Election surveys

So, we’re in the time of year where only the insane listen to the voluminous election prediction information. In that spirit, I made it about a third of the way through this upper midwest electoral survey report, put out by the Humphrey Institute. It offered nothing truly surprising. But it’s a welcome antidote to the echo chamber effect of my overwhelmingly liberal self-selected community.

Cognitive Support for Irrational Belief Systems

In that religious history post I made, random_boy posted an excerpt from some graffiti bboards, back at cmu. It just made me think of and see the similarities between the mentalities of the fringe elements of “mainstream” religion (read “christianity”) in that conversation (with the noteworthy exception of ), and the followers of fringe religions. It also made me think of the title of a class, took, featured prominently in the subject of this post. =)

Avaunt ye, Satan

So, I got a call from a recruiter today while at the gym.

It’s a linux/gui/c++/hla contracty job.

The exchange they give for their toll free number is 666

When I first looked up what I thought was their website, it took me to an “oil & gas, software outsourcing & solutions” website. I think, though, it’s actually a telecommunications thing.

The scary thing is, I’m actually tempted.

My religious evolution: an overview

In response to an article and personal story posted elsewhere, friends only.

In 5th grade, after some serious emotional trauma, I split ways with Catholicism. I spent a number of years as an asshole atheist.

I like to claim I turned down Catholicism for reason. That’s true, but elides an important detail. I left the Catholic belief system as an emotional reaction. When the shit hit the fan, I expected a caring, omnipotent, omnipresent hand to keep me from harm, and I saw no sign of such a hand. So I stepped onto a different path. A path with less certainty, but one where I felt more confident of the validity of its precepts. I was a little punk at the time. Religion had been my sole comfort in a dismal world. I wasn’t happy. Then I let go of religion and I let myself do whatever I wanted, and I still wasn’t happy.

I continued on that vein for a couple years. I saw that I wasn’t happy, and so I reinvented my belief systems again. This time, it was organized around a principle of making others happy. I was pretty selective as to the others I applied it to, and the way I applied it, but that’s the same for all remotely functional belief systems, I think.

My older sister graduated high school, went away to college, and became a Wiccan shaman. I was fascinated. I checked out several books on shamanism, and read them. I talked with her friends about it, on the rare opportunities I got.

When she started up at her second university, I’d seen her go through a great deal of emotional turmoil. I’d been there for her while she was dealing with it. I met her cool new friends. I tried to straddle the skeptical and new age worlds.

While I was learning chemistry and physics, I tried new age “energy manipulation” stuff. It was all so mercedes lackey, how could I resist? I started adding Animism as a partial descriptor of my beliefs. It offered a ready-to-plug-in belief system that let me see more, offered a more comforting, richer view of the world. Or so I felt at the time. But I could never quite bring myself to believe it. It hung on, suffering a lingering demise over many years. Bringing comfort and painful disappointment in one package.

In college I looked at things with a new rigor. Somewhere along the line, my agnosticism became pretty militant (I don’t know, and neither do you, douchebag), with strong atheist leanings. I have warm, sort of wistful/nostalgic feelings towards faith and the faithful, like my favorite fantasy novels. So long as they don’t chalk me down with the damned, I get along just fine with the faithful.

Did I choose the wrong time sink?

Have I chosen the wrong soul sucking pastime? Ought I be flying around in tights, freeing the world from evil doers, rather than running around, waving my tail, killing fictitious beasties and making fabulous meals and new outfits. Hmmm, tough call. =)

Mostly, it’s the user base. I mean, it’s great to be able to play in the same little world with and , but there are other players out there in other parallel vanadiels that I can’t reach. =) Is CoH likewise split? All the cool kids seem to be playing it, but, I’ve yet to hear if all the cool kids are in one place. Also, I’m not sure about the fundamental mechanics of the game. FFXI is pretty clearly an economy game. Harvest items, kill monsters/take their stuff, manufacture items from other items, sell them, give them to mission-granting types, etc. Pick and choose a class combo from 2,100 possible combinations. With a story arc for each of the major cities. Blah-dy-blah-dy-blah.

What little I’ve seen/heard on CoH makes me think it’s just one world, so you can play with or at least meet anyone else playing the game, in the game. There are no items or economy. The character creation and development system is more fine-grained and has fewer macro-options, but more micro-options (in ffxi, your main job, sub job, and race basically determine most of your meaningful stats).

I will not sign up for two of these simultaneously. I plan on graduating. =)

Then again, maybe it’s better I’ve chosen a game with fewer friends/acquaintances on it. I’ll be more likely to get my ass away from the computer and to the gym/cooperative/skate trails, whatever. =)