“Hot Coffee” on PS2 Confirmed

As I've got my hands full with the newborn these days, I've left the dirty work to Migs. He has confirmed that the Action Replay codes that have been floating around do indeed work on PS2 versions of GTA: San Andreas. You enter the house of your date and make with the festivities. Gamespot also confirms.

There was a post on Joystiq about the scapegoating of Rockstar Games, when apparently, God of War has much more violence. But the furor over this is blown out of proportion. To play the “Hot Coffee” mode, you need either an Action Replay, a Game Shark, or to download mods and patches. Then you need to find the codes necessary to make this thing work. Then you can play simulated sex games. And for a child to do this, it means the parents must have been blind to every news story about GTA: San Andreas when it was first released, and not really given a fuck about what games their kid played. Heck, those parents are probably getting their kids beer and cigarettes.

In this day and age, I think it's a lot easier to find porn on this little creation called the Internet. You may have heard of it. Al Gore invented it. But Tipper wouldn't have allowed that to happen, if she knew her hubby's creation was going to be used in such a way. Maybe we can place a warning sticker on the Internet. Then maybe Wal-Mart wil sell it. I hear they got the cheapest Internets at Wal-Mart. My buddy got one the other day, and its got the porn on it and everything.

As this post collapses into nothingness, at least I feel like I've done my job, I can't have all those other posts about GTA and not comment on “Hot Coffee”. Although, to be honest, I am sick to death about reading about it.

So, Net-net. Rockstar basically says they didn't inhale, but put a Rumsfeldian spin on it. The game gets pulled from shelves, gets an AO (Adults-Only) sticker. Take-Two Interactive, the publisher that owns Rockstar, tells Wall Street the numbers will be lower. I hope to read more about games and less about this garbage in the near future.

Thinkblog or Linkblog

John Keegan makes me wonder if I am a Linkblogger or a Thinkblogger? Sure I'd like to be a little more of a Thinkblogger, but am not ashamed to own up to being a Linkblogger. It's probably a 25/75 split. Of course, this only matters to oneself and one's own vanity.

I'm probably more of a Link Pirate or Blogpoacher. But I'm not the only one. We are at a time where we aren't just getting news and opinion from corporate sites, but also from the blogs we read. So really what's the difference when a link is taken from the blog of another Linkblogger (obviously they didn't create the site they are linking to, so there would be no copyright issue). But, of course, if you pilfer links from the same blog every day, that's another story altogether, and makes me wonder why you are blogging in the first place.

And perhaps I can lay claim to the first use of the term “Link Pirate”. That would actually make me more of a Thinkblogger, wouldn't it? I just came up with “Blogpoacher” as well, but it seems that someone else already used the term (look at the comment). But I only found this out after a Google search.

And I know just what you readers are thinking, “Why should we take the word of a Blogpoacher anyway? Sure you came up with the term, you Linkblogger, you!”

Lost: Bleary-eyed Blog Entry

Fuck! I'm on my PC laptop now because my Mac G4 just crashed and I lost the post I was working on. “Bite me” goes out to the next perosn that reminds me to save early and often. Let's be real.

Unfortunately this blog post covered a few issues, was quite clever, which I feel many of my recent posts have been lacking and even name checked 2 Live Crew.

The world may never know.

I lost sleep over this after feeding my infant some formula, too.

Damn.

Anyway here's my link to Kotaku for the “Hot Coffee” business going on in the world of Rockstar Games and GTA: San Andreas.

I knew it was time either for a new Mac or a processor upgrade and OS X, but damn why couldn't I have been something for work that I probably give less of a crap about it. That last blog post was prepared like your grandma's homemade brownies, as opposed to this post, which is more the equivlaent of grabbing a muffin on the way to work.

Poem

Me & Jake wrote this poem yesterday. Jake's my son, the one that wasn't just born a month ago. Jake's 4 1/2. We both like Shel Silverstein and it shows.

There once was a boy
named Billy Banana
He liked to bake bread
and butter bananas
He battled big badgers
and burned his bandana
and frightened Miss Muffet away.

Jake came up with the last line, and we both laughed our heads off. It was the perfect silly ending.

Wow,I just learned that She Silverstein had passed away in 1999. I had no idea. Especially since Runny Babbit was just published this year. However, I was fully aware that he wrote “A Boy Named Sue” for Johnny Cash.

People for the Ethical Treatment of People

Gap has taken a lot of flak in the past for using sweatshops to make clothes. They certainly would not be the only clothier participating in such behavior, but they'd been called out on to the carpet before by Adbusters.

This article based on Gap's own reporting, definitely puts them in a more positive light. It looks like they actually give a crap. The easy way out would have been to show Television commercials with people hugging and kittens hugging and shit like that layered with some non-offensive generically uplifting music and a line like “ Cares.” For example, “Halliburton Cares.” I noticed their “Community Impact” page didn't mention any communities in Iraq.

(I chuckle knowingly to myself. And then continue.)

I love/hate Adbusters. It serves to remind me how much I hate consumption, yet loathe myself enjoying being a consumer. It sheds a lot of things in the proper light, and often lets you realize the ridiculousness of the current economic/political/social climate, things that your bombarded mind doesn't normally conclude because there's too much Wacko Jacko/Tom Cruise/Runaway Bride clutter that sits in your grey matter and occupies space like the boxes of old yearbooks, half-used paint cans,and prehistoric tools that sit in your basement.

I'm not on my soapbox, or behing a pulpit, mind you. I know fully well that the video games and a lot of other crap a speak of are particularly severe time wasters. And although I could a few more bike rides, walks in the park, and naps under trees, I know my PS2 is still waiting at home, and a good way to dry off after stomping in puddles during severe thunderstorms. But Adbusters itself coould be seen as contradictory in the same way. Witness the birth of the anti-logo. How else would you defeat rampant consumerism besides put another product on the shelf?

I'm being a little sarcastic, I don't have a problem with Adbusters selling shoes, in fast I may even buy a pair. It's hard enough to find socially responsible outfits making clothing, so now I know of one more. I just wish in all the years I'd been reading Adbusters that they would send a shout out to the companies doing it right, so I know where to shop after learning which brands do not deserve to occupy my precious closet space.

It's got to start somewhere.

And all things considered, if nobody blew the whistle on Gap, Levi's or Nike, these companies would not have done the self-policing that they are beginning to do today. It sounds like Gap is going in the right direction, and Levi's has done a pretty good job, but I'm sure Nike's got even longer way to go. When they're not running sweatshops they're stealing ad campaign ideas from Minor Threat.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

All blog sites must praise this band or risk the scorn of Pitchfork reviewers. They sound a little like somobody else, and a lot like another band, too, but who cares, since everybody sounds like somebody else. I think folks who liked Pavement will like them.

I think the name goes beyond the ridiculousness of emo band names. Perhaps they will usher in an era of even worse band names until bands start using combinations of unpronouncible symbols, hand gestures, and morse code to develop names.

There are a few tunes to download on their site. If you've heard of them from me first, then you don't get out much. Scratch that. You get out often. You must be in front of a computer less than me. Good for you then.

Here's 10 names for bands that hopefully will never appear on a marquee (Why 10? Because people expect lists in 10's. And it gives me something to do before I get that much deserved sleep I've been lacking. Plus the rush to come up with 10 names right before bad will ensure the awfulness of the names created.)

1.) Locked My Keys in the Car

2.) Spill Milk and Cry

3.) Shampoo Rinse Repeat (actually that one is pretty good)

4.) Dreamt You Left Me Woke Up Got Up Yawned

5.) Wave Them Like You Just Don't Care

6.) Always Get a Receipt

7.) This Band is not a Toy

8.) Cross Tees Dot Eyes

9.) No Balance Transfer Fees

10.) Put Your Right Foot In, Put Your Right Foot Out

Good Night.

Just Say No to the Three-Peat

You mean they can only go two terms. Thank Jesus for that.

Paper receipts for New Jersey Elections. Good job, Mr. Codey. The damage has been done, but perhaps it will keep Jeb in Florida. Although it looks like there'll be a lot districts stuck with white elephants after complying with the Help America Vote Act. Anybody HAVA outdated voting machine with no printer out there. Ouch. Sorry, couldn't resist.

And Rush Holt is pushing it further. Apparently, not all guys named Rush are Oxycotin-addicted, overweight, overbearing blowhards.