Shouzer

If I was in high school still, there’s no way I’d be going to school today. I feel freaking horrible. I’ve got this cough that’s pissing me off, my nose is all runny, etc. I just don’t feel good. Lucky for me, I’m in college, and I can’t just call in sick.. </sarcasm>

Hopefully it’ll be gone by tomorrow.

I wish our winters were as nice as the ones here. I’ve been wearing shorts for the past few days. The “cold” lasted for less than a month. I don’t think you could even really justify calling it cold.

I have heard that it gets pretty hot in the summer though. I doubt that it will be very humid though due to the arid climate of Australia.

Damn it. I knew I would dread the day I had to say this again. First day of classes are tomorrow. Today in a few hours, if you want to be technical. That sucks.

Well damn. I’m at school now, and that blows. The room setup should be a lot cooler this year, because Al and I have Kyle and Jason across the bathroom (in the other suite). Plus we know a couple other people on our floor from high school.

Class doesn’t actually start until Wednesday, which is nice. At least we start out with a 3-day week. That shouldn’t be so horrible, anyway. Everything after that should suck, though. I’m expecting it.

Anyway…

Perhaps its just the circles I run in, but alcohol seems to be considered a bad thing in the States. I don’t mean really bad, but it seems to have a negative connotation.

It’s not that way in Australia. Alcohol isn’t a big deal here. They are allowed to drink at 18, and it’s a normal thing that everyone does. For instance, I went to this classical music concert at the nearby church. They cultivated a romantic (for lack of a better word) atmosphere. They had candles, it was dark, and we all sat around tables. Several people brought in food to snack on. What really interested me though, was the 6 pack of Coronas and the bottles of wine. No one got drunk or anything, but you just don’t see that in US churches, at least I never have.

I haven’t really seen anyone with alcohol problems though. It may be that I just haven’t stayed up late enough, but I haven’t seen anyone get really drunk. I’ve heard of a few people getting pretty smashed, but it seems pretty rare.

So I can add one more thing to the list of components that have been replaced in my computer. Last Tuesday night, my hard drive died.

I think either the needle (or whatever is used to read the disk) or the disk itself got off balance. Then, the needle caught on the disk and scratched it. Eventually, it caught it enough that the disk stopped spinning all together.

I lost all of my pictures from Australia and music. I’m pretty ticked off about that. I also lost a lot of programs and my calendar.

I hate compaq.

Bush also defended his decision to continue sitting in an elementary school classroom for seven minutes on Sept. 11, 2001, after being told of the terrorist attacks. Kerry and filmmaker Michael Moore have criticized Bush for doing so.

“I was collecting my thoughts and I was sitting with a bunch of young kids, and I made the decision there that we would let this part of the program finish,” he said.

Anybody who’s seen that footage and has half a brain can see that he just doesn’t react. He didn’t decide to finish the program, and if he did, he’s more of a moron that I thought. Why, in all seriousness, would somebody with any intelligence make that decision? “Well, we’ve just experienced our largest mainland attack since pearl harbor. What will I do?… Hm, I’ll finish sitting here with these kids that don’t know/care who I am. Der, I’m the president.”

He was on the right track when he said he was collecting his thoughts. But the second part of his comment fucked him, and you know he’s lying and/or stupid. You pick.

[Source:] mlive.com

I’m getting ready to order my books for school this year. That kind of sucks, because they cost so damn much. Screw books, I say. We should just get some free digital notes or something, maybe ala PDF. That would save me a shitload of money every year.

I’m really excited that football season is here. I didn’t catch the preseason game, but I’m going to try to keep up with the regular season. I think I’ve found a sports bar that plays football. I should be able to get Sunday Night and Monday Night action during Monday and Tuesday lunch.

Speaking of sports, I think it sucks that the Cardinals had to pick this season to suddenly get good. I would have gotten to see some playoff action if I was there. I guess it’s a small price to pay though.

I went away this weekend to a retreat. While we were there, we had a campfire. The aussies have an interesting campfire tradition. They make damper (?sp).

Damper is kind of like bread. The mix up flour, water, and a little sugar and salt. Then they put it on a stick and cook it over a fire. After it is done, you pull it off the stick and pour some golden surap in the resulting hole. It’s actually not bad.

The problem is, cooking bread on a stick is pretty inefficient. Mine ended up burnt on one end and under cooked on the other. Most people had a similar result. I’m told that it works better if you wrap it in foil and stick it in the hot coals, but that’s not as much fun.

I told them about smores, and they all seemd pretty keen on trying it. However, they don’t have graham crackers here so we couldn’t. Their loss I guess.

In regards to my Doom III post, I’m getting a new video card. I’ve decided on a 9800 Pro. It should be pretty pimp. Anyway, it was a combination of a few things that made me decide to get the new card.

1. My card is old, and I’ve been wanting something new.
2. I found someone who’ll buy my old card from me for about $50, which isn’t bad.
3. I found a 9800 Pro on sale for a pretty good price.
4. Word on the street is I should be able to mod this bitch out into an XT, which raises its value about $150. Damn right.
5. Doom III is so pretty on my shitty card, that it would look absolutely stunning on something better.

That’s right. The simple fact that I have Doom III is part of what’s making me get a new card. It’s that good.

Me, Quint, Jason, and Kyle went golfing today. We scrambled, actually. It was me and Quint vs Jason and Kyle. We played 9 holes, and Quint and I won by 4 strokes. I was pretty happy with my performance considering I’ve played about 5-6 times in my life and it’s been about 14-15 months since I last played, if not longer.

We finished +8, which wasn’t bad, either. When you figure we averaged less than a bogey, that’s pretty good. I’ll take it all the time, really. We parred 3 holes, and had a birdie putt on the last whole. Can’t really complain about that. Overall it was pretty fun. I think they said they want a rematch next week. I just may have to do that.

I watched this movie last night. Overall, I would say that it was a little boring. I though he could have cut about 30 minutes of the movie with no loss to the message.

I realize I’m probably going to incite a large debate with this, but here goes.

Honestly, I knew most of the stuff he brought up. He did shed a little more light on some of the information, like the Saudi connection.

The biggest problem I had with the movie though was the main theme. One of Moore’s major points was that Bush has been using the terror fear as a means of controlling the nation. He also thought that the Afghanistan war was bogus and just something Bush did to cover himself politically.

My major problem with this is it seems a little far fetched. Bush isn’t exactly portrayed as a smart guy, even in the movie. How could such an idiot outsmart the entire American public? I’m not saying Bush did or did not do these things. I’m just saying that if your going to criticize for masterminding a plan to control the country using fear, don’t portray him as an idiot. After that, I don’t know what to believe.

I also felt that the Afghanistan war was a strong enough response to 9/11. Moore complained because we only had 11,000 troops there. I thought that was plenty. From the way it was portrayed, they basically decimated the country, so what else does he want? This wasn’t a major point in the movie, but I thought this was going a little overboard. Most of the rest of it made Bush look very suspicious. It would be hard to argue against most of Moore’s points.

If you haven’t seen this movie yet, I wish I was you. The Village was one of the worst movies I’ve seen in a long time – probably since that damn movie Pearl Harbor.. Damn, I hated that movie You don’t go for your friend’s girl just because he’s dead. That’s wrong. Especially when he’s not really dead.

So yeah.. The thing that pisses me off about The Village is that it sucked. Plain and simple. The first hour or so was pretty damn good, actually, and then they must have run out of time and tried to finish it in about 5 minutes. Thank God for that, because if they’d have had 10 minutes, I’m sure it would have been longer..

It started out as a somewhat suspenseful love story time thingamajib. That was bad at all. Sometimes I need my daily dose of love story. So I was down with that. You could even say, if you so dare, that I was “chill” with it. The choice is up to you.

Suddenly, though, the main character gets stabbed by a retarded guy, so his blind fiancee wanders through the forest, which is infested with fake monsters (she finds this out from her father, an elder). She makes her way through the forest to a fence, climbs over, and sees some dude in a jeep. Well, not really sees. You see, she’s blind. I guess he saw her. Anyway, it turns out they’re in a wild life refuge that was set up by her father, because his dad was a billionaire. They’re trying to simplify life or something. They can never leave, but this was a special occasion, because she’s blind and her husband-to-be was stabbed by her retarded friend. On the way through the forest she unwittingly kills the retarded guy. We find out he escaped through the floor of the room he was locked in. She makes it back with medicine to save Joaquin. Yay. Doesn’t that just sound like a load of shit?

Oh yeah, there were some spoilers in there. Too bad for you. Maybe now you won’t see the movie.

Most people, gamers included, have probably never played Wolfenstein 3d, Doom, or Doom II. Hell, most have probably never played Heretic (and its sequels) or Hexen (and its sequels), for that matter. It seems that most people I talk to began playing games at about Duke Nukem 3d. I played that shit in 2d on a 286. That’s pretty impressive considering I’m only 19 right now. I’m fairly old school as far as gaming is concerned. I even played Blake Stone. Apogee, anyone?

Anyway, arguably the most anticipated sequel ever (Half-Life 2 might get the crown, but I said arguably) was released yesterday in its infinite glory. Doom III hit the shelves yesterday. Playing that game is bringing back some of the greatest gaming memories I’ve ever had. I remember getting Doom II for my (10th?) birthday and being giddy with excitement. Playing Doom III is bringing back those memories. The game is stunning visually. There’s nothing more you can say about it. It is the best game you will have ever seen in your life, by far. FarCry doesn’t come close. DX:IW? Thief 3? Toss them out your window. They don’t compare.

Get it while its hot. *Touches Doom III cd* Ttsssss (Hissing noise, because it’s just so hot)