Man or Superman?

Posted inCulture

Man or Superman?

Source Weekly

Guys! I gotta admit this whole “race of supermen” thing creeps me out. First of all, why do we even need a race of supermen? They're just going to eventually enslave us, right? Um, that's why we're building robots and teaching apes sign language – having supermen, too, would just be REDUNDANT! Now, if the idea is to use this race of supermen to combat these megalomaniac robots and apes riding around on horseback throwing nets on top of us – well, I'm open to discussion. But only if the race of supermen doesn't turn right around and enslave us right back!
Frankly, I'm not too sure how we're gonna get around this whole enslavement thing. It sounds like it's gonna happen regardless of what we do. So we should probably create a race of people whom we wouldn't mind being enslaved by, right? For example, super-hot amazon chicks. (Let's make sure they don't get the “nag” gene.) I also wouldn't mind being enslaved by the Hostess cake company. C'MON! Their Ho Hos and Ding Dongs are delicious! And if push came to shove, I wouldn't kick too hard about being enslaved by Taylor Lautner (the werewolf from Twilight). He seems super nice, and have you seen those abs? JESUS CHRIST! Pull up his shirt and I'll happily clean porta-potties at Diarrheaville's annual Prune Day Festival.

Posted inCulture

Insignificant Espionage: Alpha Protocol has plenty of firepower, but fails as an RPG

Source Weekly

The first foe I faced in Alpha Protocol was a soldier who burst through a door. I was unarmed, so I ran to the far side of a table that was in the middle of the room. The soldier chased me halfway around the table and then reversed, trying to catch me on the other side. I switched directions and the soldier did too. I switched again. The soldier switched. Back and forth we do-si-do'd. For five minutes I outsmarted this trained militiaman with toddler tactics. “All around the cobbler’s bench,” I thought, “The monkey chased the weasel… ”
Alpha Protocol, as it declares boldly on its game box, is “The Espionage RPG,” so I thought maybe the brain-dead soldier was a fluke – an uninformed flunky who was merely teasing me during my training. After all, espionage is about stealth and subterfuge. Surely things would be better as I moved from combat training into actual spy activities. But when I finally found my way to the covert heart of Alpha Protocol, I discovered that the espionage elements of the game are merely mini-games about picking locks and bypassing security systems.

Posted inFood & Drink

A Quiet Success: Thai Thai takes a lighter approach to its dishes

The Source Staff

I follow a quirky rule of thumb not to frequent restaurants with pictures of their food on the menu. So my heart sank a bit when I opened the menu at Thai Thai, the new Thai restaurant in Northwest Crossing last week. Luckily, thanks to spot-on recommendations from an enthusiastic waitress and prime seating for a picturesque sunset over the Cascades, Thai Thai exceeded my initial expectations. The restaurant kept much of the inherited furnishings from the previous owners of the Mt. Washington Drive restaurants, which included 38 Degrees, Aloha Café and most recently NWX Bar and Grill. New owners and longtime Bend residents Corey Bock and Vivah Bachiraseneekul, who moved to the U.S. from Thailand ten years ago, have added a Thai flare with elephant candleholders and wall decorations, photography of a floating market in Bangkok and other small touches.
My party was seated in the back of the restaurant, facing west toward the mountains. Paula, our enthusiastic waitress, was quick to check in with us and point out some of her favorite dishes on the menu. Overall, Thai Thai's dishes are on the mild side, so if you're looking to clear your sinuses when you go there, order your dish extra spicy. We started with the satay chicken ($7.50), served with two small dishes of peanut and cucumber dipping sauce. The accompanying peanut dressing lacked the super rich flavor I tend to associate with satay. Later on, I learned from Bachiraseneekul, head chef at Thai Thai, that the lighter flavors are intentional.

Posted inOpinion

McDonald's Super Sized Signage

Source Weekly

There are few symbols – save Old Glory and maybe a slice of apple pie – more symbolic of mainstream American culture than McDonald's sweeping yellow arches.
While there is nothing wrong with McDonald's per se – we enjoy a basket of fries and Big Mac as much as the next person, maybe more – there is a big problem with America's dietary relationship with McDonald's and the rest of the fast food industry that McDonald's has rightly or wrongly come to represent. That relationship is more like dealer and junkie than that of restaurant and customer, something that Super Size Me director Morgan Spurlock noted a few years back when he reported that McDonald's refers to its frequent customers, as “heavy users.” It's a relationship that McDonald's courts with its aggressive marketing toward children (McDonald's distributes more toys than the nation's biggest toy retailers in any given year) and its oversized portions.

Posted inOpinion

Take the Wheel, Kid

Source Weekly

Do you remember when your mom, dad or grandpa put you on his or her lap and let you, just a child, steer the car down some vacant rural road? Yeah, a lot of us have that memory and for the most part, it was probably hardly dangerous. Such behavior is probably more frowned upon now – thanks a lot Bin Laden – but then it was just good, clean fun.

Posted inOpinion

Bigger Is So Much Better

Source Weekly

Remember when about the only people who owned crew cab pickup trucks were railroad and oil field crews? If someone offered to give you one of those it would have been a really bad investment. Now the average – must have – three-quarter-ton, four-door pickup, after getting its lift kit, and giant tire makeover, spends most of its spare time in the detail shop getting a perm. It may seem hard to believe, but it used to be that when ranchers needed to take the family to town they did it in a car and no one seemed to question their manhood. The odd thing now is that there seems to be a disproportionate number of young men and grandpas without families or crews driving them around. I asked a dealer once why people were buying four-door pickups. His answer: “because they love them.” I am guessing the depth of this salesman's love was equally strong.
Maybe soon there will be four-door semi tractors. Besides going to Costco and skiing, you could haul a refer load of something down to L.A. and make some money! And if you hit someone head on it would be all over for him or her, but not you. You could have video games for the kids in the back to keep them occupied until the cop lets you go – high fives!!!

Posted inOpinion

Share the lakes

Source Weekly

I am a windsurfer who, along with several other friends, enjoys sailing on the lakes around here. Recently, on two different occasions, I encountered a lack of courtesy and lack of knowledge of the right-of-way rules by motorboats on both Cultus and Odell lakes.
Both times I was sailing across the lake and the boats were coming at a 90-degree angle on a collision course toward me. They never attempted to slow down or go behind me, so I had to slow down and navigate across the wake they left.

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