Typically I don’t post YouTube links, but, after seeing this on ESPN Classic, I had to find it on YT. Simply awesome. Leave it to the Canadians and the Nordiques, wow. That’s even crazier than most of the Canadian and Bruin battles I’ve seen.
You might think that because I played 1942 and BF2, that I have a unwavering devotion to the series. That somehow my enjoyment for the other effects my opinion about the current title. You’d be mistaken.
BF2142 is by all accounts a horrible game. Not only does it use the same engine as BF2, there’s no noticible upgrade to the visuals. They didn’t even try to improve it. Also, by the same token, since its the same engine, the game suffers for most, if not all, the same horrible bugs.
The gameplay has been altered in such a way that the already stale “conquest” style of play is made worse as its evolved into “titan mode”. Titan Mode is a half assed attempt at Conquest followed by an even more half assed attempt at “keep out”, something even school kids get tired of playing.
So, no upgraded visuals, no improved game play, what exactly does it have?
Ads. In game fucking ads. Not only are they ads, they’re ads that are fed to your computer via a very spyware-ish system. In some cases REQUIRING that you uninstall a windows service patch in order to play. I’m sorry, any system that requires you to open up a security hole in order to work isn’t much of a system at all. Why would a programming team write an ad system that relies on a windows vulnerability? Because they didn’t want you to know about it. If you’re not patched, then the game works just fine and is very sneaky snaeky about its ad system.
So, ads, spyware, windows security holes AND basic game bugs and glitches. Wow.
Basically, Bf2142 is a horrible MOD for BF2 that isn’t any fun to play, makes your machine more vulnerable and makes a considerable amount of ad revenue for EA. Doesn’t that just you a warm fuzzy deep down inside.
Avoid. Avoid like the fucking plague. BF is dead, long live BF1942.
It’s been a long two months. Here in Texas its gone from unbearably hot to mildly aggravating. Now we’re getting into the rainy season and, since everything is bigger in Texas, the storms are frequent and violent. This afternoon we’ve lost power twice already. I worry about making this post so I’m typing as quickly as I can.
Recently I had the opportunity to watch The Departed. I’m not quite sure I can give the movie a high enough mark to properly describe it’s brilliance. There’s no question that Scorsese is at the top of his game. That was the best ending I’ve seen to a movie since The Usual Suspects.
On the job front, although I can’t go into specifics, I’m currently checking out alternatives to my current employment. Not by shear choice of my own, but at my employer’s suggestion. Apparently the books look a little lean.
I have hope for a few possibilities I’ve found. One actually involves working for the Army Intelligence branch in a quasi-secretive fashion. That’s definitely something I can’t give you details on.
We’ve also found a new church home that, for the first time, I actually enjoy going to. The people are extremely friendly, the sermon isn’t heavy handed, everyone is laid back and really upbeat. It’s quite a nice change of pace. We’ve made quite a few friends and actually enjoy spending time with them outside of church. Most “church friends” aren’t the kind of folks I’d invite over for a BBQ, but these people seem to be an exception to the rule.
So, it’s mostly a job hunt around here lately. There’s also a small photo project I’ve taken on, just for myself, to chronicle life here in Texas. I’m hoping I can make it into a book and bring copies up north for the holidays.
Actually, that brings up a good point. I’m coming home for X-mas. I’ll be back in New England the day before my birthday until a day or two before New Years. A nice long break.
I tried to clear that trip with work, only to get a tentative “we’ll see, I guess it’s ok” answer, but, in all honesty, I’m hoping to no longer be there by the time this trip rolls around. Even if I’m not, it’s not something I going to fight my boss about. I’m going, they can just deal with it. I’ve worked too long and too hard to even be questioned about time off. After three years, if they don’t see the value in me as an employee and can’t seem to find it acceptable that I take one week off a year, then that’s not some place I want to work at any more.
Other projects I’m thinking about are an audio podcast for SavvyNation and trying a review/web tidbit site with Chris. I’d really like to get others involved the audio production, mostly because I doubt I have a great “radio voice” and it’s always nice to have some color commentary to back you up.
We’ll see how that goes. I wouldn’t be holding your breath or anything.
Ok, gotta run, the house is shacking with thunder, probably a good time to shut down the PC.
Matt out.
Ever since Hindenberg went down (up) in flames, I’ve neglected most if not all of my websites and journaling responsibilities. Well, if you can call bitching about pointless topics a responsibility.
Mainly this malaise is due to a lack of time and a lack of will power on my part. Going a month without a major update leads me to believe that I no longer “need” to write about my life like I did in the past. Writing now resides squarely in the “want” category.
When I was younger, back in the golden age of the internet, I felt a solid need to express myself in some digital fashion. In 1996, I began that expression. At the time I was using Blogger. Soon after Live Journal came on the scene, quickly followed with more robust packages like Moveable Type. Now it’s WordPress.
I think somewhere along the way, by being in art school, keeping journals, and learning to express myself in a more adult fashion, some of the newness wore off. Blogging for me is no longer the “cool nerdy thing” that I used to delight in doing. I think there are a lot of people that feel the same way. A lot of us started into this believing we were a small niche collective of like minded individuals, who, for the first time finally had a voice in the darkness of the internet.
Now, it’s all myspace and youtube and having a journal online is something that middle school kids do. “Personal” content went mainstream and destroyed itself in the process.
Now everyone has a journal. Not just a journal, but everyone has video from their phones on youtube, 150 friends on myspace, a flickr photostream from their adventures last weekend.
I don’t mean to sound like I’m railing on it, I’m not. I’m merely trying to illustrate that words on a page was OUR generation, and now that the next generation is here, social interaction is THEIR caveat.
I’m not trying to sound dramatic. I’m also not trying to cryptically say that I’m abandoning blogging. Far from it. What I’m trying to get across is that as I’ve gotten older, the teenage need to express myself and “find” myself is diminishing. Being, as of this winter, in my (*gasp*) late-twenties, I no longer have the same creative urges as say for example, the 17 year old me.
I’ll put it like this: Long ago I enjoyed learning how to dance. I enjoyed dancing with all my friends, learning new steps and trying new things. After a while I met the woman of my dreams who also enjoyed dancing. We danced together. One dance in particular. We got married, still dance, and still enjoy it. But, we don’t take lessons any more. We don’t dance with other people. We’ve found our dance partner for life, know all the steps, and now we dance just for personal enjoyment.
That’s what writing has become for me. It’s wonderment and freshness and awkwardness has worn off and it’s become something I do simply because I want to. I don’t need to dance. I don’t need to learn new steps. I can dance just for the fun of it.
So, in the end, what I hope will happen here is that I write about things I want to write about. There are many topics I’d like to discuss in great detail and will continue to do so until this serves no purpose to anyone or until it’s enjoyment is gone, whichever comes first. Neither are in the foreseeable future. You’ll continue to hear me bitching for quite some time.
In a post to follow this one shortly I’ll detail some of the actually events that have shaped the past month or two, but I felt it necessary to explain my absence a bit before I jumped back into it.
When the server crashed, it took with it a piece of my past that I used as a building block for my own personal development. Writing about what I felt really helped me in what every artist could describe as their search for the soul. However, while I was without it, I realized that it wasn’t something I necessarily “needed” any more. It wasn’t a crutch persay, something that I was relying on to get on with my life, but it was more of a security blanket or, in a more adult metaphor, a release valve for daily pressures. I could vent here on my journal and, with the exception of you guys, no one would really care. That was almost a relief in itself. I could tell the world what I thought of it and no one would really care. Heaven help me if I ever gain a decent readership.
So, in case you’re just joining us, I’m writing again, this time for fun. It may not be frequent, but hopefully it’ll be worth reading.
Out.
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