Our Persisting Memories

Portal Bioshock Forza Motorsport 2 Mass Effect Half-Life 2 ep 2 Call of Duty 4 Rock Band God of War 2 Crackdown There's some notable stuff missing, but I haven't played Super Mario Galaxy enough to form an opinion. Portal is unassailable in its perfection. Bioshock still has me pondering its story/narrative, with moments that still pop into my mind. Forza Motorsport is a great sim, where you can actually powerslide and do donuts (no donuts in GT4). Mass Effect is flawed but wonderful in its epic storyline. Half-Life 2 ep 2 had the craziest final showdown in recent memory. Call of Duty 4 crossed the line into modern war, both literally and emotionally. Rock Band is awesome fun, but isn't too great when playing solo. God of War 2 takes everything from the first game and kicks it up a notch. And Crackdown does everything right that Grand Theft Auto does wrong...

I've been meaning to make a post of my favorite movies of last year. I've been waiting to see There will be Blood to make a final judgement, but I can't really keep silent anymore. There's a certain bombastic nature that gets ascribed to the screen. Movies are about plot, or if they aren't about plot they're about people, and finally if they aren't about plot or people they are used as metaphor to express something deeper. No Country for Old Men is all three. An engaging thriller, it features a hunter/prey style plot revolving around a sociopathic killer and a hotshot modern day cowboy. This is not a by the numbers genre piece. It is the best movie I've seen in recent memory. The subtle manipulation towards tension is perfectly expressed in the most intense scene I can ever remember seeing in cinema. There's no violence in this scene, just dialogue. You'll know it when you see it. Javier Bardem does an amazing job portraying Anton Chigur...

I know I had mentioned that I wouldn't discuss Ron Paul much more, but a huge controversy over his background came up again. It's an issue I had previously written about here . This is specifically about the newsletters that had been penned in between the period of his Libertarian run for president and his current run as a Republican congressman. They came to the forefront on the day of New Hampshire primaries based on a hit piece by a writer over at The New Republic . Even if not actually penned by Dr. Paul there's some obvious white nationalist thought published under his name during that time period. Please note these were also associated with a gold investment company that pushed it's association with the aforementioned newsletters. Dr. Paul has not come forward with the name of the person/persons involved in the publication of the newsletters with these comments in them. Some interesting things have happened since then though. Let me frame the implosion. Th...

24843 Our friend Shig Katada did some portraits for us, and also lent his editing and post-production talents to our family's bright faces. I've reorganized the gallery and put Sophia and Phoebe's galleries in with the rest of the Atchley family. There's a new gallery that contains all of our portraits thus far. I'll stop with the political posts I promise. Next up I'll post some long needed reviews of recent media, movies, video games, and anything else I've spent free time with. With the new year upon us and a less demanding project in store I should have some more time to offer my opinion on all sorts of crazy stuff. Perhaps next we need a front to back tutorial on how to prepare a movie file for your iPod using free software.