THAT JUST HAPPENED!

john oliver

I am a regular listener of the bugle. John Oliver and Andy Zaltzman's podcast. From time to time they ask readers to e-mail in. Andy's wife is going to have a baby any day now, and he was asking to mail in names for the Zaltzman spawn.

I e-mailed some names in. The tried and true King Arthur, Optimus Prime, and hella. John Oliver reads my letter at minute 26. It was a little thrilling for me.

http://podcast.timesonline.co.uk/serve.php/1916/thebuglefinal56.mp3

club nintendo finally goes live

Club nintendo is finally available for North America! When you buy a nintendo product and register it, you earn points to spend on the club nintendo site. Once you have enough points, you can order something neat to be shipped to you. It is a nice bonus, and sometimes they have very very cool stuff to offer. Sometimes.... not. But you know- they all can't be winners.

Here are some things that japan has gotten over the past couple years.

An snes style controller to be plugged into the wii remote for virtual console games.

Personalized Wii remotes and exclusive games

Children.

I'm looking forward to some cool free stuff!

PUMA! GITAROO!

Gitaroo man is my new favorite game. I just wish, like all Japanese rhythm games, it was a little easier. You play as a kid in a long line of gitaroo wielders who would rather learn to skateboard so he can get the girl of his dreams. When trouble arises Puma, his dog, throws him the gitaroo and he turns into gitaroo man! To save the planet with rock and learn to believe in yourself!



it gives me flashbacks of Elite Beat Agents. Which- is also worth a play if you haven't tried it out.

perfect

robocop is a death machine

some boring informative thing

a romantic song

nsfw

learning the man-ual.

Yesturday I put in some shelves. I even used those plastic dealies that come with screws so they don't rip out the wall.

full steam ahead

I just joined valve's steam network. I don't have any games, and don't really plan on buying any games anytime soon.... but i am accepting friend requests!

http://steamcommunity.com/id/nickfill

Apparently parallels 4 runs so well that it actually lets you play decent games. Valve puts great games out on the source engine which isn't a resource hog, so i'll probably be able to play those. I'm downloading the bioshock demo to see if it'll run right now, however i doubt i'll be playing crysis.

trashing electorics

The mentality of the modern consumer is to buy something until it wares out and then trash it to get another. Rarely do we ever replace parts or repair anything. I thought maybe i'd try to get a little more knowledgeable about electronics in the last couple years. The best i've done is bringing a dead hard drive back to life.

Today I did my fist soldering. Well... desoldering. There was a ball of solder on a board that i actually had to solder off the thing before the board would become active. After a lot of trial and error i actually managed to do it.

I have completely fixed up dan goats' old xbox 360 that he gave to me after it crashed. It cost me 15 (maybe 10?) dollars for a new cd rom laser and another 5 dollars for Wd-40. Now the thing is running like a tank after having constant problems with the cdrom drive. First it wouldn't spin discs so i dismantled the thing and sprayed the spindle/rails in the cdrom. Then the laser went slowly but surely. Replaced that today. xboxes now (after a price drop) go for about 200 bucks so i think it was a decent investment, and i learned a whole lot. Hopefully i just put at least 5 more years into the (very fragile) system.

The only thign to fear is the red ring of death.

birthday

Whenever i get a year older I kind of re-evaluate things. See what has changed. One thing i always try to do is psych myself up for beards. Every fucking year i think to myself. Yes. This is your year. Beardtown USA population Filardi. All year i see sweet hipster beards and lust after them. If i talk to Dane for more than an hour, he has a beard at the end of our conversation. Everywhere I seem to go, my naked chin mocks me in its nakedness. Once and a while i tempt fate. I try to grow one. Thinking- sure... maybe it just needs a couple days or something. I gotta give it time. Maybe i just have some slow face workers. The reward i get for that week of cringing looks on the subway is 8 weird half inch long hairs scattered on my face. I don't get a forest, i get a couple trees.

Imagine my surprise when i read on the huffington post today "obama: 'i can't grow facial hair." Maybe 2009 will be the year of the bare face with a few wiskers. If anyone can bring that bizare look into style, Obama can (yes we can).

My mother (god bless her!) picked me up a few things from amazon.

I'm probably most excited to read that John Hodgman book. Lately i'm on a daily show thats not the daily show kick. I've been listening to a lot of John Oliver's podcast with Andy Zaltzman called the bugle over at times online, and loving it. Then Hodgman showed up in another podcast i listen to called you look nice today: a journal of emotional hygiene and had some really fantasic and funny moments. He was pushing his book. I'll gladly accept the push. Daily show without daily show- i love it.

Incidently- you look nice today often jokes about a subject that I often feel is happening around me: not getting the MANual. Like- not knowing how to change a tire, or tie a tie. Not knowing dad things and feeling foolish. I guess I'm kind of at the age of feeling foolish with that stuff, getting over it and then learning it.

Birthdays are days of self evlauation milestones. I currently have over 50 physical games (this isn't counting intangible ones and zeros on the computer and console, or retro games beyond last generation of consoles) that i have bought and never played. This is getting out of hand. I atribute the huge splurge on games to acouple things. The last generation of consoles are on their way out over the next year or so. The ps2 is still holding on, but it won't be for long. So all those used games are going super cheap now. I can't resist the bargin, and with a finite number of used copies around I seem to panic and think to myself something along the lines of if I don't buy it now, it'll never be avalible again. Which- might be true, but probably won't be. Clearly, I am thrifty and paniced. I also atribute it to the fact that whenever i really start to collect or get into a new thing, i do it to a retarded extreme. The only thing that i've seem to collect at a moderate pace through most of my life has been comics. To change all this, or at least take it down a notch, I'm going to try not go into a brick and morter gamestop for video games for the next 4 months. It seems a little drastic to go from buying like crazy for a good six months (at least) to buying nothing, but i feel like i gotta get cut off. If i tell myself i'll do it in moderation nothing will change. Plus maybe now instead of buying games, i'll buy a few necessities that i always need but never seem to buy.

Speaking of- i got a pair of coffee mugs from the valve store. I don't know if this is a "speaking of games" or "speaking of stuff i always need but never buy for myself." Pretty much all the dishes in the house here are holly's. I'd like to pick up a few mugs at least considering my love of coffee. These do the trick.

The black mesa mug states "Delivering the Future" and the aperture labs one states "A trusted friend in science." Mugs are a nice low key way of displaying the pure nerd sensations i feel to valve without getting a really stupid nerdy shirt covered in text... although.... i do like that "good dog" shirt.

SO- nick filardi at 27: He is going to actually play the games he buys before he buys more. He is going to get the MANual. He is going to buy necessities. He is going to grow a beard, or bring weird wiskers into style. He might pay his taxes :)

how nerdcore should be done

sniper twins

H.P. Papercraft

http://www.youtube.com/user/fortaxreasons has some other great cartoon shorts like this one.

If you didn't laugh at it.... you're.... probably cooler than i am.

I can appreciate this, like i would a fine wine.

In case you've never seen it- the whitest kids you know will explain this picture.

black friday haulz

I'm curious if anyone had jumped on the buy 2 get 1 free deal that gamestop was running. It was only for used games which was a little bit of a bummer because there are a handful of games that i would love to play on the ps2 that i seem to only find new.

Here is what i picked up- plus 2 games i got from best buy.


The turok and simpsons games came from best buy. 15 and 10. The rest were buy 2 get 1. They are pretty much all games that were hovering around 20ish dollars that i kinda wanted, but had been waiting for it to drop a little lower. I went today (Saturday) so maybe if i went earlier i could have gotten a few others that I either couldn't find or the instructions weren't in the box. Oh well. Maybe I'll hit up the 3rd gamestop in my area tomorrow and see if I can get some yakuza and persona 3 fes. Maybe another xbox controller.

I cracked simpsons, turok, and ghost squad already but none of the others. As a pretty big simpsons fan, i'm kinda in love with that game and glad i bought it new. Hopefully EA will make a sequel. It is a really beautiful game. Turok was ok. I played the demo and knew what i was getting into. The game's shooter mechanics are dripping with mediocrity, but hey... you get to shoot at dinosaurs. Thats fun. Ghost squad is pretty fantastic. I love light gun games and this one doesn't disappoint. Again- i hope that the wii comes out with more light gun games. It is the perfect platform for it.

The first tomb raider game was probably the first game I ever remember owning on the pc. I was pretty young and got it for christmas. I didn't play it a whole lot. The fact there was nothing to consistantly shoot at frusterated me, and i didn't understand that the game was more about exploration then turning miss croft into the worst peta member ever. I'm hopeing that the remake on an hd set will look fantastic and get me back into a franchise of games that has at least a few titles that people love. Heres hopeing that round 2 between me and tomb raider goes well.

I played both jedi knight games on the PC back when i had one and wasn't so apple centric. No more pc- no more pc games. I really loved them when they first came out and was glad i could get them for my collection at a decent price. Looking forward to another play through on the xbox sometime next year when the new games coming out slow down and we get over this manic holiday season. Which... on to new games...



so far left 4 dead has taken up most of the gaming time i've had. You move from point A to point B in the game and try to survive. Very little story at all. The campaines are short so you can play through them fairly quickly. I love that because i can play for 45 minutes in between a set of pages for work and still feel like i achived something in game rather than like i just got started. There is something to be said for marathon gaming, and i do enjoy doing that... but i rarely get the time to, and when i do I only occasionally choose to do that over hanging out with people. This formula makes it kinda difficult for me to get through games like bioshock, but perfect for portal.
The real beauty of left 4 dead is the fact that because you have to work together as a team no game is ever the same. The layout of the level is, but weapons spawn in different areas and so do zombies. I played a great game with sean brennan where one of the AI survivors couldn't really make it to the safe area through a mob of zombies. Sean went out to save him, but couldn't. I was shooting at him so he would go down faster and I could save myself. And yes, i would do that in a real invasion too.



at a nice second place is mirrors edge. A parkor running game where it is encouraged not to fight or even hold a weapon. The game is ment for spead runs, and i might actually do that once i get bored of everything else i have to play. It is a great feeling to hit a series of jumps/rools/slides perfectly and just move through this urban landscape like water. A really really fantastic game, i just wish there was more of it. I polished off a good 3/4s of the game in a sitting. I haven't really touched it since only because i want to savor the end rather than rush. I know i know- it is a little ironic seeing as you are supposed to rush.



A distant third is call of duty world at war. Not a bad game by any respect, but definatly not a unique game. I played through most of it with dan goat which didn't unlock or achieve anything. Now that i've actually played most of it, and then played the online beta to death... i'm kinda... done. I've been chipping away at the campain on easy just to unlock stuff. After i do, i'm probably not going to play through most of it over again. The cut scenes are beautiful and i'm a total sucker for that kind of graphic design. They also incorperate footage of actual combat, which actually makes you stop and think for a second that everything is real. That this isn't a game- its a simulation. People went through this. I like that. Not that we had to go through it, but that it actually makes you stop and think. Like the speed runs in mirrors edge- i'll probalby pick it up again once i've had some distance from the day that goat and i blazed through it, and once left 4 dead gets a little old you'll probably see me online too.

Since i've started to get my fill of these games... and the 3 for 2 deal at gamestop is still going on sunday I am kind of tempted to pick up fallout 3, deadspace, and fable II. Thats a serious chunk of change though. Tempted, but i probably won't.

SO- what about you? Pick up anything cool? Tis the season to do so!

astro boy looks awesome.

chad thomas...

is a great artist. You should check him out.

Colors by me- over chad's art.
CLICK TO ENLARGE!!!!!!!!!

own a neo geo!

Lately i've thought about getting a neo geo to play it on its own hardware rather than just on my mac. I found there were a handful of ways to buy and play old neo geo games. I compiled all the information in a retro gaming forum post. The owner of the site asked if he could put it up on the main page. I said yes- here it is:

http://www.racketboy.com/retro/snkneo-geo/2008/11/how-to-make-owning-a-neo-geo-more-affordable.html

Pretty cool huh? For anyone that is into older video games racketboy.com is a great site and resource. Their forums are also filled with really helpful people if you ever have any kind of tech issue or question.



For the record- i decided that if i am going to get a neo geo it is going to be for its original hardware- and if i do that i might as well go big or go home. I am checking out craigslist and local auctions on ebay for a full MVS neo geo cabinet. Eventually i'm sure i'll find one. Just waiting to find the right time when i can afford it, and the right cabinet.

obama

I'm pretty happy about obama's victory. He is the first president that i got to vote for that i actually wanted to win rather than picking the lesser of two evils. A great day for america. Listening to his victory speech as president elect made me more proud for america than i have in a long long time. Maybe ever.

a sample text messages i got today:

Jason Thielbar: FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK YES! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

siblings

my brother (left) is the log lady from twin peaks my sister (right) is amy winehouse m.d.

Chilling out and taking it smooth with Sonic the Hedgehog

left 4 dead

A few weeks ago I woke up from a zombie dream. It sucks. 5am and i'm in a cold sweat.

I have one probably about every 3 or so months. Zombies scare the crap out of me. For all the stupid silly classic monsters, the only one i can't shake is the zombie.

left 4 dead is comming out in November. I can't wait to crack this game and loose some sleep.





Even though they are cut scenes, this is all footage made with the in game engine. Looks beautiful.

"Marriage and Sex problems"

A message board post about the game fable II.

"Bad Devotions
28 Oct '08 08:53:33

is anyone else having problems with their wife? I know, i know - personal question, but i can't get my missus to get into bed with me. It's happened once; on the night of our wedding night, but that's been it.

it keeps coming up on the quest screen that she wants it, and on the context sensitive D-pad menu thing. but then i get home, get close to bed with her and there is no option or menu. even the sleep option is "can't sleep now".

anyone else have this problem? any guidance would be tops."

some choice responces

How do you get the wife to have sex? In the family section it says she wants it, but there appears to be no option to do so. Is there a specific gesture or something?
____________
i've got the seduce expression and still no joy for me. I think i do anyway - it's the one with the lips in the bottom left hand quadrant.

i have the same problem as techno hippy.
_____________
I had 20 followers in the room when I slept with my first wife for the first time.
_____________
The ability to flirt with children is also a little disquieting.
_____________
Basically you can 'nail' your wife just after you marry for 'free'.

In order to nail someone you need to have them fully in love with you then use 'Come hither dear' and they will automatically follow you to the bed of you choice :)

Other than that some people will offer themselves on a plate you just need to target them when they mention it and use the thumbs up expression that will flash on the d-pad.
____________
thanks for your council guys. I am sure that the wife and i will get things back on track. She wants it and i want it - but it just never works out right at the moment.

i'll have a bang tonight and see if things are any better.

for any madmen fans out there.



for the record- if you watching tv and it isn't madmen, you are wasting your time.

liz got the postcard i drew up for her. I was worried that it would get crushed/smudged/rained on in the mail but it came out alright.

she also stole this from someone else. I am now stealing it from her.

one of my favorite things

Dana Carvey SNL Gerald Ford Is Dead - Watch more free videos

too real with you.

See more funny videos and Funny Videos at Today's Big Thing.

GREAT JOB MARINES! GREAT FUCKING JOB!

call of duty: world at war beta just dropped.

If anyone needs me, i'll be huddled around a screen filled with murder...

the mad

You better listen to your friend billy zane. He's trying to help you out.

a movie about zombie hamburgers. How can i say no?
To the top of the netflix queue!

via That Girl's Site

dreamcast

Since about 1999/2000ish i had a love affair with the sega dreamcast. I have to admit, partly because i am looking back through the rose tint of nostalgia.

In 99' i became fast friends with a group of kids that didn't go to my high school. They went to montville high. At the time to me they were the most interesting creative people on the planet. Finally, some people who embraced the natrually odd in lue of the mundane. Here was my own tiny sliver of culture. Music. Art. Our youth was wild and we really didn't give a shit who knew what as long as it felt good and you liked doing it. We were all working shitty shitty jobs and watching the clock until we were out. The summer of 2000 was probably the best of my life. High school was behind me and i was glad to be rid of it. College didn't loom because the thought never had a moment to sneak in amongst the comic reading, first drinking, dinner coffee drinking, game playing time we were having. A few of these montvillans had rented an apartment in new london connecticut. At the time i didn't think much of it. The reality of 18 year old kids having their own place didn't even dawn on me when instead of getting loose change out of the couch to buy groceries (of which- there were none, and simply they were no use) the money was spent at sarges to buy the last issue of preacher. Honestly- it was the most carefree and the least responsible I've ever been. Whatever we wanted to do, we did and damn the man or anyone that tried to stop us. Our wildest dreams were rarely over a hundred bucks. There was a show 4 days a week, and when there wasn't, we would be up anyway chuging coffee at the dank 24 hour dinner. It was vacation that seemed to go on forever. We would huddle around mounds of cigerettes and fire up the dreamcast to play tony hawk's pro skater, seaman, marvel vs capcom 2, rivial schools project justice amongst others that i'm sure I am forgetting.

Then i went off to college. The first year of college was rough on me. I could handel the work without a problem but I'm not exactly the best at meeting new peopel now, and I was worse then. I would often call the apartment and see how those guys were doing. They would pass around the phone so i could talk to everyone there, becasue everyone was always there. I saw them over breaks and came home for summers, but it was never the same, and every time it seemed to get sadder and sadder. Real life was seaping in through the constant vacation. I started to make friends eventually in college. I traded some games that had been played to death. Sold my dreamcast.

Then in about 2003 a friend of mine game me his dreamcast because he was quitting school (i think?) and was packing light to go home. I can't quite remember the specifics. Since then I have been trying to burn dreamcast games off and on to no avail. By then they had started to become more and more limited to buy, and it seemed to be my only good option. First I tried it with a pc, but with limited knowledge of it. The very idea of burning games very new to me, and seemingly shrouded in the secrecy of mirc. It was something i simply couldn't spend the time to wrap my head around. Then i switched to mac. Which.... as a gamer, apple really isn't the way to go. As an artist, it worked beautifully. Now i have a new mac, with intel tech. I am running microsoft xp and vista.

And after long long years, i burnt my first dreamcast game today using Parallels, windows xp, and Alcohol 120%. Thank fucking god, because it is impossible to find a reasonably priced copy of ikaruga! For some reason, I could never get discjuggler to work correctly. It could never connect to the superdrive and start burning discs.

Now that i have it fired up for the first time in what seems like forever, all i can think about is the apartment in new london with the sloped floors and piles of ash. The hum of the dreamcast invokes a lot of vivid memories of that beloved shithole and everyone who enjoyed it.

I'll probably be playing some dreamcast for the next month or so until those new games come in. I'll probably be picturing boot, larry, matt, jason, amanda, carroll, angie, dave and tom playing right along side me.

preordered.

This is what i'll probably be playing this holiday season. Weird that every game i picked was a first person shooter. Thats kinda... unlike me. But you could argue that mirrors edge isn't really a shooter, and that left 4 dead is more of a survival game.

wait- you arn't serious.

So i got asked to be on celebrity apprentice today. I'm not sure as a judge or as an expert guy to help out the celebrities. Honestly, I am not sure how that show works.

I said no- I'm swamped with work and they are shooting on Wednesday. I'm the most awkward person alive. That awkwardness only gets amplified by 10 when i am on camera. I can barely stand photos let alone putting it in motion! The worst of it is- i do things that i think are really cool. Weird motions that i never do otherwise. Turns out it is never ever cool. I never learn.

So yeah- i would have to bust my ass and maybe fudge some deadlines in order to be publicly and nationally awkward. Pass.

"The problem with pet lynx is that they're really cute as babies, but then they get big. People don't know what to do with them after they grow up. You can't release them. You can't flush them. One day you wake up and there's an angry lynx in your kitchen, swatting at you and growling, There's nothing you can do about it because it's his kitchen now."

That angry lynx better not get into my potato chips. He thinks I'm made of money. Get a fucking job and get your own kitchen.

play with a sharpie.

click and drag- full panoramic vieo

cool things you can do with a child:

MegaMan 9 presskit is amazing

braid- a gentleman's artistic game.

Soulja boy discusses the virtues of Braid.


now- for those of you who don't know about braid, it is a platform game like super mario brothers that manipulates time as a puzzle mechanic. It does this in multiple ways. You have a rewind time button on the controller, but often another time mechanic is also built into the level in a creative way.

To borrow from wikipedia: Nearly all the reviews praised the game for its innovation and unique art style, and sweeping musical score, while Eurogamer was "astonished" that it creates "an abstract emotional response" all "within the confines of a 2D platformer."^[14] Braid is currently the highest rated Xbox Live Arcade game on review aggregator website Metacritic, with a score of 93.^[20] Braid was purchased by more than 55,000 people during the first week of release.^[21]

Sean Bell, DarkZero:
"We're not used to being able to manipulate time in the ways that Braid allows you to... You can sit staring at it for hours, feeling entirely clueless as to how the next jigsaw piece could even be possible to reach. But with a bit of patience, everything just clicks, and you can't help but smile to yourself at how elegantly simple the whole thing is. It was never difficult at all - you just weren't thinking in the right way. That's videogaming Zen.

Braid is, in short, an art form and method to think out of the box. By creating a game, it brings these feelings and exercises to the masses. However, I think soulja boy cuts right to the heart of it. Rewinding time is cool. A video game doesn't really change your life or the lives around you like a painting would... but its pretty fun. I love a fresh perspective.

the dogs.

street wars looks fun

i wonder if it will ever come to philly.

shoot a fire to death

Mr freeze art by Nate Bellgrade. wow!
Mr. Freeze is one step closer to a reality. Although the freeze gun doesn't quite work there have been recent developments in freeze grenade technology.



According to Scientific American the FIT-5 releases a wispy cloud of potassium carbonate, a flame retardant that suppresses combustion and disrupts fire at the molecular level.

And if your throwing arm is feeling a little sore, perhaps your trigger figure isn't. Check out this concept design.

versus the jungle

I spent the last 4ish days trying to clear out my side yard of weeds. Now when i say weeds, i don't mean dandelions. To put it in perspective, I was at home depot and wondering if i should buy an axe.

Unfortunately, i don't have any before pictures. I should've took some. Thankfully we have an artists rendering:



As you can see, i had my work cut out for me. Here was the result of my blue collar experience:



I actually kind of enjoyed the work, but i am glad to be back on my computer out of the sun. White collar all the way.

More Palin

The more I read about Palin- the more i don't like her. The more i start to think that she is a horrible horrible mistake. I really hope mccain doesn't win. Palin is a gross misstep.

There is an article on the Washington Independent. I didn't read it, i got linked to it after reading one of the comments on it that have been passed around. The comment is a little long so I'm not going to post it, just link it. It is written in a very strait up way to understand and is support by facts and figures. With so much spin and "gut feeling" bullshit that is passed off as news on television, it is refreshing to read and you can pretty much make up your mind about her seeing as it contains all of her record. It was written by someone who has known palin since 92. If you are interested about informed voting and politics at all, it is worth the read.

On a related note, this is a video of two conservative commentators on MSNBC, after they're off the air, say what they really think about the VP choice. The woman's voice is Peggy Noonan, a speechwriter for Reagan. An honest look into what republicans are thinking when the mics are turned off and they don't just spout rederic "for the good of the party"



For the good of the party. Shit. It should be for the good of the country. When did this turn into "we win, they lose!" How about this time we elect someone honest.

McCain's Voice Mail to Palin Leaked to Press

http://assets.236.com//mp3/McCainPalinCall.mp3

for those of you interested. NSFW language. And also, very childish.

And while I'm being childish...


I suppose that the VP nom wouldn't be so ripe with parody if it wasn't such a shock to everyone and didn't seem like outright pandering for votes. Apparently she was interviewed for the job the day before the announcement and has only had 20 months experience as governor. In all fairness though, Palin was the mayor of Wasilla before she became governor. When she left Wasilla, she left a nice, big, fat debt for the city. She invested and botched a major sports complex that left Wasilla $20 million in debt. There are fewer than 7000 citizens in Wasilla. That means she left every man, woman, and child in Wasilla with $3000 in debt. From failed mayor to quick governor to vice president nom?

The Republicans harp on Obama for not being experienced. Yet- didn't they just destroy their argument by picking the very inexperienced Palin?


You know you aren't doing your spin job right when someone like Campbell Brown takes you to school.

****

Then there is this ol' chestnut...
no matter what your stance, you have to admit that if she can't get abstinence to work for her own family, how can she get it to work for the country?

Plus- people are also questioning if she can even handle the job. She is a mother of five, including one born this spring with Down syndrome. That has to be hard, and you need a lot of support to raise that kind of family. Pundits are saying that if Obama was a woman, we would have the same argument. That the media is picking on Palin because she is a woman. However- Obama has 2 healthy kids. Manageable. She has 5. One with down syndrome, and another unmarried daughter with a baby of her own. Plus, knowing full well that the media was going to comb her life and the lives of her children what self respecting mother would put her daughter through that? Congratulations, you got the nomination. You also put worldwide political pressure on your daughter to be not only an icon for pregnant teens, but also pressure from republicans to get her to claim or finalize engagement/married. However- all that last paragraph is kinda speculation and personal opinion. I don't know what kinda workload she can handel. I just know I wouldn't want that for my own family.

****

Oh, and for those of you asking questions about Palin because you rightfully have no idea who she is- McCain would like you to please shut the fuck up. Don't worry- she answered a 70 question form. She'll be fine. I think i've answered more questions on myspace surveys.

****

This is the final edit on this blog. I've been editing and reading all day about her and i have to put a stop to it. Really. This is the last one.

Sarah Palin attempted to ban books from her local library as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, and then threatened to fire the librarian who stood up to her for not giving “full support” to the mayor. People For the American Way president Kathryn Kolbert issued the following statement:

“People can disagree about a lot of things, but censorship is completely beyond the pale. Our democracy was founded on the belief that government shouldn’t tell people what kinds of books to read or what kind of beliefs to hold. No one with that kind of history should be anywhere near the White House. Sarah Palin needs to clarify her stance on freedom of speech immediately, and John McCain needs to explain why he chose a running mate with so little regard for the Constitution.” source

I'm curious what she was banning.


I'm not really a fan of her...

Don't do it.

I've got trademark products all over my body because I was drunk one night. Don't live like me.

Its true! We are shooting for september for powers 30 to be out. I'd say chances are good, but I'm probably the person least in the powers loop. I am, after all, just the color monkey.

pirates- they surprise.

So I wrote a blog about piracy and then scrapped it. This jpeg is all thats left. A swan song of an opinion. Enjoy it with your eyes.

losers

Haley posted this up on her very own http://all-things-grow.blogspot.com/

i kinda fell in love with it.


Beautiful Losers film trailer from beautifullosersfilm on Vimeo.

Norm Macdonald roasts fools

Now- i am not the biggest Norm Macdonald fan, but i was crying/laughing at the end of his set on the bob saget roast. It came across as very Kaufmanesk, and made me miss the days of sitting up late watching snl to get his weekend update in early highschool. Apparently the rest of the roast was comprised of three basic elements, all of which were unfunny.

1. Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen sexual jokes.
2. Gay jokes.
3. Jokes about Cloris Leachman's vagina.

Bob Saget is gay? Is that still funny?

Blogging is an awkward misspelled beast with an incestuous nature. One person makes something neat and blogs about it. Then everyone blogs about it, to the point where it shows up on multiple blogs or will echo into different blogs months later to the chimes of "OLD NEWS!" I wanted to only blog stuff I've made, or thoughts I have. Make it personal. Now that the only rule i ever had has been quickly forgotten. (rules?) I decided to promote the shit out of my sister's blog thus having the final say on the afore mentioned incestuous nature. The blog is called Ridiculousaurus and its what god would blog if he lived in NYC and was trying to become Internet famous. But don't just take all information you receive from the Internet as truth! Nay! Let me provide you, dear reader, with a sample. No. A round-up.





I'm happy that AC sampled Yael Naim even if the reason was not because she makes good music, but because she was in an apple commercial. For the record, she makes good music. יעל נעים also made a great remix of toxic. Look for it.

"aww… i love the fashionable ear protection, but who would have guessed [Perry Farrell] is the “i dress my boys in matching outfits” type?"



I don’t know if you have any idea what Vh1 is paying these days, but trust me when I say, I’m buying my Cristal on sale. -Michael Ian Black

Kali Arulpragasam, the sister of M.I.A. is an amazing jewelry designer // PAPERMAG


LOVE IN THIS CLUB from ( *_* ) on Vimeo.


Clearly- the girl is all over the internet so you don't have to be. I mean shit, she is even participating in memes. MEMES. For those of you not versed in internet, a meme is something that you need to do reasearch on to understand. Being fun or funny is not required. Check out liz's links and video meme at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fPsLdh_eX0

You should check out her blog at http://blog.elizabethfilardi.com/

Macaframa looks amazing.

Macaframa from MACAFRAMA on Vimeo.


Macaframa from MACAFRAMA on Vimeo.


Macaframa from MACAFRAMA on Vimeo.

added twitter over there --------------------------------------->
added flickr over there ----------------------------------------->

Halloween

Mike Hennigan and I are cranking out a halloween book. Here is the cover i worked on, should be in the next previews. Look for it!

Animal crossing DS: fucked up.

The Terrible secret of animal crossing is a story crafted loosely from the plot and screenshots of animal crossing ds. Now- animal crossing is a game where you don't do anything. Much like the sims, you live your life in this world where you are friends with all these other animals in this town. You are supposed to spend the game buying things, interacting with all the different animals to make friends, and making your house look good so you can win best house competitions and stuff like that. There never really is an end that i know of, just different stuff to buy. I never really saw the appeal. The full magnitude of what I was playing struck me when i was spending my time writing a letter to a lamb when i actually had a letter to write to someone I actually know.

TTSOAC takes this bright innocent gameplay and weaves a horror tale around it. Having only played some of Animal crossing, i can vouch for the beginning. They didn't really change much. Though, i suspect that the end has been slightly tweaked.

This got linked to me before a long time ago and i didn't read it. It is long, and generally video game nerds think they are way more funny then they actually are. But honestly- give it a shot. It even has audio narration if you don't want to read it.

http://fromearth.net/LetsPlay/Animal%20Crossing/index.html

Thrift store finds!

There is a flea market here in philly that doesn't disapoint on a couple fronts. You will find a good amount of old retro games there for a decent price. There is a spot where stacked floor to ceiling are boardgames. And finally, every bad movie known to man is in there on vhs somewhere.

I went 2 or so weeks ago. this was my haul:
I was probably most excited about Revolution: music is the weapon by aerosmith. Its truely an awful game that has a great 90s value. Holly and i have been playing a lot of dr. mario though. That game has certainly gotten the most play. She pretty much wins every time.

I also went today. Here was the haul:
I also picked up a risk & castle risk board game. Looking forward to playing sometime soon.

The game that i'm most excited about in this run is the weird biking green game in the upper right. The logo is pretty much illegible on this jpeg. In fact, when i had it as a kid, i didn't even bother trying to figure out what it said. However, i remember dumping hours and hours into it. I think its a shoot em up, but my memory is hazy.

The obscured snes game is "terminator vs robocop" which- who could ever pass on that? 2 death machines just going at eachother? 90s violence? As a young american man, i couldn't say no. I can't deny it, my mouth watered a little.

flickr? i barely knew her.

The best thing about the iphone so far is that I'm actually using it to take pictures. My last phone had a 1 megapixel camera on it. At that point, why are we even putting cameras in phones? Every picture that phone took looked like garbage.

anyway- because of the 3G and decent camera, I am using flickr alot more. You should check it out.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickfil/

GODLAND trade 4

This is my last Godland image for image comics. I am leaving the book with issue 24 which i believe just came out. At least, i got my comps for it, so I'm assuming its out already. You are looking at the cover for the fourth trade. I'm sure its named (though i don't have the info on hand) because it is being worked up for solicitation right now. (pre-order yours now!) I'm glad to pass the book off to bill crabtree of invincible fame. For you Godland buffs, I'm sure you remember that Bill also kicked off the book doing the first six issues. So for those of you reading it, do not panic, the coloring is left in very good hands. I think i did the next couple covers, but bill is rocking the interiors.

It was great working with Tom Scioli and Joe Casey on this book, and if the opportunity presents, I would love to work with them again.

For new readers, take note: When i laid out bprd 1946, godland and foolkiller in front of my grandparents, they liked godland the most. For those of you scoffing that grandparents don't know comics let me remind you that they won WWII. How many world wars did you single handedly win?

EDIT! I recently got a new computer and got the new firefox. The image above looks horrible in my browser, but fine in safari. Why? How do i fix it?

some foolkiller love

from: http://www.rackraids.com/?p=1667

"Oh, and if you’re wondering why I’m not rambling on and on about Filardi’s colors, it’s simply because they don’t stand out the way Azaceta’s art does, a by product of Filardi just being too damn good. In fact, the colors fit so perfectly it’s hard to believe they were the work of separate guys, as Filardi matches Azaceta step for step throughout the book."

I'm so good I'm a ghost.

Foolkiller: white angels

Foolkiller: white angels 1 went on sale last week. If you find yourself in the shop- at least flip through it. I really like what paul and i are workin on.

Here is a page from issue 2. Clearly- fools get cooked.