The Gamer's Quarter

dhex · Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 7:49 pm Post subject:

you may consider reading up on radley balko's work with no-knock drug raids and related police shootings.

plenty of variety there.

speaking of which

http://www.no-treason.
com/Kenned
y/wjblcw1.htm
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Dracko · . Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613

Not the same thing, you pedant, you.
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

dhex · Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 8:04 pm Post subject:

why?
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Dracko · . Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613

Because I want to see armed libertoids take to the streets and get the slapping they deserve.

Not the same as grandmothers getting unannounced visits from trigger happy pigs.
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

Redeye · . Joined: 02 Oct 2006 Posts: 986 Location: filth

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I felt sheer anarchic joy when I ran over my first pedestrian.

dhex · Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 9:33 pm Post subject:

dhex · Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2007 9:12 pm Post subject:

man that thread is still going.

in other news, tequila dies for you.
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dhex · Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2007 9:43 am Post subject:

i was never tempted to get a subscription to american conservative until i saw this:

ok so i'm still not that tempted but holy fucking shit i will buy this at the news stand if i see it.
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seryogin · Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2007 9:44 am Post subject:

Man, that belongs in someone's sig.
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seryogin · Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2007 10:34 am Post subject:

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seryogin · Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2007 10:40 am Post subject:

PIMP!

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dhex · Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2007 2:48 pm Post subject:

what does it say under the stencil of his head?

unrelated: still reading slavery and social death. it's amazing the variations of enslavement that existed just among africans or native americans.
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seryogin · Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2007 3:28 pm Post subject:

We'll endure.

The girl's shirt says "Want Putin!"

Also, to push a misleading comparison Putin getting man of the year just cements his position as being a cross between 50 cent and Stalin (especially with the picture)
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dhex · Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2007 3:42 pm Post subject:

man that's fucking frightening. that's why we always made you guys the bad guys in movies.

speaking of frightening, what the fuck is up with wonkette?

http://wonkette.com/335983/all-shapes-size-and-contribution-levels

edit: i would have advised the campaign to give 125 each to a black, a jewish, a gay and a catholic charity, just to make sure as many noses were tweaked as possible (fuck the southern poverty law center's burning cross ambulance chaser business model, for reals) but i can understand the "might as well use the money instead of giving it back to them" thing. i still don't think it was the right thing to do, mind you.

but shit man are all liberals freaking out about paul or is this just a 'net thing?
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seryogin · Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2007 5:25 pm Post subject:

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dhex · Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 2:26 pm Post subject:

why are there missles coming out of his body?!?!?
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dhex · Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 4:07 pm Post subject:

http://www.walmartopia.com/
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dhex · Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 4:14 pm Post subject:

more depressing radley balko stories from the war on some drugs:

http://www.reason.com/blog/show/124057.html
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dhex · Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 4:19 pm Post subject:

justin raimondo shows up to do his thing:

http://www.reason.com/blog/show/124062.html#859643

if nothing else, it is his thing.
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extrabastardformula · . Joined: 08 Feb 2007 Posts: 295

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dhex · Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 7:51 pm Post subject:

totally hot (though they missed the side of one blimp up by the tower) Sad

i really love that one "NO! SAYS THE MAN IN GALVESTON! IT BELONGS TO THE JANJAWEED!" banner the most. genuinely. i don't care why they created it because it makes me laugh every time i see it.

without laughter we have nothing.
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dhex · Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 2:05 pm Post subject:

http://www.commoninterest.info/2007/12/21/flying-in-the-blimp-above-baltimore/

i could even see the side of the goodyear blimp
ron paul's a pimp
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seryogin · Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 3:20 pm Post subject:

Mike, I know you have a hard on for shitty action movies. Which is why I must ask you if you've seen the ultimate horrible action movie "Showdown in Little Tokyo?" If you haven't - and I don't see why not since it comes as a pack in Bloodsport usually - then you should def drop five bucks on it. Here's the best clip anyway.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SY6GvTY7E5U&feature=related
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dhex · Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 3:33 pm Post subject:

i rate that a buy.
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seryogin · Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 3:36 pm Post subject:

http://pics.livejournal.com/inner_rebel/pic/0001hkx6

Lately, I've been wondering if Limonov finally went *completely* mad, for his latest columns in Russian GQ have been nothing short of insane.

One talked about how aliens secretely gave birth to humanity and that the goal of humanity is to travel the sea of stars and find these aliens, beat them in war, and finally eat them.

The next one dealt with how the caste system is natural and ordained by nature and that he has nothing to fear because he's an ubermensch who will live on in the ages.

The third with Limonov comparing himself favorably to Churchill and so he then imagined what would happen in 2033, after he'd finally done all he could to evolve great Russia. He offered three possible futures.

1) Limonov is a Muslim ascetic in Samarkand.

2) Limonov as the owner of a upscale brothel on some Asian island. He confuses Japanese things for Chinese things and then makes his comparison more ridiculous by confusing them with Thai things.

3) Limonov as a statue, surrounded by throngs of grateful admirers. He'd been killed by the KGB but his memory lives on as the greatest Russian of the 21st century.

I'm beginning to wonder if all great Russian writers go completely mad by their old age.

I'm still going to read his next book though, which will be a memoir of the Yugoslav wars (even though he's told that fucking story too many times already).

Related:

Limonov in Yugoslavia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcCFJAfLTJE
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dhex · Posted: Sun Dec 23, 2007 10:04 pm Post subject:

yeah sometimes you get old and you go bugfuck nuts.

unrelated:

dhex · Posted: Mon Dec 24, 2007 12:44 pm Post subject:

http://reason.com/news/show/124072.html

i didn't really care for this article - it sucks that a lot of colleges have speech codes, and it sucks that a lot of them basically practice ideological "brainwashing," but seeing as how poorly said "brainwashing" really works its hard to get upset about. and FIRE, while having been on the side of angels now and then, is tainted by its origins and its board of directors.

however, this quote below really...man...bah...

dhex · Posted: Mon Dec 24, 2007 5:49 pm Post subject:

justin raimondo calling other people crazy is sort of dissonant and yet oddly sweet.
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dhex · Posted: Mon Dec 24, 2007 5:58 pm Post subject:

uh to expand a bit while i'm killing time at the in-laws:

i'm not much on evangelism for most things. even games, though i might yell play stalker play stalker i'm not going to show up at your house asking you if you've accepted the zone into your life. it is somewhat rude to intrude past a certain point. (hence why i have a music review blog - soon to be revitalized with many new pieces - rather than trolling music sites, which have always given me a sort of headache.)

i feel similarly about ron paul, and if i'm pitching at all when i speak of the man it's always in the context of "...despite the fact that he's a fundamentalist with creationist leanings and into specie currency..." which is probably more of a commentary on american politics than it is on ron paul. or a commentary on myself, i don't know.

outside of stepping in here and there across the interwebs when some really outrageous stuff gets tossed about, my feelings are that perhaps i picked the wrong country, or the wrong politics, or the wrong time period or whatever, but it'll be somewhat interesting to actually vote in a primary. plus changing the whole voter registration thing isn't such a bad deal, if only because of how icky it felt.

plus when i get fundraising material from the RNC i can return the whole thing with "FUCK YOU - SINCERELY, A REGISTERED REPUBLICAN" on it.
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Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

Dracko · . Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613

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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

dhex · Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2007 10:01 am Post subject:

ha

unrelated: this is the best lede i've read in a reason piece in a while:

If you forgot to get a Christmas present for Charlie Rangel, don’t worry. The congressman picked one out for himself, and he’s sending you the bill: $2 million for a shiny new Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at City College.
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Dracko · . Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613

Oh also: http://coilhouse.net/2007/12/22/the-beautiful-nightmares-of-zdzislaw-beksinski/

I remember you talking about this at some point.
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

dhex · Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2007 9:03 am Post subject:

yeah...i'm gonna have to consider picking up that art book.
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dhex · Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2007 11:27 am Post subject:

[this is merely a refinement of a semi-constant litany of mine. do not read if my litanies don't do it for you, or if they make you angry.]

yo, people gotta stop pining for a citizen kane of games.

i say this as someone whose gaming tastes are basically michael bay: the game: the explosion: the game. i should be all for games as movies (especially the aforementioned explodo-fests). i should probably be able to hang with stories about a dude and his snow scooter, seeing as i got through planescape with all sorts of excitements and joyful gnashing. for all my ripping on "movies about feelings" (i.e. independent cinema) and "games about feelings" (i.e. independent games) i can at least appreciate the broad spectrum available to us, and the increasing outlets offered to budding designers.

and in the abstract i can.

but the sad truth is that games are not movies. they are not films. they are not nine hour italian wankfests about how hard it is to nail beautiful women and have a debonair drinking problem. games may be many things, but beginning-to-end moving pictures they are not. they kind of suck as movies, just as movies make terrible games. and books, for that matter. there will never be a game as transcendent as ulysses using just words; there will never be a book as viscerally engaging as doom, no matter how many pictures they stick in there.

this is an old complaint, to be sure, but i figured we're almost in 2008 so i might as well go for one more turn in the fading light.

now for wanton, baseless and slander-laden speculation nearly approaching the masturbatory excesses of, well, most of what i say, do and think...

beyond the desire to play engaging games that do novel things (i.e. portal) this particular memeplex (and yes i do believe it is approaching a set of institutionalized values, if only on small scale) i think the larger motivator here is a desire to be validated - if not valorized - by the community as a whole. to avoid feeling shame at our collective failure to put away childish things.

what people really want is not the citizen kane of gaming but a game title that will be like citizen kane - something that makes the rubes shut up and go "oh, that's highly respected." much like shakespeare is the touchstone for all points literary, even among those of us who do not read.

but most of all, i think the paramount desire motivating this is a hope that something will recapture the magic of our youthful experiences. kinda like flowers for algernon, but with less retardation.

in a strange sense, it shares some characteristics with stalking, pedophilia and the ethnographies of certain kinds of drug abuse (mostly opoids); it is probably similar to the underpinning emotions and desires that drive men and women to do silly things as they enter middle age.

take it away, paul:

Dracko · . Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613

Vote Ron Paul 2008.
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

dark steve · . Joined: 17 Jun 2005 Posts: 1110

The thing that irks me about "citizen kane of games" people is they don't really seem to have a good grasp on what they think the citizen kane of film was.
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Redeye · . Joined: 02 Oct 2006 Posts: 986 Location: filth

The Citizen Kane post touched pretty much all of the points I've seen argued on forums about games over the years.

Just want to touch on Recapture Youthful Magic and also add a bit:

When remembering old games we loved we also remember what we brought with ourselves when we played them. The two are combined in memory.
The actual game probably wasn't as good as we remember it.

There is also the Myth Of Progress angle. The graphics keep getting better, but what about everything else? If game x did something especially well in year xxxx, then in year xxxx +5 a similar game should have been informed by it as a baseline. It should be at least as "good" in the respect in question and really ought to be better. (The respect in question could be dialogue, AI, handholding, etc.)

Pinin' for the Fjords Of Fallout/etc. is mixed with a seemingly reasonable expectation of "betterness". (I am not talking about fan entitlement.)

If we won't "put aside our childish things", shouldn't our childish things mature along with us?

Yeah, if market share also moved through time.

Still, plenty of good things to play.

Every year, several things. Plus the older things you didn't catch before.

Sorry if I'm just babbling.
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I felt sheer anarchic joy when I ran over my first pedestrian.

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

I think that dhex pretty much nails it as something people from outside the "community" can sit down, play, and then say "hey, that's pretty engaging/important/touching/important!"

Which, yeah, they exist to an extent because they've had other mediums to borrow from. But as far as being accessible, well, we're not that far. Perhaps the wii generation will figure out that part of it.
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dhex · Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2007 8:49 am Post subject:

as far as accessibility, i first think of tetris.
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Dracko · . Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613

dhex · Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2007 1:12 pm Post subject:

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dhex · Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 12:05 pm Post subject:

saw this over on rps

http://www.danwei.org/electronic_games/gambling_your_life_away_in_zt.php

wow.
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dhex · Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 10:32 am Post subject:

please spread the word to those who may be interested:

Microsoft Flight Simulator X Deluxe Edition (PC)

The Legend of Zelda Collector's Edition (GameCube)
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dhex · Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 11:00 am Post subject:

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/01/blogtalk-debates-and-elections/
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dhex · Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 12:43 pm Post subject:

a decent slice of big box panic.

semi-related: genuine "predatory pricing" is probably better applied to things like loan sharking than cheap mops.
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dhex · Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 1:28 pm Post subject:

pains me as much as it pains you to post lew rockwell links...

http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/018118.html
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dhex · Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 8:57 am Post subject:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNXkNl4sJ4s

nick gillespie cockpunches o'reilly.
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dhex · Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 10:36 am Post subject:

the nearly instant rehabilitation of benazir bhutto into some kind of cross between saint and crusading reformer is really blowing my mind.

fav conspiracy theory: she was killed by the cia and mossad because, uh, well, because!

man it still don't make any fucking sense.
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dhex · Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 12:24 am Post subject:

man seeking a new phpbb user hide that works with the newest versions of firefox and greasemonkey was a dead end

then i found this:

http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/12299

the little dialogue box in the corner is annoying but the filter is even better than the old user hide. it nukes whomever or whatever you want to get rid of without any markers or indications at all. like a board but hate every thread about star trek/gold standard/pleather? add the word to your filter. or filter by username, as per the usual. (set the length to 0 to make it permanent).

neato!
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