there's a spider on my hand !
weird...
so i'm sitting here surfing around the net a little (as you do) with my mouse hand stretched off a little to my right, controlling the mouse (as is normal).
suddenly i feel a tickling sensation running up my hand, from the wrist, heading towards the fingers. thinking its probably an ant or something i lift up my hand to flick it off. lo and behold its a fricking spider running up the back of my hand (definitely not normal). it wasn't too large, maybe 2 centimeters across: tip to tip.
so it runs up one of my fingers which i touch to the table and it hops off, jogs a little way away and comes to a rest. then i notice its of the 7 leg variety (ie: an old war vetran). a few minutes later and it's still just sitting there.
then, as i begin to type this all down, it decides its had enough and runs over some notes that belong to the guy sitting at the next pc. obviously dazed and confused by too many years in the trenches of the comsci labs it had mad a grevious error in strategy as the guy reding his notes flips a page over and presses down maliciously.
scratch one war vet.
and now i have phantom spiders running around in my sleeves *sigh*
back to a previous topic now: video game violence!
i turned up another interesting source of ideas and facts entitled hillary vs. the xbox: game over its a letter posted in the los angeles times.
worth a read as its not too long and brings up some interesting points.
for example:
1) kids have always been kids and parents have always had to pull them away from games to get them to do work... the games just used to be "kick the can" or "chase your friend through a field" (a popular one in its time) before the computer was invented / popularized.
2) kids are learning the skills needed in a computerized workplace while they play games. kids that don't play games are probably not going to get jobs that require computer use, and the way the world is going that means they're going to end up in manual labour or crime.
3) the last 10 years have seen the release of the most violent yet popular and wide spread video games and yet its also been the time where violence amongst kids has reached all-time lows in the states.
4) (lifted straight from the article... go read it)
"Crime statistics are not the only sign that today's gaming generation is doing much better than the generation raised during the last cultural panic — over rock 'n' roll. Math SAT scores have never been higher; verbal scores have been climbing steadily for the last five years; nearly every indicator in the Department of Education study known as the Nation's Report Card is higher now than when the study was implemented in 1971."
It also suggests that prehaps some of the crimes kids were traditionally blamed for (including car theft, assault, general misdemeanours) may be "thrill-seeking" crimes and now there is no need to perpertrate them in the real world. just boot up a copy of GTA and bam! anger managment.
maybe gaming violence is good for you?
of course you shouldn't eschew a decent rating system. small kids should be playing mario and similar. teenagers should have acces to slightly more mature content with 17/18+ being able to decide for themselves.
the reasoning for this is less about turning kids into violent killers and more about not forcing kids to grow up too fast. let them be little kids and have a decent childhood. when they're older they can worry about more mature themes (and with those: more mature pressures and responsibilities).
on yet another note:
it really does seem to be strike season here in sa. not only have we had pick n pay staff go wild (with over 200 strikers/rioters being arrested), saa staff go limp (grounding flights for days ans well as stranding people overseas. lucas is still trying to get back after being abandoned by his airline whom he paid to get him there and back) but we also have had municipal workers going sociopathic.
that's right, iol reports that during the current municipal workers strike a bunch of strikers drove around and rounded up 11 workers who weren't striking and were actually *gasp* doing their job.
These poor hard working people (who probably couldn't afford the possible loss of pay and had to support their famalies) were taken out behind some station (municipal grounds behind Belle Ombre Station in Marabastad) and beaten by the gang of striking fuckheads (who were striking in 2 different ways now). they were savagely attacked with "pangas, knobkerries and other “traditional” weapons."
one of the unfortunate 11 ( Lucas Monahane, 48) collapsed while trying to escape and died, leaving behind a bewildered wife (the article makes no mention of whether he had children or not). the 10 survivors were told to leave their houses or they would be killed along with their famalies. some have run with their famalies in an attempt to keep safe.
now all this makes me think:
1) why the hell are strikes allowed to turn into riots?
2) what are the police doing about all this?
3) maybe unions aren't the best way of doing things....
4) how many municipal workers play grand theft auto?
even more subjects for today's post:
the more observant of you may have noticed some changes to this blog:
there are now some google ads (text to the right and a banner right down on the bottom) lying around just waiting to be clicked on. i'm thinking of trying to convince google to send me a cheque for 4 american cents (maybe i'll use it to buy a hotel in eastern europe).
you can also search from the hand google search bar on the right (*shameless plug*)
but since we're on the google thing: did you know that google have their own official (i think) blog right here on blogspot? head over to http://googleblog.blogspot.com/ and have a look.
so i'm sitting here surfing around the net a little (as you do) with my mouse hand stretched off a little to my right, controlling the mouse (as is normal).
suddenly i feel a tickling sensation running up my hand, from the wrist, heading towards the fingers. thinking its probably an ant or something i lift up my hand to flick it off. lo and behold its a fricking spider running up the back of my hand (definitely not normal). it wasn't too large, maybe 2 centimeters across: tip to tip.
so it runs up one of my fingers which i touch to the table and it hops off, jogs a little way away and comes to a rest. then i notice its of the 7 leg variety (ie: an old war vetran). a few minutes later and it's still just sitting there.
then, as i begin to type this all down, it decides its had enough and runs over some notes that belong to the guy sitting at the next pc. obviously dazed and confused by too many years in the trenches of the comsci labs it had mad a grevious error in strategy as the guy reding his notes flips a page over and presses down maliciously.
scratch one war vet.
and now i have phantom spiders running around in my sleeves *sigh*
back to a previous topic now: video game violence!
i turned up another interesting source of ideas and facts entitled hillary vs. the xbox: game over its a letter posted in the los angeles times.
worth a read as its not too long and brings up some interesting points.
for example:
1) kids have always been kids and parents have always had to pull them away from games to get them to do work... the games just used to be "kick the can" or "chase your friend through a field" (a popular one in its time) before the computer was invented / popularized.
2) kids are learning the skills needed in a computerized workplace while they play games. kids that don't play games are probably not going to get jobs that require computer use, and the way the world is going that means they're going to end up in manual labour or crime.
3) the last 10 years have seen the release of the most violent yet popular and wide spread video games and yet its also been the time where violence amongst kids has reached all-time lows in the states.
4) (lifted straight from the article... go read it)
"Crime statistics are not the only sign that today's gaming generation is doing much better than the generation raised during the last cultural panic — over rock 'n' roll. Math SAT scores have never been higher; verbal scores have been climbing steadily for the last five years; nearly every indicator in the Department of Education study known as the Nation's Report Card is higher now than when the study was implemented in 1971."
It also suggests that prehaps some of the crimes kids were traditionally blamed for (including car theft, assault, general misdemeanours) may be "thrill-seeking" crimes and now there is no need to perpertrate them in the real world. just boot up a copy of GTA and bam! anger managment.
maybe gaming violence is good for you?
of course you shouldn't eschew a decent rating system. small kids should be playing mario and similar. teenagers should have acces to slightly more mature content with 17/18+ being able to decide for themselves.
the reasoning for this is less about turning kids into violent killers and more about not forcing kids to grow up too fast. let them be little kids and have a decent childhood. when they're older they can worry about more mature themes (and with those: more mature pressures and responsibilities).
on yet another note:
it really does seem to be strike season here in sa. not only have we had pick n pay staff go wild (with over 200 strikers/rioters being arrested), saa staff go limp (grounding flights for days ans well as stranding people overseas. lucas is still trying to get back after being abandoned by his airline whom he paid to get him there and back) but we also have had municipal workers going sociopathic.
that's right, iol reports that during the current municipal workers strike a bunch of strikers drove around and rounded up 11 workers who weren't striking and were actually *gasp* doing their job.
These poor hard working people (who probably couldn't afford the possible loss of pay and had to support their famalies) were taken out behind some station (municipal grounds behind Belle Ombre Station in Marabastad) and beaten by the gang of striking fuckheads (who were striking in 2 different ways now). they were savagely attacked with "pangas, knobkerries and other “traditional” weapons."
one of the unfortunate 11 ( Lucas Monahane, 48) collapsed while trying to escape and died, leaving behind a bewildered wife (the article makes no mention of whether he had children or not). the 10 survivors were told to leave their houses or they would be killed along with their famalies. some have run with their famalies in an attempt to keep safe.
now all this makes me think:
1) why the hell are strikes allowed to turn into riots?
2) what are the police doing about all this?
3) maybe unions aren't the best way of doing things....
4) how many municipal workers play grand theft auto?
even more subjects for today's post:
the more observant of you may have noticed some changes to this blog:
there are now some google ads (text to the right and a banner right down on the bottom) lying around just waiting to be clicked on. i'm thinking of trying to convince google to send me a cheque for 4 american cents (maybe i'll use it to buy a hotel in eastern europe).
you can also search from the hand google search bar on the right (*shameless plug*)
but since we're on the google thing: did you know that google have their own official (i think) blog right here on blogspot? head over to http://googleblog.blogspot.com/ and have a look.
posted by zenstar at 10:45 AM
1 Comments:
Hey, I hate spiders! Remember that one in the car an the way to varsity?
Btw: I've done a SchpatDope on something related to the hot coffe topic.
I also feel that it is up to the parents to determine the maturity of thier children. It's not apropriate to just say no sonny you can't play that game till you turn 17! If they can handle it let them, or if they are 17 but socially retarded, stop them!
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