The Update of Quasi-Doom

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Ahoy there, mateys, it be “Talk like a Pirate Day!” (Arrr).

Relax, I’m not going to do an entire freakin’ post in “piratespeak”. That would be akin to the deliciously evil torture of writing in l33t, and I’m just not that mean. It’s been a while since I updated, so I DO expect this to be a fairly lengthy post, so you are hereby forewarned.

It has been nine (9) days since I last posted, and I think it would behoove me to explain what I’ve been doing. I think the best way I can sum it up would be this: go read my essay. Though it is now done (I mailed it around 2:30pm yesterday), there was a LOT of final preparations that took up the past week. This would include: finishing the last few chapters, and making requested/suggested revisions to the rest of the essay, doing a final self-crit, and printing it out. The essay is 49 pages, with bib it becomes 51. NOT included in that PDF is the other 50 pages (table of contents, cover sheet, testimonials, and examples). This is partially because for formatting reasons I did them as two separate files, and partially because I’m not making the area I submitted available to the public (I chose Senex Operis because it is relatively short at around 40 rooms, and has the most real-world research in it, as all the gladiators in the area are accurately depicted from their historical counterparts).
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New Chapters Up

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I’ve posted chapters 3 and 4 of my essay. You can find them here. Chapters 5 and 6 should be up in a day or two. (It was no accident that I left the topics that largely amount to me rambling for the end… after the past 30-40 pages, my brain is tapioca.)

Please comment on them in this post, if you wish to comment.

More later!

Copyright Wake-up Call

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I just had an interesting conversation with some folks on IRC. (I know, shocking, eh?) While reaffirming that it IS in fact a vast wasteland, it was interesting to see what sort of misconceptions are out there about copyright law.

First off, everyone hates the RIAA, myself included. Their behavior is reminiscient of the Gestapo of Nazi Germany, and they need to be stopped. Their reactionary behavior simply feeds the fire, and exacerbates the problem.

Next, many of these “pirates” believe themselves to be safe by being in another country. To quote some, “Thats why I love living in Canada. Downloading music here is legal … see in canada we pay a tax on all music anyway … and the RIAA has no jurasdiction here” and “[copyright] can be international only if the country accepts it, and very few do. Thats why they can’t do shit to people in canada denmark finland and the like.”

Let’s not forget this concept that the RIAA is snooping everyone’s computers, so if you don’t keep pirated music on it, they can’t see it. “If I burn my mp3s to a cd, they can’t trace it!”
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Identity

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I’ve been thinking about the concept of identity a lot lately (with my essay due in two weeks, this isn’t too surprising). I’ve noticed that I’ve been pretty strung out the past few days, frustrated by pretty much everything. (It’s been a viscious cycle: I have to psyche myself up to progress with the convention and make contacts out here… I manage to do it and finally feel comfortable and happy with the process, email in what I’ve done… after reading the responses, I’m back to being frustrated as hell.)

I’ve been spending time on IRC (I leave it open in another window while I write and occasionally glance at it to see if anything interesting is being talked about), and have found myself getting more and more pissed off by it. I’ve kept coming back to IRC intermittently ever since I originally started being online, and invariably I end up getting frustrated and leave. Looks like this will be another one of these occasions. I just can’t seem to help but get irritated when I frequent a channel for more than a week: the mishmash of young teens (and the angst and stupidity that goes with it), college-age elitists, and a thin layer of talented, intelligent, caring people that are generally silent for about 95% of their time online… it’s just frustrating.
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General Foo Strikes Again

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Today was much less zombie-like than yesterday, and I can’t explain why. It just was. I came downstairs, put on some jazz, and checked my email, where I finally received 1) more than 2 pieces of email, and 2) a response from Jody, the head of the EXCEL program at Union Institute and University, reviewing my EXCEL essay thus far. I got a very favorable response, though there was an overwhelming request for more personal examples of what I was talking about. This is difficult for me, as I find it hard to write both personally and what I deem “professionally”. I’ll just have to do what I can, though. It’s due the 22nd, which means it needs to be in the mail by the 19th, which means I need to be done by the 18th. 17 days from now, essentially. This shouldn’t be too hard, though. I don’t have that much more to do.

In other news, I had a meeting with some folks from PA today, concerning working with them to bring UberCon to the Seattle area. This went over VERY favorably, and I’m back to being excited about the prospect of organizing the convention again. I need to send them some information, but that’s mostly information I need to confirm with Kevin, first (such as any changes made to the sponsorship forms, et cetera). I can’t talk too much about it yet, but it’s definitely a “Yay” situation.

I’m a little frustrated with my content right now. Nothing wrong with blogging, I suppose, but I just feel like I should have more content that is relevant to more than just people who know me. More essays, reviews, and art. That said, I just picked up criticalgames.com, which will be a site dedicated to discussion of games as a serious medium for creative expression.
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“Dimujin and Family”

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Just got back from dinner. The waiter was pretty cool, gave us a flyer to the music gig he does down in Belltown. It’s “Hip Hop Infusion” by DJs Dimujin and Family, down at this Japanese restaurant called En. The name of their music style can’t help but remind me of Dakah, the hip hop orchestra that I was introduced to by my friend Aleksasha.

Yeah, I think Seattle will be alright.

In other news, I got a LiveJournal account thanks to my wife. I’m not using it, though (I’ll likely just post a link to here whenever I update). It’s mostly so I can have ownership over my comments when I post in livejournal pages. Not a big fan of the “anonymous” thing (hence why I have anonymous posting turned off here… and am considering making user accounts for my site as well).

Just a quick post, I’ll talk more tomorrow, I’m sure.

Zombies

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I think I’m going a little stir crazy. This is being exhibited not in me running around or getting particularly irritable (at least, I don’t THINK I’ve been getting irritable), but by me zoning out for no reason whatsoever. Just staring off into space for extended periods of time, becoming more and more distant and non-communicative.

I’m not really communicating with anybody: Mickey is off at work each day, which leaves me without a car, and without anyone to talk to. I think it’s started to affect me in a way similar to a zombie. In modern mythological definitions, zombies eat brains. They NEED brains. It’s not that they’re necessarily bad creatures, so much as that they are overwhelmed with an insatiable hunger for the grey matter. I’m finding myself identifying with this hunger for brains. Each day, I feel like mine is atrophying, not for lack of study so much as the lack of interaction with other people in a third place.
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Ramble, Light

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Just a quick ramble, not more of the rambling I’ve been doing the past few days.

I’ve been spending most of the day finding things to do other than write my essay. This is partially because a cluttered house is a cluttered mind, but mostly it’s just avoidance. Our last set of shelves arrived this morning while I was out getting our car serviced, so when I got back I set them up (Mickey had to go to work). After building the shelves and setting them in place came the fun task of getting all the devices onto the shelf and plugging them in appropriately. This involved much craning around and contorting myself into a pretzel to get behind the tv, a place which at this point is fairly inaccessible.

I finally gave up being a contortionist and did what I should have done in the first place: moved the TV away from the wall and hooked everything up, then moved it back into place (I also moved it a few inches to the right, per Mickey’s suggestion/request).
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Passion vs Obsession

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Before I get into the central topic of this thread, I’d just like to give a shout out to my cousin Cortney. Happy Birthday, hope it was a good one!

I’ve been sitting around the house for most of the day, not really doing much of anything. I read some email (not much, though, as I don’t have much lately), and chatted on IRC for a while (in fact I still am, in #applegeeks over on the Aniverse servers). Mostly what I’ve been doing is thinking about what is important to me, and what things no longer are, or at least not AS important. I’ve been thinking about streamlining my life a bit, organizing it, pursuing my personal goals more and worrying about other people’s expectations less. I haven’t come to any concrete conclusions yet, but I think overall it has been helpful.

Now, it’s around 8:50 in the evening, and we’re back from trying another restaurant in the area (sushi, so my choices were a little [self]limited, but I managed alright). I’ve discovered the music channels on the cable service, and have some jazz playing in the background. Now seems to be a good time to reflect.
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