AA Screens

Okay, so sometime in December I downloaded "America's Army", a free multiplayer online computer game. I've played it off and on since then, but mostly on a mission called "Bridge Crossing" until I get off my ass and put the video card from the basement computer into this one to up the graphics quality (and hopefully lessen the occurance of in game lag).

So, out of boredom, lack of anything else to post, and a desire to use this space for something, I'll post some of my favorites (of the one's I've sorted through. Heh.):

Map BG: On "Bridge Crossing" there are two teams, Assault and Defense (and you and their team appear as "Army" regardless of which team you pick). Defense is trying to prevent Assault from crossing the bridge and escaping with "intel". Each side of the bridge has an identical tower with a third tower at the middle, and a looooong drop if you fall off the bridge.


Mid section of the bridge.


The Admin of one server using an RPG on a critic.


His message to said blown up critic.


A teammate is almost nailed by an enemy rocket.


An Admin's warning to try and prevent "friendly fire".


Most of assault team incapacitated didn't get far that round.


Catching an opfor player offguard from top of the mid tower.


Outflanked and oblivious opfor player.

*The 3rd person view is only available for watching other teammates if you are incapacitated before the end of the round.

** The only time RPGs are able to be used is when server administrators override the standard weapons loadouts of both teams.

WTF?

Got home from work around 3:40 am. Took two night time pills to help me fall asleep since lately I haven't been able to get myself to sleep until the afternoon hours. I get on the computer for a bit to let myself wind down and give the pills time to start kicking in (~15-30 minutes).

It's 6:20 am and I still haven't gone to bed.
Sometimes I make absolutely no sense even to myself.

Rahman the Apostate

Operation Enduring Freedom was launched late in November 2001 in then Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. The Taliban were removed from power by the Northern Alliance and U.S. forces.

Once the Taliban fell democratic reforms were instituted. Not surprisingly, the new government was based on Islamic Sharia law. Doesn't seem to be much different in nature than the Taliban in that respect. And one Abdur Rahman faces execution for converting to Christianity (a very petty reason to kill someone in my opinion).

Disgusted by this, Arab-American Columnist Joseph Farah wondered:

What are American military personnel sacrificing their lives for if not to change the very conditions that breed Osama bin Laden-style extremism and Taliban-style oppression?
[Full Column]

Perhaps the "bin Laden-style extremism" is far more mainstream than originally believed.

This brings to mind a political cartoon I once saw that seems to summarize a point I want to make:

The "Values" Voter Theory

Prominent leaders from the Christian right have warned Republicans they must do more to advance conservative values ahead of the US mid-term elections.

Their message to Congress, controlled by Republicans, is "must do better".

Or else what?

The Republicans will need to keep them onboard if they are to retain control of Congress in November.

who else would those so-called "morals voters" vote for? pro-abortion, pro-gay Democrats? Yeah, right.

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, said that apart from confirming two conservative judges to the Supreme Court, "core values voters" did not feel that Congress was advancing their interests.
>> BBC [Full Article]

Is is really in the Republicans interest to advance all the religious rights' interests?

Say they outlaw abortion, same-sex marriage, teaching evolution, and all that other stuff, what reason will this bloc have then to vote for them so enthusiastically and in such large numbers? (establish a theocracy?)

Keeping them fired up about those "moral values" issues practically ensures votes for the Republicans since those are the main issues that bloc give a damn about (for now).

To stay in power, the only thing that matters to the party, they need those votes, regardless of whether they ever intend to do anything on such issues.

Just a thought.

Negative

Now I'm remembering partially why I came to dislike blogging: Most of the time when I had something to go on about it was negative because of a bad experience or bad day.

I guess the pertinent analogy would be the way some people criticize the media for it's coverage of Iraq being predominantly negative. I feel that way about my blogging, it seems predominantly negative. I guess it's since because usually the only time I'm compelled to write is when there's angst to fuel it.

I realize it makes things look grimmer than it is because of the lack of context... Lack of balance due to a large portion of things going unmentioned here. I hate that but I don't exactly want to take the time to write about everything, either.

Bleh. I've wasted an hour with this crap already.

Not so Covert Anymore...

CHICAGO - The identities of 2,600 CIA employees and the locations of two dozen of the agency’s covert workplaces in the United States can be found easily through Internet searches, according to an investigation by the Chicago Tribune.

...

The investigation also uncovered internal office phone numbers of the agency and covert mailing addresses used by undercover operatives.
> Full Article (MSNBC)

Forget Sleep

And of course I couldn't go to sleep when I tried. Go figure.

About the last post: It's funny. I try not to worry about anything like 90-95% of the time (margin of error of 4.5%) with a considerably amount of success. but then that small percent of the time I go kinda crazy because of what some overanlysis puts in my head (or tries to). How to explain it...

I have no friggin clue. Great. Need to work on that.

6+ Month Hiatus, OMG

Last post: 7-21-2005
Today's date: 3-5-2006

Holy crap, I haven't used this thing for a long time.

Where'd all that time go????

Heh, I'd been meaning to for the last month or so.
Just drifted away from this thing for a long time, among numerous other things that I drifted away from.

...

I'm gonna have to put this thing to use, I guess.