Fishing for Fish

So my guildmates have started a blog and podcast called Joystick Love.  I just wrote a little bit about the Phil Fish/FEZ II fiasco.  Cross-posted for your pleasure:

SCotUS Goes for the Bronze

We’re less than 12 hours away from the expected decisions in United States v. Windsor and Hollingsworth v. Perry and I’m both excited and nervous. Excited because it’s generally agreed that the decisions will have a positive effect on gay equal rights in the US. Nervous because I’m justifiably concerned that the decisions will be very narrow and not have nearly the effect which I wish them to have.  I’m hoping for a “gold medal” joint decision on these cases. the decision that would ensure marriage equality for the US.  I’m expecting two separate decisions.  In Hollingsworth v. Perry, I’m expecting a California-specific decision which strikes down Proposition 8.  As for US v. Windsor, I’ve subscribed to the definitions of the possible decisions.  Gold would be the aforementioned full marriage rights throughout the US and it’s territories.   This is, unfortunately, highly unlikely.  Silver would be interstate and federal recognition of marriage rights, but would not for any state to grant marriage licenses if they chose not too.  Honestly, I think silver is the least likely decision.  Finally, bronze is the decision I’m expecting tomorrow.  That would require federal recognition of same sex marriage, but not inter-state.  And of course, finally, the court could decline to make a decision, but that would suck balls, and if that were the case, I’m headed to DC tomorrow to personally punch Roberts and Scalia in the balls.

Here Comes E3

E3 starts in a little less than a week and I was thinking about what I’m looking forward to this year:

• Microsoft trying really hard to perform damage control and convince us we really, really honest to God want and X1.
  • TV. TV, TV. TV TV TV TV. TVTVTVTV.
  • I wonder how much of their conference is going to be about all those franchises I don’t give two shits about? CoD, Madden,
• Sony having a PS4 conference consisting of a giant screen with two lists: The awful things that Microsoft is doing with the X1 and the exact opposite things they’re doing with the PS4.
  • Maybe a price point so I know what to start saving?
  • Gran Turismo 6 looking hella sexy and reminding us the PS3 still has some life left in it.
  • Sony reminding us all that we should go buy The Last of Us like, right the fuck now.
  • More info on the new Infamous game!
• Nintendo desperately trying to remind us that the Wii U is a thing that currently exists that we should totally buy.
  • New Zelda game(s) to make us want to buy a Wii U and/or 3DS.
  • Actually, I’m seriously looking forward to the 3DS Zelda game.
  • Not giving a shit about the new Mario Kart/Super Smash Bros./Pokémon games.
• Another crazy balls Saint Row IV trailer.
• Finally figuring out anything at all about Dragon Age III.
• Hoping that Assassin’s Creed IV as a lot of naval battles, because the Naval Battles in ACIII were about my favorite part.
  • Actually, I’d take those naval battles as a full game, tyvm.
• Hoping that this is an actual thing.
• Remembering that I’ll have to buy a new controller before breaking mine playing Dark Souls II.
• Looking for TESO info, then most likely quickly losing interest. Sorry Bethesda, I just don’t think that series needs an MMO.
• TV.

So what about y’all? Looking forward to anything from E3 2013?

Oh Good God

I don’t care how patriotic you are, this song is just painful. Thank you /r/MURICA/ for bring this to my attention.

 

How Delightfully Sensationalist

‘Obama must be taken before ICC for the war on terror’ – Chomsky to RT

 

I’ll leave that there and ask 4 questions:

1. Why does this headline ignore the fact that Chomsky is asking for Bush and Blair to appear before the ICC as well?
2. How much you wanna bet that there are right-wingers who are ignoring the Bush/Blair bit because “OMG OBAMA”? Just like I’m sure left-wingers will try to say Obama has/had nothing to do with the War on Terror.
3. What about Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld? Or Robert Gates, even?
4. Noam Chomsky? Who keeps pulling him out of the woodwork?

Song of Storm of Swords

So I was wondering earlier today whether I was the only one in the world who though that the Game of Thrones theme sounded like the Song of Storms.

Apparently not:

Amanda Palmer Exploded My Twitter

A few days ago Amanda Palmer posted a question on her twitter feed. She asked any of her followers who consider themselves writers what was the point at which they considered themselves an “actual writer?” and also what point they felt legitimized. AFP has a massive number of very vocal and active twitter followers, many of whom responded to her request. She also retweeted a fairly good portion of the responses. I was seriously glad that night that I have an unlimited text messaging plan, because I follow her with text message notifications, and hoo-boy did my phone blow up. Apparently a lot of people had a lot of varied responses to that question.

I didn’t. It got me thinking, though. Do I consider myself a proper writer? If so, why or why not? It used to be that you were a Writer when you got published, be it a novel, a magazine article, a newspaper editorial, or what have you. It’s a lot harder to draw that line today when any Joe Schmoe can create a WordPress or BlogSpot account and start typing away about whatever random crap comes to mind.

Huh. That sounds familiar.

Anyways. So do I consider myself a proper writer? Kind of yes, but kind of no. A lot of novelists (Terry Pratchett and Stephen King come to mind immediately) talk about how the most important thing for a writer to do is to write a little something every day. I feel that up until I get myself to that point, I can’t really give a firm yes in answer to that question. This blog helps a bit, but I’m not quite there yet.

I’m ending this article how I started – with Amanda Fucking Palmer. AFP recently released an album called Theater is Evil along with her new band The Grand Theft Orchestra. It’s the one that the Kickstarter kerfuffle was about. What I wanted to share was the (fairly) recently released video for one of the songs “The Bed Song.” If you enjoy, go to this site and pay what you want for her album, it’s worth every penny. Or no pennies, if you’re so inclined.

Black, Brown and White – From Border Closings to Boston Bombings (2 of 2)

The second of two posts, because the first one was getting pretty long.  Here we go with some more.  It’s about the Boston Marathon Bombings.  I’m not going to pretend to understand the motivations from what the Tsarnaev Brothers allegedly did in Boston.  Yes, the surviving brother, Dzhokhar has been charged, but he had not yet been convicted. It’s important that we still say “allegedly” at this point, especially if we’re still trying to be Constitutionalist and remember that whole due process, “innocent until proven guilty” bit.  

Black, Brown and White – From Border Closings to Boston Bombings (1 of 2)

I’m going to write two back-to-back posts regarding race, ethnicity, politics and profiling.  You’ve been warned.

So I’ve been trolling some of my Conservative friends on FB lately.  Not mean spirited, but presenting a counter argument.  Well, not always mean-spirited, but all in good fun.  Also I haven’t written a post in quite some time, but that’s because I’ve been at a loss for particular things to talk about.  This little bit of me being awful has, however, provided me with something to talk about.  So what got me today were two images.  The first we’ll discuss here, the second, in another post soon to follow.

Clever Title Here

I’ve got a more serious post rattling around in my mind, but I’m writing this one while watching my niece and nephew. I love them, but it’s not an environment made for deep thought. They’re just too adorable, so I’m just going for some of the more random things that have been on my mind of late.

First up, I can’t wait until April 16th. Mostly because I am ready for all these damn tax preparation ads to end. The ones where places make a big deal about free federal e-file are particularly egregious. Why? Because federal law requires that tax preparers allow you to file your federal return for free. Advertising that is like a hotel saying your room comes with, I don’t know, air. The TaxAct.com ones are really getting on my nerves because they’re on Hulu what seems like every other ad break.

Speaking of Hulu, I got a survey from them a few days ago. This is my biggest complaint about Hulu. Repetitive ads, I mean. I know the ad variety is there. If you watch a bunch of different shows, you see different commercials. If you watch one show in marathon style though, it’s the same few ads over and over and over again.

Next up, BioShock Infinite. I finished it quite some time ago and I gotta say it was amazing. Just, wow. I played through the whole experience on hard mode which I recommend. This is assuming that you haven’t started playing yet. Which is only excusable if you don’t own the game yet, which in itself isn’t really excusable. Anywho. Challenging, but not overwhelming. I’m looking forward to 1999 mode and achievement hunting. Especially the no store one which sounds crazy. Gameplay aside, the story was pretty amazing, too. The ending was a wee bit out there, but made a lot more sense once I watched it through a second time. Also, there’s a post-credit sequence that it helps to watch. Oh and I’ve had “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” stuck in my head for weeks.

Final thought, back on Hulu and the like: I’m looking for a new show to watch, something on Netflix or Hulu that’s complete. Suggestions welcome.