I think the worst part about the whole Christmas decorations thing is after all that hard labor, knowing you're going to have to take all that shit down in a month.

Tales of Hearts R completed. I never really played the original game, but I'm under the impression they revised a lot in the Vita version, like how they changed the battle system from 2D to 3D and that they added a new character. My only disappointment was Creed, the final boss. What I appreciate about the Tales series is the player can feel some sort of sympathy on some level for the antagonist; although you don't agree with the means or the goal, you can understand the standpoint. I see what Creed was going for, but he's such a dickhead, so egotistical, and so wrong that I don't feel the same connection with him like I did with Yggdrasil from Symphonia after seeing all the shit Half-Elves went through or Gaius from Xillia when you realize the tough choice humanity has to face with the dwindling mana resources. I looked at Creed's death with complete indifference and that's a shame.

Otherwise I found it an all right Tales game. I'm not putting it up there with Abyss but it's not shit like Legendia. It was enjoyable and nothing really comes to mind that was aggravating. Music is OK, graphics are all right (although not up to the Vita's capabilities), no party member was vomit-inducing... But none of the characters really stood out in my mind, nor was the plot particularly moving. It's just there in the middle. I'm not gonna go out of my way to recommend it, but if you're looking for something for the Vita I'm not going to turn my nose up to it.

I was watching Frozen with my cousin's daughter, and one of the protagonists Anna falls in love with a prince named Hans after a few hours of talking to him. They immediately approach her sister Queen Elsa for her blessing for their marriage, and she says no because you've literally only known the guy for a few hours. Later Elsa turns out to be right because Hans was deceiving Anna in order to gain control of Elsa's kingdom. I thought it was a valuable lesson to teach children — ironically a horrible lesson that you shouldn't trust people, but yeah — except Anna ultimately ends up with Kristoff, a person she's only known for a day. So I guess the ultimate message is six hours is too short a time but twenty-four is okay?

Sorry, gotta stop posting until I finish my Christmas presents. Doing it really late this year.

Talking about this with Alex last night. My favorite video game protagonists are:

1. Zidane Tribal from Final Fantasy IX.
2. Link from The Legend of Zelda series.
3. Rudy Roughknight/Cecilia Adlehyde/Jack Van Burace from Wild ARMs Yeah, I know. They just worked so well together I consider them one unit.
4. James Sunderland from Silent Hill 2.
5. Jade Curtiss from Tales of the Abyss.
6. Yuri Lowell from Tales of Vesperia.
7. Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII.
8. Jude Mathis from Tales of Xillia.
9. Ayla from Chrono Trigger.
10. Big Boss from the Metal Gear Solid series.

Mmmm... subject to change. I can't help but feel this isn't right and I'm missing people. I also need more time for top ten video game villains.

Even if you're not well-versed with Biblical history, you've probably heard of Solomon at some point because he's considered the greatest king Israel has ever had. He's best known for wisdom; he once prayed for it, and God personally gave it to him because he didn't ask for something like money or power. Historically Solomon presided over a period when its neighbors were weak, so he was able to flex Israel's muscles a bit and enrich the country. He built the First Temple. He supposedly wrote Proverbs, Song of Songs, and Ecclesiastes. He had 700 wives and 300 concubines. And outside of the Bible there's a plethora of legends and myths from the three monotheistic religions.

But to be honest I have no idea why he's called wise nor why kings immemorial want to emulate him. He enslaved his people to work on his building projects. He mismanaged his money and had to relinquish cities to pay off his debt. And worst of all, because of the influence of his wives, he started to worship other gods. Seriously, how can you claim someone is the ideal role model when he breaks God's most important commandment? Although he did increase Israel's power, the Bible itself said the kingdom was split and enfeebled after his death as punishment for his perfidy. That isn't the qualities of a good leader. I can't be the first person to notice this, so why have people from all over the world think he's the shit?

Sorry, no time for a post tonight, so here's a silly video:

A video posted by Sadia (@thesadia) on Nov 24, 2015 at 4:26pm PST

Rizhall the Loner: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3sBZ5Nr4hc
Rizhall the Loner: Here, watch it.
Rizhall the Loner: For Barret
dundun: God.
dundun: Fuck.
dundun: It actually looks good.
dundun: Fuck.
Rizhall the Loner: Yeah...,
Rizhall the Loner: I'm gonna be WARY.
Rizhall the Loner: Who are we kidding though?
Rizhall the Loner: We're both gonna preorder the most expensive edition of this game.
dundun: I know.
dundun: Even if we didn't fucking watch this trailer
dundun: And all the evidence proved that it was shit.
dundun: We still would fucking do it.
dundun: AND
dundun: AND
dundun: AND
dundun: If they had three different expensive versions at different companies but different stuff came with each edition
dundun: We would get all fucking three.
Rizhall the Loner: ... Don't jinx this shit.
dundun: Amazon, GameStop, and maybe some big chain like Target or Walmart.
Rizhall the Loner: And Best Buy.
dundun: And for some reason some place you'd least expect like Pathmark.

Me: When I was in a doctor's waiting room today, there was a lady dressed up like a dog and hissing at other patients.
Peguero: ...Was the doctor a psychiatrist?
Me: No! It was just a regular doctor!
Peguero: What kind of dog was she dressed as?
Me: Dalmatian.
Peguero: Solid choice.
Me: What would be a bad one? Caucasian shepherd?
Peguero: Lab would have been a boring choice.
Me: Dickwolf?
Peguero: Begging your pardon?
Me: Dickwolves!

Peguero: I... I don't know what to do with this information.
Me: Well, at least you now know this is a thing and not just me saying random shit as usual.
Peugero: Just because there's a drawing doesn't mean it's a "thing."
Me:
Look, a dude is drawing it for an audience! It's a thing!
Peguero: WHY IS THIS A THING

Now let's see if photobucket deletes those two pictures.

Upon discussing what Christmas decorations to put on my mantle:

Me: Keep the red theme?
Paul: No. Vary it. Gold, red, green, white. Think things like nutcrackers, snow globes, and shit.
Me: Dildos.
Paul: ...Yes. That is exactly what I meant. Get those and display them. I want to see you do that and also explain it to your parents.
Me: I would take you up on that challenge if dildos weren't so damned expensive.
Paul: You could find a few for $24-$30 if you looked hard.
Me: Yeah, but a fireplace this large, you need at least six.
Paul: Decorations will be pricey too. This is an INVESTMENT. Think of what you could do with them after. The people you could ruin. The lives you'd save...

Donald Trump announced a few days ago that he would prevent Muslims from entering the country, which generated worldwide condemnation. Shortly afterward the Pentagon released a statement saying his words created a security threat because ISIS could use this to prove their point — America is against Islam — and recruit more followers. When I read that, I suddenly had a flashback to around 2006 when the Iraq War was in its sectarian violence phase and people were voicing that we should pull out. How often did we hear from the government that dissenters are emboldening the enemy by showing weakness and division? The Pentagon is pulling the same crap right now, except it's for my side!

I'm sensitive to such rhetoric because of all those years under Bush. That administration was very good at smear campaigns and managing the media, probably because of its background in corporations. They would blunt criticism with ad hominem attacks like being unpatriotic. It incensed me at the time because it completely closes the rational debate we should've been having, like what was our goal in Iraq now we realize there aren't any WMDs and it's going to take longer than the six months Rumsfeld originally planned? Exactly what steps can we take to achieve that goal?

I reached my mental maturity at that time and missed the Democratic era during the 90s under Clinton, so the Republican White House and congress were all I knew. In 2008 power changed hands to the Democrats, and I found people were saying the same shit but for causes I supported. I am pro-choice and I think what protesters do at the entrance of Planned Parenthood is distasteful and sometimes goes beyond protesting, but I don't see the debate in black and white terms. I can understand the mental anguish of killing a fetus. I can see why it is not just about a woman's body but also the rights of the unborn child within. But after the shooting in Planned Parenthood, I see articles about how inflammatory words behind the recent Planned Parenthood shooting are the cause, and we've crossed the same line as back in 2006. Because if that's the case, then I can blame the deaths of Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos on Black Lives Matter because god knows very, very aggressive comments are coming out of the black community right now about police violence.

There's a feeling now to shut down hate speech and that worries me. I think people who say such things are terrible and disgusting, but the moment you start to say, "We should start censoring those," then it becomes a problem. After all the road to hell is paved with good intentions. You have to define what's terrible and disgusting. Are they provocative comments said by pro-life supporters? I can see an official somewhere saying that leads to violence, as proven by the recent Planned Parenthood attacks, and then pro-lifers are silenced. Or on the flipside, should we charge people against the Iraq War because there were genuine threats against Bush during those years for being a "terrorist?" The system we have now is pretty decent: As long as you're not genuinely trying to hurt someone, you're off the hook. You can say whatever you want, even if it's hyperbolic, idiotic, prejudiced, or ignorant. Because we as humans all open to hypocrisy, and the moment power switches hands we're capable of the same tactics we complained about when the other was in control. But if you start putting in laws to quiet dissenters of your beliefs, it becomes very, very dangerous.

[15:18:21] Dun 4 Hire: https://twitter.com/t_santa/status/667581681885298688
[15:30:40] Turinturambar200: Now I'm on a list somewhere
[15:30:41] Turinturambar200: great
[15:32:55] Dun 4 Hire: Man, you've been my friend for over a decade.
[15:33:01] Dun 4 Hire: You've been on a list for a long time.
[15:33:34] Turinturambar200: Yaoi gets you on a different kind of list
[15:33:38] Turinturambar200: as does shitting dick tits
[15:49:39] Dun 4 Hire: Hey.
[15:49:44] Dun 4 Hire: I didn't specify which list you'd be on.
[15:49:55] Dun 4 Hire: You'd just be on someone's list, somewhere.

When I pull out my camera, I always ponder this question: Why am I taking this picture? If I know the point, then I can easily decide how to create the optimal angle to shoot it. If it's a valley, I need to pull back to demonstrate its magnificent breadth and length. If it's a flower, I may need to zoom in to focus on the pistil or perhaps zoom out a bit to show its place on a plant. If it's a group of people, try to figure out how to include everyone and whether you want them posing or a candid shot.

I guess a lot of people don't do that, which is why selfie culture exists. Today I went downtown with Ate Neneng to look at the Christmas decorations in the shops, and after the fortieth photo she asked me to take for her, I started wondering why we were doing this. After all every single one had her prominently displayed in front, and after each shot she would spend a few minutes flipping through and deciding which one she looked prettiest in. We literally walked all the way to Rockefeller Center to look at the tree. Who cares about you in this picture? It should be the fucking tree. That's why we came here. If you really are just interested in yourself, why not just get a professional photographer for a session and doll yourself up for it? That way it's not some shitty iPhone and the lighting would be perfect. Clearly the point for you is not the tree but rather yourself.

In a way it reminds me almost of stoners. Their stories always revolve around being high: "I went to the beach and got high" or "I was at the amusement park while I was high." Instead of experiencing life, they just look at it through the lens of drugs, which is what I feel about Ate Neneng or others like her and photography. After we took a picture of her in front of the tree, she immediately lost interest and wanted to walk to Saks so she could take a picture of herself in front of the windows. Or later when we were in Bryant Park, she spent the entire time flicking through the pictures of her in front of the ice rink there and not paying attention to the variety of interesting shops we were walking past. I don't mind people taking photos of wonderful things, but if the point of visiting these things is for you to stand in front of it and slap it on Facebook instead of pondering its beauty, then I think you're missing out.

I forgot to mention I beat Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void. I really, really liked the mechanics behind this campaign, but that may be due to my bias since I usually roll Protoss. The general idea is to unite the feuding Protoss sects against the hybrid threat, and your units can be switched to reflect that. For example, you can exchange the Colossus with the Reaver or Wrathwalker, the Colossus belonging to the robot Protoss, the Reaver to the regular, and the Wrathwalker to this heretical sect. Best of all, the Protoss were traveling the galaxy on this ship like the other two campaigns, but this ship could provide support like shooting lasers at enemies and I exploited that to the max.

However the plot has taken a dive. With the new relationship between the Protoss and Zerg with the Xel'naga, the Terrans have been pushed back to minor players in this whole mythology. The three were more closely intertwined in the first game, but now really the Terran campaign just feels like an internecine battle that has little effect on the grander machinations the Protoss faced. What people appreciated about StarCraft was its balance. Although fighting-wise it still maintains that, the story lost that.

I enjoyed Legacy of the Void, and if you're a StarCraft fan you're pretty much required to play it. After you're done with the campaign, there is an epilogue involving all the races, which makes me wonder whether this is it but knowing Blizzard probably not.

Seriously, what is it with Christmas ornaments now and glitter? All I want are glass balls and nutcrackers without this shit spreading everywhere, and I can't find anything. It's getting pretty ridiculous.

Socrates made such an impact on the field of philosophy that anyone who came before him are lumped together as "the pre-Socratic philosophers." Of those Heraclitus is one of the most prominent, and if you ever feel like reading him then I feel fucking sorry for you. Much like Sun Tzu Heraclitus' works are mostly easily-quotable one-liners but unlike Sun Tzu half the time they make no goddamned sense. There are vague statements like "the eyes are better witnesses than the ears" or "lightning rules all," and you spend forever trying to figure out what the hell he meant by that. Admittedly his works are fragmentary, but I get the feeling his contemporaries thought he was a nutjob too. The Greek historian Neanthes wrote of his death: After contracting dropsy, he went to doctors and asked if they could make a drought after a heavy rain. When they couldn't comprehend what the hell he was talking about, he covered himself with cow shit, expecting its warmth would pull out the liquid in his body. Of course that didn't work and he died. Most historians think that story apocryphal, but considering the whole thing is a jab at his penchant for nonsensical question and philosophy (which was about fire and warmth), most likely its author found him as weird as I do. If you want to preach a certain point of view, you should provide a logical system for your audience to understand. Otherwise some asshole is going to spread rumors about you dying in cow crap.

Yesterday's San Bernardino attack started a debate about whether it's terrorism or not, which officials to their credit said there's not enough information yet. I'm somewhat confused why people have problems with this because I think "terrorism" has a pretty clear definition: Violence used to achieve a political goal. It doesn't matter the means. It doesn't matter how many people die. It depends entirely on intent. If you bomb an institution because it's Jewish, then that's terrorism. If you bomb an institution because you were recently fired from there, then that's simply murder. At this early point in time, we don't know whether Syed Farook was a crazy person who stockpiled ammunition and exploded after an argument with his coworkers, or whether he had ties to ISIS and was egged on to shoot a soft target in the West. Either is viable, but one is terrorism and the other is not.

Likewise last week's attack on Planned Parenthood is terrorism. Robert Dear had no personal issues with any of the people inside but instead the institution, and he wanted to stop abortions because of his pro-life stance.

Or conversely the Germanwings crash earlier this year, although it killed 150 people, is not terrorism. Andreas Lubitz was not making some sort of political statement; he just had mental issues that he took out on everyone on board.

This isn't very difficult to understand. Why I always have to open a paper after something horrific and see an article, "Is so-and-so attack terrorism?" Once we find out the motives, there's no fucking question! We know!

Adventures with Harlan and his girlfriend, Part VIII:

After cleaning up the roof of the garage whilst dad stood on the porch and directed them:

Harlan: Okay, I'm going to hire a gardener for you guys. And I'm going to put in his contract a 7% pay increase whenever dad's home for "dealing with annoying micromanagement."

Adventures with Harlan and his girlfriend, Part VII:

Harlan's girlfriend: Riva, where do you want to go in Japan?
Greene: Akihabara.
Harlan's girlfriend: No! That's where otakus go!
Greene: Have you seen her bookshelf? What did you think she is?