Blackmoor Vituperative

I have said it before, but I will say it again: don’t take anything posted in this blog too seriously. It’s mainly a place for me to grumble harmlessly about things that are beyond my control, so that I can get it out of my system and go on with my life as the generally optimistic, upbeat person that I prefer to be.

Life is too short to be pissed off all the time.

Apparently some people have chosen to interpret the theme of James Cameron’s Ferngully remake, Avatar, as racist.

The theme of the outsider who arrives, becomes an insider, and then helps save them, is about as anti-racist a theme as one is likely to find. The Thirteenth Warrior had the same theme (Arab becomes accepted among Norse barbarians), as did the recent remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still (alien decides not to destroy humanity). Even Twilight has a touch of that theme. This theme goes back at least as far as Beowulf (a Geat hero among Danes — and the story which inspired The Thirteenth Warrior), if not further.

People who cherry-pick their examples only to include races against which they have a grudge, and then use that as evidence of some kind of racist message, really need to examine their motives, imo. The message isn’t about “race” at all. It’s about crossing cultural boundaries. It’s about synthesis.

Yes, the human “saviour” in Avatar could do things the Na’vi couldn’t — because he would do them. He was not constrained by their assumptions about what was possible or proper (praying to the tree/planet/god, capturing a big red bird, etc.). But anyone who thinks that the Na’vi did not also teach him things completely misses the point. He was able to accomplish more as one of the Na’vi than he could ever have done as a human — and not just because he was big and blue.

I just found my wedding ring! I lost it at the beginning of October.

It was in a cardboard box, one of a stack of cardboard boxes that I had been meaning to throw away. But I have some stuff to sell on ebay (old hard drives and so on), so I haven’t. And I was peeling the stickers off one, getting ready to pack my calculus books in it (yay, no more calculus!), and there was this sliding and bumping sound, and I was like, “What’s in here?” And I looked under the old packing slip in it, and there was my ring!

Two months. I had given up on finding it.

I have this old image I found on the Internet , oh, it must be ten years ago, at least, of a female death warrior, or shadow knight, or death knight, who bears a passing resemblance to Lexa Doig. The problem is, I do not have the original: I only have a crappy, ten year old hardcopy.

If you can identify this image, or tell me where it came from, that would be just swell.

Edit: I found the original image, and replaced the poor scan above with the original. I still do not know where it came from. I wish I knew.

I think I may get out of IT.

I am tired of Windows and the poor decisions it encourages. I am tired of companies that ostensibly hire you for your competence and professionalism, and then micromanage your software choices and filter your internet access. I am tired of companies that make ritual humiliation part of the interview process. I am tired of competing with people from India who are just as smart as I am and who will put up with more BS.

Most of all, I am tired of companies that see IT workers as little more than D-cell batteries of knowledge — just as disposable, and just as easily replaced.

Maybe I am just tired.

The Free Software Foundation has a new educational campaign, and in a shift from previous efforts, it is more openly negative about the costs and morality (or lack thereof) of closed-source software. This is the Windows 7 Sins campaign, and it looks like the mainstream media might actually be picking up on it (if only to heckle).

Personally, I think this is an interesting effort, and I hope that it achieves positive results. I define “positive results” as an increase in the number of people who convert to Linux (what the FSF stubbornly persists in calling “GNU/Linux”), and a decrease in the number of people who continue to blindly hand Microsoft their money.

RiffTrax is going to be broadcast “live” to movie theatres across the country on August 20. Locally, it is playing in Glen Allen, VA. Grab those tickets now! I am sure it will sell out!

Well, actually, I think my sweetie and I will probably be the only two people in the theatre. But we will be there!

This one night event will be broadcast LIVE out of the Belcourt Theater in Nashville, TN into your local movie theater. Don’t miss an exciting evening of LIVE riffing, zombies, aliens, cheesy performances, wisecracks, laughable special effects and more!

I just woke up from a nightmare about getting my hair cut.

I was in someone’s room along with a friend of mine, several other friends of hers, and her roommate, and I was telling her about how I was letting my hair grow out, and she is talking about how I really should trim it to even it out, and she gets some scissors and just starts cutting!

And she cuts four inches off from a section. So now I have to let her finish. And so she keeps working on it, and takes forever.

She is laying on her bed along with one of her friends, and I am sitting on the bed and facing away from her, and her roommate is sitting facing away from me on the next bed, talking to one of her friends. Eventually the roommate gets pissed off because I keep reaching out and touching the other bed to keep my balance, and she leaves.

And I am burning up, and why the hell is this taking so long, and I am just too hot so I stand up to take off my shirt, and I wind up ripping it. And then I take off the t-shirt underneath, and then another t-shirt in a different color, and then a third, and a fourth, so no wonder I was so hot! Finally I am just wearing one t-shirt. And then for some reason I stumble and step on the hem of my slacks and I wind up tearing the crotch right out of them. So I am wearing the waistband and the zipper and the outer panels of my slacks, and everything else is just hanging down. And I stand there wondering how on earth this all got so out of control, when I didn’t even want a haircut, I was just here to say hi to a friend of a friend, and then I woke up.

“This is very significant. It shows you how bad things are for the retail industry,” said George Whalin, president and CEO of Retail Management Consultants.

Whalin said management mistakes over the past few years combined with the recession brought down Circuit City.

“This company made massive mistakes,” he said, citing a decision to get rid of sales people and other mismanagement.

(from Circuit City seeking to liquidate, CNN Money)

This is a shame. Circuit City is been one of a handful of larger companies with their headquarters here in Richmond, VA, and has been here for years. But what Whalin says is true: they have been making huge mistakes for years: mistakes that were obvious to everyone who worked there (I used to work there, as did a good friend of mine until they outsourced his job to IBM). Mistakes that were obvious to everyone, I guess, except the upper management.

Such a shame.

Why I do not have children.