Desert Bus Continues

Every year, the amiable folks at Loading Ready Run fire up their Sega CD and play "Desert Bus" from the completed but never released "Penn & Teller's Smoke & Mirrors." The rules are simple: The more money donated to the Child's Play charity, the longer they keep on playing. (Donations have to be made through the "Desert Bus for Hope" site itself. Link below.) Right now, they have received $18,238 in donations and have racked up a time limit of 105 hours. They are 19 hours into this year's Desert Bus, and so far they've gotten a whopping 2 points.

At the Desert Bus for Hope web site, you can find links to a live chat, a live web cam of the drivers and their company, and a live feed of the actual "gameplay." Auctions and contests are held frequently during the duration of the Bussing, and the Bussers often have guests either in person or through phone/skype. One of the most memorable moments from the first year was when Teller himself made an appearance via speaker phone. It's virtually a tradition that he'll order lunch for the crew.

For more information on the "Desert Bus" game itself, check out the Wikipedia article on "Smoke & Mirrors." Frank Cifaldi of Lost Levels also did a recent blog article for 1UP about the game, which features an interview with one of the programmers.

The Dungeon Conquered

After over a decade of playing "Dungeon of Doom," I have finally seen this screen:

My character was a Knight. He had the great fortune of finding about four or five Gain Level Scrolls and two Wishing Scrolls. He wished for:

1 Death Blade +4
1 Regenration Ring +2
1 X-Ray Ring +2
1 Plate Armor +4
1 Elven Cloak +4

He was virtually untouchable. Not even the Vampires and their dreaded "life draining" attacks could take him down a notch. Of course, there was much save scumming, mostly to lessen the impact of Vampire attacks. I defeated the Dark Wizard for good sometime between ascending from Floor 30 to Floor 20. My character finished the game with an experience level of 32 and loot of 657,580 gold pounds. If only I could spend it.

Pride

I have never read a single Twlight book, nor have I seen the Twilight movie. Nothing on Earth will ever compel me to read a Twilight book. I have subjected myself to "Transformers 2" and "G.I. Joe," but I'll be damned if I ever allow my eyes to be molested by one of the Twilight movies.

I take great pride in declaring this. There are times when a line needs to be drawn and a stance needs to be taken. Here I have drawn the line and here I have taken my stance, on this blog and in this entry. I refuse to partake in a "cultural" (har har) phenomenon that involves bare-chested dweebs transforming into poorly rendered "werewolves." I refuse to declare Edward Cullen a "vampire" and insult the memory of Dracula and Orlok in the process. I don't just refuse; I refuse with pride.

I am not alone. There are lots of people like me, of both sexes, who realize that Twilight is nothing more than soft-core porn. Many of them are part of the intellectual elite. We do not always agree, but in the coming months we musn't allow our petty differences to overshadow a critical fact:

That we all know "New Moon" is a steaming turd.

You can cover a turd in cash, but you can't use money to mask the scent of shit.

Happy Halloween!

The new greatest web site ever

http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/

Here's how it works: Can't load this one page? Don't know if it's down, or if it's just your connection? Open up the above link, type the URL of the site into that message block and click "is it just me?"; a page will load telling you if the URL is down or not.

This may be the niftiest thing since "Google".

A quote to remember

"There are people who tell jokes. There are people who collect jokes and tell jokes. And there are people who collect people who tell jokes."

From a recent blog on Reason Magazine's web site, this quote originated from East Germany during the time when the Berlin Wall was still erect. East Germans liked to crack jokes about the regime that unfortunately dominated their lives, and this was one of many humorous observations about their state's behavior. Like other communist regimes, the East German government locked up dissenting voices; that included wise-crackers.

Some more period anti-regime humor here, as the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall's fall approaches.

The Nobel Peace Prize

And I thought "Avatar: The Last Airbender" had easy achievements...

In case you ever wondered...

In "Die Hard 3", how did McClane and Zeus get precisely four gallons into a 5-gallon jug? Here's how:




BONUS: Solution to the 21/42 Riddle

IT'S ALL A DIVERSION. FOLLOW SIMON TO CANADA BEFORE HE RUNS AWAY WITH THE FEDERAL RESERVE MONEY.

This cat is an inspiration to us all

Link: http://chasenoface.blogspot.com/

Chase is a cat who is both macabre and yet,... strangely adorable. Hang in there, kitty!

The race card

Hand #1: Implication through Demographic
(AKA "The Kanye West Play")

Person A opposes welfare.

Person B supports welfare.

Person B says Person A is racist. Reasoning: A racial demographic relies on government handouts, therefore Person A has something against said demographic.

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Hand #2: Dissent Against Race
(AKA "The Obama Defense")

Person A disagrees with Person C.

Person C is black.

Person B says Person A's dissent is rooted in racism.

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Hand #3: Denial is Confirmation
(AKA "The White Guilt Gambit")

Person A has the race card played against him and denies he's a racist.

Person B asks Person A why he's so quick to deny the accusation.

Person C, who agrees with Person B, thinks Person A is afraid to confront race issues, perhaps because he *is* racist. (The latter is sometimes implied rather than said.)

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Those are the most common ones I can come up with; maybe I'll post more later.