Goodbye, Haloscan

I've removed the Haloscan, but I preserved the comments that were run by it. I'll be placing them in the correct comment threads in a bit.

Edit: Yay! The prior blogger comments did return, like I suspected they would!

/happy dance

Haloscan, the update...

Time for this feature to go. I much prefer the new blogger feature.

So I'm going to give this a day or two, then I'm scrapping the feature. I know I'll loose the Haloscan comments, but I hope I can salvage the old blogger ones.

My new background image

This is just too cute!

Classical Values sees a Moral Collision Course

Eric Scheie at Classical Values ponders a Moral Collision Course.

I've been reading Classical Values for quite a few years now. In fact I should have credited his post when I made my Famous Leaders post. Obviously, I like reading what is posted over there. If I ever take the time to figure out how to make a blogroll, Classical Values will definitely make the list.

Anyways, on to his post.

A story in today's Inquirer illustrates a strange and disturbing irony, and it's the second one of it's kind to make the local news. I speculated about the line between animal hoarding and animal rescue in an earlier post about a Philadelphia school teacher/author/animal "rescuer" whose house had been rendered uninhabitable by a huge number of cats.

This time, Pennsylvania's animal control bureaucracy stands accused of ignoring a much larger, ongoing problem at a professional animal rescue outfit called "Faithful but Forgotten Friends"

The only comment I have is that I think his conclusion is on the mark. I love animals, but there is a difference between humans and animals.

As for rescue operations, I haven't made the 400 mile trip to the Colorado House Rabbit Society place. However, if they treat the buns there like the people in the above story treated the dogs, I will be absolutely crushed.

I don't think that will happen, though.

What glorious news!

Today, I received a link to a press release stating that LucasArts and BioWare have "entered into an agreement to create an interactive entertainment product."

What does this mean? Well, some have been speculating for more than a year that BioWare has been working on a Massively Multiplayer Online game with a Star Wars setting. While this press release was worded in such a way as to NOT provide details one can easily draw conclusions.

Let me just say that I am completely convinced of a Star Wars MMO being developed by BioWare. I couldn't be happier.

I will now wait for the official announcement, then I'll likely frequent their website (I just signed up through that link) and look to spread my opinions over there.

From reading a presentation that Gordon Walton made at the Game Developer Conference in Austin, I have a general idea of what the basic layout of the game might be. However, one of the biggest parts of any MMORPG for me wasn't mentioned in that article. That would be crafting.

A decent crafting system is needed in a MMO for me to really become involved with the game.

I'm already to the point in WoW where I barely log in anymore. My current goal is to get 4 more levels before their next expansion. After that, I plan on getting the Death Knight. After that? Honestly, after that I don't see any reason to keep playing the game. Leveling only holds so much of my attention.

Having the choice of spending my time working on an intricate crafting system or slaughtering tons of monsters is the best way of keeping me paying for a game. There are times when I want to create and times when I want to destroy.

Unfortunately, WoW does not offer any tools for my creative side. If you want to craft in WoW, you have to spend absurd amount of time killing creatures/npcs to get loot that drops only in small amounts and at irregular times. You need this to craft any item in the game, with the exception of the lowest level items in the crafting system (the items that are essentially worthless because everyone outgrows them in hours).

When BioWare officially announces the game, I will take a look at whatever information they publish then I will start my campaign. I WILL make my presense known to them. I WILL make them realize how important crafting and trading is to the long term success of MMOs.

Mistah Kurtz -- He dead.

I didn't notice this until late Friday, but I didn't have time to put up a quick blog post.

At the same time that I took the What Famous Leader Are You? quiz, I also took the "What Classic Movie Are You?". My result:

What Classic Movie Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Now, I see the correlation between the two quizzes.

In the Leader quiz, I am a "detached intellectual whose ideas saved/will destroy the world." And in the movie quiz, I am "searching after my shadow self."

It is kind of nice to see that both results show my nature as being curious and exploratory. I'd have to say that is fairly accurate.

I guess it could also mean that after finding my shadow self, I will use my ideas to destroy the world! Muhahaha!

I'll let you figure out the actual result.

PS. Bonus points if you can name where I picked up this title.

It figures...

Mere days after I put on Haloscan, for the sole purpose of tracking comments, Blogger adds that function to their code.

Typical.

Now I don't want to revert back for fear of losing all the new comments that are run by Haloscan.

What famous leader are you?

Sometimes I enjoy these little personality quizes. Most of the time, they can be easily manipulated. However, I wasn't expecting this result.

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Too much cuteness!

I saw the link while visiting Disapproving Rabbits a while back, but I was able to resist the temptation.

I failed miserably today. If you are diabetic, I'd warn you against clicking on this link, the sweetness will overwhelm you.

Cute Overload!

I'd have to pick this one as my favorite so far. However, this one is a close second. Very close.

Best wishes

To all affected by the wildfire evacuation in San Diego; I wish you the best of luck.

Raph and his crew at Metaplace and the bunch of people at Sony Online Entertainment are the only people I know in this area. As the links show, they have had to evacuate their homes and facilities.

I have had some issues with Sony Online Entertainment, but that doesn't mean that I wish them to be caught in a fire or even to have their homes burned down. I wouldn't mind the management being fired, as in losing their jobs, but no one deserves to have their home destroyed.

Having spent a decade in the insurance business, I could tell you about families that have lost everything in their homes. But I'll sum it up in two words: It sucks.

This morning's reading

On my way to work, I stopped past my post office to see if a highly anticipated package was waiting for me. It was!

So, when I got to work, even before I started with my Monday Morning duties, I thumbed through some cute, fluffy bunny disapproval. It was then I noticed something, on the first page of the book Neil Gaiman noted his disapproval of the use of his name. Did Mrs. Stiteler meet Mr. Gaiman while working on getting her book published?

After taking care of my job, I turned to the internet for this curious question I had.

I quickly came across Neil Gaiman's website and - as is frequently the case - I instantly recognized it from prior web surfing. The answer to the question is, "no." The Birdchick has actually been friends with "Mr. Neil" for quite some time, and has been beekeeping on his property.

I don't recall why I visited Mr. Gaiman's website years before, probably looking up stuff on his books, but I never really checked out his journal there. After looking a few of the entries, I now discovered what will be occupying my time this week. I couldn't be happier!

Edit: It would appear that Mr. Gaiman was an acquaintance of Jim Rigney (Robert Jordan).

Breaking News!

On almost every website and blog I read, the news is out. Dumbledore is gay!

My response: Who cares?

I'd provide a link to the news, but what is the point? Most likely anyone reading this blog has already seen it on the news.

Haloscan

I recently made a comment on another blog that had this neat featured called Haloscan on it. Haloscan is a feature you can put on your blogs that will allow commentors to receive emails if a reply has been made on the topic. As a person that reads many different blogs, I love features like this.

And it works! I received an email stating that a reply was made to the topic I commented on.

So I decided to put it on this blog.

Edit: Well, darn. It appears that I lost all the previous comments when I made the change. However, I still see the comments appearing on my dashboard, so I assume I can correct this by removing the feature.

However, I still want to continue using this feature for a few days (or until Easter gets back from her fishing trip)

Mr. Razzle Cheese

This Halloween, beware of Mr. Razzle Cheese who lies in wait...

Therapeutic music

Well, I was in a fairly bad mood when I left work today because I never like seeing people wishing others to be bruatalized.

However, I got in my car and my CD started up and all was well with the world again. So, I'm now bringing another Bat for Lashes video to the blog, this one was recorded during an award show.

Horse and I

Awoken in the night
By a mystic golden light.
My head soaked in river water.
I had been dressed in a coat of armor.
They called a horse out of the woodland.
"Take her there, through the desert shores."
They sang to me, "This is yours to wear.
You're the chosen one, there's no turning back now."

The smell of redwood giants.
The banquet for the shadows.
Horse and I, we're dancers in the dark.
Came upon the headdress.
It was gilded, dark and golden.
The children sang.
I was so afraid I took it to my head and prayed.
They sang to me, "This is yours to wear.
You're the chosen one, there's no turning back."
They sang to me, "This is yours to wear.
You're the chosen one, there's no turning back."

There is no turning back.
There is no turn.
There is no turning back.
There is no turn.
There is no turning back.
There is no turn.



Edit: Yeah, I know the sound and video is out of sync. What can I say, it's YouTube...

Vileness

Today, one of the forums that I like to post in had a discussion about a person that is what I call a "Sensationalist Celebrity," Ann Coulter.

I read a lot of political websites. I must say that there are some truly vile people out there. People that, upon seeing someone take an opposite stance from theirs, become truly deplorable monsters.

Unfortunately, I see that there are some people like that on that particular forum.

Let me be clear, I deplore extremism. Ann Coulter is extremist and purposely controversial. That is how she makes her living. She goes to some media show, makes a controversial statement, then laughs all the way to the bank as people provide her with all the free publicity she could want for her new book. I even fell victim to that years ago and bought one of her books. After reading it, I don't have plans on buying any more books from the Footnote Queen.

However, though I deplore her actions she does not deserve to be gangraped by a group of AIDS infected truckers. The thoughts of this person are more deplorable still.

I'm a moderator at that forum, and I eventually locked the thread. However, after seeing some of the inner thoughts of some posters there, I'm actually considering leaving. I have tried in the past in other online communities to persuade people with hatred like that; and I've learned that they cannot be persuaded. He will continue to hate and spew vileness no matter what I can say. I just hope that he never takes action on this hatred.

Insert CD, Press Shuffle, Enjoy Music

A few days ago my Bat for Lashes CD arrived. I have a few CDs that I like to just shuffle the music because there are no bad songs on them. Fur and Gold has been added to the list.

For Easter, I think you'll enjoy this next video for the song What's a Girl To Do?

Love/Hate

Ah, fall has now officially arrived in Casper. The temperature on Monday was about 40 degrees Fahrenheit, now it is back up to 70, the wind is picking up and Halloween is around the corner.

Things that I love about Fall:
Halloween (in my opinion, the funnest holiday)
The colors changing on the trees
The cooler temperatures from the summer months

Things that I hate about Fall:
The wind
The dust the wind stirs up
The alergic reactions I have to the dust stirred up by the wind
The headaches I receive from the congestion caused by the allergic reaction of the dust stirred up by the wind.
The wind.

I need this job.

What is with these "studies" I keep seeing?

A while back, I read a study concluding that while choosing potential mates, men focus greatly on looks while women focus on money/power. I would love to provide a link, but the place I read it from is currently suffering from database problems. When the site is back up, I'll get the link then.

However, I do remember a few details about that study. First it consisted of a very limited number of participants around 20 men and women. Second this was based entirely on the results of speed dating. My conclusion was that the "researchers" used their grant money to try and hook up with hot women or rich men.

Now I've just found a study in Psychology Today that determines that - I'm not kidding here - strippers get more tips when they are ovulating.

Psychologist Geoffrey Miller and colleagues tapped the talent at local gentlemen's clubs and counted tips made on lap dances. Dancers made about $70 an hour during their peak period of fertility, versus about $35 while menstruating and $50 in between.

While this does provide some interesting questions on human physiology and behavior, it is quite possible that they could have chosen a more scientific way to study it.

The biggest question I have: Who pays for this kind of research and how do I get in contact with you?

Bat for Lashes

It is times like these that I'm so happy that I don't listen to commercial radio.

Wyoming Public Radio had an excellent host for a show they called Morning Music. Don Woods had apparently been hosting this radio program for 22 years (I think). He had enough contacts to get the occasional live band to play in the studio while he would interview them. Most of the bands are not what you would call commercially recognizable, more than a few were bands from the state itself.

He retired a few months ago. Thankfully, Wyoming Public Radio realized that it would hurt them to fill those hours with something like BBC News (which would actually come on in the afternoon), and instead they have filled the time with Public Radio International programs like American Routes, Sounds Eclectic, World Cafe and the like. These are programs that center around music.

This morning while on my commute to work, I caught the begining of a song I've never heard before. While driving, I really had to control myself from letting my feet tap and my head bob. I wasn't certain which program was running, but a quick google search and I discovered it was World Cafe. Click here for the link to the exact program I was listening to, with a link there to listen to the program.

I cannot express the joy I get when I stumble upon new bands to listen too. My next step is to go to Amazon and buy the CD.

In the meantime, here is a link for their official website and the youtube video of Trophy. Gotta love musicians that understand how to use modern tools.



Edit: Dang, I can't wait for that CD to get in...

Prescilla