Wow

Just wow.

Rampage Jackson is full-on insane.

This CBS interview of Rampage Jackson is hard to watch. His explanation for his recent arrest: he was "betrayed" by a friend/family member/employee and proceeded to lose his mind. Too much Red Bull and videos of The Secret pushed him over the deep edge. Roll in some runaway Christianity and you've got a recipe for a lifetime in the mental ward.

Imus Shows Us the Strength of the 1st Amendment

I confess, I'm not a fan of shock radio. Imus has never graced the airwaves of my radio or television. Quite frankly, his words hold little meaning to me or most of the members of my generation (x), which has generally moved on from listening to radio or giving it much weight in our daily lives.

So I'm a little awestruck over the reaction his silly, racist comments have conjured up. Certainly, I think it's an awful overreaction to evict him from his job. I don't respect CBS or anyone else involved in taking away this man's livelihood. This is America, after all.

I think Americans have lost their perspective when it comes to discussions of race, sex or homophobia. Now, even a lighthearted comment can mean the end of a person's career. And while it's certain that the "awful white male" has had his day of suppressing others, I think this backlash is overboard.

It's time to put this in perspective. To be blunt, Imus' stupid comments don't hold enough power to change the life of a single little black girl who dreams of joining the WBA. His comments don't hold enough power to do more than make most people chuckle in discomfort. But the 40 million dollars his yearly Radiothon raised for good causes hold much more sway in the real world of little black girls. These are 40 million dollars that will no longer be there to help humanity.

We need to stand up for our right to say whatever we choose, be it racist, ignorant, homophobic, anti-authoritarian, or sexist. And just as I would not support a company for firing someone because of religion or sexuality or race, I can't support a company that terminates a man's position because of a dumb-ass comment. Not this time. Especially not after he apologized! I don't see CBS's decision as noble. They have decided to eliminate 40 million dollars for needy people, just to make themselves look good.

Imus said nothing more demeaning than what has been uttered by 4 scores of rap stars since the early 80's. Yes, it can be argued that rappers evoke an artistic license when spouting their provocative lyrics, but what is Imus if not just a mild form of entertainment (one most people would say is less influential than rap)? His was never the realm of political activism. The invective he conjured up was merely intended to be vitriolic and condescending (to many people, mind you, not just black women). While he was certainly wrong (yet again), I think the good he did for people far outweighs the momentary slip of judgment he made this time around.

Give Imus his job back and stop ignoring the true horrors of our world, like what happened in Iraq this past week. MSNBC and CBS, you ought to be ashamed of yourself, not Imus' stupid commentary. Either give Imus his job back, or give 40 million dollars to the poor, disenfranchised people you are alienating by getting rid of him.

The World's Largest Cadbury Egg

Check out Pimp That Snack and see how to make a big-ass Cadbury Egg. Man, if I'd gotten one of these when I was a kid, I wouldn't be alive now.

TV: Bizzare Foods with Andrew Zimmern (TRVL)

I tuned into this show because Anthony Bourdain was on the other night (I missed that show, unfortunately). This week's episode was in Morocco as the host, Andrew Zimmern, made his way across the country filling his fat American maw with a number of disgusting meats. I'm no vegetarian, but after watching Andrew snarf down a goat eye, I am seriously considering it.

This guy makes Anthony Bourdain's show look tame, but I suppose that's gonna happen, considering how Bourdain's show really focuses on the places he visits, while Bizzare Foods seems to be about finding the grossest food around the world. It reminds me of the Crocodile Hunter, but for culture and food, not animal conservation.

Mmm. Lamb's Head, Pigeon Pie and Stingray.... Andrew certainly has a talented for descriptions, saying this about Goat Cous Cous: "It's not so much that you can taste the hay and straw in the flesh itself, but if you close your eyes I think you can."

Bizarre Foods is on the Travel Channel at 6PM and 9PM on Monday nights. Don't say we didn't warn you.

Welcome to the Slave State

So , Colorado is going to start using inmates as slave labor to fill the migrant shortage. Apparently, this is the fallout from all the political posturing that has recently taken place regarding immigration.

Let's do the math:

• Inmates will earn .60/day working the fields. After a week's work, they can afford to buy a pack of cigarettes with which to commit gradual suicide!
  
• Farmers will spend more for the "privilege" of hiring inmates than they were spending on traditional farm workers.
  
• Many farmers are having to ask for government subsidies, again.
  
• Inmates will have to be supervised and few (if any of them) have the required experience to do the work.

So, if the workers are only paid .60/day, where is the rest of the money going?

What if they had field duty and no one came? Wouldn't it be nice if the guards had to do the labor themselves to fulfill the prison's contracts? That's a comedy script just waiting to be written. Somebody get on that.

And amidst all this, you can probably say goodbye to cheap produce for the rest of your life.

R.I.P. Anna Nicole Smith

Dead at age 39. What a life she had....

Hmm. I wonder if years of diet pills have an effect on your heart?

Someone Put Paula Abdul in Rehab!

Watching tonight's episode of American Idol was on the verge of painful. Paula Abdul was obviously high as a kite as she twitched about nervously, often gave awful advice, and all-around embarrassed herself and the other judges. She was so cracked out, in fact, that she supposedly had to leave the show half way through to return to LA because she was running low on her stash of "family problems."

Someone truly needs to do something about this.
Her behavior has gotten out of hand.
Do it for the children, dammit!

Video: Kitty Washing Machine

Wow. This so flirts with crossing the line into animal abuse. And the background music makes it even more disturbing.

Portland Drivers....

During the "Blizzard of 2007." Sigh....

The Scariest Car Accident Ever

Yep, it's pretty scary. Don't worry. No gore.

[MustangWorld]

Game Review: Tony Hawk: Project 8 (PS2)

First off, they should have titled this game:

Usability Disaster Skating: Punishment 8

I haven't really been into the Tony Hawk franchise of games since, oh, ... college; (I won't date myself by telling you how long ago that was--or the versions of the games I played, for that matter).

Suffice it to say, Neversoft has finally ridden this franchise into an ugly nosedive, ala skateboarding on gravel. It's difficult to say why. Some might say the original audience for the game has mostly outgrown skateboarding. Others could say there are better games being produced these days. Still others would say the franchise has become too difficult to enjoy. I would agree with all those assessments. And to those I would add that the development of this game must have been done without players in mind.

I picked this game up, thinking I would be skateboarding again soon, with a low re-education or re-training time. After all, I had been a decent video game skater back in the day. I should be able to pick it up fairly quickly, ... right?

Thank god I only rented it.

The goal here is to raise your ranking from #200 and get into the top eight. You will, of course, need to hunt down secret tokens, grind many pools, and perform mini-missions to climb the rankings. If you finish enough challenges, you'll be placed in the elite Project 8. If you can get there without smashing your controllers against a wall first, good luck.

Gameplay
The main failure of Tony Hawk is that gameplay has eroded to the size of Nicole Richie's wrists. I haven't skateboarded in years, so I decided to go through the Tutorial portion of the game. Certain elements were simple and straightforward enough. For instance, if you press the X Button, you go forward. Now stay with me. If you release the X button, you "Ollie", or jump. Okay. Simple enough.

Soon I realize I need to press a number of other buttons in various sequences to perform a certain trick while in the air. Not just one button press, mind you, but several, in very quick succession.

Very quickly, Tony Hawk's tutoring becomes a form of very sadistic finger torture.

I was taught I could do a "Manual" trick, that is, a trick on the board while standing relatively still. And this is where the game starts losing all of its charm for me. I finally realize I'm going to be punished, oh so horribly, from here on out. Damn you, Tony Hawk ... damn you.

See, when you perform a "Manual" trick, you go into some weird mode where you need to use the left thumbstick with really quick and subtle movements to maintain your balance. That's not a big deal. But then I'm told I need to press certain buttons AT THE SAME TIME. I'm sorry, I only have two thumbs. Apparently I can't move them fast enough.

The biggest problem with gameplay in Tony Hawk is usability. You will need to learn an entirely new finger language to play this game well. This is challenging, for most people, me included. And I'm fairly dexterous, considering my age. Frankly, I'm not ready to commit to an entirely new pattern set just to ride a video game Skateboard.

While I would prefer a Universal Finger Pattern that could be applied to all games, I also support a call to game developers to provide players with open-ended, configurable control schemes. Let us choose which buttons to push to perform certain tricks. That allows for infinitely more interesting gameplay and even personal styles of skating between players. Clearly, Tony Hawk needs to implement better Role Playing Game elements. I mean, if you're going to make a player choose his skater, and clothes, why not give him the option to choose his skating style as well?

Which brings us to graphics.

Graphics (or 3 Ugly Mugs)

What year is this? 2007, you say? Coulda fooled me with this game. From the start of the Career, we're asked to choose between three skaters. A Skinny White Boy Punk, a pudgy Kid, or a Black dude in baggy clothes. I didn't see any Asians, Hispanic, or female faces. Maybe they don't skate?

Choosing one of those 3 archetypal figures, I'm then allowed to choose between three additional faces. In other words, I can be black (with one of three available faces--oh, apparently one of them is lighter complected, maybe Puerto Rican), a child (with 3 other faces), or a white dude (with three more faces). Why they didn't just give me 9 characters to choose from at the start is perplexing, but maybe there's some hidden mystery here?

Nah, it's just plain stupid design.

There doesn't seem to be any skill difference between any of these characters. No visible advantage to picking one skater over another. I pick one. Simple enough. I deck him out in some typical skater gear and I'm off to Training.

Once I got out of training, having abandoned the notion of ever learning how to properly "Grind, Wally, Grind, Sticker Slap," I started the Career. From the start, you're placed in a very confined gaming space, where you're expected to perform a succession of tricks, all while travelling very fast. This was just too much of a test for me. I'm afraid I'm not commited to learning "Tony Hawkian" on my controller.

There's not much to be said about the AI. You're not really racing opponents in this game, so much as performing tricks and "ollies" over obstacles. See, the multiplayer is nowhere to be found on this version. Sure, you can play split-screen with a buddy, but don't even think about getting some online action going.

Physics are somewhat baffling. I found it more difficult to balance my player in the game than I would have on an actual skateboard! When your player loses his balance, he falls, HARD. So hard he spurts out blood. Unfortunately, this results in having to wait about two seconds while some off screen phantom hurls you a new skateboard so you can re-crack your noggin.

Audio
Sound is adequate. The music is appropriate, but somewhat lame. It's not a racing game, so I don't expect hardcore techno or hip-hop, but I do expect something more upbeat. Maybe some good punk music to go with your punk skater dude. But I specifically recall the music delving a bit into the late-night, after-hours, chill-out room ambiance. Definitely boring for boarding.
Sound effects were okay, but there didn't seem to be much background noise, just the sound of your board screeching over pavement. Kinda boring.

Utilities
Menus were simple to understand. There wasn't much commotion involved with getting around in the game itself.

Problems

• A failure in the gameplay usability department. Too many technical requirements to have an enjoyable skating experience. High learning curve without much payoff.
• Lame level design that will leave you asking why you've been locked in a large skatepark that looks like the suburbs.
  
• What's the point? Whoopee, I pulled a Goofy 180, Vert Ollie, Manual Grind, Wallie, Sticker Slap!
• Fleecing America's youth one last time? For shame, Tony, for shame.

Conclusion
This game sucks. I hope you didn't spend your Christmas money on it. If you enjoy a certain amount of punishment, rent it and flog away.

Sifted: 5/10

Kid Scooter

Am I the only one who thinks toys like these are a bad idea? The Razor Pocket Mod Bistro Scooter is available at Toys R Us for a mere $150. Features:

• Can go up to 10 miles on a single charge.
• Can reach speeds up to 15 MPH (incidentally, that kid isn't wearing the proper helmet for a motorized vehicle).
  
• Carrying capacity of up to 220 lbs.

I'm all for giving kids mobility, but let's face it--kids don't have driver's licenses! Not to mention, children are fat enough as it is. Why on earth would you want to encourage their laziness by giving them one of these instead of a normal bicycle?

When your kid gets flattened by a Hummer, don't come crying to the rest of us.