Debate

Earlier today I got into a little bit of a debate…well not really a debate as such but a discussion over at my friend Yoshi’s Blog. It was about a news report and YouTube video that detailed a Marine throwing a puppy off a Cliff.

Disgusting yes, inhumane yes. I find the mans actions to be reprehensible.

That being said what I did not agree with was several Posters leaping to the conclusion that this one mans deplorable action somehow was representative of the the Marines in general. As you can well imagine many of the Posters are, like myself, animal lovers and were justifiably outraged that a human being could do something like that to a puppy.

Seeing as how my Family is directly related to the Military I am well aware that I am biased towards the Military but I just could not sit by and watch people take a one mans idiocy and turn it into hate mongering for an entire group of people. I know a great many people serving today and I can all but guarantee that every single one of them would be seriously offended by what happened and completely unable to grasp how a human being could do something like that.

You just shouldn’t take the actions of one man and brand an entire group with them, it’s unfair and I’ll speak up about it every single time.

Note: I am not providing any links to this, if anyone wants a link to it I will provide it on a ‘by-request’ basis. I just don’t feel the need to perpetuate this any further publicly.

What is the world coming to?

Generally I stay away from Political issues as a show of respect for my..well lack of respect for anything Political but something on the news this past week caught my eye. Over in Tibet right now there are people protesting the beating of protesters in a political demonstration. So what do the Tibetan Police do? They beat the protesters protesting the beating of the other protesters. Now I am the first to admit I found the situation mildly amusing (damn you Simpsons and South Park!) but in retrospect it opened my eyes to my own apathy towards Political issues.

Back in the day Demonstrations were a legitimate means for the public to communicate to their government when they felt their local representatives were not acting as the peoples mouthpiece and that was fine. But now I see that the Politicians themselves have become apathetic towards Protesters to the point that the Demonstrations are more for the benefit of the people gathered together under a common banner. As if to say “Yes we all agree that something needs to be done but really are the Politicians even paying attention anymore?” 

You can’t go a day reading the newspaper or watching it on TV without hearing about a Demonstration or Protest Rally somewhere in the world. I just don’t see them having any effect whatsoever any longer.

If you poke something long enough it gets angry, if you poke it even longer it just becomes immune to the input. That’s what has happened to the power of Demonstrations I think. It’s no longer, “Wow look at all these people! Let’s find out what has their knickers so twisted!” it has become “Oh great…another useless protest, how late is this going to make me for work?”

You won’t see much of this on my Blog, I just thought I’d splurge today. Thanks for reading if you got this far!

End of Turn

I’m sure there are a great many people out there today Blogging about the passing of Gary Gygax on Tuesday at his home in Wisconsin. Anyone involved in Table Top Roleplaying has more than likely heard the name of this Gaming Icon at some point and I guarantee that anyone born in the Late 60’s who’s played Table Top RPGs knows it well.

It’s impossible to properly quantify Gary’s impact on Gaming Culture or even popular culture. Although he was not the only man involved in creating the Iconic Game System known as Dungeons and Dragons he was undeniably a huge influence in its development.

Where J.R.R. Tolkien helped to bring the Fantasy writing Genre into existence Gary Gygax was the man that gave people the world over the tools to create and play in worlds all their own.

It might only be a game to some people but for me it was (and still is) a massive part of my fondest memories. I mourn his loss heavily.

Rest well in the Summerlands Sir, you have most certainly earned it.

Book Ends

About 6 months ago I was in need of something fun to read so off I went to my local Book Store aptly named “Lots-a-books”. I have much love for that store. A little over 10 years ago when my family got sent up here (my Father was Military at the time) I had literally nothing to do because we were stuck in a Hotel room for almost 6 weeks due to our PMQ being fixed up. There was nothing much on TV, I did not know a living soul in town and it was Summer Holidays so I had no chance to meet other kids my age at school. Not knowing where anything was did not help matters either.

Thankfully my Mother is also an avid reader and was in much the same boat so we would walk downtown to see what was there quite often. That’s when we found Lots-a-books nestled in it’s little spot on Main Street. In our old town of Alsask there wasn’t even a bookstore so I was ecstatic that I would have access to a bookstore that wasn’t a two hour drive away. As it turned out the tiny little building was actually the towns very first Bank way back in the day. It still even had the old Vault with its massive steel door though it now held a children’s reading section.

I explored the place as only a bored to death teenager could and quickly found my own personal mecca in the form of the Science Fiction/Fantasy area. Those are some of the fondest days of my life, I even remember the very first book I ever bought in that store. Robotech #1. In the end I had an awesome summer eventually reading the entire series of Robotech in our six week hotel stay before we finally got into our house on the Base. In fact I was such a fixture of the little store that when I did not come in the next weekend (due to being about a 15 minute drive away instead of just down the road) they actually phoned my Father at work to see if I was alright.

To this day I still have the entire Robotech Series on my bookshelf.

Now that I have digressed you into a sleepy haze dear readers let me get to the meat of this entry.

Gail Z. Martin

It’s safe to say that I read ALOT of Fantasy books, being an avid player of Dungeons and Dragons for over 18 years now, so I have seen my fair share of “Cookie cutter” fantasy settings. It’s hard to be original these days in a specific setting so a really good Author, instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, draws you in with the setting and the characters.

It’s been a long long time since an author had me so eager to read that I actually hid myself away for the chance to pick up the book again and Mrs. Martin has done that and more. Very rarely do I actually seek out an Author to gush about how much I enjoyed their work. Gail however has turned out to be easily approachable and immensely friendly in every aspect.

I won’t take up any more of your time but if you are any sort of fan of High Fantasy and lovingly crafted characters I highly recommend Chronicles of the Necromancer and it’s Sequel which has just arrived in stores (though not MY store yet…blasted cold weather has wrought havoc with shipping to my tiny town).

Tres Bizarre!

Well with the renovations ongoing where I work the days have been predictably dull as people try to figure out if we are open at all. I went in to work this morning only to notice that one of my co-workers was absent. When I inquired about it I got the usual, “Went home sick” that happens from time to time in any workplace.

Later on though I find out that the poor woman may have pneumonia or a similar problem and likely won’t be around for several days at least. I shrugged and offered my well wishes by proxy and went about covering for the absentee. Even later on this morning I get called into the Managers Office. It seems that with the renovation happening she’s trimmed hours all over the place and without our sickly colleague there will only be one person to run the kitchen during the afternoon. This is a no no. There are Five stations in the Kitchen and if we get even remotely busy it just doesn’t work to have one person running around like headless poultry.

So I had a choice. I could offer to take up the shifts that were left vacant or continue on in my own shifts while one of the Kitchen Managers would take over the free shifts. I jumped on it and hung on like a cowboy on a bull.

So now for the next week I have only Day Shifts. Hahahafuckingawesomeha! Three years I worked Split Shifts every day and finally I get a string of Days! Yay me!

*snoppy dance*

That is all (for now)

Survival Kit? Cool Beans!

First off..I have NO idea where I got the whole Cool Beans thing from, it just seems to have stuck with me from my MMO Days. Moving on.

My Friend over at Pandora’s Box (that’d be Pandora eh?) whose Journal I stalk often had a post there about a Blogging friend of hers in which this unbelievably kind hearted woman over at Kentucky Gurl is offering to send a random winner a ‘Survival Package’ of cookies and assorted other items that you may request (within reason of course) to help you survive the rigors of your daily life.

I’ve entered already but I figured since I am genuinely trying to be a good Blog’r this time around that I should make mention of the things I find noteworthy during my day. So if you read this feel free to head on over and enter for yourself. That way no one can accuse me of trying to hog all the luck for myself.

In other news, my Wife got stuck in the Temple of Courage and decided to phone me at home (she’s at work) to get me to look up a Walk-Through of the game and figure out how to get her unstuck.  Weird? You might think so…but not in this house.

p.s. It’s a Nintendo DS Game. Legend of Zelda Phantom Hourglass