You heard about that guy who's been in a coma for twenty years that they now believe is conscious?

Watch this video.



There are two things going on here. The first is the neurological testing. I don't have any way to look at the charts and even if I did, I wouldn't know how to read them, so I can't comment on that.

But the woman moving his hand around? That's called "facilitated communication" and it's bullshit.

When tested properly (by blindfolding the facilitator), what we find is the victim cannot communicate at all. He misses buttons, types gibberish, cannot answer personal questions (that the facilitator would not know) correctly, and otherwise fails.

One such test involved showing an item to the patient and not showing it to the facilitator. Then, the patient and facilitator were instructed to type out what the object was. The study showed a zero percent success rate.

ZERO PERCENT SUCCESS RATE.

Like I said, there are two things going on here. The first, I'm not qualified to comment on. The second... Jeebus. How does anybody believe this crap? I know the family feels awful and wants to communicate with him in some way, but subjecting yourself--and your injured loved one--to this kind of humiliation is just terrible.

And that woman doing the typing? She belongs behind bars for fraud. Absolutely shameless.

I thought it would be fun to take some of my fantasy minis and paint them up as if they were fantasy versions of the Watchmen. This is a work in progress. So far I have Rorshach, the Comedian, and Silk Spectre II.

public Facebook album link

I'm killing zombies with a chainsaw.

Left 4 Dead 2 (a wedding present) is well-worth the wait.

DIE, ZOMBIE! DIE! DIE! DIE!

(And yes, the con man is my favorite character.)

She picked me up from the airport in a Wonder Woman costume.

She keeps telling me how lucky she is, blinded to the fact of how lucky I am.

Go over to mnight and wish her well.

About a month ago I was over at a friends house who was telling me about how he recently purchased an XBOX 360. He was going on and on about how much he loved it, how often he got together with his friends and brothers to play online and it made me feel a little out of the loop.

Since childhood, I've been a Nintendo guy. That's always been my default console. But I eventually caved in and bought a Playstation 2 and got a lot of enjoyment from that system as well.

I have a Wii, but I'm not totally satisfied with it. All of the single player games are great and I love the franchises like Zelda, Metroid and Mario. But I think the online play is lacking and, frankly, I feel a little babyish playing it sometimes.

So I seriously started to consider an XBOX 360 - even going so far as floating it as a birthday/Christmas present.

However, after I did some research, I learned about the different console models and the differences between the Arcade and Elite editions. I took the XBOX 360 off my wish list because buying the Arcade system didn't seem viable and I didn't feel comfortable with people paying that kind of money on a present.

A little later, I was looking at our credit card statement online. Our credit card offers reward points (which I largely ignore), but decided to take a look at their rewards site to see what it offered.

Lo and behold, I could get an XBOX 360 using our rewards points. I talked to Cami about it, and she basically gave me the go-ahead.

So what's stopping me?

Well, I mentioned this on Twitter and a flood of opinions washed over me sharing that I should get a PS3 instead.

Expressing reservations about the XBOX, a second wave crashed over me explaining why the XBOX was better.

Ultimately, it just left me confused. So I decided to make a PROS and CONS list for each console.

XBOX 360
PRO	CON
Using credit card points, I can get the 250GB HD Elitle Limited Edition Modern Warfare 2 bundle for free and it comes with two controlers and a headset.	Paying for an subscription to XBOX Live. $50 for the year, right?
More of my friends already have an XBOX and I can play more online games with them - which is the experience I want.	Paying for modem/router to connect to the internet. Maybe $70 - $100?
Larger library of games than the PS3.	Not sure what games are good (spent too much time in Nintendo-land).
Netflix.	Failure rate (although I heard more recent consoles are better about this - Elite systems even moreso).
Positive Twitter Feedback: IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII	Negative Twitter Feedback: IIIIII

 

PLAYSTATION 3
PRO	CON
Brand loyalty - I owned a PS2 and loved it.	Cost of a comparable system is $350. Plus $50 for another controller and $40 for a headset.
Doubles as a Blu-ray player.	I already have a Blu-ray player and almost never used the DVD functionality of the PS2.
Wireless connectivity to the internet. No extra purchases.	No backwards compatibility
Netflix	Netflix is disc-based, not streaming
Free membership to PlayStation Network	Smaller selection of games.
Definate interest in games like Little Big Planet, God of War 3 and Ratchet & Clank.	Less likelihood of playing online with friends.
Positive Twitter Feedback: IIIIIIIIIIIIIII	Negative Twitter Feedback: IIIIIIIII

Now, obviously the fact that I can get the XBOX for free is a HUGE incentive to get that system. But it's also important to note that I can bide my time if I have to. I don't know if the PS3 might become available on my credit card reward points site sometime in the future. So I want to make sure I'm convinced that the XBOX is the better system before I cash in. Nothing would annoy me more than to trade in my points for the XBOX then discover the PS3 becomes available a month after that.

Beyond that, popular consensus on Twitter seems to favor the XBOX. But then again, the system has been around longer so more people probably have experience with it over the PS3.

I'm just trying to organize my thoughts a little bit.

What are your thoughts, suggestions?

In no less than 500 words, compare and contrast both performances. This is worth 30% of your final grade.

Monsterpocalypse has two that aren't quite brains-with-tentacles but they're still pretty neat:



Snatcher and Snatcher Elite

Yes, I am writing a samurai version of Houses of the Blooded.

Yes, it is called Blood & Honor.

Yes, it will be a stand-alone product (you won't need to buy HotB to play it).

Yes, it is currently bullying all of my time.

Yes, I'm looking for playtesters.

No, I don't know when it will be done, but it will be soon.

Team Edward or Team Jacob seems to be the question of the day, but Discordia has shown me the proper answer. (All Hail Her and Give Her Absolute Praise!)

How about Team Threesome?

Aaron's Tomorrowland is now available. Click on the image to jump over to his LJ and buy it for someone you love!

I'm the Special Gaming Guest of Honor at DarkCon 2010!

Jan. 14-17.

You should show up.

Check out the new Pathfinder Society Open Call! This is a FULLY OPEN call, and you can submit whatever scenario ideas you want! If you want to get your foot in the door writing professionally for Paizo, this is the place to start. <a href="http://paizo.com/paizo/blog/v5748dyo5lamn</a>