History Repeating

It's very true that history repeats itself, especially if we never learn the lessons of the past.

Recently it seems that history is literally repeating with the Democratic race to the White House. This race mimics the Governor's race for Massachusetts state governor a few years back. In this race there was a female (Kerry Healey), who happened to be white and an African-American male (Deval Patrick). Again this would have been Massachusett's first female Governor voted into office. [There was one female before her, Jane Swift, who became acting Governor when Paul Celluci left to be the US Ambassador to Canada].

In this race Deval Patrick, like Obama, had a slight lead over Kerry Healey and in the final days Healey's campaign became increasingly negative while Patrick (again like Obama) focused on what he plans to do while in office. Healey's negativity was pretty much the only thing I remember about her from that race. At the time I didn't like Patrick's policies and while I wanted to vote Healey, she just turned me off. I couldn't stand the constant complaining.

The same goes with our current Democratic Presidential race. Obama having a slight lead is being fired upon left and right by Clinton. Now Mass. isn't the best sampling of the Nation but if the same formula holds true then we could be saying goodbye to Mrs. Clinton.

Tonight's debate is do or die. LET'S GET IT ON!

iBand

So recently I've been itching to get myself an IPhone. Yes it's expensive and no I don't need it, but I Want It! My girlfriend recommended that I could put the money (taxes) towards a trip. Since she is both beautiful and wise, I highly considered her recommendation. :P

However I just finished my taxes and it seems that I might be able to do both! OH HO! This all depends on where I decide to go. If I choose to go to say California then the Iphone is out of the question, but If i choose a road trip then it might be a bit more plausible. We'll see how that goes, but mark my words, by the end of the summer I will have an IPhone.

I came across this new vid sweeping the internets the other day and it doesn't help me at all at wanting to conserve money for a trip. hee hee

enjoy

Updates

Some updates to the links on the side of the page. For personal reasons Gamespot has been removed, and added to the section are Zero Punctuation and Charlie Oscar Delta.

The Escapist magazine has a gaming section called Zero Punctuation which are quick witted game reviews by Yahtzee Croshaw. Just imagine a funnier Simon Cowel giving game reviews and you have Yahtzee.

Charlie Oscar Delta is the website for Call of Duty 4. Originally I had the site wrong cause I didn't realized that Charlie Oscar and Delta stood for COD. :)

Round 2

The flu aka "the Plauge" (P.P.) has been running rampant lately and I amazingly have been untouched buy it. Kinda like Will Smith in "I am Legend." However last week it seems as if I've jinxed myself and found myself in an epic battle to fend off an oncoming cold.

I was able to fight it off and was feeling fine on Valentines but it made a comeback on Friday and it was all out war on Saturday. The fight continues today and I expect it to be gone by Tuedsay. While I don't mind staying in and chilling this long weekend, I would much prefer to do it by my own choice rather than being held hostage buy a cold.

3rd Strike

So in short I wil classify myself as a gamer. I've been enjoying games since I was little and will continue to enjoy the hobby for a long time to come. As I've gotten older I will admit that my responsibilities have taken over much of the time that I would normally dedicate to playing a game. As they should. So in recent years as I've moved out of the college scene in to the "real world" I've become more of a collector.

Given my studies in Economics/Business I've become just as interested in the industry as I am with the game play. One industry leader that regularly makes headlines is Gamestop. After acquiring EBGames they've pretty much cornered the gaming retail market in the United States. And like a traditional monopolistic company they pretty much feel they have free reign to do what they like. They've received criticism from their "bend-over" bundles to their telemarketing-Esq style of marketing their buyback program (which sucks).

Up until a few years ago I haven't had a problem with Gamestop until I realized there 's a serious problem of how they handle used games. Gamestop is known to have very good deals when purchasing used games, a lot of stores have buy 2 get one free deals which can be hard to pass up if you're looking for a few titles at a low cost.

One situation that happend to me was back when God of War first came out. I purchased it used and realized that it was a defective copy. I was a bit surprised cause I thought they tested the games before they resold them for a price several times inflated from what they paid out. When I went to return it they store didn't have any more copies to replace it with. So I went to another store. This one had copies, but the crazy thing was this copy was also defective.

Frustrated I returned to the store and requested the credit option. This is where I got screwed. When I originally purchased the game it was 30 bucks, but in the time that I messing around with a busted copy, God of War became a "greatest hit" and the price dropped to 20 dollars. So I ended up losing money. I ended up using the store credit and purchased a new game, which thankfully worked just fine. Not only did I lose money but I ended up spending more.

The most recent incident happened last month when I purchased Street Fighter: Anniversary Collection. I wanted this game cause it was one of the only complications that had Street Fighter II: 3rd Strike, which is one of the best 2d fighting games out there. I ordered it online because it was difficult to acquire in a retail store, since it's an out of print game. Again used. Got the game only to realize that this one too was also defective. I called and was amazed at how smooth their return process was. The operator said that he would put in the request to have a replacement shipped once the original was returned. Time passed and I realized they didn't send out a replacement but refunded the full cost of the game. Slightly annoyed I just went to amazon and purchased a higher price for a new copy.

After this last situation I'm ever so conscious of purchasing used games from Gamestop and I will say that this is probably the 3rd Strike when dealing with this company.

Chocolate Skittles

I came into work today and as I sat down to start the day the coworker next to me hands me a bag of what looks to be candy and says, "try these." I take the bag and to my astonishment it said Skittles on it. I wasn't surprised at that but what was before it ...the word "chocolate."

My next thought was "what the fack are these going to taste like?!" Now your first notions would be that it would taste like a normal skittle but with chocolate flavor. Which in itself will taste..interesting. I assure you that is not the case they actually tasted similar to a tootie roll.

With flavors such as smore, vanilla, chocolate and caramel i think. It was really weird experience, one that i'm not sure I'll be taking part in again.

WHAT THA FAC!!??

Title says it all...but the clip says more.

Modern Marvel

I'm sitting here now watching the History Channel, which is one of my favs. Anywho I'm watching the show Modern Marvels and this episode focuses on the history of the tin can. Many people don't realize this but next to the Wheel, the tin can or just any can comes in very close as being one of the most important inventions in human history. It basically changed the way we eat.

The average shelf life of canned food is two years. Thats the recommened shelf life but most foods can last a lot longer. Word has it that a man in england opened and ate a 50 year old can of chicken and had no ill effects. Personally I think that guy was lucky.

The first successful beverage cans were introduced in 1935.

One thing that kinda bothered me were the new self heating/cooling cans they're coming out with. They use chemical reactions to bring a heated beverage such as coffee or soup to a suitable temperature for consumption. Just the thought of some assclown screwing around with a can that can heat itself to 100+ degrees has me worried.

oh well.

Perfume Gummis

So today I was talking to a coworker when I noticed a bag of gummi bears (later realized they were in the shape of a moose's head) sitting on his desk. He enthusiastically handed me the bag and said "try a blue one and a red one." I figured there was going to be some drastic difference between the two.

As I began to chew on the blue one he commented on how they tasted like perfume...and he was right. About half way through my nose began to pick up a flowery scent and I started to get this slight soapy taste in my mouth. It was an interesting experience, one that I don't wish to repeat. The Red gummi tasted normal.

I dont remember the brand of gummi moose that my coworker had but I'll find out just so that I don't make the mistake of picking it up in the future.