sad. too sad to speak much of.

I stopped eating pork almost 2 years ago.

I LOVED German sausage and sausage in foods like wedding soup. My friends in Florida actually used to give me a hard time about how much I loved summer sausage.

That was until I moved to North Carolina.

This land of God-fearing, religious people in the Bible Belt has piglet trucks that track back and forth across the state from breeders to slaughterhouses.

These are 18 wheelers stuffed with baby piglets (like Babe) who are crammed in so tight that their legs, tails, and noses stick out the side of the trailers. I started crying one day when I looked over at the truck which was passing me and saw all the cute piglets stuffed therein.

I won't be a part of it. I won't pretend I don't know it happens. In seeing those piglets I knew I could not in good faith eat pork again.

CNN has a story up about another factory farm and abuse. Why can't American's face the truth about the meat on their tables and being served them in restaurants?

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/09/16/abused.pigs.ap/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

Several excerpts:

At one point on the video, an employee shouts to an investigator, "Hurt 'em! There's nobody works for PETA out here. You know who PETA is?"
...
"I hate them. These [expletives] deserve to be hurt. Hurt, I say!," the employee yells as he hits a sow with a metal rod. "Hurt! Hurt! Hurt! Hurt! ... Take out your frustrations on 'em." He encourages the investigator to pretend that one of the pigs scared off a voluptuous and willing 17- or 18-year-old girl, and then beat the pig for it.

"At one point in the video, workers are shown slamming piglets on the ground, a practice designed to instantly kill those baby pigs that aren't healthy enough. But on the video, the piglets are not killed instantly, and in a bloodied pile, some piglets can be seen wiggling vainly. The video also shows piglets being castrated, and having their tails cut off, without anesthesia."

Why The Dark Knight was disappointing

Because I'm too lazy to retype this, here's my reasoning (from an IM with a friend):

[12:49] leetanker: you didnt like the dark knight?
[12:49] leetanker: WAH?
[12:49] leetanker: ARE YOU MAD?
[12:49] reallygreengiant: yeah I am. squandered.
[12:49] leetanker: i havent seen it yet, but i hear it rules
[12:50] reallygreengiant: 1) not enough of the Joker at the end
[12:50] reallygreengiant: 2) 3 villains - story moved too fast
[12:50] reallygreengiant: 3) why have stupid CSI scenes??
[12:51] reallygreengiant: 4) Why spend so much time on cellhpone/sonar tricks instead of us just watching batman do it??
[12:51] reallygreengiant: 5) Where was Batman's sadness at his loss??
[12:51] reallygreengiant: all in all, they did too much and should have focused on Joker v. Batman
[12:51] reallygreengiant: VERY disappointing
[12:51] leetanker: considering we arent going to see the joker again...
[12:51] reallygreengiant: and I am the only person in America who thinks this apparently
[12:51] reallygreengiant: lol
[12:52] leetanker: i hear ledger is gonna win an oscar for that
[12:52] reallygreengiant: joker was awesome, but not oscar worth - shit - he wasnt on camera enough!
[12:52] reallygreengiant: he might have been on camera a total of 30 mins
[12:52] leetanker: the guy died
[12:52] reallygreengiant: during shooting, I thought it was in pos production
[12:52] leetanker: cause he was so freaking wierded out by it
[12:52] leetanker: yeah, it was
[12:53] reallygreengiant: he died mixing too many presciprtion drugs. woops. sucks.
[12:53] leetanker: yeah, i blame the joker
[12:53] reallygreengiant: that's the tradegy - he was great, but they didnt utilize him enough!!!
[12:53] reallygreengiant: he wasn't on camera the last 30 mins

The recap and reasoning for my extreme disappointment in The Dark Knight:
1) not enough of the Joker at the end - not enough Joker at all
2) 3 villains - story moved too fast
3) why have stupid CSI scenes??
4) Why spend so much time on cellhpone/sonar tricks instead of us just watching batman do it?? We know Batman is full of cool tricks and can assume that stuff.
5) Where was Batman's sadness at his loss?? He mourned for 30 seconds

Main point: Heath was great - so why not focus on Batman vs Joker and let Heath get some screen time! Shame on you Chris Nolan. Do one story and do it superbly, and leave out Two Face, Scarecrow, and the CSI.

Kart's as good as the old days

This generation's Mario Kart is every bit as good as the N64 benchmark. As soon as I stop playing it I'll write more...

Two days to Kart time

Cannot wait for Sunday and Mario Kart, Wii-style. I've been a fan since the N64 and the new version will be solid, no doubt.

GTA IV and music sales

My God this is cool. In game advertising done right, with consumer input and using the consumer's (gamer's) own interest to drive sales. THIS IS ONLINE SALES done right. Rockstar is a real trendsetter, as always. Hopefully the internet connectivity won't let this down.

From EvilAvatar.com:
Yahoo! is reporting that Rockstar and Amazon are teaming up to offer ZiT, a music download service specifically created for Grand Theft Auto IV.

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In a partnership bound to shake, rattle and roll both the music biz and interactive entertainment, Rockstar Games and Amazon have teamed up to create an ambitious new model for digital music distribution. Built exclusively for the upcoming video game blockbuster Grand Theft Auto IV, it allows players to buy real-world MP3s of tracks heard over the game's numerous radio stations in a very seamless manner. (Initially, this service will only be available in the U.S.)

Advertised throughout Liberty City, the cheekily-named "ZiT" technology is built into the game's mobile phone interface system. As players cruise around the world listening to the in-game radio, they can at any point 'mark' a song by opening their phone and dialing the number ZIT-555-0100. Gamers will then receive a text message with the song and artist names, and if they're registered at the forthcoming Rockstar Games Social Club community site, they'll find an e-mail waiting in their inbox with a direct link to a custom playlist on Amazon.com. All songs tagged "ZiT" will be stored here, available for preview and purchase at Amazon's going rate of $.89-$.99 per track. Best of all, those MP3s are free of the Digital Rights Management (DRM) limitations imposed on files downloaded through Apple's iTunes store and thus can be imported into any computer or digital device with no constraints.