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I think 2004 has been a cumulative year for criticism for America. And I don't just mean internationally, but within America too. More Americans are voicing their dissatisfaction with the country, and that goes from your Michael Moores to the person on the street who thought the Iraq war was a mistake. The last few years have been a bit of a wake-up call for a lot of Americans, and from the sounds of it I think there are more and more people who want to set things right. Not because it looks good in the eyes of other countries, but because people just want a better country than what they have now.

Here in Australia, we've recently had our second "Terror on our Doorstep" attack. The first was a car-bombing in a Balinese pub in 2002, which killed 202 people (most of them Australians). The most recent one happened last week outside the Australian Embassy in Jakarta, and death toll has so far reached 10 (according to Aust Federal Police). It's ironic. We seemed to have made more out of the War in Iraq than anything closer to our homeland.

Likewise for America. I think Americans are starting to realise that not enough has been done within the homeland (and I'm not just talking national security) when compared to the focus on international conflicts since Sept 11.

I didn't forget. In fact, I did a net search an found proof of a prior attempt at a terrorist attack on a famous landmark. Only that time, they didn't have access to a plane so they had to use the next best thing they could find.


I think the prior attempt didn't work as well as the terrorists hoped.

I can just see Detective Goren dusting a crime scene for toeprints!



Excuse me. Excuse me. Are these YOUR toe prints on this keyboard? Cause I'm pretty sure.. I can see.. YOUR toeprints on this keyboard!

Right now there's hundreds of angry amputees raising their arms in protest... err... if they had any...

I'm selling these fine hax0ring devices for Microsoft keyboards...




Available now from Mappomedia Industries!

That keyboard is useless. You could just cut off a guy's hand with a butcher's knife and use that.

I said 11 , carrot (right), and blue hammer (half-right). That website isn't as magical as the card one. I think a certain webmaster needs to properly consult his necronomicon before dabbling in the black arts again.

Re-read my previous post, das-joe, and I think you'll be horribly mistaken!

Wrong, Andail!

Spoiler

The answer is sorcery.

[close]

From the sounds of it, I think Eric is right -- it sounds like the guy didn't know he was being interviewed (which from a journalistic point-of-view is dangerous cause it can open a legal can of worms as to whether certain comments were "on-the-record").

If the interviewer wanted some decent answers, he probably should have phoned ahead and asked for someone with more knowledge instead of ambushing some underling who doesn't know squat. I mean, the rep could have been some guy with only two or three months to his name at the company (plus two weeks of training for Game Stars Live), but had no long-term knowledge of the inner-workings of Vivendi/Sierra.

That's why his answers sound dicey. He didn't know Vivendi shut down Sierra? Well, how big is VU? Pretty big I'd imagine. I'd imagine their gaming department to be pretty big too. That's why I find it hard to believe that everyone there would know exactly what's happening in every department, especially in regards to some adventure game company that is now non-existent.

I mean, it not really fair to ask about him why Vivendi doesn't support Sierra's game titles when it's not really something he'd know. I doubt Vivendi would pay to train him in old adventure games that don't make any money.

There's a rule I've learn from studying journalism: if you want a decent opinion or comment, speak to an expert. I'm sure he was an expert in Vivendi's current titles, but you can't expect him to know everything, especially not with games that the majority of games don't play these days.

If the guy wanted some real answers he should have gone straight to the guys at the top:
   
René Pénisson
Chairman

Bruce Hack
Chief Executive Officer

-- from VU's website (Games section)

Or just go straight to their contact page:
http://www.vugames.com/contact.do

Most people think that trying to talk to the guys at the top is a waste of time because they don't want to deal with some adventure fanboy's questions, but you'd be surprised how willing people are to talk if you're polite and act like a professional. And someone who just ambushes a rep at a games convention is not a professional nor polite.

Firstly, the joke was pretty good. Poor Bob's become a bit of a target lately. Still, the Green are doing pretty well in the polls since the last election. Heck, they're even doing way better than the Democrats.

As for the actual photoshop, it's pretty decent. Just a few things I'd suggest:

* Bob's head looks like someone snapped it off the neck. You might need to adjust it slightly so it looks properly connected to his neck.

* Also the skin tone of his head doesn't match well with the skin tone of the body (unless you want to say he's been suburnt). To fix this, add an overlay layer and colour & adjust to match the skin tone.

* Bob's chin and jaw (and the upper part of the bong) look a little blurry.

* Perhaps you could play with his eyes to give a more stoner look about him. With his current fierce gaze, he looks a little like Alf Stewart (wich brings new meaning to the phrase "Stone the crows!")

Don't you guys know anything?

If we blow up the Earth then a race of super-apes will take over and round up humans as pets. Having an escape pod on the moon will only just fly around the universe for a while before crash landing back on Earth.



YOU MANIACS! YOU BLEW IT UP! DAMN YOU! GOD DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!

The problem with the Islam, is that it allows a bunch of Mesiah-disguised politicians brainwash millions of followers.

Strange. I thought Bush was doing the same thing with Christianity. (You like that one, Farlander?) 

I remember that show. It was über awesome. Much like Transformers and Masters of the universe.

Blasphemy! Comparing James Bond Jr to Transformers and Heman? You...very young person!!

Yeah, I wouldn't actually say it was uber awesome. Just he was the best of the Bonds. The show itself wasn't very dazzling, much like The Karate Kid cartoon.

YOU'RE ALL WRONG!!!

Corey Burton was the best James Bond!

Peter Sellers 

Do you imagine that Texas was the most rich state in the USA, and the religion there was the KKKlanish? (Insert joke here "That's what actually is happening!" Daniel  )

Bah! How can I make jokes when you keep preempting them!

Inventing any connections to Al Queda make me sick.

How I second that!

We complain to hell because 15 or 20 guys have been humilliated in  Abu Ghraib is "cool", but when the same people kills 150 kids we shut up.

I wouldn't exctly say they're the "same people", but I do kind of understand what you're trying to say.

Tis indeed sad.

But I think terrorists toutured in a prison or children being killed are both quite sad.  That's the problem with wars -- they create chaos like this.

And I don't think people are shutting up about the kids being killed.

It's sad that some people are going to use this tragedy as an excuse to push more doublespeak "war on terror" dogma down everyone's throat. Newsflash: Terrorism isn't new. It existed before September 9/11. While there are groups of people pushed to the point of insanity, insane acts will continue. I'm sure we'll all be hearing of links, whether real or fictional, between these events and Al Qaeda soon enough. This kind of manipulation makes me sick.

Aye, if countries in the coalition of the willing are going to politicise this, what are they going to do to rectify this? Oh wait, Russia wasn't in the Coalition of the Willing. Too bad.

It's kind of a double standard, really, as in "Yes, we'll eliminate terror, but only the terrorists we choose. Sorry, Russia!" That's why I'm not happy about Bush or our Howard exploiting these deaths for their own political purposes (Hey, both have elections on, so you have to score points where you can).

This is off-topic, but this might interest you, Pesty. It's someone else who found some Apple IIc joy:

http://www.rinkworks.com/journal/