Creative Title

Wow. So, uh, yeah... apparently Wrath of the Lich King has made WoW rather fun for me (not to mention the fact that my sister, mom, and I have a sort of bet about reaching 80 by Christmas). Of course, there have also been other contributing factors to my lack of posting, most notably a renewed interest in the line of stories begun by my graduation project, and my actually making a friend.

I'd link to some post mentioning the grad. project, but I'm really kind of embarassed about my earlier posts (heck even some of the more recent stuff). Basically, if you are of the uninitiated, it was a novella. I've realized this week that the beginning really kind of sucked, but am viewing that as a good thing. Particularly since my beginnings have been starting to be pretty nice lately (er... nice as in good. I think someone dies in all of them). Now I just need to work on middles and ends.

So, in relation to making the friend (Devil's Advocate Guy), I read Watchmen this week. I borrowed it from him, actually. There's the connection, then.

Un-Spoiler version:

Overall impression: Rather awesome! The movie had better not screw it up (ironically, that trailer uses a song by Muse, which I plan to talk about in another post soon). Zack Snyder generally seems good about that (I think?), but we'll see.

So, it begins where The Comedian, one of a number of retired superheroes, is murdered. Rorschach--one of the best characters ever invented, and emphasized in my mind by the Psychology reference--thinks it's because he was a superhero, and tries to convince oter heroes of this since they all may be in danger, but they all think he's just gone nuts... which, frankly, isn't a terribly far-fetched suspicion. Sure enough, more events transpire within the next... something like 2 weeks that lend credence to this theory.

Well, that's probably about all I can say about the main plot without giving away too much. Of course, there are a number of other storylines intersecting this one and each other; everyone's past lives, how they all know each other, the probable upcoming nuclear war (note: this takes place in 1985; wasn't published long after), the odd bits of pirate comic some guy keeps reading at a newsstand... all strangely--and perhaps ingeniously--interconnected.

Frankly, I was also fascinated by the various ways in which some characters talked, but that's only due to my currently taking a course in Linguistics, so I'll not go into it. It's just the communicativity of obviously somewhat broken English.

Beyond that, again, there's not too much that can allowably be said. It was far more interesting than I can possibly make it sound here; well-drawn, well-told, great story. Didn't actually see the ending coming; the foreshadowing wasn't anywhere near obvious, though still present. You just don't know what it all means until it comes together.

Spoiler Version: Only read if you already know the ending.

See ya!

Naw, I can't even play 'til Monday, due to my lack of ability to go anywhere to get it... and obsession over the game (that is, lack of obsession). I will, however, be spending just about all of today getting the rest of the way to 70 (<1.5 levels left!), particularly since everyone else will be preoccupied questing in Northrend instead of killing me. Probably going to shoot something out here over the weekend, though. Meanwhile, courtesy of one of the Resident Evil movies (the third?).

While we're on the topic of games, actually, best song ever. It's things like that that make me almost wish I cared about things like that enough to spend hundreds on a console.

A few things are going on right now (still). 1: I stayed up until 3:30 am working on an Archaeology project. It was fun, but I think I got started a little late (but at least I know darn well how to work Excel now). 2: The wedding pictures came in today, for which I abandoned the post I was going to write. I don't think I liked it anyways, so it was a fortunate occurrence. Finally, 3: Wrath of the Lich King comes out Thursday. Since I'm still at the dorm, I won't be able to get it until Friday and play it until Monday, but that still only leaves me a few more hours to go through the 2 levels and 1 bar I have left for 70. The goal is to try and stay around the level everyone else is just after the expansion so they don't all kill me constantly a month in while waiting for their guild members to do the same (and thus be able to raid or whatnot). I have a feeling I'll fail in this attempt, but I oughta try. Or, perhaps, just start the expansion with a Death Knight. We'll see.

So anyways, here's a picture of the wedding a couple weeks back. It wasn't taken by the hired photographer, since hers are so far only on her site where I can't copy or save any.  Therefore, this is all you get:



It was really a great day.

And, just in case some random wedding doesn't absolutely fascinate you, a string of songs (one of those times I just can't pick one). Lonely is the night when you get a Rush after surviving being terminated and breaking down. Think what you will about The Sarah Connor Chronicles, it (generally) kicks at least the third movie's butt (at least, because of the 4th in '09. We'll see, Christian Bale.), and that song is awesome regardless of context. And, uh, the "surviving" link relates to the band, not any number of variations on I Will Survive or the reality show.

Apparently, there's a blogging scholarship now. I find this of importance because I think I recently joked that there should be one. The problem is, I can't remember if I was talking to someone else or just myself. Nonetheless, it's an interesting concept--oughta keep it in mind next year.

As long as it gets the message across, it's linguistically proper. Just in case, though:

Pedestalization: n. the act of holding someone in such high regard that it seems that they can do no wrong; metaphorically putting someone on a pedestal.

As with many things I explore on here, this seems to be just one of those natural human actions that has a tendency to screw everyone over (see: 2008 election). We tend to like black and white situations, and why not? They're simple to work through: A is bad, B is good, let's go with B; not exactly intellectually challenging.

Of course, life is never that simple. That's common knowledge, sure, but since when has logic ever had an effect on emotion? Particularly nowadays when feelings are put above all else in society from preschool onward. To me, though, it's an interesting phenomenon since it's not made entirely obvious from the beginnings of mankind. I'll concede that the idea of a Chieftain, King, and (particularly) Pharaoh is a very pronounced form of this, especially the "good" side of the picture, but then I think about the religions.

Monotheistic systems most definitely form out of the absolute good and evil thought process, but the various forms of paganism are far more ambiguous with these concepts. Read Euripides' Hippolytus, for example, and Aphrodite (and, according to my Tragedy teacher, Artemis) comes off as completely full of it. Zeus, also, had many, many affairs. Now, I may not be interpreting the Greek culture completely correctly, but I believe that cheating on your spouse has usually been looked down upon throughout history. What I'm saying is that the gods all had flaws, and were portrayed as very nearly human rather than be shown as absolute perfection.

Well, I suppose I'm sort of forgetting the fact that gods in those days were created as an embodiment of certain aspects of humanity, all of which inherently have their flaws (lest they cese to exist). Aphrodite and Ares represented the extreme of togetherness (everything grokking, as it were) and absolute destruction, respectively. The two had to be together to create the state of balance that is the universe, since it would not exist as it does if completely melded to itself, nor would it work in a state of complete separation from itself. Any one god could not be the sole being, since they represented a feature of the human mind or culture.

However, to bring this train back around, I suppose they were still all gods. As such, and since they were all working together and maintaining the perfect universal balance, perhaps they were collectively flawless. The thing is, humans prefer to apply this thought to individuals. We like "The One". We like to have a symbol of all that is good to which we can look in a time of crisis or thank in a time of fortune; something to remind us that there is good when things look bad (huh. Humans are pretty depressed beings. Maybe it's just me).

...and once again, I find myself at a point where there's not much left to say. It's not something I propose we fix, since, frankly, it really can't be "fixed" since it's not broken, plus it does have its occasional positive uses... somewhere. Neither do I think we need more of it, as I'm sure I've made rather clear here. All these things are simply precesses that I believe people should be aware of and perhaps realize when/if they do it. Something along those lines (going to class too, so... yeah).

UPDATE: Ah, I think I remember the point I was originally going to make. It was the difference between good and perfect. There are good--even great--men in the world. Many people are well-deserving of admiration, but one should not give god-like (perhaps not the exact right word after the previous statements) status to someone just because they are interesting, intelligent, admirable, well-spoken, or hold any generally good characteristic. Ben Franklin, of example, was absolutely necessary for the success of the American Revolution, but he actually treated his family pretty badly. Everyone, no matter how great they are, is human. The trick is to try to remember that. I'll admit that I fail utterly sometimes, but the funny thing is, everyone is knocked back to earth once you learn enough about them.

Nope, doesn't look like it. Best get all my dissent out now before inauguration day, when we'll all be singing praises to the great Baratigan.

So, uh, yeah... mood is pretty much hopeless and angry, so it's time for a song that's kind of heavy, even for Muse. Fitting, though, yes?

UPDATE: Alright, I should try to be a bit less dismal. Firefly theme? Yeah, better.

I won't be doing any coverage, seeing as I don't have a TV or anything, my keyboard's broken (5, 6, -, and ctrl stopped working. Thankfully, they all have alternatives until I have to do a percent sign or point at something above me. Gonna go today and see if the campus store has any good ones), and I just don't really cover anything.

May link to some news site later on, but it probably won't be called for a while anyways. Let's hope for the best!

Intelligent posting will resume eventually. I have two projects due this week, so we'll have to see about "soon", but hopefully I'll have something by Friday.

UPDATE - 8:30pm: Following it at Fox, and getting pretty depressed so far (but the night is young, right? Right!?).

Update - 9ish?: Huh. The lightbulb(s? WTF?) in my room just went out. That's not a good sign, is it? Update - like, 3 minutes later: it just came back on... the suite-mates figure it's a ghost; I wholeheartedly agree. Maybe it's a good sign, though. Let's hope.

Update - 9:30ish: Yeah, the Fox thing seems broken; switching to WRAL and IMAO; gonna just watch something on Hulu to forget about it for a bit, so see ya when it's over (which, I think, people are saying it is already?).

Overall Impression: Pretty freakin' awesome, actually.

So last night, after a busy day of saying goodbye to The Sister and B.I.L. (I think I mentioned once that they're moving to Texas. Well, that was them leaving.) and some car maintenance, Independence Day came on TV. I decided to watch it since, believe it or not, I'd never seen it before (so sue me, I was 7 when it came out). The primary thing I noticed was the cast.

Because, dude, who wasn't in there? I knew Will Smith was there, but President Roslin, The Hero of Canton, Copperhead, and that Jurassic Park guy? Heck, even that lady named Margaret Colin was apparently thrown in (which is more of a personal coincidence than anything anyone should really get). This must've made at least half of those people's careers, seriously.

That one teenager who kept talking like Napolean Dynamite did bother me, but I'll get over it. It was about the only bad acting in the whole thing.

So, let's get to the movie itself. Despite the fact that my immediate recognition of every actor in there was slightly distracting, I'm pretty sure I got enough of a grasp on the whole thing. And yeah, it was really well-done. The story, even with Aliens attacking the earth, was incredibly realistically done. They didn't just throw out all reason because it's an obviously fictional story ("Dude, it's about aliens."); instead, that basic premise is the only disbelief that need be suspended. All human reactions--and heck, even the reason for the aliens being there to begin with--were completely believable. The intense parts that you would really hope would appeal to some emotion within the audience did--small ones (lighting the cigars) and large ones (cities being annihilated) alike. The ending can be easily categorized as happy, but still realistically so (see any work by Joss Whedon for more examples of this).

I probably do still need to see it uncensored, but it didn't seem to really be missing anything. A bunch of people still died, all the aliens still got blown to smithereens, and Will Smith still got his crazy-rant moment. All-in-all, it was pretty darn great.

As you may or may not remember (or gather from context clues), the next part will bring an end to this story of mine. Personally, I'm pretty proud of it, seeing as it's the first one I've really finished--really had to learn not to overstep my bounds and shoot straight for novel/novella-length stuff like I'd been doing. It's been fun, though; I don't know what anyone else ('cept my mom, who doesn't really count since she's, you know, a mother and thereby naturally inclined to say it's good) thinks, but I enjoyed writing it, and really hope you enjoyed reading it... 'cause if you didn't, it probably says something unfortunate about my writing.

So... I'm actually going to pull a Whedon and take the whole thing down the day after it's all posted. Why, you ask? Well, I'm assuming my work is a lot easier to plagiarize than, say, that of good ol' Joss, and I really wouldn't want some idiot trying to pass it off as his own. Don't really have a problem with people just reading it for free (*achem*), but actually stealing it is kind of lame.

Lastly, I'm making one last effort at soliciting some sort of commentary. Ideally, I want to try to get it published somewhere or another to maybe, you know, make some money off of this--particularly since I ultimately failed at finding a job last summer (but have since learned to start looking closer to February as opposed to May). Thus, anything at all, especially criticism (so long as it's made clear what about it you are criticizing), would be immensely appreciated... again, the only reviewer so far has been my mother. If all else fails, though, I suppose I still have The NJ WoW Friend and various relatives. Probably have to pick and choose with that--the grandmothers might get a bit freaked out about the whole granddaughter-writing-about-regularly-killing-people thing.

But that's enough of that. The real point of this entire post, obviously, has always been to link to Hit That by The Offspring, so enjoy! Yeah, I just very much like to play around with this pun.

Oh! Also, intelligent posts will resume after the conclusion of our tale. This past week's post time-filter has been mighty clogged, but I do have a few good ideas written down.

UPDATE-Saturday: It's all been deleted (~11pm). Again, hope you enjoyed it! But yeah, still going to be making a lot of changes from here on, so I guess that wasn't the absolute final copy. Close enough, though.

To quote a great American Philosopher (AKA, that kid in The Incredibles), "That was totally wicked!!!"

Let's play around with this, shall we?

The Ceremony:

• It was outside. In case you were under a rock that day, it was also raining. Thankfully, there was naught but a drizzle, so all was well. Frankly, I'm just glad it was warm, considering my dress.
• Grass + thin plastic aisle thing + 4-inch heels = a popping sound in the midst of the violin, a plastic thing with lots of holes, and making all the "boys" up front (that is, groom, best man, groomsmen, and preacher) giggle.
• Trains don't stop running for weddings, and they certainly don't care whether or not the bride is walking down the aisle when they go by. Made for a good joke by the preacher, though.
• It's more difficult than you would think to hold two bouquets at once. Especially when one is huge and rather heavy.

• No matter how cute those shoes turned out to be, they had to go once a piece of skin on one of my toes rubbed off. Thankfully, the only comments I got were, "Oh, she's smart! She took off her shoes!"
• It just wouldn't be a family gathering without someone starting a fire.
• I "caught" the bouquet! See, I use quotes, because The Sister threw it about ten feet short, so it was really more like a race.