Comments V

For those of you new to my blog, please feel free to leave comments, questions, pledges of adoration and loyalty, etc. Furthermore, if you happen to find something useful (such as the tutorials) let me know, it makes me happy.

IT Issues

There is a rash of people asking me (in my capacity as a nerd) such things as how to get Firefox and AIM to work here at GCC. I have provided the answer countless times, and I'm sick of continuously saying it. And so, I took a few minutes and wrote up some tutorials for

AIM
and
Firefox

I will eventually write them for Trillian 2.x and 3.x (and anything else as such things arise). Hope it helps.

For those of you of my typical audience, an update from the first few days down here at the Grove will be forthcoming, as soon as I have time to process and then word process it all.

The Drought

Well, there is actually a reason that I don't seem to be posting on here much anymore, and that is simply the result of devoting my writing time to my book instead of simply posting stuff. I'm making an enormous amount of headway, so we'll see if I can finish it in the next year or so (what with two movie projects, college, and such).

Oh. I'm currently torn between the titles

Just Think

and

Realism: A Cynic's Guide

Hits

Joel made an interesting observation the other day, the vast majority of my hits were the result of boredom in study hall this year.

I need to get Slashdotted or something to appease my ego.

Caving In

I spent awhile today learning how to add a bit more authenticity to 3d surfaces by adding "bump maps "(adding detailed texture to surfaces). So here is the cave that I crafted. Check out the reflection in the water, and specifically how the bump map on the water distorts the image slightly.


Click here for a larger image.

Do I sense a [decent looking] CG movie from Severtdink Productions next summer? Something that will perhaps blow Eric the Elephant away?

Can-o-Worms

People are terribly afraid of God interfering with their lives (oh, and have you noticed how the Christian God is always blamed whenever anything bad happens, why not Allah or Buddha?), much less their beliefs. What's more, people are mortally fearful of a Biblical sense of morality affecting their political views. God, like many others, has a whole book on his political views. However, His is the only work that should have any real authority over our beliefs, values, and political ideals.

Take the Ten Commandments for instance. "Thou shalt not kill" seems rather unequivocal in its meaning; actually, I think we have laws to the same effect. The stone tablets didn't have an asterisk that points to a list of disclaimers like "except unborn fetuses". It simply says "thou shalt not kill". I'm going to rather extrapolate a bit, and assume that it is in reference to humanity. So, one could easily take that particular Commandment to say "Thou shalt not kill homo sapiens" because, well, I have the feeling God made animals yummy for a reason (Genesis 1:29). I also have the not so subtle feeling that when Jesus says "love your neighbor as yourself", He means that you aren't supposed to kill your neighbor (even if he's a vegetable).

It has been said that "the church" should deal with the issues of morality, and that would be fine if there was one "the church" (like in the Middle Ages), but there are a plethora of denominations, and an even greater number of independent establishments. This is the direct result of the varying interpretations of scripture. For the same reason, it is impossible for Christian churches to (inter)nationally combat poverty. Furthermore, as anyone versed in the politics of America will be quick to point out, there is a Constitutional separation between Church and State.

Democracy is a beautiful thing, and the government created by it is intended to follow the will of the majority. Laws exist to enforce the moral code of the majority. Certainly, it may be argued that the Taliban was doing just that in Afghanistan. Yes, that is a perfect example of how governments function; those with the power make the rules. However, the detail is that in democracy, the majority has the power. Furthermore, there is a decided difference between Islam and Christianity. See Matthew 22:36-40 for what Christianity is all about. How can that be a bad thing to base a society on?

The two touchiest subjects in the political realm today are gay rights and abortion. Go figure, being Right like usual, I say no to both. The scientific definition of being “alive”, drilled into us since grade school is fivefold. An organism must grow, metabolize, move (internally or externally), reproduce, and respond to stimuli. So far as I’m aware, a fetus qualifies perfectly, with one exception: reproduction. Yet, if you’re going to say that a fetus is not alive because it is not able to reproduce, then I guess we can safely raise the age for abortions to puberty.

Yep, sex is a cheap form of recreation, but it can entail dire consequences. Through the nefarious hole in the condom to any other failure of such "precautions", a life can be created, and the responsibility for said life is accepted in the act of consummation. There is an instance where the pregnant individual did not have a choice in the matter, that is of course in the sole case of rape. The decision as to whether or not she will carry the baby to term is a moral decision. Also, in the case of a woman whose life is in danger from the pregnancy, a similar decision is required. In these two instances, I can understand the purpose of an abortion, with the latter much more than the former. However, I would rather have abortions prohibited across the board than let one life be destroyed for any other reason. That is why I am pro-life. For that matter, why don’t they call the other side “pro-death”?

There is a question often raised: "are we condemning people for what they do?” This is used most frequently as of late in the area of gay rights. Biblically speaking, as I'm so often reminded, a sin is a sin is a sin (in the eyes of God). That puts homosexuality in the same boat with murder. Thus, by the same logic one may query “Should we therefore abolish laws against murder because they condemn people for what they do?” The answer is, I hope, a resounding “NO!” Christians, generally avoid actions like murder because God wants us to live a life of righteousness and all that jazz. Yet, there will always be those outside the bounds of Christianity.

It is unilaterally acknowledged that the Bible advocates giving to the poor, but I have the not so subtle feeling that the demographics of the poor have changed in the last two millennia. In the Bible, the vast majority of the beggars were crippled or otherwise incapable of earning a living. I have the feeling that there is a difference between that group of individuals and those below the poverty line today (and yet, how many of those below the poverty line have cable?).

If everyone followed the principles of the Bible, would there be any need for an organized government? The answer of course is yes. However, the role of this hypothetical government would be limited to maintaining infrastructure and keeping up with foreign relations. However, poverty, hunger, and crime would virtually disappear.

On a lighter note, I picked up a book the other day when I was in Walden Books, its called You Know You’re A Republican / Democrat If… it has 101 sets of jibes directed at the two opposing camps. Now then, if you were to read it with an objective mind, I have the feeling that you would come away laughing at how hypocritical and self serving both groups are and how ridiculous some of their ideals are.

You know you’re a Republican if: You despise huge federal deficits unless a Republican president is in office.
You know you’re a Democrat if: You dislike the huge federal debt unless your favorite social programs are threatened.

You know you’re a Republican if: You have two cows, you neighbor has only one. So?
You know you’re a Democrat if: You own two cows. Your neighbor has none. He doesn’t want a cow; he wants a pig. You insist the government give him a cow; pigs are bad for you. You still have two cows. You are happy.

You know you’re a Republican if: You and your third spouse vehemently oppose same-sex marriages.
You know you’re a Democrat if: You firmly believe that marriage should only be between consenting adults of the same species… for now.

You know you’re a Republican if: You despise Hollywood celebrities who think their political opinions should be heard… unless they’re named Arnold or Charlton
You know you’re a Democrat if: You’re thrilled when Hollywood celebrities put their star power behind a cause… unless its running for governor of California.

Pawned!

I've been playing with 3D animation software lately, and these are some of the first things I've successfully drawn.



Click here for a larger image.




Click here for a larger image.

Everything Bad is Good for You

I picked this book up on a whim (and partly to make sure that I got free shipping on an order from Amazon) a few weeks ago. It sat around collecting dust until Sunday morning when I at last picked it up. I put it down a few hours later having finished it. It was one of the most fascinating books about today's culture that I've ever read.

I found many of its suppositions and depictions of people, especially those nerd-like individuals like myself, to be entirely accurate. In short, the book discussed how many of the supposed "bad" things in our culture like TV and Video Games have lead to a progressively increasing intelligence level (known as a "Sleeper Curve"). This trend had gone largely unnoticed for an extended period of time due to the fact that IQ tests are adjusted periodically (made increasingly difficult) so that the average score remains a 100.

The increasing complexity of television shows and movies, in the sense that there are multiple threaded plot lines and a greater viewer responsibility to guess exactly what's happening, have led to an increased mental demand, which Steven Johnson supposes is responsible for the increasing intelligent levels. Video games were shown to be useful for the manner in which they train the mind to gather and process information from a variety of sources much more efficiently than it otherwise functions.

"It's nice to be able to watch TV, talk on the phone, and read your e-mail all at the same time, but it's a superficial skill, not a deep one. It usually involves skimming the surface of the incoming data, picking out the relevant details and moving on to the next stream. Multimedia pioneer Linda Stone has coined a valuable term for this kind of processing: continuous partial attention. You're paying attention, but only partially. That lets you cast a wider net, but it also runs the risk of keeping you from really studying the fish." - pg. 69

As a culture we're so inundated with a multitude of information streams on a continuous basis. Thus, our minds have "shifted" to compensate for this, and while I never really noticed the shift, I can certainly attest to assimilating information in this particular manner.

The premise of this book is in stark contrast to a paper I wrote a few years ago, Idiocy is Increasing, on how the shear volume of data produced on a continuous basis is making us more and more ignorant in relation to the available data.

All in all I award it

(out of five random shapes)