Getting a word in edgewise
I didn’t play WoW at all today. Instead, I rented a Uhaul, went out to the burbs, grabbed my stuff, and moved it all into my tiny room. I am unpacking. I need to get my billies set up for the books. This means purchasing some hardware tomorrow morning. Mad props (and a copy of WoW) to
But now, bed time. see all you party people another day.
I read an article about the leader of a religious cult in Uganda who had led an army into raping, killing, and torturing other Ugandans, not to mention kidnapping to recruit new members. The international criminal court has charged him with war crimes and issued a warrant for his arrest. He claims he’s finished with what he’s doing, and he’ll surrender peacefully if he’s left alone, and apparently at least some of his victims are fine by that deal. It echoes an observation from Collapse, where natives of Rwanda accepted war as a population control measure.
Let me tie this into the situation in Thailand. Bloodless coup. Corrupt government ousted. Minor protests, but no Tianamen square. Broad condemnation from the West. In terms of outcome, it’s still too early to say whether something good will emerge from it. The coup leader has the backing of their king, and has promised from square one to turn things over to a civilian government.
My point here is maybe we don’t always know best. Sometimes I think imposing our values is fine. Stopping honor killings of women, say. Other times, I suspect not.
So, sometimes in Ratchet, some pipsqueak Horde character will come up and tap my character. If I smack him around at all, the town guards will come smack me around. But they won’t cover my ass. What gives? Presumably this is a reputation thing…
ps, pvp servers blow.
Does it count as drinking alone if you’re chatting with other people on the net? =)
Hey all, Chicago has an environmentalist networking happy hour once a month just outside the loop. This month’s topic will be about sustainability in the 2006 election. It is at 7ish on thursday evening. Details can be found at the following link. I encourage all environmentally motivated people, particularly those who like beer, to attend.
http://www.foresightdesign.org/events/#gd
While flying, taking the train and driving, I had alot of time to think. I read a great deal of Collapse. I’m more than a little sad that LJ has suffered as a result of work, my commute, and WoW. I’m now working out far more frequently than I had been during grad school, but still far less frequently than I would like to be.
Other thoughts included population pressures and social norms. Tuff Voyaging by George R R Martin, The Mote in God’s Eye, and Collapse (among others) had alot of interesting thoughts on the topic. In particular, Collapse talked about Rwanda and showed how it matched Malthusian expectations with regard to overpopulation. Also, the acceptance of war as a necessary means of population control (compare that to the morality of abortion, another topic discussed in The Mote in God’s Eye, or starvation). I also thought Niven’s Protector made an interesting commentary on tribalism, and by extention nationalism, and it’s potential consequences, if one chooses to look at it in that light.
Space travel (we really should send probes first. I calculated how long it would take a probe to reach Alpha Centauri, assuming .1g acceleration the whole way (obviously reversing direction at the halfway point). It wasn’t terribly long, but I don’t know what kind of merry hell relativity would play with it. Never got that far in physics.) Also, colonies on other planets within the system or interior to hollowed out asteroids (an option that
Transportation played another role in my thoughts, with respect to air travel. A giant gaping emissions problem. We need to develop a reasonable interregional (and international) alternative that damages the environment less than the airplane, while wasting no more time. My off the cuff thoughts included shadowrun-esque, aerodynamically shaped, lighter than air vehicles (at least partially solar powered), and maglev rail.
those were the big things, anyway.
So, I went on a slightly less than 24 hour trip to DC. About 11 hours spent traveling to attend about 7 hours of party. And about 6 hours of sleep. The tight time schedule wasn’t the only novel thing about this trip. I left my laptop behind and I rented a car. The car was significantly cheaper than supershuttle, saved me significant travel time, and meant nobody had to drive to the Metro station to pick me up. The lack of laptop forestalled my possibly forsaking my limited face to face social time.
I also got my tickets ahead of time.
The party was fun. I played in 4 games (Hello Kitty Uno, 10 Days in Africa, Tongiaki, and Caylus). I got to see
Upcoming travel plans include: Oct 6-10th, Berkeley/San Fran. October 10-14th Hawaii (Maui), family trip. October 14-15th (less than 24 hours), LA.
I may also be traveling to NYC for the last weekend in october to see a guy I met in NYC (he has found more permanent residence in Hoboken). But that remains to be seen.
So, I’m heading out to DC for
I appear to be making a habit of this car rental thing, But in this case, it’s the right thing to do, to the tune of about $15 and probably over an hour of my life not spent waiting. And if I’m worried about the CO2 emissions from driving a rental less than 100 miles, why on earth am I flying from chicago to baltimore? Heh. =)