As part of my project for my GIS class (that’s Geographic Information Systems, or computerized mapping) I’ve made a map of Santa Barbara if sea levels were to increase by 2 meters, that’s about 6 and a half feet. Something must be done! Some of my favorite restaurants are now under water. 
People see my blog and they say, “wow, you must be a computer genius! I couldn’t possibly be as smart as you.” While this is true, you can have an internets of your very own! Just try Gabe & Max’s How to Get the Dreamlife of Your Dreams Using the Internet and I guarantee that you will rule the cyberweb. *
* not a guarantee
I’m taking a break from writing a huge research paper in Zoology to grieve. A great loss has been suffered. The Buffy the Vampire Slayer Sing Along–theater tours showing the episode “Once More With Feeling” with crowd participation a-la Rocky Horror Picture Show has been canceled! FOX has pull all theatrical licenses for all of its television shows. Several showings of the highly successful Buffy Sing Along have been canceled forcing theater owners to refund tickets to disappointed Buffy fans. I really hope that FOX renews the licenses soon. But if they don’t, where do we go from here?
The following story was related to me by a paramedic friend of mine. While ambulance crews are waiting to be dispatched to a call they usually park in a central location such as a shopping mall or public park. A medic and EMT were waiting near such a park in their ambulance on a nice day with their windows down. There was some sort of event going on; and they paid it no mind until one of the participants — a very haggard gentleman holding a shoebox accosted them.
“Is this a crab?” he slurred, opening the shoebox.
At this point when I was told the story I thought that he meant a crab — the kind you find at the beach. No, he meant the other kind.
The medic — leaning across his partner regarded the specimen through the passenger window.
“Yep” replied the medic. “That’s a crab. Yer gonna need 3 things:”
“ 1. a razor
2. a lighter
3. an icepick.”
“take the razor” instructed the medic “and shave off half your pubes. Then light the other half on fire with the lighter, and stab the crabs with the icepick as they run to the other side.”
The man gave them a puzzled look, unsure of how to respond.
The medic rolled the window up and drove away to extricate himself and his partner, whose ability to contain laughter was quickly waning. As he drove away he said to the EMT “There are some real weirdos out there”
Yesterday we celebrated another fine “Talk Like a Pirate Day.” With a stiff wind at our backs we sailed the high seas in search of plunder – if only for a day. But some land lubbers I ran into did not know how to properly speak pirate. To them I offer this easy to follow instructional video from the salty sea dogs at loadingreadyrun.com:
Saturday I attended a campaign rally for Barack Obama at Santa Barbara City College. Thousands of people showed up. It was a pretty good speech, not as good as Wil Wheaton’s but it was rousing and passionate. Senator Obama seems to invoke the same sense of grass roots political action and responsibility that John Kennedy did when he ran for president. Comparisons to JFK of this or that candidate have been invoked for decades, with most if not all of those who attempted to take the mantle of the next John F. Kennedy falling hopelessly short. Who can forget the 1988 Vice Presidential debate between Lloyd Bentsen and Dan Quayle.
Cynicism aside I really do think that Barack Obama is a spiritual successor to President Kennedy. He told us that even with him as a leader it was we who would change America, Echoing “Ask not what your country can do for you…” Read the rest of this entry »
Wil Wheaton gave a great keynote speech at the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX 07) regarding video gaming. Check out the audio here. Awesome, awesome speech. It brings tears of nostalgia to my eye and fire to my belly. It is the cure for the common cold. It stays crunchy even in milk. I cannot hyperbolize enough about how great this speech is.
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Now playing: The Postal Service – Recycled Air
via FoxyTunes
I visited the campus at UC Berkeley this Sunday and took a few pictures with my swanky new digital camera.
This sculpture greets you as you enter from the western gate. It seems to inspect with an unblinking eye, however signs of decay and imperfection have crept up on this sentinel.
I spent last weekend in the field with SBCC’s Summer Field Geological Mapping class. I’ve updated my flickr site with some new photos. Scroll down and look to the right to see some, click on one to get to my collection and see some more. I had a real blast!
So the latest thing “sweeping the blogosphere” is this, Mingle2.com gives an MPAA style rating to your blog based on certain words that occur in your blog. Here’s my rating:
Mingle2 – Free Online Dating
According to the site’s algorithm this is due to the following words and their occurances:
I realize that most of these come from the Sun, May 20 post: Something Important. Where I quoted Joss Whedon’s Whedonesque.com post about Dua Kalil. And while that may be a mature subject I don’t believe anyone would consider the post overly graphic, and I’m sure no reasonable parent would feel the need to shield it from their 14-year old.
On The heels of Manhunt 2 being shelved because of its AO rating by the ESRB I find this just a bit ominous. Rating systems in this country have been largely ineffective at achieving their stated goal, that of keeping children away from dangerous content without censoring that content. AO rated games are almost unheard of, the only games with the ESRB’s highest rating are available for computers only (and there are only 23 of them). There are no AO rated games available for the largest segment of video gaming, console systems. Major retailers refuse to carry them, just as they refuse to carry NC-17 rated movies, and Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft refuse to grant license to any game with a rating higher than Mature. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is a noted exception, but remember that its rating was changed from M to AO after the “hot coffee” modification was discovered, and copies of the game available now do not contain the mod and are labeled: second edition.
Anecdotally, many teens have seen R rated movies without their parent’s implicit consent. And this recent study from the Massachusetts General Hospital’s (MGH) Center for Mental Health and Media suggests that exposure to violent video games is extremely common among adolescent boys and girls alike. This seems to suggest that parents do not take M rated video games as seriously as R rated movies. Parents who are engaged with their children scrutinize the content that they are exposed to. All ratings are supposed to do is to provide a guide for parents in a media saturated environment. It should not be used to censor games, or movies or any media.
Check out the documentary This Film Is Not Yet Rated for an exposé of the MPAA ratings system.
I really hope that no one avoids this blog because it contains the words murder, torture and death. I think these topics have been dealt with in a sensible manner that is not inappropriate for children. And as for zombies: come on!
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