The Bridge

OK, this kind of stuff just shouldn’t happen.

A while back, I watched an excellent free film on Scientology called “The Bridge”.  Today, I realized that I wanted to watch it again, but couldn’t find the copy on my hard drive – I’d inadvertently deleted it.  So, I went to the Internet Archive to find a copy and guess what?  Scientology’s busted out a lawsuit against the film’s director, and everyone’s withdrawing it!

Ordinarily, I’d whine about how people shouldn’t get away with this kind of thing, and I’d go about my day.  But there’s a difference now.

This film was released on the Internet, and nothing dies on the Internet.

So, go out and find yourself a copy.  Download, watch, share.  You owe it to everyone that Scientology’s shafted over the years.  Plus, it’s fun to do something that’s not exactly allowed anymore.

As far as I know, it’s still quite legal to watch it, by the way.  You just can’t distribute it.  So if you’re not feeling particularly brave, just watch it and see what you think.  Internet censorship’s an ugly thing.

I’m alive!

Yes, it’s true, I’m not dead. I had the flu, I had bad grades, I’ve had car problems, but I’m still around!

And it’s official – I’ve quit working on my NaNo. Too much school pressure. You know, I’m paying for college, but not for NaNo – I can do that anytime. There’s a collaborative short story writing project in the works that I may volunteer for, though.

I just realized the other day what a nerd I am. I was idly watching 4 IRC channels while in a Skype conference, exchanging Skype IMs, AIM messages, and emails, watching Weebl and Bob on my PSP (because I couldn’t spare the RAM on my compy) and playing Saint’s Row on my 360. And I didn’t feel like I was really doing anything. I’m a nerd.

More entertaining content coming soon. Seriously. Thanks for sticking with me.

Regarding America

So, it’s been like forever since I posted.  That’s because school has kept me busy.  I probably won’t complete my NaNo.

I have been hanging on the IRC network for NaNo, however, and I heard a quote which I just had to share.  During a conversation about how much America sucks, someone said this:

You know, there are a lot of things in this country that I am not happy about.  But I am still proud to be in the country. They hate it, they can get the F out.

So, um, yeah.  There you go.  More substantial updates when I feel better. -_-

What gifted ed did to me

Any one of you lucky folk who got classified as “gifted” remember gifted education? (They called it EEE with us – I’m still not sure what it stands for.) You know, the place where they told you that you were smarter than everyone else, and that the normal solutions are never correct? And you always heard that wonderful catch phrase “Think outside the box.”

So it’s no wonder that, in order to deal with a gifted kid, you have to think completely bass-ackwards.

So…I was losing my keys. And I got sick of not having an explicitly defined place to put my keys. And I got sick of seeing my (unused) full guitar capo laying around my desk. (My short-cut capo gets much use.) So I made a key holder. That’s thinking outside the box.

Day 1

All right, so I’ve got a bunch to talk about, but first my word count for the day.

Words written today: 6864

Goal for today: 1667

Time spent writing today: maybe 4 hours

Places written at: Dorm room, San Francisco Oven

If I keep up this rate, I will finish on: Tuesday, Nov 7 at about 6:49:31 AM. (Heh, yeah. Like I’ll be awake.)

Headache: Yes

So, I went to my first write-in, where I was expecting lots of “getting to know you” type activities and the like. Instead, I was ushered to a booth, praised for my action in bringing an extra power strip, and told that a 30 minute period of writing was about to start. It was a blast. Here’s a breakdown of my time:

6:00-6:15: I realize that I’m on the wrong side of the street to get into the restaurant, and try to turn around.

6:15-6:30: I get hastily set up.

6:30-7:00: I write. About 350 words.

7:00-7:15: I meet Morwen from the NaNo channel.

7:15-7:30: I order and drink a delicious caramel frappe. (Aren’t I such a yuppie?)

7:30-8:00: I write. About 2000 words.

8:00-8:15: I joke with a little girl about how I can’t use money from the Pokémon Game Boy game in the real world.

8:15-8:30: I realize that my roomie’s laptop doesn’t actually have a registered version of Word on it, and try to find another desktop word processor. (I wrote up to this point using Google Docs.)

8:30-9:00: I write. About 300 words.

Quite obviously, one of two theories is true.

a) Meeting Morwen was a major productivity booster. Discussing video game economics with little girls negates the Morwen effect.

b) Coffee makes me spastic.

I’m going to go with “a”. And now, I’m going to go away, and write a speech.

Yeah, right. I believe that.

Guess what, guys? We’ve all been barking up the wrong tree about net censorship. Yep, that’s right – we’ve been attacking the wrong target. Historically the largest blocker of websites ever, a country so paranoid that their news service reportedly has a floor of censors – these people are so picky, in fact, that I was once banned from accessing one of their newspapers for asking a polite question. But apparently we’re all wrong, because China doesn’t censor the Internet, an official said at a UN summit. I’m linking to C|Net, but it’s already made it to Slashdot, which just tells you how strange this is.

I don’t think there’s much to say about this above and beyond what the C|Net article says. It has been clearly demonstrated time and time again that China has net censorship. Primarily, there’s the wonderful Harvard study, which seems to kill any argument that China has for their policies.

Fun stuff. Ain’t it nice when you live in a world where countries can do really screwy stuff to their citizens (like restrict free access to the Net) and then flatly lie about it to the UN?

Disclaimer

This disclaimer was something I worked up a long time ago to appear at the beginning of a satire I wrote for an English class. The satire bombed, but the disclaimer became somewhat popular.

WARNING!

The following contains situations, language, phrases, words, parables, humor, non-humor, alleged humor, intended humor, syntax and punctuation that some may find offensive. Reader discretion is advised. You don’t have to worry about inappropriate images, though: this is purely a textual work.

The following is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to any person, living or dead, is purely coincidental unless I thought putting a real or semi-real person in was funny at the time. All characters who I have blatantly acquired, borrowed or otherwise stolen are copyright of their respective owners who, being much wealthier than I am, would not want to waste their time suing a poor person. On the other hand, if you recognize yourself in this work, be proud: you’ve been immortallized for all time.

No monitors, keyboards, mice, or other peripherals were mistreated during the making of this story. Well, okay, there was this one DVD but it was some really weird format and it was all scratched up and it was full of really weird Final Fantasy fan fiction and I didn’t have another one handy at the time so I got really ticked and broke it in half but it wasn’t even rewritable anyway so, like, who cares?

This story is copyrighted by me. No unauthorized retransmission, reproduction, rebroadcast or reissuing is re-permitted without the express re-written re-consent of moi. (Yeah, like I can enforce it. But hey, pro sports say it and everyone and their dog tapes the big games so their friends can see it so if those organizations can be out in legal la-la land, why can’t I?)

Audience?

I have a reader now!  Go Cylithria!  And…how did that happen?

Wait…this means there’s a minimum level of quality I have to try to adhere to, doesn’t it?  Oh, the pressure…I don’t think I can handle it!

All NaNoers (this includes you, Cylithria!) should visit the NaNo chatroom (web client here or, for you IRC-proficient folk, #nanowrimo on irc.goodchatting.org) sometime.  I’m known as Kortney there (long, long story, that gets kinda nerdy), and I’m there all the time, so drop in and say hi!  If you mention that you found out about the chatroom through the blog, I’ll deny the blog’s existence…probably.

I’m thinking of writing a quick little program to generate statistics regarding my NaNo progress so the whole Internet can see how far behind where I should be I am at any given date.  Kinda sounds like an exercise in self-deprecation to me, but it will make a fun little project.

Overly complicated/overly comfortable

So, I thought I was gonna be all cool today and set myself up with a real blog on a real web host. Trick is, I’m broke. So, how do I go about acquiring a paid service for free? Short version: I don’t^.

I am using the Dvorak keyboard layout right now, though. That’s gotta count for some coolness points somehow, right? I completely endorse it, by the way. My hands are much more comfortable, although that may just be because I’m typing slower. It is a decent and intelligent layout, though. Good introduction available through this little ‘zine.

Oh yeah, before I forget: I gave up on the ARG I was playing. Over the weekend I was back home, and the traffic picked up to where I can’t follow it anymore.  So, I quit.

 NaNo starts in a few days!  I’m psyched!  I’ve got a story idea and everything!

Anyway, I gotta grab some sleep sometime.

So anyway

I’m starting this blog up again. A couple of reasons. First, I’m doing NaNoWriMo, and I’d like a convenient way to keep track of my progress. Second, I’m starting to get back into ARGs, and I’d like to have something to use to report on them. Third, I’d like to use it to keep in touch with some friends. Fourth, what self-respecting nerd doesn’t have one?