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Jul. 21st, 2012 06:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickTaking a day off from tile and other efforts to guest-room-ize the lodge.
Item the first: After Rhythmbox and Banshee shitting kittens all over my music, I have finally installed an alternative mp3 playing utility so that I can listen to the shit-ton of music that I have. While it has far too many options for me to fully understand it, thus far it's two thumbs up for Jajuk, which appears to work smoothly despite the shit-ton of music.
Item the second: When one's fifteen year old son dies from an unexpected and accidental .38 caliber headshot from a pistol in the hand of his (also fifteen year old) friend, it's probably best if your facebook friends confine their facebook postings to things like "I am so sorry for your loss" or "Words fail me but you and your family will be in my prayers" or similar.
I'm watching facebook fail on the part of an acquaintence of mine (He's a facebook friend. We went to highschool together.) whose fifteen year old son was shot as described (on Thursday night). The general thrust of failure I'm seeing is something along the lines of Your son's dead? You might be sad now, but remember that this is all part of God's Plan. What a Friend We Have in Jesus! Praise God! Excuse me, but wtf? I'm not sure that it's possible for anyone to be so much of a Christian that he or she finds that sort of thing comforting in the ashen grey days following the death of a son.
I've seen this, a couple of years ago, when my good friend's son died. There's not much comfort to be had, just a world broken like a picture window that's had a rock heaved through it. There are things that MUST be done -- picking out his last clothing, dealing with the funeral parlor for viewing times, talking to the newspaper, making arrangements for burial or cremation, writing words to say at the funeral service, picking prayers and hymns, working with the pastor or officiant for the service, choosing a memorial stone, writing an obituary. It's a lot of stuff to get organized. Sometimes when a person is ailing, these things can be arranged or settled somewhat in advance of need... but when your fifteen year old kid and his buddy are dicking around with a pistol on Thursday night and you are being told by doctors that there's no brain activity on Friday morning, you don't have a lot of time to get the funeral arrangements set up and standing by. So, you do those chores afterward, numbly getting through them however you can. At least they're a distraction from all the broken glass where your world used to be.
And then some asshat posts on the bereaved's facebook about how the whole fucking stupid tragedy is Part of God's Ineffable Plan and that the bereaved should F. R. O. G. (Fully Rely on God -- I had to look it up.) through these hard times. You know what? I don't believe that there is a God. But, if there is, the current state of affairs is absolutely no damn way to run a railroad and God's Ineffable Plan fucking sucks.
Item the third: I've been catching up with Looking for Group, a webcomic that I follow, off and on. The plot is clearly going in the direction of (lead character) Cale-the-Elf becoming king of whatever. The comic has said as much, even. See here. Cale is the Hero and a Good Guy in this cast-of-many. It's a D&D style adventure comic so you've got dwarves and elves and gnomes and bull-like people and so forth. And there's dragons and magic and magic-users. I am a dork. (Should not be news to any of you, btw.)
One of the members of Cale's group is Richard the warlock. He's hundreds of years old, Chief Warlock of the Brothers of Darkness, Lord of the Thirteen Hells, Master of the Bones, Emperor of the Black, Lord of the Undead, and the mayor of a little village up the coast. As a warlock, Richard is immortal-ish (does not wound, get sick, die) and has massive amounts of power that goes FWOOSH and incinerates everything in his path. Richard is actually powerful enough that he weights things in favor of the little group more than is reasonable from the rest of their abilities.
Near as we can tell, Richard's power comes from spilling the blood of innocents. Like, for real innocents. Orphaned children, helpless elderly, bystanding women, that sort of thing. If he doesn't spill the blood of innocents, his power dwindles and he becomes human-er. Richard is not doing very well at spilling the blood of innocents. This was brought up as an issue quite a while ago as sort of a kangaroo court thing. Here more recently, we see Richard putting white back on himself so that he looks properly warlock-y instead of pinkishly human. And even more recently, we see Richard getting injured, which never used to happen. The undead that serve him (from his village up the coast) are becoming mortal as well because their power derives from his. The comic is quite clear about the spilling the blood of innocents business and how it is linked directly to Richard's power and well-being.
Now, when we first meet Richard, he grabs a peasant person and holds same in front of him to be shot with arrows so that Richard himself will not be punctured. It's here and do go look at the visual, please, because this is important and we're getting to the oyster stew I'm making. We don't KNOW at the time that Richard is not in any danger (it's page 2 of the comic), but he's totally not and he uses Human Shields anyway. This is because Richard is a bit of a dick. :)
Now, quite far on in the comic, we get this. In case it's not clear, we have Cale, the blond elf person, grabbing Maikos and using him as a human shield against arrows. (He does it again a couple of pages later.) This is just like Richard used human shields and it's bloody well repeated, so it's got to be important and more than just a gag. Maikos is undead (one of Richard's villagers) but the point remains. Human shield.
Pretty early on, Richard tells us that he has a destiny, one that will change him. And we know that Cale is also beset with a destiny, one that is changing him as well. Richard is humanizing. Cale is... losing his innocence.
Now, ethically speaking, how much of a Good Guy Hero can Cale continue to be if he materially depends on the power of the warlock Richard when he knows true and well that Richard's power comes from spilling the blood of innocents? There was a time when he could claim lack of clue regarding Richard, but at this point Cale can't claim cluelessness anymore. And, yeah, a man is known by the company he keeps and all that. Can Cale be a Good Guy AND at the same time materially depend on Richard when he knows Richard's power comes from an ethically intolerable source? Is it OK if Richard is trying to get better from being a warlock, y'know, only spilling innocent blood if it's for a really, really, really good cause? Or maybe Cale will get to be King and THEN deny ever previously knowing that Richard's power came from doing that so that he can disown him publicly once he has power. We shall see, I expect.
Item the final: Prada's collection for men for Fall/Winter 2012 is kind of awesome. I particularly like the guy on the left on this page. That's some seriously awesome clothing, right there.
Item the first: After Rhythmbox and Banshee shitting kittens all over my music, I have finally installed an alternative mp3 playing utility so that I can listen to the shit-ton of music that I have. While it has far too many options for me to fully understand it, thus far it's two thumbs up for Jajuk, which appears to work smoothly despite the shit-ton of music.
Item the second: When one's fifteen year old son dies from an unexpected and accidental .38 caliber headshot from a pistol in the hand of his (also fifteen year old) friend, it's probably best if your facebook friends confine their facebook postings to things like "I am so sorry for your loss" or "Words fail me but you and your family will be in my prayers" or similar.
I'm watching facebook fail on the part of an acquaintence of mine (He's a facebook friend. We went to highschool together.) whose fifteen year old son was shot as described (on Thursday night). The general thrust of failure I'm seeing is something along the lines of Your son's dead? You might be sad now, but remember that this is all part of God's Plan. What a Friend We Have in Jesus! Praise God! Excuse me, but wtf? I'm not sure that it's possible for anyone to be so much of a Christian that he or she finds that sort of thing comforting in the ashen grey days following the death of a son.
I've seen this, a couple of years ago, when my good friend's son died. There's not much comfort to be had, just a world broken like a picture window that's had a rock heaved through it. There are things that MUST be done -- picking out his last clothing, dealing with the funeral parlor for viewing times, talking to the newspaper, making arrangements for burial or cremation, writing words to say at the funeral service, picking prayers and hymns, working with the pastor or officiant for the service, choosing a memorial stone, writing an obituary. It's a lot of stuff to get organized. Sometimes when a person is ailing, these things can be arranged or settled somewhat in advance of need... but when your fifteen year old kid and his buddy are dicking around with a pistol on Thursday night and you are being told by doctors that there's no brain activity on Friday morning, you don't have a lot of time to get the funeral arrangements set up and standing by. So, you do those chores afterward, numbly getting through them however you can. At least they're a distraction from all the broken glass where your world used to be.
And then some asshat posts on the bereaved's facebook about how the whole fucking stupid tragedy is Part of God's Ineffable Plan and that the bereaved should F. R. O. G. (Fully Rely on God -- I had to look it up.) through these hard times. You know what? I don't believe that there is a God. But, if there is, the current state of affairs is absolutely no damn way to run a railroad and God's Ineffable Plan fucking sucks.
Item the third: I've been catching up with Looking for Group, a webcomic that I follow, off and on. The plot is clearly going in the direction of (lead character) Cale-the-Elf becoming king of whatever. The comic has said as much, even. See here. Cale is the Hero and a Good Guy in this cast-of-many. It's a D&D style adventure comic so you've got dwarves and elves and gnomes and bull-like people and so forth. And there's dragons and magic and magic-users. I am a dork. (Should not be news to any of you, btw.)
One of the members of Cale's group is Richard the warlock. He's hundreds of years old, Chief Warlock of the Brothers of Darkness, Lord of the Thirteen Hells, Master of the Bones, Emperor of the Black, Lord of the Undead, and the mayor of a little village up the coast. As a warlock, Richard is immortal-ish (does not wound, get sick, die) and has massive amounts of power that goes FWOOSH and incinerates everything in his path. Richard is actually powerful enough that he weights things in favor of the little group more than is reasonable from the rest of their abilities.
Near as we can tell, Richard's power comes from spilling the blood of innocents. Like, for real innocents. Orphaned children, helpless elderly, bystanding women, that sort of thing. If he doesn't spill the blood of innocents, his power dwindles and he becomes human-er. Richard is not doing very well at spilling the blood of innocents. This was brought up as an issue quite a while ago as sort of a kangaroo court thing. Here more recently, we see Richard putting white back on himself so that he looks properly warlock-y instead of pinkishly human. And even more recently, we see Richard getting injured, which never used to happen. The undead that serve him (from his village up the coast) are becoming mortal as well because their power derives from his. The comic is quite clear about the spilling the blood of innocents business and how it is linked directly to Richard's power and well-being.
Now, when we first meet Richard, he grabs a peasant person and holds same in front of him to be shot with arrows so that Richard himself will not be punctured. It's here and do go look at the visual, please, because this is important and we're getting to the oyster stew I'm making. We don't KNOW at the time that Richard is not in any danger (it's page 2 of the comic), but he's totally not and he uses Human Shields anyway. This is because Richard is a bit of a dick. :)
Now, quite far on in the comic, we get this. In case it's not clear, we have Cale, the blond elf person, grabbing Maikos and using him as a human shield against arrows. (He does it again a couple of pages later.) This is just like Richard used human shields and it's bloody well repeated, so it's got to be important and more than just a gag. Maikos is undead (one of Richard's villagers) but the point remains. Human shield.
Pretty early on, Richard tells us that he has a destiny, one that will change him. And we know that Cale is also beset with a destiny, one that is changing him as well. Richard is humanizing. Cale is... losing his innocence.
Now, ethically speaking, how much of a Good Guy Hero can Cale continue to be if he materially depends on the power of the warlock Richard when he knows true and well that Richard's power comes from spilling the blood of innocents? There was a time when he could claim lack of clue regarding Richard, but at this point Cale can't claim cluelessness anymore. And, yeah, a man is known by the company he keeps and all that. Can Cale be a Good Guy AND at the same time materially depend on Richard when he knows Richard's power comes from an ethically intolerable source? Is it OK if Richard is trying to get better from being a warlock, y'know, only spilling innocent blood if it's for a really, really, really good cause? Or maybe Cale will get to be King and THEN deny ever previously knowing that Richard's power came from doing that so that he can disown him publicly once he has power. We shall see, I expect.
Item the final: Prada's collection for men for Fall/Winter 2012 is kind of awesome. I particularly like the guy on the left on this page. That's some seriously awesome clothing, right there.
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no subject
Date: 2012-07-22 01:21 am (UTC)And as for the other items - Totally agree with item the final - way cool.
And Item the second - I second your WTF. I cannot comprehend the level of insensitivity that shows.
Hope you are doing well; since I dropped off of Facebook (in large parts due to the WTFness that goes on there) I don't interact with you as much as I used to.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-22 01:29 am (UTC)