So (e:jason) [inlink]jason,22[/inlink] the game is pretty darn fun, though it's my first online gaming attempt so I don't really have a good frame of reference for comparison. We have a dual-processor 2.8 gig with a 256 ATI Fire GL X1 and it works very well (I don't think you need that kinda firepower really), though it does kinda tend to take over the whole system and make everything crash once in awhile (mostly when the server you're attempting to contact is too full). Which is the other problem: they have 10 servers but the one my friend signed me up to is the busiest one, and during peek hours (evenings/weekends) it becomes very crowded. Once you're in you're generally OK (if it's too full you may have to wait awhile to even get in), though if you go to a crowded city it can lag a bit. Gameplay is pretty easy. Standard rpg format: kill monsters for experience, level up, earn new spells/techs, buy new weapons/armor (though this is in my opinion is a bit prohibitively expensive for beginners). Leveling is a little slow. I am now level 21 and I've been playing about 3 weeks for usually between 1-3 hours a day (I know, I need a life). You can form groups and go on quests, you can join a clan...there's tons of stuff to do. And the graphics really are pretty darn cool. So, if you want give it a try. I don't think it's too expensive to try out for a month or two. Maybe I'll see you online (though I might reccomend not using the busy server (Bartz) that I am on).

sidenote: Chief Justice Rehnquist just went through surgery for thyroid cancer. The dude's now 80 and has cancer: he's going soon (one way or the other). This is something that really matters for a very very long time. Maybe it'll even sway me to vote for Evil #2 instead of an alternative... I still am not sure who I'm pulling the lever for on Nov. 2, I'm leaving it to my gut to make the final decision (my head is overtired from thinking about it for years now). But, I really don't want to see a courthouse populated by right-wing nuts and Christian fanatics. Really.

Sorry (e:ajay), didn't mean to offend, or give slight with my oh-so-careless use of the "c" word [inlink]ajay,165[/inlink]. I really have no idea how the Flamboya got there, or for that matter how there's bougainvillea in Dehli and San Diego. More of a colonization of agriculture and ideas than people and society. But as you say, India has a long history of colonization (which started way before the whities ever got there). And I agree that tons of cross-border integration can inspire wonderful meshings of concepts, cultures and cuisines.

Actually, in the same book, The Age of Kali Dalrymple visits the island of Réunion which is located miles south of India, halfway between Sri Lanka and Madagascar. There he finds a great mingling of cultures, ranging from exported French convicts to Madagascan ex-slaves with dashes of Tamils, North-Indian Muslims, Canton Chinese, and Yemeni Arabs (most of which were imported originally as slave-labor). Each of these cultures has brought with them a steady stream of peculiarites associated with their native lands, languages, religions, and cuisines. The result, after a couple hundred years is a truly unique blend of all of the above. He is told of an island legend:

"Grandmère Kale, who is said to live in the island's volcano, emerging to eat up Réunionais children who don't finish their homework, is a cross between the witches of European and African folklore, and Kali, the Hindu goddess of destruction."

Later a Tamil (a people from Sri Lanka) Catholic priest tells him that, "In the same family you can find a Chinese Taoist, an Indian Muslim, a Metropolitan Catholic, an African witch-doctor and a Tamil Hindu...I have many Chinese Catholics in my parish who are involved in ancestor-worship, as well as Indian ones who believe in reincarnation...it is the same with other religions: the Hindus here all eat meat and perform blood sacrifices...and it probably derives from the African gris gris [voodoo]."

Of course, some of the greatest cross-culture successes arise from the clash of cuisine. On the island they cook a unique brand of Créole which "mixes French and Indian culinary enthusiasm with a dash of Arab, Chinese, and Malagasy influence. The result is a fusion startlingly unlike any of its parent traditions. A typical Réunion meal might consist, for example, of cari z'ourite et cari poulpe (a creamy sea urchin and octopus curry) with a scattering of side dishes of puy lentils, choux choux (crystophene), rougaille (a spicy tomato chutney) and bredes (a spinach-like digestive); pudding might be gâteau patate (a sweet, heavy potato-cake)."

The inhabitants mostly speak French but also use "an impenetrable Créole patois which mixes Malagasy, Tamil and Arabic on a base of eighteenth century nautical French."

Anyone want to go for an extended Indian sea vacation? Of course it's not all happy times, as the mostly poor agrarian residents slowly cope with the rise of international tourism and the complexities which come along. Like many other tourist destinations you find a few harbor towns enjoying the material wealth of vacationers while just a half-hour's walk away dwell farmers who have never used a telephone. The clash of cultures has somehow worked to the islander's advantage now it's time to see how the real clash of a globalized economy will play out on this beautiful melting-pot of an island.

Another book by William Dalrymple, The Age of Kali, mentions the Flamboya tree. I was wondering if this was yet another India-word that we white people have converted. Alas, I find that it's a Mediterranean species, which must have been transplanted to India (like so much else in the colonized world). But who knows, maybe it was the other way around. Yet it is a beauty to behold either way.

well thanks for asking...

I have been roaming in other lands. Daring perilous quests in search of honor and the ever elusive booty. In short, I've somehow become hooked on an online game, a massively multi-player one at that. I am an elf-wizard right now. I have spells and such. I've met some friends online, well maybe friends is a strong word, but we go on quests together and earn experience points. Yeah, it's pretty much a gigantic waste of time, but I have no excuse or defense, it has sucked me in.

The game is Lineage II : The Chaotic Chronicle. The graphics are pretty neat, and there really is tons of stuff to do. There're five races, each of which has different classes to choose from. I am an Elven Mystic right now, though I'm about to advance to the next stage and have to choose between wizard and oracle. I'm leaning towards oracle, which is basically a support character, you heal and protect others with spells. Well that's it, if you don't see me ever again it's because my brain has permanently interfaced with the computer (like there wasn't enough of that going on in my house already). Here're some pictures:


Here's me with Sang, the guy who introduced me to the game in the first place, Damn you Sang!


Here's my beautiful elven face. I'm hanging out on a mountain now...


This is this hottie dark elf boy I met. We partied for awhile, and then I took him out back for a good...


A hottie-girl of my own race and me, staring into the moonlight together. How peaceful and serene the elven race is. If only...

So as a federal employee I am paid according to the General Schedule (GS). You advance laterally across the "steps" depending on weeks served (52 weeks = 1 step), and up and down the "grades" depending on hours worked (2080 hours (or 40 hrs. x 52 wks.) = 1 grade). So anyways, to get to the point here, my coworker (e:southernyankee) got her grade advancement like two weeks ago. As of this week I still had not received mine, which was strange as I got my last grade before her and we had worked the same schedule for the last year or so (we carpool together so there's not much doubt). So I go and ask my secretary (they're in charge of reporting our hours and keeping track of these sort of things), and tell her I think there's something wrong. She then pulls out these stapled together pieces of papers and starts to look through them. I ask her what she's looking at and she says that it's my records, I ask her for a copy of them. When I get back to my desk I realize that what I have is my three-year record of attendance. It is literally three pages of numbers in a couple columns scrawled in and hasty arithmetic totalling the numbers up. Every week for the last three years a secretary has been manually counting my hours and writing them down on these peices of paper. There are things crossed-out, written-over, scrawls in the margins, it's a big mess. It boggles my mind that I get a paycheck issued from the Dept. of Agriculture (which is not the Dept. I work for) that comes from Atlanta and ends up direct deposited into my bank account, but there's no kind of central system coordinating something as crucial as my raise!

Well, I looked through the thing and right off the bat spotted some problems. I work a full pay period - 80 hrs. I work another - 80 hrs. Total time worked so far - 16 hrs. What's that? Maybe you forgot a fucking zero, and lost 144 hrs. there buddy! Another pay period had me as working just one week instead of two - 32 hrs. difference. After I had dissected the thing, I came to the conclusion that I was behind 292 hrs. (almost a month of full-time work). I should have received my raise three weeks ago. I guess that's what you get when working for the government though. At least they're going to fix it and credit me with the lost pay, just sucks that I had to fix it for them.

sidenoteish: On our last pay stubs we got a little reminder to vote in November. It very nicely told us that we could use administrative leave to vote if necessary. Take a look:



Notice anything wrong? Maybe something to do with when the election is? Yes, that's right, they've got the wrong fucking date. The election is on the 2nd not the 4th. Now I'm not saying this was intentional (though it's a fact that the highly unionized federal workforce generally favors Democratic candidates) but it's a least pretty fucking lazy. Hasn't everyone of us who's at least sorta intersted in politics heard the date, 11/2, like 1000 times this season? How is it that the D.C. employee (most likely a GS-15, see above payscale) who submitted this little helpful blurb was unaware of the correct date? I will say, to be forthright, that they did have a correction on the website this morning, which hopefully everyone who may have been led astray saw. Time will tell just how many feds are standing in line to vote two weeks from Thursday.

[size=xxl] Happy Birthday Lilho!!! [/size]

Have a wonderful day, and get your ass smashed.

NY has become the first state to recognize marriages between US citizens performed in Canada. The decision so far affects only NY-goverenment workers and the availability of spousal pension benefits to gay partners. But, it may lead the way for further recognition of the rights of gay Americans married abroad. Comptroller Alan Hevesi, the trustee of NY State's Pension Plan made the decision backed up by an advisory opinion issued earlier this year by state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. Of course, the courts, and/or legislature may butt in still and overturn the decision. But it's exciting to live in the state where it's happening, too bad I still can't get in on it (will we ever get that progressive here?).

Almost forgot in all the birthday excitement. (e:tina) 's b-day is today too, shout out and I'll see you tonight for some fun fun fun.

It's (e:southernyankee) 's b-day today. We gonna party on down tonight! Now what to get her for her birthday...that's the question. Maybe you're saying I should have thought of this before the actual day, but I got it off, I gots time. We'll see...

sidenote: It's often said that we are a very litigious society (especially by those on the right who want to limit our ability to use our legal rights, or cap the amount of damages). A new report by Public Citizen shows who's really taking advantage of our legal system. According to the report, U.S.Businesses File Four Times More Lawsuits Than Private Citizens And Are Sanctioned Much More Often for Frivolous Suits. In some samples (which were done in county, state, and national levels) businesses were filing up to six times more lawsuits than individuals.

"Some of the loudest voices for restricting the legal rights of consumers and patients also are the biggest users of the court system. For example, claiming that it is inundated with class action lawsuits, the insurance industry has led the charge for federal legislation that would restrict the rights of consumers to bring such cases.

Yet in Cook County, Ill., insurance companies filed about 8,000 lawsuits in 2002 — 35 times the number of class actions filed there by individuals that year, Public Citizen found. In fact, insurers file so many suits— mostly “subrogation� suits designed to recover the expense of covering their own policy holders — that last year they asked to be exempted from a model lawsuit “reform� law that would limit citizen access to the courts and that they otherwise support."

Ralph Nader and Wesley Smith have a really great book about this subject, called No Contest It gives tons of concrete evidence detailing how much advantage corporations have when it comes to lawsuits versus individuals. When you read of the car company who made a car, knowing that the gastank placed directly in front of the rear bumper was a fire hazard, and calculated the potential cost of lawsuits filed because of this defect (which in effect means how much will we pay out if someone is burned/maimed/killed). There is a memo that actually puts numbers to these figures, in other words dollar signs next to human beings. It's disgusting. Please read.