http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iROYzrm5SBM
Need moar videos like this!
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Saturday, September 19, 2009
In Honor of International Pirate Day:
"Give me your money or I will shoot you with this AK-47!"
*headshot*
*headshot*
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Muzzle-Loader vs. Assault Rifles!
There's a new game on the market: Darkest of Days. It's an FPS, and the reviews don't look all that great. But the concept...imagine engaging Confederate forces at Antietam with a modern-type assault rifle, or attacking Germans at Tannenburg with a futuristic combat shotgun...very, VERY relevant to my interests!
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
NEWSPAPER!
I got a writing job for the local college newspaper doing opinion pieces. Some of the stuff's words and ideas I've already posted here in another form; some of it is new, and you can expect dumps of it once the paper goes to print. IF the paper goes to print--last year we had three editions for the whole year.
Money Money Money
...must be funny in the college world!
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NmViZjhmMWVhYjMxYmQzZTVlZjY2NDEyYmU4ZWU4MmI=
I'm in a college with $50,000 a year tuition (although financial aid makes it more like $40,000), so this is highly relevant to my interests.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NmViZjhmMWVhYjMxYmQzZTVlZjY2NDEyYmU4ZWU4MmI=
I'm in a college with $50,000 a year tuition (although financial aid makes it more like $40,000), so this is highly relevant to my interests.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Yes, I'm Still Alive...
This was a triumph...NO! No, no no no, I'm sorry....
Hm...I kinda left the "agnostic antitheistic" bit hanging, didn't I. Very well, let me continue.
Remember my "political viewpoints" post, when I noted that "Utopianism, in this life or the next, is for suckers"? That's not an apathetic excuse to bow myself out from making things better; it's merely a statement of what Patton noted: "the perfect is the enemy of the good". That, and, well, utopian thinking tends to be slightly...irrational.
Irrational utopianism leads to shoddy thinkers who can't defend why their utopias ought to be thought of as such rationally. At its absolute worst form, it leads to...really bad things. Inquisition, gulags, concentration camps (d'oh, Godwin's Law)--the idea of creating a heaven on earth (or a heaven in heaven) is perhaps one of the most seductive and destructive human tendencies EVAH.
Hm...I kinda left the "agnostic antitheistic" bit hanging, didn't I. Very well, let me continue.
Remember my "political viewpoints" post, when I noted that "Utopianism, in this life or the next, is for suckers"? That's not an apathetic excuse to bow myself out from making things better; it's merely a statement of what Patton noted: "the perfect is the enemy of the good". That, and, well, utopian thinking tends to be slightly...irrational.
Irrational utopianism leads to shoddy thinkers who can't defend why their utopias ought to be thought of as such rationally. At its absolute worst form, it leads to...really bad things. Inquisition, gulags, concentration camps (d'oh, Godwin's Law)--the idea of creating a heaven on earth (or a heaven in heaven) is perhaps one of the most seductive and destructive human tendencies EVAH.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
The Poor are Rich!
Not exactly, but...
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NjJiMDE5Y2M1OWNmNDFhMDIwNWMxYTA1Mzk5ZDkxMTk=
Hey, anybody remember that old joke where the Indian man says he wants to see America before he dies because he wants to see a country where the poor people are fat?
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NjJiMDE5Y2M1OWNmNDFhMDIwNWMxYTA1Mzk5ZDkxMTk=
Hey, anybody remember that old joke where the Indian man says he wants to see America before he dies because he wants to see a country where the poor people are fat?
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Shall I Call Out God?
Can't sleep, download for homework from Mudd servers is taking forever, so let's talk religion.
Involuntarily, I'm some unusual combination of Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism practiced by my mother (who drags me to her temple for prayer whenever she can). None of those have the same practice as Judaism, where the mother's religion automatically is considered the child's. Which is great, because after 5 years of getting dragged to temple, I figure the whole damn theology's a bunch of hooey anyway.
So what do I call myself? NOT Christian, even though my views tend towards the conservative and I did go to a Christian private elementary for a few years. Only thing I remember is how biblical stories got integrated into pretty much everything, and going to the principal frequently later in the year due to some mental issues.
I call myself "agnostic anti-theistic". I don't know and don't particularly care whether or not there is a god, gods, heavenly host, or whatever, but if any of the above have some sort of "divine plan" for how the world should go or end, kindly leave me out of it. I'm not prepared to stake my horse to someone or something who's full willing to unironically invoke the Omniscient Morality License (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OmniscientMoralityLicense), thank you very much.
Involuntarily, I'm some unusual combination of Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism practiced by my mother (who drags me to her temple for prayer whenever she can). None of those have the same practice as Judaism, where the mother's religion automatically is considered the child's. Which is great, because after 5 years of getting dragged to temple, I figure the whole damn theology's a bunch of hooey anyway.
So what do I call myself? NOT Christian, even though my views tend towards the conservative and I did go to a Christian private elementary for a few years. Only thing I remember is how biblical stories got integrated into pretty much everything, and going to the principal frequently later in the year due to some mental issues.
I call myself "agnostic anti-theistic". I don't know and don't particularly care whether or not there is a god, gods, heavenly host, or whatever, but if any of the above have some sort of "divine plan" for how the world should go or end, kindly leave me out of it. I'm not prepared to stake my horse to someone or something who's full willing to unironically invoke the Omniscient Morality License (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OmniscientMoralityLicense), thank you very much.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Random Thoughts #6
I recently went shopping for clothing (not by choice, mind you), and noticed that a significant portion of clothing marketed for men and a significant portion marketed for women are borderline indistinguishable, at least to my untrained eyes. So if I end up going out in public with a button-down shirt and jeans marketed towards women, am I cross-dressing?
Obama's School Speech
Nordlinger pretty much speaks for me here.
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MmMxZDQyNTFhNTQ5OWIyYjE5YTQ4NmRhY2RjMjUyYWI=
Odds are the speech will contain all sorts of fluffy, innocuous crap like "love your fellow students" and "study well" and "embrace the differences of others" that would probably be expected of a school speech with no immediately discernable topic. There is a sense, though, that Obama really has better things to do (if you're a rightist, tort reform, finishing the job in Afghanistan; if you're a leftist, health care/medical/Medicare reform, environmental issues) than give a speech to schoolkids, and that this speechifying all the way down to grade school is a little...odd.
Update 9/7/09: I WAS RIGHT.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/MediaResources/PreparedSchoolRemarks/
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MmMxZDQyNTFhNTQ5OWIyYjE5YTQ4NmRhY2RjMjUyYWI=
Odds are the speech will contain all sorts of fluffy, innocuous crap like "love your fellow students" and "study well" and "embrace the differences of others" that would probably be expected of a school speech with no immediately discernable topic. There is a sense, though, that Obama really has better things to do (if you're a rightist, tort reform, finishing the job in Afghanistan; if you're a leftist, health care/medical/Medicare reform, environmental issues) than give a speech to schoolkids, and that this speechifying all the way down to grade school is a little...odd.
Update 9/7/09: I WAS RIGHT.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/MediaResources/PreparedSchoolRemarks/
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