Fighting Words

I'll try not to repeat anything others have already said regarding the recent tragedy in Tucson.

We all agree, 'murder' is wrong, always. Always. Except well, maybe...

... as a punishment for those unrepentant of heinous crimes.

.... in self-defense.

..... in times of war.

....... if it will save a child.

Murder *IS* okay when enough people come together in agreement. We, as a society, glorify the shaping of boyish minds into brave soldiers, who go to other countries ready to kill. We, as a society, knowingly send many of them to their deaths, hoping they will beat the odds and return alive.

The point is this: We humans allow the unallowable, forgive the unforgivable when it comes to murder when we decide it is in our best interests. We make it 'okay' by vilifying and objectifying a 'common foe', who will stop at nothing to destroy us.

We make it clear that it is kill or be killed. If we do not act, they will vanquish us, they will harm our children, they will dance on our graves, etc, etc.

The violent rhetoric is merely the tip of the iceberg. The hate-talk industry has long been vilifying, objectifying, marginalizing "the liberals" for years. The same way they do Arabs, Gays... not because of what we do, but because of who we are.

We verbally attack the right because we see them abdicating power to big money interests. They favor big corporations who are sending our jobs over seas... and companies who are replacing full time jobs with benefits with part time jobs without, because it's cheaper. Companies that are taking out life insurance policies on their employees for their own benefit. Companies expertly wringing every cent we've made or ever will make out of us through predatory lending tactics. And all the while they're cutting funding for education, and programs that would help us be a smarter more capable country.

And... what evils are the Left guilty of? A little too much compassion? A few too many social help programs? Unions? Being educated? Being pro-choice, anti-gun, anti-war? Being for affordable healthcare that's NOT run by former pirates and mobsters?

The rhetoric they use is that the Left is attacking them, that we are threatening the safety of their children, that we are unrepentantly guilty of heinous crimes [like not showing unconditional love for our country always, or because we overspend due to bleeding-heartedness, communism/socialism, etc, etc].

Right-wing hate-talk is *daily* laying accusations against the Left that is synonymous with the justifications used to allow state-sanctioned murder.

It's not just the 'violent' rhetoric that needs to stop... what needs to stop is the right-wing propaganda machine that is successfully peddling a compelling justification for civil war.

Expiration of Bush Tax Cuts

Well... the "Bush tax cuts" are due to expire and there's a lot of whiney rich people complaining that if they don't get extended it'll be 'bad for the economy'.

Even Greenspan recently admitted that tax cuts don't "pay for themselves" as the GOP loves to tout.

Economically, to me, it makes more sense to let them expire.

Big tax cuts encourage businesses to gouge their customers and screw their employees so they can squeeze more profits out to their stock holders.

Higher taxes encourage companies to build their equity, re-invest their profits in better tax-sheltered ways, R&D, business expansion, hiring people, pensions. Stockholders don't do so well, but it's better for the company, better for the employees, better for the customers.

Oh, but why would stock holders bother investing if they're not going to get richer off owning stock? They will anyway, but unlike the 1990's .com boom, they'll have to be a little more patient, you know, like they did before the dot com bubble.

So I say, hell yes. Let the tax cuts lapse. Tell the whiners to actually do some work rather than letting their money do all the work for them. ;)

http://crooksandliars.com/jon-perr/10-republican-lies-about-bush-tax-cuts

Venhattanice

My dreams are filled with architectural metaphors which usually echo my state of mind, from crumbling cliff top towers to solid sprawling industrial facilities.

This morning I dreamt I was visiting Venhattanice, a city that was half Manhattan and half Venice Italy. Ornate towers of bizarre design, their lowest floors half filled with water. Bars and stores with people floating about in delicate single occupant teacup shaped boats.

I rented a brass and canvas contraption that was mostly bicycle, equipped with small sails that could both float and fly, and took off exploring the city with my ?compaion?pet? a small feathery creature that could fit in the palm of my hand... wingless, it had characteristics of both penguin and seagull without being either... and it literally bounced with curiosity and awe.

It would dash back and forth in the wire basket of my flying sail bike pointing which way to go with its funny little beak, and I would pedal our way from one strange neighborhood through even more bizarre and curious places buzzing with people all going about their business on a warm/cool early summer day.

Night fell, I returned the flying-sail-bike, said goodbye to my companion and woke... and I've felt the same sense of giddy, warm, happy, goofy, wonder for hours since, and on my daily walk through the neighborhood, I watched it infecting the people around me.

Hard to imagine a more perfect day. =)

Pescepollovegan?

On a lark I went googling to see if there's a 'diet' (either ethnic, religious, or what-not) that describes my own particular dietary intolerances, restrictions an preferences.

I didn't find an answer but compiled a fun list of different selective diets I stumbled across (and some made up):

• omnivores - creatures (including humans) able to eat both plants and meat.
  
• carnivores - animals that eat nothing but meat.
  
• herbivore - animals that can not eat meat.
• Kosher - excludes pork, predators, scavengers, and a complex variety of other things.
  
• Hindus - exclude beef.
  
• Lacto-ovo Vegetarians - (or just 'vegetarians') exclude all kinds of meat, but will eat eat milk, eggs, honey, and other foods created by animals.
  
• Vegans - exclude all kinds meat and all foods produced by animals, (like milk/cheese, eggs, honey). Unsure where they stand on (human) mother's milk.
  
• Raw Vegan - insist on no-meat, no dairy, no eggs AND no cooking.
  
• Flexitarians - "almost"-vegetarians who infrequently include a small amount of meat in their diet.
  
• Gluten-free - a diet that excludes most grains.
  
• Pescetarians - exclude all kinds meat except fish.
  
• Pollotarians - exclude all kinds of meat except birds/chicken.
  
• Veganarchist - radicals that want all humans to act like herbivores.
  
• "Picky Eater" - a flippant term used by veganarchists to refer to anyone with dietary restrictions without being completely meat-free.
  
• hors d'oeuvre-ovore - someone that only eats appetizers, finger foods and other bite-sized treats. May include sushi. (my term)
• meat-and-potatoes - simply that. Often 'greens-o-phobic', some are rather prejudiced against to vegan/vegetarians.
• blancotarian - someone that only eats white or pale foods, bread, dairy, mushrooms, chicken, pasta, potatoes. (Typically excludes cauliflower.) (my term)
• nicocaffetarian - a diet dominated by coffee and cigarettes (my term)
• Theophage - a God-eater, (see: "transubstantiation" ;)
  
• hematophage - a blood eater (for example: vampires and Catholics ;)
  
• cannibal - one who eats members of their own species

Apparently, there is no word for someone that (for ethical or dietary reasons) refuses to eat mammals or creatures that nurture their young... but are okay with eating other animals like seafood, birds, perhaps even reptiles, or bugs...

Sure... I'm a "Picky Eater". But with good reason. Dairy (milk/cheese/butter/cream/whey) and pork in any form are so toxic to me I'd rather to starve. I can eat (but prefer to exclude) eggs, honey, and other mammals. This limits my diet to: plants, seafood and fowl.

When I dine out, I refer to myself as "Vegan PLUS fish/fowl".

I tried saying "NO DAIRY, NO PORK"? But far too often the wait staff interprets that as "no cheese, no ham/porkchops". Food shows up slathered in butter, topped with bacon bits anyway and it forces me to be the annoying "Take this back and do it right!" customer that everyone hates.

If you don't like my term, or have a better suggestion... you're welcome to pipe up in the comments.

The Ultimate Vegas Live Stage Show...

It's Cirque du Soliel, Sigfried & Roy, and Blue Man Group... combined!

The Case Against Prop 8

Today is the first day of the Trial against Prop 8 (more).

I can't help myself... rant time. A number of small unrelated rantlettes follows:

---

One of the statements made today was that same-sex marriage "De-institutionalizes" the institution of marriage, [thus, I presume, harming the marriages of heterosexuals]. What absolute utter bonking absurdity.

---

In blog comments, I saw a slippery-sloper argue "If gays are allowed to marry, what next? We'll have to let siblings marry each other!"

For the sake of argument... let's ignore the 'inbreeding' angle for a moment. Siblings are already 'family', automatically imbued with state and federal recognition of their of their relationship. As "Next of Kin" they have legal rights that have, in many cases, TRUMPED the rights of a sibling's domestic partner. For siblings to marry each other would be, honestly, somewhat redundant. All they need do is NOT marry someone else.

---

I swear, if I hear one more person complain about the "liberals attempting to re-define the institution of marriage", I'll scream.

Think back for a moment... who were the two biggest advocates for Prop 8, trying to entrench their "one man, one woman" definition of marriage? The Catholic Church, and ancient order of unmarried men who have a shameful history of harboring pedophiles... and The Mormons who got their start believing that women were so utterly inferior to men that guys should be entitled to multiple wives.

If you ask me, both groups have 'issues' that render them unqualified to be 'defining' marriage for anyone.

They're welcome to believe whatever they want. It's a free country.
... or it was until they joined forces to impose their beliefs on the rest of us.

The next shift...

Been thinking about the next Geek Culture shift.. (Tech Geeque?) and what flavor it is likely to have.

Certainly it will have something to do with AR (augmented reality).

If you look at the evolution of music 'technology' and 'usage' you have:
* LIVE - nothing but live performance for centuries, limited to what local culture preferred and what talent could offer
* RECORDED - musical recordings made a wide variety of music available to anyone at almost anytime
* BROADCAST - broadcast music made music easier to access and built an economy of scale for popular performers
* PORTABLE - listening to music became portable thanks to smaller devices and car stereos
* PERSONAL - music became more diverse and more intensely 'personal' thing thanks headphones/earbuds
* PERVASIVE - internet radio stations at work, car stereos, music in stores, it's inescapable

To a limited degree much the same has happened with movies, which use to be more of a social phenomenom, now with home theaters, netflix, iPhones, tivo, LCD screens running commercials at gas pumps... watching visual media has also becomes portable, personal and pervasive.

Person to Person communication, from written correspondence, books and newspapers to email, twitter, facebook, and (video) blogs on the 'text' side and on the voice side you go from hit-or-miss shared party-line bake-a-lite house phones to blue-tooth earpieces. Both being more portable, personal and pervasive than ever.

Even computing resources, which started off as large timeshared systems are now laptops, tablets, PDAs, and of course, more portable, personal and pervasive, etc.

Same will be true with "Augmented Reality". At the moment it's little niche-y instances like "hold this postcard up to your laptop camera and on the screen you'll see some 3d model spring out of the page. Or the iPhone app that uses GPS to provide you a clairevoyant view of transportation/services around you. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ps49T0iJwVg)

As rendering/display technology gets cheaper, lighter, smaller, faster it won't be long before semi-transparent glasses with built in displays become available, tied via bluetooth or something like it to a key-fob sized processor allow us to view the world through filters that we select. You like noire? Stroll through downtown and through your lenses all the buildings will be dark with red velvet drapes in every window. Jog through the neighborhood and use the sky as your big screen to watch the music video that goes with the music you're listening too. Easily see the names of friends at crowded events.

* driving, you could have lanes of traffic or off-ramps haloed in red, yellow or green depending on reported traffic conditions, and have 'personal signs' added to the side of the road guiding you on your way

With simple eye-tracking controls you could, for example:
* activate a digital zoom, night vision, or digital 'x-ray' view, snapshot or record video of what you're looking at
* go shopping and look at UPC codes as you pick up items and price compare, or count calories, or manage your shopping list.
* scan and mark your personal calendar nearly instantly
* be reminded of names and notes of people you encounter with face recognition

As phones are rapidly becoming 'hands free' devices. It's only natural that PDA's will too, eventually.

9/11 terrorists coming to trial in NYC

Apparently the right wing is all up in arms about how terrible/awful/bad/unsafe/disrepectful this is --> http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/alleged-911-masterminds-be-tried-nyc

Only because they rely on their strength of numbers can they get away with this cowardly ignorant un-American hypocritical protest.


We are a nation of LAW. Bush undermined that by fiat when he ignored due process, and the rest of our government was too shocked/intimidated/confused or sold-out to protest as they should have. So much for liberty and justice for all.

Yes. The terrorists are not U.S. citizens, and technically not protected by our constitution or bill of rights. Ask yourself this... they committed the crime HERE. Where should they be tried? HERE. How is that not blatently obvious? Even the supreme court seems to agree (in Boumediene_v._Bush)

"But American lives will at risk if they get off on a technicality". Excuse me? Imagine you're a terrorist who helped bring down the world trade center... and now you have a chance of being set free... Which is the LAST city on this planet you'd want to be set free in? Hm? If you paused even a moment before saying "New York City" you're an idiot.

Will "Americans" be hurt by these trials? Likely yes... the bastards that ignored American law and principles may be be exposed for what they are: instruments of a tyranny. They are people that brought shame on this country in how they responded to this attack and have disgraced us in the eyes of the rest of our planet. They made hypocrites of us all.

To use some of the right's vile rhetoric: "We invite future terrorist attacks by..." by showing we're so quick to disregard our laws and ethics... things that we, as a nation, hold to be an inherent definition of what we stands for.

Not to make light of 9/11, but if we forget who we are anytime some jihadist knocks down a few buildings... they're going to continue trying just for the sport of it, like a malicious child tormenting ant hills to see the fury and chaos that results.

Bringing these people to trial is a good thing. And they all should come to trial, not some of them secreted away to 'military tribunals'.

It is time to stop playing at their level and return to our own.

Aion

For anyone else that may be playing (or interested in playing)... Aion.

I currently have 5 Asmodian characters, all on Yustiel:

Jopsy - Chanter
Tortis - Templar
Jopster - Spirit Master
Jormungand - Sorcerer
Presto - Mule (err... Spirit master)

gmail = amsterdam?!

Okay, just minding my own business here, tried to access my gmail stuff and got no response from their servers. (A rare enough occurance that my curiosity spun up).

So, I wanted to know if I was getting through to the gmail servers... and if there were problems between me and them.

Turns out... I'm being routed to AMSTERDAM?! I can't get my email because it's at a pot bar somewhere? ;)

Bizarre. San Jose I would have expected... but Europe? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.
traceroute to gmail.com (74.125.79.83) ...
1 192.168.5.1 (192.168.5.1) ...
2 98-99-121-165.sbx14022.sandica.wayport.net (98.99.121.165) ...
3 12.90.139.97 (12.90.139.97) ...
4 cr83.sffca.ip.att.net (12.122.110.102) ...
5 cr1.sffca.ip.att.net (12.123.15.109) ...
6 ggr3.sffca.ip.att.net (12.122.137.21) ...
7 att-gw.sanfran.level3.net (192.205.33.78) ...
8 vlan79.csw2.SanJose1.Level3.net (4.68.18.126) ...
9 ae-74-74.ebr4.SanJose1.Level3.net (4.69.134.245) ...
10 ae-2.ebr4.NewYork1.Level3.net (4.69.135.186) ...
11 ae-94-94.csw4.NewYork1.Level3.net (4.69.134.126) ...
12 ae-91-91.ebr1.NewYork1.Level3.net (4.69.134.77) ...
13 ae-3-3.ebr4.Washington1.Level3.net (4.69.132.93) ...
14 ae-94-94.csw4.Washington1.Level3.net (4.69.134.190) ...
15 ae-92-92.ebr2.Washington1.Level3.net (4.69.134.157) ...
16 ae-44-44.ebr2.Frankfurt1.Level3.net (4.69.137.61) ...
17 ae-2-2.ebr1.Dusseldorf1.Level3.net (4.69.132.137) ...
18 ae-1-100.ebr2.Dusseldorf1.Level3.net (4.69.141.150) ...
19 ae-2-2.ebr1.Amsterdam1.Level3.net (4.69.133.89) ...
20 ae-11-51.car1.Amsterdam1.Level3.net (4.69.139.130) ...
21 GOOGLE-INC.car1.Amsterdam1.Level3.net (212.72.46.230) ...
22 209.85.254.250 (209.85.254.250) ...
23 64.233.175.246 (64.233.175.246) ...
24 72.14.239.199 (72.14.239.199) ...
25 209.85.255.118 (209.85.255.118) ...
26 ey-in-f83.google.com (74.125.79.83) ...

Unintelligent Design

Whoever was behind the intelligent design initiative was absolutely brilliant.

What better way to promote a sense of martyred solidarity among the faithful than to offer a seemingly 'reasonable' middle ground between creationism and evolutionism. One that was obviously laughable, ludicrous and offensive to the 'fact-based' scientific community.

Perhaps we were wrong to laugh them down so savagely, it seems to have only further polarized the country along creationist/evolutionist lines more than ever.

There isn't even room for debate any longer. People are on one team or another and they just don't talk about it... and it seems like more of this country is swallowing the 'ignorance is bliss' tainted kool-aid dished out by the likes of Glenn Beck and blow-hards like BillO'Reilly and the mega-churches of the religious right.

Who cares if you're right, as long as the mob is on your side. Speaking of mobs, what the hell is it with the "no public option" loonies? I have yet to find a single coherent logical argument AGAINST a single payer public option. I've looked. And Looked. No one can put it in terms that make any sense to me. Maybe I'm an idiot, how would I know?

Rant rant rant. Anyone want to help me understand the opposition a bit better? Please?

More Aion...

More on Aion ... "Open Beta Week" is over, the above images are my now deceased characters: Frodo (a ranger), Jopsaro (an assassin), Sethgreen (a gladiator) and Elamont (spirit master with his water pet there). (click on them to enlarge)

I know I said I was going to be on Triniel with my Asmodae characters... but apparently that's now considered an 'east coast' server. Considering that I tend to game late at night, I may actually jump into the Oceanic server 'Nezekan'. I'll still use Vaizel for my Eloys characters if I bother with that side. It seems Asmodae are *far* more popular at the moment, that could be a balance problem for Aion.

Aion is fun to play and beautiful to look at.

It's a shame their login system is such a spewing mess of festering dog vomit!

The "Pre-select" phase started at noon today. The point of this is to allow pre-order customers to reserve names and servers they want to play on. Due to "Technical issues" that were not present during either beta phases, I haven't been able to get into Aion to pick my server or names today. "Can not connect to authentication server." is the error I keep getting, when it bothers to give me an error at all. The rest of the time it just silently sits there doing nothing after I attempt to log in.

Somewhat disappointed. More annoyed at how much time I wasted today trying to figure out if this problem was on MY side or not.

YES my dsl link is working fine.

YES my copy of Aion is fully patched.

YES I completely re-installed Aion FROM SCRATCH.

YES I tried it without my firewall up.

YES I tried sacrificing a chicken at midnight. (okay no, not really).

YES I sent a barking mad ticket in to ncsoft tech support... maybe I'll get another unhelpful auto-reply from them someday.

ANYWAY. It's not like I can actually PLAY.. still have to wait for Sunday for that. Assuming I can actually log in on Sunday. (I'm not feeling lucky at the moment).

ANYWAY... sorry. Grumpy. (This blog is for random ranting after all. There you go.)

So, a report card, CLOSED BETA performance compared to OPEN BETA performance:

Graphics: No change, still excellent. I'm embarassed to say I've got over 500 snapshots from the game on disk now, which is very unlike me. Maybe part of the photofrenzy is based on knowing my beta characters would soon be gone forever and I wanted some record of having them.

Gameplay: No change, still love it... Glad so much of the content seems to be solo-able and pick-up groups come together easily enough for the few areas where soloing is suicidal.

Chat "content": WORSE. This isn't a technical issue, it's a "newbie behavior" issue. It's better just to turn OFF the region and LFG channels to avoid the trolls. Conversation is dominated by WoW-fans/deserters. Hopefully now that the beta tourist/trolls have to subscribe and pay to blather on things will calm down a little.

The Chat System itself in Aion, frankly, still blows chunks:

1. The /ignore command. We have no choice over how we use caps in our names, why is this command case sensitive? Sorry but that just utterly moronic. Fortunately there doesn't seem to be a limit to how many people you can ignore.
   
2. Local chat prefix is /s, (or /normal ?) It was too much trouble to add /say as an option? Way too many people are confused by this... and obviously so because of #3...
   
3. unknown /slashcommands should NOT be echoed to the current chanel. They should generate an error "command /whatever unknown". or something.
   Chat system NEEDS WORK.

Voicework: Somewhat more annoying. After a week of listening to the clerics yelling "Dombraro" I have to admit I liked whatever they were chanting before. The shriek of the female in their battle cries is just over the top annoying. Fortunately I think that kind of voicework can be easily reduced in volume in options.

Music: IMPROVED. more nicely integrated than last time. More subtle, less stage-stealing/repetative. Yay! =)

LAG: SAME, little to none. Almost non-existant in my experience, had 20 minutes of rubberbanding around midnight and a disconnect, but the rest of the day was smooth as butter. The complaints about lag, (from what sounds like ComCast customers) was unending though. (Unfortunately they weren't lagged enough to completely silence them. ;)

FPS: SAME. very decent with mostly maxed out settings on my 4 year old box. Max-rez tends to make the video cut-scenes stutter some, so I stay on a slightly lower rez setting, with the other params maxed.

New Character Appearance Options: IMPROVED. Heh... Without intending to at first, one of my characters started looking like Seth Green, so, well, I tinkered with his face a bit more and have been getting compliments in game for the resemblance. (er, well, green skin not withstanding) =) oh, and because we can't have spaces or caps after the first letter in names, he was merely dubbed "Sethgreen". Sigh. Anyway.

Questing Choke Points: MUCH IMPROVED. No where near as big an issue as it was in Closed Beta, they apparently added several more 'channels' (parallel instances of the newbie areas)... definitely a better experience than in closed beta where a standing group of 30 people were standing around cutting in line to grab a quest completions item in a few spots. (they only spawn once a minute it seems)

Logging In: STILL AWFUL. The loading screen takes *FOREVER*. Far too often progress never advances from the LOGIN page to the EULA page because the authentication servers are overloaded. Heck you don't even know if the game is hung or still trying half the time. I've waited for EULA page to come up for 10 minutes with no feedback. Bad... bad... bad... terrible.. unprofessional... bad. Add progress bars or *something*. @)#%&)#*$#. I've been trying to get into the pre-select for 45 minutes now. 50% of the time, the login page hangs, 50% of the time I get a auth server not responding. *grr*

Crafting: (no experience with it in closed beta). As a long time Secondlifer, the idea of crafting in MMO's seems more like collecting ceral box-tops and mailing them back in for prizes to me. Normally, I can't be bothered with it. Even so, I dabbled with "crafting" in Aion a little during the open beta, and may play with it further in the live version. The apparatus is nicely modelled/animated, the system seems reasonable. Fair activity to engage in while watching a movie or something on the side. ;)

I still need to shop around to find a large casual mostly PvE, guild of level-headed gamers to join up with. My goals are to explore the classes I've picked to play to their fullest and to see the world... not to farm the same content over and over. That may not be compatible with a lot of guilds.

Yellowstone

The trip to Yellowstone was quite enjoyable. And it most definitely did not suck having a room on the 3rd floor of the 'old' part of the Old Faithful Inn facing the infamous geyser itself! =)

While I normally tend to leave the photography to people with better cameras, I did a little myself, and, for fun, created some "Crossed Eye Stereograms". To view them, click on the image to enlarge, sit back a little and then cross your eyes so that you "See Double". If you see four images you're over-doing it.

If you have trouble, make sure not looking at the image from an angle, hold your thumb up midway between you and the image. Focus on your thumb and then slowly move your thumb closer to your nose. At some point your focus should 'lock on' to image behind your thumb. =)

Some if the images work out better than others.. the one with the trees and the river seems to work best for most people.

Still culling through the rest of the pics, and will post a few more when I've whittled the set down to 5 of the best.

Aion

Aion: Tower of Eternity (by NCsoft) is yet another entry into the "swords & sorcery" style of MMORPG. Already released (and apparently quite popular) in Korea and China... I've had a chance to dive into the last two 'closed beta weekends' that preceed the US/EU translated version, slated for Sept 22, 2009

Without a doubt, Aion is the most photogenic game I have ever seen. Stunningly beautiful avatars, outstanding use of lighting, delicous water effects, tasty magical combat, and fluid animations. While some corners were cut on some effects and (at times) the world's detailing relies more heavily on images instead of modelling, but the overall effect, especially the artistry in the architecture makes me salivate like a kid in a candy store, and runs quite well even with the graphics settings maxed out on my "no-longer a spring chicken" desktop system

Music: Sadly, I'm not as wild about it as others seem to be. It blatantly proclaims it's 'anime' roots which isn't a bad thing at all, but it loops rather obviously and, at times ramps up into these pompously/over-dramatics swells in otherwise very mundane situations, calling unnecessary attention to itself. It's like having a charming child nearby that disrupts conversation every few moments because they want attention, tolerable up to a point, annoying thereafter. (I admit, as far as sound transitions and relevance go, I was spoiled long ago by the game "Sacrifice" released by Shiny). I know from experience that music plays a strong role in how often and how much I play a game... we'll see if that becomes a problem for me with Aion or not.

The Aion back-story in a nutshell: A planet where the sun/god (Aion) is at the center, and the people live on the inside of the 'shell' around it. The world was split in half by war and treachery. One side, the Eloys, live in eternal light, they are beautiful and little changed by time. The other side, the Asmodians, live in shadow and have evolved claws, talons and spinal manes, and darker skin. Both sides fight a more ruthless outside force (The Balur, a draconian/serpentine race) and each other.

Reconciliation between the human factions is certainly impossible, the Eloys attempted peace talks with the Balur, which resulted in the cataclysm that split their world. They blame the failure on Asmodian treachery. The Asmodians blame the cataclysm on the overly trusting Eloys for lowering their world's defenses and inviting in the destructive Balur. Neither Eloys or Asmodian are clearly 'good' nor 'evil', and they display traits of both. There are hints that the Eloys are vaguely more 'lawful' and the Asmodian's embrace 'chaos/anarchy' more, but even that is clearly present in both factions. Artistic styles aside, both factions proceed through the first 10-15 levels doing relatively similar things though in stylistically different environments.

Asmodian for me... I'll definitely be on the dark side. Claws, talons, manes, glowing red eyes, black wings and life in the shadows appeals strongly to my style of play, more so than the Eloys which inhabit a world where you'd expect to find unicorns and butterflies around every corner. When the game releases, my Asmodian characters will live on the USA server that starts with "T" (which rhymes with T which stands for TROUBLE). My Eloys characters will be on the USA server that starts with "V" (for virtue?). Can't have characters of different factions on the same account on the same server. Spies and double agents must get second accounts for that. ;)

Scope, Scale & Levelling: The world feels much smaller than other MMO's (like:WoW, EQ, V:SoH) and there's definitely a sense that one could, in a reasonable amount of time, actually see all of it. Levelling seems is relatively quick, there's still a bit of grinding, (it is an MMORPG after all) but play seems to evolve in nice cohesive and interesting 'chapters' with very clearly optional side-quests/activities rather than scads of contrived unrelated errand quests. The lower levels are very obviously training for the PvP heavy upper levels.

Voice work is nice, though there's definitely a palpable 'hostile/condescension' received from non-player contacts until they warm up to you. (and sometimes not even then).

Richness: backstory seems packed into everything it seems, random books in homes, libraries, quest-drops and such sometimes evoke cut-scenes and insights into past events. Normally, I tend to blast past that kind of stuff as just 'fluff' in most games... but in Aion I find they really draw me in more than usual. The story/theme/setting/culture/history is very well integrated, internally consistent, and seens well thought out, unlike the random bland/banal/inconsequential/formulaic fluff I typically find stuffed after-the-fact into other MMO's.

Character creation is definitely a delight... some of the toons I haven't included here actually resemble various familiar celebrities. Avatars range from sublime to comical, ageless to ancient, petite to ogreish, with subtle nuances that will definitely seperate those with an artistic eye from those with a bit more distorted perspective.

Sadly, my cute mage characters are now headed towards the bitwise equivalent of a black hole... I'll particularly miss Jopsan (the white/gray haired Asmodian sorcerer pictured above), JopsAndon (the dark-haired Eloys spiritmaster pictured above).

Unions and Reunions

This seems to be the year of (re)unions... starting with:

* A beautiful trip to the beach near Beaufort, SC for a casual week with the extended family

* Then, a trip to Flagstaff, AZ to meet up with the brilliant friends that I was lucky enough to fall in with during those crazy formative years known as "College"

* Then, ComicCon - while not technically a reunion... it feels like it. Getting to see some of my favorite artist/writers for a few moments and to collect the last year's worth of new material, especially the latest issue of Phil Foglio's Girl Genius.

* I've just returned SLCC09 in San Francisco, and what an excellent trip! Met way more Residents, Lindens and fans of my Particle Laboratory than I expected! And it was a chance to finally meet the 'carbon-based' versions of some of my favorite 'silicon-based' friends. And, as with all conferences, made new friends and associates who will undoubtedly inspire many SL projects yet to come!

* Next? Off to Yellowstone for geek & geyser time with an old friend from DragonMud who has been the catalyst for both my relocation to San Diego and my involvement in Second Life.

* And then? Coming up on the 20th anniversary of DragonMud... and while that reunion will undoubtedly occur online, it will certainly be 'a trip'.

And in between all this... I'm still slaving away, trying to get my Vehicle Laboratory in Second Life open to the public... and indulge in a bit of guilty non-productive gaming that I'll blog about next.

Public Option

Apparently corporate shills are staging "grass roots" protests at town hall meetings, trying to quash support for the public option bill. As someone who doesn't currently have employer paid-for healthcare... the public option is an issue I have a great deal of interest in.

If you run into any "Deathers" people who claim that the public option would ruin America, here's a few of my favorite soundbites:

"The public option gives US the freedom to choose... Are you against Freedom?"

"Competition will drive down the cost of healthcare. Cheaper healthcare would be just like giving American businesses a huge tax break... you're in favor of tax breaks right?"

"I'll take the Apathetic Bureaucratic Government instead of Blind Corporate Greed when it comes to my healthcare coverage, thanks."

I read a lot of incendiary stuff over on CrooksandLiars that makes me boil for a minute or two, a sentiment I'm confident is shared by many who visit the site. This latest, however, I find repulsive on a whole new level. If you're interested:

Christianist Group's Billboard Compares Atheism To Murder

Truth in Advertising?

I've been working on my marketing material for various products that I sell in the 3d virtual world known as Second Life®, and as my usual curious self was wondering "Does Truth in Advertising" apply to me promoting an entirely virtual product?

So I went a-googling, found a nice F.A.Q. on advertising and the Federal Trade Commission.

Which got me thinking... (oh dear) ... Isn't it time the FCC adopted some sort of "Truth in Broadcasting" statute?

Fiction, parody, etc, all are fine, free speech and all. But to knowingly assert or imply something blatantly false, as FACT in a "News" or "Social Commentary" setting? There should be *CONSEQUENCES* for reporting deceptive and unsubstantiated claims and passing them off as substantiated truthful facts. Especially if such 'stories' are likely to influence voters.

They're welcome to continue lying their asses off the government shouldn't have the right to censor them... but if a news agency and the interests it serves are benefiting from the mis-information they disseminate... there should be heavy TAXESor FINES on those activities to balance them out.

It goes without saying which "News" corporations I think would be the least interested in seeing such legislation passed.

Seperate is NOT EQUAL

"Same-sex couples retain all of the fundamental substantive components encompassed within the constitutional rights of privacy and due process, with the sole (albeit significant) exception of the right to equal access to the designation “marriage,” a term that — for purposes of the California Constitution as it now reads — the people have decreed is to be reserved for an official union between a man and a woman. Although Proposition 8 does diminish the rights of same-sex couples under article I, section 1 in this one respect, it does not have the sweeping constitutional effect suggested by the Attorney General’s argument." -- GEORGE, C.J. Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court

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Domestic Partnership is not the same as Marriage with a different name. (from wikipedia)

	Domestic Partnerships	Marriages
Can file without being required to share a residence?	NO	YES
Available to minors with parental consent?	NO	YES
Can be filed without witnesses and not included in public record?	NO	YES
Partners of state employees eligible for the CalPERS long-term care insurance plan?	NO	YES
"Putative Spouse Doctrine" ?	NO	YES

Going Postal

I've just sent a one page LETTER to the California Supreme Court Justices, who have until June 5th or so to render their opinion of Prop 8. An actual real paper letter. It feels so antiquated... and official.