Sorry about the Christmas post delay. I figured that my loyal friends (*cough* *cough* Joe, James *cough*) would whip something up.
Anyway, I hope you all had a jolly Christmas (actually, no I don't[just kidding{kind of}])!
I know I had a great one! Due to a sudden illness on Christmas Eve, I didn't attend midnight Mass. Instead, I went X-mas morning. It was really awesome. Very beautiful.
At the end of Mass, my mom picked me up and brought me to our domain (why couldn't I have just said 'house?'). Anyway, in the evening, we had a splendid dinner at my aunt’s house.

LOOT CHECK:

I know, I know, you're probably thinking, "Brian, Christmas is about the birth of Jesus and loving one another and kissing and hugs and pink ponies and not about presents and u r so materialistic."
I too realize this. But I don't care. I am materialistic and I'm not about to change. With that said, here's what I got:

Half-Life 2 This is the coolest PC game in the world. You play as a scientist rebelling against dictatorship. The graphics and physics are amazing, and the gameplay is even better. This game rules.

Doom 3 I had no idea I was going to get this. I had rented this game a while ago and really enjoyed it, thus my brother got it for me. Thanks, Justin!

Catholic Books My parents gave me some really awesome religious books. Surprised by Truth 3 and If You Really Loved Me are included. Thanks, mom and dad.

A new PC Thanks to the uber generosity of some of my friends (Mr. M and son), I was given a computer on Xmas eve. Thanks!

A blanket This was given to me by my family's long time friends. Thank you!

To be honest, I wasn't expecting anything this year. So when X-mas came around, I was so surprised! Thank you God! Anyway, How was your Christmas? I'll bet you 2 video games, a million books, and a PC that my Christmas was better than yours...just kidding.

Stuff I got for my family members: Age of Empires 3, Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, a brush, and some other things that I forget.

So, chances are many of us have heard of the court ruling over in New Hampshire in which Judge Jones decidedly flogged any chances the Intelligent Design movement had over there, calling it an excuse to squeeze religion into public schools.
Really rather silly. If you think about it, ID is actually more than relgious propaganda. A-hem:
Intelligent Design says (as far as I'm aware) that evolution is not likely the way living things on earth formed, that instead of being a great big cosmic accident, a living intellect was behind...um...everything.
Somehow, this prospect doesn't sound much less likely than the idea that some great cosmic machine blew up and amidst all the muck infinitely complex life and structures came into existence--purely by accident. Isn't this basically what is being taught in public schools today? If so, ID has every right to be taught alongside evolution because it does have basis in scientific fact (as our knowedge of biology increases, we are finding more and more complex structures that just couldn't have formed from billions of years of slow, generation-by-genereation tweaking), and, frankly, because the typical Atheist's idea of creation, which often includes evolution, is pretty ridiculous itself.
However, that isn't really what this post is about.
As I follow the whole Evolution vs. Creationism smackdown, I begin to realize, more and more, how silly the whole thing is. This was perhaps driven home to me when I listened to a talk on chastity by Mary Beth Bonacci. In her talk, she mentioned a chemical the human body produces called oxytosin. It is produced primarily in two situations: sex and childbirth. What does it do? It weakens your reason, makes you more susceptible to suggestion (I think--don't quote me on that one) and, most importantly, builds a strong attachment in you to whomever you're with at the time. In other words, the feeling of love and attachment people feel for their spouses and children is (at least partially) manufactured by a hormone. And here was Mary Beth Bonacci, a devout Catholic, speaking of this phenomenon as scientific fact. Many die-hard Christians are inclined to get all bristly and defensive at the idea that human emotions are no more than chemical reactions, but not Ms. Bonacci. And that got me wondering: Why not?
Let's backtrack a bit. Evolution vs. Creationism basically equals Science vs. Religion, right? Well, I seem to recall reading the words of some wise guy like C.S. Lewis or G.K. Chesterton which basically said that religion and science need not conflict because they are two entirely different things. And they are. If you think about it, they both have distinct purposes. Science tells us how things happen (A mother's love for her child is partially produced by the hormone oxytosin), but relgion tells us why they happen (A mother loves her child so that she will want to stay with it, nurture it, and see that it becomes a good person). Or for another, more pertinent example: Humans came to exist through a slow process of natural selection and perfection, originally coming from monkeys (???), until they reached the form they have today (science). Humans were created by God to be His magnum opus; His highest creation, meant to love and serve Him and eventually live with Him forever (religion).
In other words: Why does it matter to us how we came to exist? The point is, we exist. Why does it matter how the mother comes to love her child? It doesn't, the point is, she does love him/her.
All this time, we've been fighting for no reason. Rather stupid, if you ask me. C'mon, people. Kumbayah and all that jazz. Gawsh...

Cops piss me off. I wouldn't hate cops so much if they actually did their job (i.e., busting drug lords, rescuing kidnapped children etc...). Instead of doing important things they're too busy waiting in dark places until someone goes 3 miles over the limit. Don't believe me? Get this: I read somewhere that cops are now posing as bums so that they can alert other police of speeding cars. Get a life.
Not to mention they're depleting the United States of our donut supply. How the heck is the typical hard working American citizen supposed to get a simple donut when a bunch of lazy, fat, sneaky, sleazy cops are diminishing our donuts?

I hate cops and cops hate me. Every time my friends and I are walking across a street, there's always some stupid cop parked in the shade (usually behind a donut & coffee place) starring at me. Is it the way I dress? Is it the color of my skin? Is it because I'm unbelievably good looking? I have no idea. All I know is that there's some weird cop fool gazing at me through tinted windows. One time, I decided to be friendly and wave at a cop. It appeared to me as if he frowned and lifted three fat fingers off his glazed donut in response to my friendliness. I suspect he thought I was just trying to relieve suspicion of my hatred and distain for our lovely Seattle law enforcement. Frankly, I couldn't care less what he thought of me. Maybe if he was someone of importance or meaning, I would have taken offense and destroyed his car with a brick or something.

Until cops stop eating donuts and obsessing about speeding cars (usually driven by black people), I won't give them a break.

First of all, I'd like to say: Christmas break started today! Arrrreeeba! (those "r"s must be rolled so they sound Spanish, by the way.)
Anyhoo...
Yesterday, my siblings and I got to musing on what possible titles J.K. Rowling may have lined up for the next (and last--*sniff*) Harry Potter book. We came up with some amusing ideas. At least, we found them amusing. You might not, owing to the fact that we get a rather deranged sense of humor when it's almost time to hit the hay.
Anyhoo, here are some:

• Harry Potter and the Cursed Toenail of Icklebog*
• Harry Potter and the Pillar of Storge*
• Harry Potter Dies in the End!!
• Harry Potter Dies while Defeating Lord Voldemort and Ron Marries Hermione and has Twelve Kids and Sends Them Off to College and Eventually Falls into Credit Card Debt Until Harry Returns From the Grave since he was Actually Hiding in Scandinavia and Slaps Some Sense into him!!
• Harry Potter and the Blazing Iranian Bumblebee
• Harry Potter: Jurassic Classic
• Harry Potter: Culture Vulture
  
• Harry Potter: The Real Scoop (by Rita Skeeter, a.k.a. irate beetle--err, irate Skeeter--uum, Rita Irate--oh, whatever--for the Daily Prophet)
• Harry Potter meets the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
• The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles meet Harry Potter

As you all know, this holiday season is about sharing, loving one another, and gettin' LOOT!
Alright. Now that we have established what this holiday season is really about, let's get with loot talkin':
NOTE: I'm going to rate the probability that I'll get the gift using '*' | * x 4 = max.

***Half-Life 2 for PC This game's been out for a while now, but I've been wanting it for a long time. If I do get it, then the first thing I'm going to do is download Gary's Mod. HAHAHAHAHA! That mod alone will have me satisfied for a couple of months.

**Money I need money. I don't get an allowance, and there's a ton of stuff I NEED to purchase. My skateboard isn't going to fix itself now, is it?

*Xbox 360 Yeah right.

Anyway, I would like to know what's on your holiday list. You know what to do!

BTW, here's a little holiday help for y'all. I threw this together in about 10 minutes. It's a holiday tree pimpin' simulation. After all, no holiday is complete without a... tree.
Pimp yo' tree!

Read this.


Why, thank you Mr. President! Happy Holidays to you too!

...I'm pretty disappointed.

Listen, I'm not one of these people who cries every time someone says, "Happy Holidays!" Frankly, I couldn't care less. But just the fact that the president sends out a "Happy Holidays" card to people he KNOWS are MOSTLY Christian is angering! Okay, let's do the math here:

If the overwhelming majority of Bush's supporters are Christian, then that would mean they *probably* celebrate Christmas. Now, I can't be certain, but I'm guessing anyone who claims to be Christian recognizes Christmas. Therefore, wouldn't make MORE sense to send a card that addresses Christmas? Or at least something that says "Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!"

Have people become such PC freakshows that they are devoid of basic logic??!

|Music Playing:| "Down With The Sickness" by Disturbed*
|Mood:| Homicidal


I've been working a lot with Flash lately (as well as C++). I'm almost finished with a couple of projects, but I'm too much of a procrastinator to put a sufficient amount of time in them.

Here's a quick update on the stuff I'm nearly finished with:

Alien Jackball This is probably the most random and pointless game ever conceived. You play as an Alien sent to earth to monitor humans. Unfortunately, you're a complete degenerate, so you decide to wreak havoc instead. So what I've basically done is combined a handful of mini-games into one .swf. It's crazy. But I'm sure you'll all find enjoyable when I release it (okay, now I'm beginning to sound like a professional game designer).

FLEE This is the epitome of awesomeness, I must say. It's a top down shooter in which you
run from (and shoot) incoming zombies. You also get to access vehicles and run'em down. Yeah, baby. That's the action right there. Whoop-whoop! Whatever. Anyway, due to the fact that I'm getting tired of working on it, I think I'll just include a sudden, incredibly anti-climactic ending. Take that, tools.

Commando Actually, I'm nowhere near finished with this game. It does have a pretty sweet interactive intro though. Anyway, you play as a little green dude who sneaks around doing stuff or whatever (as you can tell, I've given this extreme thought and have taken great measures to include the slightest detail).

Cartoons I've got around 12 cartoons just rotting in one of my numerous desktop folders.

Also, my friend may let me use his site [http://www.dotsteve.com] to host my new Hogger Studios website (still not finished). Whatever. *Smashes through living room window and does a shoulder roll and then jumps in front of oncoming traffic*

* No, actually I don't have that song playing in the background. In a matter of fact, I don't have any song playing in the background. I'm also not homicidal (well, if certain people keep puching in the 'elimination' of Christmas, then I might just kill someone -- someone helpless).

Unfortunately, it's all meeelllltttting away. Blah. I wish I could somehow bribe God into making it snow more.

I wish *I* was God. No, I'm just kidding.