Saturday, December 6, 2008

Place Holder [chat]

I can't thing of anything good to post here.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

EoisaS Stats Preview

I am making a year in stats report for traffic here at Everyone is a Sith. as a preview are the top 20 search terms are google ranks that drive traffic to our wonderful (is not mean spirited) blog.

Sith Traffic

Zero Punctuation: Mirror's Edge

WMD attack by 2013 "More Likely Than Not"



OH MY FUCKS NO!!!!!

Can I interest you...in Chanukah?

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

WoW SimulationCraft DPS Output

Go to this page and look at what it contains.

This is kind of mostly what I said years ago that someone needed to do. Take every possible DPS build for all classes, input the relevant data, run it through a simulation, and post the graphical output.

Now we don't have to argue about DPS builds. We have the raw data for what a given class' Damage Per Second will be in any given build given a particular gear set.

Now the only factor is that ever present "fucktard component" of "Can you push the correct buttons in the correct order, shithead?"

I think this sort of thing is enjoyable to read. But then again I really like charts and graphs. Of course, I also really like that Warlocks are top DPS in this simulation.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Change of Address? Shop Lowe's!

So, I received a letter from the United States Postal Service "Change of Address Security Division" pertaining to the mail of the person who lived in this apartment prior to my living in it. The purpose of the letter, per the letter, is "to confirm that this request to forward mail is correct." Simple enough. The person no longer lives here so their mail will be forwarded to a new address. Huzzah.

The end of the letter informed me that "it is important that we work together to ensure proper mail delivery". And I must agree with the sentiment of that statement. It is crucial that we all work together to ensure proper mail delivery.

The problem is what else was in the envelope.

You see, the letter from the United States Postal Service contained two pieces of paper. One informed me of a pending change of address request. The other was a flyer for Lowe's containing a coupon affording me $10 off my next $50 purchase (good through January 15, 2009).

Reflect upon that for a moment.

The United States Postal Service, in mail forwarding notifications, is sending out Lowe's coupons.

So I have to ask. Is the United States Postal Service a front for Lowe's? And if so...does this finally explain why Libertarians hates the Postal Service so much?

Of Course You're Right, But...

There's this thing that happens in philosophical inquiry wherein one advances a position and is met with the dreaded, "Of Course You're Right, But..." response. It's as if particular individuals free their selves from the shackles of Plato's cave, creep to the entrance, glance outside, shit their selves, and then run screaming back to their states of bondage as they happily stare at the reflections upon the wall.

I do not think that there are any deep truths towards which one much delve. I do not think that there is a veil to reality which must be cast aside to reveal the Truth. Hell, I'll go so far as to state that Truth is neither deep nor veiled in the classic sense. It's not about seeming. It's about how things are.

If there is a veil it is a veil placed over one's own eyes. If there is delving to do one is always only ever digging through layers which one has posited onto the situation. Truth is the foundation, reality is the foundation, and that foundation is always only ever brazenly apparent, obvious, and accessible.

Every human being will die. That's the classic "obvious" truth. Every human being to ever be impacted, influenced, or helped will die. And "Of Course You're Right, But..." human beings still have to do something in the meantime. It's all futile, but in very tiny slices things may be meaningful.

All meaning is posited by human beings. If I care about a particular person then that caring is self-maintained, self-posited. I posit meaning onto a particular person. But that meaning only ever exists in my positing that meaning. So, there's really no meaning independent of that meaning being posited. And "Of Course You're Right, But..." human beings still posit meaning. One will recognize that one's spouse or significant other is merely a fish out of a sea and a great many other people can fulfill that role. But one still maintains the illusion of particular significance.

It's the scene from Pulp Fiction with the Gold Watch. Captain Koons explains the history of the watch. Butch posits meaning onto the watch. But that meaning only ever exists in the positing. There is nothing "meaningful" about the watch in and of itself. To gain meaning one must posit the recognition that the watch was in Butch's father's ass for five years and in Captain Koons' ass for two years after that. That only exists, though, in its being posited, in it's being maintained by beings who posit meaning.

Which does not mean that human beings have to not posit meaning. It does not mean that human beings need to never do anything. It does not mean that human beings need to kill their selves. It doesn't mean anything. And that's truth. It's not deep. It's not elusive. It's not veiled. It's obvious, intuitive, accessible. It's simply the way things are.

So I think that instead of saying "Of Course You're Right, But..." simply remove the "But". Stop trying to get meaning, value, worth, love, or any of it. Simply recognize how things are.

There is a particular thing. One maintains great affection for that particular thing. Yet the affection only exists in its being maintained. So one may certainly maintain that affection. Yet I think it sensible to recognize the relation of that affection and the thing. Recognize how things are. Recognize the fluidity of being.

It's not about meaning or value or love. It's about living one's life.

And saying "fuck you" a lot.

Christopher Hitchens hates Hillary Clinton



I like Christopher Hitchens.

Zero Punctuation: Guitar Hero World Tour

Fallout 3

FALLOUT 3 SPOILER (to the extent that I say something about how I feel about the ending)

Man, you know when you're playing your big open-ended RPG and you can do whatever you want, and like, there's this one time where you told a guy you would go kill some dudes, but then you talked to those dudes and they seemed ok, so you helped them work things out with the guy who wanted them to die? And you're all "hah, I chose how I wanted to resolve that issue and found a solution with very desirable results!"

And then you think about some of those other RPGs where your choices are pretty much limited to playing the game or not playing the game. Or those games where you get YES/NO choices, but if you answer wrong, they'll ask you again until you answer correctly. And you think, "haha, this game involves me much more than those games! I'm finally important somewhere!"

And then that big open-ended game suddenly tells you what to do, and you're like "wait, that's a terrible idea, what it is that you're telling me to do. I have a better idea, wait here" and you try to choose how to resolve the situation in a way that would yield more desirable results and the game is like "no, man. Fucking do what I told you to do" and you look around and realize that you're being date raped. It was all flowers and free dinner ten minutes ago, but now it's a cock in your ass. Maybe that's a little overstated. It's more like spending sixty bucks on a LEGO set with bricks that can be assembled in hundreds of different ways, but for some reason the last brick won't fit where you want it to go no matter what you do.

In other words, Fallout 3 is not an open-ended game. It is an open-middled game.

*Note: Only read the comments if you want spoilers.