Our conversation went something along these lines:

Friend says:
Secret: The government cannot, and will not, scrutinize everybody like people think. It’s impossible.
Dischord says:
Of course they won’t, it’s the threat behind it.  But we don’t want them to believe that those threats are viable, and that the American people will submit to being bullied any further by the government that was originally formed to be our defense.

This disturbed me.  Not in the normal ‘oh, this is a little odd’, but more in the ‘this should not be a viable option or route for the government to take.  Another friend and I were discussing this just a few hours earlier, and we talked about the fact that with SOPA having just been turned down, there should be a minimal amount of time after a bill has been rejected, before a new bill of similar topic can be proposed.  A sort of ‘cool down’ time of 3 months or so, to prevent the rush – and more than that, the outrage that currently has gripped the internet masses.

CISPA, and SOPA, the struggle, I think, isn’t so much what the bills represent (an end to internet piracy), but what they threaten us with.  These bills will strike at more than just piracy.  They will also strike at e-commerce, the gaming industry, modding communities.  A number of things will suffer.  Look at the individual who started MegaUpload.  Look at his sentence in comparison with a rapist and murderer.  That is the punishment for piracy?

I can understand the anger at piracy.  I do my best to avoid it, but there are some cases where it is literally unavoidable.  Music that was never released in America, that cannot be obtained through overseas shipping, those sorts of things.  My opinion is that more people need to take a look at ZUN, the creator, I believe, of Touhou.  He’s given free license to anyone who wants it, to create derivative works of his characters.  There are more spinoffs than I can even begin to think of, and he still has his money.

I just wanted to ramble a bit, no real cause behind it.  I sent in my letters to request CISPA not be passed – now all I can do is wait and see what the Senate and President do in response.

Well, it isn’t so great.

Some emo poetry after the cut.

How do I explain
The emotion that I feel
How do I explain
That none of it seems real
How do I explain
The sadness in my heart
How do I explain
The reason I want to part
How do I explain
The blade aimed at my chest
How do I explain
I think it’s for the best
How do I explain
The way I used to care
How do I explain
The hate I hold in there
How do I explain
That what once was has faded
How do I explain
The depth of how I’m jaded
How do I explain
These feelings I can’t share
How do I explain
That I wish you were not there
How do I explain
My desire to be without
How do I explain
That I hold no doubt
How do I explain
This hole that’s left inside
How do I explain
This sorrow I can’t hide

You cannot tell me how
I can make it through the days
You cannot tell me how
To put aside these ways
You cannot tell me how
I’m meant to do without
You cannot tell me how
To rid myself of doubt

No one can tell me how
But I think I’ll make it through
But how do I explain
How I’ll make it without you?

Update time.

School is going pretty good.  I’m sitting on a good GPA, which is nice.  Gaming is going well, I’ve got LOTRO, SWTOR, and a D&D game coming up, so happiness all the way around.

I’m playing a Dorf this time, and since it’s in a world based loosely off Dragon Age, I opted to shoot it to the DM to let me run Dwarves in that style, and he agreed.  My RP life is pretty good too, Negima guild is going great, there’s a BRS guild I’m in, and I’m looking at starting up this freaky archangel thing that my husband and I discussed.  It should be, uh, interesting.

A friend got me into MyLittlePony:FriendshipIsMagic, and I need to get caught back up on that amazing show.  Applejack is awesome.  My buddy Rookie is out of Basic and we can focus on our Mass Effect/Halo crossover forum RP.  Things are going good on PF, my other RP site.  And I still have no basic home life, not like I give a shit, because staying at home all the time is cheaper than going out drinking, especially since I don’t like that much in the way of booze, damn it.

Gunna stop rattling here, and I’m laying down a new rule for myself.  I have to post at least once a week here, or else!  -fistshake-

After the computer issues that prompted me to upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7, I decided to reinstall some of my games.  Among those, was Dragon Age II, a game I loved, but didn’t feel had much replay value.  The new DLC, Legacy, of course, changed this, and so I went through the trouble of installing, added some graphical tweaks, and dove right into the game.

All was going well until I got the bright idea in my head to purchase Dragon Age Origins: Ultimate Edition.  Now, I tried to be smart, and purchased it from Amazon.com, where I got a fairly good bargain, or, so I thought.  I waited two days, the disc arrived in a slender manilla package, and I popped the disk in to install while I grabbed a sandwich.  The install started just fine, but I noticed rather quickly that it was stalling at around 16%, somewhere in the anims.erf area.

Alright, I went hunting for solutions to this issue and discovered that it was potentially because of my disc drive.  Since I didn’t have another drive I could slap into my machine, I instead opted to use the EA Downloader (Origins Downloader now, irony, no?), and grabbed a nice hot bath while the 27 GB download processed.  I was lucky and started it early, so it only took approximately two hours total to download.

Convinced that all would be well, I started my program only to realize … that my DLC was all titled ‘Unauthorized’, except for Awakenings.

To quote Isabela here, “Balls.”

So I tried a couple of fixes and discovered the problem apparently revolved around the DAUpdaterSvc.Service file associated with the game.  It’s required to authorize the DLC and wasn’t working.  Some suggestions went flying around about how to fix it, so I opted to do so the simple way, and decided to Uninstall and Reinstall.  Except my install file was apparently erased, and required a complete redownload.

Again I say, “Balls.”

I started the download, now later in the evening, obviously, and as of now have spent the last 4 hours waiting for the program to download, staring at the woefully short progress on the download bar, declaring that I’ve only downloaded 50% of the game.  This wouldn’t feel so punishing, but I have to get sleep some time, and had planned on attempting to play the game sometime tonight.

Reading the dozens of fixes has made me absolutely disappointed in the state of this game.  A ‘bargain’ shouldn’t include a faulty disc, and multiple authorization errors, since apparently, the DAUpdaterSvc.Service file doesn’t actually install with the Ultimate Edition of the game, according to the multiple user reports on the Bioware Self-Help forums.  With all of this drama, I’m trapped on an administrator account (hey, my main was supposed to be that, but apparently isn’t), without access to any of my settings, staring at a brightly colored screen, as this tiny blue bar moves.  In the time it’s taken me to type this, the bar has progressed to 51%, and isn’t quite ticking up speed.

I love Bioware, I love Dragon Age, but I’m starting to rethink my pre-order of some of Bioware’s other games, (namely The Old Republic, of which I’ve ordered two copies of the Collector’s Edition).  What is so frustrating is the Dragon Age II works like a dream, only DAO seems to suffer the shoddy customer support, innumerable bugs and glitches, and inaccessible DLC content.

Bioware, I want to go into the gaming industry.  I’m in college working towards that end, but I swear, I just want to find whoever decided the system of authorizing DLC in this fashion was a good idea, and give them a one-two punch, right in their nards, or whatever serves for them.

I’m going to go shoot myself, and maybe play Mass Effect while I wait for the irritation to wind down.  I have that on the XBox – so at least that’s working right.

I also managed to pass my math exam, with some tutoring from S.  Since S has offered to teach me during the course of my math class, I think I can pass it without having the school knock me back a level.  So that’s good.  Money should be rolling in soon, so I can get some nice things I want.

Also decided to save up for a Macbook, as opposed to a PC Laptop.  Specs are better, upgrades are fewer, and I like the idea of all the extra customer support that Apple gives.  Had someone tell me that Macbook is the way to go for a laptop, but PC is the way to go for a Desktop.  So does that make me a PC Mac?  It sounds like a Hamburger Helper meal you’d have for dinner. xD

Since I don’t have anything else relevant to say, I’ll just say that cup ramen is amazing with a little bit of soy and teriyaki, and go crawl into bed.

Regardless of the heated opinions, I find it highly unlikely that this woman did not actually kill her child, and think that the unnecessary press the trial received contributed to the lack of a guilty verdict by the jury.

Far too often, items that are sensationalized in the media are given too much attention to really be viewed without bias.  The fact that this woman got a tattoo declaring ‘Beautiful Life’ on herself just a short time before her daughter’s body was found sinks the verdict to guilty for me, but that’s neither here nor there.

The shameful part is what I read on Facebook, and later found via Tribute.ca.  While I agree that Kristen Stewart may play a good role in the movie, considering her lack of enthusiasm in general and the flat performance we saw in Twilight, what actually angers me is the fact that this woman is going to be working to make not just a movie, but also will be writing a book.

If at any point she discusses the death of her child or makes an admission of guilt in the book, the fact that she has already been tried and found “Not Guilty” means that they cannot attempt to prosecute again.  And wouldn’t that be ironic?

I, personally, and I believe dozens of others as well, will be boycotting this book, and I somehow expect that many theaters will be empty on the opening day of the movie, should it go ahead into production.

Is it too much to hope that when she’s released on July 13th and she finally walks out of jail, someone runs her down?

- J

After beating Fable II, I found myself incredibly disappointed by the resolution of the game.  You can either sacrifice thousands to get back the dog that has been with you throughout the game, and your family, or, you can sacrifice your family, and dog, who you need for some quests, to bring back thousands and become the ‘true’ hero of Albion.

Now, the Knothole Island DLC allows you to resurrect your dog, but unless you absolutely love Fable II enough to spend $9.99 on DLC content that is minimalistic at best, it’s otherwise suggested that you not bother with it, and use the ‘reset to dashboard’ method to unlock all of the achievements for the game.

I was checking out Extreme Gamer, who did a rundown on the Knothole Island DLC and have to agree with them.

The main reason to hold off the purchase is because the quests can be completed in less than 2 hours. The main reason you might outweigh the points vs. playtime argument is if you really miss your dog (for those who have finish the game). If you four-legged friend means that to you then by all means spend the 800MS Points to get him back. Besides that little guy, I would wait until they drop the contents price before you jump in that yellow submarine for Knothole Island.

As much as I loved Fable II, I found the ending to be unsatisfactory and find myself to be unfulfilled at the resolution.  While I am amused that the ‘ultimate’ weapon of the game is a music box and there is no actual comment, I think I’m even more amused at Reaver, who, despite being an utter jerk, has stolen a special place in my heart because of the act of taking the life of Lucian from you, if you happen to stand around the listen to his speech.

I finished Fable III.  I’m going to post more on that later, for now I’m going to eat my macaroni, and mindlessly shoot aliens on Halo Reach.

Ta~

The course shell for the University has changed, and that makes the new course considerably interesting, but hey, I’m always looking forward to a challenge?  I guess..?

I hate IE but I haven’t downloaded any of my other browsers yet except for Firefox, and the latest IE for Windows 7 seems to be sucking less than previously, and also doesn’t error my University pages, which does not offer support for the new Firefox browser yet.  I even reinstalled my Greasemonkey scripts and it isn’t killing the new Firefox the way it did previously, so we have that.

I was surfing the Internet and trying not to be a recluse during the week and a half of vacation from school that I still possess.. okay, back on topic, I found this blog post while randomly surfing around and was appalled.  Not by the writer of the blog, no, but by the content of the post itself.

OB-GYNs in Florida place ‘weight limit’ on patients.

As someone who is far ‘over’ the prescribed weight limit of 200 lbs, this is both appalling and disgusting.  That in turn led me to Primary Care Physicians’ Attitudes about Obesity and Its Treatment.  The quote in the previously mentioned blog post that really got to me was included near the bottom.  Studies implying that doctors see their fat patients as “awkward, unattractive, ugly, and noncompliant.” ?

When did being fat become even more of a social stigma than it already is?  What’s more, why is the medical community allowing this behavior to stand?  Are obese individuals more likely to have health problems? Yes, of course we are, our weight puts a high strain on our bodies and we understand that, but in that case shouldn’t we be more encouraged to seek out the help of a medical professional to ‘fix’ what is viewed as our ‘disease’, rather than being turned away because of our physical size? 

When I was several years younger, my primary care physician told me she was jealous because my numbers (cholesterol, triglycerides, blood sugar, blood pressure) were all better than hers, and I weighed a whopping hundred and fifty pounds or more than she did.  Nowhere in the doctor/patient relationship was she ever rude, dismissive, or unconcerned about my health.  I guess I have to count my blessings, with the ripples going through the health care community right now.

I’ll post a more ‘carefree’ blog post a little later.

So, what prompted me to blog again this time?  I’m tired of having nowhere to just talk.  I don’t even care if people want to read it, I just need somewhere to talk. And my blog is kinda girly this time, freaking imagine that. 

I think if I was a guy, I’d totally be a gay guy, because I’m too fab’ to be straight, frsrs.

So, the other day, a woman at the DMV asked me what my real hair color was when I was trying to get my State ID renewed.  She said I was ‘too old’ to have my hair multicolored.  She also asked me what I was doing with it so many colors – I told her I was ‘having fun’, and that you’re never too old for that.

She then admitted that blonde wasn’t her natural color either.

So, aside from that, I installed Windows 7 today.  My god this is a fantastic OS.  Seamless, smooth, fast loading times, and oh-so-slick looking.  Now if I had just been smart and gotten my wireless printer like I wanted to.

Math next semester.  I dread.  But my project from last semester turned out fantastic, even if it was very very green.