The USS Quad Damage

It was Friday and we were headed to the Opera. Our raids offtank Ander had turned up, thus with my warrior we had the required tanks for the Opera.

“Hey Era, I was talking to Hemp and if Despair drops from Romulo and Julianne I’m going to pass to you. After all it’s probarbly the best weapon you’ll see in a while” – Ander

“Thanks. You’ll probarbly get Gorehowl from Prince Malchezaar anyway.” – Era

The Opera event in Karazhan can take one of three randomly selected plays.

Firstly there’s the Romulo and Julianne play in which your raid must defeat Romulo, then Julianne and then both of them together. As a testament to Romeo and Juliet they both have to die a pritty much the same time or it’s curtains for your group.

“I hope it’s not the Wizard of Oz again”

“Stupid Dorothee and her little stupid dog”

Then there’s the Wizard of Oz play. One must defeat the “Heroes” of the play. Dorothee whom throws balls of freezing ice, her dog Tito. Roar a cowardly lion whom warlocks can cause to run in fear. The Strawman whom is especially vulnerable to fire. Tinhead whom after a few minutes slows to a crawl as he rusts and runs out of oil.

Lastly there is the Crone. A witch whom throws raid members around in swirling vortexes of wind after the “Heroes” of Oz are defeated.

“My what phat loots you have”

“The better to own you with!”

The 3rd event is the Big Bad Wolf whom begins the event disguised as a grand mother. After pointing out that she has phat loot the play begins. In this play every now and then someone is turned into little red riding hood and well you can guess what happens next. They’ll need to outrun the wolf or become lunch.

“Nice work guys. Curator tomorrow.”

Despair didn’t drop.

“Hey guys, I’m taking that token for my tanking gloves as I’m Main tank” – Hemp

Loot. It’s why people run raids. It’s what makes them turn up. It’s what you reward people with. It’s the life blood of a raid. It’s currency. It’s king.

“I want Depair” – Era

“Get in line” – Ander

“Back one more” – Hemp

Ofcourse how do you determine who gets what? Free for all and randomly assign loot to someone who puts their hand up?

“Raiders come first, then PvPers, then Members, then new Recruits” – Brain

A hierarchy of ranks with those at the top coming first and those at the bottom receiving the scraps?

“You need those more than me. Take em.”

Do you rely on those in your system with equal or greater claim to exercise discretions to smooth over an imperfect system?

“But I’ve been here for just about every raid? Why am I still a member and have to roll against someone on their first run” – Noosh

What happens when the unseen currency you’ve been spending runs out. When those higher up in the hierarchy are only there because your rewarding politics. When they don’t exercise adequate discretion.

“So Ander gets the token for loot. What about everyone else?” – Noosh

“We’re gearing up Ander incase I don’t turn up” – Hemp

Or if they are supported by flawed arguements?

“Were not a loot based guild. If you want that go somewhere else.” – Brain

If they are based on hypocrisy?

In the end a system which doesn’t represent reality is doomed to fail. The invisible currency you’ve been drawing on will dry up. People will leave for greener pastures and environments in which they feel they are adequately rewarded for their time, effort and skill.

Welcome to the real world. You never left it. May I take your coat?

It was the prior thursday. A week before our second raid group was to form. We were sitting inside Karazhan and waiting on Ander our second tank for the night.

“Wheres Ander?” Someone asked.

“Don’t worry guys he said he’d be on. He told me he’d be back for Karazhan” Scar assured everyone.

I’d just successfully tanked the Maiden of Virtue on my little warrior alt Era and we were looking forward to partaking in the Opera Event. Probarbly to another Wizard of Oz play. It seemed to always be the Wizard of Oz with Dorothee and her little mutt Tito.

“What are we waiting on?”

“We need two tanks for the Opera.”

We did need two tanks and I couldn’t very well play two characters at once. It was either my Warrior or Druid not both.

“Where’s Ander?”

Ofcourse we could have been waiting for Hemp our guilds main tank but he’d taken leave. Holidays and what not. Sure he was online every now and then for god only knows what reason. However he was neither online now nor expected to be.

“Hey doesn’t someone have his phone number?”

“Yeah I called and he wasn’t answering”

The previous week Ander had locked himself out of his house right before a raid. We wondered if that was the case again.

“FFS Where the hell is he?”

We called it a night. There was no point with a single tank.

“Good luck with your new guild”

The sarcasm was apparent, I knew then and there my druid Lena had been kicked from her prior guild. I wasn’t sore. The decision had already been made minutes before hand and this was a final parting shot. It missed it’s target. I shrugged and laughed.

Ofcourse to fully understand you’d have to know how it happened. I leave the why however upto you.

It all began when I joined The Knights of the Holy Round Table of Doom. Not their real name but then it doesn’t really matter now does it. I joined, showed skill, turned up to half a dozen raids and was promoted to Raider. They were new at raiding. Most if not all the guilds leaders have never fought Ragnaros, nor wiped again and again on Vael or even attempted the lowbie snake god Hakkar whom resides within his City of Zul’Gurrub.

Progress through Karazhan was fast. We defeated Moroes, Medivh’s buttler. We took down the Maiden Of Virtue whom surrounds herself with concubines and other ladies of pleasure. We slaughtered the cast of the Wizard of Oz on Karazhans famed opera stage. Deactivated the Curator the guardian of the great Karazhan library and even defeated Medivh at chess.

We had our tanks Hemp and Ander. Guild leader Brain and her faithful side kick Scar. Our dwarven shadow priest Noosh and my feral druid Lena. We had many others but they are not important to this story.

After a few weeks of clearing the above encounters the number of attuned guild members was too many for a single 10 man group. Thus the guild leadership under Hemp, Brain and Scar decided it would be a good idea to start a 2nd Karazhan group…

Damn I wrote a massive story here involving drama in my prior wow guild but it seemed a little too long.

Anyway I’ll put a link here after I talk to sunny to work out how I can post it without it taking up 50% of the front page ;)

Edit: Actually I might make it episodic. Telling part of the story each post.

The story is basically about the guild drama which lead to myself being kicked from some guild a few days ago.

Some people are defending people who are being attacked by people who got offended by a statuette which the people made. Since I had a funny conversation with someone at work about sexism I’m wondering about my position on this.Bear in mind that I’m being totally honest, both from my brain as well as my balls, and it’s probably going to sound a bit creepy, like Harpreet’s recent post about trains, so if you don’t want to look at me funny or hate me afterwards then I wouldn’t read any further.

So being completely honest about this – The pic does make my heart beat a little faster. I mean, meow. I don’t know whether I should feel bad about it or not, but MJ looks hot. The thing is, we all know Spidey’s a complete idiot for liking someone like MJ, because she’s a total cow, but confronted with that I really have to ask myself if I could walk away from it. It’s not just the tits and ass, but there’s that smile and look in her eye.

I am keeping in mind I’m talking about a fictional character.

I am also trying to write complete sentences whilst looking at the frontal shot, and it isn’t easy.

The fact is, comic book artists are creeps. I know because whilst trying to learn how to draw, I looked at a lot of stuff a lot of people drew, and even in their random doodles there were a lot of half-naked or completely naked women. The better the artist, generally the more naked the pics were. These guys are obsessed with the way girls look. The fact is, as crap as I am at drawing, I understand it. We (guys) are wired for this shit. Look at any 5 year old draw. He’s going to draw a face. Kids are wired to do it. An artist will just naturally draw more of the human form, and mostly it’ll be stuff he likes. If you were a comic book artist, you’d probably end up with MJ yourself. If you’re less creepy you’d probably just keep it as a sketch. Comic book artists make it into some near porno image.

So, the other question is, what’s wrong with the image? I think that people are offended because she looks submissive, seeing as she’s allegedly doing the laundry (or not, but whatever). I don’t know about all guys, but I think a lot of em are with me on this: If I saw that, at that point I’d do pretty much anything she told me. So much for submissive. This dude said:

I really think that Marvel should release a follow up with Peter Parker sitting on a couch in his boxers and wife beater drinking a Busch Beer while eyeing MJ up and making a derogatory comment.

This is completely nuts. MJ is clearly the character who holds all the cards in the “relationship”. She’s routinely hot-and-cold over him, and well, at the end of the day, she clearly doesn’t need to be with a dude who would make a derogatory comment when she could be with someone else who, at that moment in time, would do pretty much anything she told him to. To say that she’s the one being exploited is completely ridiculous. So what if she’s washing his costume.

If you haven’t been following the Wafaa Bilal “shoot the Iraqi” guy thing, the interview will probably fill some holes, and I mean that in the least pornographic way possible. I think it’s great, but I think the conclusions are a little… convenient. I mean, this is art, not science. It’s supposed to appeal to the heart, not the head. Therefore, when they make conclusions, these conclusions aren’t based on any sort of fact, rather the feeling one gets when they look at the “art”.

As soon as I read the words “human condition”, the markovian bullshit filter in my brain triggers. I read the rest with a marked cynicism. It works, considering his conclusions are: people feel no remorse when they inflict pain or “the internet” is dehumanising.

Some people feel no remorse when they inflict pain. They’re called psychopaths or sociopaths. There are a number of them in society, generally, and the army is well known for trying to recruit them, and for trying to train the rest to be like them (at least no remorse for “the enemy”). At least some of the people shooting this guy are among them, that’s almost a dead cert. In a way it’s similar to how most people show on remorse to killing and eating animals – they’re just trained that way.

And it’s true, the internet is somewhat dehumanising. When you don’t have additional cues to help you understand the trouble someone else goes through, like the sound of someone’s voice or the way they move, then you don’t feel the need to help them, as much. In contrast, this guy’s set up a web-cam so you can see him get hit! When he’s hurt, you gotta feel a little bit bad. I doubt it’s dehumanising. The key thing the dude forgot is the main reason he keeps getting shot:

The website’s got 3 main buttons – left, right, and shoot. There’s exactly one moving target in the room. What else do you expect someone to do? Nothing? What’s going to happen after 30 days if no one shoots him? If you give someone a knife, what do you expect them to do with it? cut stuff. That’s just how it works. When you get a paintball gun and a guy in a room who’s in there voluntarily, then people are going to shoot him—that’s the whole point of the site.

Technology is not what’s dehumanising, it’s the way it’s used. The Wafaa Bilal art project probably has something to teach us, but it should not be used to make gross over-generalisations.

Aah, the Democrats. If you’re one for reasonable-ness and uber-micro, the ‘crats are who you voted for in the late 90s. Just check out their key principles. Wow, sounds so… reasonable. Their policies look so… well I don’t know. OK, I guess.

So I should vote for them, right? Well, maybe. See, the thing is, no one votes for the ‘crats any more. I’m not so sure why. I do remember some sort of “internal bickering”, and, well, I don’t hear about them anymore in any sort of news at all. How and why did they become so irrelevant so quickly?

The main bit of strangeness is the amount of text in there with all of their values and things spelled out, there isn’t much room for bickering. Further, the completely insane amount of… reasonableness… doesn’t really lend itself well to a group of people who have internal disputes. So WTF is going on here, people?

Since commencing employment, I’ve been traveling to and from work on our train network. I’ve started reading again and am happily occupied during my commute, but in those brief moments when looking away (or instead listening to music) I catch myself watching those about me. And the small everyday usual things are what really captivate me when observed in others.

To see someone frown as they tackle a particular part of their sudoku, crossword or daily word / mind puzzles. To hear the crinkle of newspapers as avid minds peruse the world not immediately about them.

To see the indecision in the amateur commuters face as they make that all important decision on weather to approach you and ask for a vacant seat.

To have someone seated close by with that freshly washed hair, watching it slowly dry as your journey progresses, their self conscious fingers occasionally fussing about at nothing.

To see someone really dressed up immaculate, a fresh haircut, trimmed fingernails, brimming with confidence with that flush of excitement… checking their wallets and purses, reading through their notes, going over last minute preparations, tensed shoulders, the flexing of muscles as their destination pulls up to a halt.

To see the weary worker at the end of the day, the night shift worker, the majority peak time city worker… the stained hands and uniforms, the misaligned ties, the ruffled shirts sticking out of the carefully tightened belts. The rare few with their bikes – mindful of the space about them… those others juggling their gym bags, or the pack of groceries, that long awaited shopping spree after payday.

To find school children, teasing one another and joking… losing themselves in that newfound partner, those unashamed hugs and kisses that last that little bit too long, the stares of the other commuters, their distaste for such outward displays… their smiles as they fondly reminisce.

To find that stolen look, that brief flirtation among strangers, or that newfound acquaintance who meets up daily on the same carriage, seated at that same seat… perhaps hoping one will brave the moment and introduce themselves, or maybe best left to that shy smile, the brief nod, and the slight adjustment of posture, clothing or hair to give away their excitement.

To have someone pass you by and then to be enshrouded in their lingering perfume, that deodorant, that soap… that particular scent.

To see friends and partners sharing the one set of headphones, seated in silent companionship… watching a downloaded show or listening to music matching their tastes… slowly nodding to the beat, or laughing at the same jokes. Sharing that brief personal hug as they depart from each other for the day, that quick kiss to the forehead, the hand through the hair, the nuzzle of nose on nose with the fleetest meeting of lips, so casual and common, so intimate… that parting goodbye, the trailing eyes as one turns away, the slightest upturn of the mouth.

Then to finally take the first step outside, into the fresh air, the overcast sky, the pouring rain, the soothing sun, the chilly fog… onto the firm stable ground, that first big breath as you walk about, a face among many, a dot in the horizon… you look about and you smile to yourself as your feet routinely take you onwards into your day.

Today I came upon something so beautiful that I felt the desire to share it with you. Following is a music video comprising two musical compositions which I found so refreshing and very touching.

The music video is directed by Lasse Gjertsen.
The artist is Italian Cellist Giovanni Sollima.

Composition 1: Terra Aria

Composition 2: Concerto Rotondo

The links themselves were uploaded by Lasse Gjertsen on YouTube, and he details how he went about making the videos in his description.

Kudos to them both, I was very pleased to chance upon their works.

Engineers play with Lego, but playing with Lego isn’t always engineering. I was reading coding horror again, and basically Atwood says that people are finding MS development shithouse and moving to something a little more open source. Unlike Nathan’s predictions about the year ahead, my predictions are more slow-but-sure. Linux works at making developers happy, because it’s written by developers who want to be happy.

Eventually, every developer alive will have grown up writing and using free / OS software, and whatever they do from then on will be writing stuff that works with that. They may do other things because it pays the bills, but they’ll do it whilst swearing at how shitty the development environment is. If you want a system where the developer comes first, then you can’t go past Linux. I feel almost literally like I’m working without all my limbs when I’m using anything else. Barring something really weird, open source software will eventually be the best you can get.

The thing that’s really strange is that Windows developers don’t appear to have these extra appendages. It’s like they’re tied up from birth and don’t know how to move freely. The reason I know this is simple: When they “leave” the Microsoft camp (I don’t even know what that means. I mean, why are there camps?), they always claim some non-developey reason for doing so: MS is unethical or MS raped my kittens or something. Truth be told, MS development almost exclusively involves cutting and pasting code, and that’s not development at all.

When I write something, I look up the documentation for whatever I need to do, and then go and do it. In Linux this is usually a “man XYZ” if I know the command, or some webby info. I then go and write code which takes care of the parameters and conditions. Sounds reasonable, right? I mean, I’d almost call that Engineering if you added some processes like unit testing and code reviews.

I had the displeasure of writing something Windowsey a couple of times. Not mentioning the uncomfortable programming environment, the slew of stuff you cannot automate, the thing that really got to me was that instead of looking up documentation (which was there, but completely undecipherable) you ended up doing the following: Google up your problem, or go to one of a multitude of sites with pre-baked solutions. Then you did something I’ve only ever done with Javascript…

You cut the code right out of the website.

You paste it into your codebase.

Repeat for the entire application. It was gross. Not only is this kind of thing borderline illegal, having this approach to software development is ultra the gay.I guess I understand why some people call it cutting code now. This was it. There was no way to test some of this shit. It felt like a bunch of crap sticky-taped into place. And then Visual Studio would generate extra code for you. Extra code which looked ugly as fuck. Then you have to go through a bunch of menus to get the right linker options, and then the application wouldn’t work because the code you ripped was for a different version of the compiler.

If you’re a Microsoft developer, and you start using Linux and write code in it, that’s the kind of shit you leave behind. It’s not even an ethics thing. If only you had eyes to see.

Through a huge amount of effort, I’ve re-created the logo for Ghost in the Shell: Stand alone Complex – Second GIG. The nice thing about this logo is that it’s completely vector graphics, so you can see my shoddy workmanship on incredibly high resolutions. SVG desktop backgrounds work as standard on Linux Gnome desktops (just set the .svg file as a background), and may work on Macs / Vista. For XP you’d probably need to convert it to some sort of scalar format.

It took a lot of work and rotation for the icon in the middle. There are acouple of flaws. I also haven’t seen the logo at a high enough resolution to tell if certain things are of certain shapes (is that an arc or a straight line? Are they rays or a straight line?). I’ve also got an error in there. See if you can find it. Once you do it’ll bug you forever.

Finally, the fonts. The big “S.A.C. / 2nd GIG”were hand created by me (by copious copying of the logo). Only the letters A,C,G,I,S,.,2,n, and d exist for that font. The “Ghost in the Shell” “Stand alone Complex” is in Georgia (IIRC) which I think is a free-ish font. It doesn’t look exactly like the logo, but it’s close enough. The asian font looks completely different from the logo, but I wasn’t even going to try to create a font with Kanji in it. I used an open-source font which was “close enough”. Looking at it now, I think my font looks nicer than the logo itself, so there…

The halo involves some vector blurring, which is not light on the CPU (and as I just found out, not universally supported. If it’s just a solid blue outline, that’s not how it’s supposed to look). In fact, it takes a couple of seconds to appear on my background, but it looks so cool, it doesn’t matter. The file is here.