Neglect.

I've been quite busy lately. Don't worry, though, I'm going up north in a couple days. When I return, I'm SURE to have numerous stories and entertaining things to post about. In the meantime, enjoy this important public service announcement from Willem Dafoe.

Sick

Have you ever had that special kind of sick that seem to be slow acting? Like, you drift in and out of a fog of nastiness that just makes you feel confused and foggy and kind of like you've been drinking, but with none of the fun parts? I've been drifting down that icky sea for about a week. In between bouts of confusion and my body being unable to decide if it's feverish or below standard temperature, I've had strange moments of clarity. I vaguely recall eating, and I know I took several tests yesterday, but I honestly have no idea how I did. Or even what classes they were in. I bring this up in reference to one fact: I've been sucking at blogging this past week. Rest assured, to my faithful followers, what few of you there are, I hope to be back on form before long, and with one doozy of a post. Until then, please enjoy this photo of a dirty, possibly nude Thomas Jane with an improvised machete made out of a paper cutter:

My Brief Time As A Player of CIty Of Heroes

Sometimes, I second guess myself. I start to think, "Dude, Kyle, a billion people LOVE Twilight, maybe its not attrocious." Or, "You know, Kyle, maybe this whole 'rap' thing isn't a scourge." Or even something foolish, like "Kyle, you would look really AWESOME if you went back to the Hawaiian shirt with a tie style!" I'm always wrong to do it. Those instincts are right the first time. Which brings me to today's point: Massively Multiplayer Online games.

"Psst. Kyle. It's your brain. Maybe MMO's are fun!" My brain woke me up with that today. I told it to go away, because I felt sick, and had a terrible headache. "NO, seriously," my brain insisted. "Linda said you could have a free trial of City of Heroes. TRYYYYY IIIIIIIIIIIIT." My brain is an insistent little prick, sometimes.

So, today, whilst sickly and migrainey, I decided I should try out City of Heroes. So, I used the Free Trial code my dear friend Linda gave me. I waited for several hours, patiently, for it to download and install. I booted it up, and within twenty minutes rediscovered why I hate MMOs so bad.

It's not that I don't think they can be fun. It's not the graphics, or lack of story. It's not even the soul-deficient/mind bogglingly stupid/scary people that sometimes tend to play them. It's the fact that no matter how new my computer is, no matter how old the game is, and no matter how good my internet connection is, they are ALWAYS CHOPPY.

No amount of fiddling with settings, updates, or patches seems able to prevent this, with ANY MMO, and I've played several. I can carefully adjust things for hours, find just the right settings, and the whole damned thing still shudders like Michael J. Fox in a damned earthquake. (Sorry, Kat.) It's like the entire game is DETERMINED to be slow motion, but doesn't quite know what slow motion is.

It took me a minute total to turn my character in the direction necessary to progress. He continued to turn for a full five seconds after I let go of the button. I then had to repeat in the other direction, and I let go early in the hopes that adjusting my timing would help. It didn't. Now he stopped right on time, thus STILL not pointing the correct direction.

Maybe I'm missing something. Maybe there's some fundamental thing I'm doing wrong that the whole rest of the universe understands. Maybe I'm just touchy because of the terrible headache the gods of ouch have bestowed upon me. I don't know. I intend to ask Linda about this issue later. I'll keep you guys posted if I turn out to be making some kind of grievous error, but somehow, I doubt I am.

WHAT DID I DO!?

Oh ERROR! In my haste to complete my Batman list, I screwed up BIG TIME. I completely forgot about an episode that is easily my favorite of all time, though it's easy to see how, as the episode had little to nothing to do with Batman himself. SO now, the REAL #1:

Showdown

This episode is why I like westerns. Taking place mostly in the wild west, this incredible episode was a stealthy way to build an entire episode around DC comic's dark cowboy character, Jonah Hex. In it Rh'as Al Ghul recounts his wondrous tale of how he came face to scarred face with the man long ago. It was a wonderful episode, full of action, twists and turns, and yet another opportunity to see that not every action taken by a Batman villain is for evil purposes.