This is situation brief #9. Jones Trivia is on.

--I gamed. Online. Not for very long. It was kind of the 'intro'. But I was surprised at how quickly and smoothly everything went. I need to get a desk or at least set the machine up where I have a table to use for writing and keeping track of things. I like my brother's desk, the corner model, the best. Anyway, it was a lot of fun and I'm definitely going back! The store game is also in a week. I'll describe everything in better detail some other time, with a copy of my 'avatar'.

--Warcraft III comes out on July 3rd. Obviously I can't play it on this machine. So, obviously I can't play it. I don't think there's a date on UT2003 yet (but it's some time in 2002). Sadly, I won't be playing that either. Yay.

--The Lakers, as expected, whipped up on the Nets, They swept them to win the NBA championship for the third straight year. That seems to be de riguer these days. Going back to 87, you have the Lakers winning two in a row, the Pistons winning two in a row, the Bulls winning three in a row, the Rockets winning two in a row (only because Jordan was gone), the Bulls winning three in a row, then the Spurs actually only winning one, then the Lakers winning three in a row. And Phil Jackson has won nine out of his twelve years coaching. The Lakers barely broke a sweat beating the Nets. Their big test was against that unbelievable Sacramento team. My Dallas Mavericks are the third best team in the league, and I don't see that changing much next year unless we get a BIG GUY inside and start playing defense and also learn to rest Nash and Dirk more. Michael Olowakandi? I wish we could get him.

--I heard that in movie theaters in parts of Europe (which let's face it is going to be one country one of these days), when the movie is over the patrons are able to and even encouraged to stay for a while and discuss the movie with each other in public. I don't know about you, but I think this would be great.

--Have you seen the Badcop movie? I don't think it's authentic, and if it were it would be pretty brutal, but doesn't it feel good when the nightstick comes out?

--Will someone explain to me why the rest of the world hasn't banned two strokes the way the US has, yet we're the Great Environmental Satan? In a couple years, two strokes won't be legal for sale even as personal watercraft, ATVs, dirt bikes, and snowmobiles. Meanwhile, Europe has millions of the things! They have 500cc two stroke hyperbikes going around polluting as much as thousands of cars. I know why of course. A) Europeans love their performance machinery even more than Americans do. Italy, Germany and Spain especially have a love affair with speed and beautiful machines. B) Banning two strokes here wasn't done to protect the environment, it was done to protect the EPA. The two stroke was an easy target that makes it appear superficially as if they're actually doing something while not ruffling the feathers of ninety-eight percent of the voters. C) The US is the scapegoat for the world. If we're doing something or not doing something, it must be because of our 'imperialistic' nature or our unilateralism or our laziness or our arrogance.

It is a shame. There are some promising two stroke developments coming down the developmental tubes.

--There is a new virus which attacks MP3s, jpegs, and avis/mpegs. I wonder about the psychology of a virus author.

--I think the US soccer team might advance to the second round. They have to either win the last game or tie and have another team lose. You should see all the protests and hatred and venom being spewed at them. I can hardly understand why they'd want to go over there and play for those people. What's in it for them? Scarcely anyone in the US gives a crap about soccer, and the rest of the world hates them above all other teams. I'd say screw em. This continent is big enough that you don't have to travel overseas just to get spit on by people who blame the US soccer team for all the world's problems.

--What is this from? "My favorite hobby is terrorizing my left arm with threats of amputation. Also, one time play game where catch brick with forehead."

--Some of the stuff at Renderosity has been just blowing my mind. My Renderosity folder runneth over, with about seven hundred pics saved now. There are lots of crappy Poser nudes, but some beautiful Poser pics and a whole lot of non-Poser stuff. They get in several hundred new images each day. Unfortunately, they seem to have some kind of block which prevents tagging or linking to images. So far, I've only posted my one pic, but I might do a Z-Brush piece this weekend and submit it.

No more.