Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Steven Johnson wrote an excellent piece entitled "Hillary vs. the Xbox: Game Over" that was run in the LA Times two days ago. I believe that he has conveyed my sentiments in almost every way regarding this issue.

Should "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" be re-rated? Sure. If what is contained within the game makes it fall under another category, then it should be rated accordingly.

Here's something that has bugged me since I first heard about this hidden code in the game: In order to see the actual explicit scenes that are undeniably coded into the game, you must download a modification program that can read the code. It's not like little Jimmy is simply playing the game and suddenly he is seeing a sexually explicit scene. I find the outrage about this that is being portrayed by politicians to be completely ridiculous.

Here's a game that already contains an ESRB rating of Mature that "may contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content, and/or strong language" and may be suitable for people 17 years or older. With the new scene having been discovered, the game now contains an ESRB rating of Adults Only which means that it "may include prolonged scenes of intense violence and/or graphic sexual content and nudity" and should only be played by people 18 years or older.

Evidently, that one years makes a huge difference in a person's life. I guess I didn't realize that the pivotal year in the establishment of my morality occurred when I was 17. I guess that when I had just turned 17 I was too young and naive to understand the difference between right and wrong and actions taken in a video game and those performed in the real world. Looking back, I suppose that the day I turned 18 I finally had reached the point where I could finally handle scenes of prolonged intense violence, graphic sexual nudity content and nudity. I'm told that when I was 17 I wasn't able to handle such things in the same manner.

Am I making my point clear?
Somewhere, some group of adults sat in a room and had long meetings over exactly what content was going to be allowed in a video game before it would be given a certain rating. Now I am assuming that at least some of these adults are people that played Pong, Atari, Commodore64, Intellivision and Nintendo while growing up. (Perhaps that is a big assumption.) Did these people suffer greatly from playing video games that [*GASP*] didn't have any rating on them whatsoever? I don't think so. Their parents probably helped pick out video games for them or at least knew what their kids were playing and maybe even talked to them about what the game was about and how to play it. And somehow, without a rating system, these kids turned out alright.

I think the key point of all of this is that parents need to be aware of what their children are watching and playing. Would a parent who actually knew what went on in the "Grand Theft Auto" games actually find such a "hidden" scene to be all that surprising? Are you kidding me? These games have always been about committing crimes and running from the cops. In fact, would these people even know that in the actual game itself, without any downloaded modification, you can kill a policeman and celebrate it? I doubt it. The entire game is built around the premise that there are no sacred laws and that anything you can get away with is fine. For goodness sakes, even the title implies that the game is focussed on breaking the law.

Yet, suddenly there is a big fuss being made over the "hidden" content of this game. Let's be real clear about this: there is no magic age at which children suddenly realize the difference between reality and a video game world. They learn it through experience, common sense and time. It's a natural progression.

Are violent video games to blame for teenagers committing crimes? No.
Do they help the issue by glorifying such acts and making them the end goal in a virtual world? Probably not.

But I don't think it is right to place any behavior exhibited by a teenager on a video game.

In order to see these scenes, a person must own the game and use the modification. If the person owns the game, then there are three possible ways in which they obtained the game. 1 - They were 17 or older and bought the game. 2 - Their parents bought them the game. 3 - They stole the game.

If they were 17 or older, then why should it matter what surprises are found in the game. Let's be real here, it's not exactly like they bought Mario Party and suddenly the Princess is giving Mario a blowjob. They bought Grand Theft Auto and planned on stealing cars, shooting people, blowing things up, seeing racy scenes and hearing profanity-laced dialogue. Now, if they do a little extra work, they just have an extra scene which is nothing that they can't see on MTV or in a rated R movie.

If their parents bought them the game because they weren't 17 yet, then the parents are responsible for exposing their children to anything and everything that is contained in the game. Sure the parents maybe didn't realize how violent the game is or maybe they didn't know what the storyline is, but that is their own faulty and not the manufacturer's. Anyone who would buy this game for their child obviosly doesn't give a rip about the ESRB rating system anyway, so why does it matter. To complain about the content of the game in such a situation is like buying a ticket for your child to get into a Rated R film, only to discover that for 30 seconds of the show they are exposed to a little more than you were thinking they might see and hear.

If the person stole the video game, well... It seems like they might be well on their way to mastering the game itself. I don't think they have decided to steal it in order to hopefully live out what is portrayed in the hidden scene. No, they stole it for the rush. They stole it because they couldn't afford it. They stole it because they are a thief and that is what they do. They didn't steal it because that is what they did in another video game.

A lot of teenagers are doing more sexually in real life than anything that can be found hidden in "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas". While I don't condone the placement of such a scene within the programming of a game that is geared towards young people, I find it hard to believe the outrage that is being manufactured by the politicians and such.

Any problem with society doesn't stem from what a child has seen in a video game.
It's not about what they have played on a computer, XBox or PS2.

I believe it is grounded in the fact that parents are farther removed from their children today and take little if any interest in what their children are watching and playing. You can't blame that on the folks at RockStar Games who made the game and you can't blame it on the ESRB for placing an appropriate rating on the game with the information it had at hand.

Place the blame where it belongs - on parents who aren't doing enough to teach their children right and wrong. That's not what video games are made for...

March of the Penguins

AKA - Marche de l'empereur, La

My wife and I went to see this film last night.
If you enjoy nature at all, then I think you will enjoy this film.

With spectacular views of a place on earth that most people will never see with their own eyes, the "March of the Penguins" follows the life-cycle of the Emperor penguins of Antarctica. With their regal appearance and wobbly walk, these creatures totally misrepresent their ability to survive one of the harshest climates in the world.

The stark contrast between the blue and white ice encrusted landscape and the black, white and yellow dappled penguins is breathtaking in numerous scenes. The steps that these creatures go through to propogate the survival of the species and care for their young is amazing. Although seemingly ill-equipped to endure such brutal conditions, these adult penguins go to extraordinary lengths to provide and care for their offspring.

The film clocks in at an hour and twenty minutes. It's hard to justify paying full price for such a short adventure, but this film puts up a good argument for it. Thankfully, we went to a "rush hour show" and paid the discounted price of $6. I think that even if we had paid full ticket price to see this film we would have still walked away satisfied.

I learned quite a bit about penguins that I had never known before. (To qualify that statement, let me say that my wife and I have spent quite a bit of time in the "Penguin and Puffin Coast" exhibit at the St. Louis Zoo and have spoken with several park rangers about them.) The exchange of the newly laid egg from mother to father was quite interesting. The length of time that the father cared for the egg was mind-boggling. The way the two parents traded places to walk for food and return to feed the baby was totally amazing.

While the film tends to anthropomorphize the penguins on several occasions, it is still a great film. The story of these penguins is easy to appreciate visually. Morgan Freeman provides the narrative in the United States version and does a fine job not hindering the images being played out in front of you.

The film is slowly making its way into more theaters, which I think is a great development. It's rated G, so feel free to take the children. Be warned however that unless your children are totally fascinated with penguins, they may have a hard time focussin on the film for the duration. Much of the action is subtle and the storyline is more of a drama than an action film.

At a time when Hollywood is force-feeding the masses with explosions, lots of skin and thread-bare plots, it is refreshing to see a film that allows the natural elements and creatures of this world take center stage and provide their own type of action and drama.

Grandma and Grandson

I received this in an e-mail from a friend today and just felt like posting it.
Sue me, I'm a bit busy today...

An elderly woman and her little grandson, whose face was sprinkled with bright freckles, spent the day at the zoo. Lots of children were waiting in line to get their cheeks painted by a local artist who was decorating them with tiger paws.

"You've got so many freckles, there's no place to paint!" a girl in the line said to the little fella. Embarrassed, the little boy dropped his head.

His grandmother knelt down next to him "I love your freckles. When I was a little girl I always wanted freckles, she said, while tracing her finger across the child's cheek. "Freckles are beautiful!"

The boy looked up, "Really?"

"Of course," said the grandmother. "Why, just name me one thing that's prettier than freckles."

The little boy thought for a moment, peered intensely into his grandma's face, and softly whispered, "Wrinkles."

Don't make fun of children or the elderly - they are your past and future.

Super Hits!

Usually, this site recieves slightly fewer hits on Friday than it does the rest of the weekdays and then ever fewer on the weekend. Today, it has already received 190+ hits. Anyone care to tell me how they ended up here?

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad you stopped by, but the sudden increase in traffic is mind-boggling and I can't figure it out for the life of me.

Drunken Hands

Here's what I just witnessed in the hallway:

Person #1 walks up to Person #2 and starts the conversation off with "Do you ever duct tape beer bottles to your hands?"

Person #2 says "No. Why?"

Person #1 begins walking away and says "I knew a girl once who did that and so I ask different people from time to time to see if they do it."

Person#2 is left in the hallway alone.

Okay, there are several things about this that pop out in my mind.
1 - Who starts and ends a conversation like that?
2 - Who asks someone a question like that without any prior introduction or conversation?
3 - Who duct tapes beer bottles to their hands?
4 - Why would they do it? If you are too drunk to hang onto the bottle, then you should put it down.
5 - What kind of person goes around asking random people such a random question?
6 - Are you taking a poll to see if people think it is weird? It is!
7 - You might be considered even weirder for asking around about the behavior.

Let it go.
Don't ever ask the question again.
Read a book about interpersonal communication.
Don't ever tell anyone else anything else about "people you know" ever again.

Help A Fellow Blogger Out

I'm not sure if this guy still needs survey help or not (since the date is passed be a few weeks), but it can't hurt. Plus, it's kind of cool to see the results.

Very unCool

Wanna know what sucks?

When your A/C at work decides that it doesn't want to cool anything anymore.
That's what happened here yesterday around noon. Immediately the temperature in the building started climbing. By 2:30 it was almost 90 in here.

Wanna know what sucks worse than that?
I walk into the building today and the temperature in here is exactly the same as the temperature outside - 78 degrees. I've talked to several of our maintenance guys and they are telling me that today will be much worse than yesterday. In fact, our building's A/C isn't really cooling at all - it's just blowing around the air. So as more people show up and the temperature outside rises our building has the possibility of becoming a greenhouse hell.

In order to postpone the inevitable as long as possible, we have turned of every light possible. So we sit here in the dark, with the majority of the light coming from our computer screens. I can here the air coming from the vent above me, but I know it is just betraying me. I know it isn't cool. I can feel it warming up in here already.

It should be a fun day.

Randomonium

Perhaps I will post something more substantial later today.
But for now, here are some random things that have caught my attention lately:

Color of the Day T-Shirts

Surveillance Camera Pic of the London Bombers

"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" is available for free online

The Fall of Hollywood

Outsource Your Job and Earn More

Coke Uses 500,000 Liters a Day in India During Water Shortage

Haunted in My Dreams

I've dreamt of you on several occasions and wake up feeling guilty.
You see, you have this bad habit of haunting me in my dreams.
It's not that you do anything abnormal or crazy - you just are yourself.
And that still has a way of turning me into a mushmouthed man.
Sometimes the space between us in my dream is almost insignificant.
Did you move closer to me?
Did I walk closer to you?

My dreams have changed.
In my former dreams, we shared a house, a dog and a huge bed that served us well.
We laughed, we cried, we talked, we walked, we played, we slept and we were everything we could be.

I've kissed you before, but only in my dreams.
I haven't done that since I've been married.
So I am not sure why this feeling of guilt arrises within me when I dream of you at night.
I awake startled and slightly confused.
I wonder why you haunt me so.

And then I reach out and carress my wife's back or hip or shoulder and realize that everything is as it should be in this world...

Of Rain and Pain

Let the rain fall steadily towards the earth.
Let it come in waves of downpours and sprinkles.
Let the precipitation fall here and now.
Let it continue for the day and possibly tomorrow.

Let a storm that brought devastation to one part of our country bring renewed life to another portion of it. Let the rain fall on ground that will bring forth food in the fall and help feed those who have been battered this week. Let the deprived plants explode in color and bloom again.

Sometimes it's easier to find the silver lining of a real cloud than it is to find any good in certain events. Sure, there are stories of heroic deeds and selfless acts. There are stories of strangers helping each other and people from different classes encouraging one another onward. But in the cloud that envelopes London these days, it's hard to see any silver lining.

Here's to hoping that such a devastating moment can be followed by a resilience and unity that has the ability to overcome such tragedy.

Holiday Weekend Recap

Housework... BBQ... Fireworks... Crowds...
Housework... BBQ... Fireworks... Crowds...

That pretty much sums it up.

One quick little story:

Our neighbor threw a little party on Saturday that lasted into the evening. As the sun set, the fireworks began. I knew that they would be shooting them off until late in the evening, but I was not prepared for what was about to transpire. As I laid down to go to bed I heard what sounded like a pack of firecrackers exploding. Now this is nothing unusual. In fact, I have been known to set off 25, 50 even a couple 100 packs at a time in my day, so I can appreciate the flury of rapid explosions.

What was amazingly different about this particular "pack" of firecrackers exploding in the night was the length at which they continued to burst. After 2 minutes I thought "Man, that's a lot of firecrackers." After 4 minutes, I began to try and calculate how many of those little bombs had gone off already. After 5 minutes I began to think that perhaps I was simply exhausted and had dozed off and missed the ending of one particular blast session and had awakened int he midst of another. But no, my wife assured em that it was all one coninuous explosion. Well, approximately 12 minutes after the bombardment on my auditory senses began, then percussive sounds gave way to an eerie silence which was followed a few seconds later by cheering and whistling. Over 12 minutes of firecrackers exploding continuously! Holy crap! All I could do was laugh at the absurdity of it all.

If you figure how fast a pack of 50 firecrackers goes up, that amounts to a heck of a lot of firecrackers. And it wasn't just a pop every second or so, it was multiple explosions every second, with hardly any silence in between explosions. That's a lot of money up in smoke in a short time. Thankfully, I didn't have to pay to get to enjoy to the show.

Anyone else see or hear any crazy fireworks displays put on by their neighbors?