Vengeful Cynic

Great Web Comic!

I found another great webcomic: FLEM

Here's one that's relatively clean and here's one I shouldn't post. Go check it out only if you enjoy my warped links.

On the other hand for something clean and still quite funny, check out this video.

The Politics of Iraq

Most days I like politics... the process, the deal-making, the smoke-filled rooms... it just appeals to a certain part of me that revels in intricacy. Wilson and I have a great deal of fun talking about it... frequently dragging the Guatemalan into discussions and just enjoying the great political theories that we come up with. Of late however, I have not been enjoying politics, and most of that is due to the fact that I can't find anyone whose foreign policy I can support.

The ditto-heads and Republican Party faithful out there will tell me that I should stick with Bush because he's doing the right thing. My problem with that is the war on Iraq was NOT JUSTIFIED, at least... not like Bush justified it. If we ever find WMD's, I will be very surprised (thanks for the link, Wilson.) If we even find good evidence of them, it will be a good deal more than we have
now. The fact of the matter is that justifying this war on the basis that Iraq was an international threat is bullshit. North Korea is a threat, China is an international threat, Iran is an international threat.... hell, our allies like Israel are more of an international threat than Iraq was.

What it all boils down to is that while there might be good reasons to justify the invasion of Iraq, they weren't the reasons employed for invading Iraq. What's worse is the outcome of these arguments. "Potential support of terrorism?" Great, so now we're fighting pre-emptive wars? "Human rights?" This one is even better because if we're all of a sudden fighting wars to free the denizens of countries from Human Rights opression, we're going to be doing a lot of fighting, including against allies such as Saudi Arabia and China.

My general concern is this: either the Bush administration actually believed that
there were WMD's in Iraq or they didn't. If they did, and they were there, then we have a good bit of digging to do and all of our intelligence right now is wrong. If the WMD's weren't there, then our pre-war intel. has a lot of explaining to do. If our pre-war intel. said that there weren't WMD's and we went in anyways, then we have some sort of unterior motivation that isn't being addressed and the president is lying to the world and the American people. Any of these ways, I'm at least slightly annoyed and assuming that there aren't still undiscovered WMD's out there, I'm downright irritated.

But in the end, what am I going to do? Vote for Dean? I'd rather move to France.

Belief-O-Matic

Not that I think many of you will have a variety of results, but go take the Belief-O-Matic Quiz.

Here's how I came out:

D&D

I've been fiddling with some homework as well as a D&D campaign that I'm working up for next semester and I've been mulling over the whole Dungeons and Dragons thing, especially in the light of those conservatives who claim it is strictly demonic. After all, my parents (especially my father) are given to the notion that the whole thing is bad. Granted, they're only working on what they've been told be hyperconservatives (bear in mind, when D&D was in the news bigtime, some mentally unstable people committed suicide over it and at the time my parents were at a church with some very conservative Bob Jones alums) and my father really isn't into the fantastical anyways, but it's still frustrating that I more or less lie to my parents rather than hash this out with them.

Going over things in my head, my points essentially boil down to this:
1) D&D is just like reading fantasy, it isn't real... just imagination.
2) Consequently, the only real moral value it has is what you make of it.
3) D&D is NOT a guide to witchcraft and sorcery (check this out for a humorous commentary on the matter; thanks Gallagher)
4) While D&D might be used to draw people into the occult, so could things like the Chronicles of Narnia and Lord of the Rings...

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that D&D is not intrinsically evil, it has just been used to evil ends. The same could be said for any number of things, including well-meaning Christians. In fact, I would go so far as to say that there are probably more drawn away from God by overzealous Christians who venture out of God's plan than by any D&D book.

That said, I recognize that people tend to be uncomfortable with the notion and that D&D is one of the fringe elements of nerd-dom that gets the furthest away from the norm. Therefore, as a policy, I try not to invite anyone to come and play with us who hasn't asked. We don't make it a secret that we play as a rule (there are exceptions) but we also try not to beat people over the head and drag them in. If anyone wants to play, we welcome them.

So there... not sure why I went off on that topic... but to quote a favorite movie line:

"Well.... there it is"

Experiment on "Cold"

I performed an experiment today in response to all of the whining that's been going on due to the "cold" outside. I went back to my room and pulled out all of the clothes that I'm never seen in and went on a walk. Jeans, socks, shoes, sweater, coat... and it wasn't cold outside, not even a little. I don't know what everyone is whining about. The only thing that even bothered me slightly was the cold wind, and so I got out some ear warmers from one of my pockets and all was well. About half-way around the loop, I had to open my coat up becaue I was getting hot.

Update: performed the same experiment this afternoon and walked over to Bodacious... still not cold.

The Bandits Who Were

Well... one day down and I'm feeling much more rested. Maybe with a couple more of these I'll be able to take out the rest of the semester.

Whenever I walk down the empty hall of 1B when everyone is out of town, I get a bit reminiscent and philosophical about all of the guys who have come through on my watch. So here's to the few who made it, and the many that didn't.

Here's to Hex: the man who IRC'ed, played D&D and video-gamed and never really made it to much class or bed.
Here's to Pooder: the man who wished he was Canadian.
Here's to Hog: the man who played DAOC so hard he woke up on his keyboard more than once.
Here's to Kass: the quiet man who the system screwed and made it out anyways.
Here's to Woobadoo: the most disturbed guy to ever wander the floor and the worst influence on Gecko yet.
Here's to Ivan: the man who got asked out by Saga Troll Lady's daughter and run off by his roommate.
Here's to Tim: the man who married a girl from ETBU.
Here's to Ronnie: the man who could be counted on to roll in on Sunday as we rolled out for church.
Here's to Gary: the man whose room stank up the entire hall when his door was opened.
Here's to Groody: the man who escaped into the worst job market ever and got stuck in Longview.
Here's to YourMom: the man who left us those wonderful Senate pictures.
Here's to Randrew: the man who got out, got hitched, lived on campus another year, and is still sticking
around.
Here's to Aaron: the RA whose soul couldn't be saved with only 37 chapels.
Here's to Micah: the man who dealt with Gary, ate the cats, and then got called elsewhere to the military.
Here's to Baba: the man who attempted 12 hours, and probably didn't even go to class 12 times.
Here's to Tom: my unofficial roommate in Fall '02 who had moved off campus but still showered on 1B.
Here's to Odom: the man who asked for programming help at 2am for a program due in 6 hours.
Here's to Doc: the man who Damian and I single-handedly traumatized more than is decent.
Here's to the Kormex: the man who played the video games, got great grades in EE classes, and promises to return next year.
Here's to Cowboy: the man whose listening ear and wise wit kept me sane through POD.
Here's to Singer: the man who captained the soccer team and left lusting after the championship we never got.

Wow: that's a lot. That doesn't count Dave and Luke, who pledged my freshman year. 21 guys who left the floor. Out of those, 5 graduated. Baba gets the award for closest to graduating with 9 hours shy on dropout. Hex gets the award for the guy who was here with me the shortest period of time, Ivan was he biggest recluse, and Pooder and Woob have to tie for the oddest.

I miss those guys...

Bumming on Break

So... it's been an interesting couple of days and I'm sticking in town for the Thanksgiving break while everyone else is heading off elsewhere. I must say that there is entirely too much work to get done this weekend for me to be burning time and not really doing anything yet... but I do need a break and hopefully I will be able to get everything done that I need to after I get a bit of rest.

Hopefully I will be able to get more up tomorrow... I'm going to take it easy and go to get some food at around 5 at a benevolent professor's house with some friends of mine. Until then, I'll be sleeping, watching football, and maybe doing some work. Until next time... remember: "While there are many trees in the world, goldfish don't like tomato juice."

An Interesting Turn of Events

A friend of mine has been doing a critique on a paper for one of his. Whomever wrote this thing needs to take the English Review and a couple of remedial English Composition classes... not to mention some basic rhetoric.

Some interesting sentences include:

"This obedience was not merely legalistic and works oriented although it did involve a very legal aspect, since in Adam's failure all men have failed (Romans 5:12)."

"The nature of their fall seems to have set a precedent for further sin in the world that had formerly been good. Prior to the temptation of the snake Adam and Eve seem to have been quite content within the garden."

"Adam and Eve's trust in God and his promises and prohibitions is where their happiness lied."

"Genesis never explicitly states a leadership role for Adam in terms of relationships between people until after the fall when it was declared that the woman's desire would be for her husband."

(I would like to note that I have been taking great pain to be sure to copy the grammar, spelling, and punctuation on these.)

Now, my personal favorite just so happens to be the understatement of the millenium: "The fall of Adam and Eve is an interesting turn of events in the history of mankind."

Wow...

So what, the flood was an interesting turn of events in global meteorology?

The birth of Christ was an interesting turn of events in Christian Theology?

The Creation was an interesting turn of events in cosmology (and maybe even geography?)

The fall of Communism was an interesting turn of events in contemporary international politics?

The bombing of Pearl Harbor was an interesting turn of events in World War 2?

France was an interesting turn of events?

Long story short.... this is special.

Anyone out there with an interesting turn of events?

On Crapintoshes

A fitting commentary on my favorite hardware platform.

God Wants Us to be Happy

Well, that's enough of the melancholy. And now for some pleasant thoughts... or at least mildly so.

Today in class, Varnell told us that God is happy and God wants us to be happy. In the interest of getting out of class and not strangling the man, I didn't object strenuously. I should have maimed him for that. God is joyful (as in the joy of the Lord) and God wants us to be joyful and content. However, that is not the same thing as happy.

Nothing else particularly interesting on the mind at the moment, except that some jackass was messing with my brother and making fun of his departed friend... so if any of my mildly unethical friends who aren't avowed to be good little computer users want to jack with IP 157.89.184.220, I wouldn't mind. It resolves to an Eastern Kentucky University IP, so it should be fairly stable and mostly on.

Disturbed Link of the Day: Dwarf Tossing Banned (so what, there was a problem with dwarf tossing before this?)

The saga of my brother

The saga of my brother continues, but right now it's moreso with him. Most of you are familiar with the fact that all of my compassion put together could fit in a small thimble. The pure reverse is true of my brother. He cares so much that sometimes it scares him that people might take advantage of him and to that end he has a the facade of a cactus. Underneath that cactus, however, is a man who would give the shirt off his back along with his pants to someone who needed them. He's cynical enough and perceptive enough to see through people... but when someone really needs help, my brother is the first person in there to give it.

I'm sure some of you are familiar with the concept of survivor guilt. Now take that, and imagine you could have made several dozen different choices in the hours leading up to a friend's death that might have avoided that death. In light of that, I can't even begin to understand what my brother, who would gladly have given himself in exchange for his friend, must be feeling at this point... and I know it must really suck.

That said, pray for my brother... he's in a really dark place and it's one of those wounds that only God and time can heal.

Gorge Accident

Well, I have more information regarding my brother. Here is a news story related to the gorge accident. Talking to my mother, apparently there was underage consumption involved and a friend of mine was the person buying the beer. Now I really don't have a problem with underage consumption provided the person that is buying knows that those involved are responsible and they won't be hurting themselves. However, drinking paired with tall cliffs is NOT a good idea.

That said, pray for my friends who were involved with this. I knew just about everyone involved in this, most of them go to the church that I'm a member at. Two of them had to carry the body at least part of the way out, a task that my brother would have usually undertaken if it weren't such a close friend of his. My brother is VERY traumatized and upset about this and could really use prayer. The friend that bought the beer could be facing legal problems and has had to procure a lawyer, and thus he is also very much in need of prayer.

The circumstances surrounding this pretty much amount to this: my brother has been camping down at the Gorge for about a year. In that time, he has taken many people from the church with him. A lot of people are realizing that this could have been them or this could have been their kids. I'm shook up at the thought that this could have been my brother and at the same time, I grieve for him and know that this has to be unspeakably hard. The guy who died was a very close friend: his only real friend at UC. The two had been going through Young Life leadership training together and spent much time together. This is going to be a very hard couple of months.

The Spectre of Death

The spectre of death seems uncomfortably close of late. I just got off talking to my brother and apparently he and some guys went rock climbing yesterday and one of they guys he went with fell to his death. This is coming close on the heels of a wonderful conversation I had with a friend discussing what she would do if the choice came down to either she died or a baby she was going to have died.

You see, I've never really had any real fear of dying myself. I mean, sure, it would suck... but I guess my faith in where I am eternally doesn't let me get really bothered about that. But losing friends, that's the thing that scares me. When Bekah died the summer between Freshman and Sophomore year, it was like a piece of me got ripped out. I knew her for less than a year, and yet she was a close friend and losing her hurt... a lot. I can't even imagine what losing some really close friend or family member would be like.

I guess it just all boils down to this: do I have the faith to get through something like that. I pray that if God would put me in that sort of situation that He would also bless me with the faith necessary to get through it... and at the same time pray that nothing like that comes any time soon. Because I'm not so sure I have that much faith.

On Compassion...

On Compassion:

Or more functionally, how I'm not. You see, I understand how I don't deserve grace or mercy and how even trying the hardest that I've ever tried, I'm still no good by a perfect standard. But yet, I have a very hard time helping those who quite obviously don't want to help themselves. It all boils down to this: if you don't want to change and better yourself, I don't want you to either. Some people see how much others really want to be different... I see how much they could be doing to enact that change and aren't. Yes, it's judgemental... but that's how I think.

The same is true with quiet people and ideas. If you want to register on my radar screen (oooh.... RADAR) you're going to have to think that your idea is worth my hearing. I'm sure as hell not going to go fishing around for it. Basically it boils down to this: I respect the people who have the spine to tell me what's up. I really don't respect the people who have something that they know is important but can't pull it together. I just hope it's not something that I desperately needed to hear... because the fact of the matter is that I'm not going to go asking everyone for their stupid ideas just so I can hear one good idea every 3 months that I wouldn't have heard otherwise.

Here's the biggest problem: I don't know what to do about this. I mean, sure, we are supposed to be compassionate. But I am also a fairly firm believer in the Ben Franklin concept of "God Helps Those Who Help Themselves," though in my case it's more of a Andrew Carnegie approach to compassion in that I will help someone, but only after they're proving that they really want it by working
themselves and are willing to meet me part way. And sometimes (especially around here) I see too many people willing to give indescriminately without even thinking about what's going on on the receiving end. While I believe in compassion, I equally believe in hard work and determination. And I have a hard time justifying the former without the latter.

Someone toss me a bone and help me clarify this train of thought.

Disturbed Link of the Day: Dude Sues NASA For "Parking Fees" (clean, work-safe, wench-friendly)

Black Market

I can't believe they posted this. Actually I can, but it's still great.

On A Lighter Note...

Five Secrets to A Perfect Relationship

1. It's important to have a woman who helps at home, who cooks from time to time, cleans up and has a job.
2. It's important to have a woman who can make you laugh.
3. It's important to have a woman who you can trust and who doesn't lie to you.
4. It's important to have a woman who is good in bed and who likes to be with you.
5. It's very, very important that these four women don't know each other.

Disturbed Link of the Day: Epitome of Disfunctional Marriages

Denominationalism

Oddly enough, for the first time in a long time I've had two decent ideas in the course of two days. Something in the water, of that there is no doubt...

On the topic of denominationalism, is there a justification for different denominations who break fellowship with one another over seemingly-trivial matters? How about the ecumenical movement which seems to be attempting to deepen bonds between churches who have deep-seated theological misgivings about one another, not to mention centuries of bad blood and often violence? What is a good reason to break fellowship, what should the relationship be between these churches, and what is the significance of these divisions?

My personal answer is that there are essentially two reasons for breaking fellowship within the Church:
1) Others are preaching a gospel other than the one preached in the Bible (For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear {this} beautifully. 2 Cor 11:4 [NASB])
2) Others adopt a doctrine that is contrary to clear Biblical teachings and/or amount to sin

Whether or not other denominations are bad enough to be declared outside of the Faith is really not something that I think anyone can make and I firmly believe that there are those who come to a saving Faith in Christ in any number of places, some quite outside of the Church as we understand it. Even so, the prevailing argument that I appeal to here is that continued fellowship with a sect who meets one of the two above criterion damages your own witness and may cause legitimate Christians to stumble.

On Education...

A couple of us were having a rather interesting discussion on education last night. I'm not sure how it came up exactly... but it boils down to this: "If you had your whole education to do over again and money and acceptance weren't issues, where would you go to school (starting at kindergarten through present?)"

Personally, I know where I would start and that's walking away from public schools. Not that I didn't learn a good bit in public school and I did have a couple of spectacular teachers... but the fact of the matter is that easily 8-10 years of my primary and secondary schooling were wasted in classes where the teacher either couldn't teach or was simply teaching to the bottom of the class. Especially for those of you who did at least some of the public school thing, just stop and think about it: how much of your time in school were you bored because your teachers either were re-hashing stuff that had been gone over 3 times before or were teaching down to the point that you could have sworn there were retarded monkeys in the class with you? Is it like this in private schools as well?

My current theory is that I know I would have opted for a very rigorous private school at least through 8th grade. After all, as much as I would have liked home-schooling, the social development is a must and is quite frequently one of the most neglected things in home-schooled students that I have met. Beyond that I'm torn between more private schooling and boarding school. After all, as much as the former helps, the latter adds the maturity that being responsible for yourself away from parental guidance brings, the social development of living around your peers all of the time, and the academic rigor of living at school. There is of course the painful separation from family and the lack of relationship with one's parents this brings... but boarding school needn't be so far from home to prevent monthly visits and the months of holidays, of course. Having it to do over again, I would probably go boarding school. Of course, there is the whole matter of college left to discussion, but we'll tackle that some other time. For now, just roll that over and respond.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot:

Disturbed Link of the Day: Making Your Job More Bearable

Saving the Innocent LUsers

Should I be inclined to help people realize the foolishness of their own preconceptions or should I merely stand by and help propogate those preconceptions for their own good? For instance, what if some of the freshmen guys under my watch have been convinced that all LU wenches are heartless emotion-whores who prey on naive guys... should I tell stories and joked to perpetuate this or should I point out that a good number aren't?

I would be inclined to propogate the myth. After all, there are a disproportionately large number of wenches around here who are nothing but bad news... especially to the sheltered home-school variety freshman male that is so prevalent around here. Further, an even larger number of those wenches that these sheltered frosh will see will be of the problematic and predatory variety. So should I attempt to illuminate them to the truth and in the process dispel the unnatural and useful cynicism that such a sterotype brings? Hardly. The fact of the matter is that if the frosh aren't sharp enough to figure out that stereotypes are merely generalizations and not universally applicable, they probably aren't wise enough to deal with the LeTourneau brand of heartless wench nor capable enough to even manage a friendship with an amicable one.

I am not here to teach social skills, I am merely looking to prevent emotional episodes in the parts of the world that I frequent... because let's face it: relationships get messy and I don't want to have to walk through the aftermath. If only the cynics are out there dealing with the female populace of LU, we're going to have a lot fewer episodes and thus, my life is easier and more tolerable. Plus, it's a lot less visually offensive to have fewer freshmen making out on every bench in sight.

Oh, and just in case you'd been missing them:

Disturbed Link of the Day: Worst Jobs Ever

I am Raistlin!

Thanks Wheeler for finding this:

Raistlin Majere An intensely private individual that chooses actions with care, you strive to further your own skills and powers. This happens because I choose it to happen! Raistlin is a character in the Dragonlance universe. He has a short biography at Dragonlance.com.

Having read a good bit of Dragonlance myself, I find this highly entertaining. It's not so much what I am now, as who I was 5 years ago... but it's still uncanny that this is that dead-on. Those who are more familiar with the book series will appreciate this more.

Revolutions

Well... I saw Revolutions last night. And I can't help but think that I need to see it again before I can come to a conclusion on it. First impression says that the eye candy of the original can't be beaten. Sure, there were some pretty fight scenes, but the whole endlessly flying into each other scheme gets old. Plus, there's just the general annoyance that Neo started out nearly omnipotent at the end of the original and kept getting weaker throughout. After all, bullets are easy to stop because they're little... but swords are big and slow and thus trickier.

Aside from nitpicking, the 3rd one did bring closure to the series and there was indeed a good bit of mind-jerking that it brought on. I'm going to tackle that after seeing the movie a second time... but for now, I would suggest you go see it yourself.

To tide you over...

Just an odd link to tide you over until I post....

Roger & Me

Mentally I feel like I'm swimming in cement that's about 80% set. It's so much easier to come up with cogent thoughts when you don't have all of this mental taxation going on...

Last night we got together and watched Roger & Me. Ebert did a nice review of it a couple years back that you can find here.

The general sentiment of the movie is that big corporations owe their employees something. Being a good heartless capitalist and a supporter of the mindset of a heartless company, I tend to take a bit of issue with that sentiment, and the train of thought goes a bit something like this:

1) Corporations exist solely to make money (if you disagree with this, one wonders why else a corporation would exist)
2) Employees are resources to this end
2a) Happier employees are generally more productive employees and thus better assets
3) When employees are grossly more costly than their counterparts in another nation who will do the same work for 50% less, it behooves you to do something about this
3a) Go into this knowing this action will make the current employees that you keep unhappy
3b) Even so, this will probably be an acceptable cost against the benefits gained
4) A corporation should exist in a near-virtual moral vacuum: in the end, the only thing that matters is making money
4a) if you disagree with this, cease spending money on said company and divest yourself of its stock... if enough people agree, the company will change the position... again, to make money
5) In the end, the corporation should always bow to the almighty dollar: the reason for its being

Entities that should resist unchecked capitalism to care for the people: government, church

The fact of the matter is that while I generally don't like the government's interference in these matter, the simple truth is that the government ought to be ensuring the safety of its citizens to stay employed rather than be layed off and replaced by citizens of other countries. I'm not sure how much action this will take and where it plays into the balancing act, the fact of the matter is that a company shouldn't be taking a loss or losing out on profits just to make people feel good about themselves. If they're doing that, they're not really a capitalist corporation after all... they're selling themselves and their stockholders short.

And now... because the concrete needs a bit of loosening...

Disturbed Link of the Day: Dave's World

Fall Fest

Well... it's Sunday and if this November is like the last two, things will get much worse before they get any better. Which is probably a dangerous sign considering that I'm tired and stressed-out as is. At least I got to be a bum with my friends yesterday and ended up going to Fall Fest for the first time and with a very lovely date at that. I generally had a good time at Fall Fest, got to sit with some fairly interesting Freshmen, and got to see Ardith look absolutely stunning, all dressed up as 2A's queen. I once read an article somewhere that young men tend to forget the beauty of the women around them because the women tend to dress down to our level. After last night, I can't help but note how true that is.

Following Fall Fest, Anna and I found Wilson and went to the Chai Party. Afterwards we wandered some and ended up back on ELH2 just in time for Anna's headache to develop into a full-blown migraine. After open dorms ended, Wilson and I left behind my ailing girlfriend as we were kicked out to wander and discuss the greater philosophical meanings of life. This terminated with a trip to Caleb's room, where I hung out with the D&D crew there (Wilson excused himself early on) and participated in "Satanic Saturdays" as the DM's NPC monkey until it wee hours in the morning on Sunday.

Church was interesting today... I remembered again that while I love Saint Mike's, we do have some fairly fundamental differences of theology including the sacraments of eucharist and baptism. It's still a great place to be and I'll continue on there until such time as the Lord prompts me on to elsewhere.

Oh... and because you've been feeling neglected on my links, here's a good news story and here's what you've been waiting for...

Disturbed Link of the Day: Public Company of Interest