Anna Karenina

Right, been a while, and such, you know. Still no job, though I do believe I'm on track to get some job soon. I sorta don't care where. There is a iPhone tech support job that I'm going to apply for, though it starts out at 20 hours a week, and is in Gilbert. It pays 13 dollar an hour starting, and if you do well, they take you on full time. 

Shit, I'm all for that, I'll ride the bus down there if I have to. Give me time for my podcasts.

Besides that, I've been reading Anna Karenina. I've gained momentum over the weeks, and am now immersed in Tolstoy's voice and style. Also, I've picked up a habit of consternation when ever I hear disparaging remarks about his writing style. He may take 400 hundred pages to get to the meat of the plot, but when you get there, you have a fixation for the characters involved. 

There have been times I have wanted to fling the book 'cross the room, not because I didn't like what I read, but because what Anna, or Vronsky was thinking was so crazy, so out of touch and vain, and so well described, I could barely stand it. It was understood by myself as a clarion is heard by the ears = instantly.

Random link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varangians The Vikings were key in the Russian Ethnogenesis? That's so cool, and it contradicts Hitler's crazy!

I love history.

This blog was brought to you by two shots of vodka, chased with a dark chocolate morsel.

(^/^)

It's been a long time (but I'm going to get there)

You would think that being laid of in June would get me to blog more. Apparently not, though I'm reading the standard amount of webcomics when I am idle. Playing games on and off... I was on a second Fallout 3 bender, but I chewed up the DLC. Still no where near level 30, but I got the DLC late with my second character.

We got new bikes. We had needed new ones for a while, Ashley's was kaput and mine I kaputed. The only reason we could do this is our renewing of our lease, which gets us a free month of rent. Very nice, I think. The bus is also more expensive, this plus our idleness sold us on it.

Speaking of idleness, I've been playing phpDiplomacy some, and Kongregate games muchly. I'm half way to level 20. This in no way helps me in any of the games on Kongregate, but I'm a sucker for playing games to do other stuffs. 

The games on Kongregate mostly come from other web sites, but they help promote and even award cash for popular games. Armorgames and Kiwininja provide most of the dope shit, but Gemcraft is really all around one of the best core concepts for a tower defense. They need to up it to multiplayer and such, that's when it will get good.

Not to forget, there is the Casual Collective, and though they don't have a plethora of games, they have Desktop Tower Defense, and Desktop Armada, which are both fantastic. 

I have been reading, starting with Derek's copy of The Reader some time back, and when though The Complete Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Despereaux, and am now on Anna Karenina, though only a hundred pages or so. It's nice to read again, though still in fits and starts. I'm using though a lot, which means this is getting too ramblish. Yes, that is a word. Tis my word of the blog.

Outlet & Arguing

This is an outlet for me, so I will use its as so from time to time. I won't mention names unless its prudent or I don't care. 

Some people say I'm argumentative, and I am... to some degree. It's not about about winning, though, it's about the ideas or data being validated or modified. Maybe, even discarded!

Derek and Evan get this to a high degree, and I have very lively (loud) discussions with them about the most random crap. They know that it's not about being right, it's about what you think is so, and what others think is so, and comparing the two.

You want to be right, but if you aren't, then you learn something. Even if you, or anyone else is right, everyone may or may not learn something about their views. Maybe no one is right at the end, it's all opinion, nothing is empirically proven. You still can refine your views as much as you feel like.

Sometimes, objectivity is completely done away with, in a instant. 

Nintendo only made one version of the US Wii Sports, and the pitching camera views aren't different from one game disk to another.

This is a small matter, truly. Someone said that our version of the game had a different view for pitching. If you think about that for a minute, you realize that this can't be true, whether you want to believe this person or not. 

If this is case, there is a different US version, some one let me know, pronto. I haven't been able to find anything on this.

Geek things that I geek out on.

Webcomics... seriously, I read a lot of webcomics. The first was 8-bit Theater. The second was Megatokyo. Both are still being written, and I still read both of them. I'm not going to do a list right now, but I will in the future.

Also read: Missfile, 3 Panel Soul, Bigger Than Cheeses, Penny Arcade

Ok, so a small list. 

Can't seem to find the last few bobble heads in Fallout 3... I don't want to look it up, not just yet.

I also consume many podcasts, I used to mainly listen to Steve Dahl, but that was taken away from us by CBS, damn them! 

Ok, not really damn them, but come on! I loved that show. 

Anyway, its mostly BBC and UYD for life. Buy a tee shirt, they are soft. 

Also, S Words, Dan Carlen's wonderful shows, Bill Mahr and Real Time.

And, but ups to Amy Goodman and Democracy Now!

Did you know that there was a flu? A swine one? Well, there may be a vaccine! Yay, similar genetics!... for now. 

Cough in a tissue or you damn sleeve, ok people?

First post

I haven't done this sort of thing since high school, and have been putting it off for a while. I'm sure this is common in the blogosphere, a 24 year old wanting a place to write things down, as easily as possible. Well, here we are. 

Poor Chrysler, they filed chapter 11 bankruptcy... hope they pull out of it. After all, tax dollars have been invested, in a manner of speaking, and it would helpfull if we got some of that back. Even if it was dollar for dollar, its better then getting back nothing.

Dianne Feinstein scares me, and so does Jerry Brown. Nothing against them personally, I'm just saying this politically.

Illinois, you are a wondrous and provocative state, and I bless you. Please continue you quest to decriminalize hemp (marijuana), for the good of all the USA.

State by state, we can remove the economic power base from the Mexican based mafia that control much of the hemp that comes in to the US.

This could be called a National Security issue, citing reports of these cartels having presence in over 100 towns and cities in the US. 

I live in Phoenix, and I respect the Mexican as much as any other, and being so near the border, I worry about the feedback loop between these borders. There should be a free flow of goods and services, but not automatic weapons and smuggled drugs.

That is all for now.