Sunday, July 30, 2006

SOAP explenation

I've made a lot of joke recently about Snake on a Plane ending the world and I feel I should tell you where this whole thing got started. It was origionally a conversation between either Drea or Satomi and I, one of my transgamer druid friends.

Maxtionary
Transgamer: Someone who plays a character whose gender is diffrent from their IRL gender in an MMORPG.

Anyway, I said that (insert flashback wavy screen sequence here)

Slyz: I'm really excited for Snaked on a Plane
Satomi: That movie is going to suck
Slyz: Really? I think it's going to be good
Satomi: It'll be terrible
Slyz: I think it'll be great
Maryangelica: Oh No, here we go again
Satomi: It's going to be just awfull
Slyz: I think it'll be so good it will end human society. After people see it they'll lay down in the streets and die because they'll know their purpose on this earth has been completed.
Satomi: No, they'll kill themselves because of how bad it's going to be.
Slyz: No, this movie is going to be so good it will end the very world itself. Christ himself will descend on cloud of holy fire to see this movie.

Etc. etc. etc.

That's how the whole mess got started. In either case I intend to go see it, if possible as a midnight showing. I also supremelly hope that they add a scene which is a deleted scene which mocks what is normally the end scene. One in which Samual L. Jackson confronts the main villain, and he stands up to reveal himself as Cobra Commander, then as he dies he jumps up and yells
COBRA!!!

Friday, July 28, 2006

The End of Days

Between now and August 16th more countries that aren't involved will have peace talks about the Israel Lebanon conflict. They'll accomplish nothing. The fighting will level off, with Hezbollah launching rockets and escaping, Israel dropping bombs from range, and a lot of ground troops getting very little done. The fighting will appear to be ending when, on August 17th, Israel makes an almost unopossed strike into southern Lebanon. Then, around 6 a.m. Israeli time August 18th, Hezbollah fighters will reveal their covert assault. They've been gradually moving, over a period of days, into an area south of Haifa. They'll launch an unsuspected rocket attack from that point, IDF forces will immediately mobilize and at 7 a.m. Israeli time The two sides will begin fighting for control of the high ground, which will be Har Meggido. A great and terrible rift will split the mountain apart and from the fiery brimstone that lies beneath it the Fallen shall rise, The King of Lies at their helm. At that point the Right Hand of God will descend and let loose a blast from his angelic trumpet, then Gabriel will charge alongside Jesus Christ and the final apocalyptic battle between good and evil will unfold.

Now most of that comes directly from the book, but people will wonder how the times so precisely. Well I refer you back the one unifying principle in all of my recent doomsday theories. In Israel at 7 a.m. it will be just hitting midnight on the east coast of the U.S.A. And as the clock strikes midnight loyal fans who have been waiting so long will go into the sacred chamber and behold that which must no be beholden. For man was never meant to know what would occur if there ever were

SNAKES ON A PLANE!!!

Change of Information

This is a mass notice that as of August 18th, the apocolypse*, I'll be changing my e-mail and AIM contact info. More details on this and the end of days later, but concise to say that TheInfiniteMobius is going back to ClandestineTruth, and InfiniteM0bius will become ArcaneInsane. I'll also be using a gmail of MXWillson, but that'll be for buisness contacts mostly.

Monday, July 24, 2006

Breakdown

I wish I hadn't already allocated the term "Jenga" to the middle east's collapse. I chose that term because I knew this was going to happen, and because it's the best term to show that what's going on is simply the crossing of a threshold and the breaking of tensions that have been building for years.

There's another situation closer to home that deals with very similar conditions. I recently moved global warming based chaos to the top of my list of things likely to destroy the world. Unfortunatly it's not a single cause, so I can't say that doomsday is coming because of X. But the first signs of the impending doom are making themselves shown. It gets hotter, power consumption goes up. Weather intensity rises, Energy costs rise which inhibts the relief effort that will be the inevitable result of said high intensity weather. Piece by peice the system we've built to house and protect our society will come crashing down. My origonal prediction for a point at which we will have clearly crashed was 2021, in accordance with the big scary number theory, but I'm inclined to propose 2010, which is much sooner, and still in line with the theory.

This is of course assuming we all survive that long. The next scheduled apocalypse is coming quite soon. August 18th in fact. People don't give it enough credit. It may not have a giant fireball, it may not have a prophecy, and it may not have the final battle between good and evil, but it will have

Snakes! On a Plane

Saturday, July 22, 2006

Worst Hunter Ever

Until recently I had 3 characters that made up my commonly played characters in WoW. I had Slyz, 60 rogue, my "Main" and my raiding character. I had Mobiius, 60 mage, who I sometimes played as. And I had inquisition, my paladin, who was still leveling, but has recently had the honor of achieving the highest possible level, level 60.

I really need a link to a .wav file of that line from Monty Python "And There Was Much Rejoicing!!! yea."

In either case I've started another character. A dwarven hunter. Well one of the hunter's key powers is it's pet. I have a boar which I named hobbletot as a means of playing around with one of our guilds mages who has the same name and who recently learned the "Polymorph:pig" spell. Anyway I was traveling from one area to the next and forgot I had my pet our, or just wasn't' thinking or through some other supreme act of obliviousness I forgot about it. Then I noticed I was being chased by a boar. I spent a good 5 minutes running from that boar and it just wouldn't give up the chase.

Well as you may have already guessed that boar was my pet.

I then made the powerful mistake of telling this amusing little story of incompetence in guild chat, which was met with amazing hilarity, and it got my guild note changed from "Alt of Slyz" to "Runs from his own pet." I'm just lucky that there wasn't somebody on who could change the guild message of the day.

And you wonder why I'm so bitter

This is not a joke. This is not a lie. This is a real commercial I saw.

1 800 4 A Phone.

It’s a phone number you call to get phone service. It’s a phone number you call to get phone service.

IT’S A PHONE NUMBER YOU CALL TO GET PHONE SERVICE.

GAAAAHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

Project Exodus: Player 3

If you look at Kevin’s friends you’ll find that they’re all creepily similar to friends of mine. They’re all different in some way, but by it’s always just some added minor detail or some shifted detail. The creepiest part of this is that his friend Adam is their groups me. I don’t think I’ve spent more then 6 hours around him total, but there have already been at least 4 counts of one of us looking at the other and exclaiming “Finally someone else who understands/thinks like/thought of that.” We’ve both, separately with no influence on the other, said to Kevin that “I’m glad you have (person) around to say the things I would say if I was there.

The problem is that we both came up with the idea of having Kevin as our roommate. Kevin is kind of flighty, and lacks any clear direction, so he makes a good counterpart to a schemer, but he doesn’t make a good person for commitment. Adam has my same grasp of long term planning that I call “Machination.” I like that word, it doesn’t necessarily mean anything bad, but it implies something insidious.

I also like the word insidious. It sounds exactly like what it means.

Anyway, a key part of project exodus is giving me somewhere to live in Seattle when I arrive. I’ve begun to play the cards differently, rather then the slow coercion of Kevin I’m going for the direct alliance of Adam, then we’ll combine our evil might to coerce Kevin. My machinations on this subject are already unfolding. Project Exodus marches forward.

Killing kittens

There's a well known image throughout the magic world of the intraweb.
We've all seen that image, and by and large the denizens of the internet are people who masturbate. There are even some of us who say that it's the main function of the internet, but that's a sticky subject (literally) and not something I want to get in to.

Also I'm a little bit ashamed of that sticky subject thing, but it's one of those things I laugh at when I'm looking back through this blog when I'm 30 or so.

Anyway, everyone knows that picture. We all also recognize the phrase "mental masturbation" or sometimes "verbal masturbation" where someone is philosophising or ranting in a way is is entirelly pointless and self indulgent. So when I say things like "This conversation is killing so many kittens" people get it. I got a great reaction when the matter of the republican's non-binding resolution to say "Go Bush!" was brought up in guild chat. It was my sentiment that "Congress is killing so many kittens with that thing" and that managed to shut the book on the discussion. I'm proud of that, maybe a little too proud. Also this blog post is waaaaay longer then necessary so I'm going to stop now.
Right now.
Stopping.
Yes I am.
Right.
Now.

Jenga. the gist.

I could rant for hours and hours on the most recent bit of chaos and bloodshed in the Middle East, but it would be a rant that would kill so many kittens.

If you didn’t understand that last little bit don’t worry. I’ll post an explanation soon.

In either case I want to say two things, they may be the only things worth saying that I can say on this subject.

1. Members of Hezbollah are civilians. So when an Israeli strike takes out a Hezbollah stronghold it generates civilian casualties.

2. One side is making tactical controlled attacks against infrastructure and known enemy bases. They make these attacks after airdropping leaflets warning people to evacuate the area. The other side is shooting explosive devices randomly into populated civilian areas.

Everything That's Wrong with American Theatre

A few days ago, quite nearly a week ago now, I watched the movie ultraviolet. I had been interesting in seeing this movie when it was first out, but never managed to assemble the correct formation of free time, money, and bus rides. The Reason I wanted to see it, and this is clearly my mistake, is because I liked the commercial’s music. I can say that if anything good came from my experiences with this movie it’s that I discovered the band Jem, who I’m quite fond of.

The movie itself has only one merit. It is the perfect example of the failings of American theatre. The introduction is melodramatic, the protagonist achieves victory through no form of skill or tact or insight or intellect. She wins because she’s the hero and that’s what people want to see. The grand reveal that the Nemesis is one of the sci-fi vampires that makes up the protagonist’s particular subculture was something I accepted from the moment they introduced the subculture. On top of that it was foreshadowed. Well, kinda, the word foreshadowed implies that they hinted at it, that they had some form of nuance and finesse. This was much more a case of them rubbing it in the face of anyone who wasn’t actively intoxicated during the movie. Then, at the last minute, the kid lives for no good reason and without any explanation. The only story point that I liked was that both the protagonist and the cute kid they put in to draw the drooling masses on to the protagonists side both had conditions that gave them life spans of less then 3 days. Then they just ignore that. They don’t die, they have no actual weakness, did they just forget about that?

It’s schlock, and it’s a movie that I accurately predicted the plot of less then 15 minutes in to the movie, and if you couldn’t see it coming then you haven’t been paying enough attention.

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Clandestine Council

I was recently reminded of a phrase I used to use on the rare occasions where I was giving some form of council to a person I didn't like. While the same facets of my being that drive me to the role of counselor also forbid me from denying anyone my aid, or supplying false aid, they say nothing about mocking them behind their back. Anyway I can think of thee instances where I was advising someone who I didn't like, and in all of those situations I made sure to give this piece of advice.

You must remember that peace comes from within. You have the answer within yourself, but your thoughts/relationship with (other person(s) who was the source of the problem) have obscured your thinking. You must learn to draw on your inner strength, and Stand by thyself.

That last line, the one in italics, always made my inner evil grin. This is because the full phrase, Isaiah 65:something is "I have laid out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, stand by thyself and come not near to me for I am holier then thou."

This is also why I need one of the two following things in white text on a black T-shirt. Either a shirt that says "Come not near to me" in gothic pseudo-biblical writing. Or one in a jagged vaguely violent font that says "Come not near to me for I am crazier then thou"

Also, one last note before I go. This phrase is essentially the same message as someone saying "Damnit! I've tried to help you idiots and you never listen, so back the hell off!"

I think Isaiah phrased it better though.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Convience

I'd just like to stop in and state my appreciation for refrence numbers. While I do still fear the day they replace names we're all dehumanized a step further, I do like using them for microbes.

They're not human anyway, so you can't dehumanize them any more without first personifying them, and I'm way too busy to go through all that. And if you're going to say that it's degrading to make a number out of a living them, you can take heart knowing that the things I'm degrading are all pathogens. So they may be living things, but they're also jerks.

Anyway, the reason I like this practice is because it makes my job a lot easier. Take for example the pathogen: Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Choleraesuis str. SC-B67. Can you imagine having to make an entire file name for that, much less hundreds of equally long file names for all the other pathogens, plasmids, and strains? Thanks to the cold unfeeling magic of the refrence sequence I don't have to write that whole thing out, I just have to stamp it with Senterica(NC_006905) and be on my mery way..

Truly, that is convience

Loading

I set up... 8 things to transfer overnight. I was planning on comming in today to find the full bredth of my computer's power open to me. Several of them are still running. This means that my computer has been hogging some fairly large share of the network transfer power for the last 22 hours. Madness.

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

The All Seeing Eye

Browsing the news during lunch I see something.

One news story says obesity in teens causes early death. Another says Meridia helps obese teens lose weight.

I'm not saying that the news is being manipulated to help sell pharmacuticals, But in a strictly non legally binding off the record kind of way, I think the news is being manipulated to help sell phamacuticals. They think that I don't know what they know but I know.

It never ends

There are more. But quick note, according to MSN news obese teens face early death. From previous things I've seen so do people who don't sleep well. And people who have symptoms of depression. And I'm pretty sure there was one about people who drink too much diet coke.

Now do you understand why I want to replace all major news outlets with a guy who just stands there and says "Doom, Dooom, doomm!!!" over and over again?

Anyway, things to write.

Raiding, obligation, game as work
Arlokk, Thekall, and how I learned to love being a giant tiger.
Worst Hunter Ever
Skill, a musical review, and yakety Sax.

Note to self

Oh also for the list

The sound of ultimate suffering.
This is not a joke, this is not a lie.
Darkendlair.com may yet live
KSHE 95
Traps the mind corrodes teh soul, weakens the body
The guild of calamitous intent, Magmanimous, sinergy, and hot dry rock.

Illicit

Am I allowed to blog at work? Technically I'm doing 3 things right now, so I'm not really hurting my productivity. This place is pretty lax too, so it shouldn't be an issue. Then again I did look over my shoulder twice while typing that.

These cubicles have an amazing effect. There are two walls, and the desk causes the person to be pointed towards the corner, so your full field of view is your workspace, but you still have enough of you exposed that you feel like the boss could be looking over you shoulder at any minute. It's a piece of evil genius worth of the word "Treacherous"

you could also say these thing give everyon in the lab their own workspace while allowing us to spin no more then 30 degreees and instantly enter a communal setting. That's a much nicer description, but then I don't get to use the word Treacherous.

I also found out how far I can push this computer. It turns out it cant do more then 6 tasks at once. Then again I don't think the formatter program was designed to run more then one instance of itself at once anyway, and multiple instance of remote admin? That's just nuts. I full expect the ethernet cord to burst open and spray genomes all over my desk one of these days.

I wish I blogged more, I have a lot to say but between raiding, working, and basic biophysical needs I seem to have very little free time. You could say that I'm filling up all my free time with raids, but that's not quite accurate. I need to explain but the over the shoulder count is up to 15. I'm just being paranoid, but that dosn't negate the fact that I'm paranoid.

List of things I need to blog later.

Ultraviolt: everything that's wrong with american theatre
Israel/lebanon: How to use a long range explosive weapon withotu being evil
Work/time/thoguht: The Nature of stagnation, stability, etc.
Pentacle, does freedom corrupt?
Happiness vs Victoriousness, the nature of stagnation
Project Exodus, player 3.

I think that's it. I'll get to those when I get home. hopefully.

Monday, July 17, 2006

Jenga

Syria poised to strike back.

I have a long rant about this which I inted to write and post after I get home from work, but in case I forget I need to post this. Another peice falls in to place.

Bad Example

My insomnia is gradually improving. However that is not the case tonight.

Friday, July 14, 2006

Lok-Tar

This is a bit delayed, but I prevailed in the face of my demonic foe. While it's true that I did run out of darts coercing it from it's lair, my sword never runs out of ammunition.

Yes, I had to use a sword to fight a roach.

Nonetheless I consider this a grand victory.

Important

A few very important notes.

Never leave food trash out. It attracts bugs.
It turns out I still fear roaches more then nosferatu fear the sun, or neocons fear change.
I need a new blowgun, mine is bent. My accuracy is off by something like 15%, I'd allow 5% due to a lack of practice, but each 3 or so percentage points means another dart to hit a roach, and those demon beasts move fast. You only get 3 or 4 total shots at it before it's vanished back to the 33rd layer of the abyss to plan further treachery.
Theres a roach somewhere in the house, probably somewhere in my room. For those of you that have seen my room will know that this means it has ample places to hide. I don't know wear it is, but I'm probably going to be in my bed at high alert taking blowgun shots at anything that makes any kind of sound for the next few hours.

If 2 hours pass and I haven't posted a "hail the conquering hero" post, assume that I'm on my bed huddled over in fear mentally composing a "Out of darts, surrounded by enemy, fear for life" post. And may God have mercy on us all.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Jenga

First of all, if you haven't heard.

You may recall me ranting about the faulted nature of the gaza pullout. The reason I thought it was a bad idea is because every the last time Israel pulled out of territory that it considered part of Israel it strengthened the militant underground. The message it sends isn't the intended "We're willing to make diplomatic concessions in order to end the violence." Instead the message the resistance movements get is "Israel is retreating, They're weakening, Now is the time to strike." It happened with the 82 Lebanon pullout, and it's happening now.

The stakes will rise on both sides. The retaliatory measures taken by Israel will continue to be spun as atrocities, the provocations will continue to be downplayed.

Those of you who quuestion that probably haven't seen the Qassam garden kept by the northernmost Kibbutz in Israel. There are dozens, and while the attacks havn't been effective in terms of fatalities just try to remember which group of civilians is launching rockets at the other before you say anything. And make no mistake. The reason for the low body count due to trans border rockets isn't due to any kind of nobility, it's not a matter of reducing civilian casualties on hezbolah's part, it's a matter of aim.

So I'll watch from the comfort of the first world as more and more violence unfolds, War will be declared again, and if history is any indicator Israel will win. Then this whole damn process will start over. That's not even what concerns me most, what worries me is what happens if Israel loses. No because I side with them, but because I've felt the spirit of that country, and the measures that would have to be taken to defeat them are cataclysmic on a level not yet witnessed in human warfare.

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Schlok

While web browsing, and recently while waiting for the 20 gigs of genome to do its thing, I make a point of checking the news. It's essentially never actually informative, or even interesting, but I feel like I should be getting some information even if I could get the same message from listening to someon chant "Doom, doom, dooom!!!" over and over again. Recently it's gone further downhill. I'm convinced that they should just give up and change the "headlines" section to "what's exploding today." They should also stop the entirety of the celebrities thing, and I'm not even complaining about how it's pointless deification of people with little talent and less merit. I'm just freaked out by some of the pictures. Look at this one of paris hilton who'se apparently converted to something. I don't care. The point is look at that picture, and then think about this question.

Could you say without hesitation that the person in that picture is not a zombie.

Monday, July 10, 2006

Obsolete

So I've reached a point where my job dosn't require me. I've got three genomes downloading, one extracting, and one formatting. Anything else I make the computer do is detrimental to productivity. Even writing this is probably slowing something down. With all that in mind, what's the point of me? A clever combination of AI and a helper monkey could do everything I'm doing, and it wouldn't screw up the thing by wasting computer power on self indulgent reflection.

There's a fair chance that tomorrow I'll go in and queue up a series of tasks that'll run for 3 hours. Will I get paid for those hours? Does this sound suspicious to anyone else.

Justice

There's nothing like the feeling you get when you're going down the highway at 5 mph over the speed limit, and a Cop on a cell phone speeds by you.

Thursday, July 06, 2006

Oww, My Faith in humanity.

A commercial I just saw. I did not make this up. This is a real thing.

1800-4-a-phone. It's a phone number you call to get phone service.

IT'S A PHONE NUMBER YOU CALL TO GET PHONE SERVICE.

GAAAHHHH!!!!

Throwing Gasoline on the Fire

First of all. Exactly what I and a multitude of people more qualified then me said was going to happen is happening. One of the few constants I can find in studying Israeli history is that the idealists are always wrong.

I could give a long rant on this, but there wouldn't be much of a point to it. I just want to respond to my favorite excerpt from that article.

"The Council also agreed to send a fact-finding mission to the Palestinian territories to report back urgently on alleged human rights violations by Israel. "

Why haven't they sent a fact finding mission to find out who launced that Rocket attack on Ashkelon, or all the other Qassams that are being fired over the border.



Sudden Demand

I've been reading a book recently entitled "What color is your parachute" There's a lot to say about that, but not right now. I mention it now because one of the key things I learned from it is that the most effective way to get a job is to get it from one of your contacts.

Contacts are what you call friends and loved ones when you're using them for your own twisted gain. It's a buisness term, like downsizing (Firing) or human resources (slavemaster)

well after 3 weeks of searching in other methods two of my contacts, my parents which makes this even more tense, both arrange opportunities. The jobs are very similar in nature, I'd go do semi-trained labor at a university. I intended to apply to both, so in chronological order I e-mailed the Rice employer. Then I went in for what I thought would be an interview with the UofH contact, but really turned out to be a "Hey Max, welcome aboard here's what you'll be doing." I've been looking for three weeks trying to get a job much less enjoyable then this one, so I jumped at the chance. But now, on day 3 of this whole series of events, I get a reply from the rice contact. I'm essentially commited to the UofH job already, so I sent an apology and refusal back to him, but I feel bad about it. It might've been nice to have worked at rice instead of UofH. It may have been beneficial simply for the change of scenery. It may have paid better. Should I have waited? Perhaps I should've gotten a clear view of both options before picking... I don't know, but I don't like it. I feel like I've somehow lied to one of the contacts. It's too late to turn back now, and I know that playing the what if game won't get me anywhere, but I still feel somehow guilty.

Life's Biggest Scam

Allright! I got a job. Now I can... go to work.

Why do I feel like I've been tricked?

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Lazy Ghosts

One thing is bugging me. How come nobody is haunting anything new? Every cursed or haunted item is something ancient. Where are the stories about the guy who has to keep his PSP muted because the only sound it plays is the wailing of the damned. Or that girl who tries to return her cellphone because whenever she uses the camera feature she gets a picture of the person she tried to take a picture of undergoing some horrible calamity, and then it always come true. And where is the guy who has the video iPod that only plays scenes of it's owners death? Whoever's in charge of this stuff needs to get the hell to work.