This just in. Ed McMahon has recently died at 85 today. In thinking about the life of Ed McMahon, one song comes to mind. That would be the song “Here’s Johnny” by Weird Al Yankovic.
My only other memory of him is when he was involved with Publisher’s Clearing House.
Farewell, Mr. McMahon. You have set the standard in Late Night TV and we will not forget you.
I don’t really have much for this week’s Wild Card Friday. What I recently found is a Facebook/Twitter site for gamers. It keeps track of your gaming activity and the gaming activity of your friends. It’s called Raptr, and I just finished setting up an account.
If you are a gamer and you feel like signing for another social networking site, I suggest you try it out. That was the last card in this deck. I should have a fresh new deck next week. Until then, keep on gaming!
I’ve heard of vending machines selling iPods, and even more common, candy and snacks. But gold? The Gold Rush is coming to Germany, in the form of vending machines.
Pretty soon, the Germans will be able to buy their gold like they buy candy. It sounds good to me. Considering all the people that’s investing in gold, it would be a hit over here. “There’s gold in them thar hills!” More like “There’s gold in them thar machines!” What will they think of next?
After President Obama swatted a fly during a CNBC interview, PETA sent a strong message to Obama: It’s personal. Really? We’re talking about a fly here! A fly! I know that PETA is stupid to begin with, but this really takes the cake.
After hearing about this, I think I’ll go find a fly and kill it. And it will be done using my lethal weapon of choice: a fly swatter.
Just when I thought that conservatism has totally lost it’s voice, I found this:
ABC, for the next nine days, is going to broadcast a primetime infomercial on President Obama’s healthcare agenda.
On the night of June 24, the media and government become one, when ABC turns its programming over to President Obama and White House officials to push government run health care — a move that has ignited an ethical firestorm! Highlights on the agenda: ABCNEWS anchor Charlie Gibson will deliver WORLD NEWS from the Blue Room of the White House. The network plans a primetime special — ‘Prescription for America’ — originating from the East Room, exclude opposing voices on the debate.
My only question is where’s the opposition? Don’t we get to hear both sides of the story? Echoing the sentiment of my friend, “corporate media is mass mind control”. I think he’s right.
This doesn’t make much since at all. With the issue at Gitmo, we have a prison filled with terrorists. The solution? Give them a vacation. Now I don’t understand how this is going to be of any help at all.
Having these people run around in places like Bermuda would not be safe for tourism. Britain is not amused either. With Bermuda being a British colony, this didn’t make the Brits too happy. This is especially so, considering that we did this without informing them.
I guess if you’re a prisoner, you get a vacation. Please tell me how this makes any kind of sense. After thinking about it for a while, it still doesn’t make any sense at all. Crime doesn’t pay. Until now, I guess.
Ah, how I miss the old days of gaming. Games were simple, more challenging, and the focus was on fun, not fanservice. For this week, I will share with you my trip down memory lane. Well, sort of. You will hear the rediscovery of the ancient console that shaped my video gaming past: the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).
My journey started when my mom started playing with Wii Fit, one of the presents that she got for her 50th birthday. In contrasting that game, I thought of the Power Pad, and how I used to play on that when I was younger. With that, I went out to the big garage and unearthed the old Power Pad. I got out the NES and hooked it up. I put in Athletic World and chose Expert mode.
Amazingly, after all these years, the pad was still working pretty well. I completed two rounds of that game. One round was during the day, the other at night. When I saw round 3, I didn’t want to go on, seeing that the two rounds just keep repeating over and over.
Continuing on my journey, I played World Class Track Meet. I played through the Olympics mode, but it wasn’t what I wanted. I then played Tournament mode and realized that this was what I was going after. This mode consisted of two events: 100m dash and 110m hurdles.
In the tournament, there were six opponents: Turtle, Bear, Horse, Rabbit, Bobcat, and Cheetah. All the opponents were a cinch to beat in the 100m dash. None of them were any match against my 6.3 second time. Not even Cheetah, who clocked in at 10 seconds. The hurdles were the challenging part.
In a Michael Phelps victory, I beat Cheetah in the 110 hurdles. His time was 13.90 seconds. My time was 13.84 seconds. I beat him by 0.06 seconds and got the gold trophy. What an epic victory.
For the next leg of my journey, I put in Super Mario Bros. 3. For this game, I took the fast track and got all three warp whistles: the first two in Grass Land and the third one in Desert Land. With the whistles, I warped to Dark Land. Using the limited resources I had, I got past all the levels and beat Bowser.
I then played a second game. This time, I played the whole way through, with 28 P-Wings at my disposal. Using them and collecting other resources along the way, they were more than enough for me to complete the game for a second time. Quite the classic and still fun to play.
My last part of my journey brings me to Wizards & Warriors III – Kuros: Visions of Power. This was a game that I took from my friend, since he didn’t want it anymore. Frustrated, he threw the game in the dew saturated grass, saying that he didn’t want to play it anymore. Since then, the game has been mine and I began my journey through the city of Piedup.
Having played through the whole game, I lost to the final boss. I had to start all over from the beginning. Determined to beat the game (as I had before in the past), I played through again and got to the final boss. It was an epic battle. I was on my last life and had only one unit of life left in my life bar. One hit away from death.
Nonetheless, I hacked away at the last few units of Malkil’s life bar with my level 3 knight. Suddenly, he died and I won. Definitely one of the most epic battles I’ve had in gaming.
Thus ends my journey through the video games of yesteryear. For those of you that missed out (all you younger people out there), some of those games can be bought for the Virtual Console on the Wii. Play them, and enjoy all the classics that you missed. Granted they’re not 3D, but are foundational in the games of the later generations.
Having finished this journey, I can say that it was an exciting one and I know one thing for certain. It definitely will not be the last one.
This just in. David Letterman just made a jab at Sarah Palin’s daughter, saying that she was knocked up during the seventh inning by A-Rod. Okay, so that story is a few days old. (I really need to get this fixed.) Moving on to the special interest story, Letterman made a controversial joke about Sarah Palin’s daughter, Bristol.
This referenced the Yankees game that she attended with her mother. Fact check. Bristol was NOT at the game. It was her younger 14-year-old sister, Willow. With that, Letterman made a joke about a 14-year-old being knocked up by A-Rod. Letterman also invited Sarah Palin on The Tonight Show. Palin, however, has no intentions to appear on the show.
Palin’s reason for declining is that she doesn’t want any part of Letterman’s ratings bait. After the jokes, Letterman apologized, admitting that the jokes were directed at Bristol, not Willow. Letterman has this to say in his apology.
“These are not jokes made about her 14-year-old daughter. I would never, never make jokes about raping or having sex of any description with a 14-year-old girl. I mean, look at my record. It has never happened. I don’t think it’s funny. I would never think it was funny. I wouldn’t put it in a joke…”
Maybe Letterman should think and do a little research before he cracks his jokes. To be honest, I’m really a Conan person myself. Letterman’s just stuffy and arrogant. Conan? He’s easier to relate to and he doesn’t tout that aura of elitism. And that’s the news for this week. I probably won’t be going with this format again. To all of you in the blogosphere, I hope that you all have a good day.
After looking at my budget, I saw that I didn’t have the funds to do a sports story. In lieu of that, we’ll move on to the financial news. It doesn’t look like I’ll be traveling too far, as gas prices will be skyrocketing this summer.
With predictions as much as $250 a barrel, this will put a serious choke on the tourism industry. On the other hand, there’s always The Great Indoors, where I can frolic through the hallways, read books, and play video games.
After covering Minnesota’s cold June weather, we now go to the news. Looking at the news, I have noticed an interesting fact: CBS News is in last place.
Looking at the news competition, NBC is in first with 7,960,000 viewers. ABC is trailing in second, with 7,150,000 viewers. CBS comes in dead last, with 5,180,000 viewers. I figure that some of the remaining viewers watch their evening news on cable. MSNBC, CNBC, CNN, Fox News, and other cable news channels.
Looking back at the ratings for the CBS Evening News, the numbers are pretty telling. Maybe the consumers want a different perspective on the way the news is covered. It’s that, or they’re just tired of the biased angle that they take on covering President Obama.
Fresh perspective, or too much bias? I’ll let you make the call on that. I sense a theme going on here this week. I think I’ll do sports next, or a special interest story. And that’s the news.
Thankfully, there’s no snow around here. However, a couple of inches of snow fell in western North Dakota on Saturday.
Now this is kind of weird, considering I had a dream about it snowing here a few days ago. The temperature was 15 degrees, and I was angry Global warming? Maybe Al Gore should visit North Dakota. There’s snow in them thar hills!
I’ll say it again. The state of the “Big Three” is looking good….for Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft, that is! What did you think I was talking about? Automobiles?
Shuffling through the Wild Card Friday deck, I have decided to talk about E3 this week. Yes, E3. The video gaming mecca that developers, the press, and hard core gamers make their annual pilgrimage to. Right in sunny LA.
I could ramble on about the conference itself, but let’s get down to business about the star attraction of E3: the games. Having the chance to look through some of the games, I was impressed. 2010 is going to be an exciting year for gaming.
Buy why wait until 2010? Some awesome games are on the horizon and are slated for release in late 2009. What are these awesome games? Where do I begin?
Going by console, we’ll start with Sony. Sony has a promising and exciting lineup of games. First of all, Katamari Forever is on its way, and will be rolling to the PlayStation 3 this fall. The Japanese release, Katamari Damacy Tribute will release next month in July. Next, for all you RPG fans out there, Final Fantasy XIII will be released in spring 2010 (Winter 2009 for the Japanese). And we’re not finished yet. Hideo Kojima has began development on a new Metal Gear Solid game. Metal Gear Solid: Rising is in the works, so we won’t be seeing a release date anytime soon. All I know is that Raiden will be the main character, and will probably focus on his storyline.
In the Nintendo realm, Mario has not been taking any vacation. In fact, he’s been busier than ever with the slew of Mario games he’s been working on. The first one is New Super Mario Bros. Wii. This game sounds a lot like its DS predecessor, but it’s a little different. You and three others can play online as Mario, Luigi, and two different colored Toads. I don’t know if there are other characters, but that’s what I saw in the video. In addition to that, there are new power-ups, and you can pick up a character and throw them. New Super Mario Bros. Wii will be released this holiday 2009. Now this is only one Mario game.
The next one is Super Mario Galaxy 2. Mario is back with more challenging levels. But he’s not alone, as Mario will be able to ride Yoshi this time. Bee Mario makes a run, along with some power-ups for Yoshi! This is an exciting game, and it is slated to be released in 2010.
There is also another RPG planned for to be released on the DS called Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story. All I know about this one is that Mario and Luigi will be inside Bowser’s body. This one will be released on October 1, 2009.
I don’t have anything for Microsoft, as I don’t care much for their console brand, and I don’t own an Xbox 360 myself. If you feel that this console should be covered, you can provide the upcoming news for any Xbox 360 game that will be coming out in the future (Most likely another Halo game. As if that franchise doesn’t have enough hype already.)
All in all, 2010 looks like an awesome year for gaming, and that season will be starting as early as this fall. E3 did not disappoint this year, and I’m so glad they didn’t. Thank you E3, and I look forward to a fresh new gaming season this fall.
Really? If Obama’s tax plan goes through, Microsoft is taking some of its business overseas. More jobs would be lost in America if this tax plan is implemented. When does the madness end?
With the government pretty owning GM, it is now official: we own General Motors now. If we are the ones that pay the taxes that the government uses to spend on various programs, and the governments spends some of that money to acquire GM, that means that we, the taxpayers own GM now.
If that’s the case, then doesn’t that mean that I’m entitled to any car of my choice? Let’s see. I would like a red Cadillac CTS, since I partially own GM.
I’m waiting, Washington. Waiting for you to answer my question. “Dude, where’s my car?” Oh well. I’m probably not going to get my car, but a guy can dream, right?
Having just finished reading this book, I have decided to do a book review. Here is my review on “A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity” by Bill O’Reilly. Some of you may have at one time or another, out of strong interest or curiousity have seen “The O’Reilly Factor”. Now the perception of O’Reilly consists of varying opinions across the board. “He’s a straightshooter.” “He’s a moderate.” “He’s just another one of those bloviators.” “That man oozes with arrogance.” You get the point.
While many have formulated their opinion on O’Reilly, the “bold fresh guy” gets an opportunity to make a case for you, the reader, why he thinks the way he does. Over the coarse of the whole book, he explains how the different experiences in his life have formulated and shaped the philosophies and world views that he still lives by today.
Covering a broad range of topics, O’Reilly leaves no stone unturned as he highlights different experiences in his pseudobiography. Politics (of course), Fear, Evil, Power, and other various topics are discussed in this book.
Why is O’Reilly a “bold fresh piece of humanity”? This astute description wasn’t coined by O’Reilly himself, but when he was in third grade, at St. Brigid’s parochial school. Sister Mary Lurana, one of the nuns frustrated with his behavior, looked at William O’Reilly and said, “William, you are a bold fresh piece of humanity.”
As for the other reasons why O’Reilly is “bold and fresh”, you will just have to read the book and find out for yourself. I am not going to rehash every experience, as I would pretty much be rewriting the book. The book is rife with these experiences, and would be more enjoyable if you embarked on your own journey in discovering them.
After reading this book, I can say there plenty of noteworthy things I discovered about O’Reilly. His writing style is no different than the way he speaks on TV. Furthermore, he shattered my opinion on him. I originally thought of him as an arrogant moderate. Now, I understand that O’Reilly is just passionate about what he does. And he’s also an independent thinker, not a moderate.
In ending this review, I don’t think that it would be fair for you to consider reading this book based on my opinion alone. I myself would recommend this book, but the rest is up to you. Read it and see for yourself what you think. The book does an excellent job at demystifying Bill O’Reilly’s beliefs and explains the foundations that built them.
With GM collapsing into bankrupcy, it is now in the hands of the U.S. Government. Thank you Obama, for hurting one of Michigan’s largest industries. With this takeover, they will begin making cars that nobody wil want to buy. A lawn mower with extra seats? Who knows, but it surely doesn’t look good for Michigan.
I’m seriously thinking of leaving Michigan. Granted it won’t help Michigan’s economy, but I need a job, no matter where in the country that is. Thank you Obama, for being “especially nice” to Michigan. There’s just one problem. What are you going to do about the jobs?
For this week’s Wild Card Friday, we will venture into Copia, the world where my story The Master’s Chronicles takes place. What is The Master’s Chronicles about? To give you an idea, imagine what would happen if you mixed Final Fantasy and J.R.R. Tolkien together.
The result is a rich and intricate world steeped in history and wonder. The Master’s Chronicles is only the first part in The Master’s Chronicles series. Each new one will take place in a different world, with different characters. As I mentioned in the beginning, The Master’s Chronicles takes place on Copia, a planet copious with life.
A key element in The Master’s Chronicles is relics. The Master has forged four relics. One for each of the four finders to rule a corner of Copia. The seed relic, the knowledge relic, the time relic, and the power relic. The story focuses on a character named Nicolas, a young man from the town of Tulin. To set the scene, here is one of Nicolas, as he makes his way to Tulin Square.
Nicolas left the house and walked down the stone road.The road was lined with rows of houses on either side.Each house had a large garden, as this was not uncommon to this class in Tulin.
Nicolas kept walking down the road.In the distance, he saw some children playing tag.The young boy with ruffled hazelnut hair and a round cap ran after the young girl, who had her gold locks tied in a flowery wreath.The young girl’s bonnet wafted in the breeze, as she kept her distance from the young boy.
“You can’t catch me!” the girl tattled.
The girl ran past Nicolas, with the boy in close pursuit.
“Yes I can…” the boy huffed.
Nicolas kept walking, and suddenly noticed a mounted soldier that about to hit him.
The Tulin soldier grabbed the reins and abruptly changed the direction of his horse, missing Nicolas by just inches.“Out of my way, peasant!” the soldier shouted.
Nicolas kept walking.He began to smell fresh bread, spices, and several cooked dishes.He saw the sign prominently displayed in the center: Tulin Square.
Tulin Square was a bustling marketplace.Residents from all over the town sold the fruits of their labor.Many Tulinites saw this place as a land of opportunity.“It’s the only way to prosper”, some say.
Nicolas understood the hierarchy in Tulin Square.In Tulin, you’re either a noble, a merchant, or a peasant.In regarding the hierarchy, each Tulinite kept their distance, and didn’t associate with the other hierarchy.Merchants were the exception to the rule and associated with both nobles and peasants together.They benefited from both hierarchies so it didn’t matter to them.
Nicolas walked toward the center of Tulin Square, which displayed various bulletin boards for the Tulinites to view.There were bulletin boards that displayed announcements, bounties, job offerings, and listed miscellaneous items for sale.The common Tulin peasant shrugs when they pass the bulletins.It doesn’t make much sense to them. When they see the bulletins, they often look away to avoid ridicule from the Tulin nobles.
As Nicolas approached the bulletin boards, he heard a shout.It came from a nearby bread vendor.
“Stop, thief!” The vendor shouted.
A fairly tall boy ran, holding a couple loaves of bread.
“Stop that thief!” The vendor shouted.
A nearby fruit vendor saw the boy and tripped him, sending him and the two loaves to the ground.The fruit vendor grabbed the boy by the wrist.The boy kicked and shook his wrists but was unable to get free.He almost shook free from the vendor when a vegetable vendor grabbed his other wrist.
“We got him,” the vegetable vendor said.
The bread vendor walked right up to the boy and stood over him.“That will be two gold coins,” he demanded.
The boy shook his head and trembled. “I don’t have two gold coins…”
“You don’t, huh?I oughta fetch the Tulin cavalry on you.Soldier!”
A nearby mounted soldier came over to the vendor.“What seems to be the problem?”
“This peasant stole two loaves of bread and he will not pay for them!”
The soldier shook his head and sighed.He reached in his pouch and flung two gold coins at the merchant.“Let that peasant go.I have much more important matters to deal with.”
The vendor gathered his coins and stared at the boy.“Lucky you,” he scowled, releasing his grip.“You got off lucky this time.Don’t steal from my stand again!”
“I-I won’t…” he gasped.
The boy grabbed the two loaves and ran out of the town square.
Nicolas shook his head and turned to the bulletin board.There were scads of jobs listed.He glanced though the listings…
That’s about it for our journey to Copia. As always, leave your thoughts and let me know what you think. Who knows? I may make a return journey to Copia on another Wild Card Friday in the future. I am currently wrapping up chapter 2. I am almost finished. To everyone out there, have an awesome Friday!
Planning a trip somewhere? JetAmerica can get you a seat on their plane for only $9. Now that’s something I can even afford.
After thinking about this, I am still not quite sure. First, the facts. The Left love her. The Right are critical of her and consider her racist, from the remark that she made in a lecture that she made in 2002 Titled “A Latina Judge’s Voice”:
I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.
Now either Sotomayor is a racist, or this quote was taken out of context. We all come from different ethnic backgrounds, bringing with us all our different experiences. But saying that a Latina woman can reach a better conclusion than a white male? Why does this have to be about race?
Both judges could do just as well, so it would come down to their performance, rather than their race. Race is defininitely seen as a factor, in a case involving white firefighters. City officials in New Haven, Connecticut decided to throw out the promotion exams to promote firefighters to lieutenants and captains. The reason for this was that based on the results, no African Americans and only a couple Hispanics would qualify for the promotions. Sotomayor supported the decision.
Again, the issue is about race. Not how qualified they are for the position. But race. Why does it have to be about race? Perhaps there are more complex issues that make this problem go beyond race. It could be the socio-economic background of these people and their education.
Now I would like everyone to have a chance to have a promotion, but let’s make sure they’re qualified for the position, okay? Race doesn’t matter. We’re all human, right? So is Sotomayor a racist? Considering her background, I would have to say she is. But what do you think? I gave you the story. Now it’s your turn.
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