Dreth's Blog

Politicos Inamibles: Rafy Surillo

2012-05-31T12:05:00.002-04:00

Like Mariíta, Rafy Surillo is also from Yabucoa and is running for town mayor for the PPD (the red guys). I've no idea if he is good or not, if I'm going to vote, I'll mostly likely write down my own name. The thing here is with his last name, Surillo. Now, there are two words used in Puerto Rico that look/sound close to Surillo, one is sorullo (corn fritter) and cerilla (earwax).

It's not a big debate over which one would be more interesting to implement on this guy's promo pictures. Plus, his entire big eyebrow/moustache/nose complexion (which were modified a teensy-weensy bit) reminds me for some reason of Street Fighter's Blanka and a garden gnome's love-child.

Politicos Inamibles: Mariita Santiago

2012-05-25T22:03:00.001-04:00

You definitely had to be living in Puerto Rico during the 80's and early 90's to get this one. It parodies Mirta de Perales, an old hag that would advertise some sort of magical shampoo that somehow gave you instant beautiful hair as long you washed your scalp like she did in the commercials.

She basically buried her fingers and moved the scalp back and forth (not actually through the hair). It made perfect sense! Of course they would use a very, very old commercial of hers, since she was so damn old and nasty looking by the time I saw them on-air. She died recently, to my surprise, the old hag probably drank her awful shampoo to make it all the more poetic.

Mariita herself is a Senator from my hometown of Yabucoa, to the best of my knowledge she doesn't have any outstanding degrees that would make her ideal for her position (but it doesn't matter because you land those by kissing ass). But, like all the rest of the politicians, I don't follow their agendas so I don't know if they're as inept as they seem at first glance.

Mesmerizing Monā Cat Video

2012-05-20T12:00:00.000-04:00

Batmobile

2012-05-19T12:31:00.000-04:00

This is a 1989 "BluePrinter Batmobile Cocoon Armored Shield", it's a model kit, which means you have to assemble and paint it. Got it off eBay a few months ago as my own birthday present since the original Batmobile of the same year for the action figures weren't as cheap as I thought they'd be (it was Christmas season after all).

Looking at the uploaded versions of Blogger, the upload process somehow, apparently, compressed and fucked the blacks on the photos, so I've replaced them with Flickr's version.

Photography Picdump

2012-05-14T10:55:00.000-04:00

It has been almost a year since I moved out of my house, this implied using the laptop a lot more than my desktop PC at first, but with the advent of a fried motherboard (two, actually) I relied solely on the laptop. I have almost the same stuff on both computers, but my desktop had more recent photos of my Canon Rebel XTi, so I always felt it inadequate to update my Canon Rebel XTi folder on the laptop, since there would always be some photos missing.

The last couple of days I've installed Lightroom and imported the photos and catalog from my desktop's hard drive to my laptop's, have been retouching some old pictures that were on hold as well as transferring all the new pictures that had been accumulating in the camera's memory for almost a year (as mentioned previously). So this small batch is of those new pictures that had been gathering digital dust up until now. Enjoy.

Zully & Claudia

I think this was at a beach in Arroyo, Puerto Rico.

Leatherface

Leatherface figurine against candle and LED flashlight.

Les Paul

Gibson Les Paul Guitar.

Banana Tree

The innards of a banana tree.

Everyone's a Photographer / Philosopher / Bullshitter aka Hipster

2012-05-12T11:44:00.000-04:00

I think I cracked the code and did the equivalent of one year's worth of art of an iMac/iPad/iPhone user.

Mind you I did NOT do this on an Apple product, nor with Instagram. It takes a lot of hard work to find out how to make your photos look like everyone else's. Shame there's no real tag for sarcasm available in coding languages.

Meme: Boricua Patriotico (Patriotic Boricua)

2012-05-05T12:26:00.000-04:00

I'm not saying this has the potential to be a popular meme, but it's certainly exploitable. I came up with this after hearing one too many things from purists that regardless of how bad odds looked for a local athlete, they still cheer him on. I call that blind fanaticism, but that's just me. Here are the first four I created and their English translations below.

"We have to support our stuff"
Go buy clothing at Pac-Sun and Hot Topic

"My island is the best, long live Puerto Rico"
Moves to New York

"I'm Boricua so you better recognize"
Born, raised and residing in U.S.

"Support our musicians"
It's cheaper to only see them at patronage festivals

Politicos Inamibles: Norberto Andujar

2012-05-04T22:08:00.001-04:00

I know nothing of this guy, besides that he's one of the red guys (in Puerto Rico each political party has a designated color, they had to narrow it down to colors to appeal to their respective stupid fans, the PPD is red, the PIP is green and the PNP is blue). That and that he's obviously trying to achieve his dream as a SEARS catalogue model. Seriously, look at him.

I'd vote the fuck out of that ladder. It looks so committed.

That and that gleaming fake smile called out to me. So I nicknamed him with Norberto "Estoy Tan Fuckin' Feliz" which means "I'm So Fuckin' Happy".

Dreth's eBay Feedback

2012-05-01T16:58:00.004-04:00

I know a while ago I posted somewhere on the Internet some of my previous feedback left for eBay sellers.

Here it is in case you did not see it the first time around.

(Click on the images to enlarge 'em)

Well that was almost a year ago. Here's some more recent feedback.

CGI Plants

2012-04-30T11:15:00.000-04:00

This is beyond bizarre.

DrawSomething (Draw My Thing) - Period

2012-04-29T20:59:00.002-04:00

Baby Boomers

2012-04-26T08:48:00.003-04:00

I got a great kick out of this one over @ Slashdot

Stop Feeling Sorry For Them - They're Selfish (Score:-1)
by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 25, @06:42PM (#39801153)

The USA without the Baby Boomers would be like a dog without bricks tied to its head.

When the last Baby Boomer croaks the USA will enter into a new era of prosperity.

They're so goddamned self-centered they routinely drive 10-20 below the speed limit, hold up everyone trying to get to work partly to pay for their precious Social Security, and can't understand why that's a problem. And being frivolous and self-important, they're too "good" to pull over and let the long line of cars stuck behind them to pass even though those people are getting to work, have a clock to beat, and the old fart doesn't.

If you work a service job because in this economy you are thankful to have any regular work at all, you know that to the Baby Boomers, every service person is their own personal butler. You'll have noticed that when they ask you where something is, they are usually standing in front of it. They certainly can read because they can absolutely read your nametag, even though it's a much smaller font than the big sign for the item they wanted to find. Being self-centered it would not occur to them to make even a token effort to look around (i.e. swivel their neck about 15 degrees, such horrible effort I know) before requesting that you drop everything you are doing and assist them. You know, like any decent person who doesn't think they're better than you would do.

They don't talk to you, they talk *at* you. I've had them whistle at me like I am a dog and note I have never seen anyone other than a Baby Boomer who was so eager to be degrading like this. They will try to monopolize service personel and try to talk for 20 minutes to complete strangers about their grandkids, not because they think you care or are involved in any way, but because they love to abuse a captive audience that fears for their job too much to tell them to fuck off. They will do that instead of wondering if there might be good reasons why their kids and grandkids don't visit them, because that line of inquiry might lead to admitting fault, and they're too much better than you to do that. They love to complain about everything even when they know the employee they complain to has no control over high-level company decisions like which products are offered for sale.

With few exceptions they've regressed and have become little more than overgrown two-year-olds. They are bankrupting the country. They vote in huge blocs for all the wrong people, greatly contributing to the political mess we have today. They run homeowner's associations so they can take neighbors to court over such important matters as the color of paint. They are one of the biggest reasons why marijuana remains illegal and otherwise love to use law like a cudgel to beat you over the head with their own brand of morality, that you follow or be punished. They tend to be real big law-and-order types even in situations where there can be no victim because it is all consenting adults.

When the last Baby Boomer dies I intend to throw a huge block party. The theme will be IT'S FINALLY OVER! Get over your idealized image of sweet old inoffensive Grandma because they hide behind that to manipulate your emotions so you feel afraid to admit how pathetic and selfish they are. That same "sweet" old Grandma will turn into MegaBitch the instant you cannot do exactly what she demands. Dunno about you people but I don't believe in false images.

The above applies to all but a few of them. A few of them actually have character traits like patience and wisdom and intellectual independence to show for the great deal of time they have lived on this planet. Those are precious and I treat them with great respect and do whatever I can for them. The other 95% just plain suck and are a total drain on society, both financially and at the interpersonal level.

The USA without the Baby Boomers is like a dog without a stack of bricks tied to its head.

Classic Video Games Artwork

2012-04-22T12:36:00.000-04:00

Any video game nerd will tell you of atrocities in the 1980's, #1 being E.T. for the Atari and almost destroying video games in general, and not too far down the list is the artwork that some games had the misfortune to be associated with.

Now, these aren't times of dazzling graphics, so they had to make ends meet and capture the audience by making the artwork extra realistic. But the artwork for the SEGA Master System games had amazing disparities when comparing it to the Japanese artwork.

The Japanese box art and the box art used for releases elsewhere, respectively.

These aren't one-shots, these were the norm. Someone in SEGA's marketing team was PROUD of this decision!

Apparently they were cutting back costs with ink everywhere else except Japan.

Here's a more comprehensive list of what the author considers good games with awful artwork: SEGA Master System Box Art Disparity

You could blame a single company for making this mistake, or at least just its North American division. Most of these games originated from Japan, so they were on the right track designing artwork, something inspiring and eye-catching that was relevant to the product at hand. But what happens when Nintendo also drops the ball?

This is MegaMan, better known in Japan as RockMan. His first game was released in Japan in 1988 for the Japanese Family Computer (Famicom), which to us was the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) under this cover.

Pretty cutesy and yet faithful, of course you wouldn't know that this guy shoots other robots by looking at this cover, so someone in America told some vagabond with a pencil and some crayons:

"Here's this guy called Rockm--- no no, MEGAMAN, because he's powerful. This MEGAMAN is like some soldier from the future. He shoots bad robots and um, he wears blue I think. Think of McGyver fucking the cast of The Golden Girls. Show me something by noon tomorrow."

And that something was:

(Click for larger image)

From big bulky shoulder pads, to a shooting stance that almost defies physics (it sure as hell defies logic), this walking pineapple has the ability to look two directions at once, not including the one he's pointing the gun at, and blow up miniature cities (or a normal-sized city with humungous palm trees).

The European version somehow managed to keeps its gritty and realistic edge over the Japanese one, while addressing the outfit, the shooting, the silly evil robots and it beautifully shows off Dr. Wily! All this while not taking this MegaMan guy seriously. I mean, he looks like a French ballet dancer, but this thing is still pretty damn decent!

And just like Sega Master System's covers, this wasn't a one-off. MegaMan 2 brought forth more cringe-worthy characterization. Here's the Japanese one:

And now the North American one:

It looks as if they took a cue from the European artists. Or maybe someone was daring enough to PLAY THE FUCKING GAME before making artwork for it. Granted, this couldn't be truly American if they're not strong men with tight costumes. If you don't read the story on the back of the box or in the game's manual, what would make you believe any of these are robots? And why is MegaMan wearing a LEGO helmet? Nevermind that, if this is the American one, considering Europe's last piece of Eden art, they surely have potential to be awesome! Right?!

OKAYWHATTHEFUCKITSASPACEDICKWITHAGUN

He looks like a dildo wrapped in tin foil. There, I said it. And they also did play this one, because they included stage bosses on the cover this time around. The sad part is that there was communication along the way between these two divisions across the Atlantic Ocean. Want proof? Look at the font/logo for both games.

Well, third time's the charm. Here's the North American version:

Ignore the fact MegaMan has Chucky's disturbing face and the muscles of a G.I. Joe, but he has maintained the "Shoot and look somewhere else" philosophy from the first game intact. Thing is, now he looks at the enemy's balls, with a smile that says anything but flaccid penis.

Let's look at the European (German in this case) and Japanese versions:

The same enemies, the same stance, but the exported version was touched up, some repainted segments, more luminance and if you look closely, they couldn't help but add muscles to MegaMan, alá Americano. The over-realistic Wily in the European version is not badly drawn, just out of place with the rest of the cartoony anime style.

From there on out, at least North America's MegaMan covers got a bit less worse, but they ALWAYS varied from the original. This trend has been used so much now, it even has its own page at TvTropes: American Kirby is Hardcore.

Now let's jump back to SEGA and a great game called Strider Hiryu or just plain Strider, and you decide which cover resembles more a game about a hi-tech futuristic ninja assassin.

I won't say much about young Kiefer Sutherland swinging a sword in tights, except that in his own cover's Strider logo the original sword is shown (the one with the extra horizontal handle). Now compare that with the one he's holding. Ouch.

But this seemed more like a trend that a line of coincidences. Next, the artwork for Wonder Boy on the Sega Master System, and the artwork for the same game but for the ZX Spectrum. A console so great I found out it existed as I started writing this article.

Bland gridlines, bland font, bland drawing, nothing new here.

SERIOUSLY?

I urge you to click on the ZX Spectrum version, it features the most disturbing face of a child having an orgasm while being half naked with the original April O'Neill hairstyle while supposedly mounting the world's biggest surf board that just happens to include wheels.

The list goes on and on but simple searching will turn up various lists.

But I'll forward to 2006, the following images were all over the web when Handre de Jager made its rounds on SomethingAwful and every ~~old schooler~~ deranged soul fell either in love or in a visual coma almost instantly. Bulding genitals, hair extremities, mean faces, exaggerated gameplay elements, overly muscled characters and just overall testosterone overdose, it's all here.

Mega Man

Burger Time

Snow Bros.

Balloon Fight

Dig-Dug

Adventure Island

Kirby's Adventure

Super Mario Bros.

Platform Hero (explained below)

Handré de Jager's website is up and he's still doing weird things for the Internet, but most of these aren't available on his official website, for whatever reason. The following is an interview held by GameSetWatch.com on 2006.

GSW: What's your name, location and background, firstly?

Handre: My name is Handré de Jager, I was born in 1986. I live in South Africa and I'm currently a graphic design student at the University of Stellenbosch.

GSW: When did you first doing these video game box art spoofs, and what made you think of the concept?

Handre: Well, the first one I did was the Mega Man one, as one can probably see. I'm not 100% on the exact completion date, but it must have been somewhere in November 2005. Multiple things inspired me to do it.

Firstly was the Mega Man 1 and 2 U.S. and European box art. The whole concept was completely bizarre. Megaman was portrayed as a middle-aged man in weird costumes, usually holding a gun. It also seemed way more serious than the games were intended to be.

Another inspiration was this site: http://asame2.web.infoseek.co.jp/mariof.html. I'm not sure what it's about, since it's Japanese, but it was linked to from Something Awful's front page once and the images of Super Mario Bros. 3 in it was amazingly funny to me.

GSW: Seems like a lot of the themes you keep expanding on are based around making very cartoon-like video game characters grotesque and overly 'real'. Are you trying to make any point on how absurd the game concepts are, or is it just more pure fun than that?

Handre: The absurdity of the game concepts do play an important role, but the main idea for me is to make the games as ugly and overly serious as possible in a humorous way. Of course there are completely ridiculous elements as well, like the bulging crotches and pubic hair which are mostly for cheap laughs. :)

I think in Western culture, especially a few years ago, the idea of the action hero was always a slightly older man. In Japanese games they were frequently children or cute little creatures. I think that's why some of the box art from the 80's and early 90's came out so incorrect. That is also an important aspect of most of my parodies - most of the people are middle-aged.

GSW: This all started on the SomethingAwful Forums, right? What kind of feedback have you had? Has anyone actually got upset about their favorite characters being besmirched, or felt that you were actually mentally disturbed in some way? :)

Handre: Haha. No, the feedback always seem really positive. Occasionally someone will say things like I ruined their childhood memories and so on, but I'm pretty sure they're saying it as more of a joke. That's how it appears to me anyway.

GSW: Oh, and just quickly, how do you make the pics?

Handre: Simply enough, with Photoshop and a tablet.

GSW: So I see you just posted Dig Dug recently - got any plans for other games? Have there been some games that people are begging you to do?

Handre: Well, my next project will be Platform Hero. It's not a real game, but a parody Flash animation of platform games in general created by Shmorky, from Something Awful. The requests I get the most are Bubble Bobble and Earthbound. I might do Bubble Bobble some day, but I doubt I'll get to Earthbound, but who knows. At the moment I'm pretty busy with my studies, so they won't be made as rapidly as a few months ago. I had a really long holiday back then, so I had loads of time.

And with that I conclude my journey of the awful alleys of cover artwork for early video games, but not before showing that CAPCOM acknowledges its awful heydays and plays along.

Official MegaMan 9 artwork

Official MegaMan 10 artwork

CAPCOM's being such a good sport about this, it even played around with the chance of pissing thousands of fans off by paying tribute to the awful original MegaMan artwork for the NES by including a fat old guy with similar clothing and with the name of MegaMan in Street Fighter X Tekken!

Freckled people aren't natural

2012-04-20T16:13:00.002-04:00

I just finished this one. When I used to lurk MyConfinedSpace.com a lot, I noticed a lot of people actually LIKED girls with freckles, the reason behind this escapes me.

They just seem disgusting to me, and I genuinely believe they come from some sort of fucked up hybrid with either giraffes or cheetahs.

Yes, a giraffe's dick looks like that. YouTube taught me this.

Hardcore Megadeth fans

2012-04-20T11:31:00.001-04:00

These people are everywhere, try it with Draft Punk, Deadmaus and I'm guessing 5 out of 10 artists out there have at least 5 different fan pages just because fans themselves can't bother to learn the names of their favorite artists.

I ain't no Holo-Pac Gurrrl

2012-04-18T09:10:00.000-04:00

So everyone by now knows of Tupac's holographic appearence so I'm not even gonna bother. But a good cyber-dick Internet pal of mine began rolling the ball with this.

It's been a while since I've scored a "win" by anyone so I just had to share it.

Politicos Inamibles: Jorge Santini

2012-04-16T18:57:00.001-04:00

This is the current Mayor of Puerto Rico's capital city, San Juan. He used to be two chins shorter when he entered the public eye via politics. This is one of the first photshops I made when I started this thing, his reputation as a coke-head is so commonplace within the general census that it was a no-brainer.

He likes to be in the limelight, and the way he pulls it off is dazzling to say the least. On Christmas of 2011 he made a Christmas Card featuring his family, good wishes and a recreation of a leopard gnawing on an antelope's neck.

From left to right: future Rebecca Black/likely Child Beauty Pageant victim, hottie, Mr. Slip-N-Slide Hairdo himself, older hottie, and the retarded looking one, he's lucky he was permitted to show up at all.

People with Internet normally laugh at this sort of thing and just pass it off as oddball humor but when the welfare-laden public of Puerto Rico saw this, they flipped a nut and a half and immediately gushed blood from their rectums. He also befriended a former basketball figure called Piculín Ortiz, who basically sported the same hairdo as Santini and marketed a hair gel with glitter that he had to buy himself because no one gave a fuck about looking like a half-assed polished bowling ball.

See? He (Santini) had less chins a couple of years ago! Did I mention Piculín (big guy on the left, duh) was recently arrested over drug charges?

Politicos Inamibles: Narden Jaime

2012-04-10T20:14:00.000-04:00

This was the second politician I chose (after Rey Vergas) whose image would be satirized to loosely reflect some ineptitude of one or more politicians today. Well, I had to re-do it because it felt rushed and it had no comical value (or mockery for that matter).

But what caught my eye the second time around was that he had two totally different promotional faces. Not talking about angles or facial expressions, but the faces themselves were quite different, and he looked down to Earth in one and in the other one like a motionless doll with perfect teeth and ungodly eyes that were like two photoshop'd nebulae inside crystal balls.

Why bother uploading the second picture if people won't even recognize you out in the street?

So instead of calling out on his XTR333333M airbrushing, I embraced it.

The caption on the upper right reads "Not everyone needs both hands to control marionettes". Think what you may, but I'm sure the puppeteer is moving Narden's hand with his dick. He certainly smiles like it.

And this next one is actually the first version (based on the least photoshop'd picture), as you can see, it's not too expressive.

It's a mix between suave and constipation.

Google Maps goes 8-bit!

2012-04-01T13:28:00.001-04:00

Google always changes some policy or violates some privacy agreement and causes a shitstorm, they then create something so cute and/or cool and almost everyone forgets and forgives. Or just forgets. Now Google Maps has added a new option called "Quest" and it turns your typical maps into 8-bit goodness, reminiscent to some NES games such as Zelda or Dragon Warrior. It might be an April Fool's only kinda thing or it may stick, either way it's pretty... um... blocky.

The option is right beside the other "view styles".


Proof that if Puerto Rico were a video game, it'd suck balls.


Perhaps the coolest tidbit is the "Street View" icon being replaced by what would pass off as a Dragon Warrior or Final Fantasy character.

Street View always has a distorted view but it resembles more a broken monitor/screen than 8-bit. There are many funny and curious Easter Eggs scattered across the globe. Visit Reddit to view the full list so far.

Politicos Inamibles: Noe Marcano

2012-04-01T10:00:00.000-04:00

This guy I instantly knew I wanted to do something with his face. His smirk is borderline mischievous, I first thought of Lex Luthor but I would've had to Photoshop Superman and a suit in there for it to be obvious.

The cultural reference list for bald people was quite extensive the more I thought about it.

All nice options but difficult to pull off in just one picture that still somehow resembled the original politician and that was more "globally" recognizable. My girlfriend came up with the idea of the Conehead and it was an instant "OHMYGODFUCKYES".

Gaming: The Online Nightmare

2012-03-31T13:59:00.001-04:00

I love video games. I'm not the oldest or most retro of gamers, I'm not even remotely "hardcore". But I grew up with them, and despite the fact neither my parents weren't rich, I had a nice collection and managed to have at least one console for each generation ever since my gaming debut on the Nintendo Entertainment System.

Forward two decades later and I find it more and more difficult to enjoy gaming as a "full-time hobby", two jobs, a wife (by society's definition even though I hate the term) and, well, other hobbies such as drinking and driving (since I'm short on time I do them at the same time). Whenever I do find the time to play, it becomes a little more difficult to enjoy modernized gaming.

My rant has a little something to do with the constant "cloud" and online interaction to do ANYTHING. Maybe I'm all "IHATEALLNEWTHINGS", but ever since online gaming popped its head in consoles and DRM became more and more anal, I feel many things are becoming too controlled, too "we have to know what you are doing, when you are doing it and when you plan to do it again". My most recent example has to do with Assassin's Creed: Revelations and its constant nagging of going online and checking for updates each time I want to play it. It's not even the auto-update-notification that irks but the fact they require you to register and log in each time you want to play the game.

Then it constantly reminds me as I'm about to journey into the game that I am not connected, I won't be able to play multiplayer or download extra content. Look, I KNOW I'm offline, I KNOW I don't want to be running around with other Altairs or Desmonds or whatever, I KNOW the game itself is fine as it is and extra content won't get me extra hours of gameplay so I don't care if I have it or not. I just want to PLAY THE DAMN THING.

Whatever happened to double-clicking and just playing?

And then come the actual updates or patches, these aren't mere patches, this is like downloading an old copy of Unreal Tournament. These things are huge, the second update was around 750MB! That's a whole CD worth of data, being treated as a frickin' patch. It's ridiculous. Sure, they fix things, sometimes many things, sometimes none that you can see, but if you have Auto-Updates enabled, that means one day you will be all pumped up to play the game and find yourself waiting a good amount of time for some application that works in the background to finish doing whatever it needs to do so you can kill virtual people.

Now I'm not against patches, or automatic notifications that there are patches available. But when a game tells you (and this happens a lot on PS3) that you need to update your firmware in order to play a game you just bought, and you've no way to connect to the Internet, what the hell are you going to do? "Oh connect it once, then you're good to go offline" NIGGER I SHOULDN'T BE REQUIRED TO LOG IN EVEN ONCE!

Who gives a flying rat's crap about this?

I could swallow installing games on a PC, that's how it worked with any application/program or driver on PCs. But then consoles started behaving more like PCs and it wasn't just popping a CD and playing it, it's now being online, whether you want it or not, and giving up privacy or just the mere option of offline play. Every game now gives you a "You're not connected, you won't be able to see leaderboards" WHO THE FUCK GIVES A SHIT ABOUT THIS SORT OF THING? Whatever happened to solo gaming without feeling the need to blurt about what you are doing, whenever you are doing it?

The only positive thing I see about online implementation is that sometimes split-screen on a TV was either ugly or too small and hindered the experience, or maybe you didn't like walking or driving to your buddy's house to hang out and beat each other up in Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter, and now you have the option to just find each other online and duke it out. That is perfect, it's something gamers yearned for years back when the only doable online clashing was either with first-person shooters or with real-time strategy games.

And then there's cases like when the server isn't available and the game is online-only, so you can't play the shit you buy because someone was too cool to burn it to a disc and have it ready for you to play even when you forget to pay the Internet bill or when Anonymous feels like having a laugh and attacking a server after breakfast.

Sadly, the only way around many of these issues is to download cracks and other workarounds and force the games to stay on your PC and not to blabber on about you playing to the rest of the world.

If Portal 2 was released in the 90's

2012-03-30T23:38:00.000-04:00

I don't know about you but I think this would've been one of the most interesting Tiger Electronics gaming whatchamacallits.

Original Link

Worried about Blogger's new dashboard

2012-03-30T14:07:00.000-04:00

I've been on and off making websites and/or layouts ever since I first wandered into Yahoo! Geocities, so coding (or rather editing code) is not exactly the easiest of tasks for me but I always manage to work something out. Well, I've liked all my layouts, I've used them all, eventually I ditch them all but with each new layout, the trend is they become easier on the eyes.

Now I'm proud of this one because it's just an image and some columns and it gets the point across, no problem with that. However, I rely heavily on editing existent HTML and/or CSS, something Blogger lets you mess with freely, or rather, they used to let you mess with it.

With "dynamic templates", things get simplified but other things get locked down. You can still edit some aspects but apparently venturing inside the code and manipulating it to your will may no longer be an option. The old Blogger layout would let you edit the HTML directly, this new layout when I browsed it, the only thing I cared for was that one button. I never found it, some sites claim to have found it but the truth is that it's most likely to be true implementation of "Edit HTML" in the interface is bound to go like this:

~~Download your template~~

Open it in an editor

Edit it

Upload it

Test it

~~While before it used to be like this:~~

~~Edit it in blogger's own window~~

Click "Preview

If satisfied, click "Save Template"

It's not such a big deal, until you're just changing a single number or hyphen, there's no way to test it quickly... Anyway, Blogger is making these changes mandatory in April so I will either leave my theme as it is, until I grow tired of it, or get used to a long and boring process of download/upload.
HAHAHAHA DISREGARD THAT, I SUCK COCKS

Yeah the new interface has "Edit HTML".

Politicos Inamibles: Jose Luis Dalmau

2012-03-26T15:48:00.001-04:00

My oh my, my second entry into this little section and I'm already a day behind. Anyhow, this guy is from the PPD (loosely translated to Popular Democratic Party), as opposed to Rey ~~Vargas~~ Vergas (who belongs to the PNP), the gag is obviously based on Angry Birds and the green pigs.

"Roba Huevos" means "Egg Stealer", the reference obviously towards the green pigs' favorite activity. Besides standing around waiting to be murdered. Not that I'm implying that this specific politician steals, because I don't know him or his past deeds or future plans. I'm actually implying that all politicians at some point steal, and quite frankly that's the main feedback we've gotten from our gay little imitation of a White House for a loooong time now.

Hell is a Conspiracy Theory - Proved false from The Bible

2012-03-26T10:30:00.014-04:00

This was originally posted by the user "Blue_Jay33" on AboveTopSecret.com back in 2009. I've kept it bookmarked and read it time and time again and looked up the reference bits on Bibles online. It is rather fascinating, even if you don't believe in anything like me, you can overlook what the book is talking about and focus on how bigoted the Church is regarding pushing fear at all costs just to get people to join their cause.

Sauce: http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread456908/pg1#

21-4-2009 @ 09:37 PM by Blue_Jay33

One of the greatest conspiracies within Christendom is the doctrine of "Hellfire" or "Hell"
Below is the basic theology and doctrine, it may deviate slightly from church to church but basically this is it:

Hell, in Christian beliefs, is a place or a state in which the souls of the unsaved will suffer the consequences of sin. The Christian doctrine of hell derives from the teaching of the New Testament, where hell is typically described using the Greek words Gehenna or Tartarus. Unlike Hades, Sheol, or "purgatory" it is eternal, and those damned to hell are without hope. In the New Testament, it is described as the place or state of punishment after death or last judgment for those who have rejected Jesus. In many classical and popular depictions it is also the abode of the devil and of evil spirits. Hell is generally defined as the eternal fate of unrepentant sinners after this life. Hell's character is inferred from biblical teaching, which has often been understood literally. Souls are said to pass into hell by God's irrevocable judgment, either immediately after death (particular judgment) or in the general judgment. Modern theologians generally describe hell as the logical consequence of the soul using its free will to reject the will of God. It is considered compatible with God's justice and mercy because God will not interfere with the soul's free choice. In some older English translations of the Bible (such as the KJV), the word "hell" is used to translate certain words such as sheol (Hebrew) and hades (Greek). These words do not typically refer to the place of eternal punishment, but to the underworld or temporary abode of the dead.

Opposition to this doctrine began early in the 20th century.

In what later appeared to be an attempt by the Pittsburgh ministerial alliance to discredit C. T. Russell's scholarship and Biblical views, on March 10, 1903, Dr. E. L. Eaton, minister of the North Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church, challenged Russell to a six-day debate. During each session of this debate, held that autumn in Allegheny's Carnegie Hall, on the whole Russell came off victorious. Among other things, he Scripturally maintained that the souls of the dead are unconscious while their bodies are in the grave and that the object of both Christ's second coming and the millennium is the blessing of all the families of the earth. Russell also made a very strong Biblical denial of the hellfire doctrine. Reportedly, one clergyman approached him after the last session of the debate and said: “I am glad to see you turn the hose on hell and put out the fire.” Interestingly, after this debate many members of Eaton's congregation became Bible Students.

Where we need to start is with our Greek and Hebrew and what the transliteration actually is. Transliteration is the representation of a foreign word by rendering the spelling in the alphabet of another language.

Hell is only an English word and that is key to understanding this false doctrine. Many translations of the bible insert "Hell" instead of using the following proper words, this confuses people. The correct words are Sheol, Hades, Gehenna & Tartarus.

Sheol

Sheol (pronounced "Sheh-ole"), in Hebrew שאול (Sh'ol) The common Grave of Mankind; Gravedom
Sheol is the common destination of both the righteous and the unrighteous dead, as recounted in Ecclesiastes and Job.

The following scripture shows how a bible reader could get confused, but then common sense comes into play.

Job 14 verse 13
Douay-Rheims Bible

Who will grant me this, that thou mayest protect me in hell, and hide me till thy wrath pass, and appoint me a time when thou wilt remember me?

I wish you would hide me in Sheol and keep me hidden there until your anger cools. Set a specific time for me when you will remember me.

Bible in Basic English

If only you would keep me safe in the underworld, putting me in a secret place till your wrath is past, giving me a fixed time when I might come to your memory again!

New Living English

I wish you would hide me in the grave
and forget me there until your anger has passed.
But mark your calendar to think of me again!

So what was Job really saying here? That he wanted to go to hell? To be safe and protected? Does that make any sense? No, he wanted to die and go to the grave, and then be remembered by God to be resurrected at a later date. He knew the principle behind Ecclesiastes 9 verse 10.

Amplified Bible

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol (the place of the dead), where you are going.

Whatever presents itself for you to do, do it with [all] your might, because there is no work, planning, knowledge, or skill in the grave where you're going.

Douay-Rheims Bible

Whatsoever thy hand is able to do, do it earnestly: for neither work, nor reason, nor wisdom, nor knowledge shall be in hell, whither thou art hastening

Previously, Ecclesiastes 9 verses 5 & 6 tell us the state of those in Sheol:

5 For the living know they will die; but the dead do not know anything, nor have they any longer a reward, for their memory is forgotten.

6 Indeed their love, their hate and their zeal have already perished, and they will no longer have a share in all that is done under the sun.

Death = non-existence = Sheol = common grave
Hell = Fictitious place of torment which was heavily sponsored by the church when the clergy taught this, hiding the true meaning of Sheol from the people.

Hades

Hades (from Greek ᾍδης, Hadēs, originally Ἅιδης, Haidēs or Άΐδης, Aidēs, probably from Proto-Indo-European *n̥-wid- "the unseen place". It also is the equivalent of the Latin word infernus which is again translated mistakenly into hell.

In Acts 2 verse 27 Peter quotes Psalms to link Hades and Sheol, so they are the same:

New American Standard Bible (©1995)

BECAUSE YOU WILL NOT ABANDON MY SOUL TO HADES, NOR ALLOW YOUR HOLY ONE TO UNDERGO DECAY.

because you do not abandon my soul to the grave or allow your holy one to decay.

King James Bible

Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.

Even Jesus spent some time in Hades as shown in Acts 2 verse 31!

American Standard Version

he foreseeing this spake of the resurrection of the Christ, that neither was he left unto Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption.

David knew that the Messiah would come back to life, and he spoke about that before it ever happened. He said that the Messiah wouldn't be left in the grave and that his body wouldn't decay.

King James Bible

He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.

Hades = Sheol = non-existence but with a hope of future life.

Gehenna

Symbol of Complete Destruction
Heb., גי הנם (geh hin·nom′, “valley of Hinnom”);
Gr., γέεννα (ge′en·na); Lat., ge·hen′na

"Gehenna" means "valley of Hinnom," for it is the Greek form of the Hebrew geh hin·nom′. In Jos 18:16, where “valley of Hinnom” occurs, LXX reads "Gehenna."
The valley of Hinnom lay to the west and south of ancient Jerusalem. (Jos 15:8; 18:16; Jer 19:2, 6) Under the later kings of Judah it was used for the idolatrous worship of the pagan god Molech, to which god human sacrifices were offered by fire. (2Ch 28:3; 33:6; Jer 7:31, 32; 32:35) To prevent its use again for such religious purposes, faithful King Josiah had the valley polluted, particularly the part called Topheth.—2Ki 23:10.

The Jewish commentator David Kimḥi (1160?-1235?), in his comment on Ps 27:13, gives the following historical information concerning "Gehinnom": "And it is a place in the land adjoining Jerusalem, and it is a loathsome place, and they throw there unclean things and carcasses. Also there was a continual fire there to burn the unclean things and the bones of the carcasses. Hence, the judgment of the wicked ones is called parabolically Gehinnom."

The valley of Hinnom became the dumping place and incinerator for the filth of Jerusalem. Bodies of dead animals were thrown in to be consumed in the fires to which sulphur, or brimstone, was added to assist the burning. Also bodies of executed criminals, who were considered undeserving of a decent burial in a memorial tomb, were thrown in. If such dead bodies landed in the fire they were consumed, but if their carcasses landed upon a ledge of the deep ravine their putrefying flesh became infested with worms, or maggots, which did not die until they had consumed the fleshy parts, leaving only the skeletons.

No living animals or human creatures were pitched into Gehenna to be burned alive or tormented. Hence, the place could never symbolize an invisible region where human souls are tormented eternally in literal fire or attacked forever by undying worms. Because the dead criminals cast there were denied a decent burial in a memorial tomb, the symbol of the hope of a resurrection, Gehenna was used by Jesus and his disciples to symbolize everlasting destruction, annihilation from God's universe, or "second death," an eternal punishment.

Therefore, to have one's dead body cast into Gehenna was considered the worst kind of punishment. From the literal Gehenna and its significance, the symbol of the 'lake burning with fire and sulphur' was drawn.—Re 19:20; 20:14, 15; 21:8.

What's interesting is that death & hell/Hades get thrown into it, seems strange, they aren't alive, so they can't die.

Revelation 20 verse 14
International Standard Version (©2008)

Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. (This is the second death-the lake of fire.)

King James Bible

And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

How can hell/hades/death have a second death??? They don't.

Gehenna = Lake of fire = Second Death = non-existence with no hope of a return for all eternity.

So when that scripture is fulfilled, Hades no longer exists, if somebody dies after this scripture is fulfilled they don't go to Hades, they go into Gehenna which is non-existence, for some it will be literally a second death because they will have come out of Hades only to rebel against God after a period of time. That's what John 5 verses 28 & 29 speaks about:

28 Don’t be so surprised! Indeed, the time is coming when all the dead in their graves will hear the voice of God’s Son, 29 and they will rise again. Those who have done good will rise to experience eternal life, and those who have continued in evil will rise to experience judgment.

Notice it says "continue in evil", that's right, they are not judged on their past sins, only if they persist in evil and bad ways after God brings them back from the grave/Hades/Sheol will they then go into Gehenna experiencing the second death.

It is permanent destruction of soul and body as Jesus warned about in Matthew 10 verse 28:

Young's Literal Translation

And be not afraid of those killing the body, and are not able to kill the soul, but fear rather Him who is able both soul and body to destroy in Gehenna.

Stop being afraid of those who kill the body but can't kill the soul. Instead, be afraid of the one who can destroy both body and soul in hell.

This is also another example of poor translation as we have clearly shown the difference between Gehenna and Hades and hell, again this misleads the common Bible reader.

Tartarus

"Tartarus"
2Pe 2:4—"By throwing them into Tartarus"
Gr., Tar·ta·ro′sas; Lat., de·trac′tos in Tar′ta·rum;
Syr., ‛a·gen ’e·nun beThach·ta·ya·th
"Tartarus" is found only in 2Pe 2:4. It is included in the Greek verb tar·ta·ro′o, and so in rendering the verb, the phrase "by throwing them into Tartarus" has been used.

In the Iliad, by the ancient poet Homer, the word tar′ta·ros denotes an underground prison as far below Hades as the Earth is below Heaven. Those confined in it were not human souls, but the lesser gods, spirits, namely, Cronus and the other Titans who had rebelled against Zeus (Jupiter). It was the prison established by the mythical gods for the spirits whom they had driven from the celestial regions, and it was below the Hades where human souls were thought to be confined at death. In mythology tar′ta·ros was the lowest of the lower regions and a place of darkness. It enveloped all the underworld just as the Heavens enveloped all that was above the Earth. Therefore, in pagan Greek mythology tar′ta·ros was reputed to be a place for confining, not human souls, but Titan spirits, and a place of darkness and abasement.

The inspired Scriptures do not consign any human souls to tar′ta·ros but consign there only spirit creatures, namely, "the angels that sinned." Their being cast into tar′ta·ros denotes the deepest abasement for them while they are still living. This serves as punishment for their sin of rebellion against the Most High God. The apostle Peter associates darkness with their low condition, saying that God "delivered them to pits of dense darkness to be reserved for judgment."—2Pe 2:4.

The pagans in their mythological traditions concerning Cronus and the rebellious Titan gods presented a distorted view regarding the abasement of rebellious spirits. In contrast, Peter's use of the verb tar·ta·ro′o, "cast into Tartarus," does not signify that "the angels that sinned" were cast into the pagan mythological Tartarus, but that they were abased by the Almighty God from their heavenly place and privileges and were delivered over to a condition of deepest mental darkness respecting God’s bright purposes. Also they had only a dark outlook as to their own eventuality, which the Scriptures show is everlasting destruction along with their ruler, Satan the Devil. Therefore, Tartarus denotes the lowest condition of abasement for those rebellious angels.

In the inspired Scriptures, Tartarus bears no relationship to Hades, which is the common grave of the human dead. The sinful angels and the dead human souls are not associated together in tar′ta·ros as a place of eternal conscious torment of creatures. Tartarus will pass away when the Supreme Judge destroys the rebellious angels presently in that condition of abasement.

2 Peter 2 verse 4
International Standard Version (©2008)

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but threw them into the lowest hell and imprisoned them in chains of deepest darkness, holding them for judgment;

Young's Literal Translation

For if God messengers who sinned did not spare, but with chains of thick gloom, having cast them down to Tartarus, did deliver them to judgment, having been reserved,

Again poor translation that misleads.

Abyss

Less controversial, but some might think Satan is in hell here.
He isn't, again there no Hell, in fact Satan never goes into Hades/Sheol that's only for humans that die.

Revelation 20 verse 3
International Standard Version (©2008)

He threw him into the bottomless pit, locked it, and sealed it over him to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were over. After that he must be set free for a little while.

and he threw him into the Abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be released for a short time.

Bible in Basic English

And put him into the great deep, and it was shut and locked over him, so that he might put the nations in error no longer, till the thousand years were ended: after this he will be let loose for a little time.

No humans ever go into this Abyss, in that way it is related to Tartarus but it's not the same. Satan and his Demons have no mobility in this jail-like location.

Hypothetical scenario

Imagine a spirit trapped at the very bottom of the Mariana Trench, because it doesn't need food, water or oxygen to survive, it could exist there. But it also has no ability to affect anybody or anything. It would have no ability to even know what was happening on the Earth. We don't know if Satan will even be conscious for this period of time, whatever the situation, being in the Abyss, takes away all his power over humanity.

Revelation 20 verse 7
International Standard Version (©2008)

When the thousand years are over, Satan will be freed from his prison.

Amplified Bible

7 And when the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his place of confinement,

The Message

7 When the thousand years are up, Satan will be let loose from his cell

It sure seems like the Abyss is the equivalent of solitary confinement for a spirit.

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Hell is a Conspiracy Theory - Proved false from The Bible

Stop Feeling Sorry For Them - They're Selfish (Score:-1)
by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 25, @06:42PM (#39801153)