The commercials for Avatar made me only want to wait for a DVD release to see the medicore special effects; the 10 second clip on the today show this morning of a shrill alien bitch moved it to the super-shitty category. Blech, that movie seems very Charleston Heston overdone...

Am I the only one out there playing Champions Online? I tend to doubt it, it's a fun, much more active game than City of Heroes. If you're playing let me know sometime. I'm the inimitable Dr. Whom, and my universaltag is Gamerbear75.

After a very rock start, Chet finally managed to get our Champions Online open beta working Wens. this week. I've been very eager to try this out, and thanks to the open beta, I can.

It's fun. Really fun. At least in the first ten hours. The art style is very cell shaded, which looks rich and vibrant. The character generator is very full, and takes more from Oblivion than City of Heros. It's very full featured and you can easy to use. The movement powers are diverse and fun; rocket boots (my choice power) looks and acts noticeably different than standard flight, or any of the elemental flights. Hell, they even have ice sleds! And the regular powers are diverse and work on a skill tree akin to old school Star Wars Galaxies...you get points, and can spend them how you wish in whatever power set you want. Buying from similar power sets net you a reduced cost for some skills. If you're unhappy with your powers/stats/anything you can retrain at any point and start with another build from the beginning.

Best of all, the combat is the best I've played in a MMO..mostly in that it hardly feels like an MMO. If you've played any Marvel Ultimate Alliance or the PS2 era X-Men RPGs you'll have a better feel of combat. You have basic attacks that build energy, then other attacks that use the energy. Some enemies drop health, energy, bonus xp while others drop items. It's quick, easy to engage with, and good for pick up and play.

Best of all? So far at least it's got plenty of single player content. A lot of their quests take from the Warhammer model of being situational; if you're in the area of a zombie horde attack you and everyone else their work together and get credit together for it. No commitment, no loot arguments, no stupidity. It's great.

Anyway, it was enough for me to pluck down the $200 for a lifetime subscription. In the meantime, I'm eagerly awaiting the launch day.

I've never been a big fan of Whole Foods; that said, this made me snicker:

CEO of Whole Foods conservative and creepy.

PS Protesters against Obama: Hitler was a facist, not a socialist. Stalin was a socialist. If you're going to make outrageous unsupported claims about people, at least get that right. Facists are right wing (read: similar to your values) and socialists are left wing (read: less similar.)

It's all ridiculous of course. What has been proposed is far closer to social centrism such as is found in many western European countries than either wing of political theory. Of course, this country moved so far to the right over the last thirty years that any branch of moderation is going to be considered extremism.

It still bugs me. If people bothered to read at all and educate themselves they'd usually shut up because there's almost never a "right" answer to this stuff.

I really hate coming up with subject lines. My friends are going to read anyway, and strangers have moved to meta-tags, right?

It's been a rough week. Very hot, very wet, feeling sick and work being slow have all combined to make me feel like I'm in sluggish mire all week. Nothing serious going on physically, just a stomach bug I think. Nothing serious at work. Nothing serious most all the way around. Very much the "dog days" of summer I think...god knows I feel hairier than normal.

I've seen it before, but with the Directors cut being half an hour longer, it's nutty. I literally have gotten drunk and sobered up tonight while this movie was playing...

I had a good Saturday and a productive Sunday...spent Saturday visiting Richard and David in Dauphin, enjoyed a good meal, an awful movie, and plenty of wildlife fun with flies, deer, and even a bear or two. Heck, even got a great deal on "the Protoculture Edition" of Robotech, a massive, 26 disc collection of everything Robotech up to 2005. The episodes are all digitally restored, and look great. Not so much for kids now - there's some nudity that's been restored, and of course this show was always more violent and frank in its' depictions than shonen anime.

Of course, we didn't get groceries, pet supplies, cleaning, or the renovating done that I needed.

Work is going to be rough this week. Our receptionist quit, and we're expected to cover her duties in my department - permamently. Shirley, my coworker got married Friday and is on her honeymoon this week. And I'm working an adjusted shift while she's out. It can go any which way, but it may be a rough week.

It's been a while, I know.

This year has just been so tumultuous that I find it hard keeping up. I'm here, we're good, nothing awful has happened and in fact our tax credit came in, so we have had a good run of getting issues in order. The big credit lines are paid off, the guest room is furnished, things are going reasonably well. I just keep waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Healthy, I know...

Just three more days to this week. I am so thrilled. Even though I can't afford to go anywhere, I have the following week off, thanks to our companies "use it or lose it" vacation day policy.

It'll be my first real break since visiting my family four years ago. And that was a lot more stressful than relaxing. I had a lot of hopes for chores to finish around the house, but we just don't have the funds so it will be a lot of relaxing and little else.

I plan to use it to get back into a healthy regime.

So, while this week has been rough, just three more days... I have my mantra.