I was just standing outside looking up at the sky and -
…
I wrote this at three am and that was as far as I got. I do that a lot. I guess those thoughts weren’t as deep as I first anticipated. Or perhaps TOO deep?
I’m playing Fallout 3 again. I want to get the disk that has the two downloadable extra games on it, and I figured I should play the game through again just to familiarize myself with it. I’m playing it differently this time though.
For those who don’t know, Fallout 3 is a role playing video game. It takes place some time after a nuclear holocaust has destroyed America. You’re roaming around in what’s left of Washington DC in this kind of Mad Max style post apocalypse. Being that I love love LOVE post apocalypse shit, this game is right up my ally. It’s made by the same designers who did the game Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, and Fallout 3 is very similar to that game in the way that it’s played.
It’s an open world “sandbox” style game where you basically wander around this big ass world and run into different people who provide you various missions and quests. As you do quests, they open up more opportunities to do other quests and missions. There are all kinds of little side missions and stuff that you can do aside from the main quest. The first time I played it through, I mostly ended up doing the main quest and I blew off a lot of the side missions. This time I had intended on ignoring the main quest and just doing the side missions this time though. And I’m still pretty much doing that, but things have changed slightly.
You see, there’s this “karma” system in the game. Basically, what that means is that when you do “good” actions, you get good karma and when you do bad actions, you get bad karma. The more karma you accumulate in either direction changes the way the game plays. The first time through, I was mostly neutral, leaning towards the good side. I helped people when they needed it and I didn’t go out of my way to kill anyone who wasn’t attacking me. I built up a decent amount of good karma points. I got a little bit of bad karma from stealing shit that didn’t belong to me, but for the most part, I was a fairly stand up video game guy.
But this time around, through an accidental goof up, I ended up having to kill an entire town of people. Right at the beginning of the game they send you to this nasty ass town built out of what looks like wrecked airplane parts, sheet metal and industrial grating. It’s built around an undetonated nuclear bomb. Like everything else in Fallout 3, it’s all very dirty and rusty and bleak. There are a decent amount of missions that stem from this town (one of which is to detonate the bomb and blow up the town) and it’s a good place to go back to when you’re stuck for something to do.
Unfortunately, I was sneaking around in the town at night trying to find something or other, and I attempted to pickpocket a sleeping person. I’ve done this before and sometimes it works and sometimes they wake up and give you shit. This time the chick woke up and ran out of her house screaming. That’s when everyone in the town decided to start shooting at me. So I had two options: The first was to run from the town and never come back. The second was to kill everyone who was trying to shoot me. I chose to kill everyone who was trying to shoot me, which turned out to be a lot of people. I managed to get through all of that, but it completely fucked my karma. I don’t know if it was beyond repair, but at that point I pretty much made up my mind that I was going to go through the game doing as much evil shit as I could.
It’s very cathartic, if somewhat disturbing.
There’s this weird apartment complex down in the southwest corner of the map called Tenpenny Towers. I hiked down there (which is a long goddamned walk, even in video game time) and when I got to the complex, I pretty much decided to walk through and shotgun the whole place, Amityville Horror style. Bodies piled up pretty high. I didn’t even bother saving the people who were necessary for my missions. I figured that a job worth doing was a job worth doing right. And if I’m going to just kill everyone in the town, I better be thorough. It might take a while, but I’m contemplating just killing everyone in the fucking game. I know that a lot of the non-essential characters respawn and come back, but whatever. I just want to see if I can get a completely evil character and still finish the game.
Oh, and there’s a thing you can get that allows your character to become a cannibal. So now after I kill innocent people, I can also eat them. GO ME!
I’ve had some extremely weird personal shit happening this weekend. Between MJ and now this crazy shit, I my head is spinning and I don’t exactly know which way is up.
What’s even worse is now it’s a waiting game to see what happens. I hate having shit out of my hands.
I might talk about what’s actually going on soon, but right now I’m just too mixed up to put it all down in print.
the show at the troubadour was sold out and brilliant. it felt like a wonderful living room…..
there was a wonderful, heavy energy in the room because of all the Dead that day.
i found out michael jackson died about 30 minutes before i left our hotel room for soundcheck, while i was practicing.michael jackson was a giant in my life, “thriller” was one of my first tapes. he was one third of my young holy trinity (in my mind, the rock star triumverate was prince, madonna and michael jackson). watching his life devolve was hard for me. it’s frustrating to think that teenagers now can’t understand how powerful he was in 1985, how perfect and beautiful he seemed…and full of life and sex and energy and jesus christ TALENT…and the fact that he was BLACK and that EVERYBODY liked him…that he crossed all the borders, it was just huge back then. he changed the world of music. i wore one sparkly glove for most of second grade…it was like that.
but as bob lefsetz put it…he missed his childhood and now he’s gonna miss his old age. how fucked up is that?
anyway, i can’t wax too long about micahel jackson since this is supposed to be the world’s fastest blog. i wanted to do something in homage and so i quickly donwloaded the lyrics to “billie jean”, scrawled them on a piece of paper and whipped up a cover for the show….a very spare cover with lots of mistakes, but i tried:
(click here to watch it in HD)
in a wildly poetic strike of fate, one of my OTHER childhood heros came out to the show…weird al yankovic. we’d been emailing and following each other on twitter since ben folds e-introdcued us a while ago (they’re buddies) and i was so so happy to finally meet him and his wonderful wife. he’s an incredible guy. i feel so grateful to be able to meet all these people who had such a profound influence on me as a kid. so grateful and so lucky.
here we are, backstage at the troubadour, looking for UFOs:http://twitpic.com/8mmwl
so………thank you al, who’s alive, thank you michael, who’s dead, and thank you world, which casts no judgment either way.
TV pitchman Billy Mays found dead in Florida home
BYERIN DURKIN
DAILY NEWS WRITERSunday, June 28th 2009, 12:45 PM
Showalter for News
Pitchman Billy Mays became famous for his infomercials.
Spirited TV pitchmanBilly Mayswas found dead at hisTampahome earlier this morning, police said.
Mays, 50, lent his trademark booming voice to infomercials for products likeOxiCleanandOrange Glo.
His wife,Deborah Mays, found him at their home Sunday morning, theAssociated Pressreported. Tampa police said there were no signs of a break in or foul play.
An autopsy will be done by Monday afternoon to determine the cause of death.
"Although Billy lived a public life, we don’t anticipate making any public statements over the next couple of days," Deborah Mays said in a statement. "Our family asks that you respect our privacy during these difficult times."
Mays, who got his start peddling products to passersby on theAtlantic City Boardwalk, has pluggedMighty Putty, theDing Kingdent repair kit, and, most recently, the website ESPN360.com
"With every product you see me on TV with, I’ve turned down 100, 150 more," Mays told the News earlier this month, while inNew Yorkfor a look alike contest. "I’ve been on TV for 11 years, and all I have is my good name."
"I compare myself to a big-league slugger, a quarterback, the doctor who delivers the baby," he said. "I’m not an inventor, but I’ll take your product to the next level."
Now I’m going to go play Fallout 3 all day.
Fuck.
2:06 PM | June 25, 2009
[Updated at 3:15 p.m.: Pop star Michael Jackson was pronounced dead by doctors this afternoon after arriving at a hospital in a deep coma, city and law enforcement sources told The Times.
KTLA News
3:17 PM PDT, June 25, 2009
Michael Jackson (Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES — KTLA has confirmed that Pop star Michael Jackson has died at the age of 50.
Jackson was rushed to UCLA Medical Center by ambulance this afternoon after suffering from cardiac arrest, fire officials confirm.
Los Angeles Fire Department Captain Steve Ruda said paramedics responded to a 911 call at Jackson’s home around 12:26 p.m. The 50-year old was not breathing when they arrived. The paramedics performed CPR and took him to UCLA Medical Center, Ruda says.
Jackson is renting a home in the Holmby Hills in the 100 block of Carolwood Drive off Sunset Boulevard. It is only a few minutes from the UCLA Medical Center.
Family members have been called and are on their way to UCLA, sources say. Jackson’s mother, Katherine, arrived at UCLA around 2:30 p.m.Jackson’s father, Joe, who is in Las Vegas, told reporters his son is "not doing well."
The emergency entrance at the UCLA Medical Center has been roped off Thursday with police tape.
News trucks surrounded the hospital, helicopters flew overhead, and traffic was being redirected.
No word on the location of Jackson’s 3 children, Michael Joseph Jackson, Jr., Paris Michael Katherine Jackson and Prince "Blanket" Michael Jackson II.
UCLA officials are not releasing any details about the pop star’s condition.
Michael Jackson debuted on the professional music scene at the age of 11 as a member of The Jackson 5 and began a solo career in 1971 while still a member of the group. Referred to as the "King of Pop" in subsequent years, five of his solo studio albums have become some of the world’s best-selling records: Off the Wall (1979), Thriller (1982), Bad (1987), Dangerous (1991) and HIStory (1995).
In the early 1980s, he became a dominant figure in popular music and the first African-American entertainer to amass a strong crossover following on MTV. The popularity of his music videos airing on MTV, such as "Beat It", "Billie Jean" and "Thriller"-credited for transforming the music video into an art form and a promotional tool-helped bring the relatively new channel to fame.
Videos such as "Black or White" and "Scream" made Jackson an enduring staple on MTV in the 1990s.
With stage performances and music videos, Jackson popularized a number of physically complicated dance techniques, such as the robot and the moonwalk.
His distinctive musical sound and vocal style influenced hip hop, pop and contemporary R&B artists.
Jackson has donated and raised millions of dollars for beneficial causes through his foundation, charity singles and support of 39 charities.
Other aspects of his personal life, including his changing appearance and behavior, generated significant controversy, damaging his public image.
Filed under: Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson has passed away, TMZ is reporting.
The singer suffered a cardiac arrest Thursday afternoon and was rushed to the emergency room.
When paramedics arrived at Jackson’s home, he had no pulse and they never got a pulse back.
Once at the hospital, the staff tried to resuscitate Jackson but they had no luck.
Such a sad loss, especially for his three young children.
[Image via WENN.]
Copyright 2009 National Photo Group
As reports surface that Michael Jackson has died, ET has exclusively obtained a photograph that appears to be the King of Pop in an ambulance.
The Los Angeles Times reported that the pop legend was rushed to the hospital by the Los Angeles Fire Department. According to the Times, Jackson was not breathing when paramedics arrived and they performed CPR on him in the ambulance.
Posted June 25, 2009 4:05:00 PM
See All: Music Michael Jackson
We’re done professionally.
And now Livejournal is broken.
Posted Jun 25th 2009 5:20PM by TMZ Staff
We’ve just learned Michael Jackson has died. He was 50.
Michael suffered a cardiac arrest earlier this afternoon and paramedics were unable to revive him. We’re told when paramedics arrived Jackson had no pulse and they never got a pulse back.
Michael is survived by three children: Michael Joseph Jackson, Jr., Paris Michael Katherine Jackson and Prince "Blanket" Michael Jackson II.
Jackson had 13 number one hits during his solo career.
Story developing…
HOW CAN I NAP NOW?!
I just got an email from Alaska Airmiles letting me know about their sizzling summer deals. I yelled at my email FUCK YOU ALASKA! DON’T YOU KNOW THAT MJ IS DYING?!?!?!
I might have to call in sick to work.
THIS IS WORSE THAN 9/11!!!
Last night after the whole Farrah Fawcett news hit, Sandra asked me “Well, whose going to be number three?” because, you know, celebrity deaths always happen in threes, right? Ed McMahan, Farrah, and now whose next?
MICHAEL FUCKING JACKSON?!
Not yet, but it’s not looking good.
I’m honestly very surprised at how shocked and saddened I am at the idea of MJ dying. He’s been down and out for years now, but I still always, in the back of my mind, kind of hoped he’d come back with something amazing.
Holy shit. I’m speechless.
Posted Jun 25th 2009 4:30PM by TMZ Staff
We’ve just learned Michael Jackson was taken by ambulance to a hospital in Los Angeles … and we’re told it was cardiac arrest and that paramedics administered CPR in the ambulance.
He was picked up at his home around 20 minutes ago — we’re told his mother is on the way to visit him.
UPDATE: The 911 call came in at 12:21PM at his Holmby Hills home in L.A.
UPDATE: A Jackson family member tells TMZ Michael is in"really bad shape" and the brothers are headed to UCLA.
UPDATE: We just got off the phone with Joe Jackson, Michael’s dad, who says "he is not doing well."
The trailer for The Box is out (FINALLY) and it looks like it could be good. The original story was only six pages long. It was a pretty interesting story, but they clearly had to add just a whole shitload of story to flesh it out into a full movie. Whatever. I dig Richard Kelly, and I dig Richard Matheson. I’m excited.
youtube version:
The trailer for The Box is out (FINALLY) and it looks like it could be good. The original story was only six pages long. It was a pretty interesting story, but they clearly had to add just a whole shitload of story to flesh it out into a full movie. Whatever. I dig Richard Kelly, and I dig Richard Matheson. I’m excited.
There’s no point in arguing with these silly people.
I got a Sea Monkey kit a few months ago and they flourished for a while but I’ve noticed in the last week or so that there were only a couple left. I was kind of sad about that.
Then this morning, I checked in on them, and THERE ARE A BUNCH OF LITTLE TINY BABY SEA MONKEYS IN THERE!
My Sea Monkeys have been fruitful and multiplied!
This is truly a glorious day!
