We have all been waiting for this, time to see our old friends from Left 4 Dead appear and interact with the Left 4 Dead 2 survivors.We kind of miss them don’t we? Even tho we can still visit them by booting up Left 4 Dead.But I want more from them.I personally can’t wait to hear Francis crack up new funny/corny jokes, Louis grabbing pills, Bill reminiscing wars and Zoey for being “the girl” in the team.We expected a lot from this DLC, including new weapons, new un-common common infected and story line update (we hoped this map do explain some of the continuity error in the original Left 4 Dead).So off to my gaming machine and lets boot up Left 4 Dead 2.
Okay, here is a good question, what does a prostitute and a mall Santa have in common? Or better yet, why should suicide bombers buy life insurance? The answer lies in this book “SUPERFREAKONOMICS”, a sequel to its previous book, “FREAKONOMICS” who was also authored by Levitt & Dubner.
If you read “FREAKONOMICS” before, you should know how the authors are able to use the laws of supply and demand, incentives and risks like a toy.I say toy because I thought that economics is the study of money and trade, but it turns out it can also be used for other things beyond the scope of trade.The previous books talks about why drug dealers still lives in their parent’s basement, how a swimming pool is deadlier than a gun etc.
The sequel isn’t far off different to the old book.The authors also applies economics to bizarre things such as Elephants being deadlier than Sharks, how cars today are less polluting than normal horse and wagon (which may surprise you when you read it), and my ultimate favorite, how prostitutes are similar to mall Santa’s.
An English-born photographer, Martin Broomfield, who holds a Canadian citizenship, have lived throughout various countries: United Kingdom, Kenya, Canada and Vietnam. He currently resides in Jakarta, Indonesia as of 2007 along with his family. His specialty revolves (pun intended) around snapping gorgeous panoramic landscapes, museums, buildings and other candid moments. Some examples of his work are the "refuse collector", "anak krakatoa", "monkey forest", "magic sunrise", "religious ceremony", "fatahilah museum" and even inside the viewing platform of monas! How many of you have honestly gone inside monas? To the very top, mind you. I sure haven't.
Amongst the pictures he posted, I particularly like the "refuse collector" picture the most as it conveys such a moving, yet depressing reality of the many people often neglected in Indonesia; turning a blind eye to the real issues of our society. His t-shirt reads "private property". Oh the irony.
Anyway, be sure to check out more of his work in Indonesia here. He has traveled extensively (judging by the pictures and locations featured) so don't forget to check them out too. It's inspirational (and a hint of jealousy) to see somebody have the privilege to explore and genuinely take an interest in traveling. I hope to be as fortunate as him in the future. For now, this virtual experience is the closest thing to achieving that end.
gentlemen, i watched twilight the new moon today n i have to say its not too bad. Its an ok movie and i guess its worth watching it. Scripts r bland and the character only has good bodies, but yeah... its quite good."
I stumbled upon this fascinating and insightful documentary several months ago, which to my surprise retains its appeal and impact on me to this very day. Originally a book written by Jack Shaheen in 2001 and later directed by Sut Jhally in 2006, "Reel Bad Arabs" delves into the sad realities and practices of film-making's biased and pejorative depiction of Arabs. While films in itself are purely a form of entertainment and artistic expression -- unrestricted to the imagination, it however does not entitle filmmakers to represent a whole cluster of cultures or peoples into one single, universally negative and demeaning characteristic. This type of skewed interpretation, I think, is due to their lack of objectivity, knowledge and certainly sense of openness to foreign cultures. The mass media thus only enhances people's prejudices towards others, be it religion, nationality, color, sex or race.
Hollywood's myopic, stereotypical portrayals of Arabs only reinforce xenophobia, particularly in the US with the aftermath of 9/11. The mass media is a highly susceptible instrument in augmenting many of today's (false) prejudices and widely conservative beliefs of Arabs throughout the world.
From Indiana Jones to Aladdin, many more are critically analyzed. This documentary also touches on the symbiotic relationship between politics and cinema as a force constantly exhibiting fear of the unknown. Without further ado, sit back, pop a corn and enjoy this mentally stimulating documentary.
Every weekend during the 90’s, my parents would take me to a video store back in Jakarta to rent out a movie in Laser disc format. I don’t remember when they bought the peripheral but it sure was memorable. Apart from it being so huge and would take several discs for a movie, the video quality that it produced is far better than the VHS. Plus, you don’t have to rewind the thing when you want to watch it again.
According to Wikipedia, the diameter of the laser disc is 30cm in length, compared to a standard DVD which is 12cm in diameter. So you can imagine bringing home a disc that is four times bigger than your standard DVD/VCD, PLUS additional discs because you may need 2 to 3 discs to play a movie. This is true for those long movies such as Apollo 13 or Titanic. In addition to having multiple discs, it also uses multiple sides like an old vynil record. Usually the machine prompts us to flip to the other side of the disc by giving us a blank screen during a movie.
I'm glad Batik Tribe has gotten tabloid and news recognition in the past few weeks. I've gotten the chance to meet the crew and socialize with them and I've never met a more colorful, and dedicated group of people in their arts.
The last friend on my steam friend list who had originally boycotted “Left 4 Dead 2” has finally caved in and bought the sequel today. I was caught by surprise because he was furious beyond imagination to discover the announcement. He has gathered up all his crew and boycotted this game. I felt betrayed when his status reads “Ardyes is now playing Left 4 Dead 2” today. A bit sad thou, as we usually pwn noobs and beat the living crap out of them in versus, now it’s just me all alone waiting... begging to at least have one person to join the lobby. Soon, I realized it’s all over. As I wait in my lobby, patiently, I have written some of the memories I had playing this game. Here is to you, sweet prince.
I remembered the first time I had my hands on the “Left 4 Dead” demo and I played it for hours without end. My steam friends list kept adding up, eager in anticipation preparing to find loyal and faithful friends to play with as soon as the game is released. This pisses of most of the crew in “the geeks” because I kind of abandoned them whenever I play “Left 4 Dead” and play with some other people.
The Campaign was great, but what really hit the spot was versus. It was a fresh idea, revolutionary even. What can be more super satisfying then covering people with bile and see the horde ripping them to shreds. Or a high dive with the hunter, where you sky hug survivors eliminating a quarter of their life as well as ripping them to shreds. It’s fun, but requires players that can co-operate and you need a microphone.
The more I play, more people added me to their friends list. Probably because I am really good at this game, or probably because of my accent. But after a while, I started to play with people that would regularly play every week end. Every Friday I wait in anticipation at mid-night in my lobby. It’s almost instantaneous to see the lobby get filled up with 8 players. The drawback to this is to apologize to the other mates who couldn’t get a spot.
I don’t know how much I screamed in this game, screaming for help, screaming for pills, ammo or the word TANK. This game is like a dream come true, a magnificent work of art that I thought would live on like the almighty “Team Fortress 2”, promising new maps, guns, monsters etc so that players will play this game. Sadly, it didn’t live the expectation.
When the announcement was made for a new “Left 4 Dead 2”,it brought joy to my heart. I was thinking, “Hey, we are going to get those add-ons”. When they said it was a full price retail game, I was just utterly disappointed. My steam buddies was outraged, and protested to Valve about this. I stood by their side all the time.
When the demo came out, it changed a lot of people’s minds. The game turned out to be better than the previous one and pre-orders doubled the amount of the original game. Two weeks ago was probably one of my last versus session with my remaining Left 4 Dead buddies and we had a lot of fun. This was the last time we had a fun at a serious game with each other.
On the 17th of November 2009, Valve finally unlocked “Left 4 Dead 2” for steam players. All my steam friends’ status changed to “Some guy is playing Left 4 Dead 2”. I am the only survivor left here who has not succumbed to the sequel, faithfully waiting in my empty lobby for another Left 4 Dead player to come and play with me. It was usually me and Ardyes who stood by, but today it’s only me.
So to the original Left 4 Dead casts, I bid farewell and will always remember the number of times failing to finish a finale on expert, the stupid exploits used to get thru a level, closet camping, Shiva stacking, getting gold on survival, getting triple pounced plus smoker, DOING a triple pounce plus smoker and knocking survivors off rooftops in No Mercy.
