Hnnnng

Oh man. I don't get what it is about FFXIV but it seems like anything related to that game makes people bitch. They'll bitch, and acutely. Yesterday they changed the craft system because it wasn't working right (apparently, I never had trouble) so now you have to do standard synths instead of rapid synths. Literally you can just click one button instead of another. I failed maybe 4 more synths than I normally do and people are threatening to quit over this.
YOU WANNA GIVE IT A DAY, ASSHOLES?
I guess I don't understand this whole attitude of needing your infantile whims fulfilled at every moment. It'll work and you'll get your rapid synths back if you give it ten fucking minutes, Jesus.
Anyway today we have "The Pen Is Mightier... than the sword" which I always thought was a sketchy saying. Hey, hey, if the pen is mightier than the sword why do actions speak louder than words?
The truth is everyone says this shit to avoid having a thought for once.

What inspires you in life? What makes you want to reach for the stars and do something truly extraordinary?

I guess sheer force of will does. I mean really anything you do is pointless so the only reason to do anything at all is because you want to do it.

Child-like wonder, I guess you could call it. I may be twenty-eight, but I can't help but see magic and beauty and mystery in almost everything I encounter.

You're 28. You're posting on Livejournal about how much your job sucks. You don't have wonder about anything.
"Child-like wonder" goes alongside "child at heart" as one of the douchiest things you can say and one of the most misleading things, too. What's with all this desire to be a child again?
Yeah, remember when nothing made sense and you couldn't do shit? Oh yeah, let me go back to those times.
Shit motherfucker, you can get in your car, partake in the MIRACLE OF HUMAN FLIGHT and be in another fucking country tomorrow if you wanted to. Tell your job to get fucked and adventure across India.
Let's see a kid do something like that.

Okay, long time no post, but I've got a fun story to share from my adult ESL class last night.

Oh this'll be fun. Let me tell my horror story after to bring the audience down.

Well, one of the topics was "Phobias" and when asked, I explained that a phobia is when you are afraid of something--very afraid.

That's not a phobia, idiot. If I'm "very afraid" of the man with a gun pointed to my face in the bank I'm not being phobic. A phobia is pathological, that is, there's a cause outside of normal fight-or-flight responses.

I guess you can't unload all this on people learning English but that's no excuse to be inaccurate.
Now, I may be a bit conservative on what I let my six and eight-year-olds watch, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who watched the trailers for Avatar and never thought what a wholesome children's movie it would be--although, apparently McDonald's did. Or maybe they just had a falling out with Disney.

Making toys for the highest grossing film of all time or another modern Disney animated flop.
Gee, McDonald's sure has no marketing sense.

(And note that I do differentiate between Vanity Press, which is predatory business, and Self-Publishing, which can be a legitimate option in a variety of situations.)

IF YOU HAD THAT MUCH TALENT YOU WOULDN'T NEED TO SELF-PUBLISH.

mood: infuriated

What exactly is our identity? An amalgamation of all our past experiences, our opinions, our reason and passion, our personality and physical attributes, or are we merely a sum of numbers, facts and details kept in a file logged somewhere in the depths of that soulless pit we call bureaucracy?

Well, really, if the movement and actions of atoms is highly regular and can be predicted and our brains are made up of nothing but atoms then freewill pretty much cannot exist, but on the other hand as you increase the number of interactions between atoms (and increase the number of atoms) the probability of an accurate prediction decays so I suppose--

Which of these definitions does today's society adhere to if something like our identity is so easy to steal?

I don't think you understand how identity theft works. They just pretend to be you to get to your money. They're not actually pretending to be you because your life is so crazy awesome.

I think in a culture like ours that celebrates the individual it is doubly atrocious to violate someone's sense of self by stealing their identity, an act on par with rape

Oh we're talking about society or something I guess.
I'm just amazed a woman was prepared to compare something to rape. Usually that's reserved for the worst crimes imaginable, and women (the people most likely to be raped if I may say so) should be extra reserved in using it for analogies.
It kind of goes back to what I said Wednesday: people immediately go to the top shelf of words to describe an emotional state because the fact is they don't feel that much and cannot properly express themselves so HUGE WORDS THAT SOUND REALLY EMOTIONAL replace actual thought.

in that it robs a person of not only their private information, but of their reputation, leaving behind a ravaged virgin whose lost innocence can never be regained, who cannot get to sleep at night because the nightmarish terror that their tormentor, their violator will return.

I'm really confused. Are we talking about identity theft (the crime) or are we talking about some kind of metaphysical "identity theft" society somehow does to you?

I understand that fear well. As a teenager I had a male family member harass me in a way that only my father's fortuitous intervention prevented from being rape.

I guess the latter, but I thought this was as bad as rape?
Now it's literally rape, I guess.

I have certainly forgiven this family member, and I'd thought I'd put those painful feelings behind me, until this morning when I investigated the arrival of a receipt for a paid traffic ticket from a county I've never heard of apparently issued to someone with a very similar name, using my information.

So it is identity theft (the crime). You seem to be confusing the actions of society with the actions of an individual. America does indeed respect the self-made man and all that shit, which is why if you notice identity theft is a heavily-punished crime.

It hurts to think I've been reduced to nothing but a series of numbers on a state issued card, and that my sense of peace and self can be so easily shattered by some uncaring and inconsiderate person's actions.

So it is a societal thing I guess. Holy fuck. Well, of course they issue a number. Do you want to organize the logistical nightmare of alphabetizing 400,000,000 people?
What about all the people with the same name?

Who we are is a fragile thing, like a butterfly.

Oh don't be so dramatic, Jesus Christ.

He stepped on a land mine in the war, The War, WWII, fighting in Europe; and spent the next two years in hospitals until they got rid of the osteomylitis by amputating from the knee down.

Oh well fuck this cunty blog, let's read his blog instead!
I bet he's not whining about identity theft or whatever. Fucker stepped on a landmine in France while being shot at by Germans, I think he's been through worse.

After his terms were up, he went into private practice and has represented people or offered legal advice up until his pace-maker failed at the age of ninety, an event he miraculously survived.

NOTHING CAN KILL THIS MAN.

It's past Wednesday, and it's not quite Friday. But I am glad it's almost over. Thursdays are my longest days

Start the long and arduous process (which I'm not getting paid for, incidentally, so my intentions must be pure) to teach English to disadvantaged youths in a high school that doesn't even have air conditioning in the morning then go to a class at 4 where I'm yelled at for not being culturally sensitive.
No, great. Really.

no, a pencil isn't and has never been considered a respectable dueling weapon

Well people are pussies and outlawed dueling so what can you do?
Every single honorable, manly means of resolving a conflict have been taken from you and people wonder why there are lawsuits out the ass now.

Granted attendance isn't what it would be if it were mandatory,

Man I wish attendance weren't mandatory on Thursday. But nope, instead I have to listen to this one cunt in particular extol the virtues of being liberal while interning in the most advantaged school in the county.
Tool. Somehow I bet he's more racist than me despite being the "most sensitive to the issue".
Oh right, this.

I brought a revision to a short story I've been playing with called "The Lawn Knight".

Not to be confused with The Green Knight, who was endlessly awesome.
Name... Ten better stories than Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
So it's about this pussy named Gawain, right, and this Green Knight comes in and challenges one of Arthur's court to a duel but none of them want to accept because they're partying and a beheading kind of puts a damper on the festivities. Eventually Gawain is kind of guilted into dueling. The Green Knight gives Gawain the first attack, so Gawain beheads him. Instead of being butthurt and dying the Green Knight just walks over and picks his head up.
The rule was, then, that the Green Knight would get a return attack in one year, and much of the story is the ensuing quest during that interim year.
Well, I've officially created a LiveJournal now. I guess I'll put up an interesting link or two for you to enjoy.
Speaking of beheadings I think I'm going to go make some gladius blades in FFXIV.
Someone has to supply the endless engine of war, hey.
This is a gladius, for those of you who didn't know. The manliest sword ever.