I watched On the Lot last night, which—for those of you who have switched off your tellies since the end of the real TV season—is where they take umpteen aspiring film directors, have them make short films, and let us vote on them. As is the fashion, the show has a guest director each week, and last night's was the illustrious Michael Bay, and I found it very interesting that the primary thing he critiqued the chosen directors on was their visual style. In fact, for three of the five films that's all he commented on. Not that I have anything against a good visual style, but, uh, I guess this is like seeing a duck and expecting it not to quack.

Naturally, his new Transformers movie was promoed through the entire episode.

--Leif

He's gonna win, he's gonna win the preakness! And... nope. Not happening this year. When was it, 1976? Oh well.

--Leif

StarCraft 2 has finally been announced by Blizzard! Oh boy oh boy oh boy! This is big. I might have to break my "never buy at launch" rule for games. Not that this hasn't been rumored for the last couple of months, but those screenshots are pretty neat. Also, I can finally change my wallpaper on my Win98 installation from that Zerg planetscape.

--Leif

Those of us without the will power to stop watching television, by definition, must be watching television. Excuses do no good though, as we still make the choice to watch, we sit down in our chair or couch at that special time of the day, toggle the remote, and let our eyes gloss over. It's a self-inflicted addiction, which no rehab clinic yet treats. But I'm not even referring to the habitual couch potato, obsessively watching Judge Judy and Jerry Springer, I speak only of the prime time viewer, when the real television starts, the productions that now have budgets exceeding movies of last decade, and plots that run years, not weeks. Somehow, by magic or psychology, they hook us, and we watch, compulsively, yet still willingly. I'll admit it, I like television. At its best, it moves us, sends us through a myriad of complex emotions, goes far beyond mere intellectual stimulation—although that alone warrants respect—really good television makes you think, and care. Good television hurts.

I hope I'm not overstating things a bit, considering that I'm decrying the ending and cancellation of a few of my favorite programs. I'm not sure they all meet those criteria, but certainly some shows connect, and when they end, it can hurt. I won't name names, for the sake of my dignity perhaps. It's just too bad really, this masochistic addiction, but again, that's part of what makes it worthwhile, otherwise we'd just be wasting time.

--Leif

Indeed, what would normally have been a stale April Fools joke, has now been confirmed: a NiGHTS sequel is coming to the Wii!

No, I did not mistype, there's a website!

This really feels as if one is staring through the looking glass. After all, NiGHTS (see icon on left) is arguably one of the greatest video games ever created, its audience so minuscule, a tiny bastion of Sega Saturn devotees, waiting in vain for ten years for a sequel. Well, it seems the day has come.

My concern? Yuji Naka, Sonic Team's project head, is gone, after repeating several times that there would be absolutely no sequel to NiGHTS. So this is apparently completely without his input, and it's unclear what, if any, of the original talent is on board. I'd hate for NiGHTS to be tarnished with an ill-planned rotter.

One thing is very interesting though, and I'm sure it's something every NiGHTS fan thought of as soon as the control scheme of the Wii was made clear; originally on the Saturn, a NiGHTS sequel was in development, with a special motion sensing controller add-on. Not at all unlike the Wii's inherent abilities, so at least that is in the game's favor. I suppose we'll see this Fall.

--Leif

I got to thinking this morning, why should I make up some fake news for this April Fools day, when I can so easily use real news stories? So here are a handful quotes from of real news stories plucked from the headlines:

Under general anesthesia, a small balloon on a probe is inserted up the nostrils and is inflated in the sinus openings where an irritation or obstruction prevents normal drainage. The balloon reshapes the sinuses by causing thin fractures in the paper-thin nasal bones, which heal in days in the new position.

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Upon closer inspection, the rats were actually tiny rabbits with their ears flattened against their heads, but they were disturbing nonetheless.

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In addition, the couple will share joint custody, sharing physical custody 50/50. During Spears' period of erratic behavior (i.e. partying, shaving her own head, attacking paparazzi), Federline helped care for their two sons. . .

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Marlon Brown, 23, of Lambeth, south London, was last week found guilty of stealing SpongeBob the monkey from his cage at Chessington Zoo last July.

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The Legendary Edition ($129.99 U.S. ERP*) will be released in limited quantities and arrive in a highly collectible Spartan helmet case that no hardcore "Halo" fan should be without. . .

The irony in that last one, of course, is that TeamXbox found the need to post a fake story about an even more expensive version. Superfluous indeed.

--Leif

I awoke this fine morning to discover not spam in my inbox, but forty failure notices. Bounced spams directed back at random addresses using my domain. It's not an uncommon occurrence for spammers to use existing emails or simply domains in my case to direct the inevitable bounces away from themselves, but it's no less annoying when it happens to you.

Words cannot express the pure loathing of spam—and their senders—that I feel, so I must post a disclaimer for anyone that possibly follows the reply-to paths to my domain: It's not me.

On the topic of spam, what puzzles me the most is the usual incoherence of them. Sometimes you cannot even decipher what the spam is advertising. The spammer works so hard to fool spam filters that any message gets lost in the random letters and letter $vbstitut!ons. It's bad enough that billions are spent each year on delivering, and subsequently filtering out and deleting these things, but when they're nothing but gibberish and meaningless text, well, it's simply criminal.

--Leif

Just in time for the new year, I've relaunched the music section of the site, with the release of CS. It has been in development since the end of 2002, since then I've worked on it sporadically, lacking good access to my equipment, but it's done now, so I hope someone enjoys it.

I'll get the rest of the songs up once I get time to rerecord them.

--Leif

Happy New Year everyone (anyone,) I hope 2006 was good for you. It was good for me. It's a bit irritating how every year you hear snide remarks on the telly about how the year sucked, yet for most people (that are watching,) most years don't suck. Of course you can argue about relative vs objective suckiness, but really, there's no standard for how a year is supposed to go. If you make it out with all your original body parts intact and without any incurable diseases, your year did not suck. The fact that you didn't win the lottery and start dating a supermodel—or handsome millionaire if you're a lady—does not mean your year was a bummer.

So Happy New Year, and don't make any resolutions you can't keep. Really, that's just counter-productive.

--Leif

Wow, it got late fast. Only one week until Christmas. I guess that happens when you're preoccupied and are ignoring the holiday season. So, finals are over and I'm faced with a serious decision: To buy Zelda: Twilight Princess on the GameCube, or wait for a Wii? Yes, it's a selfish endeavor, but it must be done. Why, I've already wasted... 8 days since it was released for the GC!

As an aside, I can understand systems being in short order, but why do games suffer the same problem? Are duplication centers that overtaxed?

--Leif