by Bret

Our Daily Beard

Huzzah!

A day off today, which should mean more time to blog, but it’s a solitary day off and I’m itching to do some solid writing. Plus, I potentially have a cool announcement soon…

Anyway, I can’t believe that the issue of gay marriage is still being debated. Just allow it already!

What are you afraid of? Do you think it’ll ruin the sanctity of the historical practise of selling daughters for political or monetary gain?

Modern marriage is, largely, about love (the irony being that some cultures had already figured that out historically- not all of them behaved like the above). It has nothing to do with traditional family units, aside from perhaps the social pressure to do what’s expected (yay). How many same-sex traditional married couples go on to royally screw up a) their lives b) their kids c) each other and d) their vows to the beardy overlord in the sky?

To me, not being an adherent to any of the major religions, marriage just seems like a piece of paper that lets the government know who you choose to live with. Not that I’m against declarations of love- I just think they should be separate from legal bonds. Note that I’m also still most chuffed for my friends and family who are married- funnily enough, unlike some Conservative types, I’m happy for other people to do things they believe in even though I’m not a fan.

Anyway, if gay people really do want expensive legal documents to say who they love, let them. I can understand the argument that it’s as much about obtaining equality as obtaining the right to marriage itself. We’ve already separated marriage from religion thanks to registry offices. Thankfully, we have divorce now too, which goes some way to protecting those who are trapped by marriage and basically forced into abusive relationships with no escape. Some of them, anyway.

Tell you what, Tories- you want a good reason to legalise gay marriage? Aside from the ethical arguments and the fact that it’s what most of your country wants (you know, those people you’re meant to serve)?

It’ll double the marriage market overnight. Boom, expensive weddings everywhere. Catering, photography, clothing, registry offices and churches, parties, planning, vehicle hire, travel. And, forgive the stereotyping, but massive quantities of champagne. No, wait, that’s just for me.

The gays will bring us out of recession in two years!

 
[sociable]

Our Daily Beard

Hey hey hey.

Just a quick one as I’m all over the place today.

The last of the recycled haikus! I know, so lazy…

 

If I were a cat,
I would eat bats and puppies,
To gain their powers.

 

Ventricles are great,
The left one shoots my blue blood,
Up the Aorta.

 

Anyway!

 
[sociable]

Our Daily Beard

Ave.

I was just having a nosey at the new Splinter Cell on Xbox and thought I’d share some screenies.

SC: Blacklist is due out on the 23^rd in the UK, just a few days away. The gist is that a group of terrorist calling themselves the ‘Engineers’ are trying to curb the expansion of the US across the world (doesn’t seem so bad to me). They’ve issued an ultimatum called the Blacklist, which is a ‘deadly countdown’ of escalating attacks on US interests.

I think that means that they’re attacking increasingly important targets. They want the US to give in before it things get too explodey.

So in steps Sam Fisher, head of the new 4^th Echelon (remember, the spy unit that he belonged to in most of the others) who will stop them by any means necessary, particularly any that involve crouching in the dark.

So, in response to the mixed feedback from the last game, they’re putting Sam back in his normal suit and goggles and going for a more traditional Splinter Cell game. Apparently he’s also ‘more lethal and agile than ever’ which I find a bit hard to believe when he’s been complaining about being too old for the job for the past three games.

You can choose to be a ghost, panther, or assault player: sneaky hidey, sneaky killy, or shooty facey. Personally, I don’t know why I’d play Splinter Cell without intending to hide and sneak and all that.

There will be gadgets that excite me not at all so I won’t explain them. Also you’ll get to work on building up 4^th Echelon- the team, Sam’s gear and a flying fortress called the Paladin (whaaa?).

It’s not clear how the Kinect will feature, but I’m sure that’ll be fun too.

Anyway, it looks like this:

Ta-ta.
[sociable]