Meh, what are you on, man? Raymond is a lvl 900 ninja coder. He could cast a 1200 damage VC++ spell as an afterthought. Also, he knows Itanium assembly. Pour out your Haterade.
Thursday, May 05, 2005
Quote of the Day
From a commenter at The Old New Thing:
Wednesday, May 04, 2005
Quote of the Day
Matthew Yglasias, guest blogging at Talking Points Memo:
Social Security now, Social Security tomorrow, Social Security forever!
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
Quote(s) of the Day
QotD #1: Fark Headline:
QotD #2: Sci-Fi author David Brin:
Cream reunites in concert. For those of you under 40: Cream was Eric Clapton's old band. Under 30: Clapton was once a big rock star. And for you under 20: Rock was a kind of music they used to play on the radio
QotD #2: Sci-Fi author David Brin:
Remember the basic philosophy here, folks. Most of you would have been burned at the stake 400 years ago. I know I would have. Nowadays, that is a compliment. Let's KEEP this a civilization in which that's a compliment.
Stay burnable.
Jackass(es) of the Day
Jackass #1: Sci-Fi writer Orson Scott Card
Jackass #2: Webcomic artist/reviewer William G
The original "Star Trek," created by Gene Roddenberry, was, with a few exceptions, bad in every way that a science fiction television show could be bad. Nimoy was the only charismatic actor in the cast and, ironically, he played the only character not allowed to register emotion.
Jackass #2: Webcomic artist/reviewer William G
I saw a link for the Web Cartoonists Choice Awards again. I know everyone always complains about it every year because all of the Megatokyo and Penny Arcade fanboys supposidly register and "stuff the ballot boxes". Where unsung heroes like Ghastly go un-noted.
But I think one of the best ways to prevent this possibility from happening is for everyone who actually likes webcomics as a medium, and not just the comics that pander to your pet obsessions, should register and try to influence the voting towards what you think is a good webcomic.
Monday, May 02, 2005
Well Isn't This Cool...
I was going to make a post about how much the websites of most commercial AM stations suck, but then I stumbled upon this. It's a lengthy, detailed document on WLS's website about how to get the best reception, written by their chief engineer. Rather cool. Wow, they even have a coverage map. Every radio station website needs one of those. It just kinda makes sense.
Monday, April 25, 2005
The Weather Sucks
So, remember back on March 30th when I was tingling with joy at the prospect of Spring arriving with 70+ degree weather? Well, that didn't last. Now, it's 35 outside and today I had to walk through tons of fluffy, cold slush falling from the sky to get lunch. Great big gobs of slush. In late April. That's a crime. Daylight Savings Time + Snow is like one those thought puzzles that makes your brain hurt.
In other news, I'm totally ready for Summer Break (which is 1/3rd in Spring, ever notice that?...Schools bend reality to fit their needs). I can't wait to get home and blast my tunes in my own room on my nice hifi stuff.
In other news, I'm totally ready for Summer Break (which is 1/3rd in Spring, ever notice that?...Schools bend reality to fit their needs). I can't wait to get home and blast my tunes in my own room on my nice hifi stuff.
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Alas, Megatokyo
I love webcomics. They're practically the reason I get out of bed in the morning. I've never really gotten into comic books (aside from some Star Trek comics years ago) and newspaper "funnies" are not a big part of my existance, but web comics bring me such joy. Penny Arcade, PvP, Real Life, the hillariously awesome Questionable Content, Queen of Wands, Todd and Penguin, Mac Hall, Diesel Sweeties, Perry Bible Fellowship, Wigu/Overcompensating, and others make it clear to me that we have witnessed the birth of something special here.
A few years ago, Megatokyo would have been on that list. Megatokyo, after Penny Arcade, was one of the first webcomics I really got into. PA, demonstrated the potential of the medium. Megatokyo introduced the potential for plot. Back then, I loved it. It was constantly funny, basking in gamer and anime culture while simultaenously mocking both of them. The first two years were brilliant. And then, as they say, everything changed.
Honestly, the last time I enjoyed a Megatokyo strip was October 24th, 2004. I know because I blogged about it. That's kinda sad. Not only has it sucked since then, but the reason I blogged about it is because for one brief, shining moment, it stopped the streak of sucking that it had been on for such a long time. What a loss. A few years ago, I was a huge MT fan. I still have, and often sleep under, the MT Sad Kimiko blanket.
It's pretty clear that this descent from greatness started with the departure of Rodney "Largo" Caston (which, like all things is detailed at Wikipedia). In the beginning, MT was funny, it moved fast (they got drunk and mistakenly get stuck in Tokyo in the space of what, two, three strips?), and it had an energy and a vibrance to it. Then Caston left. Today, the strip is a shell of what it was in 2002. Basically, in the 2.5 to 3 years since that time, nothing has happened plot wise in the strip. It's become this long meandering narrative that goes nowhere. Whoop-de-do Kimiko's finally on the radio. Didn't Piro show a sketch of that somewhere like, years ago? Something (I'm not sure what) finally happened with Largo and Erika. This took years.
Let me put this into perspective: Babylon 5, which has an immensly complicated plot, took five years. Megatokyo has been around five years. If B5 moved at the speed that MT did, the pilot episode would still be going. How do you go five years with so little plot development!?!?!? Truly, this astounds me. How far has Piro and Kimiko's relationship come since she spilled coffee on him in October, 2000. Almost nothing. A date perhaps? Nah. Some sort of relationship? Nah. We finally found out that Miho had met Piro and Largo in a game online, and was cheating or something. Come to think of it, that's all we know about her. That, and she has some illness. We've basically learned nothing. The whole point of a mysterious character is to remove the mystery. Back when Yuki had Piro's sketchbook, that was cool...She was the only character in the strip, besides Seraphim, that could really see into Piro's head. Now, all we get of her is Piro constantly missing his drawing lesson with her. Seriously how much longer can that stupid plot go on for? Honestly, glaciers move faster than this.
This didn't happen overnight. After Caston left, there was still Great Teacher Largo. There were still the hillarious catoons with Makoto, the server, being kidnapped. The whole disaster squad thing was funny. Ed and Dom were funny. Ping and her various oddities was great. But slowly, all of that faded away. I think Piro, working on his own, lost the point of his own strip. He's caught between the all-consuming urge to have this relationship angle take over the strip, while at the same time he keeps the characters set in ice, never changing or evolving. That does not work in a plot. The author has to let go and let the characters evolve, else things become boring and tedious, as MT has.
Monday's Penny Arcade demonstrates what it would be like if Tycho banished Gabe and turned PA into his own creation. The results are pretty horrendous. What you see there is the author's personality, ever nuance of his subconcious amplified to Disaster Area proportions, and that's why it's funny. I don't know if this was supposed to be a commentary on Megatokyo, but it perfectly explains what Megatokyo has become: A Fred Gallagher ego trip. The heart and soul of that comic are gone. It's no longer remotely interesting. The dialog has become totally incomprhensable. The plot seems totally lost.
The magic is gone.
A few years ago, Megatokyo would have been on that list. Megatokyo, after Penny Arcade, was one of the first webcomics I really got into. PA, demonstrated the potential of the medium. Megatokyo introduced the potential for plot. Back then, I loved it. It was constantly funny, basking in gamer and anime culture while simultaenously mocking both of them. The first two years were brilliant. And then, as they say, everything changed.
Honestly, the last time I enjoyed a Megatokyo strip was October 24th, 2004. I know because I blogged about it. That's kinda sad. Not only has it sucked since then, but the reason I blogged about it is because for one brief, shining moment, it stopped the streak of sucking that it had been on for such a long time. What a loss. A few years ago, I was a huge MT fan. I still have, and often sleep under, the MT Sad Kimiko blanket.
It's pretty clear that this descent from greatness started with the departure of Rodney "Largo" Caston (which, like all things is detailed at Wikipedia). In the beginning, MT was funny, it moved fast (they got drunk and mistakenly get stuck in Tokyo in the space of what, two, three strips?), and it had an energy and a vibrance to it. Then Caston left. Today, the strip is a shell of what it was in 2002. Basically, in the 2.5 to 3 years since that time, nothing has happened plot wise in the strip. It's become this long meandering narrative that goes nowhere. Whoop-de-do Kimiko's finally on the radio. Didn't Piro show a sketch of that somewhere like, years ago? Something (I'm not sure what) finally happened with Largo and Erika. This took years.
Let me put this into perspective: Babylon 5, which has an immensly complicated plot, took five years. Megatokyo has been around five years. If B5 moved at the speed that MT did, the pilot episode would still be going. How do you go five years with so little plot development!?!?!? Truly, this astounds me. How far has Piro and Kimiko's relationship come since she spilled coffee on him in October, 2000. Almost nothing. A date perhaps? Nah. Some sort of relationship? Nah. We finally found out that Miho had met Piro and Largo in a game online, and was cheating or something. Come to think of it, that's all we know about her. That, and she has some illness. We've basically learned nothing. The whole point of a mysterious character is to remove the mystery. Back when Yuki had Piro's sketchbook, that was cool...She was the only character in the strip, besides Seraphim, that could really see into Piro's head. Now, all we get of her is Piro constantly missing his drawing lesson with her. Seriously how much longer can that stupid plot go on for? Honestly, glaciers move faster than this.
This didn't happen overnight. After Caston left, there was still Great Teacher Largo. There were still the hillarious catoons with Makoto, the server, being kidnapped. The whole disaster squad thing was funny. Ed and Dom were funny. Ping and her various oddities was great. But slowly, all of that faded away. I think Piro, working on his own, lost the point of his own strip. He's caught between the all-consuming urge to have this relationship angle take over the strip, while at the same time he keeps the characters set in ice, never changing or evolving. That does not work in a plot. The author has to let go and let the characters evolve, else things become boring and tedious, as MT has.
Monday's Penny Arcade demonstrates what it would be like if Tycho banished Gabe and turned PA into his own creation. The results are pretty horrendous. What you see there is the author's personality, ever nuance of his subconcious amplified to Disaster Area proportions, and that's why it's funny. I don't know if this was supposed to be a commentary on Megatokyo, but it perfectly explains what Megatokyo has become: A Fred Gallagher ego trip. The heart and soul of that comic are gone. It's no longer remotely interesting. The dialog has become totally incomprhensable. The plot seems totally lost.
The magic is gone.
Sunday, April 10, 2005
Friday, April 01, 2005
Report on the Horowitz Visit
As promised, my thoughts on the David Horowitz visit last night...
I went with a right-leaning friend of mine who was curious what Horowitz had to say. I mainly went just to say I was there, and because I had a hunch there would be a circus. As we walked into Olscamp, we came upon a clown brigade of communists chanting that Horowitz was a "Christian Fascist", handing out information about the writings of "Chairman" Bob Avakian. I brushed off their presence, since they ain't going to make it with anyone anyhow, but it was a taste of things to come.
Once inside Olscamp 101, I sat behind a group of people who seemed to be from the Ethnic Studies department. Daniel Boudreau, of all people was sitting in front of me amongst a group of what I assumed were activist types.
Strictly speaking, Horowitz's speech, taken by itself, was pretty poor. He clearly wasn't prepared, did not know the actual name an affiliation of the University (he thought we were a campus of Ohio State), and on one occasion totally lost his train of thought. In terms of the lecturn banging, fire and brimstone kind of material one expects from a firebrand like Horowitz, it was pretty dissapointing. Only on a few occasions (such as when he proclaimed that "100% of the problems of the inner city are the fault of the Democrats" and when he discussed Howard Zinn) did he really get fired up. Just going by the content of his speech, his case for his "Academic Bill of Rights" was pretty thin.
But what made it all worthwhile for the College Republicans was the stupid heckling from the liberal portion of the crowd, many of whom just showed up just to make noise. I sympathize with these people, really I do. Horowitz, as I have said is undoubtedly a douchebag. We all know this. It's been documented.
But think about it. Horowitz is claiming that there is a liberal bias on campuses and so to try to fight him you show up to his speech and heckle him? Doesn't that support his point? Here is a man that has made a career out of half-truths and apocryphal stories and make his myths come to life for him? Gee, just hand him a story, that'll make things better...Ugh.
The Q&A session at the end was especially bad. While some questioners attempted to keep a bit of respectability up, four or five people lined up to ask a question simply to scream at Horowitz. I think, and I may be wrong here, that the gentleman that got into a shouting match with Horowitz over Howard Zinn, was Denis Mueller, a filmmaker and doctoral student. He appeared to be shaking with anger and appeared to have some words with the campus police officer that was there. That row, and another involving an older woman near the end of the evening, I think was demonstrative of the level of anger, angst, and hate in that room. The vileness on both sides was pretty shocking.
And let's not absolve the College Republicans here. Their "Republican Week" occured during the same week as "Rainbow Dayz". That can't be a coincidence. That, in itself was pretty immature. Even more immature was the "People Eating Tasty Animals" table in the Union handing out jerky. That's beyond lame. it's not remotely funny and only adds to the level of bullshit that whole day saw laid upon it. And heck, maybe if they had more than a handful of their own people at Horowitz's speech it wouldn't have been quite the madhouse it became. Seriously, there were only three rows full of freeper-wannabees and over a dozen rows left for everyone else. If you're going to invite someone to speak, at least have an audience here for him to speak to.
I went with a right-leaning friend of mine who was curious what Horowitz had to say. I mainly went just to say I was there, and because I had a hunch there would be a circus. As we walked into Olscamp, we came upon a clown brigade of communists chanting that Horowitz was a "Christian Fascist", handing out information about the writings of "Chairman" Bob Avakian. I brushed off their presence, since they ain't going to make it with anyone anyhow, but it was a taste of things to come.
Once inside Olscamp 101, I sat behind a group of people who seemed to be from the Ethnic Studies department. Daniel Boudreau, of all people was sitting in front of me amongst a group of what I assumed were activist types.
Strictly speaking, Horowitz's speech, taken by itself, was pretty poor. He clearly wasn't prepared, did not know the actual name an affiliation of the University (he thought we were a campus of Ohio State), and on one occasion totally lost his train of thought. In terms of the lecturn banging, fire and brimstone kind of material one expects from a firebrand like Horowitz, it was pretty dissapointing. Only on a few occasions (such as when he proclaimed that "100% of the problems of the inner city are the fault of the Democrats" and when he discussed Howard Zinn) did he really get fired up. Just going by the content of his speech, his case for his "Academic Bill of Rights" was pretty thin.
But what made it all worthwhile for the College Republicans was the stupid heckling from the liberal portion of the crowd, many of whom just showed up just to make noise. I sympathize with these people, really I do. Horowitz, as I have said is undoubtedly a douchebag. We all know this. It's been documented.
But think about it. Horowitz is claiming that there is a liberal bias on campuses and so to try to fight him you show up to his speech and heckle him? Doesn't that support his point? Here is a man that has made a career out of half-truths and apocryphal stories and make his myths come to life for him? Gee, just hand him a story, that'll make things better...Ugh.
The Q&A session at the end was especially bad. While some questioners attempted to keep a bit of respectability up, four or five people lined up to ask a question simply to scream at Horowitz. I think, and I may be wrong here, that the gentleman that got into a shouting match with Horowitz over Howard Zinn, was Denis Mueller, a filmmaker and doctoral student. He appeared to be shaking with anger and appeared to have some words with the campus police officer that was there. That row, and another involving an older woman near the end of the evening, I think was demonstrative of the level of anger, angst, and hate in that room. The vileness on both sides was pretty shocking.
And let's not absolve the College Republicans here. Their "Republican Week" occured during the same week as "Rainbow Dayz". That can't be a coincidence. That, in itself was pretty immature. Even more immature was the "People Eating Tasty Animals" table in the Union handing out jerky. That's beyond lame. it's not remotely funny and only adds to the level of bullshit that whole day saw laid upon it. And heck, maybe if they had more than a handful of their own people at Horowitz's speech it wouldn't have been quite the madhouse it became. Seriously, there were only three rows full of freeper-wannabees and over a dozen rows left for everyone else. If you're going to invite someone to speak, at least have an audience here for him to speak to.
Thursday, March 31, 2005
Horowitz Update
I shall do a full write up on the Horowitz talk soon (presumably tomorrow). Hopefully the BGNews has something too...Let me just say the whole thing was quite a circus and undoubtedly embarressing for all of the conservatives/liberals/communists/unicorns/etc in attendance.
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Spring Has Arrived
It's currently an absolutely beautiful 74 degress here in Bowling Green...I have Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring, Section 7 (aka, the part everyone knows) going at full blast...Life is good. Let's hope the weather holds out and we don't get a relapse of winter...The prospect of the upcoming "springing ahead" combining with great weather makes me tingle with joy. Imagine great weather and the sunlight to enjoy it.
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
Discover the Douchebaggery: Live!
David Motherfucking Horowitz is coming to BGSU tomorrow night, where he will undoubtedly burst forth with vile hatered for liberals, professors, Unicorns, and anything else that might still be right with our society. I am actually planning on attending, since Satan probably won't be touring for awhile and Stalin is all sold out...
In all actuality, this is the first time that I have a chance to see someone speak that is regularly discussed in the parts of the blogosophere that I read, and that's why I want to go. The blogosphere too often has an otherworldly quality to it and I'd like to see something physical of it, even if it is a douchebag.
Not surprisingly, this visit and that of the political diahreha spewer behind "Michael Moore Hates America" to BGSU coincide with "Rainbow Dayz", the week about highlighting the rights of homosexuals...Great to see the College Republicans are a respectful bunch.
In all actuality, this is the first time that I have a chance to see someone speak that is regularly discussed in the parts of the blogosophere that I read, and that's why I want to go. The blogosphere too often has an otherworldly quality to it and I'd like to see something physical of it, even if it is a douchebag.
Not surprisingly, this visit and that of the political diahreha spewer behind "Michael Moore Hates America" to BGSU coincide with "Rainbow Dayz", the week about highlighting the rights of homosexuals...Great to see the College Republicans are a respectful bunch.
Saturday, March 26, 2005
Moving More Stuff Over
I decided to mirror my posts from the Election 2004 blog I did with Andy aka Dekerd; Modern Politics and You. Now that Andy seems to have found his groove (and actually has, like, readers), and I have this blog, Modern Politics seems to have died. This place, on the other hand, I want to be a sort of journey through my mind (even if no one else ever really sees it) that I can go back and look at someday. So, it makes sense to make copies of that stuff (some of it I consider rather good, if I do say so myself) fo over here.
So, if you see:
"***Originally Posted to Modern Politics and You***"
...That's what that's about.
So, if you see:
"***Originally Posted to Modern Politics and You***"
...That's what that's about.
Thursday, March 24, 2005
Pass Stupid Laws, Get Stupid Rulings
As you may or may not know, last November Ohio's esteemed population of bigots passed a poorly written abomination of an ammendment to the state's constitution to ban gay marriage, or anything that looked remotely like it. People with more than one functioning neuron rightly said at the time that this ammendment was so poorly written and thought out that it would create a mess of unintended consequences.
Those consequences are now occuring. In this case, a judge was forced to rule a domestic violence law cannot be applied in instances where the two people involved in the relationship were unmarried. This is because the domestic violence law defined a "family" as two people living in the same place while the new ammendment says that "This state and its political subdivisions shall not create or recognize a legal status for relationships of unmarried individuals that intends to approximate the design, qualities, significance or effect of marriage." So, gentlemen, it's now only a misdemeanor if you beat your live-in girlfriend, as long as you're not married. That's 6 months in the joint as opposed to 18 months.
Thus, this bigoted anti-homosexuals ammendment not only banned gay marriage but also common sense in the State of Ohio. This is what happens when you let theocrats run your state.
Those consequences are now occuring. In this case, a judge was forced to rule a domestic violence law cannot be applied in instances where the two people involved in the relationship were unmarried. This is because the domestic violence law defined a "family" as two people living in the same place while the new ammendment says that "This state and its political subdivisions shall not create or recognize a legal status for relationships of unmarried individuals that intends to approximate the design, qualities, significance or effect of marriage." So, gentlemen, it's now only a misdemeanor if you beat your live-in girlfriend, as long as you're not married. That's 6 months in the joint as opposed to 18 months.
Thus, this bigoted anti-homosexuals ammendment not only banned gay marriage but also common sense in the State of Ohio. This is what happens when you let theocrats run your state.
I Sincerly Wish I Was Making This Up
Today at lunch I, as I usually do, was scanning up and down the AM band when I happened upon Rush Limbaugh sounding, well I think it can only be described as Savage-esque. It's as if we was he was channeleling some great propagandist of the 20th Century (take your pick). In a nutshell, he was expounding on the Terri Schiavo tragedy and essentially accused "Liberals" of wanting Terri Schaivo to die. That's disgraceful, but not in itself surprising...After that though, it want totally out of control. I'll let the transcript speak for itself:
That, my friends, is just insane. Not that I expect Rush Limbaugh to be sane, but that is just sad.
"...What did this woman ever do to us? What did she do to you? Are you so desirous of being able to kill your spouse one day that you want this to set a precedent? Help me out here. Could it be -- and I suspect this is the real answer -- could it be that you have been so pent up with rage and frustration over the Christians in this country? You just hated the success of The Passion of the Christ. You hated the outpouring of support for that movie, you just despise the red state, hayseed, holy roller crowd that you think is steamrollering the country.
Maybe this is just payback; you want this woman to die because Christian conservatives want her to live, and since you don't like Christian conservatives so much you want them to be disappointed. You want them to find out what it's like to be on the losing side. You want them to find out what it's like to not get away with everything they want just because they're Christians. Is that it? Does it really have nothing to do with Terri Schiavo, does it have solely to do with the fact that you want payback? You're so excited for the Christian conservatives to lose that even if it requires the death of this woman, you'll take it? If that's true, if that's the case, if I have nailed it, and as I say, my liberal friends, I'm on this, I'm on it like white on rice, cold on ice, dots on dice, drugs on Miami Vice."
That, my friends, is just insane. Not that I expect Rush Limbaugh to be sane, but that is just sad.
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
JWZ Is Undoubtedly The Man
Some people, when confronted with a problem, think "I know, I'll use regular expressions." Now they have two problems"
-Jamie Zawinski
Sunday, March 20, 2005
Saturday, March 19, 2005
All Ahead Full Suck, Mr. Sulu
Wednesday, I started writing a lengthy post that was going to end up about being how The West Wing has gone from "starting to suck" to "full suck" and how my new beau, Battlestar Galactica is shockingly good for a first year science fiction show. However, before I could finish that post, The West Wing took a total head dive and can now only be described using words usually reserved for excrement while BSG aired an episode that was better West Wing than West Wing. Somewhere, I hope Aaron Sorkin finds that funny.
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Catching Up...
Seeing as I haven't posted in two weeks, how about some catching up...
Last month, I totally missed when Eric (aka MaximusFarticus) quoted a forum post I made on the meaning of freedom and democracy. That was cool to see. Thanks, Eric.
In other news, I see that the techno media has finally caught on to the iTunes 4.7.1 sharing restrictions that were introduced in January. Better late than never, I guess. It's sad that companies can slip in bull like that and the media takes so long for them to notice. OTOH, if Microsoft pulled a stunt like that, the media's response time would be measured in minutes. I hope the Shiny Fruit Bastards catch hell for this.
Last month, I totally missed when Eric (aka MaximusFarticus) quoted a forum post I made on the meaning of freedom and democracy. That was cool to see. Thanks, Eric.
In other news, I see that the techno media has finally caught on to the iTunes 4.7.1 sharing restrictions that were introduced in January. Better late than never, I guess. It's sad that companies can slip in bull like that and the media takes so long for them to notice. OTOH, if Microsoft pulled a stunt like that, the media's response time would be measured in minutes. I hope the Shiny Fruit Bastards catch hell for this.
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