It has occurred to me on several occasions since my mates and I decided to create this esteemed blog that there was a reason for it in the first place. I am not getting on this particular soapbox to opine how we have strayed from our once noble goals to bitch about video games and the shit around us (although that second one is fairly close to our original idea) but instead to bitch about something we were actually fairly knowledgeable and snobbish about, restaurants. Now you may be asking yourself what in the name of Poseidon's engorged blue crank could possible qualify these nerds to talk about the relative quality of restaurants in any credible capacity. Well myself and Typhus both went to Johnson and Wales University for Culinary arts. I graduated last year and while my esteemed colleague did not graduate per se, he is bitter and highly opinionated and on the internet what more do you need, really?
All that being said, this is the event that caused us to actually go and make this blog happen. Typhus and myself were at his local mall and were waiting for our showing of the Watchmen movie to come about and we were hungry. not content with the selection offered to us by the food court and frankly feeling a bit too lazy to drive to one of the surrounding restaurants, we settled on a Pizzeria Uno in the mall. Nothing outstanding, this is the sort of chain restaurant you find peppering the country, formulaic restaurants that serve food that is generally acceptable, but far from notable. Anyhow, Typhus and I took our table and place our drink orders with our server, some 20-something guy named Chris, and sat back for our usual sort of discussion, drinks came and we looked over our menus. Now I will say up front that when it comes to ordering at this sort of place I am spoiled. I have working in kitchens for almost 7 years now and been cooking for 6 of those years. I have also taken a good amount of courses that discuss the principles of menu writing and so reading a menu from this sort of place is kind of disappointing, in the way that insiders can see through the surface and read the subtext. Anyway, after a bit of perusing the menu trying to decide what I felt like eating I settled on a pasta dish involving Jalapenos, chicken, and a cream sauce. Now as I said I don't expect much from this place, but what I got still managed to let me down. It was bland, barely appealing and there was no really effort put into it. I ate about half of it and Typhus didn't fare much better with his own dish.
This is more or less the point where the story begins, the rest is just background and context. When we had decided we'd had enough of of our respective dishes we began to look around for our server and low and behold he was no where to be found. Now Typhus and I consider ourselves to be polite and civil people when regarding professional workers. We both hate rude customers, I have seen more than my share in restaurants and Typhus in the bookstore he works at. So we decided that since we still have some time before our movie, we would just sit, converse and wait for our server to show up again, no doubt he was occupied, despite the fact we appeared to be his only table.
Twenty minutes later, there was still no sign of Chris and we were becoming quite annoyed at this point. The topic of our conversation at this point had moved to complaining about the things that bug us about mediocre restaurants such as this one and talking about starting a blog based off that topic, sort of as amateur food critics. After a few more minutes where we basically decided that Chris wasn't coming back we headed to the front of the restaurant where a manager was at the main station. We asked where our server was and were informed, that basically his shift had ended and he had left...in the middle of serving us. Either he had switched us over to another server (as is standard in this industry) and they had forgotten about us. Or he had ignored or forgotten about us altogether. Either way were were mildly insulted and this obviously did nothing to our dining experience. We decided to take the obvious route and return insult with insult. We paid our bill and left a tip of 25 cents, sure it was unlikely that this would ever come back to our original server in any meaningful way, but that didn't matter. To us the point had been made.
Showing posts with label Hamletpunk. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hamletpunk. Show all posts
Monday, October 19, 2009
Friday, September 11, 2009
WET Demo Review
Greetings denizens of the internet. I know updates to this blog have been pretty damn infrequent lately and I also realize that by and large this doesn't matter, even if by some miracle someone other than the three of the authors actually read this blog. But none the less I figured that I would post something, partly because I felt like doing a little writing and partly since I always feel bad when this blog goes without updates for too long.
Since our usual game guy around these parts seems to have gone into hibernation I felt like writing about the demo for the upcoming game "WET". Now for those of you that have not checked out the demo for this game it's an upcoming release from Bethesda Studios and developed by Artificial Mind and Movement. Bethesda really needs no introduction. Their work is topnotch for the most part and more likely than not you know who they are. If you don't then Google them, seriously I'm not gonna waste my time explaining them anymore. Now Artificial Mind and Movement (A2M) is another matter altogether, looking at their list of games is not very encouraging. With a few exceptions all of their games to date are tie-in games to movies and children television shows and frankly that is worrying, but the demo is encouraging.
The game is a third person shooter featuring a female heroine named Rubi Malone. The style of the Game's music, art, and theme feels kind of like a film noir as done by Quentin Tarantino. It seems to have that sort of Kill Bill-esque violence as a spectacle sort of thing going on. And I think it works, granted violent games are a dime a dozen these days, and it's not like this game is going to stand out on it's violence alone. But really isn't that a good thing. Games can't really ride that train anymore and really that whole sort of thing stopped woring back in the 90's.
Anyhow, the demo. Like most demos the goal is to show the game off, show the control scheme, and several game modes. I could get into a whole different rant about how that should be what ALL demos do , but I won't bore any of you with that. The demo starts with a cut scene, of a deal gone wrong, classic and nothing out of the ordinary, I personally like the guy with the voice box, and in true gaming tradition, the cool one off characters get killed off way to fast. Rubi enters and the demo runs you through the controls for the games fighting and one of the main action focuses of the game, the acrobatic fighting. basically, when you jump, slide, or wall run the game goes into bullet time and allows for easier kills. Actually this leads into the closest thing I have to a complaint about the demo, Shooting normally is basically a waste of time your accuracy and the effectiveness of your weapons seems to drop to near uselessness. Granted that could be more an issue with my own skill, and since the game thoughtfully provides you with many, many, many places to jump of and run off so this is probably needless bitching. Moving on, after you kill all the enemies you go through a few more areas that show you health regen (Drinking Whiskey, awesome) and sword attacks (good feedback, awesome).
After a bit more linear progression, you come to a large and fairly open area and kick off the second main action focus, Arena Combat. I could get into this but that's unnecessary. The basic idea is that there are a certain number of spawn points and you have to close them while killing enemies. Since there is no whiskey lying about, you regenerate health by building up a multiplier by killing enemies, which is fun and challenging without being overly hard. After that is done you move onto the next action focus, a high speed car chase, with Rubi jumping from the roof of car to car, shooting baddies and doing, you guessed it quick time events!!!! Now I know that a good amount of critics bag on these but I don't have a real problem with them when they are used responsibly (a minority even to be sure) and I feel in this game they work, they are infrequent enough to not get in the way, pervasive enough so you know to watch out for them, and while some of them (especially in the driving section) are "Press X to not die affairs", the game is generous enough with checkpoints so they aren't controller snappingly annoying.
Overall I can't wait for this game. Granted all these things could be thrown off in the real game, but Bethesda is a good developer and I am choosing to invest some faith in them to put out a good game.
Since our usual game guy around these parts seems to have gone into hibernation I felt like writing about the demo for the upcoming game "WET". Now for those of you that have not checked out the demo for this game it's an upcoming release from Bethesda Studios and developed by Artificial Mind and Movement. Bethesda really needs no introduction. Their work is topnotch for the most part and more likely than not you know who they are. If you don't then Google them, seriously I'm not gonna waste my time explaining them anymore. Now Artificial Mind and Movement (A2M) is another matter altogether, looking at their list of games is not very encouraging. With a few exceptions all of their games to date are tie-in games to movies and children television shows and frankly that is worrying, but the demo is encouraging.
The game is a third person shooter featuring a female heroine named Rubi Malone. The style of the Game's music, art, and theme feels kind of like a film noir as done by Quentin Tarantino. It seems to have that sort of Kill Bill-esque violence as a spectacle sort of thing going on. And I think it works, granted violent games are a dime a dozen these days, and it's not like this game is going to stand out on it's violence alone. But really isn't that a good thing. Games can't really ride that train anymore and really that whole sort of thing stopped woring back in the 90's.
Anyhow, the demo. Like most demos the goal is to show the game off, show the control scheme, and several game modes. I could get into a whole different rant about how that should be what ALL demos do , but I won't bore any of you with that. The demo starts with a cut scene, of a deal gone wrong, classic and nothing out of the ordinary, I personally like the guy with the voice box, and in true gaming tradition, the cool one off characters get killed off way to fast. Rubi enters and the demo runs you through the controls for the games fighting and one of the main action focuses of the game, the acrobatic fighting. basically, when you jump, slide, or wall run the game goes into bullet time and allows for easier kills. Actually this leads into the closest thing I have to a complaint about the demo, Shooting normally is basically a waste of time your accuracy and the effectiveness of your weapons seems to drop to near uselessness. Granted that could be more an issue with my own skill, and since the game thoughtfully provides you with many, many, many places to jump of and run off so this is probably needless bitching. Moving on, after you kill all the enemies you go through a few more areas that show you health regen (Drinking Whiskey, awesome) and sword attacks (good feedback, awesome).
After a bit more linear progression, you come to a large and fairly open area and kick off the second main action focus, Arena Combat. I could get into this but that's unnecessary. The basic idea is that there are a certain number of spawn points and you have to close them while killing enemies. Since there is no whiskey lying about, you regenerate health by building up a multiplier by killing enemies, which is fun and challenging without being overly hard. After that is done you move onto the next action focus, a high speed car chase, with Rubi jumping from the roof of car to car, shooting baddies and doing, you guessed it quick time events!!!! Now I know that a good amount of critics bag on these but I don't have a real problem with them when they are used responsibly (a minority even to be sure) and I feel in this game they work, they are infrequent enough to not get in the way, pervasive enough so you know to watch out for them, and while some of them (especially in the driving section) are "Press X to not die affairs", the game is generous enough with checkpoints so they aren't controller snappingly annoying.
Overall I can't wait for this game. Granted all these things could be thrown off in the real game, but Bethesda is a good developer and I am choosing to invest some faith in them to put out a good game.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Man it's been a while...
I always feel bad when I look at my toolbar and see the icon for this blog and I feel bad that I really don't have much to say. I guess it's because I feel I should be posting something of substance on here. Other times I have to remind myself that blogging (and to a greater extent Twittering) was created to tell people about every little that you are thinking or doing, regardless of it's relevance to... well anything. So with that in mind here are some things.
I do not like to pack, it's not like it is really hard for me. I rarely have that much furniture to move. The problem is that I like to get stuff done when I can so this often results in having half my stuff packed weeks in advance, and the other half packed a few days before the move. I'm not sure if this is normal as I have never really been involved in any large scale (such as a family and the contents of a house) so I can't really be sure if this is a problem.
Either way I will soon be at my new apartment, and for those of you that don't know it I will living with my girlfriend of 3 years (4 years in October). When I first brought up this idea to my friends and coworkers I got a lot of unexpected responses. The stereotypical reply I always assumed would be that this is a bad idea, kills the romance, etc... But most of the people I have talked to, namely those that already see their girlfriends on a regular (day to day) basis or basically live with them anyway, thought this was all well and good. I was pleasantly surprised by these responses.
Now to the festering meat of what has been occupying my thoughts lately. For those of your I have not already excitedly told, I am working on writing a book. I say I am working on writing it because at this point that is about as far as I have gotten. I am stilling mapping out the events of the story. This is taking some time, since basically the first 2/3 of the story are based on the events of an online roleplaying game I was a major player in, and the last third is of my own creation. I could go on and on about why this is the case but that is another post/rant altogether mostly cause it deals with a lot of stuff outside that particular game. None the less I am still using the events of the game before it basically ended and as such I am constantly pouring through the posts of the game to make sure I am covering the points of the story I wanted to cover.
I have ideas for how I want the conclusion to go but the more I talk about them I realize they are just that, ideas, often scattered and disjointed from a form that resembles storytelling. Part of the problem is my own. really all the problem is my own, but that too is not the point. I am used to taking the fragmented and random ideas that pop into my head and using my friends as a sounding board to help me sort them out and in this case I am trying to do this basically on my own, using my friends for final editing. In short, I want to write this book myself. Not so much to be able to claim credit, but mostly to prove to myself that I can.
I have over the course of my life had many ideas for stories (mostly short ones) but never had the patience or care to work them out into something resembling a proper story. With this I want to see if I can follow this through to the end. I may or may not bother with ever publishing this thing, but if I can get to that point then I will have made my point to myself. This is something I am doing with my spare time, it's not my job, I won't delude myself for a minute into thinking that I could write for a living, but for me it is something I want to do and hopefully that will be enough.
So long for now, I may try and get my other rant up soon.
I do not like to pack, it's not like it is really hard for me. I rarely have that much furniture to move. The problem is that I like to get stuff done when I can so this often results in having half my stuff packed weeks in advance, and the other half packed a few days before the move. I'm not sure if this is normal as I have never really been involved in any large scale (such as a family and the contents of a house) so I can't really be sure if this is a problem.
Either way I will soon be at my new apartment, and for those of you that don't know it I will living with my girlfriend of 3 years (4 years in October). When I first brought up this idea to my friends and coworkers I got a lot of unexpected responses. The stereotypical reply I always assumed would be that this is a bad idea, kills the romance, etc... But most of the people I have talked to, namely those that already see their girlfriends on a regular (day to day) basis or basically live with them anyway, thought this was all well and good. I was pleasantly surprised by these responses.
Now to the festering meat of what has been occupying my thoughts lately. For those of your I have not already excitedly told, I am working on writing a book. I say I am working on writing it because at this point that is about as far as I have gotten. I am stilling mapping out the events of the story. This is taking some time, since basically the first 2/3 of the story are based on the events of an online roleplaying game I was a major player in, and the last third is of my own creation. I could go on and on about why this is the case but that is another post/rant altogether mostly cause it deals with a lot of stuff outside that particular game. None the less I am still using the events of the game before it basically ended and as such I am constantly pouring through the posts of the game to make sure I am covering the points of the story I wanted to cover.
I have ideas for how I want the conclusion to go but the more I talk about them I realize they are just that, ideas, often scattered and disjointed from a form that resembles storytelling. Part of the problem is my own. really all the problem is my own, but that too is not the point. I am used to taking the fragmented and random ideas that pop into my head and using my friends as a sounding board to help me sort them out and in this case I am trying to do this basically on my own, using my friends for final editing. In short, I want to write this book myself. Not so much to be able to claim credit, but mostly to prove to myself that I can.
I have over the course of my life had many ideas for stories (mostly short ones) but never had the patience or care to work them out into something resembling a proper story. With this I want to see if I can follow this through to the end. I may or may not bother with ever publishing this thing, but if I can get to that point then I will have made my point to myself. This is something I am doing with my spare time, it's not my job, I won't delude myself for a minute into thinking that I could write for a living, but for me it is something I want to do and hopefully that will be enough.
So long for now, I may try and get my other rant up soon.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Yelling From the Mountain Top: Smile for the camera
I decided to get some food while I was out and about today and since one of my errands took me to an area where the handiest thing was and Au Bon Pain so that is where I went. I asked for a steak sandwich and was directed over to a warmer to get a sandwich from there. Now I could go on for hours about how this is not quality, nor is this very good service, but hell it's a franchise what did I really expect (that's a whole different rant altogether). So I take my sandwich and proceed to eat it and I have to admit, for what it is it wasn't really bad, sure there was too much jalapeno for me to finish it let alone enjoy it after a few minutes, but it was palitable.
Now as I sat there eating my mediocre sandwich I am looking over the menu behind the counter and more specifically the pictures of the food and that got me thinking. Why are those pistures such good advertising. We all know that the food will never look that nice, after all the food in those ads is crafted by the exectutive chefs of the company and photgraphed by professionals. it's something I've never been able to get a really satisfactory answer for so it continues to bug me.
Now as I sat there eating my mediocre sandwich I am looking over the menu behind the counter and more specifically the pictures of the food and that got me thinking. Why are those pistures such good advertising. We all know that the food will never look that nice, after all the food in those ads is crafted by the exectutive chefs of the company and photgraphed by professionals. it's something I've never been able to get a really satisfactory answer for so it continues to bug me.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Don't make them like they used to.
I realize this is a heavily trod ground but seriously, what happened to good reliable craftsmanship. Outsourcing and cheap buying has let us not only reliant on other countries to produce our goods but on their shitty products.
Case and the source of this rant is the belt clip for my latest cellphone. About 2 weeks ago I bought a plastic belt clip and on Wednesday a very small part of the bit that holds the phone in place broke off. Now I am none to happy with this as I'm sure you can imagine. But on many levels it doesn't matter, after all since it is still under warranty I can bring it into the Verizon store and get a new one for free. I did so yesterday and when I got to work all was fine. I brushed up against something at work and it seems that my phone snagged on something, cause part of the area where the clip meets the section that the phone fits into broke off...
Okay fine, the clip still works and I am sure that I was being too rough on the damn thing, but still I got it that fucking morning. Seriously what the bleeding fuck! But what the fuck ever, the thing still works so I decide to keep wearing it and it holds up... for the rest of the night.
As I am getting out of my car at home I feel my phone snag a bit on my seat cover and when I reach for my phone I find that the belt clip has broken again... in the same motherfucking place that the FIRST ONE BROKE!
I mean obviously I can go and get another one but do I even want to at this point. I liked having a clip cause it means I don't have to leave my phone in my pocket (it feels uncomfortable during service) or out in the open (in a kitchen). but do I really want to potentially be replacing this thing every couple of weeks.
Seriously what the fuck.
Case and the source of this rant is the belt clip for my latest cellphone. About 2 weeks ago I bought a plastic belt clip and on Wednesday a very small part of the bit that holds the phone in place broke off. Now I am none to happy with this as I'm sure you can imagine. But on many levels it doesn't matter, after all since it is still under warranty I can bring it into the Verizon store and get a new one for free. I did so yesterday and when I got to work all was fine. I brushed up against something at work and it seems that my phone snagged on something, cause part of the area where the clip meets the section that the phone fits into broke off...
Okay fine, the clip still works and I am sure that I was being too rough on the damn thing, but still I got it that fucking morning. Seriously what the bleeding fuck! But what the fuck ever, the thing still works so I decide to keep wearing it and it holds up... for the rest of the night.
As I am getting out of my car at home I feel my phone snag a bit on my seat cover and when I reach for my phone I find that the belt clip has broken again... in the same motherfucking place that the FIRST ONE BROKE!
I mean obviously I can go and get another one but do I even want to at this point. I liked having a clip cause it means I don't have to leave my phone in my pocket (it feels uncomfortable during service) or out in the open (in a kitchen). but do I really want to potentially be replacing this thing every couple of weeks.
Seriously what the fuck.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Is trust really so hard.
In talking with many of my coworkers and mates over the years it occurs to me that the biggest necessity and problem in relationships is trust. Now to all you clever blokes this might not be an earth shattering revelation, but it still seems that I hear a lot about it so I feel like writing about it.
Now I am not going to sit here and ignorantly suggest that we all just try and trust each other a bit more. I am sure that most of us have been screwed over in the past by someone we trusted or maybe we were the betrayers, that's not the point of this little write up. I'm sure we all have good reason to be paranoid or suspicious of most people. That is part of the world we live in these days and in one way or another we are all to blame, but that's a different book. Here I want to put forth some thoughts of my own on the subject of trust and it's role in relationships.
One of my previous coworkers has had very bad luck with his two long term girlfriends. The first dumped him on his birthday and the second (which is almost a horror story to me) dumped him the day before his birthday by coming out of the closet to him. Now some people would have turned into horrible misogynists after such events (I know one of my old friends from back home did after only one really bad relationship). But since then he has been dating a very nice woman and they seem to be in what most people would call 'love'. Now he admits that he is a very jealous and suspicious person with regards to his current relationship and I can't say I blame him. But the defining difference with his current girlfriend is honesty. He and his girlfriend are almost perfectly honest with each other and I am sure that has helped their relationship considerable.
When you and your significant other are honest with each other (at least as any two people can be honest with each other) this has a rather wondrous effect on the relationship. Now let us assume for the purposes of this little statement that both parties involved are 'reasonable' people. That means Typhus, shut you whore mouth for 5 minutes I realize these are hypothetical conditions here. If two reasonable people are honest with each other a likely conclusion that both of them will reach at a certain point is that there is an unspoken understanding. That is, if one of the involved parties doesn't wish to talk about something, then the other party is likely to assume that there is a good reason for this. This is one of the principles of trust.
Unfortunately this thought process is often perverted by the person that is hiding something, temporary as it may be, into thinking that not telling the truth in a potentially harmful situation is for the benefit of the unknowing party. This is bullshit, plain and simple. What you don't know can and often will hurt you and likely those around you a great deal. Example being a server I work with. A series of events that I won't get into lead to a mate of her boyfriend feeling her up, and another of his mate's seeing her leave the room. Basically she was against telling him what had happened in an attempt to stop him from hurting the offending friend. Every guy that was told this basically said to just tell her boyfriend, she was not really at fault and most guys knew they would rather be told the truth by their significant other than one of their mates, or someone else.
I apologize for this getting a bit round about, but really the point is this. Once trust is established it can cover a lot of areas, but even the smallest betrayal can shatter it like a glass snowflake.
Now I am not going to sit here and ignorantly suggest that we all just try and trust each other a bit more. I am sure that most of us have been screwed over in the past by someone we trusted or maybe we were the betrayers, that's not the point of this little write up. I'm sure we all have good reason to be paranoid or suspicious of most people. That is part of the world we live in these days and in one way or another we are all to blame, but that's a different book. Here I want to put forth some thoughts of my own on the subject of trust and it's role in relationships.
One of my previous coworkers has had very bad luck with his two long term girlfriends. The first dumped him on his birthday and the second (which is almost a horror story to me) dumped him the day before his birthday by coming out of the closet to him. Now some people would have turned into horrible misogynists after such events (I know one of my old friends from back home did after only one really bad relationship). But since then he has been dating a very nice woman and they seem to be in what most people would call 'love'. Now he admits that he is a very jealous and suspicious person with regards to his current relationship and I can't say I blame him. But the defining difference with his current girlfriend is honesty. He and his girlfriend are almost perfectly honest with each other and I am sure that has helped their relationship considerable.
When you and your significant other are honest with each other (at least as any two people can be honest with each other) this has a rather wondrous effect on the relationship. Now let us assume for the purposes of this little statement that both parties involved are 'reasonable' people. That means Typhus, shut you whore mouth for 5 minutes I realize these are hypothetical conditions here. If two reasonable people are honest with each other a likely conclusion that both of them will reach at a certain point is that there is an unspoken understanding. That is, if one of the involved parties doesn't wish to talk about something, then the other party is likely to assume that there is a good reason for this. This is one of the principles of trust.
Unfortunately this thought process is often perverted by the person that is hiding something, temporary as it may be, into thinking that not telling the truth in a potentially harmful situation is for the benefit of the unknowing party. This is bullshit, plain and simple. What you don't know can and often will hurt you and likely those around you a great deal. Example being a server I work with. A series of events that I won't get into lead to a mate of her boyfriend feeling her up, and another of his mate's seeing her leave the room. Basically she was against telling him what had happened in an attempt to stop him from hurting the offending friend. Every guy that was told this basically said to just tell her boyfriend, she was not really at fault and most guys knew they would rather be told the truth by their significant other than one of their mates, or someone else.
I apologize for this getting a bit round about, but really the point is this. Once trust is established it can cover a lot of areas, but even the smallest betrayal can shatter it like a glass snowflake.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Yelling From the Mountain Top: Tolerance and Ignorance
Those that know me know the way I feel about other people and their beliefs. For those that may read this and don't here is the basic summary, I don't care what you believe in, I don't care what you do do in your spare time, I don't even how you practice either of the above, so long as you are not trying to force it down my throat.
To me this seems very simple and practical, some may call this a position of ignorance. That I am refusing to look at anything that doesn't affect me, but the fact is that I take this attitude because to me it is a position of tolerance. For the record I would like to state that in many senses of the word I am a racist (aside from the fact I am in fact white, see Urban Dictionary). I do not however feel any particular need to respect a person of any given ethnicity anymore than a person of any other ethnicity. I am a firm believer in personal merit and personal responsibility. (More on those later)
I am not perfect by even the most delusion, sanity depraved imaginings of the concept, even using regular human behavior as a standard, I come no where close (First class ticket to Hell bought and paid for). So basically who the fuck am I to judge what other people do with themselves.
I personally do no believe in any form of religion or worship. I include all forms because I may miss a few if I get too specific and I would hate to leave anyone out. I have nothing against faith, hope and all those other qualities that religions generally seek to inspire (and in a few isolated incidents they actually come close) but organized religion is crap in my opinion, and any really good intentions have long since been lost to the course of time in the storm battered ocean of human nature. But enough of that, this is another rant in and of itself.
Then there is sex. I am a firm believer in the theory of Quantum Fetish Mechanics and in that theme I also believe that whatever a person may want to do with themselves (or other consenting individuals) in their own space and time is entirely their own damn business. Who am I to judge or dictate how a person conducts themselves in private (used in it's loosest meaning here). Who are we as a group to judge anyone in such a manner. This is of course excluding illegal acts as they are most likely violating the primary rule of forcing one's beliefs or practices on another. If I have to explain what sort of things qualify then you deserve to be smacked brutally around a cave with a baseball bat made out of frozen hate.
Back to the subject of racism. The idea of racism is the idea of hating another person based on their race (Shocking revelation I know). To me this is all well and good but in this day and age it is more a rationalization (and a lame one at that) more than anything, to the point it is impossible to make even the most accurate observations without being labeled a racist. If you are still reading at this point then you either; understand where I am coming from or have your email windows open and are getting ready to start flooding me with emails will never read. Either way My point is that assholes are assholes regardless of the color of their skin and Ignorance is like a bullet, as in it does more harm than good.
More rants, when I have the time and booze to write them.
To me this seems very simple and practical, some may call this a position of ignorance. That I am refusing to look at anything that doesn't affect me, but the fact is that I take this attitude because to me it is a position of tolerance. For the record I would like to state that in many senses of the word I am a racist (aside from the fact I am in fact white, see Urban Dictionary). I do not however feel any particular need to respect a person of any given ethnicity anymore than a person of any other ethnicity. I am a firm believer in personal merit and personal responsibility. (More on those later)
I am not perfect by even the most delusion, sanity depraved imaginings of the concept, even using regular human behavior as a standard, I come no where close (First class ticket to Hell bought and paid for). So basically who the fuck am I to judge what other people do with themselves.
I personally do no believe in any form of religion or worship. I include all forms because I may miss a few if I get too specific and I would hate to leave anyone out. I have nothing against faith, hope and all those other qualities that religions generally seek to inspire (and in a few isolated incidents they actually come close) but organized religion is crap in my opinion, and any really good intentions have long since been lost to the course of time in the storm battered ocean of human nature. But enough of that, this is another rant in and of itself.
Then there is sex. I am a firm believer in the theory of Quantum Fetish Mechanics and in that theme I also believe that whatever a person may want to do with themselves (or other consenting individuals) in their own space and time is entirely their own damn business. Who am I to judge or dictate how a person conducts themselves in private (used in it's loosest meaning here). Who are we as a group to judge anyone in such a manner. This is of course excluding illegal acts as they are most likely violating the primary rule of forcing one's beliefs or practices on another. If I have to explain what sort of things qualify then you deserve to be smacked brutally around a cave with a baseball bat made out of frozen hate.
Back to the subject of racism. The idea of racism is the idea of hating another person based on their race (Shocking revelation I know). To me this is all well and good but in this day and age it is more a rationalization (and a lame one at that) more than anything, to the point it is impossible to make even the most accurate observations without being labeled a racist. If you are still reading at this point then you either; understand where I am coming from or have your email windows open and are getting ready to start flooding me with emails will never read. Either way My point is that assholes are assholes regardless of the color of their skin and Ignorance is like a bullet, as in it does more harm than good.
More rants, when I have the time and booze to write them.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Sometimes I'm glad to be sober
I have spent the majority of this night as I spend most of my weekend nights. That is to say I sit in front of my computer and try and think of something productive to do. Seeing as the weather is finally deciding to shape up and realize what bleeding season it is I have the window open. I live on the 1st floor of a three story apartment building in a college neighborhood. It is Friday night (or Saturday morning if your want to get technical) and therefore I get the particular joy of listening to the sounds of drunken students wandering through the night.
Lots of Drunken students as it happens.
It is a question that has perplexed me for some time and will probably continue to perplex me for the majority of my life, since I am no longer a college student. Why do people feel the need to get so drunk that they are basically incoherent. I have nothing against booze, nothing at all, I like to go out and drink, but I can't understand the appeal of getting so drunk that you are unlikely to remember the majority of you previous evening. The way I see it, at that point you are probably going to do something that is best not remembered, or something you wish you could remember.
In the case of the former, the excess of booze is likely the cause anyway, and in the case of the latter the booze is the axe to the skull of what could have been an awesome story for many years to come.
Frankly I don't get the point of getting shitfaced. I just don't.
Lots of Drunken students as it happens.
It is a question that has perplexed me for some time and will probably continue to perplex me for the majority of my life, since I am no longer a college student. Why do people feel the need to get so drunk that they are basically incoherent. I have nothing against booze, nothing at all, I like to go out and drink, but I can't understand the appeal of getting so drunk that you are unlikely to remember the majority of you previous evening. The way I see it, at that point you are probably going to do something that is best not remembered, or something you wish you could remember.
In the case of the former, the excess of booze is likely the cause anyway, and in the case of the latter the booze is the axe to the skull of what could have been an awesome story for many years to come.
Frankly I don't get the point of getting shitfaced. I just don't.
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