Modern Warfare 2 is at its best when the war comes to US soil.
I have a bad habit of buying a video game, playing it a few times and then just letting it sit idle… to be played on those rare occasions where my brother and I feel an intense desire to snipe. Our games of choice have tended to be the military based shooters, though the initial renditions of the Call of Duty
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
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This blog’s post on TLOG? Not so much. In January, I wrote about Tim Tebow making a huge mistake by doing a pro-life ad for Focus on the Family (I also made a remark that irked some by calling it an anti-abortion ad, I apologized to those good folk). Anyways, the ad finally aired last night and it showed me I shouldn’t doubt the Lamb of God.
The ad was remarkably sterile and pretty boring. In fact, it was shot like a cheesy Match.com ad and contained zero controversy (other than naming Pam Tebow as the co-winner of the 2007 Heisman). Anyways, the Greatest Collegiate Footballer will live to fight another PR day and the ad certainly could not offend even the most pro-choice of advocates.
OK, so I admit I’m a little slow. I just assumed the season premiere Tuesday night was named “LAX”. It turns out it was “LA X”.
One way or another, we know they’re not talking about lacrosse; however, I’m not buying the automatic jump to conclusion that the “X” is a reference to the roman numeral for 10. In fact, I think there’s a hint that Cuse and Lindelof were looking at something entirely different.
My thoughts, after the jump. Read more…
Last night's Season Premiere was a wonderful present to come home to on the DVR.
In the buildup to the sixth and final season of LOST, I’ve been using the DVDs of Season 5 and as a catch-up. In the past month, I rewatched to episode 8 (it was a swamped month and I wasn’t able to fit the rest in) and watched the Season 5 finale prior to last night’s premiere.
As readers of the site know, I’ve been popping out LOST Recaps for those rewatched episodes, chronicling some of my thoughts. I intend to continue to do so in order (the “Jeremy Bentham” episode is next and I can’t wait to write about utilitarianism) until I can’t up to Season 6. So I’m going to be at least a couple of weeks behind in getting full on LOST Recaps out on Season 6, but as with 24, I will be posting initial quick thoughts on the episodes.
I began writing these Quick Hits at the end of the first hour and at the start of the second part of the season premiere entitled “LAX”. I’m not sure I ever appreciated just how good Season 5 was until now. Just watching the buildup to the finale (I avoided all spoilers, but reveled in past footage), it was like seeing old friends again and a storyline I had somewhat taken for granted.
Below are just some preliminary thoughts on LAX parts 1 and 2, written as and immediately after watching the first time through. Click through to give a read. Read more…
The timing on the Blogosphere Power Poll is has shifted to Sunday/Monday, making things easier for Phil from Save the Shield and I got our picks for Conference Week 4 of Southeastern Conference Hoops in with a modicum of intelligence and appropriate timing.
Obviously, Vanderbilt and Tennessee flipped in the who wants to finish second to Wall, Bledsoe and Punchy McCousins in Lexington. I’m sorry, that’s insensitive. You flash a forearm, rather than punching with it. The big mover is really Florida, hopping up to fourth on our ballot.
Anyway, Phil’s and my picks are after the jump.
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EDIT: I’ve bumped the date up on this post in anticipation of tonight.
Need to catch up for Season 6, but don’t have the inclination to rewatch past seasons? Well, here’s as concise a summary as you’ll be able to find.
Another Quick Hitter for last night's 24
Oh, 24. Why do you subject us to great tests of our capacity to suspend disbelief. Twas tested again, last night. And, of course, we were already planning for next Monday’s meal.
The folks came over to watch and my Mom brought her pesto pasta with shrimp and Greek salad. A fine, if calorie laden meal… one with enough carbs to get through the ordeal of watch Renee pimp herself out to a rapist and Jack show his incredible fluency in yet another language — by my count, he’s fluent in English, Spanish, Russian, German and maybe another language or two (I assume he picked up Mandarin in captivity).
My quick hits, after the jump. Read more…
YouTube user Campetin who runs SL-LOST has ammassed an impressive array of LOST related videos and authored some amazing IPF (In Preparation For) videos for Seasons 6 and 5.
Courtesy of him, we start with the latest ABC promo for tonight’s launch. I’ve posted the IPFs thereafter.
CLICK THROUGH THE JUMP FOR THE IPF VIDEOS Read more…
More art, courtesy of http://damoncarltonandapolarbear.com/dcpb/x/.
Lost: Season Five
Lostpedia is the consummate source for all Lost information, but sadly they lack any concise episode summary to help with this. Rather than attempting to summarize episode plots in great detail, I’m going to simply link to Lostpedia’s summary and give my base thoughts, this time on Episode 5-06, 316. For other LOST Recaps, visit the dedicated page here.
The Sixth Episode of the Fifth Season, “316” is easily mistaken for plot filler. Yes, it largely is a confluence of events that gets us to where we need to go and sets up a handful of new questions like:
All valid in their own right and a topic for another day. The basic premise of the storyline is advancing getting the Oceanic Six (minus Aaron) back on the Island. We start with a typical Damon and Cuse headfake, with Jack waking up in the jungle. Except this time Hurley screams aren’t drowned out by a plane. Jack rescues Hugo and Kate from a lagoon and the trio realizes they’re back on the Island.
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That would be NASA and not Pixar.
There has been science in the news this week. It hasn’t been great, but even the worst news sometimes has a silver lining. And I think that’s the case here with both stories.
President Obama’s budget proposals in his first year have been science heavy. His 2009 budget gave bumps to several science-focused departments and additional programs, granted NASA stimulus money and tried to find room for a return to the moon by 2020.
Not withstanding my belief that Obama cares more about science than the recently departed government CEO, he’s pretty much be forced to end his support of it this year. Particularly with NASA, the spending freeze he’s instituting is gutting science. On Monday, he’s expected to announce that he’s killed the Moon 2020 plan and it looks to move to commercialize and privatize space flight [There's a joke to be made here that he's finally found one industry sector he doesn't want to socialize].
This is not, however, to say that the President has killed NASA. Quite to the contrary, I think he’s merely made an amputation of the fully government-controlled space flight program in an effort to save the corpus as a whole. He’s proposing to grant the ISS several more years of life and I’m confident he might try to find a way to extend the Hub and other observational satellites, which are the stuff of scientific magic. Nevertheless, it’s a bit of a dark day when you realize that manned flight (that which contributes the most to a child’s imagination) is taking the brunt of the hit.
All this comes just two days after the true-life Wall-E story of the robot that just wouldn’t quit. The Mars rover Spirit is almost 1900 days past its scheduled run of 90 days of operation. Unfortunately, much as with me golf courses, you don’t want to get stuck in a sand trap on Mars. That’s exactly what Spirit did this past week. Spirit is now permanently in said trap but remains scientifically operational. There’s a long winter ahead for it, but it’s done its service to America and humanity at large, and it appears it will continue to do so, at least for the time being.
XKCD put together a great tribute cartoon for Spirit which I’ve linked after the jump. Read more…
