digital dreams

C-L-E-M-P-S-O-N

2008-08-31T01:02:00.003-04:00

I have to admit I have been very excited about watching Clemson's first game. Everyone had high hopes for this year with all of the hoopla over being preseason favorite to win the ACC. I have been saying I was nervous about the Alabama game, but I figured Clemson would pull it out by six. I had no idea just how physical Alabama's offensive and defensive lines were. Clemson looked like a "ballerina" team in my opinion. They have a ton of athleticism at the skill positions, but they don't have any physical players on their offensive or defensive lines. Alabama hit Clemson in the mouth every time they had a chance and Clemson never responded. Clemson looked like a very uninspired team to me. I'm not saying that they won't win the ACC, but any teams that have physical offensive and defensive lines will give them a hard time. Hopefully Clemson can still pull out an ACC championship, but it would appear all national championship hopes are gone at this point.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Demo

2008-08-22T08:44:00.005-04:00

A little over a year ago I saw some of the first footage of the AI and physics that would be used for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. I was very impressed with the realism and I have been anticipating this game every since then. Well, yesterday the demo was released and I promptly downloaded it after work.

Overall I would say I was pretty impressed with it. As a Star Wars fanboy if a Star Wars game is above average then that is a win in my opinion. Out of all of the Star Wars games I have only really ever liked Knights of the Old Republic and Battlefront. The Force Unleashed demo starts with a scene showing Darth Vader and the Apprentice. Vader instructs the apprentice to track down a Jedi and destroy him while leaving no witnesses behind. When the game starts you already have some of the force powers like force push and force lightning. The force powers are pretty impressive and it is really fun to throw a Stormtrooper 100 feet in the air and watch him drop. The lightsaber combat is very good and the combos that you can create are amazing. For instance if you hit two lightsaber strikes and then use force lightning you can charge your lightsaber with lightning and deliver a devastating blow. The force push is also a great attack and when you charge it you can clear out four to five enemies at once.

My only gripe with the game is the mechanics for levitating. When you pick up an object or enemy to throw them it is really hard to maneuver the object with both sticks. It is really slow and ends up leaving you vulnerable to attack. You will usually be blasted with lasers while you are trying to line up your throw. I prefer to just charge the enemy with the lightsaber, force push, and force lightning. I guess the levitation is okay if you are throwing objects at enemies from a distance, but in close combat it will get you killed fairly quickly. Overall I would say that the game is very good. The story looks like it will rival KOTOR and from what I have read it has open-ended gameplay so that is a good thing. I think this game is basically an attempt to create a Star Wars themed hack and slash adventure game where you get to use ridiculously absurd force powers. I think it achieves that and then some.

Is this post worth a count?

2008-08-20T17:57:00.007-04:00

If you live in South Carolina indubitably, Simpson's did it!, you will hear someone say the phrase, "worth a count." I am as guilty as anyone of saying it. I did some research on it and it appears to have been defined on one of the Intarwebz most respected sites. According to Urban Dictionary "worth a count" means: A South Carolinian term for placing value on something. I had no idea it originated in South Carolina. I just assumed it was a southern phrase in general. So I started to think about what it means. What exactly do you count? How do you count it? Can something be worth two counts?

Capitalism

2008-08-19T13:11:00.004-04:00

BdR76

Do you hear the colors of the rainbow?

2008-08-18T13:37:00.005-04:00

Well, today they are painting the building with what seems to be Testor's model car paint. It smells like a unicorn floating on a zephyr through a rainbow in here. I hope my head doesn't asplode. My coworkers and I are enjoying the feeling of disconnection and the suspension of reality. You should join us. If you get high from the smell of paint, but you are working that makes it okay right?

Halo 3 Pwnage

2008-08-18T11:13:00.003-04:00

I have been waiting for a service to come along where you can access your Halo 3 clips online. That service has finally arrived. Through GameVee you just enter your gamertag, the name of your clip, and some other information. After about thirty minutes you will get an e-mail stating that your video clip has been uploaded.

This is a great clip. I was playing a game of shotty/snipers and I decided I would do something maniacal like charge directly at a team of snipers who have the high ground. As you will see comedy ensues.

Smoking in the boys room

2008-08-14T13:02:00.003-04:00

I swear someone smokes in the bathroom here at work. Every time I go in there it smells like a high school bathroom. Nothing brings me back to my pubescent years like the smell of permaturds mixed with cigarette smoke.

Can you make the noises stop?

2008-08-14T12:21:00.012-04:00

I don't know why but I have always been hypersensitive to sounds. Whenever there is some weird noise in the background I will always hear it and point it out. Then everyone gets mad at me because they are focusing on said annoying sound after I say something about it.

Me: Hey do you hear that buzz, tick, hum, and/or any other examples of onomatopoeia?
Them: Matt you gotta cool it with the pointing out annoying sounds dude!

Well, today at work they are chipping paint off of the old windows, wait did it stop?...negative, and it is driving me batshit insane. It sounds like an archeological excavation around here. Tap, tap, tap, just give it a little tappy, tap, tap, tapparoo. Let me know when you find the dinosaurs.

Fat people amuse me

2008-08-14T12:02:00.002-04:00

I work out at the gym regularly and these are some of my observations. Every year in January the amount of people working out in the gym doubles. This is because all of the fatties have New Year's resolutions to lose weight. Around March about 90% of them, 52.7% of the time my statistics are 93.2% correct, will drop out. The remaining 10% of the New Year's resolution fatties are even more amusing. Every time I get on the bike I swear there is some 300 pounder sitting there, pedaling at about 10 rpm, and watching TV at the same time. If you can spin the pedals once every six seconds I guess that entitles you to a double cheeseburger.

Can I have my country back?.....Please?

2008-08-13T23:29:00.002-04:00

I would like to counter some common points that I hear from right-wing conservatives. First, I would like to say that Americans really don't know how much they have to lose and what they have lost so far. Every day we seem to lose more of the liberties that our founding fathers fought so vehemently to protect. Since the PATRIOT act was passed we have basically seen a system put into place that allows for a dictatorship to rule this country with force. The PATRIOT act allows for the government to invade your house in the middle of the night, abduct you, and put you in a torture camp without trial for indefinite amounts of time. Isn't there something wrong with that?

All of this legislation was passed under the guise that it would protect us from terrorism. However, there is a glaring problem with this. You cannot stop an ideal. Terrorism is not a tangible force that you can control. Those fighting with zealotry and the undying love of their country cannot be stopped. If you want an example of this you can see it in history books under The Revolutionary War. The same guerrilla warfare tactics that we pioneered to end the occupation by the British are the same ones being used in Iraq to hinder the occupation by the United States. Occupations simply do not work and it has been proven countless times in history. There is a thin line between imperialism and democracy and the United States is blurring it more and more every day. When you invade a country and attempt to force Democracy on them is it still Democracy? Sounds like Roman Imperialism to me.

Secondly, just because someone does not support a "war" does not make them unpatriotic. I support the troops because it is their job and they are just following directives, but I do not support the war in Iraq. By the same token not supporting the current President does not make me unpatriotic. Just respecting the position is not enough for me to support a man who has destroyed a country within eight years. After all it was Thomas Jefferson who said, "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism." I think that until we get back to that mentality this country will continue to experience hardships. This conformity and lack of rebellion has allowed our government and our liberties to become compromised.

Thirdly, these problems will only be fixed when Americans truly become informed of a system that uses the Federal Reserve to inflate the currency and tax the people into slavery. Once again I will reference Thomas Jefferson who said, "If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issuance of their currencies, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all their prosperity until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered." One of the most intelligent Presidents ever predicted our downfall 200 years ago. The solution isn't to "Go live somewhere else" as I have heard so many times, but to fix the real problems here in the United States. I'm not a radical. I'm a patriot and I just want my country back!

Federal Reserve

2008-08-13T23:17:00.008-04:00

I had this article published on Anderson Independent Online a couple of months ago. They edited it heavily and I promise the original version was in paragraph form:

The Federal Reserve is issuing $200 billion in loans to investment banks in exchange for bad debts, allowing the banks to put up bad investments as collateral to borrow money they will use to invest.

It’s no surprise that most of the so-called “bad investments” are sub-prime loans that banks made during the housing boom.

At the end of 28 days the investment banks will have to repay the loans.

This is a facade used to make the private investment banks look more profitable than they really are. This angers me because the people that the banks preyed upon and issued these loans to are the ones that are losing their homes. Where is the government help for them?

The Federal Reserve created the $200 billion out of nothing. The credits are transferred to the investment banks; the money is not backed by gold, silver or any commodity.

Pumping $200 billion into an already struggling economy that is so close to hyperinflation is a bad idea.

The stock market responded well with record gains, but is that worth devaluing the dollar by putting even more money into the economy?

Basic economics tells us that creating more money causes the value of the dollar to go down.

This creation of money has driven up inflation since the inception of the Federal Reserve in 1913.

As long as it continues to pump money into the economy we will experience high rates of inflation.

These short-term solutions do little for the long-term economic outlook.

http://www.andersonindependent.com/news/2008/mar/26/short-term-solutions-do-little-economy/

This was in March when the Federal Reserve was bailing out Bear Stearns with OUR tax money. Fast forward five months and the same kind of ideas are circulating about saving the big three auto makers in Detroit. Once again corporate imperialism seeks to privatize the profits and socialize the losses.

1337 h4x new template!

2008-08-13T23:10:00.004-04:00

Well apparently Blogger pwns Wordpress hardcore because you can upload your own html and css. I took this css and html from a geocities page I created, lol @ geocities....welcome to 1998, and was able to modify it to work in Blogger. In Wordpress I couldn't upload custom html and css without paying for a premium membership. Once again free > paying. Anyway hope you like the new template.

Breaking free from free will

2008-08-10T13:55:00.002-04:00

For years I have pondered whether we have free will or not. When I was a teenager I refused to believe that our destinies were predetermined because I felt some innate need for every decision that I made to control my future. I had the common thought that if our destinies were predetermined then I could just sit in my house and everything that was supposed to happen to me would. Years passed by and after several computer science, simulation modeling, and probability classes I started to ponder how you could model the decision making of a human being.

In simulation modeling the larger scale you are trying to model the easier it is. For instance, in our solar system we can model large bodies such as the orbit of planets because we can account for the variables necessary to model their movement. We can accurately predict where each planet will be at a certain point in time such that probability disappears. There is only one outcome of where the planets will be when all variables are accounted for.

The same concept applies to human decision making. When you make a decision there are several internal and external variables that will influence you to make a decision. At the time the decision is made the variables are locked in and there is only one outcome possible for the decision you will make. You may perceive that you could choose other choices, but in actuality at the time of the decision it was impossible to ever choose the other choices. This is what I call perceived free will. I don't think free will exists in any fashion.

If you had to make the same decision a million times you would make the same choice every time because these internal and external variables that guide your decision making would not change. These are what I call the barriers to decision making. The barriers are internal and external variables that limit you to one and only one possible decision.

The decision that you made is the only one that you could have ever made. Studies have shown that your subconscious has already made a decision up to seven seconds before your conscious mind is aware of it. The truth is there is no free will and we need to break free of this illusion.

About digital dreams

2008-08-10T12:25:00.004-04:00

digital dreams are expressions of thoughts, opinions, and dreams in a digital format. Welcome to my digital dreams.

Here you will find topics including politics, comedy, metaphysics, philosophy, computers, science, and pretty much anything that pops into my head.