All is for [chat]

Is for chattin.

Happy Caterday

Where I have been

iz ben haer.

but I've mostly been writing my thesis. I about 7 pages into chapter 1, about a 1/3 of the way for the outline for that chapter. It is not "due" for 2 more weeks, but i want to stay ahead of the curve on this.

ill be posting some stuff over on my thesis blog later this weekend

Freedom isn't Free.

President Bush addressed the nation last night regarding his, I mean Petraeus', assessment of the Clustefuck in Iraq. The address was filled with the usual rhetoric, lies, and "if we leave Iraq your children will die" terrorism. But there was one section that made me fall off the couch laughing, and then frightened me. Here is the quote:

Earlier this year, I received an e-mail from the family of Army Specialist Brandon Stout of Michigan. Brandon volunteered for the National Guard and was killed while serving in Baghdad. His family has suffered greatly. Yet in their sorrow, they see larger purpose. His wife, Audrey, says that Brandon felt called to serve and knew what he was fighting for. And his parents, Tracy and Jeff, wrote me this: We believe this is a war of good and evil and we must win even if it cost the life of our own son. Freedom is not free.

President George W. Bush actually said, "Freedom is not free." while addressing the nation. That made me LOL. But what frightened me is the content of the letter he read: "We believe this is a war of good and evil and we must win even if it cost the life of our own son. Freedom is not free."

Think about that. George W. Bush: cocain addict, idiot, linguist, President has actually convinced people that
1) They ought to sacrifice their children to his war.
2) The Clusterfuck in Iraq is a "war of good and evil".
3) We must win. And that he, or anyone, has an idea of what "win" means.

Fuck "terrorists with a dirty bomb". This is terrifying. The fact that rhetoric is more convincing to people than facts, statistics, and historical precedent. The fact that someone who thinks "misunderestimate" is a word can also rhetorically convince a family to sacrifice their son to his war. And the fact that six years after 9/11 people are still head-up-their-ass terrified that the people who didn't attack us will attack us.

Motion Sensitive Controls - I shall not soon tire of berating their misuse

From Eurogamer's review of Heavenly Sword:

By default, the game encourages you to use the SixAxis tilt controls [to steer missiles], but although it feels rather fantastic when you wobble your pad to your target, it's horribly imprecise. After a few hours of struggling with it, we couldn't quite believe how much easier it was to control the direction with the analogue stick in comparison

WILL EVERYONE PLEASE STOP RELEGATING MOTION SENSITIVE CONTROLS TO "GIMMICK" STATUS?! Wii Sports has the controls pretty well figured out. They make you swing your controller to hit a tennis ball because that's how playing tennis works, and it all makes sense. Then in practically every other application they look at a situation where pressing A would perform an action and figure "hitting A is so last gen, this is next gen! Waggle a stick for massive damage! When it works it'll be just like hitting A, and when it doesn't work, it'll be exactly like not hitting A, and nobody will be able to predict which will happen! Wheeeeeeeeeeee!" Tilting a PS3 controller to aim a missile? Are you fucking kidding me? I'm going to make a game where you play chess by fucking blowing into the DS microphone. Nintendo Power and Play magazine will call it brilliant, and everyone else will wonder why god would allow me to blight the earth with my hopelessly imprecise gameplay.

I realize that I probably harp on this subject a little too often, but I don't bring it up any more frequently than developers whiz this nice little technology down their spindly legs.

In Memory: Frontosa.

My pet fish died today. He had been my loyal pet for over 10 years. From his 10 gallon tank to his 30 gallon tank, from green and blue to black gravel he was always in his rectangle filled with water, moving his rocks and swimming spastically when spooked. In his life he had consumed various types of fish food, guppies, ghost shrimp, frozen shrimp, and on occasion bits of salmon. He once ate a corydoras sterbai, which is impressive because those little bastards have spikes on their fins.

I can think of no better tribute to my fish's life than this video clip of him moving a really big rock in his tank. A lasting tribute to his rock moving abilities.



So long, my rock moving friend. You won't be forgotten. And even in the end, you were never flushed but rather buried in a pile of the stones you so loved to spit.

Jessica Rowley: adorable

Jessica Rowley is adorable. Jessica Rowley is a woman. Jessica Rowley is a Catholic Priest.

Wait, what?

Rowley's ordination was approved by the, "Ecumenical Catholic Communion, a group of churches that decline to recognize the authority of the pope but see themselves nevertheless as Roman Catholic."

Think about that for a moment. They don't recognize the authority of the Pope but see themselves as Roman Catholic. How can that be?

Apparently the Old Catholic Church has been around since the First Vatican Council of 1870, where they took issue with the idea of "papal infallibility" and so took their ball, went home, and started their own little popeless Catholic Church. So it is not as if this is a new fight, but rather a very old fight which msnbc just noticed...or something.

In this Newsweek Article we learn that Jessica is a self-googler, "I personally have not received hate mail, although there are plenty of blogs that I have found online that like to slander my name when they get hold of information about my ordination and ministry. It’s unfortunate and sad."

So I thought it sensible to write a nice, not mean-spirited, blog post about Jessica Rowley in the hopes that she would come comment on her position in life, and perhaps shed some light on the theological means by which one can be Catholic and not recognize Papal authority. Also, how one can be Catholic and a priest and a female all at the same time.

And even if Jessica doesn't come post, she is damn cute. And she's a rebel. An Old Catholic Rebel. Being all "I'm not going to recognize your pope who I recognized growing up until he wouldn't let me be a priest so I went over to this other group who would let me be a priest AND wouldn't make me recognize the pope AND was still Catholic!"

So, go Jessica Rowley! You show him. Stupid Pope and his not letting Jessica be a priest. He's such a fallible doodie head.