This hilarious thread on bad drivers reminds me of a video that’s way funnier than it should… was shot of some cars sliding on fresh snow down a hill. It’s pretty common: someone brakes too hard or not soon enough, or steers to sharp, or whatever, and loses control. It’s scary. But watch that video–in particular, the first car.
How is that even possible?!
Borat, you may have lucked out.
Step 1: You say “We need to talk.”
After that, I’m not so sure. Is staying up all night with them Step 2? Or is that just a general statement? Maybe Step 2 is “Let them know that you know best?”
Until I get this cleared up, I won’t be saving any lives. Be warned.
I’ve been playing Team Fortress 2 a bit lately. Not so much now that finals are here, but it’s a fun way to pass the time. When the mood strikes, I’ll sign on and play one of a few different classes of people… I’m usually either Pyro or Engineer. As Pyro, I go around with a flamethrower. It’s a good weapon, as it sets enemy forces on fire. It’s also the only sure-fire (no pun intended) way to see if someone who looks like a teammate is actually a spy disguised as a teammate: if they burn, they’re a spy. So I’ll run through my own team with the flamethrower periodically, since it’ll only damage enemies. As Engineer, I set up teleporters, so people that die and respawn can get to the front lines faster to keep up the attack. I also set up Dispensers, which dispense health points and ammunition. And, my favorite, the sentry guns, automated guns (which I usually upgrade to include rocket launchers), letting us cover areas without having to be there. They’re a good way to protect our assets.
The process of going through and doing all of this, to defend against enemies, is really fun. And, even though it’s just a game, there’s a certain sense of accomplishment when we capture the enemy bases.
Last night, I installed a new piece of software on my server, a web-based file manager. They have a wiki (powered by MediaWiki, the Wikipedia software), but it was overrun with spam. So I signed up and started reverting back to spam-free versions. It’s a skill I picked up on Wikipedia, and it’s super-easy. In about 20 minutes time, I wiped out weeks, sometimes months, of spam. As time went on, I took out more and more. This morning they made me an admin, and I’m now deleting spam accounts, blocking persistent spam IPs, and deleting pages that are nothing but spam.
Is this a game? Volunteer work? Work? I’m not sure, but I’m getting at least as much enjoyment out of it as I get from setting enemies ablaze in Team Fortress 2. And I’m actually accomplishing something.
There are a lot of issues that I really understand both sides of. Most anything with money will benefit some at the expense of others. I don’t think gun control or drug policy have “clean” answers: I’m not at all comfortable banning guns, but I’m not at all comfortable allowing felons to own automatic weapons; I don’t get why smoking marijuana is a crime, but I’m not at all opposed to putting heroin dealers in jail. And I still struggle with the issue of abortion.
But there have been some really strange things going on…
Don’t get me wrong: I’m not against Christianity. I just find it really, really weird that Congress is endorsing it. Especially when half the world thinks we’re in a war against Islam, where endorsing Christianity is only going to further that misinterpretation?
Raise your hand if you think that Congress has lots its mind!
With all the talk about the torture in Guantanamo Bay, it’s easy to lose sight of another fact that I still find really strange.
It’s in Cuba. We’re renting the space from them, despite an embargo on trade with their country.
Why don’t we move it somewhere else, even if it’s just over to the Dominican Republic or something of the sort? I just find it really bizarre that we’re paying them (and that they’re taking our money) when they’re our sworn enemies. Why are we in Cuba?
Dear News Media,
Please stop covering senseless shootings. They just make people depressed and encourage more people to do it. Sure, it assures you more material to cover, but we prefer a world where people don’t get shot for no reason. And dear jerks on the Interwebs: when someone gets shot in senseless violence, it’s really in poor taste to spin their deaths into an argument in favor of free open carry laws.
Sincerely,
The World
Note the title: I’m not talking about politicians staying clear of religion. That’s a separate issue.
My local church has announced that next week it’ll hand out a “Catholic Voter’s Guide.”
I find this an insidious abuse of religion. Not so much because I think it’s wrong for the church to leverage its power to influence politics (although I do), but because church is about God, not about politics. While I’m not one to quote scripture, consider Matthew 21:12, where Jesus can fairly be described as flipping out when people try to sell stuff in church. It’s not about politics, true, but I think the point is the same: church is about worshiping God. Attempting to campaign in a church strikes me as an unacceptable practice, and really, an affront to religion.
Granted, it could be worse. We don’t have enormous TV screens and invite candidates to our church to speak about politics as you sometimes see happening in the South. But I still can’t bring myself to support the church handing out political leaflets. Am I crazy to think this?
$return = getCachedObject($hash); if($return) return $return;
It’s technically good code, but something about if($return) return $return; makes my head spin…
I was just trying to play some Team Fortress 2 on my laptop… Without a mouse. It wasn’t going so well. Plus, I couldn’t find anyone on the map. (It was a big map with only a few people on it.) So I’m just moving around trying to find where everyone is.
And all of a sudden a Scout comes through the door and fires his shotgun. I don’t think he even hit me on the first shot.
But I totally panicked. I jumped back in my seat and began flailing my arms. He proceeded to shoot me again and I died.
Me: 0. Pathetic: +1.