Monthly Archive for November, 2000

Brave or Pathetic?

Published
by
Benjy
on Thursday November 30, 2000
in Blogging, Opinions and Perspective
. Closed

This post doesn't actually include a link, other than a hypothetical one, to all those people who choose to share things about their life in this sort of medium. First, there are two paragraphs, and then some discussion. Be warned that the paragraphs are designed to function as independent blocks and don't have anything to do with each other. Actually, you should imagine each of the following two paragraphs as though they were entries all by themselves.

I was browsing along today, and I came across this journal that this person has kept on the web for years. I've known him for a long time, but I never realized how messed up his life is. I can't believe how pathetic it is that he is sharing so many intimate details with anyone who comes along... Why does he think anyone cares? Gah, he should get a life, and get over his pain and suffering. It's ridiculous is what it is!

I found this amazing journal today. I've known so-and-so for a long time, but I never knew how much so-and-so has gone through, and reading through his questioning of his life really made me feel sympathy for him. I've never had to go through an ordeal anything near that magnitude, and he is very brave to share his experiences with us, for us to learn from and admire.

Now, I don't know, maybe it's just me, or maybe it's just the way that I wrote those, but seeing those two paragraphs right next to each other, why does the biting mean paragraph seem so much more likely to be truthful than the praising nice comment? Am I just that cynical, or do other people see the same contrast between these as I do?

By the way, I'm not overly happy with how the paragraphs turned out, but they were both completely contrived and lacked any intentionality at all. There was nothing in the real world that they were actually referring to, which is why they were a little squishy feeling. It's also very hard to take two exact opposite views that are both a little different from my own in the span of five minutes.

Island So Hard To Find, Learn How To Find It Twice

Published
by
Benjy
on Thursday November 30, 2000
in Maps, Psychology, School and Synchronicity
. Closed

So on Monday, right after Thanksgiving break, I had a very very strange CogSci lecture in which Professor Prinzmetal told us how Pacific Islanders navigated between islands. It's very strange, and it was a stretch to call it CogSci, but I found it pretty interesting. I really like learning about different approaches to something that we all take for granted. This site has a brief summary of the system (search for "etak"), and that's about the best I can find at the moment. There's a book about it called "East is a Big Bird", if you're much more interested, but that site should provide enough info for now.

So after Mondays lecture I thought, "gee, that was a bit of a once in a life-time thing." Or so I thought. You see, today in Geography, one of the TAs lectured about the Pacific Islands, and we heard about how Nuclear bombs were dropped on Bikini Island in 1946, and we learned about how all those people got between islands. I learned about the same insanity twice in one week! Such a small world.

Island Go Boom

Published
by
Benjy
on Thursday November 30, 2000
in History, Maps, Sad Things and School
. Closed

Today in Geography, we were shown a video on nuclear testing done on Bikini Island in the Pacific in 1946. Here is the Navy FAQ on operation Crossroads. Also, here is a nice page describing a lot of the nuclear tests performed by the U.S.

Now first, let me say that arguing over the morality of Hiroshima is a moot point. Second, let me say that Nagasaki should not have happened. Both countries should have known better at that point (Japan should have given up real quick, the U.S. should have said "holy shit", and the U.S. should have said "Oh, Japan? By the way, that was a small one..."). Nuclear testing on that island, however, was downright wrong.

First, they had to evacuate everyone from the island, stranding a culture forever. Then they effectively killed a lot of their own men by having them watch and not considering the effects of irradiating the water. Finally, they left animals there to see what would happen... Not like they were able to find any pieces when all was said and done. The only thing that was at all good about that whole mess was they documented it well. Now people will forever be able to look back and with mouths agape that anything like that could have happened.

The video was very well done. The effect of the carefree pacific music playing as the island was evacuated and the former chief spoke of his confusion was full of pathos. The sudden realization that the navy veteran who was talking about his experiences didn't have any legs (and the description of his leg bursting from the knee to ankle because of his radiation caused cancer) was a little horrifying. And the two notes at the end of the film that the veteran had died shortly after the making of the film was almost as sad as the note which pointed out that the chief and his people would never be able to return to the irradiated rock formerly known as the paradise of Bikini Island.

Hopefully, the collective we will learn from the past.

Video Game Commercials

Published
by
Benjy
on Wednesday November 29, 2000
in Games, Ideas, Marketing, Media and Television
. 13 Comments

So I'm sitting here on the couch watching Voyager, and I've seen a lot of video game commercials. Let's see... There was San Francisco Rush 2049, which had nice clean graphics, but didn't like the sort of game I'd dig. I get my racing fixes between Mario Kart 64 and F-Zero X. Sure, Rush 2049 got pretty high scores, but Next, there was a preview for Diablo II. The ad was unusual compared to the others I saw in that I didn't notice any game footage. However, the commercial got me a little more interested in the game, though I'm still not going to bite. I don't think the game would have sufficient story to be interesting, and I don't have sufficient online time to give it.

Next, there was a commercial for Ready 2 Rumble Boxing: Round 2. The graphics looked really really good, but it's again not the kind of game I'm into.

Then there was Final Fantasy IX, with a lot of footage from the first hour of the game (everything I saw in the commercial, I've already seen in the game), and it conveyed a very hopeful mood which made me very much want to go play the game, making the commercial a success in my opinion. A little later, I saw a second commercial for the game, which I didn't think was good. It was a little more confused and a little less clear as to exactly what was going on. It probably would have still been enough to win me over if it had been, say, a commercial for another game.

And finally, there was Shenmue, with a very funny commercial. Very, very funny. It also made me want to play the game even more, actually, making it another success.

Also, I just noticed a couple of games that IGN has recently posted reviews for. First, there is Mechwarrior 4, which, while it looks really good, is probably a game I'll never play. I haven't been much of a pc gamer these days. Back on the console front, however, is Lunar 2, which is the sequel to the excellent Lunar. Though I feel a lot more nostalgia for the Mechwarrior Series than for Lunar, Lunar 2 is a game I'm much more likely to play through and enjoy.

And then I saw a commercial for Dungeons & Dragons the movie, which kind of counts as a video game if you squint. I actually thing the movie looks like it will be in the spirit of Dungeons & Dragons reasonably well. At least, in the spirit of my D and D. I'm looking forward to seeing it.

And, uh, wow, after all of that, I saw an amazon.com commercial which was just plain scary. So very unexpected. Um. And then there was a Jack In The Box Holiday Ball Commercial which was also very, well, disturbing. What's with commercials these days? Are they trying to scare people away?

Bailing Out Of The N64

Published
by
Benjy
on Wednesday November 29, 2000
in Games, Nintendo, Nintendo: Gamecube and Nintendo: N64
. 1 Comment

I just read this editorial over at n64.ign.com, and I found it really interesting. And I really agree with it. If I were Nintendo right now, I'd want to retarget every unreleased game possible at the Gamecube to sell systems. And yes, I understand how mildly hard moving basically complete games from one system to another would be, but I still think it would be a good idea.

Australian Confusion

Published
by
Benjy
on Wednesday November 29, 2000
in Kvetch, Maps and School
. Closed

So today I had my geography presentation on Australia. However, because of a couple of dumbasses hadn't been to section all semester (I know this because they collected their midterms today, which were passed out a long long time ago), there was a duplication of effort when it came to todays presentation. Wargh! This completely threw off my rythm regarding my presentation, so I was left a little flustered during my half a presentation. Dumbasses.

Zounds!

Published
by
Benjy
on Wednesday November 29, 2000
in History, Linguistics, Religion and Trivia
. Closed

I remember a long time ago when Mike Drrrr and I were playing Kings Quest VI, and one of the characters exclaimed "Zounds!" Now, Mike and I thought that was pretty funny, because we'd never heard such a silly phrase. Many, many years later, I found out it was apparently a British word.

Even more later, I learned the derivation of the word. A long time ago, there was an exclamation that went "By Gods Wounds!" That was a slightly unwieldy phrase, so it was later shortened to "swounds", which was eventually slurred to become "Zounds!"

Rhapsody in the Morning

Published
by
Benjy
on Wednesday November 29, 2000
in Games, Music and Synchronicity
. Closed

So for awhile back there I was waking up to Rhapsody in Blue, played by my computer. It was a reasonably good wake up song, because it didn't start by screaming at me or anything. It had a nice gradual introduction and gradually got stronger. However, that kind of got old, so I changed songs. But then I read this story at The GIA, and I found out that apparently I'm not the only one who wakes up to Rhapsody in Blue. Of course, it makes me feel kind of bad to think that in that story, it was used as a joke.

Overwhelming

Published
by
Benjy
on Monday November 27, 2000
in Banality, Busy, School: Finals, School: Grades, School: Homework and Vocation
. Closed

In short, I won't be updating much the next two weeks. Why? The end of the semester is rearing it's ugly head. Here's the run down: Tomorrow I have japanese homework due. Wednesday, I have a draft of my cog sci term paper due, my last cog sci short report, a japanese vocab quiz, and I have to give a presentation on australia for geography. Thursday I have my last philosophy paper due, and friday I have more japanese homework due.

Then, next week: Monday I have more japanese homework due. Monday Tuesday or Wednesday I have my japanese oral interview. Thursday and Friday I have my Japanese Final, and Thursday I have my Geography final. Friday, my cog sci term paper is due. And all throughout I've got work work to do.

After then, however, it's all over except for two finals. These next two weeks are the tough two.

Assembly Lines

Published
by
Benjy
on Tuesday November 21, 2000
in Fashion, History and Memories
. Closed

Back in my sophomore year of high school, we learned about assembly lines for some reason. I don't remember why. Instead of simply explaining the simple concept of an assembly line in 5 minutes to a class full of "gifted and talented" students, we were subjected to a ridiculous, hour long demonstration. The class was divided into an assembly line half and the craftsman half. Then the craftsmen each copied a picture by themselves, while on the assembly line, which was my half, each member reproduced a small part of the picture. The point was the assembly line works faster.

Why did this suddenly spring to mind? I was packing for Thanksgiving, and I noticed a Gap logo. Then I remembered the flyers about Gap using sweatshop labor to make clothes, and I thought about how much more expensive their clothes would be if they were made in the US. Then I realized that when I thought "made in the US," it meant made by an individual craftsman. However, the US almost certainly uses an assembly line as well, which is what prompted the memory.