The only trouble is, I don't know if I want to keep the prize or sell it. I think I'll hang onto it for the time being and see if I make a decision to use it or not.
Showing posts with label gaming. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gaming. Show all posts
August 3, 2009
Pi win!
I took first place in the Pi poetry contest I talked about in my last entry. I feel special. =D
The only trouble is, I don't know if I want to keep the prize or sell it. I think I'll hang onto it for the time being and see if I make a decision to use it or not.
The only trouble is, I don't know if I want to keep the prize or sell it. I think I'll hang onto it for the time being and see if I make a decision to use it or not.
July 20, 2009
Pi.
I'm entering a contest in my clan on Kingdom of Loathing, a rockin' text and image turn-based RPG.
I have to write something about Pi for the contest, so here's my entry.
Infinite
Pi,
I can't count you
but
I wouldn't want to.
You are too much for me to handle.
I can
still appreciate you,
though mathematics
is not my
strength, I can eat a
slice of pizza pie or pumpkin
when it's time to celebrate being
an irrational number.
I have to write something about Pi for the contest, so here's my entry.
Infinite
Pi,
I can't count you
but
I wouldn't want to.
You are too much for me to handle.
I can
still appreciate you,
though mathematics
is not my
strength, I can eat a
slice of pizza pie or pumpkin
when it's time to celebrate being
an irrational number.
March 12, 2009
Video Nerd Update!
I totally forgot to mention that I got that TV from Target the day before I left for spring break. It is beeeautiful. Unfortunately, in the process of setting it up and moving it around, the sheathing on one end of the coaxial cable broke off and I couldn't fix it. I'm going to need a new one of those, and I'll also hunt around for an HDMI... to hook up my new XBOX 360 that could possibly already be at the campus post office!
I'm so excited to become a DDR dork.
In other news, the internet in my dorm room has now been off for almost a week. I've given my laptop to the IT people to "inspect" and will hopefully be getting it back in a day or two.
Thank goodness the XBOX came when it did or I'd have shot myself days ago.
I'm so excited to become a DDR dork.
In other news, the internet in my dorm room has now been off for almost a week. I've given my laptop to the IT people to "inspect" and will hopefully be getting it back in a day or two.
Thank goodness the XBOX came when it did or I'd have shot myself days ago.
February 26, 2009
Branching out in Nerd.
Over Winter break two months ago, I spoke to my mother about how I never had video games. She revealed to me that when I was in first grade she asked me if I wanted a video game console and I said "no." This floored me. I always thought that she was just cheap and/or being mean to me. Really, who takes a six year old so seriously?
I recently came into a reasonable sum of money and experienced a lot of stress. Since stress is the result of a change, the change to being able to afford something I want was freaking me out. I knew that I wanted a system, but it isn't like me to spend money like that. I worried about how long I would get to keep it, if I would need to sell it in a year once I'm out of college and not safe anymore. I don't feel justified in buying something nice like that. I always got the next best thing when I was a kid, so having my first choice is mind-blowing.
Another problem is that my TV is not going to be compatible with anything more complicated than cable or a DVD player. I'd need a new TV for it to work, but it would have to be all-or-nothing. I've found a TV at Target that's cheap but they don't have it in stock and may not be getting it back. I've seen XBOX-360s on craigslist and ebay but I'm skeptical of their condition. I don't want to buy something and have it break in a month; then I'll really feel wasteful.
I've gone into Gamestop a few times to get the lay of the land. I always feel uncomfortable in there because I think they know that I didn't grow up with this stuff. I don't want to ask any questions because I feel like a child would know the answers. So I'm left with a series of google searches to tell me about these consoles, games, controllers, guitars, hard drives, memberships, etc.
It's disheartening to get into this so late. It's not cool to start being a video game geek in your 20s (and when did that phrase become applicable?), and I don't know how I'll handle being so behind the times, and watching my miraculous new system be replaced by a newer version in a year or so.
The short of it is: I want a 360. I want to play games and make up for lost time. I, however, don't have anyone to help me figure out how to go about it. I don't have any video gamer friends, I don't have much knowledge, but I want this and I'm going for it.
I recently came into a reasonable sum of money and experienced a lot of stress. Since stress is the result of a change, the change to being able to afford something I want was freaking me out. I knew that I wanted a system, but it isn't like me to spend money like that. I worried about how long I would get to keep it, if I would need to sell it in a year once I'm out of college and not safe anymore. I don't feel justified in buying something nice like that. I always got the next best thing when I was a kid, so having my first choice is mind-blowing.
Another problem is that my TV is not going to be compatible with anything more complicated than cable or a DVD player. I'd need a new TV for it to work, but it would have to be all-or-nothing. I've found a TV at Target that's cheap but they don't have it in stock and may not be getting it back. I've seen XBOX-360s on craigslist and ebay but I'm skeptical of their condition. I don't want to buy something and have it break in a month; then I'll really feel wasteful.
I've gone into Gamestop a few times to get the lay of the land. I always feel uncomfortable in there because I think they know that I didn't grow up with this stuff. I don't want to ask any questions because I feel like a child would know the answers. So I'm left with a series of google searches to tell me about these consoles, games, controllers, guitars, hard drives, memberships, etc.
It's disheartening to get into this so late. It's not cool to start being a video game geek in your 20s (and when did that phrase become applicable?), and I don't know how I'll handle being so behind the times, and watching my miraculous new system be replaced by a newer version in a year or so.
The short of it is: I want a 360. I want to play games and make up for lost time. I, however, don't have anyone to help me figure out how to go about it. I don't have any video gamer friends, I don't have much knowledge, but I want this and I'm going for it.
December 26, 2008
Relativism... What?
I've been getting back into MMORPGs lately and was playing one that will not be named yesterday when some guy started ranting about Jesus. He was a non-christian and was upset that there was a christmas-themed special event and that everyone was making such a big deal out of it.
Everybody who was around tried to make him shut up, but I just kept fishing and didn't say anything. As an agnostic with a mild interest in (as well as discomfort with) religion, I wondered where this would go.
The ranting guy went off talking about Judaism next; he said, "at least Jews have a normal god," probably in reference to the strange composition of the trinity (father, son, ghost. You know.)
That's when I saw the need to jump in. I questioned his use of "normal." The word bothers me. I blame it on the psych classes and all of the education I've had on "social norms" and all that. I don't think normalcy exists. I don't know what it would be.
So I looked it up. Dictionary dot com came up first, so I've taken that and split it up by concept in the following way.
"Normal equals common" is much better since it doesn't say anything about those uncommon types.
It does irk me when people refer to, for example, heterosexuality as normal. I think that this is because I'm assuming that they mean the first definition of normal, regarding standards. I need to make the cognitive switch to interpreting it as the "common" definition and hope that that* is what they meant.
So after I told the guy a much condensed version of the above, someone else chimed in and says something to the effect of "Your religion is yours. It's different for everybody." This sent me off again.
Relativism is an odd idea, but one that may be growing more popular with increasing individualism.
The premise of relativism is that things, usually perceptions (of morals, physical objects, anything really) are related only to the individual. This leads to some trouble.
The first consequence of relativism is that every statement a person makes is only a matter of his or her opinion. The truth values of a person's statements become irrelevant, and logic flies out the window. Saying "X is bad" really means "I think X is bad." And really, who cares what you think? It doesn't say anything about the world**, and since the world is what we're trying to figure out, this is useless.
The second big problem is interpersonal, and stems from the first. If none of your statements pertain at all to the world, you can't talk to anybody about the world. You're talking about different things because the thing, your idea, is related only to what's in your head. Even if by chance you're talking about the same thing as someone else, simply stating opinions does not allow for any learning to take place, except for knowing statements like "so-and-so (dis)likes X." Again, what good is that?
Issue number three regards improvement. This pertains specifically to moral relativism, but also ties in with learning. There is no way to measure moral change or differences (over time, cross-cultural, whatever) if there is nothing objective to be said about morality. A closely related issue is punishment. How can anyone be held responsible for what they do if they truly think that it was the right thing to do? Is it then right to punish someone who thinks differently than you do, or differently than the majority does, if they really thought they were doing the right action?
These are the issues with relativism that I could come up with right now. There's more lurking around in my head. I may be back to this topic soon. I can't think anymore.
* "that that" always bothers me (and the MSWord grammar check) but I'm not getting rid of it.
**For my purposes, the world consists of anything external to the self.
Everybody who was around tried to make him shut up, but I just kept fishing and didn't say anything. As an agnostic with a mild interest in (as well as discomfort with) religion, I wondered where this would go.
The ranting guy went off talking about Judaism next; he said, "at least Jews have a normal god," probably in reference to the strange composition of the trinity (father, son, ghost. You know.)
That's when I saw the need to jump in. I questioned his use of "normal." The word bothers me. I blame it on the psych classes and all of the education I've had on "social norms" and all that. I don't think normalcy exists. I don't know what it would be.
So I looked it up. Dictionary dot com came up first, so I've taken that and split it up by concept in the following way.
- conforming to the standard or the common type: There is no standard religion. The most common one is, generally, Christianity. Judaism is number six.
- usual: I'm not sure if this helps. It's about as mysterious as "normal."
- not abnormal: This is not a definition. It's double-negation.
- regular: See "usual."
- natural: A religion is as natural as a highway overpass. It's constructed by people.
- serving to establish a standard: This is a little tricky. So, the normal is what should be the standard? It is currently unestablished? Then don't talk about it like it's established!
"Normal equals common" is much better since it doesn't say anything about those uncommon types.
It does irk me when people refer to, for example, heterosexuality as normal. I think that this is because I'm assuming that they mean the first definition of normal, regarding standards. I need to make the cognitive switch to interpreting it as the "common" definition and hope that that* is what they meant.
So after I told the guy a much condensed version of the above, someone else chimed in and says something to the effect of "Your religion is yours. It's different for everybody." This sent me off again.
Relativism is an odd idea, but one that may be growing more popular with increasing individualism.
The premise of relativism is that things, usually perceptions (of morals, physical objects, anything really) are related only to the individual. This leads to some trouble.
The first consequence of relativism is that every statement a person makes is only a matter of his or her opinion. The truth values of a person's statements become irrelevant, and logic flies out the window. Saying "X is bad" really means "I think X is bad." And really, who cares what you think? It doesn't say anything about the world**, and since the world is what we're trying to figure out, this is useless.
The second big problem is interpersonal, and stems from the first. If none of your statements pertain at all to the world, you can't talk to anybody about the world. You're talking about different things because the thing, your idea, is related only to what's in your head. Even if by chance you're talking about the same thing as someone else, simply stating opinions does not allow for any learning to take place, except for knowing statements like "so-and-so (dis)likes X." Again, what good is that?
Issue number three regards improvement. This pertains specifically to moral relativism, but also ties in with learning. There is no way to measure moral change or differences (over time, cross-cultural, whatever) if there is nothing objective to be said about morality. A closely related issue is punishment. How can anyone be held responsible for what they do if they truly think that it was the right thing to do? Is it then right to punish someone who thinks differently than you do, or differently than the majority does, if they really thought they were doing the right action?
These are the issues with relativism that I could come up with right now. There's more lurking around in my head. I may be back to this topic soon. I can't think anymore.
* "that that" always bothers me (and the MSWord grammar check) but I'm not getting rid of it.
**For my purposes, the world consists of anything external to the self.
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