Monday, September 17, 2001
1:50 PM
I can't express how nice it is that sites that have nothing to do with the terrorist attack on America are finally stopping talking about it. It's immensely wearying to not be able to get away from the damn thing. We all know it's there, dammit. It doesn't need to be mentioned everywhere.
Sunday, September 16, 2001
1:19 PM
YOU FOOLS! HE'S GETTING AWAY!
Thursday, September 13, 2001
6:59 PM
For those of you wanting to keep up on things without gluing your eyes to the TV, you can connect to the IRC channel #cnn_mjd on irc.slashnet.org where a bot is relaying CNN's closed captioning feed. The captions are generated live, and contain a lot of odd phonetic errors, but it's easy enough to get the gist of it if English is your first language.
6:11 PM
Okay, I feel like blogging, and since I'm kind of obligated not to talk about anything but The Big Thing yet, that's what you get.
Despite having graduated, I'm taking one course at my old high school, AP Studio Art, because it's cheaper to obtain the credit that way and I need some chill time. The general conversation at the school has been pretty much what you get after any major war or disaster happens too close to home, but the art class had a talking circle about The Big Thing on Wednesday, and that was a fair bit more interesting.
A few things came up repeatedly...the most sobering was that most of the students seem more afraid of what America is going to do next than of what future acts of terrorism will occur. I certainly concur, and it's a very Canadian attitude to take, but still, it's kind of dismal to reflect on. The big question that kept coming up, and one I've noticed elsewhere as well, was "Why?" I did my best to fairly explain why America has the enemies it does, why people are willing to kill themselves to hurt it, and why people who weren't even a part of the attack celebrated afterwards. I discovered a long time ago that being devil's advocate doesn't make you many friends, but I still do it. I'd like to think some people left with a slightly better understanding of the situation, because it's very easy and very wrong to adopt a "good guy, bad guy" attitude. We covered the tables in paper and drew things while we talked. A few of the treacher's other classes did this also, and she will apparently be cutting the large sheets into equal segments and binding them into a book. I look forward to seeing it, and may see what can be done about scanning the individual pages and putting them on the school website.
So, big disaster. Lots of people dead. Uhm. I've mainly been observing the reactions of different people, and preparing myself for what's to come. Personally, I believe that whatever action America takes should be taken without anger or hatred, so it's disturbing to see how much anger and hated there is. I've spoken to more than a few people who are quite willing to have America abandon any sort of moral high ground whatsoever and simply rule through tyranny. I'm hoping that some of that is just a temporary thing due to the emotional trauma of events, but I'm sure not all of it is. I think what's most perplexing about this situation is that I can't really figure out how to make it go away. The military types and ultraconservatives seem to think that if we slaughter twice as many civilians as they did, they'll stop attacking us, but, aside from the moral quandary, I really don't think we can expect that from a culture that produces all these suicide bombers to begin with. Defense and security slow things down, but this whole event should be ample demonstration that a country can never be powerful enough to prevent terrorist attacks through power alone. Diplomacy appeals to my wanky liberal side, but I don't really think that's going to work either, given the fundamental differences between America and the Middle East. Committing fewer atrocities would be a start, but a lot of this is about idealistic differences, and they're never so easily settled. So...if anyone has any ideas, uh, feel free.
I've felt very odd since this whole thing. I've been trying to be all hardass about it, but I found myself oddly numb yesterday and the day before, and I almost (almost) cried a bit on Tuesday. Which is just...weird, for me. I cry at books, I cry at sappy movies, but I never cry at death. It's just...a switch that I turned off a long time ago. I'm not sure what it was about this that got to me. Definitely not what it was that got to most people, but...something did.
Hurm. This has been a...trying week.
Tuesday, September 11, 2001
1:15 PM
It is funny to think that I could be dead soon, though. I think I'll go play Saiyuki. If this is the start of global thermonuclear war (hey, you never know), I better go play Saiyuki, because I'd like to try and beat it before the world explodes.
11:26 AM
So, that was fun.
I dunno. Somehow I just can't work up much sympathy for the US when it gets bombed, seeing as it routinely bombs anyone who looks at it sideways. I'm strongly against terrorist acts, but they had it coming. Mainly I feel sorry for the people who had nothing to do with it and died. Of course, I'm sure the US will slaughter twice as many innocents in retaliation, so hey.
Monday, September 10, 2001
8:02 PM
Fun with vagina.
Sunday, September 09, 2001
2:13 PM
I wonder if there's an inane flash video webring.
I like that one, really, but I'm a sucker for these things.
2:05 PM
Incidentally, I finally quit using my Dark colour scheme (very dark grey with purple trim), and am now using the I Feel Pretty scheme. That image may or may not work, depending on what flavour of ass Geocities is sucking today. It's worth noting that both of those schemes were modeled after Gesselschaft colour schemes from The Misadventures of Tron Bonne ("villainous" and "cute", respectively).
...actually it wasn't worth noting that, but fuck you.
2:00 PM
Bought myself a copy of Saiyuki the other day, and I've been chipping away at that. It's pretty cool. The battles are a bit laggish, the challenge is mild, the system is overly simple, and the graphics and music are a bit antiquated and repetitive, but I'm having a ball with it nonetheless. It features absolutely gorgeous portraits of every character and enemy (though, sadly, you only get to see the nice big ones if the character speaks, which most enemies don't), and has a couple of nice anime scenes, though one is set to the obnoxious opening music. The battles, though simple, are involving and fun, provided you turn the plodding spell animations off. While the plot is as simplistic as could be expected, given the subject matter, the characters are pretty well-written, and it's a joy just to watch them bounce off each other in scenes. Also, Sa Gojo is a super hottie. Booyaka! Really, though, it'd be fun even without all that, just because you get the Monkey King in your party. That rocks.
This all makes me think...Suze, have you played Final Fantasy Tactics? Because screw the real Final Fantasies, that is a game that demands fan fiction. I'd kill for a good Balmafula fic or two.
Wednesday, September 05, 2001
9:26 PM
Regarding Relena of GW:
[DMLou] I like Relena as purely a sex object :P
See, that's why characters like that exist. Also, fun thing. Saw a book today: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Increasing Self-Esteem. That, I think needs no further comment.
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