What is "My Two Bits?"

My Two Bits is the official editorial page for the editor of Techtite.com. Techtite will accept reader submissions, for reviews as well as any editorials deemed well written and pertinent to this web site's audience.

My Two Bits for March, 2002 are titled :

Past Editorials:

(in chronological order; newest at bottom of page)

Is that Your SECOND Answer...? My premiere editorial, coining the classic line from Who Wants To Be a Millionaire, answers the question of why yet another review site was needed...

Phantom Menace : How Childish is CHILDISH? Many people flamed the first Star Wars in 16 years. Many of those people were adults. How many were really mature about it...?

The Current State of Adventure Games, Part 1 Adventure games used to be 90% of all games I'd buy. That's probably because, back then, they covered at least half the store shelves. Now, it's a long wait before a good adventure game like The Longest Journey comes around. What happened?

The Current State of Adventure Games, Part 2 In the follow-up to my gripe about the downfall of adventure gaming, I recommend enhancements to the genre to keep it afloat today...

When Does Bending Rules Become Cheating? Richard, Susan, and company created quite a (boring) trend when making that first Survivor "alliance." Was it cheating to have made one in the first place? I'd say yes, and here's why...

When I Was Your Age... Upon getting my latest new computer, I rushed to play my favorite new purchase. You'll be surprised what it was...

2001: A DUH Odyssey! So, 2001 has arrived, and the media wants it to look similar to the movie, eh? What a dreadful thought.

DEATH to pop-up window commercials! The now "infamous" editorial that flames pop-up window ads online, and makes the vow to never use them on this site. You're welcome.

Off the "Daily Radar"... Daily Radar, once the forefront of opinionated opinions online, is suddenly defunct as of April 2001. What happened?

PG-13: An Asset, or a Curse? Was a "mid-point" between PG and R ratings a good idea, or is it ruining movies that would otherwise be "more family oriented" or "more mature"...?

Sept. 11, 2001... Where were you when it happened...?

Down with pop- ups: THE SEQUEL! What editorial, among my first 11, deserved a "sequel"? Why, my gripes against Pop-up Commercials, of course!

Next Generation magazine is gone, [sniff]! Sure, its parent company pulled the plug on Daily Radar just a half year earlier. Why get rid of Next Generation magazine? A lament from a former subscriber...

A Movie "Based on a Video Game"? YOU WISH! Old-school critics constantly use "video game" as a derogatory term, to define films with no story or substance. Then why can I list ten games off the top of my head, with more substance than any film I saw throughout 2001...?

25 Years, and Still No Light Saber The release of Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones was in fact upon the 25th Anniversary of the first release of Star Wars in 1977. What has changed in the world since then? A lot...though sadly, no light saber. Techtite offers a light-hearted look at why this is so.

One Year Later, and Game Finales Still REEK One year after the infamous 9-11 attacks, gaming seems to be the entertainment source the least affected. However, could we begin to have some happy endings to our games...? Please?

Why "Ludicrous Gibs" is Cool, and "Suggesting Themes" is Banned. o be honest, I haven't a clue. Why is simple cheesecake in a game considered so bad for kids, yet Grand Theft Auto is sold on store shelves, without care?

Star Wars: It's All the Same to Me... People act as if Star Wars has changed. Has it...? Take a deep breath, keep an open mind, and look at this tongue-in-cheep, side-by-side comparison.

Bulletin Bored. It's the new year; welcome to 2003. Time to look at improvements to the web site. A Bulletin Board? Hmmm...

Oscar's 75th: A Look Back... With Oscars earlier than usual it's time to take a look back at the most recent years. Happy 75th.

Buffy, Faith, Willow and Dawn... As the last episode of Buffy looms on the horizon, it's time to consider spin-offs. Are there any worth making?

Why You'll Never be "April Fooled" Here... Why do other web sites upload false information as a "joke" on April 1st? It's wrong. It's misleading. It's a bad joke. It's my birthday!

Is it Ever TIME for Matrix Spoilers? Time Magazine got into a pickle when they revealed in print the whole story to the latest Matrix film. Was this really as "dastardly" as the fans claim it was...?

No Fate But What We Make...PERIOD. Did you see Terminator 3? Spoiler warnings at the ready; this editor has. And...? The ending sucked. Those who disagree, read this editorial, for the whole nine yards.

Mac Attacked. Here, upon the birth of The Mac Page, this editorial discusses why there was the need to put Mac software on a new page itself.

Screening the Screener Ban. By the time this editorial hit the internet, a big "screener ban" was held in Hollywood, denying all future Academy voters the ability to see a less-seen movie for free at home. Yet is seeing less Shakespeare in Love and more Saving Private Ryan at the Oscars as bad as some people wish you to think?

Robin Williams, Multiplayer, and You. Are celebrities too busy to join you in a good video game? One memorable anecdote from a award winning comedian says no. In fact, if not for that schmuck who "had" to win against him by cheating...

Is Chrissy Snow in Charge of Disney? Roy Disney left Disney. Isn't it the concept of Disney to try and keep all things Disney? In Three's Company, Chrissy Snow did some pretty ditzy things. Is she now CEO of Disney?

Where are My Flying Cars? One commercial asks this yet seems very flippant with the answer. This editorial takes things more seriously.

Why Stalactites As Stabbing Scepters are Swell But Bare Behinds are Banned. Janet Jackson shows a bare boob for all of 25% of a second, and suddenly all nudity is censored...even a bare butt, on an animated cartoon. Yet this same animated cartoon was able to show a character thrusting a stalactite into a ferocious monster with a "Woo-hoo!" While doing it. It seems that someone wants to protect our children from a bare cartoon butt, but not graphic  violence. What kind of malarkey is this?

Three Series Finales, Three Reactions... Frasier is over, as is Friends, and yes indeed ; The Practice is over too. Yet these three finales led to three completely different reactions for this critic.

How Catastrophic is Catwoman? Forget wasting a What Went Wrong column on the Catwoman movie; that column is for formerly promising concepts gone awry. Yet this was still a pretty slam-dunk film concept; put Halle Berry in a cat suit and have her prance around stealing jewelry and stopping crime...or, whatever. This is one Catwoman-fan's take on why the film was disappointing.

Doom 3: The Future. Id Software always makes some form of new technology the staple of their latest game...and game engine. What does Doom 3 mean for the future of gaming? This editorial offers some concepts.

Why "Emmy" Keeps Going to HBO. Once again, Emmys go by the wheelbarrow full to HBO. Commercial networks don't need to be more R-rated or with less commercials, however; they just need better shows.

This Editorial Can Be Closed By Clicking This TINY LITTLE DOT! What is up with this stupid new ad campaign online where ads are merged with the actual web page you're reading, and the only way to close them is this itty bitty little x, or even worse...?

My Shining Half-Star A New Ratings Formula. Enough Said There.

100 Years to Live...? Poor You! Oh, great...another maudlin teenager ballad of extreme pessimism. However, come on now; Does this one go too far?

How Bad Was Chris Rock...Really? Another Oscar Night, and quite frankly, this one was the worst ever. Yet how much is the host to blame? Not by much really, as this explains.

Brad, Jen, Angelina, and People Who Give a Flying... Brad Pitt and Jennifer Anniston split up. Is it as bad as the tabloids want you to believe?

The Indomitable Gadgetry of Artoo! Another Star Wars movie released means more gadgetry for R2-D2. Yet why didn't he use this stuff in the first film trilogy? Here's some thoughts.

Long Live G4TV (While It Lasts). Another year brings another new cable channel idea. This one is about video games, however. Yet after the failures in recent years of the most popular (Next Generation magazine) or at least the most arrogant (Daily Radar.com) video game sources, can this cable channel succeed. We hope so.

Big Brother, Kaysar, and The Value of A Game. Big Brother 6 is made into a pop culture friendly farce, as rules are bent left and right to keep the season's female-friendly cutie pie in the game. He winds up losing the game anyway. Sorry ladies, but...could all the fans and fangirls just: Deal. With. It?

No News Is Good News. If you wondered why there's this big year-long gap in the Techtite News archive pages, here's the editorial explaining why, at one point, it would've appeared that ditching the news column was a good idea. 

Paranoia, Box Office Destroy-a. It's one thing to keep movies from being saved to your hard drive and distributed, though when it comes to free publicity via a downloadable film trailer...isn't that the whole point?

The New X-Box: "360" Degrees of Good and Bad. This editorial, posted soon after we "got" our pre-ordered 360 on launch day (yeah right), laments on all the good and the bad of the first release in next-generation systems.

State of the Site Address, 2006. The first annual State of the Site Address covered the original plan for 2006: a "Blog" instead of a news page, for example. No; that idea didn't last very long!

Why Hollywood Needs Its Stones Back. Young Hollywood refuses to give any gritty role their all. Young Hollywood refuses to do any nude scenes. Young Hollywood has reduced some of the deepest R-Rated stories into PG-13 fluff. Young Hollywood has forced older Hollywood to try and entertain us adults with films like Basic Instinct 2. Way to go Young Hollywood.

The X-Box 360 "Three Red Lights Of Doom." Three editorials and roughly half a year after talking about the X-Box 360's pluses and minuses, my "brand new" 360 refuses to operate anymore. What's more; it's a common problem for many 360 owners. This editorial discusses the issue.

The Bizarro PSP/360 Switch. One system is supposed to offer video and music features. Another is supposed to offer good on-the-go mini games. Think carefully if you think you know which is which.

Is PSP Too "Good" For Its Own Good? Lots of people diss the PSP. We like it. We like it more than the DS; that's for sure. Here's one agnostic, fair, impartial, positive take on the PSP.

What is Big Brother All-Stars Minus Six? Big Brother All-Stars begins with a very biased bang, as no less than 4 people from its sixth season are brought back. People from the other 5 seasons think that's bunk. We have to agree...in a full editorial, naturally.

Dear Windows Vista... With the New Windows eminent as of January 2007, we consider some of the little additions to Windows XP that would be cool...

Why Lara Croft Won't Do Playboy. It's obvious why Angelina Jolie won't do Playboy, but how ironically funny is it, when her fictitious video game ally won't pose for the magazine, either?

State of the Site, 2007. The annual January My2Bits tells how the prior year effected the next.

What's in Your Wallet Brain? Some commercials try to get your attention by being annoying. So there's this one where a guy in an invisible bike tries to ride down a cliff. Things go downhill from there (ha!).

Baby, If You Ever Wondered (What "Art" Is)... Someone watched a sitcom for the music. Others watched the same sitcom for the humor. Who is right?

Season Finale Reactions, 2007. In a season where Sopranos airs its last episode, what other editorial could we offer to begin the summer?

The Great Bottled Water Debate. A crackpot thinks tap water is just as good as bottled water. Unfortunately that crackpot is mayor.

Big Brother 8: Edited For Sanity. So the guy won who said he'd like to rape a woman until she bled to death...and he won with the help of the viewing audience? What in the name of reality television happened this season?

Writers Strike 2007. Why not simply give the writers everything they want? Here are some thoughts on that...and why strikes are never a one-track show.

Once again, I'm Techtite, and these are My Two Bits...