Symbols of Purity

My mom used baking soda for some cooking yesterday, and the bag was left on the kitchen island. Looking at the logo, I chuckled again at the statement made by the "Arm & Hammer" slogan: "[This is] the standard of purity."

My first reaction to this is always a smirk at the "manliness" factor, and wonder if a brute stereotype for masculinity is being labeled as "pure." I was joking about the traditional symbol of purity, the lily, pitted against a dude with a mallet, when something struck me (not for the first time, come to think of it).

Joseph was a carpenter.

Unwittingly, the baking soda folks have got it right. Perhaps the idea is that the mechanical use of a hammer is more pure than the assistance of machines, maybe they want you to think of such rawness with regard to the soda because of such a branding; but however true these notions are, the message becomes exponential when applied to the saintly craftsman of the Holy Family. Here was a man pure in every sense of the word, in his labor, in his faith, in his chastity.

So for guys who consider a lily too feminine, an arm and hammer (or carpentering tools of some sort) can indeed serve as the masculine variety. This is not to say the lily is weak, nor that the hammer or saw must be toilsome. As symbols, the analogy is what matters. And here are two symbols for the perfectly pure parents of Christ: the flower of Mary and the tools of Joseph.

It would be awesome if the latter became officially recognized as such.

Wanderings of the Open Mind (or I Don't Have Any Good Tags For This)

Weak understanding is a poisonous thing.

Whenever I try to discuss a subject with somebody of a different mindset, I come away feeling defeated. Not because I lost or was proven wrong, but because I know I inadequately argued my views, which led to an anticlimactic end to the topic as a mutual act of leaving the tug-of-war rope draped haphazardly over the mud pit.

I often find myself musing over the matter for ages afterward, trying to understand both the argument and the truth of the subject in question. On one hand, there's the constant obstacle of articulation, a shortcoming of my mind to give form to a complex issue outside of my head, no matter how thoroughly understood it may be (or have been thought out in the past) on the inside. But there's more than that. The other hand holds my stripping the issue down, trying to probe it from an assumptionless angle to find why what I always held as true is really the truth and how it might be recognized from the opposing side. Eventually I question the truth of my own beliefs, because I look so long and hard through the other person's lens.

I've always come back to my knowledge of the truth, usually through the help of discussion with peers such as S.Cobbler. When my own grappling with a question leads to uncertainty, a sure course of action is to pose it bluntly to another and get a lecture. I then return to the understanding I had beforehand, reassured and affirmed in my knowledge, which may be deeper or stronger than before.

This path has struck me as somewhat dangerous, perhaps humiliating or revelatory of my own intellectual instability. Any way I cut it, it has a bothersome element to it. But when I look at my comebacks, my ability to perceive the truth in the end when it is re-presented to me, I know the problem isn't my smarts. In fact, I credit no deficiency for my forays into confusion and uncertainty; rather, I blame what is most properly a virtue on my part. In a natural effort to avoid dismissal of the other side, I try to understand why they don't see my point. Empathetically, you could say, I put myself in their shoes because I want them to fit mine.

Virtues can be excessive, and I don't doubt that is to fault when I lose my way in these situations. I become like my opponents, to a point, rejecting what they would reject, following their prerogatives for finding the truth. Yet I know something inside that screams I---they---are missing a key point, but it often takes a friend to uncover it for me at that stage. I never truly stop believing what I held true, but I can't figure it out from the perspective of the other person. That, of course, is why they hold a different opinion, why they fail to grasp my argument, why I cannot make my belief acceptable to them.

I have felt, in a childlike foolishness, that the truth should be visible---to the point of being obvious---to everyone. The fact that one man can see it means others should be just as capable. If the truth is there, logical and understandable, one should recognize it as the truth, right? And yet some people can have the truth staring them in the face and they completely disregard it. Maddening as this is, I must realize it is not my fault. Yes, I could do a better job of explaining things at times, but ultimately the choice is theirs, whether or not to believe anything. It would be machinelike to always follow the path of the most truth. It would mean no free will.

Granted, it stings to find good arguments after the discussion is over. That fuller, renewed grasp of the subject makes me wish I could challenge my opponent anew, to start the debate from the beginning. Whatever tools I was missing before would at the very least let my points be complete and well-defended, so I would not feel that defeat of inadequacy when they remained unconvinced. At most, I could say what I should have said before had my approach or articulation not failed me, squashing the rebuttals that are obviously flawed, putting them down as easily as I should have. Alas, my best arguments are not won in the presence of others, for better or worse.

I'm not dumb. I just tend to lose my grip on my sword because I face my opponents without gloves. Sure, it's a lack of armor; but with gloves I couldn't feel the warmth of their hands when I shake them. The cons: I am more vulnerable and less effective in my duels. The pros: I can be certain that I'm not the "closed-minded" party; I can honestly say "yes" to those who ask if I've ever really stepped back and thought about my beliefs. I have more than they could realize.

"It was in a book I read."

I'm not exactly the passionate writer. However, I decided last night that I want to write a book; a useful, information-packed book. It will give the reader the power of unverifiable credibility, and Dogbert isn't even involved.

For who said the information must be real?

The book in question will have two main features:

1) It will contain thousands of made-up statements.
2) It will be titled, "a book I read," in that casing.

The purpose is, obviously, for people to buy this book, read its contents, and proclaim those statements with the 100% true citation of "a book I read."

A feature I have not yet decided on would be a blank page for the owner to write in their own statements, magically giving them credibility.

I'm somewhat surprised Dogbert has not thought of this himself. Ironically, this morning's comics contained an acknowledgement of the flawed reality that makes my idea naught but a joke:

But as a joke, you must admit the Wikipedia article for it will be twice the fun.

SMB2 Inception

You've all seen Inception, right? You've all played Super Mario Bros. 2, right? You realize the connection is better inferred for oneself than explained, right? Behold a 20-second video and an original cartoon on the subject!

Calvin on Facebook

Not really much to say here. I joined a website, not Facebook, and whatever that sounds like, I'm not a hypocrite; but that's information for another time, another post (someday when I actually make a commitment to this fraction of a pensieve I call a blog). Suffice it to say, I once asked for a virtual showing of hands for not doing Facebook, and after a decent turnout and some joking, I whipped up the following strip edit. It's not cut-and-pasted lettering from other strips like the "All Your Base..." Spaceman Spiff panel at the bottom of the post bar (did I ever mention you can share that with people? Go do that. Getting a pic all over the web would be more realistic than pointing people here at this point), but that's an awful lot of text to stitch together and I don't find it necessary for the joke.

Why I'm going to get a PS3

I decided a while back that I wanted my own game console to play if I go live with my brother in Indiana to go to college or anything. I compared the Xbox 360 and the PS3 along with their game libraries and decided the PS3 had more that I'd want, including:

• Current-gen games


• Free internet


• Previous-gen games

The last one, of course, recently changed. I checked out everything I would want on a backwards compatibility list and they were all covered--then realized the list was moot with the new PS3 Slim. That's okay, actually, because buying a PS2 Slim for $100 would guarantee previous-gen playability and ultimately cost less than keeping an Xbox Live subscription anyway.

Now, I've always been a Nintendo fanboy; and like most Nintendo fanboys, I hated when others favored Sony because they had "real games" that weren't just "for kids." The trouble is, those age-old accusations are gaining more and more truth as time wears on. I'm not saying Nintendo needs to make more M-rated games or anything like that, but they're trying a little too hard to assume that there are new gamers whose only way to get into their franchises is through increasingly dumbed-down everything. Call me old-fashioned, but I don't buy into the philosophy that novelty, real or faked, makes games automatically worthwhile by way of graphics (no-brainer), storyline (Spirit Tracks comes to mind) or gameplay (gimmickry comes to mind).

To spare you from my potential to write a thorough analysis of this issue as a ten-page essay (a "proof," as I would say in logic or philosophy), let me use the following videos to point out a simple fact: Sony is on Nintendo's turf, and darn it, they're doing a better job.



Those are two of the games I intend to get. I may get LittleBig Planet while I wait for LBP2. Then there's Joe Danger, the enhanced Exitebike that Nintendo never made, and a nifty action-puzzle game called echochrome. Final Fantasy XIII is obvious, and after SC played and liked the unique RPG Star Ocean (thanks to emulation and translation patching) I figured I'd go for the whole series. I also became attracted to stealth series Metal Gear Solid when I learned about its storyline and had conversations with SC about its drawing on American culture in the reconnaissance war zone. I recently got my hands on the Metal Gear Solid: Essential Collection (containing the series through the PS2) just as the prices for it began the "rare and out of print" ascent, snagging it for $40 instead of the base $30--still a good deal. For the sake of the old Metal Gears 1 & 2 I purchased the special edition of MGS3 from the nerd-run small business at nintendosforsale.com, which was the best bargain I could find at the time. I also possess copies of Chrono Cross and Mega Man Legends, the latter of which I got years ago since my eldest brother left his PS1 and I happened to see the game at GameStop for nine bucks back when they carried PS1 games at all. As per my standards of reliability vs. practicality, the only items above that I own used copies of are MML and the expanded MGS3.

Needless to say, I'm getting a head start on securing the games I want. They don't stick around as long as the systems; although I ought to get my PS2 as soon as I can. So goodbye, Nintendo; you no longer provide what I look for in games with enough consistency for me to stick with you after I move and leave behind the family Nintendo merchandise.

Strength of (and through) the Will

Before I begin, let me point out that I am not a theologian, nor am I well versed in the psychosomatic phenomena of human nature. I don't really know the ins and outs of what follows, but I have gathered some facts that lead to an interesting question about the nature of man.

When Adam and Eve sinned they lost all the super- and preternatural powers God gave them, and their natural abilities were greatly weakened. Not only did mankind become mortal, susceptible to pain, and prone to countless diseases and defects, but its physical and mental powers were greatly handicapped in themselves. The strength of the body is comparably poor to the pre-fall human, as is the integrity of the soul--the intellect and will.

Now I ask, how much of our bodily weakness stems from the weakness of the soul? Man is a union of matter and spirit, the body and soul. The soul is the ultimate principle of life and therefore the "first act" of all powers, the root of all human abilities. The weakening of the soul, then, would cause a weakening of physical powers; however, the body itself can be (and was, through sin) independently weakened as well. The question is, how much weakness is in which?

I cannot jump out of a two-story window and keep running. I would categorize that as weakness of the body, for I could will myself to do it and would still be injured. But what if a person were invincibly determined, and their will was set undivided to performing such an action?

The curious fact is that this has actually happened. A comedian named Mike Birbiglia tells a story of doing it in his sleep due to a neurological disorder. He explains that he has a condition that is essentially a lack of a chemical produced by the brain that paralyzes the body during sleep. What I find most interesting is his mentioning that people with this disorder are known to do things that would ordinarily be impossible. For example, Mike dreamt that a missile was headed at him while he stayed in a hotel, so he promptly leaped out of his window--which was closed and on the second floor. He crashed through the pane and fell onto the front lawn, stumbled, and then kept running! He took himself to the hospital after waking up, and the doctor was surprised he was alive.

This scenario suggests the reality of the dangerous idea that "it's all in the mind." Certainly the body has limitations; so how can this be explained? Perhaps in the same way many desperate feats of superhuman strength have: the miracle of an adrenaline rush. Adrenaline enhances muscular ability (among other things) so that a person can confront extreme situations; it's the same response that lets many animals stay alive in the wild. But does it allow the muscles to be exercised beyond their limit, or merely reach their full potential? How would this function if the body were not in a weakened state from original sin? And where would the mind come into play, in that case? All the current evidence says that the mind is barely involved; it is a reflex that comes without bidding. However, it can be controlled in the way of limiting or preventing it; adrenaline tends to come hand in hand with fear or excitement, and certain military personnel are trained to suppress these so that their concentration isn't impaired.

All of this seems to say that the body is capable through hormonal enhancement, and the will has little to do with it. By the same token, though, it is probably only meant for the occasional circumstances in which it has been known to be naturally put to use. In the long run our muscles are not built for great strain, as evidenced by the destruction of prolonged steroid use; athletes who take steroids often do what their bodies are simply not made for, and though the steroids make it possible, it is seriously damaging.

There is proof, then, that the body has limitations, and exceeding them is not altogether healthy. Just how limited the body is is still a mystery. A friend of mine was recently talking about an Indian (I think) who learned to psychologically transcend nature. He could go weeks without food and survive in harsh climates because he simply didn't allow it to affect him. This obviously screams, "Legend!" but there is some degree of truth to it. Often we can withstand more than we think, either because we make ourselves or we have to.

I realize I haven't made any conclusions here, but it's definitely some food for thought. Is the key to ability more in the mind or in the body? Someday I'd like to know.

The Best Football Game That Doesn't Exist

I don't play sports games, but I would definitely play this.

Plays of Plays

Last week I had a creative writing assignment for American literature class. I had to write a short story, a poem, or a play about something American. My mind remained blank up through the deadline for formulating a basic idea; then when my teacher asked us to hand in our concepts I ripped out a sheet of paper and wrote, "Play about a student having to do this assignment. Dialogue about American stuff."

I successfully wrote the play from that single premise. The student struggles to write something with meaning while meeting the assigned requirements, commenting on the general mind of society when it comes to producing individual works.

My classmates thought it was ingenius, mostly because the kid writes a play about a kid who writes a play about a kid writing a play to infinity.

MGS ROM Hacking Support

I edited this comic fragment to represent the snobbishness that experienced ROM hackers show towards new people like me.

The original comic, an outrageously hilarious synopsis of the first Metal Gear Solid, can be found at the author's site. A fair warning, however: there is occasional material in the range of crass to somewhat obscene, and if I were you, I wouldn't read the comments. That said, feel free to give youself a laughter headache.

Bizarro Shakespearoth

What. The. Heck.

I suppose this is for nerds, but certainly of a different kind than I am.

Note to Nerds:

Some "waste of time" entertainment forms contain worthwhile intellectual establishments. The comic strip Frazz helped me dominate today's literature class, for example.

Never underestimate the substance of a comic strip -- or, for that matter, a video game.

Number Scales

Whenever I go to the doctor for anything involving pain, they require a statement of how bad the pain is "on a scale of one to ten." This drives my brain up the wall every time for the five seconds before I answer.

I have to calculate two things: 1) how much pain I'm in, and 2) what to translate that to for the sake of the doctor.

If you just think about that for a minute, the problem should be obvious. The metric system exists so that, albeit with some conversions, any general physical measurement can be expressed in universally recognizable terms. Doctors do the same with understanding their patients' subjective conditions via the pain scale. However, the key word here is "subjective."

For starters, it's a principle of philosophy that every individual's "feelings" are unique, and nobody knows exactly how another feels any sense or emotion. Therefore it is impossible to convey pain felt with complete accuracy (by corollary, the number scale may be the best we can get, but that doesn't lessen its flaws). Then to ensure adequate communication the patient would ideally have to know their doctor on a personal level, to be familiar with how they would interpret the information. Likewise the doctor should know their patient and how they would rationalize the formulation of their rating, taking into account their pain tolerance, if they're the type who never give the highest rating out of acknowledgement that it could be higher, etc.

Unfortunately these tend to be mere guesswork (if given any thought at all), and the combined displacement from both parties carries the potential for misunderstanding. It's not likely to cause improper treatment; but it always occurs to me that I may be giving rather groundless information because I have no idea what others typically feel in such a condition, don't know what "the most pain I could endure" is, and so on.

Indie Singer and Final Fantasy Fan

I'm pleased to present something, or rather someone, I recently stumbled upon in the music world. Kate Covington (or katethegreat19) is a singer/songwriter who creates beautiful lyric arrangements, specializing in Final Fantasy. One can find countless musicians on YouTube performing whatever they are fans of, but Kate is one of those gems who goes about her work like a professional cover artist, or rather is on the very path of being one. She directs her own choir and has successfully struggled to copyright and release her songs.

Her style is one that I have a particular weakness for, that of mystical sweetness and wonder which I cannot fully describe; here is the video I first encountered (lyrics provided in the video info):

I wish her the best of luck. (She has one of the few modern singing voices that I don't have tolerance issues with, after all!)

[Kate's YouTube channel - more links from there]

I Got Spirit Tracks

Sounds like a psychological condition.

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks was on sale at Target today, and I had a couple gift cards to use. Soon I'll have completed every Zelda game to date (again), which is bound to be better than resorting to the über-easy and linear Super Mario Galaxy to stave off boredom.

Newer trailers have revealed things possibly (probably) more bizarre than Link's train, which alone made me scoff at the game. I don't even know what to say about these (go watch a trailer yourself if you want an idea), but as far as the plot goes, I can say this: I doubt it will work unless the kingdom with the disappearing Spirit Tracks is some foreign land outside of Hyrule, because there's no plausible way Hyrule could have had them and a locomotive all this time without there being some legend about them. A game cannot tie into a string of sequential storylines and introduce something out of nowhere that has supposedly been there for ages. Majora's Mask works because Link finds himself in a strange land. Minish Cap works because it is completely independent of all other games. Spirit Tracks must necessarily fall into the Majora's Mask and Phantom Hourglass category, because it's a direct sequel to the latter and continues Link's adventures after Wind Waker.

Unfortunately, this is not likely because the train has some form of the Hyrule crest right on it's front. In any case, my previous rant all but guarantees that it won't be as good a story as Phantom Hourglass; or at the very least, that it will be a better pastime to make fun of it than to rationalize it with its predecessor. I'll only know for sure after I play it.

Super Metroid Intro Fail

I was just trying out a Super Metroid hacking utility, and apparently the text editing has more restrictions than they let on.If you look closely, the text is at the top, reduced to a ghost by two cutscenes running simultaneously. Samus and the exploding Mother Brain never went away from the first scene, then the intro skipped to the last scene, which stuck as the final line of text went across the top. I only did what the instructions said I could, and look what happened! It appears the lab computers are blowing up. Sometimes I'm surprised this machine doesn't do so itself.

Random thoughts on the health care debate:

I knew the bill was dangerous when all I heard from the proponents was that the current system is messed up. That kind of logic going into the bill is a bright red flag. Changing a bad situation doesn't mean you'll make it better! This is like using Lysol on raw chicken instead of cooking it to eliminate the bacteria. It's the wrong fix, and we'll suffer greatly from it.

Tonight all I heard from the liberals was "We're doing the right thing!" Reeeally? And you're a great sorcerer. And I'm the king of Cashmere. (~Madmartigan, Willow) A statement that bland isn't even an argument. This is a lame attempt to gain support by easing people's consciences through unaccounted moral support -- empty assurance at it's best.

Pelosi's laugh is unprofessional and unnerving. I must photoshop her head onto Dolores Umbridge.

"Americans will come to remember this day!" You bet they will. Only they won't care about your "justice" and whatnot; when the country is in an even worse situation than it is now, they will remember this day and despise you for it.

The old computer is back up.

And now it's running Windows XP, which I don't like as well as 2000, with the exception of a handful of programs running inherently faster. At any rate, I now have access to my ideas and ambitions of old, though they are amidst virtual cobwebs now.

***FLASH***
The computer just hallucinated that the shift key was being held constantly. Then it deleted everything I was typing and tried to navigate away from this web page. After logging out, logging back on was impossible. A reboot was necessary to neutralize the threat.


Sooooooooo. This kind of stuff is why I'm going to buy a Macbook. Plus, by the time I get stuff sorted out from the long period of downtime and the randomly corrupting transition to XP, I might as well have waited to get my own computer and hand-pick the stuff I want to transfer, enabling a fresh and uncluttered start. Such would also make it simpler to deal with the programs, etc. I have that are now a version or two behind.

Anyway, it's now at least possible for me to blog should I have the time and mind to, but I can't promise anything as my personal projects are still going to be on hold for the most part. I also apologize for all the stuff that I would have blogged when I couldn't. Some great (and original) material, from jokes to serious rationalizations, never made it here, but the moments have past and the most practical thing I can do now is just let the missed be missed.

On a personal note, my life in general has been in a rut for some time, but there are signs of it finally getting better. I mention this in part because one's psychological state has almost as much affect on blogging as computer issues do. To be honest, I envy the first months of my blog. I desire the state of life I was in then, with freedom and creativity flowing betwixt the banks of responsibility and well-being. I hope to arrive at that stream once more, but the mist from the mountains of college and adulthood change obscures my vision. A lamp dances through the fog, but I never find myself catching its guiding ray. The most solid object is that of a side-road that would bear me off to the detour of a fifth year in high school; and though I choose to walk it, I cannot now discern what the road is made of. It seems to shift as a gaze upon it, and at times I wonder if the distortion results from heat waves that would burn my feet. I'll take the burns if I must, trusting that a cool pond lies somewhere along the path.

(I am sick of American literature.)

Computers are even less predictable than my life.

So, I haven't been able to do ANYTHING blog-wise because the computer inexplicably ceased to connect to any secure sites. Now, all of a sudden, I can access any https AND the parental controls seem to have ceased restricting my browsing (if altogether I dare not explore, but I can get to some sites that aren't really bad but have been blocked for one reason or another -- like brawlsnapshots.com, for one).

Given that my life is too hectic to do any more than write up this little complaint and disprove rumors of my death, I am actually annoyed that it's now even possible to get on with organizing my list of "to-blogs." It's just another distraction at the moment!

NES Games Are Super-Resilient

I know it's been all video games here lately, but hey, I'm a nerd with a currently disorganized life and VG stuff is easy to share -- provided the audience is receptive. So here's to posting stuff on a blog that only four people and a couple gamers ever read, because I can.

Behold another reason to be an old-school gamer.

Childhood Games

My dad was talking the other day about growing up in his family, and how he sort of gave his older brother a run for his money regarding being the top boy. "However," he said, "when we'd play Batman and Robin, he was always Batman and I was always Robin."

Interesting comparison. When SC and I were kids we'd play spoken text-adventure games, and he was always the narrator and I the player. Forget who knows how to use the Batarang, I had to deal with reverse- deus ex machina.

Dad should have known how nerdy we were back then.

Happy New(?) Year!

Apologies to non-VG-nerds =)