Gamer Without a Clue

For Science! and card games

2011-02-05T10:04:00.000-07:00

So, I was looking around and found one of the card games I have been building. Its called For Science! and its based on each player building a crazy machine or creature, and scoring points off of it. here is a snippet:

The game “For Science!” is a 2 to 5 player card game where each player tries to build as many crazy inventions as they are able. The game starts with each player choosing a field of science, that they haven been banished from. The goal is to build as many inventions as you can to show those fools your not mad, but that it can be done! Whoever has the most points wins.

The contents of the game include:

1 10 sided die

5 Science Discipline cards

25 Base cards

60 Mad Science cards

Begin by choosing the Discipline that scorned you. They are:

Biology: You could have worked on anything as long as it was living. People, Animals, Plants, Microorganisms.
Robotics: You Spend your time making metallic constructs that might or might not have their own personal Artificial Intelligences. Expect Nano-Robots, Power suits, and Robots.
Physicist: You work with the fundamental rules of the universe. You make Atomic Weapons, attract meteors, and mess with all sorts of Quantum singularities.
Chemist: You work on chemical reactions to do whatever you need it too. Imagine explosives; Super strong acids, Drugs, and toxic chemicals galore.
Mind/Matter: You were a psychologist, but those fools declared you went outside the bounds of science! Your chief weapons include Fear, mind control, telekinesis and telepathy. (What? Its not like you’re the Spanish Inquisition or anything).

Anyway, its a ton of fun, and I want to finish it up and get maybe a playtest going around for people to try.

Wait, I have a blog? Right: Tabletop games.

2011-01-11T21:46:00.007-07:00

So, blog o sphere...

Look, I know we haven't talked in ages. So I know you must think I don't like you or something. but I think we can do this: I think we should get the band back together!

So: on topic, I finished my teir 4 Baldur The Stonecleaver list 35 pt list.

Wait, I play Warmachine/Hordes?

Yes I do. I have a rant being made for that for later. Its to long and I will be going way off tangent. Suffice to say I have got all of the Circle Oroboros models I could ever want and the Army is both fun to play and visually appealing. I think I will even post some pics when I have them painted.

I am also workng on getting some forest zones put together and painted for the army. They get to make trees mid battle, which just super messes with enemy battle plans. I plan on painting the tree bases to match the bases of the rest of the models in my list. It should be super awesome.

Next time: Gaming company rant, or imperial guard model rant. Dunno which, but I plan to work on this blog consistently and see where it goes.

Stupid WoW

2009-03-04T14:27:00.002-07:00

Once in a great while I actually go back on my word. I am back playing Wow again after 2 months because I cannot get any of the people I play with including my wife and her brother ( who both love War I might add) To play War. It comes down to the fact that an MMO with no-one you know is bland and boring. Also, They would continue to spend several hours talking about Wow whenever we would hang out... Any point I bring up from War, got glossed over. Not their fault precisely, but when my biggest comment I can include in an evening is the phrase "Well, Griftoof's new ability is called 'Right in Da Jibblies!' " It doesn't help me have allot of fun with my friends.

New plan: Play WoW. Maybe play another genre entirely if Wow stays relatively bad. One thing I will probably regret though, is that War has less people while being a far better game. Everyone admits this. Even people still playing Wow. But no one wants to change over. How does that work? Its like they don't want to lose their max level characters... But they spend 95% of their time playing the low level characters they have, because they are bored with their maxed ones.

Eh... Rant rant.. Moan Moan. Bitch Bitch.. Time to go Kill things with Moon-Nukes.

Brain-dead Super Rant

2009-02-18T09:50:00.003-07:00

So, last night I spent the whole evening with some friends doing several of our RPG campaigns. First there was The Dragon Blood one. Basically, since the last installment online here, we lost our home town, been getting slowly stronger, and finally, we just had our mentor and only real protection in this game die before our very eyes. ( Well, My character didn't, but that's his own fault). In any case, This point has the world starting to hit the proverbial fan. (With included proverbial poop). We are now fleeing southwards with no immediate goals towards finding our lost party member, Though our mentor kinda got better. At least he didn't actually die. Thanks to the healy member of the group.

Moving on. After some o the group had to leave for school the next day, The rest of us moved on to another RPG, Namly Dungeons and Dragons. With a simple hack and slash combat going on, we spent a while making sure we had some fun time to burn down. This game really ended this morning, about a half hour into mindnight.

Which brings me to the brain-dead par of this thingy: Either my face or my brain feels like swiss cheese, I cannot tell which. Luckily, work is kinda slow today so I don't have to worry about much at once. As glas as I am on having friends who enjoy my intrests as much as I do, 5 hours of sleep seems to be mostly grating on me anymore. This whole morning has been spent in zombie vision. I can qualify this as a rant for the simple fact of how I keep draging this thing on with no direction or point. oh, hey. I'm done now. Time to go off to find brains, I mean Mt. Dew.

Serves me right!

2009-02-03T12:37:00.001-07:00

Here I am. I just had the most awesome Idea for writing an RGP. System, Universe, everything.

All I need now is free time.

Blasted free time.

I blame the Androids

2009-01-28T12:20:00.003-07:00

I'm sitting here at work, thinking of how I want to start this off. My friend gave me a good idea with which I will follow. If only I had a freaken idea to start on.

The idea is a 30 minute story. I think I can do that. I will just have to start tommarow. See, the whole idea and everything comes from within that 30 minute period.

Oh well, Tommarow expect a great short story. Or some other sort of hack writing I'm much more likley to be doing.

Either Way good times.

Dragons Blood part Duex!

2009-01-21T10:34:00.002-07:00

So, Were well past the first session, and I haven't even covered anything. Time for recap:

The first session had five students and their teacher trekking out from Cromana (home town) to The Bronze Dragon ancestral home. Their was Ryall (myself), A blue blooded assassin in training ( Our close friend), A bronze Blooded School bully ( Pyros), and a white blooded doctor apprentice of unclear goals, Arrith. Also in the party are Nina, an NPC who is a young girl with no magical abilities (very rare); and Drakean, our NPC teacher who was carrying the purpose of our trip. He found a dragon egg in the sand, dragon eggs are almost never found outside their home. We thought it was a Bronze egg based on their close proximity and we left to return it.

After entering and meeting the ruling dragon (dragon eggs being presented are that rare), the dragons explained that they could tell it was a black egg. They can detect colour from eggs by smell apparently. The bronze dragons being very honourable and respectful of life, also took the time to berate Pryos for his rough ways. The boy promised to be a better person. After that the group left back for town and the next day, the group left for Zwarna, Home of the black dragons.

On the way to the first stopping point, we came across a man named Geb, and his caravan of traders. They were holding a green dragon in a cage and tourturing it. After a quick and relativly painless fight, The group slaughtered the caravan, and released the Dragon. He was young by dragon standards, and his nick name was "Capie." After healing him, we agreed to escort him home, then started conversation, eventually comming to the Seekers. They are a zealous religion focused mainly on dragon worship. Their big concern is finding the creator of the world (a dragon), because this dragon has sealed itself inside a child with no magic. The are currently after Nina, who is quite magicless. Arrith came to a disagrement with Capie, and the dragon flew off, to get away from him.

Then we arived in Falsten's Reach. The city created and controled by the Seekers. It was the only way to Zwarna.

More Later, as I find time.

So be it, Jedi...

2009-01-19T22:02:00.003-07:00

This whole getting ready for school thing is beating me senseless. Oh well, I have tons to do already. All I can say, Warhammer: Age of Reckoning (or WAR, clever huh?) is way mroe fun and addicting than World of Warcraft (or WOW) ever was. Doesn't help that I've been a GW nut for longer than I can remember (thats a lie, I was in 6th grade). In anycase now I get to play with all the fun things of my childhood and current.

My current favorite character, likley my future main:

Griftoof Da Ribcrusha.

He is one total Badass Black Orc. He has a huge story of background in the Sci-Fi Version of the game. In anycase, If you see him on Iron Rock. Say Hello. Maybe next time I can get a lighter pic.

Nodwick, Ncsoft, and Worlds.com?

2009-01-06T12:20:00.004-07:00

The above link was sent to me from keeping up with Nodwick . Go on read it. Also, read Nodwick too.

Good.

In any case, The article above talks about NCsoft being sued for patent infringement by a company called worlds.com. Ncsoft makes multiple online games like City of Heroes, GuildWars, and Lineage. Worlds.com makes a small online 3d interactive browser. Kind of like Second Life. This looks bad since the Worlds.com patent 6,731,314 is described as:

A client computer program provides instructions for a processor to locate and retrieve rich media and HTML files over a network, such as the internet, an internet or an LAN, for running in a three-dimensional (3D) graphical user interface. The program provides instructions for the processor to generate a 3D graphical user interface on a display. Then, the processor generates a metaphorical user object for navigating and interacting in the three dimensions within the environment via navigational and interactional inputs, respectively, from a user. The processor also integrates an HTML object into the environment, and interacts the user object with the HTML object in response to an interactional input from the user.

So, Worlds is looking for roylties to boot. What would any self-respecting geek do about that? Look in the patent for loopholes. thats one thing!

Worlds.com patent is all about making a 3d mmo equivalent of the Internet. Your "avatar" (not their word) would walk around these worlds, and be able to look at sponsors websites. Which would be 3d structures with rooms. See this:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The invention relates to a computer program and system for providing a three-dimensional browser for a shared network environment, and particularly to a network-based platform which incorporates integrated markup language and rich media for multi-user interactivity, browsing and e-commerce.

Notice the last 3 terms. Not anywhere in the field of use, or scope, of the invention does this mention itself as a game. This legaliesse seems more like describing an internet browser like Firefox or IE, than anything resembling a game. I suppose I could also decribe an online casino with this set-up. But what about dates? The patent was filled August 16, 1999 and approved on May 4, 2004. That's right, its been here for 4 years and they haven't done anything wit hit yet!

One last point. City of Hero's: out in April of '04. Linneage, out in '98. So, your patent comes out after other products that use it have been on the market for a year? Are you high?

So this is a call to all the nerds out there: lets get worlds.com boycotted for this nonsense. Online games don't need this.

Darths and Droids

2009-01-01T19:30:00.002-07:00

If you like eith RPG's or Starwars, Go follow the link on the title.

Its worth it to note that this will give you a much better look into both RPG writing, and how many of the important plot points came up in Starwars!

Christmas: In Retro-spec

2008-12-28T10:02:00.002-07:00

So, Christmas time has come and gone. I' have received many presents and I feel the need to chronicle them and my thoughts on them.

I got some clothes: Not really a clothes person. They are nice, but eh. not my thing.
Gokusen (badly spelling mangled): Great anime. I recommended to everyone!
Death Note: Another Good one, Although I only enjoy the 1st half.
Lost Season 1: A great show! Yea. Not my favorite season, but its good.
Spore + parts pack: Now I too can mad scientist up my own creatures!
Fallout 3: Now roaming the wasteland with guns!
New Phone! It Rocks Socks!
Idiocracy! Watch This Movie! Now!
Books 1 - 11 of Wheel of time... Thats allot of words.

And their is christmas in a nutshell...

of info!

Dragon's Blood

2008-12-23T12:39:00.004-07:00

So, tonight we start a new RPG setting with the BESM (Tri-stat) rules. My wife is GMing it and has been writing this setting for most of a month now... It looks good. I figure I can spend some time going over what I know about it, My character and even chronicle what happens in the game. Lets start with the setting.

The planet/continent is named Orotan, and is a single land mass with a massive interconnected water system with a mountain range on the southern side. The home village starts near the west side. The prominent thing about this setting are the dragons. They are Color Coded by abilities and by physical characteristics. The Nearest neighbors to the village (which I cannot remember the name of) are brown dragons, which have primarily physical enchantments. Think magically induced body building. Anyway, while many of the dragons are coded "normally" (white heals, black is toxins and disease) , several are different. In any case, Magic is passed down through to the "lesser" races by interbreeding the dragons with other races. That happened generally hundreds to thousands of years ago and so the majority (99.5-99.75%) of people ( and PC's) have magic simply by having a dragon in the family at some point in the past.

The PC's are all children in the village. And will likely need to leave for one reason or another. First session is tonight, and everyone will have a character by then.

Mine: Ryall

He is a 12 year old boy who suffers from asthma who studies blue magic. He is unaware of having black dragon blood in his history, He thinks he came from the blue dragons. Both colors are pretty well what you would expect. he is proud of his "heritage" and seeks more mastery of the blue element. I'm hoping for him to have massive psychological trauma when he finds out his true nature. We will see. His main attack spell are summoned water elementals that can self destruct, they aren't happy. He still needs more background and more motivation. but there he is.

Next Dragon's Blood: The first session and the introduction of the other PCs.

It's a Holiday Bonanza!

2008-12-22T08:40:00.003-07:00

Its Holiday time, And here's whats up!

This week are final preparations for Di and I to get a new RP setting off the ground. She's running it, and I'm just doing the PC thing. We have a party of three right now and it seems to be the perfect size. My character is magical (dragon-blooded, in the setting), and hopefully won't go crazy or anything. Of course, it doesn't help I'm setting him up for failing. Oh, and it is a BESM 2.0 Tri-stat rules grounding, so it should ground out fine. On an (un)related note, I need to get a hold of Chadd again. Punk keeps having to work when I'm not and vice-versa.

We are going to start a new holiday tradition... (mind the oxymoron), Watching 'Santa Claus Conquers the Martins.' As presented by MST3K. Sadly, that title is accurate.

This week is "get ready for the office party at work" week. I get to spend my time being office Goomba (read that: bitch) to get all the supplies. Which really isn't any different from any other day I suppose... Moving on before I realize my job description.

World of Warcraft "Winter's Veil" event is on. Yay! Its more work than I care to put into it for the title, since I have the ambassador title. So, we will se how much I do on it... Still its good to see that the online world is not a static place.

More haikus soon. I promise. No Promise is guarantied or implied. Please call your doctor for promises lasting more than 4 hours. Do not take promise unless advised by a doctor. This gag would be funnier if I could get the text smaller.

Testing Post!!!!?

2008-12-19T22:46:00.001-07:00

I want to find out if this post gets moved around the internet enough to make it scary!

Lets wait and see...

Twitter!

2008-11-04T11:13:00.002-07:00

So, I am twitting now. I am not sure where it gets to go on what I do here, Namly Randomness. I approve so far anyway. Now, to get up to speed.

I Voted. Yay! I was going to spam lecture about it, but that is not important any more. since it was a while ago. Thats all on that for a while I think.
We are getting the house clean like no buddies buisness. I think it's way past due.
Di is putting an epic BESM RPG together for us to run. It should be most awesome.
This Bullet intentionally left blank.

Lets see what happens now...

Huh?

2008-11-03T15:52:00.002-07:00

I find it odd that I am crafting elaborate song/dance numbers for any given location I'm in.

Example(crossing a street):

Burst out the door, run to the street!

Go into a tight spin while checking for on coming traffic.

Do repeated back flips across street.
All of this is done in sync with whatever song I'm thinking of....

I have no idea what this means either...

Super-Mount and such

2008-10-22T14:53:00.002-06:00

Ive been practicing my tanking on the headless horseman's event in WOW right now. As of this writing, the group has farmed him 17 times. We have had all of the rings drop for everyone. We have had magic brooms drop for everyone. twice. We got one pet (the sinister squashling) and 2 hats. One of the horseman's Mount has dropped. It looks like at these rates we will have 12 more days of the event. Which makes it a total of 48 more kills on the horseman. If my math works and the rate We have seen so far remains true:

Both the Squashling and the mount will drop 2.8 more times.
So one or none of us will not have it.
The hat has a doubled that: it will drop 5.6 more times.
We should all get that one.

I would hope that all four of us get:
The Mount
The Pet
The Hat

Everyone has everything else that they can possibly use. So all that is left are those... If my maths right and the drop rates are as I written them down.

I doubt I will get a horse /cry

Supermajority???

2008-10-20T11:04:00.004-06:00

So, My boss linked the above opinion article, for all his workers to read. It relates all of the various things a democratic majority government (aside from Supreme Court) will try (and likely accomplish) to pass. I can find the party affiliation of the writer within 2 sentences, 4 at most. Lets look at all these issues, and see if any problems can be found.

Medicare of all - The rest of the world handles this without destroying their economy or their citizens. Why can't the US do that also?
Regulate everything! (The Business climate) - Claiming that regulating industries will slow the economy is kinda silly. Deregulation has led directly to both the Enron collapse and the Wallstreet face-plant.

Union Supremacy - This is a bad idea, agreed. Here in Colorado, however, that has to be voted in by a majority of voters. In any case, people can still write to their senators (regardless of party) and demand that they don't support bill "x." Just because the opposite parties politicians are in office doesn't mean they can't be written to. Write a letter, make a difference.

Taxes - Okay, more taxes. The governments income has to come from somewhere, and taxing the mid-to lowest section of the population is the akin to being anti-Robin Hood. Take from the poor, and leave the rich alone. Not a perfect analogy, But it points out the absurdity of the "trickle down" theory. When the economy needs money, the rich keep their money in savings like everyone else. Taking less from them so they can save more does not make sense. I propose a new idea: Upwelling. It's not about standing under a tree and getting one or two drops of extra, its about the level rising from the base.

Green revolution - Is it really so bad that we try to keep the planet livable for us and future generations? I think so.

Free Speech and Voter Rights - You would deny the District of Columbia the right to vote at congress? They would get one vote in the House at most, plus two more in the senate. You would keep general people from the vote on the day of the election if they still needed to register? You keep people from voting! If the population does not get a vote, then the country is not a democracy. Period. The End.
Special Interest Potpourri - This happened in the last 8 years plenty, so its no a democrat only thing. Also, No Child Left Behind was a failure. I was in my last years of high school when that program started, and it was already called "No Child Gets Ahead" by students. Better we have our education system watered down, and overhauled entirely than have it stay as it is.

The final thought: You have had 8 years with your party in charge of the government to get these things set up right. They failed pretty badly in my eyes. Looks like its another's turn now.

Fantastic Contraptions!

2008-10-15T14:25:00.011-06:00

I've been spending some of my lunch time build these gizmos instead of doing my homework. Shame on me. Still, this is a pretty fun game! Woo!

Walkies!

Conve-o-Tank!

Saturn V!

Tank-a-Mat!

Mole-a-mat!

Dispose-a-Mat!

Odd!

Pull-a-Mat!
>I didn't do this one, But man do I wish I had!

Awesome!

edit: I think I am going to make this post an exhaustive list of my contraptions, though I will add new ones in their own post when I want to show them off.

Warcraft time - The Great Tank Debate!*

2008-10-09T15:43:00.007-06:00

So, Ive respeced to feral, specifically Dire Bear, when the new patch came out. Since I am planning on doing this throughout the leveling stages of Wrath, now was my first opportunity to try out how druids tank, and to a lesser extent, how tank has changed all of a sudden. One big talent change for bears is how they gain rage. They still gain rage as normal, however they also gain rage by dodging. So it works out to if you hit me, I get angry and smack you. If you try to hit me I also get angry and smack you anyway. It really lets druids tank things with a greater disregard for others gear level.

My friends and I were doing a 3-man instance in ramparts, one of the easier instances. The healer was Tier 6 and the DPS was halfway between tiers 5 and 6 as far as gear goes. My tanking gear is mostly blue quality, with some greens. In Burning Crusade, If I had attempted to tank this same instance with the same group,we would have lost people, wiped out, and generally taken allot of repair bill damage - to our banks. It would not matter how good or bad I am, The difference in gear level is high enough that there is way for me to hold threat from those two. In wrath, or at least the in game patch to ready the game for the expansion. I was holding aggro. From a Warlock and a Shaman healer, both at black temple raids in gear level. My gear level for feral is still early Karazhan. Some might say, well that's their job to let you hold aggro.

Not this warlock. His personal victory is being second highest on the threat meters. And stealing aggro from tanks. I have play DPS throughout most of my Burning Crusade experience, and let me say this: DPS's are not supposed to be doing this. So all you clothie DPS out there: Aggro equals bad, really bad, worse than anything else that could happen. Its a DPS'ers responsibility to keep their aggro under the tanks. When the tank is under geared, you need to lower your DPS itself to follow that, but it is rule #1. Period. The End. and for recap.

DPS Rules:

Don't grab aggro from tanks.
Don't grab aggro from tanks.

There are more but that is for another time. Suffice to say, I still kept aggro from the Aggro lovin' 'lock and I am amazed at the AOE tanking that Druids get now. Which I hear everyone gets now. Which makes me think that the tanks will be hit by wave after wave of lots of elites in the next patch. Give all classes more opportunity for CC, give all tanks the ability to AOE tank.

I smell being outnumbered 10 to one in wrath. And I'm still excited... Somehow?

*Greatness neither required nor guaranteed. Debating also not promised at this time. Tanking not necessarily mentioned.

All Hail Darwin!

2008-10-09T15:43:00.004-06:00

So I was surfing around the internebs, and I found the above article...

I can't quite express how funny this article is. The idea of reversing normal roles and sides of an issue, with the evolutionists at the "this looks like a person stain" and the Religious folks at "its just a stain!" I think this shows the absurdity of both sides. Its not that it is a stain or not, its that people are fighting over a stain, or a sandwich, or what have you.

I just think that if I had a stain of some sort that looked like Darwin or Jesus in my bathroom... I would just think they were stalking me anyway. So there! (insert emoticon sticking out tongue here)

Epic Flyign Mounts!

2008-10-04T18:06:00.003-06:00

So on wow, Di, KC and I are all trying to get our epic flying mounts before the expansion hits. We have until November 13th to get it done, and we are hoping it will be sooner than that. First we set up a joint bank for all of us to use. Next, we threw all of our money together to see how much we had as a group. Now, we have enough for Di's mount. She has it and loves it. And we are half-way towards getting Kacey's. Last is mine, by my own suggestion. We need right now about 7000 Gold pieces to get the last of them. So we should have Kacey's by the end of next week and Mine hopefully before Halloween. It looks like the people who have already gotten theirs are acquiring gold faster than the others already. It might not even take that long

I can hope. - Oh and one last Haiku:

For five thousand gold,
I would get an epic flight form.
This is expensive.

Lizards

2008-10-02T10:12:00.001-06:00

I think its pretty awesome t osee my lizards exuviate its skin.

Yay! New words that sound awesome!

WAR, Not Wow I

2008-10-01T08:07:00.001-06:00

So, I have been thinking on the whole Wow vs War thing. I find I don't have the time or money for both, and I find that I don't have the energy for both. Strictly speaking, it is not a compossible thing for me.

So, War is brand new, it is pretty awesome as far as beta's went. I had a Warrior priest who kicked more ass than was handy even. One would even say he could vaticinate the end of his enemies. But, I still need to purchase the new game. and all the people I tend to dislike on MMO's are all flooding to War, from wow because its a new game and the new Wow expansion isn't coming out for another month and a half. So I think right now, I'm going to play some Wow, and get all of those things I never could before the next expansion hits. Like my epic flight form. and level all of my secondary skills. and the like.

So, when the expansion hits I can just grind out 70 to 80 with just the new skill points and I don't have to worry about any new mounts or anything. then maybe a Death-knight. Its a shame I cannot play a game I like as much or more because no one else does though. Anyway, I hope I'm not Embrangling anyone with my confusing new vocabulary. (just FYI it is all real words! Woo!)

Why not?

2008-09-29T16:24:00.004-06:00

I guess that I really am different from most other people.

I was driving around today on work business, listening to of all things: NPR. Who knew? Oddly enough, it gives me time to listen to national and world news affairs when I would otherwise be listening to terrible* music. I find it to be pretty neutral as far as bias goes and It even seems to keep the news distinct, if monotone. The broadcast topic was all on a bunch of American Clergy on Sunday all Speaking politics from their pulpits. The IRS wants to take away their Tax-exempt status because they are "going from a religious group to a political group." These churches did this as peaceful protest to The very thing the IRS did. To be fair, the different churches involved all had different messages, including supporting both major candidates. The issue is not who the churches support, its that they support anyone at all.

The churches are claiming two things gives them the right, nay, the responsibility to preach politics from the pulpit. 1st, Freedom of speech, one of those things that is both massively important and ridiculously insane to do at the same time. There is such a fine line between speech that is free and speech that is destructive. No one can draw it. The promise that anyone can say anything and not be arrested for it. I miss those days. The other thing giving them this "duty" is "separation of church and state" They claim it was put in the 1st amendment to protect the religion from government. That the government cannot do anything to harm a religion. So they cannot tax them for speaking about politics. Right?

Well, lets post that troublesome first amendment and then talk all about how awesome it is: (From www.usconstitution.net a fairly useful site!)

Amendment 1 - Freedom of Religion, Press, Expression . Ratified
12/15/1791. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment
of religion,
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the
freedom of speech, or
of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to
assemble, and to petition
the Government for a redress of
grievances.

So, the government cannot support or prohibit any religion. The government will leave your religion alone. You have to leave the government alone though. Why, it doesn't say that, does it? It does. By having a religion try to put a specific candidate into office, you are effectively trying to set our government up to follow your religion, which it cannot do. This is why we set up recognized religions as Tax-exempt. We don't touch them, they don't touch us.

And of Freedom of Speech? It is also guaranteed by the first amendment. I lets me state any opinion, as long As I can declare it first. For instance, In my opinion, President Bush is a doodie-head.** Nothing being said there is treason, and opinions are what is being protected against. So, that allows priests, holy men and more to state their personal opinion. They can do that.

The combination of the two is the crux of the issue. If a church priest says "I support candidate X," then he is stating his opinion and it is no big deal. If a church priest has the church itself say "We (the Church) support candidate X, and so should you," That church is no longer in safe first amendment territory. They didn't leave the government alone. Why? Well, to start, any person or organization can give up any rights they have at any time. A confession of a crime is an acknowledgement that the confessed is giving up their 5Th amendment rights. If I said something that committed treason, like speaking secrets to an enemy, then I could have my stupid butt arrested for saying it.

So, when a church gives up its rights to be ignored by the government by preaching politics from pulpits, The Government is well within its rights to do anything to the church. They could tax them, charge them with crimes (even relating to being religious!) and more. The government gets free reign over the churches rights to free speech and religion. So, churches out there: please keep your religion out of my government. Thank you. Feel free to as citizens of the US, support candidate X, but not in churches. Cause, then you give the government free rein on your rights. And never give up your rights. Ever.

* - I think its not bad personally, but others would disagree.

** - My opinion really is that President Bush is a Doodie-head.

To WoW the WaR, Of personal choice

2008-09-23T12:18:00.003-06:00

I've been spending more time on World of Warcraft than I strictly should. I just recently got back into it as far as an active interest. I had been taking a break, though not as much of a break as much as not enough time to play to do anything on it. Where I am currently is, I have one level 70 main on my main server. She ( yes, she. I'll explain later) is a Balance specced Druid. I'm leaving behind the beginning sections of the endgame and starting to move into the middle ones. These sections are Raiding instances, specifically Tier 5 content and Zula'man. Its a place about only 20 to 30 percent of any server get to, But most servers are large enough that it translates to several thousands of players on each.

Balance druids are kind of rare at this level. Mostly it is because Blizzard has designed the class to be not as effective as others with the same role. The big Range DPS's are mages, warlocks, and hunters. the lower range DPS classes are priests and shamans The lowest Range DPS are druids. That blizzard did this is perfectly fine. If one class gets to powerful the other classes will never get played. Hunters, Mages and Warlocks All do one thing: damage, and allot of it. They also can crowd control. Priests and shamans are more healing classes; they lose damage powers for healing powers. But if Specced out right, they are still pretty good. They also have area benefits to those who are in their group. Finally, we get to Druids. They have about half the dps of any of the top tier. Even specced balance they can do fairly decent off healing, they have a unique in battle Resurrection, that no other class has. They have a fairly good area affect for those around them.

So why the rarity. Mostly, because people cannot go to big raids as a balance druid. Reasons why:
1. They don't put out the DPS.
2. They don't have an effective crowd control.
3. They are under geared for the raid.

Well, this looks like 1 and 2 are blizzards doing. which is true. Blizzard has decided to "fix number 2" by giving an ability the druids already have that is related though unusable inside, the ability to be used indoors. So one down, two to go. The first one, Blizzard looks like they are possibly changing. Not sure right now, as they are adding a new expansion, we do not know yet how much extra damage each will be able to do.

So, number 3. Low gear. This at first looks like a player problem. "If your gear is low-leveled then you need to fix it". that is not actually the case. You see, most pieces of armor regardless of type (cloth, leather, mail, plate) can be firmly attached to one class for who it goes best with. Arguably the best magic dps classes are mages and warlocks, both of which use cloth. Balance druids can use leather. Simply put, Blizzard does not put out enough leather magic damage gear to let druids have leather as an option. So, balance druids need to take mage and warlock gear.

Now we are taking not only their spots but the gear from the ones who are left. As well as having no crowd control and low dps to boot. And we wonder why no one wants to take us to raids. Now, most raid groups hand out new gear on a system called DKP. It works out so that the main raiders get the first choice on any gear they can use. Its a good system, unless you are unable to do many raids within a group, or worse (like a druid) you are not allowed to go often. So you finally go, because they happen to have an extra slot. You get no gear because the main raiders still have priority. Your priority goes up slowly yes, but every week you don't raid you lose a percentage of it. If they don't let you go on raid because of those 3 points, then any priority you gained by luck goes away. Fast. So not enough gear means no entrance to raids, which means no gear. lovely circular logic.

Now this was going to be my thought between two games I am interested in playing right now, though I don't have much time. I was going to make this a post on my thoughts on 2 games I want to play and come to a decision on which one. Make this a two-part thing and I think I can do it.

Next up: Warhammer, Age of Reckoning and the pros and cons of that. plus hopefully my choice on the matter.

Act like a Time Traveller Day!!!!!

2008-09-18T09:49:00.002-06:00

So, on 12/8/8 there is going to be an event like no other... act like a time traveler day!

I am hoping I can find something I can do to have fun with this. Maybe I can get something going on at the school or something. I think I could bring it up to the Film club, they'd love this

Portal Quasi-Sequal-Prequal thingy!

2008-09-16T11:19:00.002-06:00

I found this site above that has a story mode for portal. It looks like it has 3 and a half more hours of portaly puzzle goodness. The down side is both small and huge at the same time. No GLaDOS. And as much fun as these might be, ( as I haven't played them yet), They will not be the same without her. They are being released on PS3 and Xbox 360 titled Portal: Still Alive. This explaines it better than I could ever hope to, but in the end. there is more portal, just no more GLaDOS.

Anyway, I'm going to spend some time I should be sending somewhere else on this thingy instead !

Woo Portal!

Self-Referencing Good Essays

2008-09-15T19:18:00.000-06:00

What makes a good essay? Does it have a certain number of paragraphs? Is it structured or is it not structured at all? At least does it have an interesting Intro and conclusion? Most definitely, one would argue. In any case it does have to do one thing; it has to attempt to explain.

First and foremost, it must have a good beginning and a good end. The beginning is essential to grab the reader’s attention. It must shout at them, “Read Me Now!” it makes the reader want to read more. The good ending is also paramount. It needs a conclusion to effectively close out the paper. Some might say that conclusions need to borrow material from the introduction in order to truly succeed. However, if it does it must not repeat it. To repeat the introduction would seem almost more like restarting the paper than ending the current one. Oddly enough, these parts of the essay should be written last.

Next, one must have the rest of the essay. This is a fairly complex bit of writing compacted down to one statement. The rest of the essay is composed of Paragraphs logically ordered, with convincing transitions included in the front or back of each so as to link the essay together internally. This seemingly then, should be written first. This brings up the point of attempt. One cannot write an essay on just anything. One can write for sure, but an essay should be made of sterner stuff. Never write what is simple enough that it needs no explanation. Only write what needs to be said. What is a good essay? Only the reader knows.

Haikus abound!

2008-09-15T11:27:00.005-06:00

Its getting kinda heavy and meaningful here... So here's some haiku!

I traveled miles,
with my feet inside your shoes.
You are barefooted.

Found my shirt today.
It smells of oil, fuel, and paint.
Now I'm lightheaded.

When out on the road,
Do order a cheeseburger.
It won't disappoint.

That's all for now. Woo! Haiku!
edit - I edited the Haiku to make them more fit the syllable requirements. Because I'm horrible at Syllables. Expect more changes later when I learn them better.

I pulled, I prodded, I yanked from the earth

2008-09-14T14:54:00.002-06:00

This is an essay I wrote as part of my writing class. Its here because I feel like it.

I spent the morning pulling up weeds at my job. It’s not part of my normal job; one of my coworkers had slacked on his responsibilities. It amounted to his spraying weed killer on them, and later coming by and pulling the dead weeds out. Which was done sporadically at best. So I pulled weeds. I hacked at the larger ones with a hoe. I grabbed the ones that had rolled off like tumbleweeds, the weeds that had been sprayed. I came home with a broken blister on my hand, and sore thumbs like video games had never known.

I saw many different plants that day. Some were tumbleweeds, as tall as I was. They had rolled up on the fence, held up from the old-west showdown that they were late for. I was sure a lot more got away, as they had stacked 6 feet to the top of the fence. The live ones resisted my pull, desisting and rejecting human intervention. Some were wide, some were thorny, and several were even thin and narrow. However, all the plants were tall. Most as tall as my shoulders, they were.

Also removed was a tree. It was near the fence as well it was small and only 5 or 6 years old. The company was going to be putting down asphalt to better maintain its yard. The tree had to go. It was already close enough to the fence to start growing into it. We cut the plant limbs that were growing through the fence, so we could pull it out. Then they pulled in the crane they have. All the while I sat and watched, wondering why they need to pull out the tree. After the steel hooks found purchase the crane struggled briefly. With a heart-wrenching tear, the tree came free of the earth.

I look at where the tree was even now. It has a piece of wood still attached to the fence, where the young tree stands no more. I wonder who should have privilege over there. Do the “weeds” and trees that do nothing to the outside world have precedence, or the men who use the land to store merchandise and equipment? Who are we to say what lives and what dies? These men could not say what all man-made is there; it looks like a junkyard. Nature is gone, replaced with a junkyard. Today, I was weeding at work. I pulled, I prodded, and I yanked from the ground. What was once a jungle of weeds is now a jungle of steel. What is better; A plot of plants, now overgrown; or perhaps a layer of junk, rusted red with age? I toiled and worked, pulled nature from not. I wondered: will nature be back? Will it cover the junk? Why do we need it except to keep it “humane”?

Evolutionists, Creationists, and Spore! Oh My!

2008-09-10T11:55:00.006-06:00

This thing started when a die-hard creationist started a blog to denounce Spore to the world. I had intended this originally a response to her main points about how evolution is wrong. I went over it at length somewhere else, suffice to say this is a separate entity.

Intelligent design in Christianity is founded on two basic principles. Some power (god) created the universe and All of the animals at the same time. Since his design was perfect, they haven't changed since. So, 6000 B.C. cheetahs, and skunks, and polar bears all came into being within a one day period. The requirement for this system of ecosystems is belief in the Intelligent Power that did it all. The Church logic behind this is:

God exists because the Bible says He does.
The Bible is correct because it was divinely inspired.
Therefore, God exists.

Meanwhile, the theory of evolution works allot differently. The concept arises from the term natural selection. Natural selection happens when a generation passes down good traits to their offspring and don't pass down bad traits. For instance, two male wolves are hunting separate prey. One happens to have longer legs, to run faster with. He catches the deer he's after, and successfully breeds a new generation. The other wolf has short legs and cannot catch the deer he chases. This wolf dies without ever reproducing.

If the population consists of only short and long legged wolves, over time the long legged wolves will become the more prominent part of the species. eventually the differences between long legged and short legged wolves will be enough to warrant calling them different species. At this point when one species becomes two, do we consider them evolved from the original one. The main part is that evolution is measured in generations, not in time.

Proof of evolution is found several places. Neighboring species, fossil records, genetic records. Proof is not in a book, but in something that cannot influenced by human hands.

So, we have our competing theories. Lets check, at first glance they do seem contrary. One is orderly and perfectly maintained. The other seems random at best and chaotic at worst. One sets the age of the planet as much older than the other. One is completely ridiculous, while the other is true.

Really? Is one true and one false? My personal beliefs being what they are, I cannot simply agree with Intelligent design. however, I will not just say the theory is bunk either. Back to that logical train of thought, there is a problem with it. Its circular logic. Logical sequences can only work if the pattern works with all possible outcomes, which circular logic fails at quite spectacularly. Now, one can say that its impossible to combine those theories.

God made all creatures the way they are in the present day.
God made all creatures perfectly.
Evolution changes creatures over time.
Creatures that are perfect don't change.
Evolution Exists.

The logical conclusion is that if evolution exists God cannot. This is based on the circular argument in that god exists because the Bible says so, and that the bible is perfectly accurate because God divinely inspired it that way. To simplify:

Evolution says creatures change.
The Bible says creatures don't change.
If the bible is wrong then it is not divinely inspired.
Therefore God cannot exist.

Here is the crux of the issue. The easy fix would be to say the bible was wrong on how, but that God still did this "through" evolution. that he uses it as His tool. I expect that this "fix" would just make people mad though. It doesn't really solve anything. It just lets the evolutionists win without a struggle.

The place to make the change is proving the existence of God. All of these philosophers over the last 2000 years have struggled to prove God exists. And their one triumph in that regard is the circular logic above. But as much as it cannot prove that He exists, it also cannot prove he doesn't exist. That is why its an invalid argument, it cannot do anything for either side. Its impossible to prove that God exists. Its similarly impossible to prove that he does not exist. Science doesn't test a principle to prove it. Science does experiments to Disprove the theories and the ideas.

Anything that you disprove is not true. If you cannot disprove it, then it is true. Notice you can keep testing, but you cannot prove anything. You can only get the list of possible causes smaller and smaller. Its not that evolution can be proven, its that it cannot be disproved. Its not that God can be disproved, its that the Bible can.

Imagine trying to explain evolution to a gorilla who knows sign language. You teach it the language perfectly, and you can even hold small conversations with it. The current Intelligent design theory might well be the results of how the gorilla best understands the concept. It might only be able to understand "A long time ago, I (God) made everything."

This is where Spore comes in. It is a game where you guide a species from the evolutionary beginning of a single cell through the space age. The player takes the place of God. and then uses the tools inside that system of evolution to plan their planet.

In the end, I still don't believe God exists. But that doesn't stop the possibility that He doesn't.

Welcome Back!

2008-09-10T11:06:00.002-06:00

I'm still working on that evolution essay. But thats for another time. For now its time to play "Here's what I'm doing now!"

In the 2 years since my last post, Big changes have been afoot. I'm back in school. I'm still in a physics related science major except I'm at Red Rocks Community College. I'm also running a Warhammer Club there. I've grown up some, I've become more politicaly aware. I've worked my head around my spiritual beliefs. I spent alot of time online with friends, jumped through some differant Online games, and am about to start one that I've been waiting for since that last post in 2006. My work responsibility has multiplied ten-fold. I still have to wash the bosses SUV. Within the last two weeks I have gotten an itch to read poetry, still not sure why. I still don't drink much. Maybe once a month, So thats a good thing I guess. I spent time with family I ahven't seen since 2005 even.

So, thats me right now. Hi, how you doing?

Some days, it takes forever to get anywhere.

2008-09-10T10:17:00.002-06:00

I spent a good deal of time this morning reading a blog denouncing Spore (a video game based around the concepts of evolution) in favor of intelligent design. In my head, I was halfway through writing an email response before I remembered this very blog. So I started to revive my blog, all the while still forming this response. It was going to be great. I was going to point out the logical flaws in their arguments, point out possible reasons why evolution could be in fact, intelligent design. Most of all, I was going to be polite, nice, and honest. I figured that, after taking half a glance at the comments in the blog itself, that someone should enter the argument on Spore's side who's not making themselves look like a hooting dickhead.

Then I saw her defend herself and viciously attack Will Wright in a single hour. Her focus had changed from warning people about something she didn't like to practically call herself a martyr.

I'm not going to bother with an essay or arguments with her, because she's no longer on the playing field she was when she started, but I am.

All that being said, I still have half an essay done in my head. I'm going to finish it, and post it here. But it now for me to display my views on Intelligent design, Evolution, God, and maybe something else. But I don't need to tell hatemongers my opinions, especially when they don't listen anyway.

Running Late.

2006-11-19T01:19:00.001-07:00

I stood on the curb, waiting for a sign. Not just any sign, but the crosswalk sign, to change so I could cross over to the other side. Traffic was still passing through the path with enough speed to blur the many individual vehicles into a massively large instrument of destruction. I looked left and right along the busy downtown street but no one else was walking around. I looked down, at my watch, which wasn’t there. I lost it this morning, and still hadn’t found it. I had carved my initials into it when I bought it, for just this situation. The traffic starts to peter out and I was left totally alone for a few moments. Looking around there were no more cars, but the sign still said “DON’T WALK” in that pompous way that made almost everyone want to jaywalk. They want say to the world, “Hey, I’m a big shot! I can break whatever rules I want! Look at me, Waltzing across the street, while the sign says no!”

Finally, the Sign changed to the little white walking man, the one who makes you say, “I wish I was that thin.” I started walking. Opposite my side, more cars were lining up, waiting for their sign to let them cross the intersection. I was on the other side of the intersection now and still walking taking a leisurely pace, trying to ignore the place where my watch wasn’t. I was pretty sure that I needed to be at work by now, but no watch, no knowing. Suddenly, walking along, alone, I heard a noise. “Tap, Tap, Tap.” I almost didn’t notice it, because it was in perfect time with my own steps. “Tap, Tap, Tap.” I Briefly look to my right, then my left. Still, no one is around. They must be behind me, I thought. Although, to be fair, it couldn’t be a They behind me. There was only the sound of one person’s footsteps, besides mine.

I reached he next crosswalk and had to stop, though the constant following of the other person was getting slightly nerve-wracking. I stopped, and the man, who I could now see on the right-hand side of me, stopped parallel to me. I glanced side ways at him, trying to look without been seen looking. The first thing about him was his clothes. His hat was something a 1920’s gangster would wear. He wore a brown suit jacket, crumpled and in need of a good iron. His ash-gray suit pants might have actually been made of ash. The black dress shoes were polished and the right style to accompany a tuxedo. The Briefcase, which scared me for no reason I can describe, was black as night. He was elderly, frail, and lanky. His face was thin, and starved. The ash gray hair on the man’s head was stringy and messy. His left hand, the free one, was very jittery, like he was having a stroke. He stood there, ignoring me.

As I glanced at him, I noticed he had a watch similar to mine. I tried to read it, but failed. Squirming like an 8 year-old in trouble, I twisted my own empty wrist in the other hand in my frustration. Finally, I could resist no more. “Excuse me, do you have the time?” I inquired. He ignored me. I continued, “You see, I think I am late to work and I was wondering if you knew the time so I could confirm that.” My need was obviously apparent, for he turned and looked at me.

“Of course. Your right, you are late.” He said. Confused, I felt my jaw drop. About to respond, I only choked out one word. “But,…” Then He smiled. He had at most 18 teeth. Hey were different shades of yellow. At best he looked like a yokel’s jack-o-lantern. Just then, the sign changed, the little white man saying, “Come! Flee! Run from the man that knows you’re late!” Taking its advice, I walked briskly across the street, hoping to put some distance between us. Just behind me, I could hear him walking as well. Slower than last time, but still that horrible noise. “Tap, Tap, Tap.” I finished crossing, still hurrying, and started down the block. I could still hear him right behind me, though he should be far behind me at this point. I took a glance behind me, to see where he was. Apparently, I was moving slower than I thought. He was just 2 or 3 steps behind me. I looked up front again and tried to move faster.

Up Ahead, the Crosswalk sign just changed from walk to a flashing don’t walk. I wasn’t going to make it. Damn. I slowed up, and came to a stop on the edge of the sidewalk. “Tap, Tap, Tap.” The old man just a few steps behind me slowed and made his own stop. We stared at the sign, waiting. I was still looking at my wrist, looking for the time that wasn’t there. Again, I did what I least wanted to do. “So, Do you have the time or don’t you”? I asked. “Let me say this,” he replied, “You don’t want me to beat you to your place of employment.” Again, he gave me the yokel jack-o-lantern, and I shuddered. Beat me to work? Why would he do such a thing?

The crossing auto traffic finished crossing the street, we were the only ones left. Without waiting for the sign, the old man started walking across, leaving me on the curb. “Tap, Tap, Tap.” “Crap.” I muttered under my breath as I took of at a run, against the wishes the red hand. I ran past the man, got across the street and kept going. I saw the sign ahead changed to the walk sign almost as I got there. I did not even have to slow down. Behind me, the horrible tapping was absent. I must have out run him, I thought, as I slowed down a little to catch my breath. I got up to the next sign, which was red. I stopped. And tried to slow my ragged breath. I looked around, across the street. At the end of the block was my work. Hope was in sight.

Suddenly, from behind, came a burst of machinegun fire. Wait, Machinegun? No that was someone running, running in shoes that made a tapping sound. I spun around, and watched the old man, running like an ostrich, as he crossed the street right as the sign changed back to don’t walk. He didn’t slow down as he approached me. He was going to jaywalk across this street. I wouldn’t give him the opportunity to beat me to work. I looked left and right, there were no cars coming. I bolted across the street, breathing hard; to avoid the man that chased me. As I entered the intersection, he came running past at full throttle. We were neck and neck with him on my left as we entered the opposite side of traffic. We were still in traffic, the sign still said no. I looked at him as I ran, wheezing more than breathing now. He looked at me and laughed, with that yokel pumpkin of his.

I stared at him, running as best I could. It seemed nothing could break fascination with his face. Then I heard it, an unmistakable semi truck horn. Following that was the squeal of breaks. The noise came from the behind me, in the oncoming lane of traffic we ere in the middle of. I ripped my head around and looked. The Truck was barreling down the road at us and there was nothing anyone could do to get me out of its way.

The Truck rolled over me, including its trailer. It was not the way I had intended to see the truck’s transmission. When I came out the other end, the truck stopped just on the other side of the crosswalk. I was starring at the back of it, and recognized the logo. “I get my groceries there!” I said. It came out as more of a water balloon popping noise than anything. The sign changed to green, as if to remind me of what I did wrong. Several people were forming a circle around me. One was the old man. The old man looked at me, still smiling and laughing. Why did nobody notice the laugh? The horrible laugh. Another was definitely the truck driver. The Truck driver was staring at me with the eyes of one who has killed accidentally. He looked like he was about to puke. The others were looking at him and me. “My God, He just ran out in front of me. For no reason at all.” The truck driver lamented. One of the others looking at him said, “I know, why would a grown man just randomly run out into the street by himself into oncoming traffic?” Myself? What about the old man? I tried to say as much. My jaw wasn’t working. I tried to point at the old man, to show them why I was in the street at that time. Funny, I couldn’t move my arm anymore. The old man took the watch off, showed me my initials and put it in his briefcase. Then he walked off, still laughing.

2006-08-23T20:25:00.000-06:00

Howdy all!

My, Blog.... where to start? well, I think i will use it to write, or more acuratly, destroy, many differant story plots that come up in my head :)

so, I'll expect one up in the near future, I hope you do 2...

Jake

P.S. It should also be gramaticly correct :) ... unlike this