Why Call of Duty 4 rocks--and why nuclear energy is scary

So you don't think I'm totally blowing off the holidays: Merry Christmas! Looking forward to spending some time with family, and especially some time away from work. Now on to the topic at hand.

So I just finished the single player campaign in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. WOW. The intensity, the realism, the graphics--this is an amazing game. I boycotted it when it first came out because my system couldn't run it--and after that just never got into it. (I was also a little disappointed that the series left their WWII roots). But I got it for 1/2 price a couple weeks ago (Black Friday sale), so I've been playing the single player mode. Even within the first few levels, I was amazed. One took place on a cargo ship in the North Atlantic, where you were searching for a stolen nuclear device. By the end of the level, the ship was sinking--and you had to race across catwalks that were literally turning sideways to escape before you went down with her. And that was not the most intense level--really cool stuff. Infinity Ward, who developed this game, really outdid themselves with this one. If you have a computer that can run it--or a game console (like Xbox 360) and you like FPS games--I recommend this one. Do beware however, this is not a kid's game. There is some violence that is more severe than previous games in the series. That did bother me, but I didn't find it bad enough that it stopped me from enjoying it. My favorite level, however, is what brings me to my second topic.

The former town of Pripyat, Ukraine was home to about 50,000 people until the fateful day in 1986 when the soviet nuclear power plant at Chernobyl suffered a meltdown/explosion. I was 11, so I don't remember much about it--just that this big scary thing happened in a country where the government was really mean to the people. I knew it was scary and sad, but not much more than that. In recent months, I happened to learn about Pripyat--where else? Online! With a BA in History, an interest in old things comes naturally to me. Learning about an entire town where people had been forced to evacuate in about 36 hours, leaving almost everything exactly the way it was on that day for the next 20 years, was fascinating to me. A ghost town of the nuclear age, if you will. So I started looking up pictures and reading about it. Talk about creepy--a whole area, where people couldn't go for years without fear of radiation poisoning. Guard posts blocking off roads, warning signs--no, this isn't a movie. It's real. It really happened--a group of people no different than you or me were living their lives in their town (which was only a bit smaller than the town I lived in at the time), and they heard an explosion, and saw a huge plume of smoke in the distance. Shortly thereafter, they were told to evacuate and that they would be gone for 1-2 days at most. After they were safely away--"sorry, you can't ever go back there. Forget about your old family photos, your clothes, anything you left behind. And if you do try and go back, you'll be shot or get sick and die." Can you imagine? It's so hard to fathom. And along with the pictures of a ruined town with stuff strewn in the streets, a public pool now empty and dry with old garbage in the bottom, a rusty ferris wheel towering over it all--it becomes eerie, creepy and morbidly fascinating at the same time.

And while writing this, it occurs to me that there was a small nuclear power plant operating within several miles of my town when I was growing up. I camped near there once as a boy scout. Maybe it shouldn't be quite so hard to fathom? What if it had been my town forced to flee our homes, and not to come back for decades afterwards? I have a vivid imagination, but wow--that's tough to get my head around. Public vote shut the plant down in the late 80's, apparently due to low efficiency and rising costs--but the explosion of a few years before at Chernobyl can't have been far from those people's minds when they made that decision. Say what you will, but I'm sure glad to have been living in a democracy where people could make that choice. Holy cow.

So due to my mildly morbid fascination with Pripyat, my favorite level is one where, on the trail of said nuclear device, your character has to sneak into--guess where? Pripyat, to find an evil dictator in hiding with some nationalist rebels in the abandoned town. The game developers created a detailed map of the town for the the game, and I was looking forward to 'virtually' exploring the town through the game, since I probably won't ever get there in real life (not sure I want to either). The level was so intense however, I didn't get much chance to do so--I was too busy running from crazed nationalists. I did find a more limited version in multiplayer that I was able to explore, though. Pretty cool--and creepy.

To read more about Pripyat, click here.

To see photos, click here.

Some comparison shots (COD4 vs real life) for you (click for full image):

What the heck am I doing on here anyway?

Well, I noticed that I haven't posted anything on my blog in a few months--and according to my friend Shauna, that means you're not a "real" blogger. So, while I'm not committed enough to be a "real" blogger, I thought I might as well put something in so I don't seem like a complete slacker.

I used to do family Halloween parties for my cousins every year--and though it was exhausting, I had alot of fun doing it. I'd plan for months in advance, devise new games each year, hand-draw an elaborate invitation, spend hours decorating the house, usually getting done just in time to hear the first knock at the door (okay, so I often was still finishing after that knock at the door). Inevitably, there were disappointments in the process. Some people would leave early, stating they had to get up early the next morning. I'd arrange a contest or something that required guest participation, and only a few people (or none) would participate. Or I'd just realize it wasn't as big a deal to anyone else as I was to me. Finally it reached the point where I found that I was more and more tired trying to get everything done in time for the party. I started to resent it when people didn't have time or offer to help, and to even resent having to do the preparations period. In short, it became less of a fun hobby, and more of a chore that I didn't feel like I had the time or energy for anymore. Another thing had happened too--in the passing years, my audience had grown up. And like most grown-ups, their tastes, time constraints and interests had changed. It started to feel like people weren't enjoying having the party as much--and since I was starting to feel the same way about planning it, it seemed wise to let it go. I still love Halloween-I happily tell people it's my favorite holiday (yes, including Christmas, though I like Christmas too). But it's sad to me not having anything to get excited about anymore. I still record Halloween specials to watch, or rent scary movies. But I really miss picking out new props & decorations to buy, and decking the house out in black & orange. I miss coming up with new ideas for props I can build, and thinking of something cool I can draw for an invitation. I don't really want to do a yard haunt (some punk kids would probably steal half my props the first night), so I dunno--maybe I need to volunteer for a haunted house or something. *sigh*

This Halloween I went with my friend Shauna to take her son trunk or treating, then we went to a party in the bay area. The party kinda sucked--not a good thing to hang your hopes for your favorite holiday on, ya know? Poor attendance, a DJ who thought excessive bass made up for his cruddy music selection and the fact that half the songs only lasted 30 seconds, and a dearth of really creative costumes (though Shauna got points for a well-researched costume of Ash from Pokemon) made for kind of a bummer event.

It's also a little annoying that Halloween doesn't get its fair share of street cred as a holiday, ya know? We get days off for the birthdays of dead presidents and for....uh, laboring--but the only holiday that allows you to dress up like Abraham Lincoln or Papa Smurf without being carried off by the men in the white coats and we get nuthin.' NOT COOL.

So, to help us all feel a little more Halloween 'love, enjoy the following pic (click to enlarge):

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Opening ceremonies, or why Yao Ming is the MAN.

Please note: This post is not about the government of China--it's about the people of China. I do not agree with the human rights violations and other poor practices China's government has committed-but I have been happy to watch the citizens of China being able to shine.

Also: If you haven't watched the opening ceremonies yet and are planning to--beware, there are spoilers in here.

So I watched the opening ceremonies for the summer Olympic games at my friend's house last Friday, and they were really amazing. As someone who's spent time studying Chinese history, it made me very happy to see the people of China finally coming into their own. Despite a government that still has a lot to do to clean up their act, the people of our planet's largest nation finally got their chance to shine--and it was awesome!

Though one had to overlook the fact that so many millions were being spent on something frivolous--sports games instead of more social programs to help the greatest portion of China's population, the agrarian poor--the spectacle here was fantastic. My personal favorite was the part when square pillars moving up and down formed into moving art--patterns of ripples in a pool of water, for example. The best part was the discovery that this amazing effect was not being made by fancy computers, but by MEN inside those pillared shapes that were moving them up and down. It boggles my mind to think how hard that effect must have been to pull off.

It also touched me to see and hear about how much these games mean to Yao Ming. As China's most famous athlete, he's the symbol (albeit a very, very large one) of what hosting these games means to the Chinese people. He broke his foot several months ago and there were fears he wouldn't be able to play in the games. But he worked his tail off in rehabilitation to make sure he'd be able to be there and play for his country at this historic moment. Announcers talked about how much of a dream it was for him to be able to play for his national team, in his home country. And despite not being fully recovered, he's doing just that.

On TV, the announcers called this "China's Coming Out Party"--and it certainly is. These games are a Coming Out Party for almost a third of the world's population--people with great talents and abilities who've waited decades to show the world what they can do. They've been kept behind closed doors all this time--and their government is finally creaking those rusty-hinged doors open and allowing the curious world to peek inside. And more importantly, allowing their people a small peek out.

In ancient times, the Chinese were an intelligent, creative people who contributed a great deal to our world. Gunpowder & fireworks, the compass, paper--all Chinese inventions. Were it not for the incredibly rocky history they've had, I have no doubt that China could be an amazing country today. The world currently stands in awe of the Japanese, a small island nation with seemingly endless talents for creating high quality electronics, creative video games and entertainment, and cars and trucks of a workmanship that puts ol' Henry Ford to shame. Imagine if there were 1.3 BILLION of those people. Among that large a base population, how many brilliant inventors and creative artists might there be? How many new ideas? Had the histories of China & Japan been swapped--who knows what the creators of gunpowder, the compass and paper would have come up with by our modern century?

If this trend continues--it's going to be something to see when those doors open wide. Granted, there's a good ways to go yet. But when the Chinese people can finally join the rest of the world and share their talents and abilities, their ideas, just watch out. Our Chinese brothers and sisters may just have a lot to share with the rest of the human race. I'm looking forward to it.

Ducks fly together....and so do colleges and famous animators.

So over the past several years, I've noticed a number of times that the mascot for the University of Oregon bears a striking resemblance to the world's most famous duck. See for yourself:



I've seen it on an occasional T-shirt, baseball cap, and the other day on the side of a semi truck (of all places). Being a fan of said duck, I thought "hey, that's cool. I wonder if Disney knows about it?" Turns out (thanks to Wikipedia, the dispenser of all knowledge) that they do! Apparently back in the early days, drawings of the Oregonian web-footed mascot started to resemble Uncle Walt's favorite fowl more and more. Eventually, one of the coaches from UO, who happened to know Walt, met up with him and asked permission. And since Disney was actually run by a talented, creative individual at that time (rather than the pack of money-grubbing, bloodthirsty executives that charge $25 for a hot dog at Disneyland nowadays), they got it. Amazing what a handshake could do back in '47, eh?

After seeing the noble duck on the side of a semi the other day, I started thinking having a T-shirt with him on it would be nice (since the Disney people can't seem to make a good Donald t-shirt to save their lives), and I started to look online for one. Nothing. I found loads and loads of Oregon swag, but only ONE lame t-shirt with my revered duck on it. I looked everywhere, no luck.

But the wikipedia article had one more nugget of knowledge to share. Turns out that the Disney company (sans Walt and already reforming into the all powerful, cash-worshiping empire we know today) renegotiated the license of their character in the 70's, and a time or two more since then. In the most recent one, they forbade (or at least severely limited) UO from selling merchandise with their character's likeness on it outside of the state of Oregon. And since UO was becoming a big-time sports school, and wanted to market their junk to the masses, um...en masse, they demoted the dauntless duck to "secondary" logo in favor of a stylized "O" that has all the enigmatic charm & personality of your average kitchen appliance.

And since I'm a duck fan and not a sports fan--I can only respond to this in the manner our dear duck friend would respond:

PHOOEY!!

Sheesh Disney, get over yourselves. :P

UPDATE: Wouldn't you know it, right after I get done with my cleverly-worded rant about a t-shirt, I find this. Get one of your own and support Donald! (and UO, if you're into that sort of thing).

Settling...or Settlers....or something.

So a girl on an email list that I subscribe to (for young singles in my church) sent out an email today with a link to an article., and invited discussion:

"The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough"
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200803/single-marry

The author made many good points about why "settling" for someone that doesn't have everything you want is better than hoping the person you want will come along, in particular those who (like myself) aren't getting any younger. She feels that "settling" has gotten a bad rap, and we look at it negatively when we really shouldn't. She talks about how her priorities have changed since she was in her 20s--and now in her 40s, as a single mom, she wishes she just had someone to partner with her in building a life. He might not be perfectly handsome, he might not have a great singing voice or write beautiful poetry, heck he may not even "connect" with her--but she feels that if he was a good dad, and dependable, he'd be worth having. Or something like that. The articles meanders a bit, but it makes some interesting points.

I'm not married. I'm also 32--and in my faith, those two don't really (or aren't supposed to) go together. You're expected to marry in your 20s, have a few children and be well into a career by now. I don't meet that criteria. I find it incredibly ironic that people counsel individuals in my situation to "not dwell on" the fact that I'm not married, "don't obsess about it" and be "happily single." JOKE!! Just not a funny one. How the heck am I supposed to do that when my faith is ALL ABOUT THAT? Every week at church, I'm surrounded by young married couples. Every time I'm about to check out an attractive woman, I have to remind myself she's married and turn my attention elsewhere. And the church's idea of supporting me in this struggle is to put me into a singles program that includes everyone from age 31 to.....dead. Riiiiiiiiiiight. This after coming out of a very supportive "Young Single Adult" program that was tailored to the ages from 18-30. You might start to feel a little old for the crowd at the tail end, but at least you're not looking into Social Security. Holy crap.

Now the church doesn't actively preach "settling"--nor do I think they ever will. When you're LDS, and believe that marriage is for eternity (not just "til death do us part"), it changes that dynamic a bit. Certainly, you better kinda like spending time together, or eternity's gonna get old real fast. At the same time, I have heard church leaders say "any 2 people that are living the gospel of Jesus Christ can be compatible." So it's really left to a personal thing. If you're really that hard up, and you feel it's right for you--you can make the choice to "settle" or not. But of course, make sure to include God in the decision through prayer. That's what I've gotten out of what I've been taught anyway. I think the church would much rather you be in love with that person, and happy with them--but if you choose to settle they won't stop you.

But my personal take is this---settling is a bad idea. I say that because I've tried it in relationships before--with catastrophic results. "She likes me, why not?" is a dangerous line of thinking, in my experience. It only made me more miserable, since instead of just being lonely, now I felt dishonest. Feeling like that for the rest of my life is a depressing thought. Of course how depressing is it to think about waking up on Christmas morning when I'm 55 or 60 to an empty house? Nobody to open presents with, or watch It's a Wonderful Life on Christmas Eve. Then again, do I want to be jealous of George Bailey because I "settled"? Ay yi yi....

The author of that article does tone things down a bit though--she frames it this way: we grow and mature, and our priorities change. That guy that didn't seem dreamy enough to her 10 years ago, might not seem half bad now. Maybe a guy that plays volleyball and is in good shape isn't as important at this point as the guy that would be willing to get up and feed the baby at 3am, even if he does have a receding hairline. We're all gonna get old and ugly eventually anyway.

She has a good point--but I still have trouble with the idea of "settling". Here's how it is for me: I had what I felt was the perfect girl many years ago. We were in love, and I cared for her as I have cared for no one else before or since. It SHOULD have worked--but it didn't. My happily ever after fell in the gutter and washed down the drain (to complete the analogy, it was probably recycled into someone else's), and I've never come even remotely close to that feeling since. So here's the rub--do I want to "settle" for someone I can tolerate, or am fond of, or even kinda like, and accept that as the best I can do--when I know how good it can feel? One of my favorite songs contains the following lines:

Now I've swung back down again,
It's worse than it was before
If I hadn't seen such riches,
I could live with being poor

And that's the long and the short of it (and the third such phrase I've used in this rather verbose post). I've been rich--very rich. So poverty --no matter how comfortable--will always be (at least a little) bitter. Or maybe bittersweet.

Heck, maybe I can hire a lonely female friend to come watch It's A Wonderful Life with me every Christmas Eve. Then we can talk about how much we envy the main characters. Any takers? Now accepting applications.

P.S. And now, just because (mainly because this page is in need of pictures)--a picture of a cat in a sink.

Goethe/Live Oak/Riverbend/Some Maidu word most people won't try to pronounce Park

So a local park along the American River is having it's name changed, because the man it's named after apparently promoted eugenics, a 19th century theory that mental and physical defects are hereditary and that people with mental illness should be forcibly sterilized so they wouldn't have children and "pollute" the healthy hereditary lines. Later on people used it to justify racism and other rotten causes.

Pretty messed up, I agree--but as a student of history, I'd also point out that people had alot less knowledge and alot more biases back then. Besides, people are still using foolish ideas to justify their own, more foolish ideas. In 100 years we'll probably be taking their names off of park signs too. I respect the gesture, it's a nice thought. But it seems kind of pointless. Also interesting is this--wikipedia says Alexander Graham Bell was a proponent of eugenics too! Guess we all better stop using our phones :) I sincerely doubt there are many historical figures that didn't have something stupid they did/believed in during their lifetimes. But I guess we pick and choose who we're going to be proud of, and who we'll be ashamed of.

Other people will be wondering about the dumb stuff we concerned ourselves with in some far-off day. Will they condemn us for buying Kraft Mac & Cheese, since Kraft is owned by the Philip-Morris company, who knowingly sell addictive products that cause cancer and emphysema? What will they say about the cheap products we buy that are made by people who couldn't afford to buy the product they make themselves, since they're paid so poorly? Or about us depending on fossil fuels for transportation, when there are clean, non-polluting alternatives that would work just as well? And how about the millions we spend on entertainment while people are living homeless on the streets? What will they say about our society that centers around the mighty dollar? About the way we spend hours upon hours struggling our lives away to get this strange currency, often at the expense of growth, learning & exploration that could have made us better people while we lived? They'll be pulling our names off signs faster than you can blink, I betcha.

So the park system has asked the local populace to vote on several choices for the new name (hence the title of this post). I personally voted for the Maidu word--even though the locals won't bother learning how it's pronounced and will be slaughtering it for generations to come. I like the idea of giving some props to the Maidu--who have been so reduced in our time that I'd never heard of them until I took a class on local Anthropology. And I've lived here almost all my life! I never really liked the park's original name anyway--no one could agree on how it was supposed to be pronounced.

So I guess I'm saying--we should never honor bigotry or hatred--but we should be careful, lest we end up with no heroes at all. After all, nobody's perfect.

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end

Not that this is a new beginning, mind you. I just must be sufficiently bored to have started one of these "blog" things. And I think about different random things that I thought might be interesting to look in on later, when I'm in a different state of mind. And I also love that lyric, so it's worth repeating.

One thing I was thinking about this evening--does the LDS culture cause singles to be more concerned about age differences than someone outside the faith would be? Mormons are so marriage-obsessed that I find myself the male equivalent of an old maid at the ripe age of 32, looking at profiles on LDS dating sites, wondering what's wrong with me--so the tide of thoughts naturally flows in that sort of direction. It just makes me curious--I wonder if girls who are not LDS are less concerned about age differences? I don't really have any basis for conjecture in that area, only one girl who was 27 and said in her profile "no one over 30!" Personally I would be willing to date someone 5 years older, if we clicked, but that's just me. A somewhat vengeful part of me hopes that young lady stays single into her 30s and comes across a profile just like hers to put her in her place. Perhaps she'll feel differently with the shoe on the other foot, eh? It's just one of many requirements so many women seem to have on their profiles that I don't meet--so I try not to worry about it. But I do admit she's an anomaly, most LDS women don't seem near as concerned about age differences.

Playing alot of Guild Wars in the last few days, balanced out by alot of Burnout Paradise on the PS3 :) There really is nothing quite the same as boosting up to asinine speeds, making a huge jump, only to make a spectacular crash upon landing, watching your 3D rendered metal carcass smoosh up like an accordion. And Guild Wars new Eye of the North expansion is proving pretty enjoyable too. I spent an hour or two this afternoon "driving" a giant scorpion-turned-siege-tank around, killing monsters. Fun stuff.

My biggest frustration at the moment is my shiny new HTPC--which loses significant shine due to the fact I can't get it to go into standby, wake up to record, then go back into standby, without crashing. Tried everything save wiping the hard drive to start over, nothing works. Guess that's my next step.

Ah well, tomorrow starts another week of well-paid, but fairly meaningless work. Yay! :P

P.S. A Burnout Paradise vid for your enjoyment. :)