An Escape

Ben Croshaw - "Yahtzee" - isn't what one might call a well kept secret in the online community. In fact, the man is hugely popular among the tech-saavy masses, and for good reason. Satirist and Vlogger, Yahtzee was picked up by The Escapist Magazine last August after scouting a few game reviews he had posted on Youtube.


His reviews, released every Wednesday under the title "Zero Punctuation," are concise, witty, and often scathing looks at popular games, and are a must-see for any gamer out there.

FullyRamblomatic - Fable: The Lost Chapters

In other news, game developer Sora's long-awaited Super Smash Brothers: Brawl was released last Sunday on Nintendo's Wii console to much fanfare. The release has smashed multiplatform sales on all consoles by a considerable margin, and has seen consistently high reviews.

Meta Knight and Pit - Super Smash Brothers: Brawl

Now all Nintendo needs to do is fix the online play. In the meantime, feel free to post your friend codes: 0259 0003 9268

Barack the Vote

If it isn't entirely apparent from previous posts, I'm a huge supporter of Senator Obama's campaign bid. I'm not the type, however, to argue with every other person over politics or what's right for the nation. At least, not unless there's a great fault in an individual's logic.

It's with that thought that I like to bring to attention the popular argument against the good Senator: experience. For his scrambling opponents, experience seems to be the key issue of this campaign. Experience - or rather, Obama's inexperience - appears to be the prime concern with the coming elections, and voters are being made well aware of this fact. Indeed, one would believe from the constant debates that a lack of experience in the executive branch has never been anything other than disastrous.

It's certainly an interesting argument, especially in the light of history. When experience is paramount, I find it interesting that the single most experienced politician ever to be named Commander in Chief has never been regarded as a spectacular leader. In fact, President James Buchanan has been consistently ranked dead last on the ladder of American Presidency. Conversely, Washington, Jackson, and Truman - some of the most renowned presidents in American history - had almost no real experience to speak of. Even Lincoln, the Great Emancipator himself, never attended college.

And let's not forget, nobody had a longer curriculum vitæ than Cheney or Rumsfeld.

In related news, Black Eyed Peas frontman Will.i.am, in conjunction with director Jesse Dylan, produced a rather inspirational music video promoting Senator Obama's campaign. The song is written almost entirely using excerpts from Obama's speeches, and is called "Yes We Can."

Mania de Fotografia

Four and a half grueling hours later, I've nearly completed optimizing the 200-something odd photos from this past summer for publication.

Unfortunately, my eyes are on the verge of explosion, so I have decided to quit for the evening and, instead, spent a moment to kickstart an album dedicated to Creative Photography. There are currently fifty photographs for your enjoyment, with more to come.

Also, look forward to 225 more photos from Summer '07 by Friday.

Well, 2007 is officially dead and gone, and most of us have long since ushered in the new year. Others, such as myself, keep writing 2007 on all of our papers.

Since I returned from the relatively-frigid north in time for the New Year, I've been busily working towards a previously-unknown equilibrium between the various elements in my life. Needless to say, my efforts have since taken a backseat to the real world. I have, however, begun work on compiling my photography into various public albums. While I am slipping further and further from fulfillment of my previous promise to deliver on a photo gallery of my East Coast trip, I have uploaded several albums as a sort of atonement.

Dia de los Muertos Celebration

On a fairly interesting side note, technology blog Gizmodo seems to have made quite a stir at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this year. While Richard Blakeley's stunt is - quite honestly - hilarious, journalists and fellow bloggers alike are up in arms over the gradeschool humor. While repercussions won't likely extend beyond Blakeley's blacklisting, Rafe Needleman has some valid concerns.

Still, MAKE's TV-B-Gone does look pretty nifty.

Christmas Excuses

Christmas is drawing closer with every passing hour, and the stresses of presents and cards and family have seen their welcomes worn. It's been a busy month, and I intend to apologize for the lack of content, but I'll be on a plane late this afternoon, so it will have to wait.

Below are a couple of photographs from this past summer. Keep your eyes out for a full album containing these photos in early January.

These photographs were taken during my time spent last summer on the road from Florida to Maine. The first photograph was taken in Newport, Rhode Island along the cliff walk there. The second two photos were taken in Hampden, Maine and Richmond, Virginia, respectively. The last picture was taken at a shiplock in Richmond. The photograph at the top was taken in Tavernier, FL, and features a Monroe County Police Officer and a man with conviction.

December 5th is Repeal Day!

December 5, 1933 was the day that state conventions ratified the Twenty-First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The amendment repealed the Eighteenth Amendment, effectively ending prohibition and becoming the first and only amendment to constitutionalize a pleasurable activity. Jeffrey Morgenthaler has long been an advocate of officializing the celebration of Repeal Day, and it seems that Dewar's Scotch Whiskey has taken a shining to the idea as well.

Celebrate Repeal Day!

Fiscal Year '0X - The Brain Drain

Poor spending seems to be one of the many recurring themes of the Bush Administration, and striking a balance between the departments of Defense and Education is precisely what many critics suggest. But how many Americans actually know where their taxes are going? What exactly is this great disparity that has so severely burdened Bush's budget?

I took the time to peruse through some of our nation's spending habits and found some interesting information. The gap between the cost of war and our investment in knowledge isn't just large, it's unnerving. In 2006, the United States government spent nearly $500 billion in national defense, while only $93.4 billion was invested in education; and that was high. In 2005, $72 billion was spent on education, and the 2007 budget granted the Department of Education only $68 billion. Between 2004 and today, the US has spent over $1.95 trillion on defense. Comparitively, the Department of Education has recieved less than $300 billion.

In all fairness, the Department of Defense is not quite the fattest agency on the books. By year's end, the 2007 budget will encompass expenditures of over $671 billion on health and human services alone, a substantial increase from the $581 billion spent in 2005; impressive figures for a worthy cause. It seems odd, then, that nearly 47 million Americans (16%) were without health insurance in 2005. Odd, too, that this number was about 1.3 million higher than the year before it, despite a $40 billion budget increase.

In 2004, despite a record voter turnout, only 58% of Americans aged 18-24 were registered to vote. In the same category, only 47% actually voted, the lowest category by far. Based on these numbers, it would seem that young Americans are uncaring, uneducated, or otherwised discouraged from taking part in arguably the most important aspect of American Government.

What does all this mean? My guess is as good as anyone's, but it seems that the correlation between the ignorance of politics in American schools and an ailing education budget may be more than coincidental. If anything will help politicians desperately cling to a conservative platform, a collective brain drain will do it.

Poem - Needles

Despite my love of literature, English has never been one of my favorite subjects in school. No matter what level of education, I can never come to terms with the cavalcade of trivial exercises. The worst of these exercises have always involved poetry.

It was just such an exercise, oddly enough, which sparked the inspiration for the piece below. "Needles," as it is appropriately titled, was written in response to a poetry assignment in my Sophomore english class. What inspired me, I can't say, but the image of the ghastly flame haunted me for days.

---

In the darkness a lighter flares,
a golden flame for vacant stares,
a friendly beacon for leaves and paper.
There are needles on the floor.

And in this darkness a figure stands.
His eyes are glazed. With shaking hands
the paper’s lit, the flame is gone,
there’s darkness and a scarlet glow,

A gentle light contorts the figure’s face beneath the muted glow.

Pale skin and sunken eyes,
a stubbled chin whose story cries
of clear-cut forests miles wide,
of a bushman’s pilfered home.

Now the embers are softly stoked
and, for a moment, marred by smoke.
Alone, a darkened figure stands
amongst the needles on the floor.