May Contain Bolts

That’s it. I’ve had it with Labor and Liberal and the absolute crap that they’re spouting.

Stephen Conroy, as you may have heard, wants to censor the internet. Won’t somebody think of the children?

But now my stance has gone from ‘eh, clean feed is bad’ to ‘What is the hell is the matter with you? Does this look like communist China?’.

Australia is the only developed country without an R18+ classification for games, meaning any titles that do not meet the MA15+ standard – such as those with excessive violence or sexual content – are simply banned from sale by the Classification Board, unless they are modified to remove the offending content.

So far, this has only applied to local bricks-and-mortar stores selling physical copies of games, but a spokesman for Senator Conroy confirmed that under the filtering plan, it will be extended to downloadable games, flash-based web games and sites which sell physical copies of games that do not meet the MA15+ standard.

<snip>

Senator Conroy’s spokesman said the filter would cover “computer games such as web-based flash games and downloadable games, if a complaint is received and the content is determined by ACMA to be Refused Classification”. All games that exceed MA15+ are deemed to be RC.

The filtering could also block “the importation of physical copies of computer games sold over the internet which have been classified RC”, the spokesman said.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald (emphasis mine)

Flash games. Are you kidding me? It’s bad enough that Australia doesn’t have an R18+ rating for video games (because of one Attorney General who just won’t back down), but to have the Government censor things as trivial as flash games is absurd. And why should our taxpayer dollars go to some idiot at the ACMA to play flash games in order for them to determine whether it is ‘Refused Classification’?

Labor is full of idiots. (see NSW) Liberal is full of idiots (utegate – seriously? The country is in financial turmoil, we’re waging war in Afghanistan and all the leaders of Australia can talk about is some fake email?)

So, here’s my message to the people of Australia.

DON’T VOTE LIBERAL OR LABOR.

The two-party system is broken. You have a centre-right party which favours the rich, and a centre-left party that has absolutely no freaking idea what the hell it’s doing. Don’t encourage it further by keeping these idiots in parliament. Next election I’m going to find an Independent or Third-Party (Greens, Democrats, whatever) candidate who lines up with my political views and I’m going to vote for them. By keeping the power away from the major two parties I’m doing my part to prevent idiots like Stephen Conroy from destroying the country.

Oh, but wait. If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal.

So, I’m just going to take 10 mins out of my exam week (wedged in between today’s 3U maths + writing comp and Thursday’s 4U maths + chemistry) to do a filler post.

These are just a few comedians that are hilarious or not enough people know about. (possible language warning for a few)

Lewis Black – He’s a person who is funny because of his angry old-man style of delivery and thoughts on social issues, religion and politics.

Here’s a clip from his Black on Broadway show about milk and water. (check out the rest of the show, and his Red, White and Screwed show too)

And for all you coffee fans, here’s one about Starbucks.

Also check out his (occasionally) recurring segment on The Daily Show called Back in Black.

Demetri Martin – Known for his skit comedy, visual jokes, and his interesting outlook on life.

Here’s one with his guitar.

Also, check out his show on Comedy Central called Important Things with Demetri Martin.

Mitch Hedberg – R.I.P. He sees the world through rose-coloured glasses. A one-liner sort of comedian.

Russell Peters – Asians, Indians and being cheap. Racial stereotypical comedy at its best.

And here’s his other classic – beat your kids.

Dave Chappelle – America, African-Americans and satirical comedy. Here’s a clip about chicken and terrorists.

And of course, Chappelle’s show. And Rick James.

Chris Rock – More African-American culture, and issues. Here’s one on the war on terror, rap music, and how to not get your ass kicked by the police.

Conan O’Brien, Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart – 3 talk show hosts. 3 talk shows. 1 epic battle.

Conan’s a Harvard graduate. Here’s his speech to Harvard Class of 2000. (and here’s part 2)

Here’s some of Jon Stewart’s standup from 1996.

Colbert, in character, on The O’Reilly Factor.

Also see The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report.

Now to stop procrastinating and get back to work.

Wow, it seems that blogs have been springing up left right an center in our grade. 18 now (1 Tumblr, 2 Live Spaces, 7 WordPress, 8 Blogspot), at last count. We should really do some sort of WordPress vs Blogspot battle thing post-trials

The snowball effect. Here’s a video that demonstrates the idea perfectly.

This guy did a decent analysis of it.

Inshalla’s growing on me. I don’t think it’s as good as Black Fingernails, Red Wine (the album – which is considerably more sombre than Inshalla) though, which would probably rate up there as one of my top 5 (if not #1) albums. I really loved the piano/keyboard driven style of BFRW. But the standout songs to me so far on the new album would have to be Foreign Land (which I’m still loving, even after it reaching #1 on my Last.fm), Inshalla and Don’t Let Me Down (you can listen to some on EskimoJoe.net). On a related note, Eskimo Joe has eclipsed Coldplay on my Last.fm, to be #1 (and would probably be higher had I been scrobbling when BFRW came out).

I think I might go on blog hiatus for a while. This stuff is really procrastinaty, and there’s so much to do.

The following was typed on my phone after Jazz. Don’t expect much like last week’s. This is much less thought involved, and far less deep. Thanks to the people below for the company, and a shoutout to Mr. Wong who apparently reads my blog.

So right now it’s about quarter past 5, and Richard and Jgan are negotiating with the restaurant in Carlo Village (ed’s restaurant) to open and let us eat. I’m here with Grubsy, Winnie, Lee-Anne, Sharon and SY. There’s a group of asian people, I assume the employees, sitting and chatting while we stare blankly from the outside.

We’re let in, and sit around the table, Bosco taking photos with his Nikon D90. Restaurants – I was never really  one for restraunts, due to my dislike of vegetables. Seafood gets brought up and quickly shot down due to cost (in true asian style). Vegetables used to make me gag, I don’t know why I developed a strong dislike though (I do eat carrot and peas regularly, love baby corn and eat spinach, albeit forcibly). Same goes for most seafood (except for fish).

Which brings me to what I really wanted to blog about today. (and Bosco says hi)

Nobody knows the word gaffe. I can’t believe nobody has ever heard the word before, and nobody  knows what it means. I use it all the time (and I wonder what people who heard me saying the word in sentences thought I was saying. I feel like CommunityChannel Natalie Tran with her reference humour…).

The word means stuffed up. Like ‘I gaffed the test’ or ‘Apparently they gaffed some parts of the musical last night’. Lol, I can’t remember what Belle thought it was but it was something like a gay name or something XD

5:35 and we begin ordering. Grubsy is speaking Cantonese to the waitress and Jgan, Lee-Anne and I share blank expressions as we non-Canto speakers try to decipher what he’s saying. I need to learn Mando properly one day – I went to China last year (for the first time) and found out just how bad my Mando understanding really was…

5:39 – yay, first dish! Quote Bosco ‘mysterious soup’. It has pork or something, and smells delicious. Phone away.

6:13 – Benny and Yoon joined us about halfway though the meal. this was probably one of the first times that I actually ate properly (ie. Non just chicken or other meat and noodles and rice) at a restaurant. Yummy. Now for the bill calculation. ‘We have 45 minutes’ says Bosco, in agreement with Grubsy’s opposition to getting the bill atm. I sip my slightly warm tea as Grubsy walks in the now bustling restaurant to get the bill. About $10 each – much better value than the quater piece of chicken meal I bought from Oporto Parra on Tuesday when we went to see The Crucible (average acting, strange accents, dislikable play and moments where there were noticable stuff ups – unacceptable for a professional production).

6:23 – We meet up with Buddha, Chris T, Alan, HTL and Thomas after the meal, as we begin to walk back. Thomas and HTL look at the ‘Stacker’ game with mediocre prizes. A fake iPod Nano, a cheap LG KG370 prepaid phone, glow sticks and glue sticks? Seriously? A game where the odds are completely stacked and the prizes aren’t worth a brick.

The fish market is doing something strange. The man picks up a white mallet and whacks the fish on the head.  ’Whoa, that’s how they kill the fish!’ Benny remarks. Michael retorts ‘No, that’s for the bad customers.’. Lulz ensue.

6:33 – The race us on. The group split at the Carlo village intersection, and the girls race away on the left side attempt to outrum Grubsy’s crew on the right. After a massive head start, Grubsy overtakes. They attempt a comeback and…They fail.

For some reason, jaywalking always reminds me of the Beyblade theme song. ‘LET’S JAYYYYWALKKKKK!’

6:40 – people in art school. Man sweeping path outside newsagent. 3-car train comes under the bridge to Carlo. Yay Cityrail. We meet Aditi D.

Walking to school…

YAAAARRRGGHHH! *screams* Bosco jumps out of the bushes. Sorry, this post is starting to suck. Ooh, Grubsy creeps up with SY on the other girls.

*screams*. This is so fun. Back at school, people are prepping for the musical. I’ve run out of stuff. Phone away.

It’s 10:41, and I’m in my dad’s car on the way home after the musical, The Merry Widow. I thought it was prety good (not as good as last year’s La Perichole though ;p). Frances’ voice is absolutely amazing. And Cabbage – you were hilarious XD The plot seemed to be somewhat inconsequential though…

Ooh, a cat ran across the road. (I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to remove your ninja cat licence) I think I’ll conclude it there. Thanks for reading, and hope you didn’t get completely boreded out.

So, Cabbage has been actively covering E3 for [the blog collective], but I’ll post my summary (I only watched the Microsoft one though – rest is by sources) while I await his opinion.

Microsoft

Microsoft’s was quite interesting. First, the exclusive sequels: Halo 3 ODST and Reach, Crackdown 2, Left 4 Dead 2, Forza 3, Alan Wake (a psychological thriller), Splinter Cell: Conviction, plus Joy Ride (arcade racing, kinda like Trackmania) and Shadow Complex (made by Epic Game – UT, Gears of War) coming to Xbox Live Arcade. Modern Warfare 2 (Call of Duty 4 sequel) was played live, looked fantastic, and 2 timed-exclusive map packs for the 360. Zune Video – 1080p video and movie downloads coming to Australia this year. Last.fm, Twitter and Facebook also coming to the 360 (not sure how useful it will be though…). Final Fantasy XIII was also demoed live, and looked interesting. The Beatles: Rock Band has vocal harmonies, which is awesome, and Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr made an appearance as we..

The big surprises:

Metal Gear Solid: Rising – The first appearance of the Metal Gear Solid franchise on the 360. No confirmations on exclusivity though, but no announcement at the Sony press conference makes it lean towards a Microsoft exclusive (probably PC as well though). (Trailer) EDIT: I’m wrong. Probably will see the light on PS3 and PC.

Project Natal – Microsoft’s motion ‘controller’. It’s like a sensor bar – it has an RGB camera, a depth sensor, a multiarray microphone. So it’s kinda like an Eyetoy, however instead of an actual picture on the screen it uses motion-capture technology to allow you to control everything with body gestures. There’s an actual 3D depth of field as well, so moving forward and backwards will make you do so in the game.  It looks impressive, and if it actually works in practice, this will be interesting. (Trailer)

Nintendo

A few interesting game announcements. Mario featured quite a bit (as usual) – Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story (DS), Mario vs. Donkey Kong (DSiWare), Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii), The New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Golden Sun DS was announced. Wii Fit Plus will give you something to waste your money on – again. MotionPlus attachement for 1:1 movement with the WiiMote (which should have been in there since day 1), announced at last year’s E3, was demonstrated with Wii Sports Resort.

The big surprises:

Metroid Other M – New Metroid title being developed by Nintendo and Team Ninja (of DoA and Ninja Gaiden fame).

Wii Vitality Sensor – Well, what can I say. 2 years ago we were underwhelmed with the announcement of a plastic board (which went on to sell millions worldwide, and continues to top sales charts), and this year Nintendo have done it again.

Yes, that’s right, the next big hit on the Wii is a pulse sensor. I hope all you doctor types are happy.

Sony

Most of Sony’s content had already leaked pre-E3. The new PSP (dubbed PSP Go!) was debuted, and will retail at US$249. The screen is smaller and slide out, the UMD drive has been removed and replaced by 16GB of memory (ie. games by download only). Interesting to note is that it won’t replace the PSP-3000 (current model), but will be sold alongside it. God of War 3 was displayed dated (March 2010). Gran Turismo PSP was announced. Final Fantasy XIV is an MMORPG (like FFXI) being released on the PS3 and PC (EDIT: And possibly 360?). Kojima announced Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker for the PSP. Resident Evil also gets a PSP version. Team Ico is hard at work on The Last Guardian (PS3). Gran Turismo 5 is in the pipeline (PS3). Also, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, MAG and Assassin’s Creed 2 are looking good.

The big surprises:

Agent – Rockstar North (of GTA fame) is working on a PS3 exclusive title, which has been dubbed as the “ultimate action game”. Knowing Rockstar, this won’t disappoint.

Motion Controller – Sony announced this device which uses 2 wand controllers in conjunction with the PS Eye. The fact that they demoed most of the functionality live says a lot, and this 3-way motion controller battle will be fiercely fought.

Overall

An interesting lineup of games to look out for. It will be interesting to see how the battle of motion unfolds. For further E3 2009 coverage, visit Kotaku, Joystiq, IGN, GameSpot, GameTrailers, Giant Bomb, 1UP or N4G.

Images by Colony of Gamers (via Flickr)

Right now I have this scar on the right side of my left hand, the size of a 10c coin. I’ve had it for a few weeks now, and it looks like a burn mark, but I honestly can’t remember burning myself at any point in the near past. I thought it might have been my hand scraping on the table/paper when writing, or on the steering wheel when driving (yay, about 7hrs done! ), but iuno. Future doctors, diagnose away! (or maybe I’m becoming part of the infected…)

Today I managed to have my right eye gouged by some guy getting off the Eastwood bus. I don’t even know how it happened. As the bus was stopping, I turned around to look at Bosco as he was saying something, and this guy’s finger flew into my face. He glanced back once with a sort of puzzled look, and just kept walking as my slow mind was trying to comprehend what had just happened. Sore red eye for the rest of the bus trip. Grr.

But as many times as these small things have happened, I’ve never broken a bone in my body. Sure, I’ve jarred my fingers many times (also, my 4th fingernail on my left hand has a permanent flat section due to a basketball flying at it) but I’ve never had anything in a cast or anything like that. I’ve always looked up to those people; the fame and infamy and cast signings…not that I want to break something on purpose of course…

I’m disappointed my Free2Go card hasn’t come yet. (hi Belle!) I can’t believe I got jipped into signing up for one without getting the free bag of stuff. What a rip. And considering the luck I’m having at the moment, I’m going to need that free roadside assistance for tomorrow at Riverside, even though I’m not driving. (as long as James doesn’t jinx it, it will be alright )

E3 starts tomorrow. I was going to do a whole post dedicated to it, but I think I’ll hold off until Wednesday, when all is done. Cabbage should do an adequate job covering it. Those that have nothing better to do at the following times, however, will be able to watch it streaming live. There’s always some funky announcements. Last years was that Final Fantasy XIII would be coming to the 360 (BUUUUURRRRNNNN SONY). Who knows what craaazy announcements they have in store this year.

E3 Conference Schedule (Australian Eastern ST)
Microsoft – Tuesday 3:30am
Electronic Arts – Tuesday 7:00am
Ubisoft – Tuesday 10:00am
Nintendo – Wednesday 2:00am
Sony – Wednesday 4:00am

Streaming live via:
IGN
E3 Insider / Gametrailers
Gamespot
G4tv

Oh, and for the unaware, The Sims 3 comes out on Thursday.