Sorry I didn’t get around to saying it when it was actually Thanksgiving, but hopefully everyone had a good one.

Had an odd experience today. Well, Wednesday’s when it started. An acquaintance offered to let me come with him to a friend’s house for dinner. At the time, it sounded like a good deal, even though I knew he’d probably be the only one I’d even heard of before.

Today he said it would be all right if I came. After I hung up the phone, I basically decided not to go.

It’s not that I didn’t have a good Thanksgiving. I have lots to be thankful for. I have a job, and a family who loves me, all of whom live too far away. When I visit them this Christmas, it’ll be the first time in nearly a year that I’d seen any of them.

So in case anyone wants to give sympathy, please save it. This year I gave thanks for independence. I’ll just need the next year before I get used to depending on other people. That was a step I just wasn’t ready to take, especially on short notice.

Not the greatest quality in the world, but it’s mainly for those who just can’t get enough of Joel Veitch’s wacky Flash, and don’t want to keep watching VH-1, where most of his stuff is going these days (dancing kittens and whatnot.)

He seems to want to do more original music these days. I don’t know why. But at least there’s one with kittens.

http://www.rathergood.com/laibach/
http://www.rathergood.com/bananas/
http://www.rathergood.com/hedgehogs/

Clicky for the “Black and White” news, straight from Jacko’s point of view.

Rubba rubba, yo.

Lollerz.

Not surprisingly, after waiting an extra day for the demo to be made available, quite a number of hard-core DX fans were less than satisfied with the experience. (That only high-end video cards are even supported, you need at least 600 MB of virtual memory ready and the right drivers — Ion Storm said a big nuh-unh to ATI’s Catalyst 3.8 drivers, you gotta go 3.9 or go nowhere — probably contributed to a lot of it, too)

So not to be totally undaunted by all this, I posted my thoughts on the Ion Storm forums. If anyone reads it, be sure and read J1M’s post on how to muck with the .ini files and make the UI somewhat more tolerable.

This was the day that the Deus Ex 2 demo was supposed to be out, and though the lead programmer swears it’s in Fileplanet’s hands, both the Ion Storm and Eidos boards are full of whines about how it’s Still Not Out Yet, Dammit.

The Knights of the Old Republic demo for the PC is supposedly ready, too. That or the 0-day version of the real game. I forget sometimes.

Oh, and Jacko supposedly turned himself in, but not before his brother Jermaine (who wrote a song about him slowly turning into a white man) could tell CNN it was a “modern-day lynching.” As Spike said earlier today, “Consider the race card played.”

And I didn’t have a new game to play. Sucks.

For a more detailed explanation about this announcement, based on what knowledge I have on the situation with Shadowbane’s Asian publisher, head to the waterthread.

So says USA Today. New eps could be ready by 2005, in fact.

Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch is getting raided, because a 12-year-old might have told cops that MJ might have *CENSORED CENSORED* him in the pooper.

I love the Associated Press’s treatment of the developing story:

More than 10 years have passed since the 45-year-old singing superstar faced a child-molestation investigation in a case that never resulted in criminal charges.

THAT’S NINE TOO LONG.

I only had to read about three paragraphs into the cover story in the Kansas City Pitch this week, about local graffiti artists, before I was going, “Oh yeah, I know all about this.”

The story revolves around Newa, a local tagger full of stories about his background which the reporter acknowledges might not be true. Both the artistic aspects of graffiti and how they might actually enhance a cityscape, and the nuisance factor which is far more popular a concept than the art.

Specifically on the latter part, there was a party thrown by a local technician-slash-artist at a gallery, where kids were encouraged to spray-paint whatever the hell they felt like. All was fine and good, until the party spilled out into the street, and local residents woke up the next morning to find tags all over the place outside. Now the owner says he’s not going to have graffiti parties there anymore.

Anti-social kids identifying themselves by goofy handles, given the opportunity to express themselves in normally destructive ways in a certain space, end up breaking the rules anyway and discouraging further concessions from the powers that be.

Those looking for a conclusion to this theme aren’t going to get one. This is one of those things that an increasingly complex society is going to have to keep thinking about, and to not expect an answer.

Well, OK, here’s the obvious: Those interested in providing concessions to the disenfranchised are indeed doing the world a favor, but the price is babysitting duty. Expect things to go wrong. Expect rules to be tested, and broken. Human nature breaks free, just like regular nature. Someone will always have to pick up the tab and pay the damages.

Call it a “franchise fee.”