About a year ago, everyone (including me) was gushing over some preview footage of a Star Wars video game in development that had some pretty sweet displays of force powers. Well, that game is about to be released.

Here’s the trailer for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, where you have all the powers of the force at your disposal and where you get to play as – get this – Darth Vader’s apprentice. Now how cool does that sound? The game will be released next spring on the Xbox 360 and PlayStations 2 and 3.

This entry in the Star Wars saga casts players as Darth Vader’s “Secret Apprentice”, unveiling new revelations about the Star Wars galaxy. The expansive story, created under direction from George Lucas, is set during the largely unexplored era between Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope.

In it, players will assist the iconic villain in his quest to rid the universe of Jedi – and face decisions that could change the course of their destiny. As its name implies, The Force Unleashed completely re-imagines the scope and scale of the Force by taking full advantage of newly developed technologies that will be seen and experienced for the first time anywhere in videogaming.

some article content courtesy of Popoholic

Howdy folks. How’s this for something unusual? I’ve made a video documenting my player character from the video role-playing game, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

Tammanastine was a character created nearly 20 years ago for the pen-and-paper RPG Stormbringer, based on the Elric books by Michael Moorcock. In the intervening time, I’ve occasionally recreated Tammy in other venues and have used his character model for one or two video RPGs. He’s become my go-to warrior-sorcerer with a tint of eeeevil.

Oblivion really it lent itself to the creation of this character and I enjoyed trying to replicate this face that I’d only seen previously in my imagination. Oblivion was the best RPG I’ve ever played and it swallowed up about two solid months of my life. That is, until such time as Tammanastine became so powerful he simply could not be challenged in the fictional land of Cyrodiil.

Point and counterpoint:

Since the late 1960s, much of the North Atlantic Ocean has become less salty, in part due to increases in fresh water runoff induced by global warming, scientists say.

- Michael Schirber, LiveScience, 29 June 2005

The surface waters of the North Atlantic are getting saltier, suggests a new study of records spanning over 50 years. They found that during this time, the layer of water that makes up the top 400 metres has gradually become saltier. The seawater is probably becoming saltier due to global warming, Boyer says.

- Catherine Brahic, New Scientist, 23 August 2007

Whatever the anomaly, the cause is global warming.

article courtesy nationalreviewonline

Okay, so I took the HUMANMETRICS Jung Typology Test yesterday and checked out a couple of different sites to determine who I am.I know you think that I really don’t need to do this, as I’m already clearly awesome and there’s no need for any self-analysis here, but I did find what they had to say about me strangely accurate. I gotta stop taking these kinds of test, they’re really freaking me out.

Mastermind Rational

Of the four aspects of strategic analysis and definition, it is the contingency planning or entailment organizing role that reaches the highest development in Masterminds. Entailing or contingency planning is not an informative activity, rather it is a directive one in which the planner tells others what to do and in what order to do it. As the organizing capabilities the Masterminds increase so does their inclination to take charge of whatever is going on.

It is in their abilities that Masterminds differ from the other Rationals, while in most of their attitudes they are just like the others. However there is one attitude that sets them apart from other Rationals: they tend to be much more self-confident than the rest, having, for obscure reasons, developed a very strong will.

They are rather rare, comprising no more than, say, one percent of the population. Being very judicious, decisions come naturally to them; indeed, they can hardly rest until they have things settled, decided, and set. They are the people who are able to formulate coherent and comprehensive contingency plans, hence contingency organizers or “entailers.”

Masterminds will adopt ideas only if they are useful, which is to say if they work efficiently toward accomplishing the Mastermind’s well-defined goals. Natural leaders, Masterminds are not at all eager to take command of projects or groups, preferring to stay in the background until others demonstrate their inability to lead. Once in charge, however, Masterminds are the supreme pragmatists, seeing reality as a crucible for refining their strategies for goal-directed action.

In a sense, Masterminds approach reality as they would a giant chess board, always seeking strategies that have a high payoff, and always devising contingency plans in case of error or adversity. To the Mastermind, organizational structure and operational procedures are never arbitrary, never set in concrete, but are quite malleable and can be changed, improved, streamlined.

In their drive for efficient action, Masterminds are the most open-minded of all the types. No idea is too far-fetched to be entertained-if it is useful. Masterminds are natural brainstormers, always open to new concepts and, in fact, aggressively seeking them.

They are also alert to the consequences of applying new ideas or positions. Theories which cannot be made to work are quickly discarded by the Masterminds. On the other hand, Masterminds can be quite ruthless in implementing effective ideas, seldom counting personal cost in terms of time and energy.

courtesy of Keirsey.com

Well after one week on Nutrisystem I have to say I have mixed feelings. I didn’t think I was losing much weight, and really did not appreciate or enjoy having to prepare nearly all my meals and spend most of the day in the kitchen preparing all this food.

They make it sound like they will provide all your food – that you will not have to do any preparation. Actually, you’re preparing food all day long. And you also have to supplement Nutrisystem with lots of vegetables, fruit, bread and nonfat milk.

The food is really mixed – about half of it is pretty decent. Some of it is just tasteless and about half is genuinely bad. Their instant eggs and snack bars are completely inedible. I wouldn’t even give them to my dog! But a few of the entrées are actually pretty good. If I’d had prior experience with Nutrisystem, I would definitely have handpicked my food shipment.

The bottom line is that after six days of this I was fully prepared to box everything up and send it back. Frankly, I’d rather go back on Atkins again. It was a good deal more agreeable to me, was a lot less fuss and only cost about half as much.

But I made a deal to myself that if I lost a substantial amount of weight — which I didn’t think was going to happen — then I would tough it out for a least another week. Well as of this morning, I weighed myself and apparently have lost about 5 pounds. So, miserable as I am, I will continue for another week.

Now see, don’t you feel much more uplifted now? That’s what we do here at Merchantprince. Maybe I should post a Cool News article or something later today to cheer us all up.

So if finish this thing, do I get a hot grandma of my own?

Well today was the first day that I started my Nutrisystem program. I’ve been talking about doing this thing for months and finally decided I would set aside the money to do it. I’m not doing too bad. I’m a little hungry, at times, but it isn’t as as tough as the first time I went on Atkins.

I’m looking to lose at least 30 pounds, and I guess I’ll be checking in periodically to give updates as the weeks go by. Its going to be weird on this little hamster-on-a-clock diet, with all of these miniature meals at two to three hour intervals. But I’m going to try and adjust.

I also just wrapped up a couple of web design jobs and have another one on deck. In the meantime I’m also reading up on my Car Dollars automobile speculation course. It’s taking an awfully long time to get through it. But I’m hoping it will be a productive investment.

For the first time in 15 years I’ve been able to listen again to the classic Queen album A Night at the Opera. I used to own the CD, but lost it many years ago. Now I’m really enjoying hearing all of these great songs again.

My favorite one on the album is probably “‘39″. Although “You’re My Best Friend” is definitely one of my all-time favorite Queen songs, there’s something about ‘39 that is just jubilantly strange. It’s played and sung in the style of a classic late 60s or early 70s folk song. However, it’s actually about a science fiction space voyage, and how a traveler must feel after being away from the earth for only a year, but having over a century pass back home.

Since hearing it again, it’s been playing in my head for days. Sing along!

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As always, my policy is that if anyone would like a download link for this song, just make a Comment below and ask – I’ll hook you up with a link in a comment-reply of my own (check back with this article).

Download links are automatically embedded in my RSS feeds.