Sure, the new truth-in-advertising laws are tough, but with the name of their latest Sims expansion, EA isn’t even trying.

Also: what the hell?

The soundtrack for Aspyr’s Stubbs the Zombie is one of the greatest, most bizarre musical creations to ever come out of videogaming. Somebody at Aspyr decided that what their zombie game needed more than anything was today’s top indie talent covering doo-wop classics from the 1950’s. And then they used Microsoft’s monolithic might to make it so! It’s like EA Trax used as a force for creative good, not corporate evil. Is the game any good? Who knows! But with a soundtrack like this, does it matter?

1. Lollipop — Ben Kweller
2. My Boyfriend’s Back — The Raveonettes
3. Earth Angel — Death Cab for Cutie
4. Shakin’ All Over — Rose Hill Drive
5. Strangers In The Night — Cake
6. There Goes My Baby — The Walkmen
7. Everyday — Rogue Wave
8. All I Have To Do Is Dream — The Dandy Warhols
9. Mr. Sandman — Oranger
10. If I Only Had A Brain — The Flaming Lips
11. Tears On My Pillow — Clem Snide
12. Lonesome Town — Milton Mapes
13. The Living Dead — Phantom Planet

I recently switched from Vodafone to DoCoMo (I can now choose to not play Before Crisis, far more satsifying than simply ignoring it by default). Anyways, I spent most of this evening copying over entries from the old phonebook into the new. (Of course my phone has USB, IR port, etc., but the phone manufacturers purposefully introduce address book data format incompatibilities to discourage you from switching carriers.) This is a disturbingly faster process than one might hope. One of the less pleasant realities of living overseas is an extremely high turnover in your circle of friends. Some people come for 6 months, others for a year or two, but there are very few “lifers” or otherwise long-term residents.

I’ve been here four years, now, and going through a phonebook full of names of people who’ve left Japan for good is making me feel like the soldier who wonders when his tour of duty will end, ’cause he’s seen too many of his comrades fall in battle. Probably a bit melodramatic, that. But a task like tonight’s really drives home how absent friends become once they leave the country. Tokyo’s great, but it’s not so geographically convenient.