Happiness
I hate happiness. Seriously, it really gets me down. When you're happy, and I mean really happy, even the most frustrating thing does not get you down for long. And if that's the case, then how are you meant to be able to recall it later on when you want to blog about something angrily? Having said that, I have levels of cynicism untouched by ordinary mortals, so 'm sure I can manage some.
Today it was of course the buses. I managed to miss a bus by 30 seconds, then took a shorter route to a stop further along there, managing to arrive there just as the bus was meant to arrive. I then stood around and waited for about 10 minutes for it to arrive. It didn't... I can only assume it was either very late, or had tur ned up early and had just left. Sigh, all that energy wasted for nothing.
The residents of Oldfield Park, the area in Bath where I live (crazy people can narrow down my location even more!), have decided they want students out. Apparently we are too noisy (probably true), and we have cars, taking up parking space unnecessarily. Well. Certainly we do not need cars- most of us anyway- as we can get the buses. But WHO enjoys buses? Thats the major problem with the government telling us to all use public transport. That's all well and good, but public transport is rubbish. And if we want to get a train, we have to pay a small fortune. For a fairly uncomfortable and unpleasent ride. This is not what I would call an incentive. I suspet the majority of the people in this fine country who own cars do not actually need them, but have them anyway to save themselves trouble, and probably, money. Cars are convinient, pleasent, and useful. They are also atmosphere destroying killing machines, but who cares about that? Of course I can say this all from the point of view that not only do I not own a car, I can't even drive. So meh.
Microsoft were a while back promoting the idea that you could have a computer do everything- receive tv, play dvds, wash your car (OK, probably not that last one). This is not a bad idea, if you imagine computers as some kind of wonderful thing that not only does't crash hourly, but also does not become obselete within... well a month to be honest. I think I'll stick with my tv for the minute.
Rape
The worst kind of crime? Not according to those listed
here. Some of those arguments beggar belief.
Some of you may have heard about Amnesty International UK's
recent survey of attitudes towards rape in the UK. The statistics are shocking. A women is... never responsible for being rape. It's non consenting, see, and generally it's difficult to be responsible for something you did not consent to.
I want to make a decent argument here but it seems so obvious to me that rape is inherently wrong. I actually would go as far to say, as I mentioned in
Full Metal Attourney's post that consent does not matter in the case of severely drunk people. Just think about it... if an extremely drunk person, especially one placed in your charge, suggested sex, would it be right to do anything? NO. NO. They did not get drunk to work up their courage to suggest such a thing. I really think the law should be altered to that extent- I see no excuse for a sober person having sex with a very drunk person, at least for the first time. Right now many rapists get away with it because said woman is unable t fully remember exactly what happened. But they certainly had sex with the person, and they were certainly VERY drunk. I kind of think thats enough to convict. Maybe that would put a dampner on some people's nights. Boo hoo for them. I'm happy for people to have promiscous sex, as long as they are sure its CONSENTING promiscous sex.
KESTREL IS BACK
Disregard this post if you don't read webcomics, but
KESTREL IS BACK
Nothing to say
I'll get back to you when I'm less tired. I promise a post tomorrow!
Grand Chav auto
I can't remember who it was who thought that chav was pronounced "sharve", making the mean have rather different connotations. Anyway, the term chav appears to be hip these days, usually in a negative manner. I have yet to hear someone pat someone on the back heartily and tell them they are a chav. Well, at least not kindly, anyway.
I was thinking that it would be great to have a game about this subsection of society. Imagine it. Drink your way through a bottle or two of white lightning (it occurs to me that one day I should try it out... when I was a kid we'd have bottles of strongbow. But I come from a very middle class town), then run wild, chucking stones through windows, burning cars, graffiting walls, dodging asbos, until finally you become king of the chavs!
On a note of titles, one particular insult I kind of miss from childhood is "gaylord". I love it, because it seems to imply some kind of almighty power over other homosexuals.
I AM THE LORD OF THE GAYS! ALL GAYS MUST BOW BEFORE ME. COME, MY HOMOSEXUAL ARMY, TOGETHER WE SHALL CONQUER THIS EARTH.
If only insults came literally true eh? Actually, thinking about it, thats probably a bad idea... I'll leave you to think of the possibilites.
rush for christmas
Ive been playing on final fantasy:crystal chronicles recently. It's a game for the gamecube, which works on the same basis as legend of zelda, in that you have to buy a game boy advance to play it. In other words, a bit of a rip off. Still, it's rather fun, even if the things you do on the game boy are not THAT essential. I can see it getting repetitive rather soon, as zelda did (although in zelda you have the ability to pick up your comrades and throw them off cliffs, causing endless hilarity if you are a heartless bastard. Especially if you keep doing it to the same person again and again and again.)
I am usually rather fair minded during co-operative game playing, despite rather amusing distractions occasionally getting the better of me, although it was not so when I was younger. During Streets of Rage 2 for the mega drive (kind of like a side scrolling beat 'em up), I essentially stole every single pick up there was, despite being miles better than my friend. Of course the best game for screwing people over was sonic 2, where there was a "2 player" mode which consisted of one person being sonic, and the other person being tails, and sonic rushing off, and tails catching up occasionally only to see sonic run off again. It was a brilliant way to pretend that I was letting my sister join in when my mother asked me to let her play.
I just finished playing Fear, a reasonably enjoyable first person shooter, which has classic "scary" elements, and indeed makes you jump occasionally. For those of you who have a usable pc and are into fps's this is a must play, although the end seems a little easy. But then I had the game on normal. Apparently on hard it's... well hard I suppose, which would make a fair amount of success.
I got to use a guillotine today, for the first time since I was in primary school, I suspect. This is the paper cutting one, by the way, I wasn't some kind of youth executioner. Well, I WAS, but we hang people over here. It's great fun though, using the old guillotine. The one I was using seemed unable to cut through more than about 3 sheets of paper at once without great difficulty, and seeing as I had 50 of them, this took some time. Still, I got to reminicise about just how bad I was at using the damn things, so the lucky people at the university who get handed them will get nice, poorly fashioned, handouts. Those lucky lucky people.
Have YOU ever seen a pirate flip out and kill anyone?
I have been asked in the past who would win in a battle, a pirate or a ninja? I think a more pertinent question is: when WOULD a pirate win against a ninja?
I mean when you think about it ninjas are the most
awesome beings ever to be put on this earth, and, upon occasion, they may well flip out and kill everyone. Still I suppose a pirate might just have the upper hand if he was on his own ship, and it was day, and he was a dread pirate (if he was THE dread pirate roberts he'd win. But thats just because). Still, its a pretty silly question.
On another note, I found this rather interesting art display- playboy
centrefolds average out (don't worry, its entirely worl safe) from each deacade.
Tidiness
My room is really tidy at the moment. I want to throw stuff around to mess it up a little bit....
That probably isn't healthy.
Ah, beer
A brief poem about beerAh, beer, how I love thee. Your bubbling contents warm my insides and fill me with happiness, making my evenings full of joy.
But YET!
Upon the morningtide there is a great stirring in my belly. And soon I must head to empty it! For beer is a cruel mistress.
So cruel.
National writing while drunk day
Was like 15 days ago, but as I' drunk now I figure I should right now.
It's interesting to note that while Hnter S Thompson was often credited for writing under the influence of drugs his actual writing was written while pretty damn sober.
I went on a crazy pub crawl today, managing 11 whole pubs, which isn't bad at all. There was much rejoicing. Undoubtedly I shall pay for such exu berance, but, meh. I just got off the phone to my lovely ladyfriend, and i no doubt impessed her with my remarkable eloquence while drunk.
I am pretty sure I can ontrol what I am saying. I am normally very careful about typing; I make mistypes all the time but go back and correct them while I am still wrting. Well obviously not immediately while I am writing ecause thn it would just be a mess but never mind. Amyay, I have noticed these mistkae but am too lazy to go correct them.
Anyway, good ngiht everbody, I wish I was faking these mistakes. But yeah. Plenty more fish in the sea, for those of yuo who need that particular advice. Oh I am a chortle bot, I really m. Ho ho ho.
Good night.
Gay marriage
I've been inspired by full metal attourney's
post to talk about gay marriage. It's something that I am broadly for. I think there are two arguments here. Arguments about homosexuals being married under the law, with all the benefits that entails, i.e. civil unions and arguments about homosexuals being married under God, i.e MARRIED. I'm going to argue against these arguments first, then try and present arguments as to why homosexual marriage is a good thing.
So, lets deal with arguments against civil unions. These are generally rather weak, but I'll go through them
1-Gay people should not be allowed to adopt children, as this could harm them, or possibly mean they are more likely to be homoexual.
This is an argument sometimes made. First of all there is little evidence to show that having homosexual parents has a serious effect on a childs mental health or sexuality, remember that all adopting parents are STRONGLY vetted, and only those who would not damage a child's mental health are allowed. Secondly, its actually immaterial to the civil unions argument- a single gay person can adopt a child anyway, so its a totally seperate issue.
2-Gay civil unions would lead to unions of polygamous, incestual, or even bestial couples
Hmm. We can immediately discount bestial relationships as these are clearly non consensual. As for incestual relationships, these are usually deeply traumatic and possibly non consenual, so we can probably discount these. Polygamy is interesting. However, and this is important- an argument that gay marriage would mean that polygamy could happen is surely an argument FOR polygamy. If we ignore the "the bible says it's wrong" arguments, and are unable to come up with a rational reason why polygamy is worse than gay relationships then perhaps polygamy should be allowed: at least for civil unions anyway. I know this might be a slightly unpleasent idea for some of you, but if your opposition to an idea is based on only irrational prejudices, perhaps you should rethink it.
I can't think of any other reasons to block gay civil unions in a nation which is not overtly religious- if we decide that homosexuality is something we want to be legal, then they are surely entitled to the same rights as us.
Now marriage is a little different. Becuase marriage is a word held to be very important by many people, as something a little more. Not only a legal bond, but a religious bond. So it makes sense that gay people should not be married when marriage is a concept by people who do not even agree that homosexality is moral.
Only there is a flaw in this argument. The relgious types also surely should not approve of anyone getting married... who is, say, an atheist. Or an agnostic. Or just does not go to church every week. Why not? Their trangressions, if anything, are surely worse than that of homosexuals who might well believe in God and practice religon frequently. So yes, stop homosexuals calling themselves marrried... but do the same with everyone else who isn't strictly religious.
I wonder how much popular support you'd get for that.
I apologise that this post is a little less logically laid out than I'd hope. I hope you can present some stronger arguments against homosexual marriage- I really haven't been convinced by those I have found.
Skateboarders
I have decided to develop a hatred of skateboarders. I dunno why really, I just figure everyone should have a hobby. Seriously though, while the little kids who hang around in carparks and fall over repeatedly are at least amusing, the skateboarders who zoom past you are just irritating. Frankly, I would not want to go at that speed if I looked that stupid, so why do they always look so smug? As if somehow everyone is jealous of their ludicrous mode of transport. Get a bike! At least you'd be exercising! Also, they dress funny. And do drugs and stuff.
A battery can either be something that you use to power your toothbrush, torch or vibrator (its ok, I don't own an electric toothbrush! Thats just silly), or it can be a description for a collection of artillery. How exactly did that come about? I wouldn't consider the two things to be very similar. I suppose this is true of most collective nouns, they seem to have been picked pretty arbitarily, but generally the word at least means a grouping. Actually, I think you can have a battery of questions. Maybe it comes from "battering"? So what about the electrical power source then, as that seems to have come second from my completely misinformed and hypothetical conversation?
I'm going to talk about something related now. The tricky question of what do you do if you ask a question early in a conversation but then you digress and end with something that isn't actually a question but it still is a question? Do you put the question mark on, or do you leave it, assuming that people can work it out? I don't know, and managed to mess up on that last sentence so it
didn't ramble, which is a shame. Anyway, whats the answer? Gramatically speaking, that is?
A sign
So I have been checking out
whispered apologies recently. Its a very cool idea by Ryan North, the webcomic artist who does not draw. Essentially, people send in a comic with no writing, and Ryan, or someone else, fills in the blanks. It can be very funny, mainly because Ryan North is awesome.
In other news,
Casey and Andy rocks. I will put a link to it sooner or later permenantly, just in case a flock of readers looking for webcomics come here. You never know whats possible eh?
Incidentally, out of vague interest, do any of you guys play the game?
Just wondering....
Donation
Awesome weeekend, been really busy, so I just want to say that if you haven't been to www.dec.org.uk then you really should. You CAN afford £10 to help people who desperately need it, the earthquake in pakistan devestated thousands, and time is running out. Just do it.
another weekend
Oh I AM a busy bee! Off to Birmingham this weekend, to visit a good friend. And also Alice. Its a sort of meeting in the middle deal, which can save money, which apparently is a good thing.
The idea of true love, or a soulmate, has always confused me. Before I start this, let me just re-iterate that I do, indeed, belive in a thing called love, and think its wonderful.
But true love/soulmate. The idea that there is one person, just one, who we are meant to be with. People who claim to hold this belief... do they examine their beliefs logically? There are a majority of women in this world. So for this theory to work, there would have to be significantly more lesbians than gays in the world. Which, as far as I know, is not the case. Also, it seems rather lucky that peoples soulmates tend to be in the same country and speak the same language. I suppose one could rope in fate to explain that one.
But other than that, I think its a destructive notion. It always make you want more, and while obviously you shouldn't except a relationship which is causing you too much pain, relationships do need to be worked on, and they're not perfect. If you think there is such a thing as a soulmare then surely you will always be thinking that there is someone better... surely you can be content with no-one but your soulmate?
Of course, I don't believe in free will. Not that anyone can define it for me. If one says that free will is just that your actions have been chosen by no-one then thats fine. But often it means more than that. You always have a free choice... No you don't.
You are, logially, a product of your genetics and your environment. Logically. If not then what? Perhaps a soul, but something must have created that, surely?
And by environment here I don't just mean your sorroundings, I mean every single thing that you interact with. Now, if we accept that the universe started with some basic laws, and every single thing followed on from that, then surely everything led on from that? Well, not necessarily, some might argue. Quantum effects and nuclear decay seem to suggest the universe is random. Well ok. The universe is random. You are the product of random factors. That doesn't make your choice freer... it makes it random.
Yeah, you might change your choices with hindsight... but thats a different you, thats not the you making the choices. Face it, if we replayed the world from the start, and you were the same, you'd make the same choices. Of course you would, because otherwise you wouldn't be YOU. So what IS free will? I certainly don't know.
I sometimes vaguely wonder how I'd fare in warfare. I suspect, badly. Ignoring the fact that I am so unfit that if I have to run I am left panting for nearly half an hour afterwards modern warfare consists of random people dying, and I figure I'd start in the army at low rank, and die. This is assuming a competent enemy who we don't just bomb into the stone age, as we kind of did to Iraq. Which, as long term planning goes, wasn't. In all honesty unless there was some need for mass troops I'd probably serve my country far more effectively at home. Having said that I'd only truly "serve my country" if there was a cause I considered just. So meh.
In the future torches are rubbish. This seems to be true of many scifi/horror films. They will have lasers and super tanks and spaceships, but when they go to fight the alien in the enclosed space (preferably splitting up so they can get picked off one by one) they will have the most pathetic torch. This even occurs in star trek, where they have enough gadgets to sink a starship, but apparently having lights that illuminate more than a small dot poses some great difficulty. I wonder if perhaps lighting will be the one problem of the future, when all others are solved, we still won't be able to see very well in dark caves. It'll hardly be a horrible problem, but then, when you've got rid of all the others, you've got to take what you've got.
Jehovahs witnesses
I think they get a harsh rap. Now, you may have gathered from my many postings that I am indeed an atheist. I have no real time for religon, but have many friends who are christians, and a few buddhists too.
As I may have mentioned before,I am happy to respect other peoples beliefs, as long as they respect mine. I suppose some would claim that Jehovah's witnesses don't really do that.
So what exactly DO they do?
They wonder round, knocking on doors, giving leaflets and asking you whether you've though about God. For this, they get shouted at, sometimes even physically attacked. They are the brunt of endless jokes, and are considered a bane of modern existence. But all they do is try and save you. Not in a harsh, vigorous way, that many fundamentalists adopt, but in a simple manner, attempting to explain the light of god they see.
I must admit I don't know much of what Jehovahs witnesses believe, mainly because I do not read the literature they give me, but I see no harm in taking it. Of all the many perils facing our world, witnesses are hardly the worst. I would rate trick or treaters far higher than them in the annoyance scale, and you confront both with about the same frequency.
Headache
I have one. But I want to write a post. A nice long, juicy post. Full of tender wordly goodness.
I got to attempt to jump start a car today. I say attempt because it turned out to be of no help, which meant that I got to tire myself out for nothing. Which is a shame, to be honest, but it was at least an experience. I know practically nothing about cars. I have no real conception as to how a car works, and I have no true understanding of what a clutch is. And when I say understanding, I haven't a clue what it does. At all. There always seem to be too many things to use to drive a car. i'm sure they can't be that complicated- I've played games with cars in, and there was one button to make me go and one to make me stop. Simple and logical.
I was also meant to do work just now but instead watched the Butterfly Effect, which was quite enjoyable, although ENTIRELY misrepresents chaos theory, as the theory says small causes have unpredictable outcomes (well.... no it doesn't, but thats a simple way of putting it), but the butterfly effect has fairly large causes having fairly large outcomes, and when something small happens, nothing much happens as a result.
It was good though.
My weekend in York was good, although I am paying for it now by my lack of sleep. Having said that, I am inexplicably still awake at 1 in the morning, so its off to bed I go now. G'night.
More musings
I am VERY tired so just a few musings that struck me. Again, its to do with death, but this time, defence.
If two people came at someone with a gun, would you shoot them? Even if you knew their ONLY target was that one person? What if it was 10 people? What if they were just following orders? What if the person you were protecting was a criminal? A serious one? What if they were coming for you?
Off again
Another weekend an I am busy. I am off to York in an hour, its all very exciting stuff I'm sure you'll agree.
See you monday. Probably.....
Good Lord
Theres... quite a lot of bizzare fan fiction out there. After all, this is the internet. But...
snape pregnant? To quote the site itself.
"Someone actually made a page just dedicate to Snape?! Well that's not that odd but SNAPE PREGNANT?! That's downright weird! But If you like Mpreg Snape Fiction and the whole idea doesn't turn you off, that a Man can get pregnant and that guy happens to be Snape this is the site for you."
I started reading one of the stories... then shuddered and left. Seriously, what exactly inspired people to come up with this idea?
This link via
something awful.
I...
Words fail. They really do. And I've seen drawings of Leia getting it on with the ice creature from Hoth....
See Saw.
Apparently Robbie Williams has got a new single out. I heard it the other day. It was dreadful. I must admit that it is rare for me to have an album which managed to get into the UK top 20, so you can see that I am probably not predisposed towards popular music of any kind, but frankly his new single is AWFUL. It will undoubtedly chart, unfortunately, because he is Robbie Williams and I'm fairly sure he could make a single composed of him shrieking continually and people would buy it. I mean, they bought rock DJ. Rock freaking DJ.
Anyways, it turns out that I'm going to have to buy a mathematical book. The concept of which frightens and annoys me, but my lecturer for Advanced Group theory is just so bad, and my notes so confusing, that it seems to be my only course of action, short of hiring some kind of private tutor. Incidentally, a short guide to doing mathematics homework:
You will often have to prove things. If you see a link, but have no idea how to prove something, say either "this is clearly true", or "this argument is trivial", or, in certain specialised cases "by induction". This will rarely get you marks, but then lecturers do it all the time, so you might as well get in on the action.
I am off to see Saw 2 this evening. I doubt it will be as awful as Legend of Zorro. But then, I severly doubt I will see something as gut wrenchingly bad as Legend of Zorro for a long long time. At least, I hope not. Its up there with Scary Movie and Resident Evil 2, it really is.
Added full metal attourney
Added the brilliant
full metal attourney's blog to my
blog links
Lighting
This is so annoying. So much so that I have chosen to write various letters. Because letter writing gets things done!
Seriously though. Why is it shops need to leave their lights on at night? Oh yes, I'm sure the occasional passer by might get a clearer view, but surely any potential sales you might possibly get are offset by the cost of leaving their lights on. It simply doesn't make sense. And the environmental damage too. Homebase is the worst, leaving every single goddamn light on with it.
Of course we all leave lights on too. It annoys me when I walk past a residential home and their lights are blazing.
you are wasting money. This IS an environmnetal issue too, but we can happily ignore that and just point out that you WILL get charged for leaving a light on in the empty room. Other than to attract moths for some kind of moth powered machines. And I'm not sure that would really work. Hmm, maybe it would.... not sure how....
Still, this is just a little way in which we can do our bit for the environment. Go to it, peons!
Drmcninja!
Most awesome!Linked by the excellent
xoverboard
