The Governator is a Hypocranator Part 2

Man I love this movie...


...what happened Arnold?

The Governator is a Hypocranator

In the words of one of my bestest internet friends Christopher Ng (The Chort) "You change!". In this case it would be "You change Arnold Schwarchenegger! You change!".

Arnold is the star of many a classic action film that I grew up watching. His million bad guy killing sprees and cheesy one liners are ingrained in my youth.

"Let off some steam, Bennett."

Arnold just killed a chain mail vested, out of shape, kidnapper/old army buddy gone bad with a pipe through the torso and steam came pouring out of the pipe! How bad ass is that? Really freaking bad ass, that's how bad ass! Forty minutes ago my best friend in 5th grade was pausing the VHS and kissing the screen during the one obligatory 80's nude scene. Fifteen years ago that was my favorite movie and Arnold could do no wrong. I grew up watching Terminator, Predator and the above mentioned Commando. To a lesser extent Arnold's early and late 90's work was worth watching too. Terminator 2 being the exception of course, as it is still one of my favorite movies of all time and one of the only sequels that was better than its original.

So what happened? The action hero of the 80's and 90's, who made his career on killing bad dudes, got elected as governor of California. Great people in California are kind of crazy and who doesn't love an immigrant living the American dream story. If Predator is any litmus test, anyone from a great 80's action movies can be a governor. Start putting together campaign contributions Carl Weathers! All fine and good, well not really, but hell what do I care California is really far away.

One topic that does hit home however is violent video game laws. The governator has plans to appeal a court decision that would allow minors to purchase violent and graphic games. Apparently Arnold has acute amnesia. The man built his career and ultimate election on a hill of violent movies and even violent movie video game tie ins. Regardless of the 1st Amendment implications, the governator is trying to slap the hand of the video game industry with his right, while holding the hand of Hollywood with his left. This is not an article about violence in video games, how parents should raise their kids or even censorship and its merits or lack there of. It is about the double standard. Hollywood's fascination with torture porn flicks (Saw and others) goes unnoticed while California and other states ratchet up the pressure on the video game industry and retailers.

Violent video games are a scape goat and politicians who try to string them up are just catering to the media and a media perceived sense of the greater good. Parent's don't let your children view any media (books, games, tv, etc) that you deem inappropriate, its your job not the governments. At the end of the day I enjoy a good violent movie or video game and I will still scream out "get to da choppa" on bike rides, but the Governator has lost the little respect I never even had for him. I know this isn't as dire a topic as Mehtul's and ultimately Kent's most recent writings, but its another topic that is on my radar and I thought I should share.

Still Alive

And kicking, Hammer wasn't crazy and I still have all my vital organs. Catching up on two days of missed work is hard stuff. I expect I will try and catch up on five days of missed blogging in the coming week.

See yuns tomorrow.

LAN Party Saturday Night

Cookout Friday Night

Mehtul, Nino, Me, Hammer, Splinter

Update: Full gallery of photos from Hammer's trip.

Strangers on the Internets

At 10pm tonight I will be at the Richmond airport picking up a friend I have never meet.

I have been playing video games online with the same group of guys for going on three years now. We know all about each others personal lives, poke fun at each other and generally have a good time. All of the guys who live in Richmond, about eight including myself, get together for lunch on a regular basis. When a tournament was announced for the game we play competitively, we saw it as an opportunity to meet the rest of the team outside of in game voice chat. Plane tickets were purchased, carpools were planned and preparations were made. Then it got canceled.

War_Hammer or Doug, if your in to using real names and not game handles, still had a ticket purchased from Texas to Richmond. So we made a mad dash to plan a LAN party and cookout in his honor. He will be staying with Crystal and I tonight and tomorrow night and then with other members of our team till Sunday.

When relaying this story to some of the ladies at work I got concerned looks and questions.

"Do you have a gun for protection?"

"Your letting a guy you meet on the internet stay at your house?"

I guess the situation sounds bad when you try and explain it to people who see the internet as a place to send chain letter emails and watch dogs ride skateboards. We have built our own community, often share family photos and spend most evenings chatting with each other and playing games for hours on end. I know these guys, without having to be in there physical presence. We are friends.

After sharing my coworkers misplaced concerns with my internet friends (see that sounds bad) we all had a good laugh and made some morbid jokes at our own expense. Hammer let us know that his wife had also expressed some concern, you know, in case I'm the crazy one. I guess all this concern could be attributed to the news media and their rhetoric of fear, a la a Michael Moore stump speech. The internet is the tool of pornoholics, pedophiles and kidnappers as far as Nightline and other "hard" news programs are concerned. I guess I never thought of myself of living and interacting on "that" internet. I grew up using this here interslice and fancy myself one of its savvier users. Its a place to build friendships and have fun as far as I'm concernicus.

I look at Hammer's visit as an opportunity to hang with a good friend, not meeting a stranger for the first time. Tomorrow we will be tooling around Richmond hitting the civil war sites, grabbing lunch with the working stiffs and going bowling with the rest of the gang in the evening. Friday we are going down to Jamestown and Colonial Williamsburg and coming back to my house for a Guitar Hero, burgers and beer cookout. Saturday we will be host to Hammer LAN 07 and Sunday we may get out to Colonial Downs.