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Wednesday, December 28, 2005 - 10:37 AM

You know that you spend too much money buying cels on Yahoo! Japan when your deputy service sends you a Christmas gift. Yep, it's time to go on a hiatus.

posted by Keri
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Tuesday, December 27, 2005 - 12:50 PM

Found Senators Clinton and Lieberman's proposal for federal legislation to protect children from mature videogames courtesy of GamePolitics.com. Go on ahead and read it if you aren't familiar with it.

Okay, I'm going to set aside the facts that I usually disagree with liberals and that I would vote for a Southern Baptist pastor for president over Hillary Clinton any day of the week, as these are neither here nor there when it comes to analyzing this proposal. And actually, I think that such a proposal is a good idea.

I've been hearing parents complain about the violent videogames their kids play since the first Mortal Kombat came out. This really is the same song and dance just with more media attention. But it doesn't mean that this proposal is a bad idea. It should have come out years ago. I agree that kids shouldn't be able to purchase mature video games 100%. It's like R-rated movies. Kids aren't allowed to see those, so they shouldn't be allowed to buy the video games either.

Buy... but NOTHING is said about playing.

See, you can only do so much. I couldn't go see R-rated movies at a young age, but that doesn't mean that I didn't find a way to see some of them. I either watched them at other kids' houses or I watched the movies my parents bought when they weren't home. (And then Mom got sneaky...) Sure, you're going to stop a nine-year-old boy from purchasing GTA at your local Gamestop, but you can't stop him from playing it at a friend's house... a friend whose Mom bought it for him, a Mom that doesn't pay attention to ratings or do any research on the content.

I know that I really don't have much room to comment as I'm not a parent, but I do know that a lot of parents complain about what their kids watch or play when they do no research on any of it! Why buy that videogame for your kid at Christmas when you know nothing about it? How hard is it to go to Gamestop or EBGames' websites and read brief synopses, view screenshots, and look at the ratings? Spend five seconds more at Best Buy reading the back of the game, looking at screenshots, reviewing the ratings, and talking to the customer service reps about the game content. If you don't have time, then don't buy the game. And don't let your kids go buy the games just because you don't have the time to research them. It's that simple.

Really, the only thing that disappointed me about the proposal was this statement: Boys as young as nine were able to purchase Mature-rated games 42 percent of the time. Riddle me this, Batman... what was a nine-year-old doing buying a game without his parents around? I realize that this was probably done as a statistic study, but they got the idea from somewhere. They learned that some nine-year-old boy somewhere purchased some mature videogame from some store and wanted to recreate that scenario for a statistic. So since when are retailers parents? Since when are retailers responsible for what kids go home with?

I guess I'm just sick of everyone blaming something else for their problems, problems with their kids, etc. If you want the retailers to take responsibility, fine, but then parents should take some of that responsibility themselves.

But yes, I do support this proposal even though I am a gamer and I think it enables lazy parents. I just hope that people understand that this will not stop kids from playing these games unless the parents take a more active role in researching their kids' popular culture. Not only that, but it will have to be all parents getting involved. Some parents may have no problems at all in buying the mature games for kids. They may be the same parents that allow their kids to drink wine with dinner. But trust me, if my Mom found a way to prevent me from watching certain movies at friends' houses, other parents can do the same for videogames.

posted by Keri
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Monday, December 26, 2005 - 8:00 PM

You know that you've uh, spent a lot at a cel dealer when they send you a Christmas card. And promise to send you a couple of extra genga sketches with your next order. OY.

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas. We had a great time with the Houston family. Went shopping with my sister, ate a lot of good food, and drank a lot of good wine (and mimosas!). Good times had by all. The biggest surprise for me this year was one of Shawn's gifts to me. Remember when I wondered how come I didn't know a new Gauntlet was coming out? Well, Shawn knew, and he had been hiding everything he could from me because he pre-ordered it back in September. When I saw it in EBGames that night with him, I almost bought it right then. Turns out he was sweating bullets during my contemplation. No wonder he kept trying to distract me with the Nintendo DS.

Before I forget, happy birthdays Bacon-kun and Nicole!! I hope you both have/had a very Merry Birthmas!

posted by Keri
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Tuesday, December 20, 2005 - 12:51 PM

Anybody else counting down the days? Two and a half more days until a four-day weekend! Whoot!

Shawn got his Christmas a little early though. I wanted to buy him a gun, but there was no way I was going to do it without him. Turns out I wasn't needed in the process, either. While I cooked dinner, Shawn ran off with my credit card and a price limit while laughing maniacally. He came back with a new Glock 21, .45 caliber pistol. He has been quite pleased with himself ever since. We devirginized it on Saturday with Brad and Nicole, as Brad wanted to devirginize his Christmas present as well (Ruger 9mm). So I've inherited Shawn's Bursa 380 and I spent some time practicing with it on Saturday. It's a fun little gun to shoot. It won't really be mine until I get my concealed handgun license, which will happen whenever Nicole and I can fit it in. I told my mom that I'm going to get my CHL. I think I heard her have a minor stroke over the phone.

This weekend was also the weekend of Christmas parties. (Hmmmm, devirginizing guns and Christmas parties... interesting combo for a weekend.) Shawn's work friends had a Christmas party on Saturday night. I got to meet some more of Shawn's friends that I hear about all the time and a few of the wives. They had a white elephant gift exchange. I think I ended up with the best gift of them all: a Starbucks card. Oddly enough, there were a few swaps for the Batman cape and cowl.

My friend Jenny (from high school and Baylor) had a housewarming party/Christmas party on Sunday night. She invited a few friends from our high school band days that I haven't seen or talked to in YEARS, and I think the best part of the evening was the looks on their faces as they recognized me and when they were trying to figure out why they knew who I was. Shawn has never really met any of my high school friends, so now he's gotten a small taste of the friends I had before I was corrupted. We all ended up swapping numbers by the end of the night, and we're meeting for happy hour on Thursday. Hopefully Jenny and I can arrange a monthly dinner or something with this group. I don't want to lose touch with them again, even though Chinni says that now that I'm back on the grid I can never come off. I evaded you once, Dr. Pokala, I can do it again. Holy cow, I have friends that are freaking doctors!

And on a final note... fucking Packers. You couldn't score more than 3 points? How I weep for you all. It was bad enough that I had to watch the Colts lose their undefeated season. I still haven't completely recovered from that. But now you have thrown salt in the wound. Pleeeeease don't embarass me on Christmas Day. I'll be with the family and they tease me enough as it is.

posted by Keri
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Friday, December 16, 2005 - 11:36 AM

A webcomic I frequent, Penny Arcade, is hosting yet another drive for their charity, Child's Play. For those who don't know what it is and don't want to click on the link, Child's Play is a charity to raise money to buy video games for sick children in various children's hospitals. The drive didn't just start or anything, but I had to mention the charity dinner they had the other night. A webcomic... granted, it's a popular webcomic, raised over $82,000 for Child's Play at one charity dinner. I watched The Apprentice last night, and one candidate only raised $11,000 at his charity event. And Outback Steakhouse even hosted it.

So yes, I'm blown away.

A webcomic. A webcomic by two guys my age, who do nothing but play video games all day and discuss them, have been able to make such a mark on the world and raise an insane amount of money for a good cause. Scott Kurtz mentioned on a podcast that Penny Arcade had founded a webcomics empire. I had an inkling that that might be true when they took Jack Thompson up on his "Modest Proposal" and paid $10,000 out of their own pockets to the ESA Foundation. I wish I had $10,000 I could just whimsically donate to charity. I wish even more that I lived in the Washington area and knew these guys before they started so I could somehow work for their empire. Play video games all day and write articles on the internet? Sign me up! But seriously, congrats guys, you've worked hard for everything you have, you've definitely made the American dream, and it's great that you have a charity to give back to.

(Wow I had a lot of links in that paragraph. It was almost like a Penny Arcade article itself!)

And yes, I know how geeky this post was. Just in case you didn't know how bad I've gotten, I had to let you all know that I do follow up on webcomics news and listen to podcasts. I'm sure there's a support group out there somewhere for me.

posted by Keri
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Thursday, December 15, 2005 - 10:14 AM

Why didn't anyone tell me that a new Gauntlet was coming out?? Looks like I will need to resubscribe to Playstation Magazine after all.

posted by Keri
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Tuesday, December 13, 2005 - 4:33 PM

Go see The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. If you aren't Christian or are anti-Christian, trust me, the allegory won't be all that obvious or brainwash you. And if you are Christian and believe that Harry Potter is about wicca, get over your fear of imagination and fantasy and go see it. It's just a good story of good over evil with a lion that made me feel all nostalgic and happy that I re-read the book days before seeing the movie. Even if you haven't read the book, you'll still like the movie. Unless you're my husband.

I feel like getting all Masters of Englishy and discussing the story and its impact on Christianity or Lewis' ideas of Christianity, but I'll spare you all. Mainly because if I start with the Chronicles of Narnia, I'm sure to move on to the allegory of the Lord of the Rings. Then I'll never shut up.

Topic shift.

This weekend I'm going to a Christmas party at Jenny's, a friend from high school and Baylor that I haven't seen much of since I started working full-time. When I moved to Garland, I didn't think I'd see her ever again, but then she moved to Forney, which is just a short sprint away. Also to be attending this party are a few band geeks that were my friends in high school that I really didn't keep up with, and the last time I saw any of them was at Jenny's wedding. In 2000. It was funny back then, sitting down at their table since they all stared at me in shock, surprised to see me at all. It wasn't that they didn't think I was friends with Jenny or Jesse, they just thought I dropped off the face of the earth. Which I did. And I did it again. So now I'm going to show up at this party and surprise them again. I'm looking forward to seeing them. I doubt I'll ever really "keep in touch" with them, but it will be nice to see them and know that I can find them easily enough if need be. Of course if I keep hanging out with Jenny, I might see them quite often. Then my illusory image will be gone. Rats. I liked being the elusive one.

posted by Keri
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Thursday, December 08, 2005 - 4:07 PM

Well I survived my first drive in icy weather! Yesterday at about 10 a.m., the temperature dropped, no plummeted, to freezing and along with the fall came a nice mixture of frozen pieces of hell, or freezing rain. Shawn called at 10:30 to say that the base sent him home. It took lots of energy to not tell him where he could shove that info. Tarrant County closed. Denton County closed. We're still going strong. So around closing time, Shawn called to urge me to take the train home. That was probably the safer solution, but honestly, if I don't ever drive in bad weather how the hell am I supposed to learn? I grew up in Houston... it iced over once every ten years. I can tell you exactly how old I was when each of those times happened. So I drove home. Just as I'm driving through downtown, my mom calls, frantic about the weather. I politely tell her I'll call her back when I get home... it's sleeting and my windshield is freezing up so I need to concentrate on well, driving. Whoo hooo! I made it just fine. Had problems seeing, but no real ice on the roads. That treat was the drive in this morning.

Oh btw, the "Free Your Inner Bitch" shirts now come in black! Hopefully CafePress will pump out some more black shirts for me to play with. But in the meantime, peruse my shirt shop and buy something totally useless and sort of amusing. Heat costs money...

posted by Keri
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Monday, December 05, 2005 - 12:26 PM

Pretty much sums up I feel with remakes and historical movies. What do you mean you don't know the ending??

posted by Keri
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Sunday, December 04, 2005 - 9:05 PM

This was the best weekend ever. Aside from being my Mom's personal ebay-pimp in hunting down her discontinued china, I didn't do a damn thing. I didn't call anyone, I didn't go anywhere... Shawn had drill... didn't do a damn thing. Just me, my couch, good books, anime, and cheesecake bites. Best. Weekend. Ever.

posted by Keri
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Saturday, December 03, 2005 - 3:56 PM

The members of the cel forum I frequent voted my Trigun OP cel as the best weaponry cel. (Bacon-kun took second place. Go Team Greedy Bitch!!) Pretty cool to be voted as such from my cel collecting (freak) peers. Thanks for the honor, everyone.

posted by Keri
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