A REQUEST FOR LUCASARTS... If they ever decide to re-release the X-Wing CD-ROM video game again, can they make it compatible with Windows XP?? I remember playing this game back during my high school days, and while the graphics aren’t exactly PS3-quality (let alone Super Nintendo-quality!), the gameplay kicked major ass! Newer games like Battlefront and Jedi Starfighter may obviously have better graphics, but feeling like you’re actually piloting an A, B, X or Y-Wing fighter in X-Wing is unmatched by any other Star Wars game. Definitely a great space-combat simulator. Heck, this video game is so damn good it even spawned a series of novels and comic books! Like I said LucasArts... Release X-Wing for Windows XP, please. Seriously. I don’t care if the graphics are still the same (that’s the game’s charm)... I just want to play X-Wing again, darn it! Lucky Windows 95 and 98 users... They’re the only ones who could play the game on their PC’s. Damn you! This is my geek post for the, um, day.

21 YEARS AGO TODAY... This weekend marked the anniversaries of three of the lowest points in our nation's manned space program. Rest in peace to the Challenger crew...as well as the Columbia and Apollo 1 astronauts. This Thursday marks the 4-year anniversary since the second space shuttle disaster took place. When the shuttle Atlantis launches again in March, let's hope it begins a safe and successful round of missions (four in all) to the International Space Station this year, so assembly can be finished by 2010. After that, we can now focus on heading back to the Moon, and eventually onto Mars...

Graem is Jack's brother??? Wow... Must've been a pretty bad sibling rivalry between the two if Graem tried to get the President of the United States to kill Bauer off last season. That, and the fact Jack apparently jocked Rena Sofer's character before she became Graem's wife. How much should one bet that Josh Bauer may not be Jack's nephew after all...but much more of a blood relative? If you watch 24 (particularly yesterday's episode), you'd know what I'm talking about. RIP, Curtis Manning.



By the way, Marisol Nichols' character Nadia Yassir is hot. Hopefully she lives to see next season. Or at least get a full-body cavity search (yes, that's shown on TV) by CTU security if she turns about to be this season's mole. We'll see. This is my mature post of the day.

WARNING: DO NOT FLASH HEADLIGHTS AT A CAR WITH THEIR LIGHTS NOT ON!! Police officers working with the DARE program have issued this Warning: If you are driving after dark and see an oncoming car with no headlights on, DO NOT FLASH YOUR LIGHTS AT THEM! This is a common Bloods Member "initiation game" that goes like this: The new gang member under initiation drives along with no headlights on, and the first car to flash their headlights at him is now his "target". He is now required to turn around and chase that car; then shoot and kill every individual in the vehicle in order to complete his initiation requirements. Police departments across the nation are being warned. Their intent is to have all the new Bloods nationwide drive around on Friday and Saturday nights with their headlights off. In order to be accepted into the gang, they have to shoot and kill all individuals in the first auto that does a courtesy flash to warn them that their lights are off. Make sure you share this information with all the drivers in your family!

Please forward this message to all your friends and family members to inform them about this initiation ritual.



UPDATE (January 23): One of my friends just e-mailed me today to let me know that the info above turned out to be not true. Hmm... I guess I should delete this post then.

...

Meh. Only losers do research. Just kidding.

UPDATE #2 (January 23): Even though this story is supposedly false, the moral of it is: Don't flash another car with your headlights. Unless it's driving too slow or cuts you off. 'Nuff said.

WARNING: A NEW KIND OF CARJACKING SCHEME BEING USED... You walk across the parking lot, unlock your car and get inside. You start the engine and shift into Reverse. When you look into the rearview mirror to back out of your parking space, you notice a piece of paper stuck to the middle of the rear window. So...you shift into Park, unlock your doors and jump out of your vehicle to remove that paper (or whatever it is) that is obstructing your view. When you reach the back of your car, that is when the carjackers appear out of nowhere, jump into your car and take off. They practically mow you down as they speed off in your car. And guess what, ladies? I bet your purse is still in the car. So now the carjacker has your vehicle, your home address, your money, and your keys. Your home and your whole identity are now compromised!

If you see a piece of paper stuck to your back window, just drive away. Remove the paper later and be thankful that you read this Blog. I hope you let everyone who you are close to know about this new kind of theft method. This piece of info is especially vital for women. A purse contains all kinds of personal information and identification documents, and you certainly do NOT want this to fall into the wrong hands.

DAY 6 STARTS TODAY... Don’t forget that tonight is the Season 6 premiere of FOX's Emmy award-winning show. Four episodes in all will be aired today and tomorrow, starting at 8 PM. For those of you who haven’t seen the TV commercials or read any magazine or Internet spoilers on this, Day 6 begins with cities around the United States being ravaged by bombings over 11 weeks, with Jack Bauer still inside a Chinese prison after being captured by Chinese government agents at the end of Season 5 [for his role in the (friendly fire) death of a Chinese ambassador in Season 4]. Wayne Palmer, who witnessed his brother and former President David Palmer get assassinated in front of his eyes at the start of Season 5, now resides in the White House as the new leader of the free world. When Jack returns to the U.S. (after a deal is made in which he would be freed but would have to sacrifice himself to deal with the terrorists behind the nationwide bombings), he is a broken man. Bauer doesn’t know how to be the forceful counter-terrorist agent that he was prior to his abduction on Day 5. But according to one magazine report, events transpire near the end of the fourth episode tomorrow where the old Bauer comes back with a vengeance, as new situations take place that start to make Day 6 unravel even more. Can’t wait to see what they are!!



Oh, and for those of you living here in SoCal (Southern California for you non-hipsters), don’t forget that KCAL Channel 9 also airs 24 on Sunday nights at 11:00. In other words, don’t miss three episodes of the show tonight! The 11:00 episode is from Season 3, though. Ahh, screw it— Day 3.

HEADED FOR L.A.... In case some of you didn’t know yet, England’s soccer star David Beckham is headed for the City of Angels, where he will be playing with the Los Angeles Galaxy. Yes, L.A. has a soccer team. Not only does it have a soccer team...but the Galaxy even won a couple of championships back in the days when Shaq and Kobe were still winning titles and feuding at STAPLES Center. And what else was that Home Depot Center built in Carson for? The practice site for a would-be Los Angeles NFL team? Where’s the goal post?? All facetious talk aside, Beckham is set to earn $250 million over a five-year contract...making him the Alex Rodriguez of soccer. Speaking of A-Rod, click on this old-ass journal entry to read what I said about his $252 million contract with the Texas Rangers more than 5 years ago. And yet, he’s now on the once-great New York Yankees. Funny.

On Monday, there were four girls I knew in high school who I sent requests to be friends with on MySpace (using the term "add to my buddy list on MySpace" sounds somewhat...awkward here, for some odd reason). Three of these girls, two hot Latinas and one cute Pinay, did add me...which was cool. The two Latinas, in particular, surprised me...since to this day they’re still as fine as ever (you should’ve seen them back in high school)! The fact that they haven’t changed at all (and I know other girls in high school who the years haven’t exactly been kind to) is pretty amazing. The Pinay hasn’t changed at all either. I won’t say who she is, except to mention that I asked her to the Prom in senior year (she already had a date during that time), haha.

But truthfully, this entry isn’t about those three girls. It’s about the fourth one who didn’t add me. If you’ve been reading my journal for the past, um, six years (probably not likely), you probably would’ve came across one or two entries about her...and a pic of her is also somewhere in my Gallery. NO, it’s not Denise (I said high school, not college! And I don't have a pic with Denise). Anyways, it’s this girl—another Pinay—who actually made high school worth reminiscing about over all these years, since the highlight of those four years was talking to her during homeroom and the two other classes we had together in, um, 10th grade (HINT HINT. Good thing I didn’t enable the ‘comments’ feature here...otherwise I’d be getting replies to the likes of "Stop dwelling on the past, man!!"). This girl’s profile is set to ‘private’ (read a recent entry for my take on this), so I actually sent her a friendly message to break the ice the same time I made the add request. I also sent messages to the two Latinas since one of them also restricted her page...but fortunately things worked out with that girl, or otherwise I wouldn’t have typed that paragraph above. Unfortunately, for the girl who made high school worth reminiscing about (for me), that message obviously didn’t work.

To make matters worse, not only did she not add me...but she also forwarded that message I sent her to someone else (like regular e-mail accounts, you can check to see if the messages you’ve sent on MySpace have already been read or not by the other person). Obviously, she didn’t forward that message ‘cause she was flattered by what I told her. Apparently, there was something I said in that message (which was pretty much the same thing I told the Latinas... "Hope you’re doing well. Hope we can be friends on MySpace, haha" or something like that. Hmm... Perhaps I should’ve wrote ‘haha’ in the message to that Pinay since it would’ve sounded more like a joke and not so, um—now that I think about it—desperate? That was friggin’ unintentional) that made her laugh, but not in a good way. So after all these years, my memory of high school had to be tarnished by trying to be friends with a former crush (can’t think of a less cheesy term to use) on some lame social network site. That really sucks. The big question is... Who did she forward that message to? One of her friends who also went to the same high school as us (one of them laughs like a horse, FYI)? Her new husband (she got married recently...and YES, this event obviously tarnished those high school memories waaay before this new situation occurred. But this situation is, um, less acceptable to me)? Or one of her sisters? I would have to say this last one is the most likely...since I added her oldest sister on MySpace back in 2005, but she deleted me when she was dropping people from her buddy list during that time (her buddy list actually became a lot larger after that, but now her profile is restricted so her current number of 'friends' is unknown). And I also sent a message to her sister to let her know who I was.

I probably wouldn’t be as disappointed as I am now since that Pinay didn’t add me, but the fact she didn’t add me and presumably made a fool out of me by forwarding that message is what pisses me off even more. Man... So many highly-regarded ("cherished" sounds too...lame) memories...gone down the drain. Oh well. That’s life. To borrow a line from many episodes of South Park: "Suck my balls!" Bitch. Am I directing this to the Pinay? The Pinay's oldest sister? Or both of them (despite 'bitch' being singular)? I'll leave it vague. End of entry.

LIP PIERCINGS... Obviously, this fad has been around for a very long time, but what’s the point if it looks ridiculous on people...especially women? Sure, the reason is because it’s a "work of art"...but this work of art is as amusing to see as watching some biker douche walk around completely covered in tattoos (don’t get me started on that crap). What— These chicks want to look like those natives seen in the movie Apocalypto? Don’t forget to get that nose ring, ladies (or biker gents. Or Gothic freaks)... And then you’ll look like a bull or a cow (I choose cow). Or maybe the reason why girls get lip piercings ‘cause, along with tongue rings, it enhances the experience when they’re giving some, um, oral lovin’. Yea, that must be why. Anyways, that’s enough hatin’ for now. My next Blog will be a bit more positive. How’s this for a future journal entry: Chicks who obliviously show butt-crack in public places. I have nice Jessica Alba and Natalie Portman pics to go with that topic. Of course, you can find aforementioned pics on Google or any other search engine. It’s all good.

WHAT’S FREAKIN’ UP WITH YOUTUBE??? So not only are videos on it making young people become mindless skeptics of such events as the moon landings, as alluded to in this CNN.com article and parodied on this website (that image is posted below), but YouTube videos are also influencing youths to be atheists as well. Not only become athiests, but even dare God to send them to hell by challenging His existence. Now, I’m not gonna delve into that whole Spirtuality vs. Atheism argument here (since I wouldn’t exactly call myself a devout Catholic, and opinions are like a-holes... Fill in the rest), but YouTube seems to be making the Web generation more cynical than it needs to be. Post any video on that website, and what are the chances people are gonna believe what’s being shown? Pretty big. So with MySpace you have to worry about the sex offenders trying to social network (that is, when they’re not on instant messengers)... With YouTube you have to worry about the conspiracy theorists. Or the gullible douchebags who eat up everything that’s said by so-called conspiracy theorists. And blasphemers. 7 years have gone by, but welcome to the 21st century.


Image courtesy of xkcd.com

MySpace.com’s "Cool New People"... You know, I don’t know why MySpace has this feature if it’s just gonna get most of these members to set their profiles to ‘private’ to avoid the unwanted attention. So far, all but two of the people I clicked on who were lucky enough to be shown on MySpace’s frontpage have restricted access to their profiles. These members aren’t really "cool" if they’re not gonna be nice enough to let us check out their info or pictures. Ohhh, the irony. But it’s understandable. Wouldn’t want the wrong people to stumble upon these profiles. See a related discussion about this in the journal entry above.

APOCALYPTO... I saw Mel Gibson’s new bloody (not bloody new) film last night, and needless to say, it was, um, bloody. But actually pretty good. It had as much graphic violence as The Passion of The Christ, but this time, the violence was okay because the Maya people were actually that brutal (thank God I didn’t live during that time...and was an unlucky enemy warrior who was a heartbeat away from getting my heart ripped out as sacrifice to the gods). Admittedly though, throughout much of the movie, I was thinking what if a modern-day soldier (RE: Navy SEALs or any other Special Forces commandos) suddenly emerged out of nowhere to take on those Maya who invaded that village in the beginning? I wonder: Would only four SEAL commandos be able to wreak havoc on those temples ‘Jaguar Paw’ and his buddies were taken to? Just detonate a few well-placed satchel charges, make sure there’re enough ammo for the MP5s and grenade launchers, and BAM, modern-day (American) might defeats the primitive Indian. Like how I mention the most random and facetious things in my Blog? I have a sudden urge to buy the video game SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs for my Playstation 2 now.

Photo courtesy of the Los Angeles Times.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!! Hope all of you are having a safe and fun holiday. Just like what I did for 2006, I’ve posted a list below of key dates and events that should be of interest this year...that is, if you’re a sports fan or a movie buff. Or a space geek for that matter, haha. I’d add more dates in, but who really cares about when a parliamentary election takes place in Finland (March 18)? Or when the Manchester International Festival begins (June 28)? I don’t, hahaha. Anyways, carry on...



January 2007
-Rose Bowl: USC vs. Michigan (Jan 1)
-BCS National Championship Game in Glendale, Arizona: Ohio State vs. Florida (Jan 8)
-Season 6 premiere of 24 (Jan 14, 15)
-64th Annual Golden Globe Awards (Jan 15)
-Season 6 premiere of American Idol (Jan 16, 17)
-FOX show Prison Break returns after a 2-month hiatus (Jan 22)
-NBC show Heroes returns after a 2-month hiatus (Jan 22)



February 2007
-Start of the 2007 Alpine World Ski Championships in Sweden (Feb 3)
-Super Bowl XLI in Florida (Feb 4)
-ABC show Lost returns after a 2-and-a-half month hiatus (Feb 7)
-Hannibal Rising (Feb 9)
-Ghost Rider (Feb 16)
-Conclusion of the Alpine World Ski Championships in Sweden (Feb 18)
-Start of the 2007 NASCAR season with the Daytona 500 in Florida (Feb 18)
-2007 NBA All-Star Game in Las Vegas, Nevada (Feb 18)
-79th Academy Awards (Feb 25)
-NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, en route to Pluto, flies by Jupiter for a gravitational assist (Feb 28)



March 2007
-Zodiac (Mar 2)
-300 (Mar 9)
-Mission STS-117... Space Shuttle Atlantis (Mar 16)
-Start of the 2007 NCAA Final Four basketball tournament in Atlanta, Georgia (Mar 31)



April 2007
-Conclusion of the 2007 NCAA Final Four tournament in Georgia (Apr 2)
-2007 Sir Arthur Clarke Awards, a.k.a. the “Space Oscars” (Apr 14)
-NFL Draft (Apr 28, 29)



May 2007
-Spider-Man 3 (May 4)
-28 Weeks Later (May 11)
-Shrek the Third (May 18)
-Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (May 25)
-Start of the 2007 French Open tennis tournament (May 26)
-91st Indianapolis 500 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (May 27)



June 2007
-Ocean’s Thirteen (Jun 8)
-Conclusion of the 2007 French Open (Jun 9)
-Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (Jun 15)
-Launch of NASA’s Dawn spacecraft to asteroids Vesta and Ceres (Jun 20)
-Evan Almighty (Jun 22)
-Mission STS-118... Space Shuttle Endeavour (Jun 28)



July 2007
-Transformers (Jul 4)
-Live Free or Die Hard (Jul 4)
-Announcment for the New Seven Wonders of the World in Switzerland (Jul 7)
-Announcement for the host city of the 2014 Winter Olympics (Jul 7)
-Start of the 2007 Tour de France (Jul 7)
-Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Jul 13)
-Maiden flight of Europe’s first Automated Transfer Vehicle, Jules Verne, to the International Space Station (Jul 25)
-The Simpsons Movie (Jul 27)
-Conclusion of the Tour de France (Jul 29)
-2007 MLB All-Star Game in San Francisco, California (Exact date TBA)



August 2007
-Launch of NASA’s Phoenix spacecraft to Mars (Aug 3)
-The Bourne Ultimatum (Aug 3)
-Rush Hour 3 (Aug 10)
-Disturbia (Aug 17)
-Total lunar eclipse (Aug 28)
-Start of the 65th World Science Fiction Convention in Yokohama, Japan (Aug 30)
-Launch of Japan's SELENE spacecraft to the Moon (Exact date TBA)



September 2007
-Conclusion of the World Science Fiction Convention in Japan (Sep 3)
-Start of the 2007 Rugby World Cup in Europe (Sep 7)
-Mission STS-120... Space Shuttle Atlantis (Sep 7)
-Start of the 2007 FIFA Women’s World Cup tournament in China (Sep 10)
-Partial solar eclipse (Sep 11)
-Conclusion of the FIFA Women’s World Cup in China (Sep 30)



October 2007
-Conclusion of the Rugby World Cup in Europe (Oct 20)
-Saw IV (Oct 26)



November 2007
-American Gangster (Nov 2)
-Mission STS-122... Space Shuttle Discovery (Nov 5)
-Completion of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link from London to the Channel Tunnel (Nov 14)
-Beowulf (Nov 16)
-I Am Legend (Nov 21)



December 2007
-10,000 BC (Dec 14)
-National Treasure 2 (Dec 21)
-Alien vs. Predator: Survival of the Fittest (Dec 21)