Until I can breathe again. Screw political parties, elections and war records! Hook ‘em, Gig ‘em, Sooner ‘em, and Trojan ‘em.

I didn’t understand the over-exuberant excitement for the Planet of the Apes remake mainly because I find the original movie to be a boring drag. However, watching it re-edited to a 30 minute Twilight Zone episode makes it seem really good.

He’d hate that title, but the creator of Achewood is pretty damn funny in his oddball way.

Here’s a service that provides a marketplace for P2P physical music and DVD swapping.

Doesn’t it kind of pervert the concept of barter if you have a middleman taking a profit from the trades? I guess they’re creating a currency out of their mediation system and selling that currency, along with some mailing envelopes, for cash. It’s interesting.

Also, in the age of the iPod/digital media center, isn’t this really just a cheap way to boost your music/video collection? Have they one-upped all the online music stores by creating an almost-legal way to swap MP3s online?

(Massively Multiplayer Role Playing Games)

I’m not even going to pretend that I’ve played one of these since I wandered around in a MUD (Multi-User Dungeon) back in the internet text days, but from what I’ve seen, these games are pretty freakin’ impressive. Pick your universe (There’s a Star Wars game, any number of D&D knockoffs, Final Fantasy stuff … even real life if you count The Sims )

Anyhow, these immersive worlds have economies; there’s not just swords and treasure lying around; someone’s got to make them. Wired reports that some players are starting to outsource the drudgery of the games to gamers in low-wage countries: entrepreneur Valery Markarov said he pays workers in Russia a base salary of about $100 per week to earn in-game money, which Markarov then sells to Internet Gaming Entertainment, or IGE, the major seller of virtual goods. Workers get paid more as they’re more productive, though, and could make up to $500 a week, he said.

I wouldn’t bother bringing this up, except I was severely disturbed when I read “A few people organized their friends to mess with these people,” he said. Large gangs of players block the workers from collecting currency — and some will “kill” the offending characters, he said. “They will pull a group of monsters onto these gil-selling farmers so they get killed.”

Now, were these just other players, I’d say “So f’n what – it’s just a game…” But it’s becoming so they’re not. These are real people doing a job to support families, etc, and being paid based on their productivity. And they’re being messed with for someone’s enjoyment.

Kind of opens a whole new ethical quandry where the gaming world and the real world intersect. When it’s just overweight folks sitting in their underwear killing time, it’s one thing; when it’s folks trying to make a buck in places where jobs are scarce, it’s something completely different.

Random fact embellished and framed to make a point Hyperlink.

Second Random related fact embellished and framed to make a point. Hyperlink and quote for the second point.

Long rambling paragraph in which a conclusion which is obvious based upon the previous two points is drawn. The conclusion must include allegations that the other side is either such blatant liars that they’d say it was night if your side said it was day, corrupt to the point that they make the Italian governments of the ’50s and ’60s look like models of democratic leadership, or the most evil re-incarnation of the Third Reich since Nixon/Clinton. Calling for resignation of top officials here is good, too.

Conclusion paragraph in which it’s pointed out that the people in/running for office are mere puppets, anyway, because everyone knows that rich donors control the party.

Random ad Hominem attack in pre-emption of the first anticipated comment.