The history of the Blood Elves in World of Warcraft is somewhat convoluted, as the little buggers originally started out as…well, as kaldorei. That’s right, night elves and blood elves were once the same thing. Physically, they look very different – and from a societal standpoint, they’re incredibly different as well. So why are the blood elves now a part of the Horde, while night elves are firmly on the Alliance’s side? What happened to make the Blood Elves a bunch of bad guys? And just how do they get such beautiful hair without a lot of product buildup? Some of these questions to be answered this week!

The Sin’dorei as they are currently called weren’t always the blonde, bright-eyed, egomaniacal self obsessed little buggers that you see in World of Warcraft today. Sin’dorei is a name they gave themselves after events in their history warranted the name change. Originally, they were called the Quel’dorei, or high elves – children of noble birth. In order to properly understand where these elves came from, one should probably take a look at the Night Elf History segments from a few weeks ago: Part One, Part Two, and Part Three. I will be picking up with elf history shortly after the timeline presented in the night elf history segment – after the Sundering that split the world into the continents we know today.

Don’t Bleach, Use Chamomile Tea For Natural, Sun-Kissed Highlights

The kaldorei had been firmly split into two different factions – there were the night elves, and the quel’dorei. While the night elves worshipped Elune and followed a largely druidic, nature-based path, the Quel’dorei had become masters of managing the arcane energies and magic of the Well of Eternity – a mastery that had proven disastrous in the War of the Ancients. There was another difference between the two factions however. As the night elves never came out during the day, and usually did their work and worship by night, they had darkened skin and hair, brilliant hues of purple, blue and green, and their eyes retained a normal silver glow – gold in the cases of those that showed druidic potential. The quel’dorei however found it better to work under the light of the sun, and found their skin and their hair fading as well into a lighter version of the night elves dark colors.

Queen Azshara, oddly enough, was a night elf – while she used the Well’s energies quite possibly better than anyone else, she also slept during the day, emerging only during night, and thus retained her dark-skinned ‘night elf’ look. Her eyes also remained gold, the mark of a great destiny at that time. This indicates that it wasn’t just the Well usage that caused the physical changes; it was a combination of both the usage and living in the sun. Please note that the kaldorei by this time had been living by that well for several thousand years, so the physical change itself was more than likely a gradual process spanning a lot of time, rather than an immediate ‘wake up in the morning and you’re a blonde’ moment.

Keep in mind that all elves, night elves and quel’dorei both, were tied to the Well of Eternity. It was the thing that kept them immortal, and living and being in its presence for so long had imbued both factions with the energies of the Well. When the energies of the Well were cut off, everyone felt the effects, including the night elves – it’s just that the quel’dorei were more affected than their night elf cousins, because they had actually worked with the Well, rather than just living next to it. The largest conflict between the two factions was the Well itself – once destroyed, the night elves were convinced that it and the arcane magic it possessed were directly responsible for what had occurred, while the quel’dorei were of the opinion that it wasn’t the Well or the arcane, it was the usage of both that had been corrupted. The quel’dorei firmly believed that with the right balance in place, the arcane could be mastered, and the night elves simply didn’t want anything to do with the arcane at all. But there was another issue at hand for the quel’dorei, one that shaped the very core of who they were, and who they were to become.

Rehab Is For Quitters

The quel’dorei had been using the Well and the magic of the arcane for thousands of years – it was something that they simply depended on to survive. When that source was abruptly cut off, the quel’dorei felt it much more strongly than the night elves – to the quel’dorei, the Well wasn’t simply something that was there making them immortal, it was a way of life, and the thought of surviving without it was incomprehensible. Warcraft lore speaks often of the ‘addiction’ that the quel’dorei had to arcane magic – I sometimes wonder if it’s really an addiction so much as something that they need to continue existing.

Wild speculation time – the addiction to the Well that the quel’dorei possess isn’t entirely a mental thing, it’s physical. The city of Zin’Azshari that the quel’dorei called home was built right up on the edge of the Well of Eternity, bordered it pretty much on all sides. The quel’dorei were concentrated mostly in the center of this, while the night elves lived farther away from it. The Well itself teemed with pure energy pulled from the Great Dark Beyond, and the quel’dorei breathed the air that the Well evaporated into at its strongest point, day after day, for thousands of years. It’s not too far-fetched to assume that the power that existed in the Well almost became a physical part of those quel’dorei, forming an almost cellular bond with these creatures. Think of it as extra insulation for lungs – with the insulation, their breathing was easier, moving was easier, it was possible to physically and mentally do much more than they were previously capable of. When the Well exploded, all of a sudden that insulation was gone, and physically they were unable to do the majority of the things that they’d been doing day to day for the length of their impossibly long lives. So the quel’dorei went into a ‘withdrawal’ of sorts,  leaving them weak, largely helpless, and mentally craving that which would make them strong again.

The leader of the quel’dorei who survived the Sundering was Dath’Remar, a quel’dorei who was originally part of the Highborne that stayed and served Queen Azshara prior to the Sundering. Dath’Remar was one of ‘those guys’, but he was smarter than the rest of them – the Highborne’s affiliation and allegiance with the Burning Legion and Sargeras bothered him greatly, and he sought out other like-minded Highborne, gaining their allegiance. These rogue Highborne worked in secret to slow the work of Azshara’s chosen ones in making the portal between Sargeras’s world and Azeroth a reality.

After the Sundering, Dath’Remar was present at the formation of the new Well of Eternity – the one Illidan made, that was expressly forbidden. He was also present for the forming of the new World Tree, Nordrassil – and he knew that his people, the quel’dorei, would have to make amends with the night elves if they ever hoped to revive their civilization as it existed pre-Sundering. Dath’Remar wasn’t a bad sort, he just wanted things back the way they were – and he wanted to resume using the arcane arts and magic that had imbued his people for so long.

The night elves on the other hand had a different plan altogether. As the night elves weren’t that closely tied to the Well of Eternity, they picked up the arts of druidism fully, and with these arts continued to delve into magic, natural magic. The night elves viewed the Sundering as the kaldorei’s greatest folly – and they placed the blame squarely on the arcane arts of the quel’dorei, as it was the quel’dorei that had been working on these portals to the Burning Legion and essentially, in the night elves opinion, mucking about with things that they had no business mucking about with. The night elves didn’t need the Well to survive – why should anyone need it? And why should they allow anyone to start practicing these arts again, and cause yet another Sundering to come to pass? And so the night elves forbid the use of arcane magic entirely, on penalty of death.

Needless to say, the quel’dorei weren’t very happy about this. The magic that had imbued them and made them what they were was simply gone now, and they needed it to survive in the manner that they were accustomed to surviving. Dath’Remar tried to persuade the night elves that their forbidding of the arcane arts was too severe of a punishment, but the night elves wouldn’t agree.

The quel’dorei were convinced that it wasn’t the arcane arts that was the issue – it was the matter of corruption, of letting the arcane get to them and twist them that was the problem. Simply forbidding the arcane wasn’t a solution; it was cowardice – what the quel’dorei felt they should be doing was learning to use the arcane properly. Years passed, around seven thousand of them, give or take a few, and the quel’dorei grew more and more desperate. Here they were, immortal, and doomed to a weak half-life, a life in which they were forbidden to do that which came naturally to them.

Dath’Remar had had enough. He took his followers, the quel’dorei, the leftover Highborne, and they banded together to unleash a magical storm across Ashenvale forest. Perhaps he wished to catch the night elves attention – perhaps he hoped that the night elves would put his people to death, as it seemed a better alternative than living the shell of the life they’d been forced to live for seven thousand years. Regardless, the night elves couldn’t bring themselves to kill so many of their kin, and so they chose a different path for the quel’dorei – they banished them from Kalimdor altogether.

The night elves, for whatever reason, seem to enjoy this ‘let’s just shove everything that’s unpleasant under the rug or across the ocean so we don’t have to look or think about it anymore’ tactic. First it’s arcane magic, then it’s the quel’dorei themselves. Interesting.

Settlements and the Founding of the High Kingdom

So Dath’Remar led his people over the oceans, on ships that were specially constructed for the long journey, glad to be rid of his night elf cousins once and for all. The ships landed in Tirisfal Glades, and Dath’Remar took the name Sunstrider for himself, meaning ‘he who walks in the day’, to suit the changes that were taking place among the quel’dorei. The quel’dorei abandoned the concepts of Elune and nocturnal living entirely, embracing the sun instead, and the quel’dorei formed a settlement in Tirisfal for a time, becoming ‘high elves’ in full.

They left Tirisfal after a time – there are references to some elves being driven insane, and the belief that something evil slept beneath the earth. This indicates Tirisfal as a possible location for one of the Old Gods that was locked beneath the earth by the Titans at the beginning of time. Around this time, the quel’dorei also became completely severed from the Well of Eternity, or what remained of it under Nordrassil, becoming vulnerable to the elements and losing their immortality entirely. They weakened further, gradually becoming the pink-skinned, fair-haired, shorter elves that we are familiar with today.

These high elves discovered the primitive humans, but ignored them, moving on and finding a much larger menace – the forest trolls of Zul’Aman, a branch of what was left of the great Amani Empire. The elves and trolls fought relentlessly, and the high elves finally discovered a land in the northern forests that suited them and built the kingdom of Quel’Thalas, ‘high kingdom’ or ‘high home’. They vowed that their beloved city would soon become an empire that would dwarf that of their weaker cousins. Unfortunately, they soon discovered that Quel’Thalas was built upon the ruins of an ancient troll city that the Amani still viewed as sacred – and the Amani, already angry with the elves encroachment upon their lands, promptly began attacking the elven settlements.

The high elves fought back and won; utilizing what little magic they had left over from the Well of Eternity. Some elves, still wary of possible infiltration by the Burning Legion that had twisted their brethren and caused the Sundering, decided to create a protective barrier around the city to allow them to continue using their magic without attracting the attention of the Burning Legion. They placed a series of runestones around the borders of their lands.

The Sunwell and the First Troll War

Quel’Thalas flourished, becoming a shining monument to the progress of the high elves – while the high elves no longer held the same reverence for nature as their cousins to the west, they still appreciated it, and went to great lengths to incorporate their surroundings into their architecture. They placed an enchantment on the surrounding forests, so that it would always appear to be springtime, bright gold, yellow and red. And the high elves created a new well for themselves, to once more imbue their people with the power that they’d lost so long ago: the Sunwell.

The Sunwell was created at a convergence of powerful ley energies in Quel’Thalas by high elves that used a vial of water stolen from the original Well of Eternity. A mini Well of Eternity, the Sunwell’s potent magic fed and strengthened all the high elves on Azeroth. While it was weaker than the original Well, it was strong enough for the high elves to practice the magic they’d missed for so long. For four thousand years, the high elves lived in Quel’Thalas, bathed by the light of the Sunwell, the runestones keeping the Burning Legion ignorant of their secret magic practices, and also serving to keep the superstitious troll war parties away as well. During this time Dath’Remar retired from leadership, passing the mantle on to another elf named Anasterian Sunstrider. It’s not really mentioned in lore if this is Dath’Remar’s son, or someone who simply took up the mantle of Sunstrider because it was an appropriate name for a leader.

The Amani, however, were far smarter than the high elves anticipated. They hid in the forests, biding their time and increasing their numbers until the moment was right. And when they had enough warriors to fight, they struck. A mighty troll army charged out from the shadowy forests, laying siege to Quel’Thalas with the intent of destroying it for good. The high elves fought back, but this time the trolls had the upper hand – their numbers were simply too great for the high elves to continue fighting. And so, in desperation, the high elves turned to the only neighbors they had – those primitive humans to the south that they’d encountered after leaving Tirisfal.

Those ‘primitive humans’ had banded together and formed the human empire of Arathor in the meantime, led by a man named Thoradin who was also dealing with the troll’s attacks upon his people. While Thoradin, being a sensible sort, was distrustful of magic in general, he agreed to send aid to the elves – because he realized that if Quel’Thalas fell, the trolls would turn their attentions fully on Arathor. In exchange for the alliance, the high elves offered to teach the humans magic, how to practice and control it for their own purposes. The alliance was struck, the tide soon turned in the favor of the two empires, and the troll’s empire was shattered – they pushed the Amani tribes away, forever breaking the legions of Zul’Aman. Anasterian, grateful for the assistance, pledged an oath of loyalty and friendship to Thoradin and his bloodline, and the high elves went back to quietly puttering away with the Sunwell.

The Second War and the Alliance

Nearly three thousand years after the defeat of the troll empire, the high elves found themselves with another problem. King Terenas, leader of the human kingdom of Lordaeron, sent a missive to Anasterian. It seemed that a human kingdom had fallen to a new threat, a orcish horde that the high elves had neither heard of nor concerned themselves with overly. But there was a catch – a man named Anduin Lothar, who was a direct descendant of Thoradin and the last of the Arathi bloodline, was currently leading the kingdom that had fallen. And so Anasterian reluctantly agreed to offer a token amount of assistance, as his oath required him to do so.

This reluctance soon changed when the high elves realized that these orcs that were battling the humans had forged an alliance with the Amani trolls. The two forces promptly began to encroach on Quel’Thalas. Enraged, Anasterian threw his full support behind the war, joining the Alliance and mobilizing his armies to battle the Horde. Unfortunately, a good majority of Eversong Woods, the outlying forests of Quel’Thalas, was burned during the war. While the Alliance was victorious over the Horde, Anasterian pulled his support and withdrew from the Alliance, citing the human’s poor leadership and blaming the burning of the forests on that.

The blood elves withdrew once more into their kingdom, with few exceptions. Some elven priests and sorceresses that left to practice and teach their magics to others, and one other very, very important figure also left Quel’thalas at this time; Anasterian’s son and heir, a man who had a destiny spanning further than any other high elf in history and a member of the Kirin Tor of Dalaran, Prince Kael’thas Sunstrider.

There is a lot more to cover, including how the blood elves got their name, what happened to the Sunwell, and just what’s so important about that Prince. Stay tuned tomorrow for Blood Elf History Part Two: Say Illidan, You’re Looking Awfully…Uh…Horny?

My soul stayed behind when I left Iceland, and is now flying over the rugged mountains and flowing in the streams over the basalt columns, bubbling up from the thermal vents, playing with jotuns in the lava fields and horse riding on the high mountain platou.

Iceland must be the most beautiful island in the world. I haven`t seen it all, but I feel there is no more to see. This is the place.

The landscape is breathtaking! You have already heard that, of course, but I cannot stress this enough. Marvellous!

The climate is not that different from Norway, and western Norway, where I live, share some of that mountain-fjord feeling; the ice age U-shaped valleys. The main carvings of the land makes me feel at home; the shapes are familiar, but the texture, the surface, is so exotic! This is of course due to Iceland´s volcanic rocks; the rugged peaks on those mountains, the craters, the black lava scattered all around like numerous lurking trolls…

And the colours! Red iron specked rocks, green Racomitrium mosses, yellow birch and willow leaves and shades from black lava to grey basalt against blue skies and with white fumes rising from thermal fizzures.

All around is sheep and horses of traditional breeds that through small scale use have survived Man´s alteration of the animal body for more meat, more production, more money. No, these are small, natural, old style, furry, multicoloured sheep and horses with wits and instincts. However, the land is suffering from overgrazing and erosion. They are planting exotic, invasive species like Sitka Spruce and Lupins, since very few species can establish in the harsh conditions. I am kind of worried about this, but that is another story.

The language is poetry in my ears. I love the letters ð and þ, and the sharp r´s. Norway share a cultural history with Iceland, but Icelanders are closer to this Norse cultural heritage than us Norwegians, infected by the oil as we are, and having a spatial connection to Europe. The remotedness out on sea has preserved language as well cultural feelings in Iceland. Some people here even believe in trolls, just like me.

Iceland has no army! Just peace.

The city of Reykjavik is quite small and intimate. Everything is centered in one main street. Saturday night in Reykjavik is crazy. I should probably not have gotten so drunk, then I could better have seen how amazing this happy, intoxicated crowd probably was. However, I did contribute well to the spirit of the street.

I love Hostels. I love their atmosphere and how you always talk to strangers who also travel alone. You go eating and drinking with strangers, and travel further with strangers.

Across the street from my hostel I found my regular café! Café Hjomalind, with vegan food and the nicest people, art exhibition downstairs, and beautiful furniture. But they were no longer allowed to rent the place, and had to close the café down three days after I left!

I do not enjoy shopping. However, in Reykjavik, I scraped my account down to the last Icelandic króna.

I found a silverware store that sold entirely traditional jewellery. It is the most beautiful things I have seen; rings and arm rings like those found in Viking graves, bracelets shaped like Midgardsormen, earrings with dangling silver droplets, scythe formed earrings and much more.

The wool store! Oh my god. I spent half a day in there. The icelandic sheep are similar to the Old Norse sheep we have in Norway. The wool has another quality than that of the common sheep; it has two layers and more lanolin. Many products are knitted with the natural colours of the sheep: coke black, brown, red, different shades of gray, and white. The patterns are also traditional, and some of it was hand knitted. I also bought a sheep poster and a horse poster made by Bændasamtök Ìslands, the Farmers Association of Iceland.

Reykjavik is packed with second hand shops! Almost the entire street was filled with them! And the cooles clothes, I have never seen so much nice looking stuff gathered centered in one small place. They have a really good taste in Iceland. I usually hate shopping except from at second hand stores and fly markets. However, this place was the cream of the second hand stores powered by twenty!

Music. Just a few words. The traditional songs are just as cool as those we have in Norway. Iceland has a lot of bands,  a lot of great stuff – I think they all seem to be very original. I have to post one of my favourite Björk songs:

For more Icelandic music, check out the Twitter list @gogoyoko/icelandicbands.

Some of the Icelandic roads are terrible. But I like gravel roads. Maybe we went for the wrong car, we rented the white one, a Nissan Micra.

El video va de un joven argentino-español-estadounidense de 21 años de edad (ya sta grande) que nos habla acerca de cómo pandorizar una bateria de una PSP Slim. “Os tenéis mucho cuidado con la bateria sino os poderos perderla” vale? XD.

Asi que si están buscando un toto de este estilo este bato los puede ayudar. No comprendo porque hace esta cosa pero esta gracioso, es una de las tantas cosas que ocurren en el Internet para aparentar cosas que no somos.

Lo cagado es que si quería aparentar ser español o argentino que son los acentos que tiene su perfil y su otro video lo delata y queda claro que es chilango.

SCOD had been developing connections in Wisconsin, as brother Cordite has relocated there together with EmBee. Wisconsin seems to be an interesting State, judging from the area around Madison. There are many alternative establishments there to study, communicate with, and be a part of.

Albion Swords is the number one manufacturer in America of museum quality swords. Their workshop surpasses that of Toledo Swords in Spain. Also they have been filming an independent film called “Devolution: 2012”.

Circle Sanctuary is a beautiful gathering place for pagans of all kinds. Head Priestess and Co-Founder Selena Fox is delightful, positive, and charming as a hostess for events. Circle Sanctuary has circles, animal sanctuary woodland, and was responsible for getting pentacles put on military tombstones for pagans in Arlington Cemetery. There is also a private Cemetery at Circle Sanctuary.

House on the Rock is the most amazing and bizarre house to ever exist. It is a professional tourist attraction, and is as large as many amusement parks. The architectural composition is so eclectic, it is impossible to explain in one paragraph.

Phelan Vanth has established a ghost tour known as Wicked Witchconsin. Hanging Day in Mineral Point Town has a new meaning on Halloween every year now! Doing this tour independently has given her the freedom to bring you the most gritty and blackest story of Point’s history.

The town of Mount Horeb has Trolls and the Mustard Museum, Madison University plays Quidich (from Harry Potter), and the farmland is beautiful. There are many active pagans and hybrid vehicles in Wisconsin. More reports will certainly be about Wisconsin, and Cheese.

Earl (EQH) started a second blog to call out all the haters. The funny thing about haters is they’re so stereotypical. People with nice cars and lots of money invested never feel the need to say shit, they’re humble about their accomplishments. It’s always the dudes driving the broke-ass cars that feel less superior and the need to call everyone out. I’ve already gotten a few laughs after reading this blog. Check out Your Car Is Wack now.

Some thoughts this morning on the fine art of trolling. That’s what I’m paneling on at Netroots Minnesota this afternoon, and that’s what I’ve been thinking about lately.

Not from defensive POV, but in my role as a liberal troll at my buddy Vick’s blog. I think my work in that thread is now over, and yes, I’d rate my work as “mission accomplished.” The post is about Sarah Palin. My comments were focused on her religious beliefs. If there is one point on which the hard right is vulnerable, it’s the balkanized patchwork quilt that is their collectively dyspeptic range of religious beliefs.

And yes, I just shouted MORMON! in a crowded chat thread. Not about Palin, but a good troll shifts gears now and then and the fact that Glenn Beck is a convert to Mormonism isn’t as well known among these folks as you might think.

I like to think it bothers them to learn these things. No one likes Mormons. Not really, especially not on the right where not everyone’s sure their comfort level really includes Roman Catholics. Jews they only discuss on Sundays, preferably in the Biblical sense.

Vick’s got readers I can’t reach, mostly because I don’t think they really understand half of what they read, reading not being their favorite means of gathering data. Talk radio is killing this country. Every day Rush pumps enough disinformation to keep four Media Matters staffers busy. But to the credit of Vick’s sharper rightie readers, they all make more sense than Jonah Goldberg’s latest column in which he writes about Palin’s book by using some troll’s gotcha gambit, and then beats her critics with a tire iron while singing the la-la-la song (he does not quote Palin once or offer up a single fact in her defense).

Your best defense? Know what you’re talking about. Trolls love catching you when you go off half-cocked. My traction at Vick’s came from the fact that the Palin supporters there really don’t know about her religious beliefs, not as well as they should.

Do your damage, and then disengage. Give them the last word if that last word is more or less a “and the horse you rode in on.” Or a digressive thought or somewhat off-topic fact. And if at any point you find yourself shouting at your monitor, you’re losing.

As for the panel, my contribution will be pretty much the opposite of what Mitch Berg is expecting. I tried to wordle Mitch’s post but mostly the app just picked up on his mannerisms and then it crashed Safari which I’m sure pleased Mitch to no end.

Amazingly enough, I’m on the panel because of my anti-troll work for Ford Bell’s Senate campaign. I’m not entirely sure I get that as I don’t recall that we even allowed comments, but that’s the starting point for today’s discussion. Where it goes from there is anyone’s guess, but it’s a safe bet Mitch has no clue as to how we roll when he’s not around.

Note: banning someone is not winning.

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I wonder if Tim Geithner thinks of Paul Krugman as a troll.

He should.

And we should all be rooting for the troll in this fight but maybe that’s not the best nomenclature. Thad Cochran is being pretty trollish right now, but he’s coming at the economy from the opposite side as Krugman.

The more quickly we figure out how to explain to the right’s base that they’re getting played by Wall Street, the faster we can go back to pressuring Obama from the left. But so long as the right gets to wallow in factoids, lies and disinformation, they can bitter end right through the Last Times and on that they are 100% correct. If we don’t fix this mess, end times will come for U.S., if not the world.

What is the lesson to be learned from wealth earned by the most successful ponziers? Aren’t we teaching kids that whoever screws best/last gets all the toys?

What is the right trying to teach us, and why don’t we call them on their bottom line?

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I’m not sorry to see that Oprah’s quitting. However much the right saw her as a lefty, I never saw or heard anything from her that didn’t sound very, very pro-establishment.

I don’t think her place in history is very secure. Her viewers weren’t much different from talk radio listeners. It’s not good to let others do your thinking for you.

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Obama being flat out fucking wrong, again.

As contrasted with those who are wrong every fucking time.

In Obama’s defense, I remember a lot of liberals being pretty pissed about Kirsten Gillibrand getting Hillary’s seat in the Senate. Maybe they’ll be a little less pissed after reading this.

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A six-year-old girl is facing lifetime of deafness but Cigna is refusing to make good on her insurance policy.

All they have to do is stall her for a while longer and her hearing will be lost forever.

Call it a private insurer’s “hearing panel.”

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I love when smart people pretend to be stoned.

Maybe in his next video David Lazarus can pretend to be drunk. And then an intern can upload a YouTube of Lazarus belligerently punching out the cameraman afterwards.

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Prosecutors have dropped 72 immigration charges against Sholom Rubashkin.

I can see why this drives the anti-immigration crowd nuts. The law is the law is the law, but our prosecutors are quick to drop charges against corporate violators even more quickly than they look to pile on more charges when the suspect is not part of a corporation but just a lone individual hurting no one (drug users).

Was Rubashkin’s car ever seized? Did they tear apart his home looking for evidence? Did they try to flip his kids to get them to rat out dad?

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Labor unrest in India.

About time.

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No clue when the music post will go up at the other blog tonight. Maybe not until tomorrow.

So.. last night, I watched 2012 for the second time. Why? to find more bullshit in the movie of course! (nah.. I honestly loved it)

I wont spam nothin bout the storyline… since it’s a work of fiction.. right? right?!

ya for those who havent seen the movie… spoilers n stuff n stuff. kthxbye.

The shits

Watching the movie from beginning to end… several moments made me go hmmmm… which resulted in distraction and utter annoyance as to why I should notice flaws over a brilliant movie. First off, I “love” physics.. therefore, I understand the nature of how things “should” act around our planetary system of trolls. The shits I rage at in movies comes in 3 factors; How realistic it is, how the actors are, and how many “corny” and “perfect moments” there are in movies. thankfully, I didnt find anything annoying around the actors, other than the fact that jackson, the main character, ALWAYS keeps his mouth open.. ALWAYS!

Scene 1: The miniquakes. like… when the main dude drives his limo to pick up his kids. all these bystanders are just standing there! like omg be more realistic! they’re all STARING at the cracks. ALL OF THEM! WTF IS THIS SHIT! surfers, grandmas, fat ladies, little kids, randoms, every single bastard in that scene stopped in the middle of their tracks, slightly bent over tilting their heads as if trying to find some coins, looking at the freakin cracks… it looks as if they havent seen a crack ever in their life..

since this was at the beginning of the movie, I was like “yeah okay a bit of an acting failure there” n moved on.

Scene 2: Shopping centre crack. this part’s when some random shopping centre splits in half cos it wanted to. In my opinion, this is utterly lol… the crack’s about 300m? give or take? it wasnt massive. it looked like it was around 10m deep. and the width was over 9000cm! I reckon it was faaaar to wide for a very short in length crack. I’m no geologist, but I do believe that… when you grip the sides of a tissue paper with both hands as if you’re reading a book and attempt to stretch the tissue paper until it rips through the center, when you get that perfect rip that begins from the center and doesnt fully rip the tissue paper, I believe the rip’s length appears to be around 10-20 times longer than the width. In this scene, it looked like the width was within 10 to 1 length to width ratio. Plus, the depth wasnt deep at all.. the depth was about the same as the width.. the depth “should” be deeper… cos if ya think about it.. the crack = attempt to split the whole crust layer. it should be significantly deeper than that… esp with a massive splitting length (width of the crack). I know I’ve made this confusing but omg! crack’s width is too much! That’s my opinion anyway… stfu noobs i dont wanna hear your “You’re wrong tharr mate” comments n poopers. Have a cry.

Scene 3: Limo bouncing [CG/Real].Simply noted, the CG physics of when Jackson n crew were in the limo driving through the crumbling city, wasnt realistic. In real life, it looked like his shocks were hitting the road hard with many bumps n such. But in CG scene, it looked like the limo had super soft suspensions.. it also looked more game-ish lol.

Scene 4: Flying downflow wind. This part I raged hard.. when cracks get larger and larger, more air appears. Where does the air come from? from above… and the fellas were flying their small aircraft through the crack as if there’s no suction … .. I was like ohhh my ghaaad. esp when large slabs of rock just falls and plane flies over it dodging the falling rocks.. them huge rocks should have drag wind pulling the plane down. but nope. no drag. The plane was on noclip mode.

Scene 5: Exploding caldera. Small plane refuels at an airport up on yellowstone, where a massive caldera appeared that created the largest explosion, ever. I remember watching a documentary about a whole mountain exploded because the ancient volcano that was there suddenly errupted. They said this was the largest explosion that they can dig up on earth. The dust n shit that comes out of the popped cherry stayed around for 2 or 3 years, creating a mini iceage. And… since I remember these details badly, I was like “wtf clear sky” when the ending came.. Like bro, you blow something up, the debris and crater stays. Until something moves it. Since the explosion in the movie appeared to be equivalent or larger to the documentary I watched, I was hoping to see if the movie makers noticed how long it would normally take for it to turn back to normal.. but no it only took them 27 days to see clear sky.

Then there’s the plane flying through debris.. I clearly saw that a burning rock fell infront of the plane from the explosion. what’s significant in this? cos the plane’s engine went perfectly through the smoke trail the rock was giving away. I reckon the smoke from volcanoes are hell thicker than typical smoke. It should mess up the engine.. .. .. but it didnt. so yeah. like lol. mmm. dodgy.

Scene 6: Van crack jumping. Everyone remember how the radio station van jumped the crack that appeared between them and the plane? yeah. I was like “lol van jumped a 5m gap”. The van clearly didnt have enough speed and the ramp it went flying from was like… short. like wtf man.. wtf. This totally killed my understanding of physics -_-. Jackson n the lil girl should be dead. Face first into the cliff. There’s another problem here too. The van jump crack length is around 5m. The scene where the shopping centre splits in half was longer than 5m.. The depth of the van jump crack was around… 20m deep? 50m? it was deep. That shopping centre was a total shit of bulls. 20m high,  you’d surely die falling at that height.. cos of the lava at ground floor but point is cats rule.

Scene 7: Gordon talks in person instead of using the mic. Did anyone notice this? I fucking did! At one point,  Sasha, the pilot for the massive Russian aircraft that had cars as cargo, he uses the mic n says “Ladies and Gentlemen, we’re on our whey ta chainah “. Then when they were arriving Hawaii.. Sasha tells Gordon to go down to call the blokes -_-… omgz man, thar was mic n they no use then y? me no understand laaahhh………….. so who was phone?

Scene 8: Cars bouncing out of the plane in the opposite direction. The scene where Yuri goes “SHUDDUP EVERY BODY!… Engine. Staaart”. Then the bently go TING n they drive off the fat aircraft and onto the snow.. and in this part they were sliding forward in the same direction of the plane, dodging the other cars that were falling out of the plane. I noticed that the falling cars were tumbling in the OPPOSITE DIRECTION! ASDF WHY! if you drop a ball out of a moving car, the ball moves in the same direction as the car! in this scene, it looked as if the cars were thrown strong enough to the opposite direction. If you did physics, you know exactly what I mean by the cars having to be “thrown” to the opposite direction. Plus think about this, if you sat at the back of a ute that’s moving at 100km/h, and you throw a ball backwards in the opposite direction to the ute’s direction, I dont think you have enough power to throw the ball so that it looked like the ball just dropped from the view of a bystander.. lkjdfaondtash!

Scene 9: The survivors “climbs down” the massive cliff where Sasha died. At first, they were on the cliff that Sasha fell off, Then suddenly… they teleported to the same level as where Sasha died. Cliff didnt look like it had an easy path like lolwut..

Scene 10: Weak Arch gates. The gate didnt close cos of some electric tool… The gate is about… 2 feet thick, designed to handle tough beatings. Which logically means that the engine that pulls the gate back up should be powerful too. It killed Gordon like it was cake sliced by a machete. But the gears got stuck by some random tool… The metal used for the gears should be very strong to handle pressures of the heavy gate, so the metal should be able to eat the tool.. other than that, when they had contact with jackson, he shoulda been smarter to tell the captain to open the gate a bit to release the tool.. then he pulls it out.. then happily ever after. Stupid people are stupid.

Scene 11: Thin glass. They build the Archs for 2 years straight. Since this movie’s about a “world crisis” thing and that every nation gave their all to build it, I’d expect their creation to be at the top level of design and strength. When they were heading towards mt everest, they were going to “die”…? I was like WHAT! as if you’d die from bumping something head on.. plus… the most damage the Arch took was cracked windscreen! That glass itself should be thicker! fark. if I designed a ship to survive every beating nature can give, the glass will be atleast 1 foot thick!  they were using bullet proof glass or something… a bit of rock fell on it n cracked it…  lol.. fail.

Extra Scene: Perfect moments.. I’ll list it..

1. Gordon n Kate  held hands n Gordon was asking for sex in the grocery store. Then crack appears right between them.
2. Limo drives away from the earthquake that’s destroying everything behind them and is chasing them perfectly at driving speed.
   
3. Limo drives through a crumbling building and drives right through it without mistake.
4. Limo drives under a falling bridge and just manages going through.
5. Jackson survives from the falling radio van.
6. Small plane survives from the smoke of the exploded caldera.
7. When the old white dude who played jazz on the large cruiser ship calls his son, the son didnt have time to say anything n dies.
   
8. The tall pin dick shaped  stone monument in Washington dc fell conveniently towards the president’s direction.
9. The building that the pope’s at, conveniently fell AND rolled towards the mass crowds below.
10. “I’m coming home Dorothy” says the president.
11. Russian chick drowns when she’s in between Kate and the lil girl.
12. There’s a surveillance camera at every convenient location in the Arch that the bridge can see; eg. The exact spot where the tool jammed the gears.
    
13. The fact that the family’s super lucky and always getting into tons of shit and surviving it…. all of them…

Then there’s the small details that I rage on. Like why cant the captain start the engine with the gate open? Why are lock chambers permanently shut getting the russian chick killed? Why did the small plane fly low when they had noclip?

The hmm,

One thing I’m wondering is.. what happens to them people out in space? How’re they coming back.. how’re they gonna survive without additional food.. lol.

Lemme know if you’ve bothered reading my spam. cheers mates.

Troll comment of the week re: The Minidress Riot

She wasn’t wearing any underwear. Most American media fails to include that in the reports.

*smacks forehead as the light turns on*

Wow, all this self-righteous anger was for nothing!  Obvs, girls who don’t wear underwear deserve to be threatened with rape by a crowd of hundreds of scary people!

Not.

I think I can finally compile a list of tactics one can use that will help you survive the savage, hostile environment of the college football fan forum, such as can be found at Yahoo’s Rivals.com or ESPN.com.

Here’s the quick and dirty thing to do. Kind of mentally pitch into the round file any post that contains any of the following:

• The words joke, choke, loser, or pathetic.
• Any form of laughter (i.e. “HAHAHAHAHAHA”, “LOL”, “ROTFLMAO”)

Those things are the mark of the troll. Trolls love college football forums, not for the enlightening discussion of what Team X should do to beat Team Y, or who ought to be ranked higher than whom, but because they’re not going to have better opportunity anywhere else of calling another human being a pathetic loser. Trolls are, however, finding an abundance of big game in Christian sims in Second Life.

My expertise on trolls comes from the wrong end of being trolled. Truth to be told, there’s a little troll in me, and I would call myself pathetic. The only two things keeping me out of my mother’s basement is having neither a basement nor a living mother.

I see this on other blogs.  Here, not so much.  Someone writes a post.  Someone else posts a rather caustic comment.

Doesn’t sign his name.  If someone criticizes the commenter, he heaps on the personal attacks and often the indefensible arguments because, hey, you know nothing about him.  He’s unassailable.

There’s a word for that.  Troll.

Trolls, particularly when politics are discussed, like to get abusive.  Since they don’t sign their name, the only place you can attack them is on the very blog where they commented.  To which the troll’s response is “Well, it’s clear everyone here is kissing your ass/is a liberal pinko commie/fascist Bushista conservative/molests little bunnies while worshiping the Devil/etc.”

Of course, it’s in our nature to engage these idiots when attacked.  After all, we must defend ourselves.  Which is what they want.  They’ve just tossed a cyber-Molatov cocktail onto your blog, and now they want to watch the fireworks.  They also want the attention they can safely bask in behind that most pathetic of online ID’s, “Anonymous.”

My solution?

Delete.  Ban.  Blacklist.

Ignore.

So far, only three people are banned on this blog.  One is a guy with a history of libel and online abuse.  (I know.  I Googled him after he tried to pick a fight.  He’s been kicked out of more Internet sites than I’ve ever read.)  When I migrated over to WordPress, I decided to save myself the headache and typed his name into the blacklist.  Problem solved.

The other two?  These two geniuses (whom I suspect are actually the same person) worked for a check cashing place that “would be driven out of business, costing Ohio JOBS!” if people voted yes on cracking down on such places.  Their posts amounted to shouting down anyone who attacked their position.

Zap!

At least he signed his names.  As for his/their employer?  I pass two of their branches within two blocks of each other during my daily commute.  I’m mad.  I voted to put them out of business.

I’ve learned, after getting burned several times, the rule for trolls is “Do not engage.”  I haven’t been perfect in following that rule, but I do follow it.

My only personal trolling experience worth mentioning is a guy who decided to take a private spat public.  He posted some borderline slanderous comments while hiding behind an anonymous moniker, leaving enough clues to let me know who he was.  I chose not to engage.  The kicker was a guest blog post he wrote under his own name.  To his credit, he didn’t name me directly, but made it very clear that he wanted very much to apply for the job of my mortal nemesis.  (That position has not been created  and its functions have been outsourced to the customer service department at Time Warner Cable.)  What got on my nerves was his comment “Now he won’t even speak to me.”  Never mind that he’s never made an effort to, oh, I dunno.  Send an email? I’ve had the same public email address for six years now.

Wow.  Trolling on other people’s blogs.  And of course, never here.  Because I might do something like filter him out.  Which incidentally I never have.  Zapped his comments on the old blog, maybe, but I’ve even zapped my wife’s here.  Not so much anymore.  You really have to be trying hard to get kicked off these days or pimping nude pics of Vic Tayback for that to happen.  That falls under either the category of spammer or troll.  Spammers and trolls can get the hell of my lawn.

The thing is I know this guy.  All he had to do was man up and email me.  Better still, he could sign his real name or at least identify himself publicly.  All it would take is a backbone.

He didn’t, so I don’t engage.  The above is probably more attention than I should be giving him, but I wrote it to make a point.  I didn’t engage when I knew who it was, and I don’t normally engage when I don’t.

What brought on this little rant is actually another blogger, a friend, who, instead of using the ban button, decided to shut down and not deal with it anymore.  Ironically, the guy causing the trouble for him (also a friend) signed his name.  Even posted his home address.  The resident troll on the blog loved this.  Encouraged my friend to stay off teh intrawebs for a nice long time while sucking up to my other friend.  Never mind my other friend finds the troll annoying, too.

Still didn’t sign his name.  And forget that my two friends patched things up in short order.  This schmuck couldn’t keep his mouth shut and couldn’t sign his name.  Or maybe he did.  Some of the anti posts under “anonymous” had initials.  Somehow, I don’t think so.  Many of the anonymous posts still appeared unsigned.  And of course, curiosity got the better of me.  I got the itch.

Occasionally, that itch is too much, and I have to ask a troll why he even bothers harassing someone whose blog they don’t like?  I don’t like the TV show, I change the channel.  Don’t like the music?  Change the station or delete it off the player.  Don’t like the web site?  It’s a big Internet.  Point elsewhere.  Have to chime in and argue?  Sign my name.

Of course, signing your name, be it the one on your driver’s license, the Elton John to your Reggie Dwight, or just the cute little handle that pretty much is a beacon aimed at you for the rest of cyberspace to follow, takes balls.  Perfect strangers will know who you are.

And trolls never have a pair worth mentioning, if they have a pair at all.

“Stupidity is an unfortunate but necessary by product of cognitive evolution.”

- Xenocrates

Every once in a while, we hear about someone doing something so profoundly dumb, that it makes us wonder what compelled them to do it in the first place. However, stupidity is not exclusive to people who are notably less intelligent than others. In fact, if you think about it, you’ll see how pervasive it really is.

There are several every day actions that people seem to have a certain proclivity for that they never seem to think about until after the fact, when the reality of it sinks in. These are things most of us – myself included – do with a kind of blind routine; subconsciously at times, without even realizing it.

I call the collective of these actions the function of a “stupid gene” as it were. We all have it to some degree and most of us are only aware of it at a subconscious level. Let me be clear though: I don’t think there’s necessarily such a thing as a stupid “gene”, since DNA is not quite so simplistic. I’m using this description more as a metaphor for describing the ubiquity of this quality.

Now, while there are some incredibly stupid people in the world, this post is not dedicated to those who have unwittingly separated themselves from the gene pool because of their own profound lack of foresight. Rather, I invite you to consider other less obvious examples that we’re all inexcusably guilty of.

With that said, the following is a description of what I believe are the top 10 most common, most stupid things we often find ourselves doing – often times with great conviction and a sense of blind, indiscriminate, ill placed cognition:

1. Valuing process over function

Have you ever heard of the expression that the journey is more important than the destination? It would appear as though humans all seem to derive a greater sense of purpose from being involved in a process as opposed to its intended function. We see this behaviour in everything from romance to war.

Why it’s stupid:

Because it’s synonymous with putting the cart before the horse.

Function defines process, but we often get caught doing it the other way around. Sometimes we get so tied up in the process that we forget the whole purpose of the function altogether. That’s when process supersedes function.

When people loose their sense of direction, they tend to make the same mistakes over and over again. For example; People who become preoccupied with the process of romantic courtship become so addicted to the emotional roller coaster ride (aka “drama”) of the process that a functional relationship is never actually predicated out of this ultimately pointless, meaningless farce.

But it’s not only in romance that people meander aimlessly. You’ll find the same kind of clumsy behaviour in careers and education. There are people who’ve quite literally become professional students, because they choose the career after they’ve gone to college and not before selecting their specialty.

The same can be said of many on-going modern wars. Between Iraq, Afghanistan and the rest of the Middle-East, there appears to be no clear direction in what some of these people are fighting for. As a result, casualties mount on both sides with no clear gains or losses in any particular direction.

Every once in a while, people need to stop what they’re doing, drop everything and take a long hard look at how what they’re doing gets them to what they want to achieve. In many of these cases, people will either realise that they’ve forgotten what they want to achieve or now realise that the process is the achievement, and not so much what it was originally stipulated to do.

In my observation, people seem to value the process more than the purpose. For while it does appear that the pursuit of happiness is indeed the cause of unhappiness, any pursuit that has gone on for too long seems to cause people to ultimately find more satisfaction in the pursuit more than in happiness itself.

2. Trolling on a troll

Source: PennyArcade

Trolls, as described by internet parlance, are people who take insidious pleasure at attacking others for no other reason other than to enjoy the fallout that inevitably ensues. Trolls are most evident on the internet, on forums, newsgroups, blogs and now even on social networking sites.

Why it’s stupid:

Surprisingly, people choose to argue with them.

What most people don’t know however, is that trolls are not only the anonymous, obnoxious twats that trawl the internet for a good meaningless face off. They are also the people who appear on television talking smack about public officials just because they disagree for the sake of disagreement.

They are the people who demonstrate at the G-20 gathering for no other reason than to promote anarchy, and other miscellaneous, but completely unrelated or irrelevant ideas. They are the Deontological tea-party crowd who march on Washington to protest government regulation meant to help them.

These people all fall into the troll category, largely because their concerns are either invalid, unsubstantiated, based on eccentric sensationalism, straw man arguments, or even a part of a much larger conspiracy theory initiative designed quite explicitly to sew seeds of fear, uncertainty and doubt.

I understand that people will ultimately disagree because on a microscopic scale we are cognitively different. However, what I don’t understand is when we are compelled to become embroiled in an endless trade off with someone who can only derive satisfaction by attempting to make other people feel just as miserable as they are. Trolls thrive on attention. So don’t give it to them.

It’s that simple.

Trolls exist exclusively for the purpose of sewing discord. Whether that discord is meant to destabilize a system for some other agenda or just to start a flame war on a forum for the purpose of enjoying the ensuing anarchy is irrelevant. Like common animals, trolls don’t care about your values or objectives.

That’s why the co-opted old English word which was originally intended to describe large, obnoxious, stupid, mythical creatures of old Europe (often compared to the Japanese ‘Oni’) is now used to describe such people.

Quite a fitting anthropomorphism, don’t you think?

The instant you get involved in an insult war with a troll, they win – since that was their objective in the first place. This is where the old adage about arguing with a fool becomes especially relevant. They will drag you down to their level and beat you. They win because they’re not playing by any rules.

Admittedly, when I just started out on public discussion groups on the internet, I too was drawn in by the appeal of squashing these annoying cockroaches – (even on this blog in some places). But the thing about cockroaches is that there’s so many of them, that killing one only to have a thousand take its place quickly becomes a meaningless and pointless chore.

Ad hominem remarks are usually the first indicator that you’re dealing with trolls. Thank god for spam filters and administrative key word / e-mail / domain / ip blockers. But even if you’re not dealing with internet trolls, the process is the same. That’s why there’s no point in getting worked up about Fox News, Glen Beck, Sean Hannity, and their entire army of clowns at the front gate.

Even if trolls start an initiative to discredit someone, giving them a voice automatically validates their cause. This is where the vicious cycle of circular arguments begin. Don’t value the process of troll bashing over the function of communication. They only become effective when you patronize them.

3. Forming Factions

I said in a previous post that humans seem to value group membership more than group purpose, and our history is fraught with examples of this. People seem to instinctively form groups among themselves, most of the time serving no other function other than to create unnecessary divides among us.

Why it’s stupid:

Because most of the time, group membership gets taken more seriously than group function.

That’s when we get caught up in defending the group, fighting for a cause that does not ultimately solve the problem. Instead, it usually serves to create all new problems in a vicious cycle of tit for tat that will ultimately be carried on in perpetuity by those who don’t even know how the conflict started.

You see these stupid factions all over the world and in every walk of life. Just give humans a choice of group to join, then let them compete for resources and it quickly goes to hell from there. Whether it is a relatively innocuous conflict between between Star Wars and Star Trek fans, Democrats and Republicans or Israelis and Palestinians, the nature of the conflict is the same.

On either side of the fence, there are people who are only interested in putting forward the agenda of the group to which they belong – yet, they are not willing to listen to the opinions on the other side. This obviously creates a perpetual deadlock, which ultimately leads to more meaningless conflict.

These pissing contests will never end until someone decides to zip up their pants first. It’s just that usually no one is willing to be the first to withdraw for fear of it appearing to be a form of concession. Wouldn’t it be far more interesting if people found more ways to unite us instead of ways to divide us? But alas, I don’t think such a propensity is an intrinsic quality of human nature.

This would be an epic face off – even though the Enterprise would be destroyed.

4. Upholding Double Standards

Originally posted here.

I see this all the time. One group makes a declaration about another or does something to another as if that action doesn’t also apply reflexively. Yet they become surprised when someone else does the exact same thing to them. I talk smack about Republicans a lot, and that’s because they’re prime suspects.

Why it’s stupid:

For no other reason than the fact that it exposes one’s narrow-mindedness.

If a woman declares that all men are dogs, it implies that all women are bitches. If a white man accuses black people of being “crabs in a barrel”, then he needs to be reminded of who started the two World Wars. People who say that all Asians look alike, need to be reminded that they can’t tell the difference between most people from other races either. You get it, right?

Double Standards expose an inherent narcissism in people where they succeed in identifying flaws in others, but fail to recognize the same flaw in themselves. This is why Republicans annoy me so much. They accuse the Democrats of wasteful spending after they supported an illegal, 6 year, 10 billion dollar per month war, loosing focus of it’s original objectives (if any).

But I digress… *pauses to regain composure*

What fascinates me is not so much that people do this nonsense at all. I tend to expect this kind of errant miscarriage of intelligence from the intellectually challenged, (like trolls for example) which is why I tend to ignore them. Most of the times anyway. What really fascinates me is the ubiquity of this behaviour.

But truth be told, what really pisses me off is when intelligent people do it. Nothing disappoints me more than when a seemingly intelligent person goes crazy about an idea of theirs that someone criticized, as if it is somehow exempt from the same kind of scrutiny they level at others’ opposing ideas.

Atheists I find are particularly guilty of this.

I suppose when we get emotionally caught up with an idea that we value dearly, we tend to loose focus on our intellectual integrity and veer off the side of the road of logic. But I always follow a very simple rule when making any kind of observation: How does it apply to me? I find this keeps me honest.

…at least, as honest as far as I can tell. I do admit, even I miss the boat at times.

5. Confusing Opinion and Fact

A fact is anything that can be verified. An opinion is a relatively unsubstantiated position. Yet, people go around making “intelligent guesses” and pass them off as fact. While I do admit that there is a certain temptation in doing this, we live in an age where almost anything can be quickly verified.

…and therein lies our problem.

Why it’s stupid:

Because in this age of information overload, there’s a very thin line between opinion and fact.

I’ve had a number of discussions on this blog where we’ve flung websites at each other in a desperate attempt at disproving each other. What I notice was very common though, was where people only read the title of an article and assumed that it validated their point. In most cases, it worked against them.

Of those cases, people were largely quoting:

1. out-of-date information (like old research or dated news articles)
2. opinion pieces (like other blogs)
3. white paper that only partially correlate their opinions

I find that in the case of #3 especially, people tend to go off on a long rant about this and that, then quote an article that only speaks to that but not this – which automatically invalidates the congruity of their argument. In all honesty, it’s not so much that they haven’t tried to validate their ideas.

It’s just that their effort reeks of grasping at straws.

We see the same kind of behaviour with Republicans (here he goes again) when various senators recently tried to make a case against the recently passed Health Care bill, coming up with all kinds of ridiculous contrivances, one even going as far as trying to quote a baby he held in his hand. I mean, wow.

I really need to lay off the Republicans. It’s not good for me.

More importantly, while this behaviour is by no means indigenous to Republicans (the democratically leaning CNN, MSNBC, et al are at times no different), it is no less bothersome. I can respect a man’s desire to have an opinion. What annoys me is when this opinion becomes dangerously correlated as fact. A certain news organisation has accomplished just that.

Bigots like Martin Luther (yes, the same reformist Martin Luther – he hated Jews) and Adolf Hitler are men whose opinions were so succinctly corelated with fact that people actually died. I can think of a recent US president whose opinion cost over 4,000 soldiers their lives for a seemingly pointless war.

But he’s no bigot …at least, not as far as I can prove.

But it’s not just in bigotry that we see a confusion of opinion and fact. It was a fact that 8 glasses of water per day was mandatory for everyone. It turns out that it was the opinion of the editor of a popular health magazine back in the 50’s that simply became a part of pop culture. There’s no scientific proof of this.

But I’m not going to repeat myself here. I’ve already done a write up on the truth about the truth – which more elaborately goes into how popular opinions become fact. I wonder how many people out there realise that many of the facts based on abstract ideas were actually borne out of someone’s opinion?

Think politics and religion. You won’t be too far off.

6. Playing with fire

Why do people become surprised when they get burned after playing with fire? Why are women surprised when the guy who cheated on their wives with them, cheat on them also? Why do black people who join the Republican party become surprised when one of them calls him a “nigger” behind their back?

(there I go hitting on Republicans again)

Why it’s stupid:

Because it’s madness to think that we’re somehow exempt from the laws of nature.

I remember a tale someone shared with me when I became enamoured with a pretty mixed woman who deviously had me promoted to senior management. The tale tells of a frog crossing a river with a scorpion on its back. Even though the scorpion promised not to sting the frog, midway through the crossing, it stung it anyway – and they both drowned. Heh. No surprises there at all.

True to the tale, the very same woman who had me deviously promoted to senior management tried to use me to accomplish some rather, shall we say, devious and morally questionable personal political objectives. Apparently she thought I would be one of those unopinionated, brain dead “yes” men.

Wow. Did she get a rude awakening.

I’ve met many other people like that – like this really hot chick who was fun to talk to, even though she is a complete, epic bitch of biblical proportions. I’ve seen this woman gut people like fish over the silliest things – and yet I continued to be her friend. Then when we went shopping on Valentine’s day, she totally flipped out about the way I recommended a laptop. I kid thee not.

Her silence to this day is testament to her guilt over what transpired that day.

Is it naivette that leads people to put their trust in other people who they know are bad for them? Probably. But it doesn’t make us any less stupid. We already knew about this person’s rotten ways, and we trusted them anyway. We think we’re somehow special and thus exempt from their behaviour.

A person who is devious with others, will be devious with you as well. A person who is obnoxious with others will be obnoxious to you as well. A deceitful or dishonest person will be no more honest with you. A racist is still a racist, no matter what party he hails from or how many black “friends” he has.

Don’t be surprised when you trust the untrustworthy, or sleep with a whore, or do business with a con man, or befriend the unfriendly, or host an unkempt person in a tidy home, or employ an ex-con, or forgive a betrayer, or marry your ex-girlfriend, or keep a wild animal as a pet, or join the Republican party.

(I really need to stop doing that.)

When you tame a pit bull, the vile nature of the animal never really disappears. Similarly, people don’t really change. They just become better or worse at who they really are. By extension, the laws of nature are relatively consistent. Exceptions to this rule are quite rare. So if you play with scorpions, bitches and the like, don’t be surprised when you get bit. It is only a matter of time. Fuck you Heather.

7. Winging It

I find it interesting that there are people in the world who believe that life is an adventure and that you shouldn’t try to plan everything on your journey to your grave. Isn’t it interesting then, that it’s the very same people who are often shoulder deep in credit card debt or lost their homes in a foreclosure?

Why it’s stupid:

As the old adage goes; a failure to plan is a plan to fail.

Whether you risk living on the street or even gene pool separation is irrelevant. The point is that winging it, however tempting the thought, is just as foolhardy as it is potentially liberating. I concede that all the planning can take the fun out of an adventure, but some things should just never go unplanned.

The trouble with winging it is that the people who do it rarely know when to stop or where to draw the line. It is an addiction to the adrenaline rush that comes with uncertainty. The thrill of going bare with a woman you just met, or hedging the title of your house on a game of blackjack is just plain stupid.

It doesn’t matter if you don’t pick up something like genital herpes or if you double your winnings. Wrecklessness by any other name is still wreckless just the same. When the probability of risk and reward are equal, going ahead without a plan B is just plain irrational. It’s all about proper risk management.

In fact, I am reminded of a Christian missionary group that went into Ecuador to spread the gospel to a violently primitive tribe of indigenous people. I kid thee not. Before you laugh, I need to add that they went in there just with their back packs, a biplane and their Bibles and with no form of self defense.

While the tragic outcome was not unexpected, Christian missionaries do this nonsense all the time. Then when their inexplicable attempt at imperial indoctrination gets them killed, they call it martyrdom. I call it stupidity.

Now even though a second group of missionaries followed up on their slain colleagues and got the job done, they learned from the bones of their fallen comrades that no amount of faith (and this is important) will change the probability of the occurrence of total disaster. This is an undeniable fact.

So think twice the next time you decide to get that Widescreen TV when your credit card interest rate is in the double digits, plan to get married without discussing critical issues like family, religion and politics, lay that hot someone without protection, or travel unsecured to a foreign country currently at war.

Concordantly I don’t understand educated people who are suprised when they have unplanned pregnancies, are decapitated by Muslim extremists in Iraq, lose their their life savings in a Casino in Vegas or are impaled by a rampaging bull in Spain. Winging it is such an epic load bull excrement. No pun intended.

8. Giving unsolicited advice

“Y’know what would make this super?”

Is there something you’re really good at? Something you’ve practiced and honed to a perfection? Ever notice that when you get noticed for it, there’s always a lackey here or there that’s quick to become your “manager” or “talent coach” as it were, offering unsolicited advice on how to do it better?

Annoying sons of bitches, aren’t they?

Why it’s stupid:

Because it reeks of gross insecurity – especially when it’s obvious they can’t do any better.

When you’re really good, there’s no shortage of supply in people in the world who want to share your glory or live vicariously through you by kissing your ass. But, there are some really sad, pitiful folks out there, who would rather find a way to take away from your glory through harsh, unconstructive criticism that nitpicks at every insignificant little nuance like self destructive parasites.

These little trolls (because that’s what they are) are so pathetic that their only hope of feeling good about themselves is by attempting to tear down people who they obviously perceive to be better than themselves – that is, people who make them feel insecure about their hapless, self imposed mediocrity.

I gotta tell ya, we come across some really interesting people both in real life and on the internet. But these people stand out the most, largely because they’re usually your greatest detractors. So I tend to use these morons as a barometer of how well I’m doing. The harsher the crticism, the better.

I can’t help but feel really bad for them sometimes, because it’s really, really sad when someone who notices that you’re doing well, simply cannot feel happy for you and would rather tear you down than encourage you on.

I revel in your tears of inadequacy, Ms. Miller. Yummy.

When they’re not busy trying to tell you how bad they think you really are, they feel compelled to offer up suggestions on what they think you should be doing with your talent. It reminds me of that parable about the father, his son and their donkey and how they tried to please every one that passed by.

Now you guys (you know yourselves) know why some of you are ignored when you offer unsolicited “advice” to someone. It’s not that some of your suggestions aren’t good. I bet some of them are brilliant. But when everybody does that, it makes one feel like they’re owned by their audience and it becomes really nauseating really quickly. Nobody likes a tasteless critic.

…especially one that cannot do any better themselves.

9. Soliciting scams

No. Not really.

When are people going to realize that you can’t fix your weight problem with a pill? When are we going to stop throwing our money at the next spot exercise gadget they market on TV? Why do people continue to purchase that rubbish that the late Billy Mays and his army of pitch perfect con artists try to sell?

Why it’s stupid:

As if you need a reason.

Even though we all have a natural instinct that fires off a warning that says “this is too good to be true“, people deliberately ignore the still small voice of their inner wisdom and throw their money at these scam artists anyway.

Despite the fact that we see special effects on television and in the movies all the time, we somehow think that you can’t use it in less obvious ways to sell a product that only works as advertised on television. You’d think by now that people could tell when a really bad actor vouches for a product with their grossly over dramatised facial expressions and fake, glossy vocal inflections.

Whether it’s Mighty Putty or ShamWow, the wanton and indiscriminate marketing by false advertising never seems to stop. Neither Mighty Putty nor ShamWow works as quickly (or at all) as advertised. And for some strange reason, they also try to market products that already exist on the market as though the new versions are any better than what you can get in a store.

I mean, good grief man. It makes you think Billy Mays got what he deserved – and don’t get me started on these weight loss ads that are filling the airwaves. Dangerous products exposed by the FDA prey upon the wallets of our overweight culture that only wants to pop pills instead of pump iron.

It took a while for the FDA to catch up with those weight loss products that use ephedra – because it was killing people left right and centre. When it wasn’t that, it was all of these gimmick machines that only exercised one part of the body – usually the abdomen – as if sit ups and crunches actually work.

Newsflash: THEY DON’T – not by themselves.

Fat people actually buy this thing!

Whole body exercise (like Cardio) is by far the best type, because it effects fat burning all over your body simultaneously. You buy these stupid gimmicks like the AbLounger or Tony Little’s Gazelle because the notion of hard work and a good pain inducing exercise is an unpleasant thought – you lazy bastards.

Don’t you find it strange that it’s only heavily muscle toned people who are used to advertised these products? Why is it that they never use a fat guy to sell an exercise machine? Did you think those actors got that way by using a machine that looks like a porn star giving a brisk hand job to someone?

And what about these internet scams? It’s fascinating to me that there are people who still get hooked on these Nigerian scams – you know the ones where some estranged prince offers to deliver a large sum of money for a small deposit to aid in the transfer? Yeah, those. I mean how dumb do people need to be to realise the obvious trickery involved here? I mean, really?

Oh by the way? Avoid those work at home kits – especially those Google AdSense kits you have to pay for. You can get it for free from Google. All the others are scams. Even if you actually make money from them, they are marketed based on false advertising. Don’t you ever wonder why someone making millions on some marketing secret would want to share it with anyone?

Duh!

Another thing with these work at home scams is that even if they actually work, by the time you get into it, the market they pander to is so over saturated that there’s virtually no leverage for you to make any real money. What’s worse, is that chances are there are several hundred thousand other people selling the exact same product for much cheaper on eBay right now.

Gentle people, if it takes over half an hour to sell a product during the wee hours of the morning, chances are, it’s a scam. If you have to read through an incredibly long web page or e-mail, filled with BIG BOLD COLOURED TEXT, chances are it’s a scam. If someone offers to give you money for little or no work on your behalf, except that you send them some money, it’s a scam.

Nobody safely or practically looses weight by exercising one body part, or by taking pills, or paying exorbitant sums of money to diet programs – not without some serious side effects like a dead liver or a maxed out credit card. Anything you see marketed by a TV pitch man can be had in any department store with a warranty, a guarantee and even technical support where applicable.

And as for you folks who invested with Bernie Madoff, COME ON! Did you honestly think that someone who can’t tell you how your money was being invested could give you a consistent, monthly, high percentile return on your funds without seeming suspicious? Where did you think it was coming from? I find it hard to pity you. These Ponzi schemes have been around for decades.

For every con artist, there exists at least two fools; one who is greedier than he is and one who is lazier than he is. If either your greed or your laziness is stronger than your commitment to reason, then you deserve to get scammed.

I say that without apology.

10. Believing in Urban Legend and Hoaxes

This photo fooled even National Geographic. Ahh, the power of Photoshop.

People who believe in religion annoy me. People who believe in urban legend piss me off. People who believe in hoaxes however, I want to strangle with a chainsaw rip cord. I know that should be the other way around, but I have some really good religious friends, so I’ll let them slide – for now anyway.

Why it’s stupid:

Because paranoid gullibility is easily manipulated.

I will say this though; I don’t take kindly to people who are so dumb that they forward every e-mail about a cancer stricken girl’s sob story or a tear jerking religious anecdote with a moral that was pilfered from Zen philosophy, or how my luck will change depending on how many people I forward their silly, mindless tripe to. These internet memes really need to die. Like seriously.

And as for you retards who believe Queen Elizabeth planned Diana’s death, or that Obama is the Anti-Christ or that George Bush is a distant cousin of Hitler (heh, wouldn’t that be entertaining), and any other related garbage that has absolutely no proof whatsoever, can you do me a favour? GTFO my internet.

NAO.

If you are quick to  believe in conspiracy theories and urban legends, it demonstrates that there is a gaping hole in your rationality engine. People who are both paranoid and gullible are the easiest to manipulate, because they will quite literally believe in anything – including the incessant garbage that is regularly fed to gun toting, right wing extremists by Fox News.

If you want to see what happens when gullibility runs amok, just examine the tenure of the previous American government. An entire nation of paranoid, impressionable folk tossed logic to the wind and went cowboy on the world. The damage is likely to have far reaching effects well into the next decade.

Fear is the most powerful motivator for a gullible mind. Therefore, a campaign of fear, uncertainty, doubt and disbelief (or FUDD for short) on a religiously leaning, paranoid population will enslave all but the most discerning of minds. It’s no small wonder then that Republicans are largely supported by the temperament of the religious right and Democrats by everyone else.

Religion and gullibility it seems, are very strongly correlated.

Conclusively;

I hate it when I do something stupid – especially in cases where I’m supposed to know better. I am even less tolerant of when other people do stupid things, like ice skating uphill – in a blizzard – with no goggles or protective gear. However, I cannot fault humanity for producing stupidity every once in a while. So I cannot even be too hard on myself. It’s all a part of a grand process.

You see, just as how any process that is engineered to produce a greater good will have undesirable by products, human cognitive evolution is no different. As we get smarter and innovate, we will ultimately produce a few samples of human DNA that will produce humans at the bottom of the pool of the collective intelligence of all mankind combined. But it doesn’t stop there.

Stupidity is an unfortunate but necessary by product of cognitive evolution. How else would we know that some appliances are for “indoor use only” or where the “CAUTION: HOT” stickers should go on things that generate heat, or that “objects in mirror are closer than they appear“? I mean just think about it.

If some idiot didn’t cause grievous bodily harm or outright kill themselves doing something that they shouldn’t be doing, the rest of us who wouldn’t have thought to do something that dumb would never have figured how incredibly dumb it really was (like blow drying our hair while sitting in a tub of water).

Therefore, embrace your inner idiot; for that is the purpose of the stupid gene. Without it, we probably wouldn’t have advanced technologically as quickly as we did. Now that we have six billion beta testers willing to off themselves at the newest trends, technological and social advancement can proceed with a greater sense of purpose and alacrity. What can I say? I love you fools.

Just a quick update today.

One Light

Last night we knocked out One Light in the Darkness after a couple of nights worth of attempts. It’s basically the same fight as normal really. I mean, of course I missed Freya’s sanity wells and the loss of the damage buffs, but I didn’t think it was all that hard compared to the sheer chaos of Freya, the intensity of Mimiron, or the race of Hodir and Iron Council. Managing sanity and controlling the guardians without the damage enhancement of the watchers is key. If you can keep everyone sane and keep the guardians to 2 or less up at a time, it’s a win.

Best part of the fight, in my opinion, is getting to kill those members of your raid who go insane! So, only Algalon remains (along with trying to get everyone’s drakes) and we will be done with Ulduar! I liked Ulduar, much more so than ToC, and can’t wait for Icecrown and the return to a “real” raid.

Nostalgia

It’s anniversaries galore. 5 years of Wow. 5 years of Monolith. 1 year of WotLK, and Beru’s Fondest Memories has gotten me in a reminiscing kind of mood. After looking through folders of screenshots, I found this gem….( I miss you Nick!)

Taz’Dingo!

- Lash

What is wrong with people do you think?  Why do so many ‘Trolls’ exist?  If we met them in the street, would we know that they had some personality disorder?  That they had failed to take their medication that day?  That they were close to a full mental breakdown?  Or do they in fact work in our offices, at the next desk to us?  Fine by day, completely bonkers the moment they get in front of that keyboard at night?  Is it stress, do you think?  The sheer pressure of modern life?  That really they’re apparently normal, coping with life, but inside they’re a seething mass of rage, a maelstrom of mad, disjointed thoughts?  Ready to snap?  Go ‘postal’ if just one more small obstacle gets in their way?  What do you think?…because I’m genuinely intrigued.

I received a series of emails recently via another website that I run – and the person sending them (named ‘Christopher’) screamed and yelled at me in the  !!  LARGEST!  POSSIBLE!   TYPE!  !!  (Yes, it was the usual Troll format – embellished with plenty of emboldening and exclamation marks).  They ‘informed’ me of various inaccuracies in the information on a single page of my site.  Seriously, it was as though I was confronted with a screaming toddler in a terrible tantrum, writhing on my living  room floor.  I toyed with whether to respond at all because if this person is a genuine nutter I really don’t need to be dealing with that right now.  Then I thought that I should afford him the benefit of the doubt and I responded as below (only, as it seemed appropriate, I also did so in the largest possible type):

I acknowledge receipt of your emails.  Do you use some special kind of keyboard that only allows you to type a few words at a time?  I only ask because I wondered why it was necessary to send me a whole series of short notes.

I shall assume that you have some kind of disability or physical impairment and that you are not, in fact, being so rude as to yell at me – hence the very large text of my response here.

If you look again at my site you will see that I clearly state on the ‘Home’ page that it is a hobby site of mine.  It also clearly states that it was last updated in August of 2008.  Maybe I should have put all that in larger type and in capital letters, so that people such as yourself would be able to see and therefore understand that, as a hobby site, I don’t always have the time to keep the information contained therein right up to date.

~~~~~~~

Yes I did get a response.  Why d’you ask?  I’ve cut and pasted it, ‘as is’  here:

Well, at least you replied, now spend time getting your HOBBY up to date.

Yes I do  have  a disability, thanks you for mocking it!

Angelcel to Christopher:

Christopher  – me too.  Which is why I find it difficult to keep up with my hobby and why I found your emails unnecessarily abrasive in tone.

He’s gone away, for the time being.  Maybe he’s just taking time to re-group and then attack me again.  What I’m hoping, however, is that our little exchange will make him think twice in future before blustering into someone’s home, spitting venom like some kind of Benzedrine puff adder. 

The internet seems to have encouraged this kind of behaviour.  Most of us still don’t resort to yelling and screaming  at one another in the street at the drop of a hat (thank goodness), so the closest equivalent to this is probably nuisance phone calls, which are also, thankfully, a rarity.  Yet the prevalence of  Trolls on the internet seems to be on the increase.  Why?

You’ll have gathered by now that, yes, he annoyed me, but that I’m also a very old-fashioned type of a girl, still fondly holding on to the idea that if we all treat each other as we would like to be treated then the world can and will be a better place.  My husband, on the other hand, who deals with rude numbskulls way too often in everyday business, takes a slightly different approach.  I have to tell you that when I showed him the series of original emails he was quite adamant that if I felt the need to respond at all then the best wording would be: 

Fuck Off.  Strong letter to follow.

His approach does have the merit of simplicity.  Maybe he has a point.

What is wrong with people do you think?  Why do so many ‘Trolls’ exist?  If we met them in the street, would we know that they had some personality disorder?  That they had failed to take their medication that day?  That they were close to a full mental breakdown?  Or do they in fact work in our offices, at the next desk to us?  Fine by day, completely bonkers the moment they get in front of that keyboard at night?  Is it stress, do you think?  The sheer pressure of modern life?  That really they’re apparently normal, coping with life, but inside they’re a seething mass of rage, a maelstrom of mad, disjointed thoughts?  Ready to snap?  Go ‘postal’ if just one more small obstacle gets in their way?  What do you think?…because I’m genuinely intrigued.

I received a series of emails recently via another website that I run – and the person sending them (named ‘Christopher’) screamed and yelled at me in the  !!  LARGEST!  POSSIBLE!   TYPE!  !!  (Yes, it was the usual Troll format – embellished with plenty of emboldening and exclamation marks).  They ‘informed’ me of various inaccuracies in the information on a single page of my site.  Seriously, it was as though I was confronted with a screaming toddler in a terrible tantrum, writhing on my living  room floor.  I toyed with whether to respond at all because if this person is a genuine nutter I really don’t need to be dealing with that right now.  Then I thought that I should afford him the benefit of the doubt and I responded as below (only, as it seemed appropriate, I also did so in the largest possible type):

I acknowledge receipt of your emails.  Do you use some special kind of keyboard that only allows you to type a few words at a time?  I only ask because I wondered why it was necessary to send me a whole series of short notes.

I shall assume that you have some kind of disability or physical impairment and that you are not, in fact, being so rude as to yell at me – hence the very large text of my response here.

If you look again at my site you will see that I clearly state on the ‘Home’ page that it is a hobby site of mine.  It also clearly states that it was last updated in August of 2008.  Maybe I should have put all that in larger type and in capital letters, so that people such as yourself would be able to see and therefore understand that, as a hobby site, I don’t always have the time to keep the information contained therein right up to date.

~~~~~~~

Yes I did get a response.  Why d’you ask?  I’ve cut and pasted it, ‘as is’  here:

Well, at least you replied, now spend time getting your HOBBY up to date.
Yes I do  have  a disability, thanks you for mocking it!

Angelcel to Christopher:

Christopher  – me too.  Which is why I find it difficult to keep up with my hobby and why I found your emails unnecessarily abrasive in tone.

He’s gone away, for the time being.  Maybe he’s just taking time to re-group and then attack me again.  What I’m hoping, however, is that our little exchange will make him think twice in future before blustering into someone’s home, spitting venom like some kind of Benzedrine puff adder. 

The internet seems to have encouraged this kind of behaviour.  Most of us still don’t resort to yelling and screaming  at one another in the street at the drop of a hat (thank goodness), so the closest equivalent to this is probably nuisance phone calls, which are also, thankfully, a rarity.  Yet the prevalence of  Trolls on the internet seems to be on the increase.  Why?

You’ll have gathered by now that, yes, he annoyed me, but that I’m also a very old-fashioned type of a girl, still fondly holding on to the idea that if we all treat each other as we would like to be treated then the world can and will be a better place.  My husband, on the other hand, who deals with rude numbskulls way too often in everyday business, takes a slightly different approach.  I have to tell you that when I showed him the series of original emails he was quite adamant that if I felt the need to respond at all then the best wording would be: 

Fuck Off.  Strong letter to follow.

His approach does have the merit of simplicity.  Maybe he has a point.

For you today I have one shot from the island and two from off it, thanks to not-so Mid-Year Conference.

Hello Kitty makes an appearance at a local Maruwa, but on a product you really wouldn’t think is interesting enough.

Kitty-chan branded milk in a local convenience store.

A South African comes your way and “lo’ and behold” you find yourself slapped in the proverbial face with reminders of it all over!

South Africa, found at the unlikelist of places: A bar-restaurant in Nagasaki my iPhone brought us to.

During conference, I was happily surprised to find this deliciousness available practically all day all around the city.

Oden, a popular winter cuisine, available for takeaway at convenience stores.

Trolls: They're larger and still outdated in Japan.

Under the title “Trolls in the Park,” there is an outdoor public art display in Suginami’s Zenpukuji park: a quiet park with two ponds, many ducks and wonderful mature trees now turning colors. If you have a chance to attend before November 22, I recommend a visit.

It was late in the day, and my photos turned out blurry. Above is Matthew in front of a manga-inspired sign, one of a series that blends the natural world of the park with the narratives and scene-shaping of comic books. Below is one of a series of birdhouses with men’s ties.

Much better photos are available on the Art in the Park website. There’s also a funny blog (in Japanese) by the artist Toshiaki Tomita who calls himself a bad guide who doesn’t know anything about the park. Below is a photo of fall foliage, reason enough to visit the park.

The idea of temporary art in the park– enlivening nature with culture and vice versa– appears to be gaining international interest. This Tokyo event has many British artists, and I read about a similar event in Singapore (through December 27 in the Singapore Botanic Gardens).

At the Vine Christian Prayer Center on Second Life, we are being tested very severely. By trolls.

What I cannot fathom is why. I’m sure there must be some immutable law written somewhere on the Internet of how Christians are going to be hypocrites down to the last man, woman, and child, not so much as one exception. And according to Rule 34, there will also be a pornographic variation of that law. (Please don’t ask for a hyperlink for Rule 34.)

So why waste their own time conducting their rigged tests for hypocrisy?

Here’s my take on it: The trolls know going in that we Christians are going to be judgmental hypocrites. The only question to be settled is how fast they can get us to act that way. All troll tests are along the lines of how much taunting and harrassment we can withstand, and almost all guarantee failure.

You may as well drop a bowling ball to see if the Law of Gravity is still in effect.

Last Thursday, a group of griefers pulled off a Trojan Horse style attack in which one of their number comes to the Vine Prayer Center posing as a curious onlooker, which we of course cannot resist allowing to come into our midst. Once the meeting begins, the Horse sends teleport invitations to all the other attackers, who upon their arrival set off particle bombs and noisy gestures. Bedlam supreme.

The test? How quickly, amid rapidly losing control of the meeting, will our moderator, Grace Cuthbertsson, forget all she was ever taught of turning the other cheek, and resort to the judgmental, hypocritical measure of banning the attackers?

She must ban people or she has no meeting. She has no choice. It’s not a question of if, but when, she flunks this test. It’s a very unfair test.

Lord, are these the people to whom You’d send us with the Gospel? How are we going to win them? All we can do is fail their tests!

Pixel Peeper

Defintion:

1) A digital photographer who magnifies photographs on the computer screen to critically evaluate image resolution at the pixel level. Commonly used as a derogatory remark to describe:

a) A photography noob who erroneously believes that the quality of a digital camera is determined solely by the number of megapixels.

b) Insecure troll who frequents digital camera forums to religiously proclaim how his/her camera pixel count is greater than yours.

c) Wanna be photographer who debates about pixel count all day but doesn’t have the talent to take a half-decent photograph.

I grow tired following the thread of verbal diarrhea left behind by that pixel peeper.

Why don’t you pixel peepin’ trolls get some sunshine this week and take a photograph or two?

Source: http://www.urbandictionary.com

Okay, let’s start from square 1.

I don’t believe that.

But apparently, this kid does. Possible not work safe, but:

Clicky!

So, I’ve never been THAT disappointed of a game… really. I go “damn, that sucked.”

I then proceed to play it some more, until my hands protest and strangle me, in which case I then stop and trade it in… for $5 and a tic tac from Gamestop. But punching walls and crying? Did you like Modern Warfare?

Here’s my take. Let’s start with the “bad.” Modern Warfare 2 is more of the same. Is that bad?

A resounding no! Modern Warfare was good, and even I didn’t get all fanboy-ish about it. It was an enjoyable game, where you blew stuff up, twists and turns, guns… the end. What is Modern Warfare 2? The SAME thing, only this time you have more guns… and blow up more stuff… and leave Washington war torn.

So it’s more of the same, and people cry foul? Wow. I mean, that would be like saying you didn’t like World at War, or really any recent World War 2 game, because it was more of the same, beating up Nazis and laughing at Japanese people. I’m not sure why people were expecting this to be a nuke in the middle of your city, the developers even said that they were looking at a short and sweet campaign, like the first one. And if you didn’t feel some edge-of-your-seat excitement while playing this game, then you have no pulse. Some people are so full of shit, sitting there going “I knew that was coming, I knew this was coming, yep he betrays you, blah, blah, blah, blaaaah!”

It’s ridiculous. Sit down, shut up and play the multi-player. I’ll bet you 90% of the Modern Warfare 2 fanbase just bought it for the multiplayer anyway (percentage courtesy of my ass again.)

My final outlook on this game? It’s good. Now, Modern Warfare 3 might have to change some stuff up, otherwise then we’ll be crying foul… but there is no point in punching walls and crying because you thought Modern Warfare 2 would cure cancer and end world hunger. It’s a game, enjoy it, or go play something else.

And trust me, I encounter purist everyday. “Such and such 2 SUCKED compared to such and such!” Well, thank god such and such developer didn’t ask your opinion, or no one would ever continue a story.

High quality, great voice acting, kind of flat, but still intruiging, storyline, more guns and a fun, but frustrating, multiplayer. I consider Modern Warfare 2 a good follow up. And there is nothing cooler than seeing Washington in ruins after a huge battle.

Now someone go give that kid some Ritalin.