Mando.org

I finally finished off KOTOR. I’d been slacking on finishing it off, but it was oh so worth it. I went down the dark side path, so I ended up being The Greatest Sith ever.

Boy, where do you go from that?

Congratulations on your upcoming nuptials. May God lead you down a path to peace and love.

Oh, and Van? I’m sorry I beat you so bad this week in Fantasy Football, but Los Vatos Locos will not be denied .

Everyone remembers Nov. 22, 1963 as the day we lost one of our last great Presidents. Alas, I’m too young to remember him firsthand. All I have are books and memories passed down, but even those impress. But today I remember C.S. Lewis, another great individual whose death was overshadowed by a nation’s loss.

Brother Lewis, thank you for your wit and clarity of thought. Thank you for saying what others wouldn’t (or couldn’t). Thank you for your stories that my father shared with me, and I in turn share with my children.

I didn’t forget my wife’s birthday, I just forgot to blog it. Which is fine, because she never reads this anyway. Heck, I’m pretty sure I’m the only one that reads this.

But, just in case she happens over here, Happy Birthday baby. I love you.

I won’t go into the gory details about MP2. I’ll just give you my impresssions of the game, with the understanding that I loved Max Payne and fully expected to love Max Payne 2.

I did love Max Payne 2. It was just as fun as the first one. Max Payne is one of the few games (Final Fantasy X is the other one) that my wife sat and watched me play. The graphics and gameplay (and I think the choice of 3rd person helped in both cases) pulled her in, and the story kept her watching. Max Payne 2 caught her attention in the same way, so that says something about its overall quality.

The levels are good and the gameplay is just as good as the first one. All in all, I really enjoyed the game, with 2 gripes:

1. Game length: It was awfully short. I know that there are more gameplay modes unlocked once you beat the game, but it’s the story that kept me playing, and now that it’s over, I just don’t have the desire to play any of the other modes. In other words, more levels, more story.
2. Nothing new: This was more of an expansion pack than a new game. There’s nothing wrong with that, I suppose. But when games like Enter the Matrix do an incredible job with something like bullet time, you’d think that Max Payne’s developers would take notice and at least copy them.

I swear I get the wierdest SPAM. Check this one out :

“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”

–John F. Kennedy Inaugural Address Washington, D.C. January 20, 1961

I mean, I get it. There’s a web bug in there but what’s really funny is that it gives a 404 error when you try to get it. So it can’t track you even if your email reader automatically downloads images referenced by your email (which it shouldn’t). But what really bakes my noodle is the quote.

That’s a great quote, and eerily appropriate given what’s going on in the world. I wonder why they chose THAT particular quote.

Are they closet JFK fans? Random quote? Trying to get past SPAM filters? Who knows? But it’s probably the first SPAM that I’ve truly enjoyed .

I got another bizarre SPAM from the same guys :

President Bush was awakened one night by a call from the Pentagon.
“Mr. President”, said the general, barely able to contain himself, “there’s goodnews and bad news.”
“Oh no”, muttered the President. “Well, let me have the bad news first.”
“The bad news, sir, is that we’ve been invaded by creatures from another planet.”
“And the good news?”
“The good news, sir, is that they eat reporters and pee oil.”

Buh-dum-bump. Thank you, thank you. I’ll be here all week. Don’t forget to tip your waitress.

I love it.

It’s everything I thought it would be. It’s a scratch pad, note taker, wallet and organizer all in one. Utterly amazing.

In Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Dr. Jones (the elder, not the younger) has a sweet little pocket notebook containing his life’s work: a (highly stylized) map that leads to the Holy Grail. After years and years of searching, I’ve found it. The notebook, that is. Not the Grail.

The notebook is a Moleskine (pronounced “mo-le-skeen-eh”, as it’s Italian in origin). According to the website, these things have been used by great artists of the years such as Hemmingway, Wilde, Van Gogh and others. Maybe it’ll make me a great artist as well .

Seriously, I’ve searched long and hard for something that can be a journal/note keeper/second brain, and nothing has ever worked how I expect. Palm Pilots weren’t quick or cheap enough, and regular notebooks are too big to carry around. This thing fits in your back pocket and is cheap enough to justify.

Thanks to Prentiss for the link.

Truth comes from the most unlikely of places. I found this link while reading an awful story about a hurtfully-named website run by an aide of Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO).

Three years ago, Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan, his son and an aide died in a plane crash while he was campaining for his Senate race. The death of a popular public servant notwithstanding, this was a pretty big deal. With Carnahan a near shoo-in for the Senate seat held by then Repulican Senator John Ashcroft, the Democratic party had a good chance to re-take the Senate majority.

The tail number of the plane that went down was N8354N. The website’s name was N8354N. Words can’t adequately describe the tastelessness of the website’s name, but even amoung swine a pearl may be found.

Read it and remember. Don’t forget what you felt or what it was like when you heard the news. Don’t forget the drop in your stomach or the hopelessness when the reality of it all sank in. Don’t forget your fear and sense of loss, or your desire to help.

We as a people are excellent at forgetting but so bad at remembering. This is something that should never be forgotten.

Read it and remember.