UnMotivationalPosters

Coupla things about my tortured relationship with World of Warcraft:

1) supersticky does play the WoW. Many think it is lame. That is fine. I understand that there are people who are addicted and will play all day long. This is also fine. For them. I get sick after about an hour. That is about long enough to try not to get killed in Northrend again.

2) Once at like level 20 my SPriest mistakenly angered an Orc lady whilst traipsing about. Did not know that getting whacked in the back by a guard turned the formerly gloriously safe PvE wonderland into a deadly PvP wasteland. Flag went up, I got GANKED. I did not know about the flag going up or the “wait 5 minutes in a secret hidden location you wuss” rule. This person, to whom I will refer as “Tauren Horde Scum X” then vanished. Waiting until just the right moment to POP SUPERSTICKY AGAIN! I SPriest was lost and had no idea about this “get hit by an enemy guard and PvP flag goes up” thing and so suffered several deaths that day, each more astonishing than the last. Until the secret was discovered (thanks guild members!) and all was restored. Tauren Horde Scum X, by the way, was about a level 53 at the time. WHAT A JERK!

3) I am a PvE loyalist. Call me weak, call me a sissy, call me a girl. One of those would be true. I am not against PvP (mostly for other people. Have at it!) but I’m not a big fan myself. One of my parental units plays WoW and he’s always trying to get me to come over to his server where it’s all PvP and he swears up and down that ganking and being ganked is part of the fun. I’m what some people call a “carebear”, the type who heals and buffs passing strangers because it seems like a nice thing to do. For whatever reason, these kinds of people seem to be despised. Oddly, though, a lot of people randomly buff me or something if I happen to be passing by them. Perhaps the haters are just a very vocal minority.

4) Once I actually killed Nazan at Ramps. It was a PUG, we’d wiped a few times, and we had this one guy who just kept fucking it up for everybody. He left the party about halfway through and we struggled on without him because we couldn’t find a replacement at such a crucial time. Well dammit we got to Vazruden and Nazan and it was a freakin bloodbath. I res’d so many people it was ridiculous. You KNOW how long it takes to run back into the END of an instance! Everyone was down and I was alone, like a big dumbass and low on health and waiting for people to run back, so I did some bullshit which killed the dragon. Of course he was already mostly drained of HP or else I wouldn’t have this little story, but when it happened all of Vent got quiet then everyone was like “wtf healer killed the dragon!” It was a nice moment and I got those lifegiver britches. Totally worth it for those pants.

5) I don’t understand why people have to be assholes in PUGs. I think I left 1 PUG, ever, when the leader made it clear that he didn’t give a damn what happened as long as nobody contradicted him in any way. Which would have been fine, had he been competent. After many wipes in ZF (one of my favorites) during which everyone tried to advise him on a course of action (including myself because I’d been there about 20 times by then) I just gave up and so did pretty much the rest of the party. Seriously if you were there you’d have left too. Another time I was DPS and this healer didn’t want to listen and consequently didn’t heal anyone. Worse, he was spouting off about his sophisticated real-world job to demonstrate how mature he was when someone intimated that he was, in fact, less than mature. I ended up having to heal the party while he hung around being a dick. Why the leader didn’t boot him, I don’t know. I think they were part of the same guild or something. To be fair, I try not to expect much when some random person messages me asking if I want to heal because they already have plenty of DPS and no healers in sight. It’s not like I’m busy. I’m usually just wandering around from one quest location to another, killing wolves and murlocs (those bastards) wherever I come across them.

6) I’ve bitched about the game a fair amount. I actually do like it quite a bit. I mostly like to wander around the landscape and just look at things. I love meeting random people and just getting into an instance with strangers or doing a quest with someone (I’m talking to YOU, Zombie Heme!) I just met a minute ago and who had a good joke or something. I like running into noobs and pretending I’m a tank in DM or the stocks (Holy Nova YEAH!). One of my favorite aspects of the game is the variety of environments. It’s great to just kinda get lost in there and admire some of the great scenery. And they have nerdy (and sometimes cute) jokes.

I know that in some quarters the game gets no respect. People think it’s for losers and dorks and guys who can’t get dates. I figure, if Mr. T plays it, why shouldn’t I? He probably gets SO MANY DATES.

This is so true

Here. Do gaze upon this lovely image for a few moments while I think. Take in the light and the shapes and the colors. No, this isn’t a trick.

You'll shit brix

I’m done thinking and I got nuthin. I’ve been thinking for days. I got a classic case of what they like to call “writers block” and My brain is all stopped up like nobody’s business. It’s super-lame and I would like nothing more than to get out of it and finish my crappy novel. Seriously.

In the stead of having something interesting, intriguing, or illuminating to say I’ll share a random thought with you. There’s a whole lot of importance placed on producing and performing and not enough on just existing and in enjoying life. Isn’t that sad? People work 50 weeks a year to get 2 weeks off. 5 days a week to have a 2-day weekend. You got guys with kids who can’t hardly see them because they’re too busy working their asses off to make sure they have a place to live.

That’s fucked up.

I most certainly did not start off intending to write this rant. In fact, my original plan was to dash off like a paragraph and then take my happy ass to bed but I didn’t really achieve that, you see.

Back to my rave here. Why do Americans (and other cultures of course but I happen to live in the US) take success to mean the physical or financial or social trappings of working themselves until they haven’t anything left? I’m not saying at all that hard work is unwarranted or that everyone should become a couch potato. But whatever happened to just being able to enjoy life? Why does someone have to ration their vacation days to enjoy a free Wednesday morning once a season? When did it become a badge of pride to work as many hours overtime as you do in a week? It’s necessary for so many, and that is precisely the problem. An entire society of people for whom true free time is restricted to the very lucky or the very, very unlucky. That’s some sick shit, dawg.

I get to work at home and this puts me smack in the realm of the very lucky. I’ve done the 80 hour workweek before so I know the drive to success. It can even be addictive. All those merit badges for working your fingers to the bone. Nowadays I can go outside at some random time of the morning and enjoy it. I wish everyone had that luxury. There’s plenty about the States that’s screwed up and this is a big one. Maye it’s screwed up all over the entire world.

Or hell, maybe I’m the screwed up one. Just doesn’t seem right or fair. I bet you cavemen didn’t work all damn day. They might have had to be busy and vigilant but I bet they got to chill sometimes. Any cavemanologists out there who might know, let me know. For now, I’m going to my secret laboratory, deep in the bowels of my evil lair, to cook up the magic formula for enjoying life while on the chain gang.

So, I was watching the Colbert Report on hulu last night and the browser decides to freeze right at this moment. I thought it was a pretty great shot so I hurried and hit the ‘print screen’ button and then pasted it out and saved it.

Here it is! Thumbs Up Snoop!

There’s a little holding pattern I’ve got going on here.  It’s been a few weeks since my last post.  I’m working on what my sister calls a Big Think.  I’ll be posting this Big Think tomorrow.  It’s full of ideas and questions and words and punctuation.  You won’t even believe it.

You may also have an existential crisis but really, that’s out of our hands.

We are but his mere pawns

I would say more but <SPOILERS>!  Just know that it’ll go down easier if you’re not sober.  NO, little Johnny, that doesn’t mean go huffing the glue!  If you’re not old enough to buy a bottle of liquor or to afford your own good quality reality enhancements of dubious legality then you’re going to have to just settle for listening to binaural beats in the dark (put on your headphones, son!) while you read.

And now, I leave you with this completely unrelated haiku:

No star in heaven
nor jewel of the earth could shine
brightly as your eyes

I know this story all too well. Someone won’t switch to a known better alternative or even upgrade. All because it’s something different. This webcomic says it all really..

http://popstrip.com/firefox-vs-internet-explorer/

I had to share this.. It’s so true! I hope you enjoy it also.

Sometimes in this world, it’s necessary to convey a harsh lesson to the masses.  It’s tough to be the bearer of this sort of news, especially when dealing with a dingaling who believes that there’s some kind of rainbow blooming out of every pot of shit.  Nobody wants to be the guy who cracked some idiot’s delicate bubble of illusion.  Or maybe somebody does.  Hell if I know.

Stupids exist. Here’s how it works:

You get someone who doesn’t know nuthin about nuthin. He or she opens his or her mouth to speak and what comes out is the equivalent of a mathematician solving for N in X/0=N. That’s right, you get yourself a

Where you feel like it's been forever but it's just been a minute

As they drone on you realize they have no fucking idea what’s coming out of their mouths. It could be about anything: politics, sports, literature, stupid people, software. It’s a whole lotta nothing and it drags everything else down. Why do they do it? My theory is they want to be impressive. The trick here is not to be impressed. If you are in fact a stupid person try what I do: I try to be as unimpressive as possible. That way if I say something brilliant people think I have some sort of hidden reservoir of wisdom.

Lots of times these stupid people can masquerade as people with a clue (*raises hand*). The trick is to ask them a question they must answer in just a moment. If they hem and haw, you’ve got ‘em! Tip #2, stupids, have something prepared for every occasion, even if it’s just “Let me gather my thoughts” and then think back to the most recent news headline and half-a blurb you saw on the Google news page and extrapolate from there whilst keeping your opinion neutral on the topic. Regardless of your true feelings, if you’re short a fact or several you need to appear sanguine and unruffled. “Of course I feel the mandatory tagging of Martian citizens is questionable, but before I can cast judgment I need to go back farther than to cut to the cultural heart of the situation.” Well said, you sly fox you!

My final tip, for stupids and nonstupids alike is remember, if you find someone intolerable keep it light. There’s no need to rail against people who can’t stand your insipid inability to think for yourself, because if you felt so strongly about it you would do it. On the other hand, there’s no reason to rage against those who hardly do any thinking because nothing you’re saying will have ultimate meaning to them anyway. That’s about all I have to say on this topic. Now, if you will excuse me I have to to render a neutral opinion on some hot-button issues…

(NOTE: yes, this post was inspired)

Once upon a time, a long long time ago, I was a computer nerd. I was a kid then, but I could program my ass off in BASIC (and oh lordy how I wish I could program so I could get rid of it now). My dad was/is a huge computer geek so when I was little, he was teaching me how to do stuff. Right down to what’s on the inside of the box. I took to it, and I became so intense (and he required such fancy efforts) that I would often put my line numbers much farther apart than just 10, 20, etc. Hey it taught me the value of a flowchart and while I don’t use them to this day I feel I would be a lot more productive or something if I did. I learned IF and THEN and my personal favorite GOTO. I was awesome!

Some years passed during which I was not near a computer very often at all. By some I mean around a decade. When I was in contact with computers again it was for school. I needed Word to write something or Excel to make some bogus chart. Sometimes I played Gabriel Knight or Blade Runner or The 7th Guest which I have never finished and won’t even bother touching to this day, damn puzzle games. I was in my mid-twenties before I knew that Linux was not the way the Fronch spell the name of that blanket-boy. When I learned what Linux is, however, it was like magic.

“Wow, this is so pretty! Think of all the things I can do with it! Wow Windows doesn’t have programs like this! I have to try it!” And so off I went, a girl who used Hotmail and Lycos HTML chat, into the wilds of the internets to find some Linux. They might not even have had Google yet at the time. I was new to online. I didn’t know anything. Once at work several years before, I got onto some search engine and searched for “snuff” referring, of course, to chewing tobacco. The results I got kept me away from using search engines for years. I only went to websites with direct links. This is just to show you how unfamiliar I was with online and how to find things.

My job at the time required me to deal with several things using the letters “iso”: Isotonic sport drinks, the ISO standard, and Isolated Somethings which I no longer recall. With this in mind, perhaps you will understand my confusion when I downloaded me some Linux which was recommended by someone and got some .iso files. I tried to run them, I tried to extract them, I tried everything and by the time I was done trying I was so frustrated! By chance I found myself on Freenode IRC and someone there told me “Oh they can help you in the Linux chat room.” Linux chat room? Wow a chat room just for Linux? Right ON!

No.

Welcome to #Debian, you pathetic MS whore

When all was said and done, when I closed IRC with a red face and a burning feeling inside that said I was clearly a moron I reflected on the words of the last person to speak to me, which were basically that if I was so stupid I couldn’t figure out something easy like how to mount an .iso or how to use it then I should just stick with Windows. Believe me I totally did.

Fortunately, in the end I learned about search engines, and how to find things (especially instructions and explanations). Three of my currently operating computers run Windows, but one dual-boots into Linux Mint and another runs it in a vm. On still another machine Windows won’t run at all. I have to command-line it with Linux to make any use of it. And Debian? Still never used it. How’d I learn? A kind person helped me out without making me feel smaller than an elitist’s junk and I managed to learn a good deal on my own afterward.

Moral of the story? You can’t trust the system. The other moral is stop being such an elitist motherfucker who can’t believe that sometimes what comes so easily to you might be confusing or intimidating to someone who’s new at it. You were a noob once too. And don’t give me that shit how you did it all yourself. Boo-wah. Some of you did but a good deal of you had some sort of human assistance. Remember that.