I only have $2.11. Landlord holding my money hostage. This is the letter I sent him. If he doesn’t send me my money promptly I will have to take more drastic measures. My lawyer says the lease probably never even took effect even though I signed it, on account of the mold and water damage having not been fixed as promised. Mr. Landlord probably does not realize that if my money is not returned soon I will even go as far as putting up signs up in the neighborhood to avoid future renters getting the same treatment. He does not want to mess with this.

Jeez, guys. Blog visits almost half since Sept. 10/12. Do I offend? Did I lose jewish readers because I posted Occupation 101? Or did I lose the christian readers for posting Palin’s Jesus Camp video? Did I lose nihilists on the days that I posted nothing? Or did I get censored from Corporate America language screening software because I used inappropriate language? Or did you blanch at my self hatred and pandering for attention? Oh you are a fickle lot!

Lotus Concept Car
http://www.knowthelies.com/?q=node/2735

It’s made out of hemp.

Gay Emoticon

There should be some sort of gay emoticon. I don’t mean like 8==D or :-})

I’m talking about a one-character gesture that you can put before a sentence so that people will read it properly in a flamboyantly gay style. You know how some jokes just have to be said in a totally gay way otherwise you just can’t pull it off? Seriously, read to me the script of The Birdcage in straight-talk express and tell me it still works. I hope the gays will support me on this and not turn on me like rabid dogs for being straightist. (Did you know that there is a gaygamer.com site? So pimp. For videogame loving gays. They have pretty good articles sometimes because I get linked there from elsewhere. No, really. I do.)

Back to my symbol, I don’t want to characterize all gays, which is why if your sexuality has nothing to do with what you type then go ahead and just don’t use the symbol. So, what do you think, a tilde at both ends?)  ~that’s kind of a hoot!~ Whew!

Atmosphir
Create your own 3D Platform Game
http://kotaku.com/5049148/create-a-3d-platformer-with-atmosphir

Free Flash Game – Inquisitive Dave (RPG)
http://crazymonkeygames.com/Inquisitive-Dave.html

Free Flash Game – Elements
May cause dizziness or puking.
http://games.wegame.com/adventure/elements/

New Firefox Porn Mode – Private Browsing
http://www.webmonkey.com/blog/Firefox_to_Embrace_Porn_With_New__Private_Browsing__Mode

Adam Kimmel presents: Claremont HD
http://www.vimeo.com/1654340?oct-39
This will turn your stomach. Must watch.

Saturn -vs- Earth Size Comparison

Earth and Moon from 31 Million Miles Away
http://www.earthfiles.com/Images/news/E/EarthMoon31MillionMiles091408.jpg

Taken by Deep Impact in 2008

The Short Life of Ike
Pictures from the Devastation

Related News: Video (Houston KHOU)

Pedestrian Street Art
http://www.toxel.com/inspiration/2008/09/15/pedestrian-street-art-by-peter-gibson/

Barry Jennings – WTC7 Witness – is Dead
http://www.infowars.com/?p=4602

Breaking. I don’t know the details just yet (how/why – article suggests it happened August 19th). I have linked to his testimony before. I hope he wasn’t suicided (that is a commonly heard term in conspiracy circles. It, of course, refers to the U.S. Government’s Involunatry Suicide-Assistance Program.) They only get away with it because no one pays any attention.

Project Camelot – Audio Interview with Ann Eller
http://www.projectcamelot.org/audio_interviews.html
She was J. Allen Hynek’s personal assistant. He was the skeptic-turned-believer who worked on the whitewashing UFO study, Project Blue Book. She has some interesting information to share.

Bonus: Was Nikola Tesla Murdered?

Worthless Bonus Link
Soulja Boy’s Impression of the Game Braid

SPORE
My brother got my account banned from SPORE for 7 days because he typed the word ‘shit’ in the name of one of his vehicles. I stopped playing because part of the joy of the game is that it imports content from other players with an internet connection. They have finally released me back onto the SPORE internets and I have to say, despite a lot of the criticism about the repetitiveness and lack of gameplay depth, I’ve really been enjoying the game.

The building and vehicle creators are excellent. So much fun. And when you are finally finished and you paint them with procedurally applied textures it is incredible how amazing it looks. I’m fairly blown away by that bit in itself.

Currently in: Civilization Phase, Military style. I took over a continent – now for the world.

Other New Games out for 360 Right Now:
Viva Pinata 2
Force Unleashed (Review)

Shadows Over Camelot
http://www.daysofwonder.com/shadowsovercamelot/en/
When I have no money I buy something. Perhaps that doesn’t make sense, but if I don’t deny the reality of poverty then it makes it far too real for me. So I defy it with gratuitous spending.

This game is going to rock. Wonderfully detailed board and pieces. Fascinating game dynamic (cooperative game, but one of you might be a traitor.) Should be fun. Maybe I could have a knight’s party. I’ll have to make 7 chain link shirts out of paperclips.

Is depression a healthy reaction to a sick society?

“If I wasn’t smoking weed, I’d be on xanax or prozac or some shit. I’d much rather be taking something natural to regulate my serotonin that doesn’t give me sexual side-effects (like the inability to orgasm; a living nightmare.) Come to think of it, it has enhancing sexual side effects…”

“Well, as long as you don’t use it to escape your problems. Are you using it to escape your problems?”

Fuck yes I am! If I get in a domestic squabble, a toke, the problem is immediately resolved. We can see from eachother’s perspective and it crushes the ego to the point where we realize we no longer care about the non-issue (for instance, I think the pot holders should be readily available. she puts them on the same hook as the pans which, in an emergency, would be terribly inefficient.) After a few moments I return to the now and all I want to do is be happy with the one that I love – no more wasted time and bruised egos.

Most mental issues like worries, anxiety, panic, fear are exactly that – mental issues (usually concerned with the past or future) that do not exist (yet?) in a substantive way and cannot be resolved through thinking them through. They are made of thought alone, but can have a debilitating effect in the here and now.

I may be escaping these problems by eliminating the sub-process that binds me to re-thinking them over and over, but what on earth is the harm in that?

If I remove my hand from the stove am I escaping the problem of my burning hand?

(Note: I’m talking about only enough to change one’s perspective. Not getting blitzed to the point of being incoherant or falling asleep.)

Speaking of which, here’s what being a schizophrenic might be like:
schizophrenic simulator.
(Warning: this may be psychologically disturbing to some. do not watch if you are easily disturbed or can’t “let go” of emotional videos or traumatic scenes in your head.)

(For some reason that reminds me of this much more family friendly 3D audio presentation: Virtual Barbershop. Close your eyes, use headphones if available.)

My brain used to be quite mean to me in a similar fashion to that schiz video actually; only it just used one voice – mine. Just as I try and remind myself all the time to be thankful for the uvulopalatopharyngoplasty that I had that enables me to not snore (booty) and breathe in more oxygen (brain) I have to also be constantly thankful for Eckhart Tolle who helped me become the master of my own thoughts. In all of my reading no one had ever told me that I didn’t need to listen to the thoughts in my head; that they could be incorrect or even damaging, and that I should only engage them when the thoughts were working for me and my agenda. I’m still human – I still feel ups and downs and all of that – but it has been a very long time since a thought tried to take me down so it could rule the roost. I dog whisperered my own ego and it knows who is master now.

The majority of people are automatons to the control of their own brains; they have let their thoughts trick them, convince them that there are so many things to worry about in the world that the spiritual “you” couldn’t possibly handle it on your own. So the brain takes over all of your functions and it drags your person through life reacting off of everything like a pool ball, including your past mistakes and the terrifying future that hasn’t happened yet; a constant cause and effect relationship with the rest of the world; your life the plinko chip. All the while the real “you” just sits in its prison and watches.

Fabled Enemies

Speaking of sleepers, here’s a new awakening from the Alex Jones infowars.com crew:

Fabled Enemies (Super High Quality, full movie)

Osama Bin Laden: CIA asset codenamed Tim Osman.
Also Bush’s partner in Arbusto Oil (arbusto means Bush in Spanish)

My only warning here is that you don’t let the fear fill you. Some folks in the conspiracy realm reckon that Alex Jones is part of the conspiracy – sent to muddy the waters and keep us on the wrong track. I don’t believe that – I remember when he was a nothing on Austin’s cable access channel. But just as with Alex and Whitley Strieber they often operate from a base of fear. That is probably why they rose to stardom in the first place. The fear gets you in a heightened state where you more readily absorb information. However, you can extract the information without feeding on the fear by simply willing that to happen. I ask that you try and do that.

Speaking of fear for things we don’t fully understand:

The Naked Sun

Sun Makes History: First Spotless Month in a Century

Earthfiles: Still No Sunspot Action (Updated)

No sunspots for a month. This hasn’t happened since 1913.

I did some searches for information about 1913: uhh… Winston-Salem, zippers, Camel cigarettes, Ford assembly line, NY’s Grand Central, Harriet Tubman dies, Women’s Suffrage march – nothing out of the ordinary.

So I searched for weather and 1913:

The Great Lakes Storm of 1913

While controversy may exist about which storm was the strongest
and produced the most devastation, one could hardly deny that
the fall storm of November 7-12th, 1913 ranks near or at the top!
In fact, it is generally agreed that the November 1913 storm
(which concentrated more on Lake Huron for its death and destruction)
was the greatest ever to strike the Great Lakes.

Statewide Flood (Ohio)

The statewide extent of death and destruction in the Flood of 1913 exceeds all other weather events in Ohio history, justifying the title of “Ohio’s greatest weather disaster.”

Notes on the Severe Heat and Drought over the Midwest During the Summer of 1913

Ouch!

Then again, the Electric Universe (Film: Thunderbolts of the Gods) people think that sunspots are holes into the cool interior of a plasmaball. (scroll down to ‘Sunspots and Coronal Holes‘) I wonder what the electric universe people say about the lack of sunspots? Keep watching the Thunderblog at thunderbolts.info I guess.

Never A Straight Answer

Speaking of space science, did I forget to mention that Richard Hoagland is accusing NASA of hiding life on mars? That’s a crazy ass site if you ever get the chance to poke around it. Much of it is… odd? speculative? crazy? Full of red text and exclamation points and specious connections? In other words, fun.

The Solution to Coral Castle?

That reminds me I never linked to this solution to the mystery of coral castle, supposedly.

The Secrets of the Universe

If the background music is far too gay for you to handle, and if the video editing is far too plodding, then here is an HTML page with all the video’s revelations.

The secret, of course, is in the number 144 (Hey, didn’t the bible talk about 144,000 in Revelations? I’ve had the Bible by the toilet for some light reading and I’m sure I just read that. I also enjoyed the show The 4400, but that is unrelated. Is Heroes coming back anytime soon? Oh yeah, they made little webisodes if you want to watch those.)

Everyone has speculated on the meaning of 7129 6105195 which Ed Leedskalnin scratched on the wall (he didn’t do much that was without meaning so a lot of significance was put into it.)  That guy’s explanation is the best I’ve heard so far.

Still, some of the stuff in that video makes my gag reflex go funny.

–

The Revolution will Not Be Anesthetized

Speaking of TV Shows, I’ve got my new apartment (paying for, but I haven’t moved in yet) and I had to make a choice:

To Comcast or Not to Comcast?

I loathe comcast. They’ve even started blocking people from seeding torrents which is just like them, the dirty shits. I pay for 200 channels of crap for the privedge of watching the 1% that I want to watch, and despite how much I pay, each channel is still an attempt to brainwash me or sell me something more. And in exchange for this crappy deal you limit what I do with my bandwidth? Oh hell no!

Last time I had the works: HBO, Showtime, digital box, DVR, VOD, HD. I paid about $150/month and rarely watched it of my own volition.

This time, I choose no television. I’m getting FIOS for internet – the lowest speed (@ $49.99 or something) is faster than Comcast Cable.

I’ll get Netflix – they are actually doing a deal with xbox 360. Do they do conspiracy documentaries? I thought they’d get anything you requested. I want to swim in a deluge of documentaries.

I may get a set-top box for local channels, but that’s it. I’ll try not to use it.

YouTube Favorites and VLog

If I’m ever not here for a bit, feel free to check out:
YouTube Favorites
YouTube Video Log

I actually do post stuff there I don’t post here.

Like googletalk: Science and the Taboo of PSI! Man, all you have to do is read those comments to see that the taboo is still in place. I’ve also been trailing the false charges and arrests from fear-driven police officers around the Republican Convention. They’ve been pre-arresting people for thought crimes. They hadn’t even protested yet! Amy Goodman from Democracy Now! was arrested as well.

(read more for strange stats and things)

Strange Stats and Things

If somone says, “Hey, we get 27,096 hits a day!” then they don’t know what they are talking about. A “hit” is anything that your web server serves up – a graphic, for example. So my site which has tons of graphics on it is going to register as having gotten loads of “hits”, even if it is only one person checking out the site.

Anyway, I was excited about 657 unique daily visitors for Sept 1st (either the web spiders had an open house here or you guys were all terribly bored), but then we pooped back down to 237 on the 2nd. I’ve got to stop checking these stats. I used to get excited about 237.

Note to self: Never mention MATH on the site again!
Note to editor: Ignore the stats. Do what comes natural.
The reason I haven’t been blogging is that I’ve been working on something for you. It’s almost finished.

RSS Feed Problems?

I’ve had 2 complaints about the RSS feed. I don’t even use RSS feeds myself. I don’t know shit about them. But mine seem to be behind a couple of posts. Anyone else getting that? I did notice that Jackie’s laptop’s screensaver was relating the first chunk of an old post.

I need to remember to make a post with some crazy-ass starting entry just because it would make me laugh everytime I thought of it emblazoned on Jackie’s screensaver.

Aggregate Photos

I want to put all of the digicam photos in one place so I can look at them all as a sequence over time. Where can I do that? Flikr? I’ll look into it.

By the way, I changed my cameraphone’s resolution to full and now I can’t zoom.
I don’t like the pictures as much so far either, but I haven’t downloaded them yet. I think zooming was essential to the art; even if it was a digital zoom, not an optical one.

Warning: Graphic Violence, Mutants, Dog Companion, Hand Held Mini-Nuke Launcher

Bonus Game News: Will Wright’s BEST OF User-generated SPORE creatures

(I love that you can see the curvature of the Earth. Muy sweeto.)

In the full game you will be able to progress through history from Stone Age to Space Age in about 3 hours. You can play it peaceful or be an ass and there will be online play so you can play your friends. The tech tree seems fairly simple to use and everything is much more lively and animated than it ever was on the PC. I can see this game staying fresh for a long time as there are so many things to do and different strategies to reaching the top.

Trailer

Gameplay Footage

Bonus:

Sunset on Mars

——
Click more if you want to hear me bitch about the Jeff Peckman Alien Video
By now I’m sure you’ve heard of the Jeff Peckman Alien Video.

If not, here’s the story. This dude Jeff Peckman (who sells Metatron Personal Analyzers in his spare time to covert bad cellphone radiation into happy waves of goodness) is trying to start an Extraterrestrial Commission in Denver, CO. so that people will take aliens more seriously. He wants to put it on the ballot so that the people can decide if it is a worthy cause.

Photoshopped picture of Jeff Peckman. Sorry, Jeff. This was the best I could find.

He got the video from this dude Stan Romanek, Colorado Springs resident, who made the video July 17, 2003 at his home in Nebraska. Romanek claims that his teen daughters were complaining of noises outside of the window and he thought there was a peeping tom. So he put his camera on night vision and this is what showed up.

Stan Romanek

Screencap – 1 Frame from the ACTUAL Video

Now, don’t be fooled into thinking that Stan Romanek is just a concerned father who just happened to capture an alien on tape. This dude is knee deep in UFO Lore. Here is his website (scroll down).

Sidenote: If you are interested, check out this page of the website where Stan drew an equation under hypnosis after being abducted. If you read to the conclusion, someone figured out that his equation that he doesn’t understand himself (and which supposes a 10th planet!*) points to the date December 21, 2012 – the same day that the very intricate Mayan Calendar which has been tracking epochs since 3114 BC (“The birth of Venus”) – ENDS. (Also known as The Ending of The 5th Sun or the Age of the Jaguar.) (We will then be aligned with the galactic center of the Milky Way, which some believe is not our mother galaxy, that we just got sucked in recently.

Some think the magnetic poles will flip on this date. Some think we all die, convert into energy beings, or that Revelations happens and Jesus rides in on a cloud. Some claim, like your odometer, the calendar doesn’t end, it just rolls over and starts again.

* As for the 10th planet, Zecharia Sitchin, Sumerian researcher, wrote the book series The 12th Planet showing how the Sumerians knew of all the planets in our Solar System way before we re-discovered them far later in time. He speaks of a 12th planet (Sumerians considered the Sun and Moon to be planets, hence 12th not 10th) called Nibiru or Planet X that has a very long crossing orbit that comes back and tears the ass out of our Solar System every 3600 years. — Whether it’s true or not, it is all fantastic fun to think about.

(Whew. See how crazy complicated and interconnected all this stuff is?)

Back to the Jeff Peckman video story… some a-hole skeptic, who used to be a believer, created a fake alien-at-a-window video using a puppet and CGI together to prove that Stan Romanek probably faked his film. (That is a fallacy of logic that skeptics adore, but I digress.) He admits it in the Larry King Special which I will link to below:

Larry King (is an) – Alien Caught on Tape – Part 1

Larry King (is an) – Alien Caught on Tape – Part 2


(this is the part with the Skeptic freak.)

What Pisses Me Off

Now, what is pissing me off is that loads of people are posting the FAKE video as the real video. There is no copy of the REAL video on the web right now. There is only the screencap posted above.

FAKE DOLL + CGI VIDEO #1

FAKE VIDEO #2 – TOTALLY CGI

There are also a TON of stupid joke videos all labeled REAL, you can search for those yourself because I refuse to link to them. Everything from Paris Hilton to an alien capped with a baby bottle teat. Once again in human history, the truth is obscured by a-holes.

I’m looking forward to seeing the GENUINE video (I hesitate to say real) as it is claimed that you can make out muscle and facial movements, as well as eye movements, that would all be hard to fake with a puppet. And that all of this takes place behind a reflection in the glass which rules out CGI. It will be released in a documentary format and leaked to the internet soon after that.

In the meantime, this is the best alien video I’ve ever seen. An oldy, but goody. Kind of sad, really. It creeps me out. (DNI stands for Department of Naval Intelligence.)

Alien Interview

Alien Captured
They are speaking in Portuguese. Seems fake to me, but amazingly well done.

Alien Tape
I’d say a fake or mistaken identity.

Jaime Maussan’s Presentation (full thing can be found on google video.)
(These two parts contain supposed Alien photographs.)
Part 7 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SXb64S59kM
Part 8 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyatTcXbxmY

Kid Playing Soccer in Mexico Grabbed By Alien
The quality is piss poor as it was taken with a cellphone. I’ve seen better copies, but all I can find is the youtube right now. Ah! I found the original video. If it is fake, why fake such a bad video? Who knows.
Link to Still Image of the “Creature” #2

Abduction Captured By Security Tape
I believe this one to be real. A dude disappears, comes back two hours later and pukes. That is actually pretty consistent with the research, or a good time on a friday night. Again, why fake this?

—

I can’t even post anymore. There is so much crap out there.

• There are 15 multiplayer game modes in GTA IV. PSM had an opportunity to play 7 of them.
• Multiplayer supports upto 16 players.
• Your online character is fully customizable. You can alter his race, sex, hair, clothing etc.

  
  

• The game modes featured are as follows:
  1. Hangmans NOOSE
  2. Car Jack City
  3. Bomb da Base
  4. Bomb da Base II
  5. Mafia Work
  6. Team Mafia Work
  7. Deathmatch
  8. Team Deathmatch
  9. Turf War
  10. Cops N Crooks
  11. Race
  12. GTA Race
  13. Deal Breaker
  14. Free Mode
  15. Car Jack City
• In Race and GTA Race, the host gets to decide which vehicles are involved, and the number of laps to be played.
• In Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch, the host gets to decide the number of pedestrians, the amount of traffic, the intervention of police, and the type of weapons.
• In Cops N Crooks, one team play as cops and the other play as criminals. The cops must stop the criminals from escaping. They can monitor the locations of the criminals on their GPS systems, while the criminals don’t know where the cops are.
• In Mafia Work and Team Mafia Work, you play as one of Kenny Petrovic’s mafia henchmen, and you must complete hits ordered by your boss (over your cellphone) before your rivals.
• The map used in multiplayer is the same map that is used for single player.
• A single-player mission called “Hangman’s NOOSE” features co-op. You and your friends will be able to escort a mobster, while being pursused by a SWAT team.

Check out some of the new screenshots too:
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii316/nevermikel/14-03-2008140523.jpg
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii316/nevermikel/14-03-2008140744.jpg
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii316/nevermikel/14-03-2008140523.jpg
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii316/nevermikel/14-03-2008140202.jpg

Available Now — MASS EFFECT downloadable content! “Bring Down the Sky” adds 90 more minutes of fun and 50 more gamerscore points to an already great game. These lovely fellows are Batarians and they enjoy walks on the beach, mai tais, and hurling meteors at planets. What you gonna do?

Mass Effect was not only in the running as Game of the Year in 2007, but it has the added distinction now of being the only game in the entire world that Jackie says she “just couldn’t get into”.  It is an RPG experience and therefore a totally different pace than many action gamers are used to, but I highly recommend it.

Brain Challenge on XBLA (xbox live arcade, duh) — looks challenging, but my brain is already challenged.

One of the scariest games I’ve ever played was Condemned. It was one of the games available upon the release of the xbox 360, but I didn’t pick it up until much, much later. I think it did a number on me worse than Resident Evil ever did because it was far more psychological. The wet thud of a wooden board with screws sticking out of it hitting a crazed homeless guy’s face is just… brutal. A burnt and abandoned farmville-esque department store where ’tis the season’ can be heard playing faintly in the background and some of the mannequins turn out to be insane freaks that attack you when you least expect it.

Condemned 2 is out now for xbox 360. And it has multiplayer? My girl doesn’t like scary so I might have trouble trying to play this one. I don’t really have time for it right now anyway.

I did mention that there were a load of updates to the GTA IV site, didn’t I? Well, let me mention it now if only to give me an excuse to link to this screenshot:

Ahh..

–

My Mercury Sable is being donated to Cure Autism Now! today. That is, it would be if I hadn’t locked both sets of keys in the glove compartment. I told them that putting keys in the glove box was a dumb idea – if only because I know myself so well.

If you check the tabs at the top, I have now added a severely bloated gallery program with way more features than I want and none of the ones that I need.

I highly recommend my cellphone gallery which are pictures I’ve collected with my cellphone since early ’07.

I have been cooking up some new posts and have some stuff in Drafts, but unfortunately most of my time has been spent fighting with Sony Vegas and trying to import tracks with audio intact. The codec hell it has left me foundering in has been beyond frustrating. On top of that I think my car needs the transmission rebuilt and that could cost $2000. Which means my car is probably going to say good bye soon. Luckily, I originally got the vehicle for $1.

In gaming news:

#1. Orange Box Team Fortress 2 Patch is out on xbox LIVE

#2.  Undertow downloadable content tomorrow.

#3. Someone decided to steal my idea of stealing someone else’s idea and made a more modern version of the game Space Hulk. I was going to make mine in Flash, but I guess now I don’t have to?

#4. I bought Bully by Rockstar Games:

Should be a kick in the pants and something to ease my mind until GTA IV.

#5. Go Obama! I’ll be watching the results tonight. Obama is the first thing to get the Democratic party and the Joe-sixpack voting public excited since Al Gore did the macarena in public so please god let him win! I’m so tired of being disappointed. Hell, I’m a liberal — I’ve come to expect disappointment. Thanks corporate media for failing your democracy!

Today is the day for Grand Theft Auto IV info. If you know me, you know I can bring Grand Theft Auto IV into almost any conversation in that way that makes you a little uncomfortable because the tendril of relevance to the topic at hand is so whisper-thin as to be irrelevant.

Well, today is one of those days where the info floods in. We’ve been waiting for this moment.

If you want more of a fine wine review, then I suggest:
GamesRadar – Part 1
GamesRadar – Part 2 **

Just like screenshots? Sure, we got that:

http://www.gta4.net/screenshots/

It’s coming too fast!
Kikizo
1up.com
uk.xbox360.ign
uk.ign.com
computerandvideogames.com
teamxbox.com
Gametap Article
Gametap Blog
Videogamer.com
VirginMedia.com
The gist of them all are that the game has no framerate issues, is a hell of a lot of fun, mayhem and destruction, but that there will be no car customization, Niko has to walk up and down steps rather than run, and that you can’t store stuff in trunks.

Lately, I’ve been obsessed with Table Tennis on the 360. Again.

I’m denying multiplayer requests just so I can beat one more opponent in Table Tennis, even though getting 11 points feels like climbing Mount Everest sometimes.

I just wrote Rockstar Games a letter and will post the response if I get one:

To: Rockstar
From: KindaGamey

Dearest Rockstar,

I have been thoroughly enjoying (read: cursing at) your Table Tennis game for some time now. In fact, I was going to write a long and tedious article about the nature of competition, confidence, and the definition of a winner or a loser being hinged upon whether one redoubles their efforts when the chips are down or whether one is then crushed under the pressure of self-doubt and self-loathing. However, it then occured to me that the secret nature of your AI might render my thesis useless. So on my behalf and on that of the gaming community at large I would really appreciate if you could ask the appropriate person to answer the following questions:

1. Is the Table Tennis AI difficulty level consistent or does it change throughout a match? [ ] Consistent [ ] Changes

2. Is the Table Tennis AI aware of a sense of “momentum” — i.e. how many points it has won/lost in a row? [ ] Yes [ ] No. Can it get… “discouraged” or “emboldened” for lack of better terms? [ ] Yes [ ] No

3. Is the Table Tennis AI aware of how many games it has won or needs to win to win the match? [ ] Yes [ ] No

Juergen and I humbly await your response whilst Liu Ping sneers at us from the Pro Circuit winner’s circle. He’s always popping my balls up, the bastard.

Best Regards,
KindaGamey

edit: Bonus Question: Does the AI predict human behavior or does it merely react? i.e. If I were to hit the ball 20 times to the left would the AI anticipate another hit to the left, such that it could be ‘surprised’ by a hit to the right?