I Feel Another Hiatus A-Comin'

Unfortunately, I will have to put this beloved blog on hiatus for the second time in two months (or is that three?). It might be as long as our May Break, as we hope to be back before August. It won't be a total blog-out either: Chord du Jour will still have a daily dose of music education (we're currently in the Key of E, relatively speaking, and are going through the circle of fifths on a weekly basis).

I wish you all a Happy Fourth of July tomorrow, as well as various Happy Birthday wishes to my friends with birthdays in the near future.

Kudos to the Bloodless Rescuers in Colombia!

Initial reports say that the Colombian military bloodlessly rescued various Americans, Colombians, and a former Colombian Presidential candidate from the hands of the rebel . I am sure the comic book superheroes who avoid lethal combat would be proud of these real-life heroes.

Of course, the movie version of this event will feature explosions, a massive body count, and an kung fu duel between an 80s action hero and the main villain, played by a current pro wrestler. (Producers, bid for movie rights right now!)

I Still Want to Talk About Video Games and Diablo III

In political news: Supporter X of candidate Y said something bad about candidate Z, and candidate Z and his supporters are disappointed that candidate Y didn't apologize for the words of supporter X, or didn't condemn him strongly enough. Wasn't that last months news? And won't that also be next month's news, too?

So let me ramble a bit more about Blizzard Entertainment's upcoming game, Diablo III. Apparently, there might or might not be a console release in addition to the standard PC (Windows/Apple OS) software. Since it's a mouse-point and click (and click some more) game, I don't know about the calls to port the game for the Xbox 360 or the PlayStation 3. The Wii has a controller interface that most resembles a computer and its mouse, so I'd like to see Diablo III on that console, if I had a say (which I obviously don't).

There's a lot of backlash from some very vocal fans of the series concerning the more cartoony/less diabolical graphics of the preview movie. To an extent, I sort of agree. The first Diablo game has the most creepy graphics in any video game I ever played. (Less so for Diablo II and its expansion game Lord of Destruction.) For example, the last four levels of the mid-1990s game take place in an ad hoc version of Hell: No fire and no brimstone but walls made of bone, rivers of blood between the walls, and naked-mangled-impaled victims and would-be heroes strewn about the scenery. When the game is finally finished, I hope that it's less like World of Warcraft (also from Blizzard) and more like something that'll actually motivate the player to point-and-click vengeance.

On the plus side, there are going to be extremely interactive environments in the game, as the first two games only had treasure chests, barrels, and a few other odds and ends with which to interact. In a sense, Diablo III might be an isometric God of War game.

Speaking of which, I can't wait for news about God of War III for the PlayStation 3. Zeus is gonna get it, man.

Les armoiries de la famille Schwarzenberg, à l'ossuaire de la ville de Kutna Hora, République Tchèque photo credit: Martin St-Amant.

Not News Anymore: Diablo III Is Coming!

I was flirting with the idea I could create an isometric, hack-and-slash, action role playing game like the Diablo series of computer games. I just needed some relevant gaming engines and some grim-looking graphics. In other words, I had a pipe dream, being neither a coder nor a graphic designer. I do still have some cool concepts, regarding storyline and user interfaces - well, to me, anyway.

Salvation from my quixotic quest came the other day when I was on Facebook. I clicked on a friend of a friend's profile, who was in my local network, so I could see his profile. His status update read something like, "Excited about the Diablo 3 announcement."

I was like, "Get out!" like Elaine from Seinfeld.

And so I checked out the official preview website from Blizzard. Needless to say, when this game is released, I'll have to put being the following on hold: Independent songwriter/producer, independent filmmaker, intermediate-level stock trader (the economy sucks anyway), and loudmouth political blogger.

I'm going to be a demon-cleavin' swordsman.

Painting: "Hortus Deliciarum" by Herrad von Landsberg.

Freeway Series, Subway Series, Windy City Series, Bay Bridge Series...

This weekend is awesome for both baseball and for a few key baseball teams saving on travel costs: Dodgers vs. Angels, Yankees vs. Mets, White Sox vs. Cubs, and Giants vs. Athletics (and other teams I might be missing) in several cross-town or metro area, inter-league showdowns. Thank goodness for inter-league play, making the World Series and All-Star Games slightly less special, but shaking up baseball for the better, in my opinion.

The best part was the Dodgers quasi-no-hitting (as it was only eight innings at bat) against the Angels, yet winning! (Do a Google search for the details of this comedy for errors...literally.)

Across the pond in Wimbledon, we are getting closer to a cross-childhood bedroom showdown as both Venus and Serena Williams have both advanced in the English tennis tournament, on a trajectory toward a sister vs. sister championship match. In other words, also cool.

I'll be sure to come up with some political vitriol tomorrow or the next day; I must have tapped out from yesterday's post.

LA Times: No McCain Endorsement from Nebraska Admiral

According to the Los Angeles Times, Republican Senator Chuck Hagel won't endorse presumptive GOP nominee John McCain, proving once again the uselessness of the current major party dichotomy, as well as the pejoratives liberal and conservative (because face it, over the past decade, both words have become synonyms for douchebag, objectively speaking). To recap: We have last election's Democratic V.P. candidate Joe Lieberman throwing frat parties with McCain; we have a supposed conservative administration spend billions of dollars and sacrifice some of the best Americans ever born in the wrong war at the wrong time (and little attention paid toward the real war/manhunt for retribution); and we have a bruised Hillary Clinton and a bloodied Barack Obama simultaneously saying, "Just Kidding!" about the last few rounds of mudslinging (as predicted). Et cetera, et cetera.

To the hard-line "conservative" bloggers (conservative as defined above): The use of the acronym MSM (mainstream media, I believe), with the insinuation that it's some sort of propaganda wing of the Soviet communist party, is totally lame. We all know that your be-hated MSM is actually the propaganda wing of corporate America - a bastion of supposed free market capitalism. And that's not a bad thing, is it? (This rant of a paragraph brought to you by the ads on this blog. Glory, glory, hallelujah...)

To the hard-line "liberal" bloggers (liberal as defined above): I beg you, please give me something interesting to read. I'm kind of bored of all the preaching to the choir, and that's why I read a lot of the conservative bloggers to boil my blood and evaluate why my opinions are right (for me, anyway).

To the moderates: There ain't gonna be any middle anymore. On second thought, it's all going to come down to the middle. (Scratch what young, early '90s Eddie Vedder said.)

To everyone: Let's all vote locally, as carefully as possible; at least in the local arena, third-party votes aren't wasted. Where I'm from, party affiliation is theoretically non-existent, or at least not labeled, in local elections. There's a slight chance for decent system reform and curve balls on the state level (i.e., Governor Jesse "The Body" Ventura), but we're stuck and possibly f*cked as far as the national dichotomy for President. Choose your Senators and Representatives well, and make sure they take as much of the Federal tax pot for your state (that's what they're elected for, right?).

As for me, given the choice between a former badass who's now pandering/not pandering/not not pandering to the Bush administration and the new guy. So far, it's the new guy in the lead for my vote. Maybe when all is said and done in November, and late in January, maybe the new President will extend his hand across the aisle and reform the Democratic-Republican Party of Jefferson's lore. It will be a one-party America in the form of a moderate totalitarian regime. Is a moderate totalitarian regime any less scary than all the nationalist and communist totalitarian regimes of the 20th century? It's still a totalitarian regime...

In the process of four years of either political monotony or despotic horror (or both), maybe the Greens, Libertarians, Constitutionalists, Socialists, and the reborn Christian Party (pardon the pun) - and others - will have some visibility on the national stage: Starting with the House, then the Senate, and possibly in the White House. So let it be written, so let it be done, but be careful what you wish for...

Chuck Hagel's official photo is from the U.S. Senate.

Right to Bear Arms (Bad Pun Warning!)

Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that individuals have the right to bear arms, as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the Constitution. There are a bunch of qualifiers listed in the majority decision, but here's the gist of it:

1. You have the right to pump iron, mostly French curls, but not exercise any other part of your body (at least not proportionally to all forearms-biceps-triceps training);

2. You have the right to apply hair growth hormone (if such a thing exists) on aforesaid arms and hands; and

3. You have the right to not cut your fingernails, or at least fashion them in a claw-like manner.

In short, you have the right to bear arms. Rawr. Please do not use your new bear arms to threaten one Stephen Colbert, as he is deathly afraid of bears, and possibly bear-related arms.

Bear photo credit: Jean-noël Lafargue.