Orange tans, lifting weights, excessive amounts of hair gel – these are the tools of the Jersey Shore set. And as impossible and illogical as it is to comprehend, since the debut of MTV's show of the same name, the "guido" has become somewhat in vogue again. In fact, they’ve got their own game. "GTL" stands for the holy trifecta of the guido's existence: gym, tan, laundry. And in Jersey Shore: GTL, your goals are simple -- do those three things every day as much as you can. If you don't, you may die (heaven forbid - of paleness).
Jersey Shore: GTL is a very simple game. The graphics will immediately get you thinking of Mega Man (because the sprites appear to be directly taken from that game), and the setting of River City Ransom. You'll find yourself on a left to right sidescrolling board which looks more or less like Venice Beach. Your goal is to navigate your way through this, picking up gold necklaces, pizza and beer along the way for points. The speed of movement is on rails, so you'll only control up and down movement. There will be lots of bad dudes standing in your way, so you'll need to avoid them as you progress. There are also women swooning over you for some mysterious reason, and if you want to stop to grab them, you'll earn points as you go.
However, none of that is going to keep you alive. That's where the guido's trifecta comes in. As you go, you'll see laundromats, gyms and tanning salons, which you'll need to stop into to make sure your tan stays hideous, your muscles stay bulging and your wifebeaters stay white. The game speeds up so you must move more quickly, avoiding the guys on the street who want to beat you up because of how awesome you are.
A visit to the gym will grant you a temporarily state of invincibility called "juice head", so that can come in handy later down the line when it all speeds up. One of the funniest details about this part of the game is that the designers chose to use the same sounds as the Mario games when you successfully complete a task or fail at one. Hearing the Mario sound for getting hit and becoming small again when your tan fades totally works with the tongue in cheek style of what the game is going for.
Jersey GTL works with Feint, so you can share your high scores via Twitter or Facebook, or even invite friends to come try to beat your score. It's a simple game and the premise is a novelty, but even then, it's a buck and it's funny. In fact, it’s the rare tribute game that works regardless of your opinion of its inspiration. Jersey Shore fans will like it because it’s Jersey Shore and that’ll be enough. Non-fans will like it because it’s ludicrous and hokey and cheese-filled, and that seems about right too.
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Spring Zinger: Philomena . Steve ‘Alan Partridge’ Coogan won a BAFTA for his adapted screenplay of this true story of a woman (Judy Dench) searching for her estranged child. Moving but never mawkish.
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Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the implementation of the Multiethnic Placement Act of 1994, as amended, at the federal level and in states with large and ethnically diverse foster care caseloads, focusing on: (1) efforts by federal, state, and local agencies to implement the 1994 act in the areas of assistance; (2) efforts by federal, state, and local agencies in these same areas to implement the 1996 amendment to the act; and (3) the challenges all levels of government face to change placement practices.
GAO noted that: (1) the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and California initiated collaborative, multipronged efforts to inform agencies and caseworkers about the Multiethnic Placement Act of 1994; (2) HHS program officials recognized that the act requires child welfare agencies to undergo a historic change in how foster care and adoption placement decisions are made by limiting the use of race as a factor; (3) within 6 weeks of the act's passage, HHS took the first step in a comprehensive approach to implementation that involved issuing policy guidance and providing technical assistance; (4) some states believed that HHS' policy was more restrictive regarding the use of race in placement decisions than provided for in the act; (5) after enactment of the 1996 amendment, HHS did not update its policy guidance for 9 months, and it has done little to address casework practice issues; (6) California has yet to conform its state laws and regulations to the amended act; (7) the state provided training to some county staff, but the training was not targeted toward staff who have primary responsibility for placing children in foster or adoptive homes; (8) both counties have provided some training to caseworkers on the 1996 amendment, either through formal training sessions or one-on-one training by supervisors, however, only one county has begun to revise its policies; (9) changing long-standing social work practices, translating legal principles into practical advice for caseworkers, and developing compliance monitoring systems are among the challenges remaining for officials at all levels of government in changing placement decisionmaking; (10) the implementation of this amended act predominantly relies on the understanding and willingness of caseworkers to eliminate race from the placement decisions they make; (11) while agency officials and caseworkers understand that this legislation prohibits them from delaying or denying placements on the basis of race, not all believe that eliminating race will result in placements that are in the best interests of children; (12) state and local officials and caseworkers demonstrated lingering confusion about allowable actions under the law; (13) the state training session GAO attended on the amended act showed that neither the state nor HHS has provided clear guidance to caseworkers to apply the law to casework practice; and (14) federal efforts to determine whether placement decisions are consistent with the amended act's restrictions on the use of race-based factors will be hampered by difficulties in identifying data that are complete and sufficient.