Peru Meteor, Space Sickness, Zombies?!?!

Some 600 people in Peru have required treatment after an object from space - said to be a meteorite - plummeted to Earth in a remote area, officials say.

They say the object left a deep crater after crashing down over the weekend near the town of Carancas in the Andes.

People who have visited scene have been complaining of headaches, vomiting and nausea after inhaling gases.

Well, this is just about how every bad (and good) zombie film starts. I also can't help but notice a disturbing likeness to Lovecraft's story, "The Colour Out of Space." Face it, dear readers, something very nasty is on the way. Space AIDS or Ebola in the best case, the living dead in the worst. Not surprisingly, we find ourselves returned to the old, but popular question of what would you do to survive a zombie epidemic?

Everyone immediately rushes into thinking Wal-Marts or Malls would make excellent hideouts. I beg to differ. Just for the record, I'll be taking my chances going as far north as possible. Sure, the northern wastes of Canada presented their own problems in World War Z, but I'm optimistic. Let's just hope the zombies aren't the first wave of a noxious bio-weapon from some extraterrestrial intelligence. Then things will get a little too interesting for my tastes. I've never been one for multi-apocalyptic nightmare mode.

-Namtlieu

Concert Review: Within Temptation

Periodically I'll be posting concert reviews. I go to at least three or more concerts a year, so I'll be reviewing what I see every couple of months. This time I saw Within Temptation.

I first heard about Within Temptation a little over two years ago. I downloaded some of their stuff and watched their music video's on YouTube. I loved them! Their music can be described as guitar driven symphonic metal. The best kind of fucking music on the planet. The same kind of music that Nightwish, and Evanescence play.

The concert started at 8pm tonight. There were two opening acts. The first one is a local band, and they fucking rule. They were old school metal, with long hair, and lots of solos. Just awesome stuff. I wish I could remember their name right now. It escapes me.

The second band, not so good. An emo band. I don't like emo, and it was really hurting my ears, I had to leave the concert area and go into the bar while they played. It was just bad.

Finally, at 9:30 Within Temptation comes on, and they start rocking out with Our Solemn Hour! That's my favorite song off of their new album, The Heart of Everything. Eventually they play through most, if not, all of their new album. They take two breaks during the set. Then they start playing all of their major hits and singles. It was amazing. This was the stuff that hasn't been officially released in America. Songs like Angels, Mother Earth, my all time favorite song of theirs Memories, and the final song of the night was Ice Queen!

They really took control of the stage and audience during their set. They played this really small venue like it was the biggest fucking stadium in the world! They were at a place called Station 4 in St. Paul. It's the smallest venue I've been to. I really liked it. They had more energy than the last two bands I saw combined. It was a sight to behold.

I was standing close to the stage, and the band could see me, and two times during the concert. The singer, Sharon pointed at me and smiled because I was singing the words perfectly. Even the songs that haven't been officially released here. She seemed a little surprised. It was so cool.

At the end of the night they played about 2 hours! I hope people start buying the CD more. I want them to come back here again. When they ended the show they thanked everyone, and they even bowed. No bands do that anymore! It was really classy. They even said that they'd come back! I cannot wait!!!!!

Metroid Prime 3 – Corruption review

Metroid Prime 3 – Corruption review

WARNING – SPOILERS

First off, let me tell you my thoughts on the previous prime games: I massively loved the first game. Everything about it was so perfect. Not only did we get to reclaim all the lost powers, such as double jump, swing beam, enviro-suit, charge beam, etc, but we also got to play with all these great alternate weapons! The hot, cold and wave beams were so amazing. Aside from that, the game had a beautiful landscape that was begging to be explored and scanned (another great feature) and the music was so good I found myself sometimes just standing there listening to it and looking at the landscape. The bosses were so enjoyable to fight because they had a perfect difficulty – an equal balance of fun and challenge. The final boss of the game was so cool since you had to use your entire arsenal against it and even get a new temporary weapon to destroy it. Ah, I loved Metroid prime.

As for Metroid prime 2, I had very high expectations. I was hoping they’d be able to exceed the first game. Alas, I found myself very disappointed by the end. My main complaint was that it emphasized on one of my most hated aspect of a game – backtracking. The fact that the world was split up into two entities ala dark world vs. light world was horribly executed. In order to solve a puzzle in the light world, one had to travel to the point in the light world, figure out what needed to be changed, go to the dark world, endure the stupid darkness sapping your health (more on that in a second), find the place you needed to be, and solve the puzzle. THEN you had to go back to the light world to continue on. Blah. It was so very annoying. Speaking of annoying, the dark world’s darkness sapping your health was a horrible thing to use in a game. At first, I loved prime 2 thinking it would be just like prime 1, but after going into the dark world, oh man… trying to navigate through that shit was unbearable. At first, it made exploration almost impossible due to the massive drain on health. Sure, you’d get upgrades to be able to handle the darkness better, but I still died a good chunk of times just because I wanted to go exploring. Honestly, who thought it would be fun to be constantly sapped of health while trying to walk around and desperately having to find light beacons just so you would not DIE? Besides that, the bosses and enemies were pretty much just forgettable. I still remember very little of them or even of the game itself. All I can recall was being rather pissed at the game most of the time.

Anyways, after all that, I was hoping they’d be able to get back to greatness with prime 3. I saw all the trailers and I was anticipating it for a while. The fact that it was on the wii was a massive advantage, since I was getting so good at aiming and shooting (I got a platinum on the shooting range in Wii play and got every single trophy for the shooting range in RE4, so I am pretty good.) Finally, I got my hands on the game, and the controls, after a bit of practice were (and believe me I am not exaggerating) PERFECT. I thought the Gamecube controls were good, but these controls blew it out of the water. I almost wish pc games would adapt something like this, since I have so much fun with a light gun-like shooter rather than a mouse and keyboard. They managed to make the game so nice and smooth, it honestly felt like you were controlling it for real. Everything from aiming and shooting to the ability move and look around were all so well done. This was also the first game that I thought really used the motion sensing very well. Games like Zelda Twilight princess and Warioware were fun due to the motion sensing, but Metroid prime 3 really made it feel real/not tacked on. Though the motion movement sequences seemed a bit random, but I enjoyed using the controller as a hand. It was a fun experience, and I hope more games do like that. Really, about the only thing I did not like about the aiming was the fact that the reticle was a bit smaller and hard to see when in battle. Sometimes, I had to use the controller like a gun more than an aiming device because I’d be shooting and not seeming to hit anything, noticing that the reticle is a bit off from the target. Sigh, I suppose that’s the trade-off for the nice auto-aim system used in MP1 and 2.

One thing they really improved on other than the controls was the ball function. The ability to jump while in ball form by flipping the controller was sorely needed in the first game, and I’m glad they put in this one. (I find it weird they never mentioned it in the tutorial though…perhaps a last minute addition.) They seemed to put some more emphasis on the ball function this time around and I enjoyed them thoroughly. My only complaint was that the spider ball tracks were sort of lacking… I really liked having them in the first one. Regarding the screw attack, I loved how they implemented it in this game. After having it in prime 2, I don’t remember much of it, but I do remember getting REALLY angry at it for some reason. I seemed to have way too much trouble activating it and staying in the air for some reason. They did away with that control and made it nice and simple and fun, and really made some good areas to use it in, ala floating islands. I found myself just jumping all over the place because it was so cool. Aside from that, I enjoyed the hypermode ability. It was a great way to blast through a group of enemies as long as you did not use it all up right away or let it corrupt you into death. I also liked the enemies throwing phazon grenades at you. Oh man, a couple of times I was in a big battle and they threw one of those at me, causing me to go into hypermode, and I just thought to myself “haha, you dicks just made a big mistake” and blow them all away in a matter of seconds. The enemies in this game were pretty neat. I loved the boss battles and the regular baddies were very intelligent and would try to dodge my shots (but I was such a good aim, they barely had a chance).

The weapons were one of the few things I thought the game needed to redo. Once again, I loved how it worked in the first game, with all the different beams and such; but I did not like how they did it in this. Granted, it was not the limited ammo like in Prime 2, but it was not much better. Instead of getting new weapons to use when you wanted, you got simple upgrades that overwrote the old weapons. Ideally I would have liked a fire and ice beam, but instead we got an ice missile and a heat beam that replaced the good old regular beam. This disappointed me, since I like the regular old beam (yellow) that was used in all the previous games and the default beam I loved. Instead, I was forced for half of the game to use the fire beam, which made a strange sound when charging up that made me think an enemy was growling at me when I walked into a room. Not only that, but I was expecting a slight upgrade in power for the fire beam, but alas it was only as strong as the regular beam… tisk tisk. I suppose the justification for all this was the hypermode ability, but I don’t think it was a fair trade off, being one was temporary, the others permanent and selectable. I kept getting a bit disappointed by the fact that most of the upgrades were for the hypermode, and had an almost tacked-on feeling. Instead of really feeling like I upgraded to something that was worth having (like the ice beam being really useful against flying enemies in Prime 1) I just kept getting pretty worthless upgrades to a mode that I did not even use all that often, and most of the time they were just used to get to unlock a new area. At least at the end of the game you can stay in hypermode, however it is only a short time before you beat the game outright around that time.

The story was pretty nice. They definitely used it well as a vehicle to further the plot setup by the first 2 games. The dialogue was a bit longwinded, but it still managed to keep my attention for the most part. I really enjoyed the ending. It left a smile on my face when Samus sent the “Mission Complete” signal to the main ship and headed off with a thumbs-up. It was a pretty cool way to end the series. I did have a few questions though… When Samus defeated the hunters who were corrupted, they were absorbed by dark Samus… so are we to assume they died along with dark Samus? We only saw them for a bit and they became nothing more than some mini bosses… Was that their only purpous in the game? If so, it seemed kind of tacked on. Also, I wondered about the corrupted Aurora unit that fought as the last boss. Was this supposed to be akin to motherbrain? Exactly how did they get a hold of an aurora unit in the first place? Did they clone it after infecting the male aurora unit or did they somehow capture one of the units? If I remember correctly, the prime series takes place a while before the first Metroid game, so are we to think that perhaps another aurora unit becomes what everyone knew as motherbrain? Could dark Samus have taken over a clone of the aurora unit and essentially became THE mother brain and went to zebes??

Hopefully we’ll see either a Metroid prime 4 or a remake of the first game with prime controls and graphics to answer these questions. Bottom line: this game despite a few flaws was great and I enjoyed it thoroughly. It is a great addition to the somewhat small library of really good Wii games, and I highly recommend it for anyone who liked the first Metroid prime or anyone who like a good FPS. I’d give it a 4/5.

LOFLBloog - New blog

Wilford here. Ok, so after a bit of discussion, we decided to move the smaller stuff/viral stuff/games/pictures/video over to a specialized blog. It should be updated a good chunk of the time, if not daily.

Check it out!

LOFLBloog

Colorful (and Crazy) Candidates for President in 2008

Just about everyone has heard of popular contenders for the Presidential nomination from the two major parties, and even some third parties. Hillary, Obama, Romney, Giuliani, and Ron Paul will continue to dominate news, and will almost undoubtedly go on to face off in the primaries and beyond. Yet, thanks to the wiles of the internet, we now have the great ease of seeing some of the more colorful (and insane) candidates vying for President next year.

Lee L. Mercer Junior: This fellow, running for the Democratic nomination, seems a little confused. One need only look at his campaign theme on the front page to see why, since he believes:

“The United States Government must regulate government sleepers and government regulations authorized thought, ideas, acts, actions, rights, wrongs, controversies, facts, issues and circumstantial evidence through intelligence research, law research, law enforcement research and criminal law research implementing ROTC communications research innovating education national and international.”

His desire for such regulations is particularly interesting; since he appears convinced in his “Reasons for Candidacy” that the government is involved in all sorts of unseemly activities corrupting his own life and those of the rest of us. Perhaps the best of these is number 49, which reads:

“To Prove the United States Government killed my sex life, my wife sex life, my daughter-in –laws sex life both may sons and other of my family members sex life with Espionage Experimentation and Espionage Exploitation sex killing.”

Jackson Kirk Grimes: Mr. Grimes, a self-styled head of the United Fascist Union (of which he appears to be the only member), previously ran in both 2000 and 2004. He’s back for more this time, with the same wacky platform involving a transformation of the US into a Mussolini-like regime with Imperial Roman features. His older website for the “U.F.U.” features a few fashionable (and hilarious) photos of himself and his girlfriend posing in homemade black uniforms and sitting in various restaurants. Grimes claimed to take 6^th place in the 2000 election, so he may find it once again difficult to top his own delusional performance.

Jonathon “The Impaler” Sharkey: Though his website currently seems to be down, the flamboyant vampire who tried running for Minnesota governor last year before dropping out appears to have aspirations for higher office this time around. A former Republican and Reform Party member, these days he operates using his own political vehicle, the “Vampires, Witches, and Pagan Party.” His platform is a bizarre mixture of hate for the Judeo-Christian God, brutal punishments (impaling) for terrorists and hardened criminals, but also self-described respect for the Constitution and New Deal economics. More on Sharkey’s sordid past and his earlier political campaigns can be found on his wikipedia entry here.

Quay Fortuna: Not nearly as kooky in platform as some of the other candidates examined above, Quay Fortuna’s Star Wars like name alone earns him a spot here. This blog owner established the tiny “Ward Republic Party” that acts as his political arm. In heart, Quay and his fledgling party are strong believers in the power of local institutions to triumph over big government. His site is worth a look, if only because of an attentive focus on events he believes are leading us to Armageddon, and clever tidbits like “Hillary isn’t the Antichrist, but She Takes His Advice.”

Jeff “Petro” Petkevicius: Petro, as his nickname indicates, is running on a campaign with most of his focus on one issue: CHEAP GAS. He believes this can be accomplished by setting price ceilings on both oil and the price-per-gallon at the pump, alongside use of existing US reserves (which he believes can be readily replaced with Iraqi/Kuwaiti oil). The rest of his one-liner campaign planks, and website decorations like Biblical quotes and an “I Support President Bush” banner probably won’t endear him to even the fringe crowd, but they do indicate he is running a mostly right-wing, populist campaign. The site itself is heavily cluttered, and holds a strange resemblance to a social networking or personal website circa 1999.

That’s all for now. As the campaign season shifts into higher gear, I’ll be posting more political oddities, and likely even another series or two of zesty candidates destined to garner a lot of laughs and a handful of votes.

-Namtlieu

"The Trap" Documentaries

This series of videos takes a cold hard look at the way the human psyche has come to be a numbed down version of what life once was. Today, most of human affairs are determined by numbers and the humanity is being ripped from life.

This video also made a good point that made me think: Are we humans the ones passing our genes along across the generations or perhaps is it our genes who use the body as a tool to pass themselves along and survive?
The video seems to say otherwise, but I can't help but notice that this thought has well matched the personal theories I have made up from human observation. (lack of free will and behaviorism, etc.)

Before you watch these, you also should watch the drug documentary I posted a short while back, since it gives direct reference to the same set of events.

Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3.1
Episode 3.2
Episode 3.3

Police Encounters

I've been pulled over a multitude of times for a multitude of reasons as I'm sure many of you have. We've all gotten ticketed, and had a "talk" with cops. Some of them are nice, but the majority of them are people who are "drunk" with power and abuse it way too much. I'm not saying that cops are bad, and aren't needed. I'm just saying that there is a way that we need to deal with cops without giving up our constitutionally given rights as North Americans.

I've been pulled over before by a cop who couldn't tell me why he pulled me over. I asked him why instead of telling him why I thought he did, and he stuttered, then he went and sat in his car doing who knows what before finally let me go. As I left he told me, "Well, don't do it again!" What the fuck did I do? I was doing nothing wrong, and he felt the need to pull me over and waste my time.

There are many ways to deal with cops, and most of us in the USA do it the wrong way by giving up our rights granted to us by the constitution. Something as simple as a cop asking you, "Do you know why I pulled you over?" can make you loose one of your rights. If you admit to him that you did something, you just waived your fifth amendment right to not incriminate yourself in a crime. You don't even have to answer that question. There's no law that says you have to speak to a cop. Just let the cop tell you what you did wrong and admit nothing. They can give you a ticket for one of two ways: If they have evidence against you such as their speed gun, or if you tell them that you did something. There's a chance that you could even avoid a ticket because of that.

The cops play mind games and use word play to make you give up your rights just like I stated above. In the video it tells you how to deal with the cops in different situations. Like if they come to your house, if you get pulled over, and even random ID checks. (Those are illegal. They need probable cause to do those. This isn't Nazi Germany.)

This video is made by the ACLU. A group that specialize in the Constitutional rights of North Americans. This video is made to teach you how to deal with cops without giving up your rights, and to keep yourself safe from harassment by some law enforcement people. You should watch this whether or not you're breaking the law. Everyone has to deal with the cops and this will teach you how to handle them.

In this video it will show what to do and what not to do in certain situations. The acting in this isn't the best, but it accurately detail how many police officers act, and how some people might react.

Edit: This video is especially important right now around September 11th. People are gonna be a bit scared, and the police are gonna be bulking up and gonna be on the offense. Unless they have a warrant, exercise your rights.

2000 hits!

2000 Views! Thanks for coming everyone! We plan to make some slight changes to the site to make it slight more accessable, so come back and check out the new stuff!

Here's to another 1000!

More Creepypasta: Origins of Byard's Leap

Byard's Leap is a small hamlet, west of Cranwell in Lincolnshire, associated with various legends, including the origin of the name.

The story goes that there was a witch called Old Meg, an evil crone who plagued the local villagers from her cave in a spinney near a crossroads on Ermine Street, here called High Dike. A local champion came forward in response to the villagers' requests, and he asserted that he could kill her by driving a sword through her heart. To select a horse suitable for this task, he went to a pond where horses drank and dropped a stone in the pond, selecting the horse that reacted quickest, and this horse was known locally as 'Blind Byard', as he was blind.

The champion went to the witch’s cave and called her out, but the witch refused, saying she was eating and he would have to wait. However, she crept up behind him and sank her long nails into the horse who ran, leaping over a 60 foot cliff. The champion regained control of the horse when they reached the pond, pursued by the witch, where he turned and thrust his sword into her heart, and she fell in the pond and drowned.

The spot where Blind Byard landed is marked by four posts in the ground with horseshoes on, and a commemorative stone. The sharply cut small valley in the limestone, which is now smoothed over by plowing, is as likely a site as any for the dramatic events, assuming they happened.

-Namtlieu

The Optimist: Rob Zombie's Halloween

I don't feel that I've explained well enough about what I plan on doing with The Optimist. I'll be reviewing both "bad" (There are very few bad movies) and good movies. I'll just review and talk about whatever piques my interest in a certain movie. Not really review, just talk about. This time it's the Halloween series and Rob's re-imagining. Before I go into this, and those who would bitch about spoilers. There aren't any huge surprises with this new movie. It's a logical step into what happens with Michael during his time in Smith's Grove. We all know the ending.

I have a very long and intricate history with Halloween. It was the first R-rated horror movie I ever saw. It's also the reason I love horror movies like I do.

I bought my first copy of it at Blockbuster for five bucks. (I say first because I have three different versions of it.) We had just moved here to Apple Valley, and my Dad and I were checking out the local Blockbuster. At the time Blockbuster had their own brand of movie releases. They released a bunch of older movies with their name stamped on the cover. I also have a copy of Night of the Living Dead from this series. My Dad said to me that it was a good movie and that I was old enough to watch it now. I was 11 at the time. I had no idea what it was. He just bought it for me. It was strange, and it changed my life. (Yes, it's a cheesy line, but it really did change my life. You'll soon see why.)

At the time all I knew was that it was an R-rated horror movie and those were forbidden in my house. (Now at all hours of the day and night you will hear screaming coming from my TV or computer.) We brought it home, and I was so freaked out at the prospect of what I might see that I couldn't get myself to watch it for five days. (Whatever you can think of is always scarier than what the movie actually is.)

Everyday I tried to put it in, but I just couldn't muster the courage. Finally, on the fifth day, I remember this like it was yesterday. It was early September, and the leaves were just starting to turn. My parents were out, and my aunt was watching my brother and I. She was in my parent's room watching a movie with my brother when I finally got the courage to put it in and hit play. I'm not entirely sure what it was that I like about it, but I LOVED it.

I'm still not entirely sure why I love it so much. From there on I saw them all out of order because of the differing prices of the movies, and the availability. At the time Halloween 4 and 5 were out of print. It was almost a year before I found them, and at Funcoland of all places!

The first one I saw after the original was Halloween 6. It was so much more violent than the others. The original didn't have much gore. It was more of the suspense of not knowing where he was or why he was killing everyone. This one had so much more, and it really freaked me out and enthralled me at the same time. I was in awe of what was going on before my eyes, the sounds of the knife going in, that haunting melody that John Carpenter wrote. It all just fit perfectly. I remember being amazed that they brought Tommy Doyle back. 6 was a decent movie, and it doesn't deserve all the flak it gets!

After Halloween, I started renting every horror movie I could get my hands on. Now I buy horror movies weekly. The DVD's are so cheap now. I have over 300 DVDs and easily more than half of them are horror.

Last year, I heard rumblings of a new Halloween movie, and this of course excited me. Then I heard that Rob was directing it. I was ecstatic! He's perfect. I couldn't think of anyone better to direct it than him. He definitely knows how to make a good horror movie. (Devil's Rejects is awesome!)

I heard that he had talked to John Carpenter about it and he gave him the ok. Even better! Then I heard that Rob was going to be basing this new movie in reality rather than the supernatural storyline that was part of the series already, and I was sort of put off by that, but it was Rob Zombie. He'd do a good job no matter what!

This movie is more of a re-imagining than a remake. Only part of it is a remake, and it's completely different from the original. The first third of the movie is about Michael and his life before he kills his sister. We see the classic beginnings of a serial killer. He's killing small animals, and taking pictures of road kill, he's being picked on, and he's just generally anti-social. He also wears this creepy as fuck clown mask all the time. The kid who played Michael did an amazing job, this kid is just creepy. His name is Daeg Faerch. Of course he snaps and is put into Smith's Grove Insane Asylum. This is where we meet Dr. Loomis played brilliantly by Malcolm McDowell. This part we see Michael slowly slip further and further into his insanity until finally he stop talking all together. The third part of the movie is where he escapes and where the remake part comes in. We all know what happens so I won't have to explain it.

Fast forward to a year later, last Friday. My Dad, Brother, and I went out to see Rob Zombie's Halloween on the huge screen at Carmike Cinema. We saw the midnight showing. There were surprisingly a lot of people there for something so late. As the movie started, I was so excited, and a little bit on edge. As the movie kept going, I was actually getting scared and genuinely freaked out with what was going on. This never happens with me and horror movies anymore. It takes a lot to bring that out of me now, and Rob did it with flying colours. As the credits hit, my jaw was on the floor. The first thought that came into my head was, "He did it. He actually, made a better movie than the original!"

In the earlier films Michael's story became so outlandish that it wasn't scary and just interesting. You always wanted to see where he'd go next. That's part of what I loved so much about them. In this Rob stripped all that away, and made Michael a human. Just a very sick person who wants a family. All he's got left of his family is Laurie, and his whole motive in this movie is to find her and connect with her.

That's what this movie boils down to: Family. Michael wants someone to connect with. His Mom killed herself shortly after realizing Michael would never leave the sanitarium. Shortly after that, Laurie is adopted by a new family and never told about her relation to him. He knows she exists, but he cannot get out. Loomis over the course of 15 years, tries to get through to him, and fails. He tells Michael there's nothing he can do for him, and leaves. Michael is left alone, and when he breaks out he just wants to find Laurie and make some kind of connection with her. This was the strength of the movie right here. Rob made Michael a human. I saw Michael as a human for the first time in this. There were times in the other movies where something similar to this was attempted, but the story made the impact slightly less than what it should have been like it was in this. This is shown especially in the scene where he meets Laurie for the first time since she was a baby. He drops his knife, takes off his mask, kneels in front of her, and gives her a picture of the two of them when they were young. At that point, my jaw was on the floor. It was such a powerful scene.

Every single actor in this movie did a great job in the parts they were given. The music and sound was mixed perfectly. I was glad that Rob kept the original theme. Early in development there were rumours that it wouldn't be kept. This is definitely a worthy remake and superior to the original in many ways.

Over Labour Day weekend, it broke records. It has already doubled the money it cost to make it, and everyone I've talked to seems to like it. I can't wait to see it again, and I suggest to everyone with an interest in horror to see this movie. This is what a horror movie should be. It shouldn't be torture porn, or a lame PG-13 movie. It should be balls out terror, and that's what this movie achieved.
-VampKei, The Optimist