GMan

The dysfunctional relatives have left. One of my cousins proved he had not changed from the grubby eat beast he was in the intervening span of four months since we had last seen him, and their beagle is a very...... "innovative" gift giver. I went to the Pats/Dolphins game the other day with my dad, one of the three logical relatives who were here (my uncle), and his son, the aforementioned troublemaker. It was fun watching the Dolphins get canned with the tuna, but the cousin is a braggart, bully, and a tad sociopathic. He could not stop bragging about his knowledge of Israel, Hebrew, the Cleveland Browns (the relatives were visiting from Ohio), and various other things, especially on the way to and from the game. He bullies his little brother a lot. His little brother is pretty hyperactive, and likes sports, and my mom and I theorize that it may be his way of getting back at his brother, because he does seem to be tired of being little and picked on. I wish I'd gotten to spend more time with my grandfather, particularly since I'm worried about his short-term memory problems. However, it was nice to see one of my cousins, the oldest one visiting, again, coz she lives very far from where my family usually visits in Ohio, and so we hardly ever see her. On the bright side, I gots me a cell phone! But more importantly, two DC Elseworlds publications: Superman: Red Son and Gotham By Gaslight. Woot! And I saw a friend of mine yesterday. He came over with his sister (who is a friend of my sister) and we played Mario Party 8, watched The Simpsons Movie (he brought it over), and we watched some Mythbusters episodes, plus we did some general hanging out. And then my dad and I met with my dad's friend and his son (who is about my age), and we had a nice meal, chatted, went to a Barnes and Nobles, chatted some more, and then we said goodbye. We'll be seeing them again on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day weekend. It'll be fun.

Nobody really loves the expectations of them that they shall bend out of their way to provide fine goods from the farthest and most exotic parts of the globe to people as gifts, and wrapped in disposable, rip-away gift-covering made of perfect silken fiber weaved by master seamstresses. So that's why they try to do it and expect other people to do it, to antagonize them.

I wish you a Merry Quit-fighting-over-the-holidays-mas and I hope you don't have any dysfunctional relatives over at your house already filled with dysfunctional family for what is of course a very A Team dysfuntional Christmas.

...I may be gloomydoomdoom sometimes, but I only disparage life's value because what there is to value about life is in short supply. Therefore, if one is not around for long, they do not have enough time to experience those things which are truly valuable about life but sadly in short supply. Or, if they are ignorant, they will not learn why these experiences must be appreciated. That's kind of one reason I don't like emo people, they go on and on whining about life being worthless and what not, but they don't even understand any original incentive for this reasoning as acknowledged by its originators, the people who understood why precisely factors of life might lack value.

Went to see it yesterday on a field trip. It was very good, the actor portraying Gene Tunney was great, and it was really of a deep, ponderous quality. Based off of an actual series of lectures Tunney gave at Yale on Shakespeare. I was the only student who appreciated the play, I think. That's just horrible, because the actor was engaging, intelligent, and I felt like I completely understood the points made. It was just the actor addressing the fictional college audience, but it included some boxing clips. It helped make the experience even better. We learned how Tunney became interested in Shakespeare while serving in the Marines in World War One, and how he read The Winter's Tale and moved on to other works of Shakespeare, and how he always read Shakespeare before a boxing match. It was a very engrossing story, believe me. All in all, I really enjoyed it.

What do you mean "Pretty much anything that's ever happened in Bionicle?" Nothing GMan has described has happened in Bionicle. So I don't know what you're talking about. -TNTOS- Ahhh, selective memory, what wonders it works. In 2002 the Bohrok were both popular and controversial. Some fans got angry about the few differences between the sets. Similar complaints were made about the Nuva. Lego then tried to be more diverse, though they stirred up more discontent with the Kal. The Rahkshi had joints and all, but more complaining. Complaints about the Matoran sets, the Titan sets, Takanuva, the plot... 2004 garnered bucketfuls of complaints about how everything was ruined, or how everything before then was better, or how the new sets were awful, etc. 2005 got even more complaints. Come the release of Piraka images, there were virtual riots. And we all saw the 'Is Bionicle Going Downhill?' type topics appearing even more frequently in the last year and a half.

You know how when a character is killed off or a big event happens, there's some sort of outrage in the fanbase? Fans riot and yell and make idiotic petitions, and bicker, and complain about how much the show sucks now, and all that jazz. And you know how some creators/writers/whoever cave in to demand and resurrect the character/strike the event from the official continuity? And then there's low sales or viewership? And then there are fans who are angry that the character was brought back/the event was struck from continuity? And they get all whiny and complainy? I call this the Whiny Ingrate Seesaw Dilemma. IE, something happens, complaints occur, that something is unhappened, more complaints occur from other people. When a faction of the fanbase gets what they want, they quiet down, thus leaving room for people of the opposite sentiment to start a riot. Or, when the faction is finished complaining so much and has gotten what they want, lots of people, now not busy with complaining, decide they do not like the change/reversal/fancy new thing/whatever, and join in with other complainers. I bet you can all remember specific occurences of this, particularly among if you read comic books.

From what I know of you, you'd enjoy Beowulf. I'd seen it a billion times before in the Internet, all over the place, and so I just googled 'sniper kitten' in Google Images and found an image of the right size.

I went and saw this with my dad on Saturday. I recommend that you see it, too. The CGI was FANTASTIC, and I could only tell the actors had been CGI'd in the beginning. Heck, even Grendel looked natural. The acting, of course, helped. The actors were convincing, realistic, and good performers (though the CGI probably helped brush it up). After the start, you kind of sink into the atmosphere the film sets up, and you can't turn your gaze away from the screen. It's engaging, highly. The plot was not the same as the original story, however, it compensated for that with good storytelling, humor, and of course the acting. Grendel was creepy, yay Crispin Glover for the good acting! Seriously scary, and a convincing monster. Special effects being used properly for the win! He was a malformed, insane, noise-sensitive, maaaaaagic, giant beastie of illicit heritage, and he looked completely realistic. And the fight scenes were fantastic, none of them were one-way or lame. Ray Winstone played the role of Beowulf FANTASTICALLY. Let me tell you, he seriously needs some awards for that. Angelina Jolie did a good job playing the role of Grendel's mother, I have to say. Though I would have loved to see the creepy golden monster form one kept seeing in the corners before she directly approached Grendel in humanoid form. Back to Ray Winstone: He filled out the role perfectly, and his acting was wonderful. Beowulf fit right into the movie, and Ray Winstone portrayed him exactly as a somewhat conceited, brave hero-warrior. Anthony Hopkins was a hoot as King Hrothgar, and did a bang-up job of showing the flip side of the king. John Malkovich, as Unferth, was a fountain of irony and plot bridgings. The servant he kept kicking around was a rather funny but horrifying gag (Remember kids, some kinds of physical contact are bad!). Brendan Gleeson played Wiglaf, the witty and sardonic (and heroic) sidekick. I loved Gleeson's role in the movie. Subverted the 'object in the background that spews one-liners every so often' stereotype for the sidekick type characters. Robin Wright Penn is a great actress, and her character was a character, not a soulless piece of property with good looks. Now, the plot. Ohhh, the plot. Lots of people probably didn't like how it changed around the plot to suit the movie better. However, I accept this as just being part of the process of making it, and I for one say it did not hurt the movie at all and helped weave it into a strong narrative construct that helped one enjoy the movie far more. The plot progressed smoothly and smartly, and as I said, the movie was engaging. It helped that there was an element of mystery as to what King Hrothgar's horrible misdeed that repulsed Wealhtheow (besides the fact that she probably didn't marry him willingly) that kept me speculating until finally the hints were strong enough to confirm what I thought. The action mixed well with the plot, carrying relevance and pacing. The plot regarding Beowulf's errors and owning up to them was tied in to everything else, helping, along with other elements, to create a spine for the story. The beginning, the middle, and end were all distinct, but all had smooth transitions. Also, all the jokes were great. Especially the rowdy warriors singing to attract the attention of Grendel.

Nice wall of text. From what I can gather, your main problem with the system is 'lol politikz.' There's nothing political about this just like there's nothing political about our current system. Yes, you can draw similarities between my system and the democratic. You could also draw the similarities between the current system and an autocracy. You also seem to have a problem with the fact that this system might not work. So you're basically saying "If it ain't broke. Don't fix it." However there is something wrong with the current system, the opening for potential power abuse. This system allows the possibilty of curbing power abuse while our current one doesn't. As for the incintive for members to disobey, they already do. I'm not offering a system where no one disobeys. I'm offering a system that allows for quicker response to potenital trouble makers and the ability to choose our own moderators instead of some admin who could possibly choose mods that suit his own purpouse. I know you aren't offering a system where no one disobeys. The thing is, that quick response might not come to that potential trouble because people are biased and illogical, and the quick response to that lack of response might not come either due to the same reasons. There is a high chance the system will end up a mockery of itself.

Voting for people you like is not the same as voting for somebody who you know would make a good staff member. Now, it's hard to explain why you should be politically aware/informed to kids, I've tried it myself and seen others try. And I acquiesce to the fact that there was an error in my judgement. The system is not at fault, but some of the rules the system employs, and of course the people those rules were invented to deal with, may be at fault. Therefore, you can calibrate the rules to lessen the wild card factor of the people, but no matter what, there is no way the system or the rules for dealing with power abuse can solve the issue of the fact that people might behave, and people will probably behave if given incentive to behave, but people will often disobey that incentive and misbehave for no reason or an invalid one, and that those people might be dealt with, and there might be incentive to deal with people, but somehow there is the chance they will not be dealt with.

I'd say it's pretty complex for the kids that make up most of BZP. Is it even worth changing the system? There's nothing wrong with it. Maybe something wrong with the people, but not with the system. Your system would work only if we weren't people, because people are the wild card to everything.

I read it. Doesn't make your idea any worse. Somebody could get the bright idea to get people to vote for them in the elections through such clever methods as, say, propaganda. All it would take is getting the sponsorship of a popular comics maker or just a plain old popular member (if they themselves were popular, even better for them) and they could spin a chunk of public opinion on its head. Word of mouth, banners, sig messages, cleverly written topics... All it would take are some tried-and-true advertising methods, and any one group or person could guarantee repeated victory and manipulation of the system. Congratulations, you just perfectly described the way we elect our representitives in the US. The whole concept of the election was to have someone who we actually wanted to be moderator, not someone that an arbitrary admin placed over us. We already have a system in place for potential mods who abuse their powers, so we don't really have all that much to worry about. Ah, but there's the flaw in your plan. US Representatives are not the same thing as rambunctious tweens. You underestimate human greed, stupidity, and hate on the part of the latter party mentioned in the previous sentence. You underestimate the power of greed and stupidity of the US Representatives who can be just as easily manipulated by the lobyists as the teen can be manipulated by his peers. I was going to say 'On the part of both parties mentioned in the previous sentence', but I didn't want to be political. Ah well. Your arguement is not particularly convincing as to the validity of this system. You're talking about a complex politically-based voting system in which the outcome resides largely in the opinion of whoever votes the fastest. On a site for a franchise aimed at kids, that tries to be kid friendly.

Did you ever, after such a long period of time spent worrying and being indecisive, go forward with trying something new, and start trying to get used to it, and start making friends, and find your footing? And then, did you feel like you'd found such a wonderful new thing, that it was so incredible, so fun, so engrossing, that you loved it with all your heart? And did you want to be doing this forever, and to be a part of it, no matter what, because it was so fantastic and you had met so many nice people who you felt you could really relate to and talk to through it? And did you think about it in all your spare time, buoyed by your sheer awe at it, by how much you loved it? And did you really feel like you were getting into your groove so soon after you started, and that things were going great? And then, just as you felt you had found your footing, did it start to come crashing down by the whim of some outside force? And then, did you feel so confused at what was happening? And then, did you go to bed, thinking nothing of it in total, just chalking it up to the normal humdrum of life? And then, did you wake up, and did you find out everything had changed, had changed so terribly, that you were quaking on the inside, and you felt sheer terror and anger, and you felt even worse when you saw so many people taking sides and fighting, and did you realize it was just speeding up the worsening of it all? And did you struggle to keep yourself calm as you watched it progressively get worse? Did you ever watch something you loved die a horrible death? I'm not talking about BZP, no. Not at all, I promise you. Something else. Something else, trust me on this, all you people who I could swear read it just to report me. On the bright side, I got me some new comics!

I read it. Doesn't make your idea any worse. Somebody could get the bright idea to get people to vote for them in the elections through such clever methods as, say, propaganda. All it would take is getting the sponsorship of a popular comics maker or just a plain old popular member (if they themselves were popular, even better for them) and they could spin a chunk of public opinion on its head. Word of mouth, banners, sig messages, cleverly written topics... All it would take are some tried-and-true advertising methods, and any one group or person could guarantee repeated victory and manipulation of the system. Congratulations, you just perfectly described the way we elect our representitives in the US. The whole concept of the election was to have someone who we actually wanted to be moderator, not someone that an arbitrary admin placed over us. We already have a system in place for potential mods who abuse their powers, so we don't really have all that much to worry about. Ah, but there's the flaw in your plan. US Representatives are not the same thing as rambunctious tweens. You underestimate human greed, stupidity, and hate on the part of the latter party mentioned in the previous sentence.

I read it. Doesn't make your idea any worse. Somebody could get the bright idea to get people to vote for them in the elections through such clever methods as, say, propaganda. All it would take is getting the sponsorship of a popular comics maker or just a plain old popular member (if they themselves were popular, even better for them) and they could spin a chunk of public opinion on its head. Word of mouth, banners, sig messages, cleverly written topics... All it would take are some tried-and-true advertising methods, and any one group or person could guarantee repeated victory and manipulation of the system.

Why, hi there! Welcome back! I was wondering what happened to you.

The idea has a weak base because of the undertones of communism. Communism doesn't work. Redistribution of power would fail like the redistribution of wealth in the real world would fail: Stupid people would end up losing their power, smart people would get power, and most of the people who had power before the redistribution would regain it. Not to Oh, and fun fact: That's from Wiktionary. Thomas More invented the word for a satirical treatise.

(Reposted from a several-day-old PM) I went to my dad's place in Cambridge Friday night, and it was GREAT! We had a fun time there, and then Saturday morning, we flew out to Detroit, where we met up with my dad's friend and his son, for a connecting flight to Indianapolis, and we checked in at the hotel (Which was HUGE), and then we wandered around having a great time! Man... It felt like we spent three days instead of just half of Saturday in Indianapolis. I loved it... It made me feel good, it was like so many of the experiences I'm nostalgic for... Also, the Patriots have now won nine games, and lost none. It was a nailbiter of a game against the Colts, like one of those horror movies where the character you're rooting for keeps skirting death, but miraculously comes out on top in the end. And we flew home today. Man, I'm exhausted, but I still feel awesome. (now for new content) That was on Monday, people. Boston is such a pretty place at night, with all the water and lights... Indianapolis is like one big adventure, too. I went on a field trip to Fenway Park today! It was pretty neat, I'll tell you that. After that, since nobody had eaten since whenever in the morning, our bus (two homerooms per bus, and there are four homerooms on our team) stopped at McDonalds, while the other stopped at a Wendy's. But, Fenway is still pretty cool. WOO! And I have a day off on Monday, a field trip to the Museum of Science on Tuesday, and the class is just gonna be watching movies on Wednesday! YEEEHA!

My aunt and uncle who live out in Dayton, Ohio, had an eighteen year old cat named Maggie. She died yesterday. I am very sad. She was a very good kitty. I'mma go cry now.

I actually agree on that, Omi was a force of logic in that topic.

...My computer would still turn off, Frankin. That's not what I want.

...Yeah... Of course, it's much harder if you read what I said about him groping people.

Twice, I have tried writing an entry on Marvel's new Captain America, and the [insert incredibly offensive, vulgar, and disgusting word of choice here] power went out, both times. I am not amused by the antics of my local power company, nor by that of the weather or any other chance forces that may be guilty. I mean, I'm especially angry, because Mozilla Firefox has a 'Restore Session' thing for power outages and the like. But apparently while data in other entry fields will be saved, the info in a blog entry's 'Add Entry' thingy will not persevere a power outage. [insert incredibly offensive, vulgar, and disgusting word of choice here] power outages.

Not really. Because that was a really poor comeback. Poorer than Oliver Twist times infinity.