Majora's Mask

This is a weird game. Seriously. For those who don't know what I am talking about, let me explain it to you. The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time was one of the best selling games for N64 and was ridiculously popular. They made a sequel to Ocarina that takes place fairly soon after the events of Ocarina. In Majora's Mask, you are wandering through a forest, when you get ambushed and mugged and lose the Ocarina of Time. After chasing the thief, you end up getting turned into a Deku Scrub and have to chase after him again. You only have 3 days (72 hours) to get back the Ocarina and return to the Happy Mask salesman who will turn you back. Eventually, with only 6 hours to go (hours pass by really quickly in the game), you confront the Skull Kid who turned you into a Deku. You get back the Ocarina and use its power to go back in time, but only 3 days back in time. At the end of 3 days, the moon is going to crash into the Earth (and the moon looks angry) thanks to the meddling of the Skull Kid. It is really weird as you have 72 game hours to complete whatever task you are trying to complete, of you have to start over. For example, there is a Piece of Heart on top of a house, and the only way to get there is by shooting yourself out of a Deku flower. The Deku flower is inhabited by someone, though. Because of that, the only way to get him out is to go through this series of tasks, exchanging items between people. Each day makes you have to start that over again, as you no longer have some of the items you were given. It is odd and bizarre, yet also awesome.

Amusing, but...

Okay, this normally isn't a place where I discuss religion or politics, but it seems I have to. Well, not that I have to, but I want to.
This was shown to me by StumbleUpon and I read it. See, it was amusing. Not something that makes me believe in God, or believe in science any less (as there are many flaws in relationship to science in it), but it was amusing. Less amusing were the comments. I can accept that people believe in God, even if I don't, and I won't say that science disproves God, but I don't personally believe and I am annoyed when other people take religion and claim theirs is the only way.
Christianity: The largest religion in the world, with Islam in second. Not all Christians are crazy, but unfortunately, the crazies are the ones who are the loudest. In anything, that is the case. The crazy people speak the loudest and are heard the most. So, while the group as a whole isn't crazy (and probably the majority isn't), you still think of it as such, because those few people ruin it for everyone. Most people think other people's religions are wrong, and sometimes, crazy. I've often seen this view of Christianity:
The belief that a cosmic Jewish Zombie who was his own father can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree.
When told like that, Christianity sounds crazy. Still, I often don't see it like that. Christians (from now on, Christans refers to the crazies) feel the Bible is right and that it is the only way things happened. Why, because God said so. The Earth was created some 6000 years ago, and everything in the Bible is true and the word of God. They say other people's beliefs are crazy and wrong. There was no evolution, there was God. The way I look at Christianity, often, is as a form of Mythology that is current. The Greeks seemed to believe in Zeus, the Romans in Jupiter, the Aztecs in Quetzalcoatl, etc. All of those are believed in as Mythology today, right? What makes Christianity different? Seriously? Because it is right? Where is the proof that Christianity is right and Norse Mythology is wrong? You don't need proof, only faith? Why can't someone else have faith in Deadpool as opposed to God? If you can answer me, by all means, do so. I'd love to hear someone explain why their religion is right and everyone else's is wrong, without just saying their God/gods exist whereas the others don't.
Now, this isn't as bad as most of the things I have seen, but it still is pretty bad at some points. One thing is the student's interpretation of evolution. He says nobody has seen evolution, so it is an opinion. Well, no. People have witnessed microevolution, for things like bacteria evolving and becoming immune to antibiotics (one of the problems with antibiotics, as the ones that survive are stronger, and just keep making stronger versions), and we have evidence that suggests that evolution also takes place on a much grander scale. With all the evidence we have, the most likely theory (scientific theory) is that things have evolved. The birds in the Galapagos, as observed by Darwin, were similar, but had slight differences in their beaks that allowed them to be successful at eating in the particular environment they were in (longer beaks, or curved beaks, or bigger beaks). Also, humans didn't evolve from monkeys. Both had a common ancestor.
I have seen many things where Christians say their beliefs are the only beliefs that count, and that everyone else is wrong. Those piss me off. Anything where someone stated that their beliefs are more important than someone's and that somebody's opinion is wrong would piss me off. The most common place I see it, though is in religion, and unfortunately, in Christianity.
Again, not all Christians have the beliefs that some of the crazies have and most actually don't care. Unfortunately, as I said, the ones I see are the crazies, and I don't know what to do about them.

Prop 8

For my preview card of Extended Monologue, I told people to vote, but I didn't give an opinion on who or what to vote for, as I don't feel I should tell people who or what to vote for, as long as they get their decision heard. In reality, though, I was all for Barack Obama. I am glad he was elected, although Californians really disappointed me. I mean, come on! How did Prop 8 pass? This is how I believe people should be:
Have your own thoughts about what you like and don't like. If you like people of the same gender, go ahead and do that with other people of the same gender. If you like people of the opposite gender, go ahead and do that with people of the opposite gender. If you like believing that there is a God, or gods, go ahead and do that. If you don't believe in deities, then don't. I could come up with more, but I hope you get the point.
BUT, don't force your opinions upon other people. I personally don't believe that there is a God (or gods), as I have not seen proof, and I would like proof for there to be a God. I don't care if you believe, though. If you believe in God, go ahead and believe in God. If you think your belief allows you to affect my life, then I have an issue with you. Now, in the Torah, there are 7 Noahide Laws, which are the laws that God gave to Noah after the flood that everybody would have to obey.

1. Prohibition of Idolatry: You shall not have any idols before God.
2. Prohibition of Murder: You shall not murder.
3. Prohibition of Theft: You shall not steal.
4. Prohibition of Sexual Promiscuity: You shall not commit adultery.
5. Prohibition of Blasphemy: You shall not blaspheme God's name.
6. Dietary Law: Do not eat flesh taken from an animal while it is still alive.
7. Requirement to have just Laws: You shall set up an effective judiciary to enforce the preceding six laws fairly.

Personally, I think that the 1st and 5th aren't necessary, although I can see them as "Do not try and have your religion above someone else's" and "Do not disrespect someone else's religion." Also, I see 4 as "Do not cheat on people (not just sexually, but just as a general)" and 6 as "Do not be cruel." Still, basically, I think that these are the only rules that apply to everybody. Everything else should pretty much be okay (in general). That being said, I like that Judaism doesn't try to convert people or make them think that they are wrong and that if they don't chosse Judaism, then theny will burn. If you follow these laws, and aren't Jewish, you are a good person that will be saved in the afterlife. Nice concept.
I hate how people deny gay marraige because they feel it will somehow affect them. Two men getting married won't make your marraige null and void. You can still date people of the opposite gender. What, they will teach about it in schools? Come on! Personally, I am offended if they would teach that there is only one way to live. There is nothing wrong with homosexuality.

"It protects our children from being taught in public schools that "same-sex marriage" is the same as traditional marriage."

"If the gay marriage ruling is not overturned, TEACHERS COULD BE REQUIRED to teach young children there is no difference between gay marriage and traditional marriage."

"We should not accept a court decision that may result in public schools teaching our kids that gay marriage is okay. That is an issue for parents to discuss with their children according to their own values and beliefs. It shouldn't be forced on us against our will."

These are all quotes directly from the arguement for. They are also all bullshit. Aside from that Prop 8 didn't do that, gay marraige being taught in schools is something I think should happen. I kind of want to just teach my child that gay marraige is right and that traditional marraige is wrong. But I live in a society where most people are straight, and most relationships in the media are straight. What can I do? Sigh, I am ranting, I really should stop.

People, stop being stupid. Seriously.

Comics:

Amazing Spider-Man 578:

Basic Plot: Spidey tries to help people trapped underground.

Well, I like that we are getting back to basics in the Spidey-verse. We had the Thunderbolts, who already existed, starring the Green Goblin, Hammerhead, and now the Shocker. I personally love Herman Schultz. He doesn't really care about Spider-Man like other villains do. He is in it for the money. If it means he gets to destroy Spidey, then great. Otherwise, he doesn't care. He is strictly a criminal who wants money. I am loving the classics and I hope Spidey keeps heading in this direction towards classics. Freak was horrible, Jackpot annoying, Menace aggravating and the Bookie is just stupid.

Avengers/Invaders 6



Basic Plot: Torch tries to free the LMDs as the New Avengers try and find the source that brought the Invaders to 2008.

This is getting too odd for me. I don't know. When did S.H.I.E.L.D. start using LMD's for anything aside from ones that the Director uses to avoid assassination. I mean, there have been Nick Fury LMD's and then there were Maria Hill LMD's and people know LMD's, but when did the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents become LMD's. I always figured most of them were normal people (like Eric O'Grady a.k.a. Ant-Man and his friends). So, what, almost all the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents are LMD's now. It doesn't make sense. Oh, and I can't really tell how Torch took out the Sentry. He gave him more power? What? The concept that the Invaders were brought there because many people wanted to see Cap again is cute, but I have no idea how they can make this last 6 more issues, unless it is with the stupid LMD stuff. Sigh...

Fantastic Four 561


Basic Plot: Susan (older) puts her plan into play.

I love Doom. Seriously. He is awesome. And Millar and Hitch are my favorite creative team ever (being behind Ultimates 2 and Ultimates), so this is great. This was a great end to the saga, although I think they have to wrap up. I love all of the things Hitch got to draw. I love the FF drawn by Hitch (in fact anything drawn by Hitch is amazing) and this was a great ending. Sure, it isn't Ultimates and not my favorite, but it is still very good. Doom is so bad-ass in this. Sure, he was forced to fuel the time machine, but afterwards, he kept his word. In the previosu issue, he had said "I will say this only once: Whoever orchestrated my kidnapping shall die tonight. So swears Victor Von Doom." He kept his promise and after Sue freed him and thanked him for the help in moving 8 billion people from the future to Nu-World, he fried her. Well, the Invisible Woman did die, just the future one, and not the present one. Oh, well. C'est las vie.

Thunderbolts 126


Basic Plot: Burning Down the House.

Okay, so the title to this arc (2 issues) is a fitting basic plot summary. In better terms, the team is disbanding. Maybe. Kind of. Well, let's put it like this: Penance was drugged and going to be locked in a maximum security mental institution. Norman said he was disbanding the team due to the "corruption" in the government from the Skrulls and co-conspirators. And thanks to Iron Man having to flee the fight fue to his power being low, the people saw Norman leading the way and people love him now. Radioactive Man is recalled back to China. Moonstone is running things in lieu of Norman being in Washington. Songbird is threatened by Bullseye who is going to kill her as part of Norman's instructions. Man, I love that cover too. The art is cool. The art inside not as much. I just don't like Torre. It feels too scratchy to me. Still, I hope Thunderbolts continues to be good.

Deadpool 4


Basic Plot: Needing money, Wade goes to get a job.

The good: It's Deadpool. He's still certainly crazy. He still has morals. He still is able to be bad-ass. Poison in a water bottle, marked "Poision: Extremely effective against chumps" (which could have been in his head, but nevertheless funny).
The bad: He gets taken down by people shooting him a lot in the chest. He gets taken down by the freakin' hunchback (albeit through the poisonous water bottle and taking instructions from the mysterious doctor).
It's Deadpool, and I love Deadpool. I also like Medina's art a lot. One thing I'm not as fond about is the portrayal of his face. Paco makes it look too good. Sure, it isn't pretty, but it isn't something that makes somebody sick to their stomach about or just feeling slightly queasy. Read The Circle Chase. In it, this is before his face was revealed, some assassins (or something) took off his mask and threw up and were distracted by his hideousness long enough for Weasel to bust him out. Speaking of which, where are Weasel, Bob and Agency X? Seriously. Oh, well, it still is Deadpool.

Basic Math

I am so sad sometimes. There are people in this world who do not know basic arithmetic. Then, there are those who get confused with percentages and fractions. All in all, though, I think it is sad that people can go through life without knowing basic math. If you go to a store and want to purchase 3 items that are each $3.00, then, before tax, you should expect to pay $9.00. Sadly, if there was a deal that was "3 items for $10.00", many people would complain when it rings up the items to be $3.00 each.
The site Not Always Right deals with interactions between customers and the people serving them. Most of them deal with people being idiotic, aggressive and outright unpleasant. Some deal with people who cannot deal with basic math. To live in a world with these people? It is disheartening. At least the people who deal with them seem intelligent enough.
20% off $100 isn't $80?
$7.99+$7.99 is greater than $20?
2 for 6.99 or 1 for 3.50 and 1 for 3.49? The first sounds better, right?
4 times (approx.) $3 is (approx.) $12?
3 times $4 is $12?
What is this sorcery? What do these numbers and figures mean? I am so confused.

Pearls and blogging

As you may know, I never intended for people to read this, honestly. As I have said, it is more of a journal that people can look at than anything else. I don't know if I've mentioned it, but Pearls Before Swine is an awesome comic strip. Ever since it first started running in the SF Chronicle, I have read the strips. It is one of two comic strips I still read on a normal basis. Now, I never figured I could combine blogging with Pearls, but things will surprise you.

I don't expect that my blog will make me money, but I have been feeling fairly stupid recently (mostly because of failing at the puzzles in Zelda, including when they aren't puzzles, but some simple thing like "go into this room" and I miss where the room is), so I do want a stupidity intervention. Someone, stop me!

Link

I'd apologize for missing updates if I honestly thought people were reading this. As it is, this is just mostly a place for me to rant to nobody, so I don't really feel I have to apologize. If I am wrong, then please let me know. Otherwise, I know people have read certain things and people have visited this site. The counter at the bottom tells me you have visited, unless I have visited all those times. Anyway...

I had never finished The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time before. I know people have praised it and that it is one of the most popular games of all time. I didn't own an N64 until late in the life of the N64, and then moved on to the GCN pretty quickly. I pretty much only had Smash Bros. for N64. Still, Wind Waker piqued my interest for multiple reasons. One is that it was part of the Zelda franchise that I had heard was great. The second is the graphics. I love cel shading and cartoony graphics. If you know the artists I like in comics, you'll know I love Chris Giarrusso's art a lot. I love the simple cartoony style a lot. A lot of people love things looking as real as possible, but whatever. If I want reality, I'll look at reality. Getting back to the point, my pre-order of Wind Waker granted me the Ocarina of Time/Master Quest GCN disc that was supposed to come before Wind Waker so that you'd be excited about Zelda when you got Windwaker. I was on vacation or somewhere (it might have been my 8th grade's trip to Mexico) that made me not be able to play Ocarina before Wind Waker that much. I got stuck in Dodongo's Cavern (sad, I know), but whatever. It's not like I desperately wanted to finish Ocarina. I played Wind Waker and loved it, and never got back around to playing Ocarina. Eventually, though, last weekend, I decided to finally play Ocarina to completion. I have to admit that it was pretty fun. I have some complaints, but whatever. To me, it wasn't the greatest game ever that I have heard it hyped up to be, but it was still fun. The most annoying thing to me was probably the long cut-scenes, especially since they repeated the same things multiple times. The goddesses came down and created Hyrule about 5 times, and the scene where Zelda and Ganondorf ride away from Hyrule Castle happened about 10 times, and it got kind of annoying. Also, Volvagia dealt an absurd amount of damage that killed me multiple times. Still, again, it was a fun game. I just started Twilight Princess also (my roommate has Twilight Princess) and I am currently enjoying it more. My thoughts are that Ocarina was amazing at the time and that at this point in time and that the love of the game is more about nostalgia than anything.

MEV Preview: Extended Monologue

First off, let me say this. WOOHOO! I do like the Exiles, and was happy to get a preview for them, but honestly, considering my love of Deadpool (it goes most of my family, a couple friends, Deadpool, Kl'rt, the rest of my family, the rest of my friends, then everybody else in terms of affection), I was very disappointed. Seeing as how people did get multiple cards, though, I was filled with hope. I remember saying TBS was going to give previews the Wednesday before the week of, which made me nervous when Wednesday and Thursday of last week passed with nothing. But, I have my Deadpool preview. And out of the cards he got (that are being previewed this week, I have to say it is my favorite.


Okay, so some background. Nobody, including Deadpool, really knows much about his history. The writers also disagree. What is clear is that he currently calls himself Wade Wilson, and he was a mercenary. He applied to Weapon X because he had cancer. They decided to help by giving him a healing factor. The healing factor kept the cancer in check, but being as powerful as it was, he lost his mind in the process. He might not have fully been there to begin with, but he went even crazier after this. It also messed up his body, by making it hideously scarred. He can't heal the scars, but otherwise, has a healing factor that is up there with Wolverine and Hulk in terms of strength. Afterwards, he broke out, after taking the name Deadpool, based on the dead pool they had going in the facility. He then has clashed with Cable and X-Force, while working for the mysterious Tolliver, but eventally started to just do his own thing. For a while, he actually somewhat merged with Cable, and Cable got some healing factor, while Deadpool got to Bodyslide. There was a lot of craziness. Eventually, though, Cable died, and Deadpool did his own thing for a while. Recently, he has been hired by Nick Fury to infiltrate a Skrull camp and get files for him.

What about Deadpool? Well, as I said, he has a healing factor. He also is proficient with swords, and uses many different guns. He isn't a perfect marksman, but is still a good shot. His main weapon though, is his tounge. By taunting enemies and prattling on and on, he annoys his enemies, and they get sloppy, and fight poorly. He also knows that he exists a comic book, being one of the few characters who can break the fourth wall and talk to the readers. He uses his fighting skills and insanity to be one of the more effective fighters in Marvel.

Now, about the card. Well, as I said, he talks to the readers. At the start of issues of Cable & Deadpool, he started doing recap pages, where he, or others, would explain the series and what happened before to the readers. It was very amusing. When talking to opponents, he also would prattle on, like I said, and annoy people. That is exactly what this card does. While Deadpool's out there, he's constantly badgering your opponent so that the opponents can only go after him, as he is the most annoying.

The card, by itself, doesn't really do anything. There really isn't a killer combo you can get by combining this with something else. Still, it is one of those cards that is awesome to have. People praise Pathetic Attempt for it being able to stop targeting effect from hitting you or cards you control. This basically stops them pre-emptively from hitting your other characters or you. Being an ongoing plot twist, it also does it permanently, meaning that as long as you control Deadpool, your other guys can't be affected by any targeting ability. There are many things that target players and characters, and this stops them all in their tracks. It reminds me of a combination of Mutant of the Year and Star of the Show(which the card itself references in the flavor text), which if control Deadpool, basically makes it a reverse Star of the Show, plus the Mutant of the Year! 2 cards in one. When I faced X-Statix, my opponent using Star of the Show and Mutant of the Year was very annoying, as many of my effects proved to do nothing, so with Deadpool blathering on and on, I can imagine my opponents will get really annoyed as well, and like while fighting Deadpool, make lots of mistakes that I can then benefit from.

Being as it is November 4th, aka, the first Tuesday in November of an election year, go out and vote. I also feel this card is appropriate, as both candidates will make Extended Monologues, most likely. Vote. Show your support for whichever candidate you think deserves it.