Me | I want to write to Wall Street Journal and complain about one article sucking.

Erik | Which?

Me | The videogame one by Yukari Iwatani Kane.

Erik | Shoulda figured.  For some people its abortions or guns or the environment. for you it’s video games.

Here is the boring and unremarkable article in question. Can Kane be any less excited about the subject matter?

Now, let’s hope California is ready for change as well. Still waiting on the final results on Prop 8.

But Prop 2 looks like it’s going through! My vegetarianism and my battle against animal cruelty feel so goddamn worth it right now.

Note: Thanks to my stupidity, I wiped out my site earlier today.  Thanks to Bluehost for helping me out and resolving everything!

Last Saturday night, after Kristeen and Sam told me what their Halloween costumes are going to be (SUPER AWESOME), I got even more frustrated because I just couldn’t come up with anything.  Kristeen suggested Sarah Palin since Patrick can sport a nice First Dude look.  Meh.  Sam thought I should go as something game-related since last year’s costume was such a “huge success.”  So I decided to go as something LittleBigPlanet-related last minute!  Photos of Sunday’s fruits of labor below:

Stay tuned for the finished Sackboy and LittleBigPlanet costume!

So our issue of Playboy just arrived, and lo and behold, this month’s playmate is Korean-American Grace Kim.  Now, not only is she a cutie poptart with stunning almond eyes, she also works for Activision as a PR contact for Guitar Hero.  What I liked about her bio is that Playboy wasn’t all OMG A GIRL WHO CAN PWN UR ASS.  They didn’t go overboard with the fact that she plays games.  No printing of the word “grrl.”  No Suicide Girls-esque longing gazes.  No forced tough tomboy poses.  No anecdotes containing the etymological abortion, “n00b”.  Nothing that whinkly overstates GRRLS R GAMERZ 2.  Once or twice Playboy sandwiched in a few remarks about how she’s freakishly good at Guitar Hero but that’s it.

But what I did find that was a little annoying is the photo shoot.  Like I said before, Playboy’s photography is still very traditional and dated.  A lot of soft lighting, airbrushing, cheesy backdrops (Some of Grace Kim’s photos looked like a mashup of porn and bad Chinese restaurants).

But artistic differences aside, let me present to you with this:

(Yup, those are Otis head pasties.)

So with all this Guitar Hero and Activision talk…why are there Rockband instruments in this photograph?  Would Activision get angry at this?  Ms. Kim here is probably going to attract a lot of attention for Activision and for their products… but those aren’t even Activision products.  The other ridiculous photo had Guitar Hero on the plasma TV in the background with a set of Rockband instruments in front of it.  Seriously.

So just a few minutes ago, I got an email from the head cat herself letting me know that starting October 17th, I get to help build friggin’ New York City in the game.  The Big Apple!  Yankees!  Pretzels!  Subway pee! Where Tim Gunn lives!

Now, hardcore Kitty lore nerds can debate about whether or not New York City is a part of the HK canonnical universe but I think this a great approach!  The email reads:

…players of the Hello Kitty Online Founders’ Beta will be able to participate in a series of quests to collect and organize materials for the building of New York, a new area that will appear in the next phase of the game. … Players who successfully complete all the required quests will have the names of their character permanently recorded on virtual commemorative plaques located throughout the new area (the plaques will appear in future versions of the game’s North American edition). It’s a unique opportunity to leave your mark on Hello Kitty Online!

The game is definitely trying to give players the sense that they’re working together to build their next maps and worlds.  Now, not to crush anyone’s Extreme Makeover Home Edition dreams, HKO’s New York City probably already exists, and what the players will essentially be doing is unlocking the content through quests and actions.

I know, I know, World of Warcraft has done this already with the The Gates of Ahn-Qiraj but to be honest, I felt that whole AQ event wasn’t very compelling.  There wasn’t a lot of cooperation involved.  It didn’t affect all of the players.  And many people saw the server-wide event as a way to make some dough off of players who were invested in unlocking the content.

But then again, who knows how nice the HKO community will play together during this Build NYC project?   Maybe the claws will finally come out?

(Oh my gosh, I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist.  Lame, I know.)

Imagine World of Warcraft being a cute beagle puppy.  Then imagine if that cute beagle puppy is sleeping in a wicker basket filled with french vanilla scented candles and pink saltwater taffy.

That’s Hello Kitty Online.

Now, I can’t really critique on the game that much since I’ve only started playing it yesterday.  It *is* an MMO.  So unless I stay up poop-sock style with cans of Red Bull and meals in bar form, I haven’t really experienced the game in full saccharine effect.

But I will be chronicling the (mis)adventures of my blue-haired pixie girl Thrall in the great land of Sanriotown.

I know I already twittered this, but hot damn.

CNN is hosting an upcoming cattle call for political-themed Halloween costumes photos.  I’m pretty sure there will be plenty of Sarah Palins, houses with Russia next to it, and variations of “Joe six-pack” this year.

But to me, a successful Halloween costume has to either be incredibly well-made, or incredibly clever.  So just plain jane Sarah Palin?  Boh-ring!

Here’s my pitch: some sort of EXTREME MAVERICK costume mash-up of Sarah Palin and Tom Cruise a la Top Gun.  Sarah hair and glasses, in a flight suit, maybe aviators, and carrying a boom box playing Kenny Loggins’ “Danger Zone.”  Bloody brilliant, I say!

Here’s a photoshop of my proposal, with the tagline Ben suggested:

It’s 5:41am.

I crawled home around 5 hours ago blitzed.  After another unsuccessful night of Pub Quiz, Chris and I went to the Mirror’s Edge event.  Somehow, I ended up in Chinatown with some friends and randomly enough, Gears of War designer and posterboy, CliffyB.  Sam, Klepek, and I actually had to walk to this Chinatown dive instead of taking a cab.  We were carrying the 6 foot tall foamcore cutout of Mirror’s Edge heroine, Faith and no cabs would take us (to be honest, we were also acting like assholes so that didn’t really help our plight either).  So after a night of whiskey on the rocks, Steve Miller band jukebox selections, and Faith’s imminent beheading, and reading Jack Welch’s book drunk on the train, I finally got home in one piece.

About fifteen minutes ago, I was dead asleep.  I woke up because Cisco sneezed up a storm next to my face.  Then all of a sudden my brow bone starts hurting.  I figured I must have turned my head at some point during the chain of dog sneezes and his jaw bumped into my forehead.  No biggie.

Then my face started to feel cold and wet, and the pain wasn’t going away.  So I decided to take some action:  I got up to go pee.

Wow, there I was, staring at my own reflection in the bathroom mirror.  What I saw was a stark path of blood bissecting my face.  I freaked out– I wasn’t entirely sure if I was actually awake or if I was in some weird French horror movie.  I somehow ended up with a deep cut on my eyebrow.  I have no idea how this happened.  Cisco’s fang?  His talon-claws?  No idea.

I just know blood keeps gushing out now every time I emote.  Wow, weird night.

Holy crap! Today’s Penny-Arcade!

Jealousy and envy. How is it possible that two people can summarize such a large part of my life (and of many others, I’m sure) into three puny pixelated panels? Not only that, they took their own experience, transmuted it into some fantasy mecurial matter, and made a magic mirror comic strip that reflected and recalled my own joyous memories. Storytelling, motherfuckers. They got it down.

Speaking of children and of fond gaming memories, I dug this up:

Halloween 1984. I’m that moron toddler who has the upside-down unlicensed Pacman mask on.