Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Atheist Poetry

                       Rejection of Belief


When I say " I am atheist " it does not reflect what I "believe"
a statement made only stating: rejection of belief.
For if you say that Santa Claus, or Unicorns not real
does that mean I now know about life that you truly feel?

The word belief: hijacked. The faithful play a game.
Where rejection of belief and believing are the same.
To me faith is blind, absurd and lacking thought.
To claim my rejection of this is the same makes me scoff.

The theist comparing me
to him though is quite odd.
Why would thinking the same as you be something to be ashamed of?
Do you have a doubt? Do you feel your wrong?
Thought and logic applied to all else,
except scriptures and psalms.

I am not the one claiming supernatural things.
So why must I be the one to prove existence of a dream.
Fairy tales too have books to back them up.
Sorry if basing my life on one source is not enough...

Rejection of belief. Do you even care?
You claim by god is evolution, but I see no connection there.
Line your gods all up, thats theres more than one should seal their fate...
God did not exist, until god man did create.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Muslims Say Coca Cola Contains Alcohol

"Coca Cola contains alcohol 

One of the world's most closely guarded secrets the ingredients that make up Coca Cola has finally been shown to contain alcohol with a very interesting report by Al Jazeera.

It goes without saying that Alcohol is prohibited for all Muslims so go on be honest how many of you have had a can of Coke? LM is not in the least surprised that an Israeli Muslim is suing Coke for "mental anguish".

Coke are putting on a huge marketing effort across the Muslim world to try and convince us that there is nothing to worry about. From Malaysia to interestingly numerous stories in the pro American Middle East press there are articles denying the alcohol link.

Despite the denials this is one Muslim who remains to be convinced that alcohol is not present particularly when the recipe is supposed to be secret so how can we be sure. In addition, considering another multinational giant Nestle revealed their halal sausages contain pork LM is increasingly becoming very concerned over the reliability and suitability about what we Muslims are eating and drinking."




Saturday, May 14, 2011

Legalize all drugs

     In my society ( America ) we have been living under the "war on drugs" for close to thirty years now... a war that targets the poor and sick while mostly ignoring the trail of money that leads to people who do not fall under the same scrutiny that most Americans do in the legal system today. Most people feel the drug boogy man if allowed to be legalized would hurt the country, leading to more people using drugs and falling out of society... but I feel it is the cost of drugs themselves, created by the black market, that leads to most of the violent crime that occurs in the drug world.
     Many people I know are currently serving jail terms for possession of drugs. These people for the most part are no violent and were simply found with the substance in their vehicle... most of the mare repeat offenders and it is why they are in jail. A person wishing to use these substances is often described by doctors as self medicating.. and with the medical system the way it is.. where the costs are so high.. who can blame them?
Is the answer to put these people into boxes close the door and expose them to the horrors of prison?
     A system I see working is one where drugs are legal, people buy them from stores... if they drive while intoxicated them much like alcohol they will be penalized under the law. Also like alcohol the user cannot use the substance in pubilc. If people wish to purchase a drug, drive home with it sealed, and then use it in their house they are simply hurting themselves.. maybe. Some drug use's harm is actually minimal, mainly marijuana. Those who wish to use a drug should have the right to, the same way someone who wishes to indulge in fatty foods can, or someone who does not wish to exercise.
     When we get into the business of saying people cannot do things which could possibly harm themselves we go down a slippery slope. Already there are moves to control the food we eat... with new health care coverage it could be in the future that the government also has more of a role in deciding how you should treat your body. America seems so up on the idea of freedom, and freedom includes making choices that may be harmful. Removing choice is not true freedom, and frankly people still use drugs and have no matter what the penalty. Countries where heroin possession is punishable by death still have heroin addicts... even with the most supreme penalties people are still going to do these things.. by not legalizing them we create a black market, inflate the prices, force addicts to become poor to support their habit, clutter jails with non violent drug offenders, and do not get any revenue in terms of taxation.
     If drugs were legal the taxes would pay for the treatment and more. When people wanted to come off of them they could, when people wanted to stay on them they also could without having to throw away financial responsibility. Me personally, I have found that opiates improve my quality of life. They make me feel well,  help with pain, and help with constant acidic bowl movements that I have had since my gull bladder removal 10 years ago. Doctors are not willing to readily give out these drugs like people think. The government has cracked down on the drugs quite a bit and even some cancer patients have trouble getting the drugs. Ladanum and other opiates were sold over the counters in America, and the rates of addiction have grown since they were taken off, not declined.
      The last advantage of the legalization of drugs would be purity control. Many substances on the black market are " you have no idea what you are getting" type things. Users have no clue what the substance is "cut" with, and have no idea of the potency of the drug. This is what leads to overdose. An addict who is used to taking 2 pills of his normal heroin which is 50% pure, gets a 90% pure batch and takes the same dose resulting in overdose. Manufacture in a control environment would eliminate this issue, yes people would still overdose but I feel those people will still overdose legal or illegal... I think the rate of overdose would be far less.
     "BUT WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN!". Parents: would you rather have your children drink their first beer, which is regulated, controlled.. you know what is in it... from the liquor store down the street... OR would you rather have little Timmy drinking the beer I made in my bathtub and then shipped across the country. Little Timmy is going to try the beer no matter what you do, little Alice if she wants is going to try that heroin, or that marijuana.. the key here is HARM REDUCTION, not " well lets make it illegal and bury our heads in the sand".
     Will this even happen.. no.  Too many assholes like this one rule public opinion:

Friday, May 13, 2011

Conversations with Theist Landlord

landlord: if only you knew the big picture.. the plan.. i know it.. but you do not, if only you could see it

me: isnt that kind of condescending?

landlord: no it's not, that is your ego getting in the way of the truth.

me: but it would be like me saying " oh if only you understood evolution you would see the big picture" and i do not do that.. i do not try to lord things over other people

landlord: it is like you sharing that ice cream w/ me.. you wanted me to taste it so you shared it.. i am simply trying to share someone as good with you!

me: well.. i do not consider myself to have a huge ego, and i have never even told you what i believe or do not believe. 

landlord: you believe in false doctrine.

me: what do i believe?

landlord: well umm.. i think you believe in science. 

me: i do not "believe" in science. do you "believe" gravity exists.

landlord: it is just a "theory" scientists change what they think all the time.. the word of god always stays the same!

me: but thats the beauty.. scientists change what they observe and it adds to the pool of knowledge.. we thought the earth was flat and needed to think that to get us to the point of knowing it is round, and also gravity is not a theory it is a law. 

landlord: well what do you believe and why?

me: well.. imagine that you get a letter from the president. it tells you that you are going to be sent to another planet to meet an alien race. but by going through the space time - whatever- you are going to lose all memory connected w/ any religious belief.

landlord: (interrupting) so you believe we are sent by aliens and have no memory (mockingly)

me: no.. let me finish.. im using an analogy to help you understand how i think. so, you arrive on the planet and meet the aliens, you have no memory of christianity.. and the aliens say "first order you must select your god, we will send elders from each god faction and they will try to get you to join them. 

you meet the mormon alien, the christian alien, the muslim alien, the jewish alien, the scientologist alien, the wican alien.. and so on and so on.. they go about telling you one after the other of their religion.. at the end of the day you see all of these religions.. realize that only one could be possible right.. but that all are more than likely wrong.. you ask for evidence.. but you are given none to prove the existence of any of their gods. you walk away not following any of them.

this is generally how i feel about life up to this point, and i use the aliens because to me for people to believe some of the things they do..it seems almost alien to me and i have a hard time understanding how they can do it. 

landlord: you are selfish. you want god to come down and PERSONALLY show YOU something without YOU believing in him first. that would make you GOD if you could order GOD around. what would it take for you to believe in a god anyways!

me: some kind of proof.. some kind of actual miracle...

landlord: their are miracles all the time.. my wife knows a faith healer who can heal anyone JUST by laying hands on them

me: can he heal amputee's?

landlord: i dont see the point in that.. thats childish.. why would he need to heal an amputee for you to believe in his MIRACLES

me: because it would show that it is for real and not just a trick or placebo

landlord: you need to stop being so skeptical

me: well god did talk to me, he told me you should not charge me rent.

landlord: thats not true.

me: but wait, so thats not true, im assuming you would want evidence. 

landlord: well yes, if you can prove god told you that then fine.

me: don't you see the irony there.. you believe in things without proof, but when i claim that god told me something you demand proof.

landlord: because, god would not talk to someone that thinks like you do.





think i need to find a new place to live, i have known this guy for awhile now and he kept bringing up religion to me until i cracked and had this conversation. now i am the heathen living in the apartments worshiping satan in my free time.


sigh.

Making Gold in Wow 4.2

some tips for making gold in 4.2 version of wow:

1) get an auction house mod like auctioneer and a mailbox mod that opens all of your mail.

2) pick up Jewlcrafting and mining. As players upgrade their gear from ZA/ZG you can make a killing
selling gems.

3) do molten core! this instance is now soloable and a 20 min run can yield 300-500 gold.

4) ZA/ZG BOE.

5) Check the AH and trade chat for maelstrom crystals. People still need them and they are dropping alot more with the intro of za/zg. You can buy them in bulk from some players then re-sell on the AH.

6) items over 10k gold. There is a bug with the most popular mail mod that if a player tries to send a COD over 10k it will become 10k.. Although it is a scam.. fuck it ya know? Have players COD you items over 10k and if they have the mod you can turn around and sell the item making anywhere from 1-5k depending on the item.

7) get in a level 25 guild! there is a bonus to gathering if you are in a level 25 guild.. more output of resources = more cash= more gooder!

and please do not bother with the gold guides.. they will pretty much just tell you what i just told you but charge you cash to do it.

Wow Arcane Mage pvp 4.2

having fun in wow tearing up BG's, check out these scores from 4.2 as mage going arcane :)





Balancing In MMO's

Balance is a word that most MMO players know quite well and talk about quite often. We seek the Holy Grail of balance in all MMO's we play, and often head to a game publishers forums to discuss the issue, troll with it, flame over it or leave it as a reason that we are leaving a MMO. I feel that most players have forgotten the core idea of balance and with it most developers embark on a never ending series of buffs and nerfs trying to obtain it. No class based MMO has ever been balanced. Yes some have come closer than others but ironically the most imbalanced games have become the most balanced.
My gamming career started with Ultima Online (I did play Subspace before it which I do consider a MMO but not one in the classic sense of MMORPG). Ultima Online's pvp was balanced in that:
1) Every skill was available to every player and you could drop/relearn skills when wanted. 2) Every serious player at the time I played was a 7x Swords mage, which meant you had 7 skills maxed to 100 just like every other pvper, or you had them in the progress of maxing to 100.
Some may remember tamers, thieves, etc but from my perspective the vast majority of fights were people with the same kills fighting each other. This was balance. When I fought another swords mage it would not come down to a random choice they made at the beginning of the game concerning class, it came down to basically everything other than the class. Things like connection speed, order of casts, reactionary responses and eventually Roger Wilco target calling would tip the fight for one side or another. Not things like "I picked a rogue, he picked a warrior therefore he wins unless I greatly out gear or skill him".
This system that on the outside may seem unbalanced was actually one of the first and last games to get it right. Maybe it was not intended this way, but here we do have an example of what balance can be and a lot of reason people like myself wax poetic about this era in MMO history.
Maybe I should say this now, if you do not want to pvp... ever... then balance need not concern you. Balance when fighting monsters/npc's in a MMO is easy enough to balance. Where the majority of complaints and headaches come from concerning this topic are pvp encounters. Maybe I am jaded... but when it comes to PvE encounters I have been there done that mentality. I have played every major US MMO since Ultima's release and killing a dragon or killing ten boars in the forest has become a means to a end for me. The gear, levels I obtain, stats I earn are to be competitive at end game pvp. I think deep down most players feel this way, even the ones who claim to hate pvp. I think even the most avid non pvper when given a glaring advantage of gear etc will capitalize on a situation in which killing another player can give them reward at very little risk.
But back to balancing. The first step to this task is accepting rule #1:
1) CLASS BASED MMO's CAN NEVER BE BALANCED. (one vs one) For a class based MMO to be balanced you would be able to pick any class, and any tree or skill point allocation in that class and be able to beat any other skill or class combination. This may sound absurd, but it is balance at its core. Take chess for example. We all have the same pieces at the start, the same rules.. the same board and the game is balanced. Player skill, knowing your opponent, etc lead to the outcome of victory, not a situation where a person starts with 4 queens and I start with 4 rooks.
Imagine you are a baseball player and there are 50 choices of bat. Some are good for hitting long balls, others are better for bunting, but upon starting your career you must choose one bat and stick with it, or lose all of your stats as a player when switching to another bat. This would seem idiotic to most fans. If a certain bat is better for bunting and your team needs a bunt to win, then by all means I want my player using that bat... not being handicapped by a decision they made at the beginning of their career. This is what we do with class based MMO's. We force a player to pick a class usually knowing very little of what that class will really be like until a major time investment is made in it. After putting the player through the task of doing chores to level up/ gear up we then nerf/buff classes along the way making it impossible for a player to understand what they are getting into at the beginning.
Now a skill based MMO seems to be the answer, and yes one where skills can be min/maxed and left in the dust at any time is a good answer. I have read articles on this very site saying this will lead to massive IMBALANCING because of fotm, or cookie cutter templates. But I would much rather drop and re-level some skills to stay with the nerf/buff cycle than have to start a new character from scratch. Alts are going the way of the dodo with the invention of reputation grinds, vet rewards, and all the grind treadmills. Unfortunately major publishers see the success of WoW and seem to avoid skill based games, sure you run into a sand box skill based MMO being released every so often, but usually the publishers do not get it right or release a buggy platform due to lack of funding etc. Trust me, I love wow's polish and engine. If something comes from Blizzard, I know it is going to shine in terms of its lack of bugs/ polish and as a gamer I crave paying for finished products that will last and have a strong player base, otherwise I would just play single player games.
How a class based system can work: One game that everyone hates with a passion is Star Wars Galaxies. I was there for the NGE and remember how hurt/upset people were with that company, but I unlike many others kept playing. While they did introduce a class system as opposed to a skill based one they ALLOWED PLAYERS TO SWITCH THEIR CLASSES WITHOUT HAVING TO RE-GRIND A NEW CHARACTER. This lead to me playing the game a lot longer than I normally would/should have. When commando was OP i could switch to it for a chapter and when Jedi was tearing it up I could go Jedi. This lead to me collecting gear for every class and eventually switching among them as it suited my playstyle. Why force players to be punished for picking a class that is underpowered at end game or made weak by a nerf bat before they even get there? This allows players to enjoy the part of the game that vet players flock towards.. the end game. Sure your first go around of a game you may love the grind, even your third or fourth time, but honestly how many of you look forward to it and haven't thought, "Yay I'm level 'xx' now I can finally play the game!" Forcing players to re-roll to keep up with dev changes is the quickest way to get me to stop playing your game and move onto another.
Now we come to how a class based game can work: metagame. When I say metagame I am talking about group composistion. You get friends together and they compete against other groups. Now let players switch to your different classes for a small fee and you really got something. Your healer can’t play one night? Your tank is offline? Your DPS guy can’t come? Allow people to switch to these roles. Allow them to explore all the content of them game by having to aquire gear for these roles and I think you’re going to find players playing games a lot longer than they normally would... and developers isn't that what you want? The longer we sub the more you make. By allowing us to change classes easily the game can achieve balance through the metagame, where a party needs for example single target heals, group heals, aoe dps/single target dps, buffer, tank to succeed and any group with the same classes x6 is not going to win vs a well rounded team. You allow people to have their roles and do not pigeon hole them if the roles needed for the "best" spec group change.
(devs email me at chrisgcomputers1@gmail.com for more thoughts/ideas I have in crafting a great MMO)

Banned Images From Iraq War

short post:

these images from the war in iraq are something all Americans should watch, it really disgusts me that while fighting for freedom we so heavily censor the media, fire people who report things we do not like to hear, and commit war crimes.

not only leaders, but soldiers should be held accountable for these things... murder is murder.

keep waving your flags and eating your apple pies you fucking faggots.

Thursday, May 12, 2011

My MMO History Part 1 SubSpace

  I guess I can blame it all on PC magazine and the demo CD's they used to send out with their magazine. Innocently enough I put the disc into my NEC desktop and browsed through  the selection of games this month had to offer. I noticed one that said "internet connection required" which for some reason peaked my interest. The games name was SubSpace, and I had a fresh AOL account I had phished from some old woman who payed for the service but never used it. I was not planning on taking her credit card information-even though I could if I had wanted to. What I did plan on doing was using the dial up service to try out this newgame with a premise unheard of at the time... having to have a internet connection to play.
  The game loaded and I was told that I would need to select a user name, after some debate I decided 
on naming myself after one of my favorite albums at that time, They Might Be Giants Apollo 18. It seemed fitting as the game had a space theme, this was compounded when my friend named himself StompBox after one of the songs they played on the John Henry album. This was a new world for me, a persistent online world where I at least had a chance of being something great... and great I was. That summer I doubt I left the house for more than a  few hours at a time... the game consumed me with it's bi-weekly score resets and stiff competition. The game  seems devishly simple at first. A modern re-make of asteroids where your objective was focused around killing other players. 


     There were zones to choose from... Alpha, Chaos, Runnning, Jackpot, Warzone... and after some
testing I decided to make my stomping ground for the time Chaos Zone. Chaos Zone was a free for all romp fest where the objective was to kill other players. As players flew around the zone they would pick up little green power up's refered to as greens to power up their ship. With each green the player picked up their bounty, or points they were worth to another player would increase. Aside from ship upgrades which would usually be accomplished  in the early stages of greening you could also get re-usable items like bursts, repels, portals and rockets. These were activated with various keyboard shortcuts and could give you an advantage if used in the right situation. 
You could group with other players and even ride ontop of other players ships by being a "turret" for the
other player. Although the company who made it, VIE, rewarded the bi-weekly reset winner in most points scored by listing their name on a scrolling banner on their website, the game recorded many more stats. Some players would simply go for points, but others would go for the highest bounty kills which would create a high average kill showing you were able to kill the better players who had the highest bounties. Others would go for the best kill to death ratio. Kill to death ratio is something I ended up going for in the end, with the best I ever got being something like 150:1.
     Over time the game changed, VIE went out of business and the company stopped providing support for the game.A dedicated group of players took over the servers and the game was re-named Continuum. You can actually still play this game today and it was my first MMO. I had alot of great times playing it and it was a good introduction to the world of online gaming. I have decided to use this blog to record my gaming history, I will go from game to game and describe what went on. I suppose the highlight of subspace for me was being so infamous and hated that a player actually made a online comic about me and the nic name I had been dubbed "Afollo", which I got for trolling the forums acting like a yo yo thug. Next article we will discuss my next game, Ultima Online.  Oh and I even made a song about the nic name and Subspace :)

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

World of Warcraft Making Gold in 4.2 and NEW ARCANE MAGE PVP

onto something different not, WOW!!

Yes, I am back in wow and having a reasonably fun time in cataclysm, and thanks to sites like gold4key.com you can now take gold and generate actual game time!

Provided here are some tips for making gold in 4.2

1) Get a addon to scan the AH and one to open your mail for you.

2) PICK UP JEWEL CRAFTING AND MINING.  With the release of "Welfare" epics many people will be needing to REGEM all of their gear, and HUGE profits can be made.

3) MAELSTROM CRYSTALS. They are flying around everywhere now that ZA/ZG drop purples, you can easily find these under the AH price and re-sell for a good profit.

4) ARCHEOLOGY!! They have updated this skill so that the items over around 300 skill are giving very good gold! sometimes 2-300 per artifact, also the new 5 mans have things in the front to profit from.

Oh and i love the changes to arcane, I have been able to dominate in pvp with basically 2-3 buttons, very fun to crit someone for 62 k in a battlefield :)


Monday, May 2, 2011

Obama gets Osama Americans Froth

     We have all seen the videos of dirt poor Muslim men and women dancing in the streets chanting death to America while stomping on American flags and felt disgusted that people could have such hatred and indifference towards our way of life. "What is so bad about my life or country" we think as we go about our daily routine. I suppose that we all feel we are good people, a symptom of some survival mechanism present to justify our existence and continue plodding through the harsh cruelty that is life. But even without being a full blown existentialist we should be able to step away from ourselves and our society, if even for a second, to compare the celebrations of a death of a man to the scenes from Islamic countries we so love to hate.
     I am not a Muslim apologetic. I am more in line with Hitchens on my stance of the middle east, even when viewed through my atheist goggles. Fundamental Islam is a threat to western society, and more often than not in this world we are forced to choose the lesser of two evils for no man and thus no nation is perfect, but one is closer than the other. The western practice of separation of church and state, freedom of speech, and demonstration are for more appealing to my view of the direction humanity should head in than the views of the fascist Islamic stance. These are people who kill over cartoons, execute people for being homosexual and delight in the genocide of fellow humans. While often flawed I feel the average Americans morality is superior to that of the average Islamic Fascists.
     So what is the big fuss? It is so easy to fall in love with the idea of America swooping in and destroying the evil Osama. Yet something did not sit well with me as I watched the rallies of drunken college children chanting USA USA USA and running wild in the streets with American flags celebrating the death of another man. Was he an evil man? To some yes. If ordering men to kill other humans makes a man evil then should not a celebration be had for the death of any leader who orders humans to kill other humans? When Osama thinks he is talking to his imaginary friend in the sky I am sure that he feels justified in doing whatever nasty business you wish to attribute to him. To him you are the great Satan, corrupting his country and lessening the effect of his extreme belief system. But how does this differ from Bush or Obama (well Bush a little more so than Obama I suspect) claiming on getting orders to invade Iraq from his personal line to Jesus? Both are imaginary relationships that have justified in their minds the killing of not only military targets ( Iraq war buildings for Bush, the Pentagon for Osama) but also civilians ( the towers for Osama claimed thousands,  Iraqi civilian deaths number in the hundreds of thousands).
     I would rather see a criminal put on trial and convicted of his crimes than simply executed, perhaps this was impossible with Osama and the reports are saying that he resisted but the celebration is what sickens me. As I am against Islamic Fascism do I feel the world is a better place without Osama, sure. Do I feel that filling the news waves with people celebrating a man being shot and dancing around with alcohol and the American flag disgusting? Only as disgusting as you find the images of Islamic countries dancing in the streets in the same fashion.