Well, life can resume as normal, now that I've finally completed Silent Hill 4 (although Mortal Kombat Deception comes out next week, so this is just a short lived break). So with that game behind me, it's time for a quick review.

Unlike the previous games where you're exploring Silent Hill or it's amusement park, Silent Hill 4 has you traped in your apartment where you travel to alternate locations\realities via a sewer pipe. Yes, it sounds lame, but it was acutally pretty well thought out so it didn't seem cheesy. For the good stuff: Great story, good characters (no whiney teenage girl as the main character this time), several possible endings depending on how well (or poorly) you played, lots of unlockable features (after playing once), and tough enough "puzzles" that made you stop and think, but not so hard you had to resort to cheats. For the bad stuff: I found some of the points of view really crappy - there's nothing like trying to kick a monster's ass and you've got a concrete baracade in your way (fortunately this didn't happend too often, just enough to deplete your health drinks a couple times) and the monsters and bosses seemed pretty easy to kill (perhaps I'm just that skillful!). Overall, I would give this game an 8.75 out of 10 (only because Silent Hill 2 is my favorite).

As a side note, for those of you who are Silent Hill Fans and who already don't know.... Roger Avery is writing a screenplay based on the game. I'm anxious to see what he does with this.

Finally, a good suggestion for helping the US win the Ryder Cup - having Bobby Knight as the captain.

Bob Knight is only one outburst at Texas Tech away from being available also. Now wouldn't it be worth the price of admission to see him captain the U.S. team in the Ryder Cup? Can you imagine Chris Riley telling the General he's too tired to play in the afternoon alternate-shot competition - where you only have to hit every other shot, by the way? How about if one of the Americans asks for a free drop and the ruling goes against him? Wouldn't the sight of a chair skidding across the 14th fairway be inspiring? Or how about Coach Knight grabbing Phil Mickelson by the collar and screaming, "Put the ball in the freaking fairway, Phil?"

Uh-oh. Kerry better get a new strategy for Iraq as France & Germany just said they won't put troops in Iraq even if Kerry wins.

"I cannot imagine that there will be any change in our decision not to send troops, whoever becomes president," Gert Weisskirchen, member of parliament and foreign policy expert for Germany's ruling Social Democratic Party, said in an interview.

Michel Barnier, the French foreign minister, said last week that France, which has tense relations with interim prime minister Iyad Allawi, had no plans to send troops "either now or later".

I'm heading out of town this morning for a couple of days and things have been so hectic lately, I think I need a break. So, I'm taking the rest of the month off and I'll see you back here on October 1st.

Well now I know where McDonald's got the idea for their new "don't touch my nuggets" ad campaign. Reportedly, a man beat up his roomate after he dunked his chicken nugget into his sauce.

YIKES! What's with Al Gore lately? Not only is he ENORMOUS, but he's starting to look like Jeffrey Jones.

So now that both conventions are over and it appears that Bush will walk away with a slight advantage in most polls, what happens next? Does he continue to pull away and actually win easily on Nov 2nd? Or does Kerry pull back even and we end up w/ another razor close election? (The idea of Kerry pulling away and winning easily doesn't seem viable right now, though w/ 60 days left alot can happen)

Just my gut reaction: I think Bush separates a bit and wins both the popular vote and the electoral college by slim but clear margins.

Kerry's rebuttal speech late last night was pointless and inept. John Edwards did an excellent job and I remarked to Stacy that I wished he were the Dem nominee because I would be comfortable with either him or Bush as President.

Michael Moore tries his hardest to make Bush look like an evil kid killer:

That must be some comfort to the parents of nearly 1,000 brave soldiers now dead because of his "miscalculation." If I made a miscalculation and ran over a child on the street, what do you think would happen to me? Do you think the cops would simply say, "Hey, Mr. Moore, you did your best driving down this street, you made a miscalculation, the kid is dead, but you are trying to save the world, so be on your way?" Something tells me this is not what would happen. What I don't get is that Mr. Bush makes his mistake and thinks he has a right to continue in his job.

Never mind that these military kids aren't kids at all, but rather voting age adults who entered military service by choice.

And never mind that Moore's example sounds like a faded recollection of Ted Kennedy's fateful accident - wherein he made a miscalculation, killed a young woman and was simply sent on his way. But that couldn't be, because Mr. Moore thinks this wouldn't happen.

Half of New Yorkers think the govt knew about 9/11 and decided to do nothing to stop it. Are they all insane? [via Lileks]

At least the crazy punishments for kids isn't limited to just the USA. 3 kids were punished for 'pornography' after being caught drawing a stick figure with boobs and a penis. Of course, it doesn't matter if the kids actually drew the picture or not (the school isn't sure, and the kids aren't talking), they were just gonna punish them anyway:

"The teacher said that even if he hadn't drawn it, he'd 'got pleasure from the picture and that's sick'," said Mathews.

What a lovely attitude.