There’s a story in the local paper. It’s a few paragraphs long, but it can be summarized as thus:
Wolf populations are on the rise in WI. Wolves are eating deer. Hunters shot less deer.
The logical conclusion?
Wolf hunts.
………………
I….
It’s….you see….deer….wolves….hunters are….
I can’t even really begin to address this. But it’s made my head hurt so very very very very very much today.
I actually found that story while looking in to this one: http://www.jsonline.com/business/90405254.html
Not in that paper, but that’s the online version that had the story I was looking for. The comments in that story frighten me tremendously. From comment 1, it’s intensely political, completely lacking in context, and vitrolic rhetoric. It’s not until the “Hey, I work there, here’s the facts” that it settles down.
People just worry me, all over.
As the others allude to in the About section, in my Real Life I do a great deal with copyright.
The Anime Industry runs on copyright infringement.
Just about everything the fan community does with anime is infringing somehow. This type of statement could be made about fandom in general, but it’s particularly true with anime. And the anime industry wouldn’t exist as we know it without it- in Japan as well as the US.
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As a kid, video arcades were my babysitter much of the time. Mom and pop wanted to go see a movie my brothers and I weren’t interested in, we usually wound up at Putt Putt Golf & Games for a couple hours while they caught the flick. I don’t remember any games that became obsessive for me, other than maybe throwing down against my brothers in Street Fighter II or Cyberball.
Since I’ve gotten older, however, there have been numerous games that sink their hooks into me and won’t let me go. Everyone knows I’m a Rock Band fanatic. Also pretty hardcore into Left 4 Dead. I didn’t really think I got the Mass Effect phenomenon until I realized I’d started up a new career with a different character almost immediately after I finished the game with my first one. And don’t get me started on the Bioshock titles (please, Hollywood, if you’re going to turn every game into a movie, at least get this one right and put it in David Fincher’s hands if he’s interested).
But what is it that pulls me in? Story plays a big part in Bioshock, to a lesser degree in Mass Effect. But that certainly doesn’t explain Rock Band or my latest obsession Plants vs Zombies (if you’re not familiar with it, don’t laugh until you give it a shot. If you’re not sucked in after the first hour, you’re a better person than I).
Gameplay is obviously the key, but what is it about the game play that makes such a difference? I figured this is the best audience to pose the question to: what gets the jonesing started that you say “Just one more screen/mission/level…” and next thing you know you’ve lost a couple of hours and find yourself late to wherever you need to be?
In an effort to write more, I’ll probably be posting some anime reviews over the next few weeks. In this post, I’m going to briefly discuss my history with anime; in the next I’m going to discuss some Things You Should Know before I get to proper reviewing- particularly involving the nebulous relationship between anime fandom and copyright, and then I’ll start posting reviews.
I’ve been involved with anime for some time now. I met my wife at that anime club when we were undergrads. My first publication of any sort was a story in Animerica back in the late 90s (although that’s my only anime-related publication to date). I helped start the anime club at Syracuse University. I was active at the UT anime club for many years, and I’ve been the faculty adviser to that club in the past (don’t let that fool you, though- I’m only “faculty” in the most technical sense of teaching at a University, but I’m still a doctoral student). And a good part of my current interest in copyright came from my initial brushes with copyright in anime fandom.
Long story short, the subject is one I find important. ^_^
If you don’t know how to use the words, don’t use them. People are not impressed when you use words with 3 syllables simply to use big words. This is doubly true when you use it *wrong.* Don’t use query when you mean question. It just calls out that you want to sound smart. And learn the difference between similar words – constrained <> constricted, for instance. And awkward sentence construction doesn’t sound educated – it sounds like you don’t know how to construct a sentence.
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One of my guildies recently posed a question that boiled down to “Is it weird for a 42 year old guy to play DnD with 20 year olds?” He wanted to get back in to gaming, didn’t have a group, signed up for the friendly local Comic Book Store’s open gaming. Group was young, his coworkers are hassling him, he’s confused.Â
This annoys me. It’s reflective of the nature of this site, sure, but come on. If he’d gone to a gym and gotten in to a pick up game of basketball with a group of 20 year olds, it’s not a thing, as long as he can keep up. If he’d gone to a bar to watch a sporting event of note, and there were 20 year olds there celebrating, and they started high fiving, it’s not a thing. If he’d joined a community theater group and been Claudius to a 20 year’s Hamlet, and they hung out, it’s not odd. But if he games, it’s weird?
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So trying to get started back in the routine of posting again maybe isn’t such a good idea on the verge of a product rollout…
As some of you know, Apple released a new toy this week. You might have seen a thing or two on the news about it. I had made up my mind to refrain from picking up an iPad initially, but I could only avoid succumbing to temptation for a couple of days before I was in line at my local Apple store picking one up.
I’m not tech savvy enough to comment much on the pros and cons of the hardware. I’m a hardcore iPhone user, so the software piece I was already used to. I think the thing I’m finding most interesting about it is the way some developers have used it to rethink the way we consumer media. I think once I find an RSS reader I like for this thing, my time spent with the printed word is going to shoot through the roof again. The Marvel Comics app alone is mind-blowing for how it’s made me look at a medium I thought I knew in a whole new light.
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I know, we’re geeks, we like comics.
But man, reading about them just makes me feel bad. I ended up on Wikipedia today, looking for Mr. Mxyzptlk information, and ended up reading the summary. And it’s awful. So much bizarreness. My favorite lines follow:
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Today is Ada Lovelace day. Presumably it’s her birthday, which is why it’s her day. I’m too lazy to google it.
Ada Lovelace was, arguably, the first programmer. She wrote the algorithms that Babbage’s difference engine ran on.
The day is being used to promote/celebrate women in technology and such. Which is good. But it sort of served to remind me that I’m *way* out of that sphere.
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Okay, I finally get it.
Until now, I’ve never really had gadget lust. I’ve liked some stuff, but there’s never been anything I’ve wanted to hug and pet.
I like my 360 and my laptop, but that’s really because I play games on them.
Now I have a Droid. Perhaps iPhone users feel this way, but it’s because they don’t have a Droid.
The phone just works for me. I’m interested in Twitter, because my phone makes it easy. I’m using my personal calendar, because it’s easy. I feel happy times when I get it out.
Don’t tell Michelle.