Tautology of the Skeptical Sinner

An advanced, unauthorized review of their new thriller: Alone in the Dark, has apparently created a wonderful PR experience for Atari. One site broke the pre-release review publication with a “negative review” (5 out of 10 - that’s not negative, thats “meh”) in dutch.

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/53249

How DARE journalists warn the public in advance that a much hyped product that has a zero return policy is in fact a steaming pile of fecal matter and thereby interfere with a corporations bottom line. God forbid the game publisher should actually wait and release a game that’s original and worth playing.

Pre launch, this game was generating a lot of excitement:
http://buttonbasher.wordpress.com/2008/06/18/alone-in-the-dark/

The good news is that with all of this publicity, gamers will hopefully be put off purchasing the title and rightly so. The hilarity is that this one little Dutch site, that’s IN dutch, would probably not have impacted sales nearly as much if Atari had just quietly black-balled them. That’s right, boys and girls, classic Corporate strategy at work: Greedy AND Dumb.

 A while back, I was writing freelance for a gaming magazine. I panned a game called Master of Orion 3 in a review I wrote, mainly because out of the box it was a pile of steaming fecal matter. I awarded it a magnanimous 18%, which the editor upgraded to a 30 something, because he didn’t want to upset the publishers. But to his credit, he published the review intact.

So… Dutch Computer Games Reviewing Website no one had heard of before all this. Crack open a bud light, we salute you. You may have a funny accent, but when it comes to fighting the good fight against corporate sell outs, you tell it like it is.

Oh, and an advisory to any Game Publisher who plans on sending me an advance review copy, if it sucks, I’ll break your embargo to tell the 3 people who visit my site regularly world… and sue you for wasting my time.

And it will be in English, mother-f^@#*rs, not dutch. How’d you like THEM apples?

Skep

I think George would be glad to have died. At least now we’ll see less of Tim Russert.

But seriously, there’s a whole generation out there who barely knew him, and hopefully in death he’ll be able to get more of his important message across to those who desperately need to hear it.

Plus, he’ll get to offend people from beyond the grave… I never knew him personally, only through his comedy, but somehow… I think he’ll get a real kick out of that.

Check out his wikiquote entry (and while you’re at it… check out Mark Twain too. They died almost a hundred years apart, although the language of Mr Clemens is cleaner, the message is the same)

Some of the worthwhile links in the Blogosphere:

Some great Clips:
http://furzdurzelette.wordpress.com/2008/06/23/im-fine-but-im-not-dandy-george-carlin-rip/trackback/

A nice tribute:
http://legionofnameless.wordpress.com/2008/06/23/rip-george-carlin/trackback/

Seven Words sketch:
http://forestdragon.wordpress.com/2008/06/23/george-carlin-may-12-1937-june-22-2008/trackback/

and a Xtian writer who is saddened by the news, but happy that George is an aetheist no more: http://davidtjordan.wordpress.com/2008/06/23/newsflash-george-carlin-atheist-no-more/trackback/

The agnostic in me hopes that the enlightened are wrong, that there is indeed a heaven, I can imagine god welcoming George at the pearly gates with a “Hah!”. and a “Thanks for thinking”, then watch him go get introduced to Sam L Clemens, those two I imagine could talk for a while.

My list of (probably pulled by the copyright owner shortly) Memorable Carlin clips:

Religion is bullshit

Pro Life is Anti-Woman

George Carlin on Education & the Hidden Rulers of America

Saving the Planet

A nicely put together tribute

and most appropriately: George Carlin on Death

I know George would love it if he offended a few more of the narrow minded, and liberated a few more seekers.

George, if you’re yelling from down there… see ya soon

Skep

What a very well thought out and written article at the 15 minute Genius

His/Her question: “But then you have to ask them the question, ‘Why is murder wrong?’ At this the most common answer is because of humanity being of importance. Aetheists would say humans shouldn’t kill humans because humans don’t have the right to. But where would they get or not get this right?”

The ten commandments essentially boil down to one. “Thou Shalt not steal”. Taking something that is not yours without the permission of the owner is wrong. Unless we have that rule, human society would be brutalized by the strong taking away from the weak. We are a society, for a society to function, there has to be some order. But who gets to establish that order?

Early religious leaders realized this, and controlled the masses by letting them know that there was an all powerful being who would punish them for eternity if they broke society’s rules (This was before CSI).

The majority of the moral code in all religions is essentially the rules for a society where the weak are protected from the strong.

Great minds came up with the Bill of Rights. But even then, some still practiced slavery, most mysogyny, but their hearts were in the right place, and the path they illuminated sets us off in the right direction.

Why aetheists are so keen in pointing out the flaws in religion is not (necessarily) to feel superior to those of faith. But to get across the message, you can’t rely on faith to solve this world’s problems.

As an agnostic, I struggle occasionally. I respect people of faith for following sound moral guidelines, but despair because some of these guidelines are so out of date, and taken only as it suits.

Xtians, for the most part, are homophobic, because Leviticus states it’s an abomination. So why don’t we see protests of Red Lobster? Because it no longer suits them to follow those rules.

As we as humans move forward, we will see more and more that the crux of religion is man controlling man through “you must have faith”, “trust in the lord”, “judgement will come” are all ways of saying “Forget about what is wrong in your life right now, just be good, and it will all work out”

I cannot truly say that I don’t believe in the supreme maker. But I do believe in mankind’s ability, and propensity to avert its’ eyes from things that need changing.

Skep

Probably not safe for work. Depending on your work that is.

Being the perv I am, I don’t normal miss any references to things spawned by the great god Eros. But I swear if it’s always been there, I need to get new glasses.

Craigslist has always had some dubious posts on, but trolling through all of these new posts of women selling themselves, is proving very entertaining - this girl knows how to dirty talk!

Interesting statistics from Jun 20th: Las Vegas has too many to count, New York has an equally impressive number(I didn’t say “good” statistics). Kansas City - 87 (I guess the Midwest really does heat up in summer), Salt Lake City, Utard Utah, 3. So very sad, if anyone needs quality professional “service” providers, it’s the denizens of SLC.

I wonder if while the economy continues to be a suck fest, we’ll see more people working the oldest profession, pun… not… intentional.

I just got asked this at the liquor store. If I’m at the liquor store, you know it’s not good.

I work for a major credit card company. I answer the phone, I get yelled at a lot. My company is a pretty good company, but lately, their decisions regarding their customers has sucked. This has resulted in me getting yelled at a whole lot more.

Obviously, the calls are recorded, so I can’t tell them what I really think, but I can tell them to go somewhere else for better rates and service. Yes. That’s how retarded my management are.

Obviously, some customers are more desirable than others, but if they’re generating revenue, why the hell would you want to alienate them in this fashion?

I’ve asked this question a lot, and my immediate management shrug, and say “That’s business”… people in higher pay grades are dictating the rules, and frankly, I think they’re assholes.

But I’ll do what they say, I’ll keep on excelling at being a corporate peon, and I’ll keep challenging the WTF decisions in a corporo-correct fashion until someone gets some sense and says “hey, this decision is retarded, let’s rethink this”

In the meantime, for all you customers we’re screwing, royally, I really do apologize for the inconvience.

As a shareholder in GE I’m dismayed by the performance of its CEO Jeffrey Immelt.

I don’t know about other generations, but my generation is expecting Super Corporations to take over the world. You know, like the Weyland-Yutani corporation.

But this guy keeps selling parts off, what the hell Jeff? Keep growing, Neutron Jack had the right idea. Buy everything, and fire the people who suck. Yes, it’s brutal, but it’s business. People expect brutal policies in business.

If one of the business units is showing a profit, why the hell would you want to sell it? BE the megacorp baby. The moon’s the perfect size to advertise on.

Somebody kick this clown out of the office and show him what globalization means.

I love poker. However, what I appear to be good at is losing at poker.

Fortunately, Pokerstars is still accepting deposits from US players, despite Washington being bungholes about it.

While that continues to be the case, I’ll continue playing there.

Welp, here comes another beating.

I would have configured the blog so that others could comment. Insert guffaw at n00b here.

Thanks to theeriver for helping me out. Cheers mate! Now “piss off” LOL

As I’m still new to this blogging thing, I was holding off picking a style, until I came across this one.

I like it. The designer, Phu’s site looks awesome, so I’m trusting that it’s not going to cause me grief.

If you want it for your blog too: download it from the author

Thanks Alex, for the easy to find link!

We’ll see how long this lasts

Slate.com have a well thought out article on an experiment where someone tries to become an early bird.

Personally I can do either, but it takes drugs and alcohol my body time to adjust to the new schedule, and until then I’m one moody S.O.B.

So, like Michael from the Office says: “I’m an early bird and a night owl, I’m wise… and I have worms”