Beyond the Scope

Hey y'all.  So this is kinda beyond the scope of this blog, but it was just something I was thinking about, and well, this blog is for stuff I think about.

So I was thinking about atheism.  I like to think a lot, because I'm INTP, and apparently that's the thing we like to do best.  In any case, I was thinking about it, and it occurs to me that the big bang and evolution don't really matter.  Christians don't like evolution because it's supposed to "science away" God (which it doesn't, because it's possible to believe in both or neither), but then it occurred to me that it doesn't really matter if evolution is true or not.  Who gives a crap?  I mean, Christians care because by attacking one part of the theology the atheists are trying to attack the rest, but is such an attack really relevant?

The point of this lays in atheism itself.  The thing about atheism is that it's a negative belief system.  No, not negative as in pessimistic, but because it is based on a negative: there is no God.  There is no positive or additive side to atheism.  It holds that someone else's belief is untrue, and that's about it.

So say you one day decide to become an atheist.  Okay, then what?  What do you do next?  How are you supposed to live?  What gives life meaning?  What's the purpose of life?

It gets even harder for people like me.  INTPs don't exactly get along well with others, being so internal and so focused on fixing problems rather than making friends.  What good does atheism do me?  If there's no God, then the social struggles I go through are nothing.  I have no purpose, no point.  And all those people who make fun of me can rightfully do so, because they are better looking, better dressed, and have better skills than just simply thinking about random stuff for the fun of it.  And they enjoy movies better because they don't have to nitpick.

Even if I was a successful person with lots of friends, what does atheism offer me, other than freedom from morality?  Once I die, it's all gone, and there will have been no point in anything I've ever done, whether that be riches fame, or whatever.  Even if I do good for others, what does that matter?

Let's say I save a country from an oppressive regime -- shoot ahead to the extreme, y'know?  Saving a nation doesn't last forever.  It can just get conquered again.  Or maybe it becomes a morally depraved, glitz and glam shallow society.  Or maybe it turns into one of those dystopian stereotypes Hollywood likes so much.  Or maybe the relative safety of my newly saved country ends up being the home base of the next Stalin or Hitler, because it's just too dang nice to execute people.

So what I'm saying is, there's nothing you can do that can't be destroyed.  Isn't that the second law of thermodynamics?  Everything is in a state of decay.  It'd be kinda nice to know that there's a heaven somewhere, and that stuff there actually lasts.

So that's my rant for today.

How to Doom Your Sequel: Star Fox Adventures

Hey y'all.  So I've been watching let's plays of all the Star Fox games, because it's a great series.  Star Fox is  the story of anthropomorphic animals who save the universe from the evils of the great monkey robot genius Andross, who is constantly trying to take over everything.

Of course, it was a great series before things went horribly wrong.  Obligatory summary-ho!  Just a short one, though.  I get pretty sick of recapping something when I really want to be talking about something else.

Anyway, the glory of the first Star Fox game was in its simplicity.  It's basically where you play as Fox McCloud, a fighter pilot, and you have to fight your way through a path to the planet Venom where you must defeat the evil scientist/robot/monkey Andross.  This is a lot of fun, especially since the graphics on the SNES where so blocky and "retrofuture" -- what the past thought the future would be like.  It seriously reminds me of old sci-fi book covers.

In 2007, I once read an old book where kids from the fifties went into the year 2007.  So, um, why don't we have flying cars again?  Um, yeah.  Retrofuture.

A Music Theory

Hey y'all.  So, I was thinking about something, and I'm going to present the idea to you for consideration.  I've noticed lately that music has undergone a serious change.  Now, if you look back at music from, say, the sixties to the nineties, you'll notice that music has remained, for the most part, a pretty fun thing.  Music was always designed during this period to simply bring people to the dance floor, and it was a fun experience.  And now, if you go back to the nineties, you'll find that the music even that short time ago was very much different from today's.  It was fun, and dared to be goofy.

Do you even see music daring to be goofy like that very much today?  It takes itself far too seriously.  Now, it's all about the lyrics, and all the artists are too busy singing arrogant songs about themselves to really pay much attention to their audience.  Now, that's not to say that all music since the nineties is crap, but the more you think about it, you notice certain things.  This is where you come in.  Think about the recent music you listen to, and see if it has these things --

Write Club -- Prodigies

Hey y'all.  It turns out that my dad's cell phone acts as a hotspot, so I can do some writing on here even though home internet isn't set up yet.  Dad's cell phone, naturally being with him, isn't around all the time, but I can just write up blogs from my personal laptop (no internet there anyway -- too distracting for a writer) and then post them using the laptop.

So I was thinking about things lately, and I realized that there are no writer prodigies.  A prodigy is someone who is naturally gifted to be good at doing a certain activity.  For example, there are study prodigies who are good at learning, music prodigies, repair prodigies, and so on and so forth.  But there are never any writer prodigies.  Beethoven wrote a symphony when he was three, but no three year old of any sort can write a novel of any great significance.  Oh sure, they might get away with one of those odd little Beginning Readers books with ten words per page and a vast illustration (of course done by somebody else) but that is only on the whims of older people who happen to look at what the child is doing and thinks it's adorable.  Not big sellers or important novels.

Mega Man Music -- Mega Man and Bass

Hey y'all.  Sorry this blog is late, but I'm still in the midst of getting internet for my apartment.

I really like Mega Man music.  Can't you tell?  I suppose this means I'll have to give Mega Man and Bass's soundtrack a review.  Heck, why not? 

So Mega Man and Bass is basically the hardest Mega Man game there is, yes?  Yes.  It feels almost like an apology for Mega Man 8.  MM8, while a decent enough game, had its problems.  It was comparatively easy, all the songs sounded like fashion shows or fitness videos, the robot masters called out their moves, and its color combinations could make your eyes explode.

MM&B uses a MM8 engine but erases all of these problems, generally by making the game dang hard.  Burner Man is especially wrathful, and is the bane of many gamers to date.  Even with his weakness, he's still dang hard.  One of the castle levels involves the player fighting a boss while jumping from tiny platform to tiny platform, and sometimes the entire screen goes white while you're playing.  Yeah.  No joke.  But at least you can play as Bass.  He's got a double jump, and that will save your life at times.

Nitpickery: The Avengers

Hey y'all.  Guess what?  I actually saw a movie on the day it came out.  I never do that.  I'm usually that pretend to wait for the dollar theater but end up forgetting about it until it comes on Netflix sort of person.  And I'm a cheapskate.  But it was my birthday, so I wanted to go see a movie.

I had a really good birthday, actually.  I got free fancy tea, put in an application for a new job, and had one of those "baconator" sandwiches from Wendy's.  Yummers.  Oh wait, I forgot, I have leftover cake.  Be right back!

...

Okay, cake acquired.  Movie review time.

Katamari Damacy New Ideas

Hey y'all.  Hm.  I was just watching a bunch of let's plays on youtube of Katamari games.  It turns out there's a crap ton of them.  I've watched Katamari Damacy (the only one I've actually played), We Love Katamari, and Katamari Forever.  The first is excellent, and the second brings in a lot of originality -- though the second one lost points with me because it made it look like humans actually like it when the Prince rolls a katamari.  If you're being rolled up into a ball and turned into a star, I doubt you'd like it.  Then the second game makes up those lost points by its ending credits sequence.

The general plot of the game is that the King of all Cosmos has gotten like...drunk or something, and has accidentally destroyed all the stars in the sky and also the moon.  His teeny tiny son, the Prince of all Cosmos, has to go roll up all the Earth items he can to make new stars.  Basically all the games go on this model, though the cause of the loss of stars varies somewhat per game.   The point of all the games is to create more stars and planets out of random stuff on Earth.

These are great games.  You'd be surprised, but it is.  What with gathering up a bunch of random objects (mainly weird Japanese stuff), the King's random and derogatory quotes, ridiculous music, and the ability to roll up people, cars, and even buildings and giant squid as you get bigger, this game can be ridiculously addictive.

But the problem with the game is, it's pretty simple.  Even fans of the game have to admit that it's pretty repetitive, and if you have one of the better games, there's usually no need  to get another unless you're really obsessed.  So that's why Katamari needs some new ideas!