YouTube Wasting People's Lives

Yes! Normally I don't bitch about a free service changing (Read: Facebook), but YouTube has changed about 75% of the site. Most of it I'm cool with, and I can still find stuff. But on the main page is where I have my subscriptions listed with uploads only. Before I could just reload the page to see if there were any new updates because it would remember that I only wanted to see uploads. Now it forgets every time. So it gives me two options: reload the page and click subscriptions then upload activity, or click subscriptions but still have to specify upload activity.

WoW Becomes Its Own Joke

I have never played World of Warcraft for a couple reasons. At the time it came out, I was playing FFXI and at the time it was an incredibly difficult game, especially compared to WoW. I am more of a visual kind of guy and the relative realism of FFXI was a stark contrast to WoW which looked cartoony. The armor was unrealistic and looked like it was taken directly from Warhammer 40K. I also have a problem with games who do not show their gameplay in a trailer. This also makes me wonder how anyone could get excited for a game from a trailer that does not show the game. It would be like someone getting excited for a Christopher Nolan live-action film when they show a Pixar short.

After all of these years I still hold no interest for WoW, but they are releasing a new expansion pack called Mists of Pandaria, with a kung-fu panda on the cover. The reason I bring this up is that the movie Kung-fu Panda is the same thing, a cartoon. This is not about Blizzard being completely unoriginal; it is about a game that looks cartoony has made an expansion pack that is reminiscent of a cartoon. Considering the unoriginal armor in WoW and the latest expansion pack, it is becoming apparent that Blizzard is not original in its development.

Creative Writing Tips: Dream Sequences

Many books, typically fantasy genres, have dream sequences. The reasoning behind the dreams can be used for different purposes, such as a premonition of what is to come. Others show the deeper feelings someone may have about a situation going on in the book. Sometimes, these dream sequences can push a reader out of what is believable given the setting of the story. Each person has their own view on what dreams really mean, whether they be the random firings of your brain during REM, the ability to tell the future, or some meaningful analysis of how you really feel. Someone who sees dreams as a way for the brain to keep you occupied while you sleep using jumbled together memories to create an environment may only accept the idea of dreams being clairvoyant in a fantasy setting. An author who sees memories as being clairvoyant may have that kind of dream sequence in a "normal" setting.

For the author, thinking about the reader may be difficult. While it it not assumed that an author should please anyone but himself, the very point of the dream sequence has ruin a reader's experience. There must be a point to the dream sequence, and if there is not a strong enough case, an author must consider removing it from the story, or conveying what may be important in another way. So far, I have only used a dream sequence once, in "Survival Tautology" to show the mental impact of what a person has gone through after living in a world full of zombies for so long.

Tyranny Creeps Into Small Town USA

I began to see things take a worse for the small town of Hornell, NY when the local police purchased surveillance cameras to place around the town, allowing Big Brother to rear its ugly head. Now it has gone from bad to worse with a new law that would create unconstitutional "Free Speech Zones." This is in response to a local man, Gilbert Carlton, who, for the past eight years, has been preaching and singing on Main St. The new law would prevent him and anyone who wishes to "gather, remain, walk or stand upon any street or sidewalk in the City of Hornell to protest, support or exercise free speech by voice, sign or any other means."

A federal judge back in 2004 already struck down "Free Speech Zones" as unconstitutional, when a law student at Texas Tech University wanted to make a speech and was denied. Our rights are being taken away in Hornell, and it is up to the citizens to stand up and say "no" to what is a blatant violation of our natural rights as human beings to express our free speech rights of protesting, and for Gilbert Carlton, our right to free expression of our religion.

That is why there will be a protest held Saturday, September 1st, from Noon-3pm at 138 Main Street, in Hornell, NY. All who love freedom, who are outraged at this unconstitutional law, and wish to do voice this travesty should show up in support. Joe Pelych, a city attorney should promptly return to law school to know what is and is not unconstitutional, of which "Free Speech Zones" are unconstitutional.

Feel free to contact Mayor, Shawn Hogan, and city attorney, Joe Pelych to voice your outrage.

Shawn Hogan
Phone: 607-324-7421
E-mail: shogan@cityofhornell.com

Joe Pelych
Phone: 607-324-6111

The local rock band Transparent will be at the protest to perform live in support of our freedom. So come out for some great information, great music, and let all of Hornell hear your voice.

Are MMORPGs Really RPGs?

I was not the one who grew up playing Dungeons and Dragons, but when I was a young teenager, I started playing Palladium Fantasy. I did not start playing Massively Multiplayer Online games until a few years later. So I have a history of pen and paper role playing games, but I had a history of MMOs. When a game is called an MMORPG, to me it is as far from an RPG as you could get. The very basis of an RPG is that you are playing a role, or a character in a game. In an MMO, you control the movements of a character in a game. Every other aspect of an RPG is tossed out from free thinking, restrictions on actions based on moral values, and variations on a character's attributes.

For the case of this analysis, we will focus on Final Fantasy 11 (FFXI) and compared it to Palladium Fantasy Role Playing Game (PFRPG). From the very beginning, you are limited as to what your character is among all the others. I'm not a statistician, but with humans, the possibility of having a different attribute number for eight attributes between 3-30 is huge. Compound that with the various kinds of races you can play, and you will unlikely ever roll two characters exactly the same. One can be super smart, while the other is strong, or beautiful, or just a fast runner. With FFXI, there are differences in attributes, but it is only between races. One race might be better at magic, while the other is better at taking lots of damage. Apart from the facial and hair features, there is no difference between my Elvaan and someone else's Elvaan.

One of the major points of playing an RPG is playing your character. How would your character react to a situation. Now, there are more recent games (which are not MMOs) like Mass Effect, or Tell Tale's The Walking Dead, which gives the player the option of choosing a certain response either in dialogue or reacting to a situation. This is a big step up from FFXI, where Cutscenes involve your character listening to a conversation, and having little to no response. There can be options for how you respond, but all roads lead to the same end result.

Compare this to PFRPG using the example of an annoying NPC. You come across an NPC who is obnoxious, irritating, and you would sooner strangle them then help them with whatever request they have. Depending on your disposition, and your moral alignment, you would have a pretty endless choice of action when it comes to this NPC. If you were on the evil side, you could kill the NPC. Games like The Elder Scrolls series are a bit more open ended on what you can do, including killing the NPC, but unlike Mass Effect and more like FFXI, all choices pretty much lead to the same result. The only thing that changes is the NPC's response to you.

In fact, most of the time in FFXI when it comes to missions and quests you are eaves dropping on someone else's conversation. If you are not eaves dropping, you are a wall flower. Anything done in game does not have any effect on the game as a whole. You may say "Well, that would ruin everything for everyone else." Given that another game tried this, and the game has since failed, you can take the example however you wish. The Matrix Online game was changeable by the players. Events would allow you to change how the game was. I never played the game, but I read about it, so I cannot say how this effected gameplay. A major character in the first expansion pack of FFXI dies in the second expansion pack. It had been so long since I finished those storylines that when I went back to finish the first expansion pack, the person was still alive. It is just a game, but on a subconscious level, there is a paradox of sorts.

So in a game that you have no real effect over, your ability to choose is almost non existent, and your character, apart from facial features and its name, is nothing special. Compared to an actual pen and paper RPG, these MMOs are nothing close to an RPG. Why call an MMORPG an RPG at all? Probably to get people to buy their product. The Elder Scrolls from the very beginning tried to make a game as close to an RPG as they could get. Since then with Skyrim, they have distanced themselves from that, making the game extremely easy to play. But there is one thing that has yet to be adapted to a video game, and that is the unpredictability of a human being. Perhaps Neverwinter Nights came close with its ability to build scenarios, but on almost every metric, MMORPGs, and even games like Mass Effect are not role playing games. If I ran a game of PFRPG, and made it to your experience playing an MMORPG like FFXI, it would be just terrible. This is not meant to bash FFXI as a game because it can be very enjoyable to play. But as far as an RPG, it is a terrible game, and FFXI and any other game claiming to be an MMORPG or just an RPG should not be called. MMOs can simply be called that: MMO. RPG games are becoming more like "First Person Adventure" games, even if it allows a third person view. Because really you are just having an adventure in the game, and you play no unique role.

Continuum: Globalist Indoctrination?

There is a new sci-fi show in Canada called Continuum about a cop from the future who travels back in time to catch bad guys. Sounds benign enough until you watch the first episode. Right off the bat, the time says "2077" with a location "North American Union." An old man is recording himself talking about freedom, liberty, and how the governments all fell to the corporations who took the bailouts then took control of the governments who could not pay back their debts. Right away, we see the actual globalists' plans for our world.

After that, these freedom lovers blow up a building that kills 30,000 people to get to only a couple people they were targeting. These terrorists are sentenced to die, but somehow slip something in that sends them all back in time to 2012. The cop who busted the old guy in the beginning jumps in at the last second and is transported back in time too. With bionic implants in her brain, her eyes, and futuristic clothing, she is able to recall anything and track down the escaped prisoners. She is also aided by a kid who in the future develops the technology that allows her implants to communicate, and so allows her to communicate with his prototype computer in 2012.

The kid is played by Dale from Jericho, and apart from the demonetization of liberty patriots, and glorification of corporation rulers, the show is quite good. I will have to see if the cop turns against her future corporate overlords. Otherwise the show is just a way to indoctrinate Canadians and anyone else who sees the show what the globalists are planning.

Games I Would Play And How to Fund a New PC

There have been a couple new games in production that I would like to play. I started gaming on games like Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and SimCity 2000. Since then I have played the Sims line, and SimCity 3000. Now they are working on a brand new SimCity game with a little bit of a twist. It will be online so that your city affects other cities just as it does in real life. It also uses a form of swarm technology with agents traveling along paths to bring a result. I hope they do not have a monthly fee since it is nowhere near the level of an MMO.

A Cautionary Debate

Currently, there is a debate going on in the NASCAR world of whether the sport needs more cautions to make the racing exciting, and why there are fewer cautions. As far as why the races are not exciting for the fans I think is summed up best by Jimmie Johnson. He said, basically, that you need to be a half second or at the least a third of a second faster than the other driver to pass. If you're .1 or .2 faster, you can't make the pass. NASCAR has, for the most part, been running the same car since 2007, almost five years old. While not as bad as how long IndyCar ran their same car, it is pretty apparent that the teams have pretty much figured out these cars.

NASCAR has gone a long way in recent years with making the point system easier to understand, and the Chase a little more exciting for those in the 10-20 ranks in points. As with ABC and ESPN having a terrible airing of the first 2012 IndyCar race, it is possible that a race, for fans at home, can be boring solely because the broadcast station is doing a piss poor job. However, for those who watch DirecTV's HotPass, the reality is that the racing really is more boring.

Peter Dinklage: A Huge Actor

Much like the black-face of old, dwarves and small people have only gotten comedic roles that are typically at their own expense. For one actor in particular, his ability for great acting makes the audience forget his height and focus only on his character. Perhaps one of the most notable big actors who is small is Warwick Davis. He is most famous for his role as Willow, and most recently the Harry Potter movies, but I also remember him from The 10th Kingdom.

This has lead to Peter Dinklage who has become a huge star winning a Golden Globe award for his role in Game of Thrones. I did not start watching Game of Thrones until season 2 had started, and all I had heard about Peter's role was how awesome the character was. I soon found out indeed how awesome he is. He plays a dwarf, but his character is written and acted with such depth and personal history that for much of his scenes, I forget how tall he is.

As for Peter, himself, I had seen him previously in the hilarious UK film Death at a Funeral. In Game of Thrones, I find that Peter's character is perhaps my favorite. It is a testament to Peter Dinklage of his acting ability to play a role so well. It is my hope that in what he does will open doors for other actors such as himself to get roles that are written not for comedy, especially at their expense, but roles that have depth and character. I think Peter himself feels the same way considering his acceptance speech at the Golden Globes to bring awareness to another small person, Martin Henderson, who was injured when someone threw him. That kind of behavior treats them as less than human, and Peter Dinklage, through his acting, has shown audiences that they can act bigger and better than someone twice his height.

This is War!

It is an information war, it is a war for our lives, a war for our future, a war for those have died needlessly, and it is a war that every person, no matter their color, creed, religion, sex, or ideology, should stand together for freedom. Not just for Americans, but for everyone around the world. Freedom must be upheld in one place before it can spread. Our Founding Fathers took less shit from their government and rose up to declare independence, not just for them, but so that all people of the world might know a free life.

They tried the peaceful route, they tried to petition the government, they tried to find any other way but war. It was not up to the Founding Fathers that there should be war, it was the oppressive tyrannical government that wanted war. They refused to give up their power. And today, our oppressors refuse to give up power. Whether they are Clinton taking our guns away, or Bush taking our civil liberties away, or Barry Satoro who has declared war on the American people, we do not want war. They want war. They want war with other countries, and they want war with anyone who loves freedom.

White-Wash Explained

How to spot a white-wash on television: They propose a theory about a certain topic. This is followed by numerous problems or falsehoods in the "official" story. It is concluded with one issue that supposedly "debunks" the theory. However, most audience members will thus forget all of the problems that were brought up. None of those problems with the story are ever explained.

Writing a Scene

I came across this minor problem that started as a major problem, and the epiphany I had allowed me to get past my writer's block. To be brief, I could not get past a scene which was pretty basic. I was at Point A, and I had all of these ideas for where Point B, C, and D would be. The problem was connecting the dots. The epiphany I had was "just focus on the scene." I had a lot of ideas of what the character would go through, how the other people in his life would play a role, shape and change his life. This is all well and good, but it detracts from the scene. A lot of it goes back to film making in which scene after scene makes up a movie, and events may happen outside of the current scene. The key is to focus on this one scene.

Female Characters

By and large, I write female characters as being strong and independent. I write the males as the same typically, but just as two alpha males clash, the male and female characters can clash in the same way. Much like the structure of a sentence, two independent sentences can have a lot in common, but it takes something like a conjunction. It allows two strong characters to have a middle ground where there can be cooperation and mutual respect.

Whether the character is male or female, to have a character that is helpless or weak conveys a sense of "dead weight." That is not to say that a character can change from being weak and helpless to being a strong and independent character. The archetypal "damsel in distress" serves no purpose in a story other than a reward for a hero. Simply stepping outside of that and looking for another reward for the hero negates the need for the weak character, who presumably is stagnant in its shallowness.

I have had women characters who are expert snipers, genius level intelligence, trained in martial arts, programmed to be more human than human, or overcome tragedy with the strength and will to fight. Everyone is good at something; I choose to exemplify, in my characters, what any human can do.

Vote of No Confidence

Growing up, I was told that if you did not vote, you had no say in an elected official did. At a time, even I believed it, but as I became informed to how the election system works, voting for even the lesser of two evils seems morally wrong. People like to think that in a situation, you have to do something. But doing nothing is something.

Not Really News

I grew up a tad bit strange (still am strange) in that I began watching news channels at a young age instead of cartoons. I began with Headline News, but after realizing that every half hour or so was repeated, I was not able to get the information I wanted. Eventually we got Fox News, and at the time I was still in the left-right paradigm of CNN was liberal, and Fox News was the only station telling the truth.

I watched Bill O'reilly, and later Glenn Beck, but it was during the time that Glenn Beck was on I began listening to Alex Jones. Like a man dying of thirst, I began to relearn economics, government, politics, entertainment, and especially history. One of the first things I heard Alex Jones said is "Don't believe me; look it up." And I did. Everything he was saying I would look up and it was all true. That was no so much surprising as it was surprising that I had not done what I had been taught in college. Since pretty much my first semester, I was taught that if I was to claim anything in a paper, I had to back it up with facts, source it, or cite it.

Author's Research

A couple years ago for Christmas, I got "The Twelfth Imam" by Joel Rosenberg. It is a fictional book set in historical events. You could argue that since it is a book, that alternate version of history or an alternate universe, as it were, would not be the same history as our own. Given how much research the author must have done for the period setting, it would be acceptable to assume that it is relatively the same universe as ours.

Moral Revolution

Right now I am reading "The 5,000 Year Leap" which goes over the principles that the Founders believed in that set up a system to make a country great. There are 28 principles, but the chief among them are liberty, private property, and the pursuit of life and happiness. The book also talks about the doubts these men had before the revolution began. They agreed that a nation must be filled with well educated, moral and just men to be able to govern themselves. They admitted that a nation filled with uneducated and immoral people will flee asking others to govern them.

Next Project

Now that Survival Tautology is out and available to buy, I have begun work on my next book tentatively titled The Immune. I don't really have a synopsis right now, but the setting is around a biological outbreak that wipes out 90% of the world's population. A small group of people try to make their way across America to find a future. Right now I am developing character profiles.

The only similarity this book has with Survival Tautology is that the human population has been decreased. Instead of a community that is stationary, this one will be small--I haven't decided on what size it will be. I played too much Final Fantasy 11 years ago that six always seems like the appropriate number of people for a group. Right now I only have ideas for four, so the number will probably be around 4-6.

ASC Cover Art Contest Winner

I am happy to announce the winner of the ASC Cover Art Contest is Nicole Binns. Her art will be featured on my book "Survival Tautology" scheduled for release February 6th. If you are interested in contacting her for further work, you can check out her website. Here is the winning drawing, and check out "Survival Tautology" when it comes out on Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, and Google Books.

Supporting Local Talent

For all the crap that may come out of America's Got Talent, you see often times a tiny jewel of a person who has amazing talent. The show tries to spin it that they discovered this new talent because they held auditions. This is only meant to lend them credibility for a show that only pumps out singers while advertising that the show is open to all acts. These people who only sing in the shower or only sing at church, and come out with amazing voices is something that we do not always hear about. A lot of times you have local bands who are singing about issues and topics that really matter. But the same concept of supporting a local band is the same as supporting US companies. Supporting local stores instead of big box stores helps the local economy, and has a direct impact on a local business in your town. If you spend $100 a week at Wal-mart, you are not going to see Wal-mart suddenly start hiring in your local town. But if you spend your money at a local store, you are more likely to see a direct impact in your life by seeing that small company hire new employees.

A New Poem

I finally got the inspiration to write another poem. This one is more towards a children's poem, but I thought it was sweet. I debated writing it as a story, but thought it would fit better as a poem. It is still kind of written as a story, which is another reason why I wanted to try something new in how I write poetry.

Movie Mistakes Reveal the Lie

I have always had a fascination with mistakes in movies with continuity errors (items switching positions between shots), equipment or crew visible (either clearly like in Harry Potter, or in reflections), factual errors (later era planes or ships used in a period piece), to downright illogical use of the surroundings (flat land suddenly becomes a large drop-off in Jurassic Park). Since I took a class on film in college, I have a better understanding of how it came about that these errors have occurred. The Lord of the Rings trilogy flipped the screen a lot, which most of the time is not noticeable because the human body is symmetrical (the same on either side). But when you have a leaf on your cloak that points one way, it becomes painfully obvious. The reason for doing this is the camera angle shows them looking one way. Another shot has them looking another way, but if you flip the image, it makes it look like they are looking in the same direction.

The Case for Ron Paul

How you view Ron Paul may say more about yourself than what you think of Ron Paul. For decades, Ron Paul has been a strict constitutionlist who believes that if the rights of the federal government are not stated, then it is left up to the states to decide. People think Ron Paul is radical, but he is simply following the Constitution. In a way he is radical because the founding of this country and giving us all of these freedoms was a radical idea from the tyranny that preceded. These days, our rights have been stripped away so much that the ideas that our founding fathers had have become radical again.

"E.T." by Katy Perry Examined

There is symbolism everywhere, in architecture, in movies, and in literature. Symbolism is a key component to poetry, and songs are a form of poems. Some symbols have multiple meanings, what are called esoteric and exoteric. One meaning is for those who have "eyes to see" and "ears to hear", who know the true meaning, and the other meaning of a symbol is for the rest of the public.

I have no great insider knowledge about Katy Perry's song "E.T." only that considering her past, and how the record industry works, this could be a possibility. It is already well known that the music industry for years has tried to change society and the youth by the lyrics in their songs, whether they are Satan worshiping like Metallica or Black Sabbath, or if they are trying to hyper sexualize young kids like Britney Spears, Boy Bands, and most recently Lady Gaga.

Doublespeak and Doublethink Explained

Doublethink is having two contradictory beliefs which was coined by George Orwell in the novel 1984. An example is supporting the Libya war while calling it a humanitarian action, or "peace." Doublespeak is similar in that actual words are distorted or have a reversed meaning; again, "war" means "peace." Once you know what it is, you will begin to see it everywhere, not just in politics, but in media, and entertainment. The song "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy" sings about how much of a classic cowboy he is like John Wayne, riding his horse into town instead of a Cadillac SUV. Yet if you've even seen the singer in real life--a prime example was the reality show that brought singers from other genres to sing country songs on CMT--he wears big fut coats.