From k10k comes the following buzzkill: both Shift and Cre@te Online are shuffing along after The Industry Standard and bidding us adieu. A confession: I never read Shift. The few times I picked up an issue at Borders, I wound up putting it right back down again because I was unimpressed by the whole package. I do, however, have quite a few issues of Cre@te floating around, and I'm sad to see it go. I'm nowhere near as bummed as I still am over not having The Industry Standard around anymore, but that's probably still just mourning for the excitement and confidence of this industry in the 90s. Now we're living in a recession, cowering from terrorist attacks, just begging for more attacks from not only terrorists or Iraq but the world in general as we tell the U.N. just where to stick it and practically announce our intention to start World War III... (I'm not even going to mention all the personal B.S. that's been going down.) I think I still have a couple issues of The Standard lying around – excuse me while I go tuck into a nice nostalgia bender.

And then I'm going to go and kick some ass.