Aaron's Log

Only Facebook Friends

2012-01-30T22:12:00.001-06:00

You ever have an awkward moment where you run into an old friend and realize that they don't really think of you as a friend anymore? Maybe you make a joke and they respond flatly as though they really don't care at all? You're happy to see them, but they don't seem to care one way or the other about you?
Yeah. That happens to me every now and then.

Facebook doesn't help. It keeps me in contact with people who I otherwise wouldn't see, but for all I know it's one-sided. I'm seeing other peoples' posts, but what if they have me removed from their news feed? Or what if they just don't care?
I try to make a funny comment or say hi, and often times all I get are flat responses or nothing at all. Usually (always) this happens with girls. Guys don't do this; I'm not sure why. I like to think it's because us males are less emotionally wishy-washy, but I have no idea.

There comes a point in most of my friendships with girls where I realize that we're no longer friends; we're only "Facebook friends." Acquaintances, really, who are only friends on Facebook because we met each other once. We're Facebook friends more out of politeness than anything else, and because it might be nice to know when someone is getting married or turning 21, not because we're actually supposed to communicate.

I'm not really sure why it happens. As near I can figure, it's because people move on with their lives. I don't really associate people with points in my life, exactly, but I understand that other people do. For other people, I'm part of their "high school" life or their "college freshman year" life, and have no purpose in the present. Thus all previous emotional ties are cut—from one end, at least.

It's hard not to feel a bit inadequate when this happens. Was I not good enough to keep as a friend? Not fun enough? Not sensitive enough? Not attractive enough?

It feels sort of embarrassing, too. Like I'm accidentally being rude and overemotional, when I didn't really do anything out of place. I just didn't get the memo.

Inferiority Complex

2012-01-11T02:58:00.001-06:00

A little over three years ago (November 2008), I wrote up a random not-in-any-order list of 25 things I wanted to do before dying.

1. Bungee jump
2. Get a sport motorcycle
3. Finish my book trilogy
4. Publish my book trilogy
5. Be a consultant on the films that will be based on my book trilogy
6. Use the money from my books/movies to build a house with its own secret cave, skylit tower, and moat.
7. Kick someone's boyfriend in the face (I'm not picky; anyone will do)
8. Figure out how many licks it takes to get to the tootsie roll center of a tootsie pop. (the world will soon know!)
9. Figure out what String Theory and Quantum Theory actually mean.
10. Chart theoretical 6th-dimensional continuum on a 2-dimensional graph.
11. Send a terminator back in time to assassinate the person who created "Survivor."
12. Dig Captain America out of the glaciers of the North Pole.
13. Learn Northern Shaolin Kung Fu.
14. Actually start watching Lost.
15. Quit watching Heroes.
16. Sky dive.
17. Catch someone trying to steal a lady's purse
18. Rescue a kitten from a tree
19. Invent a viscous, elastic molecular adhesive.
20. Put someone's stapler in Jello.
21. Jump off a railway on a three-story building. (and not die)
22. Tape someone's cellphone to the ceiling so that they run around the room trying to find where the ringing is coming from.
23. Get a Great Pyrenees dog. (those guys are awesome.)
24. Get invited to Skywalker Ranch.
25. namin meleth (wouldn't you like to know! :P)

A lot of that is still true, actually. Anyway, after I'd posted that on facebook, one of my blunter female friends commented: "Really Aaron, you have an inferiority complex." Knowing her, it wasn't sarcasm.
Thing is, she wasn't wrong.

I'd imagine she was looking at these specifically:

6. Use the money from my books/movies to build a house with its own secret cave, skylit tower, and moat.
7. Kick someone's boyfriend in the face (I'm not picky; anyone will do)

13. Learn Northern Shaolin Kung Fu.

17. Catch someone trying to steal a lady's purse

Lemme see if I can rewrite those with less clever covering.
6. I want to achieve more.
7. I wish someone wanted me to be her boyfriend instead of someone else as usual.
13. I wish I were more special in some way.
17. I want to do something worthy of being called heroic, mostly so I could feel better about myself.

Ever since I was twelve or so, part of me has always felt a little inferior or inadequate. In a few things, I was always the best. Writing. Knowing things about Star Trek. Playing Super Smash Bros.
...Okay, so I was good at writing.

Thing is, I always kind of felt like I was less important or less wanted than everyone else.
When I was fourteen, my best friend and I both liked the same girl. I think she (kind of) liked him, but she deliberately didn't reciprocate his affections because she didn't want me to feel bad. (and because she didn't want a boyfriend at that age, but that's another thing)

Later, when I was seventeen, a similar thing happened, only it ended up way worse. I came pretty close to being heartbroken. Suffice it to say that I definitely felt like the pathetic boy that no one wanted but everyone felt bad for.

When I took one-night dance lessons for my Senior Prom, my friends and I were in an odd-numbered group, and I think the entire crowd of students there was odd-numbered as well. I managed to quickly grab one of my female friends so I'd have a dance partner, but after a while it was time to let her dance with someone else, so I was left with... no one. Literally, no one. Out of maybe 300 kids, I ended up as the only person leaning against a wall and trying not to look like I wasn't totally dejected.

Once I got into college, most of my friends stopped talking to me for no reason other than they were just moving on with their lives and didn't have much interest in me anymore. And the more I tried to keep in touch, the more they got annoyed, until finally I became a blubbering mess of twisted emotion (rejection, mostly) and they ended up basically writing me off as an over-emotional crazy person.

And all the while, since my teen years, I've gradually gained more and more weight. Fortunately, because I have pretty broad shoulders, I don't look AS overweight as I actually am. But that doesn't make as much of a difference as you'd think.

I used to spend a ton of my time fantasizing about swordfighting, to the point where I'd imagine ridiculous battles where I'd epically defeat some random jerkface, and the girl he'd been dating would suddenly realize how great I was. My iPod was filled specifically with songs that had epic dramatic rock moments that I could mentally choreograph with those fantasies.

Things are better now. I don't listen to a lot of the same music that I used to because it just seems too dark and angry now. I generally prefer to listen to music that makes me happy. I can't really force my brain to fantasize about those epic battles the same way it used to; I'm a little too rooted in reality now and there's no girl I'm swooning over. I have friends now. Not a lot, per ce, but enough. Thing is, I still have little hints of that stupid inferior feeling. If I see this one girl on facebook, it's sometimes hard not to still feel bad because I know there's probably nothing I could do to make her ever think of me as something special. I kind of feel a bit ashamed of the fact that I was in such a bad state a couple years ago that I actually flunked out of two college semesters in a row, and most of my friends (even the ones younger than me) are already graduating while I'm still a couple years away.

So yeah. Inferiority complex. It's something I deal with.

Sleepy brain

2012-01-10T01:47:00.000-06:00

So, funny thing about me:
My brain works really, really fast. Like, ridiculously fast. I'm pretty sure that by technical standards, I'm literally brilliant. I don't say that out of ego; I say it because I've had people (one of whom being a psychology professor) tell me this. And in any case, it's not all that great.

I have immense trouble focusing on doing a task that isn't engaging enough to occupy my entire brain at once. If I'm watching a TV show or a movie at home, it's pretty much a requirement that I also be doing something else like surfing the net on my macbook or playing a game with my iPhone. Otherwise I get really fidgety and feel like my brain is going to crawl out of my skull. Over the last several years, it's gotten worse.

I love reading with all my heart and soul, but I can't focus down on a book and actually finish it. I've been buying books left and right and not finishing them. It's kind of a little heartbreaking.

It goes beyond just consuming media, though. I overthink things to a ridiculous extent. Sometimes solutions that should be easy evade me because I'm too busy making things mentally complicated.

Since I was eleven, I've had something nearly approximating a mental problem with the way I talk. No matter how well I carefully plan out my sentences ahead of time, sometimes when I speak I blurt things out in a confused rapid-fire burst of ill-pronounced words. Over the years I've realized that it's because I'm always thinking just slightly ahead of where my mouth is. If I need to pronounce "The Hitchhiker's Guide," by the time I've begun saying "the," I'm already mentally at "ker's," thus making my mouth force all the syllables in-between into one blurry jumble of consonants. Most of the time, I can make myself calm down enough to let my speech work properly, but sometimes it takes two or three attempts before I can pronounce something understandably.

It gets worse than just a speech impediment, though. Just in life in general, I constantly second-guess myself to the point where I seriously just feel bad and lose confidence. I've ended up making bad decisions and looked like an idiot sometimes because of it.

I don't know if it's ADD or what, but there is one thing that helps:
Being tired.

When I'm tired, my brain feels like it just works. And I don't mean just-woke-up tired or I-just-ran-a-mile tired; I mean the kind of tired where you can practically feel your body pulling you towards the floor and pushing you to sleep; where it's hard to keep your eyes open and you feel drugged. That's when my brain slows down enough that I feel fine. I can think about things correctly, I'm not constantly distracted, and I'm even a little more aware of my emotions than normal. I do a lot of my best writing when I'm really, really tired. I can read books perfectly. I can talk without stuttering or repeating myself. I'm a little more confident. It's like all the things I couldn't focus on during the day become clear.
Heck, the only reason I'm writing this is because I'm currently drugged on Benadryl and can actually get this written on virtual paper after months of failed attempts in the past while fully awake.

I just wish I didn't only get this mental clarity right as I'm about to fall asleep. It's really inconvenient.

And I don't really know what to do about it. After writing out all this stuff, it seems like it might actually be something that could be helped with medication or something. But would that be a good idea? Maybe my normally-hyperactive brain is the way I'm supposed to be? It doesn't feel like it. It sort of feels like driving a Corvette through a forest; it just doesn't work like it should. Maybe I need to find a freeway for it instead? I don't know. I should probably just go to bed now.

x_x

Tolerance

2012-01-09T00:56:00.004-06:00

"Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions."
-Gilbert K. Chesterton

Tolerance is a word we hear thrown about a lot in today's world. It's synonymous with morality and goodness, to an extent. Being intolerant is basically the same thing as being racist, sexist, or discriminatory in any way.

According to Google's define function, tolerance is defined as such:
"1. The ability or willingness to tolerate something, in particular the existence of opinions or behavior that one does not necessarily agree with."

Now, think about this. How many times have you ever heard someone or something accused of being intolerant? Probably a lot.
That's the paradox. By choosing to be "tolerant," you are, in effect, adopting a moral code, specifically the idea that everyone and their beliefs should be accepted in society. However, it's notable that the people who most vehemently preach tolerance generally are the ones who are quickest to label others "intolerant" and demonize them, thereby contradicting the idea of tolerance.
Let's look at that definition again:
"The ability or willingness to tolerate something, in particular the existence of opinions or behavior that one does not necessarily agree with."

Let's say that we're dealing with the stereotypical "religious bigot;" someone who hates gay people and thinks all Muslims are plotting to destroy the Washington Monument with bombs they hide inside their burkas. Should this man be tolerated any less than a Mormon, a Muslim, or a gay or lesbian person? Although most would vehemently disagree with his views, does tolerance not teach that we should be accepting of him and his beliefs, despite our personal dissent?

I once had someone explain it to me like this:
"There's no reason to be tolerant of an intolerant viewpoint."
That doesn't even make sense. If you're being intolerant of an intolerant view, then there's no reason for anyone to tolerate your view either. But, consciously or not, I think that's the way most people approach tolerance. It's not that we're actually tolerant, it's that we're simply tolerant of the views we agree with. But, as I said before, pure tolerance should mean that we even tolerate others who we deem to be in the wrong.

There's another aspect here that's kind of a slippery notion: the idea that tolerance is the preferable philosophy because absolute truth cannot be known, therefore everyone's beliefs are equally arbitrary. There's a simple flaw in this logic, however. If absolute truth cannot exist, then it cannot be true that absolute truth does not exist. Some people will readily admit this, yet still follow in their idea of relative truth. Or so they say, anyway.

Does anyone actually believe that truth does not exist? Belief itself is an assumption of truth, therefore this type of belief disqualifies itself. No matter which way you cut it, if you actually believe anything, at all, you do believe in the existence of some kind of singular, absolute truth.
If you're reading this and disagreeing with me, think about the fact that you are, right now, believing that I am wrong.

There are a lot of people out there who simply will not accept this idea because the practically-religious doctrine of tolerance teaches otherwise. But perhaps tolerance is not an entirely correct philosophy. After all, its definition is focused upon others' beliefs and actions. Maybe instead we should focus on the people themselves.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7:
Love is patient, love is kind.
It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

According to the New Testament, the actions and characteristics listed above are the ways that we should treat all others: with kindness, with respect, with patience, and without the influence of our own personal ego. It does not say that we should be tolerant of immoral beliefs; it instead says that although we can disagree with people's actions and opinions, we should still treat them with unwavering kindness.

Love the person, not the action or belief. Argue with conviction against bigotry; fight (with words) against hate.

Do not be tolerant. Be intolerant of evil.

But above all, love one another.

Star Peace!

2011-12-11T20:58:00.001-06:00

This is one of the best things I've ever seen.

Grant Morrison Explains Realism in Comics

2011-10-21T00:25:00.003-05:00

Let's hunt some ORC!

2011-10-12T00:59:00.001-05:00

So I had the pleasure of introducing The Lord of the Rings to a friend of mine over the last couple days. He'd never seen the films or read the books before, so we started with The Fellowship of the Ring film (extended edition, of course, as it should always be). He seemed to enjoy it.
I feel like I've just spread the good news of Tolkien. It's fun.

I forgot how much I love Lord of the Rings. Sitting down and watching it again for the first time in a long time was a lot of fun.

There's something about Lord of the Rings that's really unique. In large part, it's the borderline-ridiculous attention to detail. The level of artistry is just insane. In any other movie, you can simply look hard enough and see the cracks in the illusion. But no matter how hard you look, you will only find more and more detail in Lord of the Rings. Every set is believably built; every prop is intricately crafted with all the same artistry that you'd expect the real thing to have. There's just no end to it.

It's kind of like that moment when you see something crazy and have to make sure you're not dreaming. But with Lord of the Rings, there's no pinch to wake you up; you're never pulled out of the story. It's like you're staring through a window into Middle-Earth itself.

No other film series can claim that. Not even Star Wars, practically perfect as it is, can claim that. With Star Wars, you can always find the odd prop in the original trilogy that's obviously a real-world object, or an incredibly off-putting shot of a CG creature. Not so with Lord of the Rings. It just feels real.

We're gonna watch the other two movies over the week. I'll probably write more then.

Criticism

2011-09-23T22:02:00.000-05:00

A lot of you probably know how big a part of my life criticism is. I don't mean personal criticism, of course. I mean the analysis and critique of everything from movies to TV shows, comic books, and video games. I spend a likely-unhealthy amount of time delving into all this material, and perhaps just as much—if not more—time reading and listening to critical opinion on said media. I read written reviews, listen to a ton of podcasts, and discuss it all on forums. And now I'm thinking that needs to stop.

I've always tried to stay positive on things, for the most part. I like to let myself enjoy the stories I watch/read. But that doesn't seem to jive with the rest of the criticism world.

I read this awesome article written by George Perez (a huge name in comics writing) about why superheroes don't need to be "dark and gritty." One of his paragraphs caught my eye:

My son and I went to see Captain America about two weeks back, and it was as enjoyable and delightful a trip to the movies as I can remember in years. My days as a bitchy critic of cinema are long past, mind you, and I’m not interested in posting a review. I could do that. I once did do that. I stopped doing that 20 years ago. The proliferation of people who mistake their opinion for criticism made me stop.

It was when I read this that something clicked for me.
See, there's a mentality among critics that there is some unknowable standard of "quality" that permeates all art. That through analysis and critique, the "truth" of the art in question can be gleaned. Furthermore, there's a bizarre mob mentality that goes on both in the critic community as well as in general geek fandom where certain stories are simply declared "good" or "bad," and anyone who disagrees with the absolute quality of those judgments is wrong. Now, many critics will deny this. They'll say that "everyone's got a right to their opinion," or something along the lines of "hey, if you like it, good for you." But when it comes right down to it, those people will discuss their subject with a kind of absolute and harsh language that doesn't mesh with what they've just said.

There's an indeterminate list of qualities within stories that are known by critics to be good or bad. It rarely matters if a movie actually does something unique with a normally-"bad" story element; critics will still only examine the movie based on a pre-set pattern they've set up to gauge the previously-mentioned "absolute quality." While this vague formula actually does work in most cases, it tends to disallow many critics from actually seeing what makes a story great individually. It doesn't matter if a green-colored rose is beautiful; according to the pre-set formula, roses are NOT supposed to be green.

It's been said of the geek community in particular that "there's no gray area." It's impossible to have a discussion about The Dark Knight, for instance, without immediately resorting to either singing the film's praises or playing devil's advocate by saying that it's overrated. In nearly every case, if a story falls into that medium-level category between "amazing" and "terrible," it automatically falls into the "terrible" category, as far as the geek community is concerned. There's nothing that internet-based geek fandom loves more than to be as negative about the things they claim to love as possible. For someone like me, who tries to look on the brighter side instead of immediately jumping to a negative gut reaction, this makes discussing the things I love online very difficult.

As I write this, we're currently in Week 3 of 4 in DC Comics' New 52 relaunch. I've enjoyed a good 70% of the books, tolerated about 20%, and hated 10%. But there are a ton of fans out there who have been literally looking for reasons to hate the New 52, and they keep finding singular details in a few books to use as banners for their hatred. I've heard people describe themselves as "livid" over a few details, and constantly throwing out "f*** you"s at DC. A few of those people have jokingly (or not so jokingly) asked me if I actually work for DC, because no one could possibly have a positive outlook on all this. And even though that shouldn't bother me, it does. I've started to realize that I don't necessarily want to be a part of the geek criticism community. I just want to enjoy my stories and discuss them, not go looking for things to hate about them. I don't want to be irrational about anything, and I'm not looking to stick my head in the sand and make myself enjoy something when it's crap, but at the same time I really do think that a huge section of the geek community is merely negative for the sake of being negative. I know many, many highly intelligent people that I respect who do this, and it's really discouraging.

What Perez said in his article is true, I think. There's a "proliferation of people who mistake their opinion for criticism." I can deal with people not liking the same stories I do. Really. No skin off my back. But I wish people would be able to realize that their personal feelings are not the end-all be-all of the universe.

At this point, I really think I'm going to pull out of the criticism community in general. I'll still continue to enjoy the same stories I always have, and I'll probably still throw up reviews of stuff I read/watch, but I'm done with all the debating and all the judgment. I just want to be able to enjoy my stories without having to argue with people who think they're on a holy war to stop the terrible writers.

Supermodel

2011-09-16T23:14:00.001-05:00

A supermodel wearing a ForceCast T-shirt and holding my Luke Skywalker FX lightsaber.

That is all.

Gryffindor!

2011-09-11T00:19:00.000-05:00

So I got into the early-access Pottermore beta. It's got a J.K. Rowling-approved sorting hat quiz.

And it put me in Gryffindor.

YEAH.

I saw the Wonder Woman TV Pilot

2011-08-31T01:07:00.005-05:00

Title says it all.

So, yeah, I saw the pilot episode of the not-picked-up Wonder Woman TV series. It had unfinished special effects and some questionable editing, but it was maybe 95% there.

Let's get the bad stuff out of the way first:
-It's not comics-accurate. It has Diana at the head of a company which merchandises Wonder Woman in order to pay for all of her crimefighting gear and forensics labs for crime-solving.

-The costume is really oversexed. Diana herself doesn't act slutty, but her outfit is extremely revealing. It's low-cut at the top and rides high on her hips when it doesn't need to. It just feels awkward. Also, there are three versions of the suit that are seen: "shiny pants/blue boots," "normal pants/red boots," and "briefs/red boots (the original costume but shinier)." She changes in-between these three costumes with no reasoning, once in-between shots of the same scene.
-Diana kills. In her quest for justice against evil drug-people, she tortures one thug for information, uses another as a human shield in a hallway (causing him to get shot and presumably die), and throws a metal pipe into another thug's throat, killing him instantly. It feels very, very odd. It's not just inconsistent with the comics, it feels inconsistent with the rest of the show.
-Going along with the last point, there's a select few elements of the show that feel a bit too "mature." There's one point where Diana angrily uses crude terms to refer to her overly-voluptuous likeness as a toy doll, and a few scenes with a bit of extreme violence that contrasts bizarrely with the relatively light tone of the show.
-The dialogue isn't that well-done. It's rather bland, in matter of fact. No brilliance whatsoever.
-There's nothing really truly remarkable about the show at all. It just doesn't feel quite important or epic enough to deserve the name Wonder Woman. The pilot episode of Smallville did an amazing job of rooting that show in deep, family-driven drama while staying true to the core of the comics and crafting a story that was perhaps low-scale (being set in a small Kansas town), but felt extremely important. Wonder Woman's pilot does none of this. It just feels like the show is being run by children playing with makeup and action figures.

Now, the positives:

-Diana is presented as a real, human person. It's acknowledged that she's an Amazon from Themyscira (they even pronounce Themyscira correctly), but she's not the stiff-worded, alienated character that she's shown to be in most modern interpretations. She's a twentysomething young woman who manages to feel like an extraordinary yet still normal person. It feels somewhat like the interpretation of Clark Kent in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. She might go out and "kick dudes in the head" (she actually says that to her cat at one point), but she ultimately goes back to her apartment and relaxes in front of the TV like anybody else.
-There's a lengthy fight scene, that, up until the killing at the end, is actually really cool. It's a bit cheesy, but it works, and it's a lot of fun.
-She's got decently well-done romantic tension with her (at this point, former) love interest, Steve Trevor. It's vaguely implied that they have the same comics history of him having been a pilot that crashed on Themyscira, but now he's become an FBI lawyer. Maybe it's the fact that I grew up watching J.A.G. and therefore like the idea of fighter pilot lawyers, but I'm okay with this.
-The whole idea of Diana owning a company, as stupid as it is, does make sense from a certain point of view. The Batman comics recently had a similar idea, where Wayne Enterprises publicly funded crime labs for the local P.D. as well as providing crimefighting tech for individuals acting as Batman-themed crimefighters across the globe. Also, in the pilot, Diana is shown to be almost dismissive of her company, as though it's merely the means to an end—that end being bringing criminals to justice.
-Adrianne Palicki definitely looks and acts the part. She's a bit of a younger Wonder Woman (even though she's a good bit older than Lynda Carter was when she played the character), but that works. She's got the exact kind of statuesque elegance that Diana needs.

-She's really really hot.
I couldn't find another way to say that.
-The show might be mostly unremarkable, but it's at least fun.

So, in the end, I think this actually might have worked. It definitely needed a few changes (make the costume less shiny and revealing, remove the killing and torture, and maybe tighten up the dialogue a bit), but it would have been a fun show.
At the same time, it definitely would have been nothing more than a guilty pleasure show. I'd much, much rather have a show that took itself a bit more seriously. It's clear that the crew behind this show really didn't know what they were doing, other than crafting a story that basically boils down to excuses to put Adrianne Palicki in tight-fitting outfits with a mildly interesting plot.

I would have watched every single episode had it aired, but it also probably wouldn't have been that great. Like if you gave me an unlimited supply of cheap store-brand soda. Sure, I'd drink it all the time, but I'd be under no illusions that it was anything special.

Friends My Age

2011-08-29T23:51:00.001-05:00

So, this is kind of a funny thing. You'd think it wouldn't be a big deal, but it kind of is.
I don't actually have that many friends my own age.

Most of my friends are, at closest, about ten months younger than me. Most of them are actually a good several years younger or older on average. It's a weirdly alienating thing. I'm usually either a big brother or a younger one; rarely an equal. It's actually hard to relate to people who are farther away in age, even if it's only a matter of months.

It's not like I'm ungrateful for the friends I've got, it's just kind of hard not to feel alone sometimes.

Halo

2011-08-26T23:28:00.001-05:00

Halo is amazing.
It seriously is.

I'm not really sure why I didn't see it before. I'm guessing it was because all these years before, I'd been trying to play Halo like it was a different game. I grew up on PC first-person shooters predominantly based on the Quake III and Unreal Tournament engines, so I had no idea how to play a game that only let you carry two weapons at a time or didn't involve you merely running at enemies with guns blazing. Halo has a sort of ultra-simplistic chess-like quality. You've got a limited amount of ammo for only two weapons (plus grenades) and you have to decide how best to use your skills. Prioritization is the key; dividing up your various skills between your opponents all while paying attention to your recharging shield meter.

It struck me last year that Halo isn't a shooter in the normal sense of the word; it has an ultra-refined simplicity that one sees generally only in classic games like Mario, Zelda, and the like. Once I understood that, I went back to Halo: Combat Evolved (the first game, for people who live under rocks) and played it through. It's now one of my favorite games of all time. It's like it finally clicked in my head, and now I understand what the rest of the world saw that I didn't. I absolutely love it.

Concurrently with my Halo game-playing, I've been reading a ton of the side material for the series, mostly consisting of novels and comics.
The novels are wonderful. They take characters that seem shallow in the games and give them depth. They give the universe detail and texture. They just make everything better. The comics are less consistent. It's like no one is really doing any quality control or trying to make everything in the comics congruous with the rest of the universe.

Halo is a kind of special event. Its fans treat it with the same kind of reverence and love usually bequeathed upon movies like Star Wars. Playing Halo with friends is like playing a backyard sport. It's just for fun, but there's definitely a degree of skill to be gained and utilized effectively. It's got a perfectly-balanced focus on casual fun and competition, so no matter who you are or what you want to do with the game, you can enjoy it. That's something that other games can't seem to get quite right. Call of Duty seems to lean way too far towards the competitive side, while some other games just aren't fun for more skilled players.

There's one more facet of Halo that truly makes it special: the music. Martin "Marty" O'Donnell does much the same for Halo that John Williams did for Star Wars decades ago. His music breathes life into the universe and stands alongside the greatest soundtracks of all time—gaming or otherwise.

(skip to 0:53 and turn your sound WAY up)

To your ears:
You are most welcome.

DC: The New 52

2011-08-20T00:26:00.000-05:00

As I mentioned before, DC Comics is rebooting their universe in September with 52 all-new #1 issues. It's not a "hard reboot" in that a lot of the major events from the comics' history will remain intact (mostly in the cases of Batman and Green Lantern), but everything is now up for grabs and most of the DCU probably won't be the same again.

I plan on actually reading every single #1 issue. I probably won't keep reading them all, but I'm definitely going to give each of them a try. I figured I'd list them all, along with my preliminary thoughts. I don't expect anyone else to understand anything I'm saying, so don't feel bad if you just want to stop reading.

Anyway, here's the list.
(visit TheNew52.com for story info)

The books are divided into 7 "families:"

Superman
The Superman books are completely being redone, with very little continuity staying at all.

Action Comics #1 by Grant Morrison and Rags Morales
Grant Morrison is pretty much the undisputed master of Superman writing at the moment. This is probably the book I'm looking forward to the most.

Superman #1 by George Pérez and Jesus Merino
Definitely interested to see where this goes. They're definitely shaking up the current Superman status quo, while also returning to the classic Superman/Lois/Clark love triangle, which should be interesting.

Superboy #1 by Scott Lobdell and R.B. Silva and Rob Lean
No idea if this is going to be any good, but a similar concept appeared on the Young Justice TV series not too long ago, and it seems to be working pretty well.

Supergirl #1 by Michael Green and Mike Johnson
It's basically an "alien girl lost on Earth" story, which sounds interesting. The art looks pretty amazing.

Batman
The Batman books are mostly retaining their recent continuity, so it looks like I'll need to brush up on my Batman book-reading a bit before starting this up.

Batman #1 by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo.
Scott Snyder is a master at telling dark, deep, and disturbing detective stories. This is definitely one of my top five.

Batgirl #1 by Gail Simone, Ardian Syaf and Vicente Cifuentes.
I am SO EXCITED that Barbara Gordon (the original Batgirl; the redheaded one from the 60s show and the animated series) is back in her original role. Another of my top five.

Batman And Robin #1 by Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason
This is one of the rare books that actually is continuing somewhat from the story before, and I'm not up-to-date on my B&R comics. Still, though, I think I might do my best to catch up on B&R just so I can read this.

Batman: The Dark Knight #1 by David Finch
Before this reboot, Batman: The Dark Knight was supposed to be a book centering on Batman fighting magical and supernatural threats, which isn't at all something he's used to or comfortable with. I'm not sure if this is supposed to be based on the same concept, but either way I'll give it a read.

Batwing #1 by Judd Winick and Ben Oliver
An African Batman-type hero fighting threats unique to Africa? Sounds cool.

Batwoman #1 by J.H. Williams III, Haden Blackman and Amy Reeder
I haven't read any of the Batwoman comics before, but I hear they're great, so I'll eventually check them out. Hopefully in time to read this issue at its release.

Birds Of Prey #1 by Duane Swierczynski and Jesus Saiz
I don't really know much about this series, and what I've heard hasn't hooked me. But Birds of Prey has been a critically-lauded series in the past, so I'll see if this one is good.

Catwoman #1 by Judd Winick and Guillem March
Totally reading this.

Detective Comics #1 by Tony Daniel
More Batman! Yay?

Nightwing #1 by Kyle Higgins and Eddy Barrows
As my username might suggest, I looooooove Nightwing. But this new red costume makes him look more like Nightwing's evil twin. Oh well; I'm still hopeful the book will be good.

Red Hood And The Outlaws #1 by Scott Lobdell and Kenneth Rocafort
I hear this is supposed to be a more comedic take on gunslinging anti-heroics. Sounds pretty awesome.

Green Lantern
This one might actually be keeping every bit of its continuity from its recent 6-year run. Fortunately, I've read that entire run, so I'm good to go on these!

Green Lantern #1 by Geoff Johns, Doug Mahnke and Christian Alamy
Definitely reading this. I'm very interested to see how the recent mega-twist in the story plays out.

Green Lantern Corps #1 by Peter J. Tomasi, Fernando Pasarin and Scott Hanna
GLC has always been a great book. Looking forward to reading it more.

Green Lanterns: New Guardians #1 by Tony Bedard, Tyler Kirkham and Batt
I'm glad that they've finally put the rainbow of various-colored lanterns in their own separate book so they don't dominate the main books anymore. And a GL book with Kyle Rayner as the lead character? Awesome.

Red Lanterns #1 by Peter Milligan, Ed Benes and Rob Hunter.
The Red Lanterns are mostly people who just snarl and vomit space acid. So I'm not really sure how a book focusing exclusively on them will work.

Justice League

Justice League #1 by Geoff Johns and Jim Lee
Top 5. Geoff Johns and Jim Lee might be the two best creators DC has (alongside Grant Morrison), so the fact that they're collaborating on DC's flagship book is perfect. It looks to be a little more popcorn-blockbustery than Action Comics, but this will probably be the best-looking book out of the 52.

Justice League International #1 by Dan Jurgens and Aaron Lopresti
I'm not real familiar with the JLI, but I'm interested to read this. If anything, its ongoing story connections with the main Justice League book will be cool to see.

Aquaman #1 by Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis
Geoff Johns has a way of making Aquaman awesome, and Ivan Reis is up there with Jim Lee as one of the best artists in the industry. This is a definite read.

Wonder Woman #1 by Brian Azzarello #1 and Cliff Chiang
I know very little about the specific story for this book, but I really hope it's good. I've been waiting for a great, definitive Wonder Woman story for years now.

Flash #1 by Brian Buccellato and Francis Manapul
Francis Manapul is an artistic genius, and one of my favorites. His recent run on Flash was extremely fun, and this looks to be much the same.

Captain Atom #1 by JT Krul and Freddie Williams II
I've always found Captain Atom rather interesting. I'll be interested to see how they do this.

Fury Of Firestorm #1 by Brian Clevinger Gail Simone, Ethan Van Sciver and Yildiray Cinar.
No idea what this is, but it's Gail Simone co-writing, so it's gotta be funny at least.

Green Arrow #1 by JT Krul and Dan Jurgens
Really interested in this one. Green Arrow's new ultra-cool costume design is awesome, and I'm really looking forward to seeing how the character is reinvented.

Savage Hawkman #1 by James Robinson Tony Daniel and Philip Tan
HAWKMAN SMASH.
Yay.

Mr Terrific #1 by Eric Wallace and Roger Robinson
Mr. Terrific is supposed to be one of those characters that no one realizes is actually amazing, so this should be good.

DC Universe Presents #1 by Paul Jenkins and Bernard Chang
An anthology series focusing on random minor characters from the DCU? Awesome!

The Dark
The mystical, darker side of the DC heroes.

Justice League Dark #1 by Peter Milligan and Mikel Janin
Zatanna, Deadman, and John Constantine on the same team? Aw, yeah. Bring it.

Animal Man #1 by Jeff Lemire, Travel Foreman and Dan Green
I don't actually know that much about Animal Man, but I hear that he's actually a really great character. And apparently this is an almost straight-up horror book? Sounds cool.

Demon Knights #1 by Paul Cornell, Diogenes Neves and Oclair Albert
A medieval-era book featuring Etrigan the Demon fighting evil magical threats. VERY excited to read this.

Swamp Thing #1 by Scott Snyder and Yanick Paquette
I actually know very little about Swamp Thing, but apparently he's one of the best comic characters of all time? I'm gonna have to read up on his history before reading this. It certainly looks different enough to be worth reading, and Scott Snyder is a perfect for the dark tones this book is supposed to have.

Frankenstein: Agent Of SHADE #1 by Jeff Lemire and Alberto Ponticelli
This sounds so bizarre that it has to be worth reading. Looks like it might have a Hellboy vibe.

Resurrection Man #1 by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning and Fernando Dagnino
I've only ever read one story with Resurrection Man, but he was totally interesting. This definitely has a shot at being cool.

I, Vampire #1 by Josh Fialkov and Andrea Sorrentino
I literally know nothing about this book.

The Edge
DC's villains, anti-heroes, and general non-Justice League heroes

Stormwatch #1 by Paul Cornell and Miguel Sepulveda.
I don't really know any of the characters aside from one, but I hear in the first story arc they FIGHT THE MOON. Yeah. The moon.

Voodoo #1 by Ron Marz and Sami Basri.
No idea what this is supposed to be about.

Blackhawks #1 by Mike Costa and Ken Lashley
The Blackhawks are one of my favorite parts of the WWII-era DC universe, so I'm really looking forward to seeing how they're reinvented as a modern team.

All-Star Western #1 by Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Grey and Meridat.
Jonah Hex is already an interesting character. Throw in the fact that this first story is going to intersect with Old West Gotham City and the Batman history, and this is looking awesome.

Deathstroke #1 by Kyle Higgins, Joe Bennett and Art Thibert.
Deathstroke is one of the most entertaining villains in the DCU. I really hope this series is good.

Grifter #1 by Nathan Edmondson
I seriously don't know anything about this character.

OMAC #1 by Dan DiDio and Keith Giffen
I don't think I really have any faith in either this book's concept or its writer.

Men Of War #1 by Ivan Brandon and Tom Derenick.
Much like the Blackhawks, this is a WWII concept (Sgt. Rock) revived for the modern age. So, basically, it's Sgt. Rock: Modern Warfare. I heartily approve.

Suicide Squad #1 by Adam Glass and Marco Rudy
I like the idea of the Suicide Squad. But why are Harley Quinn and King Shark on the team? Oh well. Might as well be happy that Deadshot's on the team.

Young Justice
The teenage heroes

Teen Titans #1 by Fabian Nicieza Scott Lobdell, Brett Booth and Norm Rapmund
I really, really want this to be good. I love Tim Drake, Conner Kent, and Bart Allen. I want them to be done justice.

Blue Beetle #1 by Tony Bedard and Ig Guara
Blue Beetle is a really fun character. Looking forward to seeing what happens with him.

Static Shock #1 by John Rozum, Scott McDaniel
Static is long overdue for his own series in the main DCU. Super-happy to see this.

Hawk And Dove #1 by Sterling Gates and Rob Liefeld
I've been wanting to read a good Hawk and Dove series for a while. Definitely interested.

Legion Lost #1 by Fabian Nicieza and Chris Batista? Pete Woods
I'm not familiar with any of these characters, but the story sounds interesting.

Legion of Superheroes #1 by Paul Levitz
The LoS is one of my favorite elements of the DC universe. This book isn't supposed to be touched by the reboot, but I haven't been able to get into any Legion comic stories, so hope it'll still be put at a place where new readers can jump in.

*whew*
I need a break now.

Bleh

2011-08-14T22:09:00.001-05:00

Saw a pretty girl with her boyfriend at church today. Made me depressed.

Bleh.

Man of Steel

2011-08-04T15:42:00.002-05:00

Oh

YES.

Harry Potter

2011-07-31T21:53:00.002-05:00

So I've discovered something recently.

I LOVE Harry Potter.
It's a weird thing. I didn't start watching the movies or reading the books until I was 16 or 17, and even then I mostly only thought it was "pretty cool." And afterward, I watched each film as it came out, read the first three books, but mostly kept HP off to the side. It wasn't really anything nearly as beloved to me as Star Wars, Star Trek, superheroes, Lord of the Rings, or anything else like that. But now that the final film's come out, I've been going back over the HP films and books, delving deep into all that lore and culture. And I've found that I really do love it.

It's not because of the magic, the imaginary creatures, or the epic plot. Those things make up the empty shell of Harry Potter; the lifeless body of it. What gives Harry Potter life, however, is the characters. It's those people that you grow to care about over the course of seven years. Their friendship is the stuff of epic legend, yet feels completely real. Furthermore, the world of Harry Potter is such that it encourages its young readers to imagine themselves and their friends in similar positions.

For those unfamiliar, the characters in Harry Potter attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and once there are sorted into one of four "houses," each with its own traits.

Gryffindor

Those in Gryffindor value bravery, courage, and chivalry above all else. They're usually the most "heroic" of the four houses, and most of the main characters in HP are Gryffindors.

Hufflepuff

Hufflepuffs value friendship and acceptance. They're the most laid back of the houses.

Ravenclaw

Ravenclaws value cleverness and wit above all.

Slytherin

Slytherins value ambition, cleverness, and a disregard for the rules. They're also usually evil.

It's really remarkable just how much the idea of the four houses factors into Harry Potter fandom. Nearly every HP fan knows what house he or she would fit into, and friendships all over the world are given a sense of camaraderie (and friendly rivalry) through this fun element of the HP universe.
When I went to see the 7th film at the midnight theater showing, a huge portion of the teenagers in attendance were wearing the signature colored scarves showing their house allegiance.

That sense of identity might have been what I didn't quite connect to with Harry Potter initially. Every other fandom I've got comes with that identity.
I know who I would be in the Star Wars universe: a Jedi.
I know who I'd be in the Star Trek universe: a Starfleet officer; command division.
I know who I'd be in the Lord of the Rings universe: a knight of Gondor.
I know who I'd be in the DC Comics universe: Superman. (or so I'd hope)

But I was a good bit younger when I first discovered Harry Potter, and didn't really know myself as well then. Was I a Gryffindor? Possibly. I always admired the brave characters. Was I a Ravenclaw? Maybe. I value my intelligence quite a bit. Then again, I loved my friends more than most anything at the time, so maybe Hufflepuff?

In April of last year, I went through a church seminar focused on self-examination through group interaction. If that sounds vague, then yeah, it is. It's hard to explain. Anyhow, the point is that at the end of the seminar, each of the twenty-something people there were given new nametags to replace the ones they'd been wearing for the last two weekends. These new cards were simple descriptive words—titles, basically—that the staff felt defined someone's real inner strength. This was mine:

How cool is that?
I always sort of doubted my boldness, partially because I wasn't sure if I really was bold, but also because I didn't want to inadvertently become arrogant or prideful. But to actually have other people get to know me really well over a couple of weekends, and then give me that name? That was just amazing.
I also got knighted by the sword of Aragorn. Long story.

But after that, and after seeing the last two Potter films, I realized that Gryffindor really was where I'd fit. And somehow, that makes it all so much more personal. Those ideals—courage, bravery, chivalry—they're ideas that I can remind myself of when the need arises. Simple moral ideas that can stick with me.

In recognition of this realization (and because I wanted a new desktop wallpaper), I put this together:

Oh, also, by complete coincidence, today is Harry Potter's (and J.K. Rowling's) birthday.

blank

2011-07-11T20:31:00.002-05:00

So I haven't posted much of anything here in a long while. I can't really explain why. I guess I just haven't had much to write about over the past year or two. I've been keeping up with some of my other writing projects, but haven't had much to say on my personal blog. Maybe it's just that nothing major's been going on; I don't know.

I don't want to bore anyone with more of my thoughts on all the geek-related TV shows, comic books, and movies that I'm into, unless it's something really remarkable. Like Wonder Woman's pants. I think I get really annoyed at the fact that people think of me as "the Star Wars/Star Trek/Superhero/Video Game guy." About a year ago, an old friend from high school found me on facebook. She IMed me and said "Hey Superman! :)" Now, this was because in high school, I wore a Superman T-shirt constantly, and "Superman" was a loose nickname of mine. I liked that a lot at the time. Heck, I encouraged it. But when my friend called me Superman last year, it just... bothered me. I'd like people to actually think of me as Aaron, not label me with whatever geeky interests I have.

Hmm. I hadn't actually intended to write all that. That was random. Okay, what else do I have to say...

I don't know. I guess that's it. I haven't been writing on here because I don't have anything to say.

DC Comics

2011-06-03T10:00:00.000-05:00

So DC Comics announced on Tuesday that after the conclusion of their Flashpoint story event (which runs from May through August), the entire main DC Universe will be rebooted. That is to say that the entire universe will be "updated." The history of the universe will be rewritten (to varying degrees), characters will be at different (likely earlier) points in their lives, costumes will be updated, and all manner of other details will be altered.

This is what we're getting, come Fall:

That's the cover to Justice League #1. It's finally reuniting the classic team of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), and the Flash (Barry Allen) which is six out of the seven original team members. Also, they've apparently brought in Cyborg, a former member of the Teen Titans. Which is cool, I guess.
You can see the little costume changes. Batman has armored gauntlets. Superman has a collar, and he may or may not have lost the red briefs. Flash has a slightly redesigned cowl. Cyborg is sleeker and spikier. WONDER WOMAN HAS STUPID PANTS. -_-

A lot of comic fans are going CRAZY over this news. After all, it means that pretty much everything that's ever been written after 1986 (when the last DC reboot happened) might be changed. DC's also re-numbering every single book and starting over from #1, so Action Comics and Detective Comics—the books that launched Superman and Batman, also the two longest-running comics in history, currently at #901 and #877, respectively—will perhaps never reach their one-thousandth numbered issues.

This has been read by some comic fans as a slap in the face from DC, who are tearing apart the beloved stories from the past 25 years in order to make things easier for new comic readers to jump in. In essence, DC is supposedly sacrificing their current fanbase in order to make room for newer readers.

Personally, I don't think that's true at all, and I couldn't be happier with this news.

It's true that comic continuity needed to be rebooted to make room for new readers. After all, most comics are very hard to get into if you're unfamiliar with the decades-long history already in place. Furthermore, comics are a very, very unknown, tiny, and oft-overlooked industry. Even the absolute top-selling books out there never break a million issues sold. Most high-selling titles only get into the tens of thousands, and a big event book is lucky to break into the hundred-thousands.
Comics need to be available to the masses; characters like Superman and Batman should be able to be read by millions or billions of people, not mere thousands.

At the same time, there's no reason to sacrifice the integrity of the story that's being told, either. The interesting thing about DC Comics is that its characters are more archetypal and ideal-driven than Marvel's. It's the characters and the ideals behind them that make DC stories work, not the years of continuity.

So as long as those characters are the same at their core as they always have been, this is not only a good move for DC; it's a wonderful thing for the entire comic book art form. And, so far, judging by various comments from people at DC, it really seems like they're doing just that. Except for Wonder Woman's stupid pants.

Minimalist Design

2011-05-31T13:38:00.001-05:00

So there's this artist, Justin Van Genderen. He does minimalist art in the form of posters. I absolutely love some of the stuff he's done. These are a few of my favorites:

The Metropolis and Gotham ones are my favorite; I'm totally getting those and putting them up in my future house that I don't own yet.

Van Genderen's site is here. Go look. There's awesome stuff.

Wonder Woman - Cancelled

2011-05-17T17:02:00.000-05:00

The new Wonder Woman TV series has not been picked up by NBC, and is thus not being made.

Blast it. I had just accustomed myself to the fact that this series was going to exist. I'd even convinced myself I was going to enjoy it!
Now what am I gonna do?

Green Lantern

2011-04-03T22:21:00.000-05:00

So. The trailer for the new Green Lantern movie came out late last year.

Now, that's not exactly a bad trailer, but it's certainly not the best it could be. It kind of makes Green Lantern (both as a character and as a film) look like a joke, filled with clichés and dorkiness. It doesn't at all explain why Green Lantern is a unique character, or why we should see this movie.

Well, new footage of the film was shown at Wondercon this past week.

OH YES. THAT'S IT. RIGHT THERE.

The CG still looks very early, but the epicness of the mythos and story seem to be there. It's practically the inverse of the first trailer. And it's awesome.

In Brightest Day,

In Blackest Night,

No evil shall escape my sight.

Let those who worship evil's might

Beware my power:

GREEN LANTERN'S LIGHT.

Wonder Woman TV Costume - YES.

2011-03-30T12:16:00.000-05:00

So it looks like they changed the costume before actually shooting the pilot. These are photos of both Adrianne Palicki and her stuntwoman while filming the pilot:

Yes. Very yes.

The red bustier is still kinda shiny and silly, but it's not that bad. The pants aren't that stupid blue vinyl stuff, and the boots are actually red. So, essentially, it's the comic book costume with pants instead of briefs.
I am pleased. :D

Wonder Woman TV Costume - NO.

2011-03-18T15:45:00.003-05:00

(Normally I wouldn't make three posts in a single day. But this needed to be mentioned.)

This is the first photo of Adrianne Palicki as Wonder Woman in the upcoming TV pilot by David E. Kelley (the guy behind Ally McBeal). Yeah, he's making a Wonder Woman TV series. It involves Diana of Themyscira being a successful businesswoman trying to balance her work life with everything else. No, I am not making this up. It's true.

No, I am not kidding. That's real.

See, here's the thing: we've heard the argument before that Wonder Woman's traditional outfit is too revealing and ridiculous; that it's "exploitive."

I'm sorry, but that TV costume looks FAR more exploitive than the "traditional" costume. With that bright blue and red sparkly latex, she looks like a streetwalker. Heck, even the "metal" parts of the costume look like cheap plastic.
It honestly looks like a very bad joke. I can't express just how pissed I am at this. More on it later.

Work

2011-03-18T15:05:00.001-05:00

So. I got hired by a family friend to de-rust and re-paint an iron fence. I've been working on it for about 4-5 days a week over the last couple weeks. It's pretty hard work.

For various reasons, I've been having to get up at 6:15am each morning to go work on the fence each day. This morning, I did not want to get up and go. I only got about five hours of sleep, and wasn't at all thrilled with the idea of losing my precious 2-3 hours more that I wanted. I kept thinking up various reasons to stay home: I could say I was "sick" with allergies. I could say that I just felt bad because of a lack of sleep. The point is that, as silly as those reasons were, I probably could have used them and stayed home.
But, ultimately, I decided that going to work was the right thing to do.

So, this morning, I was out working until about noon when my allergies got so bad (in the hot sun and crazy wind) that I actually couldn't stay working outside any longer. The irony was not lost on me. So I left and went to the nearby town center to relax (indoors) for the rest of the afternoon. Through random crazy happenstance, I ended up running into a friend of mine that I hadn't seen in about three years. We talked and caught up with each other for a good ten minutes before he left, and he ended up inviting me to his wedding in June.

So, moral of the story: being lazy will not aid you in randomly meeting good friends from high school and getting invited to their weddings.
I learned something today.

117

2011-03-18T14:45:00.000-05:00

This is my 117th post on this blog. As such, it seems only fitting that I extol the bravery, excellence, strength, and heroism of Master Chief Petty Officer John-117, SPARTAN-II Commando of U.N.S.C. Naval Special Weapons Operations (NavSpecWep).

Podcast attempt

2011-03-17T23:35:00.002-05:00

So. Tried to record a podcast tonight. Didn't work real well. Bleh.

Cali

2011-02-28T13:06:00.003-06:00

So. I'm thinking of pursuing a screenwriting degree at UCLA.

That is all.

EDIT:
Nevermind.

Star Wars idea

2011-02-24T20:52:00.002-06:00

So, I was reading Matthew Stover's novelization of Revenge of the Sith when I suddenly got to thinking:
If I was suddenly transported into the Star Wars galaxy, what would I do? Like, if I randomly ended up at the beginning of Episode III on Grievous's flagship as the Jedi were crashing, what would I do/say?
Probably, I would grab Obi-Wan and immediately say "CHANCELLOR PALPATINE IS THE SITH LORD YOU'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR. HE SET UP THE BLOCKADE AT NABOO TO GET THE SYMPATHY VOTE IN ORDER TO BECOME CHANCELLOR, AND NOW HE'S TRYING TO GET ANAKIN TO JOIN THE DARK SIDE AND DESTROY THE ENTIRE JEDI ORDER. Also, the clones are brainwashed so that they'll turn on you at a moments' notice. Oh, and PADME IS PREGNANT, and..." you get the idea.

What would happen, then, I wonder? I bet Obi-Wan would listen. He's reasonable. And, I mean, I could always just mention the fact that I know every detail of how he and Qui-Gon fought Darth Maul, right down to the exact moves they used. Heck, I probably know that fight better than he would.
And the Jedi could probably sense my honesty, right? Unless the fact that I'm from another galaxy means that the Force wouldn't work on me or something, kind of like the Yuuzhan Vong. Which is another cool idea...

I think I might actually write this story. It'd be pretty cool.

Political stupidity

2011-02-19T23:44:00.000-06:00

11:10

Aaron Ross

OH MY GOD I HATE STUPID PEOPLE ON THE INTERNET

Sooo.... here's what happened.

11:12

Angela

11:12

Aaron Ross

One of my favorite teachers (who is very left-leaning, politically speaking), posted a link to an article titled "Top 10 Shockers from the Republican War on Women."

11:13

Angela

Republican War on Women? XD

11:13

Aaron Ross

It basically is a short list (admittedly, with source articles) that tries to take various facts and quotes out of context in order to suggest that the Republican party is actually waging a type of war on women.

So, here were some of the comments from people:

Maddy Barganier: I'm throwing up. That's ridiculous.

Edna Daniel: It's hard not to be political when such atrocious things such as redefining rape are actually being considered by our so-called representatives. Scary stuff.

(the rape thing was not true, btw, but it was stated as such in the article)

So this was what I wrote:

Aaron Ross: That article itself is what's stupid. Taking things out of context, finding the most extreme examples, and then trying to wrao them up into a massive conspiracy against women?

It's exactly the same kind of one-sided, lazily-researched dogma that Glenn Beck uses. It's meant to make you mad by painting an entire side of the political spectrum as "evil," NOT by actually informing anyone of anything, nor being "fair and balanced." It's a cheap shot, and it's stupid.

11:14

Angela

uh oh

11:15

Aaron Ross

So then I get FLAMED by people.

11:15

Angela

I BET YOU DID!!!

11:15

Aaron Ross

Justine Sunshine White: ‎@ Aaron: Did you look at the bottom of the article? The sources are listed for all of the examples. It's not a conspiracy when it's the simple plain truth. Check your facts before you argue "lazily-researched dogma."

Summer M. Williams: ‎@ Aron- you're stupid.

(I found that one funny)

11:15

Angela

"Aron" xD

11:15

Aaron Ross

Edna Daniel: ‎@Aaron- that site does cite their articles. No wonder LeeAnn tries not to be political on fb...I mean, with responses like yours- I don't blame her!

Aaron Ross: Justine and Edna: My apologies. By "lazily-researched" I meant "taking snippets of an article or issue and using it to represent the whole, in order to further a negative political point." Summer: Aww, thanks. You're real sweet.

Reese Pierce: Aaron, the only thing lazy around here is your proofreading. What does "wrao" mean? You are the one sounding like Glenn Beck.

Aaron Ross: I noticed that typo, yet didn't re-submit my comment because I figured you would all know what I meant. Heck, I didn't even call out Summer for misspelling my name.

Please, if you have an complaint, try to keep it to the issue itself. I have better things to do than be personally attacked.

11:17

Angela

I would I would keep doing those "better things" for a while until the issue dies down. XD

11:17

Aaron Ross

Well, hey, I'm actually making decent points. Most other people are just calling me stupid, as though that's a legitimate argument.

11:18

Angela

True that!

I am of the belief that there are things in our government that are unfair to women, but a conspiracy against women?? That's boloney. xD

and by things, I mean small things

kinks that could be looked at better