NOT MY PRESIDENT!!!!!!!!!!!1

"They started it!"

As a kid, I was taught that this wasn't a good enough excuse. What are we teaching our kids now?

This week, President Obama made a speech about the importance of education to schools nationwide. Except for the ones that refused to participate.

Refused the president? First of all, wow. I'm glad I live in a country where schools can actually do that. But come on -- pick your battles. The election is over, and like it or not, Barack Obama IS your president. The office needs to be respected, to some extent. Isn't respect for authority something children should be learning? Isn't that the kind of thing Republicans love to whine about? It'd be one thing if the speech had serious political overtones to it, like if he were promoting his health care plan. But this is just the president, telling kids to stay in school. There is no harm in that, and deep down, everybody knows it.

(And even if, hypothetically, the speech had any political overtones, which is to be expected from a politician... you do realize he's not still campaigning, right? He won the election. He's kind of earned that right.)

I think I see what's going on here. Bush got trashed, and trashed hard. "Not My President" was a popular rallying cry among Democrats during his 8 years in office, and there were a lot of people who didn't show him presidential respect. (To put it mildly.) Now the tables have turned, and Republicans have a chance to say "But what if it was BUSH saying this? Wouldn't you be trashing him? Huh? Why should we respect the president now?"

Or, to put it more simply -- more honestly, actually -- "They started it!"

YouCool

So about a year ago, that Cowboy Bebop/Queens of the Stone Age music video I made was disabled due to a copyright claim. Well guess what? It came back!

Apparently this was not magic. The video now includes a hovering link/advertisement to legally purchase the song on Amazon. And guess what? I'm totally fine with that! I suspect many others would be too, were the option given to them. The way I see it, the whole point of making a fan music video for something is to portray the song in the best possible way. It's a way of promoting the music, really. So why wouldn't I want to provide people with a link to buy the song? It's a win-win situation.

Unless, of course, the video is horrible. And I guess that's one of the reasons intellectual property law exists; to say "Whoa, we have nothing to do with this. Take that down, it's embarrassing."

Hopefully this trend continues. I'm not overly optimistic that all unauthorized uses of music will be treated with such mercy, but in most cases I believe it's the best way to deal with it. Take what's unofficial and make it official.


I suppose it only makes sense to put the video here as well. So here it is. It's my first video editing project, from 2003. It's decent enough to display in public.

Review Fighter IV

I know it's very nerdy to rage over video game reviews -- in most cases, reviews of games that you've never played but want to like and can't bear to see get anything less than a 10/10 -- but the gaming press does have its fair share of legitimate annoyances. Take, for example, the IGN review of the PC version of Street Fighter 4. Some have complained about the fact that the graphics scored lower than on the other platforms, and other such minutiae. I can accept that; even though the PC version's graphics are objectively better in every way, a different reviewer approaching the same game is going to rate its graphics differently.

What is a bit irksome, though, is the lack of any mention of some of the PC-exclusive features, most notably the inclusion of three graphical filters. Whether the reviewer loved these filters or simply found them not worthwhile, it's something that should be commented on in some way, since it was one of the PC version's only unique selling points.

The more baffling issue here is that the reviewer claims to have had severe difficulty finding anyone to play online with. I find this hard to believe, assuming he tested the game during (and not before) its release week, which he asserts he did. I can say from first-hand experience that since the very first day of release and to this day, over a week since, finding an opponent online has been remarkably easy. In fact, in my several hours of play I have only ever managed to complete one match of Arcade Mode, because I am constantly interrupted by fight requests, often before my fight against the computer even begins. The only thing easier than finding a match in this game is breathing. Hence my assertion that this reviewer must have tripped on either his network cable or acid.

MUTE MATH - ARMISTICE

Gotta buy this, guys.

Listen to the first track via the link to their main site, and also watch the video for Spotlight.

Uplifter: the 311-est album of 2009

There's probably something a little bit off about Uplifter, 311's first new album in 4 years, but the album doesn't really give you a chance to stop and figure out what it is. It's jam-packed with tight, fun, great-sounding tracks with just enough funky grooves to keep it from turning into white noise. You sense that perhaps 311 is losing their creative spark after 15 years or so, perhaps they're trying too hard, but at the very least, they're trying. This is a welcome change from Don't Tread On Me, which was so laid back, it was unclear whether they were trying very much at all. The production seems like it may be a bit overcompressed, but if you're playing it loud enough to notice, well, you probably won't notice. It's an unabashedly enjoyable listen.

Get the deluxe edition, because the two bonus tracks are just as refined as the rest of the album. iTunes has an exclusive track that can unfortunately only be accessed by buying the entire album there, hence missing out on the physical album. Amazon.com has an exclusive track as well, but fortunately it can be downloaded on its own. It's better than the iTunes exclusive... but perhaps I'm just biased.