Things ('n Stuff)

'n things.

A video game that really does scare me...

Tuesday, May 30, 2006 12:30 PM
For some reason this scares me more than playing Doom 3 late at night in a dark room...

Imagine: you are a foot soldier in a paramilitary group whose purpose is to remake America as a Christian theocracy, and establish its worldly vision of the dominion of Christ over all aspects of life. You are issued high-tech military weaponry, and instructed to engage the infidel on the streets of New York City. You are on a mission - both a religious mission and a military mission -- to convert or kill Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, gays, and anyone who advocates the separation of church and state - especially moderate, mainstream Christians. Your mission is "to conduct physical and spiritual warfare"; all who resist must be taken out with extreme prejudice.

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2006/5/29/195855/959

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1. Posted by
Very, very scary...
5/30/2006 12:55 PM
 
2. Posted by
Is this for real?
5/30/2006 2:31 PM
 
3. Posted by
 
4. Posted by
Um, I hope it's appropriate to say, "It's only a game."
5/30/2006 7:00 PM
 
5. Posted by
I saw that yesterday too... One of the funny things is in the article they describe one of the Neo-Christian dudes hating it none the less, just because it's a video game :)
6/1/2006 11:35 AM
 
6. Posted by
Maybe it is just a really clever creepy joke that involved writing a game? It is a game about people that hate video games and are now characters in one?
6/1/2006 3:35 PM
 
7. Posted by
Hmm, I suppose that's possible, but I never really pictured right-wing Christian fundamentalists as the type with much of a sense of humor. :)
6/1/2006 3:37 PM
 
8. Posted by
Can you play this online and be the "bad guys" also? Boy, call me a hypocrite, but it would sure be fun to go stomp on some crusaders in what's supposed to be their own triumphal slaughterfest, with an added twist of savory irony if I could procure the God Mode cheats to assist me.
6/2/2006 2:13 AM
 
9. Posted by
Haha...believe it or not but you CAN. According to the story, "The game also offers players the opportunity to switch sides and fight for the army of the AntiChrist, releasing cloven-hoofed demons who feast on conservative Christians and their panicked proselytes (who taste a lot like Christian)." Also handy for multiplayer deathmatch.
6/2/2006 3:04 AM
 
10. Posted by
Haha, the Daily Show did a segment on this very video game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ct-hzYodttU
8/3/2006 4:00 PM
 

Seattle drivers most courteous

Friday, May 19, 2006 2:23 PM
From MSNBC:

Survey looks at road rage across nation
Miami tops rude drivers list; Minneapolis nicest


Stressed Miami drivers speed, tailgate and cut off other drivers so frequently that the city earned the title of worst road rage in a survey released Tuesday.

AutoVantage, an automobile membership club offering travel services and roadside assistance, also listed Phoenix, New York, Los Angeles and Boston among the top five cities for rude driving.

Minneapolis, Nashville, St. Louis, Seattle and Atlanta were rated as the cities with the most courteous drivers, who were less likely to change lanes without signaling or swear at other motorists.

...


I wonder how you empirically measure something like that.  It's not a surpise though.  As annoying as Seattle drivers can be sometimes (a courteous driver is not necessarily the same thing as a good driver), I have to admit, they are awfully polite.

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You know it's not your day...

Tuesday, May 9, 2006 8:50 PM
...when after getting your car washed, you park for roughly 30 seconds to reattach your screw-on radio antenna, and during that time, a passing bird drops a big fat load right in the middle of your windshield.
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Apparently I can't tie shoelaces

Tuesday, May 2, 2006 9:05 PM
So for the longest time, as long as I can remember...as in many, many years, I've had this stupid stupid problem of my shoelaces always coming undone if I only did a single knot.  It was so bad that I could tie them, then five steps later, they'd be undone.  I'd just assumed that somehow I had managed to constantly buy shoes with slippery laces or something.  I got so used to tying double knots all the time that I just did it as a matter of habit every time I'd tie my laces.

Well, one day I stumbled across this website, Ian's Shoelace Site.  It has all sorts of interesting (OK, maybe not) info on different ways to lace and tie shoes.  Well lo and behold, one of the pages is about laces that constantly come undone.  Apparently, there is a very subtle difference between the standard knot everyone uses to tie their laces, and a slip knot, which is unsecure and can almost come undone by itself.


Slip Knot


Secure "Reef" Knot


One way a reef knot becomes a slip knot is if you reverse the very first step, e.g. you do a left-over-right starting knot instead of a right-over-left one.  So, reversing this should secure the knot.

Well, I gave it a try, and what do you know, it worked.  My laces hardly ever come undone anymore and I no longer need to spend 10 minutes to untie my shoes.  So apparently, I've been tying my shoelaces the wrong way for years.  I am a moron.
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New Old Music

Sunday, April 9, 2006 2:55 PM
It's time for another Zoji world premiere. :-)  I've finally finished one of those pieces that I've been working on for a long, long time.  Well actually, more like one movement of a piece I've been working on, but still, it's something you can actually listen to from beginning to end, so I'm happy.

Scherzo in C minor (score)

This piece will be the second or third movement of four (I haven't decided which, yet).  It's a scherzo emulating the late Classical style (like all my stuff).  A scherzo (or its predecessor, the minuet) is typically the third (occasionally the second) movement of a piece.  In the Classical era, they were pretty much always in 3/4 time, scherzos usually being fast enough to count in 1.  The overall movement is in a ternary A B A form, with the scherzo being the A, and a contrasting section called the trio being the B.

In this movement of mine, the stormy C minor scherzo is followed by a calmer, somewhat rustic C major trio prominently featuring the horns and trumpets (in keeping with the era, the horns and trumpets used are valveless, meaning they can only play a few notes--in this key, C, D, E, F, and G).

Anyway, hope you like it!
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