N F L --S U N D A Y I love America... because they are host to American Football, the greatest sport in the world. Baseball? National Pastime? Rather national bedtime. European football? Also known as soccer, a.k.a. mind numbing boredom. No, sorry sports fans, football is the best sport of all. Rough, quick, high scoring offense and ground-shaking defense. If you are a man who doesn't like football, you probably listen (and enjoy) Boyz II Women and the Backstreet Girls... oh, and most likely you are an anime junkie. Boy, am I gonna get some hate mail for that last statement. =) Anyways, I digress. Usually Sunday is the worst day of the week (next to Monday), but during football season, Sunday is the best day of the week. Today I saw Jason Elam kick a record-tying 63 yard field goal. 63 yards man, that's a kick from the opponent's 47 yard line!! Also saw Terrell Davis of the Broncos rush for over 1,000 yards in a season in only 8 games, a feat only done before by Jim Brown and O.J. Simpson. Jerry Rice catches a pass in his 184th consecutive game, breaking a record set by Art Monk. Oh, and how can I forget, little Doug Flutie comes through again with a 30-14 victory over the Carolina Panthers. Go Buffalo! A R O U N D --S O M E --M O R E --R I C E Does rice have a plural form? Just wondering... Anyways, I extend an apology to Gerry for the delay on posting his weekly articles. He actually sent them in to me for editing a couple of days ago, but I've been so busy that I have had no chance to upload them until today... and NFL week 8 starts tomorrow! With that said and done, drop by the "Articles" section after you read my rant about sleep (below) and check out the articles. Oh yeah, and the review for "Antz" is also uploaded in the "Reviews" section, courtesy again to mistah Gerry. Don't forget to turn back your clock one hour Midnight tonight. Daylight savings is over until April. Don't want you to show up at work / school Monday an hour early. =) * S N O R E * News is growing stagnant again, so I guess it's time for something totally off the wall. =) Something that I've always been curious about is sleep. Why do we sleep? So far I have not found any satisfactory answer. Before you point out the obvious reason and laugh at my utter retardation, let me present my point. The most in-your-face answer would be rest. You sleep because you need to rest, right? Well why do you have to sleep to rest? Can't you sit down or lay down and rest? I mean, you're still resting, aren't you? Okay, so your next response would be to rest your eye-lids. You need to sleep to rest your eye-lids. No, wait, but then you can just close your eyes and rest your eyelids. Following so far? So what we have knocked down is the rest reason and the eyelid reason. Some may argue that simple sitting down and resting is not really "resting" because you still have small movements that prevent you from completely resting. But when you sleep, you don't remain perfectly still, as a matter of fact, you toss and turn, and you change your position throughout the entire time you're sleeping. If you say you sleep to rest the mind, how can you explain dreaming? Dreaming is an act of the mind, and it surely isn't resting when you're dreaming about that hot chick you saw at the mall the other day right? Sounds kinda confusing huh? Okay, Mr. know-it-all-Rice, why don't you tell us why we sleep then? Erm... I dunno. =) Stupid isn't it? I really have no clue why we sleep, or rather, why we HAVE to sleep. Personally, I'm thinking we don't really need to sleep to rest, but I'm actually leaning towards the brain reason I stated above. I suppose dreaming is an act of the mind, and thus it's not really rest, but dreams occur towards the beginning of your sleep and the end... In between you are submerged in a deep slumber where your entire body relax and do absolutely nothing for about 2 or 3 hours... maybe more. But I'm not entirely sure about that fact, perhaps your mind is still engaged in constant activity... I don't really know where I'm heading with this update, perhaps it's just something that has been on my mind for quite a while. Please post in the message board if you have an opinion on this topic, or better yet, an answer to this. Feel free to call me a blockhead if I neglected an obvious answer, becuase I've been known to do that. =) I had no idea how "Inside My Funky Little Head..." would turn out to be such an appropriate title for this page... A R O U N D --T H E --R I C E UPDATE 23:00:17 / 10-21-98: Not to be outdone, senior staff member Gerry cranks out an article detailing his experience at Knotts Berry Farm's 26th Annual Halloween Haunt. It's been up'ped to the "Articles" section, don't forget to check it out! ------------------------ As I said before, work load is piling up, so the flow of articles and reviews should reach a near stagnant level. News will be updated periodically still, since I'm a big believer in consistant updates. =) Meanwhile, let me introduce a new staff writer to the ever-expanding Rice World! Kansur has volunteered his occational spare time to write articles / reviews for Rice World, along with senior staff member Gerry. His first article is now up in the "Articles" section, the first of many Song of the Week to come. Please extend a warm welcome... M I C R O S O F T --L A W S U I
T I know this is something that has not been touched upon for a while, but I guess I really should say something about it. Today, the Microsoft Antitrust case has been opened, and I'm not going to go into the little itty bitty technical details (that's for 'em leechin' lawyers). In a nutshell, the U.S. Government is trying to bust Microsoft for using illegal marketing tactics to gain a monopoly on the market (see also: John Rockerfeller). Now this is not a focus on the entire market, but only the internet market. The government thinks that the Internet Explorer browser is a threat as a monopoly because Microsoft is making I.E. part of the Windows software, thus utilizing its strong hold on the Windows market to gain ground for their internet software. Gosh, how cheesey! Disclaimer: I am not a Microsoft lover. In fact, I prefer Navigator over Internet Explorer due to its much better stability and speed, but that's another topic for another day. Anyways, I personally think the U.S. Government should just stop wasting their time on this meaningless ho hum. Microsoft's got plenty of competitors, and although they do have a strangle-hold on the Operating System market, their products have good competition everywhere else, including the internet market. Right now, Netscape has about 50% share of the internet market, while Microsoft has climbed up to claim the other 50%. Before Microsoft made its entrance, Netscape had a immense 90% share. Now if you're going to criticize Microsoft for monopolizing the market, did you realize that Netscape had a monopoly on the internet market? 90% man! In addition, in other markets, Microsoft has its share of competitors also. Office applications, competitors include Novell, Lotus, Corel, etc... Money management, Quicken has consistently beat out Microsoft Money in ratings. Secondly, I really don't understand the gigantic criticism of Microsoft and Bill Gates that has been circulating around for a while now. Undoubtedly the computer age would not have been as successful as it is now if it weren't for Microsoft. Sure, I like to make fun of Bill Gates has much as the next person (check "Files" section for a little pie throwing), but I have to admit I admire the man for his desire to succeed and his competitive spirit. Windows 3.x/9x/NT is the most popular operating system used by far. Office 6.0/95/97 received the highest ratings for quality, stability, and overall customer satisfaction. Imagine your computer without these software. Imagine running text-based Unix with Lotus 1-2-3 for your daily application uses. This is not an attempt to bash Unix nor Lotus, but used as an example of how much Microsoft has affected us. I can almost see it now; one of you guys are going to scoff at me after reading this, and later promptly open Microsoft Word to finish your English essay. Whether you agree or not, it's true. Maybe their business tactics were not 100% honorable, but in terms of quality software, they have delivered. Believe me when I say this, even if you literally bribe your way into the market, corrupt goods will not get you anywhere. I N D U S T R Y --H A P P E N
I N G S If you're a hard-core computer gamer, you're gonna love the amount of software set to roll out in the next few weeks. Sierra's "Half-Life" has announced its release date to be mid-November, with its demo to be out either slightly before the release or slightly after. Monolith's "Blood 2", sequel to the original "Blood" is also set deep into its beta testing stage, and will be out in stores around the time Half-Life appears also. Lucas Art's "Grim Fandango" adventure game should strike a good note with fans of "Full Throttle" / "Sam and Max". It has also gone gold, and is set to be released as soon as next week. Oh, and don't forget the free demos set to roll out soon, including the much-anticipated "Heretic II", "Blood 2", and also the mech-warrior simulation "Heavy Gear II". |