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10.31.2006

Fantasy Fantasy

Dear Imaginary Reader:
Interspersed with observations about the comedy that is our daily lives, you'll happily find little reveries about what's coming...the sooner the better. Though my distaste for the inadequacies of human development is palpable, I assure you I have great hope for the future. In fact, it is the promise of the future paired with my intense idealism that nurtures the ever-growing canker of disillusionment and dissatisfaction with reality.

So bravely into the alt/synth world of the future of human evolution we go...

Nick Yee is my new best friend. Well, not really, but if I were a PhD student at Stanford, I would be bringing him coffee and donuts in the library every day, trying really hard to get him to be my friend.

His observations of human behavior in the expanding world of MMOGS and MMORPGS, based on actual statistical data and voluntary, user-generated qualitative data, deserves a serious read-through. Especially if you're not a gamer. If you want to know what those crazy kids are up to these days, check out some of the articles on his blog:

The one that caught my attention, and the one that held it for hours, scrolling, scrolling...

The real beauty of this alt fantasy synthetic immersive environment? You can get past all that prejudicial bullshit that your eyes and sex drive dictate. Funny thing is, based on these two articles, and especially the comments, everyone's still just trying to find someone to fuck.

Ahhh, the human instinct for survival is alive and well.

French Toast

Sick, I know.

I realize that my mission in life is to point out the things that don't make sense, so that we know about it, and can then bury ourselves in distractions so we don't have to do anything about it. But someday I will really become an activist instead of a complainer, but in the meantime...
Back to the BBC News, where the reporting of the recent violence in France just points out again that knowing what's wrong and doing something about it are totally disconnected.


Dominique de Villepin, the French Prime Minister (who I actually remembered incorrectly as the Interior Minister - who gave him the top job? This guy is a complete douche), does his usual evasion - rather than deal with the overt racism and complete discrimination evident in relations between the dominant white French and the African post-colonial diaspora, he decides to pass tougher laws. Cause that's going to stop the violence.

Two things:

The French are racist against everyone, not just "the blacks" that have come from the African nations they overran back when all of Europe was grabbing for land, labor and gold. They hate Americans, Brits, and bad french speakers from all over the world. They hate tourists with a passion.

(Just face it, the upperclass, white, educated and liberal French elite are just better. Why should they dilute the perfection they have nurtured like Champagne grapes for centuries?)

This is evidence of yet another government knowing that there's a domestic problem that they don't know how to solve (we've got'em too: immigration wars, disintegration of the industrial complex, education - or the complete lack thereof) that they are just washing over with legislation that is aimed only at punishment and statistical results. They will never get the results they want, but since the results they are actually hoping for will last just long enough for them to get out of office, they won't have to worry about it the next time the shit hits the proverbial fan.

Problem is, we have to deal with their incompetence, their misjudgment, and their half-assed attempts, because we have to live every day past the one when they're out of office.
Hasn't anyone realized that short-term, bottom-line socialism (in France or in the US or anywhere else) doesn't work?

Please comment. I would love to argue the point about the US being socialist. No one recognizes this extremely obvious fact. It ain't about electoral systems, baby.

Propaganda Wars: Or, Why I love Dick Cheney

Dick...Oh, Dick. No one tells the truth like you do, man.
Not only is he frighteningly insightful about the internal workings of the Iraq-based terrorist organization that threatens our precious western civilization, but he knows - and when I say "he knows", I mean he KNOWS how much time those dudes spend on the Internet. And when I say "Internet" I really mean that high technology source of US security leaks and independent observation that lures so many of us into terror.
And let me reassure you, when Dick knows, he doesn't require evidence.
You gotta love the BBC for reporting it as it is, and using enough quotation marks to imply a certain level of distrust when it comes to the blatant and unimpressive propaganda war that the always-spot-on Department of Defense is waging to combat those Internet-obsessed wannabe terrorists.
The real reporting here.

Someone else loves Dick, too.

Opening day

I finally realized that if I didn't have a way to entertain myself at work (and a way to work around those horrendous "non-work-related-site" blockers so efficiently implemented by the IT Compliance Dept) I would start screaming about how everyone's life is meaningless and how can they bullshit around so happily as they sell soulless souls at invented prices. Plus, I want to make comments on Gawker, which has saved me many an afternoon, and it seems that the only way to have some real credibility is by posting my own snarky comments about the ridiculousness of life elsewhere.
Here we go.
What the fuck is up with the lame font choices?

In the past...