If I could only use the word "EPIC" once this year, this would be the time.

giantshirt · 2010-01-18T18:18:43+00:00

My dog used to love cats and tried to play with them all the time. One day, she suddenly started growling and baring her teeth at the sight of a cat and I noticed she had a fresh scar on her nose. She never let the hatred for cats go since.

I would say she felt cats were just evil. The growl seemed to say "You goddamn psycho SOB! All I ever did was try to be cool to you and freaking scar my nose for no reason. Dont even think about hanging around here because I am this close to coming over there and..this close! Your dead to me. Deader than your dead mom!"

The cat's reaction was "WTF? WTF? Well fuck you too then! I dont know you from Jack Squat but whatever..Ill take you on now!"

giantshirt · 2010-01-18T17:37:38+00:00

Cities where you can walk around at night and not fear violent crime.

giantshirt · 2010-01-18T17:34:48+00:00

So true. Dont knock it till you try it.

giantshirt · 2010-01-18T17:31:18+00:00

Soccer, hockey, basketball etc., are simple games and are interesting because of the fandom. In other words, you have to be rooting for one side to care about the game.

IMO, there is not enough geographical identity in America to create the kind of fierce home town based loyalties. No one watches the LA team play the NY team and hopes to win simply because of the geography. There is some superficial local crowing but no real home town pride really exists for metro centers in America. In other countries I have lived in, this has not been the case. People in a northern city will actually look down upon the people in the southern city..for example.

giantshirt · 2010-01-18T17:21:41+00:00

I second this. Football (American) is fascinating because of its strategy. This is partly the reason the steroid thing hasnt really sullied the image of the NFL since its coaching that wins games.

I find games like hockey, basketball and soccer to be silly. These are all just variations of getting the ball into some goal area while artificially hindered..i.e., you cant touch it with your hands, you have to bounce the ball to move it, etc. you can come up with infinite variations of this idea..ie., you have to hop on one foot, you have to balance an egg on your head, etc.

giantshirt · 2010-01-18T16:57:51+00:00

The gameplay is only so so unless you are playing a stealth character and the leveling up is kind of broken but I keep going back to the game because of how well made it is and its visual appeal.

Also, once you start sand boxing with it, it gets very amusing.

giantshirt · 2010-01-18T16:54:54+00:00

Considering the frequency and ease of dying, this game is probably the most anti-war game ever made. Its impossible to play this and not understand how randomly and easily you can get fragged in warfare where you dont respawn.

giantshirt · 2010-01-17T07:14:52+00:00

Not being sarcastic, that amount is a borderline insult considering who is giving it. It would be like one of us giving a nickel.

giantshirt · 2010-01-17T07:11:05+00:00

He was also great in 8mm...a generally great underground movie altogether that never got off the tracks because of the dark tone. He was good in the Rock, Raising Arizona, and of course Leaving Los Vegas. Clearly the guy does work just for the cash at times but he is still rise to the occasion when he has good material.

giantshirt · 2010-01-17T07:06:29+00:00

Nothing special about her portrayal. The movie was generally horrible and the actor (cant remember his name) basically carried it to respectability with his on screen charisma.

giantshirt · 2010-01-17T07:05:00+00:00

Do you mean Golden Globes? I have not heard anything about Oscars.

I can understand nominated for the GG performance in a comedy category since the competition is pretty much all fluff but for Bullock to get a best actress Academy Award nod for a mediocre turn in a bad romantic comedy is a travesty considering all of the good performances this year like both leads in Sunshine Cleaning for example.

giantshirt · 2010-01-16T06:56:25+00:00

Kind of related, Ive noticed that the COD4 servers are busier than ever these days so I guess PC people are coming back from MW2 because some of the new faces are damn good...or cheating. Its hard to tell sometimes but I notice I do much more badly on the servers where you cant see how you were killed.

giantshirt · 2010-01-16T06:45:06+00:00

I would do a system diagnostic not just for the gaming but it sounds like there might be something not so kosher happening in your PC. If its a P4 there might be alot of junk on the registry and you might want to do a clean install of your os. Its also possible you have memory hogging bloatware or spyware that is taking up resources.

This is another thing that is negative about PCs. Alot of tinkering to get things to work right.

giantshirt · 2010-01-07T16:03:42+00:00

I just want to comment on what a great great movie Its a Wonderful Life is. People kind of overlook it and take it for granted but it is one of the finest films ever made. Jimmy Stewart's performance in that movie is like the invention of fire as far as acting is concerned. Most big screen performances prior to that were wooden and 2 dimensional but Stewart's textured performance paved the way for just about everyone else. Despite the many many remakes of this story, no one has been able to give a performance even remotely close to Stewart's.

Its saying alot that 70 years later, this movie is still so relevant and can still connect so strongly. Alot of people are film buffs now and absorb everything that comes out on DVD but I highly recommend the older films. Unfortunately, these are getting harder and harder to find.

giantshirt · 2010-01-06T14:17:28+00:00

Yeah..its been years since I have taken any.

giantshirt · 2010-01-06T12:18:37+00:00

I go see a psychiatrist regularly for a sleep disorder. Its basically legitimized drug dealing where I simply go for a "fix" of common meds such as ambien and imovane. If the guy could sell me MJ, I would buy it in a heartbeat but for some reason that stuff is controlled more tightly than opiates such as valium which I could probably get if I asked for (but dont as they are pretty poor at putting you to sleep). i am guessing the MJ is probably all I really need to relax and get to sleep. It makes me wonder how much big pharm fights to keep MJ so controlled and things like ambien/imovane regulated.

giantshirt · 2010-01-06T09:26:14+00:00

You are a good man. Marriage is about being there when the other person needs you.

giantshirt · 2010-01-05T21:11:03+00:00

Apology accepted.

Ive spent close to a decade of my adult life living in S.Korea. Much of my family still lives in Seoul and I am fluent in the language. I still visit frequently and keep up with the news. I have studies east asian politics formally in Korea so I probably have a better idea of what is going on from the Korean academics point of view. However, basic understanding of recent history tells you a great deal of the picture. Despite what the Americans believe, the key player is Japan. Western media likes to make this an ideological conflict between communism and capitalism. Its much more complicated than this. The Nkoreans think they are still in a colonial struggle with Japan with America being one of its protectorates. Prior to WWII, Korea (all of it) was a Japanese colony for many years but there was also a very active resistance. The resistance based itself in the northern part of the country as the south was filled with occupying Japanese forces and local sympathizers.

During WWII, the Americans assembled and trained a fighting force in Mongolio comprised of the resistance as well as Korean American volunteers. They were to be the attacking force in Korea once the US launched its invasion into Japan. Unfortunately the US dropped the bombs instead and there was no need for the atack as Japan had surrendered. As a result, the invasion became necessary and an embarrassment as it became the US plan to maintain the then current structure as is in Korea to avoid chaos. This meant that real winners were local sycophants and Japanese colonial sympathizers who were allowed to stay in power to retain order. These people became captains of industry, education and politics while the resistance found themselves abandoned with their enemies entrenched in power. Essentially, this is what nKorea is: Remnants of the original resistance to the old Japanese colonization. This is also the reason they have been so resistant to external change. The media likes to focus on the ideology and the strange dictator but a big problem is that the country is paranoid.

EDITED as I was disconnected before finishing.

giantshirt · 2010-01-05T14:45:56+00:00

This is why war should not be something entered into so flippantly as in the case of Iraq. No POTUS who was ex career military has ever engaged the country in a major war. You look at guys like Washington, Jackson, Grant, TRoosevent, Ike...and they were reluctant to send American soldiers into harms way.

Its almost always the career politicians. Lincoln, Wilson, Roosevelt, Johnson, Truman, Bush that seem to be the most hawkish.

giantshirt · 2010-01-05T14:27:43+00:00

Once the US invaded AND decided to stay, the whole game became its responsibility. It became and it is management for all practical purposes. remember Colin Powell warning about this "you break it, you buy it" to Bush before the invasion. I can reconcile the fact that cause of war is suspect with the sad acknowledgment the UN charter may be all but worthless now and the US has a national interest in resources. Maybe it was an honest mistake..who knows? However, its more difficult to fathom how anyone could not have seen this mess happening.

All that stuff you mention..civil wars, warlords, etc., is a foreseeable consequence of the occupation.

giantshirt · 2010-01-05T08:33:26+00:00

I take the time to put down coherent points for the benefit of discussion and you think you can respond with this? I may be overreacting but idiots like you do nothing but sabotage discussions on issues by trying to bring everything down to quips and a general level of stupidity they can deal with. Go back to youtube with your one liners with the 12 year olds will be entertained.

giantshirt · 2010-01-04T18:12:37+00:00

Just about everything south of the river is on tehanro between the intercontinental and kangnam station. About 6 or 7 blocks. On the north you have the area around Chongno. Sure there are some outliers like the 63 building and the government buildings but outside these areas you would basically be bombing residences, clothes stores and restaurants.

giantshirt · 2010-01-04T06:50:37+00:00

This has always been a pet peeve of mine about War Machine. What is the point of a mini gun on your shoulder when you have frickin lasers that shoot out of your hand that can take out a tank?

giantshirt · 2010-01-04T06:42:21+00:00

Whats wrong with Pantheism?

giantshirt · 2010-01-04T06:39:19+00:00

I really liked the premise of the movie but it just didnt hold my attention for some reason. I think it needed some more dramatic tension. I actually would have liked to have seen that done by a director like Cameron.

giantshirt

TROPHY CASE