The news of the dead of my PS2 is somewhat exaggerated. I tested it today, and it loads Gran Turismo 4, so it must be ok Not sure what the issue was with the other disk, but it's obviously a disk issue, not a PS2 issue, so all is well.

After many years of reliable service, it appears that my PlayStation2 have finally bit the dust It will no longer read disks. I guess I can try a lens cleaning and see if that fixes it, but I've pretty much moved on to the PS3 anyway, so I'm not really looking at spending money on fixing it.

I haven't really jumped on the PS3 just yet. It's expensive, game selection hasn't really been the best, but it's looking better now. The new 40GB version appears to have solved the overheating issue, but they've taken out the PS2 compatibility mode (yet kept PS1?).

Anyways, my wife is "threatening" to buy me one for my birthday as consolation for us not being able to go to Florida this fall.

Oh, wait just a cotton-pickin' minute. It's coming out of my bank account, isn't it? Oh, well...

The human race can bite me. I want all 6 billion to line up in a single file, bend over and bite my big fat white ass.

I swear, people are getting dumber by the minute, and at some point we'll reach critical mass and self destruct out of sheer stupidity.

It's not so much because IQ is actually dropping. I'm sure many people are fairly smart in their own little field, but the overall picture is looking pretty bleak. People are getting more and more selfish. It's all about me, me, me.

You see it in traffic every day. People driving in the parking zones to pass others; people blocking lanes of traffic just so they can turn into traffic; people not stopping for pedestrians, red lights, rotaries, or stop signs; speeding (particularly in residential areas), and just general courtesy in traffic. You may have actually followed to law, but would it have hurt you to let someone turn in every now and again? If you can't slow down for 10 seconds to allow someone else to get out of their driveway, you really need to loosen up your schedule a little.

You see in everywhere else too. People talking in movie theaters; people talking on the cell phone everywhere; people hanging out with friends but still being on the cell phone with someone else, or even worse, listening to their iPod.

And, there's also just general stupidity. Look at what happened after the Celtics won the NBA title. Police in riot gear? Why would anyone think it is acceptable behavior to smash windows or flip cars over in celebration of a basketball championship title? And it's not only in Boston, either. This appears to happen all over the place whenever some team wins something big. Happens in hockey, basketball, baseball, soccer. Doesn't seem to happen in tennis or chess, though...

Also, reading the newspaper is somewhat depressing when considering the overall stupidity. Just this week, a Danish couple died from carbon monoxide poisoning from grilling - inside! A South-African boxer was killed in the ring because his coach wouldn't throw in the towel and the umpire was watching something other than the boxing match I presume. Someone got killed at Six Flags in Georgia after climbing over two 6-foot fences and got hit in the head by a roller coaster.

And what about kids copying video games? You think that because car jacking is ok in a video game, it's a good idea to try it in real life? Who does that? How did you not catch the basics of right and wrong during the first 10 years of your life? Has selfishness gone so far that parents are ignoring the ethical and moral education of their children thinking it is someone else's job to raise their children?

It's time to take responsibility for your own actions. Share the road, be considerate towards others, they paid to see this movie too.

Or, abandon all hope.

After a break from GT4, it was time to get some driving in. Last time around, I just B-Spec'ed this one to get it over with, but it was time to get some points for this one...

The Amuse S2000 without any power upgrades and an added 50kg will score 118 points versus lineup #5, without any issues. I was doing laps around 2:12, with a best lap time of 2:10.135 and pitting every 20th lap. The Opera Performance S2000 pits every 29 laps, but the speed of the Amuse makes up for the difference easily.

The biggest problem here is remaining focused for 8 hours to complete the race. Lots of breaks needed.

I used the following settings for a nice and balanced car:
(note: do not do any of the power or weight changes for the 118 points).
http://www.gtvault.com/gt4/setup-view/s_sid::5381/Amuse-S2000-R1/

Changes to setup:
Auto Set should probably be set to 7 to take advantage of the six speed transmission.
ASM/TSM set to 1/1/1 helps on tire wear for long races.
Also, 50kg added weight, smack dab in the middle.