Responsibility

Responsibility. A single word drenched in meaning, and evocative of all that a generation stood for, and all that one seeks to shirk. People are judged, rightly, on their actions, both in the judicial system, and in the public’s eye. But should people be judged on what they do not do? Perhaps most notably, certainly one of the most visible situations of the last few decades, was in the death of Princess Dianna, when numerous paparazzi stood in the aftermath and collected pictures rather than attempt to help. That she was later found to have had little to no chance of surviving the crash (her seatbelt wasn’t engaged) was generally lost and the paparazzi villainized.

Throughout history events have unfurled where a population or person stood by in place and watched or allowed some event happen later considered evil by many. The Holocaust left many in horror, not just at the atrocity itself, but that it happened. In the americas, and much of the rest of the world, human slavery has been or once was allowed and even promoted. Witch hunts and other similar inquisitions swept through europe with nary a word spoken against them.

Fear, apathy and malice are but a few of the reasons behind such sweeping “evils.” Apathy is the most insidious, perhaps, and allows the host to feel vindicated for not participating, but to benefit from continuing in a kind of status quo, not risking harm to themselves. But inaction allows for more action, and the fallacy of apathy is that by removing even their voice, that freedom Americans especially claim to hold so dear, they are in fact complying with the scheme of those moving forward with their plans.

A lie of omission is a more deliberate example of this problem, and in American courts punishable. Both sides of a trial have the opportunity to omit information to the other side, evidence that legally must be shared. If it is not, then the evidence frequently is withdrawn from consideration. This precedent, I believe, is just. Inaction is a form of action. Reasonable effort should be given when called for. In today’s world of politics especially, those who do not vote, should have no voice to raise when things don’t go their way. By refusing to vote, they have said they do not care to influence the world around them and by extension are fine with how things turn out, however they do.

Old People and Things That Go Vroom!

They say, whoever “they” are, that you get wiser as you get older. You’re eyes also start to go, along with the rest of you, proving, perhaps that balance does exist in the universe on some level. But a curious statistic exists, and stereotypes are drawn from it, as stereotypes are wont to do; unless you are middle aged and have been driving a while, you’re rather likely to get in an accident of some sort, and it will likely be your fault. While young drivers are given most of the blame and certainly penalized the most, the elderly as well merit some attention, as well as those in between.

A bell curve of sorts exists; those young drivers, so reckless and unpracticed, in their bright red cars and raging hormones, will get into crashes almost regularly, and older folk will sometimes forget their first days driving and point to immaturity when mishap happens. Ironically perhaps, young drivers grow up to matured middle-aged drivers, cruising around in cars their younger selves thought wasted on those too old to have any fun with.

And they drive generally well, according to that almighty god Statistics. But then Irony lends her hand and Chaos takes it to create the more than mature driver. Many do not fully notice this transition, and certainly many or maybe most older drivers continue to get better with age, as some things are like to do. And they just keep on getting better, that ticket they used to get every year or so for speeding now comes only on every third year, when they forget to use the turn signal, or it plain malfunctions and you’re handed a write up for maintenance.

And life goes on perfectly fine until grandpa drives through farmers’ market. Or grandma doesn’t realize that that speedbump a few moments ago was actually someones stroller, thankfully devoid of its human cargo now crying in mother’s arms. Senses begin to fail and so will memory. Glasses, once needed only for reading, now are all that keep them going on the road, and focusing from near to farther distance is hazardous at best. Hearing may have gone a bit so that growling Harley you once loved to ride, isn’t even noticeable next to you and may become the victim of an accidental sideswipe during the changing of lanes.

Time is a cruel mistress, prone to handing maturity and frailty in the same basket, but not always. Occasionally, she smiles on a favored friend and grants the former without the latter. Just as some young drivers may put their elders to shame with road etiquette and good skills, so may some senior drivers continue driving along with not a mishap, perfectly aware of the road and all they need to be fine drivers.

The most important means of keeping the roads safe is the training of good driving skills, the encouragement of maintaining those skills, and honesty. All relationships at some level need honesty to be maintained and survive, and flourish. The road is no different; it is a common ground to all walks of life, even to those incapable of driving themselves, either to young, or old enough to have surrendered the reigns. Honesty of when that time has come to give them up is important, and should be the first judge of when someone stops, not a law.

On Abortion

Today, the case of the unborn fertilized human embryo is under hot debate. To one side of the argument, called the anti-abortion or “pro-life” camp, the embryo is an unborn baby, brimming full of life and practically pleading to be brought to term and then birth. The other side, the abortion right’s or “pro-choice” camp, labels this embryo as a fetus, frequently in an unfavorable light. The past forty years in America has seen a see sawing of public interest and involvement intros issue. Briefly, I will establish a case for the unborn fetus as a person to whom constitutional rights ought to be extended.

Most important to this argument, perhaps, is the question of when exactly a “person” ceases to be a fetus and becomes a baby, or more simply, when a fetus becomes a person. Pro-choice advocates will claim that until the mother’s body has been evacuated, the unborn fetus is not a person, and so afforded none of the rights they would extend to a truly living, breathing human. Pro-life advocates point to the unique DNA of the baby, created or blended from mother and father at the point of inception months or weeks previously. Considering that this same DNA is used by law enforcement to track down both criminals and missing persons, this is a fairly strong claim to life, eventual life at the very least. Later on, fingerprints and a heartbeat begin to show up in this unborn person.

Less important than the realization of life and individuality, but nonetheless of great importance to this debate, is the classification of person in a constitutional sense. While the constitution itself does not specify what exactly a person is, and indeed, the matter of that question has been in a state of flux since the constitution’s inception, there does exist some precedence to aid the answering of this question. With the exception of corporations, all persons influenced by the constitution are human. A seemingly trivial point this is, but important nonetheless; voting persons were only landowning white men once upon a time. This bottlenecking of voters has gradually been expanded upon, first to those not land owning, then to men of all ethnicity, then finally to women. With the vote, comes an inevitable expansion of rights to the new group.

But the right to vote is not the mark by which a human is granted the benefits of the constitution, rather it is a benefit to some of those who are affected, a subgroup of the true body of persons. Without doubt, once a baby has been born (and at the very least at this moment the word is the appropriate term to use) it receives constitutional protection. Abortion itself is illegal in America after this moment, and termed murder and infanticide. This reversal is disingenuous; for more than a month before “term” a baby that is born has a fairly decent chance to live given even a relatively normal level of care. Even significantly before term can a baby survive if given the attention and medical aid.

Because there is no doubt as to the eventual form of a fetus, that is a fertilized human embryo, is in fact a human being that will generally become a functioning member of society at some level given the opportunity to life, I feel that a fetus/baby/fertilized embryo ought to have the very same constitutional rights afforded a born baby, at the very least.

(This was a short paper for critical thinking, written at night with no proofreading, so yeah…)

Stuff I learned in China…

As some who check in here on a monthly/weekly/biweekly basis know, I recently spent three weekend in China on a business trip with Wasco, the place I work. I learned a number of esoteric, trivial, and helpful tips along the way, along with a mix of all of those things (because those people who need to know those esoterically trivial yet also helpful tips I learned are either in possession of said knowledge or won’t ever read this). Fun fact, the period goes *outside* the parenthesis at the end of a sentence most of the time. Go figure, only took me 23 years to figure that out. Without further ado, here are a few tips and trivia.

Wonder Diapers!

A curious thing happened last night at the dinner table. My grandparents and Anna were talking and somehow the conversation got turned to Wonder Woman and I mentioned how they’re changing her costume (along with practically every other Superhero/villain in either major multiverse) to something other than patriotic diapers. Now, this Superheroin is one of the few my grandparents are actually familiar with. Somehow, having raised two boys through the Bronze age of comic books, they managed to fumble their Knowledge: Comics rolls almost every time, so this familiarity is something to be amazed at. For the record, here is the Classic Wonder Woman, and the reboot version.

The curious thing, however, is not that my grandparents recognized who is probably the most iconic comic female superhero of all time, but rather that they prefer the old costume to the new one. And by the way, that older version I picked was a bit more modest than most; the corset usually shows a bit more cleavage, though this one is less diaper than modern swimsuit bottom. Here’s the Lynda Carter TV series rendition, featuring that horrid bottom.

See what I mean? So compared to the corset of truth, and diapers of patriotism, this new, far more mosdestly (and dare I say comfortably?) dressed Wonder Woman is “tacky.” For those of you at home, Tacky is “showing poor taste and quality.” I won’t comment on the quality, though I’m definitely not a fan of most people running around in spandex, but the taste bit was rather ironic to me. Yes, I will admit she now looks a bit more grungy, though maybe I’m biased in actually liking that look a wee tad. But at the very least, she’s much more covered up than before.

I know the comic world is going through a huge group of changes right now, with more reboots occurring than in  recent memory. The X-Men series of films have hit their fifth movie in the last few weeks, Green Lantern is out, and the Avengers movie should be out next year. The world’s first black Batman has been released, Barbara Gordon, the Batgirl turned wheelchair-ridden Oracle, is now able to walk again after 23 odd years.   Even Star Trek is getting some new love. So big changes happening all the time. I’m a big webcomic guy, and one of these day’s I’ll do a review of the ones I read and why, but particularly germane to today’s post is The Gutters a webcomic making fun of the comic industry at large, drawn by a multitude of artists from other webcomics and written by a Red Bull addict of great talent.

All that to say is maybe I’m a little crazy (which I am, no doubt, either you know this or you don’t know me yet.) I may be the only person I know who likes the change, but I admit I do like it. Remember folks, unless you’re older than 55 or younger than 3, just say no to diapers.

What is Love?

What is Love?

I’ve had the itch to write again, which means I come once again to my blog here. Summer is dawning upon us, school is ending and the yearly glut of weddings has arrived. Normally this means little to me, but this year it seems every second or third friend of mine is attending a wedding, either as a part of the “party” (which unless you’re the guy in charge of the bachelor party it really isn’t,) or as one of the two focal points. This all culminates with a few other factors to lead me to thinking about what “Love” really is.

Cavity Kings v. Silithians

After a silence that has been too long, I return with a short, rough writeup of half of the Blood Bowl game I’m playing right now. Its basically football mixed with Warcraft, so if anything is unfamiliar/confusing, its ok. I’m playing the Vampires and I’m against a Lizardman team. I’ve got more High Earth stuff complete, but not typed and I’ll be putting it up online when I get around to typing it up, not likely this Saturday, but by next, I promise 🙂 As always, I’ll update my status and post a link to my new post.

“Woah”

Pause. As I was watching the play tonight; “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” I realized that I’d very much like to toy around with having High Earth be a kind of alternate reality for Phoerix. A kind of “Alice in Wonderland” if your will. A webcomic I read for a while titled the Dreamland Chronicles dealt with this idea, and Narnia is set in very much the same kind of place. I’ve always been a fan of this kind of story, and High Earth has always been a kind of link between Middle Earth (our world) and the heavens, as bound by my mind.

To go one step further, will give the story itself a bit of a different meaning, but allow myself to more naturally (ironic huh?) write myself. Perhaps by beginning with a quick jot through my own life, and then launch into a dream, waking or sleeping, I can more effectively enter into the world. Just as Lucy and the others literally walked into the Wardrobe, put the rings on and off, were taken into the picture and on, so would I be able to enter into the world. Not to have any real effect on the real world, though in such a story who can say what the real world truly is. Nor to bring conflict from world into another, I don’t wish this to be some device to introduce the evil capitalist from America into Basilea Agathos, or more horridly, Methodia. Likewise I wish not to endanger the world with Shapers, fae or magic.

I mean for both worlds to be real, for Phoerix and JD to grow up simultaneously in two worlds, the same being, and conscious of the other. JD, speaking in the third person here, isn’t an escapist, nor am I especially creative, I am simply a dreamer dreaming what thousands and millions have dreamed before. That said, I’m just creative and egotistical enough to trick myself into thinking I can write halfway decently, and halfway intelligent and egotistical enough to think myself capable of pulling it off.

All said and done, I may be making a few changes again and writing once more a new beginning, a prequel to the start of the match. And I do believe I’ll find myself reworking that match anyway, I’m not happy with it very much, its to choppy and loose for me. One final note, I feel like writing a short story about a young boy, charging bravely into a world of wonder inside an attic with a peculiar painting, inspired by my desktop wallpaper. It really is a charming picture and evokes warm fuzzies in me, and I placed it at the top.

And note, this isn’t my half-promised midweek post, that’ll come later if it does at all. Enjoy all 🙂

Character Bio: Phoerix

It is now nearing 7pm and I’ve set iTunes to Classical. I’d meant to work on these through the week, but I’ve managed to procrastinate and keep myself from working. Surprise surprise. I have, however, managed to create another batch of my slowly becoming famous cinnamon rolls, and duplicated my mother’s amazing cranberry bread. And after a short photoshoot, I edited a nice little picture. But on to the bios.

Phoerix Mortain, my alter ego who has shortened somewhat as I’ve come to grips with the fact that I’m of average height if not shorter, is the main protagonist of High Earth, at least for the moment. Coming from a family with a rich history of Shapers, and ministers, Phoerix tossed around the idea of joining the ministry himself, and has received fairly extensive training from his father, a minister himself. While not planning on following his father’s footsteps, he has found joy in counseling his friends, being a good natural listener.

The young Air Shaper who captains his Shaper team is a student of History and Tactics at the Academy. As a student he aspires to join the military officers corps and plans on rising through the tactical ranks, achieving a generalship before retiring. He attends the Academy on a sports scholarship like the rest of his team and holds an academic scholarship for tactics, which is constantly in jeopardy of being removed due to his aversion to most homework in his other classes. He is very excited to journey to Apsuchos Moraino, the opportunity gained by reaching the post season in Shaper.

His outlook on life and personality are somewhat of a dichotomy. On one hand, he is very cynical and has difficulty trusting others, while on the other he inspires trust in other around him and has grown to trust his close friends. He believes in preparing and expecting the worst, while hoping for the best. Mirroring his laid back approach to life, an unfortunate symptom being his aversion to most homework and a tendency to procrastination, Phoerix is hard to fluster and unsettle. Even when pushed past the point of anger, he remains mostly calm and subjective.

While the majority of his friends have known each other most of their lives, a few have only recently become a part of the circle. His teammates, however, have all grown up together, an unorthodox team that has excellent communication grown from years of growing up together. Some years ago he was in a dedicated relationship with Aerin, which ended rather abruptly and took some time to recover. More recently, Topiaria and he have begun to see each other.

Fitting as a student of history and tactics, his favorite room isn’t the gym, its the library or study. His favorite colors are Red, White, Silver and Purple. While he enjoys Shaper, and is quite good at it, he also has great talent for chess.

And so this ends part one of my character bios, I’ll be working on the others later on, and I might have another midweek update. While this is more of a general overview, I might update this one later with a short history so make it a little more specific, or I might not. Enjoy all.

Shaper Rules

Now today for our special midweek update, we’ve got the rules of Shaper. I felt unfulfilled by my last post, so I’m finishing it up here. Nicolas has also been on my back for a week or two to get these rules up. As always, comment as you will, I’m sure I’ll miss something, and if you ask here, I can comment here and add the fix/patch.

This game native to High Earth is akin to American football and Soccer, mixed with a bit of elemental fun and a tad more violence. The field is roughly one hundred feet wide by three hundred long, with teams setting up on the wide sides. Behind the teams are a row of metal disks usually around three feet wide and these are the goal. Starting closed, they open if charged with electricity, though they will shut if not held open with a sustained current. A flame resistant ball, mostly oblong about a foot long finishes the tools used and goals are scored by putting the ball through an open disk.

First off are teams. Shaper is played by two teams of seven players, one of each Shaper branch; Air, Earth, Electricity, Fire, Gravity, Plant and Water, and each player has a specific role and rules. In addition to the branch specific roles and rules, there are four basic positions, one that each player will fit into; Blaster, Blocker, Goalie and Runner/Scorer. Each branch has a certain predisposition one of the four roles, but there is no set in stone rule (and if there were, the Earth Shapers would probably change that.)

Blasters clear the field for their runner to reach the goal. Because of the forces at place in a match, various blockades and wally impede the process from one end of the field to the other. Blasters force through these impediments or build new routes toward the goal. No less important is the defense of the runner, or the ball carrier, and so the physical blocking of the other team is secondary part of the position. Fire Shapers especially are suited to this position, usually able to burn their way through the offending foliage or barriers. Earth and Electricity are other common Blasters.

Blockers do their best to keep the opposing team away from their own runner. They accomplish this by either physically blocking the other players with themselves, or by building walls to guide away from the runner. On the defensive, Blockers burn time away from the offense by altering their walls to force them away from the goal, or to take a more lengthy route. Earth Shapers are the most obvious blockers, typically being physically larger than the other players, but also by being able to grow walls of stone around the field. Gardeners also can grow walls and entangle with plants they grow on the field. Water Shapers can create grounds of impeding water and make it harder to grasp and grapple the runner.

The Goalie is the only player allowed in their own ten foot stretch of field on each end of the field next to the disks after the game’s start. Their job is to protect the goals from the opposing runner, and usually accomplish this by altering the path of the ball, or by physically blocking it. Because the disks are about ten feet outside of even the Goalie area (which the other team may freely enter,) the ball must be thrown, and Goalies that are able to knock the ball off  course without touching it are usually more successful than those who must physically bat the ball down or go after the runner. Only one player may be the Goalie at a time, and that player must remain the Goalie until halftime or a goal is scored, whichever is first. Gravity and Air Shapers are well suited to this position, being able to negatively influence the ball’s path. Earth Shapers, while unable to create walls in front of the disks, are able to make walls to move up in front of the disk to bat at the ball with their body. Electric Shapers are a very defensive Goalie, only with the aid of an electric Shaper may the disks be opened, so one on defense is better situated to disrupt the activities of an offense, but his own team will be unable to score as well.

Rounding out the basic players are the Runners. Usually either Gravity or Air Shapers are the runners, both able to guide the ball with much more finesse into the goal than the other players. Runners are usually fast, able to sprint toward the ball in an attempt to outrun the opposing Runner, and agile, to avoid opposing players and barriers. While each team may have as many players act as Runner as they wish, one is usually the team captain and primary runner, directing the rest of his team around the field.

An important side note to the four basic positions is the Electric Shaper. They have a unique role that is independent to their position; they open and defend against opening the goal disks. While powering the disk, they’re concentration is highly focused, and the risk of injury is greatly increased. To balance this, only their foil is allowed to close in on them and attempt to stop their work. The Shapers themselves typically maintain a special suit of armor to aid both distraction and concentration in this endeavor.

Play is split into two halves, and each starts with the teams lined up in their goal area. A whistle starts the game, or resumes play, with players moving out of the goal area and beginning to go after the ball and the runners. Play continues until a goal is scored or an injury  brings down a player. Intentional hits are illegal, on pain of ejection, but after the player(s) is/are removed play resumes.

The ball may be passed, though it is only rarely done so due to the forces at work. Occasionally a player will be thrown physically through one of the rings with the ball to score, but they may not do so under their own power. Shapers may not directly affect the other team, with the exception of Gardner’s. Gardner’s may use plants to entangle other players, or entrap them in shrubbery, but they may not use any poisons and are under close scrutiny.

Play continues until the time limit ends, and then the team with the highest score wins. In case of a tie, the game goes to sudden death; where the first goal wins.