The Blog is dying... again.

I hope this is simply because of the winter holidays (Entropy and The King of the Blog have already admitted to this and is the reason that my post is late). I cannot speak for the other posters, but at this rate the blog will die again because once you start the habit of not posting, it gets worse unless you do something about it.

Last week, I promised that I would do less of a cope out post, but I'm afraid that I'll have to for now (I'll update this with an actual post later, hopefully). I do hope that the blog revives after the break, as it has been neglected.

Short P

i

Apologies

As you may have noticed, there was a lack of post yesterday. This was due to what I shall label as preparation and early celebration of the Winter-een-mas season.

Side note: If you are unfamiliar with Winter-een-mas, it is a holiday that lasts the entire last week of January, but the season begins with the new year. It is a holiday entirely dedicated to video games and those who play them made up by Ethan of Ctrl+Alt+Del.

With luck, this lack of posting will soon be remedied.

Once again, my apologies.

~ Entropy

Synopsis for Week 6

Greetings and Salutations,

Happy holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy New Years, and what not.

On Tuesday, Entropy continued discussing the benefits and downsides of college, and the blessings of reliable internet connections in Unrelated Title is Unrelated.

On Wednesday, the King of the Blog finished discussing Cons for the time being in Back to Scamming.... Cons....

Also on Wednesday, Defender of the Blog posted about the webcomic How I killed your Master by Brian Clevinger in [insert kung fu pose here].

On Friday, The Professor of the Blog ranted about the destruction of internet memes by television and the separation that must exist between the two in Thank Goodness, Lava.

As always, feel free to go back and read these incredible posts if you missed them, to comment on them (please do, whenever you want) and to argue over things as commenting people are wont to do.

Live long and prosper,

King of the Blog

Merry Christmas from TBCRH!!

Enjoy your holiday~!

Thank Goodness, Lava.

So, The King of the Blog and I were playing the original Super Smash Brothers yesterday (On the N64, which is his forte) and I accidentally fell off the side in the Brinstar map. Lucky for me, the lava was there, so I hit the lava, took a lot of damage, and flew up into the sky, hence the title.

Enough about random inside jokes. On with the post. Today, I will be discussing something very dear to me; something that may also be dear to you: The Internet. More specifically, I'm going to be talking (ranting) about how TV ruins the Internet's memes and cultures. For reference, here is a video on Youtube that I'm sure you all have heard/seen (Bed Intruder) and here's a recently remade version sponsored by 'Lopez Tonight' (Chimney Intruder).

Are your ears bleeding yet? Good, then explaining this will be much easier. That was awful. Like seriously, television, stay away from mai interwebs!!! lol, but seriously, they really tried hard to make a funny parody, but it just didn't work at all. Herein lies the fundamental problem that businesses, television stations/programs, etc... have: they don't know how to branch out into the internet. Here's the other problem: no one who uses the internet cares about them unless they specifically search for their site. If I'm just browsing the internet, I don't care about your television program. Moreover, if you shove it in my space by spamming ads, I'm going to hate your show/product, which is the opposite of what they want. No one cares about their Facebook pages either. Really, there are two types of people that become fans of these people online: their hardcore fans, who they don't need to reach out to, and people that 'like' their page in order to win a prize or something (occasionally fan pages on Facebook offer prizes to random fans of their page). And, a lot of the updates are just annoying, so people 'hide' them from their newsfeed.

This is a huge problem for businesses because the Internet is possibly the single greatest way to advertise and expand one's user base. The problem is, no one knows how to use the Internet to accomplish this. The end result is that the business spends a bunch of money that results in a little attention and a lot of frustration.

Sorry about the short post, but it's Christmas Eve, and I have things I want to do. I promise next week's post will be better.

Hide yo children,
The Professor of the Blog

[insert kung fu pose here]

Oh hey, it's Wednesday. I was supposed to do a post last Thursday. xP Apologies to all, I was enjoying the first day of Christmas break. Aaaand after that, it slipped my mind. Anyway, posting today, and hopefully I'll remember to post in two days as well. Anyways, enough excuses. On with today's webcomic plug: How I Killed Your Master.

HIKYM is a fantasy webcomic written by Brian Clevinger, of 8-Bit Theater and Atomic Robo (which is a print comic book, not an actual webcomic. I unfortunately don't have the funds to buy the issues and review them, but I'm impressed by what I've seen) fame, and Warbot in Accounting infamy. Set in medieval China (is medieval the right term?), we follow the path of Liu Wong, a young orphan who becomes the greatest martial artist of the century.

HIKYM is still a rather fledgling comic in its own right, with only 70 pages under its belt. So far it's got a solid storyline and the scripting shows a level of skill we've come to expect of Brian over the years, but most of the characters are rather two-dimensional. Granted, there hasn't been much time for character development, but so far I'm not seeing a whole lot of progress in that direction.

The main character, Liu Wong, is the son of Liu Fang, a renowned martial artist, and former member of the 5 Dragons, a peace-keeping organization consisting of 5 combat prodigies. After he has mellowed out and settled down, an old nemesis tracks him down and poisons him, seizes his land and his wife, and throws his son out on the streets. Liu is taken to Master Fei, an old friend of Liu Fang, with the intent that Wong should learn Fei's family style: the Five Mantis Fist. After proving his worth and natural potential to Fei, Wong is taught the art and sent on his way to the Tiger Knuckle school of martial arts in the desert. In the course of his training, Wong has learned that his father's inimitable style was a composite of his own style, as well as the styles of his four compatriots. Wong is currently trained in two of the five schools of martial arts... it will be interesting to see how he fights when he has mastered all of them.

I'd say this comic is PG overall. A bit of blood, lots of action, but minimal swearing, and no sexual content. It's a great webcomic, and maybe I just haven't given it enough time, but I'd have to give it a B average. The story is great, but the characters are rather flat, and the art... takes a bit of getting used to. It's not bad by any means, but it's a stark contrast to the cleaner styles of Atomic Robo and Warbot in Accounting. Still, very nicely done, Brian.

-Defender of the Blog, RTB

Unrelated Title is Unrelated

Hello, everyone! Here I am with Part 2 of the "Things I Learned the Value of at College". For some reason, the internet gods have decided to give my laptop power again, but I cannot leave this post half-completed. Onward to the list!

Sleep

I must make a slight change to my comments on sleep. If you, like me, have friends that are somehow more nocturnal than yourself, sleep over the break is also impossible. All thoughts to the contrary were just futile hopes that will be smashed when you figure out that no day of hanging out will end before midnight. Seeing as leaving the fun is out of the question, just learn not to need sleep. In the end, it will help you in college as well.

Not Paying For Utilities

A large positive point to dorm life is that the amount I pay is constant no matter how much hot water I use or how high I set the AC. Our heater doesn't work there, but we also have people to come and fix it for free. If we weren't so busy studying and being lazy the past week or so, we could've been very comfortable. Laundry is also factored in to the housing costs. At home is a different story. I don't want to waste any money here and, as such, I'm doing a very accurate impersonation of a popsicle.

Dorm Life

My college has very nice dorms aside from the windows that don't open. I may have the smallest room of all 4 in the suite, but I have my own space that, by necessity, is actually cleanish and lockable. In that room, I am able to roll over and work on my laptop without ever getting out of bed much less going downstairs. Up to twenty feet from my room is the kitchen that is filled with things I bought so I always know what I have and, most importantly, what I can make in the least amount of time. It's all the cheapest food to be found, but college makes it a challenge to live on as little money as possible and I enjoy coming up with rather inventive ways to accomplish that. Without doubt, the best feature of dorm life is freedom (no offense, parents). I am infinitely thankful for being able to do what I please, invite people over, and eat and sleep on whatever schedule I feel best suits my class schedule -- often times meaning I get up, eat, go to class, take a nap, eat, do homework, eat, and go back to sleep to repeat the process the next day. Now, I'm not one of those people to have huge parties, get in trouble, or do any number of things "normal" college kids do, but it's nice not to have to explain your plans to anyone particularly because you don't really have any until minutes before you execute them.

Home Life

The good thing about being home is being able to get a little farther away from everyone in those times I do want to be alone. I don't have someone living in the room next to me, so I can turn up the music as loud as I like (which is not always loud, but is always accompanied by some sort of singing which can get very loud). I also like not having to hear what my roommates are doing especially when those things include blasting game shows and shouting out all of the answers or vacuuming from 9-11pm. Along those lines, I like having my own TV that I can watch in peace. Of course, family is also a positive point, but, seeing as I live with my cousin at college, family is never far away anyway.

Living On Little Or No Money

As much as this sounds like a terrible thing, I sometimes like the challenge and getting to exercise my creativity to fill basic needs. I once survived 4.5 days on the leftovers from the previous weekend and a sandwich. If that isn't skill, I don't know what is.

Having Money

I don't exactly have a lot of experience with this in or out of school, but I hear it's a nice thing. I can only hope that the lab pays me soon and I can sell my textbooks in order to get the ones I need for next semester, get presents for friends, and *gasp* maybe have a little left over for me and my growing list of things to buy. If anyone knows of any scholarships or money giveaways, now is the time to tell me.

I have a mission for you this week: comment on this post. If college has changed the value of something for you, taught you something, given you advice to share, or scholarship information to give out, comment about it. If you aren’t in college yet, look for the advice and maybe even take some of it.

Until next Tuesday!

Note: my post may be a bit late due to circumstances and activities that have yet to be verified.

~ Entropy

Synopsis for Week 5

Greetings and Salutations,

Happy holidays, Merry Christmas and what not.

On Tuesday, Entropy discussed the benefits and downsides of college, and the blessings of reliable internet connections in Et tu Internet?

On Wednesday, the King of the Blog explained some more why Nerds are persecuted and some of the divisions of Nerddom in My life for Aiur!

On Friday, The Professor of the Blog discussed the different types of apocalypses and how to best survive them in You, the Apocalypse, and How You Can Survive.

As always, feel free to go back and read these incredible posts if you missed them, to comment on them (please do, whenever you want) and to argue over things as commenting people are wont to do.

Live long and prosper,

King of the Blog

You, the Apocalypse, and How You Can Survive.

Let's face it; the world is going to end eventually (or at least degrade into a global dystopia). We need to prepare for this inevitable outcome, yet no one really seems concerned. Well, look no farther, because this post will guide you on what you should do for 10 different Apocalypses. That's right: 10!!!!

Zombie Apocalypse: Ah, this is a classic. Zombie infection starts and slowly takes over 99% of the human race. If you happen to have survived the initial infection, here's what you're going to want to do.

• Secure/build a fortress of some kind. Needs to be strong and easily defensible (i.e. no blind spots).
• Gather survivors. They might betray you when things get rough, but if you're worried about that, you can use them as zombie bait.
• Collect supplies. Food and Ammunition are very important for survival (duh).
• Repeat until you either A) Secure a long term location, B) Die

Vampire Apocalypse: And you thought the zombie apocalypse was bad. This is just awful. Vampires are superhuman beings that feed on you, which spreads similar to the zombie infection. Basically, unless your a complete BAMF, you'll die pretty quickly. If you do manage to survive, here's what you can do to survive:

• Lay low. For real. Ideally, you can live in an secret underground chamber, but that isn't always plausible.
• Develop insane martial arts/weapon skills. Guns probably won't help you that much against them. Swords, axes, and the like are probably the best bet for a weapon.
• Stay alert. Vampires, unlike zombies, can be very stealthy and can easily kill you if you don't practice CONSTANT DILIGENCE!!

Hostile Alien Invasion: This can vary so much because of a couple factors. Use this quick quiz to determine your course of action:

1. Do they have mind powers?
2. Do they have advanced weaponry?
3. Do they stay in their ships/vehicles?
4. Do they speak English?
5. Are they interesting in dominating Earth?

Results: 

0-1 Yes: Okay, they aren't too powerful, so with some military might and disease, you can probably take them down.

2-3 Yes: Though buggers aren't they? Probably very intelligent compared to humans, but don't let that scare you. Shoot 'em down.

4 Yes: Super strong. It's a long shot, but if you have a brave soul who is willing to suicide bomb the mothership with a weapon/disease/etc..., you can do it. Good luck.

5 Yes: You're screwed. Find another planet.

Global Pandemic: Like a zombie apocalypse, except you can't defend yourself. Isolate yourself from humanity. Then wait (Alternatively, head to Madagascar).

Machine Armageddon: If there's one thing that we have that machines don't, it's stupidity. Machines predict the obvious or intelligent choice, so the stupid choice catches them off guard (Unless it is systematically used). Here are some tips on how to survive:

• Take down the mainframe. This should be your primary objective, as it provides the machines with direction.
• Gun 'em down. Lucky for you, machines are not invincible, so it's just a matter as finding a weakness/weak-point and fill 'em with lead.
• Keep your secure information off of computers if at all possible.

Asteroid Impact: Great. An asteroid is en route to Earth. Determine a course of action based on the size of the asteroid.

• Impact would drastically change surface: Build a fallout shelter for the time of impact, lay low for a few days, and come out when it's safe.
• Impact would destroy the Earth: Build/steal/board a spaceship and get away!!

Global Anarchy: All of the world's governments have collapsed. It's a dog eat dog world where the toughest rule and the weakest crawl away and die. You have a few courses of action:

• Be one of the strong: Take over a place and establish your dominance. This makes you a primary target for others who want your property, so it's not the best option.
• Create a closed and mutual/equal settlement: Get some friends, and develop a free and fair society. Beware of conquers.
• Go into hiding.

 Nuclear Holocaust: Build/inhabit one of the new nuclear fallout shelters (These actually work, and only cost a couple hundred-thousand dollars! A worthy investment (I'm not kidding here)). Go into the shelter during the holocaust and stay there indefinitely

Ice Age: The world froze over. Well, at least your food will be well preserved.  Well, develop a shelter and keep it as warm as possible. Stay there unless it is necessary to venture out. If it is, dress warmly and go in groups.

Natural Disaster: Nature decided to give you some payback for all the crap she put up with. Yeah, this is the apocalypse as predicted by Revelations. Basically, natural disasters will tear up the world. All you can do is build a shelter and hope it holds.

That's all for this week. Enjoy your winter break~!

Professor of the Blog

Et tu Internet?

Welcome, all, to another edition of Posts by Entropy. Today is going to be a little bit different because I’m not at college anymore. While this should be incredibly exciting after the months of work I’ve put in, it only means that I have SERIOUS INTERNET CONNECTION ISSUES that I didn’t have before. As such, the only connection I can get is on a computer with a broken sound card. Now, this creates a little bit of a problem for talking about music. Generally, being able to analyze it involves actually hearing it. Thus, I’m going to have to switch up my topics this time.

For your entertainment, I am going to make a list of things the value of which college has made me truly aware.

A Reliable Internet Connection

The lack of reliable internet causes a variety of problems. For example, at my house there are three computers. If the internet doesn't work with mine, I'm forced to use another one. The other two are ancient and just barely above useless. Both are slow, one has a broken sound card, and the other one is too buggy to even know what the real problem is. For some reason, the internet gods have decided that only the one I'm on shall work for any extended period of time. This not only makes it difficult to post on time or on the right subject, but it keeps me from playing any internet-based games on my laptop (which is all of them). I am now in the painful situation of being a gamer cut off from the games I have become accustomed to playing for the past few months (aka Minecraft which does not work offline for some reason and would be futile to attempt on a laggy computer such as this one, and DDO) as well as being cut off from skype which is a major medium of communication for friends.

A Computer That Doesn't Automatically Skip A Line Upon Hitting Enter No Matter What You Set It To

This annoys me to no end as I have a very specific format I wish to write in and I'm not able to do so.

Sleep

Sleep is good. College is not conducive to sleep for three reasons: working in the lab kept me in class/work from 10-6pm some days, homework takes time that sleeping might ideally occupy, and my friends do not go to my college meaning that every weekend is a series of nights even later than during the week. Now that I'm out for a bit, I have a chance at getting sleep once in a while if I can pull myself away from other projects.

Projects

I haven't been back for a full day yet and I can already think of a million things I want to do over the next month. I've started one so far and it's difficult to keep from jumping to all of the others in an attempt to do all of them right now. My only hope is that I'm able to remember them all long enough to finish them.

Video Games

College has fed my addiction. I know few people there to hang out with, so my computer gets a good deal of attention. In addition, friends in other places can easily join in via skype or in-game chat. It's a solid form of entertainment. The only problem is that my laptop is not a gaming computer. It can't handle a good deal of games that I'd like it to *COUGHCOUGH*PORTAL*COUGH* while one, admittedly terrible and laggy, computer here can. It's worth playing around the issues on this prehistoric machine and I finally have the chance to again. Portal, Spore, one simply called Pirates!, and, dare I even attempt it, The Sims are all on my list for this break. Granted, Portal is really the only one I'm interested in, but I've gone without the others for so long I'll probably end up playing them as well.

Nerds/Nerdy References

My college is painfully devoid of nerds. I have found four and am friends with two though I don't hang out with them often (which should be remedied). I never knew how, little by little, I had gotten used to having extreme nerdiness around me. I've always been a nerd, but it was well repressed until I found others like me. Now, I need it to breathe and I feel like I'm in a vacuum.

Here I shall end. This list is by no means complete, but I believe I've gone on for long enough today. I will pick up at this point next week. I hope you enjoyed my post and it gave you some things to think and be thankful about. To all of you on break, have fun and get some much-needed rest. To all of you still taking finals, I wish you luck and that the days until break pass quickly.

~ Entropy

Synopsis for Week 4

Greetings and Salutations!


For whatever reason, The King of the Blog has not yet posted the synopsis. I'm assuming that he is quite busy with finals and such, so I'm going to do this week's synopsis for him.


On Monday, T100, in an attempt to make up for not posting last week, gave a great explanation on what Fibonacci numbers are, how to write numbers in base Fibonacci in  A Look into Math Part Two. Are Belong to Fibonacci.


On Tuesday, Entropy, once again, discusses some of the new and interesting songs on her "favorites playlist", including the only rap song she has ever enjoyed, in Musical Moment.


On Wednesday, The King of the Blog introduces the concept of "cons" and some well known examples as well as foreshadowing his next posts in Dragon*Con and More.


On Thursday, The Defender of the Blog discusses a webcomic 8-bit theater by Brian Clevinger, which only uses Final Fantasy sprites for the characters, in Warriors of Light.


On Friday, The Defender of the Blog, making up for his lack of posting last week, posts an interesting chain letter concerning the Air Force in Penance.
Additionally, The Professor of the Blog (ACRONYM) explained some of the most common types of poetry and why poetry is important in HLS - High Level Swag.


Feel free to go back and read any of these incredible posts if you missed, comment on them (Please do), and argue manically as we so often do.

May the force be with you,

The Professor of the Blog

HLS - High Level Swag

The title above has nothing to do with this post.

Anyway, it was recently suggested to me that I should do a post about poetry. I decided that this was a good idea because it encompasses a genre of topics that are seldom discussed on TBCRH, so, seeing how I'm one of the only bloggers who has not restricted their subject material, I decided that a post about poetry would be a welcomed change of pace/topic.

Before I talk about some specific types of poetry, it should be noted that poetry is a very interesting type of literature. It relies on meter, rhyme, lyrical structure, imagery, rhetoric, and a variety of other devices to convey a message. Because of this, poetry can lead to a type of enlightenment that traditional knowledge and learning may not allow one to fully comprehend. Below you will find some of the common types of poetry and descriptions.

Haiku:


One of the older types of poetry, haiku poetry has its roots in hokku, or the opening stance of a renga/renku poem. Haiku poetry was later defined in the 19th century to be a stand alone hokku (i.e. no renga/renku to go with it). Haiku poetry follows a 5-7-5 pattern moras (a unit of sound that dictates a syllabic weight). People commonly say that this an be replicated by a 5-7-5 syllable pattern, but one mora doesn't necessarily translate to one syllable, so this is incorrect.

Haiku poetry is actually very complex. A true haiku follows 4 characteristics:

1. Follows a 5-7-5 pattern
2. Has a "season word" (Kigo)
3. Has a "cut" (Kireji).
4. More often than not, it deals with nature (though modern haikus may not necessarily).

This is a lot to include in a small poem; before I go on, I should explain what the "season word" and "cut" are. A kigo is a word the alludes, symbolizes, implies, etc... a season (e.g. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter). If you read an original Japanese haiku, you will find the kigo hard to spot because Japanese poets oftentimes use a kigo that is a figure of speech. A kireji is a word that suggests a parallel between what precedes and what is after the word, or it may disrupt the stream of thought.

Example:

An old silent pond...

A frog jumps into the pond,

splash! Silence again.

by Basho Matsuo (First great poet of Haiku).

Sonnet:

The sonnet is one of the original types of lyrical poetry that came from Europe. It is easily one of the most prevalent types of poetry. Sonnets have a strict rhyme scheme and structure to them. There are three main types of sonnets:

1. Italian Sonnet (Rhyme scheme: abba abba cde cde)
2. Shakespearean Sonnet (Rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef gg)
3. Spenserian Sonnet (Rhyme scheme: abab bcbc cdcd ee)

Sonnets never had any sort of confined subject matter or rules other than the structure of the poem. Sonnets in England were typically written in iambic pentameter (5 sets of unstressed then stressed syllables per line).

Example:

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date.

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed.

But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

by William Shakespeare

Ballad:

Ballads were very common in Britain and Ireland from the late medieval times until the 19th century. Ballad's were narratives that had a self-contained story and whom primarily relied on imagery. Ballads were typically written in quatrains (4 line stanzas) and followed a sort of unique rhyme scheme. They had a rhyme scheme of a-b-c-b, so the 2nd and 4th lines rhymed. There is a lot of variation in ballads, however, so this is only a sort of general structure, as ballads varied greatly. 

Oh the ocean waves may roll,
And the stormy winds may blow,
While we poor sailors go skipping aloft
And the land lubbers lay down below, below, below
And the land lubbers lay down below.

by Anonymous

Cinquin:

Cinquin is a class of poetry that employs a 5-line pattern. There are two main types of cinquins: Crapsey and Didactic. 

The first type was developed by the American poet Adelaide Crapsey, who was inspired by the Japanese haiku and tanka. The number of syllables started at two and increased by two until the last line which, again, had only two syllables. Lines generally do not rhyme.

The second type is a very simplistic poem. The first line has 1 word that is the title, the second line has two words that describe the title, the third line has three words that describe the action, the fourth line has four words that express the feeling, and the final line is one word that recalls the title.

Example:

Listen…
With faint dry sound,
Like steps of passing ghosts,
The leaves, frost-crisp'd, break from the trees
And fall.

by Adelaide Crapsey

Free Verse:


Free verse is exactly what it sounds like; there is no structure or pattern that one must adhere to. This style of poetry is very popular with modern poets.


Whosever room this is should be ashamed!
His underwear is hanging on the lamp.
His raincoat is there in the overstuffed chair,
And the chair is becoming quite mucky and damp.
His workbook is wedged in the window,
His sweater's been thrown on the floor.
His scarf and one ski are beneath the TV,
And his pants have been carelessly hung on the door.
His books are all jammed in the closet,
His vest has been left in the hall.
A lizard named Ed is asleep in his bed,
And his smelly old sock has been stuck to the wall.
Whosever room this is should be ashamed!
Donald or Robert or Willie or--
Huh? You say it's mine? Oh, dear,
I knew it looked familiar!

by Shel Silverstein


I hope this look at poetry was didactic and entertaining for you. If you liked this post, comment letting me know, so that I'll know that this kind of post is appreciated and wanted.

Professor of the Blog

Penance

I didn't do a post last week, so this week as penance, I'm doing two.

I will say this up front, I didn't write this (although I somewhat wish I had). It came to me in an email, and while I absolutely refuse to participate in chain emails, I sent this one on. I think you'll see why after you read it.

This is an Airman's response to Cindy Williams' editorial piece in the Washington Times about Military Pay in 2000. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33607-2000Jan11.html She is a researcher at MIT, according to the article in the Washington Post. She was in the CBO from 1994 to 1997.

A young airman from Hill AFB responds to her article below. Although this is somewhat dated, it still is worth reading.

"Ms Williams:

I just had the pleasure of reading your column, "Our GI's earn enough" and I am a bit confused. Frankly, I'm wondering where this vaunted overpayment is going, because as far as I can tell, it disappears every month between DFAS (The Defense Finance and Accounting Service) and my bank account. Checking my latest earnings statement I see that I make $1,117.80 before taxes per month. After taxes, I take home $874.20. When I run that through the calculator, I come up with an annual salary of $13,413.60 before taxes, and $10,49040 after.

I work in the Air Force Network Control Center where I am part of the team responsible for a 5,000 host computer network. I am involved with infrastructure segments, specifically with Cisco Systems equipment. A quick check under jobs for "Network Technicians" in the Washington, D.C. area reveals a position in my career field, requiring three years experience in my job. Amazingly, in the civilian sector, this job does NOT pay $13,413.60 a year. No, this job is being offered at $70,000 to $80,000 per annum............ I'm sure you can draw the obvious conclusions.

Given the tenor of your column, I would assume that you NEVER had the pleasure of serving your country in her armed forces.

Before you take it upon yourself to once more castigate congressional and DOD leadership for attempting to get the families in the military's lowest pay brackets off of WIC and food stamps, I suggest that you join a group of deploying soldiers headed for AFGHANISTAN; I leave the choice of service branch up to you. Whatever choice you make though, opt for the SIX month rotation: it will guarantee you the longest possible time away from your family and friends, thus giving you full "deployment experience."

As your group prepares to board the plane, make sure to note the spouses and children who are saying good-bye to their loved ones. Also take care to note that several families are still unsure of how they'll be able to make ends meet while the primary breadwinner is gone. Obviously they've been squandering the "vast" piles of cash the government has been giving them.

Try to deploy over a major holiday; Christmas and Thanksgiving are perennial favorites. And when you're actually over there, sitting in a foxhole, shivering against the cold desert night, and the flight sergeant tells you that there aren't enough people on shift to relieve you for chow, remember this: trade whatever MRE's (meal-ready-to-eat) you manage to get for the tuna noodle casserole or cheese tortellini, and add Tabasco to everything. This gives some flavor.

Talk to your loved ones as often as you are permitted; it won't be nearly long enough or often enough, but take what you can get and be thankful for it. You may have picked up on the fact that I disagree with most of the points you present in your open piece.

But, tomorrow from KABUL, I will defend to the death your right to say it.

You see, I am an American fighting man, a guarantor of your First Amendment right and every other right you cherish. On a daily basis, my brother and sister soldiers worldwide ensure that you and people like you can thumb your collective noses at us, all on a salary that is nothing short of pitiful and under conditions that would make most people cringe. We hemorrhage our best and brightest into the private sector because we can't offer the stability and pay of civilian companies.

And you, Ms. Williams, have the gall to say that we make more than we deserve?

A1C Michael Bragg, Hill AFB AFNCC

Warriors of Light

Well, we think they are, anyway. No other group of fated companions has stepped up and taken the reins from them, so we're just going with it for now.

8-Bit Theater is one of three webcomics run by Brian Clevinger. Utilizing nothing but Final Fantasy sprites for his characters, he has created one of the greatest compilations of comedic wit the internet has ever seen. Unfortunately, the strips are not indexed in a manner that makes it easy to find good strips that can be easily linked back to a blog, so if you want to see funny stuff, you'll have to go out and experience the comic first hand. Oh well.

The comic itself is a parody of Final Fantasy in ye olden days. The four main characters, Black Mage, Fighter, Red Mage, and Thief (bet you can't figure out what their classes are), are labelled as the Warriors of Light and sent out to find and kill Chaos, a demon who will destroy the universe if left unchecked. When they are first formed they're told that defeating him is their main objective, but over the course of 1,000 comics (give or take a few hundred) they kind of forget about him until he [spoiler redacted] and forces an engagement. In the meantime, though, they find themselves running errands for an all-powerful wizard named Sarda, who wants them to collect the orbs of power (physical embodiments of the four elements), make him a space helicopter, and anything else he can think of that's likely to get them killed. Somewhere in the course of their travels they get a class change, making them tougher, faster, stronger, and to Sarda's dismay, even harder to kill before (before the class change, at least one of them died per quest).

Black Mage seems like he would be most at home with the Addams family. He's sadistic and cruel, he's got a great sense of humor, and he knows enough Doomsday spells to fry the universe. Twice. He seems eternally bonded to Fighter, much to his dismay. His patron deity is Darko, lord of the Dark, and member of Hell's middle management. As such, he used to be employed by Black Mage. The last time he died, he went to Hell (obviously), but he'd gained so much power on Earth that he managed to take over. He had to step down, though, when one of the archfiends he killed managed to undermine him. His signature spell is Hadoken, a blast of pure energy, powered by love. Doesn't sound so terrifying, until you realize that every time he uses it, the divorce rate goes up.

Fighter is the ultimate swordsman, a graduate of Vargus' Fighters camp of '86. He is a master of the 12 schools of Zodiac Kenshido, and has yet to be beaten in a fair fight. Fighter's IQ is measurably negative, people get dumber by simply being around him and listening to him talk. Thankfully it's not a permanent effect, but it's still vexing to his teammates. Fighter teamed up with Black Mage after his graduation from camp, and Mage's expulsion from a magic academy. BM was skeptical (ok, extremely antagonistic) of the idea at first, but eventually he realized the advantage of having a meatshield who would do anything for him. This skill became one universally recognized and used by the party when the Light Warriors were formed, but that didn't keep him from getting on everyone's nerves in between fights.

Red Mage is a master of versatility, and the only surviving member of the Order of Red Mages. Though his theories are openly ridiculed by his teammates, he firmly believes that everything in the universe is controlled by numbers. Damage done by attacks, defense, various skills... all are controlled by numbers that can be found on one's character sheet. Furthermore, changing the numbers on said character sheet can have dramatic differences in the real world. This is known as the Rite of Stat Swap. It doesn't actually work as far as the rest of the team can tell, but he's gotten lucky often enough that they can't convince him of it.

Thief is the default leader of the team, thanks to Fighter signing away BM's and his own shares of leadership. He is a master of deception and misdirection. He can steal anything that isn't bolted down or on fire (the bolted down thing is more of a guideline than a rule). Heck, he's stolen things that don't exist before. He apparently sold his soul to a totemic raven trickster god to resurrect himself once, although he later tricked the raven into giving up his soul again. No one was really surprised when it happened. He seems to be the the only halfway intelligent person on the team.

Rating this comic, I'd label it PG-13 (R, if I was going by the IMDB's f-bomb rule). Occasional blood, lots of swearing, and a good bit of sexual humor when BM hits on White Mage. No nudity or indecency to worry about, and even if there was... it's a sprite comic. Would you really even notice?

Despite the obvious drawbacks, it's still a solid comic with a great storyline, great art (such as it is), and great humor. This comic gets a B+.

-Defender of the Blog, RTB

Musical Moment

So far, I have begun every post by somehow mentioning Tuesdays. Evidently, I will not be breaking the pattern this week. That aside, hello and welcome to another musical interlude that, in the true spirit of my title, is as random as last week. I am once again visiting my “favorites” list and giving a bit of commentary/analysis on some of the songs.

I have two new additions to the list compliments of the Nerd of the Blog: Jump Jump and Dam Dadi Doo by Nightcore. Both are energetic techno songs that have now made their way into my rave list. They’re a bit hyper and high-pitched, but, after the initial shock, I like them quite a bit. Most importantly, they fulfill my requirement for fast and energetic music. I have recently found that I work best to techno because I tend to type/write at the speed of the music and it keeps me focused for studying.

I See the Light by Disney

I cannot express how much I love Tangled. If you haven’t seen it, you need to do so (same for How to Train Your Dragon which is mentioned later). Disney repeatedly has that one love song that marks the climax of the movie, and I See the Light is that song. The lyrics, in my opinion, either are or are among the most romantic I have heard from Disney which is saying quite a bit given how they are normally (though I may be slightly biased). The soft orchestral music highlights the vocal line throughout the piece and, as such, isn’t extremely noteworthy on its own. The vocal line focuses on the higher range of both voices unlike many songs and, after a moment of getting used to it, I’m beginning to like Mandy Moore’s unique style of singing in this movie. As the Nerd of the Blog, our resident Disney expert, pointed out to me, the melody is mainly a compilation of previous Disney classics that work surprisingly well together.

Testify to Love by Avalon

This has long been my favorite Christian song particularly of those recorded and played on the radio as opposed to those sung in my church alone. Apart from having a nice, open-sounding melody/harmony (not to be confused with open chords in the SATB composition for you music theory people), it is a classic praise song done in a more contemporary way to make it interesting. It took a good amount of effort for me to listen to it without singing along so as to figure out the exact chordal structure in order to write this post.

This is Berk by John Powell

First of all, How to Train Your Dragon is an absolutely amazing movie and the music lends to that heavily. It is a wonderfully dramatic mix of traditional European orchestral and Scottish styles (I believe it’s Scottish, but I could be wrong and there may be some Celtic influence as well). I have a great affinity for Scottish and Celtic pieces in general because of the runs and grace notes that, to me, are incredibly exciting (a theme that shows itself in my techno selections as well). I am reminded of my flute solo in Who Wants to Live Forever by Queen we performed two or three years ago. This particular piece is so powerful and well-recorded that I can, without any strain, imagine myself in the orchestra playing along.

The Wicked Symphony by Avantasia

I’m notoriously horrible at discerning the meaning of lyrics, so I will say before I begin that my love for this song is entirely independent of the lyrics (they may be great…but I can’t quite tell). The combination of traditional string instruments and electric guitar is very well done. It’s a generally bombastic song, but the guitar doesn’t overpower the rest – it’s just all on the powerful side. The key itself is amazing and the vocal line accents the best note patterns. Said vocal line is closer to yelling in some parts than I’m typically used to, but in this instance it sounds great.

Footloose by Kenny Loggins

Here is a classic entirely about dancing. It may not be deep, but it’s fun and it’s from the 80s (two of my many optional criteria for good music). The beat is perfect for dancing to if you can keep up and it’s been stolen for different songs countless times. The bass guitar has an interesting feature in the instrumental breaks, but the voices are the primary focus throughout.

Go On by B. Reith

This is probably the only rap song I have ever enjoyed listening to. It’s grown on me. As a rap song, it’s mostly about the lyrics which are hilarious. The entire song is essentially about how people can’t pronounce his name. The chorus is much more musical and pleasing to the ear. I would be quite happy if he expanded that melody into a real song, but, as it is, I still like it.

I hope you have enjoyed the musical selection. Once again, I challenge all of you to comment and list a song or two you might want me to talk about.

Until my next post (when I will finally be free of finals w00t!), have fun.

~ Entropy

A Look into Math Part Two. Are Belong to Fibonacci.

Free post!

(well sorta this is to help make up for last week)






So the Fibonacci numbers are 1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34, etc etc. Now for all of you how do not know it and are not math wizis (wizers wiziz wizards?) how this is formed is you take the number and the last one and add them (1+1 = 2, 2+1 = 3, 3+2 = 5, 5+3 = 8, 8+5 = 13, 13+8 = 21, 21+13 = 34 and so on.) Well you can have fun with that (eating nachos and what not). We will now move on to what this has been leading up to Base Fibonacci!

Well if you can think back (if you can then just go back in the post and read it) we need symbols for our base. We will need Fibonacci symbols so we will use… ummmm
Well this will not work as normal but I will not give up ill just cheat. Ok this is how I’m going to cheat we are going to use what we have leaded from binary (bin). Each number will be a “power” of Fibonacci and we will use 1 for uses and 0 for no use.
We will do the number 42 ( we like 42 here) 100100000 (34+0+0+8+0+0+0+0+0). Ah but there are some out there thinking why not 1110000? Well there is no good reason in base Fibonacci there is always more then way to write each number. Even the number one it could be 1 or 10. Now what uses is base Fibonacci? Well nun that’s right nun at all! Other then being cool it has no use, even bin is better on space and all normal bases there is only one way to write a number making reading the numbers something possible.
The only thing I can think of is for code here on tbcrh or in your life.

Well that is all for now I hope to post in my normal time but family is over and life is nuts but till then have fun and keep living

T100


P.S. post you a number you like but do it in base Fibonacci

Synopsis for Week 3

Greetings and Salutations,

Over this last week many of our posters came down with sickness and college final cramming sessions, and so were unable to post.

On Tuesday Entropy commented on her five new favorite songs, and gave us technical as well as layman's terms for why she does in 5 Completely Unrelated Songs.

On Wednesday King of the Blog discussed an overview of, reasons to avoid, and methods how to avoid laziness in Irony, very much Irony.

On Friday Parameciumkid wrote some haiku in Since nobody else has made a legitimate post this week, here's a poem:.

In addition, ACRONYM discussed some common and yet obscure grammatical errors in Nerdology 101: Inadvertent Oversights.

As always, feel free to go back and read these incredible posts if you missed them, to comment on them (please do, whenever you want) and to argue over things as commenting people are wont to do.

Live long and prosper,

King of the Blog

Nerdology 101: Inadvertent Oversights

What the title says.

Link of the week: Nothing notable that I can think of. :(

Anyway, this post will be about common errors in the English errors. No, I'm not talking about the cliche they're/their/there, past/present verb tense, or any other commonly known error. I'm talking about some of the mroe obscure errors. Anyway, let's get started!

i.e. vs e.g.

While similar, both of these have slightly different uses. I.e. is used to clarify what you said (i.e. adding further information). E.g. is used to show an example (e.g. a synonym, sentence, or other means of clarification).

Datum and Data

I know everyone says "The data is representative..." but the correct usage is "The data ARE representative..." because data is plural. Datum is the singular form of data (i.e. a piece of the data).

Criterion vs Criteria

Same as datum vs data: criterion is singular while criteria is plural.

Imitate vs Emulate

Imitate is to simply copy while emulate is a more specific case. To emulate is to try and match or equal.

Historic vs Historical

Historical is used if historians are interested in something while historic is used for something that is famous in history.

Hysterical vs Hilarious

Though it is informally correct, hysterical actually refers to a state of mind with an excessive amount of emotions. If you want to refer to something as funny, use hilarious instead.

"Would have"

You can use it when you are talking about something that did not happen and a resulting cause (e.g. If I had won the lottery, I would have bought a TV). Otherwise, use had. The problem with "would have" is that sometimes people replace a correct "had" with it.

Check here for clarification.

Less vs Fewer

Use less when you refer to things that can't be counted (e.g. you would say less sand because you don't know the number of grains of sand, probably). Use fewer when you refer to things that can be counted (i.e. Fewer cups of water).

"Different Than"

Once again, this is improper English. Use "different from" instead.

Uninterested vs Disinterested


Disinterested means "to lack bias". It is not a synonym for uninterested.

Insure vs Ensure


Insure means "to take out insurance on" (e.g. I insured my car) while ensure means "to make sure of".

Arguably


This means "able to be shown through an argument" not "able to be argued for".

That's quite a few corrections. Hope this helps you improve your word usage. For some further help, check out parmeciumkid's old blog post about this topic.

I'm switching my name to "Professor" or "Professor of the Blog". I'll still tag my posts under acronym so they can be searched easily.

Signing off,
Professor of the Blog

Since nobody else has made a legitimate post this week, here's a poem:

Why I love Haikus:
they are real easy to write
unless you can't count.

Haikus are more fun
when you make them extra long
adding more stanzas.

But it's really lame
when noobs use cheap cop-outs like
"Refrigerator."

I promised myself I'd never do this...

I apologize to all who were looking forward to another webcomic review (all two and a half of you), but I've had no time to write today. I have contracted a bad case of 'holy crap there's a test tomorrow that's worth 25% of my grade' from my chemistry class. In an attempt to cure it as best as possible, I've been cramming all day, which has left me no time for blogging. Hopefully this post will disappear tonight after I've determined to my own satisfaction that I'm not going to fail the test tomorrow, but if not, I promise I'll get something written tomorrow.

-Defender of the Blog, retreating under heavy fire

is sick

He y'all I would normal post to day but have been brought down with something (that you don't want to have). I may make a post later this week but do not come and burn down my house if I don't. Well that's all "see" you later T100

P.S. have fun reading about noobs this no drive in there life↓

5 Completely Unrelated Songs

Ah, Tuesdays. You never notice how they sneak up on you until you have to blog on them during the last week of classes. This is the week that everything is due, frantic studying begins and you look ahead to the upcoming break fondly until you realize that, before you can relax and recover from sleep-deprivation, it's going to get exponentially worse in a two-week time span. As a result of this madness, my post is going to be on the short and unplanned side. I think you'll agree it's for a good cause: my final English paper about the assumed law of fantasy worlds that creatures can exclusively be or use magic. Hopefully, it will turn out to be the spectacular conclusion to my series of odd papers (including an argument on techno and an analysis of Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword).


Today, I will comment on the five newest additions to my favorites on Grooveshark (because it's amazing) excluding techno songs I've already talked about.


No. 5 in G Minor by Johannes Brahms
Here is an entirely too brief piece that is fast-paced, upbeat and generally exciting (with a few artistically-placed slow sections). There are three main sections of the melody that work together extremely well. The entire piece is done with the typical Baroque system of composition and, as such, it is well-balanced in all four parts (soprano, alto, tenor and bass).


Fame by Irene Cara
I perpetually forget about this song due to not having seen the original musical. However, this is a great song if only for blasting and singing in the car. It's not nearly as negative or annoying as most everything I can find on the radio and it stays well enough out of the mezzo soprano range that a great many people can sing it without any impossible sections.


Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen
There is no denying the allure of this song. It is a work of pure genius (or insanity, it's hard to tell) and is the single greatest song to play while on a bus or, if there are enough people present, car. Granted, it's also good for singing alone, but no matter what it must be done at full volume. The only reason this is just now on my favorites list is because someone incorrectly changed the name of the one I had favorited before.


What Is Love by Haddaway
I love this song with a passion largely due to the memories (ironically of band camp) that I associate with it and because it is an addictively fun song. As with many on my list, it is made to be blasted out of whatever music-playing device you have at the time though I suggest you not do it with headphones on. It's just generally a bad idea to blast things with headphones on, but the treble in this might make your head explode (Disclaimer: No evidence of this phenomenon has been collected other than the pain in my head).


He's a Pirate by Klaus Badelt
If you don't like this song, there may be something psychologically wrong. I cannot properly express the many reasons why it is a work of art aside from following traditional composition in unexpected ways. Ignore, for a moment, the pirates vs. ninjas debate and listen to how epic this song is (if that alone is why you don't listen to the song, shame on you). It is now on my favorites list due to someone sending me the infinitely inferior remix which prompted me to find all PotC music and use it as homework motivation.


This concludes the November edition of my music posts. I will write to you all next week though it will be later in the day because of an interfering final.

A presto!

~ Entropy

Synopsis for Week 2

Greetings and Salutations,

Over this last week we got to see the addition of a new member: T100 in addition to the return of former members.

On Tuesday Entropy added some more songs to her rave playlist, giving us the final piece of her list of favorite and popular rave songs in "[insert-witty-title-here]".

On Wednesday T100 gave us a look into the meaning of what a base is and gave us a basic (no pun intended) understanding of the main three bases and gave us a setup for the Fibonacci base in "A look into math part one. All Your Base.".

In addition The King of the Blog gave us a confusing look into societal groups, the interactions between them, and why they exist in "Swirlies and Other Stories".

On Thursday X37V stated his goals and his topics for his posts as well as gave a rating for rating styles in "Put a rating in your rating".

In addition, Defender of the Blog discussed the webcomic Dr. Mcninja Written by Christopher Hastings in "Ninjas can't catch you if you're on fire".

On Friday ACRONYM discussed disillusionment, it's base concepts, the confusion involved, and how easy it is to fall prey to it in "The Concept of Disillusionment".

As always, feel free to go back and read these incredible posts if you missed them, to comment on them (please do, whenever you want) and to argue over things as commenting people are wont to do.

Live long and prosper,

King of the Blog

The Concept of Disillusionment

I had a hard time coming up with what to post. Thankfully, I spent a large portion of my day today away from my computer so I had time to think about what I wanted to post. I have now come up with ideas for today's post and an idea for a new Nerdology post (Remember that series? You will soon). Anyway, on with the post.

Link of the Week: Robot Unicorn Attack Heavy Metal (View my post about the original game here).

I couldn't think of a witty title for this post, so the title explains itself. Let me take you into a memory of mine from the 4th/5th grade (I had the same teacher for both grades). I was an odd child. I liked creating things from common objects. Naturally, I tended to bend paper clips, mold aluminum foil, etc... to do so. Well, one ordinary day, my teacher had a special paper clip that was, apparently, somewhat pricey. She found it bent and mangled and was very upset. She demanded that whoever ruined the paper clip to come forward and admit it. No one did. Now, I'm pretty sure that I was the culprit, but the thing is, I'm not sure. Why? Because my memory of the incident is so distorted that it is impossible to tell if I actually did. I believed that I didn't do it so much that I managed to convince myself that I did not do it in order to avoid guilt. Furthermore, by insisting that I did do it, I created a false memory within my mind of doing the act. Thus, the memory is so twisted that I cannot say for sure whether I did it.

This is very strange, as I clearly distorted my memory of this incident. But to what extent? I can't tell, so besides the basic facts, I can't tell what actually happened. This brings up an interesting point. Can we impose false realities on ourself and distort our own memories? I think that we can to a point. Disillusionment is hardly something that can be done intentionally because if you know that something is a lie, than you can't believe it. Disillusionment is something that occurs gradually and, most likely, subconsciously. It occurs when your sense of reality is so skewed, that you can no longer reliably discern the truth regarding a memory or thought. It's a scary thought, but it happens all the time. People sometimes want to believe something so badly that they ignore glaring falsities. Furthermore, they soon come up with their own twisted ideas to cover these falsities and genuinely believe them.

We live in a world of business. Business is essentially the vanguard of disillusionment; businesses convince themselves that they are doing right regardless if they actually are, advertising is used to create disillusionment in the masses so people will buy their services and products, and people slowly believe the lies of the businesses. People believe the lies that they can be perfect through the use of a product. Because of this, disillusionment is an underlying and integral part of society.

Therefore, the question we must ask is "How can I rid myself of this disillusionment?" The short answer is through gradual introspection and enlightenment. Just as it takes time for disillusionment take root, it takes time to pull it out of one's mind. It is hard to take back what you formally believed, depending on the level of disillusionment. It is a long and difficult process but a necessary one in the pursuit of truth.

I would encourage you to read/look up about disillusionment, but the Internet has a dearth of information regarding this subject. Therefore, I encourage you to muse about this: how disillusioned are you? What is real? What is a figment of your mind? All of these are difficult questions, but I encourage you to ask them. Disillusioning yourself is a worthwhile process in the end.

Comment, debate, and question disillusionment if you'd like in the comments. It is certainly an interesting concept.

See you next week!
ACRONYM of the Blog

P.S. I need a new name, but I haven't come up with one yet.