Branch Rivalry

Found this while cleaning off my desktop...

Silverlight Confidence

Spell it right Microsoft and maybe I'll install it (last seen here):

Focused:

Sad Days for the Proletariat

Crap like this is why I'm deeply discouraged with politics in our country:

The DHS decision under the former Bush administration extended from 12 months to 29 months the amount of time STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) students are allowed to work after graduation under the OPT (Optional Practical Training) program. The IRLI claims the decision allows unlimited numbers of foreign students to work as candidate H-1B workers, directly competing with qualified Americans.

The Court of Appeals held that American STEM workers do not have the standing to challenge the regulation because they are not within the zone of interests of the foreign student visa provision.

U.S. workers do not have standing in court to sue the government who is expanding a program that steals jobs and dilutes wages. It's disgusting enough that something like the H-1B program (and it's myriad of knockoffs) exists, but then to suffer this as well at the hands of our government?

Corporate, elite whores one and all.

How about some more? How about the Fed overpaying for some AIG divisions so that the goons who run AIG won't miss out on their bonuses? Hear the noise from Congress on the Fed blowing $25 billion of taxpayer money without so much as a poll? Me neither.

How about the government trying to pass "cap and tax" so that GE can get rich?

How about the Supreme Court voting that our private property is only ours as long as Costco doesn't want to build a store on it?

How about the Fed and the Treasury conspiring to devalue the dollar so that the bankers can get rich while we pay twice as much as we should for a gallon of gas (at least for now, look for 4x as much in the not too distant future if this keeps up).

How about letting out lifer prisoners because our rulers would rather sleep snugly behind their gated communities knowing that they didn't kill any nasty, bad men. The havoc they cause outside their castle walls is someone else's problem (SEP). If that wasn't bad enough they force that crappy vision onto our military so that they can needlessly die in places that don't give a lick for the delusional vision of our elites.

And so on...

Then what is there to comment on? No point in debating anything at the moment. The common schlep knows that he's getting boned by everyone from government unions to corporate elites while our elected officials, nearly to a man, look desperately for some way to keep the 'boning' going.

Exchange Student Notes #3

(We are hosting an exchange student from China for this school year. Sally is her phony baloney American name)

• I love how she took a bite of a cheesecake that I had made, and although you could tell that her stomach was telling her to wolf it down, you could also tell that she was thinking that she was five bites away from going back home as the 'fat American' and having all of her friends laugh and point at her. She deferred to the mincemeat pie.
• We rented GI Joe (yes, it was free) and although I'm not partial to subtitles they make it easier for Sally to watch English language movies and I figured the less I saw of that movie the better so I turned them on. Good golly, I was thinking that movie would have been dramatically better with no dialog at all. It turned my stomach, but Sally loved the movie a bunch. Probably something along the same lines of my listening to sugary J-POP tunes, the full force of the artist's intent doesn't come across, making the inept end product more palatable to those who cannot completely understand it.
• After catching that new Disney Christmas Carol movie (yes, free, again) we stopped by Skyline. I had already eaten my calorie quota that night (and then some) so I passed on getting anything (feel free to be amazed). Kid Sandmich got a jumbo three way and I explained to Sally that many years ago I'd eat two of those, four chili-cheese coneys (she was eating 1) and an order of garlic bread all in one sitting (feel free to be amazed again). She got a mildly puzzled look and stated that most Americans she sees eat a lot "but dad, you eat..." and then made a small oval with both of her hands. I then explained that after years of eating two jumbo three ways, four cheese coneys, and an order of garlic bread in one sitting, that my big eating days are unfortunately behind me (hopefully!).
• She also caught a high school football game, but didn't care for it. She thought that basketball was much better, though I'm sure the fact that being out in the cold rain to watch the football game influenced her decision.
• Mrs. Sandmich had set a 'rule' for Sally that she could sleep in as long as she liked on her days off of school so that she could talk to her family the night before. If we do the Exchange student thing again this rule will need to be shot down. I was okay with knowing that she would be skipping breakfast, but this past weekend she got up at quarter till four (and no that's not AM) making the planning of anything iffy.

Final Fantasy IV

This game is the second old console Final Fantasy game redone for the Nintendo DS. Unlike Final Fantasy III which was not originally available in the states this game was released in a modified format back in the early nineties as Final Fantasy II (it being the second Final Fantasy game released in this country).

I had originally dug into this game on the 2005 Gameboy Advance version. The story was amazingly strong for such a small package and I was enjoying it immensely. Unfortunately about a third of the way through the game I got cocky and wound up blowing a couple hours worth of gaming by going into a dungeon my characters weren't ready for. Even at the time I knew better and that I should save before going off the story's rail, but with that big scoop of game having to be replayed I put the game down and waited to forget what it was that I was doing so that the adventure would be new again.

Fortunately the wait (of several years) paid off with this re-release that Kid Sandmich got me for Christmas. It features a snazzy opening much like the re-done Final Fantasy III and artwork that's even a hair better than FF3. The most shocking improvement, however, was when the game hit a cutscene and instead of being subtitled with text it was a fully voiced in-engine cutscene, a first for me on the DS!

In this iteration they did away with the grating job system from 'III' and opted instead to integrate that system into the story with each character holding to a set job. This change added to the depth and eliminated the 'double grind' issue with other FF titles that are job based (having to grind up the character level as well as a job which will probably turn out to be a dead end). Another big improvement is a crude 'auto' system decreases the pain of grinding by allowing for a rough level of automation. In fact, on the final dungeon I was able to grind up my characters past level 80 without much effort (level 60 is the bare minimum needed to beat the game).

Almost more than any other Final Fantasy game that I've played, this game dishes out brutal punishment for those who haven't explored every nook and cranny of the map. Skipping through the game and holding exclusively to the story will leave characters at too low of a level, and valuable goodies that make the game much more manageable will be left at the wayside (there were a few points where Kid Sandmich ran into trouble and I'd find out that he hadn't been to the semi-secret dungeon of WhatzIt to acquire some secret weapon). However, the most grating aspect of this game is that towards the end magic became increasingly useless, making the game a by the books hack and slash. If you wanted a healing spell in a fight you'd have to start casting it early in the match because the long charge time meant that by the time you needed it you'd already be good as dead.

I love the effort put behind this title and it's turned out very nice, but still, the original (GBA version) game was pretty good, so although it was an enjoyable improvement the developers didn't have quite the hump to overcome in putting this game together as they did for Final Fantasy III to make it playable to modern audiences.

As an aside this will be the last retro FF game that I play before the release of Final Fantasy XIII early (hopefully) next year. I tried to play through 'V' but I determined early on that it was pretty much the same game as FFIII.

Bringing Bloat to a New Level

Nice cross marketing campaign in Japan:

300

Mrs. Sandmich just got 300 for me on Blu-Ray. I have to say that I thought it was OK when I saw it in the theater, but now I'm of a mind that it will enter my mental library of movies that I like more and more after every viewing (other such movies that come to mind are The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Princess Mononoke, and yes that old Sandmich favorite Tron).

Amusing Danger

I'm taking a particular interest in the absolute personal data destruction of the Microsoft Sidekick phones. Back when we were getting new phones at work T-Mobile offered (from what I recall) two Windows Mobile phones: the Wing and the Sidekick. The only reason that I went with the Wing over the Sidekick was because the Sidekick was running Windows Mobile 5 (which turns out to be 99.9% the same as the Windows Mobile 6 that came on the Wing, but oh well...).

Anyway, the exec in charge of 'Premium Mobile Experiences' at Microsoft and thus in charge of the 'Danger' division which nuked the data has the amusing name of Roz Ho. I'm certain that applications are being accepted for the soon to be open position; women with supervillain names are encouraged to apply.

An Obama Proclamation

Hotels for illegal immigrants, tents for Americans.
So let it be written. So let it be done.

Browns Notes

Notes from the Brown's 'thrilling' 6-3 win over Buffalo:

This was the first game without a TD in the NFL since Dec. 16, 2007, when the Browns beat Buffalo, 8-0

Quite the record between those two, though from what I recall unlike the latest match there was about a foot of snow on the field for the previous game.

This was the sixth time since 1980 that a team had two completions or fewer in a game (Browns QB Derek Anderson was 2 of 17 for 23 yards).

I admit to not watching it, but I read that the Cleveland quarterback also had nine of his passes dropped which would be par for the course when it comes to the Cleveland receiving corps.

The Browns are the first team to win a game with just two completions since the Bengals defeated the Broncos 31-21 on Oct. 22, 2000, when Corey Dillon set the then-NFL record with 278 rushing yards.

That was back when Cincy was in their "quarterback d'juor" mode and when the Bengals discovered that they didn't have to have their inept QB throw the ball they just fed it to Dillon every down.

There was a fun fact as well when Cleveland was playing Cincy last week and the game was coming within a minute or two of ending in a tie and they noted that the previous NFL tie was between Philly and Cincy last year. Not noted that the one before that was a couple years earlier in a game between Pittsburgh and...Cincy.