Category Archives: The Interwebs

Stealing ideas (aka MMockery, a play on MMO and Mockery)

So, I’m attempting to make this more exciting as a blog.

To that end, I’m going to try to, you know, blog more. 

First up, I’m stealing an idea from Shamus Young (http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/) who is sort of a geeky superstarish.  And also from myself, about 3 years ago.  Technically, I did it before I saw Shamus do it, but he did it much better.  I’m doing a sort of in-characterish send up of an MMO, or another game, or what have you.  It’s not strictly in character – it’s more me editorializing about it, and imagining things about the character in game.

I’m being inspired by Shamus’ MO of “go for old games, not the newest and greatest.”  But I’m doing him one better – this is for a game that ISN’T EVEN IN EXISTENCE ANY MORE.  Matrix Online.  It’s unlikely anyone reading this has ever even played the game.  So bonus points there.  And even if someone wanted to compare it to the game itself, or got inspired to play, they’re screwed.  So, yeah.

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Zombaritaville!

Henry found the coolest thing I’ve seen on the internet this month… And that includes a Flickr set of mugshots from the 40s full of the downtrodden dregs of humanity…

I give you, ZOMBARITAVILLE! It’s those songs you just can’t claw out of out of your head, rewritten for the undead who just want claw into your head.

Time wasters.

So I’m sitting here at work with nothing to do and probably nothing to do for the rest of the day. It’s got me wondering. What do all of you do to waste time in those down periods at the office? I want to hear about stuff you do at work that sort of looks like you’re working if your boss wanders by and glances at your monitor with no real interest.

Currently, I’m in an IRC channel, checking three forums for activities, surfing CNN.com, reading Twitter, skimming through the DailyKos, and compulsively updating my Recommended Products list on Amazon, and thinking up backstory for the Bounty Hunter character I’m gonna play in an upcoming Star Wars Saga game.

Please, reply to this with your list. Give me one more thing to read so I’m distracted from this almost overpowering urge to set my office on fire and run out the door smelling of gasoline and cackling madly.

‘Ware the anger of video game widows

Dee made a post about a woman named Jillian R, a “Phoenix Early Childhood Parenting Examiner” (citizen reporter, in other words) who posted what amounted to a rant on video game players and how they ignore families.  My first impression was this is a woman who has dealt with being a “video game widow” in the past, and she has a very large axe to grind because of it.  A video game widow, as the name suggests, is someone who has become ignored by their Significant Other due to the latter always playing video games.  Internet widows are a related flavor.  While Jillian R tries to lend some legitimacy to her post by mentioning “research” that will appear in forthcoming articles, this first post is really nothing but an internet rant.

Her basic argument – that video games take away from family time – has been applied to practically every hobby of the past 50 years.  Golf, cars, crafts – you name it, someone has been a hobby widow of it at some point.  The argument is not without merit, as there are some people who do completely ignore other responsibilities in pursuit of their interests, but it’s not isolated to video games nor is it the inevitable outcome as she tries to argue.  Case in point: I know several families who make playing video games a part of their family life.  They all play together, have fun, and strengthen family bonds.  I also know several people who may not play with their families but are nonetheless in healthy, happy, long-term relationships.  I’m just one person; multiply that by the number of gamers out there, and you can’t claim that video games destroy families.

The rest of her arguments are just plain juvenile.  The money thing?  How much does a family outing to the movies cost these days for a family of four?  Let’s see… assume $9 tix for the parents and $6 for the kids, plus candy and sodas for everyone, you’re looking at $50-$60 for two hours of entertainment, about the price of the average new release video game.  The difference is the game will last you ten hours minimum, and likely more.  Plus, if it’s a game for the family, you can all talk while playing.

How about the “sex appeal” of male gamers?  I don’t know about her, but most people I know don’t pass judgment on the worthiness of a mate based on a single attribute.   The gamers I know run the whole spectrum of individuals – male and female, husky and thin, short and tall, passive and aggressive, liberal and conservative, pale and tanned.  They play sports, shop, pet their cats, feed their kids, and weed their gardens.   Does having a green thumb make you “unsexy”?  To put a personal note on it, my girlfriend does not like video games in general, but that has not impacted our 3.5 year relationship.  She also recognizes it for what it is – a hobby, and something that her own daughters enjoy.  It’s something we even do – gasp! – together, and she and I both enjoy watching her 10 and 7 year old play Guitar Hero; laughing, smiling, and having a good time.

The short of it is that people like Jillian R are the reason this blog exists.  Too many of them have some bizarre, biased view of geeks as pale, fat, mouthbreathing, socially inept soda suckers who spend all their time in their mom’s basement.  While I’m sure there are some who fit this stereotype, the great majority do not.  By painting video gamers with the broad brush of family haters, she does nothing but show the world her own insecurities and past pain with someone who did ignore her.

Texas Geeks Know Sam Houston > Rick Perry

Anyone who knows me understands that I’m one of those annoying Texans who really digs being a Texan.

I blame my parents. You see, I actually grew up in rural Texas. So we had horses, cows, cattle guards, and dirt roads. Not that I lived on some big glorious ranch. More like ten acres of hard-packed red clay with patches of bull nettles and ragweed. Ragweed so prominent that I sweetened milk out of instinct for years afterwards because of what it did to our cows. Hell, my first girlfriend’s dad knew me because he recognized my last name from all the times he’d been called out to our house to turn off the electricity for delinquency.  A cavernous maw of washed out dirt and gravel quite capable of devouring the undercarriage of a county utility vehicle served as our driveway, so I’m sure he remembered the trips distinctly.

Now, I admit that for all that Texas cred, I lean to the left. I’m a mild liberal by most standards–or a dirty pinko socialist by my uncle’s standards (he always meant it with love). So the fact that I dislike Gov. Rick Perry might not be a big surprise. That said, his secessionist rant this week should offend anyone who embraces the name Texan.

I’d like to point back to a true leader of Texas who opposed secession, Sam Houston. Yep, the Raven opposed secession in 1861. I understand that Perry is full of himself and doesn’t have the cajones to do anything like secede. He just wants some face time before Kay Bailey Hutchison kicks him out of office next year. However it’s still worth acknowledging that Houston opposed secession when it was an inevitable tide here in Texas. It’s an important distinction. Perry’s sedition of ego versus Houston’s willingness to put aside personal power out of dedicated belief could not offer a more stark contrast in what it means to be Texan.

Me, I have enough pride in the term to want to talk about the the Raven over footnote Texan Goodhair. So, not just to annoy Sam, I started up a little Facebook page to further illustarte my contrast. It seemed the geeky thing to do. 

For some extra enjoyment, here’s Perry making a fool of himself and then being granted an unwanted education on Texas law by Rachel Maddow:

WordPress RSS feeds are the devil

An hour ago, Mike mentioned wanting to link to a post on a FaceBook profile he’s about to create. The context of his question was such that it had nothing to do with where I took it. Mike wanted to know if anyone would be annoyed because the Basement is looking a little shabby at the moment.

But I ran with the question and began wondering if he could establish an RSS feed of the Basement that would auto-post to his FaceBook thingie when he made a post here on the basement with a specific tag. (I have no idea if FaceBook can do this, so whatever.)

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