Archive for March, 2009

of bots and men

March 24, 2009

Quick note: why is it spring break is drearily cold and hardly a break?  Last Tuesday, the day before my real break, I recieved an email from Blizzard advising me my password changed.  How strange, I must have forgotten I did that while taking hundreds of calls at work – this cannot be a good thing.

While lauding Blizzard for having an accounts helpline, how come this international company is using a regular-business-hour-only company for their account management.  Cut to me at 10PM freaking the hell out because someone is going to steal my level 72 priests Gear; thousands of hours of work down the drain.

This is my despondent face.

Since I had my blackberry I immediately struck out to Blizzard, begging them to lock my account down before something unseemly happens.  A friendly Steve M responds asking for some info before he can solve my password problem.  About 30 minutes later I’m informed that my account has been deactivated for spamming.

Frak.

Cut to the end of the story, Blizzard very kindly returned all my gear and money from my characters and I am seriously tempted to get blizzards security key that changes the password every minute.  We’ll see.

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Weekends, a lack of relaxation

March 15, 2009

Someone please explain to me why people are allowed to go fuck off leaving myself and other more or less responsible people to pick up the pieces? Case in point it’s now Spring Break. Instead of going to Cancun and picking up an assortment of venereal diseases I’m staying put to work my shift and write my Senior thesis. Oh, that means no one is at work and I’m stuck taking over 130 calls a work day?

At least I have something to write about.

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Midnight Realizations

March 9, 2009

It occurred to me as I finished the biography of Albert Einstein by Walter Isaacson that Einstein’s concerns of Quantum Physics is something I’ve occasionally wrestled with in Philosophy. The idea that the outside world does not exist as we observe it is not very disturbing, even for the most ardent believer in an underlying reality beyond our observations, yet if we were to go a step further and say everything follows from our perception; that causality doesn’t exist that event horizon; then we get into the realm of Quantum Physics that Einstein spent half of his illustrious life struggling with.

Maybe the Philosophers could help him out too?
Enjoy that as you try and fall asleep. :)

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Capricious or Arbitrary?

March 6, 2009

The idea that God is either capricious or arbitrarily choosing to make the world look older than it is strikes me as rather absurd! My main objection to the “The world was ‘ready-made’” claim is how arbitrary it is, given the numerous varied age samples; the age of a stream, of a lineage of trees and years of ice fall on the Antarctic. Assuming God made the world, and holding that the world was already “aged” to a mature appearance, we have no evidence, either physical or religious, why God chose those ages. Since I view the alternative, he arbitrarily chose the ages, as unlikely and discomforting, and we can’t very well hold he’s trying to deceive us, which is in stark contrast to the Bible which describes God as a parent who tries to show humanity the way to him.

We’re left with at least two choices in deciding how to act, either God did not make the world as described in either Genesis 1 or 2, or God did not make the world. I’ll admit this is a solution a Christian may object to, but unless they invalidate years of scientific research and discovery, they too will eventually agree to the reasonable implications.
How much of it was inspired by the literal interpretation of the Bible? Rather than denying the perceived age the universe and holding to a contradictory understanding of the Bible, they could accept a sort of compatibilism.

My criticisms fall back once again the critical view I hold of a literal understanding of the Bible. The concern that taking it as anything less would lead to a slippery slope of figurative interpretation, while possible, yields an equally worthless understanding of the Book. Since we must take the choice between the horns, focusing on method of interpretation in lieu of discarding science or religion will produces a better understanding of the Truths to be found, and improve ones relationship with el jeffe, God.

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Near Death Experience

March 4, 2009

Last week I went as far north as I’d vecture travel, Lincoln Nebraska, for a fun Saturday of Magic the Gathering. This meant being a fairly well ventilated area with 79 other geeks silly enough to brave the sudden nebraskan snows. I wonder if their adventure was as fun filled as our own.

With inches of snow already on the ground and visibility finally returning to a reasonably far distance we reached the safety of Lincoln, the mecca of cornhuskers everywhere. This would have been fine, if there weren’t hills and bad brakes abound. After running through every yellow and barely stopping at the reds we joked that we’d run every light on the way to the hotel. How close we came!

Not five blocks from the hotel Rob doesn’t manage to get the car stopped in a reasonable distance. The faint odor of dirty pants and a “click” fills the air as we slide into the oncoming traffic. Matt, our dumb-luck producing companion immediately went “see no evil” and screeched how we were going to die.

Obviously we survived this adventure, and after a change of pants the rest of night went smoothly, the tournament enlightened me as to the type of player and decks I will face in the future.

Although I fear going that far north, next time we’re going to Oklahoma City, lest snow harm our chances at surviving again.

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Hello Dear Readers,

March 4, 2009

I suppose it’s time I step out of the ether and introduce myself. I’m Katie, from Tales from Katie’s Land and A Conscious Life. I’m a English/Philosophy major about to graduate and enter the realm that is grad school…scary stuff, let me tell you.  I’m a self-described geek-nerd-dork trifecta, so be afraid, but not too afraid. My purpose here is to balance out the tech, gaming, and philosophy geeking that goes on around here with a little bit of the sci-fi goodness that makes me eternally happy.

Without further blathering, let me share with you one of the upcoming movies that I am looking forwards to: X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Since I’m apparently not allowed to upload videos at the moment, check out one of the most recent 60-second previews that recent aired on FOX. Honestly, they should have just called the thing Alpha Flight and gotten over with it. I’m thrilled that they are using the Origins story developed by Paul Jenkins, Joe Queseda, and Bill Jemas. Unfortunately, it looks like they got rid of the tutor charachter who told the story in the comics in favor of introducing Sabertooth a little bit earlier. I also want to know what the heck Gambit is doing in this film. True Believers know he has to do some time with the Brotherhood before he can show up in the film’s storyline!

Let’s put this simply, there are so many ways this movie could go very, very badly.  Nonetheless, I’m still stoked. If there is a midnight showing in this little town, I’m going, no questions asked.  And if Captain America shows up somewhere along the way, I’ll be even happier. Now we just have to wait for May!

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