Now, inspired minds have come up with the Bacon Explosion. Or, assplosion (for the after effect).

Warning: by even LOOKING at this link, you will shave 20 years off of your life.

No Joke!

And how on earth did I forget, the Turbaconducken!

With the overwhelming victory Senator Obama had this evening, I found myself in tears; the last time I cried in regards to a national event was 9/11. Since then, however, Americans have been fed with fear and terror and those ’scary’ people around each and every corner; our freedoms have been taken away, the government endorses torcher, and is now trying to be pre-emptive in striking down any oponents via version 2 of the “Bush Doctrine”.

Tonight’s tears are tears of relief, and amazement; being the liberal that I am, even *I* had a hard time believing that this country could pull together to vote for an African American. It is an overwhelming victory, a turning of the tides, and a great day in our nation’s history…and a step forward, towards equality, and acceptance.

Barack Obama, how I don’t envy you the coming years. This country needs to rise from the ashes; even now, the Resident is attempting to hurriedly deregulate before Obama takes office; I think of it as Bush’s attempt at portraying Hitler, in his desire to raze Paris before leaving.

You have a been left with a cesspool of garbage and toxic waste thanks to the current regime. Tonight proved, however, that a majority of us have faith…once again. Not faith in fear, or faith in the boogeyman under the bed; instead, faith in reclaiming our pride, and status in the world.

Yet…whilst this historic moment is ongoing, Californians at this moment appear to be taking a step BACK. Proposition 8 at this point is ahead in the polls, and the thought of this passing sickens me. Whilst we embrace equality with an African-American President-elect, California looks to be essentially backing away from equality, and is falling back into discriminating against those that just “aren’t the same“.

This should have been a no-brainer.

Much of the blame lies on the economy being in the state that it is in, and the Federal government allowing to go from a 4.3 trillion dollar surplus, to a 53 trillion dollar DEFICIT. Some of the blame, however, also falls within the company itself, and it’s failing to ‘keep it human’. That was the mantra there, for so many years. “Keep it Human, Keep it Real”. And now, whilst still profitable (although stocks are hurting…as are everyones), a ‘good maneouver’ is to release 2000+ employees in order to allow for an aquisition of another company is just telling.

Keeping it Human. Those days are long gone. I will miss the coworkers I’ve worked in the trenches with over time, THEY were the ones who truly still believe in this vision.

And, hopefully going forward, when Obama becomes president he can fix this apparent never-ending pit this country is spiralling into. It will take time, and there will be A LOT of pain; yet over time the victims of the current government’s ineptitude, ignorance, and mishandling might be able to survive without losing everything.

I’m scared of the future, but I have to hope that this can be fixed WITH the right man in the office. And I truly believe that Obama is the right man.

We are on the verge of an economic meltdown, having gone from a 4.2 trillion dollar surplus at the outset of the Resident’s reign, to becoming nearly destitute. The lies, the ignorance, and the blatant ineptitude of the current Republican candidate (and his sidekick evangelical hottie) are so very transparent, yet…the gap is close.

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2008/9/30/22556/3941 has an interesting read, about just what WOULD happen if the roles were reverse: education wise, accomplishment wise, and…race.

What if John McCain were a former president of the Harvard Law Review? What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class?

What if McCain were still married to the first woman he said ‘I do’ to? What if Obama were the candidate who left his first wife after she no longer measured up to his standards?

This is a snippet of the reality of how ignorance, intolerance, and racism still very much plays a part these days.

I wake up every day wondering, if I’m going to still have a job….if I’m going to have a house. Whereas I used to think that Bush was not qualified to be a dog catcher (well, he really wasn’t), if the Republicans win AND something happens to McCain…we are left with an idiot without a clue, who’s sole experience with foreign nationals are Russian planes flying overhead, and Alaska’s ‘neighbor’, Canada; a woman who ridicules Biden (mind you, I amn’t a huge Biden fan, but the man at least is intelligent and competent) because of his age (”Oh, I remember hearing him…I was in second grade. He’s been around SO LONG!). What does this say of her counterpart?

That’s right, lady, bring it. Whilst I had wished Obama had chosen Hillary to be his running mate, I fear there was too much bad water under the bridge, not to mention a desire to not have the Republican Clinton firing squad taking aim for another 4-8 years. As a woman, I amn’t blinded by McCain’s trump “let’s bring along a female running mate, to…you know, pick up those Hillary women voters!”.

Racism, sexism, politics…and lies.

I’ve enjoyed some of Orson Scott Card’s books in the past; some I have read more than once. But a lovely jaunt to the Mormon Times’ website shows another side of Mr. Card: whilst his books are well-worded, and interesting, we see the Mr. Hyde side of his Dr. Jekyll.

The first and greatest threat from court decisions in California and Massachusetts, giving legal recognition to “gay marriage,” is that it marks the end of democracy in America.

This is how his “well-thought out” and literate post starts; it does not at all get better from there on in. Democracy is over, he says…because gays are allowed to marry. I’m used to seeing blather and vitriole from various muppets on the internet, but it riles me to no end, when it is someone that I’ve admired in the past, and have enjoyed. His ‘logical’ diatribe is so very close-minded, but worded well enough to barely hide the thinly-veiled calls for bloodshed at the end:

Regardless of law, marriage has only one definition, and any government that attempts to change it is my mortal enemy. I will act to destroy that government and bring it down, so it can be replaced with a government that will respect and support marriage, and help me raise my children in a society where they will expect to marry in their turn.

I can only hope that his children are not so closed minded to be completely and totally brainwashed by this homophobe; he is right in one thing, and that is our children our the future. But hopefully the future will be one of compassion and understanding, instead of hatred and intolerance.

This sandwich, however, is so very wrong on so very many levels and it certainly Can’t be healthy.

However, at the same time, it also seems like it is possiblythe best sandwich ever.

Bacon: it’s candy for adults.

Here’s to hoping I don’t break things in the process =D

However, after dealing with Funcom post Anarchy Online release, I am highly troubled by the same patterns which they followed 8 or so years ago, when that game was first released. The lack of viable communication to the community, not acknowledging very *obvious* issues and doing nothing to really allay any concerns or issues that the players do have. Granted, the forums mostly are a cesspool of whining and idiocy that makes my IQ drop by 10 points every time I dare to load it, but…there are some very valid issues out there, and all that can be heard is the sound of crickets from Funcom.

The release of AoC was infinitely smoother than AO by far, but the implementation of certain ‘fixes’ aren’t really fixes at all. The Female vs Male attack speed ratio, for example…instead of actually *fixing* the slowness of female attacks, they slow down the males to put them on par. There are numerous broken feats that haven’t been touched, a mail system that’s still buggy; keeps still giving no viable benefit, memory leaks, etc. The very best anyone has received is ’soon’. And, to top it off, after the July 17th patch, I am unable to even *launch* the game; I went through a painful reinstall of a game, removed addons, repatched, etc….and nothing. A lockup of biblical proportions that has me frustrated. So, here I am, day 2 of waiting *hopefully* for some form of response from support, but nothing. A full system check/diagnostics of memory, drives, drivers, etc…short of a reformat (which I am *not* about to do just for a game) there is nothing else to be verified on my end as working or NOT working.

I’m frustrated at this juncture, and I’ve watched the attrition in our guild going from 30-40 active, to maybe 5 or 6 max, and now even those numbers are dwindling. This should be the evolution of MMOs, but instead people are losing interest, and quickly.

Hopefully, I can get back on in short time, and hopefully…things will work out in the end, but I’m worried…very worried.

The garbage, the chaos, and the mayhem (not to mention disasterous PR) that this country needs fixed will be no easy task. It’s amazing, really, to see how far we have come, and how low we have sunk. One look at an old New York Times report can spell it out, clearly:

http://www.nytimes.com/library/politics/camp/062800wh-bush.html

“Mr. Bush said that the news on Monday that projections of the federal budget surplus were up to $4.2 trillion only confirmed his own earlier estimates. He said he did not expect to increase the size of his proposed tax cut — $1.3 trillion over 10 years — just because more money might be available.”

4.2 trillion…surplus.

Thanks for nothing, Bush. Hopefully, they take the ground you were conceived on, and they salt the earth so NOTHING can ever grow or spawn there again.

Boredom, however, has set in.

EVE is painfully fun, however work has been *very* busy as of late, dishing me extended hours for the last few weeks. That, combined with WARBEEEER for the 4th week running, leaves little time for me to really log on and do anything. Ops fleets are out, and I just don’t have the time or energy to stay up/on for 4-5 hours until 2am (when I have to be at work at 6). So, what does a bored gamer do? Download games, of course…ones that I haven’t actually *looked* at in years.

First came DAoC, which was a bit fun, but it is painfully obvious that this game is on its way out. Guides are years out of date, everyone’s an alt of an alt of an alt, and starting out new in an already embedded community that build characters for solely RVR made it rather meh. I enjoyed some of the missions, but for the most part, it was a very solitary experience. I had a chance to beta test this years ago, and it never captured my interest. I think it could have been fun, had I stayed with it, but I didn’t. In all honesty, the time for DAoC has come, and is almost gone.

Next came Shadowbane, another game which I beta tested. I downloaded it, and….well, I didn’t even get past the character creation screen. The graphics were so arcane (much more than I remember them to be), that I shuddered, and immediately uninstalled.

I pondered again starting up my AO account; my advent has been teetering on 178 for a few years now, but I think that wouldn’t hold interest for me for very long any more. Warcraft as well isn’t an option. I’ve extricated myself from that game, and have enjoyed NOT playing it for the last year.

Then the stirrings of AoC came up again, and then Comcast had to make it difficult by offering beta keys to its members. So…I grabbed one, and said screw it. I know nothing about the gameplay; some of the classes look interesting (Herald of Xotli for example), the videos from the PVP weekend looked fun. To my horror, I realised that in my mailbox 2 months back was a closed beta invite, and in a sudden dash of hope, I went and followed the instructions to download & install…only to find out that since I didn’t respond earlier, the closed beta invite was null & void.

Bummer.

So, here I am, sitting and waiting, and wondering…what I should do, when all of a sudden out of nowhere I had an uncontrollable desire to pre-order the game (WITHOUT actually beta testing, a huge no-no in my book). I can control myself, however, and refrain.

For all of 5 minutes. Preorder tagged.

*sigh*

Now, to wait the 24 hours or so until beta actually opens up, and hope that the next 2 weeks actually make that pre-order a worthy buy:) If not, it will be shelved along with various other pre-orders et al. Worst case, I get to wait til work winds down a bit, where I can actually log onto EVE for periods of time and enjoy some pewpew.

Until, of course, Warhammer:)