Unhappy Endings

There's an episode of Star Trek: Voyager where the ship starts melting randomly. Also, the equipment, and the crew. All of these are important parts of the mission of Voyager: to get back home. So, naturally, they do everything possible to solve this. They eventually figure out WHY they're melting. They are not the real Voyager, they are a copy made years ago when Voyager landed on a "Demon" class planet, and leaving their home for such a long time has caused them to lose structural integrity. The original planet is too far away, so they scan the surrounding area for something that can match, all the while melting away. So this carries on for like an hour. until they eventually realize they are going to melt before they get there. Captain Janeway records the ships log into a relay beacon for posterity, before she, like the rest of the crew and ship, melt away. The relay beacon also melts away.

What the fuck, man?

My mom commented after watching that episode that it was completely contrary to the spirit of the original series. On Captain Kirk's Enterprise, the good guys always won, the bad guys always lost, and justice was served in nice simple one hour chunks (with room for commercials). The Voyager ep, on the other hand (Course: Oblivion if you're interested). is nothing like that at all. Good people do good things and end up obliterated anyway, and no record of their existence is left at all.

I guess I bring this up because I just watched an episode of House where they diagnose a woman with an auto-immune disease, and decide to irradiate her immune system to cure her. Then, once her immune system is gone, they realize "Oops, it was an infection after all," and with her immune system shot, the patient has nothing left to do but die. They reach this decision a little more than half way through the episode, and the rest is just Foreman (the one who recommended radiation) sitting next to the girl, watching her die. It's all very touching. It literally moved me to tears. But I kept hanging on, hoping against hope that House would find out that the disease that didn't look like an infection at the start really WASN'T an infection... But nothing happened. The girl died, and Foreman's only absolution came from his Alzheimer's suffering Mom, who didn't even recognize him.

Bad things happen to good people. I know this. Good people make mistakes, and hurt or kill people. I'm not going to deny that this kind of thing happens in real life. But when I'm watching television, I want to watch something that doesn't resemble real life that much. I want escapism. I want a hero to swoop in when everything looks its worst and make it better again. Not all of it, necessarily, but... well, more than just "Oh, House kept Wilson's ex's dog because he was guilty."

I'm just a sucker for an unhappy ending, I guess.

;_;

Look! Up In The Sky!

I finally got the video posting thing to work! Yay me! And I coudn't have picked a better movie to link with it. ^_^

PokeyMans!

So, yeah, Pokemon Diamond and Pearl launched today. Rough day at work, though not for the reasons I expected. I was anticipating a huge crowd of kids looking to catch them all, and I figured I'd spend all day running back and forth between the games case and the cash register. Unfortunately, fate had a different hand in store for me. The ad set up was horribly mis-managed, so (long boring technical rant you really don't need to hear - I was basically setting up signs to show what was on sale).

But after that got set up, I managed to spend a couple hours selling games. ^_^ One family in particular stuck out in my memory, partially because I recognized them from one of my mom's old Sunday School classes, though I don't think they recognized me (I was just another faceless adult to them... Sigh). Anyway, the interesting thing about their visit was that, while the older brother (maybe 8-10? I'm bad with names) was getting his hands on Diamond, the little sister (couldn't be older than 6) wasn't getting anything, it seemed. Instead, their mom was telling them that they would share. Now, anyone who's played a Pokemon game knows what a mistake that is. I actually got myself hooked on the game by borrowing James' old Game Boy Red Version and just seeing how far I could get (usually I'd get the 2nd badge before it was time to cut it out), but the point is the games have never supported a second save slot - and for good reason, considering the collectible nature of the game. I pointed this out to them, that they really couldn't share the game, and the little girl started tearing up. I swear, she looked like she was gonna cry right there because she couldn't play with big brother. Being the quick thinker I am, I asked if they wanted to go ahead and grab pearl version for her, and mom said "No, why don't you just watch brother play." That didn't seem like a good option, so I offered another thing. "We've got last years version available for $20." She could try that, and if she liked it, save her money and upgrade to the next one later. This seemed acceptable to everyone, so I grabbed Fire Red and Leaf Green (why on earth are they Players choice, but not Ruby or Sapphire?), little sister chose LG, and we had a happy family. ^_^

I'm good at my job, the way I see it. Target wants me to sell "Red Cards," which are Visa credit cards run by Target. If you get one, you receive a 10% discount on an entire day's shopping at Target, which can be a fair amount if you're buying, say, a big screen TV or a full set of patio furniture. But they're asking me to be sure to ask "EVERY" guest, and honestly, I don't wanna. I think it bothers the customer, because they usually either already have one, or they have enough credit cards and don't need another. So, I drop it when I get a no. I've heard tell that at least one of our "Team Leads" has a great record because, and this is pretty much true, he will not shut up about the "benefits" of the card until the guest gets one. That just seems rude to me, and it's not what I signed on for, I think.

Target feels it's my job to earn money for the company, by selling products, and also by getting those credit cards sold. On the other hand, I feel my job is to aid the guest in making the best decision and getting the best deal possible for them. More often than not, our goals are similar enough that they cross over, but I refuse to simply act as a mouthpiece for the corporation. It is my real and honest belief that if I give good guest service, people will enjoy coming to Target, and want to come back, even if our stuff is 13 cents more expensive than Wal-Mart (seriously, they have stuff for like 13.84 that's 13.99 at Target... And that's their "Low Price" X_X)

Anyway, enough rambling. I'm enjoying Diamond (Pearl is saved so Jackie can do the quest for herself, and we'll probably trade version exclusives and the like), though I'm feeling a little guilty that I'm JUST SHY of beating Emerald - I just got the 8th Gym badge today, and can probably beat the Elite Four soon. I may do that once I've beaten the first gym in Diamond, just so I can say I'm done... There's also the Battle Frontier in Emerald, and Battle towers in Fire Red and Ruby, so I'll have to see what else I can do in those areas. I'll probably need to train up a kick-ass team in 3rd generation, one I WON'T be sending into the 4th gen later on (once I've beaten THAT games Elite Four). So much to do...

In the mean time, here's my friend code: 1590 1166 1789 I've written it down here as much for myself as for all of you. Lemme know if you want me to add you for something. ^_^

Insert Star Trek Fight Music Here

(01:43:22 PM) effervescence: http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2062486,00.html?=rss
(01:43:29 PM) effervescence: this is the most terrible thing ever
(01:43:33 PM) effervescence: and they didn't even sell any tickets
(01:46:14 PM) Kitty Kyriaki: I know, they should have at least uploaded it to youtube
(01:46:30 PM) effervescence: i'll bet its there somewhere
(01:46:32 PM) effervescence: if not
(01:46:58 PM) effervescence: wanna kidnap some children from a local playground and see what happens when you toss them in a ring with a couple of bat'leths?
(01:47:42 PM) Kitty Kyriaki: sure
(01:47:57 PM) Kitty Kyriaki: get your party van ready
(01:48:19 PM) effervescence: i'll bring the camera if you bring the candy

This chat has been brought to you by the association for making horrible things seem less horrible through comparison.

WTF?!

What the fuck is going on in this video? Its some ninja who makes card float in mid-air. I'm sure, like all magic tricks, theres some sort of chicanery involved, but I am obviously too tired to figure it out.

Random Linking!

Super Columbine Massacre RPG! I've talked about it before, but for whatever reason I never bothered to link it (or for that matter, to download it and try it myself. I'm not sure if I want to (I'm actually not sure if I can on my computer...) but I'll give it a spin over Summer break I bet.

Random Qustions

Question 1: I'm sure you've seen those videos of the Beatles being chased by crowds of screaming fans. Now, don't get me wrong, you want to be heard by the band, and especially during the concert, you need to make a lot of noise (just, please don't drown out the actual music, I wanna kinda hear what I paid to hear, not you asking Paul to marry you). So yeah, scream and yell all you want during the concert, and maybe while they're entering and exiting the building, with you standing behind the velvet rope. But when the guys are FLEEING the scene, do you really need to chase them? I think it's obvious they're trying to go away from the screaming.

And really.. what exactly did they plan on doing when and if they caught them? Sex? Right there on the streets of London? With 2000 other women? As said before, I'm not sure the Beatles were interested in that magnitude of pussy.

Question 2: How long are flags supposed to be kept at half mast? I'm sure it varies from event to event (President dying > Ambassador dying, and such), but isn't there at least a set time for each event? After Gerald Ford died, the flags in Austin were at half mast for like a month or more. I'm beginning to think that there is no set time for raising them. There are definite times for lowering them, but no one wants to be the first guy to say "Okay, who cares about V Tech any more?" and raise it back up. It's a rough job, but someone's gotta do it.

Meh, I thought I had another, but I'm out. Also, to anyone asking, no, my store does not have Pokemon in. Wait till Sunday. I know its hard, but we all have to do it, so suck it up.

Jeez...

Haloid

It's a mashup of Halo and Metriod! Wow, it's well made, though a REAL fan-wank. I love the fact that Master Chief can jump around like Neo. Never mind the fact that half of the choreography in that movie is ripped directly from the Matrix, almost frame for frame (bullet time and everything, synched up to the music even), just the idea that Master Chief could ever preform such an acrobatic maneuver is laughable. Halo is a first person shooter - you look forward, occasionally you jump. You don't do midair cartwheels, or kung fu melee combat, or THROW FRIGGING CARS AROUND. >_< I'll give Samus the benefit of the doubt on her moves - she actually DOES flip around in the games, but the whole time I was just expecting Master Chief to come out on top, simply because the video was obviously made by a huge Halo fan, more-so than a Metroid fan, anyway. I give it an A for effort, as far as the animation goes, but in terms of what you animated... HD Pong is still Pong, and Blu-Ray clarity on the Pokemon movie is still the Pokemon movie. Bleh.

I've also been watching The Power of Nightmares, a documentary on the rise of both NeoConservatives in America and Islamic Terrorists in the Middle East, and how both parties use fear and scare-tactics to attempt to control the masses. I think Grand Moff Tarkin said it best:

Governor Tarkin: The Imperial Senate will no longer be of any concern to us. I have just received word that the Emperor has dissolved the council permanently. The last remnants of the Old Republic have been swept away.
General Tagge: But that's impossible. How will the Emperor maintain control without the bureaucracy?
Governor Tarkin: The regional governors now have direct control over their territories. Fear will keep the local systems in line. Fear of this battle station.

If you're not afraid of something by now, you're not paying attention. The trick is to not be afraid of what they tell you to fear, but rather the ones who use fear to their advantage. Fear them, and do everything in your power to stop them.

I had a weird rant planned out, but the gist is a hypothetical situation. The Union lost the Civil War, and was eventually conquered by the Confederacy. For the next 140 years America was ruled by a tyrannical dictatorship until the European Powers decided to "spread democracy," expecting that freed Americans would all be the same, not noticing the differences between Red- and Blue-Staters, and then violence broke out between the two groups and.. well, anyway, that's what Iraq is like.

Lets do it again! In Iran this time, okay?

300 Pokemon

When I first clicked the link, I thought it was actually a video showing three hundreds of kinds of Pokemon. Instead, I got a trailer spoof. Much more entertaining.

Dammit, Youtube needs to let me embed.

"World of Warcraft Teaches the Wrong Things"

This is old, but I decided to link it anyways. It basically says that WoW teaches the wrong lessons, such as "time spent is more important than what was actually done" and "group play is better than solo."

Interestingly enough, I was linked there from a Pokemon thread dealing with EV Training in an open, Online envirnment. For those of you who don't know, EV training is the practice of beefing up a particular stat by having it battle only certain Pokemon. There are lists out there that tell you which monsters you should battle to give a boost in Attack, Defence, Speed, etc. It's a fairly time consuming process, and without a great deal of algebra (thankfully done by other people) completely hidden from view. So while it's fairly well-known in fanboy circles, to the thousands of grade-schoolers who don't check out Pokemon websites (i.e. the majority of the market-share) aren't aware of it. In the thread, I mention that to an uninformed viewer, an EV trained Pokemon battling a non-trained member will seem to be "hacked" because of the difference in power.

I dunno, it's late and I've got work in the morning. I suppose I'll end up with three teams, though, when I get my WiFi team ready:

1: A competitive, EV trained team (well balanced, pretty much the strongest set I can find).
2: An EV trained team of Ubers (all the legendary Pokemon that are already head and shoulders above the rest; considered cheap by most competitive players).
3: A goofy, non-trained "show team" (probably just 6 Eevee evolutions doing whatever I feel like).

Oh, one last thing, this guy Sirlin has some pretty cool things written on the rest of his site. I recommend checking it out.

NOTHING!

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING FOR CHRISTMAS! I'm just sad it's so short. I would have loved to see what else was going on.

Disaster

YouTube's been frustrating me lately. There's a video there where Bill O'Reilly and and Geraldo Rivera have a shouting match over immigration. It's pretty nuts stuff. I always thought of Geraldo as Bill's little buddy, after the way the two of them went after Comedy Central's fake news. But to see these people so angry over this... It's just frightening. My thoughts are that Geraldo was right (they're disagreeing; I HAD to side with one of them): the death of a girl to a drunk driver should not be used as a political springboard about immigration. Yes, Bill, he shouldn't have been here. And I'm sure that after this event, he's been deported. (If not, then shockingly, Bill's right too - immigration policy is a mess.) But to turn a tragedy for this family into a "Talking Points Memo" does a disservice to everyone involved.

Anyway, I looked on YouTube for some more videos of him. I'm still looking for the bastion of literate, smart, Bill O'Reilly fans. I'm sure they're out there. They must be. There's no way there's not at least one Bill O'Reilly fan-site out there. If you find it, please let me know.

Anyway, a lot of the videos I found dealt with the anti-War protesters. Bill doesn't seem to like them that much. But they got me thinking. What the hell do we do now in the Middle East? I think it's pretty clear that the war was started somewhat unjustly. "Iraq is arming WMD's." Not so. "Freedom is on the march." Just as long as they vote in the guys we like, right? The insurgents don't get to be free. So now the only justification for the War is "We had to get rid of Saddam."

You'll often hear conservatives criticize the Anti-War crowd with the jab "Would you prefer it if Saddam were still in power?" And they love to compare him to Hitler, even if the comparison is merely implied. I'm going to take a giant flying leap here and say the following: "I THINK EVERYTHING WOULD BE BETTER OFF IF SADDAM WERE STILL IN POWER." As politicians are now finding out, the population of Iraq is not as streamlined as, say, China, or Japan, or even the vastly divided United States. Inside of the European-drawn borders of Iraq, we have found the warring Sunnis, Shias and Kurds. And these guys HATE each other. So, why then, are we just now noticing this? Saddam kept them in line.

Metaphor time: Saddam was like a barbed knife, plunged in the chest of Iraq. Yeah, its bad. Its a fucking knife plunged in there. But you don't just rip it out. That makes things worse. The same thing happened here. Saddam kept three waring factions from killing each other through fear. Yeah, it's bad, but the alternative was worse. Obviously, the answer is "don't take out the knife". For whatever reason, people now-a-days don't want to admit they messed up. And because they believe they did the right thing, they refuse to accept that things aren't going well. Their logic flows such that doing a good thing = getting good results. And that makes perfect sense. Except, they DIDN'T do a good thing. They made a bad thing worse.

So, step one, then, in fixing this mess, is admitting that mistakes were made. Admit that removing Saddam was not the right solution. Maybe not publicly, but at least to yourselves. Realize that there IS a civil war going on in Iraq. You are not just fighting a small resistance group in its final throws. Once you move more in line with reality, it will be that much easier to fix the problems of reality.

Okay, theres an hour I'm never getting back. Time for homework.

Stardust, and Other Fictions

I found this trailer off Popurls.com, which I have to reccomend if you're ever bored and looking for something fun. It shows the top rated links from a variety of sources, such as YouTube, as well as cites like Digg and Reddit, which are user submitted and rated. I've found a bunch of interesting random articles there, and actually have it set as one of my home pages on Firefox.

I have never heard of this movie, Stardust, but it looks pretty cool. If nothing else, it looks like it might be worth a rental to sit down and watch with Clara or something. I don't have anything to add about the trailer itself that you couldn't gather from watching it, but I also thought it was cool that the main page had a link to the Resident Evil: Extinction trailer, which was fun when I saw it in theaters back a while. I think it's a well done trailer, starting with a cliche ad, then the sudden appearance of the Umbrella logo... Anyway, check that trailer out. I'll let you judge whether or not you wanna see the film, but I'm probably gonna. I enjoyed the first two, definitely. I haven't played the games for Resident Evil, but they're up there with Mortal Kombat as "Best Video Game Movies." Granted, there's not a lot of fierce competition in that category (Doom, Super Mario Brothers, Tomb Raider, I could go on and on...), but they were definitely enjoyable movies.

Sigh, so many tempting movies upcoming. Aren't there always, though? Aside from those two, I've got on my radar (in no particular order other than the order they pop into my head):

• 28 Weeks Later (Sequel to 28 Days Later, neither of which have anything to do with Sandra Bullock's 28 Days.)
  
• Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters (I guess Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan made long titles funny?)
• Transformers (I'm obligated by sheer fandom.)
• Spider-Man 3 (Why is Spider-Man the only superhero with a dash in his name?)
• Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (Eh, maybe, maybe not...)
• Grindhouse (Awesomeness on top of awesomeness.)
• Hot Fuzz (I loved Shaun of the Dead -apparently I have a thing for zombies- but these guys have earned my viewership)

And I suppose theres more I'm too lazy to add in there.

Meh.

The Return

Hey, you all ready for bed? Brushed your teeth, washed up? Good, good. Oh, a bedtime story? Sure, I've always got time for one of those. And today I've got a great one for you. You see, today, on my way home, I saw a dragon. She was shining white, and enormous. It had to be the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. As I was stepping out side, she landed softly in front of me. "Hello, Greg," she spoke, with a voice that rang through my mind like a chorus. "My name is Leona. Come, let me show you my kingdom."

Now, I've never been one to turn down a dragon, so I got on her back, and found a nice little seat snuggled in between two of her vertebrae, right below her neck. She beat her huge wings and in a heartbeat we were among the clouds, looking down on the city, the whole state, and then, eventually, the ocean was rushing past beneath us.

Soon, an island came into view. It was a lush paradise, verdant and green, with dragons soaring through the clouds. Hundreds of dragons, in every color of the rainbow, and of every shape and size imaginable. Cerulean dragons playing in the water, emerald dragons darting though the trees, and crimson dragons soaring in and around the smoking volcano at the center of the island.

It was then that the whole island started to shake, and suddenly, the mountainside burst open. A huge black smoking dragon soared outward and roared a horrible roar that echoed across the island. All the other dragons looked at this dragon in terror. I turned to Leona to ask her what was going on, when all of a sudden, I knew.

In my head, memories filled in. Memories of a time long past, when this horrible dragon, Blackmaw, ruled over the dragons' island with tyranny and hatred. It was like this for centuries, until one fateful day, when all the dragons, as one, rose up and defended their freedom from Blackmaw. I saw the battle as it was waged, like it was yesterday. I felt Leona's sadness as she witnessed her friends being slain at the dragon-kings hand. I felt her triumph when the good dragons finally defeated in battle. And I witnessed in awe the sight of twelve dragon elders, near-gods themselves, sacrificed their power to seal Blackmaw in the volcano.

Now, the seal had been broken. No one knew why, or how, or what to do now. There were no longer twelve dragon elders who could seal Blackmaw away. The only outcome seemed to be defeat. Again, I felt Leona's sadness, this time not as a memory but a current emotion. Hope seemed to be lost amongst the dragons.

In frustration I reached for whatever I could to attack Blackmaw with. Even if the dragons were going to give in to his rule, I refused to go down without a fight. I began picking up rocks, and threw them at the black dragon with all my might. I felt somewhat dismayed as they bounced harmlessly of his ebony scales, but I did manage to attract his attention. The large dragon snorted, and turned to look at me. His nostrils flares and he puffed thick smoke in annoyance. His eyes burned into me like hot embers. I was paralyzed, partly by fear, and partly just in shock at what a powerful creature now stood before me, its powerful back legs extended as it prepared to take me out with a single breath of hot flame.

I could feel the heat emanating from Blackmaw's mouth, and prepared myself for the worst, when I felt a sudden bump. All of a sudden, I was mounted on Leona again, soaring away from Blackmaw. "Thank you!" I cried to her.

"Don't thank me yet," came the responce, "I'm going to need a favor from you, Greg."

"Name it." I was now willing to give my life to save the dragon who had fearlessly risked hers for mine.

We alighted at the top of the mountain. Rather than the black ash of the volcano I had seen from the ground level, at the peak was a verdant valley, filled with natural beauty. Right in front of Leona and me stood a chest. "Open it." Leona nudged me forward, and when I turned to look at her I was glad to see that hope had returned.

With a heave I pushed the lid off the chest. Inside I found a shimmering white sword. I picked it up by the hilt, and even though it was light, far lighter than it looked, I could still sense a great sensation of power emanating from the blade. Leona no longer had to vocalize her wish. With this sword, I would slay Blackmaw.

We rode out of the valley and dove down to find the island covered in flames. Water dragons who tried to put the fires out with bursts of cool water found themselves vulnerable themselves to a jet of flame from Blackmaw. Still, the dragons valiantly fought against Blackmaw. The hope I had seen in Leona's eyes now radiated throughout them all.

I stood on her back as we neared the great onyx beast, and took a soaring leap from Leona onto Blackmaw. The monster never even knew what hit him. I landed tip first, digging my blade deep into his ribcage. He let out an abominable scream, the ugliest sound I'd ever heard, before finally collapsing on the beast. His mighty lungs let out one last puff of smoke before coming to their eternal rest.

Dragons across the island sang my accolades. I stayed with them throughout the night, enjoying their hospitality and friendship. Eventually, as the sun rose the next morning, I bade my farewells to my new friends, wondering if I would ever see them again. Leona gave me a ride back home, and then vanished into the sky, too sad at the thought of leaving me to even hear me tell her goodbye. I wiped a tear from my eye, because I would miss her so much, but I still do have the happy memories of my adventure with her, and that makes me glad.

So anyway, that's why I missed your class play yesterday. Gnight!

Recursive Gaming

I found this funny enough not only to link, but to link via an IMAGE!