entertainment

Great new episode of South Park yesterday. For anyone who missed it Facebook was the target of this weeks humor and it even had a great Tron parody thrown into the mix.

One particular scene at the very beginning of the episode caught my attention, though I wasn't sure until my suspicions were confirmed. Notice what kind of laptop Kenny (the kid in the orange coat) is using in the background:

Thats right, it's an OLPC XO! Apparently someone at South Park Studios is a fan!

It really surprises me that noone has done something like this before:

When you get down to it, this is just a FPS playing in a no gravity environment, with full 3-dimensional movement on demand (eg you have jet packs to move around w/ as opposed to having to used stationary objects such as walls to jettison yourself off of). I can't imagine gameplay for this is much harder than aiming to where you want to go/shoot using the right analog, and moving in that direction using left, with buttons to actually shoot and lock onto the nearest floor. Hell, were it not for that last 'locking' bit, this game might be easier to code than a traditional FPS because you don't need to worry about gravity at all, whether for the players or artillery.

Every creative and scientific work in history is the result of expanding upon whats there, and adding to the common body of knowledge and works as constructed by our ancestors. This game just goes to show that it doesn't take much to make some thing new and creative.

Massive Attack (perhaps the best band in the world :-D) just released an EP in anticipation for their (hopefully) soon to be released LP (I say hopefully as they've been delaying the release for over 4 years now).

As with all their other work this latest EP, titled "Splitting The Atom" is phenominal. Check out the title track

Came up with these about random topics over some time and figure I'd share. I'm still no expert and am learning (there seem to be a few sites on the net where people can share them).

Too much caution
can likely be a danger
act responsibly

Freedom is a whole
Cannot be picked and chosen
Remove one, take all

We need too leave Earth,
our ultimate ascension,
all eggs one basket

Among other things, Haikus are neat mental exercises you can do pertaining to any topic you may have at mind. Traditionally they are about nature but as with everything there are many variations of the art.

Its been a while since I've gotten into a game. Back in high school I was really into Diablo 2 and its expansions, and more recently in college I really got into all the Guild Wars Campaigns, which I see as a great looking and playing Diablo-like game (granted although the perspective and many mechanics are different, there are many similarities and the original developers were former Blizzard guys that worked on the Diablo series).

One thing I really liked about Guild Wars was that while it is considered an MMORPG (by most people), there is no subscription fee, you buy the game in the box and play all you want. Granted I don't play much (or all all) nowadays, I just like knowing that I can log on anytime with the characters I put alot of time into without having to keep my account active with monthly fees.

Well anyways back to the point of this post... the first Guild Wars 2 trailer was released today and it looks hot as hell. Enjoy!

I was bored so I read Sun Tzu's "Art of War", quick read found here and came across some cool / profound quotes. Enjoy: (after the jump)

I am a HUGE sci-fi fan. Having just finished the last book in the original Dune Series, Chapterhouse Dune I can now say without a doubt (not that I ever had any) that Frank Herbert is a phenomenal author and one of the greatest science fiction writers of all time. Not only does he seamlessly intermingle religion, politics, prophecy, technology, laws and governance, genetics, sociology and many many many more profound topics into one flawless epic, his writing style does so in a fashion that astounds. In some ways he is a mystery writer, not in the conventional "murder mystery", but one such that in each book, the reader is revealed subtle clues as to the plans and plots of various characters, as well as the profound underlying themes and lessons of the books. It is not until the very end of each book, almost always within the last 10-20 pages of the 400+ page volumes, do we finally discover the full plot in all its glory, and often Herbert's writing allows us to deduce the final conclusions just moments before it is revealed.

Chapterhouse Dune ends with several major cliffhangers. Unfortunately Herbert died before he could complete his saga (why does this always happen to the great authors, conspiracy anyone? ;-) ). His son and another author attempted to finish his works with prequels and finally two sequels wrapping up the original saga, but based on online reviews and past experiences w/ similar situations, I am choosing not to read the followups and leave the questions hanging like so. Overall while each book has its strengths and weaknesses Chapterhouse was one of the better ones, overall places so in the series:

1. Heretics of Dune
2. Dune
3. Chapterhouse Dune
4. God Emperor of Dune
5. Dune Messiah
6. Children of Dune

Not that I dislike Children of Dune or anything, it just does not beat any of the others, especially Heretics of Dune whose insanely deep philosophical and political themes combined with an intense action packed conclusion make for one of the greatest science fiction novels of all time. Perhaps this ordering will change on another pass through the series. For now I'm onto a bit of Issac Asimov (who is legendary, but who I've never read anything by (beside the profound short story The Last Question - make sure you don't skip to the end! )) and Orson Scott Card.