I have written about Will Wright (creator of the SimCity, The Sims, etc) a few times before, and I have read an awful lot about him. Most of the press out there surrounds his new game, Spore, but what I find much more interesting is the man himself. The New Yorker just ran a feature on him and it is probably the best article I have read about him to date.

It’s rather long, which is why I probably liked it, but it is well written and a great read. It is tough to pick out quotes that work well in isolation so here a few of my favorites regarding the Sims, but the best part of the article is really about his life and the social implications of video gaming in the first place. I take umbrage in some of the conclusions, but scapegoating the video game industry is nothing new.

While he was at home with his daughter, Wright began to turn over the idea for a new game, a kind of interactive doll house that adults would like as much as children. “I went around my house looking at all my objects, asking myself, ‘What’s the least number of motives or needs that would justify all this crap in my house?’ There should be some reason for everything in my house. What’s the reason?”

For example, the cheapest bed in The Sims 2, which costs three hundred “simoleons,” brings your Sim one point of comfort and two points of energy; a three-thousand-simoleon bed carries seven points of comfort and six of energy. Wright has said that he intended the game as a parody of consumerism, because “if you sit there and build a big mansion that’s all full of stuff, without cheating, you realize that all these objects end up sucking up all your time, when they had been promising to save you time.”

If you haven’t see line rider yet, its pretty addicting….

Oh and get ready for this to be all over the news soon if it isn’t by the time I’m writing this. It is about a guy who was proving how insecure the airports are by creating a program (i.e. using microsoft office) that basically prints out NWA boarding passes that are good enough to get you through the security gates. So naturally, they raided his house and took everything. What a waste of money and time.

High atop my fence I look down to one side. I see a land of angels and demons in which if I play my cards right, and make the correct sacrifices — i.e. never question why — I am given the honor of ascending into heaven. I take a glance to the other and see a cold desolate future where the only things that survives are cold masses of former planets and suns drifting forever apart.

Yep, I am an agnostic, and apparently that irks some people. Pick a side they say. Here is what I say to them. Get over yourself. Last time I checked the world was not filmed black and white. Unless of course, your name begins with Dub and ends what ya. I enjoy my view from on top because there is much less dirt being slung. In the end it does not matter who is right and who is wrong. If there is a god then the believers get to go into heaven, or wherever, and say I told you so. Which, if I can misuse the word, would be kind of ironic if only for the fact that who really cares about “I told you so’s” when you now have eternal bliss. On the other hand, if there is no god, then everyone just dies and absolutely nothing else happens. So spending your life arguing about it seems sort of counter productive.

If one thing is true about religion though, it has not been too kind to the human race. It likely has, and will continue to be, the greatest threat to the survival of the human race. One only has to look at the Middle East to understand that. I am not saying that religion is bad as a concept, but it certainly has been in practice. What I believe in is simply the cliche golden rule. That is all anyone really needs, and that is what most religions aspire to preach. However, I see no need for an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent being in order to achieve that end. If one finds it “easier” or more fulfilling to believe in such a God than I am in no position to tell them not to believe. Just as sure as I am of that fact, I am also sure that condemning someone to eternal damnation and hellfire does nothing good for anyone.

What made me think about this is a piece written by Gary Wolf entitled Battle of the New Atheism over at Wired News. It is a piece on the New Atheist movement. Among other believes (and I do NOT use this term in a religious context because it is axiomatic that if one does not believe in religion there can be no “faith” at all) these New Atheists are openly hostile to religion.

The New Atheists have castigated fundamentalism and branded even the mildest religious liberals as enablers of a vengeful mob. Everybody who does not join them is an ally of the Taliban. But, so far, their provocation has failed to take hold. Given all the religious trauma in the world, I take this as good news. Even those of us who sympathize intellectually have good reasons to wish that the New Atheists continue to seem absurd. If we reject their polemics, if we continue to have respectful conversations even about things we find ridiculous, this doesn’t necessarily mean we’ve lost our convictions or our sanity. It simply reflects our deepest, democratic values. Or, you might say, our bedrock faith: the faith that no matter how confident we are in our beliefs, there’s always a chance we could turn out to be wrong.

I‘m writing a paper write now and was listening to the new Killer’s album, Sam’s Town. I don’t have time to write much about it, but I’m disappointed. Gone is the fun rock with catchy lyrics like, “I’ve got soul but I’m not a solider”. I think the All Music Guide review said it best, “Coming soon to a stadium near you!” I’m now listening to the new Beck, and it better be good.

There is something wrong with this picture. Anyway, the semester is half over and that means I only have seven months till I graduate from law school. At that point, I will have been in school since I was what, five? That’s twenty freakin years and seven post High School. Everyone tells me it will pay off, but until I have a job I can’t actually pay off the people that so generously gave me the money in the first place.
/sarcasm off

click to enlarge

They just released the complete song list for the licensed songs in GHII (they are keeping the bonus ones secret till the Nov 7th launch). Someone was nice enough to put together a youTube, soon to be gooTube, list of most of them. Some of them are going to be wicked hard. Here are just a few…

Guns N’ Roses – Sweet Child O’ Mine


Rush – YYZ


Avenged Sevenfold – Beast and the Harlot

Full list:
1. Opening Licks
Motley Crue – Shout at the Devil
Danzig – Mother
Cheap Trick – Surrender
Wolfmother – Woman
Spinal Tap – Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight

2. Amp-Warmers
Kiss – Strutter
Nirvana – Heart-Shaped Box
Police – Message in a Bottle
Van Halen – You Really Got Me
Kansas – Carry on Wayward Son

3. String-Snappers
Foo Fighters – Monkey Wrench
Alice in Chains – Them Bones
Iggy Pop and the Stooges – Search and Destroy
Pretenders – Tattooed Love Boys
Black Sabbath – War Pigs

4. Thrash and Burn
Warrant – Cherry Pie
Butthole Surfers – Who Was in My Room Last Night
Mathew Sweet – Girlfriend
Rolling Stones – Can’t You Hear Me Knockin’
Guns N’ Roses – Sweet Child O’ Mine

5. Return of the Shred
Rage Against the Machine – Killing in the Name Of
Primus – John the Fisherman
Sword – Freya
Thin Lizzy – Bad Reputation
Aerosmith – Last Child

6. Relentless Riffs
Heart – Crazy on You
Stone Temple Pilots – Tripping on a Hole in a Paper Heart
Stray Cats – Rock This Town
Allman Brothers – Jessica
Jane’s Addiction – Stop

7. Furious Fretwork
Anthrax – Madhouse
Living End – Carry Me Home
Lamb of God – Laid to Rest
Reverend Horton Heat – Psychobilly Freakout
Rush – YYZ

8. Face-Melters
Avenged Sevenfold – Beast and the Harlot
Suicidal Tendencies – Institutionalized
Dick Dale – Misirlou
Megadeth – Hangar 18
Lynyrd Skynyrd – Free Bird

I was just procrastinating for a bit…click for larger version

It might be 1 AM, but I wanted to try out Adobe Lightroom. It seems nice, but I didn’t have a ton of time to play with it. I really just wanted to use it to get a few pics off my camera that I took in the past week. So enjoy. Click for larger versions.