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 icon  Eslöv kids like to play with fire
Eslöv kids like to play with fireEslöv kids like to play with fireEslöv kids like to play with fire
Eslöv kids like to play with fireEslöv kids like to play with fireEslöv kids like to play with fire
Eslöv kids like to play with fireEslöv kids like to play with fireEslöv kids like to play with fire
Eslöv kids like to play with fireEslöv kids like to play with fireEslöv kids like to play with fire

Last night, at around 9pm, Nero called me to look off our balcony, where we could see a massive volume of smoke pouring out of what looked like central Eslöv. Actually, towards the bottom of the smoke, in one direction, we could also see a really bright orange glow. Then and there, I said to her, "do you want to go jump in the car and see what is up?" So we quickly got our shoes on and headed down towards town, where firetruck after firetruck were screaming down the street. The police also started to block off portions of the area, and lots of other people (like us) were just getting in the way. So we decided to head to a different part of town where there weren't police or firetrucks - I'm not the biggest fan of being one of those people who just gets in the way of public servants trying to do something effectively without all of us impeding them. >_<

So we did find a couple of areas of town where you could see some flames and where you weren't in the way. Lots of other people had also been driving and walking out to some of these "hot spots" to get a look of the actions.

Sadly, the building that was hit was adjacent to a pet store - the owner came out quickly and had to evacuate all the animals. According to the reports today, the pet store did end up burning to the ground as well.

While we were out checking out the fire, there were many other people around doing the same thing; I overheard one person, and Nero says she overheard three people who said something to the effect of "this again".

You see, we have a small little town here of somewhere around 16 thousand people. It's basically a no-where's-ville for Sweden, and actually is often referred to as the most boring town in all of Sweden. So not much happens here, but we have the whole country's fair share of arsons. We seem to have a few arsons every single year I've been here. Since I've been here, there have probable been 10+ arsons that I can recall.

At this point, this fire hasn't been confirmed as arson yet, but the unofficial word in the press is that arson is at least assumed at this point. It sure won't surprise me if they officially state it is (again) though.

Like I said, we get them all the time - 2 months ago some gym was burned down (arson), about a year ago some small hamburger restaurant was burned down and the owners completely lost their business (arson). About 2 years ago, several of the buildings at one of the schools were toasted (arson). When I first moved here we had this large gazebo area outside by the lake that was also burnt down (arson). These are just some of them I remember off the top of my head - we've actually had several others throughout the years.

No one has been caught and no blame is ever fairly resolved.

[rant]

This leads me to my frustration. A year or two ago I was under the impression that Eslöv just had some young pyromaniac. But some of this doesn't make total sense to me. First of all, there seems to be more arson activity during the summer months (out of school), and the fact that arsons are still occurring more than 7-8 years after I first witnessed one here leads me to believe it probably isn't the same person every time. Unless they have a hard-core pyromaniac disorder, it's likely younger people with an interest in fire and playing around, causing trouble and all that jazz - but if that is the case, it would imply to me that the ones who did this many years ago have since grown up and other folks may be doing the more recent ones.

And this is where I get more frustrated and angry at the same time: Eslöv - our meager little town of only 16,000 people has more undercover drug cops than Malmo (Sweden's third largest city - with a population of 290,000 people - just 30 minutes away from Eslöv).

Something in that equation doesn't make sense! We have more police in this little sticks-ville trying to bust peaceful people like me smoking up herbs and eating funcky fungus, than Sweden's third largest f*cking city.

Our police are so f*cking busy enforcing codes of living onto everyone and telling us non-violent people what the f*ck to do with our lives, that they have no f*cking time to stop these murders, rapes, and arsons. We have so many unsolved crimes on the books, and the swine just sit in their offices going over how they can keep us all in line, and occasionally go out on undercover patrols to nab all of us "bad drug people" - while real (and major crime) like this goes unsolved, unaddressed. Not to mention, people like me pay for the damage in our taxes, we pay for the public servants to address it, and we pay for people to lock us up for harming no one.

Even more angering is that I suspect a root cause of a lot of this being kids in this town just not having $h!t to do. I know it, because I was there when I moved here. I may not have even started smoking hash, had there been something worth while in this town to occupy my time with. We have no f*cking (real) shopping malls, no gaming centers, no (real) festivals, and basically a whole lot of nothing for young people to do. Yet at the same time, we have one of the largest senior populations in all of Sweden, we pour tax money into BUILDING PLAYGROUNDS FOR SENIOR CITIZENS, and don't give two shits about our troubled/misguided/bored/hungering youth.

So in my opinion, we not only are setting excellent conditions for stuff like this to breathe, but we are fueling the fires by wasting law enforcement on petty victimless crime.

[/rant]

(the last pic was just taken minutes ago - like 18 hours after it happened - though the pet shop is still partially in tact, the building that the fire started at was completely burned to the ground)

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posted in: Rants · posted on: Sunday - 15:20 - 25 July 2010 · posted by: Lev

 icon  Why I am a libertarian - part 1

For nearly a decade now, I have accepted (with pride) any labels such as "anarchist" or "libertarian" - just about anything that would dissociate myself from the mainstream left, the mainstream right, the mainstream socialists and the mainstream capitalists.

Most people will tell you, "every young rebel has a 'phase' they go through in which they reject authority". However, I think it's safe to say that, as my feelings, passion and heart have not changed in 10 whole years, and as I am now approaching 30 - this is more than a "phase". If anything, my passion for libertarianism only burns brighter and stronger as I age.

Now while some people may insist that with the state of our world today, it's more difficult than ever to be a truly devote libertarian, but I beg to differ. Because of the state of our world today (ethnic, political and religious turmoil), because of the contrasting differences between the left and the right (black and white politics), and because of the know-it-all-ism and political-correctness that saturates the minds of virtually every "open-mind" out there - now is possibly one of the easiest times to be libertarian.

Sometimes just defining that term (libertarian) can seem like a daunting task, but it really couldn't be any simpler. Unlike the left and the right, libertarianism is all about liberty (freedom) - whereas left and right politics is all about talking about freedom, saying you believe in freedom, but really just taking two polar opposites on most issues and rarely (if ever) basing political decision making on the simple question "does this violate liberty?"

For the earlier part of my rebellious youth, I found myself more closely relating to the sentiments of the leftish parties, and while that may still be in many ways, over the past few years I've started to finally make sense of why they are different than what I believe in. In short and sweet, the left really is no different than the right. While the left is usually looking out for what's best for everyone, and the right typically finding solace in man's selfish desires and wants, I really can't say the left is any better because both political ideas suffer from the same drastic flaw: they want to force what they think onto everyone else.

Here's an excellent example of what I mean; and actually the sole inspiration for what motivated me to sit down here and scribble out some of my thoughts on this whole topic of "political correctness":

Today I received a newsletter from change.org discussing some issues people have been discussing and voting on lately. One of the issues immediately caught my eye: "Racist Facebook App". In its petition text, it says:

Vaseline (owned by multinational Unilever) has just launched a Facebook application that will help India's Facebook users to whiten their skin in profile photos. The application is intended to advertise Vaseline's skin-lightening creams for men -- products that not only promote a distorted idea of beauty, but can also damage consumers' health.

Tell Facebook that apps are fun, but not when they promote racist ideas about beauty. Ask the company to take this offensive app off the site.



So here we are now with a petition on change.org - rallying for support to censor Facebook (for whatever the reason may be). First of all, let me make this perfectly clear: I am not a white-supremest, a racist, or in anyway think white skin is better than any other pigmant. While I may not necessarily agree with or even condone what Unilever has done here, I am behind them 100% with their right to do it. It may be a shame that apps like this may convey the ideas that they do, but what is even more of a shame is that 10,000 people out there actually think censorship is the solution. *NO* viewpoint, no matter how obscene, "offensive" or harmful to society should be eligible for censorship: PERIOD. I thought more of us believed in that sort of stuff, but apparently, it's just something we all love to talk about. Let us also not forget that ANY idea, opinion or believe runs the risk of offending someone: PERIOD. It is a frightening day when we've all collaborated on the belief that as long as it offends most of us, or even a lot of us, it's worth censoring.

And that is what separates people like my from those in the mainstream left. The politically correct way of thinking today is: "if you don't like what someone else is doing, saying or thinking - let's rally to take their right to do that away". That is exactly what is going on here, and exactly what I feel is wrong with leftish thinking. These people somehow believe a system of practicing intolerance (by censorship) will someone yield a society in which we are more tolerant - yes, that still baffles me.

As a libertarian I believe we should stop using our voices and numbers to censor and prevent everyone else from doing what we disagree with, but instead use our voices to intellectually debate WHY what others may be doing is intolerant. But of course, it's a whole lot easier just to bully people, companies and groups into submission than actually using our brains to rationalize with them and onlookers of why their ways are wrong.

That really is why I can't say I fit in anymore with folks on the left - because when you get down to it, they are no different than the right. They think they have all the answers, they think they know what's best for everyone, and they will use their numbers and whatever means necessary to ensure they get it (whether that means the law or what have you). Now while they may very well see issues from completely different angles, the bottom line is they both use the same fundamental practices. Worse of all, they both love to talk a lot about freedom while stealing it away from you in the name of "tolerance".

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posted in: Rants · posted on: Thursday - 14:05 - 22 July 2010 · posted by: Lev

 icon  I got to harvest my first jalapenos!
I got to harvest my first jalapenos!I got to harvest my first jalapenos!I got to harvest my first jalapenos!
I got to harvest my first jalapenos!I got to harvest my first jalapenos!I got to harvest my first jalapenos!
I got to harvest my first jalapenos!

I'm excited cause I have some homemade jalapeno poppers in the oven now and I can't wait to taste them!

As I've mentioned lots of times before, jalapenos are a frigging rip off in this country, averaging about 2 dollars for 40 grams. Because I got hooked on these stuffed jalapenos (with cheese and bacon), I decided I'd grow them this year.

This is the "hercules" strain. I'm not sure how mine did compared to normal hercules jalapenos, and maybe they even get a bit bigger after you pick the first ones. In any case, up until about 3 weeks ago, we have had very little sunshine this year, so they really didn't have much time to grow until just about 3 weeks ago. For much of the year, they were grown inside our kitchen (facing east). Our balcony also faces east, so we don't have direct light very long at all.

Anyhow, I think they turned out pretty good from what I've seen so far, and I'd like to think my constant care, attention and giving of nutrients (guano!) has helped them.

Hopefully I get a bunch more of these from the different plants I have going now. I'll let a few bigger ones ripen red so I can take out their seeds for next season.

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posted in: Recreation · posted on: Wednesday - 11:58 - 07 July 2010 · posted by: Lev

 icon  Pretty colors - Rainbow
Pretty colors - RainbowPretty colors - RainbowPretty colors - Rainbow
Pretty colors - Rainbow

We've been having a lot of rain these past months, but fortunately, it happens to cause rainbows quite frequently!

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posted on: Tuesday - 14:21 - 22 June 2010 · posted by: Lev

 icon  I got a name-change on Xbox Live

I got a name-change on Xbox Live

I've been wanting to update my username on Xbox Live for a long time now, but have been really hesitant because I didn't want to lose my 40,000+ gamerscore. I called up Xbox support today to get a confirmation of if it should stay or not (since as usual, a bunch of people are contradicting each other all over the web in regard to this question), and sure enough he assured me all that changes is the gamertag.

So my new Xbox 360 gamer tag is SikoSoft.

And sure enough I did get to keep my achievements - yay!

If you want to hook up and play something sometime, just drop me a line. RPGs and survival horror are my favorites, but I play almost anything. Plus, I have a nice collection of around 70 titles, so I'm sure I've got something you do if you want to set up a game date.

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posted in: Video Games · posted on: Friday - 21:40 - 04 June 2010 · posted by: Lev

 icon  Tainted Thoughts updated & Theia 1.0.0b7 released

Just a quick update to let you know that:

1) Theia 1.0.0b7 has been released! More info @ http://www.sikosoft.com/item/whats_new_in_100b7

2) Tainted Thoughts has been updated to the latest version of Theia (older themes are currently disabled)

Additionally, I intend on updating my personal blog here to the latest Theia soon as well!

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posted in: Theia · posted on: Monday - 13:56 - 24 May 2010 · posted by: Lev

 icon  LA's medical marijuana policy is UNCONSTITUTIONAL

I'm fairly baffled that no one has bothered to point this out yet, but then again - I didn't even catch it the first few times I heard about this law.

Los Angeles county has been at war with the hundreds of medical Marijuana dispensaries that have been popping up. It's often said that there are more medical Marijuana dispensaries in LA than there are Starbucks. This influx of "pot shops" has startled many, who see the presence of these shops selling the forbidden herb as something corrosive to their communities.

As a matter of compromise, the LA city council has been trying to please both the residents of the communities that are being "effected" as well as the dispensary operators. Yet, in a desperate attempt to find some middle ground, while drawing up new legislation, no one in any of those meetings seems to remember the basic principles under which America was founded upon.

The new laws state that medical Marijuana dispensaries cannot be located within 1000 feet from schools, parks or CHURCHES.

Maybe I've been in a social slumber for a decade or two, but when did we all take the time machine back to the days of writing legislation to appease religious sentiments we might not all agree with?

After all, doesn't anyone seem to remember the first amendment anymore?

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

If you live in America and don't know the first amendment by heart, stop right now and read it over and over until you can say it word-for-word without fumbling.

In my opinion, this is possibly the greatest political theory and practice ever created, and understanding its different meanings should be a must.

We (in the west) are supposed to live in societies where you're absolutely free to believe what you want, but at the same time understand that you can't use the law to legislate respect for what you believe. I realized there was something wrong with this law after I had read about again, and it hit me: "why should I care if my medicine offends and disrespects a religion I don't even believe in?" Many of us don't believe in the religion you might believe in, so we - as a whole - should never be obliged be paying respect to your religious sensititivities.

After all, that is one of the most basic principles by which America was founded upon. Or, have we all forgotten that already?

WAKE UP LOS ANGELES!

(For the record, in 1994, the Supreme Court ruled that the first amendment does NOT only refer to the federal government, but government in general! - Board of Education of Kiryas Joel Village School District v. Grumet)

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posted in: Rants · posted on: Saturday - 11:10 - 17 April 2010 · posted by: Lev

 icon  I got FF13!

I got FF13!

Well, if you're into JRPGs you probably already know FF13 came out today.

I got my copy (didn't pre-order it, because I've been getting kinda tired of all these really weak campaigns GAME and GameStop have been having lately). Actually, I didn't even go in myself to get it; NeroAnima was nice enough to pick it up for me after she was done at her job.

I've been working today on a client's project, so I haven't popped it in just quite yet (of course, I have played the FF13 demo in Japanese, as I imported the Advent Children bluray for that).

After checking out the review (@ IGN at least) I was a bit less enthusiastic to rush into it to, because I usually think games are considerably less good than the mainstream sites score them. Plus, normally the comments are 100% fanboys going off on how stupid the person is who wrote the review, but this time I actually saw several comments by people who agreed that FF13 wasn't that great. Too bad, but I'm sure it will still be somewhat enjoyable.

Looks like I got a big narrow adventure in front of me; it's ironic that I've been without work for a little while now and just got a client who needs his stuff done quickly. Since I know money is on the line, as well as my reputation, I'll have to play FF13 only a little bit until I am satisfied I can finish this guy's stuff on time.

Anyone else get FF13 yet? What do you think of it?

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posted in: Video Games · posted on: Tuesday - 16:37 - 09 March 2010 · posted by: Lev

 icon  I got my new passport, and it's purrrrty! :)
I got my new passport, and it's purrrrty! :)I got my new passport, and it's purrrrty! :)I got my new passport, and it's purrrrty! :)
I got my new passport, and it's purrrrty! :)I got my new passport, and it's purrrrty! :)I got my new passport, and it's purrrrty! :)
I got my new passport, and it's purrrrty! :)I got my new passport, and it's purrrrty! :)I got my new passport, and it's purrrrty! :)
I got my new passport, and it's purrrrty! :)I got my new passport, and it's purrrrty! :)I got my new passport, and it's purrrrty! :)
I got my new passport, and it's purrrrty! :)

Since my passport (originally issued back in 2000) was expiring in March, I had to apply for a renewal. I applied just around 2 weeks ago and was told it would take about 3 weeks, so when it arrived this week, I was very pleased with how quickly it was handled! This doesn't even take into account that when I first applied for my original passport in the states, I had to pay some 30-40 dollars extra just to get it "rushed" and delivered to me within 4 weeks; this time (when applying through the American Embassy in Sweden), I didn't pay any extra "rush" fee, and the passport was delivered in a quicker time to boot!

But, that isn't the best part; the best part is that the new passports just look 100 times nicer than they did before!

The old passport was kinda boring and wasn't all that aesthetic in my opinion. Actually, I was jealous over NeroAnima's Swedish passport, which I thought looked much nicer than mine. But now that I got my new one, I can safely say mine is much nicer looking than hers!

The first scan here shows a side by side comparison between the old passport (issued in 2000; on the RIGHT) and the new passport (issued in 2010; on the LEFT). Pretty nice improvement, huh?

The second scan shows the typical visa pages of the old passport, which then only consisted of state seals on the background; pretty boring in my opinion. All the pages looked the same, just with different state seals in the background on different pages.

All the other scans are from the pages of the new passport, which all contain beautiful artwork capturing many moments of American history and heritage, along with notable quotes from various Americans - damn impressive in my opinion!

Kudos to all the peeps that put the new passport together!

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posted on: Friday - 13:06 - 05 March 2010 · posted by: Lev

 icon  Going to merge PBL with this site & SikoSoft!

Just a bit of news here (been a while since I wrote anything, eh?); I will soon be taking down the pixelatedbylev.com website and instead redirecting it here. I will add additional links for things like the services I offer through SikoSoft, and scripts and stuff may be moved around.

I also intend on updating the look of this site a bit to take this big change into account. And hey, it looks good for my portfolio to create something awesome looking here!

If you've been coming to PixelatedByLev.com these past years, I appreciate all your support and use of my scripts over the years. I will still provide them (and may even update them), but my biggest focus now is going to be on Theia.

Peace!

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posted on: Monday - 20:10 - 22 February 2010 · posted by: Lev

 icon  GAME needs a new graphic artist
GAME needs a new graphic artistGAME needs a new graphic artistGAME needs a new graphic artist

I receive newsletters from both the Swedish GAME and the UK Game shop, and since it's been Christmas, I've been receiving countless emails almost on a daily basis.

Anyhow, I don't mind that.

What really catches my eye is the frightening art the UK stores come up with.

So anyhow, the attached images here show what I am talking about.

Now is this just me, or do they really need to find another graphic artist?

Holy crap do the characters look f*cking whacked to me. They look like a bunch of psychotic tweakers who haven't slept in weeks.

Seriously GAME... what the f*ck..?

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posted in: Rants · posted on: Tuesday - 11:54 - 22 December 2009 · posted by: Lev

 icon  Awesome!! I love ÖoB!

Awesome!! I love ÖoB!

After we got home from grocery shopping today, we had an ad in our mail from ÖoB. Something caught Nero's eye... They were advertising Pringles at a mere 11 kronor a pop, which is a good deal as it is... but what she noticed was in that one of the three Pringles they used in the photo was the blue (salt and vinegar) one.

So as soon as I figured up smoking the water pipe, we hopped back in the car to check it out. We were both a bit skeptical... I was thinking they were just using some stock-photo of Pringles for the ad and that it wasn't an accurate reflection of what flavors they had in, but damn was I lucky it was for real!

Sure enough they had Salt and Vinegar Pringles!!! I bought 10 cans at a f*cking hell of a good deal.

In case this is all confusing to you, or you're wondering why I'd get so excited about this, it's really simple. Swedes don't like flavor. The chip selection they sell over here usually sucks. There's only one store that we know of within a 30 minute drive that even sells Doritos, and it's been at least 3 or 4 years since I remember seeing Salt and Vinegar Pringles at a normal store. I say a "normal" store, because if we drive all the way out to Malmo we can buy them at the American store Grays, but like everything else in that store - it's a f*cking rip off @ 39 kronor a can.

In other words, I paid about the same for these 10 cans of Pringles as I would pay to get 3 cans of them if I went through the American import store! Now you should get why I am excited!

Oh and for the record... there is a Swedish company that makes Salt and Vinegar chips again finally.. They started with it a little over a year ago (and I of course bought like 20 packs then in case it was a temp thing) - those chips suck. There is barely even any taste of vinegar in them, and I'm sure it's simply because the tame-taste-buds Swedish folk have. Salt and Vinegar Pringles are $h!t loads better than them, so I'm a happy camper!

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posted on: Monday - 15:55 - 14 December 2009 · posted by: Lev

 icon  What the f*ck is wrong with Fable 2?

What the fuck is wrong with Fable 2?

I am so frigging sick of this game by now.

It's been close to a year since I last touched the thing, actually. I played it for a week after it's release last Autumn, and it was quickly beaten. Since there wasn't a whole lot to do, and since I encountered several annoying bugs (one in particular with moving your family to a new house), and - more importantly - since Fallout 3 quickly came out, I haven't touched Fable 2 for about a year.

I know I know, that's kinda blasphemy when I've been preaching about how awesome the sequel to one of my favorite games would be, but well - I hadn't really anticipated many of the disappointing factors associated with the game (particularly its unpolished nature).

In any event I had been going through Fallout 3 again. I've been playing through the various expansion packs, and since I basically have completed them all now, I thought I could give Fable 2 another try.

I'm quickly regretting that I did.

When I first fired the game up, I got a sigh of relief seeing there was an update available for the game. I thought "wow, maybe they finally fixed up some of these bugs". Sadly, things have only gotten worse for me now, and I'm quickly wanting to smash the disc in, and write a big rant telling Peter Molyneux what I really think of this broken and half-assed "masterpiece" of his.

Okay, maybe that was a bit much, but here's the thing.

I've been TRYING to play a new game of Fable 2, but about 50% of the stuff I play doesn't get saved.

I tell it "save and quit" every f*cking time, and about 50% of the time it will save, and 50% of the time it won't save.

It never gives me an error when it "saves", but I have recently discovered that if I don't shut the system down right away and go back into the title screen of the game I get this nice big error (as seen in the screen shot).

After clicking the error away, I will no longer have the "Continue" option (acting as if all my saved games are gone), but if I exit the game and go to the dashboard, and then go back into the game, the "Continue" option is there again, though any progress I had been making in my game is NOT saved.

I am quickly regretting downloading this "patch" because from my experience so far, it's made the playing experience all that much worse (hard to imagine with the already considerable number of bugs present).

For the record, I don't even touch my damn system, which has a 120 GB hard disc (with over 85GB free). The system is not being bumped, moved or touched and I've never had a single issue with saving video, pictures, game saves or anything else EVER.

I even went into the dash board and removed about 20-25 game saves from Fallout 3, probably 5 demos, and all my videos.

Still, it happens about 50% of the time.

Needless to I've been playing less and less, and I'm about to stop playing it altogether now. After all, I mean, what the f*ck is the point of pumping a bunch of time into becoming wealthy or buying lots of property, or even completing missions, when the odds are that the next time you play you'll have just as good a chance having nothing saved as you will having your game saved.

Seriously. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...

The fact that Fable 2 already has a number of glaring performance and design issues really suggests to me that this is NOT a hardware problem but a software problem with Fable 2. Further, the fact that the "Continue" option always disappears when seeing this error, and always re-appears when coming back into the game (without even shutting off the system) really seems to support the fact that something (else) is up with the game.

Normally I'd be willing to forgive the fact that the actual gameplay experience of Fable 2 was a lot more disappointing than I imagined it could have been, but with the compounding presence of so many darn performance issues, I'm finding myself being a lot less willing to forgive this game.

After seeing someone else created a thread for this on Lionhead's forums for Fable 2 technical issues, I thought I made my own to show them - "look, it's not just one person". Here is that thread I made:

http://community.lionhead.com/forums/thread/3416246.aspx

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posted in: Video Games · posted on: Monday - 19:45 - 02 November 2009 · posted by: Lev

 icon  Give me back my damn hourglass, Firefox 3.5! grrr...

I knew Firefox 3.5 did this when I originally downloaded it back on Ubuntu 9.04. Because of this, I stopped using Firefox 3.5 right away and went back to Firefox 3.

Today I went ahead and updated to Ubuntu 9.10, which comes with Firefox 3.5 as default.

Grrr.....

Damn is it f*cking annoying. What gives?!

My guess is it was done out of memory management, since there is no other practical reason for removing it.

I remember when I noticed this when switching from IE 5 to IE 5.5 (or was it IE 5.5 to IE 6?), and damn was it annoying then. Well, it was worse then with IE because Microsoft doesn't let you downgrade to go back.

In any event, it's frustrating and annoying as hell. Did the developers just decide, "hey, GUI cues aren't all that important"?

I know I'm not the only one, because a quick google on "firefox 3.5 hourglass" will return pages with lots of other angry folks.

Maybe it's just me, but they really made a hugely stupid mistake here. Implementing something that is going to make people more frustrated and a lot happier with the browsing experience isn't going to justify performance - if that was why it was removed.

Damn, Mozilla... come on and get this back already!

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posted in: Computers · posted on: Sunday - 19:25 - 01 November 2009 · posted by: Lev

 icon  Apple censors negative, legitimate reviews in App store

Okay, this has kinda pissed me off, and really isn't helping me get over the incredible anti-Apple sentiment I've been gaining the few weeks.

A lot of the time at night, I like to play around on my iPhone and check out new programs from the Apple App Store.

I stumbled upon one called "Drug Addiction", and was intrigued enough by its "noble" aim to educate people on awareness of drug abuse, so I downloaded it and gave it a look.

Holy crap, have I not seen so much flagrant misinformation since the film "Reefer Madness". My biggest gripe with the program wasn't its complete partisanship, or even its scarce scope of information, or even the fact that most of the information was incredibly outdated, irrelevant and antiquated. My biggest gripe was that no where do I remember seeing the word "use". Anytime anyone drinks a beer or smokes a joint, it's "abuse" - well, at least according to this program. No where in any of the few substances listed was there the slightest distinction between use and abuse.

Nope, just more of that outdated fear-mongering we've all grown up with.

So I thought - heck, even though the program already has a 2 out of 5 star rating out of more than 10 ratings already, I felt it was necessary for me to have my say. So I did, and guess what?

My score seemed to have been accepted, but my written review was NOT added.

Being all the wise to many of the other disgraceful ways I've learned Apple conducts its business (overly aggressive DRM that can make Microsoft look like a saint, planned obsolescence with iPods and iPhones, unjustified and zealous program review process, removing threads critical of them or their partner companies in forums - to name a few), I felt it was necessary to copy my review and paste it into the notes program in the event that Apple would play big brother.

So here it is, my review of a crappy propaganda program - which seems to coincide very well with what other people thought of the program (judging from its score):

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First of all, there is an enormous difference between use and abuse, but this app fails to ever make a distinction of the two. Many drugs CAN be used recreationally without necessarily abusing them.

Nothing but a lot of antiquated misinformation and scare mongering.

Yes, drugs CAN be bad, but let us not forget we all use psycoactive substances, whether it's for a headache, boost of energy from a cup of coffee in the morning, to sleep better, for depression, etc..

Some illicit substances are not nearly as damaging as they are often made out to be, so how about we finally stop with all the scare tactics and focus on factual information from places like www.erowid.org (which focuses on educating and not mindlessly scaring)?

The last thing the world needs is more falsified information, which does far more harm than good - by giving people the mentality that if one thing they were told about something is a lie then maybe it all is.


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Am I the only one who finds nothing worth censoring here other than my idea? No obscenities (like many of the reviews they allow to be posted), no personal or defamatory slander (like many reviews they allow) - nothing. Just a little bit of reality, that for whatever reason, doesn't coincide with Apple's world vision.

You know; commercialism, spending, waste, consumption. All those things that make society tick. Could it be simply that ideas like what I've expressed are not popular by conglomerates simply because they challenge the established structure of society itself? Think about it; we're supposed to buy into the concept of finding happiness through buying things, and all of our super technologies - it doesn't seem a very popular idea to find happiness in a glass of beer, a pill, or a joint, because that undermines the entire foundation of how we have created our economy. "We" don't want people to be able to use substances that make them happy and content with life, because then they aren't going to want any part in much of what "we" think is important in life - namely: commercialism, spending, waste and consumption. So I guess, arguably supporters of drug prohibition may very well be right that drugs may hold a power than causes people to drop out of many social institutions. And maybe it's just my view of the world here, but I see that as a good thing. We *need* more people who's focal point in life is feeling good and happiness, and not all those things we are conditioned into thinking are important.

So yeah, let's just keep spreading misinformation, and scare-mongering. It's doing a whole lot of good, isn't it?

Screw you, Apple!

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posted in: Rants · posted on: Thursday - 21:06 - 29 October 2009 · posted by: Lev

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