Guys, I Am So Tired

If you're reading this, you probably know a few things about me. I'm well educated. I can put a few words together. I've been a clerk, an retail manager, a writer, a mechanic, and a former sailor in The US Navy. I have a degree in Nuclear Engineering Technology. I say without reservation that I am a friggin' genius.

I've been looking for a permanent job for about a year now. I don't have an engineering degree proper. I have some computer science training, but no actual certifications and I don't have enough knowledge of CSS, Javascript, and SQL. I certainly don't have experience in any of those fields, as I opted to work offshore to pay my way though college because my parents, (and this will be the only time I say this collectively) god bless their souls, couldn't afford to pay for it[1].

Guns, and the Rights to Thereof

It started as a poorly-focused Libertarian project built around promoting the work of a single individual, but became something much worse. Naming any of the players involved would be unprofessional, but for the sake of simplicity, Saio Kaas calls the entire fiasco "The Freepublican Job." After much professional and mature debate, Saio Kaas is doing more freelance work while I handle this week's Freepublican post.

Guns have been a big issue lately, huh? As someone who's generally in the center, but leans liberal, it's almost frightening to see the veneer of detached rationality melt away from those further on the left when they discuss guns. Like nuclear power, guns are something frightening and other to them. The bone-deep fear gives them an absolutist attitude that empowers them to eschew rational discussion in favor of repeating just how right their attitudes are.

Obviously, I don't think taking everyone's guns away is the answer. I'd say that if the left calmed down and explained that they feel the same way, the right might finally get that point, but I'm not stupid. I might be the only one in this conversation who's not. The resistance to gun legislation isn't to preserve a completely unregulated weapons market; there are plenty of laws that restrict weapon (and gun) ownership, as well as every other amendment in The Bill of Rights. If you don't believe me, try suing the government over a loved one killed in Iraq. Try protesting in the middle of the road of Time Square. Try keeping your property once eminent domain comes up. Try getting a trial for US citizens killed in drone strikes. Try being a governor who doesn't want your National Guard sent overseas.  Whether you like it or not, the 0th Admendment is "People should be free, but let's be reasonable here."

Denver 5 Proof of Concept, pt 02

A few months ago, I and a friend kicked around an aborted comics project featuring superhuman jerks being jerks on a truly superhuman level. Character descriptions are here and the pilot plots are posted below.

<-Previous Next->

005
*Doctor Bob, sitting at a desk with Tyler. This is a profile shot instead of the head-on shot of 001. It established that although the words are the same, this is actually a different strip.*
(DB): "All metas trained by U.N.I.T.Y. may be called upon at any time to serve a front-line role in an emergency."
---
*Shows Tyler using a defibrillator over a dummy. DB's voice continues, but he is, again, not present.*
DB: "Basic first aid should be administered unhesitatingly and expertly. U.N.I.T.Y. certification means saving lives, and doing so responsibly."
---
*Shows Tyler moving ambulances over a simple map of a city with fires on various buildings. OR with parts of a miniature city in front of him, a 'scoreboard' is behind him with a countdown timer and words similar to "Crisis Response Scenario 03." Regardless of the exact image, DB is again only narrating and not present. Again.*
DB: "Whether it's because of your meta abilities or perceived affiliation with U.N.I.T.Y., others will often defer to you in a crisis."
---
*Cuts back to Bob and Tyler in the room.*
DB: "Your goal is to be ready for any—"
Tyler *incredulous*: "Wait. The Spider is here?"

Monuments

So sometime on Monday, rebels in Syria took the city of Raqqa. It was apparently a big deal and it comes as the US Secretary of State talks about giving non-military support to the rebels, the rebels and the government engage in pre-talks posturing, a million refugees await delivery of promised winter aid, and some other boring stuff.

"Oooh, that city," said no one.

I am preoccupied with the fact that the moment the rebels rolled into town, they tore down a statue of Hafez Assad, the predecessor and father of the nation's current leader. At first I thought it was stock footage from the now-famous/infamous dismantling of the Saddam Hussein statue in Firdos Square around 2003, but not, it was another statue of a guy in a suit getting pulled down.

The Count Loves to *****

It's the Magic: Blue/Red is the Best Color

This Week's Best Thing Ever

Blue/Red is the best color in Magic. Blue is the naquadah of the color pie--the term that describes the philosophy behind allocating abilities to each of the game's five colors--in that it goes with just about anything. It initially seems obvious that in a game where power comes from cards the color that draws more cards might be a bit complimentary, but Blue is more than card draw.

It's that of course, but much more.

You get more spells with cards like Hivemind. You can figuratively steal creatures with cards like Clone. You can literally steal artifacts and enchantments. That is, when your own cards can just drop stupid creatures with artifact synergy.  

Seven of the top twenty-four community-rated cards in Modern are artifacts. Considering that eight of those are lands---

Chart!

Looking Backwards, then down. Deep down.

It started as a poorly-focused libertarian project built around promoting the work of a single individual, but became something much worse. Naming any of the players involved would be unprofessional, but for the sake of simplicity, I call the entire fiasco "The Freepublican Job."

Part of the reading materials for the job was Looking Backward: 2012-2162. It was based on another book, Looking Backward: 2000-1887, apparently a seminal liberal work I wasn't familiar with. Both books are centered around characters who find themselves thrown forward in time to see a world improved by the writer's ideology, with the latter being a libertarian ideology.

It would be easy to call it a bad book; the story is sparse, there's no conflict, the ending is inevitable, and it's not very original. There's a conversation to be had about writing stories that aren't supposed to be good stories, but now isn't the time.

Looking Backward: 2012-2162 is the story of a textbook liberal college professor who's locked in a time capsule and wakes up in a libertarian wonderland occupies thirteen of the fractured states of america. He tours his new world, learns about the foibles of the old one, and raises faint arguments that the ultimate, liberated people of the future bat aside with condescension.