Czeltic Girl pointed me to the ultimate realization of my ennui in the workplace, for she is MIGHTY. I have made it my mantra, and thus I have made it my desktop. (link coming soon).

Of particular note is Commandment 4, which is more telling than certain nameless shills at my company would like to admit.

Also, recognize the satire of Commandment 8: “Warm smiles” indicate acknowledgement of the absurd system. “Warm smiles” are not evidenced by those “in the Matrix.”

Gotta admire the follow-through. This is incredible, no matter what your geek level.

I once thought of myself as a decent human beatbox. I am sub-standard, I now realize. I’ll be practicing, so posts will be limited.

I am utterly enchanted. What can I say? I, like many others, can become completely enthralled in these Sierra-like adventure games.

When my boss asks what I think I’m doing on company time, I just say “Interesting flash and cookie interaction in this thing; I’m trying to work out how they did it, by getting a perfect score. You know, like Cloak and Dagger.”

Also give Thy Dungeonman a shot if you’re more of the Zork gamer variety.

As MMORPGs go, City of Heroes is quite the accomplishment, drawing even players like me who said they would never play such a game. However, it now may be on the verge of yet another conquest: capturing the growing Sims market with the release of their latest expansion, Hero Dance Party.

I had logged on to soothe my crime-stopping Jones with one of my newly created avatars, the Darkstar Deputy Vinsand’r. (Some comic book aficianados among you will find that name vaguely familiar. He is the cousin of both Koriand’r and Komand’r, better known as Starfire and Blackfire in the DC Comics Universe. The Darkstars group is also borrowed from DC.)

As I prevented muggings and earned the thanks of the citizenry, occasionally conversing with the local heroes, the new update arrived. Vinsand’r stood motionless as new information came to light. Immediately, I was intrigued by a new emotive option: “boombox.” Without hesitation, I dropped some phat beats at the tram station, and like lemmings to the sea, heroes were drawn to the power of techno marvel from my woofers.

When the rave came to its close, I contemplated if it was simply the urban area that had brought out such house-lovin’ heroes, so I moved the party uptown in front of the snooty Ms. Liberty. Even she couldn’t stop the funk. While she stood helplessly by, houses were robbed, aliens invaded willy-nilly, villains went unthwarted.

Armed with this knowledge and refusing to allow this new wonderdrug to stain our streets, I pondered the use of this new arsenal. After all, would crime be so rampant on the streets of Paragon City if the criminals and heroes embraced their common love of jungle beats, poppin’ and lockin’ and the masterful flair?

My first test subjects were members of the Skulls street gang. Despite their voodoo heritage and their commonplace loitering at local clubs, they seemed disinterested. This may have been due to their being in the middle of a mugging, I later concluded.

I thought to myself, “Of the super gangs in the city, which would most likely be slave to the rhythm?” So my next experiment was with the automaton Clockwork. They, too, were somehow able to ignore the power of happy hardcore which currently has the heroes of Paragon City in a death grip. But while I was attempting to coerce them, I was challenged by another hero to a dance-off a la Breakin’ 2. Well, I am not one to back down from a challenge. Still, her righteous moves were not to be reckoned with, and despite my superior beats, I was forced to concede to being “served.” We cannot all be Turbo.

I was disheartened but I thought maybe my lackluster performance could be attributed to fatigue. I had danced in several parties that night already, and very nearly stopped a crime. Perhaps, it was time to hit the sack. So I stopped at a local eatery, logged off, and brought on a different character to let the mighty Vinsand’r rest up for his next challenge.

As I returned, refreshed as OmegaPrime, I was immediately accosted by the latest supervillainous threat, the Soul Train. Try as I might, I could not avoid them, and was eventually dubbed a foo’. The streets of Paragon City grow more dangerous daily, gentle reader. Do not venture there without your parachute pants and your cardboard.

I have another post to put up when I get home that closely resembles this piece of awesome.

Come sail away out of the Styx on an epic Journey in our…REO Speedwagon.

Look, this is the best I’ve got, so you may as well stop shaking your head. Oh, and your friendly neighborhood leptard-keeper did this better, I just found out.

Part I: Out of curiosity, I went to Clear Channel’s website to look at their policies on radio decency. Clicking on the first link I saw on the subject, the clearly marked “Radio: Broadcast Decency” PDF link on the home page, I immediately downloaded their PDF on rules and regulations for their radio stations.

Part II: Mac OS X sometimes applies strange icons to downloads that it doesn’t immediately recognize. I had just recently installed Return to Castle Wolfenstein for some faux – WWII action at work.

Results of this (perhaps-preordained) chain of events? A PDF about Clear Channel’s decency requirements with a wonderfully fascist icon alighted on my desktop. Oh RAPTURE.

Despite my complete ignorance of their deadlines, Gamegrene was kind enough to post my second article. I’ve learned some things since then, and probably would have written more had I not wanted to meet that deadline, but there it is nonetheless.

Yeah, I’m a big nerd, but I’m not alone. All you slashdot hipster-geeks out there, ph34r the OG(M).

I’ve had my second brush with the realism of the war in Iraq. A friend of a friend of a brother of Most-Honoured Girlfriend is a soldier in the USMC. He shipped off last weekend and as a send-off, he asked if we could all get together and play LAN games at the good ol’ iColiseum*.

I could not think of an easier or more pleasant way to support our troops than that. I thought he might be a little uncomfortable playing Battlefield: Vietnam and the like. After all, the situation in Iraq is now being compared to Vietnam, but Iraq’s really nothing like this (Boing Boing gave this to Czelticgirl gave it to me).

And seeing as war won’t be just a simulation for him much longer I thought it might bring up apprehension he was trying to avoid for the evening, but he seemed in good spirits when all was through.

Come home safe, Matt, and thank you.

* – this is a better plug for you, Patrick. And I’m happy to do it. ;)