I know this has been posted in part of my profile for years, but I love it anyway and thought I would save it here for the future.

Updates to follow later this week on the New York trip and new pictures of Mason (be looking to the right > in the PHOTO section).

St. Crispen's Day Speech
by William Shakespeare
This day is called the feast of Crispian:
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian:'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.
And say 'These wounds I had on Crispin's day.'
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day: then shall our names.
Familiar in his mouth as household words
Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember'd;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

ONE PISSED OFF GAMER...
(...who's not going to stand silently by anymore)

HOLY CHRISTWAGONS!!!!!  I'm done.  I'm sick of it, I want nothing further to do with it...and I'm spent.

What am I talking about?  Something as innocuous as video games being called to the mat for a brutal ass-whupping by a guy who has probably never played a game in his life.  Or if he has, he was probably the guy who was beat by everyone, even his little sister, at such rudimentary things like Pong and Pac-Man.

Case in point 1:  recently in the news, a lot of controversy has arissen due to the discovery of "cartoon sexually explicit mini-games" in the widely popular game Grand Theft Auto:  San Andreas.  While this stuff doesn't necessarily need to be in video games, there is a catch to the above story:  the bits in question are on a part of the disk where other unused code resides...in other words, it's basically like finding a wadded up piece of paper inside a wastebasket onboard a motorhome...something that shouldn't be there, and was never intended to be found.  Sure, game manufacturer Rockstar Games could have taken an extra 5 months to release their game just to go through and remove all the junk coding, but that could have damaged the product and forced them to start recoding it from scratch again.

For the record, GTA:SA is rated M for Mature....meaning it contains content not suitable for kids 17 and under.  I, being over the age of 17, feel this is a very fair and partial rule, but I also worry that maybe it's the government's way of gaining a little more foothold into controlling every aspect of our lives.  Too many times have I heard of new groups popping up, citing freedom of speach, and then tearing around the countryside with no regard for what they're protecting.  Then, when they're called on it, they claim they're being "oppressed" because they are a "minority."  No fucking shit...3 people IS a minority in America.

Case in point 2:  The Sims 2.  Who, in all that is right with their mind, would be so stupid as to compare The Sims 2's "sexual content" to the likes of GTA:SA?  Ask Jack Thompson, who is doing just that.  Allow me to elaborate...The Sims 2 is being accused of having similarly sexual content to that of GTA:SA during it's regular game play.  Granted, there are times when the Sims must go sans clothing.  But EA was smart...they place a large blurry rectangle to censor the Sim's body so they can take care of business in piece.  Unfortunately, there is a code out there in internet land that will render that blur nonexistant.  Are the women's breasts as big as watermelons?  Do all the men in the game have the nickname "Tripod?"  Do kiddies run around with their "woo woo's" and "wee wee's" on display for pedophiles to "enjoy?"  No...for under the blur, there exists but a mannequin body, smooth and non-detailed.

Yet, as quoted from Jack Thompson's mainfesto, he claims:

"Sims 2, the latest version of the Sims video game franchise ... contains, according to video game news sites, full frontal nudity, including nipples, penises, labia, and pubic hair."

Umm...Jack?  Have you even PLAYED the game?  Are you telling me that the basis for your attack isn't just from a video game news source, but that source is actually ONLINE?????  I wonder then, Jack...have you received the $10,000 from Microsoft that was promised to you in a very authentic looking (san's millions of forwards and addresses topping it off) e-mails you receive telling you to forward it so that Bill Gates can send you $248 per forward?  Or better yet, how about if you would be so kind as to fill out the form sent to you in an e-mail (with several common misspellings and strange characters) telling you your account (which you may or may not have) is about to be suspended and you need to enter your "updated" credit card info, who's link just happens to be very conveniently located in said e-mail.

Friends, Xangans, Countrymen, lend me your ears....it's gone WAY too far.  When self-proclaimed "cock of the walks" start gunning for stuff like this, I cannot be held accountable for my actions.  I will continue to weep for future generations, the very same weeping I started in my last blog, because this is just another glory-seeking dildo who needs to pull the gerbal out of his ass long enough to do some actual, bone fide research before opening his mouth.

...asshat fucktard