Author: C.S. McFarland

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Is it so hard?

Is it so hard to find twenty five people who are not suffering some kind of mental impairment? I think ten people is pretty reasonable number of sane, intelligent people. But twice that starts to push the limits of expectations.

World of Warcraft is a fun game, but if you want to pursue the end-game raiding content, you will have to find twenty four other people you can work with. And they can’t just be people you can get along with under ideal circumstances. These people need to be comrades when the chips are down and things are not going well. They need to agree on what they expect from everyone else and be able to apply that same expectation to themselves. I don’t think I know that many people in real life, and if I did, I certainly were not friends with them all at the same time.

When you try to build this dream team, you end up with some people waiting around for the rest of the team to stumble into your guild. Sometimes after being through several other guilds, searching for their true home in the game. And that journey can leave this otherwise normal person with any number of strange quirks and psychological problems. Sometimes it’s something as simple as “we don’t pull the mobs like this” or “I cleared this in another guild so you should be coming to me for advice!” And it can be worse. After spending twenty hours a week with a group of people who hate each other to get some content down, they have often abandoned any protocols for working with people in any rational way. They learn to treat people like dirt to show their own superiority. They learn to insult people who are not as well geared or skilled as they are. They develop these insecure mechanisms where they tout their spec as being the same as the main tank in Nihilum instead of taking any pride in having a spec they know is good and WHY it is a good spec. I’ve had people, after being removed from our guild for not fitting in well, actually try to argue their way back into the guild. Often they expect to stay in the guild based on their skill or gear, even if everyone in the guild hates their guts. Who does that? I know who. Insane people!

It makes being a guild leader a nightmare sometimes. On one hand you need to recruit and grow your guild. On the other hand, you need to scrutinize these new people and keep the jerks out. When someone is really bad, it’s not such a bad job. It’s the people who seem normal, but are a swirling storm of drama underneath that make being a guild leader a serious pain.

Grrr.

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Moblogging

I miss taking photos and posting them on this site. Cingular (now AT&T) seems to block all MMS messages to my mail accounts now.

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Portal

Game of the Year. No doubt.

This game from Valve was just a tiny blip on everyone’s radar screen and just a little side-serving next to the big release of Team Fortress 2. But, Portal is a real gem of a game. It’s fun, there’s no killing, and most importantly, it’s hilariously funny and seriously science fiction.

Despite the need for Steam to play the game, it’s well worth the $20 price tag.

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Transformers

It’s a good movie.

When I was young, my brother and I had many Transformers toys. The shows were the driving marketing force for the line of toys, and it did a good job. I watch the old shows now and it’s obvious that no one thought kids would see the poor production value. But, none of that matters to me. It is what it is. The comics were a little better, providing a bit more cohesive stories and a huge chunk of believability. I never got into the Transformers animated movie. Mostly because my favorite character, Optimus Prime, was “killed off”. Blah.

Enter the new movie this year. It has problems. Bad acting, horrible camera-work, editing problems, and a huge lack of focus on the Transformers themselves. Things I can bring myself to overlook just long enough to enjoy seeing (and hearing) Optimus Prime in action.  I enjoy Prime’s simple character. I don’t want to know about his internal turmoil or some kind of struggle. His fight is external and that’s where I want to see the action. Giant robot fighting action.

Here’s hoping Transformers 2 gives people more Autobots, more Decepticons, and less screaming humans fleeing for their lives.

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Independence Day

Today is the 4th of July. A single day to celebrate the founding of the United States of America. For me, this is one of the true holidays of every year. A day to reflect on how lucky I am to live in a nation that was devised to protect my rights as a person from tyranny. And one of those rights is one that not nearly enough people take advantage of. That is the right to look around your country, to examine your leaders, to look at your local government and yourself and say, “This place SUCKS!”

That’s right. The most vocal critics of our country are most often the ones who love it the most. Those who coddle our government with tacit approval are no different than parents who spoil their children with gifts and a lack of discipline. When someone tells you that they support our government fully, be suspicious that they do not understand their rights to question authority. Their duty to seek out our nations problems, expose them to the light, and make things right.

I don’t know where our nation will go in the future. I do know that it’s better today than when it was formed because people spoke out against injustice and evil. I’m thankful for a nation built on the backs of greater men and women greater than I. We should all be thankful for those who rock the boat.

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It’s Hot

Good old North Carolina summer is here. Humidity, thunderstorms, and lots of heat. I try to be conservative with the air conditioning, but I still appreciate it a great deal. And the recent addition of a ceiling fan in my computer room helps keep it feeling a little cooler than it is upstairs. I still think North Carolina is one of the nicest places to live. Never too hot, or too cold, for my tastes.

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No Reservations

I don’t watch a lot of TV these days. I feel like most shows have a formula that either replicates itself endlessly or the show is randomly jerking you around with no real answers or meaning. I think that TV is a mostly squandered and wasted medium. It’s a little sad knowing that many of it’s creators felt it would open windows on places and ideas that couldn’t be seen in everyday life. But all hope is not lost. Inside that garbage bin of television lie a few small gems that seem to live up to my expectations of good programming.

Anthony Bourdain : No Reservations. It’s on the Travel Channel, which I assume is some kind of sub-department of Discovery Channel. I don’t even know when it comes on since it shows up on my TiVo as if it were some kind of five dollar bill left in an old pair of pants. Who knows when you put it there and you don’t care cause, hey, five dollars. TiVo is cool like that. But that’s not the point. The show is good. I mean it’s really good. And it’s about food all over the world. Something that I don’t think I would have ever dreamed that I would enjoy watching a television show about. I have always been a pretty picky eater and it’s only been in the past six or seven years that I have really started trying new things. And I can honestly say that this show has helped me look at food in a totally different light. I could even go so far as to say that this show has even helped me see the world in a different light.

So, this guy, Anthony Bourdain, is a fancy well known chef. But that’s kinda selling him short, I think. The show is about him visiting some place in the world and eating food and hanging out with people. Sometimes he knows the people, sometimes they are friends of friends, and sometimes just total strangers. He tends to stick to local cuisine and not the stuff you would see as a tourist. And a lot of times it involves just walking down a street and buying food from a street vendor or eating at someone’s house. That’s the food part. It’s kinda mundane and normal, and I really like that. People love food. Everyone needs food to live and everyone has food they like and lots of people have food that’s just part of their life. And that’s where people’s lives come into the show. These are real people. I mean, I know it’s TV and I’m not seeing everything that happens or hearing everything that’s said. But this show is pretty genuine. This kind of show makes “Reality TV” look like a scripted, rehearsed, post edited pig with makeup on it. And that’s good entertainment.

I’m sitting in front of the TV right now, watching an episode about Japan. He’s visiting a friend on a holiday where they honor their ancestors and return home to have a nice subdued, relaxing day with family. It’s a little boring and at the same time very interesting. Kind of the way a nice nap on a warm spring day is boring but you really enjoy it when you get the chance. That’s good stuff. And more people should see this on TV. And then more people should sit down, eat a meal with friends or family and think about all the other people in the world doing the same thing. Having a good time, enjoying some good food.

So this show probably makes me out to be the hypocrite that I know I am. I give TV shows a bad rap for being boring and repetitive, but here’s a show I like because it’s boring and just showing me the things I already enjoy but in a different setting somewhere else in the world. Or it’s possible that I like the show for showing me something so different and interesting through this little glass portal. I wonder if Anthony came to my town, where would I take him to eat? What would be the good things that I do for fun that people in other countries might find interesting? Why don’t more TV shows make people ask more questions?