In Which it is Friday, and our Hero Acts Commensurately

It's 11:00, I'm a couple of beers in, and lacking both a social group to gauge actions against and any need to actually be functional tomorrow, I've downloaded Dwarf Fortress.  I'll probably regret this at some point.  Any typos are mine alone.  Into the rabbit hole.


11:02
Let's see... unzip the files, copy to my flash drive, run .exe.  There's a neat guitar-thing that plays.  Nice. I pick what I think is easy mode based on the world parameters.  I assume more ore/resources will be good.

11:03
The Saffron Continent.  If I'm reading this right, there's a mountain range that wends across what appears to be Greece called The Maroon Fingers, which sounds like a sex act you'd name a shitty band after.  Let's pick there.

11:06
 I hit enter on what I thought was a starting location, and now I'm back at the main screen.  Um.  let's try again.

11:08
Nevermind, apparently I had to pick a game mode.  The guitar thing cuts out, and now I have... three maps?  Two are the same, which I assume is a side effect of having chosen a small world to start in.  In which to start.  I may or may not have broken something already. "f" might point out a good spot, let's hit that.  Apparently I can't get maroon fingers... eww.  I might not want them.


11:13
Apparently the mouse is useless, as UMKH and 8923 are what move things.  Apparently also 'Maroon Fingers' is code for 'no trees,' for some reason.  I'm willing to write that off as some sort of treeline quirk, but I think I've found a spot right next to there, with trees, which I assume a burgeoning Bronze Age settlement will need.  Maybe later I'll send raiding parties to Maroon Fingers.  (hurrrr)

11:17
Enter doesn't start, yet, and I've accidentally named a few things as random strings of characters.  Several things are blinking on the screen, but I still don't think I've started the game.  I am starting another beer, though.

11:21
Beer acquired, and as far as I can tell nothing is a start command.  Let's back up... and is that punctuation?  Yep, DW decidided to use an exclamation point for "e" ...which pops up to tell me that I picked a terrible starting spot.  Dammit.  Apparently water is bad.

11:25
I have located the stream The Carnal Thunder, inside The Jungle of Squirting.. that has to be intentional.  It;s heavily forested and there's deep metals (hurr).

11:28
Holy shit I think I did it.  "f" basically told me to start in The Awe-Insipiring Hills (which I suppose has always been a goal of mine) .  I pick 'prepare for the journey carefully,' because that sounds like something I'd do were I building a city.


11:31
I don't have a damn clue what all these what-appear-to-be-professions mean, so I just "G" to name my group Pre-Corpses and Embark! again. And oh look, I have 270 points. Whee.


11:32
Flavor text ho!  This place is called Izegal8th, or Apebolted, and I wonder what the hell the apes were running from.  The guitar is back, though.


11:34
OH GOD GREEN WHAT
Okay, 7 idlers.  Time to make them...dig, or something.  and it's paused, so I'll have to undo that to.


11:36
The scroll wheel works!  Inverted, though.  Thevelopers, for introducing a mechanic that was previously completely ignored.  I think space unpauses.  Tab can show me a mess of green squiggles that's supposedly a map.  I have no idea what all the n's and ~'s are, so let's hide it for now.  I also notice a handful of smileys, so I gues those are guys?  though one keeps changing into a \ or a H, so... hungry?  He can drink from the llama lake to the ESE later.


11:47
I think the hungry guy is a horse.  I think I made everyone do'labor,' except a guy mare=ked 'leader.'  He can be Labor and Miscellany, that's what leaders do.  Unpause 1.


11:49
Okay.
They moved a couple times, and then stood around blinking- Idlers is still 7, and while I can see commands for 'kill all  animals' and 'don;t not mix food,' no one's doing anything.  I thought about turning oeveryhthing off except 'gather mineral's,;' but this isn't Starcraft. Maybe since there's only 7 there's just no [rogress on anything yet.  Unpausing again.

11:54
I fond the bio on my expedition leader here... I think I see why he was sent to the middle of nowhere to dig a new place:

...but he has poor empathy, poor analytical abilities, poor focus, an iffy memory, a large deficit of willpower and poor creativity.... (he) views loyalty unfavorably... He needs alcohol to get through the working day."

He's got a sweet double-braided mustache though.  Officer material right there.


00:01
While I can apprently tell someont to start on encrustin litlerally anything with anything else, I can't find an order for ';dig a goddamn place to live.'  There has to be something I'm missing; at least no one's dying of hunger or animal attacks yet.

00:04
Why the hell would you encrust finished goods with rock salt?


00:07
Oh good, the weather has cleared.  That;'ll be useful for MY DWARVEs WHO ARE DOING FUCK_ALL OUTDOORS.

There are no buildings.  There are no reports.  There are no uniforms, there are no buildings, there are no nobles.  There is a tame female horse whose skin is cinnamon, and the only I can find to do is slaughter her, which I'm holding off on doing merely because I think I'd have to tell someone to harvest the meat and then cook it enough to not get food pooisoning.

What in the actual fuck is this game.  IBoatmurdered sounded like such a lark.

00:16
Oh there's trifle pewter and  lay pewter. Thank god, because ONE type of pewter for mine crts would be an oversight.  Thanks, developers.  Really have to watch those alloy ratios.

00:19
time for antoher beer.  I shoudl emtion these are 9%.

00:21
This one lacks the banana taste I've been getting from the others in favor of more raw ethanol upfront.  It's almost off-putting, until I realize it's been almost 90 minutes and I haven;t actually done anything in the game.  I could have created an RPg character by now, and that shit takes FOReveR.

Also fuck correcting typos,


00:23
I turned off the guitar strum, because it repeats after a while, and when it's in the early mornigng on a Saturday an you're drunk, you listen to youtube playlists of guilty pleasure abds.  Starting with Tears for Feears.


00:31
Fuck it, is there a help manual?  There's a differentiation between 'beer; and a;e,' and t=while that's great, I don't really care if they can make stouts vs porters I"VE BEEN TRyING TO ISSUE COMMANDS FOR A FUCKING HOUR DAMMIT
?, manual...

and in a not-cruel-because-hat-would-becliche-but-sitl--evil-twist thedamn thingwon't let you scroll. YAYYYYY!

Losing is fun! because ut gives you toime to get beer


00:35
page down, 895623, aroow down, m,M, no dice.  menu broken? You;d think that if they put in ultiple beer types they'd have made the man pages fuctional.

whatever, esca[ still brings me to my field of blinking commas.  Oh look, now there are a couple Z''s and... korean symbols?

 00:40
IT'S STARTED RAINING AGAIN.  i THIN i TOLD ALL DWARCES TO CUT DOWN TREES? (CAPS- it;s 1st Felsite, which amybe means it;s been amonth?  A month of fucking around, and at aleast no starving tod detah or burnging everyhing or, I don;t know, amybe rabid apes attacking.  Shit Icould be worase, I gues, but I don't think I've done ANYTHING ye.

Also I can't feel my faceatm.


00:48
I've DEFINIETly yolf dosmine to make an oron door, and I think when they try it;ll tell me they need iron.  Befoire that, though, I think it's telling me I need a 'Manager' to make sure it happens?
 There's ONE order it doens't need apriority increase.

00:49
Can you not f=give more than one command to a dwatf?  doens'[t mae snese given the prioriy commands... Catyten seems t have o job despite me attemptsto make him Manager for thIron DOor project and also Misc. respionsibilties as leader.

00:51
I think someone is dea'missing.  No idea who, since all seven are in the'I'm not doing shit irght now' list- I thinI'll try to cancel all te orders for...cuttigntress, maybe, since I KNOW th4ere are trees.  Maybe it''ll tell me to mine ore and then smelt and them forge axes and the  sharpen and the have wood to make handles and then assign axes to these fucker and then level their skills os I can go after th anetice trees to do it but goddamn.  The Working Hour indeed...


0055 It takes a LOT to not correct the errirs I know are above, but I;ll leave the,.  Like pompaei, where instead od lava people dies from alcohol.  So morel like a frat bathroom, or a bar.  I don;t know, the worsost bathroiom I[ve ever seen was probabl in high school and alcohol wasn't really even involcved, people were just dicks.  Alcohol is very mush involcved here though

Come to thinko it, if the game gice s me a popup like ';sorryy, your dwatves weer all on a bender,' I think I;d be okay.  I think I'd find that hilarious.

IT IS NOW SUIMMER!  Fuck yeah, I trhin , o one died for like 3 moths.  With no food, that;s an accomplusment.  Mayber they're living off soe leather and bark or something.  Maybe there';s a command to tell them to chew before swallowing.

100
t is ALL SORTS of fun to read yhing sin a stereottpyical Fench accect whem...tipy.  I dont; know how I didn't know this befoire.
I blame..well, me, actually.  The live version of Pake Shelyer isn't as good,l findin a new playlist.  Maybe...osomthing with a danceabl;e beat, but not the emotional depth of the KIllers or Kean.

 
1L:09
Com immiganrats have arrived?! Maybe they'll do somehitin, ro asjk for sometihimg, or somethis.  I feel like Octodata, QWOPing acros amy apartment. Now there are twelve idlers, and as soon as I can get ehscreen to stay still I'l try to give the orders or somthing.

01:17
I'm [retty sure everyone in this abortie filaure of a fortress rewuire alochool to continue, nad I can't say ai really blame them.

The ones that value aestehetics and yet hate art, though.. it's lik e they have no interpersonal skills at all, whic the game specifically days they do...

 01:20
'chop down trees' is urious;y bolded in.. some meu. picking it seems to do nothing.  Tahat door I asked for?  stilll nothing.  hitting 'door' in another men gives 'needs door.'  I don;t have a damn lcue here. 'Escape' is till back out, so that's niee.

01:25
M
 01:30
Some face turned ed and then ran east dor a tryst with a greek symbol and then a dixision sign, returnung with nes that' theres nothing to catch in the swamps.  Liar0- og be with your upper-math whire.

It has staeted raining, again.


01:34
No one has jos.  I can;t give jobs.  Amnager needs to be assinged- what is this, Dwarf Parliamentary aProcedurally generated Fotress?  There's chiild,and they get a pass, but god hel[ them if they gorw up here.  Run, Stoldir Altlistast whiole yo can.

>it is the height of arrogance to call oneslef a Bowyer, whateveer th fuck that is, with no Bows around,  Or Wax, or milk, or wood, or jewelks,... you get the pucuter..


01:37
T, f, u^, a , z, malke, division, happy, yellow happy, korean, Steelers, red dash, repeat
at leas the commas stopped blikning

01:38
Veckatimest isn't helping, on to something else.


01:41
I gi uo.  Let's let these guys learn to thinnk on thir own or tarve, because I just founf oart of mnt chikldohoow=d town is gone, and sa list of esometine else oidn g your non0mexistant higjschill beteter tha you, also bers  aming things dizzy,.

Id;ers 9; idlers 11, aprreaqntoly thert's a farmer/.

What the hell does 'Khatru' mean, anyway? I found my now-diminished Yes collection and realized upon yet again looking up the lyrics that no one actually knows. Maybe Jon Anderson does; I sure hope so.

Diminished, right. All of my music is gone, courtesy of a failed hard drive. See, I bought 500 million bytes of space (which really equates to 465 gigs, since marketers like rounding 1024 down to an even K...) to back up my stuff; the intent being that I could offload all the processor-intensive stuff that was eating my RAM and sitting on my minuscule 30 gig internal HD like my 20g of music and games.

So I did, and for a few days it was great.

Then a sector failed, or something, and after numerous attempts to copy it all and get the HD working, it reformatted itself, costing me everything that was on...which happened to be all the music I had accumulated at college. Dismemberment Plan, Yes, Postal Service, etc. Gone. The games I don't mind so much because they were either DOS-based or I have the discs. The music though...that was like drugs, man. Even the stuff I legitimately bought off iTunes or ripped from my discs is gone, and I've avoided so far ripping it back because I'm not certain the whole thing won't happen again. Now, with all my tracks gone from iTunes (and with the tracks I do still have stranded on my iPod) I'm reverting to playing straight from CD...where I realized my only current disc player is the one I broke in high school. On the upside, I found that my cassettes still play on Pat's oldschool Walkman. This thing is circa 1987- maybe earlier, because she graduated then and I think she had it before... Whatever.

So, reverting to older stuff. Maybe I should buy an RC car and plow the walkways with it this winter...which reminds me, my house is gone now. If I ever meet that guy he'd better duck because I plan to come out swinging. I think I still had stuff in there when Oliver sold it, and I know my helicopter was still in the tree, albeit some 20 meters up. (Stupid Crazy Cousin Andrew.) Next time I go to CT I'll swing by, haven't seen that side of town in... 8 years? more?

Man, this is a live album. These guys were good. XYZ would have been kickass.

Wow, that was a while ago. Strangely enough I still have that Snoods page bookmarked- actually, it's one in a series of under-appreciated bands (ok, just average local bands that I found on the internet). And what's left of D Plan. How does Travis Morrison go from the awesomeness of 'The City' and 'Back and Forth' to 'Snacktime?' I think the new group dynamic and the stability of having a career are appealing to his fun side more than, say, angsty feelings of post-college inadequacy. Either way, I'm streaming All Y'All as I write this.

Remember how I used to talk about computer games? Yeah, I can't do that any more. Why not? I succumbed to the low system requirements of CABAL...and lost a solid three weeks of my life. I liked the game to some extent, and the fact that it was so new that no one knew exactly which skills to use was bit of a rush, but it became "a solo grind-fest." (thank you, Tex.) I think the story should have been deeper, but I also think a zombie apocalypse would make my day, so...

The point is that I managed to devote all my spare time to the game, which, while then enjoyable, cut into my other important activities, like laughing at the news and criticizing marketing campaigns and applying Monetarism to KoL. I missed those, and when I popped out of the fog went and deleted the game. The immediate vacuum drove me into another game Utopia- but this one feeds me on a slow drip. Like morphine instead of OxyContin.


Why can't I embed a YouTube video? Why do I always end up bitching about Blogger's formatting and Travis Morrison? Why can't I remember that this thing exists when I'm online for the majority of my free time? Why is everyone I know a Democrat who wants to ascribe the last thousand years of history to the Neocons? It's an interesting concept but unless their damn good they'd have tipped their hand and run something or other too efficiently- if you're secretly running the world it makes sense to fail left and right, but to do it all the time makes you an amateur. Tiger Woods hits balls into the trees on occasion, sure, but the proof of his humanity is shown when he chips in accidentally.

I hope that makes sense to someone, because I lost my train of thought while rewriting it. Oops.

I set up a Twitter account. It's got a convenient system by which is causes me physical pain when I haven't updated lately; by 'physical pain' I mean 'phone vibrations' and by 'convenient system' I mean 'checkbox on the website which might or might not work.' It ought to work.

Um, obligatory obscure lyric post... Here:

I know how to run a business
And I can make you wanna buy a product
Movers, shakers, and producers
Me and my friends understand the future
I see the strings that control the systems
I can do anything with no assistance
Cause I can lead a nation with a microphone
With a microphone
With a microphone

Have some links!

Twitter
My Twitter
Utopia
CABAL

A few remarks on stupidity, and the like...

Fueled by a strange mix of Pink Floyd, Jack's Mannequin, Diet Coke, a diner visit at midnight, and the sleep I got courtesy of having no classes until 3 pm, I have decided to post here. I also decided to remedy some issues I was having with the internet and manually transcribed every Andy Zipf song I have. SongMeanings.net has them, though I know scavengers from other sites will copy them and try to capitalize. So it goes.

Oh, and I'm currently listening to The Snoods, a band from around here that I've heard is decent. The verdict is still out but I've decided someone needs to introduce them to YES.

Now for the fun part: Fitna the movie.
I first heard about this a few days before it was apparently scheduled to be released, and thought it rather worth keeping tabs on. There's a pretty extensive network of sites who are doing the same, and, interestingly enough, they come from both sides of the political spectrum- so much so that I've been loathe to post anything regarding the film at third-party sites on principles of not wanting to support sites so radical (and in my opinion wrong).

Long story short, the film has been in production despite the creator's (He's Dutch, and I'd be butchering his name and his organization if I tried to detail them here, sorry. Too many accents.) numerous death threats and police protection. He has a domain at www.fitnathemovie.com which, until a few days before the film's release, showed a picture of the Qu'ran and the film's title (Fitna:

chaos, change, revolution, in Arabic).

It continued showing this until the server owners Network Solutions decided that might be against the Terms of Service, and so pulled it. The questions this raises are obvious. The blogosphere (bomb it!) erupts, some people volunteer to host it themselves, and the movie makes it online a few days late. I saw it at

www.LiveLeak.com. What is there now, though,

is this film, which I've screencapped. (Low-tech ftw.)

Since then copies have been floating around, torrents have gone up, etc. I've watched it, and I don't find it as oppressive or biased as some claimed it would necessarily be. My opinion on the film isn't why I was prompted to break my apparently-almost-six-month streak of neglect, though...

I'd like to point out that the price is always too high. Freedoms should be free- and that something so basic is not demands that every action possible be taken to ensure its existence.

I'm glad LiveLeak recognizes their failure, but in

doing so I think they need to look at their very

ideology and decide whether their staff (who, in theory, share the company's mission of free information distribution regardless of content*) is more important than the principles they seek to uphold. I will argue that they are not; this same reasoning explains sacrifices that have to be made. People must die in wars, the rights of few must, on occasion, be sacrificed for the greater good. Nothing that is worth holding to is going to come without the possible cost of needing to defend it with something very important to you.

I time every journey/
to bump into you/
accidentally I/
charm you and tell you/
of the boys I hate/
all the girls I hate/
all the words I hate/
all the clothes I hate/
how I'll never be anything I hate/
you smile, mention something that you like/
how you'd have a happy life/
if you did the things you like/

Also, there's a typo in the last frame- "one anothers culture," should be possessive: i.e. 'one another's culture.'

In other stupidity news, I overheard Hillary responding to some question with economic details as to how she proposes to pay for a national healthcare system. Unfortunately, I had to run to a class, so I didn't hear what those details were, but knowing that someone whispering in her ear has come up with legitimate responses means I need to re-evaluate her as a possible leader of the country. I suppose I should keep track of reasons why people would vote for all the candidates, so I can see what they're evaluating them with, but...I don't update this blog much.

Also on the stupidity front, awesome.txt is now about twice as long as it used to be. Like as not simply because now that I'm aware of having someplace to put interesting snippets I don't write them off as easily. Meh.

*I do not know LiveLink's mission statement or governing principles, or even if they have any. What I'm referring to is the implicit intent of a hosting site, especially one which believes in "freedom of speech on the net," to be dedicated to the concept of free distribution of information and views. Nowhere is it necessary to agree with the opinions that get posted.

My apologies for the formatting; I think half the reason I don't post much is because a simple WYSIWYG editor doesn't exist in Blogger. I want options for alignment and columns and for photos to have positions relative to whatever I feel like making them relative to. As ever, if I'm missing something let me know. Oh, and my ability to type dies at about seven am. I've had to rewrite almost every sentence in this things because my fingers feel dyslexic.

Lastly, I think I need to go see Travis Morisson. Next time I and he are feeling in a public mood and we're within the same metro area I'll see what I can do.

...And we're back. This episode of pointless rambling gives an insight into my remarkably unproductive weekend...with pictures! Actually, the pictures are comics, and the comics are poorly-drawn, web-generated, three-color strips in pieces. So basically just a glorified paint program with templates. If I continue doing this I'll probably switch to GIMP or something else; I'm not getting the user-friendliness or control I keep wanting with images. I plan on covering a few of the major (read: trivial) occurrences that populated my weekend. So far I'm halfway through the first.

Clean this mess up else we'll all end up in jail/
Those test tubes and the scale/
Just get them all out of here/
Is there gas in the car?/
Yes, there's gas in the car/
I think the people down the hall know who you are/

In other news, I found a copy of Dianetics. Everyone in the world should read this book, even if they're already well acquainted with the time-tested 'convince-people-you're-right-by-using-big-words' method of influence. My favorite part so far is the half-page or so devoted to off-handedly informing the reader that this is all well-accepted in the scientific community. That, and the overuse of the words 'dynamic' and 'pattern.' If you've read Battlefield Earth or any of Mission Earth you'll know where I'm going: this is clearly the work of someone who likes the sound of their own words.

Enjoy.

Once again I've managed to ignore this thing, and once again I'm vomiting random, reasonably unrelated information in place of a thoughtful post. Oh well, at least I'm honest. This is the current contents of a text file called awesome.txt, where I leave all the great things I write or want to keep track of in some way that's less than a diary but more than the Clipboard (Kind of like this blog...). Anyway, there's some KoL stuff, some emo stuff, some emo KoL stuff, some religious musings, and a bevy of sarcastic responses to the people who spam me on ICQ ever since my number got out. Enjoy.

(The format of these is a follow-up the the ICQ client asking if I'd like to include a reason for denying whoever's spamming me a place on my buddy list, in case they seem fragmented and/or overly direct.)



Because you're a spamming asshole. I don't know you, you don't know me, and the guy you'll sell this ID too won't know either of us. Please do us both a favor and find something productive to do with your life. If you're really looking for suggestions, I'd recommend finding a Frisbee and learning how to be God with it. Or you could always join a circus troupe, that'd certainly provide some fodder for the autobiography you'd have to write in hopes of paying off the inevitable debt you'd rack up after the AIDS medicines exhaust your accounts. Or get into an MMORPG - it could prove a true boon toward your problem of having too much time, but could result in an irreparable loss of social abilities.
Like I said, there're plenty of reasons why you don't need to be my fake friend on ICQ, and so I leave you with this intentionally cryptic and, likely, soon-to-be-deleted nugget of proof that public schooling is not a lost cause (in haiku form, no less):
Players only love
When the rain washes you clean
Thunder when it rains

-apettythief

No, I'm not going to authorize you. You see, I keep a record of the witty responses I give to people (like you, and this) who randomly ask me for my now-apparently-leaked ICQ number, and I post them to the internet where my friends can laugh at my comments and your petty refusals to even react to my sardonism. Would it kill you people to write back? I apply more effort to these things than I do to most other compositions I do and some feedback would be appreciated. Who the hell -are- you, anyway? How'd you get my ICQ number? What are your opinions on the recent loss of the French Socialist Party and the apparent shift toward the right of the attitudes of the French people? If you're still reading this you may as well respond, seeing as the time it took to read this is well less than it should take the reasonably capable to dash off a quick 'fuck you.'


No reason given. I don't need one, seeing as you, in internet fashion, accosted me.


Much as I'd like to be able to say I got my job from a bot trolling the internet, I don't think we're going in the same direction. You see, my delusions of grandeur revolve around marginally larger concepts than stone design. If by some chance you actually mean -stoner- design, then I might know some people who could help you; alas, I doubt they will receive this message. The best of luck in your internet stone design endeavors,
-thief


Learn some fucking English.



I officially hate the internet. Why, you ask? Well, for the quite simple reason that by affiliating yourself with it, people assume that there is something socially, mentally, critically wrong with you. We have societal designations such as 'nerd,' 'geek,' 'lurker, 'furry'... (Did furries even exist before the internet?) I agree that there certainly are problems with some people who use the internet, but making the assumption that everyone involved has only socially deviant things in mind regardless of their setting is uncalled for. (I can forgive Ted Stevens for thinking so, I suppose.) There are people who use the internet for legitimate reasons (Avenue Q notwithstanding) and it should not be the norm to expect people to have something wrong with them. When that happens, skill and virtue are taught to be unattainable ideals to which none hold, and we face a daunting future indeed.

Ok, so I was kicked from an Tactics Arena Online (chess, like) for saying "seriously, I'm not trying to be a dick," ('dick' being the operative which accorded me a new seat in the queue to log in to the game) after engineering a beautiful comeback with less units against a stronger player. I'm serious- I was laying counter-traps and calculating possible damage and blocking counts and several possible moves in advance. The guy had a pair of clerics to my zero- he could pick up HP whenever he wanted it and I brought him to the point where it would have been two turns from a draw and something like six from a full victory. It was nuts; I was honestly excited about characters turning to block against odds in accordance with my calculations. I'll probably be back soon: writing this thing took so long I'm over it already. Stupid internet.


04/12/07 10:12:02 AM - Welcome back to the Kingdom of Loathing. Noob.
06/20/07 10:00:30 PM - Welcome back to the Kingdom of Loathing. Noob.


[haiku] DotMatrix:
Though summer has bloomed
Ascendant thoughts lie dormant
Falcons cannot hear


Nobody ever wants to go toe-to-toe, especially at my school. We need some emotion, something people can get behind and the administration can't pretend is safe. The bubble is killing us, and anyone who honestly believes otherwise either is lying, or hasn't seen it's effects. I realize this last is a bit limited in view, but when has isolation ever done anything beneficial? Even the College can see the inherent problem in ignoring society: it's part of the motto 'reconciliation in church and society,' maturity of intellect.' Ignorance is neither.

Speaking of lying to yourself, I've been on an Andy Zipf kick recently. I've seen him twice, at Emmaus and my school, and both shows were great. He puts a lot into making people relax while he's there, but I think he could use a dose of that himself: he seems really on edge about nailing everything while he's on.

Whatever, check him out, especially if you're into chill, acoustic music and people who refuse to sell out (you are, aren't you?).

So loosen your shoulderblades/
This is your hour to make due/
Because there on the timberline/
Deep cold November shines through/
Soft and absolute/

This quiet serves only to hide you/

As promised, a word on acting: tequila = no. Probably in terms of stages as well, but as per my original caveat, well, let's just say it remains less than agreeable. And so, the arguably identical topic of self-delusion. I have to admit it's a fun one to indulge in from time to time, but, like the Japanese, people need to learn when things are fantasies.

Rather than leave this as a draft for the millions of dedicated readers, I'll post it and return when I've more time to write. Yeah, that's the ticket. I suppose I could leave you all with something to discuss, so how about the camerawork in the new Harry Potter film? Handheld and jumpy whenever Voldemort's there, but if I noticed it then it's a bit too obvious, don't you think?

I don't get parties. Sure, having friends over and chilling together makes sense, and having a semi-legitimate reason to do so like a birthday or anniversary or Paris Hilton going to jail, but both the accentuated 'call-over-lots-of-people-who-you-might-know-and-some-real-friends-and-proceed-to-restrain-yourself-politically' take on them and the 'my-parents-are-gone-lets-get-ourselves-fucked-up' version seem pointless. The way I see it, if one wanted to get fucked up, they could do it on their own. (Not that I personally would; I think that that much self-indulgence without anyone else to give at least the image of possible restraint won't lead anywhere beneficial. I also think that lying to yourself is just as damaging, but that's a topic for another post.) Or, if you want to meet other people who you might have a connection to, go to a bar or a club or a whatever, or just hang around wherever they are. Contact with people, when you're seriously looking for it, seems to be of a much better quality when it isn't limited by scripts or society.

In related news, I spent most of today at a more-or-less pointless birthday party. Granted, I wasn't going to do anything truly productive or enjoyable in its place, the variegated buffet was a perk, and my brothers, being surrounded by their friends, didn't require watching, but all the same I feel I lost an afternoon. Like I said, I wasn't doing anything with it, but I like at least having it. Sort of like how I have a footbag and a pitch pipe and dozens of functions on my knife and a manual to my computer. These are things which I don't really need, and though I can entertain myself envisioning their use in remarkably specific circumstances, they aren't justified. The sort of things that manage to get put aside when you clean up.

In an overly-sentimental-in-terms-of-my-intentions-in-this-post vein, are days like this what old people look back on and regret?


All other realities aside I didn't mind the party. It was worth celebrating the occasion and I feel it should have been done, and I can't suggest a better manner for the people it truly concerned. My point is that it really didn't do anything for me, and I felt my views on that are worth explaining. I find meaning in other pointless occurrences (usually others'), but not, it seems, those which society deems worth advertising. It could be that I'm just getting the wrong message from the rest of the world, sure, but I doubt it. Hammer me today.

There wasn't any wind/
no noise, no nothing just a body jerked skyward, limbs flailing like an unloved marionette/
at impossible speed, receding away like a far away dot/
I can see her still, scream for help but no one answered/
She turned end on end like a long lost astronaut, I felt the summer air reclaim me/
the chirp of a bird, the whisper of leaves/
And I was frozen; to the face of the earth/

I should cover whether or not I'm an actor. I'll do that some other time; perhaps when the thought of tequila doesn't nauseate me anymore.

I should also mention the day which may live in infamy: Tall Thin Dude might be found, I might learn to draw, and the Bush-hating, pedantic, overblown comments of one name-changing
artist could be replaced with the postmodernist-hating, obscure, subtle-to-the-point-of-questionable-inclusion comments of one name-thieving non-artist. Take a look.

I think it's pretty tempting- characters with backgrounds and reasonable amunts of delineation in terms of beliefs, pre-made story arcs, and one large and apparently-still-in-progress issue being dealt with. I think the guy's giving it away, and I'd hate to see it get lost in the tubes with other good comics. Mac Hall comes to mind, but that's in a different league of awesomeness.

Ok, so at this point it should be clear that I both have ignored this thing completely for the last few months (or years, whatever), and have again decided that I should write. I've given up on the 'insightful-witty-analytical' intent I orginally had: I'm a college student and I have way more pressing issues than seeming like a lobotimized pacifist. For well or ill I exhibit the properties of neither, and I figure I shouldn't try to.

In related news, find Scottmale24 's comic. I'd link it but I can't remeber where it's hosted and don't recommend it for people who don't know what an imageboard is or have a propensity for depression.


I've gotten into webcomics lately- I'll link the ones have bookmaked but there are more. I've also been introduced to the Kingdom of Loathing. KoL is a text-based RPG where you mix cocktails and try to free the imprismed (yes, prism) King Ralph by defeating the Naughty Sorceress so you can do it all again. It's also, as far as I know, the only RPG that limits the time you can spend playing- your character gets 40 advntures per day, and when you pick it up you'll want more than that, trust me. You can drink booze and eat foods and other special items to gain turns, but only a certain amount depending on your skills. The six character classes work well with each other, and their summoning abilities keep the 3-billion-meat-per-day economy rolling right along. Yeah, meat- the currency and crafting are done with meat. The game's defining characteristic, is, though, its tongue-in-cheek humor. Almost every adventure, quest, occurence, item description, everything in-game has some sort of cultural reference to it. Some things are obscure to the point of not noticing them, but Jick (the creator hailed as a god among players) has a remarkable range of stuff programmed in. There's a site devoted to categorizing them all- the game has a huge fanbase. The game also has an (imho) awesome internet radio station via Shoutcast- Ashallond, Starkmoon, EyeSpeculum all are entertainers. EyeSpec's complete-words-to-songs ratio approaches 1 to 1.

Piled Higher and Deeper
On the Rocks Comics
Cretinoids.com
Questionable Content
The Broken Mirror
"Templar, Arizona" by Spike
Ctrl+Alt+Del
Three Panel Soul
MegaTokyo - relax, we understand j00

The Kingdom of Loathing

Well.
It's been a while, hasn't it? I have reasons (read: excuses) for not updating this- to list a few: college, other web responsibilities, other hobbies, etc.

But really, that doesn't account for not looking at this site for a few months.

Whatever.

Some new things you should see soon: my last.fm sidebar, and some cool HTML things I've learned courtesy of my web portfolio project.

To make updating this place simpler for all involved, I'm going to almost completely ignore the events that have happened to me since my last post; I think that'll make things easier to follow in the future. And since I'm the only active (? can blogging be a passive action?) reader here, I have a controlling vote.


That out of the way: I've just returned from an awesome ski trip in Colorado; I'll fill in details on my skiing page. Oh, and I found that article about the French (it really has been too long) burning several hundred cars on the average Saturday, but it's gone now.

So, an idea- I post in the future audibly- I have a Griffin iTalk now, and after forgetting it for an hour, realized it has some impressive abilities. Look for audio files as posts in the future, as soon as I figure out how to do that on Blogger. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Actually, anyone else even reading this would be appreciated (I'm starting the bidding for shoutouts at 'proof of visitation.' Pretty cheap, if you ask me. Email me a screenshot or something).

What if Jedi played darts? I can see Anakin stepping up and writing his name, cursive, underlined, pretty, and then Yoda levitating them into 180s and such, Windu throwing the board at the darts, etc. And then Anakin being pissed that the others used the Force. I have this image of hime being slighted for being good at everything and thus not relying on 'the Jedi way' for guidance. I'm reasonably certain that that view and the Lucasarts copyrighted story differs, but I still think he could be a less-flat character.
Someone said somewhere that Star Wars was supposed to be "escapism for eight year olds..." oops.


In the hope that I won't write too much (and so I can get back to French homework) I'll stop writing now.
I think that my hiatus has changed the tone of this blog. It has gone from...well, that doesn't really matter. I'm going to try to make this place more of a forum for (mine, at the very least) discussion and insight (like the French riot discussion, kind of) rather than another person's piece of the Internet pie which they squander on childish proof of 'proven-by-existance' drivel...
I'm rambling again. So much for cutting off and stopping. I'll come back when I have something to say.

Hello to any new readers; the blog is pretty self-explanatory, and any real detail you want you can probably find on the sidebar. Anyway on to today's post.

Is ELO making a comeback? So far I count three songs used in commercials- Do Ya and one other (sorry I don't remember which) recently, and the awesomely done VW commercial with Mr Blue Sky that led me to ELO in the first place. I read somewhere that Jeff Lynne actually arranged the pieces that they used in it- I hate it when a good song is used in an average commercial and it's taken apart and reassembled shorter and lacking the best part of the song. Best Buy is using The Cars' 'Just What I Needed' now, and every time I hear it I will the chorus to come in right. It doesn't, and Best Buy's marketing has actually backfired. Pour millions into something and try to tie in a song that makes sense, and look what you get. (Sorry all you marketers and advertisers out there...)

I won't make you sit through a tirade (even though I should; it's exacty what I had in mind when I sarted this blog. Maybe when I figure out how to put in a separate folder on the site I will...memo to me...) on the disfigurement of Led Zeppelin's 'Rock and Roll,' I think it'd be best if I leave it at that the friggin' commercial has ruined that song for me...grrr...

Anyway back to my semi-original topic: VW's incredibly perfect commercial. I think it starts with a guy living in a boring, repeated life where everyday is the same. Then, one day, he looks out his window at the opposing office building and sees a (presumably, I don't really remember but it makes sense for advertising, stories, etc....whatever) a really hot girl doing the exact same thing and looking back at him. I think they go to meet each other at some bridge connecting the buildings, and somehow a VW comes into play, but I don't recall from the five or so years since it was on. Whatever..ELO's in it. The artistic concept of it is brilliant- rather than repeating multiple times and taking up time to show boredom and repetition, it breaks up the screen in four and offsets almost identical images by a second or so. The guy gets out of bet, gets dressed (or something like that, see previous line) and the screens are all (I think) a slightly different color. It's really cool. And best of all there's 'Mr Blue Sky' in it. I saw the commercial and I was like "Woah. That was the coolest commercial ever." It had a great song I had never heard before, and I didn't even realize what it was for. I watched it intentionally whenever it was on (or at least when I found it) and apparenly figured out that it was for VW. Some new car. Years later, when I found ELO's Greatest Hits in my parents CD stacks, and found the song...oh man. I played it a dozen times in a row. Seriously. I think the only other time i did that was when I discovered Abbey Road but I played the whole disk. And wore it out, my mp3s of it are all messed up.
Anyway, awesome commercial. Unbelievable, it was as if someone had condensed pure frickin' emotion and made it a video.

Speaking of video, I don't know if there's music video for the song, but I have a great (in my opinion; this is my site) idea for Mr Blue Sky.

Okay, it's like this: the radio in the beginning is somebody's alarm clock- we don't see them and it doesn't really matter. Th camera could come up through a buiilding or whatever and show the street, it's early morning but there's sun at a pretty flat angle. At the interlude, (you know, the drums and guitar for a few measures) it's like a musical: women popping out of windows and talking to each other, the gossip is the words about the weather; they're singing the song. It switches over, still singing and talking, and there's the street again, but kids are playing in it, again like a musical. It's an ideal world at this point- a Garden-like existence: promise of sun and fun right now.

Okay, by "running down the avenue" we have a guy, (maybe the same guy from the VW deal? I dunno) leading, like, a spontaneous parade down the street. Everybody's in this play, it's full of people and the words are now the guy speaking and singing to the people they parade is passing on the road. Everyone in town is out, it's a Mardi Gras of emotions and colors. The guy (call him the Conductor from here out) is now in full regalia: coattails, top hat and vibrant actions. He's entertaining the crowds, sharing the 'gospel' if you will of the fact that Mr. Blue Sky, the one who's been away, is returning! He's Lehrman's dream chorister- looking around, trying to get to evryone, happy to the core and showing others why.

The part where we hear "please tell us why" (the whole rising pitch and cowbell chorus-thing) is the parade of people behind him (heretically? maybe, hadn't thought of that) asking why Mr Blue left in the first place. The repeat, the second time, it's all the people except the Conductor asking. They're still ecstatic, but now wanting to know how they can stay that way.
Then we hear the guitar solo. It's a party in the streets- I can imagine people with balloons (camera idea: after the solo and the next verse, balloons fly up to the camera, maybe some kid lets them fly in glee, and while the music goes to the repeated chorus, we go to the same clip of the first time, the parade asking why and all that) and added laughter in the backgroud: like I said, a party, a spectacle, a carnival atmosphere perhaps even complete with dancers in costume and clowns. Wait, no clowns. "Hey you with the pretty face" is back to the Conductor, singing directly to one person- like a baby in a carriage. We see the baby, and then the camera moves up and we see the beaming parents and the overjoyed crowd. They aren't drug-induced happy, they're genuine. Like religiously happy. (Totally separate conversation there- I might get to it some other time. Remind me) In the whole baby scene, the Conductor is basically spelling out what's going on, for the kids' benefit as well as for us. The next part, where we hear "Hey there Mr Blue/ We're so pleased to be with you" is the Conductor on his own. Not his voice, but his acting. He's talking to Mr Blue who, steadily, has been coming into view. By this point it's full afternoon sunshine, 'there ain't a cloud in sight' (couldn't resist) Mr Blue is a ball of light- he could be a person but there's so much light he's obcured. The camera (and us viewers) see him from the side, just above and behind the crowd, so there's noc conflict with seeing him and the sun at the same time. I deally, we don't see the sun at all, because the light is coming from Mr Blue.

In the center of the song, in the changed-voice part, it's just more of the party. We see Mr Blue pass, finally, as mentioned before: the apex of the song, befor the key change or whatever it is that makes the third verse sound so much like a letdown. In the verse, we see Blue continue down the road, away from the people. This is low, but he's definitely leaving. The light starts to dim but we don't get darkness until the very end at "Mister Blue Sky, Bye"
Where we hear the third verse, it's the Conductor talking/singing to Mr Blue- hence the 'you' in the lines. The "I'll remember you" is important too: here we have to see only the Conductor's face. He's emotional but not really sad; he's only the Conductor because he is the one most affected by Mr Blue's return. For him, this on par with a religious experience.
The whole video is, actually- the people are changed on an almost fundamental level, Mr Blue Sky is practically a religious figure, his exit at the end is almost mythic in size...pretty cool analogy for a song.

At that quick return to the chorus near the end, the people and the Conductor (sounds kind of like the Matrix...not what I had in mind) are remembering the greatness of Mr Blue's temporary return: an epic day which everyone will claim to have been present for and a story that will last much like myth.

The operatic part is his final exit from the video- the sun going down, the vibrancy fading. His departure leads directly to the change in spirits reflected after a few measures- no singing, little sound- the people of this city are initially depressed because it's over, and then exuberant because it happened. (have to say, borrowed that bit)

We hear soon the drum part, with voices coming in: this is the memory that people remember. After this, the sun is almost completely gone, a few last rays of color over the horizon, and then...darkness.
Mr Blue Sky, however, is not gone. As the city has pointed out, he's come before, and they know he'll come again. At the very end, the robotic "Mister Blue Sky, Bye"; that's the faith, if you will, of the people. They can let him go because they know he'll be back.


Ridiculously deep song. I've been blogging for almost 90 minutes, all but the first ten or so on 'Mr Blue Sky.'

Wow.

Maybe I'll do 'Fire On High' next. Maybe. I think I got started on this from my Jacob paper. I was working on it and then thought, "Is ELO making a comeback?" And then started writing in Google Desktop. Genius invention- a notepad that knows when I want to write something down. Well, perhaps not that smart, but still, it pops up unobtrusively whenever I want stock info, or news, or weathe,r or something, and among all those times I tend to have something random to write.

On Jacob? Still making him a schizo. I'ma try (I like making new contractions. I'm all in favor of standardized language for writing, but here I write as I would speak and [wow, you get way more color when you tilt the screen straight...] and I have a tendancy to shorten phrases. We all do.) to work on a middle draft for this paper- I can show more revisions that way but it takes more time. The prof for Genesis suggested it to help work on organization. So far for every paper I've gotten "good sentences, great writing, try organizing it this way." So, fine. Just means more time...whatever.

Blogs are cool.


Yachtzee! I found the commercial. You can see it here.
Jackpot number two, I must be lucky right now: you can hear some of "Mr Blue Sky" at the ELO site. Turn up your speakers because its greatness should be shared. If you hear something else try selecting it from the panel on the left.

Once again faithful readers, (all five or so of you) I have nothing of real content to say. Except that after meeting with the professor I'm doing the Jacob piece for, I have an actually fun idea:

Take Jacob, and talk about his character. Each section shows him in a different light, and at the end of each there's an italicized (or offset or something), detailed, fictionalized account of him doing...something. I think I might do it on his leaving home after the whole 'stolen blessing' event.

I think I mostly like the idea because when I suggested it, the prof liked it. She thought it would, quote, "make Jacob look like a schizo," (also why I like the idea-I got her to be as blunt as possible) but it would be kind of "artsy" and that's what she's looking for in the paper.

Also on a biblical note, I thought of a comment (I think that's what I referred to them as; you know, those little blurbs that are really hard to read? Form matching content, yay) on Eve:

Eve is afflicted with the singularly human disease of ambition. She wants to know more than the serpent and he calls her bluff...

Hey, Wired ran a blurb on French bloggers being shut down for inciting some the previously-mentioned riots. Skyblog in particular; it seems it hosted most of the ones that were killed. My French knowledge, I realize, is far from colloquial...but at least I can understand most of it. Or at least the humor of the few blogs I poked around in. I might bring it up in class...on that note, Mdm brought in a letter from one of her French friends or relatives or something- I didn't quite get that. At the very least, her friend felt rather strongly that the government welfare program was to blame, paying for the health and shelter and cellphones of the magrébins (I think was the word) who have been (she feels) responsible for all of the 'events.' Rather scathing article, actually; I think she has a personal arguement with immigration. Oh yeah, magrébin~ northern african immigrant, or something to that effect.

I think I had noted something else to say but I don't remember it.

Oh- Vicky volunteered to get me off campus whenever she and Mana (practically a unit) go next. We spent almost 20 minutes (again) talking about random stuff; apparently they both went to a corn maze last weekend. I can imagine the result of a couple dozen sequestered (over-implicative [is that a word? can i make it one?] word but it works) college students on a farm/barn/cornfield... hmmmm...
If she sends me pictures I might put some of the excellent ones on here. I think I can get them to sign a release for it...they might need to be willing if I go mainstream...
I should probably figure out a more- wait, nevermind, I'm rambling again. I still haven't found a way to link to papers I've written but I also haven't spent time on it.

See you next...whenever...

Sorry about the delay...I've been busy. So far I've managed to find several new comments to post (see below) and work on a couple of important papers.

Speaking about papers, I actually like this last one. It's supposed to be about Jacob, a biography and all that, as well as how the character has affected you personally...theoretically I could write it about writing the paper; Jacob hadn't 'touched' me until I found, read, and damn near memorized a half-dozen books about him. I hate that. You go to do research, and all of your knowledge comes from the books so you technically need to cite every word. Pisses me off that I can't trust myself not to use someone elses' words.

Anyway, I like the paper. I'll post the rough draft here as soon as I figure out how- I want to link to it, but 'it' needs to be on a page separate from the rest of the blog. If any reader (note the singular; I've had exactly one hit other than me. thanks, Mike.) knows what I mean or knows how, email me or comment or something.

I'll bet an enterprising someone with a determination greater than mine could blog about abandoned or under-maintained or -visited blogs. That'd be pretty sweet- think about it. There're some 14 million blogs out there, and I know from personal experience that wihle starting a blog is easy, keeping it up isn't. Just look at my posts from last week. (Exactly) It'd be pretty cool, being able to check up every few days and "damn! the blogger dude found another one! don't know why 'katie's underwear's journal' (or some other artistically bent title) couldn't draw an audience."

I think there's a guy doing this for ski resorts...except he can't then take a lift and run it there. Be pretty frickin sweet if he could, I'd love to ski some abandoned, overgrown run. It'd be like Mad River Glen, except you'd have no map or idea where you actually are.

Just realized this- if anyone takes my above idea about blogging unused blogs, I want a link to it. Heck, I'll take a link to anywhere; took me almost an hour to get the stupid Firefox logo on the left to show up.

Anyway, here are my comments from the last few days. Don't be alarmed if they make no sense, they're out of context. Not that they really made sense in the first place, but I know what they mean.
Oh, and Fox actually put out the headline "France on Fire." Wow.

Someone needs to name that moment when you look up from the work that you've spent hours doing at the window that's been your only source of innocent relief, expecting to see the rich world outside, and instead are confronted with a mirror of the same world you're trying to avoid by doing so.

On some level, the riots in France are probably uniquely French; they're the ones who pulled off the whole 'revolution of the people' thing back in the late 1700s. If people weren't getting killed, it's be cool. It'd be even cooler if there was a reason...like taxes or something. Civil disobedience (yes, I'm aware it's not really 'civil') can only last so long, and then the 800+ rioters under arrest will have to come up with a better defense than mob mentality.
At the very least, the unrest in France and Argentina has gotten Fox (read: CNN*) to stop airing the same boring war/anti-Bush/political manuvering drivel that we've all been fed for months.

*Really, they're the same.

I was talking with Kate today and I mentioned having started a blog, and somehow we worked out how I could get rich by making other people do work for me. I'm reasonably sure the words 'blog,' 'link,' and 'writing' were used but...oh wait, it was something about a self-perpetuating cyle that I would have to start- something like suggestions for papers that I have to write as a contest leading to people linking to my blog and Google paying me for it. (speaking of contests, if you have an idea or entry or something you want me to give away, email me.
In all reality, it's completely doable.

All I have to do is make you readers think that I'm good at this blog thing...

Give me some time to work on that and I'll get back to you.

It occured to me somewhere around 4 am today that if I'm giving a speech about blogs, I may as well have one...Voici! My blog. I'll use this intro post just to say pretty much what it says in the overview-I'm a connaisseur of useless information.

Anyway, I haven't really thought this out, so right now I'll just put up something that I realized yesterday:

It's cathartic, when you finally start working on something. Just
enough to get you through to a hard part, where you find yourself back at
the emotional state whose pressure drove you back to working.

I probably shouldn't procrastinate to the point of euphoric 'realizations'...Hmm.

I think that's enough for day one.