Katt was saying the other day how Craigslist buyers with bad grammar seemed scary. (She and I are selling off a bunch of our stuff in preparation for our move.) She forwarded me an email from a guy that wanted to buy a futon, and I agreed that there was a chance that something was up with this guy. So, I went to her apartment that night to provide some robbery deterrent.

This buyer turned out to be a cheerful hipster wearing some kind of beret, with absolutely no sign of criminal intent. He was pretty far from being a scammy troglodyte.
 

I just sold a desk to a guy that sent me this email:

Hello, I’m layed off and am hoping to get a desk like this for my niece’s birthday. Would you accept $10 bucks. Please forgive if an intrusion.

This guy didn’t seem threatening (possibly a liar, though). (more…)

So, I got a DS the other day, and I think it’s the platform with the most games that work for me. I’m swimming in non-bloated games with crisp game design right now. I’d rather these games be made for the Wii (or any console, really), even if they don’t take much advantage of it technically, but hey, at least they’re being made.

Just now, I was just playing Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, then had the following conversation with my friend Tim:
 

Me: I enjoy having a hammer on X and a sword on Y in Castlevania.
‘Cause it’s like SWORD! then HAMMER! on those skeletons!

Tim: In which one?

Me: Ecclesia. But probably any of them.

Tim: It’s especially important in Ecclesia since enemies have significant strengths and weakness vs. weapon types.

Me: Yeah, I notice the squishy things aren’t susceptible to hammering.
Hey, is there a sickle in that game?

Tim: yeah

Me: AW HELL YEAH!

Tim: There’s a lot of crusteaceans in the game, so sickles are good.

Me: Delicious.

It’d be great if you could wear a Soviet Union flag as a cape in the game, but being able to use a hammer and sickle is good enough.

I think the hammer and sickle is one of the greatest national weapons of all time.

I imagine the US’s national weapon is the handgun, which is effective but boring, whereas the nations formed between 900 and 1800 probably all picked some sort of sword as their official national weapons. Except perhaps Okinawa, which may have picked the nunchaku. I bet Australia favors the boomerang, which is both interesting and not cool.

But the hammer and sickle stands out, not just for its originality but for its perfection as a symbol. As weapons, the hammer and sickle are bizarre and unwieldy but also threatening- and brutal-looking. That was what the Soviet Union was all about.

In closing, here’s the Soviet National Anthem (what I consider to be the greatest national anthem of all time, as I’m 70% sure you’ve heard me say before) courtesy of Russian Anthems Museum.