. So who the fuck is Cerberus (other than the dog of mythical lore)? Oh. Well that's just fucked. But surely the Wall Street CEO's have realigned their management model and are maximizing capital gains with their gifted slice of pie. Oh? Well that's just fucked. Revolution! Revolution! Revo...what? Well that's just fucked too.

Energy costs evaporate while hyperinflation is almost certain. If you wanted to buy that vacant Illinois Senate seat, you missed your chance. I'm guessing the only one left with any shot at that kind of bargaining would be U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.

On the brightside, Obama has apparently made a good choice in his energy secretary.
http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/10/news/economy/doe/index.htm?postversion=2008121017

An amusing story for the gamer-in-relationship: I Heart Nerds...WOW.

That's all. For now.

I've gotten back into gaming lately over the ThanksGibleting break. I finished Quake 4 after starting it close to a year ago and pretty much abandoning it. The game was very average and I'm not even really sure how I destroyed the nexus-brain-thinger at the end with just one shot, especially after watching this.


Now I'm several chapters into Heroes of Might and Magic: Dark Messiah. Dark Messiah is quite a bit more compelling than the non-plot of the aforementioned. I'd describe it best as Oblivion on rails... As in, your path and quests are all determined by the linear plot. But this game was super-cheap and the playability and graphics (Half-Life 2 engine) are excellent...and sometimes the linear play is a nice break from the epic vastness such as that of Cyrodil, which can require note-taking, home-cartography, and a lengthy memory if you step away from it for any amount of time. I have two expansions for Oblivion that I haven't touched, but I've been away from it for so long (2 years?) that it seems a bit daunting to take it back to task.

My box is getting dated though and a lot of newer games won't support my graphics card's (ATI x800xt agp) DX limitations. Has anyone put together a system lately and would like to share their ingredients, costs, etc?

Another real-estate company wants me to set up a website for them to manage, and I may have to take it to fund a system upgrade. I've expressed my disinterest due to my workload with classes, work, family, etc...and the fact that they want to maintain it themselves and thus will want to use me as their help-desk ad infinitum. It's hard to turn down easy money, I just don't want to commit the time.

While AIG spends another $343,000 at a secret resort gathering. the company "can't promise" that it won't need more money.

A few days ago I was reading that it cost about $30 billion a year to end world hunger. Approximately 10% of the $700 billion bailout is to be paid in discretionary bonuses. That's $70 billion dollars worth of BONUS money for a job WELL DONE! Doing the math in this context makes a problem that appeared to be beyond a massive scale now seem offensively neglected. Lets put that bonus money to work by sending those C-level (CEO's, CFO's, etc.) employees on vacation to a third world country just starving for their company. We can solve world hunger one scumbag at a time.

At least THIS is a relief. The Congressional Review Act has a clause that will cost Bush any additional pillaging he and his cronies were planning for the end of their run. Politico explains the Congressional Review Act and the specific clause that affects Bush:

"...any regulation finalized within 60 days of congressional adjournment — Oct. 3, in this case — is considered to have been legally finalized on Jan. 15, 2009. The new Congress then has 60 days to review it and reverse it with a joint resolution that can’t be filibustered in the Senate."

As Politico sums up:

"In other words, any regulation finalized in the last half-year of the Bush administration could be wiped out with a simple party-line vote in the Democrat-controlled Congress."

I took yesterday off since the boys were home and neither Bran nor I have been feeling all that great due most likely to the weather change. I've caught up on all the episodes of Fringe I had dvr'd. It's the X-Files meets CSI or some such shit, but I like it. Argh. Headache.

WTF? Seth Green was THAT guy?

Getting ready to go vote today. The lines should be very short since the Republicans all voted yesterday. It was nice of them to let us Dems have our own day at the polls.

( also.. )

Ganked from NotClownJoker.
In The Know: Has Halloween Become Overcommercialized?...funny stuff.

Headachey and a bit grouchy. Work to do and I don't know where to start.

I'm looking forward to this...
The promise of Windows 7.

New albums from Exodus, Enslaved, Bloodbath, and the Haunted to check out. The new Gojira is excellent.

Hotter than a muthafucka in here. It'll be nice when they get our new AC units in.

Fun with Zenworks Asset Manager. Out.

I'm always sick at some point during October. I've felt under the weather going on two weeks and it sucks. This sinus headache will not go away despite anything I've taken for it.

I'm suspending my Netflix account, as the same six movies have been at the top of my queue with a waiting list for months in some cases. For fuck's sake, I don't even want to see Baby Mama, but per my wife's request I put it on my list when it came out on dvd over a month ago. Jumper (one for the kids)...came out in fucking JUNE! And the Lamb of God Walk with Me in Hell dvd...July 1st. I've been adding these movies as they open in the theaters, but apparently Netflix is that oversubscribed.

Well fawk...Max Payne: 19% on Rotten Tomatoes. I guess that one's likely going to suck worse than I expected. I finally got to Iron Man and really liked it...gonna nab the Hulk for this weekend if I can.

Midterm Grades were given today...Information Systems and Web Programming...A's in both classes. Beyotches.

The ACLU Demands Information On Military Deployment Within U.S. Borders...I blurbed about this a few weeks ago here.

Not all McCain supporters are racist or religiously biased mental deficients...so at least they've got that going for them...


And Natalie Portman thinks you should vote early...



A: Dr. Dre

http://palinaspresident.com/

http://upsidedowndogs.com/

Getting over a nasty cold. Missed work and class on Monday and Tuesday. Studying for an exam I have in 20 minutes. Not so much 'studying' as it is staring at lecture outlines and hoping that I can retain the material without thinking about it. Thinking's hard.

Wall Street still sucks. Too many headlines today about their self-serving bullshit to mention.

I downloaded the Zombie Panic! HL2 mod from Steam yesterday evening to kill some time with. It's good fun for a while...especially for the month of October...in which you're immersed in Night of the Living Dead online multiplayer scenarios where you are either on the human team or (once killed or infected) the zombie team.

Books read thus far this year...
The Star Wars Vault: Thirty Years of Treasures... - Stephen Sansweet
Transitions I: The Orc King - R.A. Salvatore
Lord of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground - by Michael Moynihan, Didrik Soderlind
Books of Blood - by Clive Barker
Duma Key - by Stephen King
The Road - by Cormac McCarthy
No Country for Old Men - by Cormac McCarthy
Roomanitarian - Henry Rollins
Armageddon in Retrospect - Kurt Vonnegut
Mister B. Gone - Clive Barker
Reign in Blood (33 1/3) - D.X. Ferris
Voices in the Street - Philip K. Dick (...currently in the midst of this one.)

I've been itching to game lately. I was just looking at these photos from Chernobyl and was reminded how phenomenally S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl pulled off not only the accuracy of the landmarks and buildings, but the complete atmosphere of the game as well. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky was just released a few weeks ago, but at this point all the reviews indicate that it is seriously buggy and that patches are necessary to make it worth buying. I'm sure that I'll need a major system upgrade anyhow since they've improved upon the demanding visuals of the first game, and every other current game I've tried has been one taxing or nonplayable bastard. I have several older games I need to play first before I think about spending the money anyhow.

Okay...I never (read: NEVER) run an antivirus program on my home computer, and I've had only had one incident of infection 8 years ago from a game (Red Faction) that someone gave me (thanks Loki!). I've been asked over and over and over lately to fix fucked up systems because people think it's a great idea to use the Google to find free smut and music. You don't get MSFUCK put in your startup items without some serious trying. Bill Gates didn't put it there and it doesn't magically fucking appear.





On the topic of music, my friend Damon and I drove to St. Louis and saw Zak Stevens (Circle II Circle), John Oliva, and Manticora. All put on a great performance...Manticora likely the most solid. We had the chance to hang out with them while John Oliva was on stage, talked metal, and had them sign a couple of cd's we picked up at the show. They're very genuine and talented guys who will have a hard time finding a market for their power/progressive thrash in the United States. The drive home was awful, as fog limited the nighttime visibility to about 25 feet.

We bought tickets to see the Chicago Festival Ballet's The Nutcracker in December. Schweet. It'll be festive for the Holidays.

It looks like Obama's Campaign is playing their ace in the hole...
So at noon Eastern on Monday, October 6th, we're releasing a 13-minute documentary about the scandal called "Keating Economics: John McCain and the Making of a Financial Crisis" -- it will be available at KeatingEconomics.com, along with background information that every voter should know.

No Golden Parachute? No deal. Now Wall Street may shun $700bn bail-out.

That's appropriate, as AIG insurance subsidiary execs were seen partying at an uberswank 5 star St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort. And Prosecutors Expected To Spare Wall St. Firms. from teh Washington Post.



Ebay just told me that the MAXIMUM shipping cost I would be able to charge for a complete season of the Sopranos on DVD is $3.00 starting at the end of this month. Smoke less fucking crack. I usually end up eating a few bucks on shipping charges anyhow...but this is an example of another Ebay policy necessary because of buyers who see the terms of the auction, bid and agree to them anyway, and throw a bitchfit later because those terms included an unreasonably high s&h charge. You'll only get overcharged for shipping if you agree to it. Apparently society needs these regulations, lest individuals agree to mortgages deals that will ultimately screw society as a whole. *cough cough*

Maverick.