Death of a Meme: Boring Car Trip

There was once a time in America when the automobile was so commonplace that lengthy car trips were not uncommon, and yet smartphones did not yet exist.  During this dark time, car trips could become boring.  These boring car trips were so well known that they were regularly used as comedic fodder.
I just happened to realize this the other day.  Gone are the days when car trips could be expected to be boring for anyone besides the driver.  The commonplace of smartphones and the ubiquity of enumerated G cell phone networks have nearly eradicated this pocket of boredom.
I suppose that this means that technology has made people's lives better yet again, in that they need not suffer boredom.  On the other hand, it won't be long before people show up who simply won't comprehend this aspect of older comedic film and television.
Shall I mourn this departure from the world of comedy?

Sudden Short Story 8

James sipped his coffee, then shook his head a bit as he put it down. He looked out the window, toward the Gotham skyline, and spoke: "I just don't know what to make of it, Charlie."
"Make of what? You still haven't told me what's bugging you."
James looked back at his friend, took out a cloth, wiped off his glasses, put them back on, and asked, "You went with the light blue and gold one? I don't think that it compliments your jacket that well."
"Quit criticizing my choice in ties and get on with it. You didn't call me out here just to not tell me anything."
"Well, it's just... I don't know what to make of it, Charlie."
"You said that already. Don't try to make anything of it - just tell me what's going on."
"Well, I was doing some research on the early origins of the Batmen, and, I noticed that the comic book fragments and other merchandising from the late twentieth century seemed to be out of proportion to the number of unique mostly-partial journalistic works on Batman from the same era...."
"Well, most of the records from back then were lost. We're lucky to have what we do."
"Yeah, well, to be comprehensive, I decided to look at the journalistic articles from the time, and ... it's weird. It seems that they all refer to some kind of merchandising opportunity - this comic or that film (would that we had them) - but never to the first Batman himself."
"Hmm... That does seem a bit strange. But, with the record so sparse, it could just be an unfortunate coincidence...."
"Well, I figured that I could even out my odds if I looked for information on Bruce Wayne. There'd have to be some kind of record of him, since rich people tend to leave large, if obtuse and ultimately fruitless, paper trails. Of course, he wouldn't appear in the same articles as Batman, since his identity wasn't revealed until two generations later, right?"
"Oh, is that where they got that tradition?"
James took another sip from his coffee, then grabbed a sugar cube and tossed it in.
"Did you find anything?"
"Yeah, and that's when it went from just satisfying my curiosity to.... I found a fragment of an article that mentioned Bruce Wayne. It's funny, y'know? It's one of those forest-for-the-trees things, or it's just so very obvious that nobody noticed it before now."
Charlie saw on James's face what he'd been saying the whole time: that he didn't know what to make of what he'd seen. "Hey, you said that it's just part of an article, right? Whatever you think that you've learned about Bruce Wayne, maybe you don't have the whole picture."
"I recognized the article, Charlie. It came up in my previous search. I must have overlooked it before.... It mentioned that Bruce Wayne was Batman, but the article itself was dated 1989."
"But how did he survive for as long as he did after that? The whole point of keeping his identity secret is so that he's not under attack twenty-four hours a day."
"Did I mention that that was the only mention of Bruce Wayne from that period? There's no death certificate, no bills or taxes or press releases or deeds or anything."
"Well, as you may have heard, there aren't a lot of records from back then."
"But nothing else? It doesn't feel right, Charlie. He should have left a pretty big paper trail, so there should have been something, don't you think?"
"So, what, someone knew that Bruce Wayne was Batman, published it, and then someone orchestrated a conspiracy to cover it up for, what... Wait, 1989? Was the first Batman even around back then? Maybe the record's bad."
"Yeah, that could be - poor transcription or something. Or maybe poor date translation... They used DOS-based computers back then, right?"
"I think so. Anyway, I can only assume that the original copy wasn't from 1989."
"Yeah, maybe you're right," said James, taking a swig of his coffee. He looked into the cup, and then put it back down. "I'd better quit now or I'll never get to sleep."
"The coffee or the digging until you hit the edge of our knowledge?" Charlie got up to leave. "You're not the only one who's got work in the morning." With that, he went out to his car, a sort of dark maroon color, started it up, and took off.
James payed his bill, threw down some coins for a tip, and left shortly thereafter.

In Which February is Annoying

February probably annoys most folks for the same reason that January does: It provides terrible driving conditions.
But, for me, February is annoying because it's so short. Specifically, I'm about to run out of February, and this will be my 3rd blog post for it. :P I just spent some time working on another post, only to determine that it makes no sense.
January slammed past me because I'd done a bunch of blog posts in December. February flew past by being so short. However! I expect to make about 10 blog posts in March. I've got about 8 in the works at the moment, and, if I keep getting ideas at the rate that I do, then I'll have even a few more.

I'm at that Awkward Point in TF2...

I'm at that awkward point in Team Fortress 2 where I have one of every weapon, but not the Poly Count hats or the resources to make them. (Well, strictly speaking, I don't have the Degreaser, but I'm not terribly worried about it.) For those who aren't familiar w/ TF2's item drop system, there are certain "Poly Count" sets for some classes, which are a combination of some weapons and a hat. The weapons can be found via the random drop system, but the hats never drop, so they have to be bought or made. The weapons can be bought or made, too, but buying them costs real money, and by the time that one has enough waste material to make them, one has probably already found them. The hats can be made with the crafting system, too, but this takes vast quantities of weapons to do. (For reference, a hat costs at least 3 Refined Metal to make, each of which costs 3 Reclaimed Metal, each of which costs 3 Scrap Metal, each of which costs 2 weapons, giving an effective price of >54 weapons to make a hat.)
If it weren't for the Poly Count sets, then I'd have no reason to even be thinking about hats prior to this point. But, of course, Valve is quite clever about this. The hats do nothing by themselves, but those that are part of Poly Count sets allow someone w/ a complete set to get some kind of bonus! (For example, Ol' Snaggletooth does nothing alone, but as part of The Croc-o-Style Kit, prevents headshots.)
So, the excitement of getting a new weapon is basically gone, replaced with the excitement of getting ANY weapon, since said weapon can be turned into scrap.
Well, on the bright side, TF2's crafting system means that nothing is truly wasted. Even when I've got all of the useful hats, I can still make all of the decorative ones. XD

Sudden Short Story 7

"There was a time when people worked on Christmas Eve. That's why it's an 'eve', you know: It's just the evening before, not the whole day."
"Well, strictly speaking, asking is just a formality. It's more to notify you than anything else."
"Nevertheless, it would be good if you could come in. With the year-end approaching, we'll need your help."
"You sound like you actually believe that," he said with a chuckle. "We both know that nobody has to be here. Heck, give everyone the day off and let an AI fill in. It's not like they're hard to find."
"You know that inconvenience isn't that point. Sure, I could give everyone Christmas Eve off. Then again, I could give them Arbor Day, or, I don't know, August 8th for all the difference that it would make. I could give everyone every day off and just have robots run the whole business! That would defeat the entire point, though."
There was a pause as they both thought on the subject. They both knew why they were there. They didn't want to talk about, nay, didn't want to think about the fact that they didn't actually need to do anything. After all, in a post-scarcity world, there was plenty of value to go around. The 'business' just let them feel useful.
"So you'll be here, then?"
"Bright and early, 'boss,' bright and early...."

An Open Letter to TV Networks, Regarding Halloween

Dear TV Networks,
I've noticed that you tend to run themed programming or marathons in October, leading up to Halloween. In particular, I notice that the themes are generally "horror" in the general or "zombies" in the specific. Sometimes it's a different specific, such as "slashers" or "Hitchcock", but not usually.
My point is this: For the season when, per tradition, the veil between worlds grows thin and those who died in the past year ready themselves for their journey to the afterlife, why not show films about ghosts and the afterlife? It would give us something different from the usual mix, and it's thematically appropriate.
Well, that's what I wanted to say. It's just my two cents.
-Wikimancer

P.S.: If you saw this post and would like to mention a good ghost- or afterlife-related film, then leave a comment below.

What I Got for Xmas 2010

Here in the states, Xmas is celebrated on December 25th, and it's traditional to exchange gifts. Here's what I got:
-a sweater
-pajama pants
-Under Armor (special case of under shirt)
-Forbidden Island (the cooperative board game)
-Mushishi (anime) ^_^
-some Munchkin stuff
-some money from relatives

I think that that's it. Everything's going to get some use. I'm on schedule to watch Mushishi in late January or early February.
What did you get for Xmas? Also, happy new year!

On 3D, Color, and Talkies

So, you may have noticed a 3D trend in film lately. There becomes a question of permanence. Is 3D here to stay? It seems like a fad. After all, 3D was a gimmick in the 1970s and 1980s, and even back in the 1950s.
However, 3D has something in common with synchronized sound (a property of films known as "talkies") and color. It's part of how we experience reality. Reality has sound (except to the deaf), reality has color (except to the colorblind, though even they can see some colors), and reality is 3D (except to those who lack depth perception). So, while I'd say that films don't need to be in 3D, they also don't need to be in color. It doesn't mean that the technology will go away.
That being said, the previous point that 3D has come and gone might indicate that it will fade again since the technology wasn't accepted just because it was widely available.

Personally, I think that 3D will first solidify itself outside of theaters, where individual people watching their films on personal laptops or handheld devices will allow for the use of autostereoscopy, such as via a parallax barrier. That is, you'll no longer have to wear fancy headgear for 3D, since the screen will effectively "know" where your head is, since you won't be likely to change it, a la how the Nintendo 3DS will work. (It loses the 3D effect if you're viewing the screen from off to the side.)

Regarding Christine O'Donnell's Comments Regarding Masturbation

So, one Christine O'Donnell, a young Tea Party senate candidate from Delaware, has achieved a lot of notoriety for stupid-sounding comments from her past, as well as her Palin-like incompetence in politics. The one that seems to have gotten the most attention is the one where she says that, per Christianity, masturbation is a form of adultery.
The weird thing is that, at least within Christianity, she isn't actually wrong. It's based on something that the character of Jesus said, that one who feels lust has committed adultery within his heart. In fact, this line has been touted for years by one Ray Comfort, during his man-on-the-street interviews, to recruit people to his rather profitable cult. He uses two fallacious attacks to convince the victim that he is a murderer and an adulterer, both based on what Jesus said (the murder bit is based on feeling anger, and works the same way). The fallacy lies in the fact that it is being presupposed that what Jesus said was true. But, within Christianity, which already supposes the truth of the statements made by the character of Jesus in its sacred text, it is true.
So, when Christine O'Donnell believes that lust is adultery, people are all over her for her believing what all Christians believe anyway. I'm just wondering: Why hasn't it been a big deal until now?

Was He Dead?

I've noticed a peculiar trend regarding the English language. Specifically, this has to do with tense and dead people. In English, when referring to someone who's dead, and describing that person with "to be" or "to have" or similar, one uses the past tense (except, of course, when using the word "dead"). So, for example, "he was tall" or "she had blue eyes" would be used, rather than "he is tall" or "she has blue eyes".
So, if someone's dead, then use the past tense, and, by the contrapositive, if the speaker is using the present tense, then the subject is not dead.
The problem is that a lot of people seem to assume that the converse and inverse are also true. That is, they assume that, if the speaker is using the past tense, then the subject is dead, and if the subject is alive, then the tense will always be present.
I happen to find it a bit annoying when this happens. I use the past tense when I'm referring to something in the past, but sometimes I'll be talking about something in the past and it happens to involve a human and a listener will assume that I'm talking about someone who's dead. Why? I don't know.
Does this ever happen to you?

Daylight Wasting Time

I was recently thinking about how, a long time ago, I deduced that Daylight Saving Time is actually quite wasteful. So, I tried to go back and re-deduce my previous logic.
First of all, DST obviously doesn't change, in either direction, the amount of daylight that there is. The clouds don't part, the Earth's spin doesn't change, and Earth's sun doesn't brighten or dim based on how we've set our clocks.
Moreover, though, DST makes us have to deal with nighttime more. Think of it this way. Imagine that, on a certain day, sunrise would be at 0600. This is just to make the math simple. Let's say that you would wake up at 0600. In that case, you would get up at sunrise. But wait! What if it's DST? Well, we set our clocks 1 hour ahead. Now, sunrise is at 0700. If you're anybody besides a farmer (or hunter-gatherer), though, then your schedule isn't based on sunrise; it's based on the clock. So, if you're waking up at 0600, then you're waking up 1 hour before sunrise. This can be applied to any time, of course. If you'd get up at 0615 - 15 minutes after sunrise - then you'll get up at 0615 - 45 minutes before sunrise.
I noticed this back when I was going to school, since it increased the frequency and extent to which we would have to travel to school in the dark. Of course, this also affects teachers, bus drivers, and parents who have to get their kids ready for school. This also tends to affect anyone who works an 8-5 job, which is probably at least half of all workers.
I mentioned farmers, so I've probably gotten someone thinking "but DST was made for farmers!" Well, that doesn't really make sense. Farmers don't care what time the clocks say. Sunrise could happen at gobbledygook mcsquigglepants and it wouldn't matter.

Conversations Regarding Conversation Hearts

So, we got some conversation hearts recently, and, as usual, some of them struck me, but this time, since I'm trying to blog a bunch this year, I figured that I'd blog about them.

"Marry Me"
Forward much? This is either a very forward proposition for a conversation heart or a very poor choice in marriage proposals, unless you met at a NECO fan club or something.

"Adore Me"
Note that this does not, in fact, say "I adore you", but rather says "adore me". The giver is instructing the receiver to adore him or her, which works just about as well as saying "love me" or "have the same interests as I do".

"Tweet Me"
Oh, I see that twitter has become mainstream now. Well, that's going to be about as effective at stopping me as the mainstreamness of blogs is at stopping me from blogging.

P.S.: It's a short post this week, as I forgot about what subject I had originally intended to blog.

Is Jon Stewart a Modern-Day David Frost?

I'm going to summarize last night's interview of Jim Cramer by Jon Stewart as follows:
Jon Stewart pwned Jim Cramer.
Now, I know that there are limitations to comparing Jon Stewart to David Frost. For starters, Cramer isn't nearly as important as Nixon, and of course, Stewart is a comedian, whereas Frost was a reporter. Actually, even within this fiasco, Cramer isn't as important as Nixon was with his administration, since Cramer isn't in charge of the others.
Now, Stewart didn't sit around interviewing Cramer several hours a day for about a week, but of course, Stewart didn't need to wear Cramer down and get him to say internally inconsistent things within the interview. Of course, he had a modern advantage. It has become easy - and in fact standard - for there to be several clips ready to be played at a moment's notice.
I found it particularly amusing when a clip was rolled where Cramer was explaining how to pull one of those tricks regarding hedge funds. Cramer tried to say that he was trying to out the bad guys and explain how it works. Then, of course, another clip was rolled, showing that Cramer was suggesting this as actual advice. Cramer was caught in a lie in the interview. Even if he didn't lie during the interview, however, it still would have shown him for what he is.

OK, I'm going to post this even though it's not polished yet, just to get it out there. I've got plans today and tomorrow, so I don't know when I'll finish this.
Also, FYI, I wasn't really planning to blog right now, but once I saw that interview, I knew that I just had to say something.

You can see the whole interview uncensored (i.e., unbleeped), at http://www.thedailyshow.com/index.jhtml .

EDIT 2009/Mar/20: OK, I know that I intended to flesh out that post more, but I've been too busy. I'm shooting for early next week. In the meantime, I figured that this is as good of a place as any to write down this quote that I've been meaning to grab for a few weeks now:
"Isn't the Dow Jones Industrial Average just a short-twitch numerical representation of a bunch of guesses about other people's assumptions about the financial well-being of an arbitrarily chosen group of thirty out of tens of thousands of possible companies?" -Jon Stewart

An Honorable Mention of Gary Gygax

I happened to run across this: http://www.websnark.com/archives/philosophical_snarks/
I only skimmed it, but it seems to be a thorough analysis of the late E. Gary Gygax's contributions to modern society. Of note, he basically fathered RPGs as we know them today, he helped to make fantasy mainstream (rather than just a subtype of sci fi), and he generated the generation of billions of dollars of international revenue. (By "generated the generation", I mean that, while he did not actually generate the revenue himself, he did make the generation of the revenue.)
R.I.P., E.G.G.