Bees And Birthday Wishes

I’m pretty terrible when it comes to remembering things, especially once a year events like birthdays. However, I would like to assure you that I did not, in fact, forget Rob’s birthday despite my post being a day after. While I remembered his birthday, I forgot to make a post about it – I intended to, but what can I say? I suck. So, a day late but no less sincere, happy birthday to Rob.

The other thing I meant to talk about was I Love Bees, the Halo-based interactive online game I mentioned a few months ago. I was going to recommend that now would be a good time to go ahead and catch up, as lot’s of information is available and can be pretty easily read/listened through in a few hours. As you might have guessed from my use of the past tense, however, I’m going to refrain from doing so.

Not because it isn’t good; it’s really, really good. And fun. The problem lies in the content of yesterday’s update – it’s not suitable for all audiences. I’m not sure how much different the feeling will be for someone who hasn’t played this game for months, developing what attachment you can to fictional characters, but I know what it did to me and I can’t say it was enjoyable.

Let me back up a minute and elaborate. For the past few weeks the plot and backstory of the game have been playing itself out largely though unlocked audio files, which I won’t link here for the same reasons I already covered. The files follow the stories of a handful of individuals, stories that initially seem totally unrelated to the larger context of the game. As time has gone by, the files have gotten closer and closer to the main thread of the game until, today, they took a fairly interesting (if not disturbing) turn.

I won’t cover it any further, I just felt like I should follow through on my intention to mention the game despite my misgivings. If you find yourself intrigued and would like more info, feel free to e-mail me and I’ll give you more links and files than you know what to do with. If enough people are interested I’ll probably put some stuff into that forum I created in a more ambitious time.

Technical Difficulties

Depending on whether or not anyone actually still visits this site on a regular basis, you may have noticed that it was not, as you say, present yesterday and today. There were some fairly major server issues that my wonderful host has finally resolved and things should be smooth from here on out. Thankfully no data was lost, although it might have been for the better if it had – the directory structure is in pretty bad shape and could really use a cleanup.

My e-mail went down long before the site, although I didn’t actually notice right away. Thus, if you e-mailed me anytime between Monday and now I probably didn’t get it and almost certainly did not reply. E-mail is now back online as well, so you may once again send me messages full of vitrol or praise as you deem fit.

It’s Probably About Time

After months of procrastination and apathy the final edition of the version three template is live! The switch to a new backend powered by Wordpress has also been simultaneously completed. The backend switch was the main reason behind the long delays involved in this project, and the switch itself is far from final as there are several things about WP that I don’t like. However, for the near future things should stay pretty much as you see them now.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that the actual version three update itself is done – far from it. The new template has only been applied to the main weblog page (the one you get by default) and not to any of the other sections. The archives are there, but they consist of the old system’s contents and won’t reflect new posts (including this one). I’ll get around to fixing that soon. The other sections will also start getting the template update as well as new content over the next few weeks, so stay tuned if that sort of thing sounds interesting to you.

Even this main template still has some quirks that I’ll be working to resolve. I haven’t implemented the style controls listed at the top right near the header and that will probably wait until the rest of the site is finished.

Anyway, I hope you all like it – feel free to give comments and feedback as you see fit.

A Good Exam Is No Exam

I was supposed to have the dreaded Algorithms exam this morning, but imagine my surprise when I came to class and was told that it was now postponed until next week Monday. I guess I should be grateful for the extra time, but really I just wanted to get it over with so that I can decide if there’s any real reason to continue putting long hours into this class. Hours that I could be spending studying for my Programming Languages exam, which is also on Monday.

In site related news, the about section has been newly updated with what should become a regular tradition here. Rather than write my own introduction I had my buddy George try his hand at it. The cams should also be done shorty – mostly I’m just waiting for our new content providers to provide URIs.

Update: the cams section has been updated with (almost) all new content! Feel free to browse about, and rest assured that even more attention whores will be coming soon.

There’s No Place Like Home

Yeah, I know, four days in a row. Don’t get used to it.

Anyway, I think I’ve mentioned at least two other instances of what I can only refer to as “Sendai flashbacks.” They’re pretty mundane when you think about it, and don’t have anything particularly emotional attached to them. For some reason, today’s was different.

For starters it was a little more unusual than the rest: I saw a guy my age walk out of Subway and climb onto a moped. Now, those of you who live in major cities like New York might not find that so odd since you see those things once in a while. Those of you in crazy European nations probably see them daily. Rest assured, however, that in Michigan such a sight is quite rare indeed, and in a place like Houghton it’s practically unheard of. I mean, a tiny moped is all but useless for fully half of the year up here.

Regardless, as I watched him get on and motor away I felt a sudden, deep tug of what I can only describe as homesickness. That doesn’t really make sense since I spent only slightly more than six months in Sendai but it’s the only way I can think of that adequately verbalizes the feeling. It’s not like I’ve never thought about how it might be fun to go back to Japan sometime, but this was first time I can remember feeling that going back would be like going home. Perhaps it was more startling because, honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever felt that way about Novi.

I think a lot of it has to do with the contrast between a city and a suburb. Almost by necessity, suburbs are devoid of that back-alley feel you get from a city. There aren’t nooks and crannies to discover, there are no small out of the way restaurants to sample or shortcuts home. You don’t have densely packed downtown centers filled with so many stores and cafes that, even six months down the road, you can hang out with the author of a major webcomic and discover a ramen shop you didn’t know about.

As is the case with most seniors I have been thinking, lately, of what I’m going to do when I finish the extended high school experience we call college. A lot of my musings center on what sort of job I want, of course, but almost as much time is spent wondering where I want that job to be. I’ve thought a lot about the west coast, Seattle particularly (who in the software industry doesn’t?) as well as spots in Texas and even Montreal.

I guess maybe this is just Sendai’s subtle way of annoucing itself as a contender.

Stalin For President

The week from hell is nearly at an end, thankfully, with only my Programming Languages exam remaining at seven tonight. There’s also a C++ project due on Wednesday but I can’t even begin to imagine how that might be difficult to finish. After all, when the majority of your class blames their tenuous grasp of variable scoping on the professor’s poor English you can’t expect inspired assignments.

Unfortunately, the election from hell is far from over and shows no sign of getting more interesting or relevant to, well, anything. I am so sick of mindless rhetoric from both sides – and there really are only two this time around – of the argument. It’s one thing to force me to listen to poorly constructed drivel spouted from those who only cast aside the veil of ignorance for three months every four years. This is just something you have to put up with in America. It’s another thing entirely, however, to have to listen to a group of people whose only uniting characteristic is their insatiable hatred for Bush.

Don’t get me wrong, I harbor no love for Bush – I disagree with him on almost every point relevant to his re-election. The difference is that my dislike for him does not blind me to the (in most cases) equally reprehensible characteristics of his primary opponent. The very concept that my disagreement with Bush creates some sort of vacuous moral pedestal upon which I must stand united with a disgusting character like Kerry has been enough to drive me away from the entire spectacle. For them, it’s not enough that I dislike Bush; in addition to that I must vote for the only candidate who is likely to beat him because it is my duty to remove him from office regardless of the caliber of man I replace him with. What does it say about the average American when Kerry supporters find it agreeable to rally around a cry of “anyone but Bush.” Anyone, eh? I’ll have to poke around the less fortunate areas of the world to see if I can’t scare up a few genocidal dictators to offer as an alternative. After all, anyone would be better, ne?

This isn’t a call to arms so much as a call in opposition to the ludicrous one offered by those who support Kerry: please vote your conscience this November. Don’t pick the one you hate the least, don’t pick one who “isn’t the other guy,” don’t pick the one you feel you have to. Vote for someone you honestly believe in, even if it means writing him or her in, or don’t vote at all. There’s something inherently wrong with someone who won’t vote for a candidate they believe in, but there’s nothing wrong with someone who refuses to cast a ballot in support of a lesser evil.

Child’s Play 2004

I had something else to talk about today but I decided I’d better explain the new banner first. The other stuff can wait until tomorrow.

Anyway, as you may have noticed the pretty autumn leaves have been replaced with a banner that links to Child’s Play, a charity set up buy the guys who do Penny Arcade. You can read the story of how it started here, but if you want the quick version it was done as a response to yet another article comparing gamers to serial killers. Last year’s drive was a runaway success; far beyond what anyone had thought would happen. This year they’ve expanded the drive to include five different Children’s Hospitals around the country in addition to streamlining the whole donation process, thanks largely to the help of Amazon.

It’s always a good idea to remember just how fortunate most of us are in our lives, and even though it’s practically cliché to give to charity near Christmas that doesn’t make it any less worthy. Give it a click and donate a few toys and videogames to sick kids who deserve it.

Public Apology #2

Okay, now that I’ve gotten the political pontificating out of my system we can move on to what I was originally going to talk about yesterday. Without going into any sort of long and boring introspection I’d like to apologize to everyone I’ve ever known. That probably seems like an overdramatic thing to do but bear with me for a moment and I’m sure you’ll see why.

Throughout much of my life I’ve been a cynical bastard. One of the unfortunately side-effects of this fact has been my tendency to condescend to pretty much anyone I’ve ever spoken to. It was, at some point in the distant past and for reasons that baffle me now, a personality trait I was actually proud of. I won’t even attempt to explain that line of reasoning – I offer it only for historical perspective.

Anyway, this is one of my many undesirable traits I’ve been working to curb in the last few years of my life. It’s also probably the one I’ve had the least success with, as pretty much anyone I’ve spoken to recently can surely attest. Since I haven’t had much luck on my own I thought that, perhaps, putting it out in a public setting will force me to be more conscious of it. Thus, this post is a combination blanket apology and directive to call me on this any time you catch me doing it. I do this for two reasons: one, there’s far too many of you to apologize to individually (although I’ll surely try while this post is still fresh in my memory) and two, if I have several dozen people actively telling me to shut my mouth it’ll help to defeat the habit.

Think of it like one of those experiments where you shock the rat for going down the wrong fork in a maze.

I Don’t Even Know What Limey Means

I didn’t expect quite the responses I got to Wednesday’s post so I think I’ll take a moment to clarify, briefly, what I meant. I’m not saying that being cynical is bad, and in fact I’m not even saying that I don’t want to be cynical anymore. You can be cynical without being condescending, I think, which is what I was trying to get at. I made the post in response to a few bad reactions from a handful of people over the last few weeks, thinking perhaps this was a complaint shared by most who knew me. I guess not, but I think it’d still be better if I changed it.

Anyway.

Did anyone else notice this? I guess I have something of a question for my non-American readers and friends: what do you think about that? I’m not really asking what you think about Bush (or Kerry, for that matter) but what you think about one country’s media trying desperately to influence the elections of another nation. It doesn’t shock me that Americans reacted badly to the intrusion:

Dear wonderful, loving friends from abroad,
We Ohioans are an ornery sort and don’t take meddling well, even if it comes from people we admire and with their sincere goodwill. We are a fairly closed community overall. In my town of Springfield, I feel that there are some that consider people from the nearby cities of Columbus or Dayton, as “foreigners”- let alone someone from outside our country.

I imagine that the citizens of most other countries would feel the same way, but then, I don’t know for sure, which is why I’ve asked. For that matter, are there any Americans out there (Kerry supporters I’d imagine) who feel that the Guardian was in line with that campaign? I’d be interested to hear your reasons if there are.