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Thursday, December 27, 2012

One of the new family toys we purchased this Christmas was an iPad. With two kids needing the computer for research, papers and gaming, it was becoming challenging for all four of us to have the access we needed and wanted with one Mac. I really wanted a laptop but couldn't justify the expense of a macbook right now. The iPad has gone a long way toward relieving the need for a second computer, allowing two people to be browsing the internet, checking e-mail, looking up directions/recipes/game tips at the same time.

However, I am disappointed with the way it works with Blogger. If I access Blogger through Safari, it is very buggy....constantly freezing up, giving error messages, losing cursor control, etc. I downloaded the Blogger app for iOS and it presents a very minimal word processor with no real features, such as spellcheck, font size, color, italics/blod/ underline...etc.

A disappointment to be sure.

One of the things I asked for for Christmas was a wireless keyboard to go with the iPad because typing anything of length on a touchpad is annoying. It seems to be working well and is what I am currently using to type this post.....which I am sure you will all realize is just a rambling post for me to experiment with my new toys....nothing to see here.

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Where did I go?

I pretty much gave up blogging for a lengthy amount of time. I had lost my taste for it. Saw no reason  to continue.

 I drowned my sorrows in World of Warcraft, choosing to waste hours of time on a video game rather than waste hours of time writing and commenting online. They always say that you have to replace one habit with another. I found battling monsters and orcs, except for when I was playing a Horde character, very relaxing and not nearly as mentally exhausting as trying to justify all of my opinions and ideas to people on the Internet.

Blogging had become too emotionally taxing for me because I really only wanted to say things that were true and honest, at least from my own perspective. As in real life, I don't do well trying to "fake it." I can be socially adept at knowing when to say what and how to read a situation, or people, and saying, or not saying things, at the right time.  However, even though I can do that, I find it tiring. It's an effort to go against my usual directness...which is why I am not a social butterfly and choose to have few close relationships. People have to be able to take my directness and I have to be able to feel as if I don't need to constantly censor my thoughts for the sake of others, or to guard my own sense that I haven't offended people whom I have no desire to upset.

I tend to withdraw when I feel too conflicted about what I am personally thinking and how I imagine others might react to what I am thinking.  Considering that blogging is an entirely self-imposed obligation, it made no practical sense to feel so emotionally involved with the reactions that I might provoke in my posts. Why fret about it when there is no need to?

I'm not sure if I will begin blogging again with any regularity. I'm kind of tiring of WoW, having explored most of the classes, races, and factions of the game, and having a lot of fun along the way.

I might be ready to re-enter the blogosphere, though it's probably not as fun as playing my rogue.

Bad Argument

The worst argument which I have heard about guns and mass shootings in the the aftermath of this last crisis: "Shootings happen more frequently in gun free zones, therefore we need to eliminate gun free zones and allow gun owners to carry their guns anywhere they please as a deterrent."

Correlation is not causation.

Intentional shootings happen in these gun-free zones because these zones are heavily populated venues such as schools, malls, theaters, or parks, which makes them prime locations for people intending to harm as many people as possible in a short period of time.  Also, considering that many of these shooters wind up ending their murderous sprees by shooting themselves, it hardly seems likely that they intentionally choose places where they think people will be unarmed. They are entering a quick blaze towards their own deaths. They are unconcerned about the outcome or possibility of facing other armed people. And, the fact that they often are wearing bullet-proof vests implies that they sense they will be shot at by somebody, whether it is a security officer or a police officer.

Their actions give no indication that they have spent any time pondering, or that they care about, whether a venue is officially labeled "gun-free".

My comments have nothing to do with whether gun control laws should be stricter, or not, but just to point out the absurdity of that particular argument.  No one should be able to say those things with a straight face, or be taken seriously when making such an argument.