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Here's a disturbing report from the similar event in Austin, Texas.  Its about five minutes.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=HTU5lPzKvjI

16 dead and 31 wounded

Oh, and someone published the Virginia Tech shooter's screenplay from his writing class:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/0417071vtech1.html?link=rssfeed

Violent films and vidego games do have an effect, I believe.   Albeit, NOT solely responsible.   The same pundits who smear the blame on videogames are doing so while they turn the names of murderers into celebrities.

Natural Born Killers is a movie glorifying violence but if you look closely there's a political statement in there too.   

this community has got to have 8 times the number of lurkers these days!    Ahem, but I am told by certain authors that to appeal to a person you must address him/her individually.

Dear Sir or Madam lurking this forum,

We are a nice group here, and as you can see we act maturely compared to the majority of internet forums.   If you are here you already share a common interest and that is your love of adventure games.  Almost a dying (well who are we kidding).... a completely dead art form.   Sign the petition to bring them back by introducing yourself and if you choose, tell us about your experience with AGS.

But is no one else enraged over response times?   In the 60's a similar event happened at my college where a man holed up in a bell tower and shot 16 people dead and wounded a number of others.   Police were strategically trying to stop him.  Finally several cops were able to break through the shooter's barricade and kill the sniper.  This event caused the city to budget its SWAT team etc.   

What I don't understand is how two hours go by without informing the community about murders on campus.   So that students and faculty could have known not to go to class.   And if the first murder was unsolved WHY weren't there patrols on active duty when the second spree started???   ...  was the administration trying to keep the first set of murders under wraps?  33 is a huge loss and I don't think many people are keeping in mind that this nation is very quickly becoming a police state already with its patriot act and homeland security.

I just don't understand why citizens' liberties are being yanked away when it is indeed the police who are slacking...

[Sirens of Titan]

Sirens of Titan.  That is the easiest read.   I finished it in about two days.   But the concepts are so rich and the imagery is really really stimulating.   My memory of Sirens is almost like I imagined a movie in my head.


I love Breakfast of Champions and Slaughterhouse but I never understood why those were his most popular.   Cat's Cradle is addictive and makes more sense to be so popular.   There's one that I really like but I don't recommend it to a first time reader because the narrator is so well disguised from being Kurt.    And that's Bluebeard.   Its about an eccentric Armenian painter who used to develop camouflage for the military on account of his expertise of art.   And he became the biggest embarrassment in the expressionist movement when all his famous pieces melted away due to using faulty paint.   So years later a houseguest insists that he write an autobiography, and the book he writes floats in between his guest's antics and the past she's forcing him to share.  All the while there is a potato barn on his property with three large padlocks.   Nobody knows what's inside and he refuses to tell anyone.   Simply a brilliant novel but read another one of Vonnegut's books first!

* Kurt Vonnegut is mulch!

In almost every one of Vonnegut's books there was a theme regarding dealing with death.   It was always very casual.   An older man whose friends have passed into the blue tunnel of the afterlife.    In Galapagos he listed those soon to die with an asterisk before their name.  In Slaughterhouse 5  a man dies and "so it goes."   In Slapstick, he would quote Laurel and Hardy's "hi ho!"

So very comical and wise this man.   Don't mourn so much as celebrate what the man accomplished.  And if you find yourself in a library pick up something like Cat's Cradle or Breakfast of Champions.    Oddly, Ive been on a Vonnegut binge lately and just finished Jailbird.  My current favorites are Slapstick, Galapagos, and Sirens of Titan.

What you'll find is that he was a very witty man who crafted his words after Mark Twain.  After reading that kind of wit, there's not a whole lot else that will satisfy.   So it goes!

Ah, well if you had an RCA converter I guess you digitize .... ah nevermind.  II'm sure I'll find it somewhere online one day.  In english maybe.

Seriously?   Would be up for making a copy?   I must see this movie!

Before you chastise me for my Monkey Island spin-off...  Realize that this is the title of a 1956 film.    http://imdb.com/title/tt0056461/



In the film there is a theme park.   There is an island inhabited by animals who act like people.   And the bad guy is....

See for yourself!!!!!!!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFZ2X6hrk6o

Did Ron Gilbert watch this movie?  I would put the probability at "high."  Does this movie cheapen the implied meaning behind "the Secret of Monkey Island?"  Yes!  Is there a secret at all?   No!  Its just a reference!  Yay, we can put that one to bed, eh?   This might help explain Ron's hesitation to give details away about the "true ending" to MI2.

Eddie Murphy's role in Dreamgirls seems to be based on James Brown.   It was odd to watch that movie last night because of certain events that happen in that film.

How is mankind with its nukes any different than a bear ripping up a tree trunk?   Its just the scale of the destruction. 

Language implies intelligence.  The only problem is that no one has defined that intelligence of a baby who learns how to speak.   So humans speak.

I find, for the most part, that intelligence is a social trait.   We're not talking about running around and bumping your head on a tree stump.   Because animals aren't morons.  They're instinctual entities.   But they have no langauge and likewise, do not have many of the social distinctions that humans have. 

Do orcas kill each other of their kind?   Do wolves kill those in their immediate circle?  I think not.  Dolphins, they live in harmony until meeting groups outside their own.   We are animals.  Try another point of view and I will be happy to disprove it.

Yes, even more innebriated.   I am orangatang. 

I'm with Helm on this one but the only clarification I'll add is that humans, during one (call it fortunate) turn of evolution, developed speech and the ability to form languages.

Linguists propose that humans developed language around the time tools were invented.  Humans needed some way to express how to use a tool to younger generations, also money in the form of tokens and whatnot, gave humans a system in which to gain an understanding with each other.  Spoken word offered humans into a category beyond "animal".

But thinkl about yourself.  If your parents kept you in isolation, away from langauge and the proper role models, you as a human would behave much like an animal.

Make sense?  It should, but of course I am currently innebriated.

Highlander II

Whatever happened to "there can be only one?"

I'm done resenting my Southern Baptist captors.

Seriously, I was held in a cage and beaten with Bibles.  Helm, I think you had a little bit more laid back experience to understand.

I don't think it's really in opposition to science, though.

Man descended from monkeys!*   There was no Adam and Eve!  How's that??

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,,1747926,00.html


*among other things

I never intended to debunk the Bible as bad literature.   It's truly inspiring and has done more good than harm in the world.  Anything that joins so many people together in a common bond must be looked upon with respect.  But it is literature.   Regardless what's a poem and what's a fact.... it's a string of words in a book.   It must give way.

Eranan,  the example I chose was Genesis.   We could toy with others if you' like.   But I don't want you to feel conflicted.   I like to debate because I am fleshing out what I believe by writing.    If I didn't express them the  thoughts and feelings would swim around aimlessly in my head.  And it would weaken me with  lack of direction and organization.

Christianity shouldn't be frowned upon for "twisting words around" due to the fact that most religions do.   Before the advent of the printing press, and even before written language, religion was all the more flexible.   In the native American tribes they used spoken language to pass down the myths and the names of the gods.   The mythology would change with almost every generation.  The stories would grow in complexity and be amended.    So Christianity and every other religion has its fair share of exploiting language as a failsafe.   But with written language there is now something new.   Accountability. 

get a refund or a credit to see another movie.  I find it kind of hard to believe.

Eager, definitely.  Altho Ive never said that the movie's content was bad.   The theatre is hardly responsible for that.  Theaters have a responsibility for image quality and sound quality.   They'll ask you for a reason in most cases.  I watched "Walked the Line" and the screen went blurry a couple times.  We told management afterward and got gift cards for another movie.   It's pretty easy but you don't want to act like an ass to some poor employee who's getting minimum wage.

Ive gotten "money back"  for bad reel changes, blurry image quality, bad audio.. and once every often - the movie stopping and never coming back on.  One time I got to see three movies for free because a movie was late to arrive.   I saw two Kurosawa and another one (May?) and I wasn't even there for Kurosawa.  I had just overheard people were getting in for free.  It was such a wonderful coincidence because I was introduced to Kurosawa who is still one of my favorite filmmakers.

So yes, theaters want you to enjoy yourself but only complain if they screw up technically.   If people complain because the movie was "bad"  there will be limits put on refunds. 

Optimism is still a pretty cool thing.  It doesn't apply much to media when there are obvious examples of crap:   Uwe Boll's movies and William Hung songs.....

but there are times when people witness an exciting marketing campaign and then experience a disappointing product.   (For instance, they see a cool trailer or hear good word of mouth.)  And then the movie just sucks.

But there is a trend on and off the internet to criticize everything.  To sit above the subject and look down on it.  And then preach about how bad it is.   I would cite Harry Knowles as one of the first to throw his opinion around the internet and actually get a following.... AND furthermore encourage other people to spread their opinions around.   And its sort of sad, and I'm guilty of the cynicism myself.   But its good.

Its good because it opens a dialogue.  And as long as the dialogue stays above the petty disputes of the individuals- its as close to anythign democratic that you'll ever get.  Arguments form, people find people to like or hate.  Special interest groups form.....  there's a whole lot that stems from opinions, good or bad.