Before anybody gets any misconceptions, this is not another burn, stab, or roast of Runescape, in fact, I stand in defense of Runescape and all of its moderate glory. To begin I guess I should add a bit of a disclaimer, I have not actually looked to see if there is in fact a posting/reviewing page for Runescape but now that I am already typing this blog up I have no mental drive to go and find out. If there is indeed a page such as the one I described, this whole post might appear twice on this website, maybe with some grammatical errors fixed though, as I tend to make quite a few.

Anywho, I am just about tired of hearing how much everybody hates Runescape with a burning passion of livid indignation when they find Halo 3 the King of all Videogames. While I do admit, Halo 3 was good fun online, the storyline fell flat on its high-budget face, the fact of the matter is, Runescape is not all that unbearable. While again I do admit something, Runescape does have an annoying amount of people (noobs) who really seem to only exist to act as the focal point for virtual hate for all of the game world. These noobs (yes, it is a legitimate term) simply hang about the most populated areas in the world and beg for anything they can get, whether it be money, items, food, or those ridiculous coloured wigs that are used to scam a surprising amount of people. But every once in a while it can almost be fun offering millions of gold to give away verbally and watching all of the trade messages appear, and then either teleport or log off. Sadistic thoughts aside, the community of Runescape is not something to openly smile at, even when excluding the mass majority of level 10 or less characters. In fact I have effectively classified most level groups into personalities based on the amount of experiences I have had associated with them.

1-10: The Noob Crowd: Pretty self-explanatory, most people either- A: Blow right through this range with clever and efficient level ups. Or B: Stay at this range forever and simply beg for completely unnecessary reasons. Honestly, they could be reading a book or something instead.

11-27: Mind Growth Crew: Around this time this mess of folks behaves something like an infant or toddler. They have the capacity to learn much about the world around them and to grasp hold of concepts that could and probably would become very important. However, some members of this era may not retain much at all if Goblin-Farming is commonly used instead of questing.

28-40: Full Speed Ahead!: At this point, I found it impossible to leave Runescape alone for more than a day because right about then, 90% of the non-member world opens up to you and you can begin to really gain respect, money, and items at impeccable speeds. However, this is also the era of competition and often times you will find yourself locked in a mental battle with the thousands of others throughout the worlds that want that Coal Rock you need to get your smithing level up.

41-58: Toughening up: While the amount of change from the last level range is somewhat less than palpable, I think that this range, for me at least, was the most sobering. This was where I began setting up wish lists and budget plans based on daily income (and they say videogames cannot help you learn.) Also this was the level range in which I, and a number of my friends, died when in full armour as such, we began to really learn about the good and bad of the world.

59-75: Mass Industry: I know this level range quite well myself since I held onto it for many years, and with well explained reasons! As the title may entice, you may find yourself simply mass-producing money-making items such as Bowstrings or Rune Essence to buy that Dragon Longsword. Naturally, this phase and the other phases following will be very difficult to work through if you are a non-membet. As such, the number of non-member characters with this level range drop dramaticly.

76-99: The Long Haul: Since my character rests i this position, I know full well what this one is all about. This is the range of levels in which you do nothing but work yourself to the bone doing every single quest in your list and selling every rune med-helm you come across. Suffice to say, around this time is when I found myself, as well as my friends, quitting the game for good because of the long and tedious grinding of enemies and crafting of items.

100-110: The "Hundies": This stage seems to be something like dream and the level 100s just like to float through it on cloud >9000. I have found that a number of "hundies" are exceedingly arrogant and bombastic in speech and in action, often calling you a noob if you are not on-par with them in items, money, or skills.

111-136: The Elders: While my experience with these elites is somewhat limited, I can soundly tell you that almost all of them, at this point, still play Runescape because they know that people will look up to them. That, as well as having accumulated such vast wealth over the years, makes them care very little about what happens to their character and can either be seen giving away money for the lulz or fighting un-necessarily steep odds for the sake of excitement.

Hmm... It appears as though this post has become something similar to my, "A People Person" message that I left not oh so long ago. Yes... I think instead of focusing on gameplay and such I have effectively summarized the caste system that is far to prevalent in the world of Runescape. Well fine then, I suppose this will suffice as a legitimate posting, after all, it will give me a bunch more tags, which is always good. *Mental note to self* Actually write a real review for Runescape sometime.

For anybody who wants to know my character's name is Shademikey, level 80. I do not have members any more and probably never will again, so don't expect much if you see me online.

Frayed nerves and broken bones do not a weak man make.

Despite the fact I just returned from an anti-homecoming party which was great fun, I'm sure you don't really give a horse's mane, so I guess I'll get right to the uselessness. Also I saw Serenity at said party, great movie, and the special effects were worlds better than Soylent Green.

1. George Washington grew marijuana in his garden. Cripes, what is it with important British people and marijuana?

2. *word origin* The only three U.S. presidents who ever had to deal with real or impending impeachment-Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton- all have names that are euphemisms for penis Johnson, Dick, and Wille. Gives the insult a brand new meaning doesn't it?

3. Abe Lincoln had a wart on his face. Too bad we were all too busy with that damn hat of his to notice.

4. The shortest British monarch was Charles 1, who was four foot, nine inches. Yeah, so shut up about Napoleon, he wasn't even really that short.

5. While performing her duties as a queen, Cleopatra sometimes wore a fake beard. Wait, what? why?

6. Augustus Caesar had achluophobia- the fear of sitting in the dark. Not one for throne-squatting I'm guessing.

7. Salvador Dali once arrived at an art exhibition in a limousine filled with turnips. Normally I would be confused but now that I think about it, if any artist were to arrive in car brustling with vegitables, it would be him.

8. If a statue of a person ona horse depicts the horse with both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes. Well what if you were still alive, would the horse be flying or something?

9. Maine is the toothpick capital of the world. Squee! Stately Pride!

10. A third of Taiwanese funeral processions include a stripper. Optopessimism anyone?

11. NERF, the popular foam children's toy company, doesn't actually stand for anything.Not Nefarious, Extreme, Rifle, Foams?

12. John D. Rockefeller was the first billionaire in the United States. Well, either him or Andrew Ryan.

13. The sale of vodka makes up 10 percent of Russian government income. Not to mention that its consumption accounts for many times that number in national deaths.

14. Baseball games between college teams have been played since the Civil War. Tendollars say that a North and South college made compelling factors to the beginning of the conflict.

15. Jellyfish are comprised of more than 95 percent water and have no brain, heart, or bones and no actual eyes. Well at least they seem to have the REALLY important organs... haha I'm awful.

16. Rhinos are in the same family as horses and are thought to have inspired the myth of the unicorn. A rhinoceros's horn is made of compacted hair. Darn, and I thought my hair clumps were tough, and who says unicorns are just a myth?

17. Americans spend more than 5.4 billion dollars on their pets each year. Heresy, they should be spending triple that amount!

18. Mongooses were brought to Hawaii to kill rats. This plan failed because rats are nocturnal while the mongoose hunts during the day. Yes, a grand fail indeed.

19. A car is stolen every thirty seconds in the United States......... *bing* well, I can just hope it wasn't my car just there.

20. *A fail for the ages* The record for the world's worst driver is a toss-up between two candidates: first, a seventy-five-year-old man who received ten traffic tickets, drove on the wrong side of the road four times, committed four hit-and-run offenses, and caused six accidents- all within twenty minutes (WHAT?!) on October 15, 1966. Second, a sixty-two-year-old woman who failed her driving test forty times before passing it in August 1970 ( by that time, she could no longer afford to buy a car. Good gosh, I don't even need to throw in a witty comment... butI will anyway. Needless to say, I concede defeat to the man, even I cannot defeat him at the game of Bad Driving.

21.Yeah, I added a #21 this time around becauseI love this next one.- It would take more than 150 years to drive a car to the sun. I have no idea why, but I find the notion of driving to the sun completely hilarious. Probably for the same reason why I find it so funny when people say that they drove from England to France. Yes, I have heard it said to me more than once.

By now, you should all know full well that most of the facts are from the Book of Useless Information and the comments are courtesy of the Marshal of Hopalop.

Frayed nerves and broken bones do not a weak man make. Yeah but burns from the sun when you are in a car is just amusing.

AH! Soylent Green is people!?!:shock:

Great gods and goddesses, Soylent green is what now?! Egh... *shudder* nasty business that...

Yes, in case you could not tell, I have just witnessed, no, more like I experienced the film Soylent Green about ten minutes ago and quite frankly it was one those few great WTF moments of my life. So far the only othercompanions are the end of Andrew Ryan's life in Bioshock, Vader was Luke's father, Lelouch's proclamation to the world as sole ruler and the consequences it entails (Code Geass), having the SA-X's identity revealed to you (Metroid Fusion) and the great secret of Darth Revan (KOTOR). I had always heard some obscure references to Soylent Green before and how it had something to do with humanity-assimilation, little did I know that meant sending old people off to Happyland and then smashing them into little, symmetrical, green squares and the horrible chaotic world that the movie took place in.

So, to start out, the movie pretty much begins with a series of pictures of olde time folks doing things such as farming, fishing, walking, all that great stuff. However, the pictures are soon replaced with ones of heavy industry, vast expanses of cars, and most notably, immense amounts of people and war, which is the whole point of the movie. Then some text information is given about how in 2020, New York City alone has 400,000,000 residents. Yeah, I said that correctly, 400,000,000 people in one city, okay the entire population of the US today hovers somewhere around 300,000,000. Good gosh, if that is what is like here, the Chinese must be making entire buildings out of people. The movie's plot can get a bit twisted like a corded phone cable at times but in the end, the prevailing view is that there was so little regard for nature and other life that the ozone layer is off the rocker and even in the middle of the night, the temperature still exceeds ninety degrees. That goes without saying, beef is regarded as a deity, cars are now being used as houses (for the lucky, that is), women are treated as items or possessions, the only living organisms on the planet (at least in sufficient numbers) are humans, food is in cube forms mostly, and everything outside of the cities are just waste disposal plants. From what I gathered though, the problem of futuristic New York is not one synonymous with early 20th centaury London, in fact the entire metropolis seems almost stagnant and nothing worthwhile seems to happen. In other words, despite the literal ton(s) of people infesting the alley ways and apartments, half of the cities population is out of a job and at night there are most piles of flesh inside buildings than wood on the floors- the streets at night are completely empty and aside from the "waste-disposal" trucks, not a single runningautomobile is seen. In other words, this movie makes the third of the GREAT DYSTOPIAN TRIANGLE which is made up of the best and more influential dystopian works of all time, Soylent Green, 1984, and Fahrenheit 451. For those of you whose mind likes to wander, put it at ease because if you did put all of those together, you are really only placing 1984 and Soylent into one, as 451's plot and themes of literary suppression is completely outdone by 1984's complete twisting of all literature, not to mention the minds of everybody who tries to absorb it. Regardless, you should still tremble at night regarding the thought of when Soylent 1984 arrives in reality... *shudder* But never fear! Because I see it, one way or another, before tens of billions of people swamp the planet or the cousin of Stalin appears on every television screen in a a complete fudged world war, humanity will, however unlikely, pull something heroic and useful out of its rear, or it will just blow itself to smitheroons with a few decisive actions. (Fallout 3 anybody?)

Gah, what is they turned the SA-X, Andrew Ryan, Frank Fontaine, Lelouch, Vader, and Darth Revan into Soylent Green Cubes?!

Frayed nerves and broken bones do not a weak man make. True, but being disturbed by green people cubes is only natural.

Whether or not this has anything to do with the increase in philosophical activity in my mind is unknown but I can say that recently I have slowly been dropping my old habit of being terribly pessimistic toward almost every situation. I don't really know why I developed that outlook in the first place but at the moment that subject is moot and irrelevant. The point is, I have adopted a new view regarding a give situation, Optopemissim, which is a combination between Optimism, the "glass half full" and pessimism, the "glass half empty" side. However it is not as simple as one would think because I do not think of the good and bad in a situation currently affecting me instead I, more or less, continue to view subjects with pessimism but when given the ability to recount the event or when considering the ill issues arriving with said situation I can often make a point to myself about how it could possibly be made better or simply turned around. For instance, if I know I did not do well on a math test (which happened today), I often think that it gives me the ability to examine my study habits as well as have a reason to get after school help and figure out what gives me such issues. Even something such as roller coasters, which I viewed with outright paranoia in the past have quickly become a joyride for me because even if, on the off chance, that I were to go plummeting to my doom from hundreds of feet up in the air, I would finally be able to experience the Limbo feature of the afterlife firsthand, hey I might even come back as a spirit and haunt that ride forever. That goes without saying, you will never get me on the Dragster, my fear of heights still holds strong.

A strange quote was posed to me that somewhat reflected my new outlook, it regarded how my friend had spoken to his mother when he was over at my house today. This was his first drive with his license so I think I could see how his mom would be peeved with him simply getting up and leaving, but again I have made a moot point (yay me). The quote was "You catch more bees with honey." said to me by my own mother when regarding the social interactions mentioned above. The quote obviously means that you can have a better life and havemore enjoyable days when you try to make friends with people.In a gleaming fit of philosophy, however,I quickly retaliated, "That is, until you attract a bear." For once I didn't have to explain what I just said to my mom and she picked up the meaning rather timely, but mostly I think that my response allowed some insight into myself, how instead of simply mentally shooting down that phrase and hopeful banter I added a dark, cynical twist that gave the feeling of creeping tension when considering who the "honey" you make can gather, and how well you can really deal with them.

Why does something always go wrong when you ad the phrase ."In theory-" before it?

Frayed nerves and broken bones do not a weak man make.

Well its about time I explained my oh-so-important phrase that often finds its way, even indirectly into most everything I do: Call us not naysayers, we are merely the whitest grey in a world of black. Before I continue it should be noted that I am on the creator of that quote and I hold that possess close to me, as such I place my "(c)MarshalHopalop" on said quote. But why is it so important to me? Well most likely for the same reason anything you make with your heart and the uncanny ways it finds to help you become who you are.

I made this quote last year actually, somewhere around March I think, it was during my Sophomore Advisory (don't ask)/ study hall after lunch and we were discussing the Steps to Success or something like that. These so-called steps included the advice that everybody is created equal and should be treated as equals, now to be frank, I disagree with the first part of that statement, as all humans are not created equal (yet another name to the "another story" list) but aside from that the point remained that if one was to successful in one way or the other, a general acceptance of others is needed. My class took place in an art room and I began to let my mind wander on a relatively long leash and the colour wheel caught my eye and I noticed how different black and white really were now, no matter how much you really try, white cannot cover up black yet black could smother white in an instant. This is where I posed my quote for the first time and I shall explain it as thus:

Think for a moment with me will you? Black isthe utter absence of all colour aside from itself, which is black. White, however, is the entity of all available colours in the spectrum, meaning that one side contains all colours, while the other has none. Gray places itself somewhere in the middle, with a medium or neutral amount of colours residing within it. That being said the "white" in the quote references the groups and factions of people in the world who gladly grant acceptance to all who want it (and all who earn it). While the "black" references the coalitions of population that would not ever accept if the world itself depended on it, it has nothing to do with race in the slightest. However, no matter how much the "whites" of the world try and allow all colours into their fold, they can always count on one colour missing from their aurora and that is black. Think for a moment again would you kindly? Why do you never see black and white in the same place when orange and blue can exist in the same plane of visual perception? That is because black can immediately over-write all that white has done in an instant, from personal experience I can tell you that negative emotions can be quite a bit more potent than their positive counterparts. So, despite the out-stretched arm of white, black refuses to grab hold and step into a realm of equality, thus making the "whitest" reality a lambent grey, but not quite at the state of being pallid yet. Time for a recap, "Call us not naysayers-" in other words, do not assume the people (us) to be rejecting others from their fold, they are trying to extend their friendship. "-for we are merely the whitest grey in a world of black." Saying that even though we may try out hardest, there will always be those who reject togetherness in a world of loners and "blacks". A word of forewarning, if anyone mistakes what I am saying for being racist a frying pan in my hand will find its way to your head. :) Oh and something else, when I say "togetherness" I do not mean conforming, in fact, because of the minority numbers of the "whites" it would almost be like un-conforming, I guess its your perspective though.

Frayed nerves and broken bones do not a weak man make. -I'll do that quote next.

Yeah, surprisingly enough I have little to say about nothing, or at least, I have nothing to say that I would like to share openly upon the forum for faceless minds that frolic in Cyberspace. Regardless I shall make a point, however dull, about being "politically correct" and all of the nonsense that I have garnered at myself for holding beliefs very similar to that.

I suppose I really took hold as to how much of an unbalanced subject being politically correct can be when I mentioned the invasion of Ancient Greece by the Persian Empire in B.C.E. times to my dad who, of course, immediately jumped down my throat andtold meabout how he thought I was weird for adding an extra "E" to the end of the time period. After I told him what it meant though (Before the Common Era) he apparently thought I was out of my mind and asked if that was something my "left-wing liberal" teachers were telling me. I promptly said "yes" mostly because it was true, my most influence teacher was very liberal towards all people and things but chose not to side herself in the political rat race. After that I began to set myself into an ignore mode I had developed over the years for when my dad gets "knowledgeable" on me which mostly consists of me looking right past his face as something inanimate and remembering a heavy metal Japanese song but even with that I still retained a few words from his blubbering maw about religion and how I was stupid or something along those lines, I really couldn't pay attention, after all I had potatoes sitting in front of me. While I may be a bit small-minded (or is itopen-minded based on the context of the subject in question?)in this subject, I find it VERY difficult to comprehend how some, if not most, people of this era do not look kindly upon the fact that others simply show respect by not blatantly blurting out their views into other people's faces. I have never once, in my entire life, used gay as an insult, far from it actually but it seems as though, because gay people are generally ridiculed in common society, their lifestyle has become a synonym for the word "lame" or "stupid". Same goes for calling somebody a "Jew", well lets just say that if Nazi Germany wanted to take over the world by spreading anti-Semitism, they certainly have found a foothold in my highschool. Strange thing about that is one of my greatest friends (and competitor) is generally anti-Semitist, not to mention racist, arrogant, and boisterous. I think the reason why him and I are friends despite all of the horribly clashing ideals falls somewhere in the area that he holds those ideals close to him, not plastered all over his face and he shows general respect for those who are different than he himself. However, his arrogance does get on my nerves now and again, but that is another story for another time in another temporal plane of existence.

I suppose why I am repeatedly beating a broken bush with a mailbox here is that I find it very hard to swallow that human beings, as a whole, cannot say that acceptance is something to look forward to. Sure, some governments pass laws protecting the minorities and whatnot but I suppose it is the people of said government that choose to go around the laws that they themselves helped make, or sometimes, ones that others have decided for them. I guess it could be saidthat human nature rejects those who are weird or foreign, but this is a new age, it is 2009 C.E. (HA), and change should be made. I did not intend that to sound like something Obama would say, as it is, I have absolutely no care whatsoever in that is done in D.C. and personally I think Hilary Clinton would have been a much better president. Believe me though, if I really had the ability to, without further alienating myself from the general populace I would proudly announce to the world that I am a pagan, furry, liberal, sadistic,sarcastic man who looks upon humanity with general distaste and has obsessive complusive disorder. Oh crap, I think I just did... oh well 'bout time anyway. So to make some of these points make sense, I think that politically incorrect should become better known to others as simply being respectful and it should be a sign of open=minded people. After all, Call us not naysayers, we are merely the whitest grey in a world of black. I should really explain that quote one day... Anywho I guess my original message about saying not much at all has gone down the white bathroom throne hasn't it? Ah well, alls well that ends well I suppose.

Frayed nerves and broken bones do not a weak man make.

Yes, this is quite a lazy post, but I am eager to get to 21 (that's 7x3 you know) so this will suffice. Also, it may have just been dumb luck but there are a literal ton of ironic things about these facts.

1. Coke is used to clean up blood spills on the highways. Yep, the Mythbusters proved it.

2. Ten body parts are only three letters long: eye, ear, leg, arm, jaw, gum, toe, hip, and rib. What about ass?

3. A coward was originally a boy who took care of cows. So are farmers cowards?

4. Alexander Graham Bell made a taking doll that said "Mama" when he was a young boy in Scotland. He never telephoned his wife or mother, as they were both deaf. *Irony*

5. Despite his great scientific and artistic achievement, Leonardo Da Vinci was most proud of his ability to bend iron with his bare hands. Well I would be too if I could make the Hulk turn pink with envy.

6. Queen Victoria eased the discomfort of her menstrual cramps by having her doctor supply her with marijuana. Sounds like great fun.

7. Hitler's great-great-grandmother was a Jewish Maid. *Irony #2*

8. Hrand Araklein, a Brink's car guard, was killed when $50,000 worth of quarters fell on him and crushed him. See? That raining money wish you made in first grade would have gone terribly wrong.

9. *Warning, Captain Cruelty has made his mark* A fierce gust of wind flew forty-five-year-old Vittorio Luise's car into a river near Naples, Italy, in 1980. He managed to break a window, climb out, and swim to shore, where a tree blew over and killed him.

10. *Again Captain Cruelty and the Irony King strike* In 1911, Bobby Beach broke nearly all the bones in his body after surviving a barrel ride (do a barrel roll!) over Niagara Falls. Some time later in New Zealand, he slipped on a banana and died from the fall.

11. In 1982, the last member of a group of people who believed the earth was hollow died. But a new one was born May 1993, not really. (?)

12. *Irony AGAIN* The slogan on New Hampshire license plates is "Live Free or Die." These license plates are manufactured by prisoners in the state prison in Concord.

13. There is an airport in Calutta named Dum Dum Airport. *snicker*

14. There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos. Well, if time flies when you have fun, it must have just threw itself out the window then.

15. The largest object ever found in the Los Angeles sewer system was a motorcycle. Apparently they are getting very liberal with the licenses recently.

16. In 1980, a Las Vegas hospital suspended workers for betting on when patients would die. What's wrong with that, I think it is just a way their show that there is an up-side to every situation.

17. Ted Turner owns 5 percent of New Mexico. Darn, that would be awesome to have. I would make my own country out of it: Newer Mexico

18. The only person to ever play golf on the moon was Alan Shepard. His golf ball was never found. Says you, how do you think the repairman reacted when I told him a celestial golf ball impaled my house like a meteor?

19. Dolphins jump out of the water to conserve energy. It is easier to move through the air than through the water. Truly, they are a brilliant species, we should fear them.

20. *I have been waiting for this one* In 1983, Atari dumped thousands upon thousands of Atari 2600 E.T. The Extra Terrestrial cartridges into a New Mexican landfillbecause of the extreme lack of sales and over-production. This is just another reason why owning Newer Mexico would be awesome.

Yes yes, copyrights and all that rot. Most of the facts were from the Book of Useless Information and commentary provided by one Marshal of Hopalop.

Frayed nerves and broken bones do not a weak man make.

Well it appears as thought I have swamped my blog with nothing but heavy philosophy and deep thoughts but have posted nothing concerning myself as a person, or little blurbs that I am infamous for in real life. I should really get on that then, but for now here is a list of my favourite things, I MAY follow it up later, most likely though, it will be in the form of my least favourite things.

Hobbies: Video games, making/watching movies, reading, running, writing, thinking, and philosophizing.

Colour: Orange

Foreign Country: Japan, Ireland, England, Canada

Setting: Vast countryside or simple sub-urban town

Era: Bronze Age/ Era of Ancient Greece

Hero: George Carlin

Countries of Music: Sweden, Finland, France, England, Ireland, Canada, US, Japan, Russia, Germany, Italy, China (multi-culture FTW)

Food: Peanut butter mashed potatoes on a tender New York strip stake

Anime: Code Geass

Television Show: Mythbusters, Ed, Edd, and Eddy

Video Game: The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind

Video Game- without having it compete with the un-comparable: Bioshock

Movie: The LOTR trilogy

Book: Inheritance Series

Youtube Video: Saruman has a Breach in his Wall. (Youtube Poop)

Band: E-Type (Sweden), Flow (Japan), Green Day (US), Andrew W.K. (US)

Hair Colour: Blonde of course

Possession: What little is left of my mind.

Thought: Why?

People named Steve: Sir Bismarck Yegglevich

Art Style: Anthropomorphism

School Teacher: Marcella Donnell, She was freaking awesome, in fact she is part of the band Ballistic Edna and I have an excerpt from their website. MARCELLA DONNELL - LEAD VOCALS, grew up on rhythm and blues and gospel music and was singing solos in church and weddings from the time she was 2 years old. Soon after, she was winning local and regional talent shows in her native Washington, DC with her classical vocal and piano performance. She then crossed over to musical theater and took on roles in local productions including West Side Story, Bye Bye Birdie and The Wiz. By the time she relocated to Chicago she had crossed over once again to add a soulful element to the now dissolved metal band, Othersense. She has been heard rocking the stage in numerous clubs across the city and suburbs of Chicago as well as Rockford and Green Bay.

Natural Occurrence: Wind

Negative Response to a disagreeable statement: LIES!

Time of the day (not really day but whatever…): 11:00pm-3:00am

Alcohol: None, it all tastes like boiled swamp water

Chocolate: White

Animal: Canine Species

Comic: Umlaut House 2

Soil: Yesterday's tomorrow

Cooking Utensil: Spatula, Wooden Spoon

Taste in Women: Nothing you could care less about I'm sure

Chess Piece: Knight

Day of the week: Saturday

Quality about myself: Internal and personal multi-tasking.

Self-Invented Quote: Call us not naysayers, we are merely the whitest grey in a world of black. Frayed nerves and broken bones do not a weak man make. I am not the sort of person who notices the paint on the canvas, rather, the frame around it.

After an intense talk I shared with a good friend of mine yesterday about many things people could not give a pan's cake about, namely peace and war. Yet again my brain began jogging itself like a marathon and soon enough I was exhuming mental-release fumes and a few of them found them working into my fingers which type this message. The primary cause for this message is the increasing swamp of Paradox that dampens my thoughts and how contradictory some of the most basic concepts to ever be conceived can really be. By the by, I capitalized Paradox because I have an almost intimate relationship with Paradox now, and it is being a very good partner to me as of late. Anyway, on to love and war.

I shall first begin by the examination the over-used phrase that most people can be heard uttering when making a wish, "world peace", however to me more accurate they should really be saying "world piece" because of the un-intended side-effects that the request that they just made had unfortunately incurred. Ponder for a moment children, what is the true opposite of peace? The answer is war of course, and when one truly looks into it, there are only two sides of the coin, and always will be. There is War, and there is Peace, their relationship seems to be the exact contradiction of each other but really, is the Heads and Tails side a coin really all that different? They still exist on the same body, the same pewter, round, metallic monetary piece. Peace and war can be examined in the same way, after all when there is no war there is peace, by effect, that means that when there is war, there is no peace. I must sound like I am talking in circles, well yes I am, probably because of Paradox as well as the ridiculously obvious answer that is like ignoring the 800 pound elephant in the room, except the elephant has a cloaking device. In reality, war CREATES peace and peace CREATES war!

The Dual-Spectrum Theory (Copyright MarshalHopalop. FTW) can be seen everywhere... such as light to dark, night to day, up to down, right to left, and of course peace and war. Without one, the other CANNOT exist, if there was no down, then we would all be flying upward into space and probably also getting completely destroyed by its cruel embrace. I think thought to express how war and peace are truly related I think I should take extra time to really spell it out. Consider World War 1 first of all, it was a war (o rly?) which lead to a few decades of peace which was followed by World War 2 then by peace again, then the Cold War. The point of that consideration I just requested of you expresses that the relationship between war and peace is something like an arc-shape or a parabola on a graph. It starts off high (war) but as it reaches toward the ground it begins to die down (peace) but most people would know that with every dive comes a rise and soon enough it will rise yet again into war. Therefore wishing for world peace either would require you to break how the already Paradoxical world of Humanity is run or simply wish to incur a war so massive that the time it takes to completely hit the ground is nigh-endless that infinite peace can exist but still hold balance with the violent nature of humankind. Naturally I may be reading too far into a simple all-to-common wish muttered by a large amount of people but I think it is the general desire for peace that I find worth poking at, since in one way or another, those who want peace want war, although indirectly.

I myself find the world at "peace" to also be at "war" to simply form an aura of contentment around global society. After all, and I would know from personal experience, some people simply dislike the idea of nothing happening in their world, things that are well out of their reach but they can observe, satire, and concur from their own state of mind and perspective. Anybody read the awesome book 1984 by George Orwil (did you know he once hoboed?)? Well the massive world-wide wars being waged by all of the super nations could very well be a simple ploy between all of thesuper globalgovernments to more-or-less, control the population, to either win them over with heroism or increase hatred upon enemies with clever literature and speech not to mention hinder the explosion of population bound to occur one way or the other. I think rather than the extreme black and white natures of peace and war, the world would be best off in a sort of mild arc, where the Graph of Conflict (Copyright MarshalHopalop again, FTW) resembled a series of waves, rather than radical climbs and depressions.

Not sure why this did not occur to me before, why in the name of all that is good and nice am I posting philosophy on a GAMING website…? Meh, its better than Facebook or Myspace I guess.

Frayed nerves and broken bones do not a weak man make.

Yes, I am deeply ashamed of myself, because I have not been keeping my own pace at setting blogs and I have fallen ridiculously behind. Of late though,I had been working on a particularly fiery rant that I planned to post on the night that I made it. However after deep consideration I may post said blog later but I don't think now is the best time simply because of my regaining of composure. Instead I am going to banter on and incur hate mail because of my stab at one of the "greatest" games of all time, Half Life 2.

I suggest you look back at the last sentence in the previous paragraph if you did not catch the air quotes, as they are quite important. Honestly though, I am not a big fan of Half Life 2, or more accurately, I am an enemy of it instead. I suppose I shall start off with the storyline, which is probably very well known, the Combine empire has attacked Earth and defeated all human opposition in seven hours (what?) and an armistice was called by one Dr. Breen. I think Breen was a character in Half Life 1, but I have never played it soI am unsure as to the true affiliation with the rest of the storyline. It really is unknown as to who the combine actually are because of their usage of synth-type creatures and vehicles but I can say that the combine are probably the best part of the gamebecause of their imaginative otherworldly creations. I do say however, unlike the Bioshock storyline, where the story is revealed through audio dairies and other such devices, the storyline of Half Life 2 is generally unexplained and most of the time you are simply heading from one destination to the next and each chapter seems to have its own form of story. (which is not necessarily a good thing).

Okay, so onto the gameplay itself... First of all, I enjoy the control scheme, it may take some getting used to because of the vast array of weapons you can hold and unlike the flawless way that Bioshock handles it, Half Life 2 requires you to make all of the decisions in real time. It is this, as well as the enemy AI and unpredictable environments that can make the game very hectic and sometimes frustrating. As I said before, the Combine are a great enemy because of the adaptive way of thinking that they possess and while they are not the Replicas from Fear 2 they are very efficient at getting the job done as they will often maneuver around to flank you or toss grenades into windows and other such activities. This is where the frustrating part can come in, as the game is very difficult on anything higher than easy, especially the first time playing through. I don't think that it was a wise decision to make Gordon Freeman (the main character) into the grey zone in-between the "super-solider" and the "average joe" because it causes Freeman to face impossible odds, with few ways of overcoming them. Among thousands of other reasons, this game shares a similarity as to why I detest the C.O.D. series, itis because of the weapons choice. Yes yes, the gravity gun is all well and fun but again, Bioshock's telekinesis plasmid does the job ten-thousand times better, and aside from that the weapons arenot only basic, but also very difficult to use. What I mean by that is each weaponcan only hold a small amount of ammunition which you burn through very quickly because of the strength of the Combine enemies and they are generally un-imaginative. While I do enjoy the Gravity Gun, Hand Cannon (Magnum), and Crossbow, nothing else really floats my boat and I may just be getting picky here but the explosion sounds from Half-Life 2 are boring and weak to the point where grenades are only something for fun, not for serious battles.

To further the gameplay issues I have become very frustrated quite commonly because I often find myself in the middle of huge levels with absolutely no directions as to where I am going (what, the HIV suit doesn't have a radio?) and I end up just wandering around for about ten minutes and then stumble across something obvious and stupid that I missed beforehand. I suppose I shall finish up with my general neutrality toward the characters of the story. Gordon Freeman is, to be frank, a terrible character. It may be the fact that he never says anything or uses any form of human emotion or maybe because you can't even grasp what he really looks like in-game, but even characters like Master Chief can be given some emotional attachment, Mr. Freeman though it simply a hollow shell that the game designers expect you to become part of, which I have a hard time doing because of my awful kill-death ratio. The NPC characters though are very enjoyable and are just plain fun to be around, such as Alex Vance, Barney, and Dr. Keliner. This is probably the most compelling factor I have to say that Half Life Episode 1 and 2 are FAR better than the original Half Life 2 game, but there is also the worst feature in the entire game to consider, the vehicles. The controls for the vehicles are downright awful, truthfully, the game designers could not have made anything more frustrating than riding an un-armed airboat through a sewer pipe at breakneck speeds when you hit a small bump and you go tumbling head over heels in a trippy series of crashes that leave you dazed and confused. I admit though, only the Airboat can really suck that badly, I am a big fan of the yellow jeep thingy that you acquire in Half Life 2 episode 2, probably because you are not alone when you are in it, also it generally drives better than the car in the original Half Life 2. Okay I'm done, now go outside and read a book or something.

Frayed nerves and broken bones do nota weak man make.