Waterstones, the famous book sellers, is soon going to be famous (infamous?)for not being able to edit quickly enough. An article for the new Elder Scrolls book by Greg Keyes, The Elder Scrolls: Infernal City, the page editor put up this interesting tidbit:

"A novel that takes place forty-five years after the Oblivion Crisis, which is the story of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion game and the expansion pack Shivering Isles. It partly bridges the gap for the next game, which is set 200 years after the Oblivion crisis."


They got to it, but not soon enough that it wasn't noticed and AJ Glasser of kotaku.com is to thank for quick reporting.

Personally (might get flamed for this one) if Hip-Hop fell off the planet tomorrow, I'd be cool with that, it's just not my thing. However, I can and do appreciate that most of the artists involved are genuinely talented (or I'd be making my dole that way too).

Hip-Hop was never, and still isn't taken seriously..enter making money. Ahha, now you're a legitimate business / art / whatever and litigation happy America jumps in.

This film looks promising, really does, give the preview a whirl and sound off :)

What promises to be a superb documentary on musical sampling, copyright law and their effects on creativity will see its official launch in January 2010. No harm in taking an early preview though.

Copyright Criminals: This Is a Sampling Sport is an upcoming documentary which examines the creative and commercial aspects of musical sampling, and I am personally really looking forward to this one.

A major component of the documentary is the effect copyright law has on creativity and, of course, how good old-fashioned greed and money come into play. If you happen to like hip-hop too, thats a real bonus, but not a necessity by any means.

The documentary will ask a critical question:

Is it possible to own a sound?

Copyright Criminals will have a general release in January 2010, but an early free preview is available if you’re near The Rotunda (40th and Walnut) in Philadelphia this upcoming Tuesday October 20th at 19:00.

It's very mod, we like it...now David Tenant simply needs to get together with Tom Baker and have their DNA combined by some whacked out in the head scientist type to make the end-all-be-all Doctor and the world can keep right on wobbling.

Galactic Heroes, I love'em, they're cool. They're tiny, they're tooney, and well, they're just a little looney....etc, etc. (Sorry Warner, et al.)

Of the Galactic Heroes, anything Fett or remotely Bounty Hunter related is smoking hot and one's headed for the desk and another for the "Closet of Wonders" where we hide all of our goodies that we one day will get graded and then sell for millions on eBay for huge cash to send the kid off to college in style.

That said, seeing this little number at Entertainment Earth got me hopping.

You get a little "Han in Carbonite", you can never have too many of those catching dust around your house, a "galactically deformed" Slave I, and...the man himself, Boba Fett - most notorious Bounty Hunter (despite what Cad Bane says) in the galaxy.




Of course, the problem with this little bit of plastic fun, like all of them, is we'll need two, one to keep hermetically sealed in a tomb of inert gas behind UV blocking bulletproof glass that has and will never be removed from the box....and another that will catch dust with the other Fett stuff scattered around my desk. Oh...the joys of collecting toys :)

We should all boycott the news channels. All of them, even the local broadcasts. Ignorance is running rampant making the world an unsafe place for rational people.

Today, I typed into my preferred search engine, "How to commit the perfect murder". According to some theorists, if people around me suddenly start dropping dead under mysterious circumstances, I'm screwed.

The wife and I are still laughing about the moronic state of affairs we find ourselves in. That, and her idea that I'm typing this out so I can off her conveniently in the near future and have an alibi or something to confuse the prosecution.

Recently, the torrent search site, Demonoid.com went offline thanks to harassment, in part, from the CRIA. We're really glad to see their efforts to get back up and running paying off.

This, from their website:

September 26

Status

The site will return as soon as possible, but there was a problem that caused data loss and the person who can help us get the data back is not able to help at this moment. The site will return when we can get his help

A loss of a some months worth of activity including registered users and torrent submissions is to be expected because the backup we are hoping to get back is not up to date, so please be prepared for it

Oh yeah, we've been just horribly, terribly, unforgivably not keeping up with our CyberGeek Hottie of the Week / Month / Whatever.

Geek Girl Diva to the rescue, as she puts up a cleavage shot for a good cause, Breast Cancer Awareness.

It is terribly unfortunate that I couldn't make it to SDCC for their signing, and early on, I threatened GGD with being suckered into the spotlight of Hottie of the Week.

Now, without warning! She's it, *tag*.

(Though if I could still get her in a Star Trek skirt and draped across that Enterprise Captain's chair, well, the wife would shoot me, but might be worth the bullet) *wink wink nudge nudge*

Oh yes, and savethetatas.com, though tongue in cheek, is serious business, do check their site out, buy some merchandise, throw it on the bumper or whatever.

isoHunt.com, Torrentbox.com, and Podtropolis.com (collectively we'll call them isoHunt.com) have taken a "First Strike" stance with the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA).

Recently, under threats from the CRIA, Demonoid.com first went offline (maintenance) and then came back up, though they had to block searchers from their own country of Canada, and now seem to still be a little bit on the shaky side as to availability.

Since Gary Fung, the admin for isoHunt.com has now sworn an affadavit that isoHunt.com does not violate the Copyright Act and has, in fact consistently complied with demands by the CRIA to remove trackers from it's search engine that the CRIA has indicated are not authorized for internet distribution by their clients, the ball is now in the hands of the CRIA.

ISOHunt Petition to the Court

They get to try and explain to the Courts how a search-engine, that stores no files that violate copyright, is breaking the law. That's kind of like telling the local public library that they are in violation of copyright law if they maintain a copy machine in their building, though no one may have ever used the copier in an illegal manner. Last we checked, and we don't want to besmirch the efficacy of the Canadian Courts, the plaintiff does have to prove that a law has been broken.

The Petition to the Courts for injunctive relief from harassment by isoHunt.com is pure poetry, music to our ears, and overdue. Not every file, though we won't pretend that some may, belongs to the RIAA, MPAA, CRIA, BRIEN, or any of their members / clients.

If, they'd like proof of that, then I'd like to point out the fact that Aeria Games (sorry for pulling you into this guys, your certainly not by yourselves) distributes their software clients for games by bittorrent. Are companies that distribute their own product by torrent to be denied the ability to use this excellent technology? Can the CRIA not be bothered to take the time to point out the files they wish removed that specifically pertain to them? Because of this need for the CRIA to not be bothered with trivialities like providing proof of copyright violation are they entitled to shut down entire search engines, websites (probably blogs next) to protect their profit margins?

Grant isoHunt, it's sister sites and all others similar in scope this injunction against unlawful harassment. Maybe when the CRIA's lawyers stop being paid exorbitant sums (relative to a blog editor, I can assure you of that) the retail prices of entertainment can go down in proportion and the economy might start recovering earlier.

Geek Girl Diva is thinking about a possible contest, geeky goodness galore, and a little alliteration from moi.

Check out her ideas hereand let her know what you think!

Hopefully, the above video will not be taken off of YouTube anytime soon. Comments have been disabled for the video directly on YouTube, but, all "three" of my readers (Hi Mom!) can comment here. Thank goodness for backups. Fair warning, if you haven't noticed already, it has absolutely nothing to do with, directly, our usual geeky fare of video games, etc.

The video does however, touch directly on the area of free speech and the effort being made by some to stem it when it goes against their ideology.

I believe, that free speech is a non-partisan aspect of the United States, after all, it is a part of the Constitution.

Sitting here, before I wrote this, I wanted to have my facts entirely straight concerning the officer featured prominently in the video. We telephoned the Baton Rouge Police Department, were given a direct number to the Sergeant in charge of "Media Relations" and unfortunately had to leave a message. In the message, we gave, as best we could, the link for the video and the request for the officers name to go along with our article, and precisely what statutes and authority (because we're certainly not going to second guess) the officer had utilized to contravene the Bill of Rights.

Large organizations, whether they be the MPAA, RIAA, (which we have frequently discussed here) MediaSentry, or non-governmental organizations like ACORN (with budgets of 100 million US$ annually) need to not believe they can trample upon the rights of every US citizen.

MediaSentry, specifically, gathers information without the license of the Private Protective Bureaus of several states. We should know, they've been blocked by our computers, but they often knock.

The RIAA employed MediaSentry in their anti-piracy efforts, then smartly canned them. We're pretty sure where we know the MPAA sits on suing people for 675,000 US$ at a pop, that's a matter of public record.

We're certain, that at some point along the line, we'll be labeled as "Right Wing Extremists" and totted up with others on some half-secret tax payer sponsored government report. Cool beans if we do.

We'll remain there, until the Constitution is treated with the respect it deserves or an ammendment is made banning free speech. When that happens our IP will be coming from somewhere else.

Those crazy plumbers and goofy dinosaur must have finally pushed too far, and now, it looks like they are gonna pay for their "Bloop bloop bloop, bloop bloopa loop'ing" transgressions.
Desktop Nexus: Wallpapers > Video Game Wallpapers > Mario Wallpaper

Nice job to the artist, Caylee Huckabay, this is my new wallpaper :)

Yes, we are horribly and some say, unreasonably, critical of these companies that work hard to provide us safe, fun video game entertainment.

We believe though, that it is unreasonable to release a product that if it were an automobile would certainly be recalled for safety concerns, to the public for consumption.

Online gaming is a "Booming" marketplace, many are jumping into the "gold rush" of profits to be made by crossing digital toys with physical ones you can pick up at your nearby toy store. Nothing however, destroys a kid's (or a big kid's) enjoyment of a game when it's infrastructure can't deliver.

No, we're not just picking on Nanovor, we love the game around here, but we want to see it better before it goes much farther towards the, "Great game Joe, but I could never log in.", road.

I hated giving up my Phase Stormer 2.0, the basis for achieving the newest Nanovor, the Phase Spiker 1.0, but, it had to be done.

A word of caution, if you don't want to see spoilers about how to gain the Phase Spiker, stop reading now.

***********

Ok, you were warned!

************

First off, obviously, you'll need to take your Phase Stormer 1.0, gained as a random badge reward, or via Booster Packs bought using the currency of Nanovor.com, nanocash. Noticing a trend in naming...me too.

Evolve the Phase Stormer 1.0 into it's 2.0 version,

using the following Evolution Formula:

These are easy enough to find, the basic ones, in the Nanovor.com - Nanolog

From the Phase Stormer 2.0, things become more involved, as you must discover "Doc Zap's" secrets in the first puzzle that Nanovor.com has thrown out. Figuring this part out, garners you a new badge and unlocks the evolution tree to your new goal.

If you're into Nanovor, and goodness knows the kids are loving it and the commercials that are splattered all over Cartoon Network, then you'll want to know about this guy.

He's an uncommon Nanovor, and like his Circuit Flyer 2.0 variation has the dodge ability, and for my energy, that's one of the best overrides in the entire game. The Circuit Flyer's dodge is a whopping 25%, the highest so far of any Nanovor and a real tide turner in a fight.

The EM's you need to evolve your 2.0 into it's 3.0 progeny are on the right side of the image. Have fun!

If you've ever wondered what on earth makes your comp go more than a bit nuts sometimes, maybe you're infected with Nanovor.

That's definitely what Smith and Tinker want you to think, and now their commercials have hit Cartoon Network and the toys are flying off the shelves. A quick check at Amazon showed only three of one type left, and another sold out. Is a CN cartoon series far away, in the vein of Bakugan, Pokemon, Chaotic? We'll see, for now, there are nine small episodes on their website for you to check out.

Fan sites have mushroomed, a notable one being Nanovor101, with it's own forum for arranging trades, battles, and sharing evolution information.

So, we of course had to set up a "Guardian / Parent" account and throw the game to our test group of kids. They love the splatters, that was the second thing out of their mouths, right after, "Umm, gee, this is kinda slow, what's happening?"

That is the largest issue for Nanovor so far, either their infrastructure is really strained and showing it from a huge influx of players, or they're suffering from seriously poor planning, and that's showing in performance.

Special thanks go out to "pokemon37dmk", a Nanovor user that gave me a bit of help testing out some things, good luck in the game.

Lately, though real life is busy and hectic as all get out, I've managed to spend some time hanging out at "The Vampire's Gaze" the forums for Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines - Companion Mod.

If you are not familiar with, what is likely, the best (though originally bug-ridden and a nightmare of corporate mis-management) ports of a paper and dice / storytelling rpg to PC, then take a look around.

A testament to how good a concept and game a release truly is, in my opinion, is the longevity the fan base grants it with work to continue the life of projects like Vampire: The Masquerade.

Dheu, the driving force behind the "Companion Mod", has expanded upon the abilities of, in particular the Ventrue, all the vampire clans in the original release in the game by allowing them the ability to gather "companions". For those familiar with The World of Darkness, a Ventrue's power to control and manipulate others is what allows them to rest firmly in the seat of power while avoiding getting their hands personally dirty.

This, is very important to playing the Ventrue, and in the interest of balance and those that wish to dive into other clans while still enjoying the CompMod, Dheu worked out an item that grants all clans the ability to worm their way into the minds of other characters.

There are many interesting aspects to the mod, not all of them Companion related, and as a Kindred "purist" of a sort, I definitely put my stamp (for what THAT's worth) of approval on this mod.

This, my friends, is priceless.

Joel Tenenbaum's MediaSentry Motion

To celebrate our return to blogging the latest and the greatest of the geekly news, here's a copy of the announcement that's up at The Pirate Bay regarding the Joel Tenenbaum file sharing case.

Remember, we don't make this stuff up, a jury of this man's "peers" actually saw fit to award the RIAA this money, punitively, for Joel sharing these files. During jury selection, they should have asked every juror if they had ever made a mix-tape (omgwtfbbq a cassette?) for their girlfriend or a roadtrip. If they did that, they might never have found a jury, and if they had, they certainly wouldn't have met the definition of "peer".

"I too downloaded them!

These are the tracks Joel Tenenbaum downloaded. For 30 tracks he is ordered by the court to pay $675,000 to the RIAA.
Well, all I can say: the RIAA can come and try to get half a million bucks from me too, let's see if they can make me pay...
Btw, it's amazing how easy to become rich, ain't it? You just download this pack two times and you already have something that worths more than a million...

Don't forget to seed, let everybody know: "I too downloaded them!" :+)

More info on JoelFightsBack.com (Joel is not related to this torrent in any ways other than having a well known case and being an inspiration) or on iTooDownloadedThem - blogspot - com

Complete tracklist based on the official court documents:

01 - Incubus - New Skin
02 - Green Day - Minority
03 - Outkast - Wheelz of Steel
04 - Incubus - Pardon Me
05 - Nirvana - Come As You Are

06 - Green Day - When I Come Around
07 - Green Day - Nice Guys Finish Last
08 - Nirvana - Heart Shaped Box
09 - Nine Inch Nails - The Perfect Drug
10 - Blink 182 - Adam's Song
11 - Limp Bizkit - Rearranged
12 - Limp Bizkit - Leech
13 - Linkin Park - Crawling Hybrid
14 - Deftones - Be Quiet And Drive
15 - The Fugees - Killing Me Softly
16 - Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication
17 - Red Hot Chili Peppers - By The Way
18 - Red Hot Chili Peppers - My Friends
19 - Beck - Loser
20 - Eminem - My Name Is
21 - Eminem - Drug Ballad
22 - Eminem - Cleaning Out My Closet
23 - Beastie Boys - (You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party)
24 - The Ramones - The KKK Took My Baby Away
25 - Monster Magnet - Look To Your Orb For The Warning
26 - Aerosmith - Pink
27 - OutKast - Rosa Parks
28 - Rage Against The Machine - Guerrilla Radio
29 - Goo Goo Dolls - Iris
30 - Aerosmith - Water Song/Janie's Got A Gun

UPDATE 01:
Facebook doesn't let you share a ThePirateBay link, but it let's you share a shortlink. So use this checked (virusfree, spamfree) link to let your friends now about it:


loo.fi/b8uksq


UPDATE 02:
Currently more than 900 of us are seeding. If one seed means $675k, the whole bunch must worth around $600.000.000
Man, in a few days we gonna become one of the most wealthy group on the planet.
But c'mon, there ain't no such thing as free lunch, you should work for your money. The PirateBay guys already done what they could, now it's your turn. Downloading and seeding is a good start, but don't you even think about stopping there. Share the short link (see above) via Facebook, mail, blogs, tell your friends... Alone we are nothing, together we can make this one of the most popular torrents and show the RIAA why not to attack any of us! So happy seeding, let's go for thousands and ten-thousands! :-)"

We're all family here, and we have had a bit of a family illness here that has taken up, as it should, a remarkable amount of our time. So, we're getting our crap back together and we'll be back to annoying you with our exuberant geekiness soon!

Definition: Geek Girl - via Urban Dictionary

1) A girl who is interested in things considered geeky or nerdy by
mainstream society.

2) Usually refers to girls who are interested in computers,
and technology in general, can also be used for girls who do
things not considered "cool" by everyone else.

3) A compliment to girls who are proud to be geeks.

Yup, so it was cheap and lazy of me to make this into a two-part little article. Hey, my prerogative, number two......yeah, I got lazy.

So, here's part two, and again, they are in no particular order of geekishness.

• - V.I.N.CENT. (Vital Information Necessary Centralized) is coming, all eight inches of his floaty robotic self. Thirty years ago, thereabouts, I refuse to count the years, they remind me that I saw The Black Hole in theatres. "highly anticipated 30th anniversary of “The Black Hole” Disney’s V.I.N.CENT. (ATC) art toy collectible figure. This figure is a roto-vinyl limited edition collectible and the first in decades available to collectors.d collectors will be able to get the SDCC distressed version at MINDstyle’s and Toy Tokyo’s at the SRP of USD $130.00. V.I.N.CENT. is over 8 inches all and nearly as wide. It comes packaged in a premium gift box packaging with certificate of authenticity and numbered collectors card." - via MINDstyle

• - The unique opportunity to aggravate GeekGirlDiva in person. Yes, despite her unnecessary worry (see this post) over fans of hers being disappointed when they meet in person (total horsekaka), if you're lucky enough to attend, swing by the Entertainment Earth booth and say "Hi!, Erelas said you're the awesomesauce." It won't get ya a darn thing, but, tell me about it later and I'll "Hah" on your behalf. Oh yeah, and Justin did a really nice job on her banner.

• - This, is one of the reasons I HATE not being able to get to SDCC, Gentle Giant. Every bleeding year they do something like this, and I have to promise someone a kidney to grab one for me.

SDCC 2009 STAR WARS BOBA FETT GENTLE GIANT McQUARRIE BUST!!

If you haven't figured it out by now, I am that much of a Fett-o-phile, and you must say
things like that loudly, it helps the effect.

Yup, you're seeing correctly, two different helmets, thankfully both come with the bust.

• - She's a redhead (plus), she's Dawn, in a skirt, bent over....umm, yeah, Dawn flips my switch just a tad.

  The goddess of birth and rebirth gets a modern makeover! Based on the art of award-winning Dawn creator Joseph Michael Linsner, this 7-inch tall PVC statue celebrates Dawn's 20th anniversary with a unique variant! Limited edition of only 1,000 pieces

Pre-order the Convention variant from EE. You're not gonna find the red-skirted version
anywhere else, Entertainment Earth get all the cool goodies. I want them to adopt me.

• - Our last, but not least thing that geeks us out about SDCC '09 is...

Dark Avengers Uncanny X-Men Utopia #1 Exclusive Comic

Really hot sketch cover, and imagine that, a comic book at a Comic Convention, who'dathunkit?

Swag = Samples, Wearable, & Gifts; Just in case you ever wanted to know where the term swag came from. Swag being any of the giveaway stuff from vendors or promotions, like the blue condoms given out before the opening of the movie Watchmen. One of my personal all-time favorites and pretty hard to find now. The collectibality of various swag type items varies, doesn't anything collectible, but, generally, the rarer the better.

Being the dorkish dorkity dorks (aka geeks) that we are here, we're sincerely looking forward to San Diego ComiCon 2009. Not able to physically go ( hey, I'm semi-retired for a reason :P ), we've decided to put together a top-ten list of "Wow, gotta meet that guy/gal or have that" from SDCC '09. Now, we really couldn't decide what order to put these into, EVERYTHING at SDCC '09 deserves a mention, but these are the things, people and panels we chose and in no particular order.

• - In support of BBC AMERICA’s U.S. premiere of four Doctor Who Specials, the Doctor himself, David Tennant, will appear alongside writer/executive producer Russell T Davies at this year’s Comic-Con in San Diego. They will take part in a Doctor Who panel along with executive producer Julie Gardner and director Euros Lyn, moderated by Los Angeles Times television critic, Robert Lloyd on Sunday July 26, 10:00-11:00am PT. If you can get into this panel, do, seeing David Tenant on The Graham Norton Show before the beginning of last season really put him into the one of the coolest sci-fi guys ever categories. Probably my favorite Doctor alongside Tom Baker.

• - Promoting USA's Burn Notice, Bruce Campbell (and other cast members) will be there. Ok, credit to the other cast members, but Dammit, Jim, it's Bruce "Don't call me Ash" Campbell. Hell, that's worth a ticket to the left coast. Thursday, July 23, 2009 is the date for the panel. Oh, and don't forget that everyone needs one of these:
• - Friday, July 24 an appearance by Todd McFarlane - 5:30pm-7:00pm. If you're reading this and you don't know who the creator of Spawn is, and a singularly great comic artist, sign up for a frontal lube job and lobotomy, stat.

• - It's hopeless to see everything cool, fantastic and geekworthy; however you can grab a peek at Stan "The Man" Lee and the decidedly less manly (thank god), Natasha Henstridge on Thursday, 12:45-1:45 for a Q&A on Disney: Stan Lee’s Time Jumper.

• -The flip-book issue of AGON and MERC, from Zenescope, contains 28 pages of story and will retail at a $2.99 price point but will be available at Zenescope booth #2707 for just $1 during the convention weekend. The Grimm Fairy Tales #40 convention exclusive is a limited edition issue and will also be available at booth 2707 while it lasts. Grab this people, you'll be glad you did.

• And, the last (5th if you counted) listing for part one of the "Ten Things that Geek Us Out" for SDCC '09 is:- HotForWords.com's Marina Orlova, if you missed her being our Hottie of the Week, last week, or simply have no idea who she is, add to your lobotomy with an exorcism of whatever demon plagues your remaining brain, ya need help.

Nikola Tesla (10 July 1856 – 7 January 1943) a very happy birthday to the man who brought us all sorts of hackable goodies, like Tesla Coils. May he someday return from outer space and grant us ultimate wisdom.... :P

Happy Birthday also to me, your humble editor / writer. 10 July 1973, and rumours of my death are definitely exaggerated.

Geeks should be into sports...really...they should, there are sports geeks. If more of the typical geek was into sports, then we'd get to notice the cheerleading rocket scientists. Yup, you heard me, cheerleaders who are rocket scientists. /facepalm

Summer Williams is a 25-year old aerospace engineer for the Jacobs Engineering Group, which is NASA's main scientific support contractor.

Now people, listen, I'm a geek, I know it, I love it, I embrace it wholeheartedly. In High School I even ran around in a tunic and armor as the "Trojan" school mascot (plastic sword included). I mean this with no disrespect to the former cheerleaders (god it was a great gig) I hung around with, but, if they looked like Summer Williams I'd probably still be doing that. That would be a really unattractive sight now, take my word for it. Would any of us leave that gig if this was the girl you threw up into the air?

Sing it with me folks, "Ground Control to Major Tom....we don't care what is wrong, can you get us Summer Williams, we want to hear her cheer."

I had to join the Navy to launch space vehicles, no one else would let me, and it's probably cause I'd be this lovely ladies devoted stalker. Let's hear it for the girl who never wanted to be a cheerleader, wanted to be an engineer, and inspires people with her professionalism at both.

I know we just had fireworks, my ears are still ringing, but that's nothing like what you get when two Vulcans decide to get it on.

Every seven years, Vulcans gotta have it. Bad. They sweat, they fume, they go crazy. Now you might be saying to yourself, "Wow, that's impressive. Wouldn't it be great if someone could bottle that?"

Well, Genki Wear has!

The Star Trek Pon Farr Perfume is one of three Star Trek Fragrances from Genki Wear. Each one comes in a really slick box and a specially designed bottle. If this doesn't get your green blood boiling, nothing will!

Order Star Trek Pon Farr Perfume from Entertainment Earth!

Ever since the other two fragrances were announced, I've really wanted to see what this one looked like. The merchandising is pretty clever, I just wonder if the stuff can pull in Jolene Blalock.....

As Aeria Games puts their first-person shooter, Team Wolf, through it's paces, we've managed to pick up a sneak peek at one of the nicer bits of eye-candy and penetrating power to share.

Prove your worth and you too can carry around this devastating sniper rifle and punch holes through your enemies defenses.

Register to be chosen for the Closed and eventually, Open Beta at Wolf Team.

I've been trying to catch up on all the accounts I have all over the internet, consolidate things, get a bit better grasp and focus, a massive effort is to rake and burn the e-mail garbage in my "catch-all" accounts.

Coincidentally with that, I came across the second newsletter I've ever received from Gravity Interactive announcing the first anniversary of the release of the Korean F2P (free to play) Requiem: Bloodymare for the western hemisphere.

Here's your sign:

The game is amassively multiplayer online game for mature audiences, graphic, bloody and often player versus player is a an unintended part of the Bloodymare, because of a PvP penalty, which even exists on the PvP dedicated server. I really enjoy the concept, so I do wish I could be more forgiving.

There are some absolutely rabid fanboys of the game, and that is pretty typical of any game. There seems to always be the cadre of supporters that will tear anyone who speaks ill of any aspect of a game (no matter how accurate it might be) to shreds in the forums, over bug reports, what have you. Fanboys often know no mercy and show little regard for open dialogue. That should tell you how I feel about their ilk. :)

A great resource for new players are the various fansites, easily found on the RB webpage, and the

.

Who really knows what a philologist was, or cared, until mid-2007? Well, thanks to HotForWords, aka Marina Orlova we care, often, sometimes obsessively. This young lady has gone from YouTube guru to having her own website with over 400 videos on tap.

That's a viable move, since we've all noticed their trend making changes in advertising and services to get into the black financially.

Take a look at some of Marina's comments that often lead to full blown opinion (and educated opinion at that) pieces on everything from YouTube's possible direction, the "non"-election in Iran, Twitter's social media moves, you name it. Believe me on this one, Marina listens and interacts with her fans. She takes their discussions, begun often about her latest video, and pushes them into areas that most of the internet is sadly lacking in, the area of actual discourse and substance.

Some of you are thinking, "Yeah, right, that's like saying you read men's magazines for the articles." To this, I reply, "Brains and being a gorgeous woman are not mutually exclusive, Marina Orlova, for example, is both."



Quite a few viewers probably could close their eyes and get lost in her voice, thankfully, we have her stunning smile as well. Umm, yes, smile, that's precisely what I was thinking of...honest. /halo I highly recommend checking out the above video here...it's more fulfilling.

If anyone is headed to the left coast for the SDCC, tell Marina I said "Hi", and steal her autograph for me. She'll be at ComicCom for an appearance and signing on Saturday, Jul 25, from 12:00 pm - 2:30 pm.

*steps up to the podium*
*clears throat* *drinks sip of water*
*unfolds paper that appears to be an origami of a unicorn*

Erelas RyAlcar's Acceptance Speech for the Lead Self-Possessed Scientologist Oscar:

Thank you! Oh! Thank you! I can hardly conjugate verbs! I feel so coked-up! And this statue - it's so suspiciously phallic! Oh, thank you again! I just want everyone to bow down before me and accept that even in my wildest fits of self-loathing, I never would have fantasized that this could ever validate my mediocrity. And to the other brilliant nominees, I want each of you to know how totally vindicated your crushing defeat makes me feel right now!

You know when they first told me I was not the father, I just had to take a Xanax and obsess about how unaesthetic my love scenes have been. I guess it all just makes me feel kinda numb

You know, there are so many obsequious Napoleon Complex-suffering studio execs to thank! First off though, I want to pay off the glorified prostitutes of the Academy, who looked deep within their Magic 8-Balls before giving me this fantastic award! Also, I want to thank Charleton Heston, for being such a powerful force in my contract negotiations. And to the hooker with the heart of gold, who taught me to take life by the balls. And finally, to all the illegitimate children I sired - I couldn't have done it without you!

Thank you America, and good night!

Umm, wait a tick, I think I got out the wrong speech, umm, yeah. Anyway, thanks to Topless Robot for hosting this fantastic contest, a blast, I'm looking forward to more. Thanks also to Zombie Haiku author Ryan Mecum.

The haiku I refer to is:

Hands claw bafflingly
Stumbling, moaning, eyes protrude
Blood drips lividly

If you play video games then you'll probably agree, that like J-E-L-L-O, there's always room for one more FPS out there.

The closed beta for Wolf Team (Aeria Games) is ready for signups, and my initial reaction is that this is gonna be good, especially based on Aeria Games past track record of support for other titles.

Details from their website:

* Fast-paced FPS action for up to 16 players
* Large assortment of different weapons
* Transform into werewolf for up-close combat
* 15 different maps in a variety of environments
* 7 game modes including Death Match, Destruction, and Conquest
* Free to Play

Saw this shirt and thought it so appropriate to share.

We've got a lot of games here to take a look at, and we don't want to miss a single one of any genre or platform. Sometimes though, that's simply not possible, and among those we do review we've decided to "standardize" (which still means it's subject to change in the blink of an eye) our rating guide.

It's easy to see that there is leeway and subjectivity in our ranking system, and we don't apologize for that. If we think a game sucks, as far as we're concerned, it does. We openly encourage debate on this and of our reviews and may edit our reviewing system or criteria based on multiple factors, not least of which being available technology for video game consumers.

Thus:Not so great.

We want your feedback, ideas, suggestions, so drop us a comment and we'll consider your criteria in reviewing games / products!