I’ve stopped using Chrome for now…  I’ve still got it installed, so I can test web pages against it, but I’m back to using Firefox for my day-to-day browsing.

I started having a lot of issues with Chrome lately.  Seems like they were largely tied to Flash content, so maybe it wasn’t Chrome’s fault.  Seems like any page with a decent amount of Flash wold completely freeze the tab for as long as a minute.  And since so many websites have Flash advertising on them, it was becoming a major problem.

Firefox has also been having problems with Flash lately…  Seems like the newest version is just plain buggy.  But where Chrome is freezing pretty much every time I try to load a page with Flash, Firefox will sometimes crash to desktop when it loads a page but generally works just fine.

It’s kind of a shame, too, because I really liked how Chrome was working.  The interface was very clean and simple, and it was fast.  I’m hoping that Chrome will eventually make it out of beta, and that the final result will be more reliable.

So, the newest iteration of the Bailout Bill failed to pass yesterday.

Once again it sounded like a done deal.  Everyone had spent the weekend trying to hammer out some kind of bi-partisan agreement that everyone could vote on.  It looked like they’d finally gotten everyone on the same page.  Looked like folks were finally going to vote this one through.

It looked so good that McCain spent a good chunk of the weekend patting himself on the back.  Congratulating himself on how he put aside politics, suspended (not really) his campaign and went back to Washington to get the bill passed, got all the Republicans on board.  He also spent a good chunk of the weekend talking about how uninvolved Obama was – he was just “observing the situation.”

But then the vote rolled around on Monday, and it didn’t pass.

Apparently Nancy Pulosi gave a speech that was a little too partisan.  She was a little too clear in placing the blame for this whole situation at Bush’s feet.  The Republicans got upset, and didn’t vote for the bill.

Now, it may very well be that Pulosi could have curbed her tongue and avoided ruffling some feathers…  But this is supposed to be a national emergency.  All I’ve been hearing about for weeks is how the economy is literally falling apart.  Every day there’s another bank that’s been bought-out or gone under.

And the Republicans are petty enough to kill a bill just because they got their feelings hurt?  Seriously?

So, now Bush is going to try to fix things.  He’s got a speech schedule for this morning, and then he’s supposed to go convince people to vote the way they’re supposed to.  I’m not reassured.  Especially since one of the reasons cited that the first vote failed was because the Republicans didn’t trust Bush.

There’s rumors that he’s got some other plan in the works…  Some kind of private thing he’s been putting together with his cronies.  I guess only time will tell.

This week we’ve got the Vice Presidential Debates on Thursday.  While I certainly enjoyed the Presidential Debates last week, I’m far more eager to see the VP ones.

Sarah Palin has done a spectacular job of lowering expectations lately, and I’m very curious to see if that was done on purpose or not.  I don’t know which would surprise me more…  Seeing her actually able to hold her own in a debate, or watching her fall flat on her face.  As it is, all she has to do is get her name right and the pundits will declare it her victory.

Biden is going to have a hard time debating her…  He’s going to have to be careful not to come across as mean or condesending like McCain did, while also not appearing to go easy on her for fear of being called a sexist.

What do you get when you combine two of the most addictive substances in the known universe?

The Gamer Apocalypse.

Lately I’ve been playing a lot of WoW again.  Not the Lich King beta, regular ol’ WoW.  And even though it’s the same game that I’ve been playing for literally years, I’ve found some new stuff to do.  As I’ve said before, one of the great things about WoW is how Blizzard is constantly tweaking and changing it.

First there was Talk Like A Pirate Day.  In previous years this has not had any kind of in-game festivities.  Some random people might very well throw out a yarr! or two, but that’s about it.  This year Booty Bay featured some new NPCs who were firing off cannons, dancing, drinking, and would put you in a pirate costume for a few hours.  Nothing amazing, nothing spectacular, no changes to gameplay mechanics…but a lot of fun for a few hours.

Then there was Brewfest.  Brewfest is a returning event, it isn’t new in itself.  But they changed a lot of how it works.  There’s now a dailly dungeon quest you can do.  And the only way to get the Brewfest Riding Ram now is as a drop off someone in that dungeon.  And there are some new rewards this year, like the Brew of the Month club.  Again, nothing amazing, but a lot of fun.  This event kept me occupied for the better part of a week.

And now I’ve discovered the Isle of Quel’Danas.  I guess this area was put into the game around the time I stopped playing, so even though it’s been there for a little while I never got to experience it.  This is a fairly large island to the North of the Blood Elf starter area.  This area is now under attack as the bad guys are trying to seize what’s left of the Sunwell.  There’s a ton of dailly quests out there.  I ran around out there for a few hours yesterday…  Working on daily quests, seeing the sights, figuring out how everything works.  It’ll be a good few weeks before I’m as burnt-out on those dailies as I am with the Netherwing Ledge stuff.

…at least if you life in California.

SPORE has been uninstalled from my computer.  Even with running through it a second time with a much more agressive species just didn’t hold my attention.  It’s a neat toy…  It kept me occupied, on and off, for a week or two.  But ultimately I’m just not enjoying it that much.  The whole thing seems kind of pointless.

I realize that a lot of the Maxis games are like that – there’s no real storyline to advance, you’re just messing around with a city, or someone’s life, or a planet, or whatever.  But previous games like The SIMs and SIM City were far more engaging.  I kept coming back to see how much further I could go…  With SPORE, I’m just not caring that much.

And now that I’ve had a chance to really play with it and evaluate it and see how everything works, I’m very glad I didn’t pay money for it.  Which, I suspect, is why there is no demo available.