Remember how I mentioned the new hockey soundtrack for my mind in the last post? Well, here's the start. Listed directly below is the soundtrack I used for the winter session where we won it all and up through the current time. I threw in some lyrical tidbits where they're present.
1) Pro Victoria by VNV Nation
2) Sentinal by VNV Nation
3) Action by Powerman 5000
4) Indestructible by Disturbed; Every broken enemy will know / That their opponent had to be invincible
5) Fuel by Metallica; So give my fuel / Give me fire / Give me that which I desire
6) Hit Back by Hate Dept.; I found my own way to hit back
7) Points of Authority by Linkin Park; You love the way I look at you / While taking pleasure in the awful things you put me through
8) Knights of Cydonia by Muse
9) March of the Pigs by Nine Inch Nails
10) A Song for the Deaf by Queens of the Stone Age; I saw you comin', I heard not a thing
11) Freuer Frei! by Rammstein
12) I-E-A-I-A-I-O by A System of a Down
13) My Favourite Game by The Cardigans; It's fine the way you want me on your own / But in the end, it's always me alone
14) Bodyrock by Moby
15) One Man Army by Prodigy ft. Tom Morello
16) Hey Man, Nice Shot by Filter; They think that your early ending was all wrong / For the most part, they're right / But look how they all got strung
17) Push It by Garbage
18) Man or Animal by Audioslave
19) I Like the Way by Bodyrockers
And that is that. I was going to take the time to post the new soundtrack just below, but it's been a few days since I wrote everything above this sentence, so let's just post this one and see what happens next, capice?
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
I Don't Remember - Honestly!
Hmm, wha? No, seriously. I don't remember what I was going to blog about. But I've been wanting to blog, so blog I will. How about a blog about remembering what I wanted to blog about? That's as good as anything, I suppose.
Let's start with what it's occured to me to blog about. List style, for sure!
1) Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
2) The Body by Stephen King
3) Hockey soundtrack changes
4) Thoughts on the upcoming NHL season, Penguins in particular
5) Thoughts on the nature of patron donations - but this would be highly edited, since I wouldn't want to get in trouble with work, now would I?
6) Formation of musical tastes - or distastes, to some of you
7) More thoughts on anime - probably looking at specific titles or subgenre within that category
8) Cars - more precisely, why I hate my car and what future options may or may not be
9) Explanation for the way libraries work - very likely a painfully long post that will bore you people out of your skulls; good for killing hangovers, maybe?
10) Some philosophical loftiness having to do with the nature of men and women, or conflict development, or why chocolate covered peanut butter filled pretzels is a food made in heaven
Honestly, I think I pulled the last four selections or so out of my ass. But I really wanted to have 10 items on that list.
Now if only we had a never-ending coffee creamer dispenser at work...
Let's start with what it's occured to me to blog about. List style, for sure!
1) Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
2) The Body by Stephen King
3) Hockey soundtrack changes
4) Thoughts on the upcoming NHL season, Penguins in particular
5) Thoughts on the nature of patron donations - but this would be highly edited, since I wouldn't want to get in trouble with work, now would I?
6) Formation of musical tastes - or distastes, to some of you
7) More thoughts on anime - probably looking at specific titles or subgenre within that category
8) Cars - more precisely, why I hate my car and what future options may or may not be
9) Explanation for the way libraries work - very likely a painfully long post that will bore you people out of your skulls; good for killing hangovers, maybe?
10) Some philosophical loftiness having to do with the nature of men and women, or conflict development, or why chocolate covered peanut butter filled pretzels is a food made in heaven
Honestly, I think I pulled the last four selections or so out of my ass. But I really wanted to have 10 items on that list.
Now if only we had a never-ending coffee creamer dispenser at work...
Monday, August 23, 2010
Eye To Eye
Got some photos for you folks. Just like I promised. The video will have to wait, though. I'm hoping to convince Sweetheart to take some video of my hockey games - 30 second snippets and the such.
Here goes:
Above is one of two book shelves that my father and I built for Sweetheart. It's among the few birthday gifts I got for her, although this one had to wait a few weeks after her birthday, but they're in her room and are being lovingly used, as I hear it. The shelf spaces are 13" high, giving her plenty of space for picture books of most sizes, bar oversized Skippy Jon Jones storytime books.
Above is a cake that Sweetheart and I baked for the Dessert-A-Month event at the library, which can be won via silent auction at Moon Township Public Library's annual Wine and Cheese fundraiser event held each Fall. Not trying to sell the event, but it does raise money via donations for the library, so I'm not going to shut up about it, either. This cake has a story all its own. And the story revolves around the buttercream frosting that was whipped up for it. In a sentence, if you're going to use buttercream in large quantities (anything bigger than a cupcake), then you better have a refrigerator unit nearby; buttercream is what happens when icing hits the slip'n'slide on hot summer days.
This here is a photo from my first game this current session at Bridgeville. I'm the goalie. Laying down on the job, er something like that. The guys in orange buzzing my net are my teammates. I don't have an orange jersey for 2 reasons: 1) goalies are not required to wear the team color, and 2) I don't think I would look as sexy with an orange jersey and white/black/silver pads. And the moment I splurge on orange/black/white pads will be the moment I play for a team with a different color.
Finally:
This is my first horseshoes game ever. Seriously! Almost 30 years without ever playing a game of horseshoes. Sweetheart's uncle was surprised. But I think he was also secretly pleased to have a good reason to demand that a game be played. This was during Sweetheart's birthday party.
So there you have it. Some of this year in photographic form.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Book Review: Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
Okay. So it's been a week. And I still haven't gotten back to that L5R discussion. But as Sweetheart told me, no one will really miss it, and I'm forced to agree with her, since I don't think I've found my audience yet - or have they simply not found me?
So it's a book review, instead. As I mentioned last post, I started on Cherie Priest's Hugo award nominee, Boneshaker. Boneshaker is touted as a steampunk novel, which, to me, is a bit misleading. It's more of a sci-fi horror/action/steampunk hybrid. There are zombies (horror), gun battles and chase scenes (action), and airships, strange inventions, and some late 19th century setting (steampunk). But the steampunk aspect is much more passive than active; steam-based technology isn't really there (although there are some inventions sitting around that use electricity), the airships are purely there as a deus ex machina to get characters to where they need to be, and the geographical setting (frontier Seattle - when Washington state was still Washington Territory doesn't exactly inspire the Victorian monolithic sense that old timey London or Chicago do.
Even the inventions play a rather minor role in the story. The most prominent role is the Boneshaker itself, which is only used as a narrative device to set up and explain the story's setting, and then it shows up at the end as an unused piece of machinery. Other inventions such as mechanical masks and some anti-zombie weaponry are there but are never the focus.
A brief summation of the plot is in order: 16 years prior to the storyline, an inventor creates a mining device for use in excavating through the Alaskan tundra when the machine goes on a rampage, destroying downtown Seattle and looting banks along the way. As a nasty side-effect of the sudden opening of the earth, a gas seeps out that kills inhabitants who breathe it in and then reanimates them into zombies. Seattle is walled off. The inventor's wife, Briar, gives birth to a son, but hesitates telling him about his father. Ezekiel decides to prove that his father wasn't a criminal by sneaking into the walled off section of Seattle. Briar finds out and goes in after him, setting off the events. Both Briar and Ezekiel have run ins with air pirates, Seattle inhabitants who eke a living in underground habitations, and a mad, mad doctor who controls a signifcant amount of power in the walled city.
All that said, I enjoyed Boneshaker a lot, and here are my reasons:
1) Characters - the two main characters (again, based on narrative perspective), Briar and Ezekiel Wilkes are good dynamic foils of each other. Where Briar, the mother, is much more guarded and jaded about life due to her past relationships with her father and husband, Ezekiel, the son, wants more options and is willing to stake more to find out why his mother is so guarded. As the story progresses, both characters go through similar hardships, both physically and mentally. This works out perfectly in the end when the two are reunited. The side characters are appropriately fleshed out for their roles in the story, and a few even get you rooting for them when bad things happen.
2) Pacing - the pacing is absolutely wonderful! There wasn't a point when I thought to myself, "The story is really dragging" or "Wait! Too much is happening! Must reread last two pages!" I think the action-based transitions from one section or another help out a lot with this. It's certainly easily managable and explained with the presence of hordes of zombies to chase characters from one place to the next. Add in some unfriendly human factions, guns, and a poisonous gas, and things can really move well.
3) Setting - despite my grousing about how the setting isn't conforming to the typical steampunk mold (and no story ever completely conforms to the genre mold unless it's making a new genre), I found the setting of a frontierstown-turned-haunted-wasteland to be interesting and posing of its own problems and story benefits. The most notable such benefit is that the timeline has the Civil War continuing longer than it really did (and well explained as being due to bad luck on the Union side of things), meaning no Federal government presence to trip up the plot. In fact, this a specific device, since several characters are looking forward to the immenent inclusion of the Washington Territory as a state so that they can get Federal aid in trying to stop and cleanup the poisonous gas.
I could probably list another few areas, but time stops for no man, and my hour of being at work before my scheduled hours has run out.
I'm hoping to work in some photos and maybe a video for the next post, so stay tuned!
So it's a book review, instead. As I mentioned last post, I started on Cherie Priest's Hugo award nominee, Boneshaker. Boneshaker is touted as a steampunk novel, which, to me, is a bit misleading. It's more of a sci-fi horror/action/steampunk hybrid. There are zombies (horror), gun battles and chase scenes (action), and airships, strange inventions, and some late 19th century setting (steampunk). But the steampunk aspect is much more passive than active; steam-based technology isn't really there (although there are some inventions sitting around that use electricity), the airships are purely there as a deus ex machina to get characters to where they need to be, and the geographical setting (frontier Seattle - when Washington state was still Washington Territory doesn't exactly inspire the Victorian monolithic sense that old timey London or Chicago do.
Even the inventions play a rather minor role in the story. The most prominent role is the Boneshaker itself, which is only used as a narrative device to set up and explain the story's setting, and then it shows up at the end as an unused piece of machinery. Other inventions such as mechanical masks and some anti-zombie weaponry are there but are never the focus.
A brief summation of the plot is in order: 16 years prior to the storyline, an inventor creates a mining device for use in excavating through the Alaskan tundra when the machine goes on a rampage, destroying downtown Seattle and looting banks along the way. As a nasty side-effect of the sudden opening of the earth, a gas seeps out that kills inhabitants who breathe it in and then reanimates them into zombies. Seattle is walled off. The inventor's wife, Briar, gives birth to a son, but hesitates telling him about his father. Ezekiel decides to prove that his father wasn't a criminal by sneaking into the walled off section of Seattle. Briar finds out and goes in after him, setting off the events. Both Briar and Ezekiel have run ins with air pirates, Seattle inhabitants who eke a living in underground habitations, and a mad, mad doctor who controls a signifcant amount of power in the walled city.
All that said, I enjoyed Boneshaker a lot, and here are my reasons:
1) Characters - the two main characters (again, based on narrative perspective), Briar and Ezekiel Wilkes are good dynamic foils of each other. Where Briar, the mother, is much more guarded and jaded about life due to her past relationships with her father and husband, Ezekiel, the son, wants more options and is willing to stake more to find out why his mother is so guarded. As the story progresses, both characters go through similar hardships, both physically and mentally. This works out perfectly in the end when the two are reunited. The side characters are appropriately fleshed out for their roles in the story, and a few even get you rooting for them when bad things happen.
2) Pacing - the pacing is absolutely wonderful! There wasn't a point when I thought to myself, "The story is really dragging" or "Wait! Too much is happening! Must reread last two pages!" I think the action-based transitions from one section or another help out a lot with this. It's certainly easily managable and explained with the presence of hordes of zombies to chase characters from one place to the next. Add in some unfriendly human factions, guns, and a poisonous gas, and things can really move well.
3) Setting - despite my grousing about how the setting isn't conforming to the typical steampunk mold (and no story ever completely conforms to the genre mold unless it's making a new genre), I found the setting of a frontierstown-turned-haunted-wasteland to be interesting and posing of its own problems and story benefits. The most notable such benefit is that the timeline has the Civil War continuing longer than it really did (and well explained as being due to bad luck on the Union side of things), meaning no Federal government presence to trip up the plot. In fact, this a specific device, since several characters are looking forward to the immenent inclusion of the Washington Territory as a state so that they can get Federal aid in trying to stop and cleanup the poisonous gas.
I could probably list another few areas, but time stops for no man, and my hour of being at work before my scheduled hours has run out.
I'm hoping to work in some photos and maybe a video for the next post, so stay tuned!
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Book Review!
Huzzah! Today's post will be a book review! A welcome deviation from the usual (and a happier post than the last, no less!).
The subject of this review is The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi. It is, as of this writing, one of the nominees for the Hugo Award, one of the more popular awards for the science fiction novel. The voting is actually taking place in August and may have already zipped by for all I know. What I do know is that the novel selection for the Hugo has yet to be announced. The Hugo actually is given out to all sorts of media types.
Anyway, The Windup Girl. Yes. Actually quite short by sci-fi standards at 360 pages (I think the average sci-fi book is about 600, or so it seems...), it follows several characters who are all connected at some point throughout the story. TWG, as I will refer to it, is plot driven to the point where it doesn't seem like the characters are dynamic unless the plot requires them to be dynamic. Out of five main characters, only two at best, one at least, are dynamic. Emiko, the inspiration for the title, is a created being who genetically mimics humans, otherwise known as a windup, is the most dynamic, which is interesting, because she's the last main character to be introduced and doesn't get a lot of 'exposure' (she starts off in a whorehouse) until the second half of the story. Meanwhile, the first and second characters introduced, Anderson and Hock Seng, are perhaps among the flattest characters outside of a one-chapter villain that I've ever read. Especially Hock Seng. Then there's a character I can't even remember what her name is, whose dynamicity extends only so far as the last two pages in the book. Jaidee is sort of dynamic, because he doesn't really change until just before he dies (and then he haunts what's-her-name, since she is promoted in his place in government organization).
As for setting, TWG is quite different and hard to believe until it's read, so that's a big plus for sci-fi selection. It's future earth but after several military and natural disasters have ravaged resources to the point where calories have become a commodity. Anderson is trying to find new species of foodstuff that can survive so that he can have his genetics company make a profit. There are also several genetically modified creatures that play a prominent role in the local flavor of the story.
By the end of TWG, the only character any hard information is given up for is Emiko, whereas Anderson has a definite ending, if you know what I mean. Hock Seng and what's-her-name are given implicit fates (as far as we can tell...), and then Jaidee is already dead for half the story, but you never know if he finally departs for the next life. I say next life, because the story gets a lot of local flavor out of Hinduism and Buddhism as well as italicized sayings in Hindi or Thai. Therefore, there is a lot of mention about the next life among the native inhabitants. Anderson is an American, Hock Seng is a Chinese refugee, and Emiko is, essentially, a piece of discarded Japanese technology.
The language in TWG is bland in that trying-not-to-be-bland way. You know, as if simpler words that easier and quicker to process wasn't enough of a hassle when writing the book, but the flipside is that it sounds like any other authors' attempts at trying to 'freshen' up vocabulary in that very romanticized notion of how we believe Shakespeare revolutionized the English vocabulary with twisting words into new usages and / or meanings.
Overall, I'd give TWG a 3.5 out of 5 (or a 7 out of 10 for you more precise literary worrywarts), since the ending is unforeseeable until it happens (although I'm not so sure that's a good thing or not) and the plot was good enough to get me to read more and more as it moved along. The characters were flat, but the story worked well enough with such (strength of story or weakness of storytelling? You be the judge) and ended up with the uber-realistic conclusion - one of one part hope, five parts misery.
My current read, the steampunk genre novel Boneshaker by Cherie Priest, is also up for the 2010 Hugo Award, but it's already better than TWG, and I'm not even 90 pages in, yet. I already have in my head two actors for the two main characters - Charlize Theron as the mother and Max Records (Max from Where the Wild Things Are) as the son. Fun fun!
I'll try to complete the second part of the L5R post next time. Stay tuned.
The subject of this review is The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi. It is, as of this writing, one of the nominees for the Hugo Award, one of the more popular awards for the science fiction novel. The voting is actually taking place in August and may have already zipped by for all I know. What I do know is that the novel selection for the Hugo has yet to be announced. The Hugo actually is given out to all sorts of media types.
Anyway, The Windup Girl. Yes. Actually quite short by sci-fi standards at 360 pages (I think the average sci-fi book is about 600, or so it seems...), it follows several characters who are all connected at some point throughout the story. TWG, as I will refer to it, is plot driven to the point where it doesn't seem like the characters are dynamic unless the plot requires them to be dynamic. Out of five main characters, only two at best, one at least, are dynamic. Emiko, the inspiration for the title, is a created being who genetically mimics humans, otherwise known as a windup, is the most dynamic, which is interesting, because she's the last main character to be introduced and doesn't get a lot of 'exposure' (she starts off in a whorehouse) until the second half of the story. Meanwhile, the first and second characters introduced, Anderson and Hock Seng, are perhaps among the flattest characters outside of a one-chapter villain that I've ever read. Especially Hock Seng. Then there's a character I can't even remember what her name is, whose dynamicity extends only so far as the last two pages in the book. Jaidee is sort of dynamic, because he doesn't really change until just before he dies (and then he haunts what's-her-name, since she is promoted in his place in government organization).
As for setting, TWG is quite different and hard to believe until it's read, so that's a big plus for sci-fi selection. It's future earth but after several military and natural disasters have ravaged resources to the point where calories have become a commodity. Anderson is trying to find new species of foodstuff that can survive so that he can have his genetics company make a profit. There are also several genetically modified creatures that play a prominent role in the local flavor of the story.
By the end of TWG, the only character any hard information is given up for is Emiko, whereas Anderson has a definite ending, if you know what I mean. Hock Seng and what's-her-name are given implicit fates (as far as we can tell...), and then Jaidee is already dead for half the story, but you never know if he finally departs for the next life. I say next life, because the story gets a lot of local flavor out of Hinduism and Buddhism as well as italicized sayings in Hindi or Thai. Therefore, there is a lot of mention about the next life among the native inhabitants. Anderson is an American, Hock Seng is a Chinese refugee, and Emiko is, essentially, a piece of discarded Japanese technology.
The language in TWG is bland in that trying-not-to-be-bland way. You know, as if simpler words that easier and quicker to process wasn't enough of a hassle when writing the book, but the flipside is that it sounds like any other authors' attempts at trying to 'freshen' up vocabulary in that very romanticized notion of how we believe Shakespeare revolutionized the English vocabulary with twisting words into new usages and / or meanings.
Overall, I'd give TWG a 3.5 out of 5 (or a 7 out of 10 for you more precise literary worrywarts), since the ending is unforeseeable until it happens (although I'm not so sure that's a good thing or not) and the plot was good enough to get me to read more and more as it moved along. The characters were flat, but the story worked well enough with such (strength of story or weakness of storytelling? You be the judge) and ended up with the uber-realistic conclusion - one of one part hope, five parts misery.
My current read, the steampunk genre novel Boneshaker by Cherie Priest, is also up for the 2010 Hugo Award, but it's already better than TWG, and I'm not even 90 pages in, yet. I already have in my head two actors for the two main characters - Charlize Theron as the mother and Max Records (Max from Where the Wild Things Are) as the son. Fun fun!
I'll try to complete the second part of the L5R post next time. Stay tuned.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Breaking News: Bumper Stickers Reveal Thoughts Better Left Unknown... Usually
I'm going to interupt my current theme of L5R (not that it was going anywhere, having been last touched upon a whole week ago...) and bring to you, my avid (or not so) readers, the only thoughts you need to have about bumper stickers. My thoughts.
Obviously, I saw one recently that has put a bee in my bonnet (if I wore bonnets, anyway). But I've seen a few over the last year that I think are worth mentioning to convince you that the vast majority of bumper stickers are better left unprinted, much less posted on your car's ass for all to witness your stupidity.
Let me clarify what I mean by the term 'bumper sticker'. I'm not talking about sport team logos or those silly elliptical acronymed vacation spot stickers such as 'OC' or 'OBX' or 'CRU' (that last one is for you local folks! Enjoy!) I am referring to those stickers that are trying to make a point that you would normally just say with your mouth or write in a blog or, better yet, an editorial in a newspaper. What? You're not sure what that is? I know, I know, newspapers are a rarer commodity than they used to be, but I digress. I shall present for you some evidence! Behold!
1) Don't Re-elect Anyone - this first example is actually, in my mind, sort of a proper use of bumper stickers - to put forth an idea that most people never think about. This sticker actually got me laughing when I saw it. It was a refreshing change from the political campaign bumper stickers or obvious ripping on the poltical party that you happen to be opposite of (have you noticed that no parties use bumper stickers explaining their positions, just ripping down the oppponent? No wonder both parties are so low...). For once, a truly bi-partisan message designed to get the average American shmuck to think about why and how they vote. I actually hope it gets people thinking about how all those congressional pet projects tend to come from congressman who are up for re-election... hmmmmm.
2) If You Have A Problem With My Flag, Call 1-800-leave-america - ooooh, so witty! How long did it take you to think of that one? A minute? An hour? No, that's giving you too much credit - it's actually a waste of time to think about how long you thought about it, isn't it. Especially when you, douchepacker, are driving a Korean vehicle. If you're going to be so damned single-mindedly patriotic, maybe you should back up your message with the context and buy the typical American automobile to back up your typical angry defensiveness. I'm not bashing the American flag - just you're inability to think about why you're offensively defensive.
3) This next bumper sticker has no words but a pictogram of a gas pump turning it's hose into a noose. On the back of a Ford Expedition. If you're not sure what one of those looks like, let me help with this link to Ford's information about the Expedition. It proudly spends 28-33.5 gallons (depending on the model) of 14 mpg efficiency. Hmmm... let's do the math. That's between 400 and 470 miles in an average tank. Let's take a smaller vehicle, and to be fair a smaller American vehicle (the Cobalt) and what does it get off of 28-33.5 gallons? We'll assume the a realistic 26 mpg as opposed to the bloated EPA estimate of 35 and it still gets between 750 and 870 miles out of the same amount of gallons. Oh, that 14 mpg? That's an EPA estimate. Do that math again, and the Expidtion is actually closer to 10 mpg for the average shmuck. I think the bumper sticker is a cry for help, actually...
4) Jesusa; my faith, my country - just saw this one not an hour ago. It was surrounded with gun-nut stickers such as Gun Control Is Using Both Hands and Insured By Smith & Wesson and etc. It doesn't help he was going 5 under the speed limit on a 2-mile straight. Of course, that's probably the only way anyone knows what he thinks, since he probably offends everyone in a 50 foot radius when he opens his mouth and causes USPS stock to drop in whole percentages when he writes mail. Firstly, the gun-nut stuff. Dude. You live in Beaver County, full of suburban rednecks and hunting grounds. Of course you're against gun control! Only an out-of-stater would assume you hate guns before witnessing your plethora of multi-colored stickers. As for the Jesusa sticker. I have no problem if you want to claim your support for your faith and your country - the first amendment guarantees that right to claim support for whatever you wish and to not be oppressed because of it. But to blend the words Jesus and USA together is just absolutely, ridiculously, and nonsensically hypocratical!
I'll come out and say it clearly so that there is no confusion at all. I am a Christian. I know what I believe and why I believe it and I am able to defend it while knowing that not everyone I talk to about it will believe or understand me. That's to be expected, even if I don't have to like it. So. When someone claims to be a Christian and then distorts what that means, it's hypocratical. Jesus has nothing to do with being American or being patriotic to any particular nation that exists. Jesus' messages and actions were actually intended for everyone who hears of them to benefit from them. Not just Americans. I'll go another step further and say that Jesus supports no political party, especially not the shambling congressional mess that the Republicans and Democrats are. He does not throw his weight behind any one country or another for their virtues or failures. Sure, some countries in general may be more pleasing to Him than another, but that does not affect what He will do. So if you're going to be making religious claims, fine. But keep them tied to religion. If you want to explain how your religion affects your patriotism, by all means do so. Don't hyphenate your dubious allegiance with a five-word phrase that will never do you, or anyone else for that matter, any good. You've all the makings of a disaster - the ignorance to not explain what needs to be explained while reinforcing known prejudices.
So what does all that mean about bumper stickers? If it doesn't say what you want it to say, don't use it. If it's simply beating a dead horse, don't use it. If you're just using it as a form of defensive one upmanship, don't use it. Instead, learn how to constructively express yourself in social settings that may benefit someone as opposed to alienate.
Obviously, I saw one recently that has put a bee in my bonnet (if I wore bonnets, anyway). But I've seen a few over the last year that I think are worth mentioning to convince you that the vast majority of bumper stickers are better left unprinted, much less posted on your car's ass for all to witness your stupidity.
Let me clarify what I mean by the term 'bumper sticker'. I'm not talking about sport team logos or those silly elliptical acronymed vacation spot stickers such as 'OC' or 'OBX' or 'CRU' (that last one is for you local folks! Enjoy!) I am referring to those stickers that are trying to make a point that you would normally just say with your mouth or write in a blog or, better yet, an editorial in a newspaper. What? You're not sure what that is? I know, I know, newspapers are a rarer commodity than they used to be, but I digress. I shall present for you some evidence! Behold!
1) Don't Re-elect Anyone - this first example is actually, in my mind, sort of a proper use of bumper stickers - to put forth an idea that most people never think about. This sticker actually got me laughing when I saw it. It was a refreshing change from the political campaign bumper stickers or obvious ripping on the poltical party that you happen to be opposite of (have you noticed that no parties use bumper stickers explaining their positions, just ripping down the oppponent? No wonder both parties are so low...). For once, a truly bi-partisan message designed to get the average American shmuck to think about why and how they vote. I actually hope it gets people thinking about how all those congressional pet projects tend to come from congressman who are up for re-election... hmmmmm.
2) If You Have A Problem With My Flag, Call 1-800-leave-america - ooooh, so witty! How long did it take you to think of that one? A minute? An hour? No, that's giving you too much credit - it's actually a waste of time to think about how long you thought about it, isn't it. Especially when you, douchepacker, are driving a Korean vehicle. If you're going to be so damned single-mindedly patriotic, maybe you should back up your message with the context and buy the typical American automobile to back up your typical angry defensiveness. I'm not bashing the American flag - just you're inability to think about why you're offensively defensive.
3) This next bumper sticker has no words but a pictogram of a gas pump turning it's hose into a noose. On the back of a Ford Expedition. If you're not sure what one of those looks like, let me help with this link to Ford's information about the Expedition. It proudly spends 28-33.5 gallons (depending on the model) of 14 mpg efficiency. Hmmm... let's do the math. That's between 400 and 470 miles in an average tank. Let's take a smaller vehicle, and to be fair a smaller American vehicle (the Cobalt) and what does it get off of 28-33.5 gallons? We'll assume the a realistic 26 mpg as opposed to the bloated EPA estimate of 35 and it still gets between 750 and 870 miles out of the same amount of gallons. Oh, that 14 mpg? That's an EPA estimate. Do that math again, and the Expidtion is actually closer to 10 mpg for the average shmuck. I think the bumper sticker is a cry for help, actually...
4) Jesusa; my faith, my country - just saw this one not an hour ago. It was surrounded with gun-nut stickers such as Gun Control Is Using Both Hands and Insured By Smith & Wesson and etc. It doesn't help he was going 5 under the speed limit on a 2-mile straight. Of course, that's probably the only way anyone knows what he thinks, since he probably offends everyone in a 50 foot radius when he opens his mouth and causes USPS stock to drop in whole percentages when he writes mail. Firstly, the gun-nut stuff. Dude. You live in Beaver County, full of suburban rednecks and hunting grounds. Of course you're against gun control! Only an out-of-stater would assume you hate guns before witnessing your plethora of multi-colored stickers. As for the Jesusa sticker. I have no problem if you want to claim your support for your faith and your country - the first amendment guarantees that right to claim support for whatever you wish and to not be oppressed because of it. But to blend the words Jesus and USA together is just absolutely, ridiculously, and nonsensically hypocratical!
I'll come out and say it clearly so that there is no confusion at all. I am a Christian. I know what I believe and why I believe it and I am able to defend it while knowing that not everyone I talk to about it will believe or understand me. That's to be expected, even if I don't have to like it. So. When someone claims to be a Christian and then distorts what that means, it's hypocratical. Jesus has nothing to do with being American or being patriotic to any particular nation that exists. Jesus' messages and actions were actually intended for everyone who hears of them to benefit from them. Not just Americans. I'll go another step further and say that Jesus supports no political party, especially not the shambling congressional mess that the Republicans and Democrats are. He does not throw his weight behind any one country or another for their virtues or failures. Sure, some countries in general may be more pleasing to Him than another, but that does not affect what He will do. So if you're going to be making religious claims, fine. But keep them tied to religion. If you want to explain how your religion affects your patriotism, by all means do so. Don't hyphenate your dubious allegiance with a five-word phrase that will never do you, or anyone else for that matter, any good. You've all the makings of a disaster - the ignorance to not explain what needs to be explained while reinforcing known prejudices.
So what does all that mean about bumper stickers? If it doesn't say what you want it to say, don't use it. If it's simply beating a dead horse, don't use it. If you're just using it as a form of defensive one upmanship, don't use it. Instead, learn how to constructively express yourself in social settings that may benefit someone as opposed to alienate.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Legend of the Five Rings Gaming
Welcome back to the madness that is known as the Spacefaring Librarian!
Today I thought I'd ramble a little on the nature of Legend of the Five Rings, or L5R for short. What is L5R? How does it work? Can it bake cookies? Should it be taught in school?
L5R is a fictional setting used as a basis for several gaming methods, most notably role-playing (rpg) and card-playing (ccg). There are also several board games based on the setting, but they're much more low-key and only noticeable to those who are already steeped into either the rpg or ccg or both (like me). I first ventured into the L5R universe way back in 2006? I can't remember precisely. A college buddy and I went to Phantom of the Attic in Pittsburgh to browse the collection and maybe pick up some games or what-not. My eyes fell on L5R's ccg (oh, I should explain what 'ccg' means, shouldn't I? In a moment.) packs, emblazoned with samurai in action. I've not played a samurai-based game up to that point, and I'm also quite enamored with ccg and rpg games that have lots of cool pictures of characters, armor, weapons, and settings.
Before I go any further, 'ccg' is an acronym for two things: 'customizable card game' and 'collectible card game'. My personal definition sticks closer to the former, since the object of the game is to put together a deck consisting of at least 80 cards out of a range of possible cards, which are purchased either individually online or in packs of random cards. Got that? Good.
Back to what I was saying. My buddy and I purchased some packs and went back to his place and attempted to play a game as we went through the directions, which were at best murky. At that time, the online resources for the game were hard to locate and decipher. Fast forward 3 years later, another college buddy of mine who lives in Ohio, and of whom I visit on a regular basis, loves to play games of all sorts. When we get together, the range of things we do go from just catching up to watching movies to playing games. We had played several other ccgs in the past, games that are now no longer being produced and based on Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. I decided to take out a couple of L5R decks to his place with instructions printed from online. It was a hit. It happened that the production company, AEG, was creating the next edition for L5R a month after I introduced the game to my buddy, and we went in on the new set, inspiring him to get one of his buddies into the fray as well. We've gone to several tournaments in the last year and make it a point to get together when expansions come out.
Oh dear, this post is getting long, isn't it? I guess I better cap it off here, where there's a good seam in the topic. I'll take on the rpg aspect next time. Maybe I'll actually get around to discussing what I feel for L5R? I'll definitely answer the question of its cookie-baking abilities and educational value.
Stay tuned!
Today I thought I'd ramble a little on the nature of Legend of the Five Rings, or L5R for short. What is L5R? How does it work? Can it bake cookies? Should it be taught in school?
L5R is a fictional setting used as a basis for several gaming methods, most notably role-playing (rpg) and card-playing (ccg). There are also several board games based on the setting, but they're much more low-key and only noticeable to those who are already steeped into either the rpg or ccg or both (like me). I first ventured into the L5R universe way back in 2006? I can't remember precisely. A college buddy and I went to Phantom of the Attic in Pittsburgh to browse the collection and maybe pick up some games or what-not. My eyes fell on L5R's ccg (oh, I should explain what 'ccg' means, shouldn't I? In a moment.) packs, emblazoned with samurai in action. I've not played a samurai-based game up to that point, and I'm also quite enamored with ccg and rpg games that have lots of cool pictures of characters, armor, weapons, and settings.
Before I go any further, 'ccg' is an acronym for two things: 'customizable card game' and 'collectible card game'. My personal definition sticks closer to the former, since the object of the game is to put together a deck consisting of at least 80 cards out of a range of possible cards, which are purchased either individually online or in packs of random cards. Got that? Good.
Back to what I was saying. My buddy and I purchased some packs and went back to his place and attempted to play a game as we went through the directions, which were at best murky. At that time, the online resources for the game were hard to locate and decipher. Fast forward 3 years later, another college buddy of mine who lives in Ohio, and of whom I visit on a regular basis, loves to play games of all sorts. When we get together, the range of things we do go from just catching up to watching movies to playing games. We had played several other ccgs in the past, games that are now no longer being produced and based on Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. I decided to take out a couple of L5R decks to his place with instructions printed from online. It was a hit. It happened that the production company, AEG, was creating the next edition for L5R a month after I introduced the game to my buddy, and we went in on the new set, inspiring him to get one of his buddies into the fray as well. We've gone to several tournaments in the last year and make it a point to get together when expansions come out.
Oh dear, this post is getting long, isn't it? I guess I better cap it off here, where there's a good seam in the topic. I'll take on the rpg aspect next time. Maybe I'll actually get around to discussing what I feel for L5R? I'll definitely answer the question of its cookie-baking abilities and educational value.
Stay tuned!
Sunday, August 1, 2010
The Planetary System of Anime pt.2
Ah, welcome back to our tour of anime-ism according to your captain!
I write this as I play Robodefense on my Droid X, so this post may have a few obvious fracture points in terms of the flow of the diction, just so you know.
Okay, as I mentioned previously, this post will have more to do with the animes I don't like and why. I'm not sure if this will thrill or depress those of you who do not like anime, since you will either like it all the more for the thrashing or be even more despondent that you're reading the bad stuff according to one who generally likes it.
The confusing stuff out of the way, let's take a dive:
1) Desert Punk - Here's an anime that's not necessarily bad so much that it's just bland. But it's bland in a way that it tries to appeal to the pubescent male with fan service (provocative, and usually unrealistic, depictions of female characters). Mmmm, not so much my thing. Bland, that is. As for fan service, it's strange to say it, but there are so many gradations of how far it can be taken that there are times where it can be effective without being offensive, but it all depends on the type of anime being viewed. In serious actiony animes, it's useless.
2) Dragon Ball Z - To be fair, I never watched a DBZ episode in my life. But then again, to be fair, I've been around enough guys in college who have watched too many episodes, so I know enough about it that I would not like it for the following reasons: character design way way way too uniform (I think 75% are different from each other because of their skin / hair color / facial hair presence - body type, hair style, eyes, mouth are all pretty much the same), there are so many fight sequences that they all resemble each other - a bunch of guys punching each other through mountains and into outerspace just so one (or both!) of them can hurl balls of blue lightning at each other, and then just general abundance of episodes that you'd think the creators were hoping to make them into currency.
3) MD Geist - Ugh. Just ugh. This is what happens when you have bad graphics, bad plot, bad dialogue, bad everything! And it's done with so much masochism that it's ridiculously immovable for the weight of its man parts, but in a bad way.
4) Neon Genesis Evangeleon - Finally, this may confuse some of you who know me. NGE is more of a mix of good and bad for all but the final two episodes of it series. One can almost overlook the flat characters and shoddy background design and lackluster dialogue thanks to the many and yet different mech-styled fights that take place. Then the final two episodes happen. All while not properly finishing the plot. It was like the director was about to sit down and write the baddest ass mecha fight to ever take place and then got up to get a glass of water of forgetfulness. When he sat back down, he whipped up some psycho-analytic poop on a stick and promised viewers it was chocolate-covered cotton candy, which is probably one of the most sugar-concentrated confectionary even devised to keep dentists up at night. People didn't like it. He decided to amend that by creating two 90-minute long features that both rehash what happens in the series and then make the final two episodes look harmless by ending the characters and storyline in the most depressing and confusing way unimaginable.
Now, I could easily do yet another post about common (and sometimes odd-to-Westerners) themes that anime gets bogged down in, but I think I'll hold that off for a while yet.
Next time with the Spacefaring Librarian, we'll visit something far far away (but not so long ago).
I write this as I play Robodefense on my Droid X, so this post may have a few obvious fracture points in terms of the flow of the diction, just so you know.
Okay, as I mentioned previously, this post will have more to do with the animes I don't like and why. I'm not sure if this will thrill or depress those of you who do not like anime, since you will either like it all the more for the thrashing or be even more despondent that you're reading the bad stuff according to one who generally likes it.
The confusing stuff out of the way, let's take a dive:
1) Desert Punk - Here's an anime that's not necessarily bad so much that it's just bland. But it's bland in a way that it tries to appeal to the pubescent male with fan service (provocative, and usually unrealistic, depictions of female characters). Mmmm, not so much my thing. Bland, that is. As for fan service, it's strange to say it, but there are so many gradations of how far it can be taken that there are times where it can be effective without being offensive, but it all depends on the type of anime being viewed. In serious actiony animes, it's useless.
2) Dragon Ball Z - To be fair, I never watched a DBZ episode in my life. But then again, to be fair, I've been around enough guys in college who have watched too many episodes, so I know enough about it that I would not like it for the following reasons: character design way way way too uniform (I think 75% are different from each other because of their skin / hair color / facial hair presence - body type, hair style, eyes, mouth are all pretty much the same), there are so many fight sequences that they all resemble each other - a bunch of guys punching each other through mountains and into outerspace just so one (or both!) of them can hurl balls of blue lightning at each other, and then just general abundance of episodes that you'd think the creators were hoping to make them into currency.
3) MD Geist - Ugh. Just ugh. This is what happens when you have bad graphics, bad plot, bad dialogue, bad everything! And it's done with so much masochism that it's ridiculously immovable for the weight of its man parts, but in a bad way.
4) Neon Genesis Evangeleon - Finally, this may confuse some of you who know me. NGE is more of a mix of good and bad for all but the final two episodes of it series. One can almost overlook the flat characters and shoddy background design and lackluster dialogue thanks to the many and yet different mech-styled fights that take place. Then the final two episodes happen. All while not properly finishing the plot. It was like the director was about to sit down and write the baddest ass mecha fight to ever take place and then got up to get a glass of water of forgetfulness. When he sat back down, he whipped up some psycho-analytic poop on a stick and promised viewers it was chocolate-covered cotton candy, which is probably one of the most sugar-concentrated confectionary even devised to keep dentists up at night. People didn't like it. He decided to amend that by creating two 90-minute long features that both rehash what happens in the series and then make the final two episodes look harmless by ending the characters and storyline in the most depressing and confusing way unimaginable.
Now, I could easily do yet another post about common (and sometimes odd-to-Westerners) themes that anime gets bogged down in, but I think I'll hold that off for a while yet.
Next time with the Spacefaring Librarian, we'll visit something far far away (but not so long ago).
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