The Devil may not reply because his or her status is set to Away.

Posted on March 31st, 2006 by Maristar

Problem: the internet is desensitizing people.

I’m not going to blame the devil. That guy gets all the credit for everything. Just the other day I was reading about how evil Harry Potter books are. Like the devil cares about petty things like Harry Potter or the internet. I’m sure he’s a little busy with all his overpopulation problems at the moment.

As for the stealing, I’m going to go with the theory that, although it’s easier to “borrow” things from the internet, less people leave the house to go steal things from stores now. Maybe there isn’t so much an increase in theft in the world - perhaps it’s just that most people practice lazy internet theft as opposed to five-finger discounts.

The real evil is human beings. The internet, as well as various sources of mass media, cell phones, etc. is allowing us all to communicate. When too many loonies get together (through the aid of powerful tools like the internet), then we end up with midgets and horses.

Solution: global therapy. I will have my hourly rates posted soon.

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Reflections of Digital Entertainment

Posted on March 31st, 2006 by weasel

I’m in about the same boat as foz, but unfortunately for my soul I was introduced to the internet at about … 10 years old. Well, OK, it was BBSes back then, but I was busy destroying my notions of intellectual property rights and fair use before I even knew what crime really was.

Obviously, I’ve since learned my lesson and no longer partake in such activities, plus I’ve paid my dues to society and am not owing to any one in any way any more. Obviously.

What I find very interesting though, is despite all my supposed shady dealings, I still consider myself a true and virtuous person. Whenever I play games, I try to play the role of a law-abiding or law-enforcing citizen. Whenever I’m confronted with a moral quandry, no matter how simple, I always choose the path of good.

In Oblivion (the newly released RPG title), I was against my will changed into a Vampire. This endows me with a variety of upgrades and stat increases, but I inherently think Vampires are evil and I despise my character now.

Am I trying to make up for my less than virtuous side? Is this some sort of compensation?

Shifting gears now, I remember the first day the internet man came to my house and hooked up my very own connection. With no parents nearby, the younger man looked over his shoulder and said “Wanna see something cool? It’s kinda gross.” And I was foolishly excited.

Now, BBSes existed to provide me with a bazillion pornographic images of all sorts and I was already numb to this. But the magical world of gory photographs on the internet completely sickened me.

I had never seen a website with such wanton death and maiming before. Pictures of people splattered on the pavement below skyscrapers; rotting corpses hanging from trees in the forest; roast dead baby in Chinese back alleys; 7th month baseball bat abortions…

Nowadays when I think of “gross and disturbing” I think back to the collection of pictures that Internet Man showed me. I had nightmares from them every so often. But jumping to such an extreme so early has made everything else pale in comparison.

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Devil Inside

Posted on March 31st, 2006 by Fozzie

I’m not a religious guy. I don’t go in for the superstitions of heaven, hell, god, nor the devil. Yet I find myself thinking as I’m bumping around cyberspace, was this all created by the devil?

Since contracting internetitus, I’ve had my aversion to stealing softened, my distaste for violent and disturbing images totally negated, and my porn consumption quintupled or possibly even octupled. Nothing is shocking anymore. Nothing I’ve seen in the past few years has affected me in any emotional way. I’ve seen people with hands blown off, I’ve seen hairy tranny midgets having sex with horses, and I’ve seen people wallowing in feces, but none of these things generates any reaction other than a “Huh, you don’t see that everyday”. The superstitious would say that the devil has worked his way into my mind and is twisting it and I should get right with the lord. I find myself wondering if that could be true.

It’s not just the porn and the faces of death images either. I had stolen one thing in my life up to the age of 20, and that was a candybar. Now, I don’t bat an eye to allegedly acquire various possibly copyrighted intellectual materials. Of course most will argue that this is not exactly the same as stealing a physical product, but if that were the case then why did I just say “allegedly” and “possibly” in the previous sentence? Why do I feel that I should keep it on “the down low” if it’s not wrong. I am of the opinion that morals are inherently inborn into all of us, and we only lose them when we actively negate them. It could be that this “internet” thing is the tool whereby all our remaining morals will be corrupted.

Just something that has crossed my mind recently. It’s not gospel or anything, it’s just a thought.

3 comments : D to 'Devil Inside'

  1. on March 31st, 2006 at 5:03 am #

    Fozzie said,

    The award for most clever post title goes to:

    Maristar!

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    on March 31st, 2006 at 9:20 am #

    deek said,

    Agreed. I am ok with my desensitized to the world. Makes it easier to focus on stuff that I want to focus on without being concerned with every little thing going on in the world. Yes it is selfish but if I am happy it will spread to others.

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    on March 31st, 2006 at 11:43 am #

    Jabobo said,

    It took you that long to say that the outternet has made less-than-morally-acceptable multimedia more readily available?

    Sheesh.

Put those fingers to the keys!

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Poet has rhymed his last verse!

Posted on March 30th, 2006 by weasel

Last week, Poet gave his 1 day’s notice. A bit shorter than 2 weeks, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles sometimes I suppose.

He cited a variety of excuses and wrote his farewell in a well constructed and polite manner, so please join me in wishing him a warm farewell and good luck in his future endeavors. Of course, if he was a dick I’d say let’s all go TP his house, but alas; he was not.

This will be my final filler paragraph so the page formatting won’t get too screwed up. He said he didn’t want some big eulogy thing so here ya go.

16 comments : D to 'Poet has rhymed his last verse!'

  1. Default Image

    on March 30th, 2006 at 10:47 am #

    Jabobo said,

    teh?

  2. on March 30th, 2006 at 10:50 am #

    weasel said,

    It’s one of those intentional typo things. You know, like the title of the site?

  3. Default Image

    on March 30th, 2006 at 10:58 am #

    Jabobo said,

    eh?

  4. Default Image

    on March 30th, 2006 at 11:34 am #

    Likalia said,

    So who are you going to get to fill Poet’s cynical & analytical shoes?

    oh and is there no front page anymore?

  5. on March 30th, 2006 at 12:08 pm #

    weasel said,

    I’ve got some posts in some forums requesting some replacement folk; I’m looking to get a nice collection of 7+ people (one for each day hopefully).

    I can only dream that they will be as cynical as poet!

    As for the front page; it has some bugs when I miss a post, and due to Poet’s loss it’s hard to ensure a post a day every day. As soon as we get some replacements the front page will go back up. (Though I prefer it without the front page… Maybe I’ll make a poll)

  6. Default Image

    on March 30th, 2006 at 4:11 pm #

    deek said,

    I will try and start submitting articles once I have more time (Summer)

  7. on March 30th, 2006 at 5:22 pm #

    Maristar said,

    I want to know where the links to days at the top of the page went.

  8. on March 30th, 2006 at 5:22 pm #

    weasel said,

    They were replaced with a less-messy-looking calendar. DUH

  9. on March 30th, 2006 at 8:43 pm #

    Fozzie said,

    You had time to read this post and write those words, Deek, a post doesnt’ take much longer. Hell look at my crap! You think that takes more than a few seconds? Hellz no! It’s stream of conscious mindpuke.

    I can write thousands of “articles” in no time, I just choose not to….

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    on March 30th, 2006 at 8:46 pm #

    Jabobo said,

    Some of us aren’t satisfied with sucking, Fozzie.

  11. on March 30th, 2006 at 8:47 pm #

    Fozzie said,

    You seemed satisfied last night.

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    on March 30th, 2006 at 8:49 pm #

    Jabobo said,

    I expected something along those lines.

    Yes.

    Your moms boobies satisfy me infinitely.

    And intimately.

  13. on March 30th, 2006 at 8:52 pm #

    Fozzie said,

    Yes, but you had to pay, and I gots me some prime rib with the proceeds.

  14. Default Image

    on March 30th, 2006 at 8:54 pm #

    Jabobo said,

    Prime rib, eh?

    Well I ate smoked salmon.

  15. on March 30th, 2006 at 8:56 pm #

    Fozzie said,

    Jesus, you had to pay AND service her? Usually when you pay you’re the one that gets served. I guess you got the budget package.

  16. on March 30th, 2006 at 10:23 pm #

    weasel said,

    DING DING! Fozzie wins the match!

Put those fingers to the keys!

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Suck ‘n’ Blow

Posted on March 29th, 2006 by the Thing

dear maggie,

i want to know why particles can travel faster than the speed of light through media but not through a vacuum
…

or then i guess why the speed of light is lower in a material.

- Anonymous

Dear Suck’n'Blow,

Particles of light are like Particles of dust… but the same principle applies. You - a consumer of the shows of TV, suck in the particles of light and sound from your television as fast as you possibly can. You may not like them all, some are kinda nasty and should have been left where they were; other you just couldn’t resist the temptation to take them in because of their seductive nature (whatever turns your crank). Same with a Vacuum. Your pet Hoover may not like that dust hippo you’ve left him that has morphed into a dust T-Rex over the months but he may like the bits of candy and cookie crumbs he finds at the same time.

I’m not sure about your ‘light is lower in material’ bit… maybe you mean lighter? as in weight? It’s hard for the Dr. to answer questions that aren’t formed clearly. And since Dr. Maggie is sick (and typing in the third person) she will stop now before she gives you a grammar lecture… even though I’m sure I need them myself at times.

7 comments : D to 'Suck ‘n’ Blow'

  1. on March 29th, 2006 at 10:23 pm #

    weasel said,

    Well light is obviously lightweight, hence it’s name.

  2. Default Image

    on March 29th, 2006 at 11:51 pm #

    Jabobo said,

    The emailer is retarded.

    That is the answer.

  3. Default Image

    on March 30th, 2006 at 7:24 am #

    Gwyd said,

    To be precise, what we usually call the “speed of light” is really the speed of light in a vacuum (the absence of matter). In reality, the speed of light depends on the material that light moves through. Thus, for example, light moves slower in glass than in air, and in both cases the speed is less than in a vacuum. However, the density of matter between the stars is sufficiently low that the actual speed of light through most of interstellar space is essentially the speed it would have through a vacuum, so we don’t make much error by ignoring the difference.

    The preceding statements about the constant speed of light refer to the speed of light in a particular medium, such as a vacuum. Within such a medium, the speed is constant, but light changes its speed when it moves from one medium (say air) to another (say glass). This change of speed at the boundary between two different media is the principle that causes a lens in a telescope or eyeglasses to work.

    Answer:

    According to Einstein, nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, and the speed of light is at its peak, a static figure, when travelling through a vacuum, and is less through any other medium.

    kthx, plzthx.

    Source: Google. Retard.

  4. Default Image

    on March 30th, 2006 at 8:42 am #

    Jabobo said,

    Dear magggie,

    Where does one get a brain that doesn’t suck?

  5. on March 30th, 2006 at 12:11 pm #

    weasel said,

    It’s hard to find full grown brains nowadays, but I think China has some baby brains as a delicacy.

  6. Default Image

    on March 30th, 2006 at 11:15 pm #

    Maggie said,

    Dear Gwyd,
    What’s the deal? Are you stealing my thunder?

  7. on March 31st, 2006 at 9:52 am #

    Fozzie said,

    He tries to get the glory of a weekly post without the work entailed within.

    That and he’s a dick and Poet is gone so he’ll be looking to challenge his next victim.

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Bridge Construction Set

Posted on March 28th, 2006 by weasel

It seems that Weasel’s Gaming Tuesdays is losing in the popularity races, so this will be the last one unless something really interesting comes along, I promise! :)

Bridge Construction Set is a game by Chronic Logic, yet another small-time indy gaming company that has won many awards for their work. This particular game is a bridge building simulator; you go into a sort of 3D lego environment and place building blocks that will be tested for sturditity.

You have quite a few options available; flatdeck bridges, bottom supports, suspension, drawbridge, and all the other types of bridges that I can’t think of names for right now since I’m not a bridge builder. Sometimes putting together bridges can be a pain - there is a challenge mode where they restrict your building supplies (only use light iron, no steel! don’t spend more than $100,000!)… And you have to safely get a train/car/boat across the way.

Physics are modelled incredibly well, but sometimes your bridge will snap halfway through, and… well… let’s just say the train can go sailing through the air, and if your lucky and time it just right, the train can land on a passing barge and get floated downriver. :D

They even have forum contests where some people demonstrate some examples from the previous version (not as graphically pretty).

Here’s a screenshot from the latest version. Beautiful.

Kindof a neat fun game to play with!

12 comments : D to 'Bridge Construction Set'

  1. Default Image

    on March 28th, 2006 at 10:35 am #

    Jabobo said,

    Their bridge building sim is very fun…toyed with it on and off over the past few years. Another good one is the west point bridge designer…here’s a link: LINK

  2. on March 28th, 2006 at 12:08 pm #

    weasel said,

    Wow, that West Point one looks really cool too. Maybe not as pretty as this one but more fine control in there. I’ll give it a shot when I get home.

  3. Default Image

    on March 28th, 2006 at 2:33 pm #

    deek said,

    This does look quite cool but I am still holding out for FFXII and Dirge of Cerberus:FFVII. Now that will be some quality gaming.

  4. on March 28th, 2006 at 4:20 pm #

    Fozzie said,

    Console or “Japanese” style rpgs are a total snoozefest to me now that Morrowind and its ilk have arrived. I can’t imagine going back to the whole on-rails linear storybook style rpg. I grew up with them, having owned all the Final Fantasies up to 7, but they’ve just grown completely stale over the years.

  5. Default Image

    on March 28th, 2006 at 4:40 pm #

    Jabobo said,

    How did we get on the topic of gaypg’s? Japo-culture sucks, and everything pumped out of its capitalist machine towards the pea-brained westerners sucks as well.

  6. Default Image

    on March 28th, 2006 at 8:58 pm #

    deek said,

    I guess a lot has to do with my loyalty to the series. True some of the games have not been stellar (FFX-2), but each has its own special trait that makes them worth playing.

  7. Default Image

    on March 29th, 2006 at 12:07 am #

    peepshow said,

    gotta say; i’m luvin the japanese culture right now.

    bsides, everything the japanese know about capitalism they learned from the americans when commodore perry arrived off their coasts and invented “gunboat” diplomacy.

  8. Default Image

    on March 29th, 2006 at 12:07 am #

    peepshow said,

    oh yeah, bridges rock, but i haven’t played this game, but i’m sure it roxors too.

  9. Default Image

    on March 29th, 2006 at 3:32 pm #

    Jabobo said,

    somebody slacked off today. And I’m pissed.

  10. Default Image

    on March 29th, 2006 at 6:07 pm #

    deek said,

    As am I.

  11. Default Image

    on March 29th, 2006 at 7:39 pm #

    Jabobo said,

    Dammit wizzle. Should have let me have the place for the day. I’d do great things.

  12. on March 29th, 2006 at 10:21 pm #

    weasel said,

    Well I *did* offer anyone the chance to publish anything, and noone took the bait. :P I had massive computer problems and was unable to post until it was 22 hours late. :(

Put those fingers to the keys!

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cAndyland

Posted on March 27th, 2006 by weasel

Candy. How I love thee.

On the subject of those blasted Cadbury Cream Eggs; you can’t eat them without getting your fingers really really sticky; the interior of the eggs is much too sweet; the thought of eating yolk raw (imitation or not) is pretty disturbing. Also, McDonald’s has a Cream Egg McFlurry which I tried the other day. They took this sickly orange squeeze bottle and squirted it on top… The yolk bit, I’m assuming. Disgusting. Just disgusting.

Thoughts aside, if they made a bite-sized version that didn’t have a yellow center, I’d probably be all for it.

I really enjoy many many types of candy. I don’t really have a favorite… I’m more or less partial to Snickers and Charlston Chews for my candybar selection; gummies go to those sour keys or other similar devices in that family (coke bottles, gummy frogs, etc); soft candy title would probably go to Starburst; and hard candies… Mmmm, not the most fond of hard candies, but I had a real jonesing for Jolly Ranchers the other day. I love the taste but I hate that they’re hard…

I remember this one time, the dentist found this gummy bear leg stuck between two of my teeth. Scary thing was, I had no idea it was there, and I hadn’t had gummy bears for months.

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