Dopass.com

In the game industry we, typically, get really good benefits from our employers. I wish I could say this was always true, but in general it can be said the benefits we get (in the form of health coverage, etc.) are pretty good compared to similar benefits packages from other industries in our pay ranges. The one place this is never true, however, is dental care. This isn't a problem with the game industry, however, it's the sad and sorry state of affairs in the dental and dental insurance industries.

Check out this article. What the hell is wrong with the world?

Here's the crux of the article: France and a few other countries in the EU want a complete ban on GM food. I'd love to be able to tell you why, but I can't. Read the article, you'll see what I mean. Literally at no point is a REASON given for the fear, uncertainly and doubt that obviously spurs this move. Is the GM corn dangerous? The article says the EU itself says no. Is the GM Corn some sort of ecological risk? I wouldn't know, the folks calling for the ban seem to have supplied no reason what-so-ever for their call to ban this stuff.

So, the folks up on /. tell me that today is blog action day. Bloggers are supposed to rise up and together blog about a single topic.

The topic of this blog action day is... the environment.

*yawn*

Err... sorry, did I say that out loud?

I rant a lot. I always have. I love the rant. It's a form of performance art - with a catharsis chaser - that I've come to appreciate. I blame my father, a spectacularly foul-mouthed British man who worked on oil rigs for most of my childhood. He could rant like no one else I've met.

So, perhaps it comes as a surprise when I say: I'm tired of ranting. I swear, this decade has taken all of the clever rant I had left and burned it up in a flame of rage. I'm just angry old guy, now.

Sorry for the delay folks, Part 5 of the Road not Taken series is coming tonight, when I get home and can post it up. In a poetic twist of fate, I had titled this part "A day late and a dollar short."

- Snipehunter

MIT Student Arrested For Wearing 'Tech Art' Shirt At Airport - SuperBanana writes "According to a report by the Boston Globe, MIT Student Star Simpson was nearly shot by Logan Airport police who thought she was armed with a bomb. She approached an airline employee wearing a prototyping board with electronic components, crudely attached to the front of her sweatshirt and holding 'putty' in her hand. She asked about an incoming flight, and did not respond when asked about the device. Armed police responded. 'Simpson was charged with possessing a hoax device and was arraigned today East Boston Municipal Court. She was held on $750 cash bail and ordered to return to court Oct. 29. "Thankfully because she followed our instructions, she ended up in our cell instead of a morgue," Pare said. "Again, this is a serious offense ... I'm shocked and appalled that somebody would wear this type of device to an airport."'"Read more of this story at Slashdot.
[Slashdot Updates]

Come on people, you're killing me here! "Possessing a hoax device" is seriously a crime?! Like, for real?

I seem to remember an old saying...

This is just a rant, don't bother with it if you're looking for gaming related stuff. ;)

Anyway, to get to the point: I don't understand why, judging from television, our culture seems to find it acceptable to lie about moral topics. Like somehow the idea that you're lying to help someone else makes it OK to lie. The worst offenders in this regard have to be the anti-smoking campaigns...

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Snipehunter is a game designer with over a decade of experience, having started as a QA tester when he was still in school, for a technical pilot program project at a high school in Orange County, California. Since those very early days in QA he has become a game designer, serving as a lead or senior designer on several shipping projects, including the MMO project Auto Assault.

Here at dopass.com Snipehunter is the site admin and regular blogger. His blogs typically cover thoughts on the industry's direction, game designer or game politics discussions, though he has been known to post up a work of short fiction or two.