Halo 2, and Snatchers Strike Again

It's ten pm, and I'm slightly ashamed of myself. You see, just as I got back from work today, I popped the French release of Halo 2 (which was leaked all over the internet a couple weeks ago) into the Xbox, booted it up and for the hour and a half before iftar was just lost to the world.

Nevermind that the Master Chief, Cortana, and even the Covenant aliens were all speaking French (which made it all seem even more incredibly compelling, IMO) but the crux of the matter is this: if you own an Xbox, and have at least heard of Halo, please, give Halo 2 a try come November 9. Hell, I'm even planning to get the original release (no joke!). It's one of those sweet experiences every gamer should feel before they get old, or married. Microsoft expects to make it big this November, and this gamer thinks they'll be laughing all the way to the bank, especially after the not-so-favourable reviews of Sony's attempt at a Halo-killer on the PS2, KillZone.

Okay. Enough gamer-geek talk. A friend forwarded me this funny little piece of internet news today. Seems that over in Johannesburg, a schoolboy declined to answer an exam question on Harry Potter because, and I quote:

"....he believes the best-selling children's' books promote witchcraft."

Incredible. What seems even more apt is the fact that the MP who has purportedly researched all of JK Rowling's books and found them to be nothing more than witchcraft manuals is named Cheryllyn Dudley. How close to the books is that? While one could argue that it's nothing more than coincidence, is this further evidence of Jungian synchronicity at work?

Eeenteresting.

In more serious news, the sad case of the 12 year old girl who almost lost her fingers during her fruitless struggle to protect her mother from being stabbed repeatedly by a snatch thief got my teeth on edge. Right now, I'm expecting the usual rounds of righteous indignation, anger and finger pointing from all points of the compass. The question being: so what do we do NOW? Are things so bad that there's an unseen, yawning gap between the haves and have-nots that's so big these people have to steal to make ends meet, or is this just a symptom of a deeper, unexplored disease? I for one hope that we find out, and soon.

Till next time, be safe.

Ash.ox out.