I have been given the opportunity recently to be heavily entertained by some of the rumors that circulate about me. I think though, that the highest point of the entertainment is how I've noticed that word of mouth works best when it is portraying something negative. I have noticed that when only one person has actually met me and has a problem with me (bound to happen no matter what anyone does) then they get on the internet to whine about it, or spend their day obsessing and talking about it, then there suddenly sprouts an entire group who's only knowledge is that this guy doesn't like me or has a problem with me... then without having met me or having any knowledge of what the problem with this person really was decides to hate me too. It's no big deal, it bothers me not, what it does is weed out any of the stupids from trying to spend their time with or around me, in the end it turns into a bit of a favor since I don't really handle stupid very well.

Another value of this that entertains me is the ridiculous inaccuracy of a lot of these rumors. Let me tell you guys something about me, I don't hide anything, you hide things when you are doing something immoral, wrong, or that you are ashamed of... and usually only when you are doing it on purpose or within the bounds of your control. So once again, I don't hide anything, so if anyone wants to ask me anything I'll answer honestly to the extent of my knowledge. So right now I'll be tackling a rumor I've been asked about, in public view, so that there won't be anymore need to explain this very long string of events.

The rumor in question is actually somewhat old... the claim is that I was the one responsible for the shut down of the arcade machines at A-Kon 15. Here's how the story goes: Norma, my lady friend at the time, and I showed up later than we'd hoped. The first thing I wanted to do was make sure where the arcade was and say hello to Anime Nathan who tends to run the arcade (possibly was the owner of those machines), we'd met and befriended each other at Itzacon the previous year. The machines were running, everything was as it should be, but Norma did not want us to jump straight into the arcade so I agreed that we would return in a couple of hours. A couple of hours later we return and everything is off, I asked Nathan what was going on, and he told me someone in the convention "ratted them out" to a "local vender" (i.e. a nearby arcade owner) who came in, noted that their machines did not have tax tags and apparently threatened to report them. This was the first year at the Adam's Mark Hotel and at previous locales either no one cared or no one noticed. Under the circumstances Nathan had to shut everything down and wait until they could get the tags. Maybe another hour and a half or so we came back and he informed us that he was told they wouldn't be able to obtain the tags until Monday (after the convention was over). That of course, sucked, and was unacceptable. So Nathan and I brainstormed possibly ways to get things back up and running in a loophole-ish manner. I came up with a Tornado Terry's-esque idea that we would basically rope off an area for the games that were most important, put them on free play, and charge for admission. This way the machines didn't need the tags to be legal operable. Nathan discussed it with some colleagues and they gave the idea the go ahead. For those who payed for admission afterwards, it was what... $10 for four-six hours? I had nothing to do with the pricing, if you felt it was too expensive, I'm sorry. Though as a "thank you" for coming up with a solution I was offered the chance to pay $40 for admission that would last for the rest of the convention. I took the deal, but then had $20 refunded when we ended up only returning once more and leaving the convention early... Nathan is just cool like that. The fact behind this rumor, is that whoever went and reported them to the "local vendor" in question, did so before I had even arrived at the convention. It's pretty fucked up that someone would do that. So not only did I not cause the problem, I actually was quite critical to its solution, if any of the A-Kon goers wants to verify any of it you can ask Anime Nathan yourself. Very backwards, that rumor is.

Last thoughts on Mass Effect... first, the teammates. Garrus is completely useless, we'll classify him as weak and purely suicidal, this is highly due to the fact that he always seems to find himself deepest in whatever conflict may be happening and next to every explosion that happens. Tali can be pretty amazing when managed well. Ashley seems to be one part human, two parts bad ass, she only seems to die when things go horribly wrong. Wrex is amazing, not only are his battle skills up to snuff, but he wears heavy armor with amazing stats, has decent biotic abilities, and he has some of the best lines in the game IMO. Kaiden... is just sort of there, I guess? I don't really use him... never have, probably never will, the little exposure I've had to him puts him in the useless category. Finally... Liara + Singularity (a biotic ability) = win. Not only does her use of biotics keep the battlefield going in your favor (for the most part) but it also seems to keep her behind you, and therefore, out of the line of fire between you and your targets. Really the largest problem with some of them is their habits of getting right between you and your prey... Wrex seems to have a huge issue with this due to his mountain-like stature, whereas Tali seems to have it for no reason at all really. A lot of the time if you need to destroy something explosive you'll spend a few minutes relocating teammates so they won't get hurt, only to find out while you were destroying it they wandered back into the damage zone.

Finally, there's the decryption method. Now, when you run into doors, lockers, or anything else that is electronically locked there is a high chance that you'll run into this method. I suppose they had to work with what they had to work with. It certainly beats the Pipe Dream ripoff that the hacking methods in Bio Shock use. All in all it isn't a big deal until you need to survey minerals or check a corpse... I really don't see how the same decryption skill, which would be used on electronics and gadgetry, is now somehow being used when looking around and/or picking something up, checking a dead body doesn't seem like it would be highly technical either. So keep this in mind, when needing to light up a stick to place next to valuable minerals, you need decoding skills... but when surveying out in fucking space, you need only press the A button one time.

Anyways, it's late and I'm tired. Later.