Empire of the Iguanadons

Yeah, this is what I get for following links from promotional OB videos in peoples' threads. I have to admit, cheesy as it is, it was funny as hell :)
.........................
"It is pointless to resist, my son." -- Darth Vader
"Resistance is futile." -- The Borg
"Mother's coming for me in the dragon ships. I don't like these itchy clothes, but I have to wear them or it frightens the fish." -- Thurindil

Well. I guess that's that then.

After six long years of amazing service to NASA, it looks like the Spirit rover has finally met its match in the form of deep sand in a Martian crater. NASA has declared that they will now abandon efforts to try and free the rover from the trap and instead focus on trying to keep it alive over the upcoming Martian winter. It became stuck in the sand at the crater some time ago and they've been trying to wiggle it free for a few months now but have had limited success due to a damaged wheel on the front. More recently they tried to drive it backward to free it, but apparently it's just getting bogged down more. Now they're worried because the angle of its solar panels is not optimal and it may not get enough power to last. Assuming it does survive, they'll be more or less turning it into a stationary science lab.

When the two rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, were first sent to Mars six years ago, neither one was expected to perform much past 90 days because the battery design wasn't built for it. These two troopers have long since outlived even the wildest hopes of most scientists and they've been reaping vast amounts of data they may not otherwise have been able to get. So even if Spirit kicks the bucket and dies in the next few months, NASA has every reason to be proud of what they've accomplished. Also, keep in mind, Opportunity is still out there chugging along exploring the planet and shows no signs of bowing out any time soon.

So give a shout out to NASA. Congratulations on an amazing project, and here's to six more years with Opportunity.
.........................
"It is pointless to resist, my son." -- Darth Vader
"Resistance is futile." -- The Borg
"Mother's coming for me in the dragon ships. I don't like these itchy clothes, but I have to wear them or it frightens the fish." -- Thurindil

Well. I guess that's that then.

Today in Massachusetts, disgruntled voters have sent a powerful, loud, and clear message to Washington: We're tired of your crap. Following the death of Ted Kennedy, a special election was called to fill his vacant seat in the US Senate. As little as two weeks ago, it was all but certain that the Democrat, Martha Coakley, would win the seat without a fight. No Republican has held a Senate seat there in 40 years, and nobody thought it was possible, but tonight, with a 52-47 percent result, Scott Brown has performed the miracle in the bluest of blue states.

Brown's election to the Senate will set off a political tsunami for the year to come. The first and most immediate effect is that the filibuster proof 60 man majority is gone. This almost certainly means the Obamacare bill is now dead in the water as other Senators are now calling for Brown to be seated immediately. Other dangerous legislation such as Cap n Trade and Global Warming bills are now in jeopardy and are unlikely to pass. If history teaches us anything, it teaches us that once the wake-up call is issues, most congresspeople will sit on their hands and do nothing for fear of losing their jobs.

The margin of victory of 5 points puts him beyond the ability of a recount to salvage through traditional Democrat shenanigans. The only thing they may yet try to pull is a delay in his certification. However, should this happen, it would almost certainly enrage an electorate already angry with the Dems in Congress and with Obama himself. Folks, the tea party movement has scored its first victory in what's going to be a long line of them come November 2010. This is only the beginning of the revolution. Scott Brown's election is the modern day equivalent to the shot heard round the world.

We cannot let our guard down though, there will be sneaky tactics used, more back room deals are sure to come, and one never knows if a spineless Rino will turn against the will of the people. It doesn't matter. Massachusetts has articulated what most of us already feel. We're mad as hell, and not going to take any more of it.
.........................
"It is pointless to resist, my son." -- Darth Vader
"Resistance is futile." -- The Borg
"Mother's coming for me in the dragon ships. I don't like these itchy clothes, but I have to wear them or it frightens the fish." -- Thurindil

Well. I guess that's that then.

Just another random posting. Figured folks might be interested in what drew people here in 2009. Yeah, it's about 3 weeks late, but better than posting it in June, right? :)

Top 10 Google Search Queries

1. "empire of the iguanadons" - Why people would specifically search for the title of the site is beyond me. But they did, and in large numbers.
2. "medievia" - Not as much of a surprise given where links to my site show up most. I expect this won't be nearly as prominent in 2010.
3. "iguanadons" - I think these show up here largely because it's a common typo for Iguanodon, a type of dinosaur. Though I'm probably a dinosaur in my own right.
4. "oblivion plugins" - Shouldn't come as a great shock to anyone who has followed more recent postings. What's shocking is that it rose so quickly from complete obscurity in 2008.
5. "iguanas" - The pictures alone probably draw these in.
6. "empire iguanadons" - Lump these in with #1 really.
7. "lakota" - It's like the Energizer Bunny of blog posts. People are still linking it in droves, and people still show up here in searches for it.
8. "2009 obama agenda survey" - This one surprises me mainly because I can't be the only person to have posted something on it.
9. "9/11/01/2996" - This is what I get for using things like this in movie reviews. No, you conspiracy theory nuts, the post has nothing to do with 9/11. (Oh jeez, just wait, the 2010 figures will be off the chart for it now!)
10. "mudbytes" - In two short months, it lept up from nowhere to the #10 slot. I doubt I need to explain why.

Top 10 Visited Pages

1. The root node. Which I guess is good, because it means a lot of people are showing up from links to that.
2. Lakota Independence Perhaps the reason the topic won't die is because there's a surprisingly large number of people linking into that specific page.
3. MudBytes Backstabbers From non-existence to 3rd most visited page here. Jesus people. Maybe just a reflection on today's culture over all that a rant post rockets to such popularity in so short a time. 2 1/2 months. Amazing.
4. Thought Police I hardly expected that topic to register with very many people. I guess I was wrong. Though partial credit has to go to #3 for this one since several anons skewed the figures.
5. The downloads page. It's not like I have a lot here folks, but you guys sure seem to love it all the same!
6. The image gallery, and further broken down, over 95% of you are sifting through the Oblivion stuff. Which isn't a surprise since it makes up the largest chunk.
7. The Medievia page. No doubt heavily visited due to how heavily sig-linked it is. Yes, I deliberately linked the keyword to the page URL. I'm just that mean.
8. Saviors of Cyrodiil That one goes back quite a long way and yet seems to have gained quite the following for some reason.
9. My Radeon 4870 X2 review/rant. I must have done something right, or got someone's attention somewhere because a whole bunch of people have read it.
10. Fallout 3 I guess more people than I figured ended up reading it.

I won't bother listing referral sites since they're all from image searches. Except for the #1 slot, which Dwip can take a bow for as my most frequent referral source :)

Oh, and hey, all you lurkers, speak up. Say something! We don't bite. Much.
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"It is pointless to resist, my son." -- Darth Vader
"Resistance is futile." -- The Borg
"Mother's coming for me in the dragon ships. I don't like these itchy clothes, but I have to wear them or it frightens the fish." -- Thurindil

Well. I guess that's that then.

So I'm sure by now there's no shortage of places you could go to watch this debacle. For the last month or so, people have been lining up on either side of the aisle in the great Leno vs O'Brien battle. It seems that we as a culture place more value on things like this and remain glued to it that we do on real issues that affect real people in their real lives. But, what the hell, why not play along?

The roots behind all this really got started about 5 years back. A little blurb Leno let loose on The Tonight Show saying that in 2009 Conan O'Brien would take over when Jay retired. It had to happen at some point, right? Leno couldn't keep it up forever, right? Well sure enough about 7 months ago it actually happened. Only it didn't happen quite how everyone expected. Sure, Conan got the 11:35 show, but for whatever reason Leno decided he didn't want to retire after all. So NBC decided to do some shuffling and moved Leno to the 10pm time slot 5 nights a week. A strange move for a network that should be thriving on actual prime time entertainment. Maybe they just didn't have anything else to put there. The world may never know.

Anyway, fast forward to the last week or so where it became apparent that NBC completely fucked up with this whole Leno in prime time experiment. I've watched the show on and off over the last 7 months and to me, it's just not the same. Leno was way funnier in the 11:35 slot for some reason. Maybe the writers in the 10pm slot are all slobbering morons. Whatever it is, the show just lays there. The monologue is too short. The jokes aren't funny. There's too much liberal politics injected into things. The bits are lame, the skits even lamer. His only redeeming segment left is Headlines, because how could they screw that up, right?

I have no idea how bad Conan has gotten of late, I quit watching him when he was still hosting Late Night back in his first season. All of the things I just said suck about Leno's current show you can take and magnify 10-fold with Conan's show. If there's humor in any of it, I can't find it. He supposedly appeals to the younger crowd, but everyone I worked with over the last 5 years in that age group thinks the guy is lame too. I know only a handful of people in general who watch him and think he's funny.

So with all that in mind, is it any wonder both shows are suffering badly in the ratings? David Letterman is the only one coming out ahead in all this. His ratings skyrocketed. Too bad he's over on CBS though. How pathetic do you need to be to fail against Letterman? A man who isn't funny, just downright mean.

The big solution appears all but final at this point. NBC is moving Jay Leno back to 11:35 as host of The Tonight Show. Conan is getting a $40 million boot off the network and the right to compete against Leno out of the gate. God knows who's going to be hosting Late Night, but whoever it is, it doesn't matter. Nobody watches it anymore anyway. It's going to take anywhere from 6 to 12 months for Conan to find a new home and get back on the air. Word has it Fox wants him, and as sad as Conan is as a comedian, his show would be a major improvement compared to the junk reality shows the Fox network runs. Not the Fox News channel either, amazing how many people think that's the same as the normal Fox network.

Anyway, there you go. Some cheap tabloid gossip to stir things up as the rest of the world burns. For the record, Leno rocks. I think he'll recover nicely once back in his old slot where he belongs.
.........................
"It is pointless to resist, my son." -- Darth Vader
"Resistance is futile." -- The Borg
"Mother's coming for me in the dragon ships. I don't like these itchy clothes, but I have to wear them or it frightens the fish." -- Thurindil

Well. I guess that's that then.