Heritage Sites

I've been mulling over the whole world heritage site concept, and really...while admirable as an anchor to counterbalance the inexorable march of progress, I wonder just how sustainable such a concept can be. For example, site A is preserved because it is worthy of conservation. Eventually B, C, D and so on get selected. It stands to reason that increasing tracts of land will be frozen from redevelopment in order to preserve the integrity of the sites.

The question, then, is whether there will come a point where heritage sites take up such a significant proportion of valuable landmass that their heritage status will have to be revoked. It seems to be the case, seeing as how heritage sites that were manmade tend to be on plots of land that are in some way useful to humans. It therefore stands to reason that some people will invariably desire it for their use at some point.

Of course, the flip side is the sustainability of cultural and natural heritage. If things of natural beauty and human cultural heritage were to be swept away in the tide of progress, how then will there be anything left for the descendants? This is one balance I am glad I do not have to administer, because I do not have the answer to it at this point.

Office Politics

Office politics are always interesting. I learned today that someone was being quite the asshole, playing the CC game at work. That works by bringing an argument before bosses by CC'ing them in an email. Of course, seeing as how I have not actually witnessed the person doing such a thing, there remains a non zero possibility that I received this story as part of a political maneuver.

What is interesting is that even though I believe that I was not lied to, every maneuver within a social setting is effectively a political move. The only really important distinction is between whether the move is benevolent or malicious. The simple act of warning someone against a genuinely malicious person is a political act in itself because it will adversely affect the person's opinion of that malicious someone. However, due to its good intentions, I expect it is something that is desirable in a professional work environment. In fact, it may be something to be encouraged, seeing as how it is a good way to bring such acts to everyones' attention and thus to reduce the incidence of vicious games at the office.

Darren Shan

Darren Shan...that oh so weird series. I guess it really is a matter of time before people get sick of the traditional styled vampire tales and go with a reinvention of what it is to be a vampire. I picked up the book at the library because I noticed that it bore the Cirque Du Freak series label, and figured I might as well find out what it was about.

One thing I'd say to the author's credit is that the Darren Shan series just isn't your average teen romance masquerading as a vampire story junk. It's quite a bit darker, and has some interesting themes of acceptance and difference. That said, I cannot say I liked it overly much. I mean really...it's really kinda weird having vampires cutting their victims with their nails to draw blood, then using spit to heal the wound back up. Really? Seriously?

That said, I really couldn't be bothered to continue the series. Especially not since I'm reading another dhampir series at this point. Time's limited, and I guess not every youth-targeted vamp novel series is going to appeal to me. The last time I read a good one was probably by Lisa J Smith.

Karate Kid

I got to watch the Karate Kid today. I believe this film is a whole lot less cheesy than the initial offering. Surprisingly enough, I think the remake is actually better than the original. Then again, perhaps I am just biased against orientalist exoticization and all that.

Anyway first things first: It's NOT a karate show. Dammit...just why would they ride on the Karate Kid brand and make it a kung fu flick. Granted, there was a goodly bit more emotional involvement in this show, moving beyond platitudes on the code of conduct in martial arts towards some sort of backstory for the characters. I especially liked that the kung fu master was not just some guy living on a high mountain and not having very much to him besides that.

That aside, the show's really your average good vs evil tale, whereby an underdog protagonist has to deal with a bunch of really powerful and vicious "evil" dudes. Interestingly, the "evil" guys turned out to be more misled than actually intrinsically ill intentioned.

I'd say the show deserves a clean 8.5/10, even though I personally believe that kung fu shows should have fewer of the flashy techniques. That's just my personal bent, and I guess the kinds of things I'd like to see are not quite suited for public viewing.

Points Of Death

I know, I know. I deal with this topic a lot. But of course, mortality is such a fascinating topic to ponder. Right now my focus is towards what one could think of as conceptual death. By conceptual death, I mean how can we map out with some certainty the boundaries that split the living from the dead in the conceptual sense.

For example, someone may be "dead" to others by becoming so overwhelmingly evil that others are horrified into denying that person's status as a living human. That person's personality has been destroyed, and the person becomes conceptually dead. Alternatively, someone may be brain dead and have effectively no personality while lying on the bed, yet this person may well be conceptually alive, as evidenced by the general unwillingness to end this person's life.

As with most conceptual things, we probably already know that different people put different weightages to different acts and statuses. Like a highly religious person may deem another to be conceptually dead for apostasy. However, the fact remains that there is most certainly a tipping point beyond which one is deemed to be too far gone. Also, it may be possible to map out the point values for each individual person, and thus derive just how many "life points" each person really has in the eyes of others. I have not actually created a life points table at this juncture, though.

Promoted To Incompetence

One thing that never ceases to amaze and amuse me is just how it is possible for someone to be promoted into incompetence. When someone is good at their work, they may be assumed to be good enough to try out a superior position. As a result, they are promoted. Of course, we know the cycle eventually winds up promoting someone into a position they are really not very good at. We also know that the sound decision in this situation, to step down, is very difficult to make considering how much prestige is lost from the move.

Allowing people to try out the new position, and pull back if found unsuitable, seems to be a fair solution to such situations. However, the other very real issue is how a superior position's pay is almost invariably higher than that of a lower position. This presents a rather strong disincentive for would-be demoters: even if no prestige is lost, salary would go down as well.

Pay just does not seem to scale well in relation to performance/productivity. A highly productive tier 1 employee may do more for the company than a mediocre tier 2, yet the tier 2 will most likely earn more. It makes little economic sense. In fact, some companies deliberately refrain from promoting a highly skilled employee out of the fear that doing so would result in the loss of a good performer. Were the pay structure to be revised to allow a flatter salary distribution amongst the tiers, it may well be that a superior personnel spread could be achieved.

Ip Man

It is quite interesting that while I watched Ip Man 2 just recently, the bus driver played Ip Man 1 on the trip enroute home from up north. I am very much inclined to agree that Ip Man 1 was superior to its sequel if only just because of its plausibility. Ip Man's tribulations under the Japanese during WWII seemed that much more credible and emotionally engaging than some pride-inspired tiff with the British. It is one thing to be forced to fight for one's family's survival. It is quite another to be obliged to do so simply to preserve honor.

I also appreciated that Ip Man 1 had quite a bit more brutality than in 2. If I am going to watch a martial arts oriented show, I would certainly expect it to have extensive culture. And I dare say it's lived up to my expectations.

I'd think Ip Man deserves 8/10. Blood scores points.

Up North

I had a really nice trip up north last weekend. There certainly is a sort of charm to visiting the old buildings and doing a spot of antique hunting with my partner. If nothing, it was certainly good exercise. I suppose the single biggest blooper in the weekend reel would most certainly be the horrendous 4 hour traffic jam that held us up at the front end.

One thing that I did notice from the trip was how different attitudes can be towards trying things out. My usual approach tends to involve going ahead into area when there is no obvious opposition (signs, barriers, etc) to my doing so. Conversely, there's the conservative approach of proceeding only when permitted. I think that issue has been covered enough, so there is little need to elaborate.

Regardless, it's always nice to bring back goodies for the family. I originally intended to have some for the colleagues, but it turns out that my parents really loved them. No gifts for the office, then. Of course, since I made no overt guarantees to actually get something for the guys, I was in no way obligated to do so. My word is my bond, which is why I would refrain from giving my word too readily.

Talking Across

Today, I got into an argument with one of my friends over an issue. The content is not of much concern to me, since such arguments can arise over just about any issue. The main issue is that it is sometimes possible to engage in talking across (or what I somewhat inaccurately term "parallel arguments") to the extent that it becomes impossible to reach a favorable conclusion even when both parties in the argument are already agreeing with the main points of an argument.

The conclusion of such a situation is often a stalemate, with both parties agreeing in principle on the main thrust of the argument but with either or both sides vehemently refusing to accept this agreement by virtue that either or both sides harbor views that run contrary to either party's idea of complete acceptance. In short, it is an unwillingness to compromise even peripheral points.

This seemingly irrational approach is so precisely because irrationality is thrown into the mix. Specifically, someone got pissed. It surprises me how easily one can inadvertently push the buttons of another in the course of sensible discussions, causing them to degrade into such parallel arguments, where passions prevent agreement where it would have been obvious in less emotionally tainted scenarios.

The challenge, it seems, is to know which buttons each individual has, and to avoid pressing them in the first place. Easier said than done, since besides the obvious ones like being overly aggressive or outright rude, people do tend to have their personal niggles. A more tenable solution, perhaps, would be to find ways to un-press those buttons. The most effective general purpose solution seems to be disengaging for sufficient time such that the other party manages to cool down, without becoming angrier about being ignored. However, it does seem certain that there are more...elegant methods in existence.

Ip Man 2

I watched Ip Man 2 today, and really...it was a film that was a wee bit too dramatic for my taste. Undoubtedly, I was expecting a flick with reasonably realistic martial arts combat (less of the extreme Chinese superhero acrobatics) and it delivered. I later learned that Ip Man was really Bruce Lee's tutor, and that was quite surprising. As for what seemed to be a biography of a master martial artist...it just seemed quite over the top.

While I can understand how the Brits look down on the Chinese, I did wonder whether the duels between a champion boxer and Chinese martial arts masters did actually happen. What certainly did not impress was the fact that the masters were going up against a boxer who clearly massively outclassed them in weight and strength, but seemed quite unwilling to use force multiplier techniques on him. If one would fight to the death against such a foe, and was highly skilled in the arts martial, one would think that one would be willing to use more desperate techniques...

Regardless, it was not an unenjoyable show. I liked it to some extent for its...culture. Yet the only thing that really impressed was the gentleness of Master Ip. That is probably something that I cannot truly comprehend, but something that I can appreciate regardless. I'd say maybe...7/10.

Death, Revisited

I write many entries on death. It is an endlessly fascinating topic, given how much weight people grant this one great unknown. Yet, the conceptualization of death's boundaries seem quite indistinct. What, exactly, constitutes the death of a person?

The common answer is unsatisfactory. There are many specific signs of clinical death, but such definitions are guidelines at best. I believe the specifics of this were covered in an earlier entry. My aunt's tasted death before, and so have I, so that much doesn't necessarily hold true.

What does fascinate me is the idea of cellular death. Now, all cells die eventually, so everyone is likely to have experienced complete cellular death at least a few times in each normal lifetime. What is there to fear from experiencing that one more time right at the end? After all, when the human is defined as clinically dead, a goodly number of the cells still live on (as cells do live) for significantly longer before they finally expire as well.

Death seems to be a fuzzy concept that is really about the gestalt of an entity. Specifics like cellular death do not matter, because the gestalt entity remains consistent even though the precise cellular composition has been nearly completely overhauled after 50 years. The gestalt of the entity goes beyond the cellular, towards the conceptual understanding (for example personal memories) of the same. As long as the gestalt endures, death as a concept does not apply. However, should any key portion of the gestalt perish, then conceptual death occurs.

Kick Ass

I'm gona say this upfront, and what I'm gona say is that Kick Ass was truly kickass. No two ways about it. If you haven't watched it already, I'd say you're missing a lot. A flick like this managed to press every single one of my Woohoo buttons. Deadly pubescent assassin girl. Check. Blood and gore. Check. Dark humor. Check. Humor...oh wait, I already said that. Regardless, some scenes had blood real looking enough that I could almost taste it. Beats a lot of spurting stuff that just looks comical. And the audio. MMmm mmm mmm. Crunch.

What's great...well, our intrepid superhero wanabe is exactly that. A wanabe. And really not terribly good at the superhero business. What I truly appreciate is that all the heroes just aren't uberpowered gods. They get hurt. Badly. Some die. Average criminal goons die (for a change). I've been waiting for flicks like these for a long time. Yet, amidst the death and gore, they managed to sneak in some Tarantino'esque humor in violence. Unfortunately, they do fall short in that regard, since the zany music in some battle scenes just seem forced rather than a true comical part of the whole spiel.

I'd say this one deserves a 9/10 from me, though somewhat to heavily influenced by a personal bent. It's really a love it or hate it kinda show. If taken seriously, it's pretty abominable. But overwise, I'd say it's near perfect. They'd get more points for getting the Tarantino humor done right.

Accessorizing

I am not a big fan of clothes, shoes and handbags. When it comes to those, I usually go with the utilitarian option as far as possible. As for tonsure, I am inclined to go with the simplest, most manageable cut. But things are somewhat different for me when it comes to accessorizing. I like accessories, and I believe the flavor of the month is...chokers. Or slave rings. I can't really decide at this point. Probably both?

Accessories are really quite remarkable. Small things that can say so much in and of themselves. I get warm pretty easily so there goes the option of layering, which does pretty much cut out a goodly number of options for making the statement of the day. On the other paw, I also do get cold so having thin materials in the office would be a bad idea. Yet a well-placed accessory can make all the difference between drab, and somewhat-drab. I like to have a dash of creepy in my stuff, or failing which at least some wolf or dark imagery. It's just a personal preference.

Necklaces, bracelets, chokers, rings, you name it. It's all pure magic. Now, while I am busy gushing over accessories, it reminds me that I have a chaos emblem enroute. What better symbol to wear than a nice spiky emblem that also happens to be the chosen symbol of the Chaos Space Marines. We have a lot in common, methinks. Along with self-destructive tendencies like wearing something that just might cause fatal injuries if one falls in the wrong direction...

A Wedding

I was at my cousin's wedding today and I did my part as the MC. Unfortunately, I slipped up somewhat on the initial presentation, and that is not something I am pleased with at all. Regardless, the rest of the ceremony seemed to proceed smoothly, so hopefully that was the only major issue with my rather sad performance.

Regardless, I had a good chat with the photographer, and it was nice having a bunch of friendly relatives (and soon-to-be relatives) attending. Overall, we did have a pretty good time from the fetching of the bride in the morning to the evening's dinner. Regrettably, I had scant opportunity to get photos taken, at least in part because of the presence of a dedicated photographer and my reluctance to be the designated GWC. The other reason of course was related to my role of the day, and the fact that I was not particularly prone to excessive wakefulness during daylight hours.

I did manage to sneak home for a nap in the afternoon, and I guess it did help somewhat. At the very least I managed to keep myself away from the pit of sleep-deprived grumpiness. It's really little to do with the quantity of sleep I get at night; I think that much is quite sufficient. It's a lot to do with the poor overall quality of sleep. Ah, well.

Time Management

Now that I have started full time work, I find that time management is ever more critical in my life. While it is very nice to be home after sundown, there are only so many hours of the night I can burn before having to head to bed in preparation for the next day. As mentioned before, I do get pretty grumpy from sleep deprivation.

Time management is best accomplished by mapping out the hours spent, and how each hour should be allocated. This can be done by first accounting for how each hour is already spent, and where there are too many hours spent on certain things where others are neglected. I already find that my gaming time is being encroached upon, and something needs to be done about that. Unfortunately, I also find myself without the luxury of spending the past-12mn hours doing what I usually do. It is a delicate balance.

While some may regard the weekends as precious, I would disagree. In fact, the only real use for the weekends would be to settle personal admin, such as warranty claims or postage, yet one would do well to recall that such services are typically closed on weekends to begin with. The other stuff like watching movies would be poorly served by the weekend, considering how obscenely crowded the cinemas can get. In fact, it would be far better to watch movies after work, then get home. Perhaps it does help that I generally feel better in the hours after work, than the hours spent at work itself (however enjoyable work itself may be). The night is young, and it is always good.

Wrongness Of Killing

Sometimes I do think that the perception of wrongness of killing is more socially constructed than it is an actual "instinct" of humans. For practical reasons, it is obviously beneficial that humans can be kept in check so that they are not perpetually at one anothers' throats. Otherwise, society would not be able to function, with its associated deleterious effects.

This sense of wrongness can be seen in how differently people treat the idea of killing for food. A city dweller well insulated from the blood and gore of meat can easily forget just what goes into the daily steak. They are horrified when shown the truth of their sustenance. Yet, humans less insulated from the roots of food have little room for such distaste: it is a matter of eating or perishing. Many do have reverence for the food, because of the difficulty of obtaining it, and showing disrespect might draw the ire of the powers that be which supply them with it.

Where the instinctual might come in is when the sense of empathy is reached with the subject, be it another animal (a pet, perhaps) or another human. This emotional attachment lends killing a strong sense of wrongness not because killing is intrinsically so, but because doing so would induce a great sense of loss. Similar urges exist when one knows that a killing would result in hurting other humans whom one feels empathy with.

These of course go out the window in any life or death situation. Where one is reduced to the lowest common denominator, survival, it is not uncommon to encounter humans at their worst. While some do become heroic in such situations, many others seem to become monstrous instead. There seems to be little to suggest that, in the absence of higher thought processes, humans are primarily inclined to be reluctant to kill. In fact, the opposite seems to be the case. Yet, the average person will very likely not wish to express those views, for various reasons.

Appropriate Responses

One of the many things that constantly bugs me about dealing with humans is the matter of responding appropriately to others' conduct. Specifically asshole conduct. Take for example a hypothetical situation whereby one walks past another, and one shoves the other out of the way.

Of course, the first urge that would come is my bloodlust. It would feel incredibly good to respond in kind. Yet, that is clearly not a very constructive response and I do largely have my bloodlust under control. The other option would be to voice out displeasure over the incident. This, too, may draw unnecessary aggression. It is also a more constructive option than the first considering that the shove may well have been accidental.

Then there's the option of walking away. This is the least palatable response, but is also the most logical. After all, one little shove is hardly capable of causing real damage. Other more confrontational responses may well result in injuries on either side. Unfortunately, it also entails a certain loss of prestige (a show of weakness, to some) and more importantly it is a sort of quiet acquiescence to such unpleasant conduct thus by implication rendering the conduct somewhat acceptable.

The considerations hold true to just about every kind of perceived provocation, and it is frankly very difficult to know which response is most appropriate. All have consequences, and really...my personal bent would be to just walk away. I really don't like to have to bother with humans, and unlike most animals, humans seem incapable of leaving others alone at times. Pride largely does not factor into the equation, especially since the perceptions of others weigh very little on me. Then again, there's always that constant nag to sate my bloodlust once in a while, and it isn't always easy to resist.

How To Train Your Dragon

This show is win. Yup...first line of the review pretty much sums it up. I like the narrative, the action is fluid. The show banks more on character development and dynamic action as opposed to eye-poppingly good graphics, epic lighting and Middle Earth scenery.

Regardless, Dragon somehow managed to juggle between empathy, aggression and humor. In my opinion, they did a bang up job about it. And more importantly, they decided to have a nice epic boss fight as opposed to the way too common epic battle scene. It is refreshing to have a good solid fight with minimal casualties, and a good solid underpinning of humans learning to live in harmony with nature (or rather...animals).

Admittedly I do have a strong bent towards liking any show that promotes harmony with animals/nature, and I also love it when the underdog grows up to be something great other than a plain old veteran warrior. There's plenty of opportunity for forming an illusory empathic link with our intrepid protagonist and his fearsome little dragon, and with a sufficiently grueling boss battle thrown into the mix.

It is a rare show that really does make me feel good about having watched it, and this is most certainly one of them. To the fellas who are reading this and haven't already watched this on the big screen, I say...get your ass in gear and watch it already. 9.5/10.

Iron Man 2

I watched Iron Man 2 and well...it's a wee bit over the top. That's not to say it's something I did not quite expect out of an Iron Man flick. Let's consider for a moment the possibility of a particle accelerator built in a basement just to create an entire new element, or the likelihood of a Russian basement dweller building an arc reactor based suit. Not terribly likely, and certainly somewhere beyond the realm of believability. Of course, this is Iron Man we're talking about, so believability goes out the window anyway.

There's the usual expected Iron Man humor, with Stark being that egotistical fella that he is, and quite the garage technician. I do wonder at the fascination with garage tech. Maybe it's got something to do with just how many great big firms that started off as garage tech. Hmm. Regardless, there's oodles of user interface coolness and epic deployments of the Iron Man suit. Iron Man suit in a briefcase, anyone?

Regardless, the show's chock full of special effects, Stark's egotism and the fast paced action of the Iron Man suit does not disappoint. Especially when War Machine is thrown into the mix. I really do wish they would refrain from introducing new compounded supervillains, though. It was bad enough seeing Deadpool in that other movie... Overall, though, the story does seem kind of weak alongside the special effects fest, with trying to loop in the Avengers and SHIELD while not developing either story particularly strongly. Link up movie alert.

I'd say the movie deserves maybe 7.5/10. It'd be better if there was just more War Machine action, and perhaps some elaboration on Stark's mental state.

Light

I love the light. It is beautiful. Not. No, seriously...bright light hurts the eyes like the dickens, and direct sunlight just stings bigtime. There's a good reason I stick to the shadows as far as possible. It's probably healthier that way. At least for me, that is.

I guess I'd also count as a big power saver when it comes to monitors because I wind down the brightness all the way. Environmentally friendly indeed. Regardless, it does prevent quite a bit of eyestrain from unnecessary retina searing and the associated headaches.

Regardless, I shall return to my classic gripe of office hours. While the office is full of great funny people and is overall an enjoyable place to work at, having to get up in the morning and stay up all day does take its toll. Indeed, despite coming back from a long day's work, I actually wind up feeling pretty refreshed once the witching hour comes cackling by. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for my overall wakefulness during the day.

Behold The IPS

Yup I finally succumbed to the dark side (kicking and screaming, I might add). I abandoned my holy CRT in favor of the hellishly pathetic LCD. Forgive me, for I have sinned, and I now know that I am beyond redemption. Unfortunately, so was my CRT. Redemption can be such a fickle thing.

Now, why on earth would I get an obscenely expensive 24" IPS monitor that is just insanely oversized? Because. Actually it's because that's probably the only monitor that can match my CRT for color fidelity, refresh rates, input lag (sorta, but not really.) and toss in some added dynamic range to boot.

There are TN alternatives out there for easily half the price. Do not think that I was not tempted by their sheer cheapness. Unfortunately, given their comparative color accuracies and the wonderfully sad tonal depth I've seen in the samples at the store, I knew that I would simply have to settle for the best that LCDs currently have to offer.

Of course, given my usual luck with electronics and all things technological, the first model I got just so happened to have a faint but clearly distinguishable color shift from the left to the right. In a monitor of IPS stature, that really is completely unacceptable. I'd talk about all the electronics that died in my presence and my tendency to build up static charges, but that's another story for another day. Right now, it's all about waiting for new stock to arrive so that my bad new monitor may be swapped for a good one.

The Power Of Experience

In game design, what distinguishes a good designer from a great designer is not creativity. In fact, creativity is a prerequisite for the gig in the first place. If one is not creative, they should not be in the line.

The distinguishing factors are in fact influence and experience. A veteran and a newbie may well come up with the exact same creative idea and flesh out every spec that the idea needs in order to get implemented. Yet more often than not, the veteran's idea will come out closer to the original vision than the newbie's. This is where influence and experience come in.

As the adage goes, a designer's only as good as her relationship with the team. If the team hates the designer, they will be quite well incentivized to not implement exactly what the designer wants. It may not be an unprofessional attempt to sabotage the project since they would suffer for it as well, but it would come in the form of dislike for the designer bleeding into dislike for the idea in general. Alternatively, the sheer reputation of a designer might hold some sway, but that will only go so far if everything else about them is downright repulsive. No influence, no implementation. 'nuff said.

Then comes the experience. Even if the designer's absolutely influential, it does not mean that the team will be able to get the ideas out at first pass. Misimplementation is just one possible problem, but easily spotted. If it doesn't match, it's wrong. The other is having an inferior foundation, which is by far a more insidious issue. It is very easy to charge towards milestones while paying little heed to the pipeline and tools used for future iterations. Eventually, the inferior foundation will make itself known, as the even slightly increased delay between iterations will add up over time. It must be noted that few things are ever done right on the first pass, and every additional delay in each iteration will be multiplied by the dozens if not hundreds or thousands of iterations before a feature is finally shipped.

Considering this, it should be clear that while talent will be what distinguishes equally experienced and influential designers, it plays a much smaller role than what many beginner handbooks seem to be pushing. Not everyone can be exquisitely talented, but anyone who pays attention to what is going on can become somewhat more influential and certainly more experienced.

The Nature Of Guilt

Guilt is only possible when the nature of the guilt-inducing act can be comprehended. By definition, someone who does not know that she did wrong is quite unlikely to feel guilty about the wrongdoing. That much is common sense.

However, it is also possible for highly guilt-inducing acts to move to a scale that defies comprehension. The result is the same: people who would feel guilty about a lesser act may well feel minimal guilt at the far greater act that is beyond their comprehension.

Take for example the guilt of murder. Most normal people would probably feel quite guilty over murdering someone. When it turns to mass murder, however, it quickly goes beyond human comprehension. It seems quite unlikely that getting say...10 million people killed is going to weigh on the conscience 10 million times stronger than a single murder would. It is simply beyond what can be comprehended. In fact, it may be possible that the number itself becomes so immense that guilt is practically diluted to nothingness. Where massive numbers of people get slaughtered, it becomes ever easier to shirk the responsibility and project it on others.

An intentional killing is a murder. A billion intentional killings is a statistical reduction.

Scaling Corruption

Corruption simply does not scale terribly well. If power corrupts, I'd rather have absolute power. It's not as if I'm gona be pure either way. And I certainly would not approve of being absolutely powerless.

Of course, corruption itself is not quite so simplistic. It is often subtle, and not something that people would likely notice at first. Just a selfish act here, a little betrayal there...nothing major. Yet later on, as one becomes accustomed to committing little corrupt acts, the ramifications of corruption become less grating on the psyche. Guilt falls away, and it becomes easier to go down that slippery slope. What's it to me if I did one more teeny corrupt act...

Ultimately, the corruption switches from being unintentional to possibly intentional. The acts are now clearly beneficial, though possibly at the expense of others. Benefit becomes an end in itself. Yet it does seem like the marginal guilt reduces as one proceeds down the path of corruption. The first act could've required quite some deliberation, but as one becomes sufficiently corrupted, previously unthinkable acts could become practically second nature.

Acceptance Of The Disabled

It does seem, sometimes, that people with handicaps are better accepted. Of course, it may well be an illusory acceptance, borne of pity and the strength of social taboos. Specifically, the taboo against bullying the weak...or disabled.

On second thought, perhaps a more accurate description of the state of the disabled people would be a state of tolerance rather than acceptance, since they are not so much accepted as they are tolerated. Life certainly isn't plain sailing.

Yet, it is precisely because of these adversities that the disabled are given special leeways that are just not granted to those perceived as normal. It seems that people are unwilling to provide for the special needs of unique individuals unless there's a really compelling reason to do so. Strangely enough, those special treatments are often readily granted to children and animals. Double standards abound.

Vampirism Sucks

Pun intended. It is strange how people can develop a fascination with vampiric creatures. If one considers the practical implications of vampirism, it really does not seem terribly appealing at all. Of course, one caveat will be that I do not regard Twilight-style vampires as vampires at all. They're really more like a bizarre variety of blood drinking Superman. 'nuff said.

Anyway yes, the usual perks should be considered. Superhuman strength, senses, speed, etc etc. Yes we get it, they're superpowered. And immortal...sorta. Cool beans, eh? But then we gota consider the disadvantages as well. Given the fatal allergy to sunlight, it really is no fun to be out at least half of any given day. Perhaps more, if one's in a temperate region. Then there's the inability to effectively enjoy any mortal food. You'd imagine that tasting blood (however tasty, it's effectively got one flavor) for an eternity would not be very nice at all. Not to mention one doesn't actually have a death to look forward to: you're gona have to get off'ed or off yourself at some point if you're sick of existence.

Quite a raw deal, imo. Of course, there is a common mythical alternative. Which is the werewolf. A lot sweeter, seeing as they're all nice and furry and cuddly, can eat regular food and live pretty much a darned long time. Not to mention they're of the superpowered variety, too. Of course there's the same issue of frenzying from time to time, and being quite allergic to silver. It's still a comparatively minor tradeoff.

Given the comparison, I do wonder why people seem to favor vampires over werewolves. It does not compute. Maybe it's to do with the scruffy looking presentation of stereotypical werewolves in comparison to the Victorian refinement of vampires. Come on, wolvies, beef up the PR already. Geez.

Collapse Of Law

Vigilantism exists whenever rule of law is perceived as being inadequate in some way. Perhaps it is an underfunded and/or corrupt police force, or laws that are not agreeable to some people. Simply put, the activities exist for very much the same reason black markets do: to fill a void left by the authorities.

One thing that does get me thinking is exactly when does a vigilante (if ever) have the right to do something righteous despite the righteous act being outlawed due to omission or intention. Taking the example of Batman (again), the Gotham City law has a blind spot whereby certain criminally insane people are not being put to death despite repeatedly escaping and causing the deaths of innocent people. Would it ever be right for Batman to kill them?

Of course, we have the popular perception consideration that takes into account the fact that vigilantes already operate outside the law and are somewhat feared by the people. Vigilantes starting to kill would turn public perception against them. Yet this neglects the point that there are worse things than vigilantes killing small numbers of murderous individuals as opposed to the criminally insane killing large numbers of innocents. Would people choose the lesser evil, or would they continue to support their legal system riddled with loopholes?

Batman's Dilemma

Batman seems on the surface to be exceedingly foolish, perpetually incarcerating homicidal maniacs who invariably go free and proceed to wreak havoc on yet more innocents. Yet, there is the claim that were he to simply kill them, he would be no better for in willingly taking their lives he simply becomes a murdere: very much like one of them.

The utilitarian argument of killing one to serve the needs of many does seem to provide a solution, albeit one that is somewhat disturbing in its implications. Genocide comes to mind. Despite this, there is a niggling doubt about Batman's actions, since his solution does not seem terribly good either.

This may be explained by his motivations, which are actually rather selfish. It does appear to be a case of wanting to push the guilt of killing over to the maniacs, whom he in turn repeatedly punishes. He clearly decided that indirectly killing others through inaction is not criminal in any way, even though he already knew from past experience that incarcerating them would only lead to the deaths of more innocents.

In Batman's case, it would actually be a clear cut case of people not worth saving. It is a case of possibly saving 1 person in exchange for the assured death of 100. It is no longer about saving 1 person, but sacrificing 100 to possibly save 1. In real life, such decisions are of course considerably harder to make, seeing as how the average person is generally not quite as predictable.

MC Sandwich

I am writing this as a documentation of my use of multicoated optics to enhance the performance of vintage camera lenses. A common problem old lenses face is flare and other aberrations resulting from the limited capabilities of primitive coatings. Hypothetically, introducing multicoated optics in the front and rear of the optical path would improve image quality somewhat. The extent of the effect is unknown, and may vary from lens to lens.

I tested this theory on a cheap Makinon 400mm f6.3 optic by placing a well coated Hoya HD filter in front, and using the Olympus EC14 teleconverter behind it. Before using the MC optics, flare was objectionable and the image appeared to be soft due to extensive optical aberrations. After adding on the optics, the image quality was greatly improved and the lens combo could render passable results.

Trying again on the Olympus 300mm f4.5 (a non-MC optic), there was a small but noticeable amount of CA and subtle flare in the images when shot wide open. After the introduction of MC optics, CA and flare completely disappeared. This was unexpected. Of course, being no expert in optical design, I'd expect there are explanations for how/why this happens; besides the obvious ability of MC optical glass to resist flare and the teleconverter's ability to collimate light.

It is expected that similar combinations may be used on other legacy optics to similar effect, and may provide a way to rejuvenate old lenses. However, further experimentation is necessary before it can be established exactly which optics respond best to the treatment. Initial findings suggest that a relatively fast lens is required in order to maintain a usable level of light transmittance for general photography.

Hitting The Swamps

Trudging around on a mangrove boardwalk doesn't sound like something most people would like to do on any particular day, especially not on Good Friday. Well...that's precisely what I did.

Today was a Good Friday indeed, seeing as how many wonders we managed to behold during the short excursion. It was a largely unplanned trip, so we arrived at the mangrove just as the tide was coming in. Not only did we get to briefly witness the mangrove as it usually was at low tide, we got to see the water trickling then rushing into the bog. We even got to see the fruit of the nipah palm for real. At this point, the crabs crawling about suddenly decided to climb some trees, with some crabs reaching pretty much head height. It's probably not just for forage, but also to avoid the deadly monitor lizards.

Then there were the birds, and the occasional archer fish. The egret/heron family birds were present, as were oodles of kingfishers. As the trip drew to a close, I noticed a large bird landing to peck at the fruit hanging from a palm tree. It turns out the bird was a pied hornbill and its mate. Truly rarities, and awesome to behold. What better way could there be to spend a Good Friday, than to appreciate the wonder of the stinking bog.

Limits Of Randomness

Purely random item spawns is a method often used in game design to provide a variety of loot for players. This is intended to let players experience a sense of discovery and anticipation every time they play a level. It is like Christmas all over again.

Unfortunately, random loot has its limitations. Even when loot is balanced towards player levels and game difficulty, sometimes the desired loot simply will not drop. For example, a swordsman may wind up with loads of awesome mage staves while finding lousy to mediocre swordsman equipment. This may be tenable in games where it is intended for players to trade with one another for better loot, but it is plain irritating in single player experiences.

Take for example Dawn of War 2. Loot is randomized so my Devastator squad may never get the high end heavy bolters or their usable equivalents in Terminator armor. A possible solution to this would be to subtly weight loot drops according to fielded troops. For example, having a Devastator squad on the field will automatically grant me a +3% chance of getting Devastator drops. This value may need to be modified in order to make the drops still feel random, but will result in sufficiently high good drops to keep the players happy.

On a separate note, loot must be available for looting. DUH! I am still peeved about levels ending immediately after killing the boss creature, often preventing me from picking up that nice looking wargear that was just dropped. Talk about waste of effort. If loot cannot be automatically retrieved at the end of missions due to balance issues, the least they could do is provide a small window period for players to retrieve the items...

On The Jews And Chinese

The Jews are purported to be unusually successful. Perhaps disproportionately so. They are industrious and thrifty, which are sometimes attributed to their unusual success. Yet, it seems that the Chinese share such values, and are never reported to be quite as successful. By success I mean things like becoming rich, holding fine professions, being awarded Nobel prizes (excluding Obama, if he were Jew). At risk of sounding racist, I think there is (on average, perhaps, though I have no precise idea of where the true average lies) one key difference between the two peoples: their attitudes towards education.

For a Jew, education is an end in itself. It is valued by its own virtue and seen as something worthy to be sought. Self-improvement, intellectual inquiry, formal education are all seen as family treasures. Even the religion-culture encourages intellectual discussions as to the nature of the religion itself. There is also a willingness to take risk, to try out an opportunity when it presents itself. Combine this with the business savvy from generations of commercial enterprise, and you have a winning formula.

Chinese, on the other hand, are also a trading people. They work hard and are thrifty. However, education is a means towards an end. And that end is economic gain. If it comes to the crunch, between obtaining more formal education/self improvement/performing intellectual inquiry and getting the butt out there to earn money, it seems that earning money wins hands down. The culture itself is not largely in favor of intellectual inquiry. The business savvy of past generations counts for little, because it has become allowed to stagnate. There is little motivation for risk-taking, because that would adversely affect stability and in all likelihood damage the income stream.

True, exceptions do exist, whereby there are unsuccessful Jews and highly successful Chinese. However, blind chance would have it that the Chinese and their incredible population would have likely churned out some incredible successes. Yet, by proportion, this is not so. In the presence of a Jewish attitude towards learning in general, the learned person is by far more likely to be able to spot opportunities in the first place, followed by the willingness to take risk. That is an approach that can lead to success. For a Chinese, however, even if the opportunity is spotted, chances are that it would not be attempted unless it's a sure-win situation (which tends to wind up as a scam, instead).

Twilight

I will be upfront. I do tend to like vampire novels...and am biased towards urban fantasy in general. Twilight seems to be really popular. It's a vampire story. Nice. And then I actually read Twilight. Someone please tell me...how could a cookie go so wrong?

I have nothing against romance stories. Vampire/human romances? Ok sure. A bit dodgy, but passable. Vampires that walk in sunlight but have superpowers...now that sounds suspiciously like overpowered thinbloods with the abilities of Anne Rice's Marius. I begin to frown. And then the entire novel reads like a long drawn out love-swoon. Fail.

Romance I can tolerate. But when romance becomes sufficiently overbearing that every page seems to be the reminisces of a schoolgirl high on love (which it is), I begin to seriously doubt just how deep this story goes. Allow me to summarize: Gal meets amazing vampire dude who totally blows her mind, mind stays blown, mind stays blown, mind stays blown, bad-guy shows up, vampire dude does a superhero, mind stays blown, mind stays blown... etc.

Of course, perhaps the vampire dude isn't gona be quite as lovestruck. It does make sense, to a large extent. But no...unfortunately it was a mutual love at first sight situation. Frankly, unless you're positively nuts about a long drawn out lovestruck scene, I'd say skip this book entirely. I'd say our vamp was really only vampire in name, and nothing more.

Suicide

Suicide is a very touchy subject amongst humans, and there are some seriously heavy duty taboos surrounding it. In most societies, willfully killing another human is wrong except in very specific circumstances like an execution. Otherwise, it's murder. This would seem consistent, if killing someone might be allowable under the law and only under the law while it is absolutely forbidden elsewhere. War is probably allowable by law. Probably.

Now comes the idea of euthanasia. Killing a person to put them out of their misery is certainly unacceptable by that definition. They have not committed a crime, and really do have a right to live. Fair enough. However, the definition of killing is somewhat skewed. By definition, killing can be done through willful action or inaction. For example, if I encountered someone drowning in a well, it would probably be criminal for me to just let him die. It does seem worse, though, if I was the one who tossed him in in the first place.

Strangely enough, the same reasoning does not appear to hold true in the case of withholding treatment from a terminally ill patient. It has become euthanasia lite to just let someone die without medical care, while it remains criminal to give them a lethal injection. Yet if someone were actually conscious, it would likely be more torturous to let them waste to death (perhaps from thirst and starvation?). The common line drawn between the acceptability of withholding treatment is when the body is unable to sustain itself. However, is that not the case for any poor person, who is unable to get food for itself?

What Is Evil?

It is an intriguing question as always, about the definitions of good and evil. As established earlier, it is difficult to know for sure what is beneficial and non-beneficial. However, it seems to be agreed upon that knowledge is key to actually having intent, and that intentionally desiring non-beneficial things on others is quite unacceptable.

The problem here is that perhaps there is no specific definition of good or evil within an act: It is a matter of whether there is intent, and if the intent is malicious or benevolent. Therefore, the ignorant entity may well be performing acts that are highly harmful to others, but the ignoramus will be neither good nor evil given that state of perfect ignorance. Likewise, the entity is incapable of being good by performing beneficial acts.

Taking this further, it can be asserted that someone with absolute knowledge has the potential to do good or evil. Given that the outcomes of the actions are fully known, every action or inaction will be a result of some intent and thus that entity will be capable of absolute good or evil.

Of course, in reality, no individual is likely to be perfectly ignorant or knowledgeable. This may be a case to assert that while entities may have largely good or evil intentions, no single entity is likely to be purely good or evil. But it is possible to be quite ignorant and dumb about things.

Studying Instincts

When it comes to explaining the instinctual/subconscious motivations of human behavior, it is tempting to try to assign a purpose to them. For example, one can easily point out that aggression is a survival mechanism. It seems to make sense, of course, in the context of other similar aggressive conducts that result in observably beneficial outcomes. Those conducts are, however, often observed in animals.

The thing about these hidden motivations is that they are effectively a blank slate for projection. Can instinctual motivations ever make sense in a rational human framework? Indeed they can, but only through references to what already makes sense. The mapping is unfortunately imprecise at best, and quite possibly completely wrong at times. Instincts are by their nature inexplicable not just because humans are largely ignorant of their little nudges but also because their natures may not map directly to reasonable sensibilities.

It may be unsatisfying to say that we simply do not know what reasons lie behind instinctual motivations, yet it may be equally unsatisfying to harbor the distinct possibility that what seems like a perfectly reasonable and proven hypothesis turns out to be simple projection. As they say...it seemed like a good idea at the time.

A Vampire's Rights

It would be interesting to consider, hypothetically, what a vampire's rights would be like. There are some considerations. For one, a vampire is clearly ex-human, in that it is a dead human creature and most certainly has different characteristics and needs from your average human. Yet, those needs will make consideration of a vampire's rights quite interesting, as treating one just like a dead person would be clearly insufficient seeing as this particular dead person happens to be walking (or flying, or floating, or scampering) around like a living creature.

The easy solution, as seen in Dracula, would be simply to regard vampires as a menace that should be eliminated. As such, they'd probably be classed as a sort of rather dangerous vermin. However, if one were to try to engineer rights to afford integration of vampires into human society, things get considerably more complicated. That would mean that vampires are to be granted the same rights and responsibilities accorded to humans: the right to live without harm as long as one does not harm others.

Another basic consideration would be sustenance. As a vampire feeds on blood (presumably not exclusively human blood), that would count as the food source. The right of access to food does not actually exist in many societies: in fact, they are quite content to starve those who cannot afford food. Economics would dictate that vampires likewise be required to pay for their food.

Lodging is even more critical for a vampire than a human, seeing as vamps have a fatal sun allergy. Even if economics dictate that they pay for their homes the way humans do, they'd at least need a coffin to keep them alive. Survival as a basic right, after all.

Confucian Corruption

Confucianism and the Chinese practice of holistic relationships (guanxi) were probably formulated with the best of intentions. Unfortunately, in practice some aspects of them can produce the worst of results. In one discussion on the concept of justice, it was asked what would should be done, should one know that one's father has committed murder. The response to this, as famously known, was to hide the father and not hand him up for the murder. This stresses the importance of filial piety, yet also emphasizes a very distinct "inner circle" that is most certainly developing nepotist tendencies and has a very real potential for harboring injustice.

In guanxi, relationships are viewed holistically. That is, if someone is your teacher, that person remains your teacher regardless of context. That someone will be treated as a teacher even at the swimming pool, the gym, at work, as a client and so on. Likewise, a parent will always be treated as a parent regardless of context. In short, following these aspects of the philosophies in this way results in a situation where it is in fact right and good to shield parents (and to a somewhat lesser degree, close relatives) even when they demonstrate corrupt behaviors. While it is said that the gentleperson leads by example and thus brings others towards goodness, it is also said that the children should not contradict their parents.

This potential for corruption further festers especially when guanxi's system results in a sense that there is no conflict of interest when people from two different organizations start providing one another preferential treatment. It is recognized that such preferential treatment exists in all societies by virtue of simple interpersonal relationships, but it is another matter when this treatment becomes somewhat socially sanctioned.

One problem with the way some organizations are run seems to stem from a partial implementation of the Confucian philosophy. While respect and deference are maintained, the justice component seems to have been overlooked. Deference without justice seems to be a pretty good starting point for corruption to fester within organizations that maintain such lopsided arrangements.

Alice In Wonderland

Twisted. Just the way I like it. Imagine a Vorpal sword wielding, grown-up Alice in a fantastical Wonderland after the whole child-Alice saga. There you have it...Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. I must admit that I was initially intimidated by the awful reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. After all, they do tend to be right about when a movie is good. Fortunately, that does not necessarily hold true when they declare that movies suck.

One thing that I do recall a friend saying is that Hollywood has a tendency to turn every story into a battle epic with a romance in it. This Alice is no exception. Yet, as someone who had read the original stories, it was indeed a refreshing twist on the classic tale. Alice is now all grown up and has gone back to Wonderland, albeit one that has seen better days. Not to mention the fact that she does not actually remember what she did there the last time she came. Of course, then we have the Hatter as a rather pathetic figure in need of a rescue, while hinting at some romance brewing with him and Alice.

True to his skill, Johnny Depp manages to play a Hatter that is really quite Mad. I dare not say that Hathaway did quite as good a job of being the White Queen. Yet, it is amusing to see the greatly feared Jabberwocky being slain by a sword that refused to go snickerty snack. There is little I can say that would not spoil the movie experience, save that this is one twisted tale that I did not regret seeing...in 3D, no less. 7.5/10

As a side note, it seems that "3D" has become the latest blanket excuse for massive price hikes in cinema tickets. I think the cinemas may well price themselves out of the market before piracy manages to pull off that feat. By the way...why is a raven like a writing desk?

Horn And Halo

The horn and halo effect is often an interesting phenomenon within human societies. In-groups are ascribed good values, while out-groups are ascribed negative ones. The effect is quite salient especially when it comes to racial minorities.

It works something like this: a person makes a mistake. Everyone makes mistakes from sooner or later, so that's to be expected. However, if the person is from a majority race, the mistake is attributed to an isolated fault. At most, that particular person is faulty, while the majority remain pretty decent in comparison. Yet, when the person is from a minority, the fault may become ascribed to that of their entire race. That entire race is stupid, or lazy, or (insert negative value here).

Perhaps the horn/halo effect is an offshoot of human xenophobia. Racial minorities are most certainly different, and there is greater pressure to start understanding them as quickly as possible than one would have to for a majority since one is likely already steeped in the majority culture. Generalizations may be a convenient way to come up with that understanding. However, there is also the fear of the unknown and suspicion of newcomers. That creates an additional tendency to ascribe negative attributes to minorities, in an attempt to err on the side of caution.

Overall, this is just laziness. Whether the xenophobia is a matter of nature or nurture, it would still be incumbent upon the majority to deal with the differences as they would with any other person, rather than taking the easy way out and breezing through evaluations of people. Easier said than done, apparently.

The System Honeypot

Sunk cost can be used to great effect. When considering the pricing of items in camera systems, it is readily apparent that a low entry cost can easily attract a large following. Beginners are a lot happier to plonk money down for a cheap unit than an expensive one, obviously.

Then comes the 2-year itch. Some never feel it, some give up and others just can't seem to stop upgrading. Time to ditch the beginner's model and work on something better. What's important then is the next tier, whereby a close upgrade will be desirable and another close upgrade and so on. Of course, to top it all, there needs to be a highly desirable but extremely out of reach aspiration tier.

Of course, this means that there needs to be multiple tiers with routine upgrades, forming a fairly gradual ladder to the top. What's best about this pricing method is that the sunk cost simply builds and builds. First it looks pretty small at a thousand or so, then a few hundreds sink in...and soon we're talking thousands of dollars invested. The sunk cost becomes the shackles that hold users within a system. However, it's also essential to make sure the ladder works fine, or the honeypot will lose its stickiness.

Percy Jackson And The Lightning Thief

Talk about disappointment. Alright, I heard that the movie was bad, but well...Percy Jackson's pretty much the kind of teenage novel series that I'd not mind reading. The premise is familiar: Some supernatural kid fitting in with mundy society is pulled back into some supernatural struggle. The rest is history. I like the premise, what with supernaturals mixing with mundies. But that does not mean I liked the movie.

One of my friends commented that the emotions (i.e. romantic relationship brewing) were not genuine enough and that the story was a rip of the Perseus tale. I can live with that, since I'm never very good at assessing emotions anyway. Frankly I didn't notice that one. Ripping off old stories...well it's a tried and tested strategy.

What does irk me is the way they did the animation for Hades (not to mention the voiceover), and really the delivery of the whole thing. It simply lacked the oomph one would expect when a teenage urban fantasy novel turns into a movie. Not much else for me to say except that I cannot recommend this one. 4/10 I'd give less, but then again I do have a soft spot for such premises...better luck next time.

The Ills Of Gambling

People who have talked to me before will likely know that I really really really do not approve of the idea of gambling. Gambling is a racket by which everyone knows that they will lose on average, but want to try anyway on the false hope that maybe they'd strike it rich. Everyone who's a serious gambler would want that, and therein lies the catch. Seriously, gambling is a big scam that is effectively a tax on the dim witted.

Allowing large scale gambling serves only to turn things somewhat sour. Inevitably, some poor sod would get addicted to the thrill of nearly losing money and wind up losing oodles of it. That, or just sheer bad luck wipes everything out. Then he/she would get upset and likely do something desperate to make up for the very real loss. The list of perps is long, including leveraged financial WMDs, noise trading, honest to goodness casino-style gambling...

It does not help to set up barriers to entry. Someone intent enough on participating will find their way in one way or another. Exotic derivatives can be cooked up to allow trading that was previously forbidden. Sometimes, the only real solution is to say no. Otherwise, it is only a matter of time before illegal moneylenders and other criminals begin to have their say.

Pickle Barbecue

I witnessed the incineration of my aunt's pickle today. The event, presided over by a pastor, was solemn, with the usual touching hymns and sermon. What struck me, though, was just how automated the cremation process was.

It basically involved a mechanized trolley that could be operated by a single person, which moved the coffin onto a computerized forklift. After inputting some commands, the operator could just step back and let the forklift deliver the coffin straight into the cremation chamber. As the forklift approached the hidden double doors at a stately pace, it opened up and the forklift deposited the coffin in the chamber, and then the door closed again.

The event was over as quickly as it began, and involved none of the discomfort of showing an actual cremation to those witnessing. There was also the niggling feeling that perhaps the body was not cremated after all, since there was no evidence that it actually happened. Perhaps this is of some comfort to the bereaved.

Nonetheless, the overall process was fuss free, and there wasn't even any visible smoke involved. Dealing with the dead has become so much simpler, compared to the days of jolly bonfires with unpickled bodies roasting atop the flames, or towers of solitude that allowed the birds to slowly reduce corpses to poo.

Facecopter

My graphics card was repaired today, so I got to head down to the repair shop to pick it up. This is a truly joyous day, when I can finally get my equipment at its best and run things at decent settings again. But as always, I do tend to be less than alert in the daytime.

After I got my card, I was walking down the mall when I noticed an oldish guy looking at me in surprise and making a strange surprised sound. While I walked towards him, wondering why he was making the sound, I heard a whirring and saw a blur in front of me. Then something hit my face and landed on the ground. I realized it was a toy helicopter.

It turns out that I walked right into a toy copter hovering just at my chin level while trying to figure out why the old dude looked surprised. I'm rather bad at reading faces, but my best estimate of his expression afterwards was a mix of surprise and annoyance, presumably because I facecoptered him. There's a lesson to be had here, and it is that if one tries to facecopter Fenris, they get facecoptered instead. Fenris's face is tougher than most toy copters.

Of course, this is a fairly unusual situation since I have pretty adequate reflexes even (or perhaps especially) when sleepy. It's probably because the copter completely bypassed my IFF system. Besides, it's got an effective threat value of zero except if/when it manages to score a crit. Still, it's amusing and I do wonder if the toy was permanently damaged. I wouldn't be sorry if it was, since the old dude failed to keep it out of my path in the first place.

Memento Mori

While I was tidying up my room during spring cleaning, I popped open the drawers at my desk and looked at all the junk contained within. Logically, if the junk is there and not to be thrown away, it has to serve some kind of purpose. Otherwise, I should just dump the stuff and free up the storage space. It's kinda like inventory management.

So basically I found that my stuff turned out to be junk and mementos. Not to be confused with Mentos. The mementos could be further separated into my stuff, and stuff people gave me or stuff that's related to other people. After sifting out the stuff, I realized that most were obsolete anyway so they went into the junk pile.

What remained were basically items from my past, and stuff from people who are now dead. So I wound up reserving one drawer as a time capsule of sorts, and the other as a dedicated memento mori drawer. Sort of like a memorial drawer, which is pretty much what I'm calling it at this point.

Currently, 3 ex-peoples' stuff occupies the space, though a 4th person's stuff is too big so it's in my shelf. 4 and counting. Well, at least I now have an excuse to keep some sorts of junk...errr...mementos... around.

Death's Follow Through

My 3rd aunt died early in the morning today. The wake was quickly put together by the casket service, and we attended it to have one last look at the body. After talking to the sons about the past month and her travails, I was rather peeved that it seems quite apparent that the doctors were not very proactive about dealing with her health problems as quickly as possible. The observation by one son that she seemed dazed and drowsy was largely ignored by the doctor and dismissed as a regular result of dialysis. It does seem that being in a 3rd class ward means that patients get 3rd class medical care.

I noticed today the different ways people deal with death. Some family friends bowed before the casket but did not attempt to look at the body. Others went in to have a look. I asked the sons whether they would be alright with my taking photos of the scene, and they expressed no objections. I figured it would be a good way to remember the day, but it seemed that they were (understandably) not inclined to have a documentary memento of this day of bereavement.

My parents were quite horrified that I decided to take pictures of the body, given some sort of taboo about taking pictures of the dead. They were rather insistent that I delete the photos of the body itself. I did comply, since it is quite pointless to keep the pictures if nobody was intent on seeing images of the body (specifically the face). One does not argue with cultural sensitivities, since everyone is entitled to their choice of opiate. Death portraits were quite in vogue elsewhere, not too long ago. However, I figured it was even more disrespectful of the meat to have it pickled and displayed before others, then barbecued in a specialized kiln, and have the ashes picked out later to be stored in a jar.

Of course, the follow through of death is simply a matter of opinion. For practical purposes, a body is just a body and really...it matters little what one does with the body. It is meat like any slaughtered cattle, and due no more respect than other pieces of meat. Yet, it remains a symbol of what was once a person, and where I think an image does the ex-person more justice, others think not having the image would serve better.

As for myself, if/when I do become a lump of meat, I would much prefer incineration followed by scattering or being fed to the wolves than to be gutted, pickled, barbecued, then stuffed in an urn. To me, the last option would be a rather undignified way to treat a lump of meat, and does no honor to its meaty goodness.

Realistic Rationality

Efficiency is often explored at a theoretical level. Even then, it is difficult to define what exactly is regarded as "efficient". Will it be private benefit, social benefit, an average of both, or are there other forms of benefit that can be rationally evaluated? From the Prisoner's Dilemma, it can be seen that rational choices can be exceedingly disadvantageous to the counterparts. It is also established that people are largely law-abiding, though it seems advantageous to kill everyone in sight and take their money.

The thing that keeps most people from doing socially appalling things on a regular basis seems to be social costs in their various forms. They can range from social censure to actual laws. Those serve to hold back the more socially undesirable conducts. If anything, they force irrational conduct. More specifically, they force a response that fits the situation.

If rational actions go unregulated, the negative externalities may well exceed actual gains. This is seen in the rational solution to the Dilemma, whereby both prisoners are disadvantaged while they would create a net overall benefit had they colluded. This does raise the question of what, exactly, rational conduct is. In the presence of inefficiencies and social costs, it is actually rational to be irrational, because the network of costs in an irrational system only maximally rewards appropriately irrational conduct. To be irrational...is to be efficient!

The other common barrier to rational solutions is switching costs. For example, while I may rationally switch from the QWERTY keyboard to a more efficient layout, I am consciously unwilling to do so because that would involve learning a whole new layout all over again. Due to the learning curve, I would be facing reduced productivity until my aptitude increases to match my QWERTY proficiency. Moreover, inefficient information prevents me from knowing for sure whether my switch would provide net benefit, since a whole new massively efficient input paradigm may come out in the next decade thus rendering my new learning moot. In short, switching costs make the irrational decision to stay seem more efficient than the rational one to switch, though in perfect knowledge the decision may be entirely wrong.

Combining the two does seem to provide a basis for why so many seemingly dumb things are being constantly tolerated in the world. If anything, it would prove exceedingly difficult to convince a majority of individuals to switch around to more rational conduct. However, it is not impossible to force change by a drastic change in circumstances. How unfortunate...

The Opiate Of the Masses

Religion is truly the opiate of the masses. I think it is remarkable that some religions can preach goodness and submission in exchange for comfort. What a great deal! All you have to do is surrender your will to something greater than you are, and you'll get comfort in exchange.

Strangely enough, it seems like precisely what a monarch would want to ensure a docile populace. Now, I have nothing against goodness and good deeds. Those generate social benefits and these positive externalities are almost certainly welcome. I do, however, take issue with the concept of submission.

In my opinion, there is a difference between submitting one's will to a higher authority, and dedicating one's deeds and thoughts to a higher purpose or authority. The first involves a surrender of free will, and taking on the will of the higher authority. The second involves a redirection of free will to align oneself with the higher authority or purpose. The distinction here is that the first opens one to abuse by others claiming to know the will of the higher authority, while the second is a matter of free will and there is discretion involved.

This discretion is essential in ensuring that one's deeds and thoughts are properly aligned with what one believes of one's higher purpose. Otherwise, it is possible for one to be told that food is good, and for that someone to continue forcing more good food down the gullet of a goose to give the goose more goodness. Poor goose. How tasty.

On The Styx

It seems that ultimately the prognosis of my third aunt is effectively hopeless. Too much brain damage, a shattered pelvis, renal failure and a fever that refuses to go away simply means it's just a matter of time.

What does disturb me is that the whole matter smacks of incompetence. The doctor reportedly claimed that her fever was due to brain damage interfering with homeostatic body temperature. The pelvis fracture was recently discovered. However, since she was admitted to the hospital after a fall, it seems likely that her pelvis was fractured then. If anything, it should have been something that was tested for first. As for the brain damage, she was able to speak when at the hospital, but was already running a fever at the time. Unless it was a brain fever or some other infection, it seems improbable that her brain was so damaged that it could no longer regulate body temperature.

Just a couple days back, they found that she had no running infection, but continued antibiotic treatment nonetheless because of the fever. What seems unusual is that she was diagnosed with sepsis at the time of admission, which was what was proposed to have caused her fever in the first place. It would be probable that her sepsis was associated with kidney failure rather than an infection. More importantly, a fracture can also be associated with the onset of sepsis due to the fact that the fracture was identified as "severe", and necrotizing of tissue in the fracture area is probable.

On the whole, the claims of the doctor do not make sense and could indicate that she was experiencing some rare condition or that the medical personnel at the time did not take the necessary actions to ascertain the nature of her injuries and determine appropriate treatment. It may also be probable that there was a misdiagnosis involved either due to staff overwork or inexperience.

Humans And Crows

Crows are a rather maligned bird. They are black (ugly), sound harsh (another minus) are big (scary) and highly intelligent (scary as well). I was watching the rifle guys shooting crows in my neighbourhood, with a government permit no less, simply to keep the crow population down.

Now, lest people think that my neighbourhood has a crow population like something out of Alfred Hitchcock flicks, I should point out that I see them only occasionally. In fact, I see far more sparrows and mynahs, along with large flocks of pigeons. Strangely enough, the crows have crosshairs painted on them while the pigeons are allowed to fly all over the place. Presumably pooping on heads and laundry while they are at it.

Could it be disease spreading? Well...crows in large numbers will most certainly spread disease, but then again so will large numbers of pigeons, other birds or even humans. Perhaps we should shoot surplus humans to curb the spread of disease. If anything, I believe this enmity between humans and crows is akin to what Hans Landa says about rats in Inglourious Basterds: There simply is something about them that people detest.

They don't look particularly cute, and neither do they sound nice. They're smart enough to feed themselves at will, and big enough to defend themselves. If anything, I love crows. There is a metallic sheen to their feathers, and their harsh cries are simply another form of birdsong. The fact that they are big and able to defend themselves is yet another endearing trait, and I rarely see a crow chewed up by the neighbourhood cat, unlike the occasional hapless pigeon or mynah. Maybe humans simply don't like competition.

Me And My Stuff

I do seem to have an interesting propensity towards developing fairly deep emotional attachment to some objects. Primarily my handkerchiefs. Especially my favourite amongst the bunch. Just today, I noticed another one of them was fraying. This will not make much sense, but all I can say is that I feel their pain. In fact, it feels like a sense of loss quite akin to what I'd feel when a friend is passing on. Of course, that's a purely irrational feeling (not that they ever are rational) since hankies aren't gona have feelings and I can always get another. I think. But like Linus' security blanket, it just wouldn't be the same if I got another.

On a side note, I realized why the exhaust airflow in my computer casing is so sluggish despite having an obscenely powerful 120mm box fan fitted. It seems that the front grill of a Coolermaster Centurion casing is hardly efficient at letting air through. It appears to reduce airflow by at least 50%, which is logical given that the perforations are 50% of the total surface area or less. I dare not think just how much I had been sacrificing in airflow before I removed the foam filters, which would have further reduced airflow. No wonder my graphics card overheated.

Types Of Humor

Indeed it does seem that not everyone is able to appreciate every kind of humor. While I am capable of finding most jokes funny even when others do not, some jovial statements serve only to bewilder. Just today I was reading an article about a young lady being teased for going vegetarian. One example of the tease was about having stray pigs and cows running around as a consequence of people going vegetarian.

I suppose this sort of humor can be regarded as a form of hyperbolic absurd humor, since it is indeed possible (albeit in a purely absurd way) that farmed animals could become strays and wander all over the place. The mental image of farm animals wandering about a city is somewhat amusing, though forced at best. I suppose the very unlikeliness of the scenario proposed does pretty much outweigh any form of amusement at its absurdity.

Then again, I do tend to have a sadistic streak in enjoying physical comedy to an extent. Hell, I'd even laugh at certain scenes in Ingluorious Basterds for their sheer absurdity despite the gore. Of course, I suppose my benchmark for humor requires a certain degree of likeliness before it qualifies. Otherwise, it is merely an absurd or, in rare occasions, a simply offensive statement.

Diffusion Of Responsibility

Indeed, it does seem that diffusion of responsibility has quite an effect, especially in crowded cities. Today, I was at a food court and a young lady had a rather bad epileptic fit. She fell to the ground and probably bit her tongue in the process. There was quite a bit of bleeding, and one of the men near her (friend/relative, presumably) shoved a spoon in her mouth while another lady tried to get her settled down without moving her off the floor.

What was interesting was the small concerned crowd that gathered almost immediately, gawking at the scene. A majority of the people in the area noticed what happened, but did not move in to help in some way. What was quite remarkable was that despite all this attention, it took nearly five minutes before someone decided to call for an ambulance. It seems likely that diffusion of responsibility was at play here, since nobody (myself included) felt particularly inclined to make the call...assuming that someone would.

It is scenes like these that make me feel that there are a goodly number of Patricia Tannises in the city, since those of us who did not immediately go to gawk or render assistance seemed perfectly capable of enjoying our meals while someone else was convulsing on the floor. In fact, I did feel a mild irritation at the inconvenience of the timing of the fit, as it was interrupting my magazine reading. I like reading at the meal table. It gives me something to do, and adds a sense of accomplishment to what would otherwise turn out to be "just" a meal.

Of course, I did not eventually decide to knife her or shoot her several times in the back, then figure that her name was Leslie and how she had a troubled childhood from having a guy's name. There may yet be some remaining dreg of my ever fading sanity.

Visiting Aunt

We visited 3rd aunt today, and it seems that she is doing quite poorly at this point. What I had initially mistaken for a plump, healthy appearance was in reality a result of bloating from renal failure. It is readily apparent that she is incapable of movement or speech.

However, it seems that she is quite capable of sight and comprehension despite her otherwise near-complete paralysis from the stroke. She could blink her eyes appropriately in response to questions, and had a limited capability to smile when amused by humorous quips. Moreover, she could move her eyes to look at the visitors.

From the movement of her tongue, it seems that she is making attempts to speak, though she is currently incapable of forming words proper. It is fortunate, though, that she appears to be able to recognize the visitors and what little can be ascertained of her cognitive faculties suggests a positive prognosis. I am making a mental note to do something downright hilarious the next time we visit, to see if she is capable of laughter.

A Sad Day

Just today, I learned that my 3rd aunt's condition worsened. It seems the toxins in her bad leg are still wreaking havoc in her system, despite the hospital's best efforts at administering daily dialysis. It seems that besides the failed kidneys, her brain's taking some damage. To be precise, her brain's probably already damaged at this point, since the last report from her son indicates that she's developed a fixed gaze. Loss of brain function, and she's now pending a brain scan. Frankly, I do not have high hopes at this point. At best, if needs be, I do hope she goes peacefully without dragging it out.

One thing that bothers me to no end is how sad her life had been from birth till today. And it is ironic that a simple fall led to a chain of events that would probably do her in. First something got damaged in her bad leg, causing toxins to leak into her blood stream. Then she was hospitalized, where they found that she was developing sepsis. Even after loads of antibiotics and dialysis, the situation has not improved.

Of course, lots of similar things happened as a result of a simple fall. Assuming that the fall is not immediately fatal, it can easily lead to one becoming bedridden and developing complications as a result of that. Or say the injury from the fall turns gangrenous. Something like that.

Anyway, c'est la vie, non? Humans are mortal and fragile. That much should not be forgotten. Memento Mori.

The Importance Of Freedom Of Speech

I was watching documentaries today, and the content of the documentaries really got me thinking about the importance of freedom of speech. One featured very guarded and tentative criticisms of the government's lack of environmental consciousness, while the other was an outright criticism of another administration's failures.

Indeed, the practical value of freedom of speech is limited to the administration's willingness to listen. If the people speak up and the comments are deemed undesirable for any reason (stupid, inappropriate, untenable or seditious, for example), obviously nothing would be done about it. Indeed, it is also possible for the admin to pay lip service to the comments, and do nothing about it at all.

Yet, one should not discount the value of free speech. In the absence of commentary on the lack of environmental consciousness, valuable biodiversity could have been lost. Corruption could go unchecked. Incompetence could have been swept under the carpet. Indeed these will be criticisms of the admin, and can be interpreted by those in power as seditious by virtue of the comments being damaging to the admin's reputation and therefore destabilizing the country by increasing discontent.

However, the truth of the matter remains. It is an irresponsible admin that ignores its own flaws. In fact it is no less than treason on the part of the leaders. One need only look towards the collapse of dictatorships to see how the minds of leaders can be poisoned by the ignorance that they themselves encouraged in a bid to cling on to power. It does not suffice to have free speech alone. What is needed is a listening ear, and an inclination towards reform that accompanies it.

The Protestant Work Ethic

It is strange how jealous people get when they encounter those of privilege who do not work. While much of the readily available work out there is less than enjoyable (especially so if it involves interacting with humans), it does not follow that the perceived idleness of the non-workers is somehow damaging to themselves.

I remember how some people asserted that the idle people had too much time on their hands, and thus developed mental disturbances from excessive mental ruminations or started doing mean things to other people. I find that an absurd claim, since mental disturbances or mean inclinations are really quite independent of one's work status. Indeed, I think one who commits suicide from work stress is quite mentally disturbed. As is the rich career person doing mean things to subordinates.

The origin of these absurd notions seems to come from some variant of the protestant work ethic, whereby work is not just a means towards an income for survival, but a sort of duty that is somehow cleansing. One would recall the proverb that the idle mind is the Devil's workshop. Yet it must be noted that not all who are NEET are necessarily idle. It may well be that they have a kind of routine going that simply does not earn money. Would that, then, be considered idleness and subject to the absurd notions associated with idleness?

The Vagaries Of Fortune

Today, my 3rd aunt was admitted to hospital after she fell in her bathroom. Apparently, she sustained some injuries at her leg, which is afflicted with elephantiasis. Unfortunately, that also means that she's now experiencing sepsis. The doctors are attempting to fix her up with antibiotics, followed by dialysis. The situation does not look good. Sepsis is always a nasty thing.

Sometimes these things make me think about the vagaries of fortune, and just how random the world is. Some people get extreme good luck, others get extreme bad luck, and all this is independent of how they are as people. Take my aunt for example. She's quite the kind soul, but has never had a stroke of good luck at any point in her life. If there was some sort of cosmic system of justice influenced by one's goodness, it's either totally buggy or nonexistent to begin with.

Of course, in a way, this is a cause for guilt. Do the more fortunate creatures move in to help the less fortunate ones? Where does one draw the line for helping others? Yet the guilt may be misplaced. In my aunt's case, not only was her problem unforeseeable, it also stemmed from a small complication in an operation decades ago resulting in her case of elephantiasis. What help could have been granted? And the next question would be how much is due...

Video Cooling

It seems I may have fried yet another video card no thanks to the extreme heat in my computer casing. The card started producing the typical overheated video ram/GPU artifacts, like weird flickering artifacts obscuring the entire game display, sudden freezes and the like.

The card was sent for servicing under the warranty coverage, and I managed to persuade the supplier to get me a loaner unit. Unfortunately, despite the loaner being a lower end card, it started developing heat issues. I decided to go open casing.

The drawback of open casing setups is that first the case is highly exposed and very vulnerable to liquid spills, bugs entering, etc. More importantly, the open casings have less efficient air flows if not actively cooled and in the same confined area as my current comp.

My solution was to have one of the small but extremely powerful sound system cooling fans and fit it in such a way that it directly feeds cooler air to the vid card. It's the heavy variety of 120mm fan that has incredible output, with a metal frame and blades. Relatively quiet, to boot.

However, as it was feeding in the air from the side of the casing near the rear end, it was in danger of recycling the warmer air from the exhaust vents at the rear of the casing. To minimize air recycling, I installed a cardboard baffle at the exhaust to direct the hot air away from the new fan's intake.

First tests before the fan's installation indicated that CPU temps were around mid 50 degs C on load, and the casing temp was around 50 degs as well. The top of the casing itself felt warm, which indicated a hot air buildup. Not acceptable at all. Obviously, the heatsink on the CPU is blasting it with hot air. My loaner card did not have an electronic temp monitor, but it stands to reason that 50 deg air was bad for it.

After powering up the new fan, casing temps quickly dropped to 34 degs, which is a few degs warmer than the ambient. However, the top of the casing still felt warm on load, suggesting heat issues. Moreover, the CPU temp was largely unchanged, indicating that the fan's cool air was not hitting it at all. The CPU was located somewhere above the vid card.

My solution was then to elevate the fan using a brick, so that it spewed the cool air towards the CPU as well. This greatly improved the air flow over the vid card and hit the CPU as a bonus. This time, not only did the CPU and casing temps drop, the top of the casing did not feel warm anymore. A test of a video game demonstrated that the graphics card glitches were now completely absent.

I expect that the heat issues should be gone with my graphics card when it comes back from servicing. However, only a test of the system on load will be able to definitively prove that.

Color Management

I have always been wondering why people were often unimpressed or had strange comments about the images I churned out. At first I assumed it was a matter of monitor calibration, though it is quite rare for monitors to be wildly out of calibration. Basically, what looked great on my monitor did not look terribly good on theirs.

Then I remembered the color profiles inherent in my pics, and the simple fact that most users simply did not use color management. While it is indeed possible for me to display gamut in Photoshop and tweak each individual image to suit the color profiles of most other users, that would involve a lot of effort on my part and completely throw off the color accuracy of my prints. After re-enabling color management on Firefox, the issue was resolved and my colors displayed correctly again.

When I do set up a site to get my pics marketed, the first thing I would do is provide a tutorial for users to enable color management on their browsers such that all images would appear as they are intended. On a side note, it is also pretty remarkable how much more sensitive I was to "off" colors in my food than I was with most of my other pictures. Indeed, slightly different colors for landscape shots went largely unnoticed, and did not really require any tweaking. For food, however...the difference in the reds determines the line between yum and yuck.

On Learning Difficulties

I do wonder at the strange propensity people have towards trying to medicalize all sorts of "learning difficulties". I remember reading an article whereby people were advised to identify learning difficulties in their children, and "seek help" as early as possible.

While I appreciate the approach (http://www.cec.sped.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home&CONTENTID=7006&TEMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm) the CEC is taking towards helping children with different learning needs, the common approach is to try to shoehorn everyone into the standard school system instead. I find that rather unfortunate, with the fail-first approach or using medication to enable the doped-up kids to fit in and get along with the program.

I would certainly look forward to the day when there is no stigma attached to having children put in special education programs. Though, knowing human nature, that day will be a long time coming.

Molest

When I consider cases of scantily clad women getting molested, I cannot help but be repulsed by the comments of some people. It is pretty common to hear insensitive comments about how the woman is "asking for it" in some way, and that the man would be wasting a good chance to touch a woman if such an opportunity were declined due to his common decency.

I think most would agree that if I were to leave valuables at my windowsill and someone were to steal them, it would still be no less wrong of the person to have stolen my items. In fact, it is clear that I had been foolish in leaving them out in the open, but that does not exonerate the perpetrator in any way.

The difference in judgments on these cases will emerge when people consider whom the guilt lies on. Some would insist that the victim was foolish, and should take precautions in future against such occurrences. Others would assert that the perpetrator was wrong all the way, victim's foolishness notwithstanding.

It is my belief that living in a society is in itself a leap of faith. That faith is that the people would largely abide by the laws. Of course, it is understood that the laws run contrary to human nature and temptations. However, the leap of faith requires that people adhere to it despite their urges. If the situation were turned around, and the perpetrator became the victim, I think they would not be amused if their items got stolen, or their daughters got molested...simply because of a lack of precaution taken. Of course, I would have little to say should they be consistent enough in their beliefs that even were they the victims on the flip side. I do somehow doubt that that would be the case if such a thing would really befall them.

Avatar's Aesthetics

The world of Pandora in Avatar has been widely praised as being gorgeous and downright spectacular at night. One friend of mine noted that the forest was silent at night, and had beautiful lights everywhere. After thinking for a while, I realized that the lights of the forest reminded me of the city.

I find it curious that I do not hear much about the lush foliage of the Pandora jungle, or how strange the plants are in the daytime. Instead, the comments were about the nice light show at night. Interestingly enough, we have a similar light show at night: the city lights. Of course, the city lights seem strangely less endearing. Perhaps it is the strange union of city and jungle that so fascinates people?

Yet it is also unusual in that the jungle is also remarkably still, as my friend noted. There seems to be virtually no insect life, nor any other sounds of life. If nothing, that makes me think of an artificial wilderness. How fitting, then...having a jungle married to a city, with virtually no other insect life apart from the human-equivalents: the Na'Vi.

Planet 51

Sometimes, the reviews on Rottentomatoes are not to be trusted. Planet 51 is one of the classic children's shows, featuring an alien "invasion" with the invader/invadee roles switched. When I last checked, the reviews were in the low 20%, which basically made the show exceptionally bad. This time, though, the reviews seemed quite fixated on how the show's jokes were unfunny and it was childish (unsurprising for a children's show) and incorporated slapstick scatological humor.

Well, given what I saw in the trailers, I was quite inclined to give it a spin despite its terrible reviews on Tomato. I was pleasantly surprised that it was a show with reasonably funny kid jokes and quite some dashes of cuteness. All that interspersed with cultural references and especially jibes at general human paranoia when faced with the unknown. Planet 51 is a standard old story of alien arrives, everyone goes panicky and eventually alien gets to go home when the natives settle down.

I suppose the show was largely victimized by serious-minded adults rating the movie the way they would as serious-minded adults. There seemed to be little appreciation for the general silliness, the somewhat simple textures and all that cute. I would not think this movie was great, but it does get a 7/10 from me nonetheless.

The New Year

I suppose I write at least one such entry every year... But yeah, festivities do tend to get me rather pensive. Firstly, of course, I am not a big fan of participating in whatevers just to feel like a part of something larger than myself. That's not to say that I feel others should do the same...that's just me.

What I do tend to recall when it comes to everybody events like the countdowns is that not everyone will be counting down together. Some will be asleep as the clock rolls over. Others will be too busy with other concerns to actually notice the day ending. In fact, to think of the New Year as a new year seems awfully arbitrary. Firstly, we're going to look at at least 24 different time zones cheering at different times...all celebrating the same symbolic moment. More like a new day, if you ask me.

Secondly, it is indeed a matter of rolling over to a new day...which happens approximately every 24 hours anyway. What makes this one so special? I guess it mostly ends at the symbolism, since the new year's resolutions are rarely if ever really stuck to. It seems more like an excuse to launch burning metal into the air and get on with festivities.

I think besides getting stone drunk on the streets of the big cities, it also helps to keep in mind those who will not be able to celebrate together with everyone else. The destitute, the ill, those who are simply too bothered by life's troubles to enjoy the new year. If anything, this festive season is a great time to start pay it forward movements, and to be charitable. It may not mean much for individuals, but if everyone could get in that spirit the way they do with the festivities, I think it can still make an impact.