In Which We Discuss a Great Several Things

Item! Local boy makes good on test of trivia!
Intrigued when I saw Paulo's link to the smartorstupid trivia quiz, I sallied forth to test my mettle. I got 28 out of 30 correct and shewed myself smarter than 56.something% of the at-that-time current population who had taken the test. On a lark, I took the test again, and corrected the two I got wrong: a question about who performed a rap song and the year a particular celebrity died. I really think that tests like this and that Place the State game from awhile back are really just a way for geeks to pat themselves on the back. *pat pat pat*

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Item! Local addict struggles with ready market!
Last August, I cut myself off from World of Warcraft again. I really enjoyed the game but I stopped in order to play Oblivion. I finished Oblivion in December - just in time to enjoy the burning leads of Guitar Hero I & II. Currently, I'm not playing anything (I'm taking a break from guitaring so that my left hand can get some rest - two of my knuckles are hurty from my furious fretwork).

And yet, I feel Azeroth calling to me. I was always a casual player of World of Warcraft. At most, I'd play five hours in a given week. I was never able to get any of my characters up to level 60 (the top tier at the time), settling for a 55 druid, a 47 rogue, and a 38 mage (it was the mage I was working on and having such fun with when I finally killed my subscription). It was a fun diversion. I don't think I'll return to it. But I want to. Can someone be addicted to doing something occasionally?

And now that WoW: The Burning Crusade has been released, there's all kinds of news filling my inbox and field of vision. It's ever so tempting. It looks ridiculously cool. I don't think I'll return to it - but if I do, it'll be after I finish my script at the least. At the least. I guess that's the testament to a really well-done game: many months after quitting (last time was over a year ago), I get the desperate itch.

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Item! Local funny bone is devoured by ninja whales and turned to stone... twice!
If any of you are missing out on the raw and unadulterated humour readily available in the following, then I am sad for you. Simultaneously, I am happy for the new joy that will sashay forth into your waking hours. I am confident you will soon believe the postmillennial millennium is upon us (until you remember padded toilet seats).

#1. White Ninja Comics are the best reason I can think of for getting up in the morning. The ninja is a philosophical joy to behold as he cuts to the heart of the matter and leaves you astonished that something so simple could have gone so long without being made known. As such.

#2. Dinosaur Comics will surely open a whole new dimension somewhere. Until then, we must content ourselves with throwing hands into the airs and wavings like there is anybody but cares.

#3. Marmaduke. Essplained. Good night all. Puffin prevails.

Undone

Just 'cuz no one seems to be able to get into either the post on meaning in language or the thing about the NaGraNoWriMo, I thought I'd put up something with a little more mass appeal. Not quite a vidblog (hopefully, something will soon be in the works), but not a heavy-thinking post either.

Spoiler!!

The Last Paragraph to Harry Potter Book 7 Revealed
(special thanks to Jon Barlow for the heads up)

It was now years after that long night at the Department of Mysteries through which they had discovered their mutual love of anime and shonen manga. Since that time, the two had become the most successful OEL manga team in the western world. Shunned by their wizarding peers, who considered their otaku hygene to be a most terrible dark mark, Harry and Thomas earned a newspaper reputation as They Who Must Not Be Named. Fortunately, all was not lost and the new wizrding team enjoyed a certain celebrity amongst the young ladies at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Hermione and Ginny's favourite series was the seventeen volume highschool fantasy, Pony Berry Yi-Yi Girl, in which Harry and V'mort (Thomas's adopted nom de plume as mangaka) explored the social dynamics and quest for love of a shy and unassuming young girl who goes to a private school while managing an all-boys dormitory. Harry, at long last, had found a family in the man who was responsible for his parents death. He had finally found the peace and love and acceptance he was looking for. And despite their ambition and popularity, Harry and Thomas never failed to take time to relax, watching episodes of Full Metal Alchemist, always remarking how they could never write so cool a character as Scar.

The Future?

So I'm a few chapters into Murakami's Kafka on the Shore and the quality of the writing suddenly strikes me with an astounding, glorious thought. Given enough time, there will be enough incredibly good books out there that teachers will begin having to make choices on what should be taught in school. As good books are written and included in highscool curriculums, other books simply must be edged out - because really, there's only so much time in the school year.

With this in mind, I grow hopeful that there will be good books enough that by the time I am a grandparent, my grandchildren will not have to suffer through literary dross such as either Huckleberry Finn or Mind-Numbing Works of Astounding Mediocrity (a.k.a. anything written by Dickens). I can only imagine that these lackluster fictions were thrust upon me because there just weren't enough books and so teachers had to deal with what was available to them. After all, beggars cannot rightly be choosers, can they?

Soon, my friends, we shall enter a golden age of literature in which no child will know of the travels of Huck and Jim and tales of the Mighty Mississippi and the transgendered Sarah Williams will be naught but distant and forgotten legend. Rejoice with me at our future hope, our future glory!

Tragedy Strikes

It's hard to believe and I'd never thought the day would come, but 9/11 is more famous than 7-Eleven. C'mon people, go out and show a Slurpee some love.