Today is the anniversary of Roe Vs. Wade. Now I don't want to get into the politics of abortion because that isn't where my mind is today. It's on the news stories that mention this.
They almost all start with "Supreme court legalized abortion on this day" which is accurate, the problem is that it's also scary. I know that we are used to the supreme court doing this, but I still don't like it.
The problem is that it doesn't say "Supreme Court Found laws against abortion Unconstitutional" because while that is how they framed it, it isn't true. The Supreme Court decided that abortion should be legal in the U.S. and it passed a judgment circumventing the people, or even those who the people elect. You may agree that abortion should be legal, but do you agree that you want unelected judges running the country?
We need to stop looking at Roe vs. Wade purely as a case about abortion and start remembering that it is also a case about judicial overreach, and just because you like what they overreached on that one time doesn't mean that it won't be your side the next time they decided to overstep their bounds.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
President Obama
As one of the people who didn't vote for President Obama I want to remind everyone that he won and the time for fighting is over. He is president, and while I am certain I disagree with many things he does I for one want him to do a great job.
After 16 years of throwing insults and accusations against the president first from one side then from the other we need to stop. I don't want to go through another 4 years of Republicans talking about President Obama how they talked about Clinton anymore than I wanted to listen to Democrats badmouth Bush for 8 years.
It doesn't help our country any to run down the President and we need to stop.
After 16 years of throwing insults and accusations against the president first from one side then from the other we need to stop. I don't want to go through another 4 years of Republicans talking about President Obama how they talked about Clinton anymore than I wanted to listen to Democrats badmouth Bush for 8 years.
It doesn't help our country any to run down the President and we need to stop.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Boy George is creepy
Breaking news, Boy George is creepy. OK, so we've known that, but now he's creepy and spending 15 months in jail, for wrongful imprisonment of a male escort.
Wrongful imprisonment seems a stretch to me. If the laws in London are the same as the us the man was breaking the law, but that isn't really the point. Boy George evidently handcuffed him to the wall of his apartment, but you can't really call it kidnapping if they come to your house willingly i suppose.
The lawyers suggested that drugs may be involved. Really? You think that Boy George and the male escort might have used some drugs? I'm shocked and outraged at the suggestion, but to be serious, if there isn't drug use involved then it's even more creepy.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Star Gate Atlantis
Star Gate Atlantis ended on Friday. I'm not certain why Scifi has canceled the show so i'm not going to comment to much on that though I have to say the show has been getting better and I really enjoyed this season.
The episode itself was fun, but I'm ready for the Stargate to become known to the general population on one of these shows. I am not one who thinks that the show is getting stale, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't like to see such a rich vein of stories to be examined.
There will be another Stargate show, Stargate Universe, but again it isn't going to take place on earth, instead it will be on a ship which is stuck someone across the universe. Not the most original setup but originality is often overrated. Better to write good stories and characters than be fully original, but it means that there will be at least a couple more seasons of stargate before the general population learns about the stargate.
Elton
The episode itself was fun, but I'm ready for the Stargate to become known to the general population on one of these shows. I am not one who thinks that the show is getting stale, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't like to see such a rich vein of stories to be examined.
There will be another Stargate show, Stargate Universe, but again it isn't going to take place on earth, instead it will be on a ship which is stuck someone across the universe. Not the most original setup but originality is often overrated. Better to write good stories and characters than be fully original, but it means that there will be at least a couple more seasons of stargate before the general population learns about the stargate.
Elton
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Superman
If you like Superman then the web page superdickery is one of the funniest pages on the net. This page has hundreds of superman covers where he is doing horrible things.
This probably speaks more to how overpowered Superman is than anything. That is the problem I have found in most superman stories. Smallville is the most recent example of this. The first season they threw someone with powers at him every week, and every week he seemed to end up standing right next to Kryptonite. In later seasons they have moved away from that.
In Justice League Unlimited they have gotten around this some by weakening him compared to the superman in the comics, but they still have to write around him in order to tell many of their stories. Superman is sent off world to do something important because without that he would simply solve the problem.
Yet his being overpowered is also a weakness in certain situations. The most obvious being every time he has fought Batman. I'm certain that at some point they have fought and Superman has won, but every time i have seen a real fight between the two Batman wins. He has to win because otherwise there is no suspense. Superman, with every power in the world manages to overpower the guy with a grappling hook and a cool car. Not much of a surprise.
And then there is Lex Luthor. Again going back to Smallville, one of my favorite moments on the show is when Lex Luthor is describing a normal person fighting Superman and how it seems that the human would be the hero. And in any other story he would be. You can't have the hero with so much more power than the villain, except that with Superman it somehow works. Perhaps because we all want someone as powerful and good as Superman looking out for us.
This probably speaks more to how overpowered Superman is than anything. That is the problem I have found in most superman stories. Smallville is the most recent example of this. The first season they threw someone with powers at him every week, and every week he seemed to end up standing right next to Kryptonite. In later seasons they have moved away from that.
In Justice League Unlimited they have gotten around this some by weakening him compared to the superman in the comics, but they still have to write around him in order to tell many of their stories. Superman is sent off world to do something important because without that he would simply solve the problem.
Yet his being overpowered is also a weakness in certain situations. The most obvious being every time he has fought Batman. I'm certain that at some point they have fought and Superman has won, but every time i have seen a real fight between the two Batman wins. He has to win because otherwise there is no suspense. Superman, with every power in the world manages to overpower the guy with a grappling hook and a cool car. Not much of a surprise.
And then there is Lex Luthor. Again going back to Smallville, one of my favorite moments on the show is when Lex Luthor is describing a normal person fighting Superman and how it seems that the human would be the hero. And in any other story he would be. You can't have the hero with so much more power than the villain, except that with Superman it somehow works. Perhaps because we all want someone as powerful and good as Superman looking out for us.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
For Kids
It seems to me that the more things are made "for children" the worse they tend to be. Now I'm not saying that I want everything to be for adults only, far from it, I prefer things which are family friendly, the problem is when they make things for children.
Cartoons are the biggest offenders because they are the most targeted at children, which makes the good and bad examples far easier to see.
The good examples are most of the Pixar movies which while appropriate for children are really written for adults. By that I mean that there are many moments in any of the Pixar movies where the jokes are going to go right over a child's head.
The reason that smart producers of children's programming write for adults is simple enough. Adults are the ones with the money and the ones with the remote.
There are of course any number of bad examples. I rarely watch them all the way through and I certainly do see them more than once so it is difficult to speak of but we all know them. Shows which have no redeeming quality, they are people yelling and flashing lights designed to keep a child watching for thirty minutes without anything else.
Perhaps it it laziness but I think it is something worse. People tend to think that children are stupid. Children aren't stupid, they are inexperienced but how are they going to get experience if we talk down to them?
Stop letting your children watch programming that is stupid. They don't have to understand every moment of a cartoon to enjoy it and if you want them to grow they shouldn't understand every moment. Challenge your children with movies just outside of what they understand, then go out and find a movie that does the same for you, you might find that you can still learn something from a movie yourself.
Cartoons are the biggest offenders because they are the most targeted at children, which makes the good and bad examples far easier to see.
The good examples are most of the Pixar movies which while appropriate for children are really written for adults. By that I mean that there are many moments in any of the Pixar movies where the jokes are going to go right over a child's head.
The reason that smart producers of children's programming write for adults is simple enough. Adults are the ones with the money and the ones with the remote.
There are of course any number of bad examples. I rarely watch them all the way through and I certainly do see them more than once so it is difficult to speak of but we all know them. Shows which have no redeeming quality, they are people yelling and flashing lights designed to keep a child watching for thirty minutes without anything else.
Perhaps it it laziness but I think it is something worse. People tend to think that children are stupid. Children aren't stupid, they are inexperienced but how are they going to get experience if we talk down to them?
Stop letting your children watch programming that is stupid. They don't have to understand every moment of a cartoon to enjoy it and if you want them to grow they shouldn't understand every moment. Challenge your children with movies just outside of what they understand, then go out and find a movie that does the same for you, you might find that you can still learn something from a movie yourself.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Fiction Vrs. Nonfiction
I've been writing fiction for years and I like to think that I have got the general concept down pretty well. I enjoy telling stories, like making characters, and can spend hours world building.
The problem is that none of those skills translate directly to Nonfiction. My grammar and spelling are far better than they were a few years ago and I know many of the basic rules of writing, but there are still major style differences between them.
The most basic of those differences is that I can't just make things up, but that I can deal with easily enough. I have a fair amount of interests and writing a 500 word article, which seems to be the common length on the Internet, isn't difficult even if you only have a general knowledge of a subject. It's that I want to have a character in what I write.
If I can't use the word I, then I want to use the word you. If you're blogging that's fine but generally it's better to not do either so I'm breaking a habit. There are others too, and I am looking for them, as well as continuing to improve my grammar until I feel I have at least a journeyman's understanding of the craft of nonfiction.
The problem is that none of those skills translate directly to Nonfiction. My grammar and spelling are far better than they were a few years ago and I know many of the basic rules of writing, but there are still major style differences between them.
The most basic of those differences is that I can't just make things up, but that I can deal with easily enough. I have a fair amount of interests and writing a 500 word article, which seems to be the common length on the Internet, isn't difficult even if you only have a general knowledge of a subject. It's that I want to have a character in what I write.
If I can't use the word I, then I want to use the word you. If you're blogging that's fine but generally it's better to not do either so I'm breaking a habit. There are others too, and I am looking for them, as well as continuing to improve my grammar until I feel I have at least a journeyman's understanding of the craft of nonfiction.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Dreams
I have always been fascinated by dreams, but as I have gotten older I haven't been able to remember them as much. When I was a teenager I dreamed of a small town for years. It was a magical place. The only store was a gas station, but anything I ever wanted was there. There were only a few people, but all of my friends lived there. In fact anything I ever wanted was in this tiny town.
Trying to remember dreams has never really helped. I knew when I woke that I had dreamed but I forgot them so quickly it didn't matter. I had read in the past that if you wrote down your dreams it helped you remember but I had never really taken it serious. I was already trying to remember them and there was no way I was going to be able to read anything that I wrote down before I was awake enough to have forgotten my dreams.
That last part at least was completely true. I now have several pages of writing with only a couple words that I can remember, but there is something about writing it down which has triggered my memory. For several days after I stopped writing down everything I still remember large parts of the dreams and only now after four days without writing down anything have I had a night without remembering my dreams.
I will begin to record them again and see if that triggers the memories again, and I suggest that if you want to remember your dreams try keeping a dream journal next to your bed. It seems silly but at least for me it works.
Trying to remember dreams has never really helped. I knew when I woke that I had dreamed but I forgot them so quickly it didn't matter. I had read in the past that if you wrote down your dreams it helped you remember but I had never really taken it serious. I was already trying to remember them and there was no way I was going to be able to read anything that I wrote down before I was awake enough to have forgotten my dreams.
That last part at least was completely true. I now have several pages of writing with only a couple words that I can remember, but there is something about writing it down which has triggered my memory. For several days after I stopped writing down everything I still remember large parts of the dreams and only now after four days without writing down anything have I had a night without remembering my dreams.
I will begin to record them again and see if that triggers the memories again, and I suggest that if you want to remember your dreams try keeping a dream journal next to your bed. It seems silly but at least for me it works.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
The End of Live TV
Live TV is coming to an end, and it can't happen fast enough. Broadcast television is changing to digital in February but to me that is largely irrelevant. With youtube, Tivo, Netflix on Xbox, Itunes and dvds there is simply less reason every day to watch live television.
Over the last ten years I have become increasingly intolerant towards commercials. I have no problem with businesses making money and in general advertising is a good way to do it. Google has become one of the largest businesses in the world based on simple advertising and it almost never bothers me.
The problem is the unwillingness of the television providers to adapt and the general lack of quality of commercials.
I often watch TV in the background while doing other things. When that happens I rarely bother to fast forward past commercials because I hardly notice they are on, except when the volume doubles during those commercials in which case i almost immediately dive towards the remote to fast forward rather than being assaulted by the yelling.
Beyond that though is the ability to time shift. I could watch TV with commercials again, though I wouldn't be happy, so long as i could watch it when i want. twenty years ago you could afford to miss episodes of your favorite TV show, but while the networks have fought change the producers of their programs have taken advantage by moving away from episodic television to far more complex story lines, but few of us can afford to plan our lives around Monday night.
Finally there is the long tail. Even more important to me than time shifting is being able to find the content I want. My interest are specific and not all that common so I am able to watch shows on technology or comic books or history all with far more depth than the show you're likely to see on the typical cable channel because someone on the internet can create content for a few thousand people and be profitable while the average cable channel needs hundreds of thousands just to break even.
So let us move past live television and into the age of the internet.
Over the last ten years I have become increasingly intolerant towards commercials. I have no problem with businesses making money and in general advertising is a good way to do it. Google has become one of the largest businesses in the world based on simple advertising and it almost never bothers me.
The problem is the unwillingness of the television providers to adapt and the general lack of quality of commercials.
I often watch TV in the background while doing other things. When that happens I rarely bother to fast forward past commercials because I hardly notice they are on, except when the volume doubles during those commercials in which case i almost immediately dive towards the remote to fast forward rather than being assaulted by the yelling.
Beyond that though is the ability to time shift. I could watch TV with commercials again, though I wouldn't be happy, so long as i could watch it when i want. twenty years ago you could afford to miss episodes of your favorite TV show, but while the networks have fought change the producers of their programs have taken advantage by moving away from episodic television to far more complex story lines, but few of us can afford to plan our lives around Monday night.
Finally there is the long tail. Even more important to me than time shifting is being able to find the content I want. My interest are specific and not all that common so I am able to watch shows on technology or comic books or history all with far more depth than the show you're likely to see on the typical cable channel because someone on the internet can create content for a few thousand people and be profitable while the average cable channel needs hundreds of thousands just to break even.
So let us move past live television and into the age of the internet.
Friday, January 2, 2009
Civilization and Zelda
The best video games ever made are The Legend of Zelda and Civilization. I say this not simply because I have played countless hours of both games, though I admit my bias but because of their impact on video games.
I used to get Nintendo Power magazine and for years after it came out The Legend of Zelda remained in the number one spot of video games. Even after Zelda 2 came out.
I love finding secrets in a game. Looking for that last hidden thing, even if it has nothing to do with the actual game is fun. I'm the guy who had to get his Atari out when I heard there was a secret room in Adventure, so Zelda was addictive, and even today there are people making new maps for the original Zelda you can download. I've done it and the game is every bit as addictive as it was when it came out.
Civilization is even worse on the addictive scale though. I can stop playing Zelda and go to sleep. The game will still be there in the morning. The only way to stop playing civilization is to stop, save the game, take the disk out of the computer, uninstall the game and lose the disks so I can't reinstall it.
This is on my mind because I'm right now reinstalling Civilization 4. Unlike Zelda which has good sequels but nothing to challenge the first Civilization has improved. This is mostly because they have kept the basic game play the same, adding only depth and width.
Civ 4 Colonization was a problem when it came out because it took me back to the days i lost playing Colonization back in the day, but even worse is Fall From Heaven 2.
Fall From Heaven 2 is a mod for civilization 4, and if you're a fantasy fan and a civ fan I'm warning you now, don't download this game.
Really, forget you've ever even heard of it because it will overtake your life. The problem is that while there are as many races in this game as it civilization every one of them plays differently. There are elves which can build towns and farms on forests and dwarfs who get a bonus for hording gold, and Orks who must pillage any city they take, but start the game at peace with the barbarians.
So, until another game takes over my life i'll be playing Civilization 4.
I used to get Nintendo Power magazine and for years after it came out The Legend of Zelda remained in the number one spot of video games. Even after Zelda 2 came out.
I love finding secrets in a game. Looking for that last hidden thing, even if it has nothing to do with the actual game is fun. I'm the guy who had to get his Atari out when I heard there was a secret room in Adventure, so Zelda was addictive, and even today there are people making new maps for the original Zelda you can download. I've done it and the game is every bit as addictive as it was when it came out.
Civilization is even worse on the addictive scale though. I can stop playing Zelda and go to sleep. The game will still be there in the morning. The only way to stop playing civilization is to stop, save the game, take the disk out of the computer, uninstall the game and lose the disks so I can't reinstall it.
This is on my mind because I'm right now reinstalling Civilization 4. Unlike Zelda which has good sequels but nothing to challenge the first Civilization has improved. This is mostly because they have kept the basic game play the same, adding only depth and width.
Civ 4 Colonization was a problem when it came out because it took me back to the days i lost playing Colonization back in the day, but even worse is Fall From Heaven 2.
Fall From Heaven 2 is a mod for civilization 4, and if you're a fantasy fan and a civ fan I'm warning you now, don't download this game.
Really, forget you've ever even heard of it because it will overtake your life. The problem is that while there are as many races in this game as it civilization every one of them plays differently. There are elves which can build towns and farms on forests and dwarfs who get a bonus for hording gold, and Orks who must pillage any city they take, but start the game at peace with the barbarians.
So, until another game takes over my life i'll be playing Civilization 4.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Legend of the Seeker
I tried to watch it I really did. I love Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series and I was willing to give Legend of the seeker a fair amount of leeway. I understand that some things have to be changed for television but if you just want an excuse to have people with swords then don't use a book series that has so many good ideas.
Take the wizards first rule. In the TV series it is said that people will believe what they are afraid of. True enough, but that isn't the wizard's first rule. Wizards first rule is "People are stupid, they believe what they want to believe or what they are afraid of."
The first half of that sentence is what makes the rule work. Without that while being true it just isn't that interesting, and that sums up the problem with Legend of the seeker. They have the basic idea but they left out everything that made it more than a simple idea.
The seeker names himself. Richard didn't name himself in the tv series, while in the books that was of major important.
He is a seeker of truth in the books, in the TV series he is a seeker of evil. In the book series Richard had memorized the book of counted shadows as a boy, which was the major reason that most of the things happen, in the TV series he hardly knows it's there.
I'm not one to say that movies or tv have to follow the book exactly. I like the starship troopers movies, they have nothing to do with the book, and I couldn't have cared less that changed bits and pieces of the Lord of the Ring trilogy for the movies, though I still wish they would have done the scouring of the shire. (if you don't know what that is read the books), but at some point what you're doing has nothing to do with the book anymore and why not leave the property alone so that someone else can use it?
The saddest part is that as long as its on the air I will probably watch it because I still hope they'll get some of it right.
If you've seen Legend of the Seeker, go find Wizard's First rule, it's far better.
Elton
Take the wizards first rule. In the TV series it is said that people will believe what they are afraid of. True enough, but that isn't the wizard's first rule. Wizards first rule is "People are stupid, they believe what they want to believe or what they are afraid of."
The first half of that sentence is what makes the rule work. Without that while being true it just isn't that interesting, and that sums up the problem with Legend of the seeker. They have the basic idea but they left out everything that made it more than a simple idea.
The seeker names himself. Richard didn't name himself in the tv series, while in the books that was of major important.
He is a seeker of truth in the books, in the TV series he is a seeker of evil. In the book series Richard had memorized the book of counted shadows as a boy, which was the major reason that most of the things happen, in the TV series he hardly knows it's there.
I'm not one to say that movies or tv have to follow the book exactly. I like the starship troopers movies, they have nothing to do with the book, and I couldn't have cared less that changed bits and pieces of the Lord of the Ring trilogy for the movies, though I still wish they would have done the scouring of the shire. (if you don't know what that is read the books), but at some point what you're doing has nothing to do with the book anymore and why not leave the property alone so that someone else can use it?
The saddest part is that as long as its on the air I will probably watch it because I still hope they'll get some of it right.
If you've seen Legend of the Seeker, go find Wizard's First rule, it's far better.
Elton
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