dan.brakeley.net

…but for now, have a quote of the day (from yesterday, but whatever):

“I don’t know why people ever, ever try to stop nerds from doing things. It’s really the most incredible waste of time.” -Tycho

OK, I haven’t posted in a long time, and it will probably be a while before my next post. This is because I am working on a huge video game that goes gold in just a few months time, and all my spare time is spent doing stuff other than posting.

That aside, I want to share a link with whoever hasn’t already read this piece from Jeremy Reimer of Ars Technica. The tradegy at Virginia Tech was horrific, and will continue to be painful for some time. It is important to remember that anger and fear cloud rational thought. We are a civilized society, and it’s time to move beyond the lynch mob mentality. Spread the love. That is all.

Last week, after the Boston Invasion, when I said I thought Turner was doing a wonderful thing? Well, they basically paid $2 million for a BUTT LOAD of free publicity, in addition to it being the best way to defuse the situation. But the two guys arrested for placing the devices are still facing criminal proceedings. That’s really goddamn stupid, the corporation pays it’s way out of responsibility, but the starving artists are still facing charges. Hopefully the case will resolve itself intelligently and with respect to the stupidity of Boston’s reaction.

Ding, Dong, The Witch has five counts of professional misconduct which could end with him getting disbarred. And then we don’t have to read about him and his obnoxious crusade anymore. Although it was funny when he tried to get Bully banned just because it was Rockstar who made it (a judge then actually VIEWED the game and it’s contents, and told Thompson to shove it). But what’s not funny is his incessant fear mongering and his desire to blame a single institution for horrific atrocities committed by troubled kids. Violence didn’t start with Pac Man.

Just a quick update, yesterday two guys were arrested and brought before a judge to plead on charges of placing a hoax device and disorderly conduct. After they made their plea, they were advised not to discuss the case with the press, so they didn’t. And when the press wanted a conference with lots of questions that they couldn’t answer, they changed the topic. For some reason, Fox considered this news, and aired it.

However, this morning on NPR I heard some good news, which is that people are now starting to talk less about these two guys (given the response the other cities who were targeted, I think it’s clear these guys are not at fault), and instead focus about the generation divide: kids think the older folks overreacted to what was obviously not a terror threat, and the old people are shaking their fist in the air. Twenty-somethings, in general, knew this wasn’t a threat, while the people in authority (generally more middle aged?) called in the bomb squad. Not that a generational divide is really news (when hasn’t there been a generational divide?), but it’s definitely the cause of the panic, and is what should be discussed, instead of two guys hired to put up advertising.

Regardless, Turner is handling things brilliantly, by offering to pay for the costs of the scare (link, link). That’s the noble thing to do, and probably the best way to diffuse the situation. I personally think the city just needs to chalk this one up to experience, but if Turner is willing to ease tensions with a generous donation, then no one should get in their way.

Also, I like how Turner itself is accepting responsibility directly, and taking action to address the problems they created, however unintentionally. I of course would hope our government leaders could learn to do the same.

A guerilla ad campaign for Aqua Teen Hunger Force scattered electronically lit pictures of the mooninites around Boston. Boston finally noticed them yesterday. And totally freaked out.

This is so goddamn stupid. Of the ten cities in which these things were installed, only Boston decided to birth a cow over it.

They’ve arrested the guy who was hired to install these, whose name is Peter Berdovsky. This is so fucking stupid.

Here’s info on Berdovsky.
Here’s his web page, zebbler.com. Click on Past Events to see the installation.

And here’s the goddamn bomb sqad removing them:

If anything happens to this Berdovsky guy, I’m going to be so disappointed with this city. I can understand the need to keep this level of response over a harmless ad campaign from happening again, but that can easily be done with some legislation. How about this: pass a law requiring registration of electronic art that is to be installed on bridges or in subway tunnels. Done. Lesson learned. I cannot see making an example out of this guy as anything but misplaced anger. This is a simple misunderstanding that got blown way out of proportion. Maybe if the authorities had just released a picture of the device in question earlier, I’m sure someone could have easily pointed them to the appropriate web page and the whole thing could have been resolved much easier.

Arrg.

Hot: Last Saturday it was over 60 degrees. I was walking around in shorts and a t-shirt. In Boston. In January.

Of course, my family has a tradition, and that is to drive up into Vermont with the intention of visiting family, and then running straight into the worst snow storm of the season. Usually while driving up and/or down large mountains. We’ve come to realize that we are simply snow gods, and that if we did not traverse the wintery back country mountains of Vermont, then they would simply never get enough snow every year.

Busy: Last week I saw a couple shows, lost $10 in poker at Demiurge, went out clubbing (well, one club) with Izzy and some of his friends from high school, said goodbye to Leanne (who is leaving Harmonix to be a starving artist, but will still be in the area, and is still the Bass player for Vagiant), and started playing music with a friend from work named Geoff.

This week I’m hoping to see a couple more shows (Acrobrats, Vagiant, Count Zero, That Handsome Devil, holy crap that’s just too much awesome…). It’s all at the Abbey, Wednesday and Friday. Do your civic duty and support Harmonix bands. Bill & Ted got it wrong: it isn’t JUST rock n’ roll that is going to bring peace to the universe, it’s rock n’ roll and GAMES, baby.

Speaking of which, I’m going to allow these pictures to speak for themselves:

For more pics, check out this link

Happy almost New Year!

Also, I’d like to say that Penis Spam has graduated to a unique art form all it’s own. Take this example:

Subject: A man with a small penis is like a butterfly without wings. Get your wings with Advanced Gain Pro Penis Enlargement Pills.

And it doesn’t stop there! Now that they’ve hooked you with some beautiful imagery, then they go for the big sell:

Big penis is a revolution in your pants.

Brilliant!

Quote of the day, regarding Mary Cheney’s pregnancy:

“Love can’t replace a mother and a father.”
-Carrie Gordon Earll

AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Go ahead, make stupid statements based on some arbitrary, antiquated, and most importantly broken notion of what’s best for a child. Ignore scientifically accurate, peer-reviewed studies to the contrary. That’s really good for American families. Let’s hate because they are different! Yeah, ignore the fact that, in order for a gay couple to even have a child, they have to want it so badly that they are willing to jump through horrific flaming hoops of death. Imagine if all hetero parents were like that!

And she precedes it with, “Just because you can conceive a child outside a one-woman, one-man marriage doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.” I counter with, “Just because you can conceive a child inside a one-woman, one-man marriage doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.”

I think it is awesome that Mary Cheney is able to bring Dick Cheney away from an extremist stance on this issue. Although I still think of Cheney as a dark minion of the anti-christ, at least there’s some part of him that is still human. Come on Cheney, deep down, I know you want to re-join the human race! Keep on fighting teh 3v1L!

I’m such a sucker for rant-inducing news items like that.

Thanks to those kooky terrorists, New Year’s can now be (awesomely) referred to as Infidel New Year’s! Let the Infidel New Year’s jokes begin! Hint: add Infidel to phrases like “New Year’s resolutions”, “New Year’s party”, etc.