I feel that in regards to the current revelations about the abuse of prisoners in Iraq, there is only one reasonable conclusion to come to: People who continue to support the actions of this administration are insane. Plain and simple, I don’t think that this is terribly difficult a concept to understand. Here we have an administration that has failed at every major undertaking it has pursued, whose ideas about the economy, about foreign policy, energy policy and such have all been proven to be wrong. Catastrophically horribly wrong.

But that’s almost an aside. Let’s look at the prisoner abuse. And I’m not saying this is the world’s worst atrocity, I’m not saying that this is worse than the holocaust, or what have you. It is what it is, and by my comments, I do not want to make it any more or less than that. But look at it. Here we have a public revelation that the US, while claiming the “torture rooms” are closed, are torturing our prisoners. We have, basically, claimed moral superiority while wallowing in the same depravity we are publicly condemning. Not only that, we have an administration so fantastically incompetant that they could not, or would not surpress such behaviour on their own, and would do nothing about it until photographic evidence which would ignite a tremendous public backlash all over the world were released.

What kind of grotesque incompetance leads to such behaviour? And more over, what kind of depravity *DEFENDS AND SUPPORTS* such actions? Bush has said that Rumsfeld is an important part of his cabinet, and will remain so. Does this not strike anyone else as a complete and total abandonment of accountability? Not that this hasn’t happened before, and not that this isn’t practically Bush’s Modus Operandi. But the point, the plain and simple point, is that this administration let this happen. They let the actions happen in the first place, and they let the evidence that it was happening get out. This is a *catastrophic* failure of accountability, and of public relations, and at a bare minimum, it should be obvious that Rumsfeld, at least, should be out.

But more than that, it shows to me that for someone even marginally cognizant of our image, worldwide, this administration HAS to be upended, by the American people, to show the world that we *can* be accountable for our actions, that we *do* feel a sense of responsibility, and that we will *NOT* be overrun by tyrannical zealots.

And frankly, it worries me. Because if we do not boot this administration, in order to believe that democracy still works, I must believe that the American public, by and large, not only completely devoid of a sense of morality, devoid of a sense of accountability, but completely fucking insane. If this is to happen, my friend Alan put it really well, though he was talking about the draft – so I’ll paraphrase.

I love my country. But if Bush wins in 2004, that country will be Canada.

Games – what I’m playing: Breakdown (xbox) – interesting story, interesting presentation, entertaining one-on-one combat, horribly, horribly designed final battles that nearly ruin the game. Eyetoy: Groove (ps2) – basically, Samba de Amigo without the hardware, and with some interesting new moves. Only played it a bit so far, but it’s super fun. Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (xbox) – played almost none of the single player, but already gotten a ton of play out of the excellent – no – stellar multiplayer. Fight Night 2004 (xbox) – a great boxing game. I didn’t think I’d say such a thing, but it really is both fun, great to control, and it *feels* right, which is quite unusual. Changing from a button-based control to an analog-stick based control is, in this case, perfect. No button mashing boxing game will ever seem right again.

Yeah, that’s a lotta games – and it’s not even all I’m playing – also got some Need for Speed Underground and 007: Everything or Nothing in the mix. Seems like a lot of EA games, no? Guess that’s what happens when you can get ’em all at a company discount. I’m actually quite surprised by the increase in quality of EA’s games recently – and no, not because I’ve started working there. They’ve gotten the licensed product game down, far as I’m concerned – the LoTR games blow the Matrix games away. Sure, they’re somewhat less ambitious, but they’re also much, much better. EoN, for instance, feels legitimately like a Bond property, and not licensed dreck. So it’s a nice change, and I’m glad that I’m working at a place I can feel good about.

The job? Oh, it’s good. I’m having fun. Unfortunately, screwed up something this morning that basically killed my whole day, save for documentation, but I guess I’m making up for it by coming in on the weekend, alas. It sorta sucks – we’re held up by engine upgrade issues, but I suppose E3 waits for no one. *shrugs*

Right. House-wise? It’s still in the same state, more or less. The housemates have done a stellar job fixing up the kitchen, which is super-awesome. It sorta sucks – it’s in great shape for the first time pretty much ever, but I’ve found myself with virtually no time to cook, which blows. Gotta get a fence for the backyard, too, so that Mobius can run around. He knows where Raki (The neighbor dog) is, and how to get there, and so it’s easy for him to sneak out to go play. We’re gonna install a doggie-door between the two yards, though, once the fence has been put in, so basically, we’re doubling the space the dogs can play in, which is pretty cool. But I suppose that depends on first getting that fence in. Yack.

Curious about what the deal is with this country, and its priorities. We pursued Clinton for lying under oath about a consentual affair he had with an intern. Condoleezza Rice lied today in her testimony, but for some reason, the press is softballing all the bullshit. Why? This is a *much* more important issue. Did the Bush administration continue Clinton’s policies? No they did not. Did Bush immediately want a strategy to “eliminate” rather than “roll back” Al Qaeda? That seems contradictory to Bush’s own words, that he was “not on point,” in regards to Al Qaeda. Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit. Obvious, immediately provable bullshit, and yet the press doesn’t push her on these points. Why?

This is the sort of thing that should have her immediately removed from power – either an admission of stunning incompetance, and ignorance, in regards to her job, or perjury. Take your pick.

You wonder why Bush won’t testify under oath, or without Cheney? You wonder what possible reason there could be to require such bizarre conditions? Well, there aren’t any flattering ones, that’s for fucking sure.

Aah, the weekend. The commute definitely emphasizes the difference between the weekend and the weekdays. Fortunately, I don’t have to work on the weekends, so I get to sleep in and relax. Good stuff. Or at least, sleep in and relax as long as Mobius will let me. Ha. *sigh*

House leaks still not fixed. Jumping on Jose’s ass, though, so hopefully something will get done soon.

Work’s good. Very interesting learning the process, and the way all the parts come together, in game production. Hopefully will be helpful knowledge in the future. 😀

Otherwise? I dunno – not a whole hell of a lot going on, really. Work work work, for the most part, and some Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow mutliplayer some evenings.

Well, the commute’s long. 48 minutes by car in med. traffic, 40 minutes home in essentially no traffic. If I choose not to drive, the bike to BART BART to shuttle shuttle to EARS takes 1:15, which is pretty long. But it’s a lot more pleasant than the drive, so it’s likely I’ll do that more than drive. Just gotta get some GBA games. 😀

Still – getting outta work at 6:45, and not being home ’till ~8:15 sorta blows. Cuts the night short. And you’ve gotta get out of the house at 8:45 to get to work by 10. Ick. Basically turns a standard 9 hour day into a 11 and a half hour monstrosity.

*sigh*

Well, we’ll see. I mean, if shuttle it, it’s not too bad. I’m hoping to carpool with Sean every once in a while, or maybe carpool with a coworker to the shuttle, at least. I might try swinging in to work a little earlier, trying to catch the 8:30 shuttle (which would mean I’d have to get up at ~7am, to walk the dog, and get outta the house by 7:45) so that I could leave at 6. But my feeling is that the work days here are so end-loaded that it’s likely that even if I came in early, I’d still leave late.

Hm.

Well, c’est la vie, I guess. That’s the price I pay.

Not really looking forward to the new commute, but it’ll be nice to be sitting with the rest of the team, and not in an annex, half a building away. Gonna drive down to Redwood Shores the first day, because I expect the shuttle Maxis is providing to be a clusterfuck the first day, but will try it on Day 2, methinks.

How’s things otherwise? The windows are still leaking, which blows, and it’s hard to say both what the problem is, and how it might be fixed. My guess is that it’ll require breaking out part of the outside of the house. Probably not much of the house, but still, a non-insubstantial bit, and will likely end up costing me a reasonable amount of money, despite the supposed guarantee. Which blows. On top of the $2666 in property tax that’s due (an apt amount, if I’ve ever seen one). Thing is, I’m not opposed to the property tax. I know where it goes, I approve of its use, and I know it’s relatively small, compared to most places. Still, it’s $5.5K every year that I somehow fail to budget for. Maybe I’m just dumb. 😀

But, at least I’ve got a paycheck to take care of that expense! Ha! That’s awesome. And a relatively secure job. I mean, my feeling is that this job is secure until at LEAST after the next iteration of The Sims releases, and that’s the most job security I’ve had… EVER. Which is pretty cool. In many ways, the previous job had more security at the start, and a lot more potential for cool stuff, but EA’s a big, stable company, and though I’m not gonna be a gazillionaire by the time I’m 30, that’s fine. I can still make it by 35. 😉

Anyway. Not a whole lot else going on, really. Gotta save up for a ring for the woman, but there are a bunch of other ridiculous expenses that have priority, sadly. 🙁

Been a while since my last update. On the 20th, my fiancee got a bunch of my friends together, and we went to Speedring, over in the south bay area – an indoor go-kart track. This isn’t like Malibu, or what have you – these things are *fast*. I have no idea what the actual top speeds are, but I’d guess maybe 40MPHish? (Turns out the FAQ says that that’s about right) The track was about 30 seconds long, whatever that ends up as – you’re going substantially under 40 for most of the stretch. Maybe 1/4 mile? I dunno. But it was a *BLAST* a lot more tiring that I’d expected, and after a 15 minute warmup, and a 25 minute sprint, I was beat up. Bruise on my inner right knee from the fuel tank, sore spots on the back of my calves from the steering rods, and a sore lower back, right forearm, and left shoulder from fighting the g-forces.

Awesome fun, and pictures will be up eventually in the pictures section. Other’n that? I dunno – played some Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles the other day. Fun stuff, but I guess I expected a substantially more polished and refined interface, and am feeling let down in that regard. Still, gameplay was entertaining, and I’m expecting to have fun with the game.

The house is good – we put up curtains in the bedroom last night, which is nice, and got a new cheap hammock from IKEA, when the rope hammock I got from Amazon a couple years ago finally broke.

Mobius? How’s Mobius? He’s alright. We’re training him, he’s training us. He throws a fit every night when we put him in his crate to sleep, but ends up sleeping alright, I guess. He’s quite obedient when he feels some need to be – whether he thinks there’s a treat involved, or when there’s no other distractions around. Figuring out how to train him when there’s stuff he’d *rather* do is gonna be a bit tricky. But we’ve got ourselves enrolled in a class for early April, so hopefully, we’ll pick up some pointers.

Yeah. Got a 2.5 day work week this week. Fun fun!

Ah, wonderful. The President seems to be framing this election as a choice between whether you want to raise taxes or not. Vote for him, and you don’t want to raise taxes. Vote for Kerry, and you do. All Kerry has to do is explain that he only favors rolling back the tax cuts for people making $200,000 or more, and if the American public isn’t completely, utterly, totally moronic, they’ll say, “yeah, that sounds like a good idea.”

Do I trust the American public? Of course not. But this should be such a trivial argument to dismiss, I’m curious to see whether Kerry will be able to handle it effectively or not.

It’s frustrating for me to read about the current campaign for President. McCain was on TV the other day, and he said that it’s going to be a nasty campaign because of the polarization between the parties. What he utterly fails to mention is that the current administration has created that polarization single-handedly. Post 9/11, the Democrats did everything possible to unite the country. In many respects, too much – they simply gave the President a blank check to do whatever he wanted to do, however ridiculous and stupid it was.

But now, because of Bush’s failed policies, because of his extremism, because of his complete and utter inability to adapt to changing circumstances (tax cuts for a surplus, tax cuts to create jobs, tax cuts for skin cancer, whatever), he’s created this polarized environment where to “support” the President, you have to apparently simply do whatever he asks, without debate, without review, or be labelled some sort of traitorous “divider.”

That’s such bullshit, I don’t even know where to start.

These maliciously extremist Republican fucks did this on their own. And now they have the fucking GALL to say that it’s a polarization that just “happened?” Fuck you, Bush. Fuck you and your administration. YOU did this, and you did it all on your fucking own.

So when your service record comes back to bite you, when the lack of WMD comes back to bite you, when your selling-out of Valerie Plame comes back to bite you, when your attempts to write discriminatory language into the Constitution comes back to bite you, when the ridiculous deficits you’ve incurred come back to bite you, when the brazen politicization of 9/11, and the war in Iraq come back to bite you, when the hundreds of Americans you’ve sent out in a needless, pointless war come back to bite you, remember this, asshole – you brought this on yourself.

Woohoo. Filed my taxes, paid a bunch of bills. Got my first paycheck when I had $214 in the bank. Talk about good timing. Mind you, I’ve now got $43K in debt to pay down, but such is life. Now that I’m getting paid, it’s just a matter of time. 🙂

seppo