Planet Sillicon

Comic book villains: Part 3

By blog on May. 30, 2009.

Alright so now time for the final ten villains. Here’s hoping they are actually worthy of being in the top ten!

10: Kingpin. A big, fat, meh! Daredevil has always seemed crap to me, so I don’t really care about his villains. I have never really cared in the slightest about the ’stupidly wealthy, out to screw everyone, evil for no reason’ kind of villains. All they have is money, so they can pay people with actual super villain powers to do their dirty work!

9: Dark Phoenix. There’s no denying she is one scary evil doer, though I have always found that there isn’t any good – or bad – motivation for her. She just destroys stuff… because she feels like it… Well Miss Id-Kid, grow up!

8: Loki. He’s an interesting character in a way, the prankster who will ultimately bring an end to Asgard, but the comic book version is… less interesting to me. Why are there so many high-end villains working for other people?

7: Ra’s Al Ghul. Another interesting, and almost morally ambiguous character, except he is raving mad. I know he’s just after his idea of the perfect world, but even a moron can see that bringing down multiple civilisations isn’t going to get you real far, now is it, Mr Ghul!?

6: Darkseid… Boring! Seriously, I can’t stand the stupidly determined to wipe out all creation for no reason at all villains, they are stupid, pointless, and uninteresting to me.

5: Galactus. A world destroyer… because he is hungry… oh my, oh my that is so stupid. Seriously, I have no patience for this kind of inane super villain. I am pretty sure a group of ten year olds could come up with a villain with more depth than this guy.

4: Lex Luthor. Go back and read what I said for number 10, times my vehemence by 10, and you have what I think of ol’ Lex. Ugh, what a schmoozer, I have always hated this character, and not because he is some evil mastermind, no, because his history stinks and he lacks any kind of substance.

3: Doctor Doom. Maybe that group of ten year olds came up with this guy? I have always thought Doom sucked, stupid character, with a stupid name, with no real reason for being a bad guy, except ‘because’. Ugh!

2: Joker. Finally an interesting villain. Sure he’s nuttier than the packed lunch of your local squirrel, but he embraces that, and his role, and for the most part, a unique and interesting character emerges out of all that. I am absolutely happy to see him locked up, don’t get me wrong, but as villains go, it’s nice to see one that is actually villainous, not just rich.

1: Magneto. He’s an interesting one, his role as a villain is due to persecution of mutants, and yet he obviously takes that past the point of rationality, becoming that which he hates, a genocidal maniac.

So there’s the top ten. I have to say, it lacks luster, if you ask me. There are others that should have been up there.

Comic book villains: Part 2

By blog on May. 30, 2009.

First thing I want to say before I pick up again on my critique of comic book villains, is that the villains of Batman, kick the ass of the villains of Spider-Man. Seriously, the are nearly all so ridiculous! There are a few exceptions, but by and large, Gotham is a much scarier place.

Okay, on with the show. This guy, Thanos, looks like a thug, but is actually a pretty scary, psychotic fellow, and they are nearly never any good. I do enjoy when comic book villains are actually unique and creepy, I think it adds a more adult touch often missing from villains. At 46 we have Doomsday, who is the only creature to best Superman. I am glad that it didn’t turn out to be for good, because frankly, if Superman dies, then something in this world is wrong. I don’t care overly for Superman, I just like knowing he is out there in comic book land.

Another Batman villain makes it in at 45, Harley Quinn. I don’t know why, but there is something endearing about her in Batman: The Animated Series, she’s a nut-job, but one that loves her man. Awwwww.

Shredder made it in at number 39, and I have to say, I have never been impressed by the villain. He is more one of those villains that falls into the irritating category, rather than actually any real threat. 38 is a whole different story. Sentinel is one scary foe, these guys have always been creepy, for their lack of compassion and humanity, which is so clearly represented in their machine forms.

Number 34 is Bane. He who stopped The Batman, the original Batman, Bruce Wayne. I know there is a new Bat, and that Bruce couldn’t keep it up forever, but I really want this guy to receive some serious ass-whopping for breaking Bruce’s back!

I have to mention Bizarro at number 25 just because I like the The Bizarrow Jerry episode of Seinfeld. At 24 there is Apocalypse, and interesting character pulling a great many strings unseen in the X-Men world. You can really see this list start to ramp up now, with number 23, Ultron (silly name aside) being another scary foe. Venom is one of the few exceptions to my ruling about Spider-Man villains being unscary and crud, he’s a real nasty looking fellow.

Number 21, Ozymandias, actually has a very interesting, and morally ambiguous back-story, something very refreshing to see! 19 is Juggernaut, and I have to say, I always hated this guy, he is just an annoying git, really.

Brianiac, stupid name and all, is another of the Sentinal styled foes. The unfeeling, compassion lacking, machine-like villain. I find him really annoying too, actually. Number 13 proves that Spider-Man has the lamest villains, there is just something about the Green Goblin that screams crappy.

Before I leave off for part 3 – there really has to be three parts, you see, because the top ten deserve a good entry! – number 11 is Catwoman, and I am glad she made it up there. She really isn’t all that bad, too many times has she actually tried to help, but she has a certain style, as with most of the Batman villains, that is unmistakably her own.

Comic book villains: Part 1

By blog on May. 30, 2009.

I think all boys will at some point read comic books. It’s in the book of average little boy behavior. My main comics of choice were actually Asterix and Obelix, and Tintin, but I did read a little X-Men from time to time. Apart from that though, my comic book experience was rather limited, so when IGN brought out their list of the top 100 comic book villains, I had to take a look, even if I have never encountered the majority of these evil-doers in comic form as yet.

Some of the names are hilarious, I have to say. When you know nothing at all about something, and you hear the name for the first time, you can have this very unbiased opinion, which can often lead to outright belly laughs. For instance, at 100, there is MODOK… which is an acronym for ‘Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing’. That is laugh worthy. I mean sure, if you read a comic with this little fellow in it, you might think MODOK is a perfectly scary villain name, but if you haven’t, it’s entirely absurd. Annihilus fits into this category too, but more of a chagrined chuckle than full on laugh.

Numeber 91, The Adversary… who is Geppetto… from Pinocchio… That earns a full roar of laugh, with some bemusement too. Now 90, Carnage, he is one scary dude. That is a super villain! Then you have Mysterio… this dude needs to learn the importance of appropriate head ware. I mean really, who’s going to take you seriously with that bubble on your head!?

Saint of Killers has a rather jarring name, but actually has an interesting history. Something that many of these top 100 lack, in my humble opinion.

At 65 I’m afraid we have another entry into the silly helmet brigade, with Kang the Conqueror, but I suppose that isn’t quite as bad as The Leader, who has a silly – and somewhat repulsive – looking head… He’s worse off than Kang, because he can’t take it off.

Riddler came in at number 59, and I am happy to see him there. Whilst he isn’t the scariest chap around, he is nonetheless interesting and fun. Right after him is the oh-so-different but still from Gotham, Scarecrow, who I think is awesome in his freakishness. He is an interesting one, and his forays into Batman’s psyche are always interesting to ponder. Hobgoblin comes next, and he just isn’t scary. What are you going to do, Hobgoblin, put me in stripes next to spots? Hobgoblin’s alter ego is a fashion designer, you see, and whilst I could see a nasty remark about my outfit coming from him, there is little else to fear here.

Penguin got number 51, and I am proud of the little slime ball, in a way, I mean, how well do you think you’d do if you looked like a penguin, and not one of those cute ones. Lastly before I sign off on part 1 of my comic book villains expose, at 50 was Cassandra Nova who’s actually a pretty scary piece of work. Anyone that can best Professor Xavier is not someone I’d like to meet.

Injustice in the media

By blog on May. 30, 2009.

I my last entry I wrote of an interview of Bill Clinton with Chris Wallace. Whilst watching it I was struck with a palpable sense of injustice. If you read this blog often, you will know that I can be somewhat passionate about certain things, I get worked up about stuff. I get irritated to the point of being scathing of my fellow man… but… but this just left me feeling angry and quiet.

We all know there is a journalistic creed, penned by Walter Williams back in 1906. I am going to include it in this post because, whilst I am not a journalist, I think that everyone who writes in a public forum should be aware of it, and more than that, everyone who reads anything written by journalists should know what one of their own thought they should adhere to.

I believe in the profession of Journalism.

I believe that the public journal is a public trust; that all connected with it are, to the full measure of responsibility, trustees for the public; that acceptance of lesser service than the public service is a betrayal of this trust.

I believe that clear thinking, clear statement, accuracy and fairness are fundamental to good journalism.

I believe that a journalist should write only what he holds in his heart to be true. I believe that suppression of the news, for any consideration other than the welfare of society, is indefensible.

I believe that no one should write as a journalist what he would not say as a gentleman; that bribery by one’s own pocket book is as much to be avoided as bribery by the pocketbook of another; that individual responsibility may not be escaped by pleading another’s instructions or another’s dividends.

I believe that advertising, news and editorial columns should alike serve the best interests of readers; that a single standard of helpful truth and cleanness should prevail for all; that supreme test of good journalism is the measure of its public service.

I believe that the journalism which succeeds the best-and best deserves success-fears God and honors man; is stoutly independent; unmoved by pride of opinion or greed of power; constructive, tolerant but never careless, self-controlled, patient, always respectful of its readers but always unafraid, is quickly indignant at injustice; is unswayed by the appeal of the privilege or the clamor of the mob; seeks to give every man a chance, and as far as law, an honest wage and recognition of human brotherhood can make it so, an equal chance; is profoundly patriotic while sincerely promoting international good will and cementing world-comradeship, is a journalism of humanity, of and for today’s world.

Now, does what that little smug schmuck Wallace do in that interview look anything like William’s creed? No. So where along the way was it that so many journalists sacrificed integrity and honesty? William’s suggest that all journalists should never write something a gentleman wouldn’t say, and I have to say, that is something that many a journalist would do well to remember today. And I don’t buy the crap about ‘it’s what the people want’ because this person wants William’s accurate and fair news, not the crap you see in that interview.

Why do I do this?

By blog on May. 29, 2009.

You know when you are really bored. I mean seriously and truly bored? Well today I felt like that. Yeah, just because the LOTRO servers were down for two hours. I thought, two hours, I can kill that time with a movie! So I checked my cable guide and sure, there were movies there to watch, not any ones that I wanted to watch, but I settled on one choice. On movie greats, it was… Conan the Destroyer.

Soooo, not sure why I decided to watch that, because, you know, it was absolutely terrible! I mean seriously, the opening sequence of Conan taking down a group of horsemen, was… so ridiculous! I was worried for unfortunate horses who had to face-plant so Arnie could feel manly! His sword looked so plastic, too short, chunky, and like something you could find in the supermarket for children.

I sat and stared in horror, as this moronic looking thug, who barely had any lines because he sounded all the more stupid when he spoke, and he looked stupid to begin with, proceeded to beat up everyone, win the day, and yeah all the rest of that crap. I cannot believe that man is a Governor, a Republican one at that!? That is something I will never understand. The guy sounds like he can barely string two sentences together, and he’s Governor of California. He was Kindergarten Cop, and now he’s Governor of California…

Ugh, so after about half an hour, and that is being generous, I got more interested in watching Grace Jones slap Russel Harty for being a prat, which he was often so if he didn’t deserve it right then, he surely deserved it at some point. I got to watching that on YouTube, amongst a whole heap of really bad chat show incidents, which were rather funny, and that lead onto an interview with Bill Clinton absolutely owning Fox reporter Chris Wallace. Ahh, that was brilliant! Much better than that stupid film! I couldn’t sit through it, it was just so bad.

LOTRO down-time

By blog on May. 29, 2009.

I don’t feel like having any LOTRO down-time right now, but I don’t have a choice. You see, servers are down for maintenance today, so I have to wait. I have to be patient. I have to find something else to do in my regular gaming time because the servers need to be rebooted. But… I don’t want to wait, and to tell the truth, I feel like being petty about it.

I know the servers needed to go down for a while, everything needs a break, an oil change, a fresh coat of paint, I do understand that. But whilst on some days I am perfectly mature and understanding about that, there are other days like today where two hours where I had scheduled to play and now I cannot play is more than a small bother, it is irritating, frustrating, and downright inconvenient. And we all know that I should never be inconvenienced, right?

Okay I think I have gotten my baby rant out of my system now. I knew that the servers needed a good reboot because, really, there are some ongoing issues at the moment that I heartily look forward to being resolved. For one, earlier today I am running around, doing my own thing, when I can’t move. I can look around and see others moving, but I am stuck. My SO tells me from her computer room that she too is stuck, and then she tries logging out and back in whilst I wait in-game. I then see a message in my chat box that I had lost connection to the chat server, I waited longer whilst my SO was unsuccessfully trying to log back in and eventually saw the message that the connection had been re-established. It’s hard to know with any certainty if that was LOTRO or my ISP crapping itself, as the latter is a substantial option.

The other issue that is positively irksome is mobs – that’s a gamer word for the AI controlled foes you kill – becoming confused when you are attacking them. This is shown by a stylized question mark symbol above the enemy’s head. You can’t hurt the enemy when they are like this, and they can’t hurt you. This leads you to get close to the creature in order to break the confusion, and they still don’t come out of it. So you start running off to do whatever it was you were doing in the first place, but oh no, now that Warg isn’t confused, and now he’s wailing on you! It is funny, if annoying, and I hope it was fixed. Now I’m going to go play LOTRO.

Count down to The Sims 3

By blog on May. 27, 2009.

The Sims is by far the worlds best selling video game ever. Without doubt. In just over a week, the third iteration in the series will be released, and there isn’t any doubt that The Sims 3 is going to be in high demand.

I am personally pretty excited to get my hands on the game, though when I first saw it I wasn’t terribly impressed. You see, it doesn’t look all that much better than The Sims 2. It does look better, I don’t contest that, but not by a lot. However, the more I read about the game, even with my disposition of already not really caring for it, the more excited I became. Especially because unlike so many other games, The Sims 3 was announced only shortly before it’s imminent release. In the gaming world, it is not uncommon for games to be announced a couple of years or so, occasionally much longer, before it’s actual release date. In this case it was just over a year, but that was with EA pushing out the release date by a few months earlier this year, which I predicted as soon as I saw the initial release date.

Now, back to what is interesting about the game. The attributes of your Sims have been altered, no longer does it work by having a certain amount of points to distribute between a few characteristics, you now have five trait slots with around 60 different traits to pick from. This will lead to much more unique Sims.

As for the physical appearance of your Sims, they are now much, much, more customizable. No longer are you stuck with the same four hair colours and then a few odd options, no now you can actually pick from a palette, and even give highlights and other features. As with the clothes and furniture, your houses are going to be much more individual because you are able to take a piece of furniture or clothing, and pick a colour for it yourself.

The other big step for The Sims 3 is that your Sim is able to access the entire neighbourhood, seamlessly. No more lengthy loads to get from your house to the downtown, nope, now you drive or you walk, without loading. So if you have other families in the neighbourhood, you may just run into them running their lives, or you can turn that feature off so they don’t go on without you directing them. You also have more options in The Sims 3 in terms of certain game features being turned on or off, aging for instance. All in all I am looking forward to trying it out and seeing how all the new functionality actually works.

All that effort…

By blog on May. 27, 2009.

I made a couple posts about Magician’s Quest: Mysterious Times last week, first detailing that in spite of it’s not-so-good reviews I wanted to play it, and secondly about how I finally figured out how to patch it so I could play a ROM version and keep my bought copy safe. Well, the funny thing is, when I turned the game on… after about five minutes I just couldn’t be bothered playing it.

I am not sure exactly why, but yes, I currently have little to no patience for the game. Perhaps it is the perseverance it took to be able to fix and play the ROM? Perhaps it is just that I am having too much fun playing LOTRO with my SO to really bother with any other game right now. In any case, the result is the same, I haven’t really touched it. I want to play, in a way, but I just can’t find the effort to push through and get to know the game enough to want to keep playing on a consistent basis. I know I will, eventually, so I don’t push it.

I am not a big fan of putting in a great deal of time and effort without some reward. If I am doing something on the philanthropic side, like helping someone with a computer issue, then the reward comes in knowing I have fixed something for them that otherwise wouldn’t have been fixed. This is why when I work on something, I can’t let it go until I get the resolution I want. If I set out to fix something on my computer, or have a billing issue with my ISP rectified, or buy a phone for my mother and teach her to use it, I can’t let it go with half finished results… there is no ‘it’ll do’ for me. I won’t accept that.

I suppose it is a good trait, in a way, but it can be annoying for those around you. Envision someone sitting at their computer for a few hours straight, ignoring nearly all else, whilst they attempt to patch a ROM. Some would say let it go, some would say take a break and come back to it, but I say, never! I shall endure, and I shall win!

Funnily enough, now I want to play that game again…

Cable company billing my credit card incorrectly

By blog on May. 23, 2009.

I have a rather good cable deal. My phone which runs off my modem, TV, and broadband internet access, all with the same company. This is all well and fine with me. I also have a credit card, which I have to use to pay my cable company – one of the company’s stupid rules. I pretty much only use this particular credit card for paying my cable bill.

More than once I have been offered higher credit limits on this card, but I have turned them down, and kept a limit of just £1000. I suppose that I am a bit cautious, and figure if the card is just there to pay my monthly cable bill, then there isn’t any need for a higher limit, and in the case of someone getting a hold of it, it isn’t nearly as bad as it could be. I do, however, keep it in my wallet for emergencies, unlike my other credit cards with higher limits on them. See, cautious.

The other day I was logging in to check my account online, and happened to check that particular card too. I found it overdrawn with nasty bank fees on to of that! First thing I did was check that the card was still in my wallet. Yep. So what the heck was going on!? I then took a look at the transaction history, and saw to my shock, that my cable company had charged me £1128! 88| Now, keep in mind, I pay for cable internet, cable TV, phone line and calls. This has never been more than £150 per month, ever. I looked at the bill the company had sent me, I don’t bother doing this usually until the end of the month when I transfer money from my normal account to pay off my credit card bill, and it was only £128. Bingo, there’s your issue. Someone had input the wrong figure as the billed amount, two 1’s, leading to all this mess.

I got on the phone with the company right that minute, and after being on hold for 36 minutes I finally got a hold of someone in billing, who went to check it out. I was on the phone for over an hour, all up, and spoke to that initial person, their manager, and then that person’s manager, and in the end, I was reimbursed for the overcharged amount, the nasty bank fees, and 20% off that month’s bill. I think it was the barely restrained anger over the phone that made them throw in that extra bonus.

Anyway, I will be keeping a closer eye on these bills in the future, but I suppose, all’s well that ends well.

Friends with annoying habits.

By blog on May. 23, 2009.

My circle of friends is comprised mostly of nerds, geeks, and dorks. That’s cool, we are all happy about that. We do have one unique creature, the geek-yuppie hybrid. He’s an alright sort, but does have some interesting personality quirks that the rest of us find amusing at times, and irritating at others.

As I said, he is a yuppie. He likes being a yuppie and completely embraces this. He has to have every new bit of tech on the market, and the best of each one. He hasn’t kept the same iPod for even a year, and whilst the rest of us do like our tech, we aren’t as on-trend as this guy. I mean, we tend to have what will get us the best performance for what we need/want, but he goes with whatever has the most prestige.

When we all organise to raid on LOTRO, he is the one jumping around all the time, yelling for the Minstrel in the group to heal him, and generally needs a very strong guiding hand or will not really know what to do. That’s okay, we don’t mind, we all have fun, and as long as one of us tells him what to do whenever he get distracted by chasing the rabbits, he’s actually an alright player.

His latest new fad is using his VoIP line with a Polycom audio conferencing equipment to call us all at the same time. It is so frustrating that he can’t just call one of us at a time, or even just email us all, when he wants to set up a raid. Seriously, I will think I am just talking to him, and then I will hear the voice of one of my other friends and then I get this vivid mental image of him sitting there with his laptop and conferencing equipment and dialing us all with ignorant glee. We don’t want to ruin his fun, but at the same time, it would be nice to be told when you are being brought into a conference call, and why in the heck conference from home!?