After my EGM subscription turned into a Maxim subscription, I have been awash in bad jokes and hot pictures. The most recent issue found its way to my mailbox Friday, and it contained a list of TONS of beautiful women in the "Hometown Hotties" contest.

Go here to vote.

My votes (in no particular order):

• Sandra
  Kitchener, ON
• Margarita
  Orlando, FL
• Megan
  Verona, WI
• Amanda
  St. Louis, MO
• Janaye
  Bismarck, ND
• Laura Leigh
  Staten Island, NY
• Stevie
  Tampa, FL
• Jackie
  Fairless Hills, PA
• Kristin
  Turlock, CA
• Lindsay
  Bergen County, NJ

Have fun!

I'm a huge fan of the more obscure wizards in the Lord of the Rings novels: Radagast, Allatar, and Pallando. So when I discovered Radaghast the Brown in LOTRO, I HAD to take a screenshot of him.

Following this, I discovered the feral ancestor of a muppet, Fozzy the Bear. Look closely at the pet's name.

I've thrown myself into some culture recently.

It began with my attendance to a Chaldean Wedding. Firstly, the music was awesome. They had a band that utilized synthesizers, and electronic drumset, all supplemented with hand drums. The dancing ranged from slow line dancing to crazyline dancing.

Today I attended the African American History Museum in Detroit with my summer school students. I was amazed at the level of enthusiasm the tour guides had. They were dressed in period clothes and used period language, and to keep the flow going, we were handed off to a different tour guide four times.

I think a little of this is good for everybody every once in awhile; it lets you broaden your perspective.

Crysis Refined

This game is the perfect PC fps for guys like me. It's based on an established game with teriffic gameplay, shooting mechanics, and an awesome powered suit. But in this expansion, all of those things have been polished to a fine luster.

Dual-wielding pistols and A-T mines make up a portion of your new arsenal. These two items fit needed holes in the Crysis list of things that go boom; a usable choice in sidearms, and way to finish of heavily armored vehicles with one hit.

While I missed the open levels, thepacing felt more refined in thismetaphorically corridor shooter. There was just enoughKorean soldiers, super soldiers, and aliens to fight with just enough downtime to keep me playing.

The best part is the price. Dads like me love shorter, lower-priced games. Why waste time on making sub-par levels to justify a higher price for your game? Just give us the best you have at a lower price, and we'll eat it up in droves.

All in all, this game complements the original Crysis in every way.

Random thought: at 4:05 6sec AM this Wednesday, the time and date will be 4 5 6 7 8 9 (hours, minutes, seconds, month, day, year).

I'm still loving Windows 7. Although the 64 bit OS seems to run slower than the 32 bit (odd), it's nice to be able to use all 6 GB of my RAM.

The Witcher is coming along nicely, though I'm tired of quest bugs. Jumping to a different quest halfway through one has rendered me unable to finish the older quest. I've probably reloaded week-old saves twice now.

I just started Crysis Warhead. It's not quite as good as Crysis, but definitely worth its $30 asking price. I got it from Goozex, of course, so it realy cost me around $8 after paying for shippping and all.

I have today off from teaching summer school, and bahduhbuhbuhbuhhhh, I'm loving it.

Maybe my family will go see some local fireworks tonight. 10pm is late to keep a 2 and a half year-old up, but for one night, it may be ok.

As posted here, I just completed building my new computer (Allatar v3.0), and I decided to forgo using WinXP in favor of the latest beta build de las Windows 7.

This OS rocks. It's prettier than XP, stable like XP, faster than Vista, and doesn't suck like Vista. The only issue I've had so far was installing "The Witcher."

You see, in order to patch "The Witcher" up to the Enhanced Edition, you have to register the game. No problem, I figured, as I've already done so. But for some reason, Windows 7 would not allow me to register. It kept spitting an error message about not having my cookies enabled (they were). In order to fix the problem, I had to (get this):

1. copy folders from the Witcher's directory onto a USB drive
2. paste those folders onto my laptop
3. run the registration executable from the laptop
4. re-register the game
5. find the registry keys that contained my registration validation
6. export those registry keys onto the USB drive
7. import those registry keys into my Windows 7 machine

Yeah. It's times like this that I get tempted to play more console games.

But, it was worth it in the end. "The Witcher" is still an awesome game, and now I can run it with all video settings on full and get 90 fps instead of 24. That's right, no more slideshows.

I got a thought: what if I could condensesome reviews I've written here for the ADD crowd? Well, here's my attempt...

Orange Box the only thing it's missing is beer.

Rock Band rock out with your cock out, but without getting arrested

Left 4 Dead fanboys suck cock while you have a decent game. Don't pay more than $30.

Halo it's ok

Condemned high or posessed bums? who cares, beat them with pipes!

Lord of the Rings Online fanboys need not apply

World of Warcraft the Fisher-Price of MMORPGs

Crysis why so low, Shawn?

I'm building a new computer!!!

After saving and budgeting, budgeting and saving, taking on extra students in my ****(I get more $ that way) AND teaching summer school, I have enough to rebuild my computer. This is a momentous occassion that only happens every five years or so, and "Allatar" is in need of an overhaul; I have upgraded every part to the maximum that its old motherboard's technology can handle.

In other good financial news, we might have a house by the end of this week!!! Of course, I probably just jinxed it right there. A house that Maura and I both love came back on the market, and we submitted an offer and got it inspected in just a few days. Long story short: the listing agent submitted our offer to the bank as "the one." Now, we just have to wait for the bank to give their final stamp of approval. We already have the money fora down payment (thanks), summer taxes, paint, carpet, needed repairs, etc.

Halo Wars

Sure, it only got above-average reviews, but I'm looking for a mindless tactical strategy game with lots of explosions. This game fits the bill.

+1 to my pile of shame

To cut the inevitable incoming hate pre-emptively, I am going to say the following:

I love The Witcher. I think it is one of the best games I have played in years, and it actually makes me excited about RPGs again. Hell, in what other game can your character's level of sobriety affect your UI like this?

Eh? Whatdid joo say about my mutha?

That aside, I am nearing the completion of Chapter 1 in this game, and I find myself tasked with the destruction of a giant devil dog (no, it's not a poodle).

This boss is SO ****ING DIFFICULT that even taking a gander at Google shows a littany of people whining. Ok, so that last link was just for chuckles. You would think that the developers would grab this idea and say to themselves, "ourselves, we have a problem. Too many noobs are getting their asses whipped by our devil dog. Maybe we should lower his forward-facing shield array and remove his teeth-of-biting +3." But nooooooooooooooooo...

Instead, I find the answer to my problem lies in my character's past. Specifically, I can destroy this dog with two simple moves IF ONLY I HAD LEVELED UP MY CHARACTER IN A SPECIFIC WAY. Now, I'm no math teacher (errrr, I am, actually), but I bet the permutations of all the possible ways to level your hero is a nightmare... and this battle is only easy if you choose ONE specific combination. Good thinking, CDProject.

Alas, I have to resort to loading an earlier save - and since I'm nowhere near the next level - and

See that little amount of blue in the upper-left corner? Yeah, THAT'S my current amount of experience at this level.

grinding until I can earn that next ding. I guess I'll be getting back to the fun in about a week.

*grumble*